honor, my lord, it grieves me to be the messenger of such ungrateful news; but, of Parez's guilt, there can be neither doubt nor question: my lord, you are familiar with his handwriting ; here are the letters addressed by him to the English captain commanding the besiegers' trenches." So saying, he took forth the letters which Sir William Brereton had read before the Deputy, and handed them to the unhappy nobleman.

Lord Thomas tore them open, and his eye seemed to devour their contents; but he did not read more than a line or two till he saw that he had been betrayed then his rage burst out in fierce exclamations-"By the heaven above me, it is too true; we are sold by the accursed villain!-a thousand pounds in hand-base traitor, was it for but a thousand pounds you did it, after the tens of thousands that I and my father lavished on you? Villain! deliberate villain !" he cried, grinding his teeth with rage when he came to the second letter; "you will show a light when they may scale the wall; you have drugged a cask of wine that the revels of the garrison may be carried to a fortunate issue!-Oh fool, fool that I was to trust him!-Read that, Sir Oliver; read it aloud that we may all know how we have been hetrayed; and do you, Sir John, I beseech you, pardon my incredulity, for, before heaven, I thought till now that a truer and more loyal servant than Christopher Parez, never did good service by a master!"

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From the first day I knew him, my lord," replied Talbot, "I have found him to be a malignant, envious man, and my own implacable enemy: my lord, so well as I can judge, the thousand pounds was not so much his object in betraying Maynooth, as the gratification of revenge and other worse passions which had been thwarted by the protection afforded to me and my lady by his lieutenant of the barbican; but as this concerns me privately, I shall take another opportunity of explaining it to your lordship."

Sir Oliver now proceeded to read the traitor's letters, and at every pause the room rung with execrations: "Before God," cried the old knight, when he had finished, "I don't think I ever heard of so desperate a villain

before, except, indeed, that churl who sold the Saviour: with such a conscience as he must have, I wish him joy of his thousand pounds!"

"If the church teach us aright," said Talbot, "he would now be glad to give it all for one drop of water: treachery for treachery, was his advice at the first outbreak of the war, and as he counselled so he has been dealt with." "What, has the Gunner broken faith with him?" exclaimed several voices.

"I left his head on a spike above the gates, when I rode from Maynooth, yesterday morning," replied Talbot; and then went on to detail the unexpected events that had succeeded the storming of the castle.

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By my honor," said Lord Thomas, when he had concluded, "I hold myself Skeffington's debtor; though I would rather let him reconcile such a violation of his understood agreement with his conscience, than be the man to do so myself. But come, Sir John, Maynooth is lost, and the traitor who sold it is punished; there is no use in further complaint or reprobation; let us now hear what terms you bring us from the conquerors."

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My lord," said Talbot, rising, conscious of the importance of his task, and addressing Lord Thomas with an earnestness of manner that at once fixed the attention of all present, "when this mission was offered to be entrusted to me, I would willingly have left it to older and wiser men, whose known sagacity might have recommended their proposals to a more careful consideration than I can well hope for, inexperienced as I am in the management of such grave and momentous affairs; but, my lord, when it was represented to me that there was no man in the English camp capable of undertaking it, who was not likewise infected with the common longing for confiscations which brings hither so many rapacious adventurers desirous of protracting the war while any prospect of plunder remains, I thought it better to make the attempt with such poor talents as I possessed; conscious that no wish to rise on the ruins of your father's house could impede the efforts of my honest zeal for peace. The fortune of the war, my lord, has gone against you from the first. Not to dwell on an ungrateful topic by

enumerating former disasters, the present week has seen you deprived of your two most powerful auxiliaries in the interior, and stripped of the very keystone of your strength within the pale. Pardon me, my lord, that I lay these calamitous events thus plainly before you; it is far from my purpose, and still farther from my wish, to irritate you by dwelling on misfortunes that have been caused by the pride or treachery of others, and for which you, my lord, may be counted in all respects blameless; but it is my duty to show you, to the extent of my poor ability, the hopeless state to which this enterprize has been reduced by the will of Providence, before I urge you to make those sacrifices of pride and lingering ambition that must yet be submitted to before our unhappy country can be restored to the peace that, in a moment of delusion, we deprived her of. The secession of O'Connor and O'Neill has left you in undisciplined numbers scarce equal to the trained and veteran army which Skeffington leads against you; the fall of Maynooth has placed the key of all Kildare in the hands of your enemy, and Rathangan is but two days' march from the scene of his triumph-—”

“Your terms, your terms, Sir John!" exclaimed Lord Thomas, unable longer to control his impatience of this mortifying detail; “it is true, we have not been successful; had we been so, we would not have taxed your endurance with this parade of your misfortunes, but have told you in a word what we required you to do, and what we were willing to do ourselves."

"Alas!

my lord," cried Talbot, were you in my place, I know not how otherwise you could preface the conditions which I am about to lay before you. I would to God they were more favourable; but, trust me, if I had had a hand in drawing them up, there should be little difficulty in agreeing to them."

"Let us hear them, Sir John, in God's name," said Sir Oliver. "It were useless for us to deny that we are willing to listen to reason."

"The first item," said Talbot, taking forth his instructions, "is, that you shall disband your troops, and dismiss each man to his home, on taking an

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That you, my lord, with your uncles, Sir Oliver and Sir John Fitzgerald, do publicly, at a place to be appointed by the Lord Deputy, make your submissions, and render up to the royal commissioners all your estates of whatever kind, to be disposed of at the king's pleasure; being guaranteed, out of the royal exchequer, to yourself, my lord, a yearly pension of one thousand marks; and to the rest, by the year, one hundred marks respectively; also that you render up Sir James Delahyde and Master Burnel, unconditionally." "And, in return?"

"Life and liberty, my lord."

"And are these the terms to which you would have my father's son subscribe?" exclaimed Lord Thomas; starting up in uncontrolled indignation, "sooner may this hand be chopped off by the axe of the hangman, than set sign or seal to such a prodigy of malignant and rapacious insolence! What! disband my troops to return to homes already portioned out to Cheshire or Kentish clowns! give up the arms by which they must win themselves a portion from the natives of the interior, or defend the portion that good-will may assign them there, when driven out of their old holdings on our forfeited estates! come in, most like, with halters round our necks, and lay our swords at the feet of a base churl, the proxy of a false and lascivious tyrant, sprung from the tail of a baggage-wagon, as this William the Gunner is creditably reported to be! Give up the broad plains of Kildare, that our noble ancestors won with their good swords from kings and royal princes, to be plotted out to fat undertakers and beggarly adventurers at so much the rood, and a clause that no natives be

permitted on the land! What! see my noble kinsmen reduced to be pensioners on Henry Tudor's bounty! give up my honorable and faithful friends, who have stood by me with loyal constancy through the worst of times, to be dealt with as felons by a corrupt Chief Justice! sheath my sword while this cruel tyrant holds my father in captivity, and denies a free and honorable pardon for our taking up arms under the delusion of his death, spread as it was by his own minions?— Never!" He sat down amid loud plaudits from his kinsmen and associates.

Talbot again rose. "Good, my lord," he said: "remember that I only urge these conditions as the envoy of their framers, not as being in any way the adviser or suggester of any of them. And severe although they be, my lord, they are by no means so unjust as your indignation has led you at first sight to consider them. If your disbanded soldiery want homes on their return, which in the present unsettled state of the country is far from probable-for what English settler would venture on the Geraldine lands in times like these?-But, should your troops have neither home nor employment, there are the king's levies into which they may, every man, be drafted within a month. Submission is a galling word to a proud spirit; but, my lord, the prime nobility and the kings themselves of the land, have often submitted themselves to the King's Deputy; and, so that he be the representative of royalty, who matters what may be his name or lineage? My lord, Roderick O'Connor was not ashamed to bend his knee to your great ancestor, and he was king of all Ireland. To be pensioners on the royal bounty is what many of the chief nobility of England openly desire; yet far be it from me to recommend dependence on such a stipend, because it is scarce counted dishonorable among strangers; it is by setting its decent provision in comparison with the precarious estate of outlawry, that I would seek to reconcile you to some farther consideration of this proposal. But, my lord, I have hitherto spoken of your honor and interest; it behoves me now to tell you of higher reasons why you should not reject such chances of reconciliation with the state as the

decrees of Providence have left you. My lord, I will speak freely, for I feel honestly concerned for all parties: it is your duty, my lord, as a knight and a Christian, since you have kindled strife and contention among your fellow-countrymen for the sake of avenging a wrong that was never done you, it is your bounden duty, I say, now that you have been undeceived, to make amends to the outraged peace of your country, even though in doing so you should have to sacrifice both fortune and liberty. You bared the sword, my lord, to take vengeance for your noble father's supposed murder. Alas! your obstinacy in refusing to sheath it when that error was discovered, has wrought a worse calamity than the evil which you drew it to avenge.

"Ha, Sir John, what has happened to my father?"

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My lord, he was in some measure my own father; I can remember no other parent. It is bitter news to tell, Lord Thomas; but for all our sakes it must be told-he is dead, my lord; his heart was broken by your persevering in this aimless and hopeless war." Lord Thomas sat for a minute struggling to keep down his emotion, but it was more than he could contend against. He rose abruptly and in silence; but those who marked his face might see that he was bursting into tears as he left the apartment. A general outbreak of lamentation followed, and Talbot sat down overcome with the effect of his own announcement, and half-reproaching himself that he had not made it more delicately. Lord Thomas returned in a few minutes, and advanced to the head of the table. His manner was calm and sad, but the first word announced that his determination was taken. “Sir John Talbot, kinsmen, and gentlemen," he began, "it were idle in me to pretend that I could hear of a parent's death without such emotion as must for a time interrupt any deliberation on other affairs; yet, ere I retire, I would apprize you that, in the matter before us, there will be no need to resume the arguments on either side. Bear back my defiance to the framer of these insolent demands," he said, turning to Talbot, "and tell Sir William Skeffington, that when I make my

submission to him, there will be no need of stipulating for my people's pardon, since I mistake them much if any of them will stand in need of favor at his hands when that day comes. And, as for the representations of duty which yon have made to me; believe me, so far as they proceed from yourself, I thank you heartily; but, with regard to those who sent you, tell them that my duty makes me consider them as much the murderers of my father, now that they have done him to death by their cruel injustice towards me, as I did on that day when Alan first spread the rumour of his having fallen beneath the axe of their executioner. I have done with the subject of your mission, Sir John; and I would not have it renewed. If I have given you offence in aught that I have said, forgive me; for this has been a trying evening with us. You will sup with my kinsmen, Sir John-it will be but a melancholy meal; yet, such as it is, I give thanks to God that I have it by the bounty of neither king nor viceroy. Sir John, farewell till the morning; and if you like your fare, remember that while there are streams in Desmond and woods upon Slieve Logher, I shall never want a board as independently supplied, and at which you will always be welcome, for the sake of him that is gone." He wrung Talbot's hand and withdrew. His uncles accompanied him, and left the knight, but not without the expression of much regret, to meditate over his disappointments till their promised return at supper. Talbot would have gone, but that he still hoped, when the first ebullition of grief was past, to have another opportunity of conversing with Lord Thomas on the engrossing subject of his thoughts and wishes. But the greater number of gentlemen among whom he had been left were Fitzgeralds; and although their gloomy prospects, combined with this melancholy intelligence of the decease of the great head of their house, rendered their conversation, during the absence of the elder knights, somewhat sad; yet as Talbot had been known to many of them before quitting the service of Kildare, they gave him opportunity enough to forget his anxiety in relating their several adventures and changes

of fortune since they had last met. At length Sir Oliver returned. “I crave your pardon, fair Sirs," he said; "but my nephew has been so much moved by this news, that 'tis only now I have thought it right to leave him. God rest poor Gerald's soul! he was a good man and a brave man ; and a better brother, I am bold to say, never broke bread among his kindred. But we must all die; and although I would rather than a year and a day added to my own time that Gerald had died in harness, instead of these churls' bolts and fetters, yet, since it has been God's will so to take him, let us not repine.-So ho, ye knaves, spread the board for supper, and tell Neal Roe that I will need him here with the harp. Come, Sir John, drink a cup of wine with me for the sake of the days when I used to nurse you on my knee under the old beech tree in Maynooth gardens."

"God be with the time!" cried Talbot, pledging the worthy knight in a full goblet. “But ah! Sir Oliver, there is no seat under the old beech now; the English cut it down to make room for their breaching battery."

"Well, let it go,” replied Sir Oliver; "it will not burn a whit the less merrily for the taint of the churl's hatchet, and some good fellow's hearth may yet be all the brighter by its fall. But, fore God, now that I think of it, I do remember my father used to say there was something that touched the fate of our house in that beech's cutting down; but if we were to heed all the idle omens and blind prophesies about the downfall of the Geraldine for these ten years past, we would spend but an uneasy time. Blessed be God, it has not come to housing in the cow's belly with us yet!"

In the cow's belly, Sir Oliver ? What mean you by that ?" "How, Sir John, heard you never the old rhyme,

When five brothers go
I' the belly of the cow,
Clan Gerald's day of doom
Is come ?'"

"Not I, by my faith," said Talbot ; "but she will be a lusty heifer that fulfils your fate, if it is to happen in your generation, Sir Oliver."

"Fore God, I think she would soon be fain to drop her calves," replied the old knight. "John, James, Rickard, Walter, and myself, have an old custom of making free elbow-room, go where we will. But Heaven knows-I cannot tell what to think of these things falling out as they often do. We are just five brothers, now that Gerald (God rest his soul,) is gone." He paused for a moment, and proceeded: "But come, Sir John, and kinsmen, you see the best we can place before you; fall. to with the best appetite you can; for, come what may, a man made never the worse fight, either against grief or handy blows for having his stomach well lined with good munition of venison and Spanish wine." But, notwithstanding his recommendation, poor Sir Oliver scarce touched the good cheer set before him: his heart was full; and though he neglected no observance of the rights of hospitality, the tear was in his eye throughout. At length when the sorrowful repast was over, he poured out a goblet of wine and gave it to an attendant to bear to Neale Roe, the bard, who sat at the farther end of the table, next the lowest of the gentlemen of the Geraldine name. "The harp is silent on the hearth, son of Kennedy," said he, in Irish, "and our hearts are low in our breasts. Drink a strong draught to the memory of Gerald that will never listen to the voice of strings again; then let your fingers go forth on the wire, swiftly,

sweetly, clearly-ringing, till either the smiles come back to our countenances, or the tears that oppress our hearts flow upward with their weight of sorrow, and pour it from our eyes upon the ground."

The bard took the goblet, and, rising, stood beside his harp. The flickering brands at his feet threw his tall figure and wild costume into strong relief as he stood beneath the brace of the black-browed, overarching chimney. He looked round, and, raising the cup, drained it in silence and at a single draught. A few drops fell from the reversed goblet as his arm sank slowly again to his side, while he leaned abstractedly over his instrument, as if gathering his fancies for the coming lamentation: but suddenly raising his head, and shaking back the long red bands of his glibb, that had partially fallen over his brow, he extended the cup again, and exclaimed, “I drank to Gerald of the open hand, and the wine has not melted my soul to lamentation. My heart, among the strong wine, still burns like the hot iron when the son of the hammer has plunged it in a too shallow stream. again! for I will now drink a health; and that neither in silence nor in sorrow, but freely, loudly, and joyfully!" The cup was speedily replenished; and Neale Roe, seizing his harp, with-out prelude or preface, burst forth with this strain in Irish :—

Fill the cup

will guide you to Maynooth:

shoulders:

wine.