e wild and riotous
uproar of the fair, the tumult of voices and music, dancing, drinking,
and fighting, were gone; and the low monotonous sound of the pilgrims'
prayers was heard, as they moved along upon their knees to some holy
well or shrine, to offer up a prayer, or return a thanksgiving for
blessings bestowed. The scene was a strange and picturesque one; the
long lines of kneeling figures, where the rich scarlet cloak of the
women predominated, crossed and recrossed each other as they wended
their way to the destined altar; their muttered words blending with the
louder and more boisterous appeals of the mendicants,--who, stationed
at every convenient angle or turning, besieged each devotee with
unremitting entreaty,--deep and heartfelt devotion in every face, every
lineament and feature impressed with religious zeal and piety; but
still, as group met group going and returning, they interchanged their
greetings between their prayers, and mingled the worldly salutations
with aspirations heavenward, and their "Paters," and "Aves," and
"Credos," were blended with inquiries for the "childer," or questions
about the "crops."

"Isn't that Owen Connor, avick, that's going there, towards the
Yallow-well?" said an old crone as she ceased to count her beads.

"You're right enough, Biddy; 'tis himself, and no other; it's a turn he
took to devotion since he grew rich."

"Ayeh! ayeh! the Lord be good to us! how fond we all be of life, when
we've the bit of bacon to the fore!" And with that she resumed her pious
avocations with redoubled energy, to make up for lost time.

The old ladies were as sharp-sighted as such functionaries usually are
in any sphere of society. It was Owen Connor himself, performing his
first pilgrimage. The commands of his landlord had expressly forbidden
him to engage in any disturbance at the fair; the only mode of complying
with which, he rightly judged, was by absenting himself altogether. How
this conduct was construed by others, we have briefly hinted at. As for
himself, poor fellow, if a day of mortification could have availed him
any thing, he needn't have appeared among the pilgrims;--a period of
such sorrow and suffering he had never undergone before. But in justice
it must be confessed, it was devotion of a very questionable character
that brought him there that morning. Since the fair-day, Mary Joyce had
never deigned to notice him; and though he had been several times at
mass, she either a