nd grooms rushing madly down-stairs. Miss Tyrrel sank fainting on the
spot; and Hewitt had but time to treat Sally-the-tin to a parting kick,
which conveyed her in a state of collapse to a small bower of pelargoniums
at the further end of the green-house, drag his reverend friend through
the window, and disappear, when the whole effective force of the household
burst into the apartment.

CHAPTER V.

We have long been persuaded, not less by the impartial assurances of
respected friends than by our own internal convictions, that, if we
possess any one excellence beyond another--and our talents are varied and
extraordinary--it is a tendency to dramatic perfection. And albeit the
narrative Arimanes too often mars the beneficent desires of the dramatic
Oromasdes; yet at all times we endeavour as much as in us lies to adhere
to those venerable observances the Unities, so long and no doubt so justly
objects of respect and admiration. In the present tale, although compelled
to violate the unity of Time, we have hitherto pretty closely adhered to
that of Place, our characters having, for the course of some pages,
hovered within and around the precincts of the celebrated village where
the scene opened, which (although a hall, or some spacious chamber, might
be a little nearer to those rules the classic stage so strictly enforces)
we flatter ourselves will be found sufficiently limited for present
exigencies. We are now, however, about to take a liberty with the second
unity by transporting the reader (may we hope in more senses than one?) to
a spot distant from our former scene some six or eight miles, on the high
and solitary summit of Kilworth mountain, in that place where the great
southern road from Dublin to Cork winds over the acclivity.

The peculiar character of the landscape in question may best be conveyed
in the words of a friend whom we once, in an hour of juvenile arrogance
and self-exaltation, induced to accompany us thither in order to astonish
him with what we conceived to be the boundless impressiveness and glory of
the scene. It happened to be rather a breezy day towards the fall of the
leaf, and after a pretty sharp and tedious journey, enlivened, however, by
our friend's various and interesting converse--for he had been a
marvellous traveller, and had crossed the globe from Spitzbergen to
Caffraria in one direction, and circled it from Pekin to Peru, _via_
Paris, in another--we arrived at our _point d'appui