signal for Horace and myself to proceed round to the front door, and pretending we were strangers excited by curiosity, succeeded, by a little well-timed flattery and a small trifle to drink our good healths, in freeing the assailants from all the horrors of a watch-house, and eventually of restoring peace and unanimity. It was now past midnight; leaving therefore poor Barney O'Finn to attend mass, and pay the last sad tribute to his departed relative, on the morning of the morrow we once more bent our steps towards home, laughing as we went at the strange recollections of the wake, the row, and last appearance of Teddy O'Rafferty.{1} REQUIESCAT IN PACE. 1 As the reader might not think this story complete without gome account of the concluding ceremonies, I have ascertained from Barney that his cousin Teddy was quietly borne on the shoulders of his friends to the church of St. Paneras, where he was safely deposited with his mother- earth, a bit of a bull, by the by; and after the mourners had made three circles round his ashes, and finished the ceremony by a most delightful howl and prayers said over the crossed spades, they all retired peaceably home, moderately laden with the juice of the _crature_. [Illustration: page033] THE CYPRIAN'S BALL, OR Sketches of Characters AT THE VENETIAN CARNIVAL. Scene.--Argyll Rooms. ~34~~ "Hymen ushers the lady Astrea, The jest took hold of Latona the cold, Ceres the brown, with bright Cytherea, Thetis the wanton, Bellona the bold; Shame-faced Aurora With witty Pandora, And Maia with Flora did company bear;" (And many 'tis stated Went there to be mated, Who all their lives have been hunting the fair. ) Blackmantle, Transit, Eglantine, and Crony's Visit to the Venetian Carnival--Exhibits--Their Char-acters drawn from the Life--General Trinket, the M.C.--Crony's singidar Anecdote of the great Earl of Chesterfield, and Origin of the Debouchettes--The Omissions in the Wilson Memoirs supplied--Biographical Reminiscences of the Amiable Mrs. Debouchette--Harriette and lier Sisters--Amy--Mary--Fanny-- Julia--Sophia--Charlotte and Louisa--Paphians and their Paramours--Peers and Plebeians--The Bang Bantam--London Leda --Spanish Nun--Sparrow Hawk--Golden Pippin--White Crow-- Brazen Bellona--Edgeware Diana ~35~~