ned to send me
also to the care of my Uncle Denis. As we had always spoken English in
our family, I did not feel myself completely a stranger in a strange
land; and brought up among English boys, I imbibed their ideas and
assumed their manners, and was, indeed, more of an Englishman than an
Irishman, and certainly more of either than of a Spaniard.

I need not mention any of the incidents of my school-life. They were
much like those other boys meet with,--nothing extraordinary. I made a
good many friends, and fought two or three battles. One was on the
occasion of Tom Rudge, a big fellow, calling me an Irish rebel, and
saying that my father had been hanged. I gave him the lie direct, and
replied that if he had been shot he would have died the death of a
gentleman, which was more than Rudge himself was; but that he had
neither been shot nor hanged, for he was alive and well, and that I
hoped to see him again before many years were over. I thereon planted
my fist between Rudge's eyes, which drew fire from them, and left them
both swollen and blackened. We then set to, and I was getting the best
of it, driving my antagonist backwards, when one of the ushers appeared,
and seizing hold of me carried me up to the doctor. I pleaded that I
had been grossly insulted. He replied that it was my duty to forgive
insult, and asked what Tom Rudge had said to me. I told him.

"I thought that you were an orphan," he observed, "the son of Mr
Concannan's sister, and that your father was dead."

"Mr Concannan is my uncle, sir," I replied; "but my father is alive and
well, I hope, in South America."

The expression of surprise which passed over the master's countenance
made me fear that I had said something imprudent.

"If your father were dead, that would only have aggravated Rudge's
fault," he said. "I do not excuse him; I will see what he has to say
for himself."

Rudge was sent for, and appeared with his two black eyes. The doctor
looked at him sternly, and reprimanded him for the language he had made
use of. "He has been punished, I see," he observed, "and I will
therefore remit the flogging he deserves, and which you, Master Desmond,
are liable to for fighting. Now, shake hands, and remember that the
next time you take to your fists I shall be compelled to punish you
both."

We shook hands as directed, and were sent back to the playground; and
neither did Rudge nor any one else again make any reflection on my
fa