Shortly after his meal a horseman rode up to the door at full speed, for the priest to attend a 'sick call' (177), who promised, if possible, he would return to read the burial service.

When he departed, Una, assisted by other old women, placed the remains in the coffin, which they left uncovered (178). Two o'clock being the hour named for the funeral to take place, a vast concourse of people assembled outside the house a little before that hour. The lid of the coffin was nailed down by Power and Paudrick Don, and then carried out by four, bearing Donal's surname (179), to the road, where it was placed on the bier, while usquebaugh and ale were being plentifully supplied. The funeral cortege now moved slowly on. About twenty young maidens, daughters of those who had fought in the late war, led the procession. Next came O'Donoghue, the bard, with his harp, playing the Caineadh; then the coffin, borne by four men, who were relieved at short intervals, followed by Nora and the whole of Donal's kindred. After these walked the bidders, then the Chief of Clooneene's retainers, and a tremendous mass of people from the adjoining districts. Lastly came a car, on which were a number of torches, lest night would have set in before the burial was over. On arriving at the gate of the cemetery of Kilmacduach Abbey, where Father Dermot awaited them, the crying which had continued from the commencement ceased, and the people having uncovered, four men named Bran carried the bier to the side of the grave, preceded by the priest, with his stole on, and laid down the coffin. While the priest continued the prayers, the coffin was lowered; into the grave, and placed over that of the Rapparee's father, and, being handed a spade by the gravedigger, he cast three small portions of earth on the lid. The funeral service being thus concluded, the earth was shovelled in amidst the wailings of the relatives and friends of the deceased Rapparee; and as it fell with a hollow sound on the coffin, they all uttered a prayer for the eternal repose of one who had spent his life in retaliating the insults and the wrongs offered to his religion and his country. The bier (180) was then broken, and when the last green sod was placed over the grave, the people, having first prayed and cried alternately over where their relatives were interred, dispersed, and wended their way homewards, except Donal's nearest relatives and dearest friends, who were invited to spend the remainder of that mournful evening with his disconsolate and heart-broken widow.

CHAPTER LI.

A ROMANTIC ROYAL MARRIAGE.

Ox the death of Queen Anne, who expired after a short illness at Kensington Palace, on the 1st of August, 1714, the Protestant succession to the Crown of Great Britain and Ireland, having been firmly established by several Acts of Parliament, Prince George Louis Guelph, Elector of Hanover, was proclaimed King, by the title of George I. He was the nearest Protestant heir to the throne, being the eldest son of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, and Elector of Hanover, by his wife, Sophia, youngest daughter of Frederick, Elector Palatine of Bavaria, afterwards King of Bohemia, and his wife, the Princess Elizabeth of England, eldest daughter of King James I., by his wife, the Princess Anne, daughter of Frederick II., King of Denmark. George I., who was, therefore, great grandson of James I., was crowned at Westminster on the 20th of October succeeding the Queen's death.

Sir Thomas Prendergast, Baronet, who was the eldest son of Brigadier-General Sir Thomas Prendergast, slain at Malplaquet, still possessed Gortinsiguara. In his youth he travelled over the greater part of Europe, and, having visited Rome, was not at all bigoted, although he was brought up in the Protestant religion by his father, who, at the time he gave the information about the Assassination Plot, was a Catholic. Sir Thomas wished to please the people, who he knew were prejudiced against him, as they considered him the usurper of O'Shaughnessy's rights, and he even gave many of them presents of Rosaries which he had brought from Rome, and which were blessed by Clement XI. Notwithstanding his kindness, the neighbouring gentry objected to his society, and stigmatized him as "The informer's son.'

The

year after the accession of George I. to the throne, the Chief of Clooneene and his family heard of the rebellion raised by his kinsman, General Forster, of Etherston and Bamborough Castle, in Northumberland, and with sorrow, of its unsuccessful termination. The General's relative, the promising young Earl of Derwentwater (181), Lord Kenmure, and may other noblemen and gentlemen, had perished on the scaffold and in the field, while a reward of £100,000 was set on the head of King James III., and the whole country, which was in mourning, was daily growing more disgusted with the new Government. The only thing the Chieftain had to console him was, the intelligence

that General Forster, or the Rebel General, as he was more commonly called, had escaped from Newgate, where he had been confined, on Tuesday, the 10th of April, about midnight, 1716. On leaving the prison he rode to Leigh, near Rochford, in Essex, where he took shipping for the coast of France, and within twenty-four hours after his departure he reached Boulogne-sur-mer, where he resided until his death.

Such was the state of affairs at the commencement of the year 1719, that most of the Jacobites expected a sudden change in the Government of England. The family of Guelph maintained an uncertain and uneasy seat on an usurped and unpopular throne. The Elector of Hanover, who on his arrival in England to take possession, as he said himself, of the throne of his ancestors,' was in every sense a German, and unacquainted with the language of the people whom he called his subjects. George I., like his predecessor, William of Orange, loved his native country, and regard for the welfare and advancement of his German territories was the great principle which regulated all his political movements both at home and abroad. The English people saw with regret that the ungrateful Elector neglected the interests of his new dominions in his anxiety to promote those of his Hanoverian Electorate and Duchy of Brunswick. Many of them now sincerely regretted that he was ever called to govern Great Britain, and commenced to concoct measures for the restoration of the exiled royal family. For some time past the hopes and fortunes of the House of Stuart appeared to have been on the decline.

Shortly after the breaking out of General Forster's rebellion in 1715, his Majesty King James III., being compelled to leave France and Spain, and not permitted to reside in any part of the German Empire, settled in Italy. Indeed this country could not well refuse to shelter him, and the great sufferings which his father had endured for the Catholic religion entitled him to entertain hopes of being hospitably received there, in which he was not disappointed; for Pope Clement XI., who took the greatest interest in his Majesty's misfortunes, had furnished him with a large sum of money to assist him in the rebellion raised by General Forster in Northumberland, and the Earl of Mar in Scotland. And now that the attempt to restore his dynasty had failed, he retired to Italy under the name of the Chevalier de St. George, when Clement XI. appointed his own native town Urbino for his Majesty's residence.

James III. of England and Ireland, and VIII. of Scotland, was now in the thirtieth year of his age, and the last heir-male of the royal, but

unfortunate House of Stuart, when, by the advice of his Privy Council, he resolved to propose for the hand of the Princess Maria Clementina, of Poland, and his Holiness the Pope undertook to negotiate the marriage.

This amiable young lady, who was one of the richest heiresses, and related to most of the Royal Houses in Europe, was daughter of Prince James Louis Sobieski, Duke of Ohlau and Brieg in Silesia, and Governor of Augsburg, and grand-daughter of John III., King of Polond. This warlike monarch was a great warrior, the last patriot King of Poland, and is celebrated in history for the memorable and brilliant victory which he achieved over the Turks, under the command of the Grand Vizier of Turkey, Kara Mustapha, before the city of Vienna, in 1683, when they attempted to overrun Europe, and extirpate the Christians of the Southern States. This great victory was only in accordance with many others which his Majesty had won, and which had gained for him such an illustrious name, previous to his accession to the throne, when he was Castellan of Cracow, and which caused him to be raised to the dignities of Grand Marshal and Grand Hetman of the Kingdom.

The preliminaries for the marriage having been arranged by King James's negotiator and the Princess's parents, it was agreed on that the Princess Maria Clementina should privately proceed to Bologna in Italy, where the royal marriage was to be celebrated. Tidings of the intended nuptials having reached the Court of England, the selfish and ambitious George I., not content with possessing the Crown of the royal exile, and anxious that his race should become extinct, resolved to frustrate his designs. For this purpose he resolved to exert his influence with the Court of Austria for the interruption of the contemplated marriage. This scheme filled the Jacobities with alarm, as they were well aware that the Emperor, Charles VI., of Germany, though he was the Princess's first cousin, would carry out the base designs of the reigning King of England, and his unscrupulous Ministers; for it was the Emperor's interest to keep on terms of friendship with George I., as his pretentions to Sicily were supported by the British fleet, which also defended his large possessions in the south of Italy against the power of Spain. The English Government, as a further inducement to the Princess herself, offered to add the sum of £100,000 sterling, English money, to her dowry, if she would reject the exiled heir of Great Britain, and espouse the Prince de Baden-Baden, or any other of the numerous petty German Princes. The mercenary Emperor, having readily acquiesced, caused the Princess Maria Clementi:.a and her mother

to be arrested while passing through the town of Innspruck, in the Tyrol, and had them both confined in the convent there in September, 1718, under the surveillance of General Heister. His Imperial Majesty also deprived Prince James Louis Sobieski, her father, of the Government of Augsburg, and placed him under arrest.

When King James heard of the arrest of his beautiful betrothed, he determined that she should be rescued; but being the last of his dynasty, it was resolved that his Majesty should take no part in such a dangerous enterprise, which was entrusted to some of the most faithful of his adherents. For this daring attempt, a few of the officers of the Irish Brigade were chosen, as the King had the greatest reliance on the chivalry and devotion of the Irish people, who had sacrificed so much in his own and his father's cause. Those officers who were thus honoured with their Sovereign's confidence were the exiled Chief of Cineal Aodh, who still held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the service of France, and was much esteemed in the Irish Brigade, and a great favourite with the King, on account of his many sufferings in the Stuart cause, as well as his own individual merit; Colonel Charles Wogan, one of the firmest adherents of King James, and also a member of the ancient Norman-Irish family of Wogan of Rathcoffey, in the county of Kildare, and nephew of his Excellency the Duke of Tyrconnell, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for King James II.; the Chevalier Richard Gaydon of Irishtown, a Knight of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis, Major of the regiment of Lieutenant-General Count Arthur Dillon, and grandnephew of the Duke of Tyrconnell; Captain Luke O'Toole of Victoria, and Captain John Misset of Kildare, who were to be accompanied by the King's favourite valet, Michael Vezzosi.

Colonel Wogan having obtained at Rome a passport from the Austrian Ambassador, in the name of Monsieur le Compte de Cernes, family and suite, who were said to have been returning from Loretto to the Low Countries, it was resolved that Captain Misset and his wife should personate the supposed Count and Countess de Cernes; Wogan was to pass as the brother of the Count de Cernes and the Princess Maria Clementina, if rescued, was to pretend she was his sister. The latter character was, for the present, assumed by a clever young girl named Janette, who was in the service of the Misset family. Madam Misset prevailed on her domestic to take part in this dangerous enterprise, by telling her that the handsome Captain O'Toole was engaged to he married to a fascinating young lady with whom he was deeply in love; but that her cruel parents having objected to their marriage, had caused her to be immured in the convent at Inuspruck. They told