uite understand what we shall do if we are attacked here, though I'm
very sure we shall fight to the last before we let the French and
Spanish land."

I saw that there was no use in arguing the point, but I was determined,
if I could, to go off and rejoin my ship. Larry did his best to console
me.

"It's not a bad place to be in, if you only had the use of your legs,
Mr Terence. Them nager boys and girls are mighty funny creatures.
What bothers me most is that I didn't bring my fiddle on shore, for sure
if I had, it would have been after setting them all dancing, till they
danced out of their black skins. It's rare fun to see them laughing as
if they'd split their sides, when I sing to them. They bate us Irishmen
hollow at that fun, I'll allow. I find it a hard matter to contain
myself when I see them rolling their eyes and showing their white teeth
as they stretch their mouths from ear to ear."

I happened to tell Dr McManus of Larry's talent.

"I'll try and get a fiddle for the boy, and put it to the test," he said
good-naturedly.

In the evening I was aroused from a nap into which I had fallen, by the
sound of an Irish jig played on a violin, followed by shouts of
laughter, clapping of hands, shrieks, and merriment, while the noise of
feet from the courtyard below told me that Larry had been as good as his
word. I thanked the doctor, who came in while the revels were at their
height.

"I sent into the town and borrowed a fiddle, for I was sure that your
follower's music would do as much good to the men as the fresh air of
the hills. They and the black boys and girls are all toeing and heeling
it together. The niggers, I confess, beat them hollow in agility and
endurance."

I asked the doctor to wheel me to the window, that I might look out and
see the fun. He good-naturedly complied, and assisted me to sit up.
There were forty or fifty white men, and almost double the number of
blacks of both sexes,--the women dressed in gay-coloured petticoats,
with handkerchiefs round their heads; the men in white or striped
cotton--the light colour contrasting with their dark skins,--one and all
clapping their hands, snapping their fingers, and moving here and there
in figures it was difficult to follow, but all evidently enjoying
themselves immensely, judging by their grinning countenances and rolling
eyes.

After this Larry became an immense favourite with the soldiers, as he
found not a few of our countrymen