"'There it is,' says Mr. Brooke, 'there's the whole key to our correspondence, study it well, and I'll bring you a sacret dispatch in the evening—something that will surprise you.'
"'Ye will—will ye?' says the count.
"'On the honor of an Irish gentleman, I will,' says Mr. Brooke.
"The count sits down on the spot and writes the letters to all the princesses and countesses in Vienna, saying that Mr. Brooke was the elegantest, and politest, and most trusty young gentleman ever he met; and telling them to treat him with every consideration.
"'There will be another account of me,' says the master to me, 'by the post; but I'll travel faster, and give me a fair start, and I ask no more.'
"And he was as good as his word, for he started that evening for Vienna, without lave or license, and that's the way he got dismissed from his situation."
"And did he break his promise to the count, or did he really send him any intelligence?"
"He kept his word like a gentleman; he promised him something that would surprise him, and so he did. He sent him the weddin' of Ballyporeen in cipher. It took a week to make out, and I suppose they've never got to the right understandin' it yet."
"I'm curious to hear how he was received in Vienna after this," said I. "I suppose you accompanied him to that city."
"Troth I did, and a short life we led there; but here we are now, at the end of our journey. That's Father Doogan's down there, that small, low, thatched house in the hollow."