Believing that the last of the Mohicans still lived, and that the continent of the setting sun resembled Hounslow Heath in the old highwaymen's days, she presented to me--a blunderbuss! It was one with which her "poor dear papa" had been in the habit of frightening obstreperous White Boys, who might assail the sacred premises of Ballybrogue Castle--the ancestral seat of the Earls of Planetree in sportive Tipperary, as I believe I've told you before. The weapon, she informed me, was a most efficient one, having once been known--when missing the advocate of "young Ireland" it was aimed at--to demolish a whole litter of those little gentlemen with curly tails who assist, in conjunction with the "praties," in "paying the rint" of the trusting natives of the Emerald Isle; consequently, its destructive powers were beyond question, and it might really, she thought, be of the utmost utility to me on the western prairies, where, she believed, I was going to "camp out" for ever! My lady gave me, in addition, a piece of advice, which she implored me always to bear in mind throughout my life--as she had invariably done-- and that was, that, "Though I might unfortunately be poor, never to forget being proud":--it was the pass-word to her morbid system. And the vicar, and dear little Miss Pimpernell, and Monsieur Parole d'Honneur--how can I speak of all their kindness--evinced in many, many ways--ere I left the old parish and its whilom associations behind me? Little Miss Pimpernell worked a supply of knitted socks, "comforters," and muffetees, sufficient to last me for a three years' cruise in the Polar circle in search of the north-west passage. The vicar gave me letters of introduction to some American friends of his, who received me afterwards most kindly in virtue of his credentials--he wanted to do much more for me, but I would not allow him; and as for Monsieur, he _would_ not be denied, in spite of my telling him, over and over again, that I had no need of temporal assistance. "Ah! but yes!" he said to me, in a parting visit he paid me the night before I started. "You cannote deceives me, my youngish friends! Lamartine was un republicain, he?--Bien, he go un voyage en Orient; you, my dears Meestaire Lorton, are going to walk on a voyage en Ouest--dat is vraisemble. Ha! ha! Ze one visite the Arabes of ze old world, ze oders ze Arabes of ze nouvelle; and,--bote requires ze money, ze l'argent, ze cash. Ha! ha! Non, my youngish friends, you cannote deceives me!" "But, I assure you, Monsieur Parole," I replied. "I really have plenty--much more, indeed, than I absolutely require." "Ah! but yes! My dears, you _moost_ take him to obliges me. I have gote here a leetle somme I doos note want. If you takes him note, I peetch him avays--peetch him avays, vraiment!" And he handed me a little roll of banknotes, which I subsequently found to contain a hundred pounds.