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inthrojuice you to the nobility and genthry of this methropolis'
(the Captain's brogue was large, and his words, by preference,
long); 'I take you to my tradesmen, who give you credit, and what do
I find? That you have pawned the goods which you took up at their
houses.'
'I have given them my acceptances, sir,' said I with a dignified
air.
'UNDER WHAT NAME, unhappy boy--under what name?' screamed Mrs.
Fitzsimons; and then, indeed, I remembered that I had signed the
documents Barry Redmond instead of Redmond Barry: but what else
could I do? Had not my mother desired me to take no other
designation? After uttering a furious tirade against me, in which he
spoke of the fatal discovery of my real name on my linen--of his
misplaced confidence of affection, and the shame with which he
should be obliged to meet his fashionable friends and confess that
he had harboured a swindler, he gathered up the linen, clothes,
silver toilet articles, and the rest of my gear, saying that he
should step out that moment for an officer and give me up to the
just revenge of the law.
During the first part of his speech, the thought of the imprudence
of which I had been guilty, and the predicament in which I was
plunged, had so puzzled and confounded me, that I had not uttered a
word in reply to the fellow's abuse, but had stood quite dumb before
him. The sense of danger, however, at once roused me to action.
'Hark ye, Mr. Fitzsimons,' said I; 'I will tell you why I was
obliged to alter my name: which is Barry, and the best name in
Ireland. I changed it, sir, because, on the day before I came to
Dublin, I killed a man in deadly combat--an Englishman, sir, and a
captain in His Majesty's service; and if you offer to let or hinder
me in the slightest way, the same arm which destroyed him is ready
to punish you; and by Heaven, sir, you or I don't leave this room
alive!'
So saying, I drew my sword like lightning, and giving a 'ha! ha!'
and a stamp with my foot, lunged within an inch of Fitzsimons's
heart, who started back and turned deadly pale, while his wife, with
a scream, flung herself between us.
'Dearest Redmond,' she cried, 'be pacified. Fitzsimons, you don't
want the poor child's blood. Let him escape--in Heaven's name let
him go.'
'He may go hang for me,' said Fitzsimons sulkily; 'and he'd better
be off quickly, too, for the jeweller and the tailor have called
once, and will be here again before long. It was Moses the
pawnbroker that peached: I had the news from him myself.' By which I
conclude that Mr. Fitzsimons had been with the new laced frock-coat
which he procured from the merchant tailor on the day when the
latter first gave me credit.
What was the end of our conversation? Where was now a home for the
descendant of the Barrys? Home was shut to me by my misfortune in
the duel. I was expelled from Dublin by a persecution occasioned, I
must confess, by my own imprudence. I had no time to wait and
choose: no place of refuge to fly to.
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