Add files from ibiblio as of 2025-03-07 16:16:48HEADmain

1 files changed, 10197 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/43563-0.txt b/43563-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eae8b8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/43563-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10197 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43563 ***
+
+  BITS OF BLARNEY
+
+  BY
+
+  R. SHELTON MACKENZIE
+
+  EDITOR OF "THE LIFE OF CURRAN," "SHEIL'S SKETCHES OF THE
+  IRISH BAR," &c.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  REDFIELD
+
+  No 34 BEEKMAN STREET
+
+  NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
+J. S. REDFIELD,
+
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for
+the Southern District of New York.
+
+
+  EDWARD O. JENKINS,
+  PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER,
+  26 Frankfort St., N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+TO J. S. REDFIELD, ESQ.
+
+
+MY DEAR SIR:--The deified heroes of the Norse mythology are believed to
+spend their afternoons in drinking something stronger than lemonade out
+of their enemies' skulls, and some ill-natured persons, seizing on the
+idea, have declared that publishers use the skulls of their authors as
+drinking-cups, in the same manner. For my own part, I discredit the
+assertion--as far as my relations with yourself enable me to judge; I
+suspect that the time has gone by when Napoleon's health was drank as "a
+friend of literature," because he had shot a bookseller; and I give you
+unlimited permission to use my skull, in the Norse fashion, provided
+that you wait until "in death I shall calm recline," when I shall have
+no further occasion for it. In such case, the least you can do will be
+to drink my memory, "in solemn silence"--the beverage being
+whiskey-punch, as a delicate compliment to my country.
+
+Seriously speaking (or writing), however, I take leave to dedicate this
+volume to you, with the solemn assurance that my doing so must not be
+taken as--a Bit of Blarney.
+
+The book is Irish--to all intents and purposes, and is put forth with
+the least possible pretence. It contains Legends--familiar to me in my
+youth; Stories, which, more or less, are literally "founded upon facts;"
+recollections of Eccentric Characters, whose peculiarities it would have
+been difficult to exaggerate;--and Sketches of the two great Irish
+leaders of the last and present century, Grattan, who won National
+Independence for Ireland, and O'Connell, who obtained Emancipation for
+the great majority of his countrymen. The Sketch of the great Agitator
+has extended almost to a biography--but I knew the man well, and write
+of him on that knowledge. In _this_ volume he is certainly entitled to a
+niche, having been the greatest professor of "Blarney" these later days
+have seen or heard.
+
+                                                       Yours faithfully,
+                                                    R. SHELTON MACKENZIE
+
+  NEW YORK, _August 20, 1855_.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+
+  Legends.
+                                               PAGE
+
+  BLARNEY CASTLE                                  9
+
+  LEGEND OF THE LAKE                             16
+  LEGEND OF CORRIG-NA-CAT                        21
+  LEGEND OF THE ROCK CLOSE                       27
+
+  CON O'KEEFE AND THE GOLDEN CUP                 35
+
+  LEGENDS OF FINN MAC COUL                       48
+
+  FINN AND THE FISH                              53
+  THE BREAKS OF BALLYNASCORNEY                   61
+  FINN MAC COUL'S FINGER-STONE                   64
+
+
+Irish Stories.
+
+  THE PETRIFIED PIPER--
+  1. WHO THE PIPER WAS                           74
+  2. WHAT THE PIPER DID                          85
+  3. HOW THE PIPER GOT ON                        91
+  4. HOW THE PIPER BECAME A PETRIFACTION        103
+  5. HOW IT ALL ENDED                           121
+
+  THE GERALDINE                                 145
+
+  CAPTAIN ROCK--
+  1. THE WAKE                                   151
+  2. THE LEADER                                 165
+  3. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE                    172
+  4. CHURCHTOWN BARRACKS                        181
+  5. THE ATTACK ON ROSSMORE                     191
+  6. THE TRIAL                                  201
+
+  A NIGHT WITH THE WHITEBOYS                    223
+
+  BUCK ENGLISH                                  231
+
+
+  Eccentric Characters.
+
+  THE BARD O'KELLY                              251
+
+  FATHER PROUT                                  271
+
+  FATHER PROUT'S SERMON                         283
+
+  IRISH DANCING MASTERS                         291
+
+  CHARLEY CROFTS                                305
+
+
+Irish Publicists.
+
+  HENRY GRATTAN                                 323
+
+  DANIEL O'CONNELL                              342
+
+
+
+
+LEGENDS.
+
+
+
+
+BITS OF BLARNEY.
+
+
+How many have heard of "Blarney," and how few know how and why this
+appropriate term has originated! How could they, indeed, unless they had
+made a pilgrimage to the Castle, as I did, in order to man[oe]uvre Tim
+Cronin into a narration of its legends?--They may go to Blarney,
+whenever they please, but the _genius loci_ has vanished. Tim Cronin has
+been gathered to his fathers. By no lingering or vulgar disease did he
+perish; he died----of a sudden.
+
+Scarcely any part of Ireland has attained more celebrity than the
+far-famed village of Blarney, in the county, and near the city of Cork.
+At Blarney may be seen the mysterious talisman, which has the
+extraordinary power of conferring remarkable gifts of persuasion on the
+lips which, with due reverence and proper faith in its virtues, invoke
+the hidden genii of The Stone, to yield them its inspiration. The
+ceremony is brief:--only a kiss on the flinty rock, and the kisser is
+instantly endowed with the happy faculty of flattering the fair sex _ad
+libitum_, without their once suspecting that it can be flattery. On the
+masculine gender it is not less effective. Altogether, it enables the
+kisser, like History,
+
+    "To lie like truth, and still most truly lie."
+
+Immortal poesie has already celebrated the locality of Blarney. The
+far-famed _chanson_, written by Richard Alfred Milliken,[1] and called
+"The Groves of Blarney," has been heard or read by every one:--in these
+later days the polyglot edition, by him who has assumed the name of
+Father Prout, is well known to the public. There is an interpolated
+verse, which may be adopted (as it sometimes is) into the original
+_chanson_, on account of the earnestness with which it declares that
+
+    "The stone this is, whoever kisses,
+      He never misses to grow eloquent:
+    'Tis he may clamber to a lady's chamber,
+      Or become a member of Parliament."
+
+Blarney Castle is surrounded by the Groves mentioned in the song. It
+stands four miles to the northwest of "the beautiful city called Cork,"
+and, of course, in the fox-hunting district of Muskerry. All that can
+now be seen are the remains of an antique castellated pile, to the east
+of which was rather incongruously attached, a century ago, a large
+mansion of modern architecture.
+
+     [1] In Lockhart's Life of Scott, this renowned Song is attributed
+     to "the poetical Dean of Cork" (Dr. Burrowes, who wrote "The Night
+     before Larry was stretched"), but really was written by Milliken, a
+     poetical lawyer of whom Maguire says (O'Doherty Papers, vol. ii.,
+     p. 181) that not even Christopher North himself--
+
+     "Be he tipsy or sober, Was not more than his match, in wine,
+     wisdom, or wit."
+
+The Castle stands on the north side of a precipitous ridge of limestone
+rock, rising from a deep valley, and its base is washed by a small and
+beautifully clear river called the Aw-martin. A large, square, and
+massive tower--a sort of Keep,--is all that remains of the original
+fortress. The top of this building is surrounded with a parapet,
+breast-high, and on the very summit is the famous Stone which is said to
+possess the power, already mentioned, of conferring on every gentleman
+who _kisses_ it the peculiar property of telling any thing, in the way
+of praise (commonly called flattery), with unblushing cheek and
+"forehead unabashed." As the fair sex have to receive, rather than
+bestow compliments, the oscular homage to the Stone conveys no power to
+_them_. From the virtues which it communicates to the masculine
+pilgrims, we have the well-known term _blarney_ and _blarney-stone_.
+
+The real Stone is in such a dangerous position, from its elevation, that
+it is rarely kissed, except by very adventurous pilgrims of the Tom
+Sheridan class, who will _do_ the thing, and not be content with saying
+they have done it! The stone which officiates as its deputy, is one
+which was loosened by a shot from the cannon of Oliver Cromwell's
+troops, who were encamped on the hill behind the Castle. This stone is
+secured in its place by iron stanchions, and it is this that the
+visitors kiss, as aforesaid, and by mistake. The Song, it may be
+remembered, speaks of the Cromwellian bombardment of the Castle:
+
+    "'Tis Lady Jeffreys that owns this station,
+      Like Alexander, or like Helen, fair.
+    There's no commander throughout the nation
+      In emulation can with her compare:
+    Such walls surround her, that no nine-pounder
+      Could ever plunder her place of strength,
+    Till Oliver Cromwell he did her pummel,
+      And made a breach in her battlement."
+
+Between Blarney Castle and the hill whereon Cromwell's troops
+_bivouacked_, is a sweet vale called the Rock Close. This is a charming
+spot, whereon (or legends lie) the little elves of fairy-land once loved
+to assemble in midnight revelry. At one end of this vale is a lake of
+unfathomable depth, and Superstition delights to relate stories of its
+wonders.
+
+When Sir Walter Scott was in Ireland, he visited Blarney, accompanied by
+Anne Scott, Miss Edgeworth, and Mr. Lockhart. A few days after he was
+there, it was my fortune to tread in his steps to the same classic
+shrine.
+
+The barefooted and talkative guide who _would_ accompany me over the
+Castle, thus described "the Ariosto of the North," and his
+companions:--"A tall, bulky man, who halted a great deal, came here,
+with his daughter and a very small lady, and a dash of a gentleman, with
+a bright keen eye that looked here, and there, and everywhere in a
+minute. They thrust themselves, ransacking, into every nook and cranny
+that a rat would not go through, scarcely. When the lame gentleman came
+to the top of the Castle, wasn't he delighted, and didn't he take all
+the country down upon paper with a pencil, while one of us sang 'The
+Groves of Blarney.' He made us sing it again, and gave me a crown-piece,
+and said that he'd converse a poem on the Castle, himself, may-be!"
+
+While I am thus gossiping, I am neglecting Tim Cronin, "the best
+story-teller" (to use his own words) "within the whole length, and
+breadth, and cubic mensuration of the Island."
+
+After my visit to Blarney Castle, I met this worthy. I had struck from
+the common path into that which led through the Rock Close. This valley
+is divided into several fields, all of which are extremely fertile,
+except that immediately washed by the waters of the lake. It was now far
+in the summer; and, although the mowers had to cut down the rich grass
+of the other fields, there was scarcely a blade upon this. It was as
+smooth, green, and close-shaven as the trim turf before a cottage
+_ornée_. While I was remarking this, I was startled by a sudden touch
+upon the shoulder, and, turning round, I found myself _vis-à-vis_ with a
+Herculean-built fellow, who doffed his hat, with a sort of rude
+courtesy, made an attempt at a bow, and, before I could say a word,
+struck into conversation.
+
+"Wondering at this meadow being so bare, I warrant you, sir?"
+
+I confessed that it had surprised me.
+
+"Didn't know the why nor the wherefore of it, may-be? It's Tim
+Cronin--and that's myself--that can tell you all about it, before you
+have time to get fat."
+
+I ventured to exhibit my ignorance, by asking who Tim Cronin might be?
+
+"Faith, sir, you may know a great deal of Latin and Greek--and 'tis easy
+to see that the College mark is upon you--but you know little of _real_
+literature in old Ireland, if you don't know _me_. Not know Cronin, the
+renowned Philomath, that bothered the Provost of old Trinity in
+Algebra--from the Saxon _al_, noble, and the Arabic _Geber_, the
+philosopher? Never once heard, perhaps, of the great Cronin that does
+all the problems and answers, for the Lady's Diary, in mathematics--from
+the Greek _mathema_, instruction? Nothing like getting at the roots of
+words--the _unde derivatur?_"
+
+Even at the hazard of appearing as an ignoramus in the eyes of Mr.
+Cronin, I was fain to admit that I had not previously heard of his name
+and erudition. I ventured to intimate, as a sort of half-apology, that I
+was a stranger in that part of the country.
+
+"Strange enough, I'll be bound," said he, with a shrug of the shoulders.
+"Know, then, that I am that same Tim Cronin,--'our ingenious
+correspondent,' as the Mathematical Journal calls me, when it refuses
+one of my articles, 'from want of space,'--bad luck to 'em, as if they
+could not push out something else to make room for me. Curious, sir, not
+to have heard of me, that keeps one of the finest academies, under a
+hedge, in the Province of Munster! Just sit down on the bank here, and
+I'll soon enlighten you so, about that good-looking lake before your two
+eyes, that I'll be bound you won't forget me in a hurry."
+
+Complying with the request of this august personage, I had the
+satisfaction of listening to his legend, thus:
+
+
+
+
+LEGEND OF THE LAKE.
+
+
+Once upon a time, and there was no lake here, at all at all. In the
+middle of the place where that lake is, there stood a large castle, and
+in it dwelt an unbaptized giant--it was before blessed Saint Patrick
+came into the country, Heaven rest his soul--and this giant had martial
+rule over all the country, far and near.
+
+In his time, the Aw-martin, nor any other river, did not flow near us.
+Indeed, though there was plenty of wine in the Castle, there was a great
+want of water. This was very inconvenient for the ladies--the fellow had
+as many wives as a Turk--because they were always wanting to wash their
+clothes, and their pretty faces, and their white hands, and their
+well-shaped bodies; and, more than that, they could not make themselves
+a raking cup of tea, by any means, for the want of good soft water. So,
+one and all, they sent a petition to the giant, praying that he would
+have the kindness to procure them a well of water. When he read it, he
+made no more ado but whipped off through the air--just like a bird of
+Paradise--to his old aunt, who was a fairy, and had foretold that, some
+day or other, water would be the death of him. Perhaps that was the
+reason that he always took his liquor neat.
+
+Well, he told her what he had come about, and after a world of
+entreaty--for she had a foreboding that something unfortunate would come
+of it--the old fairy put a little bottle into his hands. "Take this,"
+said she, "and drill a hole in the rock at the foot of the Castle
+barbican, where the sun throws his latest ray before he sinks into the
+west. Make a stone-cover for the top of it--one that will fit it
+exactly. Then pour the water from this bottle into that hole in the
+rock, and there will be a well of pure water, for the use of yourself
+and your family. But, when no one is actually taking water out of this
+well, be sure that the close-fitting stone-cover is always left upon it,
+for it is the nature of the liquid to overflow, unless it be kept
+confined."
+
+He gave her a thousand thanks, and home he went. The first thing he did
+was to drill a hole in the rock (and he did not find _that_ a very easy
+job), then to fit it with an air-tight stone-cover, and, lastly, to pour
+in the water out of the little bottle.
+
+Sure enough, there immediately bubbled up an abundance of bright, clear,
+and sparkling water. The giant then assembled all his family, and told
+them how the stone-cover must always be kept over the well when they
+were not using it. And then his wives agreed that, as they had been so
+anxious to get this water, one of them, turn about, should sit by the
+well, day and night, and see that no one left it uncovered. They were
+content to submit to this trouble, rather than run the risk of losing
+the water.
+
+Things went on very well for some time. At last, as _must_ be the case
+when a woman is to the fore, there came a tremendous blow-up. One of the
+giant's ladies was a foreigner, and had been married, in her own
+country, before she fell into his hands. Mild and pale she always was,
+pretty creature! lamenting the land she had left and the lover she had
+lost. It happened, one day as she sat by the well, that an old pilgrim
+came to the gate, asked for a draught of water, in God's name, and held
+out his pitcher for it. Her thoughts were far away, never fear, but she
+had a tender heart, and she raised the cover from the well to fill his
+vessel. While she was doing this, the pilgrim pulled off his gown and
+his false beard, and who should he be but her own husband! She sprang
+off her seat towards him, and then, faint with joy and pale as death,
+she sank back into the oaken chair on which she had been sitting, as the
+guardian of the well. A bird never flew through the air faster than _he_
+flew towards _her_. He seated himself beside her in the chair, held her
+lovingly in his arms, kissed her cheeks and lips twenty times over,
+called her all manner of fond names, and sprinkled her with water until
+the fresh color came again into her face, and the warm life into her
+heart.
+
+All this time the well was left uncovered, and the waters
+rose--rose--rose, until they surrounded the Castle. Higher and higher
+did they rise, until, at last, down fell the gates, and then the stream
+rushed in, drowning every living soul within the place, and settling
+down into the very lake that we sit by now.
+
+The moral of the story is, that the lady and the pilgrim escaped--for
+the oaken chair supported them and floated them until they safely put
+their feet on dry land. All the rest perished, because they had
+willingly consented to live in sin with the giant; but this one lady had
+been kept there entirely against her will. The two thanked God for their
+escape, and returned to their own country, where they lived long and
+happily. It had been the giant's pride to put all his best jewels on
+whoever kept watch over the well, in order that all who passed might
+notice them and pay respect to his wealth. As this lady had them all
+upon her when the Castle was swallowed up, she and her husband had money
+enough, out of the sale of them, to keep them in a very genteel way of
+life at home. Some people say that, at times, the walls of the drowned
+Castle can be seen through the waters of the lake,--but I won't swear to
+the fact, as I never noticed it myself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such was Tim Cronin's account of the formation of the lake--a version
+more pleasant than probable. I ventured to inquire how the meadow next
+the waters came to be so bare, while all the others bore such luxuriant
+grass and grain? Mr. Cronin asked me, whether I saw a gray rock on the
+left, with three pines on its summit. I noticed them, as required.
+"Then," said he, "look well at the place all around, and I shall tell
+you another story or two about Blarney."
+
+Thus admonished, I took a closer survey of the place. The rock rose with
+a gentle swell in the distance, but its front was so precipitous as to
+be nearly perpendicular; and it was thickly covered with ivy, tangled
+like network, with which were mingled wild honeysuckle, dog-rose, and
+other parasites. There was a sort of rugged entrance at its base, over
+which the wild-brier and honeysuckle had formed a natural arch. Except
+this, the rock had a commonplace aspect.
+
+
+
+
+THE LEGEND OF CORRIG-NA-CAT.
+
+
+We call that rock by a strange name--from a strange circumstance, said
+Cronin. Upon the top, some hundreds of years ago, there stood a castle,
+belonging to the old Kings of Muskerry. Some cousin of theirs lived in
+it with his family, and was as happy as the day is long. How it
+happened, never could be ascertained; but happen it certainly did, that,
+one night, castle and people and all suddenly disappeared. I misdoubt
+that there were bad spirits at work. However, the general belief is,
+that the rock opened and swallowed all up, and that the lord and lady
+are kept there, spell-bound, as it were, in the shape of cats. From
+this, the rock is called Corrig-na-cat, or the Cat Rock. 'Tis a mighty
+pretty derivation.
+
+Whether the castle were swallowed up in that manner, or not, strange
+sights have been seen, by the light of the full moon, about that place.
+There is a little green spot on the brow of the hill, where there is a
+fairy-circle; on that spot sweet music has been heard by night, and the
+good people (as well as the fairies) have been seen dancing on the green
+turf, dressed in green and gold, with beautiful crowns upon their
+heads, and white wands in their little hands. Ah, sir, you may smile,
+but that's the belief in this part of the country, and he'd be looked
+upon as no better than a heathen who'd venture to say a word against it.
+
+My grandfather, although a trifle given to drink, was as honest a man as
+ever broke bread. One summer night, while he lay in bed, between asleep
+and awake, he heard a strange deep voice speak to him. It said, " The
+words of fate! heed them. Go, at midnight, to Corrig-na-cat; take with
+you a box of candles and a hundred fathoms of line; fasten one end of
+the line to the tree that grows just outside the mouth of the cave, and,
+tying the other end round your waist, boldly advance with a pair of
+lighted candles in your hands: the use of the line is, that you may roll
+it up as you come back, and not lose your way. Keep to the right-hand
+side, and go on until you come to a large room with two cats in it. In
+the room beyond that, there is as much gold as would buy a kingdom. You
+may take with you a bag to carry away as much of it as you please; but,
+on your peril, do not touch anything else; your life will not be worth a
+brass sixpence, if you do."
+
+You may be sure, sir, that this piece of information astonished my
+grandfather. But he was a sensible man, and, doubting whether two heads
+would be better than one in such a serious matter, nudged my grandmother
+with his elbow, to know if she was awake. She slept--sound as a top; so
+he let her sleep on. He was rather too knowing to let _her_ into the
+secret. He thought over all that he had ever heard of Corrig-na-cat; he
+called to mind how his mother had always said that our family were the
+real descendants of the lord and lady of the castle. He began to fancy
+that this was some great oracle that had come to visit him, in order
+that _he_ might break the spell that kept the castle and its inhabitants
+closed up in the rock. Indeed, he was very much perplexed, but
+determined to wait a bit, and carefully keep his own counsel.
+
+A warning from the world of spirits is worth nothing, if it is not
+repeated. The next night, my grandfather again was cautioned to listen
+to the words of fate. The third night the visitation was repeated. He
+knew, then, that the thing was no feint; and on the fourth night, he
+stole out of the house to go on the adventure.
+
+It was as pitch dark as if light had never been invented. He took the
+hundred fathoms of line, the box of candles, a sack to bring home a
+supply of gold, and a good-sized flask of strong whiskey. When he
+reached the rock, his heart began to fail him. The night was so still
+that he could hear the beating of his heart--thump, thump, thump,
+against his breast. He could hear the bats flying about, and he could
+see the owls looking on him with their great, round, brown eyes.
+Swallowing most of the contents of the flask at one pull, he found his
+spirits wonderfully restored, and he pushed forward to the mouth of the
+cave. He fastened one end of the line to the tree; he said an _Ave_ or
+two--for we are all of us a pious family--he drained the flask, and then
+he dashed forward.
+
+The way was as straight as an arrow for about thirty yards, but, after
+that, it took as many turnings and twistings as a problem of Euclid in
+the sixth book, and branched out into many directions. My grandfather
+followed on the right-hand side, as he had been told, and soon found
+himself at the gateway of an old hall. He pushed open the door, and saw
+that there were doors upon doors, leading off to many a place. He still
+kept to the right, and in a few minutes found himself in a
+state-chamber. Pillars of white marble supported the roof, and, at the
+farthest end, the hall opened into an apartment, through which there
+beamed a soft and beautiful light, as if it came from a thousand shaded
+lamps.
+
+Here was the end of his journey. A carved mantel-piece of white marble
+was over the fireplace, and there lay two beautiful white cats, on
+crimson-velvet cushions, before the fire. Diamonds and rubies, emeralds
+and amethysts, pearls and topazes, were piled on the ground in heaps,
+and ceiling and walls were covered all over with them, so that rays of
+light gleamed down upon him, wherever he looked.
+
+There was no living thing in the room with my grandfather but the cats.
+The creatures had golden collars, embossed with diamonds, round their
+necks; and to these were fastened long gold chains, which just gave them
+liberty to move round the room, being fastened to the walls, one at each
+side, by golden staples. He noticed that the animals steadily kept their
+eyes upon him, and appeared to watch every motion of his.
+
+My grandfather passed on into the inner room. The gold lay on the floor
+like wheat in a miller's store. He filled his sack with the coin to the
+brim, until, though he was said to be the strongest man in the whole
+barony, he had some difficulty in lifting it. As he passed through the
+room in which the cats were, he paused for a moment, to have a parting
+glance at all the treasures he was leaving. There was one golden star,
+studded with diamonds as big as walnuts, and blazing like a lamp,
+hanging down before him from the ceiling. It was too tempting. He forgot
+the advice not to touch anything but the gold in the inner room, and
+reached out his hand to seize the sparkling prize. One of the cats, who
+had eagerly watched his motions, sprang forward as he touched the jewel,
+and quick as a lightning-stroke, hit out his right eye with a sharp dash
+of his paw. At the same moment, an invisible hand whipped off the sack
+of gold from his shoulders, as if it were only a bag of feathers. Out
+went all the lights. My grandfather groped his way out as well as he
+could, by the help of the guiding-line fastened to his wrist, and cursed
+his greediness, that would not be content with enough. He got home by
+daybreak, with only one eye in his head, and that, without meaning to
+joke on his misfortune, was the _left_ one.
+
+Next day he sent for the priest, and told him what had happened. My
+grandmother said that all the misfortune was owing to _her_ not being in
+the secret. The priest said nothing. Before long, all the country heard
+of the story, and half the country believed it. To be sure, as my
+grandfather was rather addicted to liquor (and there was a private
+still, in those days, in almost every corner), it was a chance that he
+might have dreamt all this:--but then, there was his right eye absent.
+There were some malicious people, indeed, who hinted that he fell over
+the cliff, in a drunken fit, and that his eye was scratched out in that
+manner. But it would ill beseem me to make a story-teller of my
+dead-and-gone grandfather, and so I maintain the truth of his own
+statement. If it is not true, it deserves to be.
+
+In this conclusion I fully agreed, and the Philomath, proud of the
+display of his legendary lore, and happy on having fallen in with a
+patient and willing auditor, next proceeded to acquaint me with the
+accredited legend of the meadow next the lake. As before, I shall
+endeavor, in repeating it, to adhere to the very words of my informant.
+
+
+
+
+LEGEND OF THE ROCK CLOSE.
+
+
+About a thousand years ago, or so--but, of course, _after_ this lake was
+formed, to fulfil the old fairy's prophecy, that the giant would come to
+his death by water--there was a man who owned all the fields in the Rock
+Close. He was a farmer--a plain, honest man. Not long after he had
+purchased the place, he noticed that, though this very field we are now
+sitting in had the same cultivation as the others, it never gave him any
+return. He had no idea of having a meadow look like a lawn in front of a
+gentleman's country-house, and lost no time in speaking about it to his
+herdsman, a knowledgeable man, who said it might be worth while to watch
+the place, for, although he often saw the blades of grass a foot high at
+night, all was as closely shaved as a bowling-green in the morning. His
+master, who was one of the old stock of the Mac Carthies, thought there
+was reason in what he said, and desired him to be on the watch, and try
+to find out the real facts of the matter.
+
+The herdsman did his bidding. The next morning he told Mac Carthy that
+he had hid himself behind an old gateway (you may see the ruins of it
+there to the left),--that, about midnight, he had seen the waters of the
+lake very much disturbed,--that six cows came up out of the lake, and
+set to, eating all the grass off the field, until, by daybreak, they had
+made it as smooth as the palm of my hand,--and that, when the day
+dawned, the cows walked back into the lake, and went down to the bottom,
+as much at their ease as if they were on dry land.
+
+This was strange news for Mac Carthy, and set him quite at his wits'
+ends. The herdsman was a little man, with the heart of a lion, and he
+offered to watch again on that evening, to seize one of the cows, and
+either put it into the pound, or go down into the lake with it, and make
+a regular complaint of the trespass. Aye, and he did it, too. At dusk he
+went again, hid himself, as before, and waited to see what would happen.
+
+The six cows came up out of the lake, as before, and nibbled off the
+grass, until the field was quite smooth. They could not get into any
+other field, because they were surrounded by high, quickset hedges, and
+I have noticed that cows are not very fond of taking flying-leaps.
+
+Just at dawn, as the last cow was passing by him, on her return to the
+lake, the herdsman made a dart at her tail, and took a fast hold of it.
+The cow walked on, as if nothing had happened, turned her head, winked
+one of her large eyes at him in a knowing manner, and the herdsman
+followed, still holding the tail.
+
+Down dashed the beast into the waters--but the herdsman still kept his
+grasp. Down they went--deep, deep, to the very bottom of the lake. Sure
+enough, there was the giant's castle, that had been drowned centuries
+before. A little boy was in the court-yard, playing with a golden ball.
+All round the yard were piles of armor--spears and helmets, swords and
+shields,--all ornamented with gold. Into the court-yard dashed the cows,
+and with them went the bold herdsman.
+
+Out came a lady, richly dressed up in velvets and jewels, and her eyes
+as bright as the sunbeams that dance on the wall on the morning of
+Easter Sunday.[2] She carried a golden milk-pail in her hand. Loud and
+shrill was her cry when she saw the herdsman.
+
+     [2] There is a popular belief in Ireland that the sunbeams dance on
+     the wall on Easter Sunday morning. In my youth I have often got up
+     at early dawn to witness the phenomenon.
+
+I should have told you that, as they were going down, the cow whispered
+to him, "I want to speak a word with you, in confidence."--"Honor
+bright," said the herdsman.--"I think," said the cow, "that I'd like to
+graze on that meadow of your master's, by day as well as by night, for
+the grass is mighty sweet, and I don't think it agrees with my digestion
+to be driven up and down the lake as I am. If I will you go bail that
+the master will never put me into any other field but that?"--The
+herdsman answered, "I'll promise you, by the holy poker, and that is as
+good as if I was to swear by the blessed mud."--"Then my mind is at
+ease," says the cow. "For the life of you, don't let go my tail,
+whatever you may hear and see."
+
+When the young lady shrieked with surprise at seeing a herdsman in that
+place, out rushed a whole regiment of soldiers, with their cheeks as red
+as the kitchen-fire five minutes before the dinner is done, and the
+looks of them as fierce as if they were in the heat of battle--a little
+fiercer, may-be.--"Oh, that villain!" says the lady, pointing to the
+herdsman.--"Come here, and be killed," shouted the dragoons. But the
+herdsman knew better. "Send your master to me," says he, as bold as
+brass. "I always like to do business with principals."
+
+They wondered, as well they might, at the fellow's impudence, but they
+thought it best to call out their master. He came, with a golden crown
+upon his head, and a purple velvet cloak on his shoulders, and a
+beautiful pair of Hessian boots on his feet.--"I demand justice," said
+the herdsman, "for the trespass that your cows have been committing on
+Mac Carthy's field; and I seize this cow until the damage be ascertained
+and made good."
+
+He was firm as a rock, and neither coaxing nor threatening could make
+him yield as much as a pin's point. He stood upon his right, and they
+could not get him off it. The cow had been seized in the very act of
+trespass, and all they dared do was to tempt the herdsman to surrender
+her. He knew better. At last the master of them said, "We must
+compromise this little matter. Leave the cow here, make out your bill
+for damage, and if I don't pay it to you either in sterling money, or
+notes of Delacour's bank at Mallow, or Joe Pike's in Cork, you can have
+your remedy at law, and summon me, on a process, before the Assistant
+Barrister and the bench of Magistrates at the next Quarter
+Sessions."--But the herdsman knew better than that, and said he'd prefer
+leaving matters as they were. "A cow in the hand"--says he. Then the
+master of them said, "Take that golden ball that the child has, and
+leave us the cow."--"Hand it over to me," says the herdsman.--"Come for
+it," said they, in the hope that he'd leave the cow.--"I've a touch of
+the rheumatism in my knee," says he, "and 'tis ill-convenient to move
+the limb."--With that, they handed him the ball, and, as soon as he saw
+that it really was gold, he put it into his breeches pocket, and said it
+was not half enough.
+
+Then they began to whisper among themselves, and he could hear them
+proposing to get out a bloodhound--one of the breed that the Spaniards
+had to hunt down the Indians in America--and he thought it full time to
+make himself scarce. So, he whispered to the cow:--"My little cow,"
+said he, "I'd like to go home." The cow took the hint, like a sensible
+animal as she was, and stole backward through half the lake before they
+missed her. "If we get safely back on dry land," says she, "neither you
+nor any one else must swear in my presence, for the spell is upon me,
+and then I shall be obliged to return to the lake."
+
+Just then the hound was slipped, and he cut through the water like a
+dolphin. But the cow had the start of him, by a good bit. Just as she
+set her foot on land, the dog caught hold of the herdsman, and his bite
+tore away part of the skirt of his coat. Indeed, it was noticed for some
+days that the herdsman declined sitting down, just as if he had been
+newly made a Freemason, so I won't say that the dog did not bite more
+than the garment.
+
+Mac Carthy had been cooling his heels on the bank of the lake all the
+while that the herdsman was away, and glad enough he was to see him come
+back, in company with the little cow. The herdsman told him all that
+happened, and handed him the golden ball, which, people say, is in the
+Jeffreys' family to this day. The hound runs round the lake, from
+midnight to sunrise, on every first of July, and is to run, on that day,
+until his silver shoes are worn out,--whenever that happens, Ireland is
+to be a great nation, but not until then.
+
+The field was not visited any more by the cattle from the lake, for
+their master, below there, thought that though gratis grazing was
+pleasant enough, it was not quite so pleasant to have the cows impounded
+for trespass. From that time, never another field in all Munster gave
+such produce; sow it, or sow it not, there was always a barn-full of
+grain out of it. About half an acre of it was kept under grass, and on
+that the cow from the lake had constant feeding.
+
+In due season, the cow had young ones--the same breed that we now call
+Kerry cows--those cattle, small in size, but good in substance, that
+feed upon very little, yield a great deal of milk, and always fetch the
+best of prices.
+
+Mac Carthy was in a fair way of making a little fortune out of that cow
+of his, she gave such a power of milk, but that, one day as a nag of his
+was leaping over a hedge into the pasturage where the cow was, Mac
+Carthy burst out with a rattling oath. The moment the words left his
+lips, the cow cocked her ears, winked her eye knowingly at him, gave her
+tail a toss in the air, and made one spring down into the lake. The
+waters closed over her, and that was the last that mortal eye ever saw
+of her.
+
+From that time forth the field was again visited by the cattle from the
+lake, and that's the reason why it is as smooth as you see it now. It is
+supposed that so it will continue until somebody has the bold heart to
+go down again and make another seizure for trespass.
+
+Mr. Jeffreys, hearing a great deal of the treasures which are said to be
+at the bottom of the lake, laid out a power of money in trying to drain
+it. But it filled faster than the men could empty it. They might as well
+think of emptying the Atlantic with a slop-basin.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Having thanked Mr. Tim Cronin, Philomath, for his legends, I took the
+liberty of asking if he believed them? "Well," said he, "that same
+question is a poser. If I am pressed on the point, I must admit that I
+do not believe them _entirely_; but, when I meet curious gentlemen, I am
+proud to tell them these stories--particularly when they invite me to
+spend the afternoon with them at the little inn at the foot of the hill
+beyond there."
+
+The hint was taken--as far as enabling him, as he said, to partake of
+his own hospitality, for my own time was limited, as I had to return to
+dine in Cork. Thus, I was unable to judge whether Mr. Cronin was as
+conversable after feeding-time as before it. He died some two years ago,
+I have been told, and it will be difficult to meet with a Cicerone so
+well qualified to describe and illustrate Blarney Castle and its
+dependencies.
+
+
+
+
+CON O'KEEFE AND THE GOLDEN CUP.
+
+
+In Ireland, as in Scotland, among the lower orders, there is a prevalent
+belief in the existence and supernatural powers of the gentry commonly
+called "fairies." Many and strange are the stories told of this
+mysterious and much dreaded race of beings. Loud and frequent have been
+the exclamations of surprise, and even of anger, at the hard incredulity
+which made me refuse, when I was young, to credit _all_ that was
+narrated of the wonderful feats of Irish fairies--the most frolicksome
+of the entire genus. The more my disbelief was manifested, the more
+wonderful were the legends which were launched at me, to overthrow my
+unlucky and matter-of-fact obstinacy.
+
+I have forgotten many of the traditions which were thus made familiar to
+me in my boyhood, but my memory retains sufficient to convince me to
+what improbabilities Superstition clung--and the more wonderful the
+story, the more implicit the belief. But in such cases the fanaticism
+was harmless,--it was of the head rather than of the heart--of the
+imagination rather than the reason. It would be fortunate if all
+superstitions did as little mischief as _this_.
+
+It is deeply to be lamented that the matter-of-factedness of the
+Americans is not subdued or modified by any--even the slightest--belief
+in the old-world superstitions of which I speak. Of fairy-lore they
+cannot, and they do not, possess the slightest item. They read of it, as
+if it were legendary, but nothing more. They feel it not--they know
+it--they are, therefore, dreadfully actual. So much the worse for them!
+
+Having imbibed a sovereign contempt for the wild and wonderful
+traditions which had been duly accredited in the neighborhood, time out
+of mind, I never was particularly chary in expressing such contempt at
+every opportunity. When the mind of a boy soars above the ignorance
+which besets his elders in an inferior station, who have had neither the
+chance nor the desire of being enlightened, he is apt to pride himself,
+as I did, on the "march of intellect" which has placed him superior to
+their vulgar credulity.
+
+Many years have passed since I happened to be a temporary visitor
+beneath the hospitable roof of one of the better sort of farmers, in the
+county of Cork, during the Midsummer holidays. As usual, I there
+indulged in sarcasm against the credulity of the country. One evening,
+in particular, I was not a little tenacious in laughing at the very
+existence of "the fairy folk;" and, as sometimes happens, ridicule
+accomplished more than argument could have effected. My hosts could
+bear anything in the way of argument--at least of argument such as
+mine--they could even suffer their favorite legends and theories about
+the fairies to be abused; but to _laugh_ at them--that was an act of
+unkindness which quite passed their comprehension, and grievously taxed
+their patience.
+
+My host was quite in despair, and almost in anger at my boyish jokes
+upon his fairy-legends, when the village schoolmaster came in, an
+uninvited but most welcome guest. A chair was soon provided for him in
+the warmest corner--whiskey was immediately on the table, and the
+schoolmaster, who was a pretty constant votary to Bacchus, lost no time
+in making himself acquainted with its flavor.
+
+I had often seen him before. He combined in his character a mixture of
+shrewdness and simplicity; was a most excellent mathematician and a good
+classical scholar--but of the world he knew next to nothing. From youth
+to age had been spent within the limits of the parish over which, cane
+in hand, he had presided for more than a quarter of a century,--at once
+a teacher and an oracle! He was deeply imbued with a belief in the
+superstitions of the district, but was more especially familiar with the
+wild legends of that rocky glen (the defile near Kilworth, commonly
+called Araglin, once famous for the extent of illicit distillation
+carried on there), in which he had passed away his life, usefully, but
+humbly employed.
+
+To this eccentric character my host triumphantly appealed for proof
+respecting the existence and vagaries of the fairies. He wasted no time
+in argument, but, glancing triumphantly around, declared that he would
+convert me by a particularly well-attested story. Draining his tumbler,
+and incontinently mixing another, Mr. Patrick McCann plunged at once
+into the heart of his narration, as follows:
+
+"You know the high hill that overlooks the town of Fermoy? Handsome and
+thriving place as it now is, I remember the time when there were only
+two houses in that same town, and _one_ of them was then only in course
+of building! Well, there lived on the other side of Corran Thierna (the
+mountain in question, though _Corrig_ is the true name) one of the
+Barrys, a gentleman who was both rich and good. I wish we had more of
+the stamp among us now--'tis little of the Whiteboys or Ribbonmen would
+trouble the country then. He had a fine fortune, kept up a fine house,
+and lived at a dashing rate. It does not matter, here nor there, how
+many servants he had; but I mention them, because one of them was a very
+remarkable fellow. His equal was not to be had, far or near, for love
+nor money.
+
+"This servant was called Con O'Keefe. He was a crabbed little man, with
+a face the very color and texture of old parchment, and he had lived in
+the family time out of mind. He was such a small, dwarfish, deeny
+creature, that no one ever thought of putting him to hard work. All
+that they did was, now and again, from the want of a better messenger at
+the moment, or to humor the old man, to send him to Rathcormac
+post-office for letters. But he was too weak and feeble to walk so
+far--though it was only a matter of three or four miles; so they got him
+a little ass, and he rode upon it, quite as proud as a general at the
+head of an army of conquerors. 'Twas as good as a play to see Con
+mounted upon his donkey--you could scarcely make out which had the most
+stupid look. But neither man nor beast can help his looks.
+
+"At that time Rathcormac, though 'tis but a village now, was a borough,
+and sent two members to the Irish Parliament. Was not the great Curran,
+the orator and patriot, member for Rathcormac, when he was a young man?
+Did not Colonel Tonson get made an Irish peer, out of this very borough,
+which his son William is, to this very day, by the title of Baron
+Riversdale of Rathcormac? Does not his shield bear an open hand between
+two castles, and is not the motto, 'Manus hæc inimica tyrannis'--which
+means that it was the enemy of tyrants? Did not the Ulster King of Arms
+make the Tonsons a grant of these arms, in the time of Cromwell? But
+here I have left poor little Con mounted on his donkey all this time.
+
+"Con O'Keefe was not worth his keep, for any good he did; but, truth to
+say, he had the name of being hand and glove with the fairies; and, at
+that time, Corran Thierna swarmed with them. They changed their quarters
+when the regiments from Fermoy barracks took to firing against targets
+stuck up at the foot of the mountain. Not that a ball could ever hit a
+fairy (except a silver one cast by a girl in her teens, who has never
+wished for a lover, or a widow under forty who has not sighed for a
+second husband--so there's little chance that it ever will be cast), but
+they hate the noise of the firing and the smell of gunpowder, quite as
+much as the Devil hates holy water.
+
+"'Tis reckoned lucky in these parts to have a friend of the fairies in
+the house with you, and that was partly the reason why Con O'Keefe was
+kept at Barry's-fort. Many and many a one could swear to hearing him and
+'the good folk' talk together at twilight on his return from Rathcormac
+with the letter-bag. My own notion is, that if he _had_ anything to say
+to them, he had more sense than to hold conversation with them on the
+high road, for that might have led to a general discovery. Con was fond
+of a drop, and, when he took it (which was in an algebraic way, that is,
+'any _given_ quantity'), he had such famous spirits, and his tongue went
+so glibly, that, in the absence of other company, he was sometimes
+forced to talk to himself, as he trotted home.
+
+"One night, as he was going along, rather the worse for liquor, he
+thought he heard a confused sound of voices in the air, directly over
+his head. He stopped, and, sure enough, it was the fairies, who were
+chattering away, like a bevy of magpies; but he did not know this at the
+time.
+
+"At first he thought it might be some of the neighbors wanting to play
+him a trick. So, to show that he was not afraid (for the drink had made
+him bold as a lion), when the voices above and around him kept calling
+out 'High up! high up!' he put in his spoke, and shouted, as loud as any
+of them, 'High up! high up with ye, my lads!' No sooner said than done.
+He was whisked off his donkey in a twinkling, and was 'high up' in the
+air, in the very middle of a crowd of 'good people'--for it happened to
+be one of their festival nights, and the cry that poor little Con heard
+was the summons for gathering them all together. There they were, mighty
+small, moving about as quickly as motes in the sunshine. Although Con
+had the reputation at Barry's-fort of being well acquainted with them
+all, you may well believe that there was not a single face among the lot
+that he knew.
+
+"In less than no time, off they went, when their leader--a little morsel
+of a fellow, not bigger than Hop-o'-my Thumb--bawled out, 'High for
+France! high for France! high over!' Off they went, through the
+air--quick as if they were on a steeplechase. Moss and moor--mountain
+and valley--green field and brown bog--land and water were all left
+behind, and they never once halted until they reached the coast of
+France.
+
+"They immediately made for the house (there it is called the _château_)
+of a great lord--one of the Seigneurs of the Court--and bolted through
+the key-hole into his wine-cellar, without leave or license. How little
+Con was squeezed through, I never could understand, but it is as sure as
+fate that he went into the cellar along with them. They soon got astride
+the casks, and commenced drinking the best wines, without waiting to be
+invited. Con, you may be sure, was not behind any of them, as far as the
+drinking went. The more he drank, the better relish he had for their
+tipple. The 'good people,' somehow or other, did not appear at all
+surprised at Con's being among them, but they _did_ wonder at his great
+thirst, and pressed him to take enough--and Con was not the man who'd
+wait to be asked twice. So they drank on till night slipped away, when
+the sun--like a proper gentleman as he is--sent in one of his earliest
+beams, as a sort of gentle hint that it was full time for them to
+return. They had a parting-glass, and, in half an hour or so, had
+crossed the wide sea, and dropped little Con ('pretty well, I thank
+you,' by this time) on the precise spot he had left on the evening
+before. He had been drinking out of a beautiful golden cup in the
+cellar, and, by some mistake or other, it had slipped up the sleeve of
+the large loose coat he wore, and so he brought it home with him. Not
+that Con was not honest enough, but surely a man may be excused for
+taking 'a cup too much' in a wine-cellar.
+
+"Con was soon awakened by the warm sunbeams playing upon his face. At
+first, he thought he had been dreaming, and he might have thought so to
+his dying day, but that, when he got on his feet, the golden cup rolled
+on the road before him, and was proof positive that all was a reality.
+
+"He said his prayers directly, between him and harm. Then he put up the
+cup and walked home, where, as his little donkey had returned on the
+previous night without him, the family had given him up as lost or
+drowned. Indeed, some of them had sagaciously suggested the probability
+of his having gone off for good with the fairies.
+
+"Now, does not my story convince you that there _must_ be such things as
+fairies? It is not more than twenty years since I heard Con O'Keefe tell
+the whole story from beginning to end; and he'd say or swear with any
+man that the whole of it was as true as gospel. And, as sure as my name
+is Patrick McCann, I _do_ believe that Con was in strange company that
+night."
+
+I ventured to say to Mr. McCann that, being yet incredulous, I must have
+better evidence than little Con's own declaration.
+
+"To be sure you shall," said he. "Was not the golden cup taken up to
+Barry's-fort, and to be seen--as seen it was--by the whole country?"
+
+I answered that, "Certainly, if the cup is to be seen there, the case is
+materially altered."
+
+"I did not say that the cup _is_ at Barry's-fort," said McCann, "only
+that it _was_. The end of the story, indeed, is nearly as strange as the
+beginning.--When Con O'Keefe came back from his wonderful excursion, no
+one believed a word of what he said; for though it was whispered that he
+was great with the fairies, yet, when the matter came tangibly before
+them, they did not credit it. But Con soon settled their doubts; he
+brought forward the cup, and there was no gainsaying _that_ evidence.
+
+"Mr. Barry took the cup into his own keeping, and, the name and
+residence of the French lord being engraved upon it, determined (as in
+honor bound) to send it home again. So he went off to Cove, without any
+delay, taking Con with him; and, as there luckily was a vessel going off
+to France that very day, he sent off little Con with the cup and his
+very best compliments.
+
+Now, the cup was a great favorite with the French lord (being a piece of
+family plate, given to one of his ancestors by one of the old kings of
+France, whose life he had saved in battle), and nothing could equal the
+hubbub and confusion that arose when it was missing. His lordship called
+for some wine at dinner, and great was his anger when the lackey handed
+it to him in a glass, declaring that they could not find the golden
+goblet. He threw glass, and wine, and all, at the servant's head--flew
+into a terrible passion--and swore, by all that was good and bad, that
+he would not take anything stronger than water until the cup was on the
+table again; and that, if it was not forthcoming in a week, he'd turn
+off every servant he had, without paying them their wages, or giving
+them a character.
+
+"The cup was well searched for, but all to no purpose, as you may
+suppose. At last, the week came to an end--all the servants had their
+clothes packed up, to be off in the morning. His lordship was getting
+dreadfully tired of drinking cold water, and the whole house was, as one
+may say, turned topsy-turvy, when, to the delight and admiration of all,
+in came Con O'Keefe, from Ireland, with a letter from Mr. Barry and the
+cup in his fist.
+
+"I rather think they welcomed him. His lordship made it a point to get
+'glorious' that night, and, as in duty bound, the entire household
+followed his example, with all the pleasure in life. You may be certain
+that Con played away finely at the wine--you know the fairies had made
+him free of the cellar--so he knew the taste of the liquor, and relished
+it too. There can be no doubt that there was a regular jollification in
+the château that night.
+
+"Con remained in France for a month, and was perfectly in clover, for,
+from the lord to the lackey, every one liked him. When he returned, he
+had a heavy purse of gold for himself, and many fine presents for his
+master. Indeed, while the French lord lived, which was for fifteen good
+years longer, a couple of hogsheads of excellent claret were annually
+received at Barry's-fort, as a present from him, and there was no wine
+in the country to equal it. As for Con O'Keefe, he never had the luck to
+meet the fairies again, a misfortune he very sincerely lamented. And
+that's the whole story."
+
+I asked Mr. McCann, whether he really believed _all_ of it? That worthy
+replied in these words:--
+
+"Why, in truth, I must say, some parts of it require rather an elastic
+mind to take in; but there's no doubt that Con _was_ sent over to
+France, where, it is said, there was a great to-do about a golden cup. I
+am positive that Mr. Barry used to receive a present of claret, every
+year, from a French lord, for I've drank some of the best claret in
+Ireland from Mr. Barry's cellar. If the tale _be_ true--and I have told
+it as I have heard Con O'Keefe tell it, especially when overcome by
+liquor, at which time, the truth is sure to come out--it is proof
+positive, that there have been fairies in this neighborhood, and that
+within the memory of man!"
+
+Such a logical conclusion was incontrovertible, especially when enforced
+by a facetious wink from the schoolmaster; so, I even left matters as
+they were, and listened with all proper attention to other stories in
+the same vein, and to the same effect. If the narrator did not credit
+them, most of his auditors did, which amounts to much the same in the
+end. Some other time, perhaps, I may be tempted to relate them.
+
+
+
+
+LEGENDS OF FINN MAC COUL.
+
+
+There is a similarity, all over the world, between the popular legends
+and traditions of different nations. They are reproduced, with slight
+differences of circumstance and costume, to suit each new locality. For
+example, the Maiden Tower at Constantinople, actually built by the
+Emperor Manuel, centuries ago, for the purpose of a double
+communication--with Scutari, on the Asian side, and with the point of
+coast occupied by the Serai Bournou on the Asian. Whenever the hostile
+visit of a Venetian fleet was anticipated, a strong iron chain used to
+be drawn on both sides, across the entire breadth of the strait.
+Respecting this are several legends, all of which have their prototypes
+in the West.
+
+The generally received account has appropriated it as the place in
+which, for safety, a damsel was held in close retirement until the fatal
+time named in a prediction should have passed away; but a serpent,
+accidentally brought up in a basket of fruit, caused the maiden's death.
+Here is a striking illustration of the similarity between the legends of
+the East and those of the West. In the Third Calendar's Story, in the
+Arabian Nights' Entertainments (which have charmed all of us in youth,
+and rarely fail to delight us when we return to them in maturer years),
+the whole interest turns on an incident of the same character. Both
+stories appear deeply imbued with that fatality which forms the
+distinguishing feature in Eastern belief and practice. Near Bristol,
+also, are the remains of a tower, called Cook's Folly, erected to be the
+dwelling-place of a youth of whom it had been predicted that (like the
+heroine of the Turkish legend) his life would be in peril from a serpent
+until the completion of his eighteenth year. The dangerous time had
+nearly expired, when the youth died from the venomous bite of an adder,
+which had been accidentally conveyed to his isolated abode in a bundle
+of fagots.
+
+In the south of Ireland, on the summit of a mountain called Corrig
+Thierna (the Chieftain's Rock), is a heap of stones which, if there be
+truth in tradition, was brought there to build a castle in which was to
+dwell a son of Roche, Prince of Fermoy, of whom it had been predicted
+that he would be drowned before his twentieth year. The child, when only
+five years old, fell into a pool of water which had been collected, on
+the top of the mountain, to make mortar for the erection of the tower,
+in which it was intended he should be kept "out of harm's way," until
+the perilous period had elapsed. The child was drowned. In each case,
+the prophecy appears to have brought about its own fulfilment. There is
+a moral in these old traditions, did we but know how to seize and apply
+it.
+
+Washington Irving has localized several legends as American, but his Rip
+Van Winkle has been traced to a German origin, and many of his other
+legends appear to be old friends in a new attire. Who can say whence any
+traditional stories are derived? Some years ago, a supplement to the
+Thousand-and-One Nights, containing an Arabian tale called the Sage
+Heycar, was published at Paris, and the translator noted the curious
+fact that this Oriental story contained many incidents exactly similar
+to passages in the life of Æsop: such as sixteen pages of details of a
+visit made by Heycar to the court of Pharaoh, which are the same, word
+for word, with the account of the like visit made by Æsop. So, too, the
+challenge which Pharaoh sent to the King of Abyssinia, demanding him to
+build a palace in the air, and the ingenious means to which Æsop had
+recourse, are transferred to Heycar. Even the fables of Æsop, the
+Phrygian, have been claimed for Lokman, the Arabian philosopher, and now
+the very incidents of his life are taken from him by Heycar.
+
+The Coventry legend of Lady Godiva is claimed by the Arabians. In Von
+Hammer's new Arabian Nights is the story called Camaralzeman and the
+Jeweller's Wife, founded on an incident precisely similar to that in
+which the English heroine appears.
+
+The truth is, it is impossible to ascertain what coincident mythology
+connects the East and the West. We know not what relation Thor of
+Scandinavia may have with Vishnu of Hindostan. The oldest English and
+Irish stories appear to have corresponding legends among the Celts,
+Danes, Scandinavians, and Normans, and, again, these have wandered
+either to or from the East. Even such thoroughly English stories as Tom
+Thumb, Jack the Giant Killer, and Whittington and his Cat, are claimed
+as aboriginal in foreign countries. The Wise Men of Gotham, one of the
+oldest English provincial legends, is given, nearly verbatim, in one of
+the German popular stories, collected by the Brothers Grimm, and its
+incidents may be found in the Pentamerone (in the story of Bardiello),
+but has been translated from the Tamul tongue, which is a dialect of
+Southern India, as the "Adventures of Gooroo Noodle and his Five
+Disciples."
+
+The Germans are very fond of legendary lore. Like the Irish, they have
+their cellar-haunters, who invariably tap the best wine, and make
+themselves merry with whatever the cellar and larder can supply. Like
+the Irish, too, they have traditions of gigantic dwellers in the land,
+in days gone by, and they re-people the Hartz with men of enormous
+stature and strength, capable of daring and doing any thing, yet who
+differ from the Genii, in the Arabian Tales, who are spoken of as
+possessing supernatural powers, while the giants of Western tradition,
+having nothing remarkable, except their size and strength, and so far
+from being endowed with more than human powers, may be noticed, on the
+contrary, as being slow-witted and rather dull of comprehension,--for,
+like most very tall people of the present day, their upper story is
+unfurnished. Such were Finn Mac Coul, and his great rival, Ossian,
+neither of whom can be named as remarkably bright "boys." There are a
+few instances of this which may be worth recording. For example:--
+
+
+
+
+FINN AND THE FISH.
+
+
+In the good old times, "when Malachi wore the collar of gold, which he
+won from the proud invader," no Irish hero was more celebrated than Finn
+Mac Coul. What cabin is there, from the Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear,
+which is not full of his glory?
+
+Finn Mac Coul was famous for his strength of mind and body, for his
+wisdom and his might. The Saxons fled before him when he unfurled
+Ireland's ancient banner--which bore the poetical name of The
+Sunburst--and thousands arrayed themselves around it; mountain and vale,
+plain and tarn, hall and bower, were full of the glory of his graceful
+deeds of gentle courtesy. His mighty mind was suitably lodged, for he
+was tall as one of the sons of Anak, and might have passed for own
+brother to him of Gath.
+
+Before relating any of his wonderful bodily achievements, it may be as
+well to mention the mysterious manner in which his wisdom, like a
+tangible revelation, fell upon him.
+
+In the ancient days of Ireland's glory, the province of Munster was a
+Kingdom, and was called Momonia. One of the Mac Carthy family had
+sovereign sway. He was a good-natured, soft-hearted, fat-headed sort of
+neutral character--one of that class, still too common in Ireland, known
+by the apologetic _sobriquet_ of "nobody's enemy but his own." He kept
+open house for all comers, and the effect of his undiscriminating
+hospitality was, that, a monarch in name, he was next to a pauper in
+reality, living, as the saying is, quite "from hand to mouth." This he
+could have borne, for, like the eels, he was used to it, but the empty
+state of his exchequer rendered him unable to pay for the military
+services of his subjects, and the result was, that his dominions
+gradually fell into a state of partition among his brother monarchs of
+greater power, richer treasury, and smaller hospitality.
+
+It happened that one of these, named Mac Murragh--an ancestor of him
+whose daughter's frailty led to the subjugation of Ireland by Henry
+II.--ruled over Leinster, while poor Mac Carthy was enjoying nominal
+empire over the rich plains of Munster. Mac Murragh was ambitious. He
+saw what an easy prey Momonia might be. He wished to feed his herds upon
+that beautiful tract of land intersected by the river Suir, which even
+yet is called "The Golden Vale," and he declared war to the knife
+against King Mac Carthy.
+
+It happened that Mac Carthy was fully aware of the value of the golden
+vale--indeed, it was the very pride of his heart. He determined to
+resist his foe, as best he could. But before taking up arms, on the
+defensive, he resolved to have recourse to other than mortal aid.
+
+It was some time before the avatar of Saint Patrick--that redoubted
+patriarch whose mission it was to teach the benighted Irish the benefits
+of religion and the blessings of whiskey. Therefore, under King Mac
+Carthy, Druidism was the "established church." One of the most ancient
+Arch-Druids in Munster resided in a cave near Mitchelstown, dug by his
+own hands in one of the Galtee Mountains, and to him, in this emergency,
+King Mac Carthy betook himself for advice and aid.
+
+The Arch-Druid was noted, far and near, as an interpreter of dreams, a
+diviner of auguries, an unraveller of mysteries, and a reader of
+prophecies. Common rumor declared that he was master of
+enchantments,--that the thunder rolled and the lightning flashed at his
+command,--that he had communion with spirits from another world, and
+could compel them to obey his bidding.
+
+After the performance of many rites and ceremonies, some penance and
+much prayer, the Arch-Druid asked the King of Munster whether he knew
+that part of the West which we now call Mayo? Mac Carthy replied that he
+ought to know it, for he had been brought up there. "Then," said the
+Arch-Druid, "thither we must go. For in one of the rivers which run
+through that district, by the foot of a lofty mountain, there is a
+salmon, which, if caught, cooked, and eaten, will bestow long life and
+health, wisdom and valor, success in arms and love, upon him who eats
+it."
+
+The King thanked the Arch-Druid for his information, and gave him a
+liberal largess, when he added that in the book of the future it was
+written that this wonderful fish was predestined to be caught by his own
+royal hands. This put him into excellent spirits, and he proposed to the
+Arch-Druid that they should "make a night of it," which they did, upon
+mead or metheglin--for, in those days, whiskey had not been invented.
+
+The next day they set off on their fishing-tour. The way was long, the
+roads bad, and travelling rather dangerous. But, seating themselves on
+the Arch-Druid's cloak, its wizard-owner muttering a few cabalistic
+words, forthwith they were wafted, men and cloak, through the air, on
+the swift wings of the wind, to the precipitous ridge of hills
+surrounding the lofty rock now called Croagh Patrick. The cloak and its
+two passengers finally dropped down on the bank of the river of which
+the Arch-Druid had spoken.
+
+They followed the course of the stream through one of the most fertile
+valleys that sunshine ever glanced upon, until they reached a dark
+cavern where the struggling waters sink suddenly into the earth. No one
+has yet been able to ascertain whither the stream finally goes--whether
+it again rises to the earth--whether it runs through a subterranean
+channel, or is sucked in to quench the Phlegethon of this world's
+central fires. No one knows--nor would it much matter if he did.
+
+Close by the mouth of this cavern is a dark, deep hollow, over which the
+gloom of eternal night ever seems to rest, and into which the stream
+falls before it sinks into the abyss, whirling in foaming eddies,
+warring as in agony, and casting up a jet of spray into the air. Loudly
+the waters roar as they fall on the rugged rock beneath--they are
+whirled round and round, until, at regular intervals, they descend into
+the yawning gulf beneath.
+
+In this pool, among thousands of fishes, of all sorts and sizes, was the
+Salmon of Knowledge, the possession of which was to make King Mac Carthy
+amazingly wise, and irresistibly mighty. By this pool he sat, in company
+with the Arch-Druid, day after day, for a whole month, until their
+patience was nearly, and their provisions wholly, exhausted. They had
+sport enough to satisfy Izaak Walton himself, for they were perpetually
+catching fish. There was a little hut hard by, and in it the King and
+the Arch-Druid alternately officiated as cook. Still, though he was
+latterly on a fish diet, the King grew never the wiser. He got so tired
+of that kind of food that historians have gone the length of asserting
+that even a Hoboken turtle-feed would have had no charm for his palled
+appetite. Amid the finest fish that Royalty ever feasted upon, he sighed
+for the white and red of his own fine mutton from the green fields of
+Munster.
+
+To add to his misfortune, though he wanted only one salmon, fish of all
+sorts _would_ hook themselves on to his line. There was perpetual
+trouble in taking them off the hook. They determined to judge of the
+salmon, as Lavater did of men, by their looks. Therefore the fat and
+plump fish obtained the dangerous distinction of being broiled or
+boiled, while the puny ones were thrown back, with the other fish, into
+the water.
+
+Thus it happened that, one evening at dusk, a lank, lean, spent salmon
+having been caught, they did not think it worth cooking, and the King
+took it up to throw it back into the water. He did not cast it far
+enough, and the poor fish remained on the bank. It was quietly wriggling
+itself back into its native element, when it was espied by a little boy
+who had a special taste for broiled fish. He seized it, took it home,
+made a fire, and set about cooking it.
+
+This youth was the famous Finn Mac Coul:--but he was not famous _then_.
+He had fled from the South, from some enemies of his family, and, being
+hungry, the salmon, poor and lean as it seemed, was better to him than
+nothing.
+
+The fire being red, he put the salmon upon it. The poor fish, not quite
+dead, writhed on the live coals, and the heat caused a great blister to
+swell out upon its side. Finn Mac Coul noticed this, and, fearing that
+the fish would be spoiled if the blister were to rise any more, pressed
+his thumb upon it. The heat soon made him withdraw it. Naturally enough,
+he put it into his mouth to draw out the pain. At that moment, he felt a
+strange thrill throughout his whole frame. He was suddenly changed in
+mind. The moment that thumb touched his lips he had increase of
+knowledge. _That_ told him that he could do no better than devour the
+salmon. That done, he was a changed Finn--a new and enlarged edition,
+with additions; quite a tall paper copy.
+
+That night, Finn Mac Coul quietly strayed down to the cavern, and found
+the King and the Arch-Druid at high words. His majesty had dreamed, in
+his afternoon nap, that the Salmon of Knowledge had been on his hook,
+and that the Arch-Druid had coaxed it off, and privily cooked and eaten
+it. Finn told him that the Arch-Druid knew that the salmon could be
+caught only by a King's hand, but had intended, even before they left
+Munster, to cook and eat it himself, and then to usurp the crown. The
+Arch-Druid, who had a conscience, had not a word of explanation or
+excuse. The King immediately ran him through the body, and engaged Finn
+(who, by this time, had shot up to the height of twelve feet) to lead
+his armies against the invading King of Leinster, and the result was
+that, so far from conquering Munster, and appropriating the Golden Vale,
+King Mac Murragh was obliged to pray for pardon, and to pay tribute to
+King Mac Carthy, who thenceforward, with the aid of Finn Mac Coul's
+strength of mind and body, was the most powerful of all the monarchs of
+Ireland.
+
+
+
+
+THE BREAKS OF BALLYNASCORNEY.
+
+
+Contemporary with Finn Mac Coul, was the renowned giant, called Ossian.
+There has been a question whether he were Scotch or Irish. But as Ossian
+certainly came all the way from Scotland to compete with Finn Mac Coul,
+it is not likely that they were countrymen.
+
+That contest--it was of the description given by Ovid of what took place
+between Ajax and Ulysses. Go to that wild and beautiful district near
+Dublin, that patch of mountain scenery, so splendid and romantic, known
+as the Breaks of Ballynascorney and learn, as I did, what tradition now
+reports of the contest between Ossian and Finn Mac Coul.
+
+A mountain road winds through these Breaks, like a huge snake. By the
+road-side there stands a tremendous rock of granite--perfectly isolated.
+Many such are to be seen scattered over the island, and the general
+belief is, that each column-stone marks the spot where some noted
+warrior had fallen in the old contests between the Irish and their
+Danish invaders. A different legend belongs to _this_ rock.
+
+The day had been beautiful--one of those brilliant days of softness and
+balm so prevalent in Ireland. The noontide sun may have been a little
+too sunny, but this could be remedied by reposing in the pleasant
+shadow of some of the lofty cairns which abound in that place. The day
+gently glided on, until, when a summer-shower made the heath glitter
+with its diamond drops, we sought shelter in a rustic cabin by the
+wayside.
+
+No one was within, but an old woman, remarkably talkative. She paid us a
+world of attention--insinuated a world of compliments on the beaming
+beauty of the fair lady who accompanied me--would "engage that one so
+pretty was not without a sweetheart," and, with a smile at myself,
+"would not be long without a husband"--hoped that she "would be happy as
+the day was long, and live to see her great-grand-children at her
+feet,"--was certain she was an Irishwoman, "for she had the fair face,
+and the small hand, and the dark blue eye, and the long black lash, and
+the bounding step," and prophesied more good fortune than (to one of the
+party, at least) has yet been fulfilled.
+
+This old woman was a good specimen of a shrewd Irish peasant. Her
+compliments were insinuated, rather than expressed; and, _malgré_ the
+brogue, I question when more delicate flattery--pleasant, after all, to
+one's _amour propre_--could be more dexterously conveyed in the circles
+which we call brilliant. This tact in the matter of compliment appears
+intuitive.
+
+Allusion having been made to the granite column in the neighborhood, our
+hostess asked whether we should like "to know all about it." The answer
+was in the affirmative, and then--happy to hear the tones of her own
+voice, proud of giving information to persons above her own station, and
+in pleased anticipation of a _douceur_--she told us a legend which, as
+she was rather prolix, I shall take leave to give you in my own words.
+
+
+
+
+FINN MAC COUL'S FINGER-STONE.
+
+
+Finn Mac Coul went hunting one day on the Curragh of Kildare. His sport
+was indifferent, for he brought down only a leash of red deer, and a
+couple of wolves. He came back to his house, on the hill of Allen, in
+such bad spirits, that his wife asked him what was the matter, and said
+that, no doubt, he would have better sport another time. Heaving a deep
+sigh, he told her that it was not his bad sport that annoyed him, but
+that news had that morning reached him that Ossian, the Scotch giant,
+was coming over to challenge him to a trial of strength, and if he lost
+the day--for he could not decline the contest--his credit, and the
+credit of Ireland, would be gone forever.
+
+At this news, Finn's wife became as low-spirited as himself. They sat by
+the fire, like Witherington, "in doleful dumps," and their thoughts were
+the reverse of happy.
+
+Suddenly, the lady--for the life of me I cannot bring myself to
+designate her as plain "Mrs. Mac Coul"--asked her disconsolate lord and
+master at what time Ossian was expected to arrive? Finn told her that
+the Scottish Hercules had intimated his intention of paying his visit at
+noon on the following day. "Oh! then," said she, brightening up,
+"there's no need to despair. Leave all to me, and I'll bring you through
+it like a Trojan. A blot is no blot until 'tis entered." This remark,
+showing at once her philosophy and her knowledge of backgammon, was very
+consolatory to Finn Mac Coul, who, like men before and since, was rather
+under what is called petticoat government. His mind was relieved when
+his wife saw daylight.
+
+After breakfast, the next day, Finn (by his wife's direction) went into
+a huge child's-cradle, a feat which he had some difficulty in
+accomplishing. There he lay, crumpled up uneasily, while she kept busy
+in the kitchen, baking some cake or griddle-bread.
+
+By-and-bye, up came Ossian, who knocked at the door, and civilly
+inquired whether Finn Mac Coul lived there, and if he were at home?
+"No," said his wife, "he's gone to the fair of Bartlemy; but I am his
+wife, and, perhaps, I can answer for him."
+
+"What!" said Ossian, "did not he hear that I, Ossian of Scotland, was
+coming over for a trial of strength with him? I hope he does not mean to
+skulk. Wherever he may be, I shall not return home until I _see_ him,
+and until he _feel_ me."
+
+When the wife found that Ossian was too far North to be put off by a
+"not at home," she put the best face on it, welcomed him to Ireland,
+hoped he had a pleasant passage, and that the tossing on the salt-water
+did not disagree with him, invited him into the house, and said that
+Finn would soon be back, and ready to indulge him in any way he pleased.
+
+Ossian sat down by the fire, quite at his ease. He had a great conceit
+of himself, and was, indeed, the strongest man in Europe at that time.
+He noticed the large cakes that were baking in the oven, each of them
+taking two stone weight of flour, and asked why she made them of such a
+size. "They are for that little creature in the cradle, there," said
+she, pointing over her shoulder to Finn. Then Ossian looked round, and
+noticed the cradle, with Finn in it, and a night-cap on his head, and
+tied under his chin, and he pretending to be fast asleep all the time.
+
+Astonished at the immense bulk, Ossian called out, "Who's there? What
+man is that in the cradle?" "Man!" said Finn's wife, with a pleasant
+little laugh, "that's our youngest child. I am weaning him now, and I
+sometimes think the fairies have overlooked him, he's so dwarfed and
+small, and does not promise to be half the size of his father and his
+brothers."
+
+Ossian never said a word to that; but he could not take his eyes off the
+cradle, thinking, no doubt, if the undergrown baby was such a bouncer,
+what must the father be.
+
+By-and-bye, Finn's wife told Ossian that, as he had a long journey, and
+Finn was staying out longer than she expected, he might as well take
+some refreshment, without waiting for him. The cakes were nice and brown
+by this time, and she asked him to break his fast with one of them. He
+took it, and when he made a bite in it, he roared again with pain, for
+his two best front teeth were broken. "Oh!" he cried out, "it is as hard
+as iron,"--and so it might be, for she had put an iron griddle into it,
+and baked it with it in. "Hard?" said she. "Why, that child there would
+not taste it if it were a bit softer."
+
+Then she recommended Ossian to wash the pain away with a sup of the
+finest whiskey in the province; and she fetched a wooden _piggin_, that
+would hold about a gallon to a gallon and a half, and filled it to the
+brim. Ossian took a long pull at it; as much as a quart or so. Then
+Finn's wife laughed downright at him for taking so little. "Why," said
+she, "the child there in the cradle thinks nothing of emptying that
+_piggin_ in one draught." So, for shame's sake, and because he did not
+like to be thought a milk-sop, Ossian took a little more, and a little
+more yet, until, before long, the liquor got the better of him.
+
+Now, this was the very pass that the good wife wished to bring him to.
+"While his father is out," said she, "and I wonder why he is not home
+before now, may-be you'd like to see the child there throw a stone, or
+try a fall with you, or do any of the diverting little tricks that
+his father teaches him." Ossian consented, and she went over to the
+cradle and gave Finn a shake. "Wake up, dear," said she, "and amuse the
+gentleman."
+
+So Finn stretched himself, and Ossian wondered at his black beard, and
+his great bulk. "'Pon my word," said he, "you're a fine child for your
+age." Then, turning to Finn's wife, he asked, "Has he cut any of his
+teeth yet?" She bade him feel his gums. Then Ossian put two of his
+fingers into Finn's mouth, and the moment they were there Finn bit them
+to the bone. Ossian jumped round the room with pain. "Ah!" said Finn's
+wife, "you should see his father's teeth; he thinks nothing of biting
+off the head of a two-shilling nail, when he uses it for a tooth-pick."
+
+By this time, Ossian was far from comfortable. But he thought he must
+put the best face on it; so he said to Finn, "Come, my lad, let us see
+how your father teaches you to wrestle."
+
+Finn did not say a word, but grappled Ossian round the waist, and laid
+him sprawling on the ground before he could say "Jack Robinson." Ossian
+picked himself up, very sulkily, and rubbed the place that had come in
+contact with the hard floor of the kitchen.
+
+"Now," said Finn's wife, "may-be you'd like to see the child throw a
+stone." And then Finn went in front of the house, where there was a heap
+of great rocks, and he took up the very identical stone which now
+stands in the Breaks of Ballynascorey, and flung it all the way from the
+hill of Allen. To this day it bears the marks of Finn's five fingers and
+thumb--for his hand was not like an ordinary hand--when he grasped it;
+and to this day, also, that stone bears Finn's name.
+
+Ossian was greatly surprised, as well he might be, at such a cast. He
+asked, "Could your father throw such a stone much farther?"--"Is it my
+father?" said Finn: "faith, he'd cast it all the way to America, or
+Scotland, or the Western Injes, and think nothing of it!"
+
+This was enough for Ossian. He would not venture on a trial of strength
+with the father, when the son could beat him. So he pretended to
+recollect some sudden business that called him back, posthaste, to
+Scotland, thinking he never could get away half quick enough. And the
+stone remains where Finn threw it, and, if you only go that way, any one
+on or near the Sigham mountain will show you FINN MAC COUL'S
+FINGER-STONE.
+
+
+
+
+IRISH STORIES.
+
+
+
+
+THE PETRIFIED PIPER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+WHO THE PIPER WAS.
+
+
+Irish Legends almost invariably remind me of the Field of Waterloo. When
+our tourists rushed _en masse_, to behold the plain on which the
+destinies of Europe had been decided, they exhibited the usual
+relic-hunting and relic-buying mania. Bullets and helmet ornaments,
+rusty pistols and broken swords, buttons and spurs, and such
+things--actually found on the battle-field--were soon disposed of, while
+of the tourists it might be said, as of the host of Dunsinane, "The cry
+is still 'they come!'" So, the demand exceeding the legitimate supply,
+the Belgian peasantry began to dispose of fictitious relics, and a very
+profitable trade it was for a long time. To this day, they are carefully
+manufactured, "to order," by more than one of the hardware makers of
+Birmingham.
+
+In the same manner, Irish legends having become a marketable commodity
+(Carleton and Crofton Croker, Banim and Griffin, Lover and Whitty,
+having worked the vein deeply), people had recourse to invention instead
+of tradition--like George Psalmanazar's History of Formosa, in which
+fiction supplied the place of fact. Very amusing, no doubt; but not
+quite fair. More ingenious than honest. Therefore, the Irish story I
+shall relate, if it possesses none other, shall have the merit, at
+least, of being "founded on facts."
+
+Fermoy is one of the prettiest towns in Ireland. It is not very remote
+from that very distinguished Southern metropolis--of pigs and
+porter--known as "the beautiful city of Cork." Midway between city and
+town lies Water-grass-hill, a pretty village, located on the highest
+arable land in Ireland, and now immortal as having once been the
+residence of the celebrated Father Prout. Some people prefer the
+country-town to the crowded city: for, though its trade be small, its
+society rather too fond of scandal, its church without a steeple, and
+its politicians particularly intolerant, Fermoy is in the heart of a
+fertile and picturesque tract, and there flows through it that noble
+river, the Blackwater, honorably mentioned by Spenser, and honored in
+later song as the scene where might be beheld
+
+          "The trout and the salmon
+          A-playing backgammon.
+    All on the banks of sweet Castle Hyde."
+
+The scenery around Fermoy is indeed most beautiful, and _above_ all
+(in more meanings than one) towers Corrig Thierna--the Lord's rock,
+commonly spoken of as Corran--which, to such of the inhabitants as have
+not seen greater elevations, appears a mountain entitled to vie with
+what they have heard of the Alps, Appenines, or Andes.
+
+Although Fermoy now contains fully seven hundred houses (exclusive of
+stables and pigsties), and a population of nearly seven thousand souls,
+men, women, and children--to say nothing of horses, oxen, sheep, mules,
+donkies, cats, dogs, and such other creatures as have no souls--it was
+not always so extensive and populous.
+
+In every town a high traditional authority is constantly referred to as
+"within the memory of the oldest inhabitant," and it may be stated, on
+this antique authority, that, not much more than half a century since,
+Fermoy was a very small and obscure hamlet, consisting of no more than
+one little pothouse and half a dozen other mud-cabins, luxuriantly
+located, with some ingenuity, so as to enjoy, front and rear, a
+_maximum_ of the morning and afternoon sunshine. These domiciles were
+ranged in a row, and hence arose the figurative saying, "All on one
+side, like the town of Fermoy." The energy, ability, and capital of one
+man (the late John Anderson, who introduced mail-coaches into Ireland),
+raised the village of Fermoy into a populous and thriving town, which,
+in 1809, was a merry place--partly owing to the mirth whose chief
+minister was Remmy Carroll, son of old Carroll, the piper.
+
+As Remmy is the hero of my tale, it is only proper that I should
+describe him. Irish parlance emphatically distinguished him as "a mighty
+clever boy," which did not mean a compliment to his capacity or
+acquirements, but was simply a figure of speech to declare that this
+Hibernian Orpheus stood about "six feet two in his stocking-vamps."
+Remmy Carroll's personal appearance was not quite as _distingué_ as that
+of his great contemporary, Beau Brummell. His coat, originally of blue
+frieze, had worn down, by age and service, to a sort of bright gray,
+tessellated, like mosaic-work, with emendations of the original
+substance carefully annexed thereto by Remmy's own industrious fingers.
+The garment, like the wearer, had known many a fray, and Remmy was wont
+to observe, jocularly, when he sat down to repair these breaches, that
+then, like a man of landed property, he was occupied in "taking his
+rents."
+
+Care is not very likely to kill a man who can jest upon his own poverty.
+Accordingly, Remmy Carroll was as light-hearted a fellow as could be met
+with in town or country. He was a gentleman accustomed to live how and
+where he could, and he was welcomed everywhere. It was mentioned, as an
+undoubted fact, that where men of substance--rich farmers and thriving
+shopkeepers--had been very coldly received by bright-eyed angels in
+petticoats, looks and even words of encouragement had been extended to
+Remmy Carroll. The fair sex are proverbially of a kind nature,
+especially towards young men, who, like Carroll, have handsome features
+and jocund speech, lofty stature and winning smiles, that symmetry of
+limb which pleases the eye, and that subduing conversation which pleases
+the ear. What was more, Remmy Carroll knew very well--none better!--that
+he was a favorite with the rose-cheeked Venuses of Fermoy and its
+vicinity. It may be mentioned also--as _sotto voce_ as type can express
+it--that he was also perfectly aware that he was a very personable
+fellow, what Coleridge has described as "a noticeable man." Was there
+ever any one, no matter of what age or sex, possessing personal
+advantages, who was not fully aware of the fact?
+
+It would be tedious to expatiate very particularly upon the extent and
+variety of Remmy Carroll's accomplishments. He followed the hereditary
+profession of his family, and was distinguished, far and near, for his
+really splendid execution on the Irish pipes--an instrument which can be
+made to "discourse most excellent music," and must never be confounded
+with the odious drone of the Scottish bag-pipes. Remmy's performance
+could almost excite the very chairs, tables, and three-legged stools to
+dance. One set of pipes is worth a dozen fiddles, for it can "take the
+shine out of them all" in point of loudness. But then, these same pipes
+can do more than make a noise. The warrior, boldest in the field, is
+gentlest at the feet of his ladye-love; and so, the Irish pipes, which
+can sound a strain almost as loud as a trumpet-call, can also breathe
+forth a tide of gushing melody--sweet, soft, and low as the first
+whisper of mutual love. You have never felt the eloquent expression of
+Irish music, if you have not heard it from the Irish pipes.[3] It is
+quite marvellous that, amid all the novelties of instrumentation (if I
+may coin a word) which are thrust upon the patient public, season after
+season--including the Jews'-harping of Eulenstein, the chin-chopping of
+Michael Boiai, and the rock-harmonicon of the Derbyshire mechanics--no
+one has thought of exhibiting the melodious performance of an Irish
+really were a first-rate performer, he could not fail to please, to
+delight, to astonish. But, again I say, do not confound the sweet
+harmony of the Irish with the drony buzz of the Scotch pipes.
+
+     [3] This praise of the Irish pipes is by no means exaggerated. The
+     last performer of any note, in Fermoy, was an apothecary, named
+     O'Donnell, who certainly could make them discourse "most eloquent
+     music." He died about fifteen years ago. It was almost impossible
+     to listen with dry eyes and unmoved heart to the exquisite manner
+     in which he played the Irish melodies--the _real_ ones, I mean--not
+     those which Tom Moore and Sir John Stevenson had "adopted" (and
+     emasculated) for polite and fashionable piano-forte players and
+     singers. There is now in New York a gentleman, named Charles
+     Ferguson, whose performance on the Irish pipes may be said to
+     equal--it could not surpass--that of O'Donnell.
+
+Remmy Carroll's accomplishments were not limited to things musical. He
+could out-walk, out-run, and out-leap any man in the barony of Condons
+and Clongibbons; aye, or of any five other baronies in the county of
+Cork, the Yorkshire of Ireland. He could back the most vicious horse
+that ever dared to rear and kick against human supremacy. He had
+accepted the challenge scornfully given to the whole world, by Big Brown
+of Kilworth, to wrestle, and had given him four fair falls out of five,
+a matter so much taken to heart by the said Big one, that he emigrated
+to London, where, overcome with liquor and loyalty, he was tempted to
+enlist in an infantry regiment, and was shot through the head at the
+storming of Badajoz some short time after.
+
+Remmy Carroll could do, and had done more than defeat Brown. He could
+swim like a fish, was the only man ever known to dive under that
+miniature Maëlstrom which eddies at the base of The Nailer's Rock
+(nearly opposite Barnäan Well), and, before he was one-and-twenty, had
+saved nine unfortunates from being drowned in the fatal Blackwater.[4]
+
+     [4] There really was a person named Carroll residing in Fermoy at
+     the date of this story. He was of gigantic stature and strength,
+     with the mildest temper ever possessed by mortal man. He was
+     noted for his excellence in swimming and his remarkable skill as a
+     diver. Whenever any person had been drowned in the Blackwater,
+     (which runs through Fermoy,) Carroll was sent for, and never
+     quitted the river until he had found the body. There is one part
+     considered particularly dangerous, opposite Barnäan Well, in which
+     a large projection, called the Nailer's Rock, shelves out into the
+     water, making an under-current of such peculiar strength and
+     danger, that even expert swimmers avoid it, from a fear of being
+     drawn within the vortex. Many lives have been lost in this fatal
+     eddy, into which Carroll was accustomed to dive, most fearlessly,
+     in search of the bodies. It was calculated that Carroll had
+     actually saved twenty-two persons from being drowned, and had
+     recovered over fifty corpses from the river. When he died, which
+     event happened at the commencement of the bathing season, a general
+     sorrow fell upon all classes in the town of Fermoy, and for several
+     weeks no one ventured into the river. It was as if their guardian
+     and safeguard had departed. In my youth, passed on the banks of the
+     Blackwater, there was a belief that whenever one person was drowned
+     in that river, two others were sure to follow, in the same season.
+
+No man in the county could beat him at hurly, or foot-ball. He was a
+crack hand at a faction-fight on a fair day--only, as a natural spirit
+of generosity sometimes impelled him, with a reckless chivalry, to side
+with the weaker party, he had, more than once, been found magnanimously
+battling against his own friends.
+
+Yet more.--Having had the advantage of three years' instruction at Tim
+Daly's far-famed Academy, Remmy Carroll was master of what a farmer,
+more alliterative than wise, called "the mystery of the three
+R's:--Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic." He knew, by the simple taste,
+when the Potheen was sufficiently "above proof." He had a ten-Irishman
+power of love-making, and while the maidens (with blushes, smiles, and
+softly-similated angers) would exclaim, "Ah, then, be done, Remmy!--for
+a deluder as ye are!" there usually was such a sly intelligence beaming
+from their bright eyes, as assured him that he was not unwelcome; and
+then he felt it his duty to kiss them into perfect good-humor and
+forgiveness.--But I am cataloguing his accomplishments at too much
+length. Let it suffice to declare, that Remmy Carroll was confessedly
+the Admirable Crichton of the district.
+
+He was an independent citizen of the world--for he had no particular
+settled habitation. He was a popular character--for every habitation was
+open to him, from Tim Mulcahy's, who lived with his wife and pig, in a
+windowless mud-cabin, at the foot of Corran, to Mr. Bartle Mahony's
+two-story slated house, on a three hundred acre farm, at Carrigabrick,
+on the banks of the Blackwater. At the latter abode of wealth, however,
+Remmy Carroll had not lately called.
+
+Mr. Bartholomew Mahony--familiarly called "Bartle"--was a man of
+substance. Had he lived now, he might have sported a hunter for himself,
+and set up a jaunting-car for his daughter. But the honest, well-to-do
+farmer had at once too much pride and sagacity to sink into the
+_Squireen_. He was satisfied with his station in life, and did not
+aspire beyond it. He was passing rich in the world's eye. Many, even of
+the worldlings, thought less of his wealth than of his daughter, Mary.
+Of all who admired, none loved her half so well as poor Remmy Carroll,
+who loved the more deeply, because very hopelessly, inasmuch as her
+wealth and his own poverty shut him out from all reasonable prospect of
+success. He admired--nay, that is by far too weak a word: he almost
+adored her, scarcely daring to confess, even to his own heart, how
+closely her image was blended with the very life of his being.
+
+Mary Mahony was an Irish beauty; that most indescribable of all
+breathing loveliness, with dark hair, fair skin, and violet eyes, a
+combination to which the brilliant pencil of Maclise has often rendered
+justice. She had a right to look high, in a matrimonial way, for she was
+an heiress in her own right. She had £500 left her as a legacy by an old
+maiden-aunt, near Mitchelstown, who had taken care of her from her
+twelfth year, when she left the famous Academy of the renowned Tim Daly
+(where she and Remmy used to write together at the same desk), until
+some eight months previous to the date of this authentic narrative, when
+the maiden-aunt died, bequeathing her property, as aforesaid, to Mary
+Mahony, who then returned to her father.
+
+With all her good fortune, including the actual of the legacy, and the
+ideal of inheritance to her father's property--with beauty sufficient to
+have turned the head of any other damsel of eighteen, Mary Mahony was
+far from pride or conceit. She had the lithest form and the most
+graceful figure in the world, but many maidens, with far less means,
+wore much more showy and expensive apparel. Her dark hair was plainly
+braided off her white brow, in bands, in the simplest and most graceful
+manner; while, from beneath, gleamed orbs so beautiful, that one might
+have said to her, in the words of John Ford, the dramatist,
+
+                "Once a young lark
+    Sat on thy hand, and gazing on thine eyes,
+    Mounted and sung, thinking them moving skies."
+
+The purple stuff gown (it was prior to the invention of merinos and
+muslins-de-laine), which, in its close fit, exhibited the exquisite
+beauty of her form, and set off, by contrast, the purity of her
+complexion, was also a within-doors article of attire: when she went
+out, she donned a long cloak of fine blue cloth, with the sides and hood
+neatly lined with pink sarsnet. Young and handsome Irish girls, in her
+rank of life, were not usually satisfied, at that time, with a dress so
+quiet and so much the reverse of gay.
+
+But Mary Mahony's beauty required nothing to set it off. I do not
+exaggerate when I say that it was literally dazzling. I saw her twenty
+years after the date of this narrative, and was even then struck with
+admiration of her matured loveliness;--how rich, then, must it have been
+in the bud!
+
+Mary, as Remmy Carroll said _before_ he knew that he loved her--for
+_then_, he never breathed her name to mortal ear,--was "the moral of a
+darling creature, only t'would be hard to say whether she was most good
+or handsome." Her hair, as I have said, was dark (light tresses are
+comparatively rare in Ireland), and her eyes were of so deep a blue that
+nine out of ten on whom they glanced mistook them for black. Then, too,
+the long lashes veiling them, and the lovely cheek ("oh, call it fair,
+not pale"), on which their silky length reposed,--and the lips so red
+and pouting, and the bust whose gentle heavings were just visible behind
+the modest kerchief which covered it,--and the brow white as snow (but
+neither too high nor too prominent),--and the fingers tapering and
+round, and the form lithe and graceful,--and the feet small and
+well-shaped, and the nameless air which gave dignity and grace to every
+motion of this country-girl! Oh, beautiful was Mary Mahony, beautiful as
+the bright image of a poet's dream, the memory of which shadows he forth
+in the verse which challenges immortality in the minds of men.
+
+The _contour_ of her face was neither Roman, nor Grecian, nor
+Gothic;--it was essentially Irish, and I defy you to find a finer. The
+only drawback (for I must be candid) was that her nose had
+somewhat--just the slightest--of an upward inclination. This, which
+sometimes lent a sort of piquancy to what would otherwise have been
+quite a Madonna-like face, only made her not too handsome; at least, so
+thought her admirers. Lastly, she had a voice as sweet as ear ever loved
+to listen to. No doubt, it had the distinguishing accents of her
+country, but with her, as with Scott's Ellen, they were
+
+    "Silvery sounds, so soft, so dear,
+    The listener held his breath to hear."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WHAT THE PIPER DID.
+
+
+It was in the summer of 1809, that, for the first time since both of
+them were children and schoolmates, Remmy Carroll spoke to Mary Mahony.
+Often had he seen her at the dance, which without his aid could not be,
+but in which, alas, _he_ could not join--a dancing piper being almost as
+anomalous as a hunting archbishop! Often had he admired the natural
+grace of her movements. Often had he been struck by the bewitching
+modesty of mien and motion which had the power of suddenly changing the
+rakish, rollicking gallantry of her followers (for she was a reigning
+toast) into a most respectful homage. Often had he noticed her at
+chapel, whither she came to pray, while others flaunted and gazed as if
+they had come only to see and to be seen. Often had he followed her very
+footsteps, at a distance--for the very ground on which she trod was
+hallowed to this humble lover--but never yet had he dared to hope.
+
+The shortest way from Fermoy to Carrigabrick is by the banks of the
+Blackwater, and this way, on Whitsunday, 1809, was taken by Mary Mahony
+and a merry younger cousin of hers on their homeward route. There are
+stiles to be crossed, and deep drains to be jumped over, and even a
+pretty steep wall to be climbed.
+
+Remmy Carroll, who knew that they would thus return home, had followed
+the maidens afar off,--sighing to think, as they crossed the stiles,
+with a world of gentle laughter, that he must not dare to think of
+proffering them any assistance. With all his love--perhaps, indeed,
+because of it--he had hitherto been careful to avoid the chance of even
+a casual notice from the subject of his untold passion, _She_ was
+wealthy, _he_ was poor; and, therefore, he shrunk from the object of his
+unuttered passion. Her feelings towards him at this time were rather
+kind than otherwise. She knew, what all the parish were unacquainted
+with, that Remmy devoted the greater portion of his earnings, not only
+to the support of a bed-ridden old aunt, who had neither kith nor
+kin save himself in the wide world, but even to the procuring for her
+what might be esteemed rather as luxuries than mere comforts. Whatever
+might be the deficiencies in Remmy Carroll's wardrobe, his old aunt
+never went without "the raking cup of tay" morning and evening. Was it
+because she had noticed how carefully Remmy Carroll avoided her, that
+the bright eyes of Mary Mahony rested upon him with some degree of
+interest, and that she even liked to listen to and encourage her
+father's praises of his conduct towards his aged relative, for whose
+comfortable support he sacrificed dress--the natural vent for youthful
+vanity in both sexes?
+
+Mary and her merry cousin went on, through the fields, until they
+reached the most difficult pass. This was a deep chasm separating two
+meadows. A deep and rapid stream flowed through the abyss, whirlingly
+pouring its strong current into the Blackwater. The maidens lightly and
+laughingly tripped down the steps which were rudely cut on the side of
+the chasm. It was but a quick, short jump across, Hark!--a sudden
+shriek! He cleared the wall at a bound--he dashed across the meadow--in
+one minute he was plunging down the abyss. He saw that Mary's cousin had
+safely reached the other side, where she stood uselessly wringing her
+hands, and screaming in an agony of despair, while Mary (precipitated
+into the deep and swollen stream, her foot having slipped) was in the
+act of being hurried into the eddies of the Blackwater. There was no
+time for delay. He plunged into the stream, dived for the body, which
+had just then sunk again, and, in less time than I have taken to tell
+it, had placed his insensible but still lovely _treasure trove_ on the
+bank which he just quitted. The other maiden no sooner saw that her
+cousin had been rescued than--according to womanly custom in such cases,
+I presume--_she_ immediately swooned away, leaving poor Remmy to take
+care of Mary Mahony.
+
+With the gentlest care he could employ, he exerted his best skill to
+restore her, and, in a short time, had the inexpressible delight of
+seeing her open her eyes. It was but for a moment; she glanced wildly
+around, and again closed them. Soon the bloom returned to her cheek--and
+now she felt, though she saw not, that she lay supported in the arms of
+Remmy Carroll; for, as he leant over her, and her breathing came softly
+and balmily upon his face, his lips involuntarily were pressed to hers,
+and the maiden, through whose frame that stolen embrace thrilled, with a
+new and bewildering sensation, might be forgiven, if, at that moment,
+she intuitively knew who had thus brushed the dewy sweetness from her
+lips; might be forgiven, if, from that epoch, there gushed into her
+heart a feeling more kind, more deep, more pervading, than ordinary
+gratitude.
+
+By this time, the pretty cousin had thought proper to recover; nor has
+it yet been accurately ascertained whether, indeed, she had or had not
+beheld the oscular proceeding which I have mentioned. Now, however, she
+hastened to pay the feminine attentions, more suitable to the situation
+of a half-drowned young lady, than those which Remmy Carroll had
+attempted to bestow. He had the satisfaction, however of carefully
+taking Mary Mahony across the stream in his arms. Nay, before he
+departed, she had softly whispered her gratitude; and in her tone and
+manner, there was that which breathed hope to him, even against hope.
+Though he quitted them, he loitered about while they remained in sight,
+and just as Mary Mahony was vanishing through the stile which opened
+into her father's lands, she turned round, saw her deliverer watching
+her at a distance, and she kissed her hand to him as she withdrew.
+
+From that hour the current of his life flowed on with a fresher
+bound--the fountain of hope welled out its sparkling waters, for the
+first time, from its depths. To the world--to no living soul, would he
+have dared to avow his new-born feeling, that Mary Mahony might one day
+be his own. Within his heart of hearts it lay, and with it was the
+consciousness, that to win her he must merit her. _How_, he knew not;
+but the resolve is much.
+
+Three months glided on. Carroll continued to pursue his calling as a
+music-maker, and not a wedding nor christening passed by, or,
+indeed, could pass by, without the assistance of his "professional"
+powers. But he now became what a young and gay Irishman seldom is--a
+hoarder of his earnings. He laid aside much of the wild and reckless
+mirth which had made him, despite his poverty, the king of good fellows.
+Remmy was, in many respects, above the generality of his class; for he
+had got a tolerably good education; he was quick at repartee, and not
+without a certain manly grace of manner; his conversation was never
+garnished with expletives; he had a good voice, and could sing with
+considerable effect; he was an adept in fairy lore and romantic legends;
+and he was accustomed to retail news from the newspapers to a wondering
+auditory, so that the marvel was how he could be "such a janius
+entirely." Hence his popularity with all classes. But now, as I have
+said, he laid aside all mirth that might involve outlay. His manners
+became sedate, almost grave,--nay, if we dared to apply such high words
+to a man of such low degree as an Irish piper, it might be added, that a
+certain degree of quiet dignity became blended with his speech and
+actions. Like the wedding guest described by Coleridge, he seemed "a
+sadder and a wiser man." Such a change could not pass unobserved, and
+while one-half the circle of his acquaintance shook their heads, and
+ominously whispered, "Sure the boy must be fairy-struck," the fairer
+moiety suggested that the alteration must have been produced by
+Love, though even their sagacity and observation failed to ascertain the
+object of his passion.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III.
+
+HOW THE PIPER GOT ON WITH MARY MAHONY.
+
+
+The aim and the result of Remmy Carroll's newly-acquired habits of
+economy and self-denial became evident, at length, when his appearance,
+one Sunday, in the Chapel of Fermoy--it was the Old Chapel, with mud
+walls and a thatched roof, which stood in that part of Cork Hill whence
+now diverges the narrow passage called Waterloo Lane--caused a most
+uncommon sensation. It was Remmy's first appearance, on any stage, in
+the character of a country-beau. His ancient coat was put into Schedule
+A (like certain pocket-boroughs in the Reform Bill), and was replaced by
+a garment from the tasty hands of Dandy Cash, at that time the Stultz of
+Fermoy and its vicinity. This was a broad-skirted coat of blue
+broadcloth, delicately embellished with the brilliancy of shining gilt
+buttons, each not much larger than a half-dollar. A vest of bright
+yellow kerseymere, with a double-row of plump mother-of-pearl studs; a
+new pair of closely-fitting unmentionables, with a liberal allowance of
+drab ribbons pensile at the knees; gray worsted stockings, of the
+rig-and-furrow sort, displaying the muscular calf and the arched instep;
+neat pumps, with soles not quite half an inch thick, and the uppers made
+"elegant" by the joint appliances of lampblack and grease (considered to
+_nourish_ the leather much better than "Warren's jet blacking, the pride
+of mankind");--a well-fitting shirt of fine bandle-linen, bleached to an
+exquisite whiteness, and universally looked upon as a _noli me tangere_
+of provincial buckism, with a silk _grinder_ "round his nate neck," and
+a tall Carlisle hat, encircled with an inch-wide ribbon--such were the
+component parts of Remmy Carroll's new costume. True it is, that he left
+a little too much to the taste of Dandy Cash, the dogmatic and
+singularly conceited Snip; but still, Nature had done so much for him
+that he appeared quite a new man, the handsomest of the whole
+congregation, gentle or simple, and many a bright glance fell upon him
+admiringly, from eyes which had looked scorn at his chrysalis condition;
+and not a few fair bosoms fluttered at the thought, "what a fine,
+handsome, likely boy is Remmy Carroll, now that he is dressed dacent."
+He was not the first man whose qualifications have remained
+unacknowledged until such an accident as fine apparel has brought them
+into notice.
+
+Mary Mahony was at Chapel on that Sunday when Remmy Carroll shone out,
+like the sun emerging from behind a rack of heavy clouds. A casual
+looker-on might have fancied that she was one of the very few who did
+_not_ mind Remmy Carroll. Indeed, she rather hung down her head, as she
+passed him,--but that might have been to hide the blushes which suffused
+her face when she met his eye. Her father, a kind-hearted man, who had a
+cordial salute for every friend, insisted that they should not hurry
+away without speaking to the piper. Accordingly, they loitered until
+nearly all the congregation had left the chapel, and, among the last,
+Remmy Carroll was quietly stealing away. Bartle Mahony accosted him,
+with a hearty grasp of the hand, and warmly thanked him for having saved
+Mary's life, adding, "It is not until now I'd be waiting to thank you,
+man-alive, but Mary never let me know the danger she'd been in, until
+this blessed morn, when her cousin, Nancy Doyle, made me sensible of the
+ins and outs of the accident. But I _do_ thank you, Remmy, and 'twill go
+hard with me if I don't find a better way of showing it than by words,
+which are only breath, as one may say."
+
+Then Bartle Mahony slapped Remmy on the back, in a familiar manner, and
+insisted that he should walk home with them and take share of their
+dinner. "Don't hang down your head like a girl, but tuck Mary under your
+arm, and off to Carrigabrick, where I follow in less than no time, with
+the heartiest of welcomes. Don't dawdle there, man-alive, like a goose,
+but walk off like a man."
+
+So through the town of Fermoy did Mary Mahony walk with Remmy
+Carroll--down Cork Hill and King-street, and across the Square, and
+along Artillery-quay, and by Skelhorne's paper-mill, and Reid's
+flour-mill, and then, on the Inches, by the Blackwater. History has not
+recorded whether Mary did actually take Remmy's arm--but it is
+conjectured that he was too shy to offer it, deeming _that_ too great a
+liberty--but it is said that it was she who took the field-route to
+Carrigabrick, and, though she blushed deeply the while, she did not make
+any very violent objection to his taking her in his arms across that
+chasm, the passage of which, on a former day, had so nearly proved fatal
+to her. If I said that, while performing this pleasant duty, Remmy
+Carroll did _not_ press her to his heart, I am pretty sure that no one
+would believe me. Well, then, there _was_ this gentle pressure, but of
+course Mary Mahony believed he could not help it.--Do you think he
+could?
+
+They proceeded to Carrigabrick, but the short cut through the fields
+proved the longest way round on this occasion. Bartle Mahony had reached
+the house fully half an hour before they did, and yet he had gone by the
+road, which, as every one knows, is nearly a mile round. They had
+exchanged few words during their walk; it was not quite the lady's
+place to make conversation, and Remmy's thoughts were all too deep for
+utterance. In the earlier stage of love, passion is contemplative, and
+silence often has an eloquence of its own.
+
+Remmy Carroll had the good fortune to win the particular favor of Mr.
+Bartle Mahony, who, as he was retiring to rest, kissed his fair child,
+as usual, and emphatically declared that Remmy Carroll was "a real
+decent fellow, and no humbug about him." He added, that as he had found
+his way to their hearth, he must be a stranger no more. And it came to
+pass, thenceforth, somehow or other, that Remmy paid a visit to
+Carrigabrick twice or thrice a week. These visits were ostensibly to Mr.
+Mahony, but it usually happened that Remmy had also a glimpse of Mary,
+and sometimes a word or two with her. It came to pass that Bartle
+Mahony, at length, fancied that a dull day in which he did not see his
+friend Remmy. Finally, as by a great effort of ingenuity, and in order
+to have a legitimate excuse for having his favorite frequently with him,
+Bartle Mahony announced his sovereign will and pleasure that Mary should
+learn music. Accordingly, when Remmy next came, he communicated this
+intention to him in a very dignified manner, and appointed Remmy
+forthwith to commence instructing her. But Remmy could play only upon
+one instrument, and the pipes happen to be so unfeminine, that he
+ventured to doubt whether the young lady would quite approve of the
+proposition. Having hinted this difficulty to Bartle Mahony, that worthy
+was impressed with its force, but, rather than relinquish his project,
+declared that, all things considered, he thought it best that he himself
+should be the musical tyro.
+
+If the truth were known, it would have appeared that the poor man had no
+desire to learn, and certainly no taste. But as Remmy Carroll, proud as
+he was poor, had peremptorily refused the money offered as a substantial
+mark of gratitude for having saved Mary Mahony's life, this was her
+father's indirect and rather clumsy mode of rewarding him. Very
+magnificent were the terms which he insisted on making with the piper:
+he could have been taught flute, harp, violin, psaltery, sackbut, and
+piano at less cost. Very little progress did the kind old man make, but
+he laughed soonest and loudest at his own dulness and discords. However,
+if the pupil did not make good use of his time, the teacher did. Before
+the end of the first quarter, Mary Mahony had half confessed to her own
+heart with what aptitude she had involuntarily taken lessons in the art
+of love.
+
+It would make a much longer story than I have the conscience to inflict
+upon you, to tell how Mary Mahony came to fall in love with Remmy
+Carroll--for fall in love she certainly did. Perhaps it was out of
+gratitude. Perhaps it might have been his fine person and handsome
+face. Perhaps, because she heard every girl of her acquaintance praise
+him. Perhaps, because he was her father's favorite. Perhaps, because
+they were so constantly thrown together, and he was the only young man
+with whom she frequently associated. Perhaps she loved him, because she
+could not help it. Why strive to find a reason for woman's love? It is
+like a mighty river springing up one knows not where--augmented one
+knows not how--ever sweeping onward, sometimes smoothly, sometimes in
+awful rapids, and bearing on its deep and constant current, amid weeds
+and flowers, rocks and sands, many a precious freight of hope and heart,
+of life and love.
+
+Fathers and husbands are so proverbially the very last to see the
+progress which Love clandestinely makes under their roof, that it will
+not be considered a special miracle, if Bartle Mahony noticed nothing of
+the game which was in hand--hearts being trumps! Mary's merry cousin,
+Nancy Doyle, quietly smiled at the flirtation, as "fine fun," but did
+not seriously see why it should not end in a wedding, as Mary had
+fortune enough for both.
+
+Winter passed away, and Spring waved her flag of emerald over the
+rejoicing world. Mary Mahony was walking in one of her father's meadows,
+for Remmy Carroll was expected, and he was now--though she blushed with
+a soft consciousness--the very pole-star of her constant thought. He
+came up, and was welcomed with as sweet a smile as ever scattered
+sunshine over the human heart. They walked side by side for a little
+time, and then, when the continued silence became awkward, Remmy stated,
+for the maiden's information, what she knew very well before, that it
+was very fine weather.
+
+"True for you, Remmy," answered she: "see how beautiful everything
+looks. The sunbeams fall upon the meadow in a soft shower of light, and
+make the very grass look glad."
+
+"It _is_ beautiful," said Remmy, with a sigh, "but I have too heavy a
+heart to look upon these things as you do."
+
+"Surely," inquired Mary, "surely you've no real cause to say that? Have
+you heard any bad news?"
+
+"No cause!" and here the pent-up feelings of his heart found utterance:
+"Is it no cause?--Oh, Mary dear--for you _are_ dear to me, and I may say
+it now, for may be I may never be here to say it again--is it no cause
+to have a heavy heart, when I have nobody in this wide world that I can
+speak to about her that's the very life of my life, while I know that I
+am nothing to her, but one that she sees to-day and will forget
+to-morrow! Is it no cause, when I know that the little linnet that's now
+singing on that bough, has as much chance of becoming an eagle, as I
+have of being thought lovingly of by the one that I love? Haven't I
+cause to be of a heavy heart, knowing that I would be regarded no more
+than that little bird, if I were to try and fly beyond the state I'm in,
+when I know that I am not many removes from a beggar, and have been for
+months dreaming away as if I was your equal? You are kind and gentle,
+and when I am far away, perhaps you may think that I would have tried to
+deserve you if I could, and then think well of one who loves you better
+than he loves himself. Oh, Mary Mahony! may God's blessing rest upon
+you, and keep you from ever knowing what it is to love without hope."
+
+Overcome by his emotion--aye, even to tears, which flowed down his
+comely cheeks--poor Remmy suddenly stopped. Mary Mahony, surprised at
+the unexpected but not quite unpleasing matter of his address, knew not,
+for a brief space, what answer to make. But she was a woman--a young and
+loving one--so she let her heart speak from its fulness.
+
+"May-be," said she, with a blush, which made her look more beautiful
+than ever,--"may-be, tis a foolish thing, Remmy, to love without
+hoping;" and she looked at him with an expressive smile, which,
+unfortunately, he was unable to distinguish through the tears which were
+now chasing each other down his face, as round and nearly as large as
+rosary-beads.
+
+"It's of no use," he said, not perceiving the nature of her words; "it's
+of no use trying to banish you from my mind. I've put a penance on
+myself for daring to think of you, and it's all of no use. The more I
+try not to think, the more I find my thoughts upon you. I try to forget
+you, and as I walk in the fields, by day, you come into my mind, and
+when I sleep at night you come into my dreams. Wherever I am, or
+whatever I do, you are beside me, with a kind, sweet smile. Every
+morning of my life, I make a promise to my heart that I will never again
+come here to look upon that smile, far too sweet and too kind for such
+as me, and yet my steps turn towards you before the day is done. But
+it's all of no use. I must quit the place altogether. I will go for a
+soldier, and if I am killed in battle, as I hope I may be, they will
+find your name, Mary, written on my heart."
+
+To a maid who loved as well as Mary Mahony did, there was a touching
+pathos in the simple earnestness of this confession;--aye, and
+eloquence, too, for surely truth is the living spirit of eloquence. How
+long she might have been inclined to play the coquette I cannot resolve,
+but the idea of her lover's leaving her put all _finesse_ to flight, and
+she said, in a low tone, which yet found an echo, and made a memory in
+his heart: "Remmy! dear Remmy, you must not leave me. If you go, my
+heart goes with you, for I like you, poor as you are, better than the
+richest lord in the land, with his own weight of gold and jewels on his
+back."
+
+What more she might have said puzzles conjecture--for these welcome
+words were scarcely spoken, when all further speech was arrested by an
+ardent kiss from Remmy. Oh! the first, fond kiss of mutual love! what is
+there of earth with so much of the soft and gentle balm of heaven?
+
+There they stood, by the ruins of that old castle, the world all forgot.
+There they whispered, each to each, that deep passion with which they
+had so long been heart-full. The maiden had gentle sighs and pleasant
+tears--but these last, Remmy gallantly kissed away. Very wrong, no
+doubt, for her to have permitted him to do so, and, in truth, she
+sometimes exhibited a shadow of resistance. There was, in sooth,
+
+    "A world of whispers, mixed with low response,
+    Sweet, short, and broken, as divided strains
+    Of nightingales."
+
+"And you won't think the worse of me, Remmy, for being so foolish as to
+confess how I love you?"
+
+"Is it me, life of my heart? not unless you say that it was foolish to
+love _me_. Sure, they were the happiest words I ever heard."
+
+"And you will love me always, even as now?"
+
+"Ah, Mary, I see that you are joking now."
+
+"And you won't go as a soldier?"
+
+"Not I, darling; let those who have heavy hearts, and no hope, do that
+same."
+
+Much more, was spoken, no doubt. Very tender confessions and
+confidences, in truth, which I care not to repeat, for such are of the
+bright holidays of youth and love, and scarcely bear to be reported as
+closely as an oration in the Senate, or a lawyer's harangue at Nisi
+Prius, in a case of Breach of Promise. Such tender confessions and
+confidences resemble those eastern flowers which have a sweet perfume on
+the soil to which they are native, but lose the fragrance if you remove
+them to another clime.
+
+At last, with many a lingering "one word more," many a gentle pressure
+of the hands, and several very decided symptoms, belonging to the genus
+"kiss," in the sweet botany of love, Mary and Remmy parted. Happy,
+sweetly and sadly happy (for deep love is meditative, rather than
+joyful), Mary Mahony returned home. She hastened to that apartment
+peculiarly called her own, threw herself on the bed, and indulged in the
+luxury of tears, for it is not Sorrow alone that seeks relief in
+tears,--they fall for hope fulfilled as truly, though less often, as for
+hope deferred. Weep on, gentle girl, weep in joy, while you can. Close
+at hand is the hour in which, ere you have done more than taste it, the
+sparkling draught of happiness may be snatched from your lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+HOW THE PIPER BECAME A PETRIFACTION.
+
+
+Alike delighted and surprised at thus finding Mary Mahony a sharer in
+the emotions which so wildly filled his own heart, Remmy Carroll
+returned to Fermoy, in that particular mood which is best denoted by the
+topsy-turvy description--"he did not know whether he stood upon his head
+or his heels." He rested until evening at a friend's, and was not
+unwilling to have some hours of quiet thought before he again committed
+himself to commerce with the busy world. About dusk, he started with his
+friend for a farmer's, on the Rathcormac side of Corran Thierna, where
+there was to be a wedding that night, at which Remmy and his pipes would
+be almost as indispensable as the priest and the bridegroom.
+
+As they were passing on the mountain's base, taking the soft path on the
+turf, as more pleasant than the dusty highway, a little lower down,
+Remmy suddenly stopped.
+
+"There's music somewhere about here," said he, listening.
+
+"May-be it's only a singing in your head," observed Pat Minahan. I've
+known such things, 'specially if one had been taking a drop extra
+overnight."
+
+"Hush!" said Remmy, "I hear it again as distinctly as ever I heard the
+sound of my own pipes. There 'tis again: how it sinks and swells on the
+evening breeze!"
+
+Minahan paused and listened. "Sure enough, then, there is music in the
+air. Oh, Remmy Carroll, 'tis you and the lucky boy, for this must be
+fairy music, and 'tis said that whoever hears it first, as you did, is
+surely born to good luck."
+
+"Never mind the luck," said Remmy, with a laugh. "There's the fairy ring
+above there, and I'll be bound that's the place it comes from. There's
+fox-glove, you see, that makes night-caps for them; and there's
+heath-bells that they have for drinking-cups; and there's sorrell that
+they have for tables, when the mushrooms aren't in; and there's the
+green grass within the ring, as smooth as your hand, and as soft as
+velvet, for 'tis worn down by their little feet when they dance in the
+clear light of the full moon. I am sure the music came from that
+fairy-ring."
+
+"May-be it does," replied Minahan, "and may-be it doesn't. If you
+please, I'd rather move on, than stand here like a pillar of salt, for
+'tis getting dark, and fairies aren't exactly the sort of people I'd
+like to meet in a lonely place. 'Twas somewhere about here, if I
+remember right, that Phil Connor, the piper, had a trial of skill with
+the fairies, as to who'd play best, and they turned him into stone,
+pipes and all. It happened, Remmy, before your father came to these
+parts,--but, surely you heard of it before now?"
+
+"Not I," said Remmy; "and if I did, I wouldn't heed it."
+
+"Oh, then," said his companion, with an ominous shake of the head at
+Remmy's incredulity, "it's all as true as that you're alive and kicking
+at this blessed moment. I heard my mother tell it when I was a boy, and
+she had the whole of it from her aunt's cousin's son, who learned the
+ins and outs of the story from a faymale friend of his, who had it on
+the very best authority. Phil Connor was a piper, and a mighty fine
+player entirely. As he was coming home from a wedding at Rathcormac, one
+fine moonshiny night, who should come right forenenst him, on this very
+same mountain, but a whole bundle of the fairies, singing, and skipping,
+and discoursing like any other Christians. So, they up and axed him, in
+the civilest way they could, if he'd favor them with a planxty on his
+pipes. Now, letting alone that Phil was as brave as a lion, and would
+not mind facing even an angry woman, let alone a batch of
+hop-o'-my-thumb fairies, he never had the heart to say no when he was
+civilly axed to do anything.
+
+"So Phil said he'd oblige them, with all the veins of his heart. With
+that, he struck up that fine, ancient ould tune, 'The Fox-hunter's
+Jig.' And, to be sure and sartain, Phil was the lad that could play:--no
+offence to you, Remmy, who are to the fore. The moment the fairies heard
+it, they all began to caper, and danced here and there, backward and
+forward, to and fro, just like the motes you see dancing in the
+sunbeams, between you and the light. At last, Phil stopped, all of a
+sudden, and they gathered round him, the craturs, and asked him why he
+did not go on? And he told them that 'twas dying with the drought he
+was, and that he must have something to wet his whistle:--which same is
+only fair, particularly as far as pipers is concerned.
+
+"'To be sure,' said a knowledgeable ould fairy, that seemed king of them
+all, 'it's but reasonable the boy is; get a cup to comfort him, the
+dacent gossoon.' So they handed Phil one of the fairy's fingers full of
+something that had a mighty pleasant smell, and they filled a hare-bell
+cup of the same for the king. 'Take it, me man,' said the ould fairy,
+'there isn't a headache in a hogshead of it. I warrant that a guager's
+rod has never come near it. 'Twas made in Araglyn, out of mountain
+barley,--none of your taxed Parliament stuff, but real Queen's 'lixir.'
+Well, with that he drank to Phil, and Phil raised the little dawny
+measure to his lips, and, though it was not the size of a thimble, he
+drank at laste a pint of spirits from it, and when he took it away from
+his lips, that I mightn't, if 'twasn't as full as 'twas at first.
+Faith, it gave Phil the boldness of a lion, that it did, and made him so
+that he'd do anything. And what was it the _omadhaun_ did, but challenge
+the whole box and dice of the fairies to beat him at playing the pipes.
+Some of them, which had tender hearts, advised him not to try. But the
+more they tried to persuade him, the more he would not be persuaded. So,
+as a wilful man must have his way, the fairies' piper came forward, and
+took up the challenge. Phil and he played against each other until the
+cock crew, when the lot all vanished into a cave, and whipped Phil away
+with them. And, because they were downright mad, at last, that Phil
+should play so much better than their own musicianer, they changed poor
+Phil, out of spite, into a stone statute, which remains in the cave to
+this very day. And that's what happened to Phil Connor and the fairies."
+
+"You've made a pretty story of it," said Remmy; "it's only a pity it
+isn't true."
+
+"True!" responded Minahan, with tone and action of indignation. "What
+have you to say again it? It's as true as Romilus and Ramus, or the
+Irish Rogues and Rapparees, or the History of Reynard, the Fox, and
+Reynardine, his son, or any other of the curious little books that
+people do be reading--that is, them that _can_ read, for diversion's
+sake, when they've got nothing else to do. I suppose you'll be saying
+next, that fairies themselves ain't true? That I mightn't, Remmy, but
+'twouldn't much surprise me in the laste, to hear you say, as Paddy
+Sheehy, the schoolmaster, says, that the earth is round, like an orange,
+and that people do be walking on the other side of it, with their heads
+downwards, and their feet opposite to our feet!"
+
+"And if I did say so?" inquired Remmy, who--thanks to his schooling from
+the redoubtable Tim Daly--happened to know more of the Antipodes than
+his companion.
+
+"Faith, Remmy, if you did say so, I know one that would misbelieve you,
+and that's my own self. For it stands to reason, all the world to a
+Chany orange, that if people was walking on the other side of the world,
+with their feet upwards and their heads down, they'd be sure to fall off
+before one could say 'Jack Robinson.'"
+
+To such admirable reasoning as this, Remmy Carroll saw it would be quite
+useless to reply, so he allowed Minahan to rejoice in the advantage,
+usually claimed by a female disputant, of having "the last word."
+
+They proceeded to the farmer's, Minahan, as they went along,
+volunteering a variety of particulars relative to the Petrified
+Piper--indulging, indeed, in such minuteness of detail, that it might
+have been taken for granted that he had, personally, seen and heard the
+matters he described.
+
+It is to be feared that Remmy Carroll was but a so-so listener. He had
+no great faith in fairies, and his mind was just then preoccupied with
+thoughts of his own darling Mary Mahony. At last, Minahan's conversation
+ended, for they had reached the farmer's house, where Remmy and his
+pipes received the very warmest of welcomes.
+
+You need not fear that I have any intention of inflicting a description
+of the marriage upon you. It is enough to say that the evening was one
+of thorough enjoyment--Irish enjoyment, which is akin to a sort of
+mirthful madness. Perhaps Remmy was the only person who did not
+thoroughly enter into the _estro_ of the hour, for though successful
+love may intoxicate the mind, it subdues even the highest spirits, and
+embarrasses while it delights. There is the joy at the success--the
+greater if it has been unexpected--but this is a joy more concentrated
+than impulsive. Its seat is deep within the heart, and there it
+luxuriates, but it does not breathe its secret to the world,--it keeps
+its treasure all to itself, at first, a thing to be thought of and
+exulted over privily. Love, when successful, has a compelling power
+which subdues all other feelings. The causes which commonly move a man,
+have little power when this master-passion fills the breast.
+
+In compliance with the custom at all wedding-feasts in Ireland, the
+company freely partook of the national nectar (by mortals called
+whiskey-punch), which was as plenty as tea at an ancient maiden's
+evening entertainment, where sally-lun and scandal are discussed
+together, and a verdict is given, at one and the same time, upon
+character and Souchong. Remmy, of course, imbibed a fair allowance of
+that resistless and potent mixture, the boast of which is, that "there
+is not a headache in a hogshead of it." Blame him not. The apostle of
+Temperance had not then commenced his charitable crusade. How could
+mortal man refuse the draught, brewed as it specially had been for him
+by the blushing bride herself, who, taking a dainty sup out of the horn
+which did duty for a tumbler, had the tempting gallantry to leave a kiss
+behind--even as "rare Ben Jonson" recommends. What marvel, if, when so
+many around him were rapidly passing the Rubicon of the cup, Remmy
+should have taken his allowance like "a man and a brother"--no, like a
+man and a piper,--particularly, when it is remembered that Love, as well
+as Grief, is proverbially thirsty. Still, Remmy Carroll had not exceeded
+the limits of sobriety. He had drank, but not to excess--for his failing
+was not in that wise. And even if he had partaken too freely of the
+charmed cup, it is doubtful whether, with strong passion and excited
+feeling making a secret under-current in his mind on that evening, any
+quantity of liquor could have sensibly affected him. There are occasions
+when the emotions of the heart are so powerful as to render it almost
+impossible for a man, even if he desired it, thus to steep his senses in
+forgetfulness.
+
+Remmy, therefore, was not "the worse for liquor"--although he certainly
+had not refrained from it. Minahan, on the other hand, who was quite a
+seasoned vessel, most buoyant in the ocean of free-drinking, and to whom
+a skinful of strong liquor was quite a god-send, had speedily and easily
+contrived to get into that pleasant state commonly called
+"half-seas-over,"--that is, he was not actually tipsy, but merry and
+agreeable; and as he insisted on returning to Fermoy, though he was
+offered a bed in the barn, the trouble of escorting him devolved on
+Remmy.
+
+They left the house together, lovingly linked arm-in-arm, for Minahan
+then had a tendency to zig-zag movements. The next day, Minahan was
+found lying fast asleep, with a huge stone for his pillow, near the
+footpath, at the base of Corran Thierna. It was noticed by one of those
+who discovered him, that his feet were within the fairy-ring which Remmy
+had observed on the preceding evening. But of Remmy himself there was no
+trace. If the earth had swallowed him up, he could not have vanished
+more completely. His pipes were found on the ground, near Minahan, and
+this was all that remained of one who, so often and well, had waked
+their soul of song.
+
+The whole district became alarmed; for, independent of regret and
+wonder, on account of Remmy's personal popularity, a serious thing in a
+country district is the loss of its only Piper. At length, Father Tom
+Barry, the parish priest of Fermoy, thought it only his duty to pay a
+domiciliary visit to Minahan, to come at the real facts of the case, and
+solve what was felt to be "a most mysterious mystery."
+
+Minahan was found in bed. Grief for the sudden loss of his friend had
+preyed so heavily upon his sensitive mind, that, ever since that fatal
+night, he had been drowning sorrow--in whiskey. It was now the third day
+since Remmy Carroll's disappearance; and when Father Tom entered the
+house, he found Minahan sleeping off the combined effects of affliction
+and _potheen_. He was awakened as soon as could be, and his first
+exclamation was, "Oh, them fairies! them thieves of fairies!" It was
+some time before he could comprehend the cause of Father Tom's visit,
+but even when he did, his words still were, "Oh, them fairies! them
+thieves of fairies! they beat Bannagher, and Bannagher beats the world!"
+
+A growl from the priest, which, from lay lips, might have been mistaken
+for an execration, awoke Minahan to his senses--not that he was ever
+troubled with a superfluity of them. He testily declared his inability
+to tell his story, except upon conditions. "My memory," said he, "is
+just like an eel-skin, your Reverence. It don't stretch or become
+properly limber until 'tis wetted." On this hint, Father Tom sent for a
+supply of Tommy Walker;[5] and after summarily dispatching a noggin of
+it, Minahan thus spoke:--
+
+"'Twas Remmy and myself, your Reverence, that was meandering home
+together, when, as bad luck would have it, nothing would do me, being
+pretty-well-I-thank-you at that same time, but I must make a
+commencement of discourse with Remmy about the fairy people: for, your
+worship, I'd been telling him before, as we went to the wedding of Phil
+Connor, who was transmographied into a stone statute. Well and good,
+just as Remmy came right forenent the fairy-ring, says he, ''Faith, I
+would not object myself to have a lilt with them!' No sooner had he said
+the words, your honor, than up came the sweet music that we heard the
+night before, and with that a thousand lights suddenly glanced up from
+the fairy-ring, just as if 'twas an illumination for some great
+victory. Then, the music playing all the while, myself and Remmy set our
+good-looking ears to listen, and, quick as I'd swallow this glass of
+whiskey--here's a good health to your Reverence!--a thousand dawny
+creatures started up and began dancing jigs, as if there was quicksilver
+in their heels. There they went, hither and thither, to and fro, far and
+near, coursing about in all manner of ways, and making the earth tremble
+beneath 'em, with the dint of their quickness. At last, your Reverence,
+one of them came out of the ring, making a leg and a bow as genteel as
+ould Lynch, the dancing-master, and said, 'Mister Carroll,' says he, 'if
+you'd please to be agreeable, 'tis we'd like to foot it to your pipes
+(and you should have seen the soothering wink the villain gave as he
+said the words), 'for,' says he, ''tis ourselves have often heard tell
+of your beautiful playing.' Then the weeny little mite of a fairy fixed
+his little eyes upon Remmy, and, that I mightn't, if they did not shine
+in his head like two coals of red fire, or a cat's eye under a blanket!
+
+     [5] At that time, the two great whiskey-distillers in Cork were
+     Thomas Walker and Thomas Wise,--respectively carrying on their
+     business in the South and North suburbs of the city. Both are
+     alluded to in Maginn's celebrated song, "Cork is the Aiden for you,
+     love, and me." The verse runs thus:--
+
+     "Take the road to Glanmire, the road to Blackrock, or The sweet
+     Boreemannah, to charm your eyes; If you doubt what is _Wise_, take
+     a dram of Tom Walker, And if you're a _Walker_, top off Tommy
+     Wise."
+
+"'I'm no player for the likes of ye,' says Remmy, modest-like. But
+they'd take no excuse, and they all gathered around him, and what with
+sootherin' words, and bright looks, and little pushes, they complately
+put their _comehether_ upon him, and coaxed him to play for them, and
+then, the cajoling creatures! they fixed a big stone for a sate, and he
+struck up _Garryowen_, sharp and quick, like shot through a holly-bush.
+Then they all set to at the dancing, like the blessed Saint Vitus and
+his cousins, and surely it was a beautiful sight to look at. The dawny
+creatures worn't much bigger than your middle finger, and all nately
+dressed in green clothes; with silk stockings and pumps, and
+three-cocked hats upon their heads, and powdered wigs, and silk sashes
+across their breasts, and swords by their sides about the size of a
+broken needle. 'Faith, 'twas beautiful they footed it away, and
+remarkable they looked.
+
+"Well, your honor, _he_ was playing away like mad, and they were all
+capering about, male and faymale, young and old, just like the French
+who eat so many frogs that they do ever and always be dancing, when one
+of the faymale fairies come up to Remmy's elbow, and said, in a voice
+that was sweeter than any music, 'May-be, Mister Carroll, you'd be dry?'
+Then Remmy looked at her a moment, till the faymale fairy hung down her
+head, quite modest. 'Well,' says Remmy, 'you _are_ a nice little
+creature, and no words about it!' She looked up at him, and her cheeks
+got as red as a field-poppy, with delight at Remmy's praising her;--for
+faymales, your Reverence, is faymales all the world over, and a little
+blarney goes a great way with them, and makes them go on as smoothly as
+a hall-door upon well-oiled hinges. Then, she asked him again if he did
+not feel dry, and Remmy said he'd been to a wedding, and wasn't dry in
+particular, but he'd just like to drink a good husband to her, and soon,
+and many of them. So, she laughed, and blushed again, and handed him a
+little morsel of a glass full of something that, I'll be bound for it,
+was stronger, any how, than holy water. She kissed the little glass as
+he took it, and he drank away, and when he was handing her back the
+glass, his eyes danced in his head again, there was so much fire in
+them. So, thinking that some of the same cordial would be good for my
+own complaint, I calls out to Remmy to leave a drop for me. But, whoop!
+no sooner had I said the words, than, all of a sudden, the whole tote of
+them vanished away, Remmy throwing me his pipes, by way of keepsake, as
+he dashed down through the earth with the rest of them. I dare say he
+did not want to be bothered with the pipes, knowing that in the place he
+was going to be could use those that Phil Connor had taken down before.
+And that's all that I know of it."
+
+Here Minahan, overpowered with grief and the fatigue of speaking,
+perpetrated a deep sigh and a deeper draught, which exhausted the
+remnant of the whiskey.
+
+"But, Minahan," said Father Barry, "you certainly don't mean to pass off
+this wild story for fact."
+
+"But I _do_, your Reverence," said Minahan, rather testily. "Sure none
+but myself was to the fore, and it only stands to reason that as one
+piper wasn't enough for the fairies, they seduced Remmy Carroll away,
+bad cess to 'em for that same. And, indeed, your worship, I dreamed that
+I saw him last night, made up into a stone statute, like poor Phil
+Connor; and sure there's great truth in dreams, entirely."
+
+Father Barry, of course, did not believe one word of this extraordinary
+story, but his parishioners did, and therefore he eschewed the heresy of
+publicly doubting it. He contented himself with shaking his head,
+somewhat after the grave fashion of a Chinese Mandarin in a grocer's
+window, whenever this subject was alluded to, and this Burleigh
+indication, as well as his silence, obtained for him an immense
+reputation for wisdom.
+
+There was one of his congregation who shared, to the full, the good
+priest's disbelief of Minahan's "tough yarn" about the fairies. This was
+Mary Mahony, who was convinced, whatever had befallen Remmy,--and her
+fears anticipated even the worst,--that he had not fallen into the hands
+of the fairies. Indeed, she was bold enough to doubt whether there were
+such beings as fairies. These doubts, however, she kept to herself. Poor
+thing! silently but sadly did she miss her lover. She said not one word
+to any one of what had passed between them on the memorable day of his
+disappearance. But that her cheek grew pale, and that melancholy gently
+brooded in the deep quiet of her eyes, and that her voice, always low,
+was now sad and soft as the mournful murmur of the widowed cushat-dove,
+even vigilant observation could notice little difference in her. Not a
+day passed without her father lamenting Remmy's absence, and when he
+spoke approvingly of our vanished hero, tears would slowly gather in her
+eyes, and her heart would swell with a sorrow all the deeper for
+suppression. It was great consolation for her to find, now that he was
+gone, how all lips praised the good qualities of Remmy Carroll. It is
+pleasant to feel that one's love is not unworthily bestowed.
+
+Meantime, the deportation of Remmy, by the fairies, became duly
+accredited in Fermoy and its vicinity. If he had solely and wholly
+vanished, it might have been attributed to what Horatio calls "a truant
+disposition;" but his pipes were left behind him, circumstantial
+evidence of Minahan's narrative. Mightily was this corroborated, a few
+months after, when Gerald Barry, the priest's nephew, being out one day,
+coursing on Corran Thierna, discovered a sort of cave, the entrance to
+which had been concealed by the huge rock which lay close to the magic
+circle of the fairies! His terrier had run into it, after a refractory
+rabbit, who would not wait to be caught, and, from the length of his
+stay, it was conjectured that the cave must be of immense extent. True
+it is, that no one harbored the audacious thought of examining it; for
+what mortal _could_ be so reckless as to venture into the stronghold of
+the "good people,"--but the very fact of there being such a cavity under
+the rock, dignified with the brevet-rank of a cavern, satisfied the
+Fermoy folks that Remmy Carroll was within it, changed into a PETRIFIED
+PIPER!
+
+Some weeks later, Gerald Barry's dog again ran into the cave, and
+remained there until the young man, unwilling to lose a capital terrier,
+dug him out with his own hands; for neither love nor money could tempt
+any one else to do such a fool-hardy exploit. He declared that the
+mysterious cave was no cave, but only an old rabbit-burrow! All the old
+women, in and out of petticoats, unanimously announced that it was clear
+("as mud in a wineglass," no doubt), that the cave _had_ been there,
+but that the fairies had changed the whole aspect of the place, to
+prevent the discovery of their petrified victims; for, argued they, if
+they could make men into marble statues, they certainly must possess the
+minor power of making a cave look as insignificant as a rabbit-burrrow.
+Logic, such as this, was sufficient to settle the mooted point, and then
+it became a moral and physical certainty, in the Fermoy world, that Phil
+Connor and Remmy Carroll were petrified inmates of the mountain cavern!
+
+When, some eighteen months after this, it was Gerald Barry's ill-fortune
+to break his collar-bone by a fall from his horse, in a steeple-chase,
+there arose a general conviction, in the minds of all the Fermoy
+believers in fairy-lore, that _this_ was a punishment inflicted upon him
+by "the good people," for his impertinent intrusion into their peculiar
+haunts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+HOW IT ALL ENDED.
+
+
+Slowly, but surely, does the tide of Time carry year after year into the
+eternity of the Past. As wave chases wave to the shore, on which it
+breaks--sometimes in a gentle and diffusing ripple, sometimes into
+feathery foam, if it strike against a rock--so does year chase year away
+into the memory of what has been. It is the same with empires and
+villages, with the crowded haunts of men, and the humble huts wherein
+the poor do vegetate. For each and for all, Time sweeps on; carrying on
+its tide, amid many things of little value, some with which are linked
+sweet and tender associations. To look back, even for a single year, and
+contrast what _has been_ with what _is_! How mournful the retrospect, in
+the generality of cases! Hopes fondly cherished, alleviating the actual
+pains of life by the promise of an ideal improvement; day-dreams
+indulged in, until they become fixed upon the mind, as if they were
+realities; resolutions made, which the heart found it impossible to
+carry into practice; sunny friendships in full luxuriance, which a few
+hasty words, too quickly taken up, were to throw into shade, at once and
+forever; love itself, which promised so much in its glorious spring,
+grown cold and careless. Talk of the changes of a year!--look back, and
+recollect what even a single day has given birth to; but, think not that
+there is always change, or that all changes are for the worst. Sometimes
+the bright hopes will have the glad fulfilment; the day-dreams, after
+passing through the ordeal of expectation, which, when deferred, maketh
+the heart sick, will be happily realized; the friendship on which we
+relied will have gone through the trial, and have stood the test; the
+love will have proved itself all that the heart had ventured to
+anticipate, and have thrown upon the realities of life, an enduring
+charm, mingling strength and softness, including in its magic circle,
+endurance as strong as adamant, and tenderness which subdues even while
+it sustains. Aye, life has its lights and shadows; and, in the circling
+course of time and circumstance, the shadow of to-day glides gently on,
+until it be lost in the sunshine of the morrow.
+
+Let us return to our story. Imagine, if you please, that six years have
+passed by since the mysterious and unforgotten disappearance of Remmy
+Carroll, our very humble hero. Many changes have taken place, locally
+and generally. Fermoy, rapidly rising into opulence, as the greatest
+military depôt in Ireland, still kept a memory of Remmy Carroll. Death
+had laid his icy hand upon Mr. Bartle Mahony, whose fair daughter, Mary,
+had succeeded to his well-stocked farm and his prudent accumulations,
+which, joined with her own possessions, made her comparatively wealthy.
+But, in her, and in such as her, who derive their nobility from God,
+fortune could make no change--except by enlarging the sphere of her
+active virtues. In a very humble and unostentatious way, Mary Mahony was
+the Lady Bountiful of the place. The blessings of the poor were hers.
+Wherever distress was to be relieved--and Heaven knows that the mournful
+instances were not a few--there did the quiet bounty of Mary Mahony
+flow, scattering blessings around by that gentle personal expression of
+feeling and sympathy, which the highly imaginative and excitable Irish
+prize far more than the most liberal dole which mere Wealth can
+haughtily bestow. Oh, that those who give, could know, or would pause to
+think, how much rests on the manner of giving! Any hand can dispense the
+mere _largesse_, which is called "Charity," but the voice, the glance,
+the touch of hearted kindness soothes the mental pangs of the afflicted.
+In Ireland, where there are countless calls upon benevolence, casual
+relief has been demanded as a sort of _right_; but a kind word, a gentle
+tone, a sympathizing look, makes the gift of double value. And where was
+there ever kindness and gentleness to equal those exercised by Mary
+Mahony? She had had her own experiences in sorrow, and was, therefore,
+well qualified to yield to others that touching sympathy which most
+forcibly awakens gratitude. She had suffered, and, therefore, she
+sympathized.
+
+Her beauty remained undimmed, but its character was somewhat changed. If
+there was less of the fire of earlier days, there was more of
+intellectual expression, the growth at once of her mind's development
+into maturity, and of the sorrows which had chastened her, as well as of
+the circumstances which had thrown her thoughts into contemplation. At
+her age--she was barely three-and-twenty--it appears absurd to talk of
+her loveliness having had its peach-like bloom impaired. As Wordsworth
+says,
+
+    "She seemed a thing that could not feel
+    The touch of earthly years."
+
+What the same true poet has said of that fair Lucy, who yet lives in his
+exquisite lyric, might have been said, without any breach of truth, of
+our own Mary Mahony:
+
+    "Then Nature said, 'A lovelier flower
+      On earth was never sown;
+    This child I to myself will take;
+    She shall be mine, and I will make
+      A lady of my own.'"
+
+At first, after her father's death, when it was known in what a
+prosperous state she had been left (and rumor, as usual, greatly
+exaggerated the fact), she had been pestered with the addresses of
+various persons who would have been happy to obtain a fair bride with
+her goodly heritage, but it was soon found that she was not
+matrimonially inclined, so, by degrees, they left her "maiden meditation
+fancy-free." Among her suitors were a few who really were not influenced
+by interested motives, and sought to win her, out of their admiration
+for herself. Gently, but decidedly, they were repulsed, and many of
+them, who were much above her in wealth and station, were proud to be
+reckoned among her warm friends at a later period. It seemed as if she
+could not have made an enemy--as if she could not awaken unkind feelings
+in any mind. Even scandal never once thought of inventing stories about
+her,--goodness and innocence were around her, like a panoply.
+
+Mary Mahony remained true to the cherished passion of her youth. It
+flowed on, a silent and deep stream. None knew what she felt. None were
+aware of the arrow in her heart, and her pain was the intenser for its
+concealment. So wholly unsuspected was her secret, that when,
+immediately after her father's death, she received Remmy Carroll's
+bed-ridden relative as an inmate at her own residence; people only
+admired the charity which had led her to succour the helpless. No one
+appeared to think, for they did not know, that Remmy could ever have
+awakened an interest in her heart.
+
+The destinies of Europe had been adjusted. The Imperial Eagle of France
+had been struck down at Waterloo, when Napoleon and Wellington had met
+and battled. After peace bad been proclaimed, the Ministry of the day
+proceeded to reduce the war establishment, by disbanding the second
+battalions of many regiments. The result was that some thousands of
+ex-soldiers wended home. Very many of them were from Ireland, and came
+back mere wrecks of manhood--for the casualties of battle, and the
+certainties of sharp hospital practice, are only too successful in
+removing such superfluities as arms and legs.
+
+In the spring of 1816, two or three persons might have been seen walking
+down the main street of Fermoy. If there could have existed any doubt as
+to what they _had_ been, their measured walk and martial bearing would
+have promptly removed it. They, indeed, were disabled soldiers. The
+youngest might have numbered some eight-and-twenty years, and, though he
+was _minus_ his left arm, few men could be found whose personal
+appearance was superior to his own.
+
+They passed on, unnoticed, as any other strangers might have passed on,
+and found "choicest welcome" in a hostelrie, "for the accommodation of
+man and beast," at the lower end of the town. What creature-comforts
+they there partook of I am unable to enumerate, for the bill of fare, if
+such a document ever existed in that neat but humble inn, has not been
+preserved. The sun had nearly gone down, however, before any of the
+peripatetic trio manifested any inclination towards locomotion. At last,
+he, to whom I have more particularly drawn attention, told his
+companions that he had some business in the town--some inquiries to
+make--and would rejoin them in an hour or two at the latest. He might as
+well have spoken to the wind, for they had walked that day from Cork (a
+trifle of some eighteen Irish miles), and were already fast asleep on
+the benches. Their companion wrapped himself up in a large military
+cloak, lined with fur--whilom, in Russia, it had covered the iron-bound
+shoulders of a captain in Napoleon's Old Guard. This completely
+concealed his figure, and drawing his hat over his face, so as to shade
+his features, he sallied forth, like Don Quixote, in search of
+adventures.
+
+When he reached the Sessions House, at the extremity of the town,
+instead of pursuing the high road which leads to Lismore, he deviated to
+the extreme left, crossed the meadow-bound by the papermill, and found
+himself on the Inch, by that rapid branch of the Blackwater which has
+been diverted from the main current for the use of the two
+mills--illegally diverted, I think, for it renders the natural course of
+the river a mere shallow, and prevents a navigation which might be
+carried on with success and profit, from Fermoy, by Lismore, down to the
+sea at Youghall.
+
+Rapidly pressing forward, the Stranger soon came to the chasm which has
+already been mentioned as that from which, some years since, Remmy
+Carroll, the piper, had rescued Mary Mahony from drowning. He threw
+himself, at listless length, on the sward by the gurgling stream, and
+gazed, in silence, on the fair scene before him.
+
+It was, indeed, a scene to delight the eye and charm the mind of any
+beholder. Across the broad river were the rocks of Rathhely, clothed
+here and there with larches and pines, those pleasant
+evergreens--before him swept the deep and rapid waters--and, a little
+lower down, like a stately sentinel over the fine country around, rose
+the tall and precipitous rock, on which stood the ruins, proud in their
+very decay, of the ancient castle of Carrigabrick,--one of the round,
+lofty, lonely towers, whose origin and use have puzzled so many
+antiquaries, from Ledwich and Vallancey, to Henry O'Brien and Thomas
+Moore, George Petrie and Sir William Betham.
+
+With an eager and yet a saddened spirit, the stranger gazed intently and
+anxiously upon the scene, varied as it is picturesque, his mind drinking
+in its quiet beauty--a scene upon which, in years long since departed,
+my own boyhood loved to look. And now, in the softened effulgence of the
+setting sun, and the silence of the hour, the place looked more like the
+embodiment of a poet's dream, or a painter's glorious imagining, than
+anything belonging to this every-day world of hard and cold reality.
+
+The Stranger gazed upon the scene silently for a time, but his feelings
+might thus be embod ed in words:--"It _is_ beautiful, and it is the
+same; only, until I saw other places, praised for their beauty, I did
+not know how beautiful were the dark river, and the quiet meadows, and
+the ivy-covered rock, and the gray ruin. Change has heavily passed over
+myself, but has lightly touched the fair Nature around me. Heaven knows
+whether _she_ may not be changed also. I would rather be dead than hear
+she was another's. The lips that my lips have kissed--the eyes that my
+eyes have looked into--the hand that my hand has pressed--the form that
+my arms have folded; that another should call them his--the very thought
+of it almost maddens me. Or, she may be dead? I have not had the heart
+to inquire. This suspense is the worst of all,--let me end it."
+
+Thus he thought--perhaps the thoughts may have unconsciously shaped
+themselves into words: but soliloquies may be thought as well as uttered
+audibly. He rose from the damp sward, sprang across the chasm, proceeded
+rapidly on, and in ten minutes was sitting on the stile, by which, in
+other days, he had often parted from Mary Mahony--for, by this time, my
+readers must have recognized Remmy Carroll in the Stranger.
+
+How long he rested here, or with what anxious feelings he gazed upon the
+house, just visible through the trees, I am not able to state,--but I
+can easily imagine what a contention of hope and fear there must have
+been in his heart. The apprehension of evil, however, was in the
+ascendant, for, though two or three half-familiar faces passed him, he
+could not summon courage to ask after Mary and her father. At last, he
+determined to make full inquiries from the next person he saw.
+
+The opportunity was speedily afforded. A female appeared, slowly
+advancing up the path. Could it indeed be herself? She came nearer. One
+glance, and he recognized her, the star of his spirit--bright, beaming,
+and as beautiful as Memory and Fancy (the dove-winged ministers of Love)
+had delighted to paint her, amid the darkness and perils of the Past.
+
+He sprang forward to meet her. There was no recognition upon her part.
+Nor was this very wonderful--though the lover of romance might expect,
+as a matter of course, that, from pure sympathy, the maiden should have
+instantly known who was before her. Years, which had passed so gently
+over her, softening and mellowing her beauty, had bronzed his face, and
+almost changed its very expression. The dark moustache and thick
+whiskers, which he now wore, his altered appearance, his military
+bearing,--all combined to make him very different from the rustic,
+however comely, whom she had last seen six years before.
+
+Seeing a stranger advance towards her, Mary paused. He accosted her,
+with an inquiry whether Mr. Bartle Mahony was to be seen?
+
+"He is dead," said she. "He has been dead nearly six years."
+
+Carroll started back, for the unwelcome news chilled him, and the
+well-remembered tones struck some of the most responsive chords of his
+heart.
+
+"I am grieved to hear of his death. I knew him once. He was kind to me
+in former days, when kindness was of value, and I came to thank him now.
+God's blessing on his soul! He was a good man." There was a slight
+pause, and he resumed, "Perhaps you can tell me, young lady, whether his
+daughter is alive, and where she may be seen? The trifles which I have
+brought from foreign countries, to mark my recollection of his goodness
+to me, perhaps she may accept?"
+
+"You are speaking to her," said Mary.
+
+"My little presents are in this parcel," said Remmy. "They are relics
+from the field of battle. These silver-mounted pistols were given to me
+by a French officer, whose life I saved,--this Cross of the Legion of
+Honor was hastily plucked from the bosom of one of his dead comrades,
+after a fierce charge at Waterloo. Take them:--I destined them for your
+father from the moment they became mine."
+
+He placed the parcel in her hand.--One question would bring hope or
+despair. He feared to ask it. He drew closer, and, as composedly as he
+could, whispered into her ear, "Are you married?"
+
+The blood flushed up into Mary's face. She drew back, for his
+questioning vexed her, and she wished to get rid of the inquisitive
+stranger. She handed him back the parcel, and said, "I hope, sir, that
+you do not mean to annoy or insult me? If you do, there are those within
+call who can soon release me from your intrusion. I cannot retain the
+presents which a mere stranger tells me were intended for my poor
+father.--And, if I must answer your last question, I am _not_ married."
+
+"Thank God!" was Carroll's earnest and involuntary exclamation.
+
+People may talk as they please of the quick-sightedness of love. Mary
+certainly had little of it, for she did _not_ recognize her lover, and,
+turning round, prepared to return home. Carroll gently detained her, by
+placing his hand upon her arm.
+
+"I pray your pardon," said he, "but I may not have an opportunity of
+again speaking to you, and I have a word to say about a person whom you
+once knew, but have probably forgotten. There was a poor, worthless
+young man, named Carroll, in this neighborhood a few years ago. He was a
+weak creature, fool enough to love the very ground on which you trod,
+and vain enough to think that you were not quite indifferent to him."
+
+"I do not know," said Mary, with a flushed cheek, and flashing eyes,
+"why you should continue to intrude your presence and your conversation
+when you see that both are unpleasant to me. I do not know why you
+should ask me questions which a sense of common decency would have
+avoided. If I answer you now, it is that my silence may not appear to
+sanction imputations upon one over whom, I fear, the grave has
+closed--whom, be he alive or dead, it was no dishonor to have known and
+have regarded. I did know this Carroll whom you name, but cannot imagine
+how you, a stranger, can have learnt that I did. It was his misfortune
+to have been poor, but he never was worthless, nor could have been."
+
+"One word more," exclaimed Remmy, "but one more word. Remmy Carroll, so
+long believed to have been dead, is alive and in health--after many
+sufferings he returns home, poor as when he left it, rich in nothing but
+an honest name. He comes back, a disabled soldier, and he dare not ask
+whether, beautiful and wealthy as you are, you are the Mary Mahony of
+other years, and love him still?"
+
+Mary looked at him with intent anxiety. The color which emotion had sent
+into her face paled, and then rushed back in a quickened life-tide,
+mantling her very forehead. Even then she had not recognized her lover!
+
+"If he be indeed returned," said she, in a voice so low that Remmy did
+not know whether the words were addressed to him, or were the mere
+impulse of her thought, involuntarily framed into utterance, "and if he
+be the same in heart--the same frank and honest mind--the same true and
+loving spirit--the same in his contempt of all that is bad, and his
+reverence for whatever is good--his poverty is nothing, for _I_ have
+wealth; and if his health be broken, I yet may soothe the pain I may not
+cure. Tell me," said she, and the words came forth, this time, freely
+spoken, as if she had determined to be satisfied and to act, "tell me,
+you who seem to know him, though your description wrongs him, where has
+Remmy Carroll been during all these long years? Why did he leave us? Why
+did he not write to relieve the anxiety of those who cared for him?
+Where is he now?"
+
+What was the response? Softly and suddenly an arm wound itself around
+that graceful form, warmly and lovingly fell a shower of kisses on the
+coral beauty of those luxuriant lips.
+
+Was she not angry--fiercely indignant? Did not her outraged feelings
+manifest their anger? Was not her maidenly modesty in arms at the
+liberty thus taken, and by a stranger? _This_ was the crowning
+misconduct--did she not reprove it?
+
+No! for, in tones which thrilled through her loving heart, Remmy Carroll
+whispered "Mary!--my own, true, dear Mary!" In the struggle (for Mary
+_did_ struggle at first) which immediately preceded these words, the
+large cloak and the hat fell off, and then she recognized the forehead
+and the eyes--then she knew him whom she had loved so well, and
+mourned so long--then she threw her arms around his neck, in the very
+abandonment of affection and delight--then she clung close and yet
+closer to him, as if they never more must part--then, remembering how
+she was yielding to the warm impulses of her nature, she hid her burning
+face in his bosom, and then, when he embraced her again and again, she
+could not find words to protest against the gentle deed.
+
+Then, arm in arm, they walked into the house, and there Remmy's aged
+relative, whose condition and sufferings had been so much improved and
+alleviated by the kindness and bounty of Mary Mahony--simply because she
+was Remmy's relative--was made happy by the presence of him over whom
+she had shed so many bitter tears. Perhaps her happiness was augmented
+by perceiving on what excellent terms the heiress and he were--perhaps
+her eyes filled with pleasant tears, when Mary Mahony whispered into her
+ear "Minny, he will stay with us now, forever, and will never leave us."
+Perhaps, too, the whisper was not unheard by Remmy--and it would be a
+difficult point to decide whether or not it were intended to reach _his_
+ear, as well as Minny's. And then, all that both had to learn. There was
+so much to be told on both sides. All that Carroll cared to know was
+this--that he loved, and that his love was warmly returned. A thousand
+times, that evening, and forever, did Mary exclaim against herself for
+not having recognized him immediately, and a thousand times smilingly
+aver, that, from his changed appearance and studied efforts at
+concealment, the recognition was all but impossible. And then they sat
+together, hand clasped in hand, eyes looking into eyes, until an hour
+far into the night, talking of old times and present happiness, and
+future hopes. And they spoke, too, of the good old man who had passed
+away, in the fulness of years, into the far and better land. Old
+memories were revived, brightened by new hopes. Oh, how happy they were!
+it was the very luxury of love--the concentrated spirit of passion,
+purified by suffering, and tried by absence--the repayment, in one brief
+hour, for years of doubt, pain, and sorrow.
+
+At last came the time to part; but with it came the certainty of a
+speedy meeting. The next day, and day after day, until that arrived when
+holiest rites made them man and wife, Remmy Carroll was to be found by
+the side of his beloved Mary Mahony; and soon, when the news of his
+return were noised about, crowds came to see him, and far and near was
+spread the announcement that a wedding was on the _tapis_. General was
+the surprise--general, too, the satisfaction, for the young people were
+universal favorites, and time and circumstances had removed the
+principal objections which even the worldly-minded might have raised to
+the union of Mr. Bartle Mahony's daughter and heiress to one who, a few
+years before, had occupied a position in society so much beneath her. It
+was universally conceded that, in every sense, the match was extremely
+suitable and proper; but Remmy and Mary did not require popular opinion
+to sanctify their attachment. They were all in all to each other.
+
+It is not to be supposed that Mary Mahony was allowed to continue
+ignorant of the vicissitudes through which Remmy Carroll had passed. He
+told his story, and
+
+     "She gave him for his tale a world of sighs."
+
+It may be expected that of this tale some notice be here given. But, in
+very truth, those who look for a romantic elucidation of the mysterious
+disappearance, and prolonged absence, and unexpected return of Remmy
+Carroll, will be greatly disappointed. The main incidents were simple
+enough, and here they are.
+
+It may be remembered that Remmy had acted as escort to Minahan, on their
+return from that wedding at which the Piper had made his last
+professional appearance. He had found some difficulty in piloting his
+companion along the high road from Rathcormac to Fermoy; and, indeed,
+when they reached the mountain, Minahan, in a fit of drunken obstinacy,
+_would_ throw himself upon the heathy sward, where, in a few minutes,
+he was fast in the gentle bonds of sleep. Remmy Carroll, having
+accompanied him so far, did not like to leave him, and sat down beside
+him to watch for his awakening, with the purpose, also, of seeing that
+he fell into no mischief. But, after a time, from the combined
+influences of the fresh air, want of rest, and what he had partaken at
+the wedding, Remmy found himself quite unable to keep his eyes open. He
+was conscious that sleep was creeping over him, and so, taking off his
+pipes, for fear that he might injure them by lying upon them, he
+carefully placed them upon the grass, beside him, and resigned himself
+to slumber.
+
+On awaking, he found--to his excessive amazement--that he was lying "on
+the sunny side of a baggage-cart," with his head reposing on the lap of
+a soldier's wife. In reply to his inquiries, he was recommended to take
+it coolly, and, at any rate, not to make any noise until they reached
+Glanmire, about four miles from Cork, to which city he was informed that
+he was bound. "When the cavalcade of baggage-carts and soldiers reached
+Glanmire, he was summarily acquainted with the novel information that he
+had been duly enlisted as a recruit, and his informant--a
+fierce-looking, hook-nosed, loud-voiced martinet of a Sergeant--asked
+him to put his hand into his pocket, and _that_ would satisfy him that
+he had regularly and irrevocably become attached to the military
+service of "his Most Gracious Majesty King George the Third."
+Accordingly, Remmy did as he was desired, and in the pocket as aforesaid
+found a bright shilling, which certainly had not been there on the
+previous night--more particularly, as tenpenny pieces were the current
+coin in Ireland at the period. To Remmy's possession of the solitary
+shilling, among a little handful of tenpenny and fivepenny pieces (the
+sum-total realized by his performance at the wedding), the modern
+Sergeant Kite triumphantly appealed in proof that he had been regularly
+enlisted. It is needless to observe that, of this transaction, Remmy
+Carroll--albeit the person chiefly concerned--had not the slightest
+recollection. He appealed to one of the officers, and was told that, if
+the Sergeant said he was enlisted, there could be no doubt of the fact,
+and that his Majesty was fortunate in having obtained such a promising
+recruit, as the regiment was on the eve of embarkation. His
+remonstrances, and denials, and appeals, were in vain. The significant
+hint was added, that death was the punishment usually awarded for
+desertion. So, making a virtue of necessity--the more so, as he
+perceived that he was so strongly and suspiciously watched that flight
+would have been useless--he had no alternative but to proceed to Cork
+with the regiment, as cheerfully as he could, and, in despite of
+himself, as it were, was duly attested, magistrates not being very
+particular in those days. To all his assertions, that he had not the
+slightest recollection of having been enlisted, the reply was that, if
+he could procure a substitute, they did not require his company--but to
+do this was impossible.
+
+In a few days, the regiment embarked for the Peninsula, and his friend,
+the Sergeant, told him on the voyage, as an excellent joke, in what
+manner they had trepanned him--namely, that, as the regiment was passing
+by the mountain, early in the morning, en route for embarkation, one of
+the officers who rode above the highway (for the road is literally cut
+out of and into the hill) had noticed Remmy and Minahan asleep, and had
+remarked what an admirable soldier the former would make; Minahan, it
+seems, was thought nothing of, being, like Othello, "declined into the
+vale of years." The remark was taken as a hint, and Remmy was removed,
+even as he was, fast asleep, to one of the baggage-carts, with the least
+possible delay. The details of the transaction had been executed by the
+Sergeant, who chuckled over this narrative, piquing himself not a little
+on the dexterity of the trick.
+
+Carroll was unable to write to Mary Mahony, on account of what had
+befallen him, being afraid of his letter falling into other hands than
+her own. He did write to Minahan, in the hope that, in that circuitous
+way, Mary might obtain a knowledge of his misadventure. The letter, if
+ever posted, never came to hand, and thus, for more than six weary
+years, Mary Mahony in particular, with the inhabitants of Fermoy in
+general, was profoundly ignorant of Remmy's fate.
+
+It was fortunate that Remmy was of that easy temperament which takes the
+world as it finds it, readily accommodates itself to circumstances, and
+wisely acts on the sensible aphorism, "what can't be cured must be
+endured." While he bitterly lamented his enforced absence from the girl
+of his heart--just at the crisis, too, when he learned that he occupied
+an enviable position in her affections--he knew that all the regrets in
+the world would not bring him one furlong nearer to her. He determined
+to make the best of his situation. In a short time he even came to like
+it. Good conduct, good temper, and his ability to read and write, soon
+recommended him to his superiors, and obtained his promotion to the rank
+of Sergeant. In this capacity, he contrived to save a sum of money,
+which, in former years, he would have considered quite a treasure, and
+which, at any rate, was sufficiently large as to warrant its possessor
+against the imputation of fortune-hunting, should he return to Ireland,
+find Mary Mahony unmarried, and pay his addresses to her.
+
+When the short peace of 1814 was made, the regiment in which Remmy
+served returned to England, and Remmy made application for his
+discharge, and would have purchased it if he could not procure it by
+other means. But immediately came the renewal of war, by the return of
+Napoleon from Elba, and Remmy's regiment was one of the first to return
+to the Continent. In the battle of Waterloo, Remmy received a severe
+wound in the left arm, which rendered amputation necessary, after
+prolonged and painful sufferings. At length, he was able to return to
+England, with a handsome gratuity for his wound, and a respectable
+pension, which, with what he had already picked up "in the wars," really
+made him quite a man of independent means. His plea of poverty had been
+only a _ruse_ to try the strength of the maiden's affection. But, in her
+eyes, of much greater value than his hoard or his pension was a
+testimonial of courage and character given him by his Colonel, and
+especially countersigned by the Duke of Wellington, who had personally
+noticed his conduct during the six years he had been in the service.
+Great pride, be sure, had Carroll in handing over this precious document
+to Mary Mahony. Many tears did she shed over the vicissitudes which had
+earned it--but tears _will_ flow from bright eyes, when there is a
+handsome lover at hand to kiss them off.
+
+The wedding followed, in due course. _Such_ a wedding! that of Camacho
+was a fool to it. Mr. and Mrs. Carroll, it is true, violated the usage
+of Irish society (of their rank of life) by quitting the farm, on a
+honeymoon excursion, shortly after Father Barry had united them "for
+better, for worse," as it was fully expected that, according to the
+immemorial custom among the extensive class which embraces all ranks
+from the wealthy farmer to the poor peasant, the bride and bridegroom
+should have presided at the nuptial feast, opened the post-prandial
+festivities by leading off the dance, and finally gone through the
+loosening the bride's garters, and be followed by the ceremonial of her
+"throwing the stocking." But, except during the performance of the
+nuptial service, the company at Carrigabrick farm saw little, on that
+day of days, of either Remmy Carroll or his fair and faithful
+helpmate. Enough, however, for the gay bachelors to admire the beauty
+(now bright with happiness) of the bride, while the Waterloo medal and
+the Waterloo wound of our hero won him favor in the eyes and from the
+lips of all the womankind who were "on their promotion." Despite the
+speedy flight of "the happy couple," the rites of hospitality were duly
+celebrated in their homestead, and, indeed, a general holiday was kept
+in the neighborhood. The warmth of Irish hearts had its effervescence on
+that occasion, and it wished an infinity of joy to Remmy Carroll and his
+bride.
+
+About this time, Minahan's character for veracity fell into disrepute,
+it being pretty clear that Remmy Carroll was anything but a
+petrifaction--at least Mary Mahony's testimony would go a great way to
+disprove _that_ imputation. But there ever are people who will
+manfully maintain the superiority of the ideal over the real, and a few
+of these, vegetating at Fermoy, used to shake their heads when Remmy
+Carroll walked by, and, having said, all along, that, beyond all doubt,
+some supernatural agency had removed our hero, think themselves somewhat
+aggrieved in the unromantic commonplace explanation of his enforced
+absence. To the hour of his death, Minahan was ready to say or swear
+that _he_ had told no more than the truth--or an equivalent for the
+truth--and was wont to appeal, when in his cups (which was whenever he
+had anything to put into them), to Carroll's good fortune in proof of
+the advantageous influence of fairy favor. He had a few
+semi-converts--who believed that Remmy Carroll was as much petrified as
+Phil Connor. Indeed, without any very remarkable development of the
+organ of marvellousness, I think so too.
+
+It but remains to add that, in due season, Mr. and Mrs. Carroll returned
+to their farm. Remmy never more played the pipes save for his own
+amusement (as the Marquis of Carrabas' cat caught mice), and he and his
+wife lived happily together, after their many trials. One of their
+family is settled in the State of New York, and doing well.
+
+
+
+
+THE GERALDINE.
+
+
+    I.
+
+    A mournful wail, all sad and low, like the murmur which the breeze
+    On an Autumnal eve might make among the sere-leaved trees,--
+    Then a rapt silence, soul subdued; a listening silence there,
+    With earnest supplicating eyes, and hand-clasped hush of prayer.
+    Talk not of grief, till thou hast seen the tears which warriors shed,
+    Where the chief who led them on to fame lies almost of the Dead;
+    Where the eagle eye is dim and dull, and the eagle spirit cold;
+    Where fitfully and feebly throbs the heart which was so bold,--
+    Thou might'st have fancied grief like this, if ever it were thine,
+    To hear a minstrel sing the deeds of the valiant Geraldine.
+
+
+    II.
+
+    Where is that gallant name unknown? wherever Valour shone,
+    Wherever mightiest chiefs were named, the Geraldine was one;
+    Wherever Erin's banner waved, the Geraldine was there,
+    Winning honour from his prince's praise, and favor from the fair,--
+    But now his course is closing, for his final hour has come,
+    And, like a peaceful peasant, 'tis his hap to die at home.
+    The priest hath been to shrive him, and the leech hath been to tend,
+    And the old man, with a Christian heart, prepared to meet his end:
+    "It is God's will, the Abbot says, that, unlike to all my line,
+    I should die, not on the battle-field," said the gallant Geraldine.
+
+
+    III.
+
+    Within his tent the warrior lay, by his side his children three;
+    There was Thomas, with the haughty brow, the Lord of Offaley;
+    There was gentle Ina, wedded to proud Desmond's gallant son;
+    There was Richard, he the youngest born and best belovéd one.
+    Lord Thomas near his father stood, fair Ina wept apace,
+    Young Richard by the couch knelt down and hid his pale, sad face;
+    He would not that the common eye should gaze upon his woe,
+    Nor that how very much he mourned, his dying sire should know;--
+    But the old man said, "My youngest born, the deepest grief is thine,"
+    And then the pent-up tears rained fast on the face of Geraldine.
+
+
+    IV.
+
+    "Lead out my steed--the Arab barb, which lately, in Almaine,
+    I won in single combat, from a Moorish lord of Spain,--
+    And bring my faulchion hither, with its waved Damascene blade,
+    In temper true, and sharpness keen as ever armourer made.
+    Thou seest, my son, this faulchion keen, that war-horse from the plain,
+    Thou hearest thy father's voice, which none may ever hear again;
+    Thou art destined for the altar, for the service of the Lord,
+    But if thy spirit earthward tend, take thou the steed and sword.
+    Ill doth it hap, when human thoughts jostle with thoughts divine,
+    Steel armour, better than the stole, befits a Geraldine!"
+
+
+    V.
+
+    "My father, thou hast truly said:--this soaring spirit swells
+    Beyond those dreary living tombs--yon dark monastic cells.
+    The cold in heart and weak in hand may seek their pious gloom,
+    And mourn, too late, the hapless vow which cast them such a doom:
+    Give me the flashing faulchion and the fiery steed of war--
+    The shout--the blow--the onset quick where serried thousands are.
+    Thine eldest-born may claim and take thy lordships and thy land,
+    I ask no more than that bold steed, this good sword in my hand,
+    To win the fame that warriors win, and haply to entwine,
+    In other lands, some honours new round the name of Geraldine."
+
+
+    VI.
+
+    Flashed then into the Chieftain's eyes the light of other days,
+    And the pressure of the old man's hand spoke more than words of praise:
+    "So let it be, my youngest-born! thine be a warrior's life,
+    And may God safely speed thee through thy coming deeds of strife.
+    Take knighthood from thy father's sword, before his course be run,--
+    Be valiant, fortunate, and true; acquit thee as my son!
+    My harper here?--ere life depart, strike me some warlike strain;
+    Some song of my own battle-field I would hear once more again:
+    Unfurl the silken Sunburst[6] in the noontide's golden shine,
+    In death, even as in pride of life, let it wave o'er Geraldine!"
+
+     [6] "The Sunburst," says Moore, "was the fanciful name given by the
+     ancient Irish to the royal banner."
+
+
+    VII.
+
+    The banner fluttered in the breeze, the harper's strain went on,
+    A song it was of mighty deeds by the dying Chieftain done.
+    At first he listened calmly,--the strain grew bold and strong,--
+    Like things of life within his heart did Memory's quick thoughts throng:
+    Louder and stronger swelled the strain, like a river in its course;
+    From his couch the Chieftain started,--"To horse!" he cried, "to horse!"
+    And proudly, like a warrior, waved his sword above his head:
+    One onward step--one gurgling gasp--and the Chief is of the Dead!
+    The harper changed his strain to grief: the Coronach was thine,
+    Who died, as thou hadst lived, a Man, oh mighty Geraldine!
+
+
+
+
+CAPTAIN ROCK.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE WAKE.
+
+
+The year 1822 was remarkable for being what in Ireland was called "A
+Whiteboy Year." Rents were only paid by compulsion. Tithes were not paid
+at all. Wages were low. The price of food was high. The middleman system
+had been on the increase, year after year, until the land and people
+were crushed under it. The priests from the altar, and O'Connell, from
+the tribune and through the press, earnestly argued the masses _not_ to
+rebel, no matter how great the aggravation, how intense the despair, and
+the advice had great weight in most instances. Many causes combined to
+render the peasantry ripe for revolt.--As, on one side, there were not
+wanting men able and willing to act as leaders in any popular movement;
+so, on the other, there was no lack of Government spies to fan the
+flame, to cajole the peasantry into breaches of the law, and to betray
+those whom they thus had duped.
+
+The discontented and disaffected were principally concentrated in my
+native county of Limerick. From time to time, the military force in that
+county had been augmented, until, at the particular period in question
+(1822), there were several regiments of infantry, and at least one of
+cavalry, on harassing duty. What between still-hunting (for the
+manufacture of mountain-dew was then in full operation) and man-hunting,
+the military had full occupation day and night. Various pretexts were
+used, also, to weary the military, by putting them upon a false scent,
+every now and then, so that the service was particularly severe and
+fatiguing. Added to the military array was the Constabulary force,
+introduced by the late Sir Robert (then Mr.) Peel, while Secretary for
+Ireland, the members of which, after his name, have obtained the
+_sobriquet_ of "Peelers." An active and efficient body of men these
+Peelers were, and are, although the force, from its original
+establishment, has been unpopular in Ireland--probably owing to its very
+activity and efficiency. Be this as it may, it is undeniable that while
+the bulk of the Irish people, of all classes, cordially have fraternized
+with the soldiery, they have ever manifested a strong dislike to the
+police. This unfriendly feeling, too, has sometimes been fostered by
+many who, from their station, might be expected to entertain gratitude,
+and exercise courtesy, towards these protectors of their lives and
+property.
+
+Whiteboyism continued to increase, notwithstanding the strong military
+and police force poured into the district. Detachments of infantry were
+quartered in almost every hamlet--the cavalry, called "here, there, and
+everywhere," upon true and false alarms, were dreadfully overworked. At
+last, as a necessary matter of protection, two or three Peelers were
+quartered in almost every respectable country house in certain disturbed
+baronies. The whole county was in a dreadful state of alarm, excitement,
+and activity. The newspapers, of course, were filled with reports and
+rumors of all kinds, and the Whiteboy doings in the South of Ireland had
+even the honor of being spoken of, in no very complimentary terms, in
+both Houses of Parliament.
+
+These Whiteboy movements, although not confined to one part of the
+county Limerick, were remarked as chiefly occurring on that side which
+is bordered by the county Cork. In a little time, they might be said to
+radiate from a particular district, spreading into what, from its
+extent, has been called "The Yorkshire of Ireland." As they increased,
+more troops were called in, to subdue insurrection and enforce order.
+All this was in vain. A regular guerilla warfare began to prevail,
+chiefly for the purpose of obtaining the arms of the military and
+police.
+
+It became no uncommon event for a sentry, at a country station, to be
+quietly picked out by the steady hand and sure aim of a Whiteboy--the
+shot which gave his death being at once the sole announcement and fatal
+evidence of the tragic deed. The service thus became so desperate that
+there arose an evident reluctance, on the part of the military, to
+continue on such alarming and perilous duty. Desertions became frequent.
+On the other hand, the police doggedly did their duty. Of a much higher
+grade than the ordinary rank and file of the army--for no man was
+allowed to enter or remain in the force without an excellent character
+and a certain degree of education--they had a high estimate of their
+duty, and a stubborn determination to perform it. They knew, also, that
+the peasantry hated them, and that even the thankless gentry, whom they
+protected, did not bear any affectionate regard for them.
+
+The Rifle Brigade was on duty, in the disturbed district, at the time
+which I have mentioned. The officer in command was Major Eeles, an
+English port-drinking officer of the old school, who had fixed his own
+quarters at The Grove (near Ballingarry,) formerly the seat of Colonel
+Odell, the member for the county, and remarkable as being the father of
+about twenty sons, by one wife. The most fatiguing and unpleasant office
+which the soldiers had to perform was that of night-patrolling. The laws
+of that time were harsh--indeed, like all other Coercion Acts, they had
+been expressly framed to put down the disturbances--and provided that
+the mere fact of a man's being found out of his house, between sunrise
+and sunset, should be punishable with seven years' transportation. This
+severe enactment put a great check, of course, upon nocturnal predatory
+gatherings, but many an innocent man suffered from the harshness of the
+law. A strong feeling of hostility arose against the Rifle corps, for
+their activity in apprehending the suspected. This was greatly augmented
+by what, under any circumstances, might be considered an "untoward
+event." One of the peasantry had been met on the high road after dark,
+and challenged by the patrol. Not giving a satisfactory answer, his
+instant apprehension was ordered by the officer in command. Attempting
+to escape, he was in the act of jumping across a deep drain which
+divided the high-road from the bog, when a sergeant drew a pistol from
+his belt and shot him on the spot.
+
+The unfortunate man was _not_ a Whiteboy. On the contrary, he had
+steadily resisted the solicitations of many neighbours who were. He had
+seen better days, and had received rather a good education. Knowing the
+peril of joining the illegal combinations, and daring the danger of
+being considered lukewarm in what was called "the cause of his country,"
+he had kept himself aloof from proceedings, which he did not approve of,
+but scorned to betray. His family had been subjected, for months past,
+to the severe privations which poverty causes everywhere, but
+particularly in Ireland. His wife had been extremely ill, and on her
+sudden change for the worse, his affection had naturally got the worse
+of his personal fear, and he had ventured out, after dusk, to solicit
+the aid of the nearest dispensary doctor, when, challenged by the
+military, he sought safety in flight, and had met with his untimely fate
+as I have described.
+
+Those who know anything of the peculiar customs of the South of Ireland,
+must be aware that the peasantry have especial delight in doing honor to
+the dead. To celebrate a "wake" is, with them, a social duty. They
+usually take that mode of testifying, in a merry mood, their grief for
+the departed. The unfortunate victim of military impetuosity was carried
+to the nearest public-house on the way-side, and when it was related how
+he had lost his life, "curses not loud, but deep," most unequivocally
+indicated the popular feeling that he was a murdered man. Nor was this
+feeling mitigated by the "justifiable homicide" verdict of the Coroner's
+jury.
+
+Entertaining such opinions, it was not likely that his relatives and
+friends would solicit as a favor, at the hands of his slayers, "leave to
+keep the wake." They did not ask it. Perhaps they had little fear that,
+in the present instance, their ancient and time-honoured custom would be
+interfered with. Accordingly, they _took_ leave, and a numerous
+concourse of the people assembled, after dusk, on the day of the
+inquest, in the cabin of the deceased.
+
+To one who loved the picturesque, the scene would have been interesting,
+for it contained all variety of countenance, costume, and manner. But it
+possessed an intenser and far deeper interest for him who had studied
+the human heart, its passionate throes, its indignant feelings, its wild
+energies, its strong convulsions, its lacerated affections. There lay
+the corpse, a crucifix at its head and twelve mould candles on a table
+at its feet. By the bedside knelt the widow--actually, by an unnatural
+excitement, rendered temporarily convalescent by the sharp fact that she
+had lost the husband of her heart. By the corpse, on the opposite side,
+sat their only child, a lad of few years, apparently unconscious of the
+extent of the calamity which thus early had orphaned him. A professional
+Keener (like the "hired wailing women" of Scripture) was ranged on
+either side of the deceased, awaiting a full audience for the similated
+grief, and now and then muttering fragments of their intended Lament.
+Around the humble apartment--for the peasant's cabin consisted of only a
+single room--were ranges of stools, three deep, and here and there were
+deal tables, on which were placed tobacco-pipes, and "the materials" for
+the refreshment and enjoyment which, by a strange contrast with the
+awful occasion which called them together, were considered
+indispensable. Such a thing as a _dry_ Wake would indeed have been an
+anomaly, there and then.
+
+The friends of the dead man dropped in stealthily, and at intervals--for
+there was some uncertainty whether the military would permit such an
+assemblage. Before long the room was crowded, all fear of being
+interfered with gradually vanished, and the party, albeit assembled on a
+melancholy occasion, soon glided into conversation, smoking, and drink.
+
+There was no merriment, however, for the circumstances under which they
+met forbade it--so early in the night. Their conversation was in a
+hushed tone. The comparative stillness every now and then became
+positive when they noticed the voiceless sorrow of the poor widow, as,
+pale and emaciated by suffering of mind and body, she knelt by the dead,
+holding his clay-cold hand, and, her eyes fixed upon his comely face,
+now pallid with the hue of mortality, and placid in repose as that of a
+sleeping infant. At intervals, there rose the melancholy and eloquent
+wail of the Keeners' wild poetry, in the native language of the
+auditors, deeply impassioned, and full of the breathing indignation
+which stirs men's minds to such a pitch of excitement that they come
+forth from the listening fitted for almost any deed of daring.
+
+The Keen told how the dead man had won the hearts of all who knew
+him--how he had excelled his companions in the sports of youth and the
+athletic exercises of manhood--how, at pattern, fair, or dance, he
+still maintained his superiority--how his was the open heart and liberal
+hand--how he had won his first love, the pride of their native village,
+and married her--how, when a shadow fell upon their fortunes, that loved
+one lightened, by sharing, the burthen, the struggle, and the
+grief--how, amid the desolation, her gentle smile ever made a soft
+sunshine in their home--how, a victim without a crime, he had fallen in
+the noon of life--how there remained his young boy to remember, and, it
+might be, one day to avenge his murder--how every man who was present
+would protect and sustain the widow and the orphan of him whom they had
+loved so well--and how, come it soon or late, a day would arrive when
+expiation must be made for the foul deed which had sent an innocent man
+to an untimely grave.
+
+As the chief Keener chanted this Lament, in the expressive and
+figurative language of their native Ireland, the hearts of her auditory
+throbbed with deep and varying emotions--sorrow swelled into the deeper
+sense of injury--wild indignation flushed the cheek of manhood--and hand
+was clasped in hand with a fierce pressure, in well-understood pledge of
+sorrow for the dead, hatred for his slayers, and stern resolve of
+vengeance.
+
+About ten o'clock, the door slowly opened, and a tall man, apparelled in
+the loose great-coat, or _coat-ca-more_, which forms the principal dress
+of the peasantry in that district, stood for some minutes on the
+threshold, an interested but unobserved spectator. When he was
+perceived, many rose to offer him a seat, which he declined, and soon
+all voices joined in a common cry of "Welcome, Captain! A thousand and a
+hundred thousand welcomes!"
+
+The stranger returned the salutation cordially and briefly, and advanced
+gravely and slowly to where the dead man lay. He gazed upon the face for
+some time, and then, laying his hand on that cold, pallid brow, said, in
+a tone of deep, concentrated feeling,--"Farewell, John Sheehan! Yours
+has been a hard fate, but better than remains for us--to be hunted down,
+like wild beasts, and sent, after the mockery of a trial, from the homes
+of our fathers, to a far-off land, where even the slavery they doom us
+to is better than the troubled life we linger in, from which caprice or
+cruelty may hurry us in a moment. Farewell, then; but, by the bright
+Heaven above us, and the green fields around, I swear to know no rest
+until bitter vengeance be taken for this most wanton and barbarous
+murther."
+
+His cheek flushed--his eyes flashed--his frame trembled with strong
+emotion as he sternly made this vow, and, when he ceased to speak, a
+deep "Amen" was murmured all around by the eager-eyed men, who hung upon
+his slightest word with as trusting and entire a faith as ever did the
+followers of the Veiled Prophet upon the mystic revelations which
+promised them glory upon earth, and eternal happiness in heaven! The
+widow, roused from the abstraction of grief by this solemn and striking
+incident, looked the thanks which she then had not voice to utter. When
+the Stranger laid his hand on the orphan's head, and said: "He shall be
+my care, and as I deal by him may God deal by me!" her long-repressed
+tears gushed forth, in a strong hysteric agony, which was not subdued
+until her child was placed within her earnest embrace, and kissed again
+and again--with the widowed mother's solacing thought, there yet
+remained one for whom to live.
+
+Turning from the corpse, the Stranger took his seat among the humble but
+loving people in that lowly cabin. He was of large mould, with a bold,
+quick glance, and an air of intelligence superior to his apparent
+station. It was singular that his appearance among them, while it
+ardently awakened their respectful attention, had chilled and checked
+the company. After a pause, one of them ventured to hint that the first
+allowance of liquor had been drank out, so that "there did not remain an
+eggshellful to drink the health of the Captain." There was a murmur of
+applause at the remark. Thus encouraged, another ventured to suggest
+that a fresh supply be provided, at the general expense of the
+company--the gallantry of the men excepting the fair sex from any share
+in the payment. The necessary amount was speedily collected, and a
+supply of whiskey (which had not condescended to acknowledge the
+reigning dynasty by any contribution to the excise duties) was procured
+from the next _shebeen_--an unlicensed dépôt for the sale of "mountain
+dew,"--and placed upon the table.
+
+The stranger, who had appeared quite unobservant of this proceeding, and
+who--on the principle that "silence gives consent"--had even been
+supposed rather to sanction than condemn it, suddenly interrupted the
+hilarious arrangements thus commenced. He started up and exclaimed--"Is
+it thus, and always thus, that I am to find you?--the slaves and victims
+of your besotted senses. Is there anything to be done? I look for the
+man to do it, and find him sunk in drunkenness. Is a secret to be
+kept?--it is blabbed on the highway, to the ruin of a good cause, by the
+man who suffers drink to steal away his reason. When I lie down to
+sleep, I can dream of ruin only, for this subtle devil can tempt the
+truest into a traitor. And now, with the hour of triumph at hand--the
+rich hope of vengeance near fulfilment--there is not a man among you,
+bound to me as you are, heart and hand, soul and body, who would not
+surrender the victory and the vengeance, if he were only allowed to
+drink on until he had reduced himself to a level with the senseless
+brute. Give me that liquor."
+
+His command was instantly obeyed, for he had rare ascendancy over the
+minds of those who acknowledged him as their leader. Dashing the
+vessel violently on the hard earthen floor, he broke it, and every drop
+of its contents--the "fire-water" of the American aborigines--was
+spilled. "There," he cried, "who serves with me, must obey me. When a
+deed is to be done, I _will_ have obedience. When the deed is
+done--drink, if you will, and when you will. But when service is to be
+performed, you _shall_ be sober."
+
+Not a syllable of dissent--not a murmur of discontent fell from the lips
+of those who heard him. Not a gesture--not a look--indicated anger at
+what he had done.
+
+"Mark me, my lads," he added. "I have arranged all beyond the chance of
+defeat. I have contrived to turn the main strength of the soldiers on a
+wrong scent four miles on the other side of Charleville. I have laid my
+plans so that we cannot be disappointed, except through some fault of
+our own. Let us on to Churchtown Barracks. The sergeant, by whose rash
+and ready hand our friend has died, remains there with a handful of his
+comrades. He was sent thither to escape us. Fools! as if, for those who
+have a wrong to avenge, any spot can be too remote. Let us seize him,
+and give him the doom he gave the innocent. If they resist, we can fire
+the barracks, and burn them in their nest. But they will never be so mad
+as to offer resistance to such a force as ours, when we tell that we
+want only that one man. If they do--their blood be upon their own
+heads. Who joins me? Who will follow to the cry of 'On to Churchtown?'
+Now is the long-desired hour of revenge. Will any lag behind?"
+
+Every man present repeated the cry--"On to Churchtown!" Some of the
+women also joined in it.
+
+The Whiteboys and their leader left the cabin. An ancient crone, almost
+a reputed witch, and certainly known to be by far the oldest woman in
+the district, hobbled after them as far as the door, and threw her shoe
+after them--"for luck!"
+
+Many a "God speed them" was breathed after that company of avengers by
+young and fair women. What Lord Bacon has called "the wild justice of
+revenge," and what America recognizes in the unseen but omnipotent
+incarnation of Judge Lynch, was necessarily the rule of action when
+injured Right took arms against tyrannic Might. Is it surprising that
+such should be the case? If wrongdoers cannot always be rewarded, "each
+according unto his works," within and by the law, why should not their
+impunity be broken down by the rational sense of justice which abides in
+the minds of men?
+
+Forth on their mission, therefore, did the Whiteboys speed. Hurrying
+across the bog, they reached a farm which was almost isolated amid the
+black waste from which it had been indifferently reclaimed. They drew
+muskets, pistols, and pikes from the turf-rick in which they had
+been concealed. Some of them brought old swords, and scythe-blades
+attached to pike-handles (very formidable weapons in the hands of
+strong, angry men), from hiding-places in the bog itself. Stealthily,
+and across by paths unknown to and inaccessible to the military, that
+wild gang, "with whom Revenge was virtue," pushed forward for the attack
+on Churchtown Barracks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE LEADER.
+
+
+Stealthily and in silence the Whiteboys proceeded to the scene of
+intended operation. Not a word was spoken--not a sound heard, except the
+noise of their footsteps whenever they got on the high road. As much as
+possible they avoided the highway, the course which would the soonest
+bring them to the appointed place. It would seem as if their leader had
+bound them together, by some spell peculiarly their own, to yield
+implicit and unquestioned obedience to his imperious will. It strongly
+illustrated the aphorism--
+
+    "Those who think must govern those who toil."
+
+Whoever knows how lively and mercurial is the natural temperament of
+the peasantry in the South of Ireland, must be aware of the difficulty
+of restraining them from loud-voiced talking in the open air; but now
+not one of that large and excited gathering spoke above his breath.
+Their leader commanded them to be silent, and to them his will was law.
+
+Who was that leader? The question involves some mystery which it may be
+as well to unveil before proceeding with the action of this narrative.
+
+Who, and whence was that leader? His birth would have secured him a
+"respectable" station in society, if his wild passions, and the strong
+pressure of Circumstance (that unspiritual god), had not so far
+
+    "Profaned his spirit, sank his brow,"
+
+that the ambition which, under better auspices, might have soared to the
+highest aims, was now directed no farther than to establish an unstable
+dominion over a few wild, uncultivated peasants, who, like fire and
+water, might be excellent servants, but with any opportunity of
+domination would probably prove tyrannic masters. He who would rule the
+rude peasantry of Ireland, must make up his mind to be governed by them
+in turn, whenever _his_ wishes and aims and actions fall short of
+_theirs_. They will go with him while his desires and designs run
+together with their own, but they will speedily leave him behind, or
+force him with them, if they find him less eager than themselves. Even
+under the regular discipline of the army the same may be observed. In
+battle an Irish regiment cannot, or rather will not, understand any
+order to retreat. They repudiate all strategy which even _appears_ to
+withdraw them from
+
+    "The triumph and the vanity,
+    The rapture of the strife,"
+
+and show, by the gallant impetuosity with which they plunge into the
+attack, that their proper action is assault. If so under the harsh
+restrictions of military discipline, what must it be when freed from
+that coercion?
+
+The leader of the Whiteboys in 1822--the veritable CAPTAIN ROCK, whom I
+have introduced at the Wake of the slain John Sheehan--was no common
+man. His birth had been respectable, his education good, his fortune had
+been ample, his mind was affluent in varied and vigorous resources; he
+had formerly won favor and fame from the world's opinion, and few men in
+any country could compete with him in the personal advantages which
+spring from manly beauty of form and feature, activity of body, and a
+strength of frame which literally defied fatigue and over-exertion.
+
+The father of John Cussen was "a gentleman of independent fortune," in
+Irish parlance; that is, had succeeded to a pretty good estate, and
+would have been in easy, if not affluent circumstances, could he have
+realized any thing like the nominal amount of his rent-roll. But there
+were two difficulties, at least. Irish estates have had a fatal facility
+in becoming subjected to such things as mortgages, which relentlessly
+absorb certain annual amounts in the shape of interest, and Irish
+tenants have been apt to cherish the idea that they perform their duty
+towards society in general, and themselves in particular, by paying as
+little rent as possible. Still, though Mr. Cussen's property had
+gradually come under the pressure of these two causes, it yielded an
+income sufficient for his moderate wants. His children had died, one by
+one, in the very bloom and promise of their youth, until, out of a
+numerous family, only one son survived.
+
+This youth, possessing a mind more active and aspirations more ambitious
+than most of his class, disdained the ordinary routine of every-day
+life. It was not difficult to persuade his father to permit him to go
+into the world--the military and naval service, from its danger, being
+the only profession which that doting parent positively forbade him to
+think of. The lad, after wavering for some time, determined to become a
+surgeon, and proceeded to pursue his studies in Dublin.
+
+It would be tedious to narrate into what a circle of extravagance, while
+thus engaged, the young man became gradually involved; it would be
+painful to trace his downward lapse from folly to vice. Sufficient
+to say that, by the time he received his diploma as a surgeon (having
+passed his examinations with unexpected and even distinguished success),
+he had contrived to involve himself so deeply that his paternal property
+had to be additionally mortgaged to relieve him from heavy involvements.
+His father, who might have repudiated the creditors' claims, admitted
+them, without a murmur. Eager to snatch him from the haunts and the
+society by which he had embarrassed his means and injured his health,
+and looking on the military service as a good school of discipline, even
+if it were not free from peril, his father overcame all personal
+scruples, forgave the past, and looking hopefully at the future,
+successfully employed his influence to obtain for him an appointment as
+surgeon to one of the regiments which, just then, had been ordered to
+Belgium, as the re-appearance of Napoleon, and his triumphant progress
+from Elba to Paris--his eagle "flying from steeple to steeple until it
+alighted on the tower of Notre Dame"--had awakened the fears and enmity
+of Europe, bringing once more into action
+
+                                    "All quality,
+    Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war."
+
+It was John Cussen's fortune to reach the scene of warfare in time to
+witness the deadly struggle at Waterloo. But it was his hap, also, to do
+more than witness it. He performed an act of heroism on the field,
+which not only gained him high and merited praise, but had powerful
+influence upon his future prospects.
+
+Military discipline very properly provides that the surgeons of a
+regiment shall not take part in any engagement on the field. The lives
+of so many may depend upon the skill of even a single surgeon that it
+would be inconvenient, to say the best of it, if, when his aid were
+promptly required, during an encounter, it were found that he had
+allowed his ardor to carry him into the actual peril of the strife.
+
+Cussen was sufficiently near to witness the greater part of the contest
+on the day of Waterloo. It was not without difficulty that his quick
+Irish spirit could control the almost overwhelming desire to plunge into
+the middle of the contest--which, on that day, had more single
+encounters than any since Poictiers and Agincourt. As he stood outside a
+tent which had been placed for the use of the medical staff, in the rear
+of the British position, he observed an English officer, on an
+unmanageable charger (bearing him along with an impetuous speed, which,
+having received a severe wound in the bridle-arm, he could neither
+control nor check), followed by a French cuirassier, who had nearly
+overtaken him. Another moment and the uplifted sabre would have struck
+the helpless man to the ground. Cussen rushed forward, literally tore
+the Frenchman from his saddle, by main strength, and, wresting the
+sword from his hand, gave him a death-wound. Quick as thought, turning
+from the fallen foe and bounding forward with an agility which he had
+acquired on his native hills, Cussen followed the swift horse, and
+succeeded, by a strong and overmastering grasp, in checking its speed.
+In its rider, he recognized his own Colonel, whose life he had thus
+doubly saved, and received a grateful assurance that his service should
+not be forgotten.
+
+Having dressed the Colonel's wounds, Cussen resumed his position in the
+rear.--But inaction was terrible to one whose spirit had been awakened
+to the excitement before him--for "quiet to quick bosoms is a bane."
+Nearer and nearer became his involuntary approach to that part of the
+place in which the contest was hotly proceeding. At last, unable any
+longer to resist the passionate impulse, he mounted on one of the many
+war-steeds which were wildly galloping over the battle-field, caught the
+eye of the officer whom he had rescued, rushed forward to join the
+_mêlée_, and bravely fought side by side with him, when the "Up, Guards,
+and at them!" of Wellington urged on the soldiers to that last terrific
+charge which shook the imperial diadem from the brow of the first
+Napoleon.
+
+A gallant deed, even though it violate the strict rules of military
+discipline, is not considered a very heinous offence by any commander.
+So, while his Colonel hailed John Cussen as preserver, the brief lapse
+of duty as a surgeon was forgiven, in consideration of his chivalry as a
+soldier.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE.
+
+
+The war ended. Napoleon fell. St. Helena received the imperial exile. On
+this lonely rock, far out in the Atlantic, the chained Prometheus
+suffered a punishment worse than death--Sir Hudson Lowe being the
+vulture which continually struck, to prey upon, his heart.
+
+The conclusion of the war influenced the fortunes of others besides its
+greatest victim. The battalion in which Cussen had served was reduced,
+and, with many others, his occupation was gone. While yet uncertain what
+course to pursue, he received an invitation from his late Colonel, very
+urgently pressing him to visit the veteran at his country seat in
+Hampshire; and thither he proceeded.
+
+Cussen, it may here be stated, was what old crones (who are good judges
+of such things, knowing "a hawk from a hernshaw") would simply and
+expressively describe as "a very personable man." He was in the spring
+of early manhood. He had the advantage, whatever _that_ might be, of
+gentle blood; he had received a good education; he had distinguished
+himself in the greatest battle of the age; above all, he had saved the
+life of the gallant officer whose guest he was. What wonder, therefore,
+if, before he had been quite a month at Walton Hall, the bright eyes of
+Miss Walton beamed yet more brightly when they met his admiring glances.
+
+The lady was young--not decidedly lovely, perhaps, but that most
+charming of all charming creatures, a thoroughly English beauty. She
+might not immediately dazzle, but she was sure always to delight. It was
+impossible to see and not admire her. Besides, she had been largely
+endowed with intellect by bounteous nature, and had also been well
+educated, carefully rather than brilliantly. With an undeniable dash of
+romance in her character, she was so pure in heart and thought, that the
+very novelty of _such_ purity threw such a spell of enchantment upon the
+fevered passion of John Cussen, that literally, for the first time in
+his life, his soul was subdued into a tenderness which contrasted
+strangely, but not unpleasantly, with the wild tumults--rather of sense
+than soul--which, in former days, he had been wont to dignify with the
+name of Love.
+
+When he ascertained such to be the state of his own feelings, he became
+very anxious to learn whether Alice Walton was affected in like manner.
+Her impressions appeared to be very much as he desired, for, kissing
+that fair cheek, which
+
+    "Blushed at the praise of its own loveliness,"
+
+and whispering hope to her anxious ear, he proceeded to explain to her
+father all that he felt--to solicit his sanction for the love which, but
+just confessed to each other, had suddenly been matured by that
+confession into a passion at once deep and ardent.
+
+Alice Walton was an only child. What other result, then, can be
+anticipated than the usual one--the favorable reception of the avowal
+made by Cussen? Affection raises few difficulties where the happiness of
+the beloved is felt to be deeply involved. It is questionable whether,
+on that evening, a happier group could have been found anywhere within
+the limits of "merry England." The old soldier, pleased with the
+opportunity of keeping his gallant preserver with him while also
+securing the happiness of his daughter;--the young man exulting in his
+conquest, proud of the personal and mental endowments of his lady-love,
+and firmly resolving never to give her any cause to repent having
+yielded to the trusting affection which her guileless nature had formed
+for him;--the maiden herself, with the daydream of love making an almost
+visible atmosphere of joy around her heart, softly yielded to glad and
+genial anticipations of a happy future. Well is it that Woman's heart
+can thus luxuriate in imagination, for, in many cases, the romance of
+their love is far brighter than the reality ever proves to be.
+
+Some arrangements which were to be made respecting his family property,
+and a natural desire personally to communicate his favorable prospects
+to his father, required that Cussen, now an accepted suitor, should
+proceed to Ireland for a short time.
+
+Imagine the parting. The endearing caresses--the gentle beseechings for
+full and frequent letters--the soft promises as to faithful
+remembrances--the whispers of that mutual affection upon which a few
+brief months would put the seal--and the "Farewell," which, though dewed
+with tears, had not very much of real sorrow in it, so sweetly did it
+realize the expressive lines of the poet, of the parting, though sad,
+which
+
+    "Brought the hope that the morrow
+    Would bring back the blest hour of meeting again!"
+
+Cussen arrived in Ireland just in time to see his father die, and to
+learn that old involvements, and the early extravagance in which himself
+had rioted, had reduced their estate to a nominal income. The greater
+part of its produce had been swallowed up by interest payable to the
+mortgagees, who, from time to time, had advanced money on the property.
+In this dilemma, Cussen did, from impulse, what, had he acted simply on
+calculation only, would have been the very best thing for him. Without
+loss of time, he frankly communicated with Colonel Walton on this
+unpromising condition and aspect of his affairs and prospects--assured
+him that, when he sued for his daughter's hand, he had not the least
+idea that he was so near the condition of a ruined man--that his father,
+when discharging the liabilities in which his early extravagance had
+involved him, had never breathed a syllable of the price at which they
+were to be swept away--that, almost beggared as he now was, he felt
+himself, in a worldly point of view, anything but a match for Alice--and
+that, while, with a breaking heart, he absolved her from the tender vows
+which she had made, he still cherished a hope that even yet, pass a few
+years, he might be able to achieve a position, by the exercise of his
+talents, which, once again, would permit him, on a more equal footing
+than at present, to solicit a renewal of their betrothal. The Colonel
+was brief and decisive. He thanked Cussen for his frank and honourable
+conduct, assuring him that Alice, as well as himself, fully appreciated
+his motives; declared that for his daughter's sake, as well as his own,
+he was unwilling to relinquish the intended alliance with his preserver
+and friend; and liberally gave the kindest promises of such full and
+immediate assistance as would speedily relieve the estate from its
+encumbrances--should it indeed be thought expedient to retain it, the
+reversion of the invaluable Walton Hall property inalienably belonging
+to Alice.
+
+Before, by the fulfilment of this promise, Cussen's brighter prospects
+could be realized, "the tenth wave of human misery swept" over his
+heart. There came a sad reverse. I am acquainted with all the details,
+but they are too melancholy to be related here. Let it be sufficient to
+say that Alice Walton and her father met with a sudden and tragic doom.
+By an accident, the origin of which was suspected, but never
+ascertained, their residence was consumed by fire--father and daughter
+perishing in the flames. The estate passed, in due course of law, to the
+next of kin, with whom Cussen had no acquaintance, and upon whom he had
+no claim. In due course of law, also, the mortgages on Cussen's own
+property were foreclosed. He was a ruined man.
+
+The cup of misery overflowed. Very bitter did Cussen find the draught.
+Hopes blighted--the golden promise of his young manhood wholly
+destroyed--station utterly lost--Poverty with her feet upon his
+hearthstone--all that made the value of life swept away at once. Amid
+the maddening whirl of such contending emotions as this desolation
+caused, no wonder if even his strong mind and large frame bowed beneath
+the shock.
+
+Months passed by, and bodily health was in a measure restored. But the
+mind did not recover its elastic spring. Sunk in the torpor of despair,
+John Cussen was a broken man. Then came the reaction, after a time, and
+then he awoke to the sad reality of life. Better far had he continued
+unconscious or despairing. He might have been miserable, but he would
+have been unstained by guilt. Gradually, he found a Lethe for his sad
+thoughts, by passing "the Rubicon of the cup." At first, while this was
+being done in secret, the neighboring gentry made many efforts to
+arrange his affairs, liberate him from his more pressing pecuniary
+involvements, and give him the opportunity of realizing an adequate
+income by the practice of his profession. Each proffered kindness was
+rejected. He sat, another Timon, with his household gods shivered around
+him.
+
+This could not long continue--for man cannot live without society. By
+degrees Cussen returned to the haunts and the companionship of man. Had
+he kept within the pale of his own class, perhaps all might still have
+been well. But a change had passed over and darkened his mind. He
+fancied that scorn sat upon the lip and glanced from the eye of every
+one more wealthy than himself, and thus Pride guided the arrow which
+Poverty barbed. He shunned the society of those to whom, in all save
+wealth, he had been equal, at the very least, and he found a consolation
+in the company of those who, remembering his birth (and in no place is
+that memory so well retained as in Ireland), would have considered him
+as their superior, even if, like them, he had to till the earth for a
+bare subsistence. Thus, by a slow but certain process of deterioration,
+John Cussen--once the pride of the order of fashion and wealth in his
+native country--gradually became the associate of the ignorant and
+excitable peasantry.
+
+Mixing with these poor people,--then, as ever, dissatisfied with their
+condition, and eagerly anxious for any change which seemed to promise
+better days and brighter fortunes,--Cussen soon became thoroughly
+identified with their feelings. Hating oppression, believing that the
+peasantry were greatly wronged by absentee landlords, oppressive
+middlemen, and an exacting "Church as by law established," he allowed
+himself to be seduced into the secret and illegal association of the
+Whiteboys. The homage which they paid to his birth and education, gave
+him more satisfaction than, at first, he ventured to own, even to
+himself. His pride was soothed by finding himself yet looked up to by
+any class. The energy of his character returned (in part), and assuming
+strong and unquestioned command over the disaffected peasantry, he
+became one of their most powerful leaders. Quick in mental resources,
+superior in physical strength, his influence over his followers was very
+great. Entire obedience was yielded to his commands, and (as in the
+present instance, when he undertook to lead the attack upon Churchtown
+Barracks) his presence was deemed sufficient to insure the success of
+any enterprise, however daring. In all this, however, it is scarcely
+doubtful that John Cussen's actions were those of a man whose mind had
+lost its balance. Sorrow and suffering had touched his brain, and
+perhaps _this_ was the vent which prevented actual insanity.
+
+There was "method in his madness," however, for when he entered upon
+this wild and secret career, he took care that the movements which he
+personally guided should be remote from that part of the country in
+which he was best known. He strictly forbade any of his troops to
+indulge in drink, whenever their co-operation was required, and on all
+expeditions which he personally led (chiefly for the purpose of
+obtaining fire-arms from the houses of country gentlemen) he suited his
+attire to that of his companions, and so complete was the disguise, that
+none could recognize John Cussen as the dreaded Captain Rock, who
+scattered terror wherever he moved.
+
+The remarkable fidelity which the Irish peasantry make it at once a
+matter of duty and pride to pay to their leaders against the law, was
+Cussen's chief protection. His secret was well kept. None of the gentry
+of the county had the slightest suspicion that Cussen, in whom many of
+them still professed to take an interest, was in any way mixed up--far
+less as a leader--with the Whiteboy movements which caused them so much
+alarm.
+
+Such was John Cussen, whom we left leading a goodly company of
+Whiteboys to the attack on Churchtown Barracks, a military position of
+much strength and some importance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE ATTACK ON CHURCHTOWN BARRACKS.
+
+
+The Whiteboys, and their leader, reached Churchtown Barracks about
+midnight. All was silent when they arrived, except the measured step of
+the sentinel. Darkness covered all things as with a pall. But Cussen
+knew every inch of the ground, and the darkness, instead of being an
+impediment, was rather auxiliary to his purpose. He posted his men in a
+favorable position, and, within ten minutes of their arrival, everything
+was ready, and every one fully instructed as to his particular line of
+action, and was prepared for the manner of the attack.
+
+Churchtown Barracks, in the centre of a very disturbed district, had
+formerly been the residence of a private gentleman. When life and
+property had become insecure, afraid of the doom of Major Going, he had
+fled the country. Major Going, who had been not only agent to the great
+Courtenay estates (Lord Devon's), but also a magistrate, had made
+himself unpopular in both capacities. He _would_ have the rent duly
+paid at the appointed day, and he sometimes went out of his way, from
+excess of zeal, to show his vigilance as a dispenser of justice, under
+the law. After many warnings, which only made him more exacting and more
+severe, he was assassinated. His successor, a gentleman named Hoskins,
+followed the same track--dignified by the name of "the path of
+duty,"--and shared the same doom. Not without warning, for, weeks before
+that doom was inflicted, he had heard even his own laborers chaunt the
+Whiteboy doggerel--
+
+    "Hoskins and Going
+      Are nearly one,--
+    Hoskins is GOING,
+      And Going is GONE!"
+
+The noon-day assassination of two such active magistrates, and the
+increase of predial insurrection in the counties of Cork and Limerick,
+so imperatively called for the allocation of a large and permanent
+military force at places in or near the disturbed localities, that the
+Irish Government gladly occupied Churchtown House, at a high rent, as
+temporary barracks. For some months previous to the night when Cussen
+and his men appeared before it, several companies of infantry, and two
+troops of cavalry, had been stationed at Churchtown, whence, on the
+requisition of a magistrate, detachments might be detailed for duty, in
+more or less force, as circumstances might appear to require.
+
+With the strategy of a clever leader, Cussen had contrived to render the
+place comparatively defenceless, by having notices sent to the officer
+left in command, that there was to be a midnight assemblage of Whiteboys
+on the other side of Charleville, and that an attack, to obtain arms,
+was to be made on a gentleman's residence not far beyond. A strong
+detachment of infantry and cavalry was sent off, to arrest the midnight
+conclave, and to defend the house which was to be the object of attack.
+
+The notice which thus put the authorities on the _qui vive_ came from a
+schoolmaster, who was deeply involved in the conspiracy of the
+Whiteboys, and was also in the pay of Government, as a spy. He had
+repeatedly given information to the military. It had been remarked,
+however,--but more as a matter of curiosity than suspicion,--that while
+they rarely gained anything but fatigue from sallies made at his
+instigation, they never had been successful, but that outrages were
+pretty sure to be committed, at the same time, in a quarter opposite to
+that which he had suggested. In truth, he was a Whiteboy to the
+backbone, and a traitor to the authorities who employed him. But, like
+most of the peasantry of Limerick county, he was so very plausible in
+manmer, stolid in countenance, and impenetrable in well-acted simplicity
+of speech and act, that his fidelity was not distrusted by the
+magistracy or the military. The police did not think well of him.
+
+The military force at Churchtown was large enough to be under the
+command of a Field Officer. On this occasion Major White, to whom that
+responsible post had been intrusted, deemed the information sufficiently
+important to place most of his men on active duty. There remained in the
+barrack a few dragoons, a score of infantry, and one subaltern officer.
+
+Hastily as Churchtown House had been converted into a military station,
+care had been taken to make it assume something of a garrison
+appearance. A stone wall had been erected all around the building,
+inclosing sufficient space as a barrack-yard, in which the soldiers
+might attend drill, and go through their exercises. This wall was
+somewhat more than breast high. As there was a strong gate at each side,
+the place was considered quite able to resist any Whiteboy attack. But,
+indeed, such an act of daring had never been anticipated. Who could
+dream that those who dreaded the lion's paw would voluntarily rush into
+his mouth?
+
+Having arranged his men for the attack, Cussen did not long keep them
+inactive. He gave the word, and a volley of slugs rattled against the
+barrack windows. The alarm was as immediate as the attack was sudden.
+The soldiers hastily snatched up their arms, hurried to the windows to
+observe whence came the assault, and were "picked out" by the quick
+sight and sure aim of the assailants, so that some were wounded in their
+very sleeping-rooms. Moving before the lights in those apartments, the
+soldiers were palpable objects to the armed men outside.
+
+In a few minutes, the soldiers were arranged in the barrack-yard,
+startled at the unexpected peril, and ready for defence. At that
+instant, while awaiting the orders of their officer, a second volley was
+fired upon them, and with fatal effect. The young subaltern on
+duty--bewildered by the suddenness and manner of this attack--"lost his
+head," as the saying is, and hurriedly gave the order to "Fire!"
+Becoming rather accustomed to the darkness, the soldiers fancied that
+they saw their assailants outside, partly concealed behind the _front_
+wall. Each soldier aiming at what he imagined to be the head of an
+enemy, a straggling peal of musketry followed. The soldiers shouted, and
+were about re-loading, when, with fatal precision, a third shower of
+slugs and ball, from the Whiteboys, did tremendous execution among them.
+The beleaguered soldiers even then had not ascertained from what quarter
+destruction was thus fiercely poured in upon them.
+
+Notwithstanding, they bore themselves gallantly. Men who had faced
+death, in its worst form, on the field of battle, a few years before,
+were not likely to quail before such foes as they knew must now be
+before them. The suspense was worse than the reality, for their
+ignorance of the number and position of their assailants, caused doubts
+more dreadful than would have been the actual knowledge of an
+ascertained peril.
+
+With as little delay as possible, but still only at a venture, the
+soldiers fired a second time. Their fire was immediately returned. By
+this time, six soldiers were killed, and ten lay severely wounded on the
+ground. Their officer--a gallant youth who had been at school six months
+before--was shocked and surprised at seeing his men thus dropping around
+him, taken in a trap, as it were, and shot at like so many marks.
+Feeling that it was madness to remain in their exposed situation, and
+anxious to give his men a chance for their lives, he ordered them to
+throw open the gates, and sally out to meet their enemies face to face,
+and die--if die they must--in a contest of man to man and hand to hand.
+
+Accordingly, the much-thinned military array, literally
+
+    "Few, and faint, but fearless still,"
+
+divided itself--but the alarm and surprise were great when they found it
+impossible to open either of the gates. In fact, aware that these gates
+had been absurdly constructed and hung to open _out of_, instead of
+_into_, the barrack-yard, and anticipating the attempt to pass through
+them, Cussen had made one of his few preliminary preparations to
+consist of the heaping huge masses of rock against them, so as to
+prevent their being opened to allow egress to the besieged soldiers.
+
+This disappointment drove the military to desperation. When another
+volley from without struck down two more of them, the remnant of the
+party were quite bewildered, and would have fled back into cover, on the
+_sauve qui peut_ principle, if their officer, as a last resource, had
+not ordered them to scale the walls, and boldly meet rather than
+fearfully retreat from the imminent peril.
+
+As with one impulse, rushing forward, they rapidly crossed the front
+wall. Here was a new cause for wonder. They found that they had hitherto
+been wasting their fire. Cussen, to baffle his opponents, had placed his
+men behind each _side_ wall, while, as a decoy, he had made them put
+their hats on that in _front_. Thus, while the fire of the Whiteboys was
+masked, that of the military was thrown away upon the range of hats in
+front, which were easily mistaken for men behind the parapet. It was a
+clever strategy.
+
+When the soldiers dashed over the barrack-wall, they discovered the
+trick. The Whiteboys then rushed round from their concealment. A
+struggle ensued. Both parties were highly infuriated--one with triumph,
+the other with rage. The contest, though destructive, was not of many
+minutes' continuance. Desperate as was the bravery of the soldiers, the
+overpowering force and courage of their opponents were resistless. The
+soldiers had no alternative but to demand quarter. At that word, Cussen
+instantly gave orders that the contest should cease. Scarcely any of his
+party had even been wounded, while, on the other side, the young officer
+was the only one unharmed. The sergeant who had shot Sheehan (as related
+in the first chapter) was mortally wounded, and lay in the barrack-yard,
+writhing in agony.
+
+By this time, the barrack had been set fire to, and the flames raged
+fiercely. Dismayed, defeated, and surrounded by their opponents, the
+soldiers were grouped together on one side. Some twenty or thirty
+Whiteboys had gathered around the dying sergeant, watching his agonies
+with fiendish joy. "In with him! in with him to the fire! Burn him--burn
+the murderer alive!" were exclamations which burst from their lips, and
+made the doomed man shudder as he heard. Cussen stood a little aloof
+from all; one might have almost taken him for an unconcerned looker-on,
+as he carelessly stood with his arms folded, a close-fitting skull-cap
+of dark fur upon his head, and a narrow slip of crape concealing the
+upper part of his face. When the Whiteboys seized the sergeant, with the
+avowed intent of casting him into the flames, the young officer
+addressed Cussen, and earnestly entreated him to prevent so dreadful a
+deed. "My men have fallen," he said, "but I do not know why they were
+attacked. For the love of heaven, do not allow this wretched man to
+suffer such a death, in cold blood. Besides, he has a mortal wound. If
+they want his death, a few hours, at the farthest, will gratify them. Do
+not let him perish thus."
+
+Cussen answered: "My men came here for revenge upon that man, and I can
+scarcely prevent their taking it to the fullest. He deserves his death.
+Blood for blood! When he shot an innocent, unoffending man, as if he
+were a dog, he drew this vengeance on himself. Still, it need not be
+pushed to the extremity they call for. A life for a life is all that can
+reasonably be required. But--what cries are those?"
+
+Turning round, he saw that the flames had now reached the stables in
+which the horses of the dragoons were. The poor animals were driven
+almost to madness by fear, and their dreadful cries came shrilly and
+fearfully upon the ear, filling with awe the breasts of those wild men,
+who, while human agony appealed in vain, shuddered at this painful
+manifestation of deep suffering by the brute creation. Help was out of
+the question, as the flames spread too rapidly for assistance to be
+rendered. The poor animals were literally burned alive, amid the loudly
+expressed pity of the beholders.
+
+From this tragedy they turned to the wounded sergeant. He had breathed
+his last while this scene had engaged their attention. They would not
+be cheated out of their revenge. With a yell of triumph, they cast his
+corpse into the flames, amid a thousand execrations.
+
+They thus had accomplished their work. Cussen turned to the young
+officer and said: "You are free; but you must pledge me your word that
+if you have any personal knowledge of me, or think that you have, you
+will never take advantage of it." This pledge the officer firmly
+declined giving. Cussen paused for a few seconds, and replied that it
+did not matter: he would draw off his men. Giving the word, they marched
+off in good order--were soon out of sight, and the smoking ruins and
+diminished force remained as evidence of that night's tale of ruin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE ATTACK ON ROSSMORE.
+
+
+The news that Churchtown Barracks had been burned down, and the greater
+portion of its military defenders killed, spread, like wildfire, through
+all parts of the kingdom. Magisterial and military inquiries did no more
+than ascertain the facts, but the persons remained undiscovered. Many
+were arrested on suspicion, but the actual perpetrators escaped. The
+policy used was to collect them from distant points, so that domiciliary
+visits from the patrols and the police in the neighbourhood where the
+outrage had been committed found the peasantry within their own
+habitations. Thus suspicion was diverted and detection almost
+impossible--except by treachery.
+
+Viewed through the magnifying glass of public rumor, the affair at
+Churchtown appeared very great. In the dearth of more interesting
+intelligence, it was such an event as the wonder-workers of the Press
+delighted to snatch up as an especial theme for record and remark. The
+London newspapers especially gloated over it. Day after day their
+columns were filled with "important particulars of the massacre at
+Churchtown, where the Irish rebels, in overpowering numbers, killed a
+regiment of infantry and two troops of cavalry, burned the barracks to
+the ground, and barbarously threw the soldiers' wives and children into
+the flames, in which they were all consumed by the devouring element."
+The affray was repeatedly mentioned in Parliament, where the changes
+rung upon it produced quite a _variorum_ edition of horrors.
+
+The Executive offered large rewards for such information as might lead
+to the apprehension and conviction of the offenders. Though the required
+knowledge was scattered among hundreds of the peasantry--hunger-stricken
+men, who often wanted even salt to their potatoes--not one was found to
+enrich himself by the "blood-money." Two descriptions of persons are
+held in utter hatred and contempt in Ireland;--the man who, for lucre,
+turns from the ancient faith of his fathers, and he who becomes a "stag"
+(informer) to save his own neck, or gain the wages of treachery. Of the
+two, the informer is considered more harshly than the apostate, who may
+repent, and in the fulness of time return (even on his death-bed) to the
+faith he has forsaken; but once that a man becomes a traitor to his
+colleagues, he does what cannot be undone by any contrition, and may be
+punished, but cannot be atoned for by Death. It is a strange condition
+of society, lamented by O'Connell, Sheil, and others, that, in any
+cases, while the Irish peasantry would pity, and even shield the
+murderer, (finding or making excuses for his crime,) they will not,
+they cannot pardon or excuse the informer.
+
+Up to this time, Cussen had escaped suspicion of any participation in
+the Whiteboy proceedings. Latterly, whether from distaste for the low
+companionship into which he had fallen, or from a desire to elude
+suspicion, he had made a point of frequenting society of a better order.
+On one of these occasions, while he was spending the evening at the
+house of Mr. F. Drew, Drewscourt, near Charleville,(in which, by the
+way, the writer of these Sketches was born,) the affair of Churchtown
+became a subject of conversation. Cussen took no part in the dialogue,
+but when all had retired, except Mr. Drew--a very shrewd but eccentric
+man--he spoke freely upon the subject, and having drank rather more than
+was good for him, got thrown off his guard so much as, in the excitement
+of the moment, to give a minute account of everything which had passed
+on the memorable night in question. With fearful energy he narrated all
+the details, and at the close, when he told how the mutilated body of
+the sergeant had been cast into the flames,
+
+    "Even in his glance, the gladiator spoke."
+
+The impression which his statement and his manner made upon his listener
+was (as Frank Drew told me afterwards) that Cussen must have been a
+principal in the frightful scenes which he so vividly described, or
+must have had his information direct from an eye-witness and
+participant. As the communication had been unguardedly made, and was
+protected by the seal of that confidence which exists between guest and
+host, the suspicion never found words until after it was too late to
+harm Cussen.
+
+The Churchtown insurgents remained undetected. Emboldened by success,
+Cussen determined to make a bold attempt to obtain arms. His followers
+strongly urged him to obtain fire-arms by attacks on the houses of
+country gentlemen who were known to have provided themselves with large
+means of defence.
+
+Castletown Conyers (about three miles from Drewscourt) was the country
+mansion of a gentleman of large property, not far from the boundary of
+Limerick county. Mr. Conyers, an old gentleman whose loyalty and fears
+were on a par, was living, when the predial disturbances broke out, in a
+remote part of the county, and, having incontinently taken fright, had
+applied to the Government for protection, and had a corporal and six of
+the Rifle Brigade quartered in his house as a defensive force. Thus
+garrisoned, the place might be considered a stronghold;--for, in
+addition to the military force, Mr. Conyers had procured two or three
+cases of Birmingham fowling-pieces, a few kegs of powder, a large bag of
+flints (this was before the general use of percussion caps), and a
+hundred weight of sheet lead, to be cast into bullets.
+
+This formidable supply of arms and ammunition had reached Castletown
+under strong military escort from Limerick, and report spoke of it as
+even more considerable than it really was. With these munitions of war,
+and the soldiers and the servants of the house, Castletown was one of
+the most formidable places the Whiteboys could have thought of
+attacking. Yet, with that characteristic, but calculating boldness,
+which gave him eminence with his followers,
+
+    "For those who THINK must rule o'er those who TOIL,"
+
+Cussen determined to invest this fortilage. The arms and ammunition were
+what he wanted, for no one could harbor enmity against the owner of
+Castletown, a harmless, neutral character, whose house was open to the
+poor; while his wife, a matron of the olden school (she was half-sister
+to Sir John Fitzgerald, now M. P. for Clare), was beloved throughout the
+district, for her kindness and charity.
+
+Cussen well knew that his party, numerous but badly armed, would have
+but small chance of success in an ordinary attack upon Castletown, well
+defended as it was. He determined to win by strategy what he could
+scarcely gain by force. He usually preferred such exploits as could be
+achieved rather by mental ingenuity than mere physical effect. To figure
+as the contriver gratified him, and encouraged his followers' belief
+that, no matter what the difficulty, his sagacity could bring it through
+with success.
+
+About a mile from Castletown, and yet more remote from other large
+houses--for it was in a part of the country half-bog, half-mountain--was
+Rossmore, the residence of Mr. John Shelton, owner of a considerable
+property. Long confined to his chair by gout, which had deprived him of
+the power of walking, he had not taken any part in the county
+proceedings, as a magistrate. Nor, while other resident landlords were
+soliciting assistance to protect their dwellings, had Mr. Shelton joined
+in the entreaty. Isolated by habits and local situation, from the gentry
+of the district, he believed that the Whiteboys would not obtrude on the
+obscurity of one who felt that, as a good landlord, he did not deserve
+ill at the hands of any one. Of his large family there were then
+residing with him a son aged about eighteen, and two daughters some
+years older. As Mr. Shelton was my own uncle, I can speak confidently as
+to the details which I give.
+
+About ten o'clock, on a fine evening in March, 1822, the peaceful
+inhabitants of Rossmore House were disturbed by a Whiteboy visit. The
+doors were speedily forced in, front and rear. The helpless
+household offering no resistance, the intruders proceeded to make
+themselves quite "at home." One division sat down in the servants' hall,
+threw wood and turf on the fire, and commanded the trembling female
+servants to cover the long table with provisions. Others ranged through
+the adjacent apartments in search of arms. More loudly called out for
+young Charles Shelton. The plan of Cussen was to take this lad to
+Castletown a prisoner, and threaten to shoot him in sight of the
+garrison there, unless all the arms and ammunition were given up. The
+two families were on such friendly terms, besides being related, that
+Cussen made sure of Mr. Conyers making any sacrifice rather than see his
+neighbor's son killed. But, in very truth, (as I afterwards knew,)
+whatever Mr. Conyers might have felt, the military force at Castletown
+would rather have permitted the murder than part with the means of
+defence--the catastrophe at Churchtown being in their minds.
+
+Charles Shelton, who slept in an upper and remote apartment, did not
+immediately hear the tumult below. His elder sister, Alicia, who had
+high spirit and much self-possession, heard the clamour--readily
+surmised the extreme danger of her brother--hastily arose, throwing a
+shawl over her night dress--ran to her brother's room, the door of which
+she locked, securing the key--and then went down boldly to face the
+danger, if necessary.
+
+While she stood near the door of the servants' hall, regarding what was
+going on, but herself unseen, Cussen came in from the back-yard, having
+kept aloof from the confusion until then. He was just in time. The
+frightened servants, in compliance with loud demands for drink, had
+placed the whiskey-jar upon the table. Knowing that success, and even
+safety depended on such indulgence being abstained from, he broke the
+jar with the fowling-piece he carried.
+
+His men looked at each other, then at him, but his stern looks awed
+them. One or two merely muttered a regret that "such prime stuff" should
+be wasted.
+
+Cussen then, as if anxious to avoid all chance of recognition, returned
+to the back of the house. He wore a close-fitting skull-cap, with a slip
+of crape in front, and could see whatever occurred. His followers were
+more or less disguised, and all, except Cussen, had white shirts over
+their garments--hence the name Whiteboy.
+
+Perceiving the power of his leadership, Alicia Shelton determined not to
+waste words or time in entreaties on the men, but to appeal at once to
+Cussen. She managed to leave the house without being noticed--found
+Cussen outside, leaning on his fowling-piece, in a thoughtful and
+abstracted mood. To throw herself on her knees before him--to implore
+him for the love of Heaven to save her brother's life--was the
+impulsive action of a moment. He turned away, not even looking upon her,
+and then--the present peril giving her new energy and courage--she
+seized him by the coat-skirt and earnestly said, "You want to take my
+brother to Castletown. There they will see him torn to pieces before
+they will surrender their arms. You must know that it will be an idle
+attempt. Then, in their disappointment, your men will kill him. Save
+him--save my brother, if you have a human heart. I know that you will do
+it, and I will bless you if you do."
+
+She sank on the ground before him. He felt that she was speaking the
+truth. Besides, he was moved by her entreaty. Raising her from the
+ground, he said, in a kind and soothing manner, "Lady! I am afraid that
+we must have your brother's company, but no harm shall reach him with my
+consent."
+
+Her convulsive grasp still held him. Striving to extricate himself, he
+got into the moonlight, and then, for the first time, he had a view of
+her features. She was very handsome; and now, with her dark hair
+dishevelled, her eager glance, her graceful attitude, her earnest tone,
+her light attire, she looked a Pythoness.
+
+Cussen gazed long and anxiously on the still kneeling suppliant. Some
+old memory may have passed through his mind in that brief space--a wave
+in life's vast ocean. Perhaps some resemblance of form, feature, or
+voice brought back a glimpse of bygone days of happiness and love. There
+still was something tender in that troubled heart. He passed his hands
+across his eyes, as if he would clear them from a mist, and then with a
+gentle courtesy, as if they were in a ball-room, raised Miss Shelton
+from the ground.
+
+"Lady," said he, "whatever I can do to aid you, I will do. They have not
+yet found your brother. If he be concealed, keep him so, and I will make
+some pretext to draw off my men. They must have whatever arms are in the
+house; but they shall be content with that."
+
+Miss Shelton would have expressed her warm gratitude, but Cussen did not
+wait to be thanked. He turned away then. While she yet lingered, with
+clasped hands to heaven, he suddenly returned, politely raised his cap
+from his head for a moment, took one of her hands in his, pressed his
+lips to it, with the gallant air of a cavalier, and then withdrew.
+Almost before Alicia Shelton had regained her own apartments, Cussen had
+given his men the word to retire. He led them into the belief that the
+military and police were approaching, and this made them hastily retreat
+and disperse, taking with them all the arms in the house except a small
+pair of pistols which Captain Shelton had picked up and brought away
+with him from Waterloo. They are now in my own possession.
+
+Before Miss Shelton had risen from her earnest thanksgiving for her
+brother's safety, Captain Rock and his force had departed. She then
+ventured into her father's room, from whence his bodily ailments did not
+allow him to move, and was happy to learn that he had not heard the
+tumult which had prevailed in the more distant part of the house. Thus
+terminated a night of terror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE TRIAL.
+
+
+Much alarm was created, through the county of Limerick, by the attack
+upon Mr. Shelton of Rossmore. The neighbouring gentry argued from it,
+and not without cause, that if a gentleman whose advanced years and
+bodily ailments had kept him aloof from the actual exercise of his
+magisterial functions, were thus singled out, there was little hope for
+escape for those who had made themselves marked men, by determined and
+acknowledged resistance to and denunciation of the Whiteboys
+Accordingly, zeal being now quickened by fear for personal safety, it
+was resolved that neither trouble nor expense be spared to discover the
+persons implicated in this last affair. Many circumstances tended to
+establish a conviction that the leader of the Whiteboys must be some one
+greatly superior to those whom he commanded. The brief conversation
+which had been held with the officer at Churchtown, and Miss Shelton at
+Rossmore, almost proved that one and the same person had commanded on
+both occasions,--that he was a man of education and gentle bearing,--and
+that it was necessary, above all, if the insurrectionary conspiracy was
+to be put down, to strike at him, its life and soul.
+
+Weeks passed by, and though many were suspected, and several taken into
+custody by the police, no clue to the discovery of the veritable Captain
+Rock was yet discovered. At last, one of the persons apprehended on
+suspicion--faint-hearted as a weak woman, and far less faithful--let
+fall some words which first excited suspicion against John Cussen. No
+notice appeared to be taken of them at the time, but the prisoner, who
+was kept in solitary confinement for some time, was gradually worked
+upon by promises of large payment in the event of the conviction of the
+actual leader of the Whiteboys. He vacillated between cupidity and fear
+of his own personal safety. At last, he _stagged_--that is, he gave
+some information, on the solemn promise that his having done so should
+never transpire, that he should not be required to give any evidence in
+public, and that he should immediately be conveyed out of the country
+for safety.
+
+At first, the magistrates hesitated to believe that John Cussen could be
+concerned in the outrages which had spread alarm far and near, and
+directed particular inquiries to be made respecting his habits, way of
+living, haunts, occupation, and companions. They ascertained, from this
+scrutiny and espial, the fact of his frequent absences from home at
+night; they obtained proof of his having been seen, within the
+prohibited hours, in remote places where outrages had been committed;
+and the conviction came upon their minds that Cussen, and none other,
+was the much-dreaded and long-concealed Captain Rock.
+
+Orders were given to arrest him, and also to search his house. Among his
+papers were found some documents which could scarcely have been in
+possession of any but a leader of the disaffected. They were
+insufficient of themselves, however, to fix him as such.
+
+The police and the military, charged with the warrant to arrest Cussen,
+received strict injunctions to avoid unnecessary violence. It was
+anticipated, from his determined character and great personal strength,
+that he would resist any attempt to make him a prisoner. Contrary to
+expectation, he surrendered himself without struggle or hesitation. He
+was found sitting tête-à-tête with old Frank Drew, at Drew's Court,--the
+same to whom he had spoken so freely about the particulars of the attack
+on Churchtown Barracks,--and when he heard the measured tread of the
+military, as they came up the avenue, he paused in his conversation, and
+exclaimed, "They have come for me."
+
+In custody his deportment, equally devoid of effrontery and fear, was
+apparently that of an innocent man, and impressed very many with the
+idea that he was unjustly suspected. The magistrates, who knew better,
+but were compelled to conceal the source of their information, even
+incurred some blame, from public opinion, for having apprehended and
+detained him.
+
+The difficulty was--how to prove that John Cussen was identical with
+Captain Rock. In accordance with his compact with the authorities, the
+craven who had given the clue had been quietly shipped off to England.
+The most liberal offers were secretly made, on the part of the
+Government, to induce some of the other prisoners to turn king's
+evidence, but without avail. They knew, one and all, what share Cussen's
+had been in the Whiteboy movements; but they were fully aware, also,
+that to appear in evidence against him would, in effect, be equivalent
+to the signing of their own death-warrant. They continued faithful to
+him--and from higher motives, perhaps, than that of personal fear. For
+he was a man who possessed the power of winning hearts, and there were
+many--very many of his followers, who had become so warmly attached to
+him that they would have laid down their own lives to protect his from
+harm.
+
+It was believed that Miss Shelton, if she was so minded, could have
+recognized his figure, his features, and the very tone of his voice. She
+was strongly urged to do so, in order "to promote the ends of justice;"
+but, grateful for the service which he had rendered to her brother, and
+remembering his personal courtesy to herself, she invariably declined
+doing so, and, to avoid all compulsion or persuasion in the matter, was
+secretly preparing to pay a visit to her elder sister, who had married
+an English gentleman, and resided at Bath. On her repeated refusal to
+assist the Crown, it was determined that, by means of a stratagem, she
+should be trepanned into identifying him.
+
+Accordingly, Major Eeles, Captain Johnstone, and another officer of the
+Rifle Brigade, made a morning-call at Rossmore, and, as if by accident,
+asked Miss Shelton and her sister whether they would not like to see the
+barrack at Ballingarry, which they had repeatedly promised to visit. A
+party of six or seven was made up on the instant. The horses were
+ordered out, and very soon the party reached the barrack, in which
+Cussen was detained until his final removal to the county-prison of
+Limerick. That such a person was there, was unknown to all the visitors.
+Accompanied by some of the officers' wives, whom they knew, the ladies
+from Rossmore entered the room occupied by Cussen, heavily ironed and
+closely guarded. As they were passing through it, Cussen was purposely
+provoked, by one of his guards, to speak loudly--angrily, indeed--to
+some taunting remark. Alicia Shelton, recognizing the peculiar and
+unforgotten tone, seized her sister's arm, with a sudden impulse, and
+exclaimed--"It is the very man!" and would have fallen, but for support
+immediately rendered.
+
+Cussen started at her exclamation, looked at her, "more in sorrow than
+in anger," rose from his chair, raised his hat, and courteously saluted
+the party. Miss Shelton, who avoided a second glance at him, restrained
+her feelings, and did not again open her lips; but what she had
+involuntarily said, slight as it was, sealed his fate--and he knew it.
+So did the officers who had planned the trick.
+
+Government had directed that Cussen's trial should immediately take
+place. This was before Alicia Shelton had been betrayed into a
+recognition of the prisoner. She considered herself bound in honour not
+to give evidence to the detriment of one who had conferred a signal
+favour on herself. But, on the night of the attack, Cussen had also been
+seen and heard by her younger sister, whose bed-room window overlooked
+the back-yard, and who had witnessed the occurrence between them. Not
+considering herself bound by any personal ties of gratitude, and
+somewhat selfishly recollecting her own alarm rather than her brother's
+secured safety, Susanna Shelton declared that, for her part, she had no
+scruples in performing what she believed to be an act of justice to
+society. In addition, two of Cussen's followers, to save their own necks
+from the halter, promised, almost at the last moment, to turn king's
+evidence--but as there was no certainty of their remaining in the same
+mind, when put into the witness-box (or, rather, as it actually was,
+upon the table in the Court), not much reliance was placed upon _them_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Assizes being several months distant, it was resolved not to wait,
+and a special Commission was sent down for the immediate trial of all
+persons in custody under the Insurrection Act. At the same time, a
+messenger from the Castle of Dublin arrived at Rossmore with a _subp[oe]na_
+to enforce the attendance of Miss Shelton and her sister, as witnesses
+on Cussen's trial, and they were taken away to Limerick, in a
+post-chaise, escorted by a troop of dragoons. Apartments and all
+suitable accommodation had been provided for them at Swinburne's--then
+the principal hotel in "the fair city of the Violated Treaty."
+
+The trial is not forgotten by those who were present. The court-house of
+Limerick was crowded to the very roof. I am proud to say, as an
+Irishman, that among that large audience, there was not even one female.
+Irish propriety, by a conventional arrangement rather understood than
+expressed, very properly prohibits the appearance of any of the fair sex
+in a Court of Justice, except where necessarily present as a party, or
+called upon as a witness. I write of what was the rule some thirty years
+ago--matters may have changed since. On arraignment, Cussen pleaded "Not
+Guilty." After a long, fatiguing, and nearly inaudible speech--from Mr.
+Sergeant Goold--who had been eloquent, but, in his old age, had become
+the greatest proser, for a small man, at the Irish Bar--the evidence was
+gone into. The case had been skilfully got up, but, though no moral
+doubt could exist as to the prisoner's participation, if not leadership,
+in many Whiteboy offences, it may be doubted whether the proofs would
+have sufficed for a conviction in ordinary times. The two informers, on
+whose evidence much reliance had been placed, told their story volubly
+enough, but when the usher's wand was handed to them, that they might
+point at the prisoner in identification, each shook his head and
+affected never before to have seen him.
+
+Cussen's equanimity was undisturbed throughout the early part of the
+trial. When Mr. Sergeant Goold, in stating the case, alluded to the
+attack on Churchtown, the prisoner said that, in the copy of the
+indictment with which he had been served, there was no charge against
+him save for certain transactions alleged to have taken place at
+Rossmore, and he desired to know whether it was purposed, or indeed
+whether it was legal, to state a case or give evidence out of the
+record? There was considerable sensation at this inquiry. The Judge
+replied that Counsel ought to confine himself to the charge in the
+indictment, and admitted that the prisoner had exercised no more than
+his undoubted right in checking the introduction of irrelevant matter.
+The Crown Counsel had only to bow and submit to the opinion and reproof
+of the Judge. The prisoner appearing disposed to speak again, the Judge
+asked whether he had any more to say? "Only this, my lord," said he,
+"that if it be my _right_, as prisoner, to check the introduction of
+irrelevant topics, having a tendency to prejudice me with the jury, it
+surely was _your duty_, as Judge, to have done so--particularly as mine
+is a case of life and death."
+
+This was a well-merited reproof, given with a certain degree of dignity,
+and (for the Judge was a man of enlarged mind) did no injury to Cussen.
+
+When Miss Shelton appeared on the table, Cussen appeared startled, for
+he had been given to understand that she had positively refused to
+appear against him--indeed, it had been reported that she had even gone
+to England to avoid it. Compelled to give her testimony, she detailed,
+in the plain and forcible language of truth, under what circumstances
+she had seen Cussen at Rossmore--what peril her brother had been
+threatened with--what supplications she had made in his behalf--how
+promptly the favour she had solicited had been granted--how kind the
+prisoner's words and demeanour to herself had been. She took occasion to
+add that her appearance as a witness was against her own desire. She was
+then asked to turn round and say whether she then saw the person who had
+acted as she had described. Not without great delay and
+hesitation--urged, indeed, by an intimation of the personal consequences
+of her contumacy--did she obey, but, at last, she did identify the
+prisoner, saying, "That is the man who saved my brother's life, at my
+entreaty, and stood between myself and outrage worse than death." Cussen
+respectfully acknowledged her evident feeling in his favour by making
+her a low bow as she went down.
+
+Her sister, who was cast in a coarser mould of mind and body, exhibited
+no scruples, but gave her evidence with an undisguised antipathy towards
+the accused. The missing links, supplied by her testimony, made up a
+strong chain of evidence which, every one felt, it would be difficult
+for Cussen to beat down, in any manner. It was expected, almost as a
+matter of course, that he would trust to proving, by an _alibi_, the
+impossibility of his having been the person who was present on the
+occasion referred to by the witness. Every one who saw him in the dock,
+where his bearing was equally free from bravado and fear, anticipated
+some very ingenious, if not successful defence. He very slightly
+cross-examined the witnesses for the prosecution, and then only on
+points which bore on his personal conduct. He declined availing himself
+of the open assistance of counsel--though he had consulted eminent legal
+authorities on various technical points, while in prison. But for the
+place in which he stood, fenced in with iron spikes, and surrounded by
+the police, one might have thought him merely interested, as a
+spectator, in the circumstances evoked by the evidence, rather than one
+whose life depended on the issue. Cool, deliberate, and self-possessed,
+he entered on his defence.
+
+It was of the briefest;--only a simple negation of the charge--a denial
+that, even with all probability of its being true, there was legal
+evidence of such a breach of the law as involved conviction and
+punishment--a regret that his identity should have been mistaken by the
+younger Miss Shelton, who, had he really been the person at Rossmore,
+had never, even on her own showing, been so close to him as for her to
+distinguish his features--an expression of gratitude to Alicia Shelton
+for her evident disinclination to injure one who she believed had
+treated her with kindness--a strong disclaimer of imputing wilful error
+to _her_, though he considered her sister not free from censure for her
+undisguised avidity in seizing upon every circumstance to convict him--a
+reckless assertion that, come what might, he had outlived the desire of
+existence, and was prepared for any fortune. Such was the substance of
+his address, delivered in a manner equally free from bravado and dread.
+He concluded by declaring that, already prejudged by public opinion (the
+newspapers, from the first, having roundly proclaimed that he, and none
+other, was or could be the true Captain Rock), and with the undue weight
+given to slight and evidently prejudiced evidence, he felt that his
+prospect of acquittal was small.
+
+Mr. Sergeant Goold then arose to speak to the evidence for the Crown,
+and was interrupted by Cussen, who asked the Judge whether, when no
+evidence was called for the defence, the prisoner was not entitled, by
+himself or counsel, to the last word to the jury? Mr. Sergeant Goold
+answered that the Crown, in all cases, was entitled to the last speech,
+and appealed to the Judge for confirmation of the assertion. Cussen
+again addressed the Judge, and said that, in civil suits, the practice
+was certainly not to allow the plaintiff the last speech when the
+defendant did not call witnesses, for he had himself been a juryman, in
+the other court, when such a circumstance had occurred. The Judge's
+decision was that, if he pleased to insist upon it, the counsel for the
+Crown might desire and exercise the right of speaking to the evidence,
+even when, as in the present instance, the accused had called no
+witnesses, nor even made a defence. But, his Lordship added, perhaps
+under the circumstances, Mr. Sergeant Goold would not exercise the
+right. Goold grumbled, and fidgeted, and muttered unintelligible
+sentences about his duty, and finally, gathering up his papers, quitted
+the Court in a huff, with the air of a person mightily offended.
+
+The Judge then summed up the evidence, and charged the jury very
+minutely--dwelling, more than was anticipated, on the remote probability
+that the younger Miss Shelton might have been mistaken as to the
+identity of the accused. But, said he, even if she were so situated that
+recognition of his person were even impossible, there is the evidence of
+her sister, given with a reluctance which was creditable to _her_
+humanity, gratitude, and womanly feeling, which undoubtedly declared
+that the prisoner in the dock, and none but he, was the leader in the
+attack upon her father's house on the night named in the indictment.
+
+The jury retired, and after a long deliberation, returned a verdict of
+"Guilty." Perhaps, of all persons in the court, the prisoner was
+apparently the least moved by this announcement. His cheek did not
+blench, his lips quiver, nor his limbs tremble. He was called upon to
+declare whether he had anything to say why the sentence of the law
+should not be passed?
+
+Cussen, drawing himself up to his full height, declared, in a sonorous
+voice, which filled the Court, and in the same collected manner which
+had characterized him during the whole trial, that nothing which he
+could say was likely to mitigate the sharp sentence of the law. "I have
+had a fair trial," said he, "as from the excited state of the country,
+and the fears and feelings of the jury, I could reasonably expect. It is
+evident, from the time they have spent in deliberating on their verdict,
+that some of the jury, at least, had doubts in my favour. But," he
+added, "I make no calculation upon that, for I am aware that you, my
+lord, even while you comply with the formula of asking me whether I have
+anything to say against my sentence, have no alternative but to
+pronounce it. For my own part, I have faced death on the battle-field,
+too often and too boldly, to dread it in any shape. And for the
+ignominy, I hold with the French philosopher, whose writings your
+lordship is familiar with, that it is the crime, and not the punishment,
+which makes the shame. My lord, I stand, as it were, on the threshold of
+another world. My path is already darkened by the fast-advancing
+shadows of the grave. Hear me declare, then, that even if I were the
+Captain Rock whom your jury declare me to be, my death, nor the death of
+hundreds such as I am, cannot and will not put an end to disaffection
+arising from laws oppressive in themselves, and rendered even more so by
+being harshly and partially administered. The spirit of the people is
+all but broken by long-continued and strong oppression. Between
+middlemen and proctors they have been driven almost into despair.
+Exactions, for rent and tithes, press increasingly upon them. Whatever
+little property they may have possessed has gradually melted away. Their
+cattle, under distraint for rent, crowd the pounds. Their miserable
+cabins are destitute of fuel and food. They feel their wrongs, and have
+united with the energy of despair to avenge them. Cease to oppress these
+men, and the King will have no better subjects. So much for them. A
+concluding word for myself. My lord, I have not called evidence, which I
+might have done, to show that my general character is that of a man
+indisposed towards bloodshed and cruelty. It may be too late to hear
+them now--but for the sake of others I would stand before the world as
+one who is not the blood-stained ruffian which the learned counsel for
+the Crown has proclaimed me to be. I would tell _him_, were he here,
+that whatever else I have done, I have never been publicly branded by
+the Legislature as a liar. My lord, I have done."
+
+This bold attack on Mr. Sergeant Goold, who, three years before, had
+been publicly reprimanded by the House of Commons for having
+prevaricated, when giving evidence before the Limerick Election
+Committee, was received with applause.
+
+The Judge intimated that he was ready to hear evidence as to Cussen's
+character, on which several gentlemen of high standing in the county
+came forward and bore testimony greatly in his favour. The sentence of
+death was then pronounced, with the usual formalities.
+
+But Cussen's hour was not at hand. A memorial to the Government, from
+Alicia Shelton, strongly setting forth the humanity which the convict
+had manifested towards herself, was immediately forwarded. With it went
+a petition, signed by several who had been interested with Cussen's
+conduct on the trial, and believed that to execute their leader was the
+least likely way of conciliating the Whiteboys. In due course, the Judge
+who had presided at the trial was called upon to state his opinion. It
+was said that, viewing the case as it came out in the evidence, and
+without touching on the suspicion or presumption that Cussen had been
+guilty of other breaches of the law, the report of the Judge was
+strongly in his favour. At all events, the Government complied with the
+urgent solicitations in Cussen's behalf, and commuted the sentence of
+death into transportation for life.
+
+As Cussen had heard his death-doom without any apparent emotion, his
+reception of the mitigation of punishment was wholly devoid of
+exultation. He requested that the prison authorities would convey his
+thanks to Alicia Shelton and the others who had interested themselves in
+his favour.
+
+It was said that an intimation was made to him, on the part of the
+Executive, promising him a full pardon if he would give them a clue to
+the Whiteboy organization, which they greatly desired to put down. It
+was reported, also, that, in his reply, he declared himself incapable of
+betraying any confidence which had been reposed in him,--that family
+circumstances must prevent his desiring to remain in Ireland, on any
+terms,--and he trusted there was a Future for every man who desired to
+atone for the Past. This was the nearest approach he ever made to an
+admission that he had been involved in the Whiteboy movements. The
+"family circumstances" to which he alluded consisted of his having been
+privately married to a Miss Fitzgibbon, with whom he lived so unhappily,
+that even an enforced residence in New South Wales appeared a lesser
+evil than to remain with her in Ireland.[7]
+
+     [7] The friend who has given me this information respecting Mrs.
+     Cussen, says that when she lived in Limerick, not long ago, her
+     means appeared ample. Her father, who had been a rich
+     cattle-dealer, grazier and farmer, near ----, had probably left her
+     in easy circumstances. He was a Mr. Fitzgibbon, and very little
+     indebted to education. He sent his daughter to a first-rate
+     boarding-school, and permitted her, when grown to womanhood, to
+     invite her former preceptor and a few more "genteels" to an evening
+     party--the first ever given in his house. The young lady was
+     somewhat affected, and, to show her education, used big words. Her
+     father, who heard her say to the servant "Biddy, when the company
+     depart, be sure and extinguish the candles," inquired what was the
+     meaning of the word "extinguish." It means _to put out a thing_,
+     said she. In the course of the evening the pigs got upon the lawn,
+     which was overlooked by the drawing-room window, and made a
+     terrible noise. Old Fitzgibbon, determined to be genteel among his
+     daughter's fine guests, went to the head of the stairs, and loudly
+     called out, "Biddy, go at once and extinguish the pigs from the
+     front of the house!"
+
+This, however, did not transpire until some time after he had quitted
+the country.
+
+He was transmitted to the convict-ship at Cove, on board of which the
+narrator of this story, then a lad, had the curiosity to visit him. Of
+course, no conversation arose as to the question of his guilt or
+innocence. When Cussen learned that his youthful visitor was related to
+Miss Shelton, he manifested some interest, inquired after her health,
+begged she would accept his thanks for the favourable manner in which
+she had given her evidence, and said that she had strongly reminded him
+of a lady whom he had formerly known, and whose death had led to the
+circumstances which had brought him to his present position.
+
+The impression which remains on my mind, after the lapse of so many
+years, is very much in favour both of Cussen's appearance and manners.
+He was neatly dressed, and looked very unlike what might have been
+anticipated--considering that he was the veritable Captain Rock. His
+voice was low--"an excellent thing" in man as well as in woman. There
+was no appearance of bravado in his manner. The two turnkeys from
+Limerick jail, who were in charge of him, spoke very highly of his
+gentle disposition and uniform civility. They declared, such was their
+conviction of his truth, that if, at any time, he had desired to leave
+them for a week, with a promise to return by a particular day and hour,
+they were certain he would not break his parole.
+
+On reaching Spike Island, he was attired in the convict costume,--and
+the humiliating livery of crime appeared a great annoyance to him for a
+day or two. After that, he showed no feeling upon the matter. The
+"authorities" at Spike Island, who were much prejudiced against him, at
+first, speedily came to treat him with as much kindness as their rough
+nature and scanty opportunities permitted them to show.
+
+Within three weeks of his conviction, John Cussen was _en route_ for
+Botany Bay. During the voyage, a dangerous epidemic broke out among the
+convicts and the crew. The surgeon of the ship was one of the first
+victims. The commander, who had heard the report of the trial at
+Limerick, recollected that one of the witnesses had stated how
+gallantly Cussen had fought at Waterloo, when an army-surgeon, and asked
+his prisoner whether he thought himself capable, in the existing
+emergency, of taking medical charge of the ship. Cussen replied in the
+affirmative, but positively declined doing anything so long as he wore
+the convict-dress. His desire being complied with, he was released from
+his irons, intrusted with the care of the sick, and succeeded in
+mitigating their sufferings by the remedies he applied. The disease was
+checked, so that the mortality was much less than was expected, and this
+favourable result was mainly attributable to Cussen's skill. On arriving
+in New South Wales, this was so favourably represented to the
+authorities, that a ticket of leave was immediately given to him.
+Proceeding up the country, he took a small sheepwalk, and was getting
+on prosperously, when a party of bush-rangers attacked and devastated
+his little place. He immediately devoted himself to a contest with this
+predatory band--long the terror of the colony--and did not rest until he
+had so completely routed them, that the leaders were apprehended and
+executed, while the rest, one by one, came in and delivered themselves
+up to justice.
+
+The result was that, for this public service, Cussen received a pardon
+(the only condition being that he must not return to Ireland), within
+two years after his arrival in the Colony. He practiced for some time,
+as a surgeon, at Sydney, and having realized about five thousand pounds,
+proceeded to the United States. One of his first acts, after arriving in
+New York, was to send to Ireland for the son of John Sheehan (the man
+who had been shot on suspicion of Whiteboyism), now doubly orphaned by
+his mother's death. He adopted him, in fulfilment of his promise at the
+Wake, as related in the first chapter. His own wife and daughter, whom
+he had liberally supplied with funds from New South Wales, declined
+rejoining him there or in America, and were actually residing in
+Limerick a few years ago. Cussen eventually settled in one of the
+Western States, where his capital at once enabled him to purchase and
+cultivate a large tract of land. He has been heard of, more than once,
+by those who knew his identity, as a thriving and influential citizen,
+under a slightly changed name.
+
+The fact that Cussen had led the attack upon Churchtown Barracks was not
+_positively_ ascertained for several years after his departure from
+Ireland. In a death-bed confession, one of the party avowed it. To this
+day, however, very many of the people in the County of Limerick, who
+were well acquainted with Cussen, will not believe that he ever could
+have participated in such a cold-blooded massacre. They appeal, in proof
+of the gentleness of his nature, to the kind feelings which he exhibited
+during the attack on Rossmore.
+
+It is clear, at all events, that by the conviction of Cussen, the
+Whiteboys lost a leader. The confederation was speedily broken up, for
+want of its CAPTAIN ROCK. Nor, since that time, have the disaffected in
+Ireland been able to obtain the assistance of any one so competent for
+command as was JOHN CUSSEN. His successors, from time to time, have been
+bold, ignorant men, at the highest not more than one degree above the
+peasantry whom they contrived to band together as United Irishmen,
+Ribbonmen, or Whiteboys. The peasantry were taught, too, that the
+redress of grievances is not likely to be brought about by illegal
+confederations--that agitation _within_ the law, may virtually place
+them _above_ the law,--and that he who commits a crime gives an
+advantage to the antagonist. This was the great principle which
+O'Connell always endeavoured to enforce. We have seen the last of the
+Whiteboys, and I have told the story of the undoubted CAPTAIN ROCK, the
+will-o'-the-wisp of Irish agrarian disturbances.
+
+
+
+
+A NIGHT WITH THE WHITEBOYS.
+
+
+In connection with the leadership of John Cussen, an incident occurred
+which may be related here, as a sort of appendix to his own adventures.
+It is only a trifle in its way, but illustrates the manner in which,
+even after he had quitted the country, he was regarded by his former
+adherents.
+
+About twelve months after the conviction and transportation of Captain
+Rock, which eventually led to the breaking up of the Whiteboy
+organization--though, here and there, a few branch Ribbon lodges
+remained--I was on a visit to my uncle, the self-same owner of Rossmore,
+mentioned in the previous story, and father of its heroine. Rossmore
+House is situated within a short distance of Castletown Conyers, and, by
+taking a short cut across the fields, this distance might be reduced to
+a mile. Having spent the day at Castletown, I was returning to Rossmore
+by the short cut, late in the evening--too late, indeed, as I had been
+warned, from the chance of meeting some of the prowlers who haunted the
+by-roads towards the small town. I had no fear, however, and though it
+was after twelve o'clock, there was a beautiful full moon, which, as the
+old song says, "did shine as bright as day." I had got on a narrow
+by-road which ran between two bogs, and was speeding home with as little
+delay as possible. All at once, I heard the dull heavy tramp of feet, in
+a measured tread, and thought that it probably was the police-patrol
+taking its rounds. As some of the police were quartered at my uncle's, I
+entertained no apprehension on account of being found out of doors at an
+untimely hour, as my person was known to these peace-preservers. I
+walked on, therefore, at my ease, loitering a little to allow myself to
+be overtaken, in order that I might have an escort home.
+
+The party came up, and when I turned round to recognize and speak to
+them, I was considerably alarmed to find that I was in the midst of a
+large assemblage of rough-and-ready countrymen, wrapped up in large blue
+_coateens_, every man of them with a huge bludgeon in his hand. Knowing
+that the best plan was to put as bold a front on it as I could, I
+accosted them with the usual "Good evening, boys." They did not
+condescend to return the greeting, but gathered together in groups,
+conversing in Irish, which I did not understand--the acquisition of that
+ancient and sonorous language having been a neglected branch of my
+education. From their vehement action, their constant references to
+myself by gesture, and the repetition of my name, I perceived that they
+knew who I was, and were speaking about me. Under such circumstances, I
+thought, with Falstaff, that the better part of valour was discretion,
+and I prepared to effect my escape from such unpleasant companionship,
+by slipping off as quietly as I could.
+
+The intention, however excellent, was not to be borne out in execution.
+Before I had taken fifty steps, I felt two or three large, rough, hairy,
+sinewy hands on the collar of my coat, and the cold muzzle of a pistol
+under my left ear, with a threat, strengthened by a tremendous oath,
+that, if I dared move one inch farther, the contents of the pistol
+should be lodged in my brain. I did not move, having a strong idea that
+the threat would be carried into execution,--not a remarkably pleasant
+anticipation for any one, far less for a lad of fourteen.
+
+After some delay, a man, who appeared to be a kind of leader, asked me
+my name, and whether I was not a nephew of "the old fellow at Rossmore."
+I said that I was. "Then," said he, "you are the cousin of that fine
+young lady whose swearing was the means of our Captain being sent across
+the sea?" I answered that he was quite correct, and that I certainly was
+the lady's cousin. "Then," said he, "as we cannot lay hands on _her_,
+for she cut away to England when the trial was over, for fear of our
+just revenge, I think we must have _your_ blood instead." As I had a
+very strong objection to suffering, vicariously, even for a woman and a
+cousin, I remonstrated against the design, alleging, truly enough, that
+it was hard I should answer for any one's sins but my own; that the
+lady, as was well known, had given evidence against Captain Rock, under
+compulsion; and that, after he was sentenced to death, she never rested
+until she had obtained a remission of the sentence of death passed upon
+him.
+
+What I said evidently made an impression on my audience--on such, at
+least, as knew English. To the rest it was duly interpreted; after
+which, still leaving me in charge of the hirsute giant with the great
+pistol, the party retired a little way to hold consultation respecting
+me. This I knew, because the rough gentleman, who held the pistol to my
+ear, grew a little communicative, telling me that they had all been to
+the fair of Bruree, where they had indulged pretty freely in strong
+liquors, and that he thought it likely, as they had made up their mind
+to take my life, that they were then only deliberating in what manner to
+carry out their intention. "It is an easy death enough," said this Job's
+comforter, "to be strangled by a handkerchief, squeezed round the throat
+to a proper tightness; it is as good a way as any other to put a man
+into a deep bog-hole like that on the side of the road there; but," he
+added, "for doing the thing genteelly, and making sure of quick work and
+little pain, I certainly would prefer a pistol like this, with a decent
+charge of canister powder, and a brace of bullets or a couple of
+slugs at the top to make all right."
+
+The conference by the way-side lasted so long, that I grew heart-sick
+with anxiety. I could see, by their unrestrained movements, that some of
+the party were disposed to wreak upon my person their revenge against my
+cousin, and that some were recommending a milder process. Presently, the
+decision appeared to be made--whatever it might be. The same man who had
+already spoken to me, came up again, and with him the rest of that
+precious conclave. "My lad," said he, laying his hand upon my shoulder,
+"Do you know what we have made up our minds to do?" I answered, that I
+did not know. "Some of us," said he, "think that, as you have met us to
+night, and may know some of us again, the best thing we could do would
+be to put you out of the way at once. And some of us thinks that if we
+took your word, (though you're only a bit of a boy,) not to mention that
+you have seen us, we might do worse than let you go home, though that
+home is the nest which _she_ came out of."
+
+I fancied, from his manner, that I had not much cause to apprehend the
+more deadly alternative; and, therefore, I answered, as boldly as I
+could, that I was quite willing to give my word not to mention that I
+had seen any of them, nor, at any time or place, attempt to recognize
+them. "While you are deciding," I added, "recollect that this suspense
+between life and death is not the most pleasant thing in the world.
+And, for God's sake," said I, "rather put this hairy gentleman's brace
+of bullets through my head at once, than leave me shivering another half
+an hour in the cold." There was a laugh at what I said; those who did
+not speak English eagerly required it to be translated for them, and
+then the laugh grew louder, for _all_ enjoyed it. "Faith," said the
+leader, "You're a bold lad to jest in that way, with the muzzle of a
+pistol against your ear. Make your mind easy; we would not hurt a hair
+of your head now. Go your way, and keep your promise. No matter when you
+meet any of us, don't let on that you have ever seen us before. And if
+you should ever fall in with bad company, in a by-way, on a night like
+this, just whisper '_Barry More_' into the ear of any of the party, and
+you may pass through them as safely as if you were walking in a
+drawing-room." This said, I had to shake hands, one by one, with each of
+the party; and they further insisted, with a pertinacity which would not
+brook denial, that half-a-dozen of them should escort me within a
+stone's throw of my uncle's house.
+
+A few weeks after this rencontre, I saw a man at work in one of my
+uncle's fields, who seemed not quite a stranger to me. I took care that
+the recognition, if any, should come from him. Accordingly, though I
+made the usual remark that it was a fine day, and asked some questions
+as to the prospects of the crops, I did not seem as if I had ever seen
+him before. However, he had less discretion, for he said, "That was a
+narrow escape you had, down by the bog, that night, sir." I asked what
+he meant? "Oh!" said he, "I do not mind talking to you about it now, for
+we have your word not to tell on us, and I know very well--for we have
+friends in every house, who tell us what passes--that not even to your
+uncle did you say a word about what happened that night. We tried to
+frighten you a bit, sir, but you stood up better than we expected. I had
+made up my mind, from the first, that not a hair of your head should be
+touched; but it was not quite so easy to get the rest of the boys to my
+way of thinking. They had not the cause that I had for wishing you
+well."
+
+I told him, what was the plain truth, that I had no recollection of any
+particular cause why _he_, more than any of the rest, should have
+protected me. "Ah, sir," said he, "people who do a kindness forget it,
+if the true vein be in them, sooner than those they do the kindness to.
+You may remember, sir, that about ten years ago, when you were a child,
+the Master here was very angry with me for having neglected my work, by
+which the Mistress's garden was quite spoilt, and turned me off, when I
+had not the chance of getting work anywhere else, and owed a quarter's
+rent for the little cabin and potatoe garden, and was entirely broke,
+hand and foot,--aye, and almost heart, too. At that time, sir, you were
+to the fore, with the kind word, which you ever had, to turn away the
+Master's anger, and you got the Mistress to interfere; and when the
+Master took me on to work again, it was yourself, sir, that ran down to
+my little cabin and told me the good news, and sat down at the table,
+with the children, without any pride, and eat the roasted potato and the
+salt, and drank the butter-milk out of the same piggin with them. From
+that hour, sir, if laying down the lives of me and mine would prevent
+injury to one hair of your head, we would have done it. And that's the
+reason why your life was safe the other night, and they all granted it
+when I told them the ins and outs of the story."
+
+I saw little more of my champion, for I left that part of the country
+soon after, and have not been there since.
+
+
+
+
+BUCK ENGLISH.
+
+
+Some eighty years ago, there appeared, in that city of Ireland which is
+called "the beautiful,"[8] a remarkable character, generally known as
+Buck English. This name--to which he answered--had been given him, it
+was said, on account of his fashionable appearance, manners and
+pursuits, and because his accent clearly indicated that he came from
+England. At all events, in the year 1770, Buck English was a principal
+in the fashionable society of Cork--its observed of all observers, its
+glass of fashion, if not its very mould of form.
+
+     [8] "The beautiful city called Cork."--_Irish Song._
+
+Buck English had abundance of money, that great test and framer of
+respectability, and spent it freely. No man knew whence it came.
+Inquiries had been cautiously ventured upon by inquisitive people, but
+the only result arrived at was that rarely, if ever, did any remittance
+reach him through a banker. He frequently performed actions which might
+be called generous; but the real objects for benevolence, he used to
+say, were those who struggled to maintain appearances--who bore the
+arrow in their breast, and did not complain--who would rather die than
+ask for help; for, as there is no energy like that of despair, there is
+no pride like that of poverty. Gratitude sometimes _would_ speak out;
+for parties whom his timely, unsought aid had rescued from ruin, meeting
+him accidentally in public, could not be restrained from breathing
+blessings on the benefactor whose name they knew not; and the occasional
+occurrence of such things--which really were _not_ got up for
+display--seemed to authorize the conjecture that Buck English was
+bountiful in many other instances which were not known. This belief,
+generally received, operated so much in his favour, that many who would
+have probably disdained intimacy with one whose personal history was
+unknown, and who, therefore, might be an adventurer, did not hesitate to
+receive him at their houses--a concession which others, of more
+unquestioned station and means, vainly endeavoured to obtain. When
+stamped "sterling" by the select, no fear of his readily passing into
+currency with all the rest.
+
+Hence, the conclusion may be arrived at, that Buck English was what a
+facetious friend calls a "populous character." He might have turned the
+sharp corner of five-and-thirty, and did not look older, even at his
+worst. Now, whatever five-and-thirty may be for a lady,--forcing on her,
+I fear, the brevet-rank of "a certain age," with Byron's
+interpretation,--it is the very prime of manhood. Thus, in this
+respect, Buck English was as fortunate as others. There was a drawback,
+it must be confessed--for who can be perfection? This was the
+circumstance of his possessing features which, except under particular
+excitement, might be pronounced very ordinary. One might have excused
+the compressed lips, the sallow cheek, and the sharp face; but the
+expression of the eyes was not always favourable. It appeared as if they
+were almost always anxiously on the watch. At times, when strongly
+excited, while the cheeks remained colourless, and no word breathed from
+the lips, the passion which created a heart-quake in the man did not
+allow its presence to be seen, except that it made the eyes
+flash--conveying the impression that their possessor must be rather
+dangerous under the influence of strong and deep emotions. It was not
+often that such manifestations were allowed to become apparent, for Buck
+English had powerful self-command.
+
+Notwithstanding the absence of what is called "good looks," he had
+succeeded in gaining the favourable opinion of Mary Penrose, a young
+lady who had recently succeeded to a very considerable property in the
+vicinity of Cork. Indeed, it was somewhat more than merely her
+favourable opinion. I will even admit--on the understanding, of course,
+that it remain an inviolable secret--that Buck English had made a strong
+impression on the young lady's mind; so much so, that, at the especial
+period at which this narrative introduces her, she was deliberating
+whether she should frankly admit to him, or deny for a little time
+longer, that he was master of the heart which fluttered--ah, how
+anxiously--within the soft citadel of her bosom.
+
+She had met him that evening at a _rout_ (so they called their
+fashionable parties in those days), and he had ventured to insinuate,
+rather more boldly than on any previous occasion, how much his happiness
+depended upon her. On the point of making a very gentle confession,
+(have you any idea how admirably blushes can convey what language dare
+not breathe?) a movement towards the retired part of the saloon in which
+they sat, apart from the dancers, startled the lady, while the
+exclamation, "Mary Penrose!--where _can_ she be?" informed her that
+inquiries were being made for her. So, withdrawing her hand from that of
+her suitor, and making an effort to appear calm and unembarrassed, she
+awaited the advent of the lady who had spoken. Presently came up her
+_chaperon_, a woman of high birth and scanty means, who _condescended_
+to reside with her. This personage--a mixture of black velvet and
+bugles, pearl-powder and pretence--gravely regarding Buck English, whom
+she did not like (because she thought it probable that he might succeed
+with Miss Penrose, and thereby make her own occupation "gone," like
+Othello's), said, with a low courtesy, "I am sure, sir, that, had you
+known what a pleasure you have been depriving Miss Penrose of, you
+would scarcely have detained her here. Mary, my dear, only think who has
+arrived!--who but your cousin Frank! He has been in the rooms half an
+hour, and has been anxiously looking for you everywhere."
+
+Before a reply was made the cousin made his appearance, and was received
+rather formally by Mary. However, Frank Penrose was an Irishman and a
+lawyer, and therefore not very likely to be put down or taken aback by a
+cold reception. He was introduced to Buck English, but the greeting
+between the gentlemen was by no means cordial. Buck English saw a rival;
+one, too, whom it was said Mary Penrose's father had been desirous to
+have as a husband for his only child; while cousin Frank, to whom the
+_chaperon_ had previously communicated the intimacy between the young
+lady and the dashing stranger, saw at a glance that it would have been
+quite as well, perhaps, if he had not left her so much in the way of
+becoming heart-stricken.
+
+"Shall I lead you down to supper?" he said. "You know, Mary, that you
+and I have a hundred things to talk about."
+
+"I am sorry, Frank," she answered, "that I cannot take the arm which you
+offer me gallantly. I had promised my partner, before you came, to avail
+myself of the advantage of his escort. Madame, I have no doubt, will be
+happy under your protection, and you can unburthen your mind to her."
+
+Thus it happened that Mary Penrose retained the arm of Buck English,
+while Frank was handed over to the dowager.
+
+"Confound the fellow!" said he, _sotto voce_, glancing at his rival. "On
+what a very familiar footing he has established himself with Mary. Can
+it be that she, who used to be so hard to please, is smitten with such a
+face?"
+
+"Very likely," said the _chaperon_. "It was not the countenance, but the
+mind of Othello, that the bright Venetian was enamoured of. When the
+manners are agreeable and the intellect quick, the accident of a homely
+face speedily becomes of no importance. Perhaps it may even help to
+throw a woman off her guard."
+
+"It is a pity," continued Frank, "that I have delayed my return so long.
+I thought that your letters had exaggerated, if not invented, the
+danger. Assist me in deposing this gentleman, and my gratitude shall be
+more than a name. I have always made so certain that Mary was to be my
+wife, that this over-security had led me to neglect her. At all events,
+I can tell you that this Mr. English shall not snatch such a prize from
+me without a struggle. I confess I do not like him."
+
+"Naturally enough. He is a rival, and apparently on the way to become a
+successful one."
+
+By this time they had reached the supper-table. Frank Penrose behaved
+with distant politeness to Buck English, who, as usual, was the centre
+of conversation. As the hour advanced, Mary said to her cousin,
+"Can you tell me what o'clock it is, Frank? I have been so careless as
+to let my watch run down."
+
+Frank, with a smile, answered, "Two months ago I could have done so; but
+one of the knights of the road met me in a lonely part of Kilworth
+Mountain, when last I was going from Cork to Dublin, and relieved me of
+all care of purse or watch."
+
+There was a smile at the cool manner in which the young lawyer related
+his loss, and then followed inquiry into the circumstances.
+
+"A very commonplace highway robbery, I do assure you," said Frank. " All
+I have to say is, that I was encountered, as I rode on a lonely part of
+the road, by a gentleman who, taking me quite unprepared, put a pistol
+to my heart, demanding my cash and other portable property. As I had a
+foolish desire not to part with it quite so easily, I threw myself off
+my horse, and closed with my antagonist. His pistol went off in the
+struggle, without doing me any injury, and I drew my sword. My enemy,
+who proved himself a better master of that weapon than I was, succeeded
+in disarming me; forced me to surrender money, watch, and a few rings;
+mounted on my horse, and rode off, but speedily returned, with the
+polite assurance that as he never saw a gentleman in distress without
+wishing to relieve him, he trusted I would accept a few pieces from
+him, as he presumed I did not intend remaining on the bleak mountain all
+night, and he knew, from experience, how disagreeable it was to be in a
+strange inn without money. He handed me five guineas, kindly adding
+that, if I wanted more, _his_ purse--alas! it had been _mine_--was
+entirely at my service."
+
+"Would you know the man again?"
+
+"No. His face was partly covered with crape."
+
+Supper ended, Miss Penrose and the rest of the ladies retired, escorted
+to their carriages by the gentlemen, who then returned (it was the evil
+fashion of the time) to drink their healths in a brimming bumper. One
+glass led to another, with the usual result--the libations were not to
+the Goddess of Concord. By accident, the name of Mary Penrose was
+mentioned, with a congratulatory allusion to the good terms on which
+Buck English evidently was with her. Frank Penrose started from his
+chair, and angrily declared that his cousin's name should not be bandied
+about at a public table, and in conjunction, too, with that of a person
+of whom no one knew anything, and who, he could assert, was not
+acceptable to her family. He was about speaking further, when he was
+pulled down by his friends, who strenuously urged him to keep silent.
+
+Buck English remained so quiet under the intentionally offensive
+allusion to himself, that some of the company began to think him
+deficient in courage. The Irish way of answering an insult, in
+those days, was to throw a glass full of wine in the offender's face,
+and follow that up by flinging the decanter at his head. After a pause,
+Frank Penrose, whom nobody could restrain, repeated the insult in other
+and harsher words. This broke up the party. As they were leaving the
+table, Buck English leant across, and said, very quietly, "Mr. Penrose,
+for the lady's sake, I would not mix up her name with a midnight brawl
+in a tavern, but you are aware that your words must be withdrawn or
+atoned for?"
+
+"Take them as you please," said Penrose. "I stand by them."
+
+"Then," answered the other, "I name Captain Cooper as my friend. Whom
+shall he meet on your part, and where?"
+
+Pausing for a minute, during which he considered his course of action,
+Penrose said that in two days he expected a friend whose services he
+could command on such a business, and hoped the delay would not be
+inconvenient. His antagonist intimated his assent by a distant bow, and
+thus, in far less time than I have been writing about it, was appointed
+a meeting for life or death. The outward show of civility was maintained
+during the short time that they remained in the room, though feelings of
+deadliest enmity rankled beneath that smooth surface.
+
+As they were retiring, Penrose and English again were together, and the
+latter took advantage of this contiguity to ask at what time his friend
+should call upon Mr. Penrose's second?
+
+"At ten on Thursday morning, at Daly's club-house."
+
+"Very well, and for whom shall he inquire?"
+
+"Let him ask for Mr. D'Arcy Mahon, the barrister."
+
+At that name, English shrunk or swerved as from a blow.
+
+"D'Arcy Mahon!" he repeated.
+
+"Yes," said Penrose. "Have you any objection to the gentleman?"
+
+"None."
+
+On that they separated.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That evening, on returning home, Mary Penrose applied herself, in the
+solitude of her chamber--the young heart's confessional--to serious
+thought upon that beleaguered and endangered Sebastopol, the state of
+her affections. It was evident that her cousin was piqued at the idea of
+her having a preference for English, and that his arrival was likely to
+bring the affair to an issue. Mary paused for some time in doubt as to
+the course she should pursue. She had a regard for her cousin Frank; but
+she confessed to herself, with conscious blush and sigh, that she had
+other and more cherished feelings for English. It is proverbial how a
+woman's deliberations, in an affair of the heart, invariably end; and
+so, having made up her mind in favour of Buck English, by far the most
+delightful companion--although not quite the handsomest--fate had thrown
+in her way, she retired to rest.
+
+As she was unloosing the golden beauty of her luxuriant tresses,
+glancing now and then at a flower given to her by _him_, and carefully
+put into a watervase on her dressing-room table, Mary Penrose heard a
+faint tap at the window. Withdrawing the curtain, she saw, in the pale
+moonlight, the face of him who, even then, was occupying her thoughts.
+He held up a note in his hand, which he placed upon the window-sill, and
+disappeared as suddenly as he had come before her.
+
+Opening the casement, she took the _billet_, and eagerly read it. In the
+strongest and most beseeching words, it urged her to speak with the
+writer for a few minutes;--hinted that this would be the last time they
+would ever meet;--and plainly declared that it related to an affair of
+life-and-death emergency. The urgency of this appeal, as well as her
+natural desire to see one in whom, now more than ever, she felt a deep
+interest, prevailed, and Mary Penrose, throwing a large shawl over her
+hastily-adjusted attire, quitted her chamber, silently proceeded down
+stairs, and opened the hall-door, at which she found English waiting.
+Light of body and active of limb, he had found little difficulty in
+ascending to Mary's window, by means of the thick ivy which luxuriantly
+covered the front of the house, and his descent had been yet more easily
+accomplished.
+
+When alone with Mary in one of the apartments in which she had
+frequently received him as a visitor, Buck English appeared overwhelmed
+by emotion. Quickly recovering himself, he addressed her in this
+manner:--"I have to thank your kindness, Miss Penrose, for thus giving
+me the opportunity of taking leave of you. I am a dishonoured man, or
+shall be, and most publicly, too, if to-morrow sees me near this place.
+After you had retired this evening, your cousin Frank fixed a personal
+quarrel upon me, which I endeavoured to avoid by acting and speaking
+with the greatest forbearance. I named the friend who would act for me
+in a matter so unpleasant, and your cousin asked for a slight delay
+until the arrival of the gentleman who would perform the like offices
+for him. The person whom he named is D'Arcy Mahon,--one of the few men
+in this country, under existing circumstances, who must not see me,
+because I have the very strongest motives for avoiding him. Our meeting
+was fixed for Thursday, but I have just heard of Mr. Mahon's arrival,
+not an hour ago, which is two days earlier than Frank expected him."
+
+"I need not assure you," said Mary, "how very much grieved I am that
+there should be any difference between two persons whom I esteem so
+much--between yourself and Frank. But I know that Mr. Mahon is a most
+honourable man, and more likely to pacify than irritate any parties who
+are placed in his hands with hostile feelings to each other."
+
+"There lives not the man," replied English, somewhat haughtily, "who can
+say that I have at any time shrunk from giving or seeking the
+satisfaction which, in our strangely-constituted state of society,
+gentlemen must sometimes require or grant. But it is impossible that I
+can meet D'Arcy Mahon--whose high character I appreciate and esteem--on
+any terms, or under any circumstances, without his instantly and fatally
+recognizing me as one whom he has met before, under a darker and
+different aspect of affairs."
+
+"You astonish and alarm me!" said Mary. "Will you not remove the veil
+from this mystery?"
+
+"Yes," said he, after some deliberation. "It is a sad confidence, but
+_you_ are entitled to it. You have heard of a person who is generally
+known as Captain Spranger?"
+
+Mary said that she certainly had heard of the terror of travellers, the
+head of a band of highwaymen, who had infested the South of Ireland for
+the previous two years.
+
+"The same. That man, outlawed as he is, with a price upon his head, I
+have reason to know is the younger son of one of the first commoners in
+England. Evil example and youthful impatience of control alienated
+him from his friends early in life, and sent him abroad upon the world,
+in different countries and among many grades of society, but not always
+in companionship with those by whom he could profit, in mind, body, or
+estate. At the close of many wanderings he found himself in Ireland, and
+accidentally became the companion or guest of a party of smugglers, who
+were banded together in the county of Waterford, and who, by their
+audacity and success, had challenged the notice of the Executive.
+Unfortunately, at the very period when the Englishman's love of wild
+adventure had thrown him into the society of these smugglers--as it had
+often led him to spend a night in a gipsy encampment--at that very time
+treachery had betrayed the band, who were surrounded by a strong
+military force before they knew they were in danger. To fight their way
+through this armed array, was what the smugglers determined on at the
+moment. Unwilling to remain and be captured, the chance-visitor of the
+night joined in the sortie, and made a dash for freedom. Some effected
+their escape without hurt, a few were wounded, some were captured. The
+Englishman was among the prisoners. The Assizes were at hand, and as it
+was thought fit to make an example, as it is called, the trial of the
+smugglers was hurried on. The evidence against the Englishman was
+conclusive. He was found in armed array against the military, and in
+company with notorious law-breakers. What could he do? Pride made him
+conceal his name, he was indicted under that of Spranger (which he had
+never borne), was tried and convicted. When brought up to receive
+sentence in the assize court of Clonmel (where, for some reason, the
+trial took place), he thought he saw the opportunity for a bold effort.
+Light, active and strong, he vaulted out of the dock. The crowd
+instantly opened to conceal him, for there is a strong sympathy for
+persons accused of such breaches against the revenue law as he was
+believed to have committed. Even while he was crouching down in the
+midst of the crowd, a great-coat, such as the peasantry wear, was thrown
+around him by one; another bestowed upon him a cap made of fox-skin; and
+a third whispered him to keep quiet, as, if he did not betray himself,
+his disguise was sufficient to defy suspicion and detection.[9]
+
+     [9] Such an escape as this was actually made from the dock, during
+     the Clonmel assizes, by the bold and notorious Buck English, who
+     afterwards found his way into the first society in Cork city and
+     county. Indeed, the actual life of this man was parallel in many of
+     its leading points to that of "Paul Clifford," the hero of Bulwer's
+     brilliant fiction. The term "Buck" was usually bestowed on any
+     fashionable bravo, in Ireland, who wore dashing attire, and
+     indulged in all sorts of extravagances of expenditure and excess.
+     There was "Buck Sheehy" of Dublin, as well as our own, "Buck
+     English" of Cork. Indeed, there were sufficient of the _genus_ in
+     Dublin to form the majority of the "Hell-fire Club," who once set
+     fire to their club-room, and remained in it until the flames
+     actually burned the hair from their heads and the clothes from
+     their bodies. This was done to decide the punishments of a future
+     state! Most of the "Bucks" were men of family, education, and
+     wealth. Several peers were members of the community. At one time
+     (the author of "Ireland sixty years ago," relates) there were three
+     noblemen, brothers, so notorious for their outrages, that they
+     acquired singular names, as indicative of their characters. The
+     first was the terror of every one who met him in public places--the
+     second was seldom out of prison--the third was lame, yet no whit
+     disabled from his Buckish achievements. They were universally known
+     by the names of "Hell-gate," "Newgate," and "Cripplegate." There
+     were two brothers, one of whom had shot his friend, and the other
+     stabbed his coachman. They were distinguished as "Kill-Kelly" and
+     "Kill-coachy." This reminds one of the Irish traveller, who said he
+     had been to _Kill-many_ and was going to _Kill-more_.
+
+"Incredible as it may appear--but I perceive that you have already heard
+something of this affair--Spranger remained in the court-house during
+the whole day, while a strict out-of-doors' search was made for him, and
+finally walked into the street, unchallenged, with the rest of the
+crowd, when the trials ended. He was literally alone, unfriended,
+penniless, in a strange country. The men who had supplied him, on the
+impulse of the moment, with the means of baffling detection, kept their
+eyes upon, and speedily came in his way, giving him the further aid of
+shelter and food. What need I more say than that those men, who lived
+against the law, succeeded in enrolling their guest among them.
+Recklessness and utter want, in the first instance, and the fear of
+being given up to the Government in the other, were his motives. Coupled
+with this, too, was a strong sense of injury at having been convicted,
+without crime, upon appearances. Not then, but many times afterwards,
+did he feel convinced that the Executive had brought him to trial only
+upon obvious and palpable facts. But, long before he came to take this
+view of the question, he had become leader of the band--now avowedly
+associated for plunder, smuggling having been broken up, and the name
+and the daring of Captain Spranger are sufficiently notorious throughout
+the country now.
+
+"When he had completely identified himself with them, so as to obtain
+their unquestioning obedience, Spranger availed himself of the privilege
+of sometimes leaving them for a short time--continuing, however, to
+regulate their movements, and participate in their gains--one of them
+always remaining with him to act as his servant, but actually as an
+unsuspected channel of communication with the band. Thus this captain of
+men beyond the pale of the law, has resided, at different times, in the
+principal cities in the South of Ireland. His last resting-place was
+here in Cork, where, under a name rather given to him by common consent
+than assumed by him, and with ample pecuniary means at his command, he
+contrived to be received into the best society. But he had tired, long
+since, of the ruffianly association which he headed. One hope
+remained--that of offering his sword to one of the foreign States with
+whom he had formerly performed military service, and thus resuming the
+condition to which he was born. But, while taking measures to do this,
+he met, and became deeply enamoured of the loveliest and most engaging
+of her sex, and delayed his departure--his exile--from a reluctance to
+quit the heaven of her smiles. Perhaps he even presumed to hope--to
+trust--that, under better circumstances, he might even have ventured to
+hope that his suit would not have failed."
+
+Here he paused, to mark how Mary had borne this relation. Her face was
+covered with her hands--but he could hear that she was sobbing. He
+continued:--
+
+"You know, Mary, I perceive, that he who relates this story is the same
+Spranger whose name has made many a cheek pale, many a bold heart
+tremble. D'Arcy Mahon was one of the counsel employed against me at
+Clonmel, and he knows every feature of mine so well that he could not
+fail to recognize me. He would identify me, also, as Captain Spranger.
+If I remain, he meets me to-morrow. Shame, disgrace, perhaps even death
+would follow. 'Tis true that circumstances have made me what I am, but
+there is a Future, in action, for all who are willing to atone for past
+misconduct. I go forth to try and regain the position I have forfeited.
+Not in this country, nor yet in my own, can I hope to do this. But there
+other lands where Reputation and Fortune may be won, and in one of them
+I shall make the effort. To have known _you_--to find this wasted heart
+capable, even yet, of appreciating the beauty and purity of your mind,
+will console me in my long and distant exile. Farewell!"
+
+He bent on his knee to take and kiss that delicate hand. Did it really
+linger in his? He looked upon that face of beauty. Did those violet eyes
+smile upon him through the dew which diamonded their long, dark fringes?
+He heard a low, earnest whisper. Did it tell him to retrieve the past,
+nor doubt, while doing so, of the due reward a loving heart will bestow?
+Did it softly say that he, and none but he, should hold that hand in
+marriage? Did it entreat him to write often--always hopingly? A long,
+long kiss on those ripe lips, on that damasked cheek, on that fair brow,
+and Buck English was away, as suddenly as he had come.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+How improbable! How unfeminine! How utterly at variance with all the
+conventionalities of society! No doubt. But it is _true_.
+
+As for Mary's avowed love for such a person as--even on his own
+showing--English was, why seek to put it to the test of every-day
+thought?
+
+    "Why did she love him! Curious fool, be still;
+    Is human love the growth of human will?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The morning after the interview between Mary and her lover, considerable
+anxiety was caused in the minds of his acquaintance by the fact of his
+disappearance, and the report that he had met with some fatal accident.
+His horse had returned home riderless, and a hat and glove, known to
+have been worn by him, were found on the banks of the Lee, about two
+miles from Cork, a place where he was fond of riding at all hours. It
+was believed that he had been drowned. The authorities took possession
+of and examined his effects, which were never claimed. There was not one
+line of writing among them, giving the slightest clue to his station in
+life, family, or identity. In a short time, he passed out of the memory
+of most of those who had known him.
+
+It was noticed that Mary Penrose appeared very much unconcerned at the
+loss of one for whom she was believed to have felt some partiality. She
+was abused, of course, by her own sex, (and the more so, as she was very
+handsome,) for being "a heartless coquette." A few months later, when
+she had attained her legal majority, and with it full possession of her
+property, she unequivocally astonished her cousin Frank, by declining
+his proffered hand. Ere the year was ended, her estates were in the
+market, and their purchase-money invested in foreign securities. This
+done, Mary bade a long farewell to the land of her nativity and the
+friends of her youth. Nor did any definite account of her subsequent
+life ever reach Ireland.
+
+In the fulness of time, there came rumours (which were credited) that
+somebody very like Buck English had obtained rank and reputation in the
+German service, and that, eventually retiring to a distant province of
+the Empire, he had turned his sword into a ploughshare, and cultivated,
+with much success, a large estate which he had purchased there. It was
+added that a lady, whose personal description tallied with Mary
+Penrose's appearance, was the wife of this person; that they lived very
+happily with their numerous children around them; that their retainers
+and dependents almost adored them for their constant and considerate
+kindness; and that, though they ever condemned crime, they united in
+questioning whether he who committed it might not have been led into it
+by Circumstance rather than Desire.
+
+
+
+
+ECCENTRIC CHARACTERS
+
+
+
+
+THE BARD O'KELLY.
+
+
+For many years, an individual, calling himself "The Bard O'Kelly,"
+wandered through the South of Ireland, subsisting on the exacted
+hospitality and the enforced contributions of such as happened to be so
+weak as to dread being put by him into a couplet of satirical doggerel,
+and thus held up to public scorn as wanting in liberality. An Irishman,
+be it known, will not submit to an imputation upon his generosity;
+rather than have _that_ questioned, he will give away his last sixpence,
+though the gift leave him without food. O'Kelly was shrewd enough to
+know this, and like the ale which Boniface so much praises in Farquhar's
+comedy, he "fed purely upon it"--in fact, it was meat, drink, clothing
+and lodging to him.
+
+Until he published his "poems," no one knew on what very slight grounds
+his Bardship rested. His book--a thin, ill-printed octavo, called "The
+Hippocrene,"--appeared, with a dedication, by permission, to "the most
+noble and warlike Marquis of Anglesea," and underneath the inscription
+is the quatrain,
+
+    "_O dulce decus_! thou art mine,
+      What can I more or less say?
+    _Presidium_! pillar of the NINE,
+      Illustrious chief ANGLESEA!!"
+
+In order, also, that the world might know what manner of man his
+bardling was, he had put his portrait as a frontispiece, and, with that
+characteristic modesty which indicated that _he_ certainly had kissed
+the Blarney Stone, had engraved beneath it,--
+
+    "Sweet bard! sweet lake! congenial shall your fame
+    The rays of genius and of beauty claim;
+    Nor vainly claim: for who can read and view,
+    And not confess O'KELLY'S pencil true?"
+
+The lake here alluded to, is that of Killarney. In the year 1791,
+O'Kelly wrote what he called "a Poem" on the romantic scenery of
+Killarney. It was written, but not published--recited by the bard, as
+the Iliad and Odyssey are said to have been by "the blind old man of
+Scio's rocky isle,"--handed about in manuscript among friends, like much
+of the verse of the present day, when (because every third man is an
+author) hard-hearted booksellers refuse to purchase valueless
+copyrights, or even to publish them, save at the sole expense and risk
+of the writers.
+
+So, in 1791, was written, not published, the Bard's "Killarney,"--a
+poem which (as _he_ was wont to speak of it) "has all the depth of the
+lake it immortalizes, with the clearness, freshness, and sparkling flow
+of its waters!" It may be thought a little egotistical for O'Kelly thus
+to praise his own writings--but, surely, a man is the best judge of his
+own merit, and best acquainted with his own talents. I put it to every
+man of sense--that is, to every person who completely coincides with my
+opinion,--whether, if a man does not think and speak well of himself, it
+can possibly be expected that any one else will? No; O'Kelly's
+self-praise was only a flourish to remind people what a genius they had
+among them--a Laputan flap to make the Irish world quite aware of the
+fact of his immeasurable merit.
+
+There was a rumour--but I hate scandal--that the Bard (being a poet, and
+lame to boot, like the Grecian) had an ambition to be the new Tyrtæus of
+the Irish Rebels, in 1798. He has been seen to smile, rather
+assentingly, at "the soft impeachment," although, no doubt, while the
+insurgents were liable to punishment, he had very _capital_ reasons for
+denying it. While the Civil War was raging, he went to the north-east of
+Ireland, and, his enemies say, with rebellious designs. But his own
+assertion,
+
+     ("And truths divine came mended from _his_ lips,")
+was, that the sole object of his tour was to compose a poem on the
+sublimities of the Giant's Causeway. Such a composition was written--for
+I have read it. But the greatest and best of men--from Socrates down to
+O'Kelly--have been subjected to suspicion and persecution, and it
+happened that when the Bard showed himslf in the north, he was taken up
+by the King's forces, and summarily committed to prison on suspicion
+that his visit was occasioned by a desire to discover a snug
+landing-place, on the Antrim coast, for the French--who, at that time,
+were about invading Ireland.
+
+Bad news travels very quickly. It soon was noised about Kerry, that the
+Bard had been taken up. As a story, like a snow-ball, increases as it
+travels, it was even added that the Bard had been--_hanged_!
+
+On this, a wretch named Michael M'Carthy--a Macroom man was this
+Bathyllus to the Hibernian Maro--constituted himself heir-at-law and
+residuary legatee to the Bard's poetical effects, and, not having the
+fear of Apollo's vengeance before his eyes, had the barefaced audacity
+to publish eight hundred and forty lines of "Killarney," mixed up with
+certain versicles of his own, under the imposing name of "Lacus
+Delectabilis."
+
+The Bard O'Kelly heard of this audacious appropriation at the very hour
+when his trial was coming on, and it took such effect upon his spirits
+that, to use his own figurative language, he "did not know at the time,
+whether he was standing on his head or his heels."
+
+Brought for trial before a military tribunal, quick in decision and
+sharp in execution, there was so much presumptive evidence against him,
+that he was convicted without much delay, (his judges were in a hurry to
+dine,) and sentenced to be hanged early the next day.
+
+The emergency of the case restrung his shattered energies. Recovering
+the use of his tongue, he made a heart-rending appeal to the Court
+Martial; narrated the vile plagiarism which had been committed on his
+beautiful and beloved Killarney; recited a hundred lines of that
+sonorous composition, and concluded a very energetic harangue, by
+requesting "leave of absence," for a few weeks, in order that he might
+proceed to Kerry, there to punish M'Carthy, for his dire offence against
+all the recognized rules of authorship. He even tendered his own bail
+for his reappearance to be hanged, as soon as, by performing an act of
+signal justice towards the plagiarist, he had vindicated that fame
+which, he said, was of more value to him than life.
+
+The manner and matter of this extraordinary address--such as never,
+before nor since, was spoken in a Court of Justice--were so
+extraordinary that the execution of the sentence was postponed. When
+the Civil War was over, the Bard was liberated. "It was a great triumph
+for my eloquence," was his usual self-complacent expression, in after
+life, when speaking of this hair-breadth escape. To this day, however,
+there are some who hint that the Court considered him _non compos
+mentis_--too much of a fool to be a traitor and conspirator--and were
+merciful accordingly.
+
+When O'Kelly returned home, he did not annihilate M'Carthy in the
+body--he did so in spirit: he lampooned him. Finally, the plagiarist
+made a public apology; and an armistice was effected by the aid of
+copious libations of the "mountain-dew," the favourite Hippocrene of
+Irishmen.
+
+The Bard's trip to the Giant's Causeway gave him a wonderful inclination
+for travelling. As itinerary rhyme-spinner, he continued to keep body
+and soul together ever since, in a manner which nothing but the
+brilliant invention of a verse-making Milesian could have dreamed of.
+Under the face of the sun no people so keenly appreciate, and so
+undeniably dread, satire as the Irish do. Few, it may be added, have
+greater powers in that line--and this without being imbued with less
+good-nature or more malice than other people. They particularly shrink
+from any imputation on their open-handed and open-hearted hospitality.
+The Bard O'Kelly knew that this sensitive feeling was the blot which he
+was to hit. And on the results of this knowledge, he contrived to
+live well--to obtain raiment, money, lodging, food, and drink, during
+the vicissitudes of about forty years.
+
+He committed himself to a pilgrimage from place to place, through
+Ireland, always fixing his headquarters at the residence of some country
+gentleman. Here he would abide for a week--a fortnight--or even a month,
+if he liked his quarters, and thought his intrusion would be tolerated
+so long. During his stay, his two horses, his son (for, being Irish, he
+had got married very soon), and himself, always lived "in clover." His
+valedictory acknowledgment, by which he considered that he repaid the
+hospitality extended to him, was a laudatory couplet! If there were, or
+if there seemed to be, the slightest want of cordiality in his reception
+or entertainment, he would immediately depart, giving the delinquent to
+immortal infamy in a stinging couplet. When he had written a few score
+of these rhymes he used to get them printed (ballad-wise) on octavo
+slips of whity-brown paper, and each new page was added to its
+predecessor, by being pasted into a sort of scrap-book. This collection
+he called his "Poetic Tour," and he had only a single copy of it; and to
+this, which he promised to have printed in a regular book, at some
+future period, every one who entertained him was expected to subscribe
+from a crown to a guinea--_subscriptions payable in advance_. To this
+rule he had permitted only one exception. This was early in the present
+century, when the Chevalier Ruspini, (a tooth and corn extractor,) who
+travelled in Ireland as "Dentist to the Prince of Wales," subscribed, in
+the name of his Royal master, for fifty copies of the work; and, on the
+strength of this, managed to dine, on three several occasions, with
+O'Kelly--being the only instance on record of his Bardship having ever
+played the host.
+
+I knew O'Kelly personally, when I was a lad, having met him, for the
+first time, at Drewscourt, in the county of Limerick, whither he came,
+purposely, to remain one day _en passant_, but did us the honour of
+staying for a fortnight. He made his first appearance at dinner-time,
+and his knife and fork were wielded as effectively as if he had not used
+them during the preceding month. Until I saw O'Kelly feed, I had never
+realized the description of Major Dalgetty's laying in "provend" not
+only to make good the dinner he should have eaten yesterday, but to
+provide for the wants of to-day and to-morrow. In the course of the
+evening he exhibited other manifestations of industry and genius. He
+complained of labouring under a cold, which he undertook to cure by a
+peculiar process. This was no less than by imbibing about a dozen
+tumblers of hot and strong whiskey-punch, without moving from his seat.
+This, he assured us, was "a famous remedy for all distempers; good,"
+added he, "for a cure, and magnificent as a preventive." He
+condescended to inform us that, well or sick, this quantity was his
+regular allowance after dinner--when he could get it.
+
+He was loquacious in his cups. The subject of the Royal visit to
+Ireland, in 1821, having been broached, O'Kelly produced a printed
+account of his own interview with the monarch. This, he told us, had
+appeared in a newspaper called the Roscommon Gazette, and it was not
+difficult to guess at whose instance it had gained publicity. The
+account which he read for us was rather an improved edition, he said, as
+his friend, the Roscommon editor, had ruthlessly cut out some of the
+adjectives and superlatives. What he read was to this effect,
+accompanied with his own running commentary of explanation and remark:--
+
+     "'THE BARD O'KELLY AND THE KING.'"
+
+"You see, gentlemen, that I put myself first. Genius (he pronounced it
+_janius_) before greatness any day!
+
+     "When his Most Gracious Majesty King George the Fourth--whom God
+     and Saint Patrick preserve!--paid his loving subjects a visit in
+     August, 1821, the most eminent men of Ireland resorted to the
+     metropolis to do him honour. Among them, was our distinguished and
+     illustrious countryman, the Bard O'Kelly. Without _his_ presence,
+     where would have been the crowning rose of the wreath of Erin's
+     glory? And it is very creditable to His Majesty's taste, that his
+     very first inquiry, on entering the Vice-regal lodge, in Ph[oe]nix
+     Park, was after that honour to our country, our renowned Bard, to
+     whose beautiful productions he had subscribed, for fifty copies,
+     many years ago.
+
+"Yes, gentlemen, he knew all about me. As he had inquired for _me_, I
+thought I could not do less, in course of common civility, than indulge
+_him_ with the pleasure of a visit. But you shall hear:--
+
+     "When the Bard reached Dublin, and heard of His Majesty's most kind
+     and friendly inquiries, he sent a most polite autograph note,
+     written with his own hand, to Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, announcing
+     his own arrival, wishing His Majesty joy on _his_, and requesting
+     Sir Benjamin to appoint a day, mutually convenient to the many
+     important engagements of the Poet and the Monarch, when an
+     interview between these distinguished personages should take place.
+     With that true politeness and chivalrous courtesy which adorn and
+     distinguish the Bard, he notified that, the King being a stranger,
+     the Bard was willing to waive ceremony, and wait upon him, to
+     present a copy of his highly poetical poems, for fifty copies of
+     which the Chevalier Ruspini had subscribed, on behalf of His
+     Majesty, when Prince of Wales.
+
+"Indeed, they were to have been dedicated to him, but, as yet, I have
+not had but the one copy, which I have made up from the slips which have
+been separately printed, from time to time. Kind gentlemen, reading
+always makes me drouthy;--may-be, one of ye will mix a tumbler for
+me?--not too strong of the water;--christen the spirit, but don't drown
+it. Ah, that will do! What a flavor it has!
+
+
+     "An answer was immediately sent by three servants in royal livery,
+     requesting, if perfectly agreeable to O'Kelly, that he would do His
+     Majesty the favour of a friendly visit, the next day at four
+     o'clock.
+
+
+"So I sent word to say that I'd be with him punctual. The next day I
+dressed myself very neat, put on my other shirt, gave my coat a brushing
+(a thing I don't often do, as it takes the nap off the cloth),
+brightened the brass buttons with a bit of chamois leather, went over
+the seams with a little vinegar and ink, polished my boots, so that
+you'd see your likeness in them like a looking-glass, had myself
+elegantly shaved, and to the King I went. But you shall hear:
+
+
+     "To this proposition the Bard politely assented, and went to the
+     Castle of Dublin, at the appointed hour, the next day. There he
+     sent his card to the King, with his compliments; and Sir Benjamin
+     Bloomfield immediately came down the Grand Staircase, and, with a
+     most gracious message from His Majesty, handed him a fifty-pound
+     bank-note, as the royal subscription to his admirable poems.
+
+
+"I won't deny that the sight and touch of the money were mighty
+pleasant; but I said nothing. It was a larger sum than ever I had at any
+one time before, for _my_ riches have always been of the head, rather
+than of the purse. I put the bank-note into my waistcoat-pocket,
+fastened it safely there with a pin I took out of my cuff, and
+then--mind, not until _then_--I told Sir Benjamin----But I'll read it:
+
+
+     "O'Kelly (with that noble disregard for lucre which always
+     distinguished our eminently patriotic, poetic, high-minded, much
+     accomplished, and generous-hearted countryman) immediately told Sir
+     Benjamin, that he would rather relinquish the money than abandon
+     the anticipated pleasure of a personal interview with his
+     Sovereign.
+
+
+"Mind--I had the fifty pounds snug in my pocket all the while. You may
+be certain that I wouldn't have spoken that way _before_ fingering the
+cash.
+
+
+     "On this most disinterested and loyal determination having been
+     mentioned to His Majesty, he was so delighted with it, that he
+     desired the Bard to be ushered instantly into the Grand Hall of
+     Audience. This was done, and there the Most Noble the Marquis of
+     Congynham had the honour of introducing His Majesty to the Poet.
+
+
+"Wasn't it a grand sight! There was the King on his throne, and all the
+great officers of State standing around him. In one hand the King held a
+sceptre of pure gold, and the other was stretched out to receive my
+book. On his head he wore a crown of gold, studded all over with jewels,
+and weighing half a hundred weight, at the very least. On his breast, in
+the place where a diamond star is usually represented in the portraits,
+His Majesty wore a bunch of shamrock, the size of a cauliflower. Now
+you'll hear what occurred:--
+
+
+     "Compliments being exchanged, the King descended from his throne,
+     and had the pleasure of introducing the Marchioness of Conyngham,
+     and all the other Ladies of the Bedchamber, to the Bard. His
+     Majesty, then--returning to his throne, and insisting that the Bard
+     should occupy an arm-chair by his right side--said, "Mr.
+     O'Kelly"----"O'KELLY, without the _Mister_, if you please," said
+     the Bard, "Your Majesty would not say Mr. Shakspeare or Mr.
+     Milton." "True enough," said the King, "I sit corrected: I beg your
+     pardon, O'Kelly. I should have known better. Well, then, O'Kelly, I
+     am quite sure that I shall be delighted with your beautiful poems,
+     when I've time to read them." To this the Bard replied, "Your
+     Majesty never spoke a truer word. I believe they'd delight and
+     instruct any one." At this intelligent, and most correct
+     observation, his Majesty was pleased to smile. He then added, "I'm
+     sorry to see, by your iron leg, that you are lame." O'Kelly, with
+     that ready wit for which he is as remarkable as he is for his
+     modesty, instantly replied, "If I halt in my leg, I don't in my
+     verses, for
+
+         "If God one member has oppressed,
+         He's made more perfect all the rest."
+
+     It is impossible for words to describe the thunders of applause by
+     which this beautiful extempore impromptu was followed.
+
+
+"I knew, well enough, that something smart would be expected from a man
+like me; so I went prepared with several impromptus, to be introduced
+when the occasion would allow.
+
+
+     "His Majesty then said, "It is really remarkable that you, and my
+     friend Walter Scott, should both be lame." The Bard replied, "And
+     Lord Byron also." His Majesty then observed, "It is a wonderful
+     coincidence--the three great poets of the three kingdoms." At the
+     request of the Marquis of Conyngham, the Bard then made the
+     following extemporaneous epigram on the spot, off hand, on this
+     interesting subject:
+
+
+
+    'Three poets for three sister kingdoms born,
+
+"That's England, Ireland, and Scotland:--
+
+    'One for the rose, another for the thorn,
+
+"You know that the rose and thistle are the national emblems of England
+and Scotland:
+
+    'One for the shamrock,
+
+"That's poor old Ireland,--
+
+      'which shall ne'er decay,
+    While rose and thorn must yearly die away.'
+
+
+     "His Majesty was quite electrified at the ready wit displayed in
+     this beautiful impromptu, and took leave of the Bard in the most
+     affectionate and gracious manner. It is whispered among the
+     fashionable circles, that O'Kelly has declined the offer of a
+     Baronetcy, made to him by command of the Sovereign."
+
+
+"Indeed," said the Bard, in conclusion, "the King and me were mutually
+pleased with each other. I'd have had myself made a Baronet, like Scott,
+but I have not the dirty acres to keep up the dignity. 'Tis my private
+notion, if the King had seen me first, I'd have had ten times the money
+he sent me. Well, he's every inch a King, and here's his health."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+You may judge, from what he printed and what he spoke, whether the
+modesty of the Bard was not equal to his genius. It is a fact, I
+understand, that he actually made his way to an audience with George
+the Fourth; he must have rather astonished his Majesty. In his later
+years the Bard fluctuated between Cork and Limerick (in the last-named
+city of "beautiful lasses," he had a daughter very well married),[10]
+and, wherever he might be, was open to algebraic donations of strong
+drink--that is, "any _given_ quantity."
+
+     [10] The saying in Ireland, when the locality of good-looking
+     people is to be indicated, is--"Cork lads and Limerick lasses." In
+     Lancashire, there is something like this in the familiar manner in
+     which the natives speak of "Wigan _chaps_, Bolton _fellows_,
+     Manchester _men_, and Liverpool _gentlemen_."
+
+Such a fungus as the Bard O'Kelly could only have been produced in and
+tolerated by a very peculiar state of society. Out of Ireland he would
+have starved--unless he followed a different vocation. He was partly
+laughed at, partly feared. Satire was his weapon. His manners, attire,
+and conversation, would scarcely be endured now in the servants' hall;
+yet, even as lately as twenty years ago, he forced his way into the
+company of respectable people--aye, and got not only hospitality from
+them, but _douceurs_ of wearing apparel and money. One comfort is, such
+a person would have little chance in Ireland now.
+
+The Bard O'Kelly died about fifteen years ago, having lived in clover
+for more than forty years, by the fears of those whom he made his
+tributaries. Until he published, in 1831, the world took it for granted,
+that even as _he_ said, he had some poetic talent. The list of
+subscribers to his volume had between seven and eight hundred names,
+including ladies, peers of the realm, and members of Parliament. The
+"Bard's" want of ability was companioned by want of principle--for two,
+at least, of the poems which he published as his own, were written by
+others. One, commencing, "My life is like the summer rose," is the
+composition of R. H. Wilde, a distinguished American man of letters; and
+another, beginning "On beds of snow the moonbeams slept," has been
+_conveyed_ from the early poems of a writer named--Thomas Moore. There
+is cool intrepidity in pilfering from a poet so universally known as
+Moore. When Scott visited Ireland, he was waited on by O'Kelly with the
+same "extempore impromptu" he had inflicted on George IV., years before,
+and (Lockhart relates) compelled the Ariosto of the North to pay the
+usual tribute--by subscribing to his poems.
+
+There are scores of Irishmen now in New York, who were personally
+acquainted with O'Kelly, and can testify to the accuracy--I might even
+say the moderation, of my description of him.
+
+
+
+
+FATHER PROUT.
+
+
+Those who have perused that polyglot of wisdom and wit, learning and
+fun, wild eccentricity and plain sense, 'yclept "THE PROUT PAPERS,"
+which originally appeared in _Fraser's Magazine_, during the editorship
+of Dr. Maginn, may feel some curiosity respecting the individual whose
+name has thus been preserved (not unlike the fly in amber) through all
+literary time. They would naturally think, after admiring the rare
+facility of versification, the playfulness, the fancy, the wit, the
+impetuous frolic, the deep erudition which distinguishes the said
+"Papers," that Father Prout must have been a wonderful man, gifted in an
+extraordinary manner.
+
+What is there in the language more spirited than the Prout translations
+from Béranger? As was said of Goethe's Faust, translated by Anster, the
+fact was _transfused_ into our vernacular. What wondrous flexibility is
+given to the old Latin tongue, by the versions of Moore into that
+language! What charming mastery of learning, as exhibited in the
+translations of "The Groves of Blarney" into a variety of tongues! What
+grave humour in treating that original song as if it were only a
+translation! Two wits--who not only belonged to Cork, but had seen a
+great many _drawings_ of it in their time--were the perpetrators of this
+literary mystification. Frank Mahony and Frank Murphy--a priest and a
+lawyer. On their own hook, to use a common phrase, they have done
+nothing worth particular mention; but some plants, we know, produce
+flowers, while others yield fruit.
+
+For a long time, in England, the full credit of the Fraserian articles
+was given to Father Prout. Then set in a spring-tide of disbelief, and
+the very existence of such a man was doubted. Erroneous doubt! for I
+have seen him--spoken to him--dined with him. The Father Prout, however,
+of real life was very different from him of the Prout Papers. He was
+parish-priest of Watergrass-hill, midway between the city of Cork and
+the town of Fermoy--a locality known as the highest arable land in
+Ireland. Prout was one of the old priests who, when it was penal for a
+Catholic clergyman to exist in Ireland, picked up the elements of his
+education how he could, completed it at a foreign university, and came
+back to Ireland, a priest, to administer the consolations of religion to
+the peasantry of his native land. Sometimes, the Catholic priest
+evidenced to the last, in conduct and manners, that his youth had been
+passed in countries in which social civilization had extended further
+than in Ireland. Sometimes, the learning and the polish which had been
+acquired abroad were forgotten at home--as the sword loses its
+brightness from disuse--and, living much among the peasantry, the priest
+lost a part of the finer courtesy of the gentleman, and assumed the
+roughness of the bulk of his parishioners. Wherever there was a resident
+Protestant landowner, the Priest of the olden time instinctively formed
+friendly relations with him--for, at that time, the priestly order was
+not invariably supplied from the peasantry, and tolerance was more
+declared and practiced by members of all persuasions, in Ireland, at
+that time than it is now. Prout was literally a "round, fat, oily man of
+God." He had a hand small as a woman's, and was very proud of it. He had
+an unconquerable spirit of good-humour, and it was utterly impossible
+for any one to be in his company for ten minutes without feeling and
+basking in the sunshine of his buoyant and genial good-nature. Of
+learning he had very little. I do not know what his share might have
+been half a century before, when he was fresh from Douay or the
+Sorbonne, but few traces were left in his latter years. In the society
+of his equals or his superiors, Prout could keep up the shuttlecock of
+conversation as well as any one, and in the fashion of the place and
+class, but he was equally at home amid the festivities of a country
+wedding, or the genialities of the hospitable entertainment which
+followed the holding of a country Station at a rich farmer's domicile.
+
+What the world has received as "The Reliques of Father Prout," owes
+nothing to the little _padrone_. He had a strong sense of the humourous,
+and, when the fancy seized him, was not very particular how or where he
+indulged it.
+
+Prout, residing only nine miles from Cork, frequently visited that city,
+where he had a great many acquaintances, at all times glad to see him.
+In one Protestant family with which he was intimate, there were several
+very handsome daughters, full of life and high spirits, who especially
+delighted in drawing out the rotund priest. He had repeatedly urged them
+to "drop in" upon him, some day; and when the spirit of fun was strong,
+early on a Sunday morning in June, they ordered out the carriage, and
+directed their Jehu to drive them to Watergrass-hill.
+
+Now, though that terminus was only nine (Irish[11]) miles distant, the
+greater part of the way--certainly all from Glanmire--was terribly
+up-hill. The result was that, instead of reaching Father Prout's about
+ten o'clock, as they had anticipated, they did not draw up at his door
+until an hour and a half later, and were there informed that "his
+Reverence had be off to last mass." They determined to follow
+him, partly from curiosity to see in what manner divine worship was
+performed in a Catholic chapel.
+
+     [11] Irish miles are longer than English, in the proportion of 11
+     to 14. A traveller complained to the chaise-driver of the
+     narrowness of the way. "Oh, then," said the man, "why need you be
+     angry with the roads? Sure, we make up in the length for the scanty
+     measure we get in the width."
+
+The chapel in which Father Prout officiated was by no means a building
+of pretension. At that time the roof was out of repair, and, in wet
+weather, acted as a gigantic shower-bath. The floor, then, consisted of
+beaten earth, which was somewhat of a puddle whenever the rains
+descended and the winds blew. The Cork ladies soon found the chapel,
+entered it, and (accustomed to the rich churches of their own
+persuasion) gazed in wonder on the humble, unadorned place of worship in
+which they stood. It may literally be said "in which they stood," for
+there were no pews, no chairs, not even a solitary stool.
+
+Presently the chapel began to fill, and "the pressure from without"
+gradually drove the ladies nearer and yet nearer to the altar. At length
+Father Prout entered in his clerical attire, and commenced the service.
+In Catholic churches the priest officiates, during the early part of the
+service, with his face to the altar, and his back to the congregation.
+Thus, it happened that Prout never saw his Cork friends until the time
+when he turned round to the congregation. Then he beheld them,
+handsomely and fashionably attired, standing up (for the floor was too
+puddled to allow them to soil their vesture by kneeling, as every one
+else did), the gazed-at by all beholders, looking and feeling the
+reverse of comfortable.
+
+Father Prout immediately looked at his clerk, Pat Murphy,--an original
+in his way,--caught his eye and his attention, and gently inclining
+towards him, whispered, "send for three chairs for the ladies." Pat, who
+was a little deaf, imperfectly caught his master's words, and turned
+round to the congregation and roared out, "Boys! his Reverence says,
+'Three cheers for the ladies.'" The congregation, obedient and gallant,
+gave three tremendous shouts, to the surprise of the ladies and the
+horror of the priest. There was a good deal of merriment when the
+mistake was explained, but to his dying day Father Prout was reminded,
+whenever he visited Cork, of the "Three cheers for the ladies."
+
+Pat Murphy, his clerk, was quite a character. He affected big words, and
+was mortally offended whenever any one called him _clerk_ or _sexton_.
+"I pity the weakness of your intellectual organization," he would
+contemptuously exclaim. "If you had only brains enough to distinguish B
+from a bull's foot, you would appreciate my peculiar and appropriate
+official designation. The words 'clerk' and 'sexton' are appellations
+which distinctify the menial avocations of persons employed in heretical
+places of worship. My situation is that of Sacristan and my responsible
+duty is to act as custodian of the sacred utensils and vestments of
+the chapel."
+
+Murphy had an exaggerated idea of the abilities of his principal, and
+stoutly maintained that if the Pope knew what was good for the Church,
+he would long since have elevated Father Prout to the episcopal dignity.
+His chief regret, when dying, was, that he did not survive to see _this_
+consummation.
+
+Sometimes Pat Murphy would condescend to enter into a _vivâ voce_
+controversy with one of the "heretics," (as he invariably designated the
+Protestants,) on the comparative merits of the rival churches. His
+invariable wind-up, delivered gravely and authoritatively, as a
+clincher, to which he would permit no reply, was as follows:--"I
+commiserate your condition, which is the result of your miserable
+ignorance. Unfortunate individual! out of the New Testament itself I can
+prove that your religion is but a thing of yesterday. With you
+Protestants the Apostle Paul had not the most distant acquaintance,
+whereas he corresponded with us of the Holy Roman Church. You doubt it?
+Know you not that, from Corinth, he wrote an Epistle to the _Romans_,
+and if the Protestants were in existence then, and known to him, why did
+he not as well send an Epistle unto _them_?"
+
+Father Prout was short and rotund. His Sacristan was tall and thin.
+Immemorial usage permits the clerical cast-off garments to descend, like
+heirlooms, to the parish clerk. Pat Murphy, in the threadbare
+garments which erst had clothed the rotundity of Father Prout, was a
+ludicrous looking object. The doctrine of compensation used to be
+carried out, on such occasions, with more truth than beauty. The waist
+of the priest's coat would find itself under Murphy's arms, the
+wristbands would barely cover his elbows, and the pantaloons, sharing
+the fate of the other garments, would end at his knees, leaving a wide
+interval of calf visible to public gaze. On the other hand, by way of
+equivalent, the garments would voluminously wrap around him, in folds,
+as if they were intended to envelope not one Pat Murphy, but three such
+examples of the mathematical definition, "length without breadth." On
+one occasion I had the double satisfaction of seeing Father Prout, like
+Solomon, in all his glory, with Pat Murphy in full costume. It happened
+in this wise:
+
+There was pretty good shooting about Watergrass-hill, and the officers
+of an infantry regiment, who were quartered at Fermoy, at the period to
+which I refer, had made Prout's acquaintance, while peppering away at
+the birds, and had partaken of a capital impromptu luncheon which he got
+up on the moment. Prout, it may be added, was in the habit of receiving
+presents of game, fish and poultry from his friends in Cork, (the
+mail-coaches and other public conveyances passing his door several times
+every day,) and as long as Dan Meagher, of Patrick-street, was in the
+wine-trade, be sure that his friend, Father Prout, did not want good
+samples of the generous juice of the grape. Of course, he also had a
+supply of real _potheen_. Cellar and larder thus provided for, Prout was
+fond of playing the host.
+
+A great intimacy speedily sprung up between Prout and his military
+friends, and he partook of numerous dinners at their mess in Fermoy
+Barracks. At last, determined to return the compliment, he invited them
+all to dine with him at Watergrass-hill. One of my own cousins, who
+happened to be one of the guests, took me with him--on the Roman plan, I
+presume, which permitted an invited guest to bring _his shade_. I was a
+youngster at the time, but remember the affair as if it were of
+yesterday.
+
+If there was any anticipation of a spoiled dinner, it was vain. Prout,
+who was on intimate terms with all his neighbours for half a dozen miles
+round, had been wise enough to invoke the aid of the Protestant rector
+of Watergrass-hill, who not only lent him plate, china, and all other
+table necessaries, but--what was of more importance--also spared him the
+excellent cook who, it was said, could compose a dinner, in full
+variety, out of any one article of food. Each of the officers was
+attended at table by his own servant, and Pat Murphy, in full dress,
+officiated as servitor, at the particular disposal of Father Prout
+himself.
+
+The dinner was excellent,--well-cooked, well-served, and worthy of
+praise for the abundance, variety, and excellence of the viands. There
+was everything to be pleased with--nothing to smile at.
+
+I beg to withdraw the last four words. There was Pat Murphy, in an
+ex-suit of Prout's, looking such a figure of fun, that, on recalling the
+scene now, I wonder how, one and all, we did not burst into a shout of
+laughter when he first was presented to view. He looked taller, and
+scraggier, and leaner than usual--his clothes appearing greater misfits
+than ever! Prout, who kept his countenance remarkably well, evidently
+saw and enjoyed the ludicrous appearance of his man. On the other hand,
+the man, taking on himself the duties of Major Domo, ordered the other
+attendants about in all directions, muttering curses between his teeth
+whenever they did not do exactly as he commanded. But everything went
+off gaily, and Prout's rubicund face became redder and more radiant
+under the influence of this success.
+
+In the course of the entertainment, Father Prout, addressing his
+attendant, said, "Pat, a glass of porter, if you please." The liquor was
+poured, and, as it frothed in the glass, Prout raised it to his lips
+with the words, "Thank you, Pat." Waiting until he had completed the
+draught, Pat, in a tone of earnest remonstrance, said, "Ah, then, your
+Reverence, why should _you_ thank me for what's your own? It would be
+decent for these genteels who are dining here, to thank me for the good
+drink, but you've no right to do anything of the sort, seeing that the
+liquor is your own. It is my supplication that you will not do so again;
+there is an incongruity in it which I disrelish." We had some difficulty
+in not laughing, but contrived to keep serious faces during this
+colloquy.
+
+The liberality of the little Padre had provided us with three courses,
+and just as Pat Murphy was in the act of relieving a noble roasted
+haunch of mutton, before his master, by a dish of snipe, he happened to
+look out of the window and see one of his own familiar associates
+passing along the street. Hastily flinging down the dish, he threw up
+the window, and, kneeling down, with his long arms resting on the sill,
+loudly hailed his friend, "Where are ye going, Tom?" The answer was that
+a dance was expected in the neighbourhood, and at which, of course, Pat
+would be "to the fore." Now, the said Pat, very much like Ichabod Crane
+in figure, had a sort of sneaking desire, like him, to be wherever
+pretty women were to be seen. "No," said Pat, "I do not anticipate to be
+relieved in any thing like proper time from attendance here this
+evening. His Reverence, who has been ating and drinking, with remarkable
+avidity, on the military officers down in Fermoy, is hospitable to-day,
+and entertains the whole squad of them at dinner. To see them _ate_,
+you'd think they had just got out of a hard Lent. 'Tisn't often, I dare
+say, that they get such a feast. There's the mutton sent by Chetwood of
+Glanmire; and the poultry by Cooper Penrose of Wood-hill; and the
+lashings of game by Devonshire of Kilshanneck; and the fruit by Lord
+Riversdale of Lisnegar--that is, by his steward, for 'tis little his
+Lordship sees of the place that gives him a good six thousand a
+year;--and the barrel of porter from Tommy Walker of Fermoy; and the
+wine from red-faced Dan Meagher of Cork; and everything of the best.
+Depend on it, the officers won't stir until they have made fools of all
+the provender. By-and-bye, that the poor mightn't have a chance of the
+leavings, they will be calling for grilled bones, and devilled legs and
+gizzards. No, Tom, my mind misgives me that I can't go to the dance this
+evening. Here's the officers, bad 'cess to them, that are sedentary
+fixtures until midnight."
+
+This oration delivered,--and every one had been silent while Pat Murphy
+was thus unburthening his mind,--he arose from his knees, closed the
+window, and resumed his place behind Father Prout, with "a countenance
+more of sorrow than of anger," calm and unconcerned as if nothing had
+occurred out of the ordinary routine. At that moment, Prout threw
+himself back on his chair, and laughed until the tears rolled down his
+cheeks, and thus encouraged, the company followed his example, and
+laughed also. When the mirth had subsided, it was almost renewed by the
+solemn countenance of Pat Murphy, grave rather than severe--a sort of
+domestic Marius sitting, in sad contemplation, amid the ruins of
+Carthage.
+
+Father Prout had rather a rough set of parishioners to deal with. He
+could be, and was, very much of the gentleman, but it pleased him to
+appear plain and unpolished to those among whom his lot was cast. At
+times, when nothing else would do, he would address them, in an
+exhortation, very much in the spirit of Swift's "if you like the
+conditions, down with the dust!" At such times, Rabelais, "in his easy
+chair," would have smiled, and Swift himself would have hailed Prout as
+a congenial spirit.
+
+I have a memorandum of one of these sermons. The object was to collect
+some arrears of "dues" from certain non-paying parishioners,
+(constituting rather a large portion of his congregation,) and I have
+been told that the discourse was much to this effect:
+
+
+
+
+FATHER PROUT'S SERMON.
+
+
+Somewhere in the Scriptures it is written, that whoever gives to the
+poor lends to the Lord. There are three reasons why I don't tell you
+exactly where this may be found. In the first place, poor creatures that
+you are, few of you happen to have the authorized Douay edition, printed
+and published by Richard Coyne of Dublin, and certified as correct by
+Archbishop Troy, and the other heads of the Church in Ireland--few
+among you, I say, have _that_, though I know that there is not a house
+in the parish without a loose song-book, or the History of the Irish
+Rogues. In the second place, if ye had it, 'tis few of ye could read it,
+ignorant haythens that ye are. And in the third place, if every man-jack
+of ye did possess it, and could read it, (for the Church still admits
+the possibility of miracles,) it would not much matter at this present
+moment, because it happens that I don't quite remember in what part of
+it the text is to be found;--for the wickedness of my flock has affected
+my memory, and driven many things clean out of my head, which it took me
+a deal of trouble to put into it when I was studying in foreign parts,
+years ago. But it don't matter. The fault is not mine, but yours, ye
+unnatural crew, and may-be ye won't find it out, to your cost, before ye
+have been five minutes quit of this life. Amen.
+
+"He who gives to the poor."--Ye are not skilled in logic, nor indeed in
+anything that I know except playing hurley in the fields, scheming at
+cards in public-houses for half gallons of porter, and defrauding your
+clergy of their lawful dues. What is worse, there's no use in trying to
+drive logic into your heads, for indeed that would be the fulfilment of
+another text that speaks of throwing pearls before pigs. But if ye _did_
+know logic--which ye don't--ye would perceive at once that the passage I
+have just quoted naturally divides itself into two branches. The first
+involves the _giving_; that is, rationally and syllogistically
+considered, what ye ought to do. And the second involves the _poor_;
+that is, the receivers of the gifts, or the persons for whom ye ought to
+do it.
+
+First, then, as to the giving. Now it stands to reason that, as the
+Scripture says in some other place, the blind can't lead the blind,
+because maybe they'd fall into the bog-holes, poor things, and get
+drowned. And so, though there really is wonderful kindness to each other
+among them, it is not to be expected that the poor can give to the poor.
+No, the givers must be people who have something to give, which the poor
+have not. Some of ye will try and get off on this head, and say that
+'tis gladly enough ye'd give, but that really ye can't afford it. Can't
+ye? If you make up your minds, any one of you, to give up only a single
+glass of spirits, every day of your lives, see what it will come to in
+the course of a year, and devote _that_ to the Church--that is to the
+Clergy--and it will be more than some of the well-to-do farmers, whom I
+have in my eye at this blessed moment, have had the heart to give me
+during the last twelve months. Why, as little as a penny a day comes to
+more than thirty shillings in the year, and even that insignificant
+trifle I have not had from some of you that have the means and ought to
+know better. I don't want to mention names, but, Tom Murphy of the Glen,
+I am afraid I shall be compelled to name you before the whole
+congregation, some day before long, if you don't pay up your lawful
+dues. I won't say more now on that subject, for, as St. Augustine says,
+"A nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse."
+
+Now, the moral of the first part being clearly shown, that all who _can_
+give _ought_ to give, the next branch is _to whom_ should it be given?
+The blessed text essentially states and declares "to the poor." Then
+follows the inquiry, who's "the _poor_." The whole matter depends on
+_that_.
+
+I dare say, ignorant as ye are, some of you will think that it's the
+beggars, and the cripples, and the blind travellers who contrive to get
+through the length and breadth of the country, guided by Providence and
+a little dog tied to their fingers by a bit of string. No, I don't want
+to say one mortal word against that sort of cattle, or injure them in
+their honest calling. God help them. It's their trade, their estate,
+their occupation, their business to beg--just as much as 'tis Pat
+Mulcahy's business to tailor, or Jerry Smith's to make carts, or Tom
+Shine's to shoe horses, or Din Cotter's to make potheen, and my business
+to preach sermons, and save your souls, ye heathens. But these ain't
+"the poor" meant in the text. They're used to begging, and they like to
+beg, and they thrive on begging, and I, for one, wouldn't be the man to
+disturb them in the practice of their profession, and long may it be a
+provision to them and to their heirs for ever. Amen.
+
+May-be, ye mean-spirited creatures, some among you will say that it's
+yourselves is "the poor." Indeed, then, it isn't. Poor enough and
+niggardly ye are, but you ain't the poor contemplated by holy Moses in
+the text. Sure 'tis your nature to toil and to slave--sure 'tis what
+ye're used to. Therefore, if any one were to give anything to _you_, he
+would not be lending to the Lord in the slightest degree, but throwing
+away his money as completely as if he lent it upon the security of the
+land that's covered by the lakes of Killarney. Don't flatter yourselves,
+any of you, for a moment, that you are "the poor." I can tell you that
+you're nothing of the sort.
+
+Now, then, we have found out who should be the givers. There's no
+mistake about _that_--reason and logic unite in declaring that every one
+of you, man, woman and child--should give, and strain a point to do it
+liberally. Next, we have ascertained that it's "the poor" who should
+receive what you give. Thirdly, we have determined who are _not_ "the
+poor." Lastly, we must discover who _are_.
+
+Let each of you put on his considering cap and think.--Well, I have
+paused that you might do so. Din Cotter is a knowledgeable man compared
+with the bulk of you. I wonder whether he has discovered who _are_ "the
+poor." He shakes his head--but there is not much in _that_. Well, then,
+you give it up. You leave it to me to enlighten you all. Learn, then,
+to your shame, that it's the Clergy who are "the poor."
+
+Ah! you perceive it now, do you? The light comes in through your thick
+heads, does it? Yes, it's I and my brethren is "the poor." We get our
+bread--coarse enough and dry enough it usually is--by filling you with
+spiritual food, and, judging by the congregation now before me, its ugly
+mouths you have to receive it. We toil not, neither do we spin, but if
+Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed better than we are, instead
+of being clothed in vermin and fine linen, 'tis many a time he'd be
+wearing a thread-bare black coat, white on the seams, and out at the
+elbows. It's the opinion of the most learned scholars and Doctors in
+Divinity, as laid down before the Council of Trent, that the translation
+is not sufficiently exact in regard of this text. And they recommend
+that for the words "the poor," we should substitute "the clergy." Thus
+corrected, then, the text would read "he who gives to the Clergy, lends
+to the Lord," which, no doubt, is the proper and undiluted Scripture.
+
+The words of the text are thus settled, and you have heard my
+explanation of it all. Now for the application. Last Thursday was a week
+since the fair of Bartlemy, and I went down there to buy a horse, for
+this is a large parish, and mortification and fretting has puffed me up
+so, that, God help me, 'tis little able I am to walk about to answer
+all the sick calls, to say nothing of stations, weddings, and
+christenings. Well, I bought the horse, and it cost me more than I
+expected, so that there I stood without a copper in my pocket after I
+had paid the dealer. It rained cats and dogs, and as I am so poor that I
+can't afford to buy a great coat, I got wet to the skin, in less than no
+time. There you were, scores of you, in the public houses, with the
+windows up, that all the world might see you eating and drinking as if
+it was for a wager. And there was not one of you who had the grace to
+ask, "Father Prout, have you got a mouth in your face?" And there I
+might have stood in the rain until this blessed hour (that is, supposing
+it had continued raining until now), if I had not been picked up by Mr.
+'Mun Roche, of Kildinan, an honest gentleman, and a hospitable man I
+must say, though he is a Protestant.[12] He took me home with him, and
+there, to your eternal disgrace, you villains, I got as full as a tick,
+and 'Mun had to send me home in his own carriage--which is an
+everlasting shame to all of you, who belong to the true Church.
+
+     [12] Created Lord Fermoy in 1855.
+
+Now, I ask which has carried out the text? You who did not give me even
+a poor tumbler of punch, when I was like a drowned rat at Bartlemy, or
+'Mun Roche, who took me home, and filled me with the best of eating and
+drinking, and sent me to my own house, after that, in his own elegant
+carriage? Who best fulfilled the Scripture? Who lent to the Lord, by
+giving to his poor Clergy? Remember, a time will come when I must give a
+true account of you:--what can I say then? Won't I have to hang down my
+head in shame, on your account? 'Pon my conscience, it would not much
+surprise me, unless you greatly mend your ways, if 'Mun Roche and you
+won't have to change places on that occasion: _he_ to sit alongside of
+me, as a friend who had treated the poor Clergy well in this world, and
+_you_ in a certain place, which I won't particularly mention now, except
+to hint that 'tis little frost or cold you'll have in it, but quite the
+contrary. However, 'tis never too late to mend, and I hope that by this
+day week, it's quite another story I'll have to tell of you all.--Amen.
+
+
+
+
+IRISH DANCING-MASTERS.
+
+
+Five-and-twenty years ago, when I left Ireland, the original or
+aboriginal race of country dancing-masters was nearly extinct. By this
+time, I presume, it has almost died out. Here and there a few may be
+seen,
+
+
+     "Rari nantes in gurgite vasto,"
+
+
+but the light-heeled, light-hearted, jovial, genial fellows who were
+actual Masters of the Revels in the district to which they respectively
+belonged, are nowhere.
+
+There used to be as much pride (and property) in a village
+dancing-master as in a village schoolmaster, in my young days, and I
+have heard of "many accidents by flood and field," caused by attempts to
+remove a dancing-master or a pedagogue, of high reputation, from one
+district to another. In such cases, the very abduction being the
+strongest possible compliment to his renown, the person who was "enticed
+away by force," always made a point of offering no resistance, and would
+passively and proudly await the result. Indeed, care was always taken
+that such removal should be actual preferment, as, to ameliorate his
+condition, the residence provided for him in the new village, township,
+or barony, was always better than that from which he was removed.
+
+As a general rule, the abduction, of schoolmasters was a favorite
+practice in Kerry--where every man and boy is supposed to speak
+Latin[13]--while stolen dancing-masters did not abound in the
+neighbouring counties of Cork and Limerick. The natural inference is
+that the County Kerry-men preferred the culture of the head, while the
+others rather cared for the education of the heels.
+
+     [13] There are full grounds for this assertion. Classical learning
+     has flourished in Kerry (under a hedge) from time immemorial. I
+     recollect an illustrative anecdote. Two poor scholars who were
+     travelling through Kerry, came to a farm-house, when faint with
+     hunger, and foot-sore with walking; they went in, and modestly
+     wanted "a drink of water," which was given them. On leaving the
+     house, where they had expected something better than this scant
+     hospitality, one of them exclaimed, "Ah, Pat, that's not the way
+     that a farmer's wife would trate a poor scholar in our part of the
+     world. 'Tis the good bowl of milk she'd give him, and not the
+     piggin of cold water. She's a _malus mulier_." The other responded,
+     "Say _mala_--it must be so to agree with the feminine _mulier_.
+     Don't you know that _malus mulier_ is bad Latin?" "Hold your
+     tongue," was the answer: "whatever it is, it is only too good for a
+     niggard like _her_."
+
+To have a first-rate hedge-schoolmaster was a credit to any parish. To
+have engrossed the services of an eminent _maître de danse_ was almost a
+matter of considerable pride and boasting, but to possess _both_ of
+these treasures was indeed a triumph.
+
+There was more pride, perhaps, in having a schoolmaster of great
+repute--more pleasure in owning a dancer of high renown. The book-man
+was never known to dance, and the village Vestris was rarely able to
+write his name. Thus they never clashed. One ruled by day, and the other
+had unquestioned sovereignty in the hours between dusk and dawn.
+
+Such a being as a youthful dancing-master I never saw--never heard of.
+They were invariably middle-aged men, at the youngest; but professors of
+"the poetry of motion," who were about seventy, appeared the greatest
+favourites. It was dreaded, perhaps, that the attraction of youth and
+good dancing combined would be too much for the village beauties to
+resist. On the same system, in all probability, it was a _sine quâ non_
+that the dancing-master should be married.
+
+The Irish peasantry used to have a sort of passion for dancing. Hence
+the necessity for a teacher. On stated evenings during the winter, no
+matter what obstacles wet weather or dirty roads might present, a large
+company of pupils, from the age of ten to forty years, would assemble,
+in some roomy barn, possessing a smooth and hard floor of
+closely-pounded clay, to receive instructions in the saltatory art.
+Sometimes, when the teacher was ambitious, he would flourishingly open
+the proceedings with what was called "a bit of a noration,"--the oratory
+principally consisting of sesquipedalian words and mythological
+allusions, being composed by the schoolmaster--utterly unintelligible,
+but sounding largely, and delivered in an _ore rotundo_ manner and with
+"a laudable voice," as if the dancing-master really understood the words
+he uttered. Not taking particular pains to follow "copy," and frequently
+putting in words of his own when those written down for him had slipped
+out of his memory, these orations were amusingly absurd. They invariably
+commenced with an allusion to Miriam dancing before Moses, after the
+passage of the Red Sea, (on which occasion, no doubt, was first heard
+"the piper who played before Moses," familiarly named in Irish
+colloquy,) and, passing down, through Homer and the classics, always
+ended with a warm eulogy on the antiquity of the dance.
+
+In those days, the favourite exhibitions were the jig, the reel, the
+hornpipe, and the country-dance. The last-named was considered
+dreadfully genteel--too aristocratic, in fact, for the multitude--and
+was learned and practiced (as courting and kissing often are) on the
+sly! The reel was countenanced--and no more. It was rather Scotch than
+Irish. Every one was expected to be able to go that laborious piece of
+amusement called "The Sailor's Hornpipe,"--faint vestiges of which are
+extant, to this hour, in nautical scenes,--as represented on the stage.
+Words cannot describe the evolutions of this remarkable dance, when
+exhibited with all the scientific varieties of which it was
+capable. The shuffles, cross-shuffles, jumps, hops, leaps, cuttings,
+slides, and so on, which were introduced, I am unable to describe. The
+manner in which "heel-and-toe" was employed and varied, some abler
+historian may record.
+
+That the hours passed away on swift pinions at these dancing academies,
+may well be imagined. There was any quantity of flirtation at all times,
+and about half the marriages in the country owed their origin to these
+_réunions_. It is creditable to the proverbial good conduct of my
+countrywomen, that loss of character rarely, if ever, resulted from
+these free-and-easy meetings.
+
+The real glory of the evening, however, was when the dancing-master,
+after a world of solicitation, would "take the flure," in order to give
+his admiring pupils a touch of his quality. On such an occasion, the
+door of the house would be lifted off its hinges, and placed in the
+centre of the floor. Abandoning the little _kit_ (a small-sized violin)
+which was his companion at all other exhibitions, he would allow a blind
+piper to "discourse most excellent music," and, on the door, would
+commence that wondrous display of agility, known, in my time, as "cover
+the buckle;"--a name probably derived from the circumstance that the
+dancing-master, while teaching, always wore large buckles in his shoes,
+and by the rapidity of motion with which he would make his "many
+twinkling feet" perpetually cross, would seem to "cover" the appendages
+in question. The great effort was to exhibit all varieties of steps and
+dances, without once quitting the prostrate door on which the exhibitor
+took his stand. The jumps, the "cuttings" in the air, the bends, the
+dives, the wrigglings, the hops--these were all critically regarded by
+his audience, and sometimes rewarded with such exclamations as "That's
+the way,"--"now for a double cut,"--"cover-the-buckle, ye divel,"--"Oh,
+then, 'tis he that handles his feet nately." At the conclusion, when he
+literally had danced himself almost off his legs, he would bow to the
+company, and--if he were very much a favourite, or had eclipsed all
+former displays--one of the prettiest girls in the room would go round,
+plate in hand, and make a collection for him. How the ten-penny and
+five-penny bits would tumble in, on those occasions--particularly if the
+fair collector could be induced to announce, with a blush and a smile,
+that she would take an extra donation on the usual terms, which meant
+that, for five shillings into the plate, any gallant swain might brush
+the dew from her own coral lips, on that occasion only and by particular
+desire. Can you doubt, for a moment, that the likely "boy" who had been
+sitting by her side all the evening, making babies on her eyes (as the
+saying is), and with his arm round her waist, just to steady her in her
+seat, would jump up and fling his crown-piece into the treasury--though
+the pecuniary sacrifice would probably involve his being obliged to
+dispense, for a few weeks more, with "the new Carline hat" on which his
+dandyism had set its mind, for his Sunday adorning!
+
+It was difficult for "an outsider" to become a spectator of the peculiar
+modes of teaching adopted and practiced by these masters. At a small
+extra rate, they would undertake to give instructions in that
+"deportment," of which the late Mr. Turvey-drop was such an illustrious
+exemplar. I never witnessed anything of this sort, but have conversed on
+the subject with some who did. From what I could learn, the whole course
+of tuition in this particular branch must have been ludicrous in the
+extreme. Besides lessons in standing, walking, sitting, and even leaning
+with grace and ease, more recondite points were considered. Such were
+"how to slide out of a room backwards" (on the chance, no doubt, of some
+of the rustics having to appear at Court, before Royalty)--"how to
+accept a tumbler of punch from a gentleman," touching the liquid with
+her lips, so as to leave a kiss within the cup, as Ben Jonson
+advises,--"how to refuse a kiss," and yet not destroy the hope of its
+being accepted, a little later in the evening,--and, above all, "how to
+take a kiss," in the most genteel and approved manner of politeness!
+These instructions, super-added to a lesson that was called
+"the Grecian bend" (which was nothing less than a coquettish way of
+leaning forward, with the eyes cast down, while listening to soft
+nonsense from a favoured swain), were peculiar and private. The only way
+in which the male sex could obtain a glimpse at such Eleusinian
+mysteries was by taking a recumbent position on the roof of the house,
+carefully removing a small portion of the thatch, and using eyes and
+ears in that situation to the best advantage. If detected by the irate
+maidens, the spy would run a fair chance of a scratched face and
+well-boxed ears.
+
+As might be expected, the country dancing-master sometimes had stupid
+and refractory pupils. There was a common method of giving them
+instruction, which, for its practical simplicity, may be worth relating.
+When the pupil would persist in _not_ recollecting which foot was to be
+used, at particular periods, the dancing-master would take a rope made
+of twisted hay, called a _suggaun_, and fasten it around one of the
+delinquent's ankles. He would then take a similar bracelet of twisted
+willow, denominated a _gad_, and put this on the other. Then, instead of
+directing the pupil to the particular use or motion of the right leg or
+the left, he would exclaim, "Rise upon _suggaun_," or "Sink upon _gad_,"
+and in this manner convey his instructions beyond a possibility of
+mistake by even the most stupid!
+
+Of course, where there was large company of young people, full of life
+and spirit, under pupilage to a not young instructor, a variety of
+practical jokes would be perpetrated, at his expense, every now and
+then. They were almost invariably of a good-natured kind. One, which
+might be considered as to "be repeated every night until farther
+notice," generally came off towards the end of the evening. A joyous,
+light-hearted damsel would suddenly start up, while the music was
+playing, and, placing herself before the dancing-master, with that
+particular description of curtsy called "a bob," silently challenge him
+to dance with her. Now, under all circumstances, except actual inability
+to move, the gentleman so challenged has nothing to do but pick up the
+gauntlet, and "take the flure." Then, challenger and challenged would
+commence an Irish jig--a dance so violent that, writing in the dog-days
+as I do, the very recollection of it makes me feel as if the barometer
+was some two hundred in the shade. When the damsel had pretty well tired
+herself, one of her fair friends would take her place, and so on until a
+round dozen or so had had their turn. All this time, the doomed victim
+of a man had to continue dancing--and the point of honour was to do so,
+without giving in, as long as strength and wind lasted. The company
+would gather round, forming a ring for the performers, and the word
+would be, "On with the dance" (as it was, at Brussels, on the eve of
+Waterloo), until, at last, some male spectator would pityingly dash
+into the circle, take the tired man's place, and permit the breathless
+and exhausted victim to totter to a seat, gasping out a protest, as he
+did, that he could have held out for half an hour longer, and wondered
+why any gentleman should interfere with another gentleman's _divarshun_.
+
+In the preceding story of "The Petrified Piper," mention is made of a
+dancing-master commonly known as "Ould Lynch." He was an original, in
+many respects, and, like many of his profession, was in a constant
+flutter of faded finery and actual poverty. He was so much a character
+that my father took rather a fancy to him, and had him often at the
+house, as a teacher of dancing, in the well populated town of Fermoy. He
+had small chance of earning what would keep life and soul together. But
+he was a quiet, unassuming man, better educated than most of his class,
+and full of anecdote. One social virtue he eminently possessed:--he was
+one of the best backgammon players I ever saw, and (I speak it
+modestly,) was very fond of me as a pupil.
+
+Lynch was a County Limerick man, on the confines of "the Kingdom of
+Kerry," and informed me that, in the parish where he was brought up, the
+natives had a passion for backgammon, and were wont, on high-days and
+holidays, to hold tournaments (on their favourite game) with the
+inhabitants of the next parish, in Kerry. Unfortunately, one day
+when a great trial of skill was appointed to come off, it turned out
+that no backgammon box was forthcoming. Both parties had contrived to
+forget it. To send for the necessary implements would have been a waste
+of time, when the combatants had "their souls in arms," and were "eager
+for the fray." In this dilemma, a lad who had a decided genius for
+expedients suggested a plan by which, without delay, their mutual wishes
+could be realized. Under his advice, one of the meadows was fixed upon
+as the scene of action. The turf was removed at intervals, so as to make
+the place present the semblance of a backgammon board, and substitutes
+for men were readily found in the flat stones and slates with which the
+ground abounded. The great difficulty was--the dice! They could
+extemporize board and men, but how to raise the bits of ivory? The lad
+was not to be baffled. He proposed that two men, one selected from each
+party, should sit on the ditch opposite each other, with "the board in
+the centre, with their respective backs turned _from_ the combatants,
+and, in turn, should call out the numbers, as if they had been actually
+thrown by dice! This brilliant idea was acted upon. A halfpenny was
+thrown up to decide who should have first play, and the men on the ditch
+alternately called out, at will, any of the throws which might have
+been actually cast had the dice themselves been "to the fore."
+
+Such primitive practice, I venture to say, had never before been applied
+to the noble _science_ of backgammon. I use the word advisedly, because,
+with skill and judgment, what is called bad luck does not very
+materially affect the game. The art is to conquer, despite bad throwing.
+
+Lynch succeeded a worthy named Hearne--a _nom de guerre_, his enemies
+averred, for the less euphonious one of Herring. Whatever his name, the
+man was quite a character. He fancied himself a poet, and was
+particularly fond of taking his favourite pupils aside to communicate to
+them in a confidential manner, _sotto voce_, the latest productions of
+his muse,--it being expected that, a little later in the evening, the
+favoured individuals should delicately draw him out and solicit him to a
+public recital of his verses. After a good deal of pressing on their
+part, and a show of resistance on his, (which every one understood,) the
+little dancing-master would mount on a table, deliver a flourishing
+preface in prose, and then go through the recitation, in a manner which
+set description at defiance. At the conclusion of this feat, which was
+duly encored, Hearne was wont to distribute copies of his composition
+printed on whity-brown paper, and the tribute of a five-penny bit was
+expected in acknowledgment of the same--simply, as he said, "to pay for
+the printing." He had such a peculiar system of orthography--spelling
+the words by the sound--that I venture, with all due diffidence, to put
+forward his claim to take precedence of the interesting and worthy
+founders of the newspaper-nondescript, _The Fonetic Nuz_, at which the
+Londoners laughed heartily a dozen years ago. By some accident, I have
+preserved a copy of one of Hearne's poetical compositions, in which his
+own mode of spelling is carefully preserved, and I subjoin it as a
+curiosity,--a specimen of what emanated, some thirty years ago, from one
+who belonged to the peculiar class (of which Grant Thorburn is the head)
+worthy of being called The Illiterate Literati!
+
+
+     "_A few lions addressed in prease of Mr. Jon Anderson, Esquire, by
+     his humble servant, and votary of the Muses, Wm. Ahearne, profesor
+     of dancing._
+
+
+    "Who lives in this Eaden wich lyes to the easte
+      Of Fermoy ould bridge and its pallasades;
+    He is the best man on the Blackwater's breast,
+      As thousans from povirty he has razed.
+
+    "There's no grand Pear in all Urop this day,
+      With him can compare most certinly,
+    In bilding a town of buty and sweay
+      As Fermoy and its gay sweet liberty.
+
+    "Now, weagh well the case betwin him and those
+      Who travel the globe and fair Itly,
+    After skroozhing their tinnants hard when at home,
+      And spinding their store most foulishly."
+
+The most original idea in these "few lions," is the geographical
+information that Italy is _not_ a part of the globe. In the pen-ultimate
+line, the poet may have hinted a little sly satire at the "at home" in
+high life, where the crushing of hundreds into a space where tens can
+scarcely sit in comfort is esteemed a great feat.
+
+A wealthy attorney, named Henley, who had been kind to Hearne, was the
+object of an eulogistic "pome." It ran somewhat thus:
+
+    There is a barrister of great fame
+      In Fermoy, I do declare,
+    Who administers strict justas
+      Without bribery or dessate.
+    May God prolong your days,
+      Your Court to reglate,
+    And force sly roges and villines
+      To pay their dews and rates.
+
+
+
+
+CHARLEY CROFTS.
+
+
+In the immortal "Maxims of O'Doherty," written by the late Dr. Maginn,
+mention is made of a dinner at the late Lord Doneraile's, in the South
+of Ireland, in which a reproof was administered to his Lordship's
+meanness in the article of--tippling. He says, "My friend, Charley
+Crofts, was also of the party. The claret went lazily round the table,
+and his Lordship's toad-eaters hinted that they preferred punch, and
+called for hot water. My Lord gave in, after a humbug show of
+resistance, and whiskey-punch was in a few minutes the order of the
+night. Charley, however, to the annoyance of the host, kept swilling
+away at the claret, on which Lord Doneraile lost all patience, and said
+to him, 'Charley, you are missing quite a treat; this punch is so
+excellent.' 'Thank ye, my Lord,' said Charley, 'I am a plain man, who
+does not want trates; I am no epicure, so I stick to the claret.'"
+
+This free-and-easy gentleman, of whom I have some personal recollection,
+belonged to a class of which, I suspect, he was the very latest
+specimen. Charley Crofts, who had acquired no book-learning, because he
+was born to a large landed property, was of a respectable family in the
+west of the county Cork, and, even in his decline, was highly honoured
+by the multitude, as coming from "the good ould stock." Brought up, but
+not educated, by his mother, Charley entered the world with very
+flattering prospects. He had a good property, good looks, good temper,
+and (what he most prized) good horses. Cursed with an easy disposition,
+he had never learned how to utter the monosyllable "No," but had
+unfortunately learned how to sign his name--his friends kindly giving
+him very frequent opportunities of practicing that autograph, by
+obtaining it, across narrow slips of stamped paper, ('yclept "bills" and
+"promissory notes") underneath the words "_Accepted, payable at the Bank
+of James Delacour, Mallow_." In the long run, these autographs ruined
+him--as, bit-by-bit, all his property went to meet the sums to which
+they pledged him, and Charley Crofts found himself, at the age of
+thirty, without home or money. He had preserved one thing, however--his
+personal character. He had committed a great many of the frailties of
+his sex and youth, but the shadow of a disreputable or doubtful action
+never rested on his name. He could proudly say, like Francis the First,
+after the battle of Pavia, "All lost, except honour."
+
+The result was that, in his poverty, he was as highly thought of as in
+his affluence, and was ever a welcome guest in the first houses of his
+native county.
+
+Like the rest of his class, (I mean the estated Irish gentlemen of the
+last century,) Charley Crofts had learned to drink deeply. He used to
+narrate, with great glee, an incident connected with his entrance into
+vivacious habits. His mother, having occasion to leave their country
+residence, in order to transact some business in Cork, left her hopeful
+son in full possession of the house and full command of the servants,
+for the fortnight she intended being absent. Charley, who was then in
+his sixteenth year, determined that he would hold no powerless sceptre
+of vice-royalty, and invited sundry acquaintances to visit him, which
+they did. As a hogshead of fine claret was always on tap, there was no
+difficulty in obtaining an adequate supply of drink. One day, however, a
+guest happened to express a desire to vary the post-prandial proceedings
+by the introduction of a few bottles of port. Now, it happened that Mrs.
+Crofts possessed (and was known to possess) some remarkably fine port
+wine, which she carefully kept locked up, reserving it for "State days
+and holidays." Charley had been left the key of the cellar, and,
+considering that his hospitality was especially appealed to, by the hint
+about the port, went down and had a supply brought up. That afternoon's
+performance went rather hard against the port. Indeed, so much of it was
+drank that Charley Crofts was puzzled how to account for it, without
+making full confession. A few days after his mother's return, she asked
+him to accompany her to the cellar, to provide a suitable location for a
+supply of sherry which she expected from Cork. The first thing which
+attracted her notice was the remarkable diminution in the stock of her
+valued and nearly unique port wine. Catching her eye, Charley
+anticipated her inquiry, by remarking that, in her absence, a remarkable
+thunder-storm had penetrated to the cellar and broken a quantity of the
+bottled wine. Taking up two or three of the bottles, and fully aware
+that it would be useless to repine or get angry over the mischief done,
+she drew her hopeful son's attention to them, and only said, "A dreadful
+storm, indeed! It has actually drawn the corks out of the necks of the
+bottles, instead of bursting them in the usual way!"
+
+For the last five-and-thirty years of his life, Charley Crofts may be
+said to have literally _lived all around_. He had a number of tried
+friends, who were glad to have him as their guest and boon companion,
+for a month at a time. He could tell a good story, knew the private
+history of every family in the county, was undoubted authority on
+horseflesh and every subject connected with the sports of the field, and
+could take any quantity of wine without its apparently affecting him.
+Nature had endowed him with great muscular power, immense physical
+strength, a temper which nothing could cloud, and a mode of expression
+so terse as sometimes to be almost epigrammatic. He was exactly
+qualified for the shifting sort of life upon which he had fallen.
+
+When I met him, the brighter portion of his career had passed. He was
+but the wreck of what he once had been, I was assured by every one; but
+one may judge, from the ruin, what the structure had been in its pride.
+Numerous anecdotes were afloat as to his sayings and doings, but it is
+difficult to realize their effect in our days, unless you could imagine
+the person on whom they were affiliated. Though I fear that I shall fail
+in the attempt, I shall endeavour to record two or three.
+
+As a four-bottle man, who could drink every one else under the table,
+Charley Crofts was not so much of a favourite with wives as with their
+husbands. They knew, by experience, that with Charley Crofts in the van,
+a wet evening might be looked for--in the dining-room.
+
+Mr. Wrixon, of Ballygiblin, near Mallow, (father of Sir W.
+Wrixon-Becher, who married Miss O'Neill, the eminent actress,) had only
+a small hereditary property when he succeeded to vast estates, on
+condition that he superadded the name of "Becher" to his own patronymic.
+As plain Mr. Wrixon, with a small property, he had lived unnoticed, but
+his circle of friends immensely increased when he became Mr.
+Wrixon-Becher, and a man of "Ten Thousand a Year." Soon after, he
+married an English lady, with some fortune, much pride, a fair share of
+beauty, and a decided abhorrence of the drinking habits of her husband's
+friends. She had heard of, and had been cautioned against, the vivacious
+enormities of Charley Crofts, and had actually declared to her husband
+(in private, of course) that whenever Mr. Crofts took a seat at her
+table, she would immediately relinquish hers.
+
+One day, when Wrixon had been out with the Duhallow hounds, and the run
+had been quick and long, the only man who was in with him "at the
+death," was Charley Crofts, and under the circumstances--the rain
+beginning to fall heavily, Crofts' place of sojourn being at least ten
+miles distant, and Ballygiblin at hand,--Wrixon felt that he _must_
+invite Charley home, or rest under the imputation of behaving in an
+unsportsmanlike and inhospitable manner.
+
+So, he told Charley that half a dozen other good fellows were to take
+"pot-luck" with him that day, and that he must insist on Charley's
+joining them. Without any pressing or denial, the invitation was
+accepted.
+
+Now, Charley Crofts knew, just as well as if he had been present when
+the affair was discussed, how and why it was that, of all the houses in
+the barony of Duhallow, the mansion of Ballygiblin was the only one to
+which he had not a general invitation. Wrixon, the moment he reached
+home, turning over his companion to the friendly custody of a mutual
+acquaintance, who was to form one of the party that day, hastened to
+"his lady's chamber," where he found his wife dressed for dinner, and
+(as her glass told her) looking remarkably well. A few well-expressed
+and well-timed compliments on her appearance, a congratulation or two on
+her exquisite taste in dress, a half-hint and half-promise as to the
+killing effect of a set of pearl in contrast with her ebon looks, and
+more "blarney" of the same sort, made the lady so very gracious that the
+husband ventured to communicate under what circumstances he had been
+compelled to invite Charley Crofts to her table. The lady took them, as
+they sometimes do in French courts of justice, as "extenuating
+circumstances," and consented to receive the dreaded Charley. This done,
+she found her way into the drawing-room, where the guests waited upon
+her--the most subdued and quiet of them being Charley Crofts. At first,
+with his grave air and grave attire, she thought that he might have been
+a clergyman.
+
+As the only stranger in the party, Charley had to escort Mrs. Wrixon to
+the dining-room, to sit next her, to perform the duties of carving for
+her, to supply her with a little of the small change of conversation.
+Nobody could behave more decorously, more unlike the lady's fearful
+anticipations of the dreaded guest. Now and then, when addressed by his
+friends, a quaint remark or a satiric witticism would make her smile,
+and convince her that the dangerously seductive companionable character
+of her guest had not been undeservedly obtained. On the whole, she had
+every reason to think him very much of a gentleman, and graciously
+smiled on him when she quitted the table.
+
+"You have conquered her, by Jove," exclaimed Wrixon. "Not yet," said
+Charley, "but in a fair way for it." The wine went round. The
+conversation branched off into its usual channels, and settled, at last,
+upon a meet of the hounds which was to take place on Mr. Wrixon's
+property, at which all the company present would attend.
+
+In the middle of the discussion, one of the footmen duly announced that
+his lady was waiting for them, with tea and coffee, in the drawing-room.
+Heretofore, in that house, such an announcement had always been a mere
+matter of form. Not so now. Charley Crofts started up and proceeded to
+obey the summons. "Nonsense!" they all exclaimed. "Don't turn milksop.
+No one ever goes to tea or coffee in this house." "Say what you may,"
+said Charley, "the lady shall not have to complain of my want of
+politeness."
+
+In the drawing-room, sooth to say, no gentleman had been expected, and
+Mrs. Wrixon was taking a solitary cup of tea. She was an admirable
+musician, and was playing "Gramachree" (that saddest of all Irish airs)
+just as Charley reached the door. Now, music was among the things which
+he thoroughly understood and appreciated, and the moment that he heard
+her exquisite execution on the harp he paused, spell-bound, listening
+with rapt attention and delight, while the pathos of the air drew tears
+from eyes all unaccustomed to the melting mood. When she had concluded,
+she turned round, saw the effect which she had produced, and (need I say
+it) was flattered at that proof of her skill.
+
+Quickly recovering himself, Charley Crofts informed her that he had the
+pleasure of accepting the invitation she had sent into the dining-room.
+Tea was accordingly provided, and the conversation naturally fell upon
+music. Charley happened to be a first rate flutist, and having mentioned
+in what a delightful manner the flute and harp went together, either to
+accompany the voice or without, Mrs. Wrixon sent for her husband's
+flute, and allowed him to show her how correctly he had spoken.
+Presently, she even sang to the double accompaniment, and her husband
+and his friends, curious to know how Crofts was getting on, having now
+adjourned from their wine, found him thus engaged.
+
+Meanwhile, in intervals of from three to five minutes, Charley Crofts
+had gulphed down successive, and almost countless, cups of tea. Again
+and again had the tea-pot been replenished--and emptied. At last, quite
+tired out, Mrs. Wrixon said, half in sport, half in earnest, "I am sure,
+Mr. Crofts, that I never gave you credit for being such a determined
+tea-drinker. As my hand is rather tired, may I beg that you will help
+yourself?"
+
+"Madam," said Charley, with imposing gravity, "I am a plain man. I do
+not prefer tea to other liquids. You were so good as to send for us to
+tea. I always obey a lady's summons when I can, and came hither. I am
+accustomed, for years past, to take a certain quantity of fluid after
+dinner. I care not what that fluid may be, so that I have my _quantum_.
+Ale, punch, wine, or, as now, even this tea. I can help myself to the
+other liquids, but tea has no flavor unless it be poured out by a lady's
+fair hand!"
+
+Mrs. Wrixon, perceiving that she was fairly caught, exclaimed, "Well,
+Mr. Crofts, I think that I must leave you to take what you please in the
+dining-room, but whenever you want a little music you can have it here,
+and I only hope my husband will treat you so well that you will
+frequently give me the pleasure of seeing you under this roof."
+
+This was the manner in which Charley Crofts conquered Madam Wrixon, the
+proud, high-bred lady. Good friends they continued unto her dying day,
+and Charley would rather hear her play the harp, as she only could play
+it, (he fancied,) than assist at the broaching of the finest pipe of
+claret that ever was smuggled over from Bordeaux.
+
+Mr. Wrixon, albeit a man of unbounded generosity, had one _leetle_
+drawback. He would give sumptuous entertainments; he paid the chief
+expenses of the Duhallow Hunt; he indulged his wife in all luxuries of
+attire and adornment; he had a passion for beautiful horses and costly
+equipages; he was liberal in his charities; he acted as banker for many
+of his poorer friends who were of the lackland genus; he seemed to fling
+money away, though, indeed, he was by no means a spendthrift; but the
+one little "blot" in his tables (I mean, in his character) was a
+feverish anxiety to economize on such mere trifles as _cream and
+butter_!
+
+So it was, however. His friends were at once amused and rendered
+uncomfortable by it. It interfered with the perfection of their tea and
+coffee, and always prevented their taking a desired quantity of
+bread-and-butter. To allude to this matter, to show the slightest
+consciousness of Mr. Wrixon's peculiar idiosyncrasy, in this respect,
+was what his friends never ventured upon. They were not the less anxious
+to have it removed.
+
+They determined that Charley Crofts should be the amputator. The next
+day, at a very early breakfast, preparatory to their taking the field
+with the fox-hounds, a lively party assembled at Mr. Wrixon's table, in
+unexceptionable red coats, enviable buckskins, irreproachable top-boots,
+and the ordinary skull-caps covered with black velvet, which, from time
+immemorial, formed the costume of the members of the Duhallow Hunt;
+"the most sportingest set of gentlemen," I once heard a peasant say
+"that mortial eyes did ever look upon."
+
+The breakfast included all that should constitute the matutinal meal of
+a party of keen sportsmen about to cross the country at break-neck
+speed--all, except cream and butter, of which, as usual, there was a
+_minimum_ supply, very much short of what might be expected from a dairy
+of over twenty milch cows. Charley Crofts, as this was his first visit,
+might be supposed to be in ignorance of his host's feelings upon that
+point. At all events, he acted as if he were.
+
+The cream and butter were placed close by Mr. Wrixon--the supply for a
+party of nine or ten consisting of a very small ewer-full of the former,
+and two or three _pats_ of the latter, each about the size of a
+penny-piece. As if it were a matter of course, Charley, having put the
+needful quantities of tea into his cup, filled it up with the entire
+contents of the cream-ewer, and, at the same time, put all the butter
+upon his plate. Mr. Wrixon, startled by such invasion of his favourites,
+feebly desired one of the servants to bring "a _little_ more cream and a
+_little_ more butter."
+
+By the time the fresh supply was on the table, Charley Crofts had
+emptied his cup and eaten his toast. He lost no time in appropriating
+the prized articles, as before, chatting away with his usual
+_nonchalance_, as if he had done nothing uncommon. Mr. Wrixon, sitting
+like one astonied, watched the disappearance of the second supply, and
+ordered a third replenishment, which went the way of the preceding.
+Rising in his chair, he addressed the butler and exclaimed, "John,
+desire that _all_ the cream and butter in the dairy be brought up, I
+think we shall have need of the whole of it." Turning to Crofts, he
+emphatically said, "I have heard of eating bread-and-butter, but
+Charley, _you eat butter and bread_." By this time the laugh which arose
+gave him the pleasant information that he was _sold_. From that hour he
+was as liberal with his cream and butter, as he previously had been with
+every other article in his mansion. He never was able to ascertain
+whether Charley Crofts had been put up to the trick, or had simply hit
+the nail by accident.
+
+Charley Crofts did not confine his visits to the gentry in his native
+county of Cork. In the decline of his fortunes--indeed, as long as he
+was able to do anything--he always was possessor of a gem or two in the
+way of horseflesh. For many years, his income was almost wholly derived
+from the sale of horses, out of which he obtained a large profit, and it
+was known that any animal which he sold or vouched for might be depended
+on. In the way of business, having disposed of a fine hunter to one of
+the family, who was sportingly inclined, he had to pass a few days at
+the house of Mr. Lyons, of Croom, in the county of Limerick. This old
+man had acquired a vast fortune by following the business of a grazier,
+and had invested large sums in the purchase of landed estates. His sons,
+determined to cut a figure in the county, indulged in all manner of
+excess and extravagance. At the time of Charley Crofts' visit, they
+issued cards for a splendid _déjeuner à la fourchette_, to which the
+leading people of the district were invited. As Charley Crofts was on
+intimate terms with everybody who had pretensions to notice, the Lyons
+family, in solemn conclave assembled, determined that it would be a
+sagacious and politic move to get him to officiate as a something
+between Major Domo and Master of the Ceremonies at the intended
+festival. Desiring no better fun, he cheerfully consented.
+
+The attendance on the gala day was what the newspapers would describe as
+"full and fashionable." Many went from curiosity, to see in what manner
+the _parvenu_ would attempt "to ape his betters"--_i.e._, themselves.
+Several attended, because they owed money to old Lyons (who did a little
+in _bills_ after abandoning _beef_), and did not like to affront him by
+not accepting his invitation. A good many went, because they had heard
+that "all the world and his wife" would be present, and a jovial day
+might be anticipated.
+
+Thanks to Charley Crofts' _surveillance_, the entertainment, well got
+up, went off admirably.
+
+Among the more aristocratic guests was the Lady Isabella Fitzgibbon,
+sister to that Earl of Clare who was the schoolfellow and friend most
+tenderly and lastingly loved by Byron. At that time she was a fine young
+woman. She is now a stern old maid--like the odd half of a pair of
+scissors, of no use to herself or any body else. Lady Isabella affected
+to look down, with some degree of superciliousness, upon the
+millionaire's hospitality. Having probably laid in a good supply of
+mutton chops or beef steaks before she went out, she pointedly neglected
+the delicacies of the season, which were abundantly supplied, and merely
+trifled with a lobster-salad. Old Lyons, who had a great respect for
+good feeding, and particularly for substantials, turned round to her, as
+she sat by his side, the image of aristocratical
+don't-care-a-pin-for-all-the-world-ativeness, and kindly said, "Ah,
+then, my lady, why don't you take some of the good beef and mutton, the
+capons and the turkeys, and don't be after filling your stomach with
+that cowld cabbage!"
+
+The high-born _dama_ nearly fainted at what she considered the vulgar
+good-nature of her host. Soon after, when she had recovered from the
+shock, she said that she thought she would have a little bread and
+butter. Immediately opposite her, and within reach of Old Lyons, was a
+crystal bowl in which floated sundry little _pats_ of that delicious
+butter for which the county Limerick is famed. Lyons made several vain
+efforts to spear one of these with a fork, at last, finding that it was
+impossible to make the capture in that manner, he raised up his
+coat-sleeve, tucked up the wrist-band of his shirt, and plunging his
+hand into the bowl, with the exclamation, 'Ha, you little jumping
+Jennies, I am determined to have you now," secured two pieces of the
+butter, which he triumphantly deposited on his noble guest's plate, with
+the words, "There, my lady, when I took the matter _in hand_, I knew I
+must succeed."
+
+Charley Crofts departed this life some twenty years ago. The close of
+his career was passed in Cove, where he lived upon an annuity provided
+by the liberality of some of his former friends. His health had failed
+him, suddenly, a few years before, and he who had been wont "to set the
+table in a roar," for nearly forty years, subsided into a querulous
+valetudinarian. He published his Autobiography, shortly before his
+death, and it deserves mention as one of the dullest of its class, as
+far as I recollect, (it is a long time since I yawned over it,) the
+subject matter chiefly consisted of fierce personalities directed
+against sundry relatives who, he said, had cheated him out of his
+property.
+
+To the very last, Charley Crofts could give graphic narratives of his
+former career and companions, but the moment he attempted to _write_
+them down, their spirit wholly evaporated.
+
+
+
+
+IRISH PUBLICISTS.
+
+
+
+
+HENRY GRATTAN.
+
+
+The history of Ireland's independence, from the rise of the Volunteers
+until the treacherous sacrifice of nationality by the passing of the Act
+of Union--an interval of twenty years, yet crowded with events and
+eminent characters--can best be read in the lives of the illustrious men
+who asserted, vindicated, and carried that independence. Looking back at
+the brief but brilliant period in which they shone, truly did Curran
+speak of them, to Lord Avonmore, as men "over whose ashes the most
+precious tears of Ireland have been shed."
+
+Among this noble and gallant array of public virtue and genius HENRY
+GRATTAN stands conspicuous and pre-eminent. To condense a memoir of him
+into the space which I have here reserved would be a vain attempt. Let
+me sketch him in his youth. The child, Wordsworth said, is father of the
+man, and this was particularly true as regards Grattan.
+
+Henry Grattan, stated by most of his biographers to have been born in
+1750 (the year in which Curran entered into earthly existence), was four
+years older, his baptismal register in Dublin bearing date the 3d of
+July, 1746. His father, a man of character and ability, was Recorder of
+Dublin for many years, and one of the metropolitan parliamentary
+representatives from 1761 to his death in 1766. The well-known patriot,
+Dr. Lucas, was senatorial colleague and opponent of the elder Grattan,
+who, although nominally a Whig, was actually a Tory,--was the law
+officer of the Corporation, which Lucas undauntedly opposed,--and on all
+essential, political, and legislative points, sided with the Government
+of the day.
+
+The Grattan family were of considerable and respectable standing in
+Ireland, and Henry Grattan's grandfather and grand-uncles had enjoyed
+familiar intimacy with Dean Swift and Dr. Sheridan. Henry Grattan's
+mother was a daughter of Thomas Marlay, Chief Justice of Ireland, who
+almost as a matter of course in those days, was to be found on the side
+of the Government, but administered justice fairly, and on some few
+occasions showed a love for and pride in his native Ireland. Grattan's
+mother was a clear-headed, well-informed woman. On both sides,
+therefore, he had a claim to hereditary talent.
+
+At ordinary day-schools, in Dublin, Henry Grattan received his
+education. John Fitzgibbon, afterwards the unscrupulous tool of the
+Government and the scourge of Ireland (as Lord Chancellor Clare), was
+his class-mate at one of these seminaries. Grattan rapidly acquired the
+necessary amount of Greek and Latin, and in 1763, being then 17 years
+old, entered Trinity College. Here, among his friends and competitors,
+were Foster (afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons), Robert Day,
+who subsequently adorned the Bench. In the University there was
+particular rivalry between Fitzgibbon and Grattan; the first was well
+grounded in classics and science, but almost wholly ignorant of modern
+literature. Both obtained the highest prizes in the University,--Grattan
+getting premium, certificate, or medal at every examination.
+
+Before he had completed his twentieth year, Grattan had declared his
+political opinions. They were patriotic--they were Irish--they were
+opposed to the principles and practice of his father, and strongly
+identical with those of Dr. Lucas, his father's constant and bitter
+opponent. Lucas was a remarkable man. He it was who, immediately after
+the accession of George III., introduced a bill for limiting the
+duration of the Irish Parliament to seven years--the custom being, at
+the time, that a new Parliament should be chosen when a new monarch
+ascended the throne, and last during his lifetime. It took seven years'
+perseverance to effect this change--upon which the English Cabinet
+thrice put a veto. A fourth and final effort succeeded, the limitation
+being eight years. It was Lucas who, following in the steps of Swift,
+boldly attacked bad men and bad measures in the newspapers, and thus
+asserted the Liberty of the Press--that which Curran so earnestly
+desired to be preserved when, addressing his countrymen, he said, "Guard
+it, I beseech you, for when it sinks, there sink with it, in one common
+grave, the liberty of the subject and the security of the Crown." It was
+Lucas who strenuously denied the right of a British Parliament to govern
+Ireland, who asserted his country's right to legislative independence,
+who insisted on her claim for self-government. For this, the law was
+strained against him,--for this, Dublin grand juries ordered his
+writings to be publicly burned by the hands of the common hangman--for
+this, a venal House of Commons voted that he wrote sedition and was an
+enemy of his country--for this, the Speaker was ordered to issue a
+warrant for his arrest and imprisonment in gaol--for this, the Lord
+Lieutenant was solicited to denounce him by Proclamation--for this, the
+Corporation of Dublin disfranchised him--for this, he had to fly his
+country and secure life and comparative liberty by eleven years of
+enforced exile. On his return, in 1760, that very city of Dublin from
+which he had fled for his life elected him for one of its
+representatives, Grattan's father being his colleague. As such, the
+elder Grattan, who was a courtier, opposed the Septennial Bill.
+
+Henry Grattan, a patriot from his childhood, ardently adopted Dr. Lucas'
+views in favour of Ireland's independence. The result was that, in
+1765-6, Henry Grattan was at variance with his father. The death of the
+elder Grattan took place in 1766, and it was then discovered how much he
+resented his son's assertion of liberal politics. He could not deprive
+him of a small landed estate, secured to him by marriage settlement, but
+bequeathed from him the paternal residence of the family for nearly a
+century. Thus Henry Grattan had to enter the world, not rich in worldly
+wealth, and with his soul saddened by the marked and public posthumous
+condemnation by his father. No wonder that, as he declared in one of his
+letters at the time, he was "melancholy and contemplative, but not
+studious." No wonder that, solitary in the old home, he should sadly
+say, "I employ myself writing, reading, courting the muse, and taking
+leave of that place where I am a _guest_, not an _owner_, and of which I
+shall now cease to be a _spectator_." His household Gods were shattered
+on his hearth, and he sat, cold and lonely, among their ruins. Yet, even
+then, he dreamed that fortune, smiling upon him, would enable his old
+age to resign his breath where he first received it. Never was that
+dream fulfilled. Not even did he die
+
+    "'Midst the trees which a nation had given, and which bowed,
+    As if each brought a new civic crown for his head;"
+
+but his spirit departed, fifty-four years later, in the metropolis of
+the haughty land which had crushed the independence and broken the
+nationality of
+
+    "His own loved island of sorrow."
+
+At the age of twenty-one, Henry Grattan went to London to study the law.
+At that period, as at present, it is indispensable for every one who
+desires to be admitted to the Irish bar, that he shall have "studied"
+for two years at one of the Inns of Court in London. Perhaps this, as
+much as anything else, shows how completely the English habit has been,
+and is, to treat Ireland as a mere _province_. Candidates for admission
+to the Scottish bar are not required to pursue this _nominal_ course of
+study in another country. Nominal it is, for the requirement does not
+involve the acquisition, in the most infinitesimal degree, of any
+knowledge of the principles or practice of the law. All that is
+necessary is that the future barrister shall have eaten twenty-four
+dinners in the Hall of his London Inn of Court (three at each term)
+during two years, and a certificate of this knife-and-fork
+practice--which is facetiously called "keeping his Terms"--is received
+by the Benchers of the Queen's Inn in Dublin, as proof that the
+candidate has duly qualified himself by study! There is no examination
+as to his knowledge of law--two years in London, and a somewhat lesser
+amount of legal feeding in Dublin, being the sole qualification for the
+Irish Bar!
+
+In Michaelmas Term, 1767, being two months past his majority, Henry
+Grattan entered his name, as student, on the books of the Middle Temple
+in London. Although he intended to live by the practice of the law, he
+devoted little attention to its study. Black-letter, precedents, and
+technicalities he cared little for. The broad principles of
+jurisprudence attracted his attention; but he mastered them, not as an
+advocate, but as a future law-maker. In fact, nature had intended him
+for a politician and statesman, and his mind, from the first, followed
+the bias which "the mighty mother" gave. As late as August, 1771, when
+he had been four years in the Temple, he wrote thus to a friend: "I am
+now becoming a lawyer, fond of cases, frivolous, and illiberal; instead
+of Pope's and Milton's numbers, I repeat in solitude Coke's
+instructions, the nature of fee-tail, and the various constructions of
+perplexing statutes. This duty has been taken up too late; not time
+enough to make me a lawyer, but sufficiently early to make me a dunce."
+In the same letter he said, "Your life, like mine, is devoted to
+professions which we both detest; the vulgar honours of the law are as
+terrible to me as the restless uniformity of the military is to you."
+
+During the four years of his English residence, varied by occasional
+visits to Ireland, Mr. Grattan's heart certainly never warmed to the
+profession which he had chosen. The confession which I have just quoted
+was made only a few months before he was called to the Irish bar in
+Hilary Term, 1772. Yet he was a hard reader, a close student, an early
+riser, and a moderate liver. To afford the means of enlarging his
+library, he avoided expensive amusements and practiced a very close
+economy. In November, 1768, these saving habits became matter of
+necessity rather than of choice, when his mother died so suddenly that
+she had not time to make, as she had purposed, a formal disposition of
+her reversion to a landed property which she had meant to leave her son.
+It passed, therefore, to another branch of the family, leaving Grattan
+such limited resources that it now was necessary for him to follow a
+profession.
+
+How, then, did Grattan employ his time in England? We have his own
+regretful confession, that it was not, for the first four years, in the
+study of the law. Shortly after his first visit to London, he lost one
+of his sisters; and deep sorrow for her death, and a distaste for
+society, drove him from the bustle of the metropolis to the retirement
+of the country. He withdrew to Sunning Hill, near Windsor Forest, amid
+whose mighty oaks he loved to wander, meditating upon the political
+questions of the day, and making speeches as if he already were in
+parliament. Mrs. Sawyer, his landlady, a simple-minded woman, knew not
+what to make of the odd-looking, strange-mannered young man, and
+hesitated between the doubt whether he was insane or merely eccentric.
+When one of his friends came to see him, she complained that her lodger
+used to walk up and down in her garden throughout the summer nights,
+speaking to himself, and addressing an imaginary "Mr. Speaker," with the
+earnestness of an inspired orator. She was afraid that his derangement
+might take a dangerous character, and, in her apprehension, offered to
+forgive the rent which was due, if his friends would only remove her
+eccentric lodger.
+
+Seventy years after this (in 1838) Judge Day, who lived to almost a
+patriarchal age, and had been intimate with Grattan in London, wrote a
+letter, in which, describing him at college, "where he soon
+distinguished himself by a brilliant elocution, a tenacious memory, and
+abundance of classical acquirements," he proceeds to state that Grattan
+"always took great delight in frequenting the galleries, first of the
+Irish, and then of the English House of Commons, and the bars of the
+Lords." His biographer records that this amateur Parliamentary
+attendance had greater attractions for him than the pleasures of the
+metropolis, and that he devoted his evenings in listening, his nights in
+recollecting, and his days in copying the great orators of the time.
+Judge Day also has remembered that Grattan would spend whole moonlight
+nights in rambling and losing himself in the thickest plantations of
+Windsor Forest, and "would sometimes pause and address a tree in
+soliloquy, thus preparing himself early for that assembly which he was
+destined in later life to adorn."
+
+Such was Grattan's self-training. So did he prepare himself for that
+career of brilliant utility and patriotism which has made his name
+immortal.
+
+Events of great moment took place in England during Grattan's sojourn
+there. The contest between John Wilkes and the Government was then in
+full course, leading to important results, and encouraging, if it did
+not create, the publication of the fearless and able letters of Junius.
+At that time, great men were in the British Senate, and Grattan had the
+good fortune to hear their eloquence, to watch the deeds in which they
+participated. The elder Pitt, who had then withdrawn from the Commons,
+and exercised great power in the Upper House, as Earl of Chatham, still
+took part in public business. There, too, was Lord North--shrewd, obese,
+good-tempered, and familiar. There was Charles James Fox, just
+commencing public life, alternately coquetting with politics and the
+faro-table--his great rival, Pitt, had not then arisen, nor his eminent
+friend Sheridan, but Edmund Burke had already made his mark, Barrè was
+in full force, as well as Grenville, and the great lawyers Loughborough
+and Thurlow had already appeared above the horizon, while Lords Camden
+and Mansfield were in the maturity of fame. Then, also, flourished
+Charles Townshend, who would have deserved the name of a great
+statesman but for his mistake in trying to obtain revenue for England
+by taxation of America. There was the remarkable man called
+"Singlespeech" Hamilton, from one brilliant oration which was declared
+by Walpole to have eclipsed the most successful efforts even of the
+elder Pitt. In the Irish Parliament, too, which he always visited when
+in Dublin during the Session, were men of great eminence and ability,
+with some of whom--Flood, Hutchinson, and Hussey Burgh--not long after,
+Grattan was himself to come into intellectual gladiatorship. In both
+countries, therefore, he became familiar with politics and politicians.
+What marvel if he deviated from the technicalities of the law into the
+wider field of law-making and statesmanship?
+
+How closely he observed the eminent persons who thus came before his
+notice, may be judged from the character of Lord Chatham, which was
+introduced in a note to "Barataria,"(a satirical _brochure_ by Sir
+Hercules Langrishe), as if from a new edition of Robertson's History of
+America. Many persons, at the time, who looked for it in Robertson, were
+disappointed at not finding it there. _Apropos_ of Langrishe; it may be
+added that he it was who said--that the best History of Ireland was to
+be found "in the continuation of _Rapin_," and excused the swampy state
+of the Ph[oe]nix Park demesne by supposing that the Government neglected
+it, being so much occupied _in draining the rest of the kingdom_.
+
+Greatly admiring the nervous eloquence of Lord Chatham, it is evident
+that Grattan's own style was influenced, if not formed by it. He could
+not have had a better model. Grattan, out of pure admiration of the man,
+reported several of his speeches for his own subsequent use. Writing
+about him many years later, he said, "He was a man of great
+genius--great flight of mind. His imagination was astonishing. He was
+very great, and very odd.[14] He never came with a prepared harangue; his
+style was not regular oratory, like Cicero or Demosthenes, but it was
+very fine, and very elevated, and above the ordinary subjects of
+discourse. He appeared more like a pure character advising, than mixing
+in the debate. It was something superior to that--_it was teaching the
+lords, and lecturing the King_. He appeared the next greatest thing to
+the King, though infinitely superior. What Cicero says in his 'CLARIS
+ORATORIBUS' exactly applies: '_Formæ dignitas, corporis motus plenus et
+artis el venustatis, vocis et suavitas et magnitudo._' 'Great subjects,
+great empires, great characters, effulgent ideas, and classical
+illustrations formed the material of his speeches.'"[15]
+
+     [14] This refers more particularly to the year 1770.
+
+     [15] Grattan used to say that nothing ever was finer, in delivery
+     and effect, than Chatham's appeal, on the American question, to the
+     bishops, the judges, and the peers:--"You talk of driving the
+     Americans: _I might as well talk of driving them before me with
+     this crutch_."
+
+Until he permanently and finally took up his residence in Dublin,
+Grattan was greatly prejudiced in favour of England. In August, 1771, he
+wrote to a friend that he would return to Ireland that Christmas, "to
+live or die with you," and added, "It is painful to renounce England,
+and my departure is to me the loss of youth. I submit to it on the same
+principle, and am resigned." At that time he was twenty-five years old.
+
+In his letters to his friends at this time, he commented on Irish
+politics so forcibly as to show that he was a close observer. Alluding
+to the means used by the Viceroy (Lord Townshend) to corrupt the
+legislature, he said, "So total an overthrow has Freedom received, that
+its voice is heard only in the accents of despair." This sentence very
+probably suggested the concluding part of Moore's beautiful lyric, "The
+harp that once through Tara's halls,"
+
+    "Thus Freedom now so seldom wakes,
+      The only throb she gives,
+    Is when some heart indignant breaks,
+      To show that still she lives."
+
+Early in 1772, Grattan was called to the Irish bar--not from any
+predilection for the profession, but from the necessity of eking out his
+limited means by the exercise of his talents. It is recorded that having
+gone the circuit, and failed to gain a verdict in an important case
+where he was specially retained, he actually returned to his client half
+the amount of his fee--fifty guineas. A man who could act thus, was
+clearly not fitted for the profession, nor destined to arrive at wealth
+by its means.
+
+At that time the rising talent of Ireland was decidedly liberal, and in
+favor of progress. Grattan was thrown into familiar intimacy with this
+society, and his own opinions were influenced, if not determined, by the
+Catholic spirit of their avowed principles. Lord Charlemont, Hussey
+Burgh, Robert Day, (afterwards the Judge,) Dennis Daly, and Barry
+Yelverton--men whose names are familiar to all who have read the history
+of Ireland's later years of nationality--were his familiar friends.
+
+Grattan wished for the lettered ease of literary retirement, but his
+narrow means did not permit him to live without labour. He said, "What
+can a mind do without the exercise of business, or the relaxation of
+pleasure?" He took to politics as a relief from the demon of _ennui_. He
+attended the debates in Parliament. He said "they were insipid; every
+one was speaking; nobody was eloquent." He had become a lawyer, as he
+sadly confessed, "without knowledge or ambition in his profession." He
+would fain have gone into retirement, but complained that, in his too
+hospitable country, "wherever you fly, wherever you secrete yourself,
+the sociable disposition of the Irish will follow you, and in every
+barren spot of that kingdom you must submit to a state of
+dissipation or hostility." He said that his passion was retreat, for
+"there is certainly repose, and may be a defence, in insignificance."
+
+He was destined for better things. He had married Henrietta Fitzgerald,
+who claimed descent from the Desmond family, (actually from that branch
+of which that Countess of Desmond, who died at the age of 162, was the
+foundress,) but had, as her own dowry, the far greater wealth of youth,
+beauty, virtue, talent, and devoted affection. The union was eminently
+happy. Mrs. Grattan became the mother of thirteen children, and it is
+known that on many occasions, but especially in the troublous times of
+1798 and 1800, (the rebellion and the betrayal of Ireland by her
+parliament,) Grattan frequently consulted and acted on the advice of his
+wife, which invariably was to do what was right, regardless of personal
+consequences. After his marriage, he went to reside in the county
+Wicklow, where, almost from early youth, he had been enamoured of the
+beautiful scenery, and even then spoke of Tinnahinch, which he
+subsequently purchased, as a place which might be "the recreation of an
+active life, or the retreat of an obscure one, or the romantic residence
+of philosophical friendship." "Here," said his son, "he mused in when
+melancholy, he rejoiced in when gay; here he often trod, meditating on
+his country's wrongs--her long, dreary night of oppression; and here he
+first beheld the bright transient light of her redemption and her
+glory." Here, too, in the moments of grief he wept over her divisions
+and her downfall. The place continues a family possession, and,
+identified as it is with the name of Grattan, should never be allowed to
+pass into the possession of any others.
+
+Grattan's wife, highly gifted by nature, and with her mind cultivated
+and enlarged by education, urgently pressed him to embark in political
+life. She knew, even better than himself, what his mental resources
+were, how patriotic were his impulses, how great his integrity, how
+undaunted his courage. She interested his friends in his behalf, and, at
+last, on the death of Mr. Caulfield (Lord Charlemont's brother), Grattan
+was returned to Parliament for the borough of Charlemont, and on the
+11th of December, 1775, in his thirtieth year, Henry Grattan took his
+seat as member for Charlemont. On the fourth day after he made a
+speech--a spontaneous, unstudied, and eloquent reply--and it was at once
+seen and admitted that his proper place was in Parliament. From that day
+the life of Grattan can be read in the history of Ireland.
+
+What he did may be briefly summed up. He established the Independence of
+Ireland, by procuring the repeal of the statute by which it had been
+declared that Ireland was inseparably annexed to the Crown of Great
+Britain, and bound by British acts of Parliament, if named in them--that
+the Irish House of Lords had no jurisdiction in matters of appeal--and
+that the _dernier resort_, in all cases of law and equity, was to the
+peers of Great Britain.
+
+For his great services in thus establishing Ireland's rights, the
+Parliament voted him £50,000. He considered that this was a retainer for
+the future as well as a mark of gratitude for the past, and henceforth
+devoted the remainder of his life--a period of nearly forty years--to
+the service of his country.
+
+Grattan's last act, as an Irish legislator, was to oppose the Union,
+which destroyed the nationality _he_ had made--his last act, as a public
+man, was to hurry to London, in his seventy-fifth year, under the
+infliction of a mortal disease, to present the petition in favour of the
+Irish Catholics, and support it, at the risk of life, in Parliament.
+
+Grattan's great achievements were all accomplished in early life, while
+the "_purpurea juventus_" was in its bloom, while the heart was in its
+spring. Great men, of all shades of political and party passion have
+been eager and eloquent in his praise. Byron, speaking of Ireland,
+ranked him first among those
+
+    "Who, for years, were the chiefs in the eloquent war,
+    And redeemed, if they have not retarded, her fall."
+
+Moore, who knew him well, said,
+
+    "What an union of all the affections and powers,
+      By which life is exalted, embellished, refined,
+    Was embraced in that spirit--whose centre was ours,
+      While its mighty circumference circled mankind."
+
+Faithfully too, as well as poetically, did he describe his speeches as
+exhibiting
+
+    "An eloquence rich, wherever its wave
+      Wandered free and triumphant, with thoughts that shone through,
+    As clear as the brook's 'stone of lustre,' and gave,
+      With the flash of the gem, its solidity too."
+
+Lord Brougham said that it was "not possible to name any one, the purity
+of whose reputation has been stained by so few faults, and the lustre of
+whose renown is dimmed by so few imperfections." After describing the
+characteristics of his eloquence, he added, "It may be truly said that
+Dante himself never conjured up a striking image in fewer words than Mr.
+Grattan employed to describe his relation towards Irish independence,
+when, alluding to its rise in 1782, and its fall, twenty years later, he
+said, 'I sat by its cradle--I followed its hearse.'"
+
+Sydney Smith, in an article in the _Edinburgh Review_, shortly after
+Grattan's death, thus bore testimony to his worth:--"Great men hallow a
+whole people, and lift up all who live in their time. What Irishman does
+not feel proud that he has lived in the days of Grattan? who has not
+turned to him for comfort, from the false friends and open enemies of
+Ireland? who did not remember him in the days of its burnings, wastings
+and murders? No government ever dismayed him--the world could not bribe
+him--he thought only of Ireland: lived for no other object: dedicated to
+her his beautiful fancy, his elegant wit, his manly courage, and all the
+splendour of his astonishing eloquence. He was so born, so gifted, that
+poetry, forensic skill, elegant literature, and all the highest
+attainments of human genius, were within his reach; but he thought the
+noblest occupation of a man was to make other men happy and free; and in
+that straight line he kept for fifty years, without one side-look, one
+yielding thought, one motive in his heart which he might not have laid
+open to the view of God or man."
+
+The man to whom tributes such as these were voluntarily paid, must have
+been a mortal of no ordinary character and merit.
+
+
+
+
+DANIEL O'CONNELL.
+
+
+Daniel O'Connell, at one period called "the member for all Ireland," was
+born, not at, but near Derrynane Abbey, in Kerry, on the 6th of August,
+1775, and died at Genoa on the 15th of May, 1847. He had nearly
+completed his seventy-second year. For nearly forty years of that
+extended period he had been a public man--perhaps the most public man in
+Ireland. For at least a quarter of a century his reputation was not
+merely Irish--nor British--nor European--but unquestionably
+cosmopolitan.
+
+Fallen as we are upon the evil days of Mediocrity, it may not be useless
+to dwell upon the conduct and the character, the aims and the actions,
+of one who, think of him as we may, candour must admit to be one of the
+great men of the age,--one of the very few great men of Ireland's later
+years.
+
+"Some men are born to greatness--some achieve greatness--and some have
+greatness thrust upon them." Daniel O'Connell stands in a predicament
+between the two latter postulates. He certainly was the artificer of his
+own fame and power, but, as certainly, much of it arose out of the force
+of circumstances. When he launched his bark upon the ocean of politics,
+he may have anticipated something--much of success and eminence, but he
+never could have dreamed of wielding such complete and magnificent power
+as was long at his command. Strong determination, great ability, natural
+facility of expression, the art of using strong words without committing
+himself, and a most elastic temperament, ("prepared for either fortune,"
+as Eugene Aram said of himself)--all these formed an extraordinary
+combination, and yet all these, even in their unity, might have been of
+little worth, but for the admitted fact that circumstances happily
+occurred which allowed these qualities a fair scope for development.
+Many poets, I dare swear, have lived and died unknown--either not
+writing at all, or writing but to destroy what they had written. Noble
+orators have lived and died, "mute and inglorious," because the
+opportunity for display had never been given. In truth, we may say, with
+Philip Van Artevelde,
+
+    "The world knows nothing of its greatest men."
+
+It is the curse of Authorship that until the grave fully closes upon his
+ashes, the fame of the writer is scarcely or slightly acknowledged. When
+the turf presses upon his remains, we yield tardy justice to his merits,
+and translate him, as a star, into the "heaven of heavens" of renown.
+But the Orator, on the other hand, has _his_ claims admitted from the
+commencement--he may make his fame by one bold effort--he may win
+admiration at one bound, and each successive trial, while it matures his
+powers, increases his reputation. He lives in the midst of his fame--it
+surrounds him, like a halo: he is the observed of all observers,--he has
+constant motive for exertion--he breathes the very atmosphere of
+popularity, and has perpetual excitement to keep up his exertions. Of
+this there scarcely ever was a more palpable example than O'Connell.
+Originally gifted with all the attributes of a popular if not a great
+orator, he advanced, by repeated efforts, to the foremost rank, because
+the public voice cheered him--the public opinion fostered him. Had he,
+for three or four years, spoken to dull or cold audiences, the world
+would probably have lost him as an orator. He might, indeed, have been a
+great forensic speaker, but of that eloquence which placed seven
+millions of Irish Catholics in a situation where, without being branded
+as rebels, they might openly demand "justice for Ireland," the chance
+is, the world have known nothing. What man, before this man, had ever
+succeeded in awakening at once the sympathy of the old and of the new
+world? Few men so well out-argued the sophistry of tyranny. Far above
+the crowd must he be, who, at one and the same time, affrighted the
+Russian autocrat by his bold invectives, and was appealed to as the
+common enemy of misrule, by the unhappy victims of the
+"Citizen-King"--who not only asserted the rights of his fellow slaves in
+Ireland, but hesitated not, at all times and in all places, to express
+his
+
+                  "Utter detestation
+    Of every tyranny in every nation!"
+
+O'Connell was often denounced as a "Dictator." What made him one? The
+exclusive laws which kept him humiliated in his native land. The wrongs
+of Ireland made him what he was, and Misrule carefully maintained the
+laws which made those wrongs. Had Ireland been justly governed, there
+would not have been occasion for such "agitation" as Mr. O'Connell kept
+up. If the "agitator" was indeed the monster which he was represented to
+be, Misrule is the Frankenstein which made him so. The wrongs of Ireland
+and the tyranny of evil government goaded him into action, and gave him
+power. Misrule sowed the wind, and reaped the whirlwind.
+
+It has been strongly asserted, and as strongly denied, that a long line
+of ancestry gave O'Connell an hereditary right to take part in the
+public affairs of his native land, as if he, and all of us, did not
+inherit that right as an heir-loom derived from the first principles of
+nature. The tradition of his house was that the O'Connell family were
+entitled to rank among the most ancient in Ireland, antiquarians having
+avowed that his surname was derived from Conal Gabhra, a prince of the
+royal line of Milesius--that they originally possessed immense estates
+in the county of Limerick, and removed to the barony of Iveragh, in the
+western extremity of Kerry, where they enjoyed the almost regal office
+of Toparchs;--that, in the time of Elizabeth, their then chief, Richard
+O'Connell, made submission of his lands to the British crown;--that the
+rebellion of 1641 removed the sept O'Connell to the County Clare, by
+forfeiture (a certain Maurice O'Connell it was who forfeited his
+property in the Civil Wars of 1641, and received the estates in Clare as
+a partial indemnity; his uncle, Daniel O'Connell of Aghgore, in Iveragh,
+took no share in the Civil War, and thus preserved his estate);--that
+the Clare branch of the family supported James II., and, on the triumphs
+of the Orange party, had to seek in foreign lands the distinctions from
+which the Penal Laws excluded it in its own.
+
+One of these, a certain Daniel O'Connell, who subsequently was created
+Count of "the Holy Roman Empire," disqualified, by his religion, from
+holding military or civil rank in his own country, entered the French
+service in 1757--when he was only fourteen years of age. He served in
+the seven years' war--at the capture of Port Mahon, in 1779, and was
+severely wounded at the grand sortie on Gibraltar in 1782--remained
+faithful to Louis XVI., until fidelity was of no further use--emigrated
+to England--was there appointed, in 1793, Colonel of the 6th Irish
+Brigade--retained that command until the corps was disbanded--returned
+to France, at the Restoration, in 1814--was there and then restored to
+his rank of General and Colonel-Commandant of the regiment of Salm, and
+named Grand Cross of the Order of St. Louis--refused to take rank under
+Louis Philippe--and died in 1834, aged ninety-one, a military patriarch,
+full of years and honours, holding the rank of General in the French,
+and being oldest Colonel in the English service. Count O'Connell was
+grand-uncle to "the Liberator."
+
+It may not be generally known that the military tactics of Europe at the
+present day have emanated from Count O'Connell. The French Government
+resolved, in 1787, that the art of war should be thoroughly revised, and
+a military board, consisting of four general officers and one colonel,
+was formed for that purpose. Count O'Connell, who then commanded the
+Royal Suedois (or Swedish) regiment, was justly accounted one of the
+most scientific officers in the service, and was named as the junior
+member of that board. The other members soon discovered how correct and
+original were the views of their colleague, and unanimously confided to
+him the _redaction_ of the whole military code of France. So well did he
+execute this important commission, that his tactics were followed in the
+early campaigns of revolutionized France, by Napoleon--and finally
+adopted by Prussia, Austria, Russia and England.
+
+To Morgan O'Connell, father of "the Liberator," descended none of the
+property originally held by the family. His elder brother, Maurice,
+succeeded to a large portion, (that which eventually was bequeathed to
+Daniel,) and it had the peculiarity of being free from all chiefry,
+imposts, or Crown charge--an unusual thing, and occurring only in the
+instance of very remote tenure. This portion was held under what was
+called Shelburne leases--renewable for ever, and first granted _before_
+the enactment of the Penal laws, and therefore not "discoverable;" that
+is, not liable to be claimed from a Catholic holder by any Protestant
+who chose to claim them.
+
+Daniel O'Connell's father became a petty farmer and a small shop-keeper
+at Cahirciveen. At that time he was simply known as "Morgan
+Connell,"--there being some to this day who wholly deny the right of the
+family to the prefix of "O." The Irish proverb says:
+
+      By Mac and O,
+      You'll always know
+    True Irishmen, they say;
+      For if they lack
+      The O or Mac,
+    No Irishmen are they.
+
+The same doubters have contended that the independence realized by
+Morgan O'Connell was gained, not by farming nor by shop-keeping, but by
+extensive smuggling. But it was gained in some manner, and with it was
+purchased a small estate at Carhen, within a mile of Cahirciveen, where
+his years of industry had been passed, and not far from Derrynane. It
+was at Carhen that Daniel O'Connell was born, on the 6th August,
+1775--the very day (he used to say) on which were commenced hostilities
+between Great Britain and her American colonies.
+
+Daniel O'Connell's grandfather was the third son of twenty-two children.
+He died in 1770, leaving as his successor his second son, Maurice (John,
+the eldest, having predeceased him). This gentleman was never married,
+and it was on his death, in 1825, that the "Agitator" succeeded him as
+owner of the Derrynane estate. Morgan O'Connell (father to the
+"Liberator") died in 1809, and left two other sons, who are also
+handsomely provided for--John, as owner of Grena, and James of Lakeview,
+both places near Killarney.
+
+I trust that I have not travelled out of my way to give this sketch of
+the descent of the family connexions of O'Connell. It shows that, at any
+rate, _he_ is not the _novus homo_--the mere upstart, without the
+advantages of birth and fortune, which he was often represented to be.
+At the same time, no O'Connell need be ashamed of what honest industry
+accomplished--that much of the landed property which O'Connell's father
+inherited, held by John O'Connell of Grena, was purchased from the
+profits of his business as a farmer and general shop-keeper.
+
+From the first, Maurice O'Connell, of Derrynane, attached himself to his
+nephew Daniel, whom he educated. The earliest instructions in any branch
+of learning which the future "Liberator" received, were communicated to
+him by a poor hedge-schoolmaster, of a class ever abounding in Kerry,
+where every man is said to speak Latin. David Mahony happened to call at
+Carhen when little Daniel was only four years old, took him in his lap,
+and taught him the alphabet in an hour and a half. Some years later, he
+was regularly taught by Mr. Harrington--one of the first priests who set
+up a school after the repeal of the laws which made it penal for a Roman
+Catholic clergyman even to live in Ireland. At the age of fourteen he
+went abroad with his brother Maurice to obtain a good education.
+
+Seventy years ago, the policy, or rather the impolicy of English
+domination actually prohibited the education of the Catholics within
+Great Britain and Ireland. They were, therefore, either compelled to put
+up with very limited education, or forced to go abroad for
+instruction,--rather a curious mode of predisposing their minds in
+favour of the English laws. Mr. O'Connell was originally intended for
+the priesthood, and was educated at the Catholic seminary of Louvain,
+next at St. Omer, and, finally, at the English college of Douay, in
+France. But, at that time, there were fully as many lay as clerical
+pupils at that college.
+
+At St. Omer, Daniel O'Connell rose to the first place in all the
+classes, and the President of the College wrote to his uncle, in
+Ireland--"I have but one sentence to write about him, and that is, that
+I never was so mistaken in all my life as I shall be, unless he be
+destined to make a remarkable figure in society."
+
+The two brothers commenced their homeward journey on the 21st of
+December, 1793--the very day on which Louis XVI. was guillotined at
+Paris. During their journey from Douay to Calais, they were obliged to
+wear the revolutionary cockade, for safety. But, as good Catholics, they
+were bound to abhor the atrocities perpetrated, at that time, by the
+Jacobins, in the sacred name of liberty, and when they stood on the deck
+of the English packet-boat, indignantly tore the tri-colour from their
+hats, and flung them, with all contempt, into the water. Some French
+fishermen, who saw the act, rescued the cockades, and flung imprecations
+against the "aristocrats" who had rejected them. At the same time, when
+an enthusiastic Irish republican, who had "assisted" at the execution of
+Louis, exhibited a handkerchief stained with his blood, the young
+students turned away and shunned him, in disgust and abhorrence. Not
+then, nor at any period of his career, was O'Connell an anti-monarchist.
+It is said that, during the trial of Thomas Hardy, at London, (October,
+1794,) for high treason, he was so much shocked at the unfair means used
+by the Crown lawyers to convict the accused--means foiled by eloquent
+Erskine and an honest jury--that he resolved to place himself as a
+champion of Right against Might, and identify himself with the cause of
+the people. While he was on the Continent, that relaxation of the Penal
+laws took place which allowed the Catholic to become a barrister. It is
+probable that _this_ was the immediate cause of his becoming a lawyer. A
+young man of his sanguine temperament was likely to prefer the bar, with
+its temporal advantages,--its scope for ambition,--its excitement,--its
+fame, to the more secluded life of an ecclesiastic. Accordingly, I find
+that he entered as a law-student at Lincoln's Inn, in January, 1794--eat
+the requisite number of term-dinners there, for two years--pursued the
+same qualifying course of "study" at King's Inn, Dublin, and was called
+to the Irish bar, in Easter term, 1798, in the 23d year of his age.
+
+The Rebellion was in full fling at the time, and (in order, no doubt, to
+show his "loyalty" as a Catholic) he joined what was called "the
+lawyers' corps," associated to assist the Government in putting down
+revolt.
+
+The period of his admission was singularly favourable. Catholics had
+just been admitted to the Irish bar--to the minor honours of the
+profession; although it was hoped, and not extravagantly, that, in time,
+all its privileges would be thrown open to them. It was impossible to
+say what was Mr. O'Connell's ambition at the time; however high, he
+could not have had a dream of the elevation which he subsequently
+reached. He must have felt, however, that he had a wide field for the
+exercise of his abilities. His ostensible ambition, for many years, was
+to become a good lawyer. During what is called "the long vacation," and
+at other periods when he could spare time, he resided a good deal with
+his uncle in Kerry, where he pursued the athletic sports in which,
+almost to the close of his career, he delighted to participate. On one
+occasion, while out upon a hunting expedition, he put up at a peasant's
+cabin, sat for some hours in his wet clothes, and contracted a typhus
+fever. In his delirium he often repeated the lines from Home's tragedy
+of Douglas:
+
+    "Unknown I die--no tongue shall speak of me.
+    Some noble spirits, judging by themselves,
+    May yet conjecture what I might have proved,
+    And think life only wanting to my fame."
+
+His son has preserved a letter, written in December, 1795, when he was
+in his twenty-first year, in which he communicates his views to his
+uncle Maurice, of Derrynane. A passage or two may be worth quoting, to
+show with what earnestness he devoted himself to the career upon which
+he was then preparing to enter. He says, "I have now two objects to
+pursue--the one, the attainment of knowledge; the other, the acquisition
+of all those qualities which constitute the polite gentleman. I am
+convinced that the former, besides the immediate pleasure which it
+yields, _is calculated to raise me to honour, rank, and fortune_ [how
+prophetic were the young man's aspirations!]; and I know that the latter
+serves as a general passport or first recommendation; and, as for the
+motives of ambition which you suggest, I assure you that no man can
+possess more of it than I do. I have, indeed, a glowing, and--if I may
+use the expression--an enthusiastic ambition, _which converts every toil
+into a pleasure, and every study into an amusement_."
+
+He adds, in the same honourable spirit, "Though nature may have given me
+subordinate talents, I never will be satisfied with a subordinate
+situation in my profession. No man is able, I am aware, to supply the
+total deficiency of abilities, but every body is capable of improving
+and enlarging a stock, however small, and, in its beginning,
+contemptible. It is this reflection that affords me most consolation. If
+I do not rise at the bar, I will not have to meet the reproaches of my
+own conscience. * * * Indeed, as for my knowledge in the
+professional line, that cannot be discovered for some years to come; but
+I have time in the interim to prepare myself to appear with greater
+_éclat_ on the grand theatre of the world."
+
+As a barrister, he naturally took the Munster circuit, and here his
+family connexion operated very much in his favour. In the counties of
+Clare, Limerick, Kerry and Cork, he had relatives in abundance, and
+being, I believe, the first Catholic who had gone that circuit, he
+naturally engrossed a considerable portion of the business which the
+Catholics had previously, _ex necessitate_, distributed among the
+barristers of a contrary persuasion. He succeeded, moreover, in
+establishing the reputation of being a shrewd, clever, hard-working
+lawyer, and briefs flowed in so abundantly, that he may be cited as one
+instance, amid the ten thousand difficulties of the bar, of great
+success being immediately acquired. There was nothing precarious in this
+success: he was evidently a shrewd, clever, long-headed lawyer, and
+while the Catholics gave him briefs, because of his family and religion,
+the Protestants, not less wise, were not backward in engaging his
+assistance--not that they much loved the man, but that his assistance
+was worth having, as that of a man with a clear head, a well-filled
+mind, strong natural eloquence, and, from the very first, a mastery over
+the art of cross-examining witnesses.
+
+O'Connell's friends scarcely anticipated, from what his youth had been,
+the success which met him on his first step into active manhood. He held
+his first brief at the Kerry Assizes, in Tralee. Between a country
+gentleman named Brusker Segerson and the O'Connells there long had been
+a family feud. Brusker accused one of the O'Connell tenants at Iveragh,
+of sundry crimes and misdemeanors, which judge and jury had "well and
+truly to try and determine." Young O'Connell had his maiden brief in
+this case. Brusker, knowing the young lawyer's inexperience, anticipated
+a triumph over him, and invited a party of friends to witness the "fatal
+facility" with which the accused would be worsted. But it happened not
+only that the accused was the acquitted, but there was a general
+opinion, from the facts on the trial, that Brusker Segerson's conduct
+had been oppressive, if not illegal. Brusker turned round to his friends
+and soundly swore that "Morgan O'Connell's _fool_ was a great lawyer,
+and would be a great man." Henceforth he always employed O'Connell--but
+with the distinct and truly Irish understanding that the hereditary and
+personal feud between them should in no wise be diminished!
+
+One of O'Connell's earliest displays of acuteness was at Tralee, in the
+year 1799, shortly after he had been called to the bar. In an intricate
+case, where he was junior counsel (having got the brief more as a family
+compliment than from any other cause), the question in dispute was as
+to the validity of a will, which had been made almost in _articulo
+mortis_. The instrument was drawn up with proper form: the witnesses
+were examined, and gave ample confirmation that the deed had been
+legally executed. One of them was an old servant, possessed of a strong
+passion for loquacity. It fell to O'Connell to cross-examine him, and
+the young barrister allowed him to speak on, in the hope that he might
+say too much. Nor was this hope disappointed. The witness had already
+sworn that he saw the deceased sign the will. "Yes," continued he, with
+all the garrulousness of old age, "I saw him sign it, and surely _there
+was life in him at the time_." The expression, frequently repeated, led
+O'Connell to conjecture that it had a peculiar meaning. Fixing his eye
+upon the old man he said,--"You have taken a solemn oath before God and
+man to speak the truth and the _whole_ truth: the eye of God is upon
+you; the eyes of your neighbours are fixed upon you also. Answer me, by
+the virtue of that sacred and solemn oath which has passed your lips,
+_was the testator alive when he signed the will_?" The witness was
+struck with the solemn manner in which he was addressed, his colour
+changed--his lips quivered--his limbs trembled, and he faltered out the
+reply--"_there was life in him_." The question was repeated in a yet
+more impressive manner, and the result was that O'Connell half
+compelled, half cajoled him to admit that, after life was extinct, a
+pen had been put into the testator's hand,--that one of the party guided
+it to sign his name, while, as a salvo, for the consciences of all
+concerned, a living fly was put into the dead man's mouth, to qualify
+the witnesses to bear testimony that "there was life in him" when he
+signed that will. This fact, thus extorted from the witness, preserved a
+large property in a respectable and worthy family, and was one of the
+first occurrences in O'Connell's legal career worth mentioning. Miss
+Edgeworth, in her "Patronage," has an incident not much different from
+this; perhaps suggested by it. The plaintiffs in this case were two
+sisters named Langton, both of whom still enjoy the property
+miraculously preserved to them by the ingenuity of O'Connell; they were
+connexions of my own (Sarah Langton, the youngest, was married to my
+cousin, Frank Drew, of Drewscourt), and I have often heard them relate
+the manner in which he had contrived to elicit the truth.
+
+It is no common skill which can protect innocence from shame, or rescue
+guilt from punishment. Nothing less than an intimate knowledge of the
+feelings of the jury, and the habits and characteristics of the
+witnesses, can enable an advocate to throw himself into the confidence
+of a jury composed of the most incongruous elements, and to confuse,
+baffle, or detect the witnesses. There is no power so strong as that of
+good cross-examination; and I never knew any man possess that power in
+a more eminent degree than O'Connell. The difficulty is to avoid asking
+too many questions. Sometimes a single query will weaken evidence, while
+a word more may make the witness confirm it. Some witnesses require to
+be pressed, before they bring out the truth--others, if too much
+pressed, will turn at bay, and fatally corroborate every thing to which
+they already have sworn. It is no common skill which, intuitively as it
+were, enables the advocate to perceive when he may go to the end of his
+tether,--when he _must_ restrain. The fault of a young barrister is that
+_he asks too many questions_. It is a curious fact, that, from the first
+moment he was called to the bar, O'Connell distinguished himself by his
+cross-examinations. If he was eminent in a criminal trial, he was no
+less so in civil cases. Here he brought all his legal learning to bear
+upon the case, and here, too, he had the additional aid of that
+eloquence which usually drew a jury with him.
+
+John O'Connell gives an anecdote which illustrates his father's success
+in the defence of his prisoners. It had fallen to his lot, at the
+Assizes in Cork, to be retained for a man on a trial for an aggravated
+case of highway robbery. By an able cross-examination, O'Connell was
+enabled to procure the man's acquittal. The following year, at the
+Assizes for the same town, he found himself again retained for the same
+individual, then on trial for a burglary, committed with great
+violence, very little short of a deliberate attempt to murder. On this
+occasion, the result of Mr. O'Connell's efforts rose a disagreement of
+the jury; and, therefore, no verdict. The Government witnesses having
+been entirely discredited during the cross-examination, the case was
+pursued no farther, and the prisoner was discharged. Again, the
+succeeding year, he was found in the criminal dock; this time on a
+charge of piracy! He had run away with a collier brig, and having found
+means for disposing of a portion of her cargo, and afterwards of
+supplying himself with some arms, he had actually commenced cruising on
+his own account, levying contributions from such vessels as he chanced
+to fall in with. Having "caught a tartar," whilst engaged in this
+profitable occupation, he was brought into Cove, and thence sent up to
+Cork to stand his trial for "piracy on the high seas." Again Mr.
+O'Connell saved him, by demurring to the jurisdiction of the Court--the
+offence having been committed within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty,
+and, therefore, cognizable only before an Admiralty Court. When the
+fellow saw his successful counsel facing the dock, he stretched over to
+speak to him, and, raising his eyes and hands most piously and fervently
+to heaven, he cried out--"Oh, Mr. O'Connell, may the Lord spare you--_to
+me_!"
+
+Here let me give my opinion, that the disqualification of his
+religious tenets, which kept him in a stuff gown while his juniors in
+standing, and inferiors in talent, were strutting about with all
+professional honour, was _not_ much detriment to O'Connell's
+advancement. Here was a man, confessedly at the head of his profession,
+yet excluded from its honours by unjust and intolerant laws--it became,
+therefore, a practice to consider him a martyr for the sake of his
+religion, and he got many and many a brief because such was the feeling.
+His disqualification as a Catholic gained him business as a Barrister.
+
+The Union failed to make Ireland happy--because the chains of the
+Catholics were still allowed to gall them, instead, as Mr. Pitt
+contemplated, of being removed with the least possible delay. George
+III. threw himself between Ireland and justice. Relief was expected from
+Mr. Fox, and might, perhaps, have been granted, but the death of that
+statesman, almost immediately succeeded by an Anti-Catholic Ministry,
+sounded the knell to the hopes of the people of Ireland. It was at this
+time that Mr. O'Connell came forward as a politician; he had personal
+reasons for doing so, because, now being in the enjoyment of a very
+excellent practice at the bar, he found numerous vexations arising from
+the privileges enjoyed by men less talented, less qualified than
+himself, but who enjoyed the advantages which religious and political
+"ascendency" gave them.
+
+The Catholics at last threw themselves into an attitude of defence.
+O'Connell's first decided step[16] was the taking part in the proceedings
+of a meeting of Catholics, held in Dublin in May, 1809. Then, for the
+first time for over a hundred years, Catholics literally "spoke out."
+Their daring appeared to draw strength for their despair. What was
+called "the Catholic Committee" was formed, and this, strongly against
+O'Connell's advice, violated the law by assuming a _representative_
+character. Lord Killeen (eldest son of the Earl of Fingal, a Catholic
+peer), and some others of the leaders, were prosecuted by the
+Government. They were defended by O'Connell, and Ireland then witnessed
+the almost unprecedented circumstance of Catholic agitators being
+acquitted by a Protestant jury in Dublin.
+
+     [16] O'Connell's first public speech was against the Union. It was
+     made on January 13, 1800, at a Catholic meeting in Dublin, in
+     unequivocal condemnation of that measure. The resolutions that day
+     adopted were drawn up by O'Connell, and assumed an antagonistic
+     position.
+
+The Catholic Committee, however, became alarmed, and broke up. Then was
+formed the Catholic Board, at which it was a matter of dispute whether
+Emancipation might not be purchased by allowing the Crown to pay the
+Catholic clergy, and giving the head of the Church of England a veto on
+the appointment of Catholic bishops in Ireland. Feeble and vacillating,
+the greater portion of the Catholic nobility held aloof from the
+struggle, in which O'Connell took the popular side. Later in the day,
+
+The late Duke of Richmond (Viceroy of Ireland) put down the Catholic
+Board by means of his Attorney-General Saurin. The members of that
+Board, as some small acknowledgment for the services of their colleague,
+voted Mr. O'Connell a piece of plate, of the value of 1000_l._ The Board
+being put down, the Catholic cause would have fallen but for the
+intrepidity of O'Connell, who assumed the leadership at once, and
+published a letter, continued annually for a long time, in which he
+stated the wrongs of Ireland, with her claims for relief, and suggested
+the mode of action. This annual message had the motto, from Childe
+Harold,
+
+            "Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not,
+    Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow."
+
+Mr. Saurin is said to have seriously contemplated prosecuting O'Connell
+for sedition because of this motto from "Childe Harold."
+
+The Catholic Board was suppressed, it is true, but there remained a
+thousand modes of action by which the spirit of patriotism might be kept
+alive in Ireland. Aggregate and other public meetings were instantly
+held, and at one of these Mr. O'Connell, in 1815, designated the
+Corporation of Dublin as a "beggarly corporation." A member of that
+"beggarly" and bankrupt body took upon himself to play the bravo in its
+defence. This man was a Mr. D'Esterre, and is understood to have had a
+promise of patronage from the Corporation (in the shape of a good
+berth), if he humbled the pride of O'Connell. It is more charitable than
+reasonable to hope that the Corporation were not so ruffianly as to hold
+out this hope to D'Esterre, because he was notoriously the best shot in
+Dublin; and yet, such "honourable" assassination is exactly what such a
+body would reward, if they did not suggest it.
+
+D'Esterre paraded the streets of Dublin with a horse-whip in his hand,
+and vowed vengeance against O'Connell. He did not meet him; but he
+afterwards challenged him. O'Connell refused to apologize--met the
+challenger, and mortally wounded him. D'Esterre, as I have said, was a
+crack shot, and O'Connell was not; but it sometimes happens that the
+practiced duellist suffers the penalty which he has inflicted upon
+others.
+
+D'Esterre had been an officer of marines, and it has been stated, and
+always believed, that he constituted himself the Champion of the
+Corporation, not only in the hope, but with a direct promise of
+obtaining a lucrative appointment, provided that he "silenced"
+O'Connell. The odds were five to one in his favour--for he was cool and
+determined, and could snuff a candle with a pistol shot at twelve paces.
+His skill, his coolness, availed not. At the first shot he fell, and his
+death speedily followed.
+
+Soon after, Sir Robert Peel (the then Irish Secretary) fastened a
+quarrel upon Mr. O'Connell, who again placed himself in the hands of his
+friends. A hostile meeting was appointed--the authorities in Dublin
+interfered--the parties were bound over to keep the peace--they agreed
+to meet on the Continent, but the duel was ultimately prevented by the
+arrest of Mr. O'Connell, in London, on his way to Calais. He was held to
+bail before the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, not to fight Mr.
+Peel; and since that time declined any further meetings of the sort.[17]
+It would have been well if, when he determined to avoid duels, O'Connell
+had also resolved to abstain from language offensive to men of honour
+and men of feeling. His chief fault, during his last thirty years, was
+the application of epithets towards his political opponents, which
+appear to have been culled rather in the market of Billingsgate, than in
+the flowery garden of Academe!
+
+     [17] It was the late Dr. England, Catholic Bishop of Charleston, S.
+     C., who then resided near Cork, who pointed out to O'Connell the
+     conjoint sin and folly of duelling, and induced him to promise that
+     he would never again appeal to arms. It was reported, at the time,
+     that O'Connell had lingered in London, when Peel expected him at
+     Calais, awaiting news of his wife's health (he had left her ill in
+     Dublin), and that another public character had declined a challenge
+     on the plea of his daughter's illness. The late Chief Justice Burke
+     thus commemorated the double event:
+
+     "Two heroes of Erin, abhorrent of slaughter, Improved on the Hebrew
+     command; One honored his wife, and the other his daughter, That
+     'their days might be long on the land.'"
+
+For several years after the duel with D'Esterre, O'Connell was almost
+alone in the struggle for Emancipation. His practice steadily increased,
+and his legal knowledge, ability and tact, united with wondrous art in
+the examination of witnesses, and great influence with juries (by the
+union of a species of rhetoric consisting of common sense, humour, and
+rough eloquence, cemented together by a good share of "Blarney"), soon
+made him a very successful barrister. Whenever a Catholic victim was to
+be defended or rescued, whether an Orange oppressor was to be assailed
+and punished, O'Connell was in the van. The Catholics readily took him
+as their champion, and he won their gratitude by his services, and
+gained their personal attachment by a good humour which nothing could
+daunt, and a plain, straightforward, affectionate manner of eloquence
+which went directly home to their hearts. To this hour it is a moot
+point whether the Irish had greater admiration for his talents,
+gratitude for his services, confidence in his fidelity, or attachment
+for his person.
+
+He continued increasing in influence for many years. From 1815, until he
+relinquished most of his practice in 1831, the annual income from his
+professional pursuits cannot have averaged less than from £6000 to
+£8000--an immense sum for a lawyer to make in Ireland. No man could make
+such an income, except one who was at once an excellent Nisi Prius
+pleader, as well as a good Crown lawyer. He united the highest
+qualifications of both. He could wield at will immense power over a
+jury, and argue with a success rarely equalled, so as to reach the
+understanding of a judge. Hence, he had the most extraordinary
+versatility. You would see him at one o'clock joking a jury out of a
+verdict in the Nisi Prius court, or familiarly laying down cases for the
+information of the judge; and, the next hour, you might behold him in
+the Crown court, defending an unhappy man accused of murder, and
+exercising a caution and prudence in his unparalleled cross-examination
+of witnesses which would alike surprise and please. No man could more
+readily get the truth from a witness, or make him say only just as much
+as suits the particular point he had in view.
+
+In 1821, when George the Fourth visited Ireland, Mr. O'Connell made "his
+first appearance, by particular desire," in the part of a courtier. He
+presented a laurel crown to the monarch on his departure, and eulogized
+him to the seventh heaven as "a real friend of old Ireland," anxious to
+see her
+
+            "Great, glorious, and free,
+    First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea."
+
+He did more than this. He sacrificed his feelings, as a Catholic, in
+order to conciliate the Ascendency party. Intent on conciliation, he
+even dined with the Dublin Corporation, and drank their charter toast of
+intolerance,[18] "The pious, glorious and immortal memory." Concession
+was vain. The leopard would not change his spots; and, throwing away the
+scabbard, O'Connell drew the sword, and threw himself, body and soul,
+into the stormy battle of Agitation.
+
+     [18] This celebrated toast, the drinking or refusal of which, for
+     many years, was the great test of (political) Protestantism in
+     Ireland, was drank on the knee, and ran thus: "The glorious, pious,
+     and immortal memory of the great and good King William, Prince of
+     Orange, who saved us from Pope and Popery, brass money and wooden
+     shoes. He that don't drink this toast, may the north wind blow him
+     to the south, and a west wind blow him to the east; may he have a
+     dark night, a lee shore, a rank storm, and a leaky vessel to carry
+     him over the ferry to hell; may the devil jump down his throat with
+     a red-hot harrow, that every pin may tear out his inside; may he be
+     rammed, jammed, and damned into the great gun of Athlone, and fired
+     off into the kitchen of hell, where the Pope is roasted on a spit,
+     and basted with the fat of Charles James Fox, while the Devil
+     stands by pelting him with Cardinals!"
+
+In 1823, O'Connell, finding how little was to be anticipated from George
+IV. (who, as king, forgot the promises he made when Prince of Wales),
+organized a great plan for uniting his Catholic countrymen into an array
+against the laws which excluded them from the enjoyment of their civil
+and rights. He had great difficulty in arousing the languid energies of the
+Irish people, so hopeless had they been for a long time. At last, the
+Catholic Association assumed a "local habitation and a name." The
+subscription to the somewhat aristocratical Catholic Board had been five
+pounds a year--one fifth of that amount was the payment to the
+Association; and, at last, the Catholic Rent was instituted on the basis
+of admitting contributions of a shilling a-year. Every subscriber to
+this small amount thereby became a member of the Association, and crowds
+eagerly joined it, on these terms, from all parts of Ireland. Here were
+agitation and combination. Here was money, the very sinews of war. Here
+was a fund, large in amount, annually augmenting, applicable to a
+variety of purposes connected with the assertion of the Catholic claims
+and the defence of Catholics, who thought themselves individually
+wronged or injured by their Orange masters. Here, with O'Connell at
+their head, was a band of leaders, most of them in the practice of the
+law, who had station, influence, audacity, courage, integrity, and the
+art of moving the multitude by voice or pen. The Government speedily
+feared, and felt, it to be an _imperium in imperio_.
+
+Armed with a vast numerical combination, strong in the possession of
+large funds, headed by able and fearless men, the Association assumed
+the duty of standing between the people and the mal-administration
+of the law. Every local act of tyranny, intolerance and oppression was
+exposed, if it were not visited with exemplary punishment. The
+complaints of the people were heard, through the influence of the
+leaders, within the very walls of the Imperial Parliament. A brilliant
+arena was opened for Catholic talent, for the Association held its
+discussions like a regular legislative assembly, and its debates were
+spread abroad, all over the kingdom, on the wings of the press. Of the
+whole system O'Connell was the motive power--the head--the heart. His
+influence was immense.
+
+Such an array could not be beheld by any government with indifference.
+It was determined to put down the Association by act of Parliament. In
+1825, O'Connell formed one of a deputation to England, to make
+arrangements for an adjustment of the Catholic claims--committed the
+error of consenting to take Emancipation clogged with "the wings" (that
+is, to State payment for the Catholic clergy, and confiscation of the
+40s. elective franchise), but finally admitted his mistake, and his
+error of judgment was forgiven by his countrymen. The Association was
+suppressed. O'Connell, whose policy was to baffle rather than to
+contest, and whose boast ever was that he agitated "within the law,"
+allowed the Catholic Association to dissolve itself, but continued the
+agitation by "aggregate meetings" in nearly every county of Ireland, and
+by the establishment of a new Catholic Association, formed ostensibly
+for purposes of charity alone. The Government could do nothing against
+this.
+
+In 1826, when a general election took place, O'Connell brought into
+unexpected operation the forces which he commanded. He started popular
+candidates in several Irish counties, and defeated the former members,
+who had always voted against the Catholics. The lesson was a striking
+one, but the Executive in Downing-street heeded it not, and declared
+unmitigated and perpetual enmity against the Catholics. On the other
+hand, the Association pledged itself to oppose every candidate connected
+with the government. In 1828, a vacancy occurred, by Mr. Vesey
+Fitzgerald (who himself had always voted for Catholic Emancipation)
+having accepted a seat in the Duke of Wellington's Cabinet, and then
+O'Connell ventured the bold experiment of contesting the representation
+of Clare. He was returned after a most severe contest--forced
+Wellington, by that election to concede Emancipation--claimed his seat
+under that concession--was refused by Manners Sutton, the Speaker--was
+re-elected for Clare[19]--since sat for Waterford, Kerry, Dublin,
+Kilkenny, and Cork--made the best speech upon the Reform Bill--supported
+the Melbourne ministry when the contest between them and Peel came
+on--invariably maintained the most liberal principles, and supported the
+most liberal measures--diminished, if he did not conquer, the dislike
+which England and Scotland felt towards him as a Catholic and Irish
+agitator--and had a parliamentary influence greater than any man ever
+before possessed, being able to count on the votes of _forty_ members,
+who formed what is called the joints of his "tail."
+
+     [19] Mr. Grattan says, at an expense of £20,000--an amount which
+     seems incredible, as there was only a brief shadow of opposition.
+
+Had O'Connell's labors as an agitator ceased when they achieved
+Emancipation, no reputation could have stood higher. But, from 1829, he
+attempted to make "Repeal" his party-cry. In April, 1834, he moved for
+the Repeal of the Union. Thirty-eight members voted _with_, and five
+hundred and twenty-three _against_ him. Only _one_ English member
+supported him--Mr. James Kennedy, who sat for the small borough of
+Tiverton.
+
+The influence of O'Connell continued great, with the Government, as well
+as in Ireland, while the Whigs were in office. But the Melbourne
+ministry broke up in the autumn of 1841, and "Othello's occupation" was
+gone when they went over to the opposition benches. In 1843, it is true,
+he made renewed, important and remarkable attempts to excite Ireland--to
+agitate (within the law) against the government of which Sir Robert Peel
+was the head, but he was prosecuted, and the Monster Trials, lasting
+twenty-five days, and ending in his conviction and imprisonment, first
+taught his countrymen that he was not infallible nor invulnerable. His
+conviction was subsequently annulled by the House of Lords, on appeal,
+but the iron had entered into his soul, and when he resumed his seat in
+Parliament he evidently was breaking. Then followed the revolt against
+his supremacy by the vigorous and more decided "Young Ireland" party,
+and, with failing health and defeated aims, he went to the
+Continent--his desire being to visit that imperial and Papal Rome of
+which he had long been the energetic and obedient servant. He died
+before he accomplished his pilgrimage; but his heart rests in the
+Eternal City.
+
+Here it can scarcely be out of place to glance at O'Connell's success as
+a Parliamentary orator.
+
+In the British Parliament, where oratorical success is usually very
+difficult, Irishmen have generally shown themselves not merely good, but
+even eloquent speakers. Edmund Burke may challenge mention alongside of
+the great Chatham--and will have a more permanent place of honour,
+because his speeches, admirable even as compositions, now belong to the
+standard classics of the Anglo-Saxon race. Sir Philip Francis (the
+reputed author of "The Letters of Junius") was not inferior, in power
+and effect, to the younger Pitt. Richard Brinsley Sheridan and George
+Canning nobly maintained the national credit, as transcendently eloquent
+men. Lord Wellesley and Henry Grattan occupy a first position as great
+orators. In later days, assuredly Daniel O'Connell and Richard Lalor
+Sheil have not been surpassed by any of their rivals. Whenever Irish
+parliamentary eloquence is spoken of, William Conyngham Plunket cannot
+be overlooked. He was, perhaps, the very best speaker in the British
+Parliament at any time. He had few of the ordinary characteristics of
+Irish eloquence. Wit he possessed in a high degree, but was chary in its
+use. Pathos he rarely ventured upon--though there are some incidental
+touches at once tearful and tender. He relied on clear arrangement of
+facts, logical closeness of reasoning, strong earnestness, remarkable
+sagacity, and the exercise of tact and common sense which a spirit at
+once strong and ardent had disciplined and exercised. His manner, also,
+grave and almost austere, added weight to his words of power. He
+succeeded Grattan in the leadership of the Catholic party in Parliament,
+and his speech (in 1821) converted nine votes from hostility to justice.
+It was on this occasion, alluding to the great departed who had joined
+in the discussions relative to Ireland's claims for civil and religious
+liberty, that he said--"Walking before the sacred images of the
+illustrious dead, as in a public and solemn procession, shall we not
+dismiss all party feelings, all angry passions, all unworthy prejudices?
+I will not talk of past disputes; I will not mingle in this act of
+national justice anything that can awaken personal animosity."
+
+It was not, however, in the English legislature, but during the last
+twenty years of the Irish Parliament, that Irish eloquence was in its
+zenith. On one hand were Fitzgibbon and Scott (afterwards Lords Clare
+and Clonmel), Connolly, Cavendish, and Arthur Wolfe. On the other side
+was such an array of talent, patriotism, and eloquence as, in the same
+period of time, has never been surpassed--never equalled. There were
+Hussey Burgh and James Fitzgerald, Flood and Grattan, Curran and Barry
+Yelverton, Plunket and Saurin, Parnell and Denis Daly, Brownlow and
+Saxton Perry, Foster and Ponsonby, Goold and Peter Burrowes,
+silvery-tongued Bushe and honest Robert Holmes. Most of these were
+lawyers, and made an exception to the general rule that the eloquence of
+the Bar and of the Senate are so different in character as to seem
+almost incompatible in practice. In Ireland, during her last days of
+nationality, the great cause for which they were contending, appeared to
+have animated the members of the bar with a spirit which disdained all
+narrow limits of conventionality, and elevated them above the ordinary
+routine of common life. We read, in Holy Writ, how one of the seraphim
+touched Isaiah's lips with fire, and, with little effort of the
+imagination, we may well believe that Patriotism, in like manner,
+touched the lips of Irishmen, during that hard struggle for the very
+existence of their nation, at once hallowing and purifying the words
+which fell from them. But such eloquence was only a flash amid darkness,
+too brilliant to stay, and force and fraud were evil spirits superior,
+at that time, to Truth, Virtue, and Eloquence. The day may come when
+Ireland shall once again be a nation,--may the Past then and forever be
+a lesson and a warning.
+
+It is singular that, in the Irish Parliament, nearly all the great
+speakers have been lawyers. With few exceptions, men of law have not
+succeeded in the English Parliament. Lords Mansfield, Lyndhurst and
+Brougham, with Romilly and Follett, are the chief exceptions. Camden,
+Thurlow, Eldon, Gifford, Cottenham, Truro, St. Leonards, Erskine,
+Scarlett, Stowell, Tenterden, Best, and a great many more did not
+maintain, in Parliament, the reputation they had won at the bar. Three
+Irishmen, however, albeit members of the legal profession, have taken
+the lead in the British Senate, even in our own time. These were
+Plunket, O'Connell, and Sheil.
+
+Of Plunket and Sheil there may be another occasion and opportunity of
+speaking. It is of O'Connell that I would record a few impressions now.
+It must be remembered that when he entered Parliament, in 1829, he had
+entered into his fifty-fifth year. Plunket was at least ten years
+younger when he too entered the British House of Commons. Sheil was
+little more than thirty-six when he took his seat. It was feared by his
+friends and hoped by his enemies that, like Erskine and other great
+advocates, O'Connell would fail in Parliament. True it was that Grattan
+was fifty-nine before he first spoke in the English House of
+Commons--but Grattan was one in ten thousand. Besides, he was all his
+life a parliamentary speaker, which is very different from being a
+lawyer in full practice also--the essentials for success at the bar and
+in the Senate being far apart. Grattan himself, speaking of his great
+rival, Flood, who had greatly distinguished himself in the Irish, and as
+greatly failed, in the English Parliament, said "he forgot that he was a
+tree of the forest, too old and too great to be transplanted at fifty."
+
+O'Connell's opponents confidently anticipated his failure. He is too
+much of a mob-orator, was the cry of one set. He will never please so
+refined an assembly as the British House of Commons; he is too much of a
+lawyer, said another section of ill-wishers, and we know how perpetually
+lawyers fail in the House. His accent is dead against him, lisped a few
+others, and will be laughed at as vulgar. One of his most violent
+antagonists was Lord Eldon, before whom he had appeared, in an appeal
+case before the Lords, when he visited London in 1825 (on the memorable
+occasion of "the Wings"); but this Chancellor, inimical as he was,
+turned round to Lord Wynford (then Sir W. D. Best), when the speech was
+ended, and said, "What a knowledge of law!--how condensed, yet how clear
+his argument!--how extremely gentlemanly, and even courtierly is his
+manner. Let him only be in the House once, and he will carry every thing
+before him." Many even of O'Connell's own friends doubted whether he
+could accommodate himself to the manners, fashion, habits, and
+restrictions of that very artificial assemblage, presumed to contain
+"the collective wisdom of the nation," but the slightest doubt on the
+subject does not appear to have cast its shadow into his own mind. To
+him, as to Lady Macbeth, there was no such word as--fail! Like Nelson,
+he did not know what fear was.
+
+His putting up for Clare Election, in 1828, was one of the boldest
+measures ever ventured on--short of raising the banner of revolt against
+the government. It compelled Wellington and Peel to concede Catholic
+Emancipation--a concession ungracious and ungrateful, since it was
+clogged with a clause, the result of personal spite, prohibiting
+O'Connell, because he had been elected in 1828, from taking the oaths
+contained in the Relief Bill of 1829. That prohibition sent him back to
+Clare for re-election, and he entered Parliament with his mind not
+unnaturally angry at the injustice for which _he_ had been singled out
+as a victim.
+
+He took his seat, and, almost immediately, it was perceived that he was
+not to be trifled with. Nature had been bountiful to him. In
+stature tall, and so strongly built that it was only by seeing, when a
+man of ordinary height was by his side, how much he over-topped him.
+Physical vigour and mental strength were well combined in him. Then, his
+voice--a miraculous organ, full of power, but not deficient, either, in
+mellow sweetness. His glance told little--but his lips were singularly
+expressive, as much so as the eyes are to ordinary mortals. Add to this,
+a full consciousness of power--a conviction that he had been the main
+agent for opening Parliament to his hitherto prohibited
+co-religionists--that Ireland looked to him, and not without cause, for
+a great deal more--that he virtually represented, not the men of Clare
+only, but was "Member for all Ireland,"--that he was a tactician,
+trained by thirty years of public life,--that he had also the practiced
+skill in handling all the available points of an argument which his
+professional career had given him,--and that he then looked upon
+Emancipation only as an instalment. Put all these together, and it will
+be seen, at once, that the man in whom they were embodied could scarcely
+fail to make himself felt, dreaded, and much observed.
+
+In the first twelvemonth--that is, from his re-election in 1829, until
+the meeting of the new Parliament in November 1830--O'Connell
+disappointed a great many by playing what may be called a waiting game.
+It was expected that he would be perpetually speaking, upon all
+occasions, and, in that case, attempts would have been made to laugh, or
+cough, or clamor him down. He voted regularly, and always on the right
+side. In 1831, when the Grey ministry were in power, O'Connell, now
+strengthened by a strong and compact body of Irish members pledged to
+work with and under him (their return was the result of the General
+Election), took the station in the Legislature which he maintained for
+nearly fifteen years. During the prolonged struggle for Parliamentary
+Reform, one of the most impressive speeches in advocacy of the measure
+was O'Connell's. On all great occasions his voice was heard and his vote
+given. It cannot be asserted that he invariably spoke and voted as now,
+when we read the events of those days as history, it may dispassionately
+be thought he should have done; but he was undoubtedly an indefatigable,
+earnest, eloquent member of Parliament, through whose pertinacity and
+tact many concessions were made to Ireland which were calculated to
+serve her. The geniality of his nature was as unchecked in the Senate as
+it had been at the Bar, or in the Catholic Association. He was eminently
+a good-tempered man, and this availed him much in the House of Commons,
+where, if it so please him, a man can readily make himself and others
+uncomfortable by the exhibition of even a small portion of ill-temper.
+Sometimes he laughed at his opponents, but so good-naturedly that they
+also enjoyed the jest. Such was his cut at John Walter, proprietor of
+the _Times_, who had remained on the ministerial benches after his Tory
+friends had quitted them. He removed, speedily enough, when O'Connell
+pointed to him as--
+
+
+     "The last rose of summer, left blooming alone."
+
+
+So, when Lord Stanley (now Earl of Derby) separating from the Whigs,
+started a party of his own, which was lamentably small, O'Connell quoted
+against him a couplet from a familiar poet--
+
+    "Thus down thy side, romantic Ashbourne, glides
+    The Derby dilly, carrying six insides."
+
+And so, pre-eminent over all was his parody on Dryden's celebrated
+comparison. Three Colonels (Perceval, Verner, and Sibthorpe) represented
+Sligo, Armagh, and Lincoln. The two first were smooth-faced and
+whiskerless as a maiden. Sibthorpe is "bearded like a bard." O'Connell,
+alluding to them in the House, thus hit them off, amid a general roar,
+in which the victimized trio could not refrain from joining--
+
+    "Three Colonels in three distant counties born,
+    Sligo, Armagh, and Lincoln did adorn.
+    The first in matchless impudence surpassed,
+    The next in bigotry--in both the last.
+    The force of nature could no further go,
+    To beard the third she shaved the other two."
+
+Like other politicians, O'Connell did not escape without occasional
+personal passages at arms. In one of these, with Mr. Doherty, then Irish
+Solicitor-General, in May, 1830, O'Connell may be said to have come off
+second-best. He had attacked Doherty for his conduct as Crown lawyer in
+what was called the Doneraile conspiracy. The whole of the Tory party
+sided with Doherty, who made a forcible defence, attacking his assailant
+in turn, and the Whigs did not very warmly support O'Connell, who had
+then only been a few months in Parliament. This _rencontre_, which took
+place while "The Duke" was Premier, raised Doherty to the Chief
+Justiceship of the Common Pleas in Ireland--and led to Peel's offering
+him a seat in the Cabinet in 1834, and a Peerage in 1840. O'Connell used
+to say, and with truth, that _he_ had placed Doherty on the Bench.
+
+On another occasion O'Connell was far more successful. This was the
+celebrated Breach of Privilege case.
+
+Victoria ascended the throne in June, 1837. Shortly after there was a
+General Election, and a great many of the members returned were
+petitioned against. The Tories had raised a large fund to defray the
+cost of these proceedings, and it was called "The Spottiswoode
+Subscription," as Spottiswoode, the Queen's printer (a patent
+life-office of much emolument), acted as its treasurer. Angry debates
+arose in the House of Commons on this subject, and personalities were
+so much and so tumultuously bandied to and fro, that Mr. Abercrombie,
+the Speaker, threatened to resign if they were repeated,--as if,
+grasping Scotchman as he was, he _could_ ever have brought himself to
+resign the £6,000 a-year attached to the office!
+
+The controverted elections were duly referred to the usual Election
+Committees, ballotted for out of the members then in the House. These
+committees were duly sworn, as juries are, to do justice between man and
+man. But it was unhappily notorious that when the majority were Whigs,
+they almost invariably decided against Tory members, and _vice versâ_.
+As ill luck would have it, the majority of the decisions went to unseat
+Liberal members. As parties were nearly balanced in Parliament, at that
+time--indeed the Whigs remained in office merely because there was a new
+and inexperienced sovereign who would have been puzzled how to act on a
+change of ministry--the Liberals complained of the decisions of the
+Election Committees.
+
+On February 23, 1838, Lord Maidstone, who had been elected for
+Northamptonshire, and was the eldest son of the intolerant Earl of
+Winchelsea, who fought a duel on the Catholic Relief Bill, with
+Wellington, in 1829, drew the attention of the House of Commons to a
+Breach of Privilege. He complained that, two days before, at a public
+dinner given at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Mr. O'Connell had declared
+that in the Election Committees "Corruption of the worst description
+existed, and above all there was the perjury of the Tory politicians."
+Also, that he "was ready to be a martyr to justice and truth; but not to
+false swearing, and therefore, he repeated, that there was foul perjury
+in the Tory Committees of the House of Commons."
+
+What followed I saw, and can never forget. O'Connell, who had been
+reading (or appearing to read) a newspaper while Lord Maidstone was
+accusing him, keenly arose, sternly looked around the House, folded his
+arms, and, in his deepest tones and most impressive manner, said, "Sir,
+I did say every word of that--every word of that; and I do repeat that I
+believe it to be perfectly true. Is there a man who will put his hand on
+his heart and say that it is not true? Such a man would be laughed to
+scorn."
+
+Maidstone then gave notice of a motion condemnatory of O'Connell, and
+the discussion was adjourned until the following Monday. Maidstone moved
+that O'Connell's speech was an imputation on the whole House, and that
+he be censured for it as a breach of privilege. O'Connell replied in a
+speech of great power, in the midst of which he was self-designated "The
+pensioned servant of Ireland," and plainly declared that whenever an
+Election Committee was appointed, it was known that the decision would
+be exactly according to the political majority of its members; and
+repeating that he had spoken only the truth, and would stand by his
+words. The Agitator then retired.
+
+A great many members spoke,--the Whigs making a lukewarm defence for
+O'Connell, instead of admitting and lamenting the truth of his remarks.
+The Tories clamoured for a heavy censure. In a House of 517 members, out
+of 658, a majority of _nine_ were for the censure. Next Daniel
+Callaghan, member for Cork city, Edmund Burke Roche, member for Cork
+county, W. D. Gillon for Falkirk, and J. P. Somers for Sligo, severally
+and seriously declared that, each and all, they adopted Mr. O'Connell's
+words and sentiments! It was then carried by 298 to 85 (Lord John
+Russell voting in the majority) that the words were "a false and
+scandalous imputation on the House."
+
+Next, on the motion that O'Connell be reprimanded in his place, an
+exciting debate ensued. Mr. Callaghan repeated his endorsement of
+O'Connell's imputation, and his words were taken down by the Clerk of
+the House, on the motion of Mr. Hume, who called on the Speaker to
+notice his contumacy. But the Speaker was mute. Next day, Mr. Roche also
+repeated his full adherence to O'Connell's charge. The vote of censure
+was carried by a majority of twenty-nine.
+
+O'Connell duly attended in his place, was gravely reprimanded by the
+Speaker (his own particular friend!), and said, when the farce was
+over, "Galileo remarked 'the world does move, after all.' And so,
+despite the censure of this House, I repeat all I said before. The
+system I condemn reminds one of the Judge in Rabelais who decided cases
+by throwing three dice for the plaintiff and two for the defendant. I
+had rather take the dice-box and say 'seven's the main,' than take my
+chance on an Election Committee of this House. I express no regret for
+what I have said. I have retracted nothing. I will retract nothing. I
+have told the truth."
+
+So saying, having bearded the House by strongly repeating his
+accusation, he sat down. It was considered that he had gained a victory,
+and the conclusion of all was a total change and reform in the system of
+Parliamentary election committees.
+
+But it was in Ireland--whether in the Catholic Association, at an
+Aggregate Meeting, at a public dinner, or in a court of law--that
+O'Connell was to be seen "in all his glory." In Ireland his influence
+was extraordinary--not only for its vast extent, but for its
+continuance. No other public man, no matter what the country or the age,
+has maintained his popularity, as O'Connell did, for nearly forty years.
+I think that this may be partly attributed to the belief, long and
+widely entertained by his followers, almost unbroken to the last,
+encouraged by himself, and generally borne out by circumstances, that he
+was above the law, that the law could not reach _him_, that he "could
+drive a coach and six through any Act of Parliament."
+
+In February, 1831, he was indicted and tried (with Tom Steele and
+Barrett, of _The Pilot_ newspaper) for holding political meetings which
+the Viceroy's proclamation had forbidden. They pleaded guilty, but as
+the law under which they were tried was allowed to expire before they
+were brought up for judgment, his prophecy, that the law could not reach
+him, was fulfilled. In 1843 he was less fortunate. Three months in
+prison!--_that_ destroyed the _prestige_.
+
+This man was eminently endowed by nature with the bodily and mental
+qualifications for a Tribune of the People. In stature he was lofty, in
+figure large. His bold, good-natured face was an advantage--as were his
+manly appearance and bearing. His voice was deep, musical, sonorous and
+manageable. Its transitions from the higher to the lower notes was
+wondrously effective. No man had a clearer or more distinct
+pronunciation--at times, it even went to the extent of almost
+syllabizing long words. How lingeringly, as if he loved to utter the
+words, would he speak of "Cawtholic E-man-cee-pa-tion!" He rather
+affected a full Irish accent, on which was slightly grafted something of
+the Foigardism which, in his youth, had attached itself to him when he
+studied in France. No one who noticed his capacious chest could wonder
+that O'Connell was able to speak longer than most men without pausing
+to take breath. When making a speech, his mouth was very expressive; and
+this has been noticed as the characteristic of that feature, in Irish
+faces. In his eyes (of a cold, clear blue) there was little speculation,
+but the true Irish expression of feeling, passion and intellect played
+about his lips. Looking at him, as he spoke, a close observer might
+almost note the sentiment about to come from those lips, before the
+words had utterance--just as we see the lightning-flash before we hear
+the thunder-peal.
+
+His eloquence was eminently characteristic. Irishmen, in general, have
+"the gift of the gab,"--that is, the power of expressing their
+sentiments in public with ease to themselves and to their hearers. It
+gives them little trouble to make a speech; and this faculty and this
+facility arise, very probably, from the political circumstances of their
+country as much as from anything else. In England there is no necessity
+why a man should have decided political opinions. In Ireland no man dare
+be neutral. Persons may disagree, and do; but they unite in despising
+and condemning the unhappy wight who does not belong to any party. An
+Irishman, in Ireland, _must_ be a partisan. Being so, there is no
+earthly reason why, attending any public meeting, he should not be
+induced to take part in the proceedings, and make a speech. Oratory is a
+very catching thing,--listening begets the desire to be listened to, in
+turn; and, once that a man has heard his own voice in public, depend on
+it, he will be anxious to hear it again.
+
+Self-possession, which is "half the battle" in public life, is an
+essential in public speaking. However, it is not _the_ essential. There
+must be a copious flow of words--a happy and rapid selection of
+language--an earnestness of manner--a knowledge of human character--and,
+above all, a considerable degree of information, with a certain portion
+of the "imagination all compact," which breathes fervour and poetry into
+the spoken speech. Great is the orator's power. He can touch the human
+heart--he can move the secret springs of action--he can sway the popular
+will as he pleases--he can comfort the afflicted, infuse hope into the
+oppressed, alarm the oppressor, and make ill-directed Power and Might
+tremble on their lofty thrones.
+
+Ireland has been particularly profuse in her contribution of eminent
+orators. Burke, Canning, Plunket, Grattan, Sheil, Wellesley and Curran,
+stand pre-eminent on the roll; but I doubt whether O'Connell, when the
+length of his reign is considered, as well as the great extent of his
+influence, derived chiefly from his power as a speaker, was not greater
+than any of these great orators. He had less wit than Canning--less
+imagination than Curran--less philosophy than Burke--less rhetoric than
+Sheil--less pure eloquence than Plunket--less classical expression
+than Wellesley--less pathos than Grattan; but he had more power than any
+of them. There was wonderful force in his language. And when addressing
+an Irish audience, there was such an alternation of style--now rising to
+the loftiest, and now subsiding to the most familiar--that he carried
+all hearts with him, and those who listened seemed as if under the spell
+of an enchanter, so completely did he move them as he pleased. Judging
+by their _effect_, O'Connell's speeches must be considered as among the
+best, if not the very best, of the time and country.
+
+O'Connell's versatility as a speaker was wonderful. He was "all things
+to all men." In a Court of Law he would often joke a jury into his view
+of the case, and when this did not succeed, would convince them by
+subtle argument, bold declamation, and a natural eloquence. At a
+political meeting, where he had to address a multitude, they would
+alternately smile or get enraged, as he jested with or excited their
+feelings. In Parliament, which he did not enter until he was fifty-four
+years old, he generally was more calm, more careful, more sudued, more
+solicitous in his choice of words, and more vigilant in restraining the
+manner of delivering them.
+
+The great secret of his power, as a speaker, was his earnestness. He
+ever had a great object in view, and he always applied himself, with a
+strong and earnest mind, to achieve that object. Whenever he pleased,
+he could rise to the greatest height of eloquence; but he preferred,
+when speaking to the people, to use language which each of them could
+understand. He varied his speeches, too, with badinage and jokes, which,
+though merely humourous, made his audience smile, and keep them in good
+temper with each other, with themselves, and with him. The Irish, who
+thronged to listen to him, went to be amused as well as to be harangued.
+Nor did he disappoint them. I may illustrate what I mean by giving an
+example of one of his familiar illustrations.
+
+In 1827, during the time of what was called "The New Reformation," in
+Ireland, O'Connell made a speech at the South Chapel, in Cork. It
+contained the following passage, after a very elaborate denial of the
+assumed conversions which the "New Reformation" gentry had boasted
+of:--"They remind me, gentlemen, of a Frenchman who waited on Lord
+Kenmare, and offered to drain the lakes of Killarney, which would
+restore a great quantity of arable land. Lord Kenmare happened to think
+that he had land enough, and civilly declined having his property
+deprived of the beautiful lakes, its proudest ornament. The Frenchman,
+however, being one of those who
+
+    'Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame,'
+
+persisted in his fancy, and accordingly rose at break of day to drain
+the lake. And, boys, how do you think he was doing it? Why, he was
+baling it out with his hat! (Great laughter.) Now, there are seven
+millions of Catholics in Ireland--the New Reformation folk do not boast
+of more than six or seven conversions, or perversions, in the week--so
+that, allowing (which is impossible, where there are bright eyes and
+warm hearts such as flash and throb around me, in this large assembly)
+that the Catholics of Ireland will not increase in the meantime, there
+must, at this rate, be a million of weeks elapse before all of them are
+drained out by conversion. (Cheers.) Boys, these Reformation gentry
+remind me mightily of the Frenchman baling out the Lake of Killarney
+with his hat!"
+
+It was with pleasant, homely jokes like this--yet each having a tendency
+to work out the argument--that O'Connell was wont to amuse the Irish. In
+point of wit, I doubt whether O'Connell's little Frenchman be not as
+original a character as Sydney Smith's far-famed Mrs. Partington.
+
+O'Connell's friends lamented, and with ample cause, at his aptness to
+abuse the license of public speech. He was very fond of bestowing
+nicknames on his opponents, and of applying offensive epithets to
+them.[20] As early as July, 1808, at a meeting of the famous Catholic
+Board, he had commenced that sort of speaking--which lowers him who
+adopts it rather than those against whom it is levelled. He then said
+"the present administration are the personal enemies of the Catholic
+cause; yet if the Catholics continue loyal, firm, and undivided, they
+have little to fear from the barren petulence of the ex-advocate,
+Percival, or the frothy declamations of the poetaster, Canning--they
+might with equal contempt despise the upstart pride of the Jenkinsons,
+and with more than contempt the pompous inanity of that Lord
+Castlereagh, who might well be permitted to hate the country that gave
+him birth, to her own annihilation." In the same vulgar spirit he spoke
+of Cobbett as "a comical miscreant," and declared that the Duke of
+Wellington was "a stunted corporal," and maintained that Disraeli, whose
+Jewish descent is well known, must be a lineal descendant of the
+impenitent thief who was crucified, when the great sacrifice of
+Salvation was consummated at Calvary.
+
+     [20] O'Connell had high judicial authority for the use of bad
+     language. Sir Archibald Macdonald (who was Chief Baron of the
+     English Court of Exchequer, from 1793 to 1813) once told Mr.
+     Fletcher Norton, afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons, that
+     he was a "lazy, indolent, evasive, shuffling, plausible, artful,
+     mean, confident, cowardly, poor, pitiful, sneaking, and abject
+     creature."
+
+Once only, as far as my memory serves, O'Connell gave a nickname, with
+point and wit in the application. He was denouncing the present Earl of
+Derby, who was then a member of the House of Commons, and filled the
+office of Chief Secretary of Ireland. In some way Stanley had taken
+official notice of the "sayings and doings" of O'Connell, whereupon the
+Agitator declared that, from that time, he must be called "Shave-beggar
+Stanley." Amid roars of laughter (for this was at a public meeting in
+Dublin), O'Connell proceeded to justify the _nom de guerre_. It was the
+custom, he said, that barbers' apprentices should learn their business
+by shaving beggars, who, as the job was done for nothing, could scarcely
+complain if a blunt razor gave them pain, or an unskilful hand cut the
+skin, as well as the beard. So, he added, with British statesmen. They
+were first sent over to Ireland, to get their hand in, and when that was
+accomplished they were considered to have sufficient dexterity to be
+placed in office in England. He argued, by analogy, that the political,
+like the actual "shave-beggar," gave a good deal of pain, and inflicted
+many cuts, which the Irish, like the pauper shavelings, were compelled
+to submit to, without complaint. From that day until the day he left
+Ireland, Lord Stanley was always spoken of, by the Irish Liberals, with
+the prefix of "shave-beggar" to his surname!
+
+Two things, through life, O'Connell strenuously affirmed and inculcated.
+First, that the man who committed outrage supplied the enemy with a
+weapon to be used against the country. Second, that Ireland would never
+be prosperous until the Union was repealed.
+
+He did not join the United Irishmen in 1798,--not because he, like them,
+had not an aspiration for the political independence of his country,
+but because he disapproved of _their_ mode of striving for it, by force.
+From first to last he was opposed to violence. The "Young Ireland"
+schism, at Conciliation Hall, which so much annoyed him, during the last
+eighteen months of his career, was caused by his resistance to the
+doctrine of "physical force."
+
+As to the Union--it is only just to say, that O'Connell's first public
+effort was against that measure. His maiden speech, delivered on January
+13th, 1800, at a Catholic meeting, in Dublin, unequivocally condemned
+the Union. The Resolutions adopted by the meeting, drawn up by
+O'Connell, declared the proposed incorporate Union to be, "in fact, an
+extinction of the liberty of Ireland, which would be reduced to the
+abject condition of a province, surrendered to the mercy of the Minister
+and Legislature of another country, to be bound by their absolute will,
+and taxed at their pleasure by laws, in the making of which Ireland
+would have no efficient participation whatever!" During the struggle for
+Emancipation, as well as from that era until his death, O'Connell always
+declared that he would not be satisfied with less than "the Repeal." He
+never cushioned, never concealed that such was his object. I mention
+this, because it has been said that, "having got Emancipation, he ought
+not to have gone for Repeal." As a matter of _policy_, perhaps, Ireland
+would now be better off if the Repeal agitation had not taken place;
+but it is indisputable that from 1800 to 1846, O'Connell declared that
+he would not be satisfied with less than "the Repeal."
+
+Here it may be well to notice the _questio vexata_ of the famous
+"O'Connell Rent." The amount has not been exactly ascertained, but it is
+believed to have varied from 10,000_l._ to 20,000._l_ a year. It
+commenced after Emancipation was granted, and was continued until 1846,
+when, from the pressing wants of the Irish, it was announced that Mr.
+O'Connell wished it to be discontinued until they could better afford to
+pay it. Here it may be best to give Mr. O'Connell's own apology, in a
+letter to Lord Shrewsbury, in 1842. He said, "I will not consent that my
+claim to 'the Rent' should be misunderstood. That claim may be rejected,
+but it is understood in Ireland. My claim is this:--For more than twenty
+years before Emancipation, the burthen of the cause was thrown upon me.
+I had to arrange the meetings--to prepare the resolutions--to furnish
+replies to the correspondence--to examine the case of each person
+complaining of practical grievances--to rouse the torpid--to animate the
+lukewarm--to control the violent and inflammatory--to avoid the shoals
+and breakers of the law--to guard against multiplied treachery--and at
+all times to oppose, at every peril, the powerful and multitudinous
+enemies of the cause. To descend to particulars: At a period when my
+minutes counted by the guinea--when my emoluments were limited only
+by the extent of my physical and waking powers--when my meals were
+shortened to the narrowest space, and my sleep restricted to the
+earliest hours before dawn; at that period, and for more than twenty
+years, there was no day that I did not devote from one to two hours
+(often more) to the working out of the Catholic cause; and _that_
+without receiving, or allowing the offer of any remuneration, even for
+the personal expenditure incurred in the agitation of the cause itself.
+For years I bore the entire expenses of a Catholic agitation, without
+receiving the contributions of others to a greater amount than
+seventy-four pounds in the whole. Who shall repay me for the years of my
+buoyant youth and cheerful manhood? Who shall repay me for the lost
+opportunities of acquiring professional celebrity; or for the wealth
+which such distinction would ensure?"
+
+There is considerable force in this. But O'Connell's character, out of
+Ireland, would have stood higher, had he not received "the Rent." It was
+often alleged, by his adherents, as a set-off, that Grattan had also
+been remunerated by his countrymen. But the cases were not parallel. In
+1782, Grattan, almost single-handed, had achieved the Independence of
+Ireland, by obtaining the recognition of the principle that "the Crown
+of England is an Imperial Crown, but that Ireland is a distinct Kingdom,
+with a Parliament of her own, the sole Legislature thereof." He had
+accomplished a bloodless Revolution. He had thrown himself into
+political life, abandoning the profession on which rested nearly his
+whole worldly dependence. A grant of £100,000 was proposed to him in the
+Irish Parliament, "to purchase an estate, and build a suitable mansion,
+as the reward of gratitude by the Irish nation, for his eminent services
+to his country." It was intended as a mark of national gratitude to a
+nation's Liberator. So unanimous was the feeling that, on the part of
+the Viceroy, a member of the Government offered "as part of the intended
+grant to Mr. Grattan, the Viceregal Palace in the Ph[oe]nix Park
+[Dublin], to be settled on Mr. Grattan and his heirs for ever, as a
+suitable residence for so meritorious a person." Grattan's own impulse
+was to refuse the grant. His services had been rendered without
+expectation or desire of reward. But his private fortune was so
+inadequate to his public position that he must retire from politics or
+become a placeman under the Crown. The grant would give him an
+independent position. He consented to accept half of the proffered
+amount (£50,000), and determined under no circumstances to take office.
+He was, ever after, the retained servant of the nation. Yet, high as he
+stood, he did not escape contumely. Even Henry Flood, his rival,
+publicly said, in a Parliamentary controversy, "I am not a mendicant
+patriot, who was bought by my country for a sum of money, and then sold
+my country to the Minister for prompt payment."
+
+O'Connell's "Rent" was estimated as yielding from £10,000 to £20,000 a
+year--thrice the amount, probably, that he could have realized at the
+bar, had he not devoted his time to politics. It was duly paid for
+nearly twenty years. Thus O'Connell received, in this annuity from his
+party, about five times as much as the Irish Parliament had given to
+Grattan. Besides, since 1825, when Derrynane became his by the death of
+his uncle, O'Connell's landed property was not less than £4,000 a year.
+The most potent objection to "the Rent" was that, collected year after
+year, it rendered its recipient liable to the imputation of keeping up
+Agitation in order to collect the Rent.
+
+When O'Connell's uncle died, in 1825, at a very advanced age, (he was
+several years past ninety,) the news reached O'Connell when he was on
+circuit, at Limerick. He hastened to Kerry, to attend the funeral, and
+did not again appear in court until the trials were proceeding in Cork.
+I had taken my seat, as a reporter, on the very day he made his
+appearance, attired in full mourning. Setting immediately under him, I
+heard one of the counsel congratulate him on his accession to his
+uncle's large estate. "I had to wait for it a long time," said
+O'Connell. "If this had happened twenty years ago, what would I now have
+been? A hard-living, sporting, country gentleman, content with my lot.
+As it is, I have had to struggle. I have succeeded; and look how bright
+are now the prospects of Ireland! I thank God that I had to struggle,
+since it has placed them as they are now."
+
+To sum up the character of O'Connell's _political_, essentially
+different from his _forensic_, eloquence, I need not say more than that
+he put strong words into fitting places. No man had a greater or more
+felicitous command of language; no man cared less how his words were
+marshalled. Many of his speeches are models of the truest eloquence, and
+perhaps he was the first Irishman, of modern days, who made a decided
+hit in the Commons, as a sound and eloquent speaker, entering that House
+at the mature age of fifty. Powers such as his commanded
+attention;--but, in general, he spoke better in Ireland, among his own
+people, than in England. Yet who can forget his magnificent oration in
+favour of the Reform Bill? Who can forget the later, and briefer, but
+not less stirring speech, which he delivered, as a member of the
+Anti-Corn-law League, on his first visit to London, after the reversal
+of the Monster-Meetings' sentence of imprisonment.
+
+In sarcasm O'Connell was unequalled. I shall give an instance of quiet
+sarcasm which I think inimitable. In his domestic relations O'Connell
+was peculiarly happy. His marriage with his cousin Mary, was one of pure
+affection on both sides, and their love continued to the last, as warm
+as it had commenced in their youthful days.[21] John O'Connell, in 1846,
+writing of his mother, who was not long dead, said, with as much beauty
+as truth, "We can say no more than that doubting, she confirmed
+him--desponding, she cheered him on--drooping, she sustained him--her
+pure spirit may have often trembled, indeed, as she beheld him exposed
+to a thousand assaults, and affronting a thousand dangers; but she
+quailed not, she called him not back. She rejoiced not more in his
+victories over them, than she would have heartily and devotedly shared
+with and soothed him in the sufferings, in the ruin, that might have
+come upon him had he failed and been overthrown." On the other hand, the
+Marquis of Anglesey, in 1831, as Viceroy of Ireland, had O'Connell
+prosecuted for an imputed breach of the law. The Marquis had seduced the
+first wife of the late Lord Cowley, and married her after he was
+divorced from his wife, and Lady Cowley (then Mrs. Henry Wellesley) from
+her husband. O'Connell, commenting, at a public meeting in Dublin, on
+Lord Anglesey's conduct to him said, "This prosecution has cost my wife
+what none of _my_ transactions ever cost her--a tear for me. Does Lord
+Anglesey know the value of a _virtuous_ woman's tear?"
+
+     [21] In 1802, O'Connell married his cousin, the daughter of Dr.
+     O'Connell, of Tralee. By this lady he had four sons and three
+     daughters. Two of the sons are now [1855] in Parliament. Maurice,
+     the eldest, was a barrister, but never distinguished himself either
+     as a lawyer or a politician. Morgan was for some time in the
+     Austrian service, and distinguished himself as a gallant officer.
+     His "affair of honour" with Lord Alvanley showed cool determination
+     and honourable feeling. Mr. John O'Connell, who tried to take his
+     father's place in Conciliation Hall, as Repeal Leader, has
+     displayed little of the talent and tact which distinguished the
+     Liberator. The youngest son, Daniel, is a very commonplace person.
+     It is usually said, that the children of a great man rarely arrive
+     at eminence, and the limited talents of O'Connell's sons keep up
+     the proverb in full force, as far as he and they are concerned:
+
+     'Few men achieve the praise of their great sires, But most their
+     sires disgrace.'
+
+O'Connell's attempts at authorship were not very successful. His letters
+to the "Hereditary bondsmen" were diffuse and declamatory. They were
+full of repetitions, putting the points of a case in a variety of
+phases, but they were by no means equal to the force, power, and nervous
+eloquence of his speeches. He was eminently an extemporaneous speaker,
+and, like Fox, appeared to more advantage as an orator than a writer.
+Yet many of his letters contain true eloquence. He hit hard, and could
+be terse when he pleased. Who can forget the alliterative satire of the
+three words "base, bloody, and brutal," as applied to the Whigs?
+
+His only substantive and independent work was Vol. I. of "A Memoir on
+Ireland, Native and Saxon," published early in 1843. This book was
+dedicated to the Queen, in order, as the Preface stated, "that the
+Sovereign of these realms should understand the real nature of Irish
+history; should be aware of how much the Irish have suffered from
+English misrule; should comprehend the secret springs of Irish
+discontent; should be acquainted with the eminent virtues which the
+Irish have exhibited in every phasis of their singular fate; and, above
+all, should be intimately acquainted with the confiscations, the
+plunder, the robbery, the domestic treachery, the violation of all
+public faith, and of the servility of treaties, the ordinary wholesale
+slaughters, the planned murders, the concerted massacres, which have
+been inflicted upon the Irish people by the English Government." This
+one sentence will sufficiently indicate the character of the work.
+O'Connell further stated, in his preface, that "there cannot happen a
+more heavy misfortune to Ireland than the prosperity and power of Great
+Britain." He endeavoured to justify this assertion, by adding that
+"justice to Ireland" had never been granted except when Great Britain
+was in difficulties. The work brought the "proofs and illustrations" of
+British misrule in Ireland down to the Restoration. A second volume was
+to have carried them down to the present period, but it never was
+published. Nor has Literature nor History sustained any
+loss,--unless it was much superior to the first volume. The seven
+opening chapters, rapidly sketching the history of English dominion in
+Ireland from 1172 to 1840, are not devoid of a certain degree of
+eloquence, but is anti-English to a degree. The historical "proofs and
+illustrations," are simply statements from partisan writers, with
+connecting comments by O'Connell.
+
+It was as a lawyer that O'Connell achieved his first distinctions. His
+success at the bar was assurance to his countrymen of his general
+ability. But, of late years, Mr. O'Connell was so exclusively before the
+public as a legislator, that he was forgotten as a barrister. Yet, in
+the opinion of many, (among whom are those who have known him long and
+well,) it was in the latter character that the peculiar idiosyncrasy of
+the man was fully developed--that his very rare and peculiar talents
+were fully displayed.
+
+Many men have obtained eminence at the Irish bar, but it has been for
+some one peculiar merit. Thus, Harry Deane Grady was remarkable for the
+knowing manner in which he conducted a cross-examination. By that he
+alternately wheedled and frightened a witness into admissions which were
+as opposite to his evidence in chief as light is from darkness. Thus,
+Chief Justice Bushe, while at the bar, was distinguished for that
+classic eloquence by which admiring juries were seduced, and admiring
+judges were delighted. Pity that his elevation to the bench should have
+extinguished this noble oratory. Thus, Curran was renowned for "that
+sarcastic levity of tongue" which solicited a contest with those
+elevated in rank above himself. Thus, Shiel was remarkable for
+introducing a style of speaking--full of antithetical
+brilliancies--which reminds us of the flashing speeches of the most
+distinguished advocates of France. Thus, Serjeant (now Judge) Perrin was
+almost unrivalled in threading through the intricacies of an excise
+case. Thus, George Bennett won fame by his clear and plausible method of
+stating a case. Thus, Devonshire Jackson (now a Judge) was excellent in
+taking exceptions to the form of an indictment. Thus, the late Recorder
+Waggett (of Cork) put that seeming of right into a case, by which
+trusting jurymen are so often deceived. But there was only one man at
+the Irish bar who, more or less, united the excellencies of all whom I
+have named. He was as good at cross-examination as Harry Grady--he could
+rise with the occasion, and be eloquent as Bushe--he could sport the
+biting sarcasm of Curran--he even ventured on the antitheses of Shiel
+(though he seldom meddled with such sharp-edged weapons)--he was a match
+for Perrin in the excise courts--he could state a case plainly and
+plausibly as Bennett--he was as good a lawyer as Jackson, and could
+appeal to "the reports" with as much success--and, like Waggett (against
+whom, in the Munster Courts, he was often pitted), he could show his
+case to be one of the utmost _seeming_ right, his client, like the late
+Queen, of virtuous memory, to be clear as "unsunned snow." The man who
+combined all these apparently dissimilar qualifications--the man whom
+universal consent named as the best general lawyer in Ireland--the man
+to whom Orange clients invariably ran with their briefs (a confidence
+equally honourable to clients and lawyer), was O'Connell.
+
+By far the best account of O'Connell, in his different phases as a
+lawyer, is that in the "Sketches of the Irish Bar." Its essence is
+contained in the little sentence--"Every requisite for a barrister of
+all work is combined in him; some in perfection, all in sufficiency."
+
+An anonymous writer in an English paper has given this reminiscence of
+O'Connell: "I recollect at the spring assizes of I think it was '27,
+walking into the county court-house of Limerick. O'Connell was retained
+in a record then being heard, and with him on the same side was his son
+Maurice, who was bred to his father's profession, though he has since
+ceased to follow it. It was a cold day, and both wore huge cloth cloaks:
+the Agitator's right arm was thrown very affectionately round his son's
+neck, who, seemingly used to these public exhibitions of paternal
+fondness, took it very composedly. There was a rough-and-ready looking
+peasant at the moment under examination: in lieu of the ordinary box
+used in most English courts, he was seated in a chair in the centre of
+the table between the fires of the counsel on either side; his shaggy
+hair and unshorn beard, his shirt collar open, the knees of his small
+clothes in the same free and easy state, and one stocking fallen so as
+to leave a portion of his embrowned and hirsute leg bare; he had the
+chair partially turned round, so as to present a three-quarter front to
+O'Connell, who was _raking_ him with a cross-examination, which elicited
+laughter from every person in the court, including the witness himself,
+who, with his native freedom, impudence, and humour, was almost a match
+for the Agitator. The Agitator's face was beaming with fun, and he
+seemed very well disposed to show off, as if conscious that his auditors
+expected something from him. The country fellow, too, appeared to think
+there were laurels to be earned in the encounter, for he played away
+with all his might, and though he failed repeatedly in his attempts to
+be witty, he was always sure to be impudent. He waxed gradually more
+familiar, until at length he called the learned counsel nothing but
+'Dan;' it was, 'Yes, Dan,' or 'No, Dan,' or 'Arrah, you're not going to
+come over me so easily, Dan.' Dan, to do him justice, enjoyed the joke,
+and humoured the witness in such a manner as at length to throw the
+fellow off his guard, and lead him into a maze of contradictions
+notwithstanding his shrewdness. O'Connell showed the utmost
+adroitness, and a thorough knowledge of the Irish peasant character,
+which is perhaps in no place so well acquired as in a provincial court.
+I cannot this moment recollect any single repartee which is worth
+repeating, but it was the manner, the brogue, the laughing eye, the
+general and humourous tone of the whole examination, and perhaps the
+very spectacle of O'Connell himself trying legally to entrap and upset
+the veracity of one of his own "fine peasantry," which gave that
+peculiar interest and pleasantry to the scene. Nothing could surpass the
+seeming enjoyment which the country people took in the examination; and
+as the Agitator would throw off now and again one of his broad flashes
+of humour in the "keen encounter of their wits," and the witness would
+fire back some jocular effort at equivocation, you'd hear buzzed around,
+'Bravo, Dan,' 'Dan's the boy,' or some such phrase of approbation, which
+it was out of the question to suppress. Blackburn,[22] then, I think, the
+Attorney-General, was on the bench, having taken the circuit for some
+judge who was unwell; and though a dark and stern man, he was compelled
+to give way to the general fit of pleasantry in which the whole court
+indulged."
+
+     [22] Afterwards Chief-Justice of the Queen's Bench, whence, in
+     1852, he was raised to the Chancellorship of Ireland, which he
+     retained during the nine months of the Derby Administration.
+
+O'Connell's business, on circuit as well as in the Dublin, was very
+great. On circuit, it was so overpowering that, except on very important
+cases, he could not read his briefs, when employed to defend prisoners.
+The attorney for the defence used to condense the leading facts, and set
+them down on a single sheet of foolscap; and O'Connell would peruse and
+master this abstract during the speech of the counsel for the
+prosecution, relying on his own skill in cross-examination of witnesses,
+and his own power with the jury. Like Belial, he "could make the worse
+appear the better reason," as many an acquitted culprit had cause to
+know and thank him for.
+
+Let me close this sketch with a glance of O'Connell, as I have often
+seen him, in an Irish Court of Law. _There_ he was to be met "in all his
+glory." As I write, the shadows of long years roll away, and every thing
+appears as vivid and life-like as it was at that time.
+
+To have seen O'Connell in the Law Courts of Dublin, was to have seen him
+not exactly as himself. Before the judges, and in the capital of the
+kingdom, a certain _etiquette_ is preserved, very decorous and proper,
+no doubt, but very chilling also. It is on circuit that you best can see
+the Irish bar, as they really are, and it is on circuit, also, that an
+observer may advantageously study the character of the Irish people.
+Leave the chilling atmosphere of the Four Courts, give the reins to
+imagination, and sit, with me, in the Crown Courts of Cork, as I have
+sat in bygone years. To give something like reality to my sketch, I
+shall write as if I still were in the year 1827, when O'Connell and the
+rest whom I have to name were alive and flourishing.
+
+What a difference between this court and that of a circuit court in
+England! Look around you:--there stands not a single female in the Irish
+court. To attend there, with the chance of having it ever hinted that
+delicacy requires their absence, would ill suit the modest precision of
+the fair dames of Ireland. Nor do I think that the course of justice
+suffers from the absence of the fair sex. What business have ladies in a
+court of justice? Do they want information as to the trials?--they can
+see them reported in "those best possible instructors," the newspapers.
+Do they want to see the manner in which justice is administered?--if
+they _will_ be so curious, and if that curiosity must be gratified, let
+them come once and no more. As it is, the English courts have female
+stagers, who attend day after day, and listen to arguments which they
+cannot comprehend. I suspect that their chief design is to show off;
+they come to see, but they also come "to be seen." The only preventive
+would be to enforce their attendance; when, if they be true women, the
+spirit of opposition will make them remain at home!
+
+Whatever be the cause, there is a non-attendance of females at the Irish
+courts of law. The galleries are filled with rough-coated and
+rough-faced folks; some, who have not visited the city since the last
+assizes--some, who have relatives to be tried--some, out on bail, and
+honourably come to take their own trial--all, even to the mere
+looker-on, deeply interested in the proceedings; for the Irish, from the
+highest to the lowest degree, are fond of the _forms_ of justice. Of the
+_reality_ they have hitherto got but little; but they like to see that
+little administered with the due formalities of the law.
+
+The judge enters the court, and takes his seat on the bench. You ask,
+with astonishment, "When will the barristers come?" Why, _there_, do you
+not see his lordship rise, and make an obeisance to the gentlemen who
+sit in the box above us? These are the barristers. You may seem as
+unbelieving as you choose, but such is the case. The fact is, and I
+should have mentioned it before, when Irish barristers go on the
+circuit[23] they do not burthen themselves with wigs or gowns--forensic
+paraphernalia, to which their legal brethren on the English side of the
+Channel attach such infinite importance, that you might fancy they
+thought all wit and wisdom[24] to be attached to _them_. You can scarcely
+imagine a more unformal or unceremonious court than that to which I have
+introduced you. The attorneys sit round the table, mingled with the
+"gentlemen of the press," the barristers are in the boxes immediately
+over the attornies, and the audience sit or stand where and how they
+can.
+
+     [23] I write of 1827. I know not what may be the practice now.
+
+     [24] "The wisdom's in the wig."--_Old Song._
+
+There is a pause--for a great murder trial is to come on--O'Connell has
+just been engaged for the defence--is occupied in the other court, and
+the judge must wait until he can make his appearance. During this pause
+you see a familiarity between the bench and the bar which seems strange
+to your English eyes. Yet, after all, what is it? Will the laws be a
+whit less honestly administered or advocated because the judge and one
+of the lawyers (Chief Baron O'Grady and Recorder Waggett) are laughing
+together? Depend on it, that, if the opportunity comes, the judge will
+fling out one of his bitter sarcasms against the barrister, and I know
+little of the barrister if he does not retort--if he can!
+
+A bustle in the court. Does O'Connell come? No; but a message from him,
+with the intimation that the trial may go on, and he will "drop in" in
+half an hour. The clerk of the peace reads the indictment--the murderer
+pleads "Not Guilty," stands in the dock with compressed lips, and
+bursting veins, and withering frown, and scowling eyes--a fit subject
+for the savage pencil of Spagnaletto.
+
+While the indictment is reading, a very dandified "middle-aged young
+gentleman," attired in a blue coat, with enormous brass buttons, a
+crimson silk neckcloth, and a most glaring pair of buckskins, jumps on
+the table, makes way across it with a "hop, step and jump," and locates
+himself in a box directly under the judge. You inquire, who is that
+neophyte?--the answer is, Carew Standish O'Grady, the registrar[25] of
+the circuit, barrister-at-law, and nephew to the judge. You turn up your
+eyes in wonder--the prothonotary of an English court would scarcely
+sport such a fox-hunter's garb.
+
+     [25] It may be noticed that, in New York, the Registrar is called
+     the _Register_--the name of the _book_ being applied to the man who
+     has the _office_ of keeping it.
+
+The trial commences. Serjeant Goold states the case--advantageously for
+the prisoner, for the learned Serjeant has so defective an utterance
+that he is scarcely audible even to the reporters below him. But his
+serjeantcy gives him that precedence at the bar, on account of which the
+chief conduct of Crown prosecutions devolves to him. Meanwhile the Chief
+Baron turns to the High Sheriff, and cracks jokes; his hopeful nephew,
+less ambitious, produces a bag and some salt, and merely--cracks nuts.
+
+The opening is over--the chief witness (probably an approver or King's
+evidence) is brought on the table--he is sworn, and attempts to baffle
+justice by kissing his thumb instead of the book. There is a dead
+silence in the court; for it is felt that the moment is awful with the
+fate of a fellow-creature.
+
+He has just been successful _for_ an Orangeman _against_ a
+Catholic; but what does that matter? The people do justice to his merit;
+so _he_ succeeds, what care they against whom?
+
+Another pause--a buzz in the court--"quite a sensation," as a dandy
+might exquisitely exclaim--the prisoner's eyes brightens up with the
+gleam of hope--he sees O'Connell, at last, seated among the barristers.
+What! is that O'Connell? that stalwart, smiling, honest-looking man? The
+same. Never did a public man assume less pretension to personal
+appearance. Yet, if you look closely, you may observe that he does
+anything but neglect the graces. His clothes are remarkably well made,
+the tie of his cravat is elaborate, his handsome eye-glass is so
+disposed that it can be seen as well as used, and his "Brutus" (for
+'twould be heinous to utter the word "wig") gives an air of juvenility
+which his hilarious manners fully confirm.
+
+Until this moment of his entering the court, he knows nothing of the
+case--he has not yet received a brief. Mr. Daltera (you will remember
+that the scene is in Cork--the time 1827), the lame attorney, hands him
+a bulky brief, (which he puts, unread, into the bag,) and an abstract of
+the case, written on one sheet of paper. His blue eyes calmly glance
+over this case--he takes in, at that glance, all its bearings, and he
+quietly listens to the evidence of the accomplice. The
+cross-examination commences. Every eye is watchful--every ear on the
+_qui vive_--every man in court stretches forward to see the battle
+between "the Counsellor" and "the witness." You may see the prisoner
+with an eager glance of expectation--the witness with an evident sense
+of the coming crisis. The battle commences with anything but
+seriousness; O'Connell surprises the witness by his good humour, and
+instantly sets him at ease. He coaxes out of him a full confession of
+his own unworthiness,--he tempts him, by a series of facetious
+questions, into an admission of his "whole course of life,"--in a word,
+he draws from his lips an autobiography, in which the direst crimes are
+mingled with an occasional relief of feeling or of fun. The witness
+seems to exult in the "bad eminence" on which his admissions exalt him.
+He joins in the laugh at the quaintness of his language,--he scarcely
+shrinks from the universal shudders at the enormity of his crimes. By
+degrees he is led to the subject of the evidence he has just given, as
+an accomplice,--the coil is wound round him imperceptibly; fact after
+fact is weakened, until, finally, such doubt is thrown upon _all_ that
+he has said,--from the evident exaggeration of _part_,--that a less
+ingenious advocate than O'Connell might rescue the prisoner from
+conviction on _such_ evidence. The main witness having "broken down,"
+(as much from the natural doubt and disgust excited in the minds of an
+Irish jury, by the circumstance of a _particeps criminis_ being evidence
+against one who may have been more sinned against than sinning,--who may
+have been seduced into the paths of error by the very man who now bears
+testimony against him,) the result of the trial is not very difficult to
+be foreseen. If there is any doubt, the matter is soon made clear by a
+few _alibi_ witnesses--practiced rogues with the most innocent aspects,
+who swear anything or everything to "get a friend out of trouble." The
+chances are ten to one that O'Connell brings off the prisoner. If he is
+not acquitted, he may, at least, be only found guilty on the minor plea
+of "manslaughter."
+
+But the chances are that he will be acquitted, for few juries ever
+resisted the influence of O'Connell's persuasive eloquence.
+
+Such is the scene exhibited by one glance backward:--such,
+five-and-twenty years ago, was constantly occurring in the Irish courts
+of law when O'Connell practiced at the bar.
+
+Even at the risk of being accounted tedious, I cannot conclude this
+sketch without mentioning another anecdote, which, even better than a
+lengthened disquisition, may show that I do not overrate the
+extraordinary ingenuity and quickness for which I give O'Connell such
+ample credit. One of the most remarkable personages in Cork, for a
+series of years, was a sharp-witted little fellow named John Boyle,[26]
+who published a periodical called _The Freeholder_. As Boyle did not see
+that any peculiar dignity hedged the corrupt Corporation of Cork, his
+_Freeholder_ was remarkable for severe and satirical remarks upon its
+members, collectively and personally. Owing to the very great
+precautions as to the mode of publication, it was next to impossible for
+the Corporation to proceed against him for libel;--if they could have
+done so, his punishment was certain, for in those days there were none
+but "Corporation juries," and the fact that Boyle was hostile to the
+municipal _clique_, was quite enough for these worthy administrators of
+justice. It happened, on the occasion of a crowded benefit at the
+theatre, that Boyle and one of the Sheriffs were coming out of the pit
+at the same moment. A sudden crush drove the scribe against the Sheriff,
+and the concussion was so great that the latter had two of his ribs
+broken. There could be no doubt that the whole was accidental; but it
+was too lucky not to be taken advantage of. Mr. Boyle was prosecuted for
+assault. O'Connell was retained for the defence. The trial came on
+before a Corporation jury. The evidence was extremely slight; but it was
+an understood thing that on _any_ evidence, or _no_ evidence, the jury
+would convict Boyle. Mr. O'Connell (who was personally inimical to the
+Corporation) scarcely cross-examined a witness and called none in
+defence.
+
+     [26] Boyle died at Limerick, in 1833, of cholera.
+
+He proceeded to reply. After some hyperbolical compliments on the
+"well-known impartiality, independence, and justice of a Cork jury," he
+proceeded to address them thus:--"I had no notion that the case is what
+it is; therefore I call no witnesses. As I have received a brief, and
+its accompaniment--a fee--I must address you. I am not in the vein for
+making a speech, so, gentlemen, I shall tell you a story. Some years ago
+I went, specially, to Clonmel assizes, and accidentally witnessed a
+trial which I never shall forget. A wretched man, a native of the county
+of Tipperary, was charged with the murder of his neighbour. It seemed
+that an ancient feud existed between them. They had met at a fair and
+exchanged blows: again, that evening, they met at a low pot-house, and
+the bodily interference of friends alone prevented a fight between them.
+The prisoner was heard to vow vengeance against his rival. The wretched
+victim left the house, followed soon after by the prisoner, and was
+found next day on the roadside--murdered, and his face so barbarously
+beaten in by a stone, that he could only be identified by his dress. The
+facts were strong against the prisoner--in fact it was the strongest
+case of circumstantial evidence I ever met with. As a matter of
+form--for of his guilt there could be no doubt--the prisoner was called
+on for his defence. He called, to the surprise of every one,--_the
+murdered man_. And the murdered man came forward. It seemed that
+another man had been murdered,--that the identification by dress was
+vague, for all the peasantry of Tipperary wear the same description of
+clothes,--that the presumed victim had got a hint that he would be
+arrested under the Whiteboy Act,--had fled,--and only returned, with a
+noble and Irish feeling of justice, when he found that his ancient foe
+was in jeopardy on his account. The case was clear: the prisoner was
+innocent. The judge told the jury that it was unnecessary to charge
+them. But they requested permission to retire. They returned in about
+two hours, when the foreman, with a long face, handed in the verdict
+'Guilty.' Every one was astonished. 'Good God!' said the judge, 'of what
+is he guilty? Not of murder, surely?'--'No, my lord,' said the foreman;
+'but, _if he did not murder that man, sure he stole my gray mare three
+years ago_!'"[27]
+
+     [27] Mr. Love has "conveyed" this incident into his romance of
+     "Rory O'More."
+
+The Cork jurors laughed heartily at this anecdote, but, ere their mirth
+had time to cool, O'Connell continued, with marked emphasis, "So,
+gentlemen of the jury, _though Mr. Boyle did not wilfully assault the
+Sheriff, he has libelled the Corporation,--find him guilty, by all
+means_!" The application was so severe, that the jury, shamed into
+justice, instantly acquitted Mr. Boyle.
+
+It is time to hurry this sketch to a conclusion.
+
+Some words about the man. In person, Mr. O'Connell was well made,
+muscular, and tall. He looked the man to be the leader of a people. He
+was fond of field sports, and while at Derrynane Abbey, for four months
+in the year, lived like a country gentleman, surrounded by his numerous
+relatives, and exercising the wonted hospitality of Ireland. His
+features were strongly marked--the mouth being much more expressive than
+the eyes. His voice was deep, sonorous, and somewhat touched with the
+true Kerry _patois_.
+
+He was seen to much advantage in the bosom of his family, to whom he was
+greatly attached, a feeling which was reciprocated with veneration as
+well as love. His conversation was delightful, embracing a vast range of
+subjects. He was a great reader--and, even in the most busy and exciting
+periods of his political life, found (or made) time to peruse the
+periodicals and novels of the day.
+
+He was well acquainted with modern poetry, and was fond of repeating
+long passages from Byron, Moore, Scott, Crabbe, Tennyson, and others. He
+was a good classical scholar, though I have heard him say that he
+doubted whether, after the age of twenty-one, he had ever opened a Latin
+or Greek book from choice. French he spoke and wrote extremely well.
+Many of his classical hits, in Court, were good--but few are remembered.
+I shall give one as a sample. In a political trial he charged Saurin,
+the Attorney-General, with some official unfairness, and Burke, his
+colleague, chivalrously assumed the responsibility. "If there is blame
+in it," said Burke, "I alone must bear it.
+
+    'Me, me, adsum qui feci, in me convertite ferrum.'"
+
+"Finish the sentence, Mr. Solicitor," said O'Connell; "add
+
+    'Mea _fraus_ omnis.'"
+
+When at home, he lived in the good old Irish style. He kept a
+well-spread table, and was idolized by the peasantry. His residence,
+Derrynane Abbey, is built on a bold situation, next the Atlantic, and
+commands a view of the Skelligs. The "Abbey," as it is called, is a
+comparatively modern edifice, which has received various additions from
+successive residents. It is irregularly built; so much so, indeed, as to
+be any thing but a model of architecture. It is convenient, and, in the
+wilds of Kerry, that should suffice; for who expects a Grecian dome in
+such a place? The real Derrynane Abbey (or rather its ruins) stands on a
+little island in the Atlantic.
+
+There is little statute-law about Derrynane, and nearly all the disputes
+in the neighbourhood were allowed to rest until O'Connell could decide
+on them. He used to sit, like a patriarch, upon a huge rock, in view and
+hearing of the tumultuous throbbing of the Atlantic, and there give
+judgment, against which no one presumed to appeal. Already that rugged
+seat is called "O'Connell's Chair."
+
+On the 15th day of May, 1847, having nearly completed his seventy-second
+year, Daniel O'Connell departed this life. He had quitted the land of
+his birth to seek for renewal of health beneath more clement skies,--so,
+before him, had Sir Walter Scott. But the great novelist was happier
+than the illustrious orator; and died, at least, in his own country, and
+in his own house. From the first, it seems that O'Connell entertained no
+hope of completing his pilgrimage. He feared, and I think he felt, that
+he was not destined to reach Rome, the Eternal City.
+
+The account of his last days, as given, at the time, by _Galignani's
+Messenger_ (the English journal published in Paris), is full of deep
+interest. It is from the pen of Dr. Duff, the English physician who
+attended him at Genoa. This gentleman first saw him on the 10th
+May--just five days before he died. On the first visit, he found that
+the patient had chronic bronchitis, of some years' standing. The next
+day it was found that congestion of the brain had commenced. On the
+12th, the illness increased; for the patient, like Byron, had almost an
+insuperable objection to take medicine. Then, for the first time, the
+mind began to waver. On the 13th he became worse, slept heavily during
+the night, breathed with difficulty, fancied himself among his friends
+in London, and spoke as if among them. On the 14th the words fell,
+half-formed, from his lips. Thus he lingered until the next night,
+unable to move or speak, but conscious of the presence of those around
+him. At half-past nine on that night he died. Had he taken nourishment
+and medicine, he might have lived a few days longer. But not all of him
+is dead--his memory remains, and will long be kept green in the hearts
+of his countrymen.
+
+Had O'Connell lived until the 6th of August, he would have completed his
+seventy-second year. He enjoyed excellent health through the greater
+part of his life, and had every chance of living to extended old age.
+His family are proverbially long-lived; his uncle Maurice, from whom he
+inherited Derrynane Abbey, was 97 when he died; and O'Connell repeatedly
+said that he intended to live quite as long, _if he could_, nor was it
+unlikely that he also might approach the patriarchal age of one hundred
+years.
+
+His last words to his physician conveyed a request that, as he was sure
+he would present the appearance of death before he actually breathed his
+last, they would not suffer the grave to be closed too promptly over his
+remains. His strong hope was to die in Rome, his last moments soothed
+and sanctified by the blessing of Pope Pius IX. He repeatedly expressed
+a desire that his heart should rest (as it does) in one of the Churches
+of the Eternal City. This wish was suggested, it has been said, by the
+recollection that Robert Bruce had desired his heart to be conveyed to
+the Holy Land and deposited in the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. He died
+without pain, gently as an infant sinks into repose, calmed by the
+consolations of religion; and, it seemed to his attendants, not only
+content to quit mortality, but even anxious to be released. His body was
+embalmed, and is deposited in the Cemetery of Glasnevin near Dublin.
+
+As to the ability, the mental resources, the vast power of O'Connell,
+there can be no dispute. Unquestionably he was the greatest Irishman of
+his time. In estimating the conduct and character of public men, two
+things, it appears to me, should be considered: the value of their
+labours and their motive. O'Connell, on starting into life, found that
+his religion debarred him from many privileges and advantages enjoyed by
+persons of another creed, and he applied himself, earnestly, to remove
+these disabilities. He succeeded, and in the long and persevering
+struggle which he headed, acquired vast influence, and a popularity
+which helped, with the aid of his own legal knowledge and skill, to
+place him in the foremost rank of his profession. At the age of
+fifty-four--in spite of the saying that an oak of the forest rarely
+bears transplanting--he entered the British Parliament, where he soon
+took a prominent position. Thenceforth his constant aim was to coax or
+frighten the Government into the concessions which were included in the
+demand for "Justice for Ireland." The threat of Repeal was used for
+this purpose.
+
+The question whether he really desired to carry Repeal is difficult to
+be answered. That Ireland should have laws made for herself, by her own
+legislature, may or may not have been a desire with O'Connell. But that,
+when agitating for the Repeal of the parchment union between Ireland and
+Great Britain, he had the remotest intention or wish to effect the
+_separation_ of the two countries, no thoughtful observer can imagine.
+Separation, in O'Connell's eyes, meant a Republic, and O'Connell was
+essentially a Monarchist. He had an antipathy, also, to the exercise of
+physical force to procure the restitution of a people's rights. In all
+probability, had he lived during the struggle of the American colonies,
+O'Connell would have sided with those who condemned the Americans as
+"rebels to their King." Truth to say, he was rather an ultra-loyalist.
+This appeared, in 1821, when, kneeling on the shore, at Dunleary, he
+presented a crown of laurel to George IV.,--in 1832, when he glorified
+William IV. as the "patriot King"--in 1837, when he appealed (at the
+elections) in favor of Victoria as "a Virgin-Queen," forgetful that this
+distinctive epithet, belonging to all unmarried girls of eighteen, would
+be forfeited, of course, _when she became a wife_!
+
+It may be conceded, however, that though O'Connell would have shrunk
+from seeing Ireland actually separated from England, he was sincere in
+his exertions to obtain Emancipation, and, subsequently, to wrest other
+rights and privileges from successive administrations. "Ireland for the
+Irish" was his favourite cry; but it meant little when uttered by a man
+who feverishly feared all _real_ agitation, tending to assert and secure
+the actual independence of the country. With him, "Repeal," if it meant
+anything, meant continuance under the rule of the British Sovereign.
+"Repeal" was a capital party cry, but he dreaded it when it was taken up
+by men not less patriotic, though a little less "loyal" than himself,
+who thought that boldness, courage, union, and talent could raise
+Ireland from a provincial obscurity into a national independence.
+
+Great good was undoubtedly performed by O'Connell. His course was often
+eccentric, capricious, inexplicable. His abilities were great. He made
+much of opportunities. He wielded all but sovereign power over his
+countrymen for years. He naturally became impatient of contradiction,
+and very impracticable. But, with all his faults, O'Connell was
+essentially a great man.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+NEW, POPULAR, AND STANDARD WORKS,
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+
+J. S. REDFIELD,
+
+110 AND 112 NASSAU STREET, NEW-YORK.
+
+
+POETRY.
+
+THE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE--reprinted from the newly-discovered copy of
+the folio of 1632, in the possession of J. Payne Collier, 1 vol.
+imperial 8vo, cloth, $4 00
+
+THE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE. Same as the above, 8 vols. 16mo, cloth, 6 00
+
+NOTES AND EMENDATIONS to the text of Shakespeare's Plays, from the Early
+Manuscript Corrections in a copy of the Folio of 1632, in the possession
+of John Payne Collier, Esq., F.S.A. 1 vol. 12mo, new edition, 1 50
+
+THE POETICAL WORKS OF FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. Only complete edition, 1 vol.
+12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+SIMMS' POEMS. Poems--Descriptive, Dramatic, Legendary, and
+Contemplative. By William Gilmore Simms. With a Portrait on steel. 2
+vols. 12mo, cloth, 2 50
+
+THE POETICAL WORKS OF W. H. C. HOSMER. Now first collected. With a
+Portrait on steel. 2 vols. 12mo, 2 00
+
+POETICAL WORKS OF WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, second
+edition, enlarged, 1 00
+
+THE LAYS OF THE SCOTTISH CAVALIERS. By William E. Aytoun, Editor of
+Blackwood's Magazine, etc., 1 vol. 12mo, 1 00
+
+FIRMILIAN, THE STUDENT OF BADAJOZ; A "Spasmodic" Tragedy. By T. Percy
+Jones, (Professor Aytoun.) 12mo, cloth, 0 50
+
+THE BOOK OF BALLADS. Edited by Bon Gaultier. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 0 75
+
+LYRA, AND OTHER POEMS. By Alice Carey. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 0 75
+
+
+HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, &c.
+
+ANCIENT EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAOHS. By John Kenrick, M.A. 2 vols. 12mo,
+plates, second edition, 2 50
+
+HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. By Joseph François Michaud. Translated by W.
+Robson. 3 vols. 12mo, maps, 3 75
+
+THE HISTORY OF THE WAR IN THE PENINSULA. By W. F. P. Napier. 8vo, cloth,
+eighth edition, 2 50
+
+HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. FRENCH DOMINATION. By Charles Gayarré, Esq. 2
+vols. 8vo, cloth, 3 50
+
+HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. SPANISH DOMINATION. By Charles Gayarré, Esq. 1
+vol. 8vo, cloth, 2 50
+
+LAS CASAS' NAPOLEON. Memoirs of the Life, Exile, and Conversations of
+the Emperor Napoleon. By the Count Las Casas. With Portraits on steel,
+woodcuts, etc. 4 vols. 12mo, cloth, 5 00
+
+NAPOLEON IN EXILE; or, A VOICE FROM ST. HELENA. By Barry E. O'Meara, his
+late Surgeon. 2 vols. 12mo, cloth, second edition, 2 00
+
+JOMINI'S WATERLOO. The Political and Military History of the Campaign of
+Waterloo. From the French of General Baron Jomini. By Lieut. Benet,
+U.S.A Map. 12mo, cloth, 0 75
+
+THE RUSSO-TURKISH CAMPAIGNS OF 1828 AND 1829: with a View of the present
+State of Affairs in the East. By Col. Chesney, R.A., D.C.L. 12mo, cloth,
+maps, 1 00
+
+DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. By John Gilmary
+Shea. With a fac-simile of the newly-discovered Map of Marquette. 1 vol.
+8vo, cloth, antique second edition, 2 00
+
+REGAL ROME; an Introduction to Roman History. By Francis W. Newman. 1
+vol. 12mo, cloth, $0 68
+
+MEN OF THE TIME: or, Sketches of Living Notables. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 1
+50
+
+YOU HAVE HEARD OF THEM; being Sketches of Distinguished Artists,
+Composers, Actors, Singers, &c. By Q. With Portraits on steel of Horace
+Vernet and Julia Grisi. 12mo, cloth, 1 08
+
+LADIES OF THE COVENANT. Memoirs of distinguished Scottish Females,
+embracing the period of the Covenant and Persecution. By Rev. James
+Anderson. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, second edition, 1 25
+
+MEMOIRS OF A DISTINGUISHED FINANCIER.--VINCENT NOLTE'S FIFTY YEARS IN
+BOTH HEMISPHERES; or, Reminiscences of a Merchant's Life. 1 vol. 12mo,
+cloth, 1 25
+
+MEN AND WOMEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. By Arsène Houssaye. 2 vols.
+12mo, on extra superfine paper, 450 pages each, cloth, second edition, 2
+50
+
+PHILOSOPHERS AND ACTRESSES. By Arsène Houssaye, author of "Men and Women
+of the Eighteenth Century." 2 vols. 12mo, cloth, second edition, 2 50
+
+SKETCHES OF THE IRISH BAR. By the Right Hon. Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P.
+With a Memoir and Notes by Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie. 2 vols. 12mo,
+cloth, portrait and autograph letter, 2 00
+
+BARRINGTON'S SKETCHES. Personal Sketches and Memoirs of his own Time. By
+Sir Jonah Barrington. With Illustrations by Darley, 1 25
+
+MOORE'S LIFE OF SHERIDAN. Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Richard
+Brinsley Sheridan. By Thomas Moore. 2 vols. 12mo, cloth, 2 00
+
+LORENZO BENONI; or, Passages in the Life of an Italian. Edited by a
+Friend. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+THE WORKING-MAN'S WAY IN THE WORLD; being the Autobiography of a
+Journeyman Printer, 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+CLASSIC AND HISTORIC PORTRAITS. By James Bruce. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+NARRATIVES OF SORCERY AND MAGIC. From the most authentic sources. By
+Thomas Wright, M.A., F.S.A., &c. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+ART AND INDUSTRY, as represented in the Exhibition at the Crystal
+Palace, New-York, 1853-54. Revised and edited by Horace Greeley. 12mo,
+paper covers, 50 cents; cloth, fine paper, 1 00
+
+MINNESOTA AND ITS RESOURCES. By J. Wesley Bond. With a new Map of the
+Territory, a View of St. Paul's, and one of the Falls of St. Anthony. 1
+vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+THE GRAFTED BUD; a Memoir of Angelica Irene Hawes. By Mrs. A. H. Hawes.
+1 vol. 16mo, cloth, portrait, 0 38
+
+
+VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
+
+A TENNESSEAN ABROAD; or, Letters from Europe, Africa, and Asia. By
+Randal W. MacGavock. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+THE RUSSIAN SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA. By Laurence Oliphant. Fourth
+edition, 12mo, cloth, 0 75
+
+A YEAR WITH THE TURKS; or, Sketches of Travel in the European and
+Asiatic Dominions of the Sultan. By Warington W. Smyth. With a colored
+Ethnological Map of the Turkish Empire. Third edition, 12mo, cloth, 0 75
+
+NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF AMERICA, in the years
+1811, '12, '13 and '14; or the First Settlement on the Pacific. By
+Gabriel Franchère. Translated and edited by J. V. Huntington. 12mo,
+cloth, plates, 1 00
+
+A MONTH IN ENGLAND. By Henry T. Tuckerman. Second edition, 12mo, cloth,
+0 75
+
+LIFE IN THE MISSION, THE CAMP, AND THE ZENANA; or, Six Years in India.
+By Mrs. Colin Mackenzie. 2 vols. 12mo, cloth, 2 00
+
+WHITE, RED AND BLACK; Sketches of American Society during the Visit of
+their Guests. By Francis and Theresa Pulszky. 2 vols. 12mo, cloth, 2 00
+
+THE BLACKWATER CHRONICLE; a Narrative of an Expedition into the Land of
+Canaan, in Randolph County, Virginia. By "The Clerke of Oxenforde." With
+numerous Illustrations by Strother. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+
+=BELLES-LETTRES.=
+
+CHRISTOPHER NORTH'S GREAT WORK. THE NOCTES AMBROSIANÆ. By Professor
+Wilson, J. G. Lockhart, James Hogg, and Dr. Maginn. Edited, with Memoirs
+and Notes, by Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie. In 5 vols. $5 00
+
+THE WORKS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE. 3 vols. 12mo, cloth, portrait on steel, 3
+50
+
+=Simms' Revolutionary Tales.= _Uniform Series, with Illustrations by
+Darley._
+
+THE PARTISAN; a Romance of the Revolution. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+MELLICHAMPE; a Legend of the Santee. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+KATHARINE WALTON or, The Rebel of Dorchester. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+THE SCOUT; or, The Black Riders of the Congaree. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+WOODCRAFT; or, the Hawks about the Dovecote. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+THE YEMASSEE; a Romance of South Carolina. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+=Simms' New Work.=
+
+SOUTHWARD HO! A Spell of Sunshine. By William Gilmore Simms. 1 vol.
+12mo, 1 25
+
+(=Dr. R. Montgomery Bird.=)
+
+CALAVAR; the Knight of the Conquest. By the late Robert Montgomery Bird.
+12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+NICK OF THE WOODS; or, The Jibbenainosay: a Tale of Kentucky. By Robert
+M. Bird, M.D. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+(=William Henry Herbert.=)
+
+THE CAVALIERS OF ENGLAND; or, The Times of the Revolutions of 1642 and
+1688. By Henry W. Herbert. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, second edition, 1 25
+
+THE KNIGHTS OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND FRANCE. By Henry W. Herbert. 1
+vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+THE CHEVALIERS OF FRANCE; from the Crusaders to the Mareschals of Louis
+XIV. By H. W. Herbert, author of the "Cavaliers of England," &c., &c. 1
+vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+MARMADUKE WYVIL; an Historical Romance of 1651. By H. W. Herbert. New
+and Revised Edition. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+(=J. V. Huntington.=)
+
+THE FOREST. By J. V. Huntington, author of "Lady Alice," "Alban," &c. 1
+vol. 12mo, second edition, 1 25
+
+ALBAN. By J. V. Huntington, author of "Lady Alice," "The Forest," &c. A
+new and completely altered edition. 2 vols. 12mo, cloth, 2 00
+
+=Lee's Tales of Labor.=
+
+THE MASTER BUILDER; or, Life at a Trade. By Day Kellogg Lee, author of
+"Summerfield; or, Life on a Farm." 12mo, cloth, second edition, 1 00
+
+MERRIMACK; or, Life at the Loom. By Day Kellogg Lee, author of "The
+Master Builder; or, Life at a Trade," &c. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+SUMMERFIELD; or, Life on a Farm. By Day Kellogg Lee. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+(=Alice Carey.=)
+
+CLOVERNOOK; or, Recollections of our Home in the West. By Alice Carey. 1
+vol. 12mo, cloth, seventh edition, 1 00
+
+CLOVERNOOK, SECOND SERIES; or, Recollections of our Neighborhood in the
+West. By Alice Carey, author of "Hagar," &c., &c. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+HAGAR; a Story of To-day. By Alice Carey, author of "Clovernook,"
+"Lyra," &c. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, second edition, 1 00
+
+(=Caroline Chesebro'.=)
+
+DREAM-LAND BY DAYLIGHT; a Panorama of Romance. By Caroline Chesebro'.
+12mo, second edition, 1 25
+
+ISA; a Pilgrimage. By Caroline Chesebro', author of "Dream-Land by
+Daylight," &c., &c. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, second edition, 1 00
+
+THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT; a Theme for the Time. By Caroline Chesebro'. 1
+vol. 12mo, cloth, second edition, 1 00
+
+THE YOUTH OF JEFFERSON; a Chronicle of College Scrapes at Williamsburg,
+Virginia, A.D. 1764. 12mo, cloth, second edition, $0 75
+
+WESTERN CHARACTERS; being Types of Border Life in the Western States. By
+J. L. McConnell. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+BASY WARREN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Sketches for Home Circles. By
+William T. Coggeshall. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+A STRAY YANKEE IN TEXAS. By Philip Paxton. With Illustrations by Darley.
+1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+VASCONSELOS; a Romance of the New World. By Frank Cooper. 12mo, cloth, 1
+25
+
+TALES AND TRADITIONS OF HUNGARY. By Theresa Pulszky. With a portrait of
+the Author. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 25
+
+CAP-SHEAF; a Fresh Bundle. By Louis Myrtle. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+THE LION'S SKIN AND LOVER HUNT. By Charles de Bernard. 1 vol. 12mo, 1 00
+
+CHANTICLEER; a Thanksgiving Story of the Peabody Family. By Cornelius
+Mathews 0 75
+
+THE PRETTY PLATE; a Christmas Juvenile. By John Vincent, Esq. With
+Illustrations by Darley. 1 vol. 18mo, cloth gilt, 0 50
+
+
+=MISCELLANEOUS.=
+
+THE WORKS OF THE HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, with a Memoir, Portrait, and
+other engravings on steel.
+
+  3 vols. 8 vo, cloth, per volume,              2 50
+  Do.        do.          do. half calf,        3 75
+  Do.        do.          do. full calf, extra, 4 50
+
+MACAULAY'S SPEECHES. 2 vols. 12mo, cloth, second edition, 2 00
+
+MEAGHER'S speeches. Speeches on the Legislative Independence of Ireland,
+with Introductory Notes. By Thomas Francis Meagher. 12mo, portrait, 1 00
+
+THE SUPPRESSED LETTERS OF THOMAS MOORE. Edited, with an Introductory
+Letter, by T. Crofton Croker, F.S.A.; four engravings on steel. 12mo,
+cloth, 1 50
+
+EPISODES OF INSECT LIFE. By Acheta Domestica. Three series: Insects of
+Spring, Summer, and Autumn. 3 vols. 8vo, cloth gilt, beautifully
+illustrated. Each, 2 00
+
+The same Work, in sets of Three Volumes, _exquisitely colored after
+Nature_. Extra gilt, gilt edges, 12 00
+
+OUTLINES OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOGNOMY; or, Resemblances between Men and
+Animals. By J. W. Redfield, M.D. With 330 Illustrations. 8vo, 2 00
+
+(=R. C. Trench, B. D.=)
+
+SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By Richard Chenevix Trench, B.D. 12mo,
+cloth, 0 75
+
+ON THE STUDY OF WORDS. By Richard Chenevix Trench, B.D. 1 vol. 12mo,
+cloth, fifth edition. From the second London edition, 0 75
+
+ON THE LESSONS IN PROVERBS. By Richard Chenevix Trench, B.D., author of
+"The Study of Words." 12mo, cloth, 0 50
+
+CHARACTERS IN THE GOSPELS; illustrating Phases of Character at the
+Present Day. By Rev. E. H. Chapin. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 0 50
+
+THE CATACOMBS OF ROME, as Illustrating the Church of the First Three
+Centuries. By the Right Rev. William Ingraham Kip, D.D., Missionary
+Bishop of California. With over 100 Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, 0 75
+
+THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. By Frederick Denison Maurice. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+THE DIVINE CHARACTER VINDICATED; being a Review of Dr. Beecher's
+"Conflict of Ages." By Rev. Moses Ballou. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+THE NIGHT SIDE OF NATURE; or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers. By Catharine
+Crowe. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+BRONCHITIS AND KINDRED DISEASES, in language adapted to the common
+reader. By W. W. Hall, M.D. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, 1 00
+
+GRISCOM ON VENTILATION. The Uses and Abuses of Air. 12mo, cloth, third
+edition, 0 75
+
+CHAPMAN'S AMERICAN DRAWING-BOOK. Three Parts published. Each 0 50
+
+CHAPMAN'S DRAWING COPY-BOOKS. Per dozen 1 50
+
+
+=THE NOCTES AMBROSIANÆ;=
+
+WITH PORTRAITS OF WILSON, LOCKHART, MAGINN, HOGG, AND FAC-SIMILES.
+
+EDITED, WITH MEMOIRS, NOTES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS,
+BY DR. SHELTON MACKENZIE,
+EDITOR OF SHEIL'S "SKETCHES OF THE IRISH BAR."
+
+5 _Vols._, 12_mo._, _cloth_. _Price_ $5.00.
+
+The Noctes were commenced in 1822, and closed in 1835. Even in England,
+the lapse of years has obscured many circumstances which were well known
+thirty years ago.
+
+DR. SHELTON MACKENZIE, already favorably known as editor of Sheil's
+"Sketches of the Irish Bar," has undertaken the editorship of THE NOCTES
+AMBROSIANÆ, for which a familiar acquaintance, during the last
+twenty-five years, with the persons, events, and places therein noticed
+may be assumed to qualify him. He has been on terms of intimacy with
+most of the eminent political and literary characters treated of in the
+"NOCTES," and his annotation of the text will include personal
+recollections of them.
+
+Besides this, Dr. Mackenzie has written for this edition a "History of
+the Rise and Progress of Blackwood's Magazine," with original memoirs of
+the principal accredited authors of the "NOCTES," viz:--Professor
+Wilson, The Ettrick Shepherd, J. G. Lockhart, and Dr. Maginn.
+
+He will also give the celebrated "Chaldee Manuscript," published in
+1817, instantly suppressed, and so scarce that the only copy which the
+editor has ever seen is that from which he makes the present reprint.
+There will also be given the three articles, entitled "CHRISTOPHER IN
+THE TENT," (in August and September, 1819), never before printed, in any
+shape, in this country. The interlocutors in "THE TENT," include the
+greater number of those afterwards introduced in the "NOCTES."
+
+The "Metricum Symphosium Ambrosianum,"--an addendum to No. III. of "THE
+NOCTES," (and which notices every living author of note, in the year
+1822), will be incorporated in this edition. This has never before been
+reprinted here.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_Nearly Ready, in Two Volumes._
+
+THE ODOHERTY PAPERS,
+FORMING THE FIRST PORTION OF THE MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS OF THE LATE
+DR. MAGINN.
+WITH AN ORIGINAL MEMOIR AND COPIOUS NOTES, BY
+DR. SHELTON MACKENZIE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+For more than a quarter of a century, the most remarkable magazine
+writer of his time, was the late William Maginn, LL.D., well-known as
+the Sir Morgan Odoherty of _Blackwood's Magazine_, and as the principal
+contributor, for many years, to _Fraser's_ and other periodicals. The
+combined learning, wit, eloquence, eccentricity, and humor of Maginn,
+had obtained for him, long before his death, (in 1843), the title of THE
+MODERN RABELAIS. His magazine articles possess extraordinary merit. He
+had the art of putting a vast quantity of animal spirits upon paper, but
+his graver articles--which contain sound and serious principles of
+criticism--are earnest and well-reasoned.
+
+The collection now in hand will contain his Facetiæ (in a variety of
+languages), Translations, Travesties, and Original Poetry, also his
+prose Tales, which are eminently beautiful, the best of his critical
+articles, (including his celebrated Shakspeare Papers), and his Homeric
+Ballads. The periodicals in which he wrote have been ransacked, from
+"Blackwood" to "Punch," and the result will be a series of great
+interest.
+
+DR. SHELTON MACKENZIE, who has undertaken the editorship of these
+writings of his distinguished countryman, will spare neither labor nor
+attention in the work. The first volume will contain an original Memoir
+of Dr. Maginn, written by Dr Mackenzie and a characteristic Portrait,
+with fac-simile.
+
+
+_Published by_ J. S. REDFIELD,
+
+110 & 112 _Nassau-street, New York_
+
+
+
+
+_PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION._
+
+THE CONCLUDING VOLUMES OF
+
+DR. MAGINN'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS,
+
+CONTAINING
+
+THE SHAKSPERE PAPERS--HOMERIC BALLADS--FRASERIAN PAPERS, ETC.
+
+ANNOTATED BY
+
+DR. SHELTON MACKENZIE
+
+EDITOR OF "SHEIL'S SKETCHES OF THE IRISH BAR"--"THE NOCTES AMBROSIANÆ,"
+ETC.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_Nearly ready, in Two Volumes_,
+
+THE LIFE
+
+OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE
+
+JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN,
+
+MASTER OF THE ROLLS, IRELAND,
+
+BY HIS SON.
+
+Edited, with Notes, Illustrations, &c.
+
+BY SHELTON MACKENZIE, D.C.L.
+
+The Life of Curran is identified with the latest years of Ireland's
+nationality. He was known, tried, and trusted as a true Patriot. During
+the Reign of Terror, in 1798, got up by the Government of that day in
+order to betray the Irish Parliament into a parchment Union with Great
+Britain--sinking the country from a Kingdom to a Province--Curran
+manifested an independence and fearlessness, as advocate for the
+accused, during the State Trials, which endeared him to the people from
+whose ranks he sprung. To use the words of Thomas Davis (who resembled
+him in many things) he was "a companion unrivalled in sympathy and wit;
+an orator, whose thoughts went forth like ministers of nature, with
+robes of light and swords in their hands; a patriot, who battled best
+when the flag was trampled down; and a genuine earnest man, breathing of
+his climate, his country, and his time."
+
+He was the centre of the flashing wits, the renowned orators, the
+brilliant advocates, and the true patriots of Ireland's last days of
+independence. The Biography by his Son, rich as it is in personal
+details, is capable of great improvement by the addition of numerous
+facts, anecdotes, and traits of character, relating to Curran and his
+contemporaries, which have transpired since its publication in 1819. Dr.
+Shelton Mackenzie, who has long been preparing for this task, undertakes
+to enrich the present edition by collecting and introducing these
+desirable illustrations. The work, thus completed, will in truth be a
+record not only of Curran and his eminent associates, but of the
+stirring and troublous times in which they lived. It will thus combine
+Biography and History, with Anecdote, unusually copious and "racy of the
+soil."
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+ Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained
+ except in obvious cases of typographical error:
+
+     "...making a cave look as insignificant as a
+      rabbit-(burrrow -->) burrow."
+
+     "...but his feelings might thus be (embod ed -->) embodied in
+      words:"
+
+     "...he was so very plausible in (manmer -->) manner,..."
+
+     "...when the Bard showed (himslf -->) himself in the north,..."
+
+     "...Marquis of (Congynham -->) Conyngham..."
+
+     "...more careful, more (sudued -->) subdued..."
+
+ Bold printed text has been formatted as =text=.
+
+The oe ligature is represented with [oe] in this text.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bits of Blarney, by R. Shelton Mackenzie
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43563 ***