attempted to escape, but was
detected by the Mason on guard. Her life was spared, it is said, at the
intercession of her brother, but on condition of her becoming a member.
She afterward married Richard Aldworth of Newmarket, and lived and died
much respected. On public occasions she walked at the head of the
Freemasons wearing the apron and insignia of the order. Her portrait in
this attire is in the lodge-rooms of several Irish lodges and also in the
family mansion of the Aldworths. This family is of English descent, and
settled in the north-west of the county of Cork, where an ancestor of
theirs got a grant of land from James I. They patronized Curran's father,
and appointed him seneschal of their manor of Newmarket, in which town the
great wit and patriot was born.

The remarkable prevalence of dueling, which rose in Ireland to almost an
insane height toward the end of the eighteenth century, had at least the
good effect of encouraging a chivalrous feeling toward women, who
thenceforward depended on their male relatives and friends for protection.
It is said that if any gentleman presumed to pass between a lady and the
wall in walking the streets of Dublin, he was considered as offering a
personal affront to her escort, and if the parties wore swords, as was
then customary, the first salutation to the offender was usually "Draw,
sir!" However, such affairs mostly ended in an apology to the lady for
inadvertence. But if a man ventured to intrude into the boxes of the
theatre in his surtout or boots or with his hat on, it was regarded as a
general insult to every lady present, and he had little chance of escaping
without a shot or a thrust before the following night. It must be
confessed that this species of punctiliousness was carried too far. Some
say that dueling reached to such an extravagant pitch in Ireland because
the Protestant gentry were a garrison in a hostile country, and were
obliged to cultivate familiarity with the means of defence. It is possible
that this state of affairs may have originally led to the remarkable
prevalence of the custom, for when such transactions as that between Mr.
Morris and Arthur O'Leary were of frequent occurrence, there must have
been much to provoke the bitterest enmity. Nevertheless, it would seem
that there was really a good deal in the practice to warrant the old
saying that "the English fight for liberty, the French for glory and the
Irish for _fun_." A gentleman who is sa