cing any one who entertained, harboured or assisted
us, with the direst punishment. In answer to our inquiry the owner, who
was a woman, pointed to the proclamation, as an argument against which
all remonstrance was vain. We made three or four other attempts equally
fruitless; and when the night had closed around us, on a bleak, desolate
road, I determined to call on the Roman Catholic priest, and state who
we were; for while, if alone, we would infinitely prefer taking such
rest as we could in the nearest brake, or under shelter of a wall, we
could not think of submitting our delicate companion to the trials of a
night in the open air, during an exceedingly inclement season. With some
hesitation and great alarm, he procured a lodging for us at a farmer's
house in the neighbourhood. We saw him next morning, and his most
earnest injunction was that we should leave the locality, which,
according to him, was altogether unsafe. To escape arrest there for
twelve hours was, he said, impossible. Similar advice was pressed on us
afterwards in many a safer asylum; but we learned to mock at others'
fears, whereas, on this occasion, we yielded to an impression we felt to
be sincere.

Before venturing nearer to Dungarvan, we determined to bespeak the
services of another clergyman, who lived a distance of six or seven
miles in the direction of Waterford. A ridge of the Comeraghs lay
between us and his lonely dwelling. Along this ridge lay a winding
bridle-road, skirted by patches of green sward, and occasionally crossed
by a sparkling mountain rill. Above us, on the hill-side, was a
considerable bog, where crowds of country people were collecting to
their daily toil. A merry laugh or boisterous joke occasionally rang
clear in the morning air. The mirth went heavily to our hearts. The
snatch of song, the unrestrained laugh, the merry glee, broke upon the
ear of the wayfarers like the mocking of demons. The consciousness that
they then sped, without a beacon or a guide, over the flinty path of
flight, to end perhaps at the gibbet, imparted to the voice of mirth the
sound of ingratitude. However, the day was brilliant; above us the
clear, blue, unfathomable sky; around us the bracing mountain air, laden
with the breath of hare-bell and heather, and far below the calm sea,
sleeping in the morning light; and weariness, hunger and apprehension
yielded to the influence of the scene. Many a time, ere passed the sunny
noon, did we sit down t