at seventy-five cents a head.  He did not complain of the bargain, though he thought, if old Tom had seen them before the bargain was clinched, he would have hesitated to pay so much.  But, anyhow, he had given the country a free government and a legislature of her own, and he was a Jefferson man, or Democrat, or whatever you call his party.  He had been sent to the Legislature, and volunteered to meet the British under General Jackson.

From Jefferson to Jackson he transferred all his devotion; because the one bought, and the other fought for, the country.  Some part of the glory of the successful defence of New Orleans was his, for he had fought for it, side by side with Old Hickory; and he loved him because he had imprisoned Louallier and Hall.  The one was a Frenchman, the other an Englishman, and both were enemies of Jackson and the country.

Now he adored General Jackson, and was a Jackson Democrat.  He did not know the meaning of the word, but he understood that it was the slogan of the dominant party, and that General Jackson was the head of that party.  He knew he was a Jackson man, and felt whatever Jackson did was right, and he would swear to it.  He was courageous and independent; feared no one nor anything; was always ready to serve a friend, or fight an enemy—­a fist-fight; was kind to his neighbors, and always for the under dog in the fight.  It would, after this, be supererogatory to say he was popular with such a people as his neighbors and constituents.  Whenever he chose he was sent to the Senate by three parishes, or to the House by one; and in the Legislature he was always conspicuous.  He knew the people he represented, and could say or do what he pleased; and for any offence he might give, was ready to settle with words, or a fist-fight.  Physically powerful, he knew there were but few who, in a rough-and-tumble, could compete with him; and when his adversary yielded, he would give him his hand to aid him from the ground, or to settle it amicably in words.  “Any way to have peace,” was his motto.

There was, however, a different way of doing things in New Orleans, where the Legislature met.  Gentlemen were not willing to wear a black eye, or bruised face, from the hands or cudgels of ruffians.  They had a short way of terminating difficulties with them.  A stiletto or Derringer returned the blow, and the Charity Hospital or potter’s field had a new patient or victim.  These were places for which Larry had no special penchant, and in the city he was careful to avoid rows or personal conflicts.  He knew he was protected by the Constitution from arrest, or responsibility for words uttered in debate, and this was all he knew of the Constitution; yet he was afraid that for such words as might be offensive he would be likely to meet some one who would seek revenge in the night, and secretly.  These responsibilities he chose to shun, by guarding his tongue by day, and keeping his chamber at night.  Sometimes, however, in company with those whom he could trust, he would visit, at night, Prado’s or Hicks’s saloon, and play a little, just for amusement, with the “tiger.”