" (as our hostess was familiarly called, in derision of her
affected pride) in colours not very flattering to her virtue. He said he
could positively furnish us with the means of escape; described his
resources as unlimited, and his interest in us as paramount to every
consideration he had on earth. He was an ecclesiastical student, and had
left college to take part in the struggle of his country. He bitterly
lamented that Dillon and O'Gorman were not in the way, that he might
have the happiness of assisting in saving them also. Agreeably to his
advice, we left our den and proceeded up the mountain. It was Sunday
morning, and there was not a cloud darkening the azure sky. Below us
slept the waters of the bay, reflecting, in their crystal depths, the
superincumbent mountains and overarching sky. The sun rose majestically,
broad, unclouded, full of effulgence, and shed his yellow beams, on a
scene as lovely as ever met his burning eye. The mountains around the
bay form very nearly a complete circle; the numerous peaks, from south
to north, range at an average height of about 500 feet above the water's
level, while a few ascend as high as 1,000. We stood on the loftiest of
all. Immediately below us, a little to the right, embosomed in the
mountains, lay the unmatched beauties of Glengarriff. There are few
spots on earth of wilder attractions. The hills around form a complete
amphitheatre. On an island in the centre of the valley is the cottage of
the noble proprietor, accessible only by one narrow pathway which winds
through hillocks and passes various rivulets on rustic bridges. The
grounds about the cottages are tastefully laid out in shrubberies,
flower-knots, green pastures, and artificial lakes. That which
constitutes the chief feature of beauty in other landscapes, namely, an
extensive prospect, is wanting here. From the cottage, or any part of
the grounds, you can only command a view of the limited demesne, and the
craggy and bleak mountain rising almost perpendicularly from its
outskirts. But the view is unique, and the contrast exquisite between
the rich green of the arbutus, amidst clumps of which sparkle the
impeded mountain waters, and the barren hill-sides whose blue summits
seem blended with the skies giving to the scene such an air of calm
serenity and soft repose as to leave the beholder almost without a wish
to look beyond.

[Illustration: Market Day in Thurles, August, 1848]

By this time we had learned