When the harper returned to the Earl's room, he told him, notwithstanding his promises to the contrary, that their host had discovered who he was.

"Then you, you scoundrel," said the Earl, in a passion, "must have told him."

"Is it me, your honour? no, but he knew you whin you first came to the house; but sure, in your ravin', whin you were sick, you let the cat out of the bag intirely."

"How so? What did I say?"

"Say!-sure you said you were the great Earl of Desmond-though they called you the Sugane Earl-that you had a property of eight millions of acres in Kerry, that you had an army of fifty thousand foot, and thirty thousand horse soldiers, and lashins of money for all that would jine you."

"You lie, you scoundrel !—I never said anything like that. I have my faults, but boasting or bombast is not among them. I never spoke in a strain like that, in or out of my senses."

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Then, be me faith! your honour, it was something like it."

"Well, what did you say? Confess it, of course?" "Confess it!-no; but I swore be all the saints in the kalender, that you were nothing more nor a Kerry cousin to the Sugane Earl; but it was no use in life. The old priest is as cunning as a fox, and

I see him laughin' out of the corner of his eye, as much as to say, let us see what hole he'll run into now; and at long last, afther bothering the brains out of me to explain the relationship, he told me, quiet and asy-like, that I needn't tell any more lies about it, for he knew it all."

"Well, what happened next?"

"He axed me if you knew him, and all about him, before you came to the house."

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You, of course, told him not-told him the truth ?"

"The truth! Catch me at that!-I'd like that! Arrah, sure your honour don't take me for an omadhaun outright."

"What did you tell him, then ?"

"I tould him how that your honour said to me that an ould friend of your honour's lived in these parts, and that although you were in a morthal hurry to jine your army, and give the Prisident of Munsther a batin', that you wouldn't, for all the Prisidents in Ireland, miss of seein' your ould friend."

"Well, you have told as decent a lie as you could put together, I have no doubt; but I would rather you had told the simple truth. I shall now thank you to request our host to come to my room."

The servant did as he was commanded, and

said to the priest, "My master, the Earl, would be plased to see your rivirence."

"The Earl," said the priest, repeating the word; "then you have told him of our conversation, which I bid you not; you have acted foolishly."

"Tould him," said Dermot, scratching his head, "tould him, is it? Bad luck to me, but he got it out of me."

"My Lord," said the priest, with emphasis, as he entered the Earl's sick room, "I understand you desire to see me."

"Father," said the Earl, sitting up, and reaching out both his hands to the priest, "can you forgive me, for practising a deception upon you?"

"My son," said the priest, with a tenderness and emotion which he found it difficult to restrain, "you never gave me occasion to doubt your honour, and I must not do so now."

of

"Neither will you, when you hear me. My servant spoke falsely, in asserting that I was aware your residence, and came here to see you. Had I known where to find you, I would have gone over the kingdom to make you out; but I did not, till your fair niece led me to this house. It is of her I would speak, father: I love your niece; I have loved her from the first hour I saw her, and shall love her to my last hour."

The old priest looked perplexed and confused, but he did not interrupt the Earl, whose pale cheek flushed fearfully as he spake.

"But I resolved to win her heart as Captain Fitzgerald, and not as the Earl of Desmond. This purpose was formed before I met you; and nothing less than such a resolution could restrain my feelings of love and affection for you, or prevent my casting myself into your arms. Will you now accept my embrace?" said he, raising his arms towards the priest.

"Will I? can you doubt it? but do not interpret this embrace as an approval or reception of your suit. This, my son, can never be."

He spoke in a deaf ear, for the Earl had fainted on his shoulder, from over-exertion and excitement, which brought on a relapse.

CHAPTER XII.

"Tityre, tu patulæ recumbans sub tegmine fagi,
Sylvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena:
Nos patriæ fines et dulcia linquimus arva;

Nos patriam fugimus. Tu, Tityre, lentus, in umbra,
Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida sylvas."-VIRGIL.

THE progress from fever to convalescence is often slow. It was not so in the present instance, for the invalid had a strong constitution, but he sadly lamented the absence of those heavenly visions, which had transported his soul to the gates of Paradise.

I need not explain to my readers, that the cause of their disappearance resulted from the caution and maidenly shyness of Ellen Cavendish, who did not cross the threshold of the Earl's chamber, after his restoration to perfect consciousness. The possession of a sound mind is one of man's noblest endowments; but the young Earl thought the withdrawal of his ministering angel too high a price for the possession. There are some states of mental derangement, from which it seems cruel to relieve us. It is like awaking us too soon from some beautiful dream, to the cold realities of life,