tself was so striking and strange, that we will give the reader an
imperfect sketch of its appearance. He who stood at midnight upon a
little mount which rose behind the chapel, might see between five and
six thousand torches, all blazing together, and forming a level mass of
red dusky light, burning against the dark horizon. These torches were
so close to each other that their light seemed to blend, as if they
had constituted one wide surface of flame; and nothing could be more
preternatural-looking than the striking and devotional countenances
of those who were assembled at their midnight worship, when observed
beneath this canopy of fire. The Mass was performed under the open sky,
upon a table covered with the sacrificial linen, and other apparatus for
the ceremony. The priest stood, robed in white, with two large torches
on each side of his book, reciting the prayers in a low, rapid voice,
his hands raised, whilst the congregation were hushed and bent forward
in the reverential silence of devotion, their faces touched by the
strong blaze of the torches into an expression of deep solemnity. The
scenery about the place was wild and striking; and the stars, scattered
thinly over the heavens, twinkled with a faint religious light, that
blended well with the solemnity of this extraordinary worship, and
rendered the rugged nature of the abrupt cliffs and precipices, together
with the still outline of the stern mountains, sufficiently visible to
add to the wildness and singularity of the ceremony. In fact, there was
an unearthly character about it; and the spectre-like appearance of the
white-robed priest as he

"Muttered his prayer to the midnight air,"

would almost impress a man with the belief that it was a meeting of the
dead, and that the priest was repeating, like the Gray Friar, his

"Mass of the days that were gone."

On the ceremony being concluded, the scene, however, was instantly
changed: the lights were waved and scattered promiscuously among
each other, giving an idea of confusion and hurry that was strongly
contrasted with the death-like stillness that prevailed a few minutes
before. The gabble and laugh were again heard loud and hearty, and the
public and shebeen houses once more became crowded. Many of the young I
people made, on these occasions, what is I called "a runaway;" (* Rustic
elopement) and other peccadilloes took place, for which the delinquents
were "either read out from the altar