," whispered his lordship to one of his train, "there's a
saisoning of the woman and the Christian about the heathen Amazon,
after all."

The Earl and the Lady Grace parted very good friends, and the baby-lord
went home loaded with presents. Oh, lonely and dreary seemed Grace
O'Malley's old castle when he was gone--doubly dark seemed its great
cavernous hall, without the sunshine of his joyous life--doubly
desolate the lady's shadowy chamber, in the windy old turret alone,
without the brightness of his winsome face and the music of his happy
voice.

The Lady Grace became sadder and more silent than before, but she
seemed less haughty and warlike. She still followed the chase as
fiercely as ever, but she gradually gave over fighting and plundering.
She began to notice kindly little children--to give more generously to
the poor, and was even suspected of praying sometimes, and of wearing a
concealed crucifix. Her men said that the baby-lord had spoiled their
fiery vi-queen, who led them no longer on marauding and piratical
expeditions; but her women blessed the saints that their mistress had
"softened down a bit, and made it more comfortable like to sarve her."

Once every year, Grace O'Malley went in state to Howth Castle, to see
her beloved little friend and carry him presents, till at last, just as
he was growing into manhood, a cruel sickness came upon her, and she
was unable to go. Yet she sent her galley and the presents, as usual,
to prove her faithful love.

Tristram, who had grown up a noble, generous youth, was grieved to hear
of the illness of this strange, proud woman, who had seemed to lay
aside her very nature to love him, and as he had always kept his old
childish affection for her, he resolved to go and see her once more.

So the galley, on its return, took the young Lord of Howth to the
O'Malley's Castle, in Connaught.

It was night when they arrived--a wild November night. The sky was
heavy with storm-clouds, and the sea was running high before a strong
wind, and breaking with a sound like thunder upon that bleak, black
shore. There was a great fire burning in the vast chimney of the old
hall, but in the farther corners, dark shadows were lurking, and the
stone walls were glistening with a chill dampness.

As the heavy hall door swung open, to admit the young lord and his
train, so much of the tempestuous night rushed in with them, that the
old armor and the banners hanging on the walls cla