beloved children, to have rejoined you ere this. I had also hoped that your father's health, shaken as it was by his tedious illness, would have been restored by the salutary mountain-air of his native Glencarra. However, our little vessel was captured by some rebel sloops, who were cruising near Wexford harbour, in search of some government provision-ships. We returned to our native country as prisoners and we were landed in the midst of an infuriated mob of halfintoxicated pikemen, who were loud in their exclamations— To the bridge, to the bridge, with the heretics ! ' "By the intervention of a gracious Providence, some humane leaders arrived before the living torrent had swept us to the bridge; and these gentlemen succeeded in rescuing us from our enemies, and conveying us in safety to a prison-ship, which lay in the harbour. The court-house and gaol had been, already, so crowded with occupants, that fever was rife among them, and prisoners daily fell a sacrifice to its pestilential fury. 'Sixteen miserable days, we passed in the odious confinement in the prison-ship, rendered doubly miserable by uncertainty of your fate, my dearest children; (we have since learned with gratitude that the scourge of civil war has not extended so far west as dear Glencarra.) We were barred down into the hold of the vessel by an iron grating; our only food, two days in each week, consisted of potatoes and rancid butter, which was lowered down to us in the dirty bucket of the ship; at other times our diet was composed of black barley bread, with half a pint of milk each for breakfast, and coarse boiled beef and potatoes for dinner, all let down in the same dirty bucket, and consumed without the luxury of knives and forks. Our only bedding consisted of a little straw, scattered upon the large stones which formed the ship's ballast. To complete the measure of our discomfort, we were crowded, almost beyond endurance, ladies as well as gentlemen confined in the same small space, which was rendered almost suffocating by the intense heat of the weather. One lady was so distracted by her sufferings, together with the constant apprehension of being murdered by the wretches whose shouts we continually heard from shore, that she determined on suicide, and we had some difficulty in restraining her attempts to cast herself into the Your father and I found some alleviation of trial, in meditation and conversation upon eternity; then only did present misery shrink in its dimensions and appear light and transient, while compared with an abounding and undying weight of glory. Often wrestling in prayer, we were at length enabled to cast ourselves, and you, still dearer objects of our love, upon the will of Providence, knowing that all things must work together for good to them who love God. water. * * Our prayers have been heard, but how shall we return thanks to the Lord for his infinite mercies, for preserving us among the few who survive the massacre ! 'On the 20th of June, a low-born townsman, named Dixon, who had raised himself to the rank of rebel captain, went to the gaol, and swore that by sunset all its inmates should be no more. This man was in the habit of riding continually about the streets, exciting the populace to violence and mischief; and, for the honour of the sex, I am ashamed to say that his wife usually accompanied him, and was equally energetic in promoting sedition. Civil war lets loose the evil passions in all countries: Dixon did not find it difficult to assemble a number of men as cruel as himself. At the NOVEMBER, 1845. 2 G head of the murderous band, he visited the court-house, gaol, and prison-ship in succession, and led the prisoners by tens to the bridge, where they were each lifted up on the points of pikes, and flung over the parapet into the river beneath. Your dear father and I knelt in a corner of the hold, preparing for death, and entreating the Divine protection for you, whom we believed should soon be reduced to a state of orphanage. The hold had been half emptied, and we heard the huzzas of the mob as each victim disappeared beneath the waters of the Slaney, where suddenly the hateful sounds ceased. We afterwards heard that General Edward Roche and another rebel chief had gallopped up to the scene of slaughter, announcing that the camp on Vinegar Hill had been surrounded by the royal troops, and ordered every rebel to hasten to the expected battle. Our prison ship was not again visited by the executioners, though we remained a long time in expectation of their return. But we had cried to the Lord in our trouble, and he had delivered us from our distress. Oh that we may praise him for his wonderful works! 'The sacred emblem of our Saviour's suffering was much desecrated upon that memorable day. At the head of each procession from the gaol and court-house to the bridge, was borne a large black flag, on one side of which was depicted a bloody cross, and on the other the letters, M. W. S., Murder without Sin. The murder of heretics being considered a meritorious rather than a sinful action, by this misguided people.* It is not surprising that a deluded populace should believe, like the persecutors of the Waldenses, that the destruction of heretics is meretorious; when, among the studies of the incipient priesthood of Maynooth, we find a sentence to the foilowing effect: If it be just and right to put a noted robber to death, if it be lawful and just to condemn a convicted assassin, how much more is it lawful to put to death a heretic, 'On the 21st of June, the day after our escape from death, General Lake's army regained possession of Wexford, and freed us from our captivity. We cannot as yet, with any degree of safety, resume our journey. The yeomanry and rebels pursue a fearful system of retaliation; detached parties scour the country in every direction, and cut off every individual whom they suspect of adherence to their opponents' cause; and too often, the corpses of even women and children are found in the highways, and adjoining fields. Houses and cabins, roofless and blackened by smoke, are objects of every-day occurrence, and the spirit of enmity has even induced many to destroy chapels and despoil churches. How thankful do I feel that my beloved ones are, as it were, in a little ark of peace; far from this distracting scene of warfare. May the Most High protect you under the shadow of His Almighty wings. May He watch between you and me, while we are absent one from the other. Dear children, write frequently to 'Your attached Mother." Such a long interval had elapsed between the time the above letters had been written, and the day that we received them, that there was every reason to hope that our parents would shortly rejoin us. Accordingly old Mabel began to see letters in the flame of the candle, which were to announce their arrival; and to toss teacups, the contents of which she discovered to be carriages and four, passing over intervening mountains. Mabel frequently found her prophetical auguries fulfilled, by this plan of building her schemes on the foundation of some probable event; but when such event who by disseminating his dangerous doctrines, robs men of their eternal happiness, and murders their immortal souls.' did occur, she always expected credit for her second sight,—not that the kind-hearted nurse ever dreamed of imposture: she was always herself the dupe of her own pretensions. One evening about sunset, we perceived a boat slowly wending its way across the lake towards our insular abode. A lady and gentleman occupied the stern, They landed near the fisherman's hut, and in another moment we were clasped in the arms of our parents. A celebrated painter has drawn a veil over the countenance of parental grief, and in humble imitation thereof I will leave the deep joy of that long-delayed meeting under the concealing shades of time. There are feelings which will not sit to have their portraits taken; they are too ethereal for delineation. Our parents narrated to us many incidents connected with their captivity, and the rebellion in Wexford; but nothing seemed to me to exhibit the faith of the populace in the supernatural powers of the priests more than a spell which my father found upon the body of a slain rebel. It was written by the Rev. Philip Roche, P. P., who combined both military and clerical functions by becoming a rebel chief. The following is a true copy: IN THE NAME OF GOD, INRI. AND OF THE I. H. S. 'No gun, pistol, sword, or any other offensive weapon can hurt or otherwise injure the person who has this in his possession.' No. 7602. 'ROCHE.' |