“ And a ruction was kick'd up, but no one was
slain,—
"I'm done!" said the coiner—"Cheer up," said
the piper,
"Fortune will favour the brave in the lane."
"We have you, at last!" cried the peelers,
"Tho' many a day we have chased you in vain!"
"Then," said Mannix, "your dungeons and jailors
May all be high hang'd—and farewell to the
lane!"
Then off ran the coiner, and loud laughed the
piper,
As his friend disappear'd thro' night's darkness
and rain,
Like a shaft from a quiver, he plung'd o'er the
river,
And left the bold peelers befool'd in the lane.
——M. Hogan. ”

“ To a fair ladye in a lonely tower.
"Sir Knight, Sir Knight!" said the proud
ladye,
"Haste to the faery who dwells by the sea;
And tryst at the Scar with the evening star—
So shall I prove thy love to me."
He mounted his charger, and gallop'd away
By down and valley and cove and bay:
He chaunted a song as he cantered along
By the dismal coast at close of day.
The wind blew fresh and the foam ran high;
Naught he heard but the seamew's cry,
Till he came to the cave by the crisping wave
Where the billow lies calm and the breezes die. ”

“ Oh, who but Sir Turlough, the young and
brave,
Killeevy, O Killeevy!
Should bend him o'er that bridal grave,
And to his death-bound Eva rave,
By the bonnie green woods of Killeevy.
"Weep not—weep not," said a lady fair,
Killeevy, O Killeevy!
"Should youth and valour thus despair,
And pour their vows to the empty air?"
By the bonnie green woods of Killeevy.
There's charmed music upon her tongue,
Killeevy, O Killeevy!
Such beauty—bright and warm and young—
Was never seen the maids among,
By the bonnie green woods of Killeevy. ”

“ Injin had leapt,—and cleared!
A leap for a deer, not a man, to clear,—and the
bloodiest grave below!
But the critter was smart and mad with fear,
and he went like a bolt from a bow!
Close after him came the devil's limb, with his
eyes as dark as death,
But when he came to the gulch's brim, I reckon
he paused for breath!
For breath at the brink! but—a white man
shrink, when a red had passed so neat?
I knew Phil Blood too well to think he'd turn
his back dead beat! ”

“ With a wicked glare, like a wounded bear, Phil
Blood sprang at his back.
Up the side so steep of the canon deep the poor
old critter sped,
And the devil's limb ran after him, till they
faded overhead.
Now, the spot of ground where our luck was
found, was a queerish place, you'll mark,
Jest under the jags of the mountain crags and
the precipices dark,
Far up on high, close to the sky, the two crags
leant together,
Leaving a gap, like an open trap, with a gleam
of golden weather. ”

“ No beauty was he, but a sight to see, all stript
to the waist and bare,
With his grim-set jaws, and his panther-paws,
and his hawk's eye all aglare;
With pick and spade in sun and shade he labour'd
like darnation,
But when his spell was over,—well! he was
fond of his recreation!
And being a crusty kind of cuss, the only sport
he had,
When work was over, seemed to us a bit too
rough and bad;
For to put some lead in a comrade's head was
the greatest fun in life,
And the sharpest joke he was known to poke
was the p'int of his precious knife. ”

“ Murderers! Justice murders pity!
Night had brought their Judgment Day!
V.
In the castle, here and there,
'Twixt us and the dawning East
Flashed a light, or sank by fits:
"Patience, brothers! sin it were
Lords to startle at their feast,
Sin to scare the dancers' wits!"
Patient long in forest lair
The listening, fire-eyed tiger sits!
VI.
O the loud flames upward springing!
O that first fierce yell within,
And, without, that stormy laughter!
Like rooks across a sunset winging,
Dark they dashed through glare and din,
Under rain of beam and rafter! ”

“ The east was white with the moon,
The west with the sun was red,
And there, in the house-doorway,
Stood the brother of the dead.
"I have slain a man to my danger,
I have slain a man to my death. ”

“ Never thought he of the lorn ladye
As he tript the pebbles and shells among.
The Faery stood in a curve of the sand,
And she waved to the Knight with her delicate
hand,
And on to a light on the waters bright
She pointed afar with her silvery wand.
(Her tresses are dark as the tangle that lies
In the calm blue deep at the red sunrise,
And they never have rest on her beautiful
breast,
That heaves and falls as the melody sighs.)
The fickle Knight follow'd her pearl-white feet,
For his bosom was thrill'd with the roundel sweet ”

“ But the red mare played with the snaffle-bars,
as a maiden plays with a glove.
There was rock to the left, and rock to the right,
and low lean thorn between,
And thrice he heard a breech-bolt snick tho'
never a man was seen.
They have ridden the low moon out of the
sky, their hoofs drum up the dawn,
The dun he went like a wounded bull, but the
mare like a new-roused fawn.
The dun he fell at a water-course—in a woful
heap fell he,
And Kamal has turned the red mare back, and
pulled the rider free. ”

“ The ways are sair fra' the Till to the Tyne."
"Or what will ye give me for my son,
Red rose leaves will never make wine?"
"Six times to kiss his young mouth on,
The ways are sair fra' the Till to the Tyne."
"But what have ye done with the bearing-bread,
And what have ye made of the washing-wine?
Or where have ye made your bearing-bed,
To bear a son in the sides of Tyne?"
"The bearing-bread is soft and new,
There is no soil in the straining wine;
The bed was made between green and blue,
It stands full soft by the sides of Tyne. ”

“ They dress their ranks upon the hill to face that
battle-wind—
Their bayonets the breakers' foam; like rocks,
the men behind!
One volley crashes from their line, when, through
the surging smoke,
With empty guns clutched in their hands, the
headlong Irish broke.
On Fontenoy, on Fontenoy, hark to that fierce
huzza!
"Revenge! remember Limerick! dash down
the Sassenach."
Like lions leaping at a fold, when mad with
hunger's pang,
Right up against the English line the Irish exiles
sprang:
Bright was their steel,'tis bloody now, their
guns are filled with gore ”

“ And along that path the Injin fled, fast as a man
could fly.
Some shots were fired, for I desired to keep the
white beast back;
But I missed my man, and away he ran on the
flying Injin's track.
Now all below is thick, you know, with 'cacia,
alder, and pine,
And the bright shrubs deck the side of the
beck, and the lian flowers so fine,
For the forest creeps all under the steeps, and
feathers the feet of the crags
With boughs So thick that your path you pick,
like a steamer among the snags.
But right above you, the crags, Lord love you! ”

“ For we dash'd thro' their horsemen till they
reel'd from the stroke,
And their spears, like dry twigs, with our axes
we broke.
With our plunder we found them, our fleet
garrons and kine,
And each chalice and cruet they had snatch'd
from God's shrine.
But a red debt we paid them, the Sassenach
raiders,
As we scatter'd their spearmen, slew chieftains
and leaders.
In the Pale there is weeping and watchings in
vain.
De Lacy and D'Alton, can ye reckon your slain? ”

“ Well, I took the Panther into camp, and the
critter was well content,
And off with him, on the hunting tramp, next
day our hunters went,
And I reckon that day and the next we didn't
want for food,
And only one in the camp looked vext—that
Imp of Hell, Phil Blood.
Nothing would please his contrairy ideas! an
Injin made him rile!
He didn't speak, but I saw on his cheek, a kind
of an ugly smile;
And I knew his skin was hatching sin, and I
kept the Panther apart,
For the Injin he was too blind to see the dirt
in a white man's heart! ”

“ Each looks as if revenge for all rested on him
alone.
On Fontenoy, on Fontenoy, nor ever yet else-
where,
Rushed on to fight a nobler band than these
proud exiles were.
O'Brien's voice is hoarse with joy, as, halting, he
commands,
"Fix bayonets—charge." Like mountain storm,
rush on these fiery bands!
Thin is the English column now, and faint their
volleys grow,
Yet, mustering all the strength they have, they
make a gallant show. ”

“ The fire-glare showed,'mid glaze and blister,
A boy's cheek wet with tears.'Twas base!
That boy was first-born of my sister;
Yet I smote him on the face!
Ah! but when the poplars quiver
In the hot noon, cold o'erhead,
Sometimes with a spasm I shiver;
Sometimes round me gaze with dread.
Ah! and when the silver willow
Whitens in the moonlight gale,
From my hectic, grassy pillow,
I hear, sometimes, that infant's wail!
—Aubrey de Vere.
Original
A BALLAD OF SARSFIELD ”

“ All thro' the Wood of Woe;
And the nights went by like moaning wind,
And the days like drifting snow.
'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Came with a weary face—
Alone, alone, and all alone,
Alone in a lonely place!
He wandered east, he wandered west,
And heard no human sound ”

“ Kamal said, "who
leads a troop of the Guides,
And thou must ride at his left side as shield on
shoulder rides.
Till Death or I cut loose the tie, at camp and
board and bed,
Thy life is his—thy fate it is to guard him with
thy head. ”

“ Till I reached the Low Country in search of my
love.
There I heard how at Namur his heart was so
high,
That they carried him captive, refusing to fly.
With that to King William himself I was
brought,
And his mercy for Desmond with tears I be-
sought.
He considered my story, then smiling, says he,
"The young Irish rebel for your sake is free.
"Bring the varlet before us. Now, Desmond
O'Hea,
Myself has decided your sentence to-day.
You must marry your sailor with bell, book, and
ring,
And here is her dowry," cried William the King!
——A. P. Graves. ”

“ When all were dreaming but Pastheen Power,
A light went streaming from out her bower,
And on the morrow when they awoke,
They knew that sorrow her heart had broke.
—-A. P. Graves.
A SEA STORY Silence.—A while ago
Shrieks went up piercingly;
But now is the ship gone down;
Good ship, well manned, was she.
There's a raft that's a chance of life for one,
This day upon the sea.
A chance for one of two;
Young, strong, are he and he,
Just in the manhood prime,
The comelier, verily,
For the wrestle with wind and weather
and wave,
In the life upon the sea. ”

“ Betwixt the wood and Fontenoy, as though a
furnace blast,
Through rampart, trench, and palisade, and
bullets showering fast;
And on the open plain above they rose, and
kept their course,
With ready fire and grim resolve, that mocked
at hostile force.
Past Fontenoy, past Fontenoy, while thinner
grow their ranks,
They break, as broke the Zuyder Zee through
Holland's ocean banks.
More idly than the summer flies French tirailleurs
rush round ”

“ Then sunk the grandsire on the floor, his grand-
babes clutching wild;
Then fled the maiden moaning faint, and nestled
with the child:
But see, yon pirate strangled lies, and crushed
with splashing heel,
While o'er him in an Irish hand there sweeps his
Syrian steel—
Though virtue sink, and courage fail, and misers
yield their store,
There's one hearth well avengèd in the sack of
Baltimore!
Midsummer morn, in woodland nigh, the birds
began to sing—
They see not now the milking maids—deserted
is the spring! ”

“ And the crags in the ghostly air;
And linking hand in hand, and singing as they go,
The maids along the hill-side have ta'en their
fearless way,
Till they come to where the rowan-trees in lonely
beauty grow
Beside the Fairy Hawthorn gray. ”

“ They will feed their horse on the standing crop,
their men on the garnered grain,
The thatch of the byres will serve their fires
when all the cattle are slain.
But if thou thinkest the price be fair,—thy
brethren wait to sup,
The hound is kin to the jackal-spawn,—howl,
dog, and call them up!
And if thou thinkest the price be high, in steer
and gear and stack,
Give me my father's mare again, and I'll fight
my own way back!"
Kamal has gripped him by the hand and set him
upon his feet.
"No talk shall be of dogs," said he, "when
wolf and grey wolf meet. ”

“ Till the false "eleven" was sounding;
Then these Maids of Elfin-Mere
Swiftly, softly left the room,
Like three doves on snowy plume.
Years ago, and years ago;
And the tall reeds sigh as the wind doth blow.
One that night who wander'd near
Heard lamentings by the shore,
Saw at dawn three stains of gore
In the waters fade and dwindle. ”

“ Such births as should not be?
As lithe snakes turning, as bright stars burning,
They bicker and beckon and call;
As wild waves churning, as wild winds yearn-
ing,
They flicker and climb and fall.
A soft strange cry from the landward rings—
"What ails the sea to shine?"
A keen sweet note from the spray's rim springs—
"What fires are these of thine?"
"A soul am I that was born on earth
For ae day's waesome span:
Death bound me fast on the bourn of birth,
Ere I were christened man.
"A light by night, I fleet and fare
Till the day of wrath and woe ”