heart that in my poor country as little blood as possible may be shed.'

'Bah!' said Hoche; 'you can't make omelettes without breaking of eggs.'

Adjutant-general,' said De Winter to Tone, 'I do not misapprehend you there is no denying that the English are a brave enemy, and Admiral Duncan is a gallant and able officer. I shall not seek an encounter with him until I land your expedition,— but I shall certainly not shun it.'

Thus spoke the man of true courage, who fought his ships gallantly in the subsequent action, even after the defection of the braggart who deserted him.

Tone tapped General Hoche on the shoulder, and led him apart for a few words in private; the door being open that led to the stern gallery, they walked forth, and Tone began an energetic address, requesting the general to dissuade the admiral as much as possible from an engagement with the English fleet. 'Let the troops be landed in Ireland,' said he : 'on the land you are invincible, as the English are on the seals, Fate seems to have given to them the dominion of the ocean. my words are prophetic-so sure as this fleet shall engage the English, so surely shall it be beaten !'

'De Winter is an able officer,' said Hoche.

Mark me

'He is,' said Tone, and a brave man, I am certain, from his moderate manner; while I doubt very much the courage of that flourishing gentleman. But have we not the example of repeated engagements to show us that Great Britain is an overmatch for every nation on the seas? and it makes my blood boil to think that while her fleets are freely manned by Irishmen, the land that gives them birth groans beneath her oppression. Ireland helps to gather laurels for Britain's brows, but not a leaf of the chaplet is given to her; she shares in winning the victories that enrich and aggrandise the Queen of the Ocean, but is allowed no portion of the fame or the prosperity.'

'Be not thus agitated,' said Hoche soothingly, touched by the fierce enthusiasm with which Tone uttered the latter part of his address: 'when once this armament lands in Treland, there is an end of Great Britain's domination.'

'Ay, when it lands,' said Tone, with a volcu in which im- · atience and hopelessness were strangely blended. 'Oh!' said

he, stretching out his hands to the expanse of sea and sky before him-'Oh! ye elements-ye mysterious agents of heaven! why do ye interpose your potent shield of air and foam between England and her foes? You blasted the Armada of Spain; I saw you scatter the ships of France at Bantry; and now this gallant fleet, with fifteen thousand chosen men, who burn for the liberation of my country, is chained here by an adverse wind for a whole month! Ireland, my country, I fear you are doomed !'

His hands dropped to his side, his head sank on his chest, and he stood with his eyes fixed on the ground.

'Rally, man, rally !' said Hoche, slapping him on the shoulder: 'why, Adjutant-general, I have never seen you thus before!'

"Whenever I think of the fate of that unhappy country, it breaks my heart! But I've done :-only, for God's sake, General Hoche, dissuade them from a sea-fight; we are ruined if they attempt it.'

Hoche and Tone now re-entered the cabin. They found De Winter and Daendells giving instructions to the smuggler. De Winter desired him to put himself in the way of the English fleet, and give them some false information.

It was planned that De Welskein should pass the English squadron in the night, and towards morning sail back again, as if he came up Channel, and tell the English admiral that he saw a French fleet at the Channel's mouth; this might give him an idea that the Brest fleet had got out to sea, which would serve to divide his attention, and possibly draw him farther off the coast, and leave a passage from the Texel more open, in case the wind should change so as to favour such a movement.

General Daendells told him to assure the Irish of speedy succour, for that fifteen thousand men were embarked for that service, and only waited a fair wind to sail. A few lines to De Lacy, from Hoche, was all the writing the smuggler bore, and he left the ship on his mission.

Such were the plans that were proposed; such were the promises made. What was the result?

The wind continued foul a fortnight longer; in all, six weeks. The provisions for so large a number of troops, as well as seamen, became exhausted; the troops were relanded; the expedition to Ireland was given up-and England again was spared the danger

G

of a formidable invasion into a disaffected portion of her kingdom.

The night the troops were disembarked Tone went to his tent with a heavy heart: the next morning he saw the pennants of the fleet turned towards England.

The breeze which the day before would have made his blood dance, had he felt it on the deck of the Vryheid, now only made his heart sick; he stood on the beach like one possessed.

After remaining motionless for some minutes, he stamped fiercely, clenched his teeth, struck his forehead with his hand, and walked rapidly away; but ere he descended a slight declivity that shut out the bay, he turned round and cast a look of despair towards his country.

Thus ended the second expedition undertaken for the invasion of Ireland: and the gallant Hoche, within a month after, was no more-cut off in his prime of manhood and career of glory by the hand of the assassin !!

And what was the fate of the fleet?

Admiral De Winter, the October following, sailed from the Texel, met the English squadron under Admiral Duncan, and fought like a hero-but Storey deserted him. De Winter, nevertheless, maintained a fierce engagement against superior numbers but the prophecy of Tone was fulfilled; after a wellcontested fight, the Dutch struck their colours, and the flag of England again floated triumphantly over the seas.

1 Hoche's life was attempted more than once. attributed to slow poison.

His death was

CHAPTER IX.

THE PRETTY GIRL MILKING HER COW.

•I saw a young damsel,-'twas Noreen :--
Her ringlets did carelessly flow.

Oh how I adore you, ma vourneen,
Ma collcen dhas cruthcen na mbho.'

RORY O'MORE left his cottage at an early hour the morning after his conversation with De Lacy. For a few miles he followed the by-road that led from his house, and then struck into a path through some fields, for the purpose of making the high-road which was the direct way to the place of his destination.

As he was walking briskly on, looking neither to the right nor the left, but quite absorbed inthe contemplation of the business he had undertaken, his attention was suddenly arrested by hearing one of those quaint and sportive melodies of his country sung by a sweet voice.

Rory paused;-he recognised the tones that had so often made his heart thrill with pleasure,-and running up the gentle hill before him, he beheld, as he topped the summit, on the other side of the hillock, seated under the shade of a hawthorn hedge, a beautiful peasant girl, whose song proceeded merrily while she was milking her cows.

Kathleen Regan was sitting with her back towards the point whence Rory approached, so that he was enabled, unperceived by her, to gaze with pleasure on her sweet figure and listen to her sportive song.

'There's a lad that I know; and I know that he
Speaks softly to me,

The cushla-ma-chrce!

He's the pride of my heart, and he loves me well;
But who the lad is, I'm not going to tell.

'He's as straight as a rush, and as bright as the stream
That around it doth gleam,-

Oh of him how I dream!

I'm as high as his shoulder-the way that I know
Is, he caught me one day, just my measure to show..

'He whisper'd a question one day in my ear:
When he breathed it, oh dear!

How I trembled with fear!

What the question he ask'd was, I need not confess;
But the answer I gave to the question was, "Yes."

'His eyes they are bright, and they looked so kind
When I was inclined

To speak my mind!

And his breath is so sweet-oh, the rose's is less!
And how I found it out,-why I leave you to guess.'

The scene was one to excite the imagination and charm the senses of one less keen to such pleasures than Rory. He could catch the soft scent of the morning breath of the cows, vieing in fragrance with the woodbine that was peeping through the hedge; at the same time that he could hear the sweet voice of the girl he loved, and see her bright ringlets curl down her graceful neck and beautifully-rounded shoulders.

He watched her for some moments in silent admiration, and then, stealing softly behind her and suddenly uttering 'Wow!' the girl started, and in her moment of surprise Rory caught her in his arms and snatched a kiss. A hearty box on his ear followed the salute, with the exclamation of,

'You divil! how dar you!'

'I love you to guess,' said Rory, laughing.

'You're mighty impident, so you are, Rory.'

'Arrah! how could I help it, Kathleen darlin'?' said Rory, with a look of admiration that would have softened the anger of even a more cruel beauty than Kathleen ;-a look that appealed more strongly to the self-love of the woman than the liberty taken had startled her modesty.

You're very impident, so you are,' said Kathleen, settling her hair, that had been tossed into a most becoming confusion over her face in the struggle.

'You often towld me that before,' said Rory.

'It does not do you much good, thin,' said Kathleen. 'You hear me, but you don't heed me.'

'Why, if you go to that, how can I help myself. Sure you might as well keep the ducks from the wather, or the bees from the flowers, as my heart from you, Kathleen.'

'Now, Rory, lave off !'