hich is still held by his descendants,
who have adopted the name of Cronin. A Protestant gentleman having taken
some dislike to Mr. Duggan, and being besides a furious bigot, resolved to
file a bill against him. Before he had time to execute his design a
relative named McCarthy, who had been living in Paris, came to see him.
This relative told him that he was very badly off and about to leave for
America. "Never mind," said Mr. ----: "I'm going to file a bill against
Duggan. The fellow is a Papist. I will get his property, and you shall
have a share." It is probable that Mr. ---- might have tried to quiet his
conscience by this intended application of the money, and to persuade
himself that he was not acting through love of gain. In a day or two after
the above conversation McCarthy was staying with Mr. Deane Freeman of
Castle Cor in the county of Cork. This gentleman being a Protestant and a
Tory, his guest told him of the plan against Duggan. But Mr. Freeman was
quite a different person from the others, and was besides a friend of Mr.
Duggan's. He went immediately to Mr. ---- 's house, and learned from his
own lips that he was about to commit this wrong. Mr. Freeman then said
that he also had business at Dublin, and proposed that they should go
together. Traveling was at that time both slow and dangerous, and Mr.
---- was glad of the addition to his party. They stopped the first night at
the house of a friend, who on a hint from Freeman managed to induce the
intended filer of the bill to partake so largely of his hospitality that
he was carried to bed the next morning in a state of insensibility. His
companion being thus put _hors de combat_, Mr. Freeman hastened to Dublin
and filed a bill in his own name. While this was on the file no other bill
could be proceeded with, but for further security he got Mr. Duggan to
make a fictitious sale of the property to him, and thus saved it for
better times.

The MacMahon estates in the county of Clare were saved in the following
way: Suspecting a "discoverer," a Miss MacMahon--who must have been own
cousin to Lever's Miss Betty O'Shea--resolved to become a Protestant. She
first, however, consulted a friar, and was told by him that if she did so
she would peril her soul. "Here goes, then!" cried the doughty damsel:
"better that the soul of an old maid should go the wrong way than that the
property of the MacMahons should go to the Protestants." She conformed and
saved the propert