the _Times_ newspaper, they owed the disaster and the
shame to no other than Mathew Kearney himself.

'I will now conclude with a resolution,' said McGloin, who, having filled
the measure of allegation, proceeded to the application. 'I shall move that
it is the sentiment of this meeting that Lord Kilgobbin be called on to
disavow, in the newspapers, the whole narrative which has been circulated
of the attack on his house; that he declare openly that the supposed
incident was a mistake caused by the timorous fears of his household,
during his own absence from home: terrors aggravated by the unwarrantable
anxiety of an English visitor, whose ignorance of Ireland had worked upon
an excited imagination; and that a copy of the resolution be presented to
his lordship, either in letter or by a deputation, as the meeting shall
decide.'

While the discussion was proceeding as to the mode in which this bold
resolution should be most becomingly brought under Lord Kilgobbin's notice,
a messenger on horseback arrived with a letter for McGloin. The bearer was
in the Kilgobbin livery, and a massive seal, with the noble lord's arms,
attested the despatch to be from himself.

'Shall I put the resolution to the vote, or read this letter first,
gentlemen?' said the chairman.

'Read! read!' was the cry, and he broke the seal. It ran thus:--

'Mr. McGloin,--Will you please to inform the members of the "Goat Club" at
Moate that I retire from the presidency, and cease to be a member of that
society? I was vain enough to believe at one time that the humanising
element of even one gentleman in the vulgar circle of a little obscure
town, might have elevated the tone of manners and the spirit of social
intercourse. I have lived to discover my great mistake, and that the
leadership of a man like yourself is far more likely to suit the instincts
and chime in with the sentiments of such a body.--Your obedient and
faithful servant,

Kilgobbin.'

The cry which followed the reading of this document can only be described
as a howl. It was like the enraged roar of wild animals, rather than the
union of human voices; and it was not till after a considerable interval
that McGloin could obtain a hearing. He spoke with great vigour and
fluency. He denounced the letter as an outrage which should be proclaimed
from one end of Europe to the other; that it was not their town, or their
club, or themselves had been insulted, but Ireland! that this mock-lord