It usually happens that where a great many people are endeavouring each to get a blow at one unfortunate, he against whom this united ill will is directed comes off pretty safe in the scramble. In Ireland, at all events, the luxury of thrashing one’s neighbour is so highly prized, that one can bear no interference when enjoying it, and thus a well-meaning auxiliary in the grateful occupation is likely to fall in for worse treatment than was originally intended for the first victim. So it was in the present instance. The discordant interests of the different claimants bred such confusion and disturbance in the several suits instituted, that for a long time the poor wretch whom all sought to disinherit was left in comparative quiet, and leisure was afforded him to overcome the scruples which Connell raised when it was first proposed to him to undertake the piece of unheard-of atrocity required of him, no less, in fact, than to place himself in direct and open outlawry, by seizing possession of the property in dispute, and holding it by force of arms against all comers. But the bribe was too large, and the adventure altogether too tempting, notwithstanding its concomitant perils, for Connell’s virtue or prudence to persist in refusing; so, casting aside all minor matters as unworthy of the bright prospects now opening before him, he gathered his troop of brigands, strengthened it with some new hands, cleared it of all doubtful characters, and, to use a transatlantic term, squatted in full force on the disputed territory, dividing its richest farms between himself and his followers, as the price of his and their services.