me one evening that he must follow the roe-deer into Dufferin, but promised to come back in four days. I came home that evening with a sadder heart than I can tell you. But I was doomed to have cause for worse trouble than the grief of a foolish girl longing after her lover's return. The kindred had been abroad for twenty days, and they came back that very night. They had been defeated in a great battle with the wild Irish, and had lost all their prisoners and a great prey of cattle at the fords. Raymond was wounded, and two of our fosterers killed, and Alan was wild with rage and grief. They were our old enemies, the clan Gillmore, that had set upon them; and, father, think what a story it was for me to hear, when they told me that Hugh Oge, the Gillmore's youngest son, who had headed his people in the battle, had been twice seen hunting within a mile of our castle only three days before! Alan had heard it from a ranger of the abbot of Bangor, who had met him in his beat. He described him as he had seen him in the fight tall, dark, some three or four years his own elder, wearing a belt set with studs of silver, and swift of foot as a red deer. Who had seen him?It was at the head of the glen the ranger said he met him. Who had been in the glen of late? Had I seen any stranger there or in the wood ?-He questioned me so fiercely that for a moment I thought he must have known all. But I denied it; I could not have confessed it after what I heard, though it had been known to all the clan; for I was now sure that my lover was no other than the young Mac Gillmore and, father, I did not tell you at the time; but you will, I think, feel some compassion for me when I tell you now, that this kindred, this Muintir Gillmore-I will tell you presently, when this choking in the throat leaves me they were the same wild Irish of whom I told you; they were the same clan who slew the Seneschal. But, father, do not think that Hugh had any part in his death. No; bad as I am, you need not shudder at the suspicion that I am wedded to my father's murderer! Oh, no! Hugh was then in Dufferin, preying the Whites under their own walls of

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Killileagh; but it was Adam Garv Mac Gillmore, the old chief, his father, who laid the ambush. The Seneschal had hanged two of the kindred, who were found hunting within his bounds, and Adam was sworn by sun and wind to revenge them. Three times they came down with the whole strength of the clan, and thrice we beat them off: but, after the oath he had sworn, Adam Garv would not rest till he had fulfilled it. So, hearing by a spy that the Seneschal was gone to Carrickfergus to meet his cousin, the prior of Muckamore, he laid an ambush of ten men in the wood beyond the fords of Lagan, and after lying in wait two nights and a day, accomplished his purpose. My father and his cousin were both slain by arrows as they rode at the head of their company; and so swift of foot were the Gillmores, that the mounted men at arms who guarded the seneschal, were unable to come up with them on the broken ground; so that Adam and his fosterers escaped. I had heard strange and dreadful reports of the Muintir Gillmore, as was natural among a family that had experienced such a loss at their hands. The two poor wretches whom my father had first put to death, were said to have been no better than pagans, having died without once calling on either God or the saints; and it was now affirmed that the whole clan were utter heathens. I had never thought of the clan Gillmore without a shudder; I had fancied them a race of such beings as I had heard of under the name of wild men of the woods; and, in truth, with regard to the kindred at large, my fancy did not much deceive me; but when I became certain that Hugh was of the clan, a wonderful change came over my mind. Sore, sore I strove against it; long I strove to cherish horror where my breast would admit love only; for horror of Hugh Oge my heart could not conceive. When I would try to paint him bloody, fierce, exulting over my dead kinsman, as I thought that duty should have shown him to my eyes, I could see nothing but the picture of the beautiful, swift, eagle-eyed young hunter: his eyes haunted me in the dark; his voice was sounding sweetly in my ears, though Alan should be raging against our father's murderers at my side. Night and day I strug

gled, though from the first I felt that love would triumph in the end; and at length love did triumph, and I found myself on the evening of the fourth day watching for the swift footsteps of him whom I dare scarcely trust myself to think of on the first. The kindred were again gone; Raymond was recovered, and had taken the field along with his brother. I was once more alone, and I could resist no longer; so I had stolen out to the head of the glen; trembling at the prospect of seeing my hopes fulfilled, yet satisfied that all my former horror had been prejudice, and that all my present weakness was the work of charity. He came. Oh, father, I cannot describe that meeting! He was wounded and bleeding, his dress torn and disordered; for he had travelled since mid-day through the wildest woods in Ulster. He had been wounded, he said, at first in a dispute with the hunters of Kinalearty. Alas! he little thought what I knew when he said so. I was glad, father, that he was wounded, though Heaven knows how willingly I would have borne the pain for him; but I was glad to have the respite even of dressing my lover's wound before I would have to tell him that I knew him. I had done; but I could not say the word: Mac Gillmore saw my distress; he cast himself at my feet, he told me he had deceived me, that he too had come to confess, but that his heart at first had failed him also. I, too, confessed all; I know not what I said, but I did not reproach him. He was full of joy and gratitude; he told me that his kindred were gone from the pastures they had occupied, and out of reach of our arms; that they were satisfied with the recovery of their herds, and would prosecute the feud no farther, if allowed to remain in their new territory undisturbed. He told me, too, that he had spared Raymond's life, for my sake, at the fords; for that he had passed him when he was down in the fray, and bestowed the death-blow that might have rid his kindred of their cruellest enemy, upon another. He said he must join his clan at their place of muster before daybreak, but that he would have a token left for me when I should expect his return. And then he asked me would I go to the woods with him, and be a hunter's bride, if

he could find a territory of his own where we could live apart from his kindred, who were at feud with my people? I could not have said 'yes' that evening, for all the wealth of Ireland; I could only weep and pray for happier times: but I promised to meet him again; and when we parted, I felt more alone in the world than ever. I had refused to listen to his entreaties that I would go to the woods with him; but when left alone, I did little else than imagine pictures of the sylvan home he had promised me. You may be sure, father, that the woods were always green, and the glades for ever sunny in my dreams. There was no image there of leafless branches howling in the sleet, as I have heard them since, the length of many a dismal night; no thorny brakes, dripping with chill dews, were there; no picture of desert marshes, weltering in the noisome vapours of summer, or of sedgy river banks cutting the bare feet with their sharp blades in December. I had little thought of the life I was to lead then; and yet, father, hard as my lot has been, I have had such happiness as love could give; and if I could but see those I love brought to a knowledge of holiness and peace, I would be happier than many a lady who never walked the dew. Oh! on the bare earth let me lie while I live, if I could but see that blessed day!"

"Thou wilt see it yet, please God, my daughter," said the good Franciscan: "but go on, I pray thee, with this strange story of thine."

"From what I have told you," said the lady, "you will easily divine the rest. Hugh's token came to me in little more than a week after; and I met him in the wood where we had appointed. He told me he had left the kindred for my sake; that he had found vacant pastures in Claneboy, and built a hunting booth in a delightful valley for our home; that none but his two foster brothers and their wives would be with us, and that all the wood-rangers in Ulster might search for ever without finding our retreat. Horses were at hand, mantles and disguises prepared; and the priest, he told me, was waiting in the woods. He wrapped me in a mantle, and I was on horseback before him ere I well knew what I had done. I would

fain have had more time; but Hugh said that my brothers were already on their march homeward, aud that if Alan were once returned I need never hope to be allowed the chance of seeing him again. It was vain to lament; and in all my shame, when I thought of my uumaidenlike conduct, and amid all my real grief at leaving my home and kindred behind me, I confess, father, that I was better satisfied in my heart than I would have been had Hugh yielded to my entreaties, and left me as I prayed he would. We rode through the woods till after midnight: what path we took I knew not, but after we had travelled a long way, we saw a light before us among the trees. Here there was a party of wilder-looking men than I had ever seen before, about a great fire. They seemed to have had as long a journey as ourselves, for their horses, where they stood tied to the trees around, were covered with foam and reeking in the strong fire-light. I thought he must be a friendly priest who had ridden so hard at that dead hour of night to such a spot, on such a service. But I was still more amazed to see that it was not a mere priest that was awaiting us. I knew him by his robes to be a diguitary of the church; and, holy father, judge of my consternation when on approaching nearer, I beheld the Lord Abbot of Bangor, bareheaded, his dress torn, and his whole person exhibiting signs of violence, and evidently a prisoner. In reply to my exclamations of horror and amazement Hugh told me we could not get a priest's services otherwise; for that his people were under the displeasure of the church, in consequence of the murder of the prior of Muckamore, and had to get such rites administered as best they might, and that had latterly been by strong hand only. It was then, for the first time, that I felt the bitterness of real remorse. Oh, what I would have given to have been back with my brothers! But it was too late now. Hugh lifted me to the ground. There were women there who supported me. The Abbot was dragged forward: Owen Gumach on one side, and a fosterer of Mac Gillmore, who was since slain, on the other; both

with drawn weapons and savage threatening aspects. The Abbot was so hoarse, from crying for assistance, that he could scarcely speak. He was so indignant at his illtreatment, too, that violent denunciations interrupted every sentence. Mac Gillmore's people crowded round with looks of mirthful savage curiosity, as if they had never seen a churchman before, or thought his office ridiculous. The abbot's threats were met with rude laughter, and, if he refused to proceed with the directed service, blows forced him to go on. In vain I wept and supplicated. In vain I would have said 'no,' while my heart, full of grief and abhorrence as it was, said 'yes.' The words were wrung from the reluctant churchman, and an oath was forced from him at the dagger's point, that it was a true and binding marriage he had celebrated. Blessed be God, he did not know me! and I know not what name they gave him for me. Had he known me then, I would have died rather than borne his reproaches; but he knew who I was afterwards, as you shall hear, father. I can talk of that scene now with little emotion, for I have beheld others since that leave it few horrors; but I was then long insensible after it was completed, and when I returned to consciousness again, the abbot and his fierce escort were gone, and I was alone with my bridegroom. Father, it is wonderful the power Mac Gillmore has had over me from the first moment he saw me to this day. My anger could never last before his caresses, and before his anger, thank God! I never had to stand. The abbot had told me I was going among unchristened pagans, and that the man I was marrying was a heathen, who had neither God nor saint to pray to. I believed it all to be the natural invective of the insulted churchman; not that Hugh ever told me he was a Christian, for I had never dreamt that it would be necessary to ask him the question, but that the violence he had done the abbot was so great as to make it natural for that enraged ecclesiastic to deny that he or his people could be such. In truth, father, after the shock was over, I was too happy in my new home, which we reached next night, to inquire whether the abbot spoke truly or not.

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It was in the pleasantest season of the year, and we wanted for nothing that hearts contented in themselves could wish for. We were in the fastest country in Ireland: there was but one pass to it, and a single man could hold it against a hundred. Hugh spent his mornings in the field, hunting and fishing at night he played on the harp, or sang to me, while his fosterbrothers made their arrows, or prepared their fishing tackle. The wives of our fosterers were modest and kindhearted, and as we were many a day's journey from a church I never asked to attend one. In truth, father, I forgot every thing in the novelty of my situation. I no longer remembered which was Sunday or which Monday; for all days of the year were high festivals with us; and if Hugh brought us game from the woods for twenty days together, I excused his supposed forgetfulness by remembering that it could not but be long since one leading such a life as his, could have received instructions from his clergy. It was sinful, I know, thus to forget my duties in my happiness; but, father, it was thoughtlessness more than conscious neglect. Winter came, and our hunting booth was strengthened and enlarged; a bawn was raised about it, and the kindred sent us a herd of fat cattle, with warm mantles and whatever else the season demanded. Winter passed as happily as summer, and my baby was born in the spring. But Hugh had been summoned away three days before. He had promised not to remain longer than a single day, yet he did not return for ten days after. Fears for him made me less anxious to have my boy baptized than I would have been had he been with me. In truth, I scarce thought of the infant's christening in apprehensions for his father's safety. At length he returned; but what a tale he had to tell me! The retreat of his people had been discovered, and my brothers, with the church vassals of Bangor, Muckamore and Carrickfergus, had spoiled them of their entire substance, burned their dwellings, and put more than one half of their whole number to the sword. Adam Mac Gillmore and his eldest son were amongst the slain, and on Hugh the chieftainship of the kindred VOL. VI.

had devolved. The remnant of the clan were to be with us that night, Hugh had scarce time to kiss his infant son before he was again summoned away to muster the little force of fighting men that remained, and make one last effort to recover some of their plundered herds. Weak as I was, I rose and assisted in preparing the best reception we could for the fugitives. I had never seen any of my husband's kindred, save those who lived along with us, and the wild horsemen who had been present at my wedding. I now no longer regarded them with abhorrence as the murderers of my father, I was eager to alleviate their sufferings as the victims of my people's revenge; so that I awaited their arrival anxiously; but, father, when the multitude of mourners, children, women, and old men, who were henceforth to be my kindred, appeared toiling slowly up the hill before our dwelling, I was in the first bitterness of my disappointment, base enough to reproach Hugh in my heart, for bringing me among such savage beings. But their wild aspects soon ceased to be the only cause of my shame, and, I confess, of my renewed abhorrence, for, after they had pitched their booths, and secured the few goods they had been able to preserve, some of the elder women came to my dwelling, to offer me such services as they had in their power to bestow. My infant was naturally the chief object of their attention; and they showed such tenderness about him as won my gratitude. It was kind and generous in those, who but a few minutes before had been bewailing their own dead, to sing as they did to the child of one, whose people had been such bitter enemies to them. But while they were nursing the infant, and trying to trace a likeness to his father on his little features, one of them asked me by what name I meant to call my son; and I will never forget the terror and sickness that fell upon me, when, on my replying that so soon as our present troubles were over I hoped to get a priest, and have him called for his father; she who had asked the question, looking as if she did not understand me, repeated the words "A priest, bantierna, and what would you please to do with a priest ?"

"To baptize any child," I answered. 2 Q

I snatched my baby from her arms, and sank back on a seat, so shocked and horrified that I could not utter a word. The women crowded round amazed and commiserating; but she who had reproved the first speaker pushed them back, and desired them to leave her alone with me. She then sat down and strove to console me in the best way she could. Bantierna," she said, 66 you must not be angry with them, for they do not know what you mean. And it would be hard for creatures like us to know any thing but hardship and sorrow, when we have been outcasts and wanderers beyond the memory of man. I am an old woman now," she continued, "and it is just as much as I can remember, that when I was a little girl there was some word of what you said going among the kindred, and I have heard Adam Garv, that is gone, say himself, that his mother used to tell him he had been christened, all but his right hand, -and that they had left it untouched, that it might strike the harder blow." Father, you may judge what I felt, as I sat looking on the face of my infant born among such a kindred, while the poor garrulous creature unconsciously went on adding pang to pang, till I thought, as I pressed my baby to my breast, that the heart within would have broken asunder. I had known that Hugh paid no respect to the persons of churchmen: I had seen that he was negligent of all the domestic observances that the church prescribes to her children; and I had excused him for both from the consciousness that I had acquiesced in them; but I had hoped to see him forgiven, and to be received back with him, before I died, into the bosom of the church, for, that he was like myself, a baptized Christian, I had never doubted till now. But now, anxious

to know the worst at once, I asked the woman, had the Tierna been ever christened?" "Never," she said; "but," she added, "if you would have it done to the Tierna Oge, we can catch a priest, and make him do that work, as we made the abbot of Bangor do the other."

"And how," I asked, "if Mac Gillmore be, as you say, ignorant of these things, did he know that it was necessary to have the abbot of Bangor to say the marriage words between us?"

"He had heard of the like, I suppose," she said, "when he was with O'Neill, preying the Scots of Loch Ryan: he was among the Kinel-Chriost at that time for the space of three moons." Little as I could expect he would have learned from such companions as the galloglass and kerns of O'Neill, yet, even this was some consolation, and I fondly hoped that he might have gained more knowledge during that experience of the world within the pale of the Church, than he had thought fit to communicate to his wild kindred without it. I determined, therefore, to wait his return with as much resignation as I could. Meanwhile, the care of my new charges occupied me to the happy exclusion of too much meditation. But, in what a scene I found myself! kinsmen and kinswomen, all pagans! The women with whom I had to converse living with the fathers of their children in a state of nature. The children grow. ing up to follow their parents' savage example-the maintenance of a wretched life their only care here, and the bequeathing of similar cares to another generation, their only hope hereafter. Yet nature in their hearts was human nature still; and, if their untamed passions were strong, so, too, were their affections, nor could I have hoped that I, the sister of their persecutors, could ever have been made such an object of good will, as I soon became amongst them. Hugh had all their hearts, and for his sake they tried to love me, and even before he returned, I had experienced many generous proofs of their devotion. It was never in my nature to cherish aversion towards any being much less towards those whose chiefest pleasure seemed to be to serve me; so that by the time Hugh came back, my premeditated reproaches were already half-forgotten, and I went to meet him