y of the timber,
tho' that was rotten, and illigant outhouses for the pigs and the
geese, and the ould bricks of the wall wor good manure for the
praties" (this, in all my farming, I had never dreamt of); "but
times was very hard on the poor, the praties being ninepence a stone
in Carrick all last summer; God help the poor, the crayturs! for
the gintlemin, their raal frinds, that should be, couldn't help
thimselves now, let alone others"--and so on, now speaking of his
sorrow and poverty, and again descanting on the "illigance" of
his abode. I could only learn that a family called the Macdermots
had lived there some six or seven years back, that they were an
unfortunate people, he had heard tell, but he had not been in the
country then, and it was a bloody story, &c. &c. &c. The evening was
drawing on, and the time for my coach to come was fast approaching;
so I was obliged to leave Ballycloran, unsatisfied as to its history,
and to return to Drumsna.

Here I had no time to make further inquiries, as Mr. Hartley's
servants always keep their time; and very shortly the four horses
clattered down the hill into the village. I got up behind, for
McC----, the guard, was an old friend of mine; and after the usual
salutations and strapping of portmanteaus, and shifting down into
places, as McC---- knows everything, I began to ask him if he knew
anything of a place called Ballycloran.

"'Deed then, Sir, and I do," said he, "and good reason have I to
know; and well I knew those that lived in it, ruined, and black, and
desolate, as Ballycloran is now:" and between Drumsna and Boyle, he
gave me the heads of the following story. And, reader, if I thought
it would ever be your good fortune to hear the history of Ballycloran
from the guard of the Boyle coach, I would recommend you to get it
from him, and shut my book forthwith.

CHAPTER II.

THE MACDERMOT FAMILY.

McC----'s story runs thus. About sixty years ago, a something
Macdermot, true Milesian, pious Catholic, and descendant of king
somebody, died somewhere, having managed to keep a comfortable little
portion of his ancestors' royalties to console him for the loss of
their sceptre. He having two sons, and disdaining to make anything
but estated gentlemen of them, made over in some fictitious manner
(for in those righteous days a Roman Catholic could make no legal
will) to his eldest, the estate on which he lived, and to the
youngest, that of Ballycloran--about si