Luttrell Of Arran

ce in the maxim when applied to certain remote and little-visited districts in these islands, where

erved for the studies of philosophers and sages, these poor creatures drag on an existence rather beneath than above the habits of savage life. Their dwellings, their food, th

verty and barbarism. Some circular mud hovels, shaped like beehives, and with a central aperture for the escape of the smoke, are the dwellings of an almost naked, famine-stricken people, whose looks, language, and gestures mark them out for foreigners if they chan

ich, whether meant for defence or some religious object, was, during its construction, a much-debated question by the people. The intention to resume a sovereignty which had lain so long in abeyance would have been a bold measure in such a spot if it had not been preceded by the assurance that the chief meant to disturb nothing, dispute nothing of vested interests. They were told that he who was coming was a man weary of the world and its ways, who desired simply a spot of earth where he might live in peace, and where, dying, he might leave his bones with the Luttrells, whose graves for generations back thronged the narrow aisle of the church. These facts, and that he had a sickly wife and one child, a boy of a

handsome, but her wasted figure and incessant cough showed she was in the last stage of consumption. The child was a picture of infantile beauty, and that daring boldness which sits so gracefully on childhood. If he was dressed in the very chea

ep curiosity alive. All that they knew of Luttrell was to meet him in his walks, and receive the short, not over-courteous nod with which he acknowledged their salutations. Of his wife, they only saw the wasted form that half lay, half sat at a window; so that all their thoughts were centred in the child-the Prince-who came familiarly amongst them, uncared for and unheeded by his own, and free to pass his days with the other children as they heaped wood upon the kelp f

at seemed to augment this terror. His days were passed in search of relics and antiquarian objects, of which the Abbey possessed a rich store, and to their simple intelligence these things smacked of magic. To hear the clink of his spade within the walls of the ol

w him to her heart, and as she pressed his golden locks close to her, her tears would fall fast upon them, but dreading lest her sorrow should throw a shade over his sunny happines

e on either side of the fireplace, over which, on a bracket, was an enormous human skull, an inscription being attached to it, with the reasons for believing its size to be gigantic rather than the consequences of diseased growth. Strange-shaped bones, and arrow-heads, and stone spears and javelins decorated the walls, with

d discoloured by time. The window was open, and offered a wide view over the sea, on which a faint moonl

, and then resumed his reading; but it was easy to see that the pages did not engage

and opened it. It was the woman-servant who formed his

d he, in so

is come," sai

, as though to

t he says he hopes that you'll come over to Belmull

rose to a key of passionate eagerness

at you'll tel

n Luttrell, angrily. "I'm not

r the blessed Sacrament!

leaned his head on the chimney-piece; and then, without raising i

ome in!" cried Luttrell, and there entered a short, slightly-made man, middle-aged and active-looking, with

. She's in glory!"

ain?" aske

he last. Indeed, her last words were to re

in Luttrell, impatientl

hardily. "When you had the courage to make a peasant girl you

was brought up a Catholic; I never interfered with her convictions. If I never spoke to her on the subject of her faith, it was no small concession from a man who felt on the matter as I did. I

e you to do it. There was no stain on your wife'

you, Father Lowrie?" asked Luttr

good friend to me and mine before ruin overtoo

your debtor, Sir, a

hat has just gone, begged and prayed me with her last breath to look after

pe for success for such a scheme, take a likelier moment, father; this

y opportunity to see and ta

d early," said Luttrell. "Your own good feeling

these last words were spoken, t

oman, as he passed out, "wi

how, Molly," sai

the third day. A messenger had been despatched to his late wife's relatives, who lived about seventy miles off, down the coast of Mayo, and to invite them to attend. Of her immediate family none remained. Her father was in banishment, the commutation of a sentence of death. Of her two brothers, one

on of the cottier; but they were, as a family, a determined, resolute, hard-headed race, not a little dreaded in the neighbourhood where

d no recollection of him. Nothing short of an absolute necessity-for as such he felt it-would have induced him to send for them now; but he knew well how rigid were popular prejudi

those melancholy festivities which the lower Irish adhere to with a devotion that

l see them when they come, and take leave of them when they go; but they are not to expe

with her apron-"what's to be done with him? 'Tis two

rrow, and will soo

said she, tenderly-"it's kil

mile, "that neither sorrow nor shame ever killed. Leav

her horror at such a sentiment, and

everything, Molly?" a

ty-nine, if Mr. Rafter comes; but we don't expect him-and Fat

this-this feast

he funeral, by coor

leave this the ne

he, no less offended at the doubt than at

he, with a sigh. "I hav

"that they'll expect your Honour will go in for a minute

ad in dissent,

, Sir," said she, eagerly, "and if they though

her memory than these ignorant peasants. Let there be no more of this;" and he closed the door afte