he country's estimation. Desmond
Court stood in a bleak, unadorned region, almost among the mountains,
half way between Kanturk and Maccoom, and the family had some claim
to possession of the land for miles around. The earl of the day was
still the head landlord of a huge district extending over the whole
barony of Desmond, and half the adjacent baronies of Muskerry and
Duhallow; but the head landlord's rent in many cases hardly amounted
to sixpence an acre, and even those sixpences did not always find
their way into the earl's pocket. When the late earl had attained
his sceptre, he might probably have been entitled to spend some ten
thousand a year; but when he died, and during the years just previous
to that, he had hardly been entitled to spend anything.

But, nevertheless, the Desmonds were great people, and owned a great
name. They had been kings once over those wild mountains; and would
be still, some said, if every one had his own. Their grandeur was
shown by the prevalence of their name. The barony in which they lived
was the barony of Desmond. The river which gave water to their cattle
was the river Desmond. The wretched, ragged, poverty-stricken village
near their own dismantled gate was the town of Desmond. The earl was
Earl of Desmond--not Earl Desmond, mark you; and the family name was
Desmond. The grandfather of the present earl, who had repaired his
fortune by selling himself at the time of the Union, had been Desmond
Desmond, Earl of Desmond.

The late earl, the friend of the most illustrious person in the
kingdom, had not been utterly able to rob his heir of everything, or
he would undoubtedly have done so. At the age of twenty-one the young
earl would come into possession of the property, damaged certainly,
as far as an actively evil father could damage it by long leases, bad
management, lack of outlay, and rack-renting;--but still into the
possession of a considerable property. In the mean time it did not
fare very well, in a pecuniary way, with Clara, the widowed countess,
or with the Lady Clara, her daughter. The means at the widow's
disposal were only those which the family trustees would allow her
as the earl's mother: on his coming of age she would have almost no
means of her own; and for her daughter no provision whatever had been
made.

As this first chapter is devoted wholly to the locale of my story, I
will not stop to say a word as to the persons or characters of either
of these two ladi