, defended at the sides by a rude wooden railing, which led down upon
the beach exactly at the spot where a well of clear spring-water sprang
up, and tracked its tiny stream into the blue ocean. This little spring,
which was always covered by the sea at high-water, was restored, on the
tide ebbing, to its former purity, and bubbled away as before; and from
this cause it had obtained from the simple peasantry the reputation of
being miraculous, and was believed to possess innumerable properties of
healing and consoling.

I had often heard of it but never visited it before; and thither we now
bent our steps, more intent upon catching the glorious sunset that was
glowing on the Atlantic than of testing the virtues of St. Senan's Well,
for so was it called. The evening, an autumnal one, was calm and still;
not a leaf stirred; the very birds were hushed; and there was all that
solemn silence that sometimes threatens the outbreak of a storm. As we
descended the crag, however, the deep booming of the sea broke upon us,
and between the foliage of the oak-trees we could mark the heavy rolling
of the mighty tide, as wave after wave swelled on, and then was dashed
in foam and spray upon the shore. There was something peculiarly grand
and almost supernatural in the heavy swell of the great sea, rearing
its white crest afar and thundering along the weather-beaten rocks, when
everything else was calm and unmoved around; the deep and solemn roar,
echoing from many a rocky cavern, rose amid the crashing spray that sent
up a thin veil of mist, through which the setting sun was reflected in
many a bright rainbow. It was indeed a glorious sight, and we stopped
for several minutes gazing on it; when suddenly Louisa, letting go my
arm, exclaimed, as she pointed downwards--

'See, see the swell beneath that large black rock yonder! The tide is
making fast; we must get quickly down if you wish to test St. Senan's
power.'

I had no time left me to ask what peculiar virtues the saint dispensed
through the mediation of his well, when she broke from my side and
hurried down the steep descent. In a moment we had reached the shore,
upon which already the tide was fast encroaching, and had marked with
its dark stain the yellow sand within a few feet of the well. As we drew
nearer, I perceived the figure of an old woman hent with age, who seemed
busily occupied sprinkling the water of the spring over something that,
as I came closer, seemed like a