The Project Gutenberg EBook of The O'Donoghue, by Charles James Lever

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The O'Donoghue
Tale Of Ireland Fifty Years Ago

Author: Charles James Lever

Release Date: May 11, 2010 [EBook #32340]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE O'DONOGHUE ***

Produced by David Widger

THE O'DONOGHUE;

TALE OF IRELAND FIFTY YEARS AGO.

By Charles Lever

Dublin

William Curry, Jun. And Company.

William S. Orr And Co. London.

Fraser And Co. Edinburgh.

1845.

TO

JOHN WILSON, ESQ.,

Professor of Moral Philosophy In the University of Edinburgh, &c.

Dear Sir,

It is but seldom that the few lines of a dedication can give
the pleasure I now feel in availing myself of your kind
permission to inscribe this volume to you. As a boy, the
greatest happiness of my life was in your writings; and
among all my faults and failures, I can trace not one to
your influence, while, if I have ever been momentarily
successful in upholding the right, and denouncing the wrong,
I owe more of the spirit that suggested the effort to
yourself than to any other man breathing.

With my sincerest respects, and, if I dared, I should say,
with my warmest regards,

I am, yours truly,

CHARLES LEVER.

Carlsruhe, October 18th, 1845.

THE O'DONOGHUE;

A TALE OF IRELAND FIFTY YEARS AGO.

CHAPTER I. GLENFLESK.

In that wild and picturesque valley which winds its way between the
town of Macroom and Bantry Bay, and goes by the name of Glenflesk, the
character of Irish scenery is perhaps more perfectly displayed than in
any other tract of the same extent in the island. The mountains, rugged
and broken, are singularly fanciful in their outline; their sides a
mingled mass of granite and straggling herbage, where the deepest green
and the red purple of the heath-bell are blended harmoniously together.
The valley beneath, alternately widening and narrowing, presents one
rich meadow tract, watered by a deep and rapid stream, fed by a thousand
rills that come tumbling, and foaming down the mountain sides, and to
th