'Upon my life, if this Connaught rapparee is permitted to carry on his business of indiscriminate cut-throat here, he'll make the service very pleasant,' resumed Cluffe, who, though a brisk young fellow of eight-and-forty, had no special fancy for being shot. 'I say the general ought to take the matter into his own hands.' 'Not till I'm done with it,' growled Nutter. 'And send the young gentleman home to Connaught,' pursued Cluffe. 'I'll send him first to the other place,' said Nutter, in allusion to the Lord Protector's well-known alternative. In the open street, under the sly old moon, red little Dr. Toole, in his great wig, and Gipsy Devereux, in quest of a squire for the good knight who stood panting for battle in the front parlour of the 'Phoenix,' saw a red glimmer in Loftus's dormant window. 'He's alive and stirring still,' said Devereux, approaching the hall door with a military nonchalance. 'Whisht!' said Toole, plucking him back by the sash: 'we must not make a noise--the house is asleep. I'll manage it--leave it to me.' And he took up a handful of gravel, but not having got the range, he shied it all against old Tom Drought's bed-room window. 'Deuce take that old sneak,' whispered Toole vehemently, 'he's always in the way; the last man in the town I'd have--but no matter:' and up went a pebble, better directed, for this time it went right through Loftus's window, and a pleasant little shower of broken glass jingled down into the street. 'Confound you, Toole,' said Devereux, 'you'll rouse the town. 'Plague take the fellow's glass--it's as thin as paper,' sputtered Toole. 'Loftus, we want you,' said Toole, in a hard whispered shout, and making a speaking trumpet of his hands, as the wild head of the student, like nothing in life but a hen's nest, appeared above. 'Cock-Loftus, come down, d'ye hear?' urged Devereux. 'Dr. Toole and Lieutenant Devereux--I--I--dear me! yes. Gentlemen, your most obedient,' murmured Loftus vacantly, and knocking his head smartly on the top of the window frame, in recovering from a little bow. 'I'll be wi' ye, gentlemen, in a moment.' And the hen's nest vanished.