the hour of four
`` Up till four o'clock that day , the factions were quiet . Several relations on both sides had been invited to drink by John and Rose 's families , for the purpose of establishing a good feeling between them . But this was , after all , hardly to be expected , for they hated one another with an ardency much too good-humored and buoyant ; and , between ourselves , to bring Paddy over a bottle is a very equivocal mode of giving him an anti-cudgeling disposition . After the hour of four , several of the factions were getting very friendly , which I knew at the time to be a bad sign . Many of them nodded to each other , which I knew to be a worse one ; and some of them shook hands with the greatest cordiality , which I no sooner saw than I slipped the knot of my cravat , and held myself in preparation for the sport . `` I have often had occasion to remark -- and few men , let me tell you , had finer opportunities of doing so -- the differential symptomatics between a Party Fight , that is , a battle between Orangemen and Ribbon-men , and one between two Roman Catholic Factions . There is something infinitely more anxious , silent , and deadly , in the compressed vengeance , and the hope of slaughter , which characterize a party fight , than is to be seen in a battle between factions .