nly to play cards! Faith, it's going mad I will
be!"

"I say, Murtagh!"

"Yes, Shorsha dear!"

"I have a pack of cards."

"You don't say so, Shorsha ma vourneen?--you don't say that you have
cards fifty-two?"

"I do, though; and they are quite new--never been once used."

"And you'll be lending them to me, I warrant?"

"Don't think it!--But I'll sell them to you, joy, if you like."

"Hanam mon Dioul! am I not after telling you that I have no money at
all?"

"But you have as good as money, to me, at least; and I'll take it in
exchange."

"What's that, Shorsha dear?"

"Irish!"

"Irish?"

"Yes, you speak Irish; I heard you talking it the other day to the
cripple. You shall teach me Irish."

"And is it a language-master you'd be making of me?"

"To be sure!--what better can you do?--it would help you to pass your
time at school. You can't learn Greek, so you must teach Irish!"

Before Christmas, Murtagh was playing at cards with his brother Denis,
and I could speak a considerable quantity of broken Irish.

CHAPTER XI

Templemore--Devil's Mountain--No Companion--Force of Circumstance--Way of
the World--Ruined Castle--Grim and Desolate--The Donjon--Old Woman--My
Own House.

When Christmas was over, and the new year commenced, we broke up our
quarters, and marched away to Templemore. {104} This was a large
military station, situated in a wild and thinly inhabited country.
Extensive bogs were in the neighbourhood, connected with the huge bog of
Allan, the Palus Maeotis of Ireland. Here and there was seen a ruined
castle looming through the mists of winter; whilst, at the distance of
seven miles, rose a singular mountain, exhibiting in its brow a chasm, or
vacuum, just, for all the world, as if a piece had been bitten out; a
feat which, according to the tradition of the country, had actually been
performed by his Satanic majesty, who, after flying for some leagues with
the morsel in his mouth, becoming weary, dropped it in the vicinity of
Cashel, where it may now be seen in the shape of a bold bluff hill,
crowned with the ruins of a stately edifice, probably built by some
ancient Irish king.

We had been here only a few days, when my brother, who, as I have before
observed, had become one of His Majesty's officers, was sent on
detachment to a village at about ten miles' distance. He was not
sixteen, and, though three years older than myself, scarcely my equal in
stature, for I had becom