Charles OMalley, vol 2 | Page 2

the veracity of the whole was never questioned. Of this
nature was the pedigree he devised in the last chapter of Vol. I. to
impose upon O'Malley, who believed implicitly all he told him.]
"You know the west, O'Mealey, so I needn't tell you what the Galway
girls are like: fine, hearty, free-and-easy, talking, laughing devils, but as
deep and 'cute as a Master in Chancery; ready for any fun or merriment,
but always keeping a sly look-out for a proposal or a tender
acknowledgment, which--what between the heat of a ball-room,
whiskey negus, white satin shoes, and a quarrel with your guardian--it's
ten to one you fall into before you're a week in the same town with
them.
"As for the men, I don't admire them so much: pleasant and cheerful
enough when they're handicapping the coat off your back, and your
new tilbury for a spavined pony and a cotton umbrella, but regular

devils if you come to cross them the least in life; nothing but ten paces,
three shots apiece, to begin and end with something like Roger de
Coverley, when every one has a pull at his neighbor. I'm not saying
they're not agreeable, well-informed, and mild in their habits; but they
lean overmuch to corduroys and coroners' inquests for one's taste
farther south. However, they're a fine people, take them all in all; and if
they were not interfered with, and their national customs invaded with
road-making, petty-sessions, grand-jury laws, and a stray commission
now and then, they are capable of great things, and would astonish the
world.
"But as I was saying, we were ordered to Loughrea after being fifteen
months in detachments about Birr, Tullamore, Kilbeggan, and all that
country; the change was indeed a delightful one, and we soon found
ourselves the centre of the most marked and determined civilities. I told
you they were wise people in the west; this was their calculation: the
line--ours was the Roscommon militia--are here to-day, there
to-morrow; they may be flirting in Tralee this week, and fighting on the
Tagus the next; not that there was any fighting there in those times, but
then there was always Nova Scotia and St. John's, and a hundred other
places that a Galway young lady knew nothing about, except that
people never came back from them. Now, what good, what use was
there in falling in love with them? Mere transitory and passing pleasure
that was. But as for us: there we were; if not in Kilkenny we were in
Cork. Safe out and come again; no getting away under pretence of
foreign service; no excuse for not marrying by any cruel pictures of the
colonies, where they make spatch-cocks of the officers' wives and
scrape their infant families to death with a small tooth-comb. In a word,
my dear O'Mealey, we were at a high premium; and even
O'Shaughnessy, with his red head and the legs you see, had his
admirers. There now, don't be angry, Dan; the men, at least, were
mighty partial to you.
"Loughrea, if it was a pleasant, was a very expensive place. White
gloves and car hire,--there wasn't a chaise in the town,--short whist, too
(God forgive me if I wrong them, but I wonder were they honest), cost
money; and as our popularity rose, our purses fell; till at length, when

the one was at the flood, the other was something very like low water.
"Now, the Roscommon was a beautiful corps; no petty jealousies, no
little squabbling among the officers, no small spleen between the
major's wife and the paymaster's sister,--all was amiable, kind,
brotherly, and affectionate. To proceed, I need only mention one fine
trait of them,--no man ever refused to indorse a brother officer's bill. To
think of asking the amount or even the date would be taken personally;
and thus we went on mutually aiding and assisting each other,--the
colonel drawing on me, I on the major, the senior captain on the
surgeon, and so on, a regular cross-fire of 'promises to pay,' all stamped
and regular.
"Not but the system had its inconveniences; for sometimes an obstinate
tailor or bootmaker would make a row for his money, and then we'd be
obliged to get up a little quarrel between the drawer and the acceptor of
the bill; they couldn't speak for some days, and a mutual friend to both
would tell the creditor that the slightest imprudence on his part would
lead to bloodshed; 'and the Lord help him! if there was a duel, he'd be
proved the whole cause of it.' This and twenty other plans were
employed; and finally, the matter would be left to arbitration among
our brother officers, and I need not say, they behaved like trumps. But
notwithstanding all this, we were frequently