“It is not necessary to detail the circumstances of this day farther; let it be sufficient to say, that a reconciliation took place between those two branches of the O’Hallaghan and O’Callaghan families, in consequence of John’s heroism and Rose’s soft persuasion, and that there was, also, every perspective of the two factions being penultimately amalgamated.  For nearly a century they had been pell-mell at it, whenever and wherever they could meet.  Their forefathers, who had been engaged in the lawsuit about the island which I have mentioned, wore dead and petrified in their graves; and the little peninsula in the glen was gradationally worn away by the river, till nothing remained but a desert, upon a small scale, of sand and gravel.  Even the ruddy, able-bodied squire, with the longitudinal nose, projecting out of his face like a broken arch, and the small, fiery magistrate—­both of whom had fought the duel, for the purpose of setting forth a good example, and bringing the dispute to a peaceable conclusion—­were also dead.  The very memory of the original contention! had been lost (except that it was preserved along with the cranium of my grandfather), or became so indistinct that the parties fastened themselves on some more modern provocation, which they kept in view until another fresh motive would start up, and so on.  I know not, however, whether it was fair to expect them to give up at once the agreeable recreation of fighting.  It’s not easy to abolish old customs, particularly diversions; and every one knows that this is our national amusement.

“There were, it is true, many among both, factions who saw the matter in this reasonable light, and who wished rather, if it were to cease, that it should die away by degrees, from the battle of the whole parish, equally divided between the factions, to the subordinate row between certain members of them—­from that to the faint broil of certain families, and so on to the single-handed play between individuals.  At all events, one-half of them were for peace, and two-thirds of them were equally divided between peace and war.

“For three months after the accident which befell Rose Galh O’Hallaghan, both factions had been tolerantly quiet—­that is to say, they had no general engagement.  Some slight skirmishes certainly did take place on market-nights, when the drop was in, and the spirits up; but in those neither John nor Rose’s immediate families took any part.  The fact was, that John and Rose were on the evening of matrimony; the match had been made—­the day appointed, and every other necessary stipulation ratified.  Now, John was as fine a young man as you would meet in a day’s traveling; and as for Rose, her name went far and near for beauty:  and with justice, for the sun never shone on a fairer, meeker, or modester virgin than Rose Galh O’Hallaghan.