Well might he say 'the pistols were double charged;' they were trebly charged--loaded to the muzzles. In fact, it was safer to stand before than behind them. I was stunned by the report, and remained standing, until roused by one of the men asking me 'was I shot?' adding, that 'I had killed the masther.' In an instant the whole impropriety of my conduct flashed before me, and I ran to my poor unfortunate friend, who lay motionless. I knelt down by his side, and never shall I forget the piercing anguish that at that moment penetrated my soul. All his virtues--his amiable qualities--his kind-heartedness--every good action of his life with which I was acquainted, and they were numerous, appeared in order before my mental vision; and then conscience, shaking the ægis, on which appeared, not the Gorgon's, but my poor friend's blackened countenance, before me, and asking, 'Why did you do this?' froze up my faculties, and converted my outward seeming into stone; but within, there was a foretaste of the eternal torments. Involuntarily I called upon his name; the sound of my own voice started me, arousing me to a sense of keener anguish; and I was about to break forth into some violent extravagance, when my unfortunate friend opened his eyes, and, looking at me with kindness, said, 'M----, you did not do it; my pistol burst and has hurt me--take me into the house--I'm sober enough now.' Upon examination it was discovered that a piece of the pistol barrel had hit him above the forehead, cutting a path through his scalp; one of his fingers was broken, and his hand and arm were severely contused, but he seemed to think nothing of it, but desired one of the men to go for old Biddy Hoolaghan, a celebrated doctress, and the rest of them to catch Rainbow. I refused to leave him in his then present condition, of which I was the unlucky cause, but he would not hear of my stopping. 'No, no,' said he, 'your business cannot be neglected; and as to fault, we may divide the matter between us, and bear each his own share. If I did not make the ridiculous rule, that a bottle of whisky once opened should be finished at once, I would not have drunk after you left me, but have gone to bed at once; in which case I'd have known your voice, and all would have been right. And if you were not so lazy as to object to a morning ride (which you must take after all), you'd have staid where you were, and saved all the mischief. But, at all events, remember for the rest of your days that 'the longest way round is often the shortest way home.'