means of sustenance. The counties of Limerick and Clare participated largely in the passing trouble, and also in the liberality with which England so nobly emptied her coffers for the assistance of her suffering sister, Numerous instances of relief afforded tå families at the extremity of famine, were recorded for the encou ragement of Philantrophy with better success than the most ardent minds had anticipated; and every effort was made to sustain the sinking energies of the sufferers.

But times, such as we have alluded to are the most propitious for designs and movements of insubordination. They to whom res belhon could bring no loss of property and whose characters could scarcely suffer by accumulated crime, found in the very misery which surrounded them, materials with which to feed their trea sonable desires. The peasantry who had been long accustomed to look upon their situation as one not likely to suffer by political convulsions, and confirmed in these views both by the agency of Captain Rock's emissaries, and by a frequent interchange of sentiments and feelings, exhibited decided symptoms of insubordi> nation very early in the winter of 1819-So that, before the Government had succeeded in obtaining the sanction of Parliament for calling into force the insurrection act, crimes of the deepest dye had been perpetrated. Muider followed murder; fire and abduction succeed ed to burglary and robbery. with. a degree of rapidity which proved the desperate state of feeling which pervaded both counties as well as the well-laid schemes of those by whose instructions the people were led. The Dillons fell before their murderets by a concerted plan of consummate skill in which a large part of the county of Limerick was engaged. Messrs. Baker, Gowing and Torrens shar'ed the same fate. Holly-Park, Faha, Stonehall and several other residences of the highest respectability were barely saved by the vigi lance of their proprietors; insomuch that in less than six months from the commencement of the out-break almost every house in the county felt the force of that fury which well-timed and judicions measures would have easily suppressed in its infancy.

The plans of Captain Rock were usually laid with so much skill and carried into ffect with so much energy that the Government could not shut their eyes to the fact that person's possessed of i tellects and information above the common herd directed and controuled these measures. Instructions were accordingly forwarded to the magistrates and police to be particularly watchful of persons of all ranks against whom their shspicious might by possibility be justified. Altho' the opinions of the police were not permitted to transpire, yet it was well known that their suspicions rested on one of two individuals of some pretensions to respectability.

Among those upon whom the eyes of the magistracy fell with marked attention, was a young man, a son of the better class of farmers, whose conduct had for some years been the cause of both

grief and disgrace to his father. Enjoyment and dissipation pro ved more powertal in their attractions than learning; and the con geniality of wild and desperate pursuits with his natural disposition led him to despise the sage and anxious counsels of his parent. Unfortunately for him he was too often shielded from the punishment which he deserved from one parent by the foolish indul. gence of the other, and the rod which he ought to have been made to feel was arrested thro' the instrumentality of his mother, who at other times was wont to restore the purse which his father had previously withdrawn. Carried forward by his own wilful passions, he at an early age forfeited the confideuce and latterly the affec tion of his father. It was generally suspected-nay even knownthat he had involved himself with the desperadoes of Captain Rock's party, but his advantageous circumstances as well as his shrewd tho' desperate disposition saved him in many an emergency. He was tall, active and tho' slightly made yet well proportioned. He pos sessed faculties that if properly directed should have elevated him above his fellows. He was shrewd and calculating in the selection of his opportunities; and bold and resolute in availing himself of them. His progressive course in wickedness with such utter disre gard to the feelings or the commands of his father, alienated the affections of the old man so much, that barassed by increasing ru mours of the suspicions which were entertained against his family, and distressed by the visits of the police on two different occasions searching for dangerous characters who were known to have been in his son's company, he finally forbid his return to Loughmore, his family residence.

Before we enter into the full tide of our story, perhaps the reader would not feel indisposed to follow us to the scene of its occurrence and trace its bearings. The Shannon, previously to its forming the noble debouche by which its waters are carried to the Atlantic, allows them to extend some distance into the county of Clare, at a point where the course of the channel is almost concealed from the view of mariners and in a manner so inviting as to have caused the loss of many valuable cargoes. This inlet, termed the bay of Clanderlaw, is both shallow and rocky, and affords no safe anchorage for vessels. Nearly opposite to this bay is the little town of Tarbert, which is also dangerons for large vessels; and ten miles higher up the river is a small village composed of scattered cabins erected along the river side in a such manner as to form a sort of crescent round a dirty unwholesome swamp into which the river enters and overflows during full tide.

This village named Glynn was chieffy inhabited by day labourers, whose miserable allowance of ten pence a day was barely sufficient to support existence in their families. A few tenants of some acres were scattered about the neighbourhood, but the majority were wretched in the extreme. It was in the neighbourhood of this village

that Edmund Meara chose to take up his residence after his expulsion from his father's house.

About a quarter of a mile above the village there is a small mountain-pass through which flowed a stream that came from a neighbouring bog. At the date of this story, the sides of this pass were wild and uncultivated, not affording a supply of more pastu rage than was sufficient for શ few goats. The upland formed.

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common where asses, pigs, &c., strayed undisturbed. At the upper extremity of this pass or Glen' as it was called, lived an old man athed Sullivan, possessed of some little property and with it the character of a miser. His only danghter, the heroine of this narrative, lived with him and en. dured with all the gentleness of tender, obedient love, and softened down by her kind and forbearing manner the parsimonious and jealous habits of her father.

After the country had been restored through the exertions of go. vernment to its former tranquillity, and that the removal of the insur rection act permitted a more tree intercourse among the peasantry, the spring evenings brought with them the return of the Sunday evening's dance on the knuck or mound under the old elmtree on the common, or the Hurly and Bowling matches ou the green. It was rarely that the village maids tripped off to the knuck that Edmund Meara was not there to meet them. He was the favorite of the village, and always had his choice of his partner for the dance. But "Mr. Ned," as his name went, could seldom dance with the same sprightliness or enjoy the freshness of the evening air, unless Norah Sullivan or "Nolly of the Glen" was present. There were many evenings however in which she would not be permitted by her jealous father to leave her house. He dreaded all candidates for his daughter's hand, but above all he dreaded Edmund Meara, whose superior birth and free yet gentle manners gave him a considerable ascendancy over the girls of the village. He had also other reasons for apprehending his advances. Edmund Meara had rendered services to several of Captain Rock's agents, and he had by several cantious maneuvres directed their movements with so much skill that he was unanimously greeted by the appellation of Captain, and held in high esteem among the peasantry of Glyn. The old man knew that Norah loved him, and that it was the general desire of the village that they should be united. He also knew that through Meara's agency, a nephew of his own-his brother's son-was saved from transportation through the corruption of one of the witnesses.-Tantalized by such apprehensions he frequently prohibited Norah's visit to the dance. About three months after the removal of the insurrection act, a party had been appointed to meet under the old elm to join in dance and merry making in compliment to the wedding of one of Norah's relatives. She was invited to join them, and was adorning herself with her little Sunday ornaments preparatory to going to the knuck, when. she was interrupted by her father.

Where are you going to girl! Is it to the knuck? aye, and ye'll be bringing home your cousin that fat mostheen, to be eating my bread and drinking my tea on me! "Tis fitter 'twould be for

you to sit down agen the hob and be saying your rosaries this blessed night! what do you want at the green? I'll be bound 'us' to meet Mr. Ned you want! I tell you what Norah, I have none of your gentlemen for a son-in-law! If you want to marry, why, marry one of an age and keeping with yourself! But at all events out of this house ye'll not stir this night! Tis too fond I'm of you, jewel!"

The old man accordingly rose up and fastened the door of his cabin, then growling forth fears about thieves and spendthrifts he watched until he saw his patient child lay by her few ornaments and sitting down in silence prepare their lonesome supper, when satisfied that all was safe, he took out his old stocking from its hiding place and proceeded to count his money.

"Tis all for you, Norah! all for you, that your ould father is stinting his belly of the bit, and his throat of the drink in the way I am! Sorra bit of me but would eat and drink it all but for you! Och hone, and to think that I should do all this for the Jove of one that would throw it away on a wandering rebel if the sod was once on my head. "Tis a happy man I would be this night but for you! "Tis too fond I'm of you!"

"Indeed father," replied his daughter, "I would rather see you spending all the money in the stocking on your own comforts, if I was to walk bear-beaded and bare-foot all my born days, than laying it up where it's no use to pan or mortal. Sure and who, told you that I would give it to Mr. Ned? may be there's others that would be readier nor myself to do that same. "Tis not too, fond of him I am since the matter with poor Mary Branagan' of Calircon; and there's others that knows that as well as myself. He's a Gentleman no doubt, but it's not for the likes of me to be looking up to a gentleman for a husband. No, father dear, don't be saying that you're keeping the money for me, for I'd a deal rather be shut of it, tha see you hudering yourself for ny, sake!"

"Tis not too fond of him you are!!' said the old man, fixing his grey eyes on her with a degree of inteùtness that made the girl blush in spite of herself, and does the paint on your face tell nothing! But I'll take care you shall be as good as your word, for the dickens a taste of the contents of this stocking shall cross the palm of his dirty hand, soft as it is. My curse and the curse of the blessed Virgin be with you if ever you ma with him! I tell you, let him alone. He's not the man to come next or nigh the likes of my child. So do not be lor having the curse of an ould man on your head!"

or do

"I believe, father dear," said the pror girl endeavouring to stop. her tears, "that it's only to rise me you want by talking in the way you do! and indeed father it's not fair, when I've ueither mother, nor sister, nor brother to stand by me against what you're. saying!"

The effort to suppress her feelings at the unkindness of her father was unvailing, and Norah burst into a fit of subdued, but bitter grief, The old miser was not without some feelings of affection for the only family tie which united him with this world, and perceiving the effects of his unnecessary reproof, he softened his tone and endeavoured to soothe the wounds which he had given.

Stop Norah, Jewel; stop, avourneen machree; there now; sure and L did not intend it! "T was only to rise you I wanted. There ma colleen ; have done asthore; my sowl! but I'll throw every shilling into the fire if you'll only say the word! I did'nt mean it, Norah darling! there there; that's a good girl, and make the tea and don't be angry with your poor father. And tell me; did you see Shane Buie at chapel to-day!" said he skilfully changing the subject.

"I did father," replied Norah drying her tears, "and he said that, he would bring the bonnach to you after to-morrow; but that he would be where you knew all day Monday!"

"Jack is a smart fellow, and as good a judge of that same pig as any at the fair of Kilrush; did he say, Norah, that he would bave any one with him to-morrow ?"

"He didn't say; but I seen him very thick with Mr. Meara walking down the green alter chapel, and I didn't care to talk more with him at the time. He just bid me tell you what I

Bay!"

than is

more to say to Mr. Ned But how can I believe him!

"Tis

"I'm fear'd that Jack has good for either of them. feeding something besides himself the'd be doing this night only for him. But any how, I'm always better pleased when they're asunder. The Virgin preserve us but I always dread mischief to my house when I see them together; God betuxt us and harm !"

As Norah knew by experience that silence was her best mode of quieting what appeared to her to be the unreasonable apprehensions of her father respecting Meara, she made no reply and shortly after she withdrew to her little 100m which lay at the furthest end of the cabin.

Sullivan's daughter was about twenty-two years of age. Although not handsome, her expressive countenance, beaming with the tenderest feelings of her nature, and full of intelligence was more attractive than