hearts of those young beings, as they sacrificed, to a sense of virtue, all the hopes and happiness of their lives. Her lover no longer thought of inducing Nelly to violate her promise. He was about to engage in an enterprise, the nature of which he did not fully comprehend; and as he probably anticipated more danger than he was likely to encounter, he felt a manly consolation in the thought, that should he fall, he could lose nothing more than a weary and hopeless life. The prospect of his approaching end, more over, filled his mind with feelings of a new and peculiar character. Nelly," he said, "it's a hard thought I know, but I'm beginning to fear that with a dyin' mother's word agin it, we loved too well for God to bless us." 66 Well, maybe we did," replied the other, "any way there's no blessin' over us now;" and trembling through her entire frame, as this desolating apprehension darkened her soul, she lay folded in her lover's arms, and she felt that he was the only stay, here or above, of her broken spirit. "You wont lave me," she murmured, "you wont lave me, Willy, to die after all, without friend or comfort.” Willy looked on her pale and supplicating face, and his resolution half yielded to the force of those feelings, which had been cherished for years as the religion of his heart; but he reflected at once that were he to forego his determination, it could not lessen their misfortunes; and with many words of mingled consolation and despair he endeavoured to reconcile the girl to his departure. Poor Nelly was bewildered; she could hardly believe that this dark and sorrowful hour was the end of all their happiness; and when her lover would have departed, she clung wildly to his bosom. 66 Willy, Willy! she cried, I'll break my vow! don't lave me. Willy, oh, don't lave me, and I'll be your own for ever." Willy looked wildly into her eyes. That declaration came like a flash of lightning through his soul, and all his fine resolutions lay scattered and destroyed. Nelly saw the effect her words had produced. She trembled as she reflected on their guilty nature, but she had not strength to revoke them. Oh Lord look down on us this day!" she cried; "the heart's broke in my body!" and she burst into a flood of tears. The lovers were saved The Robber's trial at last arrived. The day appointed for the Red greater part of the inhabitants of Ballycorly set off at an early hour to the assize town, which was ten miles distant, some engaged about their own this last scene but one in the eventful concerns, but many more to witness life of the Red Rapparee. The father of the unhappy criminal was now wandering about the grand and solitary ravine, which, in its wintry beauty, might have dissipated any ordinary cares; but which brought back to the old man's heart the recollection of all the hopes and promises which had encompassed the boyhood of his unforHe stood on the heights tunate son. and looked towards the town where that son now lay a captive felon; and once when his eyes fell through the depths of the glen below, a dark temptation rose in his mind, and he thought of never witnessing the event to which the proceedings of this day must lead. As he turned away and invoked the Being who alone can save the wretched from despair, he heard his name frequently called through the glen, and presently after perceived a young man running at full speed towards him. "Help me in avick, I'm weakly," be said. The other assisted him to his cabin; where he laid him on his bed. The old man lingered but a few days more; and his dying eyes were turned on his younger son; but his last prayer was breathed for the homeless fugitive. The only trace discoverable, of the means by which Barney had effected his escape, was a rope which hung on the outer side of the wall, and to the end of which a small weight was attached which caught on the inner side, and of course clung with a firmness proportioned to the force applied at the other end of the cord. The same means, it is evident, might have an swered the robber for ascent and descent. Having, in the first instance, thrown the weight across, he had merely to change its position when he reached the top of the wall. The under jailer was the only person suspected of having aided in this escape. The prisoner's fetters were found unlocked in his dungeon, and this, with some other circumstances, excited suspicion of our friend Hugh's fidelity. As there was no positive evidence against him, however, he was merely removed from office, a circumstance which occasioned him but little regret, as he joined his old companions of the road in the more honourable capacity of lieutenant to the Ropairé Ruadh. Jack returned home the day after his brother's escape; but he returned with a heavy heart, for he had parted Willy O'Brien under circumstances which filled him with apprehensions for his future lot. They had conducted the robber some distance in his flight; but when they had left him, and that Jack spoke of proceeding homewards, the other desired him to remember him to all friends in Ballycorly; "and tell them," said he, I'm gone-wherever you like to say, Jack." Poor Jack could hardly be persuaded that he was serious in the resolution he expressed of going, as he said, to seek his fortune. He had frequently heard him speak of going to America; but he had never contemplated the actual adoption of such a measure. All his intreaties could not, however, move Willy from his purpose. The latter told him, what was the fact, that he had now with him the money he had saved for his voyage, and he said that his mother, having her other sons about her, could not experience any inconvenience from his absence; "but there's no use," said he, "in goin' back. I know the partin' would distress her sorely." Jack's prayers and solicitations were all unavailing, and he took a mournful leave of his friend, and returned just in time to witness the termination of his father's sorrows. Nelly had now no longer any motive for contending against the misery that was at her heart. The uncertain fate of her lover would have been hard enough to bear, but from some expressions which had escaped him in their last interview, the idea constantly haunted her that he had associated himself with the gang of the notorious Rapparee. She would hardly confess to herself that she entertained a suspicion so injurious, but it was a gloomy terror, and it therefore suited best the tone of all her feelings. Her father's soul was moved at last; he saw her droop from day to day, and he knew her heart was breaking and it was then he began to repent of his having destroyed for ever the happiness of a child so dutiful and tender. Her cheek was wasted and pale; her step was languid, and her laugh was heard no more-that most delightful of all sounds of joy, when it bursts from the heart of a young and happy girl. : "Nelly," he said, approaching her one day as she sat at the cottage door; "Nelly, dear, I'm afeared you're poorly." "Oh no, father," said the girl, in whose gentle heart that one expression of kindness obliterated for a moment all recollection of her wrongs. "I'm well enough, only for an achin' in my head now and then, when I be sittin' long at the wheel." Indeed," cried little Tommy, who had been gazing earnestly in his sister's face, "she's very poorly, father, you may depend. Sure do you mind a bit ago there wasn't the like of her in the parish, and now-troth father you'd think it wasn't the one girl at all was in it." Nelly kissed the boy affectionately; but she felt too keenly the truth of his words to be able to reply. "Now tell us what's the matter with you, Nelly; are you frettin' or what's a trouble to you at all at all; tell me darlint, your own me, that loves you better than the whole world wide?" The maiden's eyes overflowed, as she endeavoured, in some broken words, to assure her brother that she was perfectly well, and free from care The father stood looking on his unhappy child until sorrow and remorse overcame his firmness. "God help us," he muttered, as he turned away; "I see the ould heads arn't still the wisest; and God strengthen them poor crathurs that sea and land's dividin' afore now." Nelly heard this murmur; this accomplishment of her mother's soothing prophecy. It filled her soul as if with sudden light, when she felt that her vow was redeemed to the letter. A long and dismal interval had elapsed since that vow was recorded, and though her happiness was over in this world, she could more calmly anticipate her passage to the next, sustained by the reflection that the term of that fatal promise was past, and that she had sacrificed the hopes and brightness of youth; and lastly, her young life itself to its observance. But such was not the destiny of our gentle heroine. Jack soon learned by some chance or other the change which had occurred in her father's feelings; and he determined that, the old obstacle to her union with Willy being removed, no fresh difficulties, short of the absolute emigration of the latter, should obstruct the happiness of two beings to whom he was bound by the strongest feelings of gratitude and affection. He conjectured that Willy must be still in Ireland, as the season for emigrating to America had not yet commenced. 46 Murther," he cried, "if I could only get spakin' a word to Barney, it's him would make him out if he's above ground." A vessel bound to New York was announced to sail from one of our principal sea-ports on a certain day; a few days subsequent to the incidents we have mentioned above. During the previous night the quays were crowded with emigrants, whose appearance could not fail to strike any person accustomed to witness the ordinary assemblages of our Irish peasant ry. There was neither gladness nor gaiety among them. No jokes nor jests, nor the roar which, in their own sunny fields, used to respond to their rustic wit; a universal gloom was on the hearts of the exiles, broken only by the occasional merriment of some poor wretch who tried in vain to keep up his sinking spirits. In an humble house of entertainment, and apart from the various groups with which it was filled-fond and early friends spending their last night together-sat Willy The O'Brien, his head resting on his hand, and his eyes wandering about as if in envious contemplation of those who were going forth on the world, but not like him alone and friendless. night was far advanced, when a stranger, who appeared to have ridden a considerable distance, entered the house, and looking round, fixed his eye steadily on O'Brien, with a doubtful and scrutinizing gaze. "It's him sure enough," said the stranger at length, and coming over he handed Willy a note, while he struck his whip on the table, and in an authoritative tone called for supper. Willy looked at the man in amazement, while he held the note unopened in his hand. "Read what's in it, young man," said the other; " I haven't long to stop." Willy opened it and read: "There's them in Ballycorly's thinkin' long till you come back. Never heed seekin' your fortune this turn, for the right notion's come into the ould divil's heart at long last; so no more at present, but when the priest's gone home and the boys is hearty, mind you have a dhrop for a friend, and catch me if he doesn't drink Nelly's health in spite o' the world. Whoo! ould Ireland for ever! B. C." A few words of explanation from the bearer of this note determined Willy at once how he should proceed. "Well," said the former, "it's a brave clear night; and if it's for the road you are, I have a baste without 'ill carry you properly." "He has carried me afore now," cried Willy, springing on the back of his own horse, which had been taken off by the robbers on the night of the unfortunate affair at M'Evoy's; "and there's my hand," he added; "neither you nor Barney will be losers by this." There was a wonderful wedding, they say, at Ballyporeen, but it was nothing at all to the wedding at which were congregated all the "flying feet" and light hearts of Ballycorly; at least there never was an occasion at Ballyporeen or any where else, on which a heart more true to virtue and to love, received a purer or a brighter reward. Jack, as grooms-man, was, of course, entitled to kiss the bride, a ceremony which he performed with less grace than alacrity. "Oh Nelly," he whispered, "do you mind when you hot me the whang for what you done tonight, and no thanks to you?” A blush and a kindly smile told the girl's recollection of the circumstance. In the full glow of their revelry and excitement, and while parties were dancing each other down hard and fast, the women screamed and the men stood mute with astonishment at beholding the audacious Rapparee in the midst of the assembly. Having enjoyed, for some moments, the effect his presence had produced, he lifted up a smoking bowl of punch. Here's to yees all!" he cried. • Willy, ould Ireland for ever! Health and happiness to you and yours a colleen!" he exclaimed, stretching out his hand to the bride Health to your wealth, Glory to yees both for ever!" and at one deep draught he emptied the goblet. Good by to you, Aby," he added, with a facetious nod, and the robber disappeared. Aby M'Evoy slept with his fathers, but not until he had seen his child in the midst of a fair and happy household the pride of his heart and the honor of his old age. Poor Jack continued to inhabit his solitary little home in the mouth of the glen. He led a laborious and happy life, and the only severe stroke he ever experienced was many years after, when he heard that his unfortunate brother who had been sent out of the country, in a condemned regiment, was shot in the suppression of a mutiny he had excited. CURIOSITIES OF IRISH LITERATURE. THE LIBRARIES. THERE is nothing which more strongly marks the difference between this island and Great Britain, than a comparison of the libraries of an English and an Irish resident gentleman. It might be affirmed almost universally, that there is no residence of an English gentleman possessing an income of £2,000 a year, without a library; meaning not only a collection of books, but one or more apartments fitted up with books, maps, &c. and kept exclusively for purposes of study. In Ireland there are many gentlemen of £5,000 a year, and upwards, who possess neither separate apartments for study, nor a sufficient quantity of books, if collected, to furnish even a moderate closet; while the collections of those who do possess nominal libraries, are not only in many cases very meagre, but are in almost every instance marked by a peculiar defect which would be alone sufficient to establish the difference alluded to, even though the material point of contrast did not exist. We allude to the marked deficiency of even our best private collections in those works which form a library of national history. This is the class of works which occupies the foremost shelf in every English study. Without such materials of study and reference every man must feel himself a stranger in the country he inhabits. There is a species of national self-knowledge as conducive to public respectability as individual self-knowledge is to personal selfrespect. This knowledge of the country we inhabit, too many of our educated men have only upon hearsay. The causes of this want of information which in any other country would be considered a disgraceful species of ignorance, are chiefly these-first, a prevalent impression that there is no history of Ireland yet written; secondly, a feeling, that, if such a history were written, its study would not be necessary to a liberal education; and, thirdly, a dastardly fear of looking former times in the face, which is of all other motives to ignorance at once the most congenial and the most infatuated. It is true there is no adequate compilation of the existing materials for a history of Ireland; but the case was the same in England up to a comparatively recent period; yet it is impossible to point out any time since England had an historical existence in which her educated classes were deficient in knowledge of their country's history. The fact that no history of Ireland is taught in our schools (an instance of self-abasement unexampled In in the practice of any country of fect collection. A perfect collection Europe) gives more than plausibility of printed books relating to Ireland to the second argument; and we admit does not exist-there is not such a it is too true that an Irish gentleman thing to be found in the whole world; may be ignorant of his own country's and probably in the whole world there history, wheu he dare be ignorant of is no other civilized country which has no other branch of what is called a the same shameful tale to tell. good education. But the time for that most of the provincial libraries gross dashing disclaimer of acquaintance with apathy prevails. We will give two an unfashionable subject is past. The instances from a quarter where it will subject is no longer one of choice or be least expected. In the year 1826 caprice; it has become the weapon of the late Duke of Buckingham and argument on topics of vital interest, Chandos presented to the library of and must be studied in self-defence, or the Royal Belfast Academical Instituthose who neglect it must abandon the tion a copy of O'Connor's celebrated contest. Whether a man seek for "Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Vechange or for continuance of existing teres"-a book, at that time, not to be institutions, he must ground a great procured for money, and confessedly part of his reasonings on historical the most important work on ancient example. Many unpalatable truths Irish history that has ever been printed. must be encountered, many cherished It is in four quarto volumes, and it prejudices must be abandoned on both will scarcely be credited, that, with the sides before a fair or an effective use exception of a few leaves of the first of such materials for argument can be volume, it remained uncut for seven expected. Notwithstanding the gene- years. Again, the Commissioners of ral neglect of which we complain, there Irish Records, from time to time, preis no doubt that the subject at present sented to this and to the Belfast Linen attracts very considerable attention. Hall Library, copies of their publicaWe have only to point to the reports tions of the records of the kingdomof public proceedings in Ireland for works, the value of which is only the last three months to justify our beginning to be appreciated, now that selves in asserting that there has been they are no longer to be had for more historical discussion on Irish money, unless by private or acciaffairs during that time than for any dental sale. By some mismanageequal period since the agitation of the ment in the office of the person enCatholic question. Antiquarian infor- trusted with their distribution, it hapmation was never so practically valuable; pened that duplicates of one VO. for, what is matter of ordinary history lume, instead of that volume and the in England, still remains the subject of succeeding one, were sent to each; so antiquarian research here; and, until that both possess duplicates of the Inthe violence of parties shall have sub- quisitions for Leinster, but neither has sided sufficiently to admit of a general the single volume containing the Inquicompilation which will be received sitions for Ulster. It would be idle to with a certain degree of assent by both comment on the negligence which has sides, every man who would take a for- left the capital of a great province withward part in Irish politics must be an out the published records of its own antiquary, as English politicians inva- district, especially when it is known riably were before the publication of that a reference to these records would their common historical text-books. save a serious loss of time and money now expended on speculative searches among the originals, and that an application to any of the authorities would be at once effectual in having the deficiency supplied. Of the Cork Institution we cannot speak with certainty ; but we believe the diocesan library of Armagh, and the collegiate library of Maynooth, to be in this respect by much the best furnished of our provincial institutions. To come to Of course there are numerous and honorable exceptions; but these are chiefly studious men, who affect retirement and learned ease, while the number of active exceptions is barely sufficient to prove the rule. If we transfer our inquiry from private individuals to public institutions, we shall find the same subject of complaint, though in a less degree. A library is here a vital part of the body politic of each, and in every library there are of course some works on the history and statistics of the country. But in no one whatever is there a per Dublin, proceeding on the ascending scale, we have first the King's Inns library, a showy depository of an illassorted collection, particularly defi |