eputy the next day hanged
the Englishman that killed him, for that foul fact." The cause of the
Englishman's crime was "meer jealousie," because O'Connor had kissed his
wife.

[325] _Cavalry_.--Horse soldiery were introduced early into Britain,
through the Romans, who were famous for their cavalry.

[326] _Castle_.--The Annals of Boyle contain a wonderful account of the
_pirrels_ or engines constructed by the English for taking this
fortress.

[327] _Felim_.--The Four Masters say, when writing of the act of
treachery mentioned above: "They all yearned to act treacherously
towards Felim, although he was the gossip of the Lord Justice."--Annals,
vol. iii. p. 285. He was sponsor or godfather to one of his children.

CHAPTER XX.

The Age was not all Evil--Good Men in the World and in the
Cloister--Religious Houses and their Founders--The Augustinians and
Cistercians--Franciscans and Dominicans--Their close Friendship--
Dominican Houses--St. Saviour's, Dublin--The Black Abbey, Kilkenny--
Franciscan Houses--Youghal--Kilkenny--Multifarnham--Timoleague--
Donegal--Carmelite Convents and Friars--Rising of the Connaught Men--
A Plunderer of the English--Battle of Downpatrick--The MacCarthys
defeat the Geraldines at Kenmare--War between De Burgo and FitzGerald.

[A.D. 1244-1271.]

Zeal for founding religious houses was one of the characteristics of the
age. Even the men who spent their lives in desolating the sanctuaries
erected by others, and in butchering their fellow-creatures, appear to
have had some thought of a future retribution--some idea that crime
demanded atonement--with a lively faith in a future state, where a stern
account would be demanded. If we contented ourselves with merely
following the sanguinary careers of kings and chieftains, we should have
as little idea of the real condition of the country, as we should obtain
of the present social state of England by an exclusive study of the
police reports in the _Times_. Perhaps, there was not much more crime
committed then than now. Certainly there were atonements made for
offending against God and man, which we do not hear of at the present
day. Even a cursory glance through the driest annals, will show that it
was not all evil--that there was something besides crime and misery. On
almost every page we find some incident which tells us that faith was
not extinct. In the Annals of the Four Masters, the obituaries of good
men are invariably placed befor