I hope you haven't been robbed?" he added.
She assured him, with expressions of deep gratitude, that she had not.
"Well," said he, "as you have neither of you come to much harm, I would
take it as the greatest favor you could do me, if you'd never mention a
word about it to any one."
To this request they agreed with some hesitation. Lamh Laudher
accompanied them into the town, and saw them safely in a decent
second-rate inn, kept by a man named Luke Connor, after which he
returned to his father's house, and without undressing, fell into a
disturbed slumber until morning.
It is not to be supposed that the circumstances attending the quarrel
between him and Meehaul Neil, on the preceding night, would pass off
without a more than ordinary share of public notice. Their relative
positions were too well known not to excite an interest corresponding
with the characters they had borne, as the leaders of two bitter and
powerful factions: but when it became certain that Meehaul Neil had
struck Lamh Laudher Oge, and that the latter refused to fight him, it
is impossible to describe the sensation which immediately spread through
the town and parish. The intelligence was first received by O'Rorke's
party with incredulity and scorn. It was impossible that he of the
Strong Hand, who had been proverbial for courage, could all at once turn
coward, and bear the blow from a Neil! But when it was proved beyond the
possibility of doubt or misconception, that he received a blow tamely
before many witnesses, under circumstances of the most degrading insult,
the rage of his party became incredible.
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