One of the parties whose demands were thus evaded, happened to be a wrongheaded, positive sort of customer of the old school, who viewed the power and decisions of the wigged brotherhood with almost as much contempt as Connell himself could regard them, and being too impatient to await the slow and sinuous progress of the law, undertook the desperate resolution of forcing that redoubted personage to evacuate, even by force of arms. It never was a hard matter in Tipperary, when a rookawn was on foot, to gather auxiliaries; and at the time of which I write, the facilities were perhaps more numerous than ever; not even the formidable character of the garrison and its commander could deter numbers of the adventurous spirits of that famed region from the enterprize. They entered into the spirit of the thing with heart and soul; and, accordingly, one fine morning, with a goodly band at his heels, and prepared with all the needful appliances, this old-fashioned vindicator of his rights set out to storm the stronghold. It is unnecessary to say that an awful riot ensued--barricades were broken down, outposts driven in, houses wrecked, and numbers of his then majesty’s subjects wofully maltreated; until at length, in spite of all opposition, they reached the house, than which even valour’s self could no further go. Scaling-ladders and battering-rams were in requisition; the fun began to thicken, and the result to grow doubtful. Saragossa was not more nobly defended, nor Badajos more gallantly assailed. It is possible, however, to push a joke too far, even on the best tempered people; and Connell, feeling that this was the case, determined to give a gentle intimation of it to his assailants. A large window had been burst in and ladders placed against the breach--a rush was made to ascend them in defiance of the threats which he denounced against whoever should attempt it, and which he executed by pouring a discharge of fire-arms into the very thickest of the mass. But it was too late to intimidate; the enraged mob rushed over the bodies of the fallen--a simultaneous attack was made upon all points--and, alas for the brave, the post was won. In the melée that ensued, all escaped but the leader; and before the relatives of the slain, or the general mass of the victorious party, were aware of his capture, he was judiciously hurried out of their reach, and handed over to the civil power on a charge of murder. There is no part of the world, however, in which the distinction between killing and murder was so well understood as in Ireland in those days; and in point of fact, I believe the man was free from the _legal_ charge--at least so it appeared to the jury who tried him, for he was acquitted. Short-lived, indeed, was the triumph of his adversaries, and immediately on his liberation they began to tremble for the security of their tenure. He had sworn that though it should cost him his life, he would endeavour to recover the premises of