more imminent, so is his vigilance more on the alert, and therefore a system of ramified watchfulness is kept up through the means of confraternities, purgatorian, scapularian, and rosary societies; but the schoolmaster and chapel clerk are the special watchers and setters, to scent out the odour of heresy. Under this inquisition of opinion Flaherty had come, and full soon the consequences were evident. About this period, as on a summer's evening I betook myself, after the parochial visitations of a long sultry day, to the repose and quiet solitude of my old castle, there to enjoy the moodiness of quiet thinking, there expecting to meet nothing, for I was aware that Denis was far away at sea engaged in fishing. Nothing, I may say, except an old grey goat which haunted the castle to crop the ivy on the battlements and which I had bribed into familiarity by the present of a few biscuits. There as I sat on the arched roof of the old grey tower, my quiet companion sitting ruminating before me, with her cold, grey, sinless eye looking placidly on me; what a glorious repose lay extended before my view, the slow solemn heave of the unruffled ocean rising and falling like the bosom of a strong man sleeping and now I would look down and observe fathoms deep, the varied and prolific vegetations that clothed its irregular depths, and then I would raise my eye and look far away to where the vessel hung on the extreme horizon, which with her lagging sail seemed to partake of the repose of land, and air, and ocean; and as I occupied myself with guessings and fanciful decisions as to the characters, and hopes, the plans and the pleasures of the inmates of that distant bark, melancholy misgivings would prompt me to ask, are these men who occupy their business in these great waters? Are their souls alive to adore God and his Christ amidst such wonders?

Are they who thus especially live under his sustaining mercies, who witness day by day on a strange element strange providences, are they alive to their own estate in the sight of God? Alas! alas! how many who traverse that awful ocean, and who in a few hours may become the victims of some one of the varied forms of perishing which this perilous element presents, yet these men sustained as it were by the specialties of God's providence, are perhaps as much unmindful of him, and of the great salvation which he offers for their sinful souls in Christ Jesus, as if there was enregistered for them a fiat from on high, that this their present life and world were to be eternal. Under those impressions, with my mind roaming westward over the ocean desert, recollection tempted my fancy, to fix as it were on the precise spot on that great expanse, where John Newton, the unbeliever, the scoffer, the slave trader, the dealer in human flesh; he who mocked lustily at sin, and jested at the sighs and miseries of his fellow men; I thought I could draw a cross on the horizon to mark for ever, where tempest-tossed, the ship ready to sink, and the crew reduced to their last biscuit; John Newton returned to God, or rather, God returned to him, and the foundering ship was permitted to get into port on this western coast, and 3 A

VOL. VIII.

the converted slave trader became a glorious monument of divine grace, and a blessed instrument of gospel usefulness. Thus, tired of ranging over the wide ocean, I bethought me of the characters, and circumstances, and fate, of those who age after age, occupied this fortress, and fancy produced in succession before me the different characters of its bold tenants: the warrior of one age, the pirate of another, then the rapparee, the smuggler, the illicit distiller. As my fancy amused itself with its own creations of the possible enterprises, sorrows, joy, successes, and discomfitures of those who tenanted this Keep, still the melancholy conviction forced itself on my mind, how little has been done within these grey walls for the glory of God, or the happiness of his creatures-how much evil has been inflicted-how much crime perpetrated-how much pain suffered! Yes, if I could command the stones to cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber to answer it, what an exposure of sin, and suffering, and brutality would be made!

Whilst I was thus musing, the short bark of a dog, and the consequent alarm of my companion the goat, called me to the consideration that some stranger was at hand, whose tramp now became audible on the spiral staircase, and in an instant I saw Jenny's horns butted against an intrusive, bandy-legged, turnspit, that seemed very well inclined, out of sheer impertinence, to take the venerable ruminator by the beard: immediately succeeding the turnspit appeared his companion, a tall, grim-visaged personage, in a black vesture that seemed made for some person much more lusty than the present owner, loose and threadbare, the man seemed to have, as it were crept into his integuments, by chance-his unhatted head carried one of those old-fashioned yellow wigs that aged people in some districts of Ireland still wear, from under which appeared grisly locks of his own hair, here black by nature, and there grey from age-one leg being shorter than the other demanded the aid of a black-thorn stick, and hanging from his button-hole dangled a thumb bottle and a ruler, apparently designed a double debt to pay, of drawing straight lines on paper, and painful welts on urchin's palms; ready ever to follow up with instant execution the fearful decree of "Pande manum." Such was the gaunt, grave apparition that just at this moment blocked up the entrance of the little staircase tower, that led down from the battlements to the lower stairs of the castle.

"No intrusion I hope, Sir-down Pompey: bad manners to you can't you let the baste alone-down, you devil, apage No offence mister." "O no, Sir, pray come in, I assure you I am by no means sorry that you have broken in on reflections that were beginning to grow painful." "No doubt, Sir, no doubt, the sage of Rotterdam I see was not out when he classed among his addages that solitudinis socia et comes austeritas est'." Here he took with much complacence, a pinch of snuff out of a receptacle formed of the end of a cow's horn, and keeping his huge thumb upon the open lid, as a matter of course with

all snuff-takers, he projected his mull towards me in order that I might partake of its contents. I could perceive that he was not pleased at my refusal of his bounty, and he went on-"Though I am sure a youth of your ingenuous appearance is made up in your humanity, allow me to mould into an English form, the Latinity of Erasmus.

to say

As idleness of crime's the nurse,

So solitude makes men morose."

This he announced in a marked and sneering way, and he stood squaring himself before me as one that seemed desirous of saying what was impertinent, or doing what was disagreeable. Sir, said I, while I thank you for your interpretation, allow me that you are wrong if you impute morose feelings to me; speaking as I do to a scholar, and I trust a Christian, I should hope that you can comprehend how the sobriety of my solitude can call forth solemn imaginations, and cast upon the mind a tinge of sadness, without generating a melancholy that is austere, or a moroseness that is unworthy; and that while I look abroad upon that glorious expanse of sea and land, and while I dwell on God's creative magnificence, and still rising above these contemplations, I go on to ponder in gratitude and love on the redeeming mercies of that same God, who gave his only begotten Son to the end that all who believe on him should not perish but have everlasting life. Sir, I hope that you often come to this interesting ruin for the same purpose as I do, to abstract yourself from the things of sense and time, to commune with your own heart and be still-to look abroad on those glorious works of the Deity that are before us--these mountains, this ocean, and this beauteous coast, and looking from nature up to nature's God, to bless him that he has not only given life, and health, and intelleet to enjoy all this, but also, that he has given grace to bless his holy name for all his wondrous mercies of redeeming love, in Jesus Christ our Lord, who loved us, and gave himself for

us.

While speaking thus, I fixed my eye upon my companion, but could observe on his countenance no corresponding feeling: on the contrary, on the rigid muscles that diverged in crows' claws from his huge mouth, I could perceive a gathering sneer that prepared me for the cold, callous insolence of the following reply: "Oh to be sure, Docthor, for now I scan that you are the young Protestant ministher that is come in amongst us-oh 'certissime,' this is all very fine, and such sayings may do amongst the swaddlers; but may-be now, do you see me, this castle here that you seem to fancy so much, would be entirely a dacenter place with a good snug roof over it, smoke aspiring out of its chimlies, cheer in its hall, and beer in its cellars, the best of good old Irish hospitality shown to all comers and goers; and this it would be still, instead of a place for jackdaws and goats, and what is worse, if it were not for Cromwell's cannon, and his curse; and my curse, my heavy curse, and may the curse of God and the

Virgin, and all the saints light on him, and all of his following, and all of his favouring, in secula seculorum,' amen, sweet Jesus."

On hearing this angry declamation which the man uttered with all the excitement of a sybil or an exorcist, I rose to depart, and replied with all meekness, 'I came here for other purposes than what you seem to take pleasure in; I came here to bless and curse not, and therefore I desire to wish you a good evening" here I motioned to get past him, and descend the staircase, but he purposely blocking up with his broad and sqared form the passage, seemed to forbid my retreat, and he continued to address me as follows: "Docthor, tell me now if you plase, do you suppose that lame as I am, and having other things to mind; that I came up here to look at the evening sun, or the dark hills, or the smooth sea, or these grey walls, the very sight of which ever and always vexes me; for they put me in mind of Cromwell and his Sassanach hell-hounds-the ruin of our property-the persecution of our clargy-the overthrow of our religion. No, Sir, but I had a word or two to say to yourself: I knew you were here before me, and lame as I am, and old, up I came this turnabout staircase, that is enough to take the breath out of a greyhound, in order to give you my young gintleman a bit of advice. And do you see me now, it stands you upon, master of mine, to take heed to what I say, and here it is; mind in future your own business, let the Catholics alone, give up proselyting, cease (as a body may say) to beat up for recruits for the devil. A pretty pass we're come to, when the likes of you comes abroad amongst dacent quiet people, with your Bibles and tracts, and devil's trash, to pervart them from the true and only church, out of which there is no salvation: pray tell me Raverend Sir," and here his countenance was one sneer, "how much have you promised poor mean dirty Denis Flaherty for his reading your false Bible? what price have you set on the sale of his sow ?" Stop Sir," I interrupted him, "I will not listen to such harsh, uncharitable, unchristian language, you must indeed let me pass. If such bitterness of spirit flows from the influence of your religion, I fear it can have no connexion with the church of Christ: the imputation of bad motives, and bad ends, is consistent with any thing but the Christian character." I again attempted to pass him by, and depart, but he would not move; and I saw that nothing but a force which I would not resort to, could procure me passage, and I sat down on a fragment of the battlement, while he thus went on: "Docthor, you must not go till you hear me out. I did not, I say, come here to listen to you, but to give you a friend's advice. Listen to you! Is it Felix Fitzpatrick give ear to the likes of you, or take instruction from a boy of a minister like you? I would as soon stand to be sprinkled with holy water by the devil-sticking steadily to the old faith of my fathers, eandem illam rationem antiquam obtinens,' as I may say. I care not a tint of ink for all your swaddling novelties; no, no, you may be a very proper young man in your way, and I dare

say you will do well enough if you keep minding your own business, and never minding us, as all that went before you in your calling have done. Aye, continue teaching policemen and squires the law religion-the religion of gentle Harry, and chaste Bess-the religion that came amongst us with cannon and bayonets, and spoil and robbery, and blood-aye, aye, go teach your handful of the Sassanach the religion that Luther learned from the devil; but leave, if you please, the people the religion of blessed Patrick, and of all God's saints above."

Here while he took breath, I sought occasion to observe, "Mr. Fitzpatrick, though I desire in your present state of mind, to withdraw from any conversation with you, I cannot but remark, that if what you have just said be a fair specimen of the feelings and opinions of those connected with your religion, I, and every man who knows what the spirit of true Christianity is, who have moreover promised to do their utmost to chase away error and turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan, unto God; I would be base and derelict of my duty, did I not endeavour to operate on such a mass of ignorance and contradiction to all genuine religion." "O well, very fine, my young gentleman- but after all be advised; let the convarsion, or as our Priest has it, pervarsion of the Cathilics alone, cease to stir up strife in this peaceable little place;-can't you man, if you want something to do, take a bit of a farm, and mind your sowing and your sheep, and follow after fairs and markets, as those in your function have done before; there was Docthor Doolittle, your predecessor-why nothing on the living earth could get on smoother than he and our priest did, while he was here; Father M'Gitigan and he were as I may say, hand and glove together. It would do your heart good to see them riding together to the fair of Balinabocklish; there were not two men on this side of the Shannon, knew the worth of a baste or were better judges of the age and flavour of a cask of spirits, than they; and now when these quiet, honest, civil crathurs are gone, you come in hot from the Bible Society, to turn us all as I may say, insideout, and set us all by the ears. Ah, my young man, leave off these hot follies, take a friends advice, tu proinde cave si sapis.' But whether you do or not, we'll take care of Mr. Flaherty at any rate-Master Denis shall feel, believe you me, what it is' descire a pristina causâ.'" Here the angry and bigotted creature, who I found out afterwards was the chapel clerk and schoolmaster, and who but for his lameness would have been made a priest, conceiving I suppose that he had fulfilled his mission, and given me advice enough, let me escape down the stairs, and I returned home, musing on the presecutions which according to the schoolmaster's threats, were likely to await my poor friend Denis.

And indeed the threatened trials soon followed; first he was beset with entreaties on all sides; his relatives. gossips, friends, assailed him with expostulations, besought him with tears,-and always supposing that his motives were interested and worldly,