and carried a tremendous whip, large enough to fell an ox.  He was in a rage on entering; and the heavy, dark, close-knit-brows, from beneath which a pair of eyes, equally black, shot actual fire, whilst the Turk-like whiskers, which curled themselves up, as it were, in sympathy with his fury, joined to his towering height, gave him altogether, when we consider the frame of mind in which he found the company, an appalling and almost supernatural appearance.

“Confound you, for a knot of lazy scoundrels,” exclaimed the stranger, “why do you sit here so calmly, while any being craves admittance on such a night as this?  Here, you lubber in the corner, with a pipe in your mouth, come and put up this horse of mine until the night settles.”

“May the blessed mother purtect us!” exclaimed Nancy, in a whisper, to Andy Morrow, “if I blieve he’s a right thing!—­would it be the ould Square?  Did you ever set your eyes upon sich a”—­

“Will you bestir yourself, you boor, and’ not keep my horse and saddle out under such a torrent?” he cried, “otherwise I must only bring him into the house, and then you may say for once that you’ve had the devil under your roof.”

“Paddy Smith, you lazy spalpeen,” said Nancy, winking at Ned to have nothing to do with the horse, “why don’t you fly and put up the gintleman’s horse?  And you, Atty, avourneen, jist go out with him, and hould the candle while he’s doin’ it:  be quick now, and I’ll give you glasses a-piece when you come in.”

“Let them put him up quickly; but I say, you Caliban,” added the stranger, addressing Smith, “don’t be rash about him except you can bear fire and brimstone; get him, at all events, a good feed of oats.  Poor Satan!” he continued, patting the horse’s head, which was now within the door, “you’ve had a hard night of it, my poor Satan, as well as myself.  That’s my dark spirit—­my brave chuck, that fears neither man nor devil.”

This language was by no means calculated to allay the suspicions of those who were present, particularly of Nancy and her two nieces.  Ned sat in astonishment, with the pipe in his hand, which he had, in the surprise of the moment, taken from his mouth, his eyes fixed upon the stranger, and his mouth open.  The latter noticed him, and stretching over the heads of the circle, tapped him on the shoulder with his whip:—­

“I have a few words to say to you, sir,” he said.

“To me, your honor!” exclaimed Ned, without stirring, however.

“Yes,” replied the other, “but you seem to be fastened to your seat:  come this way.”

“By all manner of manes, sir,” said Ned, starting up, and going over to the dresser, against which the stranger stood.

When the latter had got him there, he very coolly walked up, and secured Ned’s comfortable seat on the hob, at the same time observing—­

“You hadn’t the manners to ask me to sit down; but I always make it a point of conscience to take care of myself, landlord.”