Be it remembered, however, that I only became what I have set down here after an excellent dinner, a considerable quantity of champagne, and no small share of claret, strong-bodied enough to please the priest. From the moment we sat down to table, I conceived for him a sort of distrust. He was painfully polite and civil; he had a soft, slippery, Clare accent; but there was a malicious twinkle in his eye that showed he was by nature satirical. Perhaps because we were more reading men than the others that it was we soon found ourselves pitted against each other in argument, and this not upon one, but upon every possible topic that turned up. Hammond, I found, also stood by the priest; Oxley was _my_ backer; and his Lordship played umpire. Dyke was a shrewd, sarcastic dog in his way, but he had no chance with me. How mercilessly I treated his church!--he pushed me to it,--what an _exposé_ did I make of the Pope and his government, with all their extortions and cruelties! how ruthlessly I showed them up as the sworn enemies of all freedom and enlightenment! The priest never got angry. He was too cunning for that, and he even laughed at some of my anecdotes, of which I related a great many. “Don't be so hard on him, Potts,” whispered my Lord, as the day wore on; “he 's not one of us, you know!” This speech put me into a flutter of delight. It was not alone that he called me Potts, but there was also an acceptance of me as one of hier own set. We were, in fact, henceforth _nous autres_. Enchanting recognition, never to be forgotten! “But what would you do with us?” said Dyke, mildly remonstrating against some severe measures we of the landed interest might be yet driven to resort to. “I don't know,--that is to say,--I have not made up my mind whether it were better to make a clearance of you altogether, or to bribe you.” “Bribe us by all means, then!” said he, with a most serious earnestness. “Ah! but could we rely upon you?” I asked. “That would greatly depend upon the price.” “I 'll not haggle about terms, nor I 'm sure would Keldrum,” said I, nodding over to his Lordship. “You are only just to me, in that,” said he, smiling. “That's all fine talking for you fellows who had the luck to be first on the list, but what are poor devils like Oxley and myself to do?” said Hammond. “Taxation comes down to second sons.” “And the 'Times' says that's all right,” added Oxley.