be the chief himself. He and many others had seen, with some
irritation and displeasure, the growing indifference of Mr. Kearney for the
'Goats.' For many months he had never called them together, and several
members had resigned, and many more threatened resignation. It was time,
then, that some energetic steps should be taken. The opportunity for this
was highly favourable. Anything unpatriotic, anything even unpopular in
Kearney's conduct, would, in the then temper of the club, be sufficient to
rouse them to actual rebellion; and it was to test this sentiment, and, if
necessary, to stimulate it, Mr. McGloin convened a meeting, which a
bylaw of the society enabled him to do at any period when, for the three
preceding months, the president had not assembled the club.

Though the members generally were not a little proud of their president,
and deemed it considerable glory to them to have a viscount for their
chief, and though it gave great dignity to their debates that the rising
speaker should begin 'My Lord and Buck Goat,' yet they were not without
dissatisfaction at seeing how cavalierly he treated them, what slight value
he appeared to attach to their companionship, and how perfectly indifferent
he seemed to their opinions, their wishes, or their wants.

There were various theories in circulation to explain this change of temper
in their chief. Some ascribed it to young Kearney, who was a 'stuck-up'
young fellow, and wanted his father to give himself greater airs and
pretensions. Others opinioned it was the daughter, who, though she played
Lady Bountiful among the poor cottiers, and affected interest in the
people, was in reality the proudest of them all. And last of all, there
were some who, in open defiance of chronology, attributed the change to a
post-dated event, and said that the swells from the Castle were the ruin
of Mathew Kearney, and that he was never the same man since the day he saw
them.

Whether any of these were the true solution of the difficulty or not,
Kearney's popularity was on the decline at the moment when this unfortunate
narrative of the attack on his castle aroused the whole county and excited
their feelings against him. Mr. McGloin took every step of his proceeding
with due measure and caution: and having secured a certain number of
promises of attendance at the meeting, he next notified to his lordship,
how, in virtue of a certain section of a certain law, he had exercised his
right of