ed in pontooning and rafting, the
modes of transporting ammunition and artillery, and the attacks of
infantry by cavalry pickets.

I also learned to speak and write English and German with great ease and
fluency, besides acquiring some skill in military drawing and engineering.

It is true that the imprisonment chafed sorely against us, as we read of
the great achievements of our armies in various parts of the world; of the
great battles of Cairo and the Pyramids, of Acre and Mount Thabor; and of
which a holiday and a fete were to be our only share.

The terrible storms which shook Europe from end to end, only reached us in
the bulletins of new victories; and we panted for the time when we, too,
should be actors in the glorious exploits of France.

It is already known to the reader that of the country from which my family
came I myself knew nothing. The very little I had ever learned of it from
my father was also a mere tradition; still was I known among my comrades
only as "the Irishman," and by that name was I recognized, even in the
record of the school, where I was inscribed thus: "Maurice Tiernay, dit
l'Irlandais." It was on this very simple and seemingly-unimportant fact my
whole fate in life was to turn; and in this wise--But the explanation
deserves a chapter of its own, and shall have it.

_(To be continued.)_

THE ENCHANTED ROCK. (FROM CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL.)

About four miles west-northwest of Cape Clear Island and lighthouse, on
the south-west coast of Ireland, a singularly-shaped rock, called the
Fastnett, rises abruptly and perpendicularly a height of ninety feet above
the sea level in the Atlantic Ocean. It is about nine miles from the
mainland, and the country-people say it is _nine miles_ from _every part_
of the coast.

The Fastnett for ages has been in the undisturbed possession of the
cormorant, sea-gull, and various other tribes of sea-fowl, and was also a
noted place for large conger eels, bream, and pollock; but from a
superstitious dread of the place, the fishermen seldom fished near it.
During foggy weather, and when the rock is partially enveloped in mist, it
has very much the appearance of a large vessel under sail--hence no doubt
the origin of all the wonderful tales and traditions respecting the
Fastnett being enchanted, and its celebrated feats. The old people all
along the sea-coast are under the impression that the Fastnett hoists
sails before sunrise on the 1st o