en artificially terraced, and gardens formed in
the Italian taste, the entire being defended by a deep fosse in front,
and crossed by a drawbridge. Neglect and dilapidation had, however,
disfigured all these; the terraces were broken down by the cattle,
the cordage of the bridge hung in fragments in the wind, and even the
stained-glass windows were smashed, and their places filled by paper
or wooden substitutes. As I came nearer, these signs of ruin and
devastation were still more apparent. The marble statues were fractured,
and fissured by bullet-marks; the pastures were cut up by horses' feet;
and even fragments of furniture were strewn about, as though thrown from
the windows in some paroxysm of passionate debauchery. The door of
the mansion was open, and evidences of even greater decay presented
themselves within. Massive cornices of carved oak hung broken and
shattered from the walls; richly cut wainscotings were split and
fissured; a huge marble table of immense thickness was smashed through
the centre, and the fragments still lay scattered on the floor
where they had fallen. As I stood, in mournful mood, gazing on this
desecration of what once had been a noble and costly estate, an
ill-dressed, slatternly woman-servant chanced to cross the hall, and
stopped with some astonishment to stare at me. To my inquiry if I could
see Mr. Curtis, she replied by a burst of laughter too natural to be
deemed offensive.

"By coorse you couldn't," said she, at length; "sure there's nobody
stirrin', nor won't be these two hours."

"At what time, then, might I hope to be more fortunate?"

If I came about three or four in the afternoon, when the gentlemen were
at breakfast, I might see Mr. Archy,--Archy M'Clean.

This gentleman was, as she told me, the nephew of Mr. Curtis, and his
reputed heir.

Having informed her that I was a stranger in Ireland, and come from a
long distance off to pay this visit, she good-naturedly suffered me to
enter the house and rest myself in a small and meanly furnished chamber
adjoining the hall. If I could but recall the sensations which passed
through my mind as I sat in that solitary room, I could give a more
correct picture of my nature than by all I have narrated of my actual
life. Hour after hour glided by at first, in all the stillness of
midnight; but gradually a faint noise would be heard afar off, and
now and again a voice would echo through the long corridors, the very
accents of which