verlook his immoral and irregular conduct. He is
mentioned by Matthew O'Connor, in his "History of the Irish Catholics,"
and consigned to infamy as one of the greatest scourges, against both
the priesthood and the people, that ever disgraced the country. But it
must be admitted that he stands out in dark relief against the great
body of the Catholic priests at that period, whose firmness, patience,
and fidelity to their trust, places them above all praise and all
suspicion. It is, however, very reasonable, that men so hunted and
persecuted should be forced, not only in defence of their own lives
and liberties, but also for the sake of their flocks, to assume such
costumes as might most effectually disguise them, so that they would be
able still, even in secret and by stealth, to administer the rites of
their religion to the poor and neglected of their own creed. Some were
dressed in common frieze, some in servants' cast-off liveries--however
they came by them--and not a few in military uniform, that served, as
it were, to mark them staunch supporters of the very Government that
persecuted them. A reverend archdeacon, somewhat comely and corpulent,
had, by some means or other, procured the garb of a recruiting sergeant,
which fitted him so admirably that the illusion was complete; and, what
bore it out still more forcibly, was the presence of a smart-looking
little friar, who kept the sergeant in countenance in the uniform of
a drummer. Mass was celebrated every day, hymns were sung, and prayers
offered up to the Almighty, that it might please him to check the flood
of persecution which had overwhelmed or scattered them. Still, in the
intervals of devotion, they indulged in that reasonable cheerfulness and
harmless mirth which were necessary to support their spirits, depressed
as they must have been by this dreadful and melancholy confinement--a
confinement where neither the light of the blessed sun, nor the fresh
breezes of heaven, nor the air we breathe, in its usual purity, could
reach them. Sir Thomas More and Sir Walter Raleigh, however, were
cheerful on the scaffold; and even here, as we have already said, many a
rustic tale and legend, peculiar to those times, went pleasantly around;
many a theological debate took place, and many a thesis was discussed,
in order to enable the unhappy men to pass away the tedious monotony of
their imprisonment in this strange lurking-place. The only man who kept
aloof and took no par