se, to me no mystery.

Heathcote lived to a very advanced age, being of that hard mould which
is not easily impressionable. The selfish and the hard-hearted survive
where nobler, more generous, and, above all, more sympathising natures
would have sunk for ever.

Dwyer certainly succeeded in extorting, I cannot say how, considerable
and advantageous leases from Colonel O'Mara; but after his death he
disposed of his interest in these, and having for a time launched into a
sea of profligate extravagance, he became bankrupt, and for a long time
I totally lost sight of him.

The rebellion of '98, and the events which immediately followed, called
him forth from his lurking-places, in the character of an informer; and
I myself have seen the hoary-headed, paralytic perjurer, with a scowl
of derision and defiance, brave the hootings and the execrations of the
indignant multitude.

STRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTER.

Being a Seventh Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis
Purcell, P. P. of Drumcoolagh.

You will no doubt be surprised, my dear friend, at the subject of the
following narrative. What had I to do with Schalken, or Schalken with
me? He had returned to his native land, and was probably dead and
buried, before I was born; I never visited Holland nor spoke with a
native of that country. So much I believe you already know. I must,
then, give you my authority, and state to you frankly the ground upon
which rests the credibility of the strange story which I am, about to
lay before you.

I was acquainted, in my early days, with a Captain Vandael, whose father
had served King William in the Low Countries, and also in my own unhappy
land during the Irish campaigns. I know not how it happened that I liked
this man's society, spite of his politics and religion: but so it was;
and it was by means of the free intercourse to which our intimacy gave
rise that I became possessed of the curious tale which you are about to
hear.

I had often been struck, while visiting Vandael, by a remarkable
picture, in which, though no connoisseur myself, I could not fail to
discern some very strong peculiarities, particularly in the distribution
of light and shade, as also a certain oddity in the design itself, which
interested my curiosity. It represented the interior of what might be a
chamber in some antique religious building--the foreground was occupied
by a female figure, arrayed in a species of w