tion,
He sang the bold anthem of Erin-go-bragh."

When a very young man,--scarcely eighteen years of age,--being a friend
of Thomas Addis Emmett and Lord Edward Fitzgerald (though his family
were firm Protestants), and carried away by mistaken patriotism, he had
been induced to take a part in the lamentable Irish rebellion of 1798,
which stained their beloved country with blood, and left her in a far
more deplorable condition than she had previously been. Young as he
was, my father had been actively engaged in the various skirmishes and
battles which occurred between the insurgent forces and the royal
troops. He was present at Arklow, Ross, and Vinegar-hill, where he was
wounded; and had it not been for the resolute courage of a devoted
follower, Tim Molloy, he would have fallen into the hands of the
victors. Carried off the field of battle, he was concealed for many
weeks in a mud hut by the faithful Tim; who, when a price was set on his
head, went forth nightly to obtain provisions, and finally assisted him
to reach the coast. He there, accompanied by Tim, embarked on board a
vessel bound for the West Indies; but unable to remain with safety in
any of the English islands, after long wanderings they landed on the
shores of Venezuela, then belonging to the Spaniards. Tim, fearing that
should his beloved master remain at any of their ports the Spanish
authorities might deliver him up to the English Government, urged him to
push farther inland. At length they reached the region I have
described, where their wanderings were over; for my father here found a
fellow-exile, Mr Denis Concannan, who had some years before arrived in
the country and married the daughter of a Spanish hidalgo of
considerable wealth. He was cordially received by Mr Concannan and his
wife, who had several sons and daughters,--one of whom, in the course of
time, became my father's wife and my mother.

His friends at home, to whom he at length divulged the place of his
retreat, might probably have obtained a pardon for him on the plea of
his youth, but, though still entertaining a warm affection for his
native land, he had become much attached to the country of his adoption,
which my mother also was unwilling to leave. My uncles, moreover, had
been sent to England for their education, where one of them continued to
reside; and my family thus kept up communication with the old country.

When I was old enough to go to school, my father determi