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ceived his countenance overcast with unusual sadness. She saw that his solitude had passed in melancholy reflection, and to break the chain of sombre thought, she tried the soothing influence of music. None knew better when to use her various talents with success, and by degrees she saw her object attained, as his brow unclouded, and the traces of care and inquietude vanished from his brightening face.

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Emily, do you remember the highland melody you sang for me, the first evening we passed together at Castle Carra ?”

He sighed as he pronounced the name. She ran her fingers for a moment over the chords, and having caught the air, O'Hara listened to his favourite

BALLAD.
I.

Dear Ronald, sighed Jessie, ah! where dost thou stray?
The night wind is cold, and my home's far away;
The deer seeks the covert, the fox seeks the lea,
And Jessie, Lord Ronald, is waiting for thee.

II.

Oh, light is thy plaid, maiden-why dost thou roam,
In the gloaming of night, far away from thy home?
'Tis a father, and suitor, so hated to flee,

And Jessie, Lord Ronald, is waiting for thee.

III.

Soft! heard ye a horse tramp? It rings on the ear;
The steed rushes forward, the stranger is near.
Oh! hush thy fond terrors, no foeman is he,
For Jessie, Lord Ronald, is waiting for thee.

IV.

Soon to his brave castle the knight led the fair;
The abbot was ready, the clansmen were there;
And the gay lover whispered, our bridal you sec,
And Jessie, Lord Ronald, is waiting for thee.

Soon after, Emily's repeater told that the hour of separation had come.

In the interim, Alice had sought Mahony in his mountain haunts, and arranged every thing necessary for attempting Henry's liberation. A smuggling lugger was hourly expected on the coast, and it was determined that O'Hara should lie concealed in the mountains until he could get on board the vessel, and leave the kingdom. To effect this, it was deemed advisable to engage the assistance of Reginald Maguire, as that worthy's co-operation would be serviceable, from his being so closely connected with all the contraband traders who visited the Mourne shores. The remote situation of his mansion offered great facilities for carrying on this desperate traffic, and his em

barrassed circumstances, and wild, extravagant mode of life, made him resort to means to support his thriftless career, which men of nicer feeling, or less daring character, would have scrupulously avoided. Maguire was a distant connexion of the O'Hara family, and as he had always been on terms of amity with the house of Castle Carra, and on a late occasion, in Henry's absence, had been a candidate for honourably despatching Mr. Edward Nugent, there was no doubt but in his hour of need he would shelter and assist the ruined heir. If Reginald's ideas of honour and honesty were a little out of the common course-if he would cheat the king, and abet the destruction of a score of guagers, yet the hand he once pledged in friendship was true as if he had been a belted knight, and the gold of Ophir would not tempt him to commit a breach of good faith and hospitality, although the Sheriff and his myrmidons were beleaguering his guarded gate.

This last event, however, was little dreaded by Maguire. To approach his mansion with personal safety required the civil officer to make such military movements of horse and foot as

gave ample notice of the intended visit, and permitted Mount Pleasant to be put in an effective state of defence. On the last occasion of the Sheriff's entering his territory, Reginald lowered from his walls a liberal supply of liquors and refreshments for the soldiery, and apologized for not admitting the officers, under the plea of their being in bad company, but assured them he would be delighted to receive them on any other opportunity. The Sheriff made a suitable return, and when he viewed the multitude of wild ferocious men (whom Regey modestly designated the tinints), who had collected from the adjacent country, he made a secret vow, that nothing would ever induce him again to enter, in hostile array, the precincts of Mount Pleasant.

The sober livery of night gradually overspread the distant landscape-the evening breeze came coolly from the lake, and a refreshing dew fell upon arid leaf and drooping flower. The rebel now ventured to unclose the casement, and as the windows were considerably elevated above the ground, he could enjoy in security the gentle season of summer's Never was there a lovelier

sweetest hour.

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scene than that which lay before him-it was nature's own repose: all human sounds were stilled the land-rail creaked in the grass-the bat eddied round the top of the pine-tree, and the owl, flapping his wings heavily, flitted slowly past. There was no moon, but the stars were bright and numerous, and one of culiar brilliancy attracted the attention of the recluse. As he watched its beautiful scintillations, he observed a dark and undefined object emerge from the cover of the trees: the form remained stationary, but still too distant to be accurately discerned. With the quick feelings of apprehension which his situation naturally excited, O'Hara kept his eye steadily on the cause of his alarm, when a female voice, in under tones, chaunted the words of a well remembered ballad, with whose wild melody his ear was perfectly familiar:

*Oh all you young men and maidens a warning take from me, Never to court your true love when under an ozier tree; For the Devil and his temptations they forced me for to stray,

And caused the death of my true love, sweet Rosy Conoley.

* This ballad I heard under peculiar circumstances. I imagine the Johnson alluded to was County Keeper in the reign of Charles II.

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