of coming up when the robbery was over.  The Captain said he knew the Redmonds of Waterford intimately well:  which assertion alarmed me, as I knew nothing of the family to which I was stated to belong.  But I posed him, by asking which of the Redmonds he knew, for I had never heard his name in our family.  He said he knew the Redmonds of Redmondstown.  ‘Oh,’ says I, ’mine are the Redmonds of Castle Redmond;’ and so I put him off the scent.  I went to see my nag put up at a livery-stable hard by, with the Captain’s horse and chair, and returned to my entertainer.

Although there were the relics of some mutton-chops and onions on a cracked dish before him, the Captain said, ’My love, I wish I had known of your coming, for Bob Moriarty and I just finished the most delicious venison pasty, which his Grace the Lord Lieutenant sent us, with a flask of Sillery from his own cellar.  You know the wine, my dear?  But as bygones are bygones, and no help for them, what say ye to a fine lobster and a bottle of as good claret as any in Ireland?  Betty, clear these things from the table, and make the mistress and our young friend welcome to our home.’

Not having small change, Mr. Fitzsimons asked me to lend him a tenpenny-piece to purchase the dish of lobsters; but his lady, handing out one of the guineas I had given her, bade the girl get the change for that, and procure the supper; which she did presently, bringing back only a very few shillings out of the guinea to her mistress, saying that the fishmonger had kept the remainder for an old account.  ’And the more great big blundering fool you, for giving the gold piece to him,’ roared Mr. Fitzsimons.  I forget how many hundred guineas he said he had paid the fellow during the year.

Our supper was seasoned, if not by any great elegance, at least by a plentiful store of anecdotes, concerning the highest personages of the city; with whom, according to himself, the Captain lived on terms of the utmost intimacy.  Not to be behindhand with him, I spoke of my own estates and property as if I was as rich as a duke.  I told all the stories of the nobility I had ever heard from my mother, and some that, perhaps, I had invented; and ought to have been aware that my host was an impostor himself, as he did not find out my own blunders and misstatements.  But youth is ever too confident.  It was some time before I knew that I had made no very desirable acquaintance in Captain Fitzsimons and his lady; and, indeed, went to bed congratulating myself upon my wonderful good luck in having, at the outset of my adventures, fallen in with so distinguished a couple.