These last words seemed to have a rather quieting effect upon the captain, who at the commencement of the speech had grasped his pipe somewhat below the bowl and appeared by his glance to be meditating a lunge at the eye of his eccentric servant, who continued smoking and talking with great composure. Suddenly replacing the end of his pipe in his mouth, the man turned to me, and in a tone of great _hauteur_ said:-- "So, sir, I am told by your friend there, that you are fond of the humanities." "Yes," said I, "I am very fond of humanity, and was always a great admirer of the lines of Gay:-- 'Cowards are cruel, but the brave Love mercy and delight to save'." "By my shoul, sir, it's an ignorant beast I'm thinking ye. It was not _humanity_ I was speaking of, but the _humanities_, which have nothing at all to do with it." Then turning to Frank, he demanded, "Was it not yourself, Mr. Francis Ardry, that told me, when you took the liberty of introducing this person to me, that he was addicted to philosophy, prosody, and what not?" "To be sure I did," said Frank. "Well, sir, and are not those the humanities, or are you as ignorant as your friend here?" "You pretend to be a humanist, sir," said he to me, "but I will take the liberty of showing your utter ignorance. Now, sir, do you venture to say that you can answer a question connected with the Irish humanities?" "I must hear it first," said I. "You must hear it, must ye? Then you shall hear it to your confusion. A pretty humanist I will show you to be; open your ears, sir!"-- '_Triuir ata se air mo bhas_'. {236} "Now, sir, what does the poet mean by saying that there are three looking after his death? Whom does he allude to, sir? hey?" "The devil, the worms, and his children," said I, "who are looking after three things which they can't hope to get before he is dead--the children his property, the worms his body, and the devil his soul, as the man says a little farther on." The captain looked at me malignantly. "Now, sir, are you not ashamed of yourself?" "Wherefore?" said I. "Have I not given the meaning of the poem?" "You have expounded the elegy, sir, fairly enough; I find no fault with your interpretation. What I mean is this: Are you not ashamed to be denying your country?" "I never denied my country; I did not even mention it. My friend there told you I was an Englishman, and he spoke the truth."