separation they finally planned the abduction of Kavanagh
from the Patron, on the Saturday following, and after drinking another
round went home to their respective dwellings.

In this speculation, however, they experienced a fresh disappointment;
for, ere Saturday arrived, whether in consequence of secret intimation
of their intention from Brady, or some friend, or in compliance with the
offer of a better situation, the fact was, that Mat Kavanagh had removed
to another school, distant about eighteen miles from Findramore. But
they were not to be outdone; a new plan was laid, and in the course
of the next week a dozen of the most enterprising and intrepid of the
"boys," mounted each upon a good horse, went to Mat's new residence for
the express purpose of securing him.

Perhaps our readers may scarcely believe that a love of learning was so
strong among the inhabitants of Findramore as to occasion their taking
such remarkable steps for establishing a schoolmaster among them; but
the country was densely inhabited, the rising population exceedingly
numerous, and the outcry for a schoolmaster amongst the parents of the
children loud and importunate.

The fact, therefore, was, that a very strong motive stimulated the
inhabitants of Findramore in their efforts to procure a master. The
old and middle-aged heads of families were actuated by a simple wish,
inseparable from Irishmen, to have their children educated; and the
young men, by a determination to have a properly qualified person to
conduct their Night Schools, and improve them in their reading, writing,
and arithmetic. The circumstance I am now relating is one which actually
took place: and any man acquainted with the remote parts of Ireland, may
have often seen bloody and obstinate quarrels among the peasantry, in
vindicating a priority of claim to the local residence of a schoolmaster
among them. I could, within my own experience, relate two or three
instances of this nature.

It was one Saturday night, in the latter end of the month of May, that
a dozen Findramore "boys," as they were called, set out upon this most
singular of all literary speculations, resolved, at whatever risk, to
secure the person and effect the permanent bodily presence among them of
the Redoubtable Mat Kavanagh. Each man was mounted on a horse, and one
of them brought a spare steed for the accommodation of the schoolmaster.
The caparison of this horse was somewhat remarkable: wooden stradd