and people of Ireland.  In this very instance we lodged with one of those families.  A letter that I tore near the house was picked up, put together, and read, so as to lead to suspicion, which was immediately communicated to the magistrate.  This caused the most vigilant surveillance to be exercised over the homes and persons of our friends.  But before the discovery was made we were far beyond the reach of our pursuers.  We had learned that the efforts made for our escape were unsuccessful, and that time would be required to effect anything, so as not to arouse the suspicion of those who guarded the coast; and we agreed to conceal ourselves as best we could in some distant part of the country, for three weeks, and then return or communicate with our friend, who promised, meantime, to leave no effort untried on our behalf.  A second time, we set out by the same route.  When we found ourselves on a hill-top, far from human haunts, we sat down as was our wont, to consider our future course.  We determined to visit some obscure watering-place in the vicinity of Cape Clear.  With that view we skirted the picturesque mountains that surround Dunmanway.  These mountains present features to which the eye of one living in the inland country is little accustomed.  The mountains of the midland and eastern counties are generally enormous clumps with little inequality of surface, and covered over with heath and weeds.  Here, on the contrary, the mountains seemed to be carved out into the most fantastic shapes, covered with white granite stones, whose reflections in the watery surface gave the scene an appearance of singular beauty.  However strange it may appear, we lingered over these picturesque scenes in intense delight; the more so because there seemed no limit to our journey, and no definite aim to which our efforts led.  And a mountain-top has always an assurance of safety stamped upon it.  There we could indulge our admiration for the beautiful; there we could snatch an hour of fearless and unbroken sleep.

But elements of danger began to lower over our loved haunts.  The grouse season had just set in, and occasionally the report of a musket broke our reverie, or startled our deepest sleep.  Yet, even from this cup of bitterness did we derive some sparkles of happiness.  We could easily avoid the sportsman’s eye; and when we wanted anything from the lower regions, the vicinity of the mountains, and the business of the fowler, accounted for our presence and our wants, and readily gained us a supply.  But the potato crop had failed, and the disease had already destroyed all the tubers which had approached maturity.  This rendered it necessary to look to other resources, and we contrived to procure bread and sometimes meat, which we were able to get prepared easily under pretence of being catering for shooting parties.