long for you. I cannot thrill you with the nightingale's song; nor shew you, as among English oaks, a broad river shining in moonlight; but you shall have the sublime music of distant waters, and you shall see, with such a moon as now visits us, cataracts flashing into its beams, and issuing from the recesses of mountains which, to your untravelled faculties, shall seem noble.And you may come without a fear. I told you it is midnight,-and as Julie de Roubigné says, the world is hushed around me,'-nothing to prevent any daring plunderer from climbing to my open window-and I am as free from alarm as if I were at your side, in the inviolable security of Essex or Surrey.

"We have, indeed, no cause for apprehension here-more devoted attachment cannot be described or imagined, than my dear father experiences from this calumniated people. How it would astonish Aunt Sarah, to witness his reception from them to-day! She will say that I am a giddy credulous girl; but I am sure, if she could witness the honest and hearty rejoicings, and hear the warm blessings, which duped my father and me, she would, herself, be strongly solicited to give way before so unsuspicious an impostor.

"But, all this time, I have not acquainted you with the occasion on which such demonstrations of attach ment were called forth. And how can I possibly describe that most extraordinary display, and its exciting circumstances! Katharine, you never saw an Irish hurling, and, sooth to say, you never saw any thing so surprising. If it be Hibernian cricketing, it surely exceeds that aristocratic game in interest, more than it falls short of it in dignity and grace-the eagerness-the vehemence the fiery contest of hundreds for victory, and the surpassing exertions of the agile competitors. You must positively come here and witness the fierce good-humour of this most eager contention. It is, I am confident, more worthy of a poet to describe, than the games of ancient days. We, too, and especially your unworthy friend, performed no obscure part in this high tournament. Papa, you must know, had taken upon himself the duty of preserving the peace of our district;

and as winter had passed without the braud of any offence, he thought it not unfitting to mark his approbation of good conduct, by holding a solemn festival on the occasion. The result of his deliberations was "the hurling," and its accompaniment, a dinner on the grass. All, however, would be incomplete if I did not, as the peerless lady of statelier, but, in all probability, more barbarous and less lively feats of arms, grace the contest with my august presence. A large field, in the neighbourhood of the Castle, was to be the arena; and for some time before we appeared, we could see the gathering-troop after troop marching to music, all in gay attire, and each party having appropriate and distinguishing badges and devices. When the assemblage was complete, and the arrangements for the contest sufficiently advanced, we set forth, a highly imposing cortège, and rode round the field, saluting each party as we passed, and receiving with due acknowledgment their tumultuous acclamations; but the first burst, as we came suddenly from a gate shaded by thick trees, into the sight of the assembly

indeed, Katharine, it was awful! I bowed my head as at an apparition, and could not, by any effort, restrain fast-falling tears. Do not smile;there is something very affecting in the raised voice of a multitude. Do you not remember Job-the thunder of the captains, and the shouting? then it was a tribute to my dear father, coming from hearts grateful for favour and protection, and offering, I am sure, the lives of the generous and enthusiastic retainers who sent it forth,-can you wonder that it overcame me?

"I did not faint, however, and soon was able, with proper dignity and condescension, to go through the portion of the pageant allotted to me. You should know something of the game. At opposite sides of the field, a little arch of bended ozier, called a goal, had been set up. The object of the parties was to pass under one of these a ball, which they struck with curved instruments, called "Hurls." The ball was presented to my fair hands by one of the leaders, who knelt before he offered it; and when I had received it, another shout arose, more tumultuous, if possible, than that which had previ

ously discomposed me, but which did not disturb my steed, who merely arched his neck, and neighed in acknowledgment. I rode with my apple of strife into the midst of the field, and delivered it to Colonel Stapleton. I spare you the account of the new acclamations and the blessings on my ladyship-my majesty-my beautiful face-my goodness; but, certainly, if there was as much true loyalty around Marie Antoinette when swords leaped-no, did not leap from their sheaths-she would not have cost us the tears we used to give to our poor Bonne's recitals.

"I retired less elated than delight ed with these proofs of Irish trucuJency; and when I had taken my post on a safe and commanding eminence, the ball was thrown up high into the air. Then the strife and bustle, the fever of the conflict, no words of mine can describe; nor can you imagine the order which presided over the strug gle of four hundred competitors for a prize, for which, it would seem, all the energies of their lives and souls were intensely exerted. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the tactique of the contest to give you an intelligible account of it, and, to say truth, I was too much shocked by some untoward events, terminating in wounds which wore a threatening aspect, although I understood they were not dangerous. There was, natheless the wounds, perfect good humour throughout, and no grudges or angry feelings survived the conflict. The victors enjoyed their success without arrogance, the vanquished bore their defeat with cheerfulness, and all rejoiced in the feast and dance which followed, in a man. ner to win for them, in most instances, golden opinions. Oh how they are wronged and traduced! Dear Katharine, I pine for you; you would, if you could but see these generous beings in their own plains once, for ever after be their advocate. I cannot, indeed, say a great deal for my father's more courtly visitors. I do not promise you much interest in them; but am not sufficiently assured in my first-sight judgments to pronounce a positive opinion. I wish you would assist me in deciding. Persuade Aunt Sarah that we will take good care of you; and if she would do violence to her

Miss Elmere closed her letter, and stood at the open window to indulge the pious feelings of a thankful heart in gazing on as fair a prospect as has often been disclosed to an enthusiast of nature. Castle Elmere stood on a projecting crag, in a deep and wild valley, shut in on one side by a wall of rock, rising to a considerable height, and having its intervals of grey stone enlivened and adorned by the green foliage of the shrubs and trees, which had rooted themselves in many a clift, and ascended almost to its very summit,― and on the other by a steep hill of easy slope, and of the softest verdure, while, in its low depth, an abundant stream, worthy indeed to be named a river, pursued its not silent way through tangled boughs, and over a rugged channel. When Mary looked forth, the moon had descended low, and, attended by one fair star, was pausing at the distant opening of the valley. The steeps which seemed humble when she was high in heaven, were now exalted, as it were, into more than their natural elevation, the nearer features were softened, and whatever was more nobly beautiful, in the spiritual light by which it was arrayed, became invested with additional attraction. The whole valley was full of light-the silver of the stream was in parts dazzlingly effulgent, while intervals of shadow served, by contrast, to render the splendour where the moonbeams fell, more glorious to the eye; and over head, the sky, resting on the mountain steeps, had recovered the dark pure azure in which the stars were visible. Mary Elmere was capable of feeling the sublime influences of the hour, and remained for some time in that trance of thought to which might

almost be applied the beautiful expression in the Song of Solomon: "I sleep, but my heart waketh." How sweet and solemn is the remembrance of such moments, when a consciousness of existence and a fulness of devotion wholly possess the mind, and almost teach us to comprehend the felicity of those who contemplate God in Heaven! Here in earth they do not abide long. Emily, as her rapture died away, beheld the silent lights of Heaven, and the sound of the waters returned to her ear. As yet she was not sufficiently released from the delicious reverie to lend her voice to the harmonies of nature, but she thought how sweet it would be to arrest the faint breeze which she felt on her cheek, and win from it a touching melody. An Eolian harp was soon favourably disposed, and its tones of sadness and mystery passed into her soul. How hideous an interruption jarred her!

Immediately opposite the window from which Miss Elmere had been gazing, and at an inconsiderable distance, a large laurel of dense and luxuriant foliage overlooked her. She was too unobservant of the forms of individual things, to notice that its branches had been, from time to time, somewhat more rudely agitated than the gentle gales of the still night could move them. Her attention was now forcibly awakened. A human voice became audible, although the sounds it uttered could not be distinctly understood. At first a groan seemed to issue from the troubled depths of the laurel. What

followed, from the character of the tones, appeared to be the language of prayer. It was speedily interrupted. By a strong effort, Mary governed herself, and did not scream. In an instant she heard a voice, which she recognised as one of her father's visitors, call out, as if summoning the intruder. There was no answer; and after a second call, accompanied with a scream and a short pause, the warning was followed by the loud report of a gun. For a moment it seemed discharged without effect, a sharp shrill note of fear rung through the lacerated laurel, the mountain echoes responded to the louder sound, and the "live thunders" of the hill awoke in swift succession. The echoes were prolonged by numerous repetitions, and scarcely had they become silent, when a human form dropt from the laurel, and a man was seen for an instant, while he passed rapidly from the enlightened part of the pleasure ground into deep shadow. An alarm was raised, forms were seen hurrying from the house, and exploring in various directions. It was in vain-the search was unsuccessful, and was followed by distrust and chagrin. How the intruder escaped could not be known, nor could his object be conjectured. That his intent was evil seemed plain, and that preparation should be made against future attempts or aggressions. One thing only was certain, the appearances of quiet and contentment could not be relied on. What a postscript had Mary to add to the eulogy of her letter!

WHEN Miss Elmere had forgotten that such an individual as received the prize from her fair hands had ever appeared in her presence, the frantic youth bore with him from the successful contest a remembrance of the fair arbitress and queen of the day, from which only death could release him. He was the only son of a widowed mother, and was in the relation of fosterer to the beautiful object of his frenzied affection. A joyful sight it was to his poor parent, and no ordinary surprise, when

at an early hour in the evening she beheld him returning to her humble home. She saw him acknowledged as best man of the day, but could not break through the crowd to speak with him; and, after sundry fruitless efforts, withdrew, to meditate in her solitary cottage on the pride with which, on the following day, she was to present her clean little boy, as she called a handsome youth six feet high, "to his honour, and her own child, the lady."

James Morrison was not in the

mood to share in his mother's exultation, or to rejoice with her in the feelings with which she anticipated the morrow. He was again to see the object of his boundless affection, but not to witness any concern for the untold passion which was devouring him. He was to be, in her presence, as one of the more ignoble animals, to whom she might extend the charities of a benevolent heart, and felt that to him, almost equally with the beasts of the field-by habit and convention not less powerful than nature and her laws-friendship and affection were utterly denied. Many a time he had railed at distinctions, which, he was taught to think, arrayed the poor not only in estrangement from the more prosperous, but in hostile opposition to them; now he felt with a degree of pain, which he had never experienced before, what it was to belong to a caste, on which poverty had stamped the most hopeless of degradations. It was with bitterness and impatience he constrained himself to listen to the detail of plans and prospects which it was a torture to hear; and, at length wearied out by his poor mother's ill-timed counsels and exhortations, and the exhausting effort with which he strove to endure them, he groaned in the anguish of his spirit, and, hurrying into the darkest corner of his home, cast himself in despair upon the bed, and turned his face to the wall.

It is of little moment to the reader to learn the precise locality of James Morrison's dwelling. A change must come over the spirit of Irish life, before he is likely to pay it a voluntary visit. Notwithstanding the temporary calm which coercive enactments may have compelled in that regionthe calm which ensues when the horrors of open violence cower down into fierce and treacherous ambuscade-there are demonstrations painful enough to discourage a tourist from seeking amusement, where there is so much, if not to awaken his heart, at least to shock his sensibility. The name of such a region may well be spared,-not so the recital of a characteristic, by which it is so pre-eminently as to be peculiarly distinguished. It is the Thessaly of Ireland-the region wherein those superstitions still find a shelter, which, elsewhere, have

vanished before the ascendency of an evil genius, whose enacted horrors leave no place for legendaryrecollections. In the recesses of this mountain district, the love of marvellous tradition still has a reverent, if not a secure asylum. Relics are there of the golden times, when Ireland was honoured in all the world; and even some stones of enormous magnitude and dizzy location, have sermons, which render them, to the initiated, remembrancers of a still hoarier, or, as a Hibernian Bacon might apply the epithet, a more youthful antiquity, when the giant race of earth's most valiant sons and sages, who had explored the mysteries which control nature, and make man's senses thrill, and those beings of wonder and awe, who were ever free from human restraint, or who had, with a perishable body, renounced the shackles of mortality, combined their powers, and conspired in fraternal union to achieve those works which did honour to the olden time, and provided amazement for the sceptical ages which were to follow. But, above all, it should be confessed, that that curious philosophy which makes light account of medicinal skill, esteeming the modern healing arts visionary and vain, and accounting no science as of worth and certainty but that which discourses of philtres and spells, abode in the region of our story, and summoned thither influences which brooded over its shades and its inhabitants, men, women, and children, with an authority from which every other part of Ireland has been, by spirits of a darker spell, mournfully delivered.

In such a place, the solution of the phenomenon, presented in the condition of James Morrison, which his mother adopted, was the readiest and most natural. Her child had been fairy-struck. "He went out in the morning as likely a boy as you could see in a summer's day, an' he was braw an' harty when he came home; but some miau came over him. He had a look with him that would bring the salt tears into your eyes when he wasn't speaking; an' when he'd make answer, his voice was so hoarse an' desolate-like, that it would frighten you more than when he listen'd and said nothing." Such was the affectionate mother's

report to a "wise woman," as soon as she had gathered courage to leave her son in his affliction, and go forth to seek succour for him. Under the circumstances, the nearest, not the wisest, of approachable weird sisters was the most desirable; and the despairing youth was but a very short time left to the melancholy luxury of cherishing his secret grief, before he was subjected to the interrogatories of the fairy doctress, who had come with the speed of age to do battle against his unseen ene

my.

For a length of time, except in the annoyance occasioned to the obstinately silent youth," the question" was unavailing, and old Judith Mackesay was taught to feel that she had no ordinary case to consult for. There was no indication whatever in the impatient patient's appearance of bodily ailment. His colour was good, his pulse strong and steady, nothing but the disturbed expres sion with which, sometimes in high excitement, sometimes in despair, his eyes rested on his weeping mother, or on vacancy, to tell of "that within which passed show." The visit of the crone, however, was not unsuccessful. Although she discontinued her unacceptable interrogatories, she did not remit the vigilance of her observation; and while the mother was pouring forth, in the eloquence of grief, her tale of sorrow, and fear, and disappointment, she had carefully noted how the utterance of one name invariably wrung out some show of feeling from the youth when all else passed unregarded by, and, on the same principle as the murderer is declared by the restored circulation of blood in his victim, Judith became convinced that she had ascertained the cause of James Morrison's disorder. "There's not a living soul," she whispered the mother, "can do the boy a taste o' good, only Vhauria M'Grath herself."

Vhauria M'Grath was a sage of majesty too high to admit the idea that she could be summoned to any bedside over which death was not almost visibly hovering. Whoso desired her succour must approach the mountain recess, where, sheltered from every wind that blew, and encompassed by an awe which guarded her from men's irreverence, she

had her solitary dwelling. It was only on great emergencies her assistance was implored, and, even on such occasions, no rustic dared to seek her presence, without preliminaries effectual as those which protect a monarch's court and person from the lessening influences of too facile and familiar intercourse. There was always an internuncius (or internuncia), one who occupied an intermediate condition between the Queen of Sorcerers and the rustics over whom she waved her mystic sceptre, to signify the coming of a suppliant, and to bear back the will of her superior, whether prohibiting or permitting the solicited audience. When James Morrison, overcome by his mother's passionate adjurations, had consented to undergo the new annoyance and indignity, Judith was accredited as ambassadress to the potentate of spells and charms, to negotiate a gracious reception for the reluctant youth, and the afflicted and credulous parent.

"Sit down here,” said she, when they had ascended the base of the mountain; "turn your back to this elder-tree, an' your face to the sun that's setting, an' hould this sprig of vervine fast; 'tis a lucky arub (herb), an'

'Wherever you go, by sea or by land, The holy vervine hould in your hand.' Myself will bring ye back the word what ye're to do." She departed; and mother and son obeyed her injunctions, the one scrupulous to observe the minutest point of requisite ceremony, the other under the vis inertia of an absorbing passion which held him motionless. Judith soon returned, and conducted the pair in an opposite direction to that towards which they had been gazing. They entered a little foot-path which wound through tangled shrubs, and under a high ledge of rock, descending into one of those little seclusions which the wooded heights and crags overhung and encompassed. The abode of the wise woman at length appeared. It was placed under shelter of a projecting cliff, and the soft green turf before it, which sloped down to a stream, rapid above and below, but here stayed and collected into a smooth, deep, and pellucid lakelet, lay under a shadow from the overhanging precipices above, which