"Balleagh-na-Tierna 'tis called, in respect of being cut across the side of the Galties by the TIERNA-DHU, that is the BLACK BARON, as they named him in his own country here below."

"Black baron!" said De Vere: " that sounds well among these wild scenes. Does the black baron live in these mountains, friend ?”

"He does, Sir; that's he did, but he's dead, Sir, and doing bravely these twenty years and more, and so is his brother Tierna Ruadh, the red baron, that followed him; whose son is now the Marquis Dunore: devil set his foot after them all, for its little good ever they did the country yet, them Fitzadelms!" (5)

The two travellers, as if moved by the same mechanical impulse, started, leaned forward, and then sunk back in the chaise-" At least," said the elder, "it was doing good to cut a road through this wild region, friend."

"Sorrow much then, Sir, any how; in respect of never finishing it, no more nor that inn there, fornent you to the left." Here the driver pointed to the ruins of some dreary walls, which added to the desolateness of the scene.

"This Balleagh, I heard tell, was to join the low road, and was made in a great hurry to have a short cut for the Lord Lieutenant and the quality that came down in oceans from Dublin to the stage plays at court Fitzadelm; and the inn was to bait at; for, barring Lis-na-sleugh, sorrow baiting place in the Galties at all at all; and that was no place for quality to stop in."

"What an heterogenous association of images!" said the Commodore: "mountain regions and private theatricals! A poor Irish lord beginning a work fit for an emperor, and leaving it unfinished, a monument of his uncalculating extravagance, of that wildness and refinement, that uncivilized dissipation,

which characterized the provincial nobility of Ireland fifty years back, and arose from the degradation in which they were held.”·

Oh, its delicious!" replied De Vere. "I should like to know how the descendant or representative of these noble Fitzadelms would feel, in thus accidentally hearing what we have now heard, and seeing what we see."

"If he was a vain man, flattered and spoiled by fortune," replied the Commodore, emphatically, "he would feel deep mortification; but if he were" —he paused abruptly, and demanded of the driver: "Does Court Fitzadelm lie in the neighbourhood of these mountains?"

"It does, Sir, fifteen miles off, in the valley, down below, between the Galties and Gotroes, and the Balli-Howries, cribbed round with them and the beautiful Avon fiorne, the fair water, running under the castle bawn, that's all

that's left of it, Sir. For shure after the Lord's death it was broken up into smithereens, and scarce a skreed* of it left to the fore."

"And who has carried it away?” asked De Vere.

"Why, Darby Crawley has, Sir, and his father before him, ould Pat; and has'nt left a taste, but what's in their own hands this day. And the chay, your honors driving in, shure it was from him; 'twas bought at the auction. Troth, and if the young lord that got the title, or his brother was in it, they'd be entirely amazed to see their crown and arms running the road this day, that's the Galties, Sir."

To this observation the travellers made no rejoinder. The horses now toiled slowly and painfully up a road, which every moment became more steep and laborious. On either side, the mountain scenery opened into in

* Skreed, a rag or morsel.

creasing wildness and sublimity. Innumerable defiles boldly diverged to ascending regions, while altitudes still greater, blue, misty, and cloud-cap'd, terminated these natural vistas. The ascent had now become so steep and dangerous, that the travellers had not only alighted, but were frequently obliged to assist in lifting the chaise over deep ruts, cut by the torrents, but which the driver simply, called 'sore bits.' He frequently assured them that a little further on, a small quarter of a mile, the lord's Balleagh* would come down upon the Cloghniagh-Cluain, the lurking place of the noisy water (a torrent he affected every moment to hear) and then they would be upon the low road, which would bring them on the high posting road to Doneraile and Buttevant.

Obliged to pin their faith upon a guide of whom they now began to en* Balleagh-a road or way.