Having made a hasty toilet, I proceeded to the parlour, which, however late events might have impressed upon my memory, I could scarcely recognise. Instead of the long oak table and the wassail bowl, there stood near the fire a small round table, covered with a snow--white cloth, upon which shone in unrivalled brightness a very handsome tea equipage--the hissing kettle on one hob was vis a vis'd by a gridiron with three newly taken trout, frying under the reverential care of Father Malachi himself--a heap of eggs ranged like shot in an ordnance yard, stood in the middled of the table, while a formidable pile of buttered toast browned before the grate--the morning papers were airing upon the hearth--every thing bespoke that attention to comfort and enjoyment one likes to discover in the house where chance may have domesticated him for a day or two. "Good morning, Mr. Lorrequer. I trust you have rested well," said Father Malachi as I entered. "Never better; but where are our friends?" "I have been visiting and comforting them in their affliction, and I may with truth assert it is not often my fortune to have three as sickly looking guests. That was a most unlucky affair last night, and I must apologise." "Don't say a word, I entreat; I saw how it all occurred, and am quite sure if it had not been for poor Curzon's ill-timed melody--" "You are quite right," said the father interrupting me. "Your friend's taste for music--bad luck to it--was the 'teterrima causa belli.'" "And the subscription," said I; "how did it succeed?" "Oh, the money went in the commotion; and although I have got some seven pounds odd shillings of it, the war was a most expensive one to me. I caught old Mahony very busy under the table during the fray; but let us say no more about it now--draw over your chair. Tea or coffee? there's the rum if you like it 'chasse.'" I immediately obeyed the injunction, and commenced a vigorous assault upon the trout, caught, as he informed me, "within twenty perches of the house." "Your poor friend's nose is scarcely regimental," said he, "this morning; and as for Fin, he was never remarkable for beauty, so, though they might cut and hack, they could scarcely disfigure him, as Juvenal says--isn't it Juvenal? "'Vacuus viator cantabit ante Latronem;' "or in the vernacular: "'The empty traveller may whistle Before the robber and his pistil' (pistol)." "There's the Chili vinegar--another morsel of the trout?" "I thank you; what excellent coffee, Father Malachi!" "A secret I learned at St. Omer's some thirty years since. Any letters, Bridget?"--to a damsel that entered with a pacquet in her hand. "A gossoon from Kilrush, y'r reverence, with a bit of a note for the gentleman there."