with the constitutional warmth of Irishmen, in a rebellion that was yet in embryo, and which was raised for the preservation of their country.

Fortunately, his discourse was not lost upon his audience. The iron hand of slavery had entered into their souls, they had felt the sting of poverty, and the sense of their national degradation, and were ready to embrace any prospect of emancipating themselves, however desperate it might appear. They had hearts too that could feel, and hands that could wield a sword, and as the stranger saw the tears coursing down the cheeks of the young cottager, and the crimson fire of indignation flashing from the eyes of the elder, he embraced them both with transport, and promised to meet them on the ensuing evening, on the bleak moor that adjoined the village where they resided.

The night soon arrived, and having taken an affectionate farewell, the one of his betrothed bride, the other of his wife and daughter, the couple set forward on their march. As the clock from the village church struck eight, they entered on the place appointed for their meeting. At the remotest corner of the moor they observed a man folded in a night-mantle hastening to join them. It was the stranger; he hailed their appearance with transport, and taking a hand of each, desired them to accompany him in silence. The party soon quitted the moor, and as they cut rapidly across the high road, discovered a numerous quantity of horse-patrole scouring along the path with their swords drawn, and their steel helmets flashing through the darkness of the night. By creeping under the hedges they were easily enabled to avoid them, and when the sound of their receding steps could be heard no longer, they cautiously stole from their hiding place, and pursued their midnight march.

They had now entered on a dark mountain pass, enclosed on either side by enormous precipices, which rose to an awful distance above them: beyond, towered a gloomy forest of pines, and to the right of the road, in the distance, appeared the black hills of Wicklow. The dead of night drew on, and as the hollow wind roared dismally through the opening clefts in the mountains, the spirits of the travellers assumed a corresponding tone of dejection. They moved on in silence, not, however, without an occasional murmur from the cottager and his son-in-law, as to the direction of the road they were pursuing, and they had already commenced an angry expostulation, when the waning moon peeped through the dark moving mass of clouds in which she was buried, and revealed the whole expanse of the deep blue ocean, which roared at the base of the mountain, along whose bleak summits they were winding. In a few minutes they had gained the further side of the pass, and could distinctly hear the hum of human voices, the echoing clash of arms, and see the dim flickerings of a hundred torches, revealing to their surprise a yawning cavern that seemed opening to receive them. They advanced towards the entrance, where an Irishman in the native dress of his country was pacing to and fro, with a pike in his hand, and a heavy broad sword by his side. "Who goes there?" he exclaimed, levelling his weapon at the approaching party. "Friends," was the reply." The watchword ?"-" The Emerald Isle," returned the other, and hastened briskly on, accompanied by his two astonished associates.

After winding through a narrow passage that admitted but one at a time, their eyes were dazzled by the glittering radiance of torchlights that illuminated the dark vaults of the cavern they had entered. A large charcoal fire burnt in the middle of the cave, and threw a sulphurous glare on the rugged features of the groupe that surrounded it. From the centre of the vaulted ceiling a lamp was suspended, and on every side hung broad swords, pistols, and other

instruments of destruction. On the entrance of the stranger with his companions, the rebels advanced to meet him, and paid him that involuntary respect, which true dignity never fails of extorting from the vulgar. He had thrown off his mantle, but his features were carefully concealed in a mask, and rendered detection impossible. He was habited in a simple suit of green, with a white plume of feathers waving in his cap, and with firm step advanced towards his two companions, and recommended them to the rest of the groupe, as friends to the liberty of Ireland, and who had resolved to risk their lives in their service. They were both received with shouts of applause, the fearful oath of allegiance was taken, and they were instantly equipped with arms to be used in the ensuing contest.

Days rolled on, and with every hour the rebels received a formidable addition to their reinforcements. They remained with their families during the morning, and assembled each night in the cavern we have just described, but with such precaution, that they were enabled to baffle the penetration of the soldiers who were stationed in companies throughout the country. The troubles of Ireland in the meanwhile raged with unabated energy; proscriptions followed proscriptions; the sentiments of liberty were tortured into the language of treason, and the English military oppressed the unfortunate Irish with the most unexampled tyranny. The whole of the lower classes, on whom the yoke fell the heaviest, determined at last to struggle for the recovery of their freedom, and wisely resolved to take the first opportunity of exerting their energies.

On a gloomy night in Autumn, they assembled in Thomas-street, Dublin, where they had previously deposited their arms, and awaited in anxious expectation the signal that was to announce their rising. As the bell from the castle clock struck the hour of six, lights were seen burning on the summits of the neighbouring hills, the roar of musquetry was heard, and a fearful contest took place in the crowded streets of the city. The alarm bell was rung, the riot act read, and the drums of the military called to action. At this instant, a party of rebels, well armed with pikes and broadswords, with the young stranger at their head, moved towards the castle. A regiment of soldiers was ordered to attack them, but such was the fury of their charge, and so animated the conduct of the hero who commanded them, that they were dispersed on the first onset. They had now gained the castle walls, and sword in hand, the stranger, followed closely by the cottager and his son-in-law, mounted the ramparts. This last was shot dead at the first onset, and the other two separated from each other by the violence of the struggle. Numbers at length prevailed, the rebels were eventually subdued, their leader taken prisoner, while the cottager was almost the only one who escaped. For days subsequent to the battle, he continued wandering about the streets, in hopes of encountering the gallant and interesting stranger, with whose imprisonment he was as yet unacquainted. At length, as the hour of trial approached, and he fancied himself free from all chance of detection, he resolved to enter the hall of justice, and boldly endeavour to address him. The conviction of the rebels had in part commenced when he entered, a deep silence prevailed, and a young man was busy in his defence. He was of noble and commanding aspect, with a countenance shaded by the deepest-the gentlest melancholy. But his voice -it struck immediately to the agonized feelings of the cottager, and convinced him that the person he now beheld was the stranger of his fancy, the Emmett, the patriot of his country, He denied the charge of treason with the most impassioned eloquence; he spoke warmly-and the tears sprang to his eyes, as

he recalled the memory of the girl he loved, and whom he had given up, in his superior attachment to his country. He wept-but he wept not for himself, and the tears that had never fallen for his own misfortunes, stole down his faded cheek, when he reflected on the miseries he had entailed on the poor associates of his rebellion. For himself he sought not pardon, but he supplicated the mercy of the judge for the wretches he had misled, and concluded with that affecting appeal to posterity which can never be forgotten." Let no man write my epitaph, for as no man who knows my motives dares vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them; but let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, 'till other times and other men can do justice to my character." Even this appeal failed of its effect, he was condemned as a traitor, and his execution was ordered for the ensuing Monday. Many a bright eye was dimmed, and many a gay heart felt a pang of commisseration, for the gallant patriot.

The evening before his death, while the workmen were busy with the scaffold, and the din of their hammers sounded like a solemn dirge for the dead, a young lady was ushered into his dungeon. It was the girl whom he had so fondly loved, and who had now come to bid him her eternal farewell. He was leaning in a melancholy mood, as she entered, against the windowframe of his prison, and the heavy clanking of his chains smote dismally on her heart. The interview was bitterly affecting, and melted even the callous soul of the jailor; as for Emmett himself, he wept, and spoke little, but as he pressed his beloved in silence to his bosom, his countenance betrayed his emotions. In a low voice half choaked by anguish, he besought her not to forget him; he reminded her of their former happiness, of their early love, of the long past days of their childhood, and concluded by requesting her sometimes to visit the grave where his ashes mouldered, and though the world might repeat his name with scorn, to cling to his memory with affection.

At this instant the evening bell pealed from the neighbouring church. Emmett started at the sound, and as he felt that this was the last time he should ever hear its dismal echoes, he folded his beloved still closer to his heart, and bent over her sinking form, with eyes streaming with affection. The turnkey entered at the moment; ashamed of his weakness, he dashed the startling drops from his eyes, and a frown again lowered on his countenance. The man, meanwhile, approached to tear the lady from his embraces. Overpowered by his feelings, he could make no resistance, but as he gloomily released her from his hold, gave her a little miniature of himself, and with this parting token of attachment, imprinted the last kiss of a dying man upon her lips. On gaining the door, she turned round, as if to gaze once more on the object of her widowed love. He caught her eye as she retired-it was but for a moment, the dungeon door swung back again on its rusty hinges, and as it closed sullenly after, informed him too surely that they had met for the last time on earth.

With the earliest peep of dawn, numerous detachments of cavalry were parading the streets of Dublin, and a file of soldiers guarded the scaffold erected for the execution. As the heavy bell from the prison tolled out the appointed hour, the criminal, arrayed in a deep suit of black, made his appearance on the platform. He bowed to the populace with serenity, but smiled with ineffable contempt, while the executioner approached to draw the cap over his face. "Away with your insulting mockery," he passionately exclaimed, "Do you think the warrior who has braved death in the field, fears to meet it on the scaffold." The man, terrified by his indignant countenance,

hesitated to perform the office, but dashing the cap from him, trembling threw the cord around the neck of his victim. A deep silence in the meantime reigned throughout the mighty multitude that assembled to witness the execution; broken at intervals by the muffled drums of the soldiers, the dull sound of the death bell, or the distant roar of artillery that announced the commencement of the tragedy. At this moment the eyes of the sufferer rested on the cottager, who by dint of persuasion and artifice, had contrived to force himself opposite the scaffold. Emmett sighed as he beheld him, smiled faintly in token of recognition, and pointing upwards, signified that it would not be long before they should both meet again in heaven.

All was now ready for the massacre; the rope was adjusted, the sinking platform prepared, and the execution awaited only the fatal signal. It was given by the officer stationed on the scaffold, and soon the heavy trampling of the horse guards, and the doubled roll of the war drums, announced that Emmett, the noble-minded, but misguided Emmett, had at last met with the fate of the brave. Peace be with his ashes, and eternal solitude to the spot where he slumbers. If he has erred, let his errors be imputed to the more daring treason of those doubly-damned apostates, who have sacrified every liberal principle at the bloody shrine of Moloch. For himself, the very turf that enshrouds him is holy, and the night-blast that roars around the requiem to his memory. Though now neglected and forgotten, the time will come when his name will be ennobled as the stars in heaven, and stream like a meteor through the dark ages of slavery and superstition.

On the conclusion of this affecting tragedy, the cottager, secure from the insignificant part he had acted in the rebellion, hastened to return home. The scene he had so lately witnessed, instead of softening, had hardened the natural roughness of his disposition, and poverty, augmented by despair, and the difficulty of procuring sustenance, had inspired him with the feelings of a dæmon. He stopped an instant on his return to enter the cavern where he had first been seduced from his allegiance. He thought of the murdered while he viewed it, of his son-in-law, who had died in the cause of liberty, and as he heard the hollow wind echo through the gloomy recess, and speak to his soul of utter desolation, a tear glistened in his eye, and he wept-the ferocious hardhearted Irishman wept, and moved slowly onward to his cottage. It was dusk when he arrived, and the voice of wailing was loud within. He entered, and beheld his wife, with a young woman seated by her side and his daughter, the child of his pride, dying from positive exigence. After the death of her betrothed husband, she had gradually drooped and bowed her fair head towards the tomb. Life henceforward was a scene of utter solitude; the light that shone on her path was vanished, and darkness encompassed it around. With a faint smile she held out her hand to her father, and then sunk back exhausted on her couch of straw. Unacquainted with the cause of her complaint, he turned to his wife for further information, and was told in reply, that neither herself nor her daughter had eaten any thing for the last two days, for that every trifling sum they could procure, had been devoted to medicine for their child. Her countenance darkened as she spoke, and with a ghastly grin of the most diabolical tendency, she drew her husband in silence from the room, and whispered in his ear that the young woman, who at that time lodged in their cottage, had saved up a guinea while at service, and proposed that it should be appropriated to themselves. After a long struggle between their horror at the idea of murder, and their affection for their child, they resolved to despatch the poor woman, and devote the spoils to the subsistence of them

!

selves and daughter. At the dread hour of midnight they entered the room where the two females reposed on the same miserable truck, and in order to ensure the destruction of their victim, remarked that she was stationed nearest to the door, while their daughter slept contiguous to the cottage wall. Having carefully ascertained this point, they entered an adjoining apartment, and conversed in an audible tone upon the way in which the murderous scheme

should be executed.

In the meantime the young woman, roused by the conversation, and overhearing the frequent repetition of her name, listened in breathless silence, and but too soon became acquainted with the proposed plan of murder. Not a moment was to be lost: she hastily changed places with her sleeping companion, and crept gently over by the cottage wall, which the parents imagined was the corner that their child occupied. All was now silent, but in a few minutes the door of the room was lifted gently on its latch, and a head was thrust forward. The form advanced, and was succeeded by another, bearing a dark lantern in her hand. They approached the bed in quiet, but in the agitation of their movements the light was extinguished. The young woman continued in the most fearful suspense, and could distinctly hear the sharpening of the murderous weapon, and see its blade glittering in the darkness of the room. In an instant it was drawn across the throat of the victim-it cut with a keen edge, wizzed while it separated the arteries, and the blood welled in a purple tide from the wound. The hollow death-rattle followed, the sinews of the body became contracted with convulsions, and a long deep sigh announced that the midnight murder was effected. The wretches removed the apparel of their victim into the next apartment, and then returned to commit the corpse to the earth. Followed at a slight distance by the young woman, who boldly resolved to track their footsteps, they bore it swiftly from the house, and hastened to the grave that had been dug for its reception. The night was wild and tempestuous, and the thunder reverberated in ten thousand echoes along the murky arch of heaven. The wind howled across the moors, and every succeeding gust spoke of unrelieved horror. Not a star was seen in the firmament, but all grew black and dismal, save where the lightning's flash irradiated the landscape, and betrayed its utter desolation. The guilty couple felt the silent awe of the moment, and as they stole quietly along with their lifeless burden hanging on their arms, listened with renewed affright to each passing whisper of the breeze. They had now reached the extremity of the garden, and with paralyzed hearts cast the corpse into the burial place. It sunk with a heavy sound into the grave, the face was turned upwards, and a sudden flash of lightning, as it shone full on the dead body, revealed the features of their daughter, of that child for whose sake the murder had been committed.

They were roused from their trance of agony by a deep-drawn sigh, and the sound of approaching footsteps; and by the blue flashes of lightning, and the dim light of their lantern, beheld a form clad in white approaching the spot where they were stationed. It proceeded with slow and solemn steps, and when nearly opposite the grave, beckoned them with its hand to follow. The conscience of the murderers instantly took the alarm, and suggested to their disordered imagination that it was the ghost of their slaughtered victim. Struck to the soul with the sight, her past guilt rushing full on her mind, the feelings of the mother were unequal to the struggle, she gave one deep heartrending groan, and dropped dead on the body of her daughter. The father returned in a state of phrenzy to his cottage, was impeached on the evidence of