and my brother now dashed in amongst them:  and by remonstrance, abuse, blows, and entreaty, they with difficulty succeeded in terminating the fight.  They were also assisted by Mr. Wilson and other persons, who dared not, until their appearance, run the risk of interfering between them.  Wilson’s servant, who had come for the priest, was still standing beside me, looking on; and, while my brother and Mr. Molloy were separating the parties, I asked him how the fray commenced.

“Why, sir,” said he, “it bein’ market-day, the Grimeses chanced to be in town, and this came to the ears of the Kellys, who were drinking in Cassidy’s here, till they got tipsy; some of them then broke out, and began to go up and down the street, shouting for the face of a murdhering Grimes.  The Grimeses, sir, happened at the time to be drinking with a parcel of their friends in Joe Sherlock’s, and hearing the Kellys calling out for them, why, as the dhrop, sir, was in on both sides, they were soon at it.  Grimes has given one of the Kelly’s a great bating; but Tom Grogan, Kelly’s cousin, a little before we came down, I’m tould, has knocked the seven senses out of him, with the pelt of a brick-bat in the stomach.”

Soon after this, however, the quarrel was got under; and, in order to prevent any more bloodshed that night, my brother and I got the Kellys together, and brought them as far as our residence, on their way home.  As they went along, they uttered awful vows, and determinations of the deepest revenge, swearing repeatedly that they would shoot Grimes from behind a ditch, if they could not in any other manner have his blood.  They seemed highly intoxicated; and several of them were cut and abused in a dreadful manner; even the women were in such a state of excitement and alarm, that grief for the deceased was, in many instances, forgotten.  Several of both sexes were singing; some laughing with triumph at the punishment they had inflicted on the enemy; others of them, softened by what they had drunk, were weeping in tones of sorrow that might be heard a couple of miles off.  Among the latter were many of the men, some of whom, as they staggered along, with their frieze big coats hanging off one shoulder, clapped their hands, and roared like bulls, as if they intended, by the loudness of their grief then, to compensate for their silence when sober.  It was also quite ludicrous to see the men kissing each other, sometimes in this maudlin sorrow, and at others when exalted into the very madness of mirth.  Such as had been cut in the scuffle, on finding the blood trickle down their faces, would wipe it off—­then look at it, and break out into a parenthetical volley of curses against the Grimeses; after which, they would resume their grief, hug each other in mutual sorrow, and clap their hands as before.  In short, such a group could be seen nowhere but in Ireland.

When my brother and I had separated from them, I asked him what had become of Vengeance, and if he were still in the country.