it."

This muffled dialogue, if we may use the expression, was now interrupted
by a change in their route. At a Rath, which here capped an eminence of
the road, a narrow bridle-way diverged to the right, and after a gradual
ascent for about a mile and a half, was lost upon a rough upland, that
might be almost termed a moor. Here they halted for a few minutes, in
deliberation as to whether they should then proceed across the moor, or
wait until the moon should rise and enable them to see their way.

It was shortly resolved upon to advance, in order that they might lose
as little time as possible, in consequence of having, as it appeared,
two or three little affairs to execute in the course of the night. They
immediately struck across the rough ground which lay before them, and
as they did so, the conversation began to be indulged in more freely, in
consequence of their remoteness from any human dwelling or the chances
of being overheard. The whole body now fell into groups, each headed by
a certain individual who acted as leader, but so varied were the topics
of discourse, some using Irish, others the English language, that it was
rather difficult to catch the general purport of what they said.

At length when a distance of about two miles had been traversed, they
came out upon one of those small green campaigns, or sloping meadows,
that are occasionally to be found embosomed in the mountains, and upon
which the eye rests with an agreeable sense of relief, on turning to
them from the dark and monotonous hue of the gloomy wastes around them.

They had not been many minutes here when the moon rose, and after
a little time her light would have enabled a casual or accidental
spectator to witness a fearful and startling scene. About six hundred
men were there assembled; every man having his face blackened, and all
with shirts over their outward and usual garments. As soon as the moon,
after having gained a greater elevation in the sky, began to diffuse
a clearer lustre on the earth, we may justly say that it would be
difficult to witness so strange and appalling a spectacle. The white
appearance of their persons, caused by the shirts which they wore in the
manner we have stated, for this peculiar occasion, when contrasted with
their blackened visages, gave them more the character of demons than of
men, with whom indeed their strange costume and disfigured faces seemed
to imitate the possession of very little in common, wit