till on foot had evidently imbibed a larger amount of the potheen
than their heads could stand, she herself being even more genial than
usual.

"Shure, major dear, there are two gentlemen of the bar up-stairs who
don't know their feet from their heads; and as your honour will be
rising early to continue your journey, we'll just tumble them out on the
floor, and you can take their bed. We'll put them back again before
they wake in the morning; or if we're after forgetting it, they'll only
think they have rolled out of their own accord, and nobody'll be blamed,
or they be the worse for it; and they'll have reason to be thankful,
seeing that if they had really tumbled on the floor, they might have
broken their necks."

My uncle, who would on no account agree to this hospitable proposal,
insisted on sitting up in an arm-chair, with his legs on another,
assuring Mrs McCarthy that he had passed many a night with worse
accommodation.

"Shure, then, the young gentleman must go to bed," observed the hostess.
"There's one I've got for him in the kitchen,--a little snug cupboard
by the fireside; and shure he'll there be as warm and comfortable as a
mouse in its hole."

To this the major agreed, as the bed was not big enough for both of us,
and indeed was too short for him.

Supper being ended, my uncle composed himself in the position he
intended to occupy, with his cloak wrapped round him, and I accompanied
Mrs McCarthy into the kitchen, which was in a delightful state of
disorder. She here let down, from a little niche in which it was
folded, a small cupboard-bed, on which, though the sheets and blankets
were not very clean, I was not sorry to contemplate a night's rest. The
landlady, wishing me good-night, withdrew to her own quarters. Molly,
the maid-servant, I should have said, long before this, overcome by the
sips she had taken at the invitation of the guests, was stowed away in a
corner somewhere out of sight.

Pulling off my boots and laced coat and waistcoat, which I stowed for
safe keeping under the pillow, I turned into bed by the light of the
expiring embers of the fire, and in a few seconds afterwards was fast
asleep. I was not conscious of waking for a single moment during the
night; and had I been called, should have said that only a few minutes
had passed since I had closed my eyes, when, to my horror, all at once I
found myself in a state of suffocation, with my head downwards, pressed
closely betwee