While she halts to determine what course next to follow,--for these signs of revelry have disconcerted her,--she hears a rough, loud voice from within call out, “There's another toast you must drink now, and fill for it to the brim. Come, Peter Hayes, no skulking; the liquor is good, and the sentiment the same. Gentlemen, you came here to-night to honor my poor house--my ancestral house, I may call it--on the victory we 've gained over tyranny and oppression.” Loud cheers here interrupted him, but he resumed: “They tried--by the aid of the law that they made themselves--to turn me out of my house and home. They did all that false swearing and forged writing could do, to drive me--me, Tom Magennis, the last of an ancient stock--out upon the highways.” (Groans from the hearers.) “But they failed,--ay, gentlemen, they failed. Old Repton, with all his skill, and Scanlan, with all his treachery, could n't do it. Joe Nelligan, like Goliath--no, like David, I mean--put a stone between their two eyes, and laid them low.” (Loud cheering, and cries of “Why is n't he here?” “Where is he to-night?”) “Ay, gentlemen,” resumed the speaker, “ye may well ask where is he this night? when we are celebrating not only our triumph, but his; for it was the first brief he ever held,--the first guinea he ever touched for a fee! I 'll tell you where he is. Skulking--ay, that's the word for it--skulking in Oughterard,--hiding himself for shame because he beat the Martins!” ( Loud expressions of anger, and some of dissent, here broke forth; some inveighing against this cowardice, others defending him against the charge.) “Say what you like,” roared Magennis; “I know, and he knows that I know it. What was it he said when Mahony went to him with my brief? 'I'll not refuse to undertake the case,' said he, 'but I 'll not lend myself to any scurrilous attack upon the family at Cro' Martin!'” (Groans.) “Ay, but listen,” continued he: “'And if I find,' said he--'if I find that in the course of the case such an attempt should be made, I 'll throw down my brief though I never should hold another.' There's Joe Nelligan for you! There's the stuff you thought you 'd make a Patriot out of!” “Say what you like, Tom Magennis, he's a credit to the town,” said old Hayes, “and he won your cause this day against one of the 'cutest of the Dublin counsellors.” “He did so, sir,” resumed Magennis, “and he got his pay, and there's nothing between us; and I told him so, and more besides; for I said, 'You may flatter them and crawl to them; you may be as servile as a serpent or a boa-constrictor to them; but take _my_ word for it, Mister Joe,--or Counsellor Nelligan, if you like it better,--they'll never forget who and what you are,--the son of old Dan there, of the High Street,--and you 've a better chance to be the Chief Justice than the husband of Mary Martin!'”