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walking feebly, and leaning on the arm of my sister or myself. This was "The battle of the Darragh;" a brief yet disastrous fight. My uncle was lauded to the skies for his coolness and determination by the Government and the Newspapers; and what was the most extraordinary result of all, was the great increase of popularity he acquired among the peasantry, many of whose friends were missing about this time.

"Sure he threw the fire-balls among them-God help them, and be merciful to them the misfortunate martyrs! But did'nt they go to massacree him, and broke all his windows before he'd suffer a hair of their heads, the craythurs, to be touched: ay and he would not allow 'Gentleman Ned' (this, was Darcy's name among them) or his green polis-men to fire at all, but shot them himself, and warned them off again and again, showing that the mercy was with him, and that he had the raal old blood in him."

I do not say that such language as this represented the general feeling of the country, but unquestionably it was used by many, and from that time forth the General was never annoyed by any thing on the part of the peasantry more than the occasional trouble attendant on his being over popular.

The morning after the siege, M'Clintock rode over to the Darragh. His joy and congratulations were sincere and cordial.

"You have broken up the whole system in this neighbourhood, General," he said, "they will never rally again; Ahern was the great promoter of our disturbance, his influence was immense and I am glad he has met his deserts, though in doing so he has escaped the hangman. I must now beat up the country for glaziers and carpenters; for your windows, I see, retain the marks of the White Shirts' handy work, and we must have them repaired at once."

It was afterwards ascertained that our assailants had carried off their wounded companions and their dead. This had been effected by means of some dozen of low-back cars which had conveyed many of them to the Darragh, and which they had hoped to have loaded with the spoil of our house, had they succeeded. Most of

them were over the county bounds before the morning broke; some few of the hurt were secreted in the mountains near us, and this Darcy knew, and was anxious to secure them, but the General said, "no, they have been sufficiently punished; I shall neither pursue them to the finding, nor will I prosecute them if found ;' and so the thing died away. One very young man was discovered on his face lying in the ha-ha. A ball had passed clean through the small of his back; and his white shirt was all stiff and crimsoned with his blood; and the young pale countenance seemed even in death to be convulsed with terror. He was a stranger, and his body, with that of Ahern, was interred by the police on a neighbouring common, from whence they were secretly exhumed and removed a few nights afterwards by the peasantry.

Whatever might have been the more latent cause of the attack on our house, the prevailing and popular notion was that it was owing to a very exaggerated idea the people had formed concerning our Armoury, and that the desire to possess what they foolishly estimated at a hundred stand of arms, had prompted the bold but bootless endeavour.

We had soon a long letter from my cousin Gilbert, full of joy and sorrow, congratulations and condolements, and all the usual condiments which are meant as seasonings to such an epistolary dish. He announced that he would speedily make a descent upon us in proper person.

The Corporal stalked about as usual looking erect and wiry, but more glum and grim and exsiccated than ever; for alas! his task was over, and his work done: and rust and disuse were resuming "their ancient, melancholy reign" amidst his realms of sharp-steel and coldiron. His armoury was now closed, his forge shut up: his fire had gone out; and his hearth was cold. The leathern lungs of his bellows had breathed their last, and like his sable fellow-warrior Othello-the Corporal's "occupation was gone.”

The captives in the admiralty had behaved most respectably, and peace and even good-humour had been breathed among them by the influence of Margaret Joyce's good-sense and management. Now she tranquillized

them with glowing pictures of the master's skill, courage, and certain success: now she soothed them with tea-kettle melodies from the hob, singing hopefully of pleasures just at hand now she excited them with the aromatic vapours of the gracious Chinese herb itself: and now she drowned their fears in cup after cup of the same delightful beverage, poured from an immense old-fashioned silver tea-pot, which she kept perpetually replenishing and exhausting, like the process which goes on in the cylinders of a steam-engine. True, when the crack of the guns and the crash of the windows were heard, Miss Johnson sat down determined

to faint, and Becky stiffly proceeded to rebel, and to talk of her grandfeyther, prefacing it with "ech, my oh! but we are a' murdered." And even Mrs. Doxey, though saturated like a spunge, and almost drunk with tea, gave symptoms of approaching “starrocks," but Margaret with her strong mind and her soft manner, soothed them into quietness, and the assurance that it would soon be over and before ten minutes more had elapsed, came my uncle and released them himself, and told them of our safety, and our enemies having passed away.

And thus things were at "The Darragh" as the short, but sweet and solemn days of Christmas drew near.

KADISHA; OR, THE FIRST JEALOUSY.

AN EASTERN LEGEND.

PART II.

The tears were still in woman's eyes,
When morn awoke on Paradise ;
And still her sense of shame forbade
To tell her sorrow or upbraid;
Nor knew she which was dearer cost,
To seek him, or to shun him most.
Then Adam, willing to believe

A heart by casual fancy moved

Would soon come back at voice she loved, Addressed his song to Eve.

I.

"Come fairest, while the morn is fair
And dews are soft as yonder eyes;
Calm down this tide of rippled hair,
Forget with me all other sighs
Than summer air.

"Like me the woodland shadows roam
At light (their fairer comrade's) side;
And peace and joy salute our home;
And lo, the sun in all his pride!
My sunrise, come.

"The fawns and birds, that know our call,
Are waiting for our presence-see,
They wait my presence, love, and thee,
The most desired of all,

II.

"The trees, which thought it grievous thing
To weep their own sweet leaves away,
Untaught as yet how soon the spring
Upon their nestled heads should lay
Her callow wing.

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IX.

Not loud she wept-but hope could hear;
Sweet hope, who in his world-wide race
On this consent had start of fear,
That each alternate step should trace
A smile and tear.

But Adam, lost in wide amaze,
Regarded her with troubled glances,
Doubting, beneath her steady gaze,
Himself to be in strange romances
And dreamy haze :

Then questioning in hurried voice,
And scarcely waiting her replies,
He spoke and showed so true surprise,
It made her soul rejoice.

X.

She told him what the tempter said,
And what her frightened self had seen,

(That form in loveliness arrayed

With modest face and graceful mien)
And how displayed.

Then well-content to show his bride
The worldly knowledge he possessed
(That world whereof was none beside)
He laid his hand upon his breast,
And thus replied :---

"Oh mirror'd here too deep to see, "A little way down yonder path, "And I will show the form which hath "Enchanted thee, and me."

XI.

Kadisha is a streamlet fair,

Which hurries down the pebbled way,
As one who hath small time to spare,
So far to go, so much to say
To summer air;

Sometime the wavelets wimple in

O'erlapping tiers of crystal shelves,

And little circles dimple in,

As if the waters quaffed themselves,
The while they spin:

Thence in a clear pool overbent

With lotus-tree and tamarind flower, Empearled, and lulled in golden bower, Kadisha sleeps content.

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