the dead in the lonely vaults below
Rise up in grim array
And glide past with footsteps hushed and slow,
Weird forms, unknown in day;
When the dismal death-bells clang so near,
Sounding o'er world and lea,
And the wail of the spirits strikes the ear
Like the moan of the sobbing sea.'

"He was always at school called Paddy. He would never tell what the
initial 'L' stood for; probably fearing that his companions would make
sport of a name which to them would seem outlandish, or at least odd.
His face usually bore an expression of sadness, although he now and then
romped as gaily as any of his comrades. But the sadness returned when
the passing excitement was over. He cared little, or not at all, for
school games, cricket, football, etc., and this not merely because of
his want of sight, but because they failed to interest him. I and he
were in the habit of walking round the shrubberies in the front of the
College, indulging our tastes in fanciful conversation until the bell
summoned us again to study.

"A companion one day alluded to the length of his home address. Lafcadio
said his address was longer--'P. L. Hearn, Esq., Ushaw College, near
Durham, England, Europe, Eastern Hemisphere, The Earth, Universe, Space,
God.' His companion allowed that his address was more modest.

"You ask if Hearn ever spent his holidays with relatives in Ireland or
Wales. As far as I can remember, he latterly never left Ushaw during the
vacations. He was reticent regarding his family, and although I believe
I was his most intimate friend I cannot recall his ever having told me
anything of his relations with his family, or of his childhood."

It is presumably to Mr. Achilles Daunt that Hearn alludes in a letter
written thirty years after he had left Ushaw, which has been placed as a
heading to this chapter.

At this time occurred an incident that influenced the whole of Hearn's
subsequent life. While playing a game known as the "Giant's Stride" one
of his companions allowed the knotted end of the rope to slip from his
hand. It struck Lafcadio, and in consequence of the inflammation
supervening he lost the sight of an eye. "I am horribly disfigured by
the loss of my left eye," he tells Mrs. Atkinson, "punched out at
school. They are gentle in English Schools, particularly in Jesuitical
schools!" He elsewhere mentions an operation undergone in D