effectuate a landing; we have been dispersed four times in four days, and at this moment, out of forty-three sail, we can muster, of all sizes, but fourteen. There only wants our falling in with the English to complete our destruction."*

Dr. Moylan had received his ecclesiastical education at Toulouse and Paris, and after his ordination, in the year 1761, he officiated as a vicar in the latter city, where he received many marks of regard from its then Archbishop, Christophe de Beaumont. Dr. Moylan was transferred from the Bishopric of Kerry to that of Cork, in succession to Dr. Butler-Lord Dunboynewho, in the hope of obtaining an heir to his peerage, conformed to the Protestant Church, married, and on his deathbed-childless-returned to the fold.

These were truly strange times and critical in the history of the Irish Church. The late James Roche of Cork mentioned that he was at the consecration of Dr. Nihil, Bishop of Kilfenora, when the text selected by the preacher, Walter Blake Kirwan, was apostacywhile the consecrating prelate was the subsequent apostate, Dr. Butler! The latter, previous to his recantation, passed, in conjunction with the other bishops of Munster, a series of resolutions in deprecation of the conduct of the Pope in suspending the R. C. Primate, Dr. Blake. They bear date 6th July, 1782, and go on to say "Resolved-That a joint letter be written to

*Had the French effected a landing at Bantry, Cork would certainly have fallen, and it is remarkable that at that very crisis stores existed in the city to the amount of a million and a-half-the great supply for the British navy during the ensuing year. The desertion of the Irish shore by the English fleet was due to a masterly trick of Tone's. Several thousand copies of a proclamation addressed to the Irish people were, by order of Hoche, in process of printing at Brest, for distribution in Ireland whenever a landing should be effected. One of Mr. Pitt's spies heard that something of the kind was preparing, and called at the printer's for a copy. Tone, with his usual presence of mind, directed the compositor to have the words Portugal" and "Portuguese" introduced wherever "Ireland" or "Irish" chanced to occur. The spy stalked off with the fictitious information-away sailed the fleet for Portugal.

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the Pope, intimating the alarms every bishop in Ireland must feel at the late proceedings in Armagh, viz., the suspension of the Primate without either previous trial or the allegation of any canonical fault."

Dr. Moylan assumed the administrative reins of Cork to fill the seat vacated by Lord Dunboyne, when he rushed out of the diocese grasping the torch of Hymen in lieu of his crozier, and displaying a wedding instead of his episcopal ring. It is an interesting historic fact, hitherto unrecorded, and for which we are indebted to Mr. J. W. Coppinger, that the family of Coppinger, of Barryscourt, possessed for generations the right of presenting priests to the Pope for appointment to the See of Cork; but this extraordinary privilege ceased from the time of the Butler scandal.

CHAPTER XI.

HE CHEWS THE CUD OF SWEET AND BITTER FANCY. "On I went in sad dejection, careless where my footsteps bore, Till a ruined church before me opened wide its ancient door; Till I stood before the portals where of old were wont to be, For the blind, the halt, and friendless, alms and hospitality. Still the ancient seat was standing, built against the buttress grey, Where the clergy used to welcome weary travellers on their way." TRANSLATION FROM THE IRISH, by Samuel Ferguson.

OLD Cashel—the City of the Kings, and his own natal place was now the destination of John Lanigan. Weary in mind and limb, he proceeded on his journey afoot, leaving behind "the spreading Lee," as Spenser expressively styles it, and possibly muttering to himself the bitter philosophy of Shenstone :

"Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round,

Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found

The warmest welcome at an inn."

Or, more likely, offering up his trials in the spirit of a

Christian pilgrim, carrying his cross like the Master whom he served, and deriving serenity from the sweetly sequestered glades through which he moved. On he went, becoming more and more calm at every mile, and passing in slow succession

the ruins of Kilcoleman Castle, once the residence of Spenser; the winding Blackwater; Mallow, with its sparkling spas and rattling "rakes," immortalised by his early acquaintance, Ned Lysaght; the ivy-clad stronghold of the Desmonds; Buttevant, with its

crumbling monastery finely situated on the steep bank of the Awbeg; the tower in the Golden Vale; Tybrid and the grave of Keatinge; the Devil's Bit; the lofty Galtees tipped with the brighter gold of morning, from whence, as Dr. O' Donovan assured us, the race of the O'Longachains, or Lanigans, originally sprang; Galtymore, attaining an elevation of 2,500 feet, and

sternly proclaiming himself king of that royal range; the fine cascade roaring in the western glen; the wood of Aharlow, wherein Dr. Geoffrey Keatinge took refuge from the murderer's threats and deadly shafts,* and

* Vide Appendix.

pro

where, to drown his care, he wrote his History of Ireland,* and to whose collegiate distinctions and literary achievements Dr. Lanigan has himself been compared; Cahir Castle, flanked by its seven picturesque towers, and robed in the rich historic memories of which the "Pacata Hibernica" is the record; the contiguous ruins of the grey old friary of the Canons of St. Augustine; the graceful Suir, with the crumbling monastery of Athassel, which Lanigan in his history justly pronounces "magnificent" (iv., 335). All these objects of interest and attraction surely served to lighten and brighten his journey. Athassel, of which his old master, Dr. Hare, was now vicar, was specially full of mingled memories of Christian gress and religious persecution; and many curious traditions of both are still preserved in Tipperary. One, retained and communicated to our friend, Mr. Kennedy, by the Rev. Theobald Mathew, though unimportant, is not without romantic features. A subterranean passage was constructed from Athassel Castle Park to the other side of the Suir; and when the grey. monastery was invaded in the olden troublous times, and the inmates obliged to resort to this means of escape, the most advanced of the fugitives were some distance on the east side of the river when the last were only quitting the building. At this point, the Abbot, who was among the vanguard, missed his richly-bound illuminated breviary. There was no occasion, however, for anyone to return. The word was passed from front to rear, and in a few minutes the book, being searched out by the last man, was transferred from hand to hand till it reached its owner.

*Geoffrey Keatinge, having spent twenty-two years at the College of Salamanca, was appointed Parish Priest of Tybrid; but having threatened to excommunicate an abandoned woman, a person under whose protection she then was, vowed with such fury to take his life, that the priest was weak enough to fly for concealment to the wood of Aharlow, where he ended his days writing history and composing poems, A.D. 1650.