The long, long-wished for
hour had come,
Yet came, mo stor,
in vain,
And left thee but the wailing
hum
Of sorrow and
of pain.
My light of life, my lonely
love,
Thy portion sure
must be,
Man’s scorn below, God’s
wrath above
A Chuisle geal
mo chroidhe.
’Twas told of thee,
the world around,
’Twas hoped
from thee by all,
That, with one gallant sunward
bound,
Thou’dst
burst long ages thrall.
Thy faith was tried, alas!
and those
Who perilled all
for thee,
Were cursed, and branded as
thy foes;
A Chuisle geal
mo chroidhe.
What fate is thine, unhappy
isle,
That even the
trusted few[13]
Should pay thee back with
hate and guile,
When most they
should be true?
’Twas not thy
strength or spirit failed;
And those that
bleed for thee,
And love thee truly, have
not quailed;
A Chuisle geal
mo chroidhe.
I’ve given thee manhood’s
early prime,
And manhood’s
waning years;
I’ve blest thee in thy
sunniest time,
And shed with
thee my tears;
And mother, though thou’st
cast away
The child who’d
die for thee,
My latest accents still shall
pray
For Chuisle geal
mo chroidhe.
I’ve tracked for thee
the mountain sides,
And slept within
the brake,
More lonely than the swan
that glides
O’er Lua’s
fairy lake.[14]
The rich have spurned me from
their door,
Because I’d
set thee free;
Yet do I love thee more and
more,
A Chuisle geal
mo chroidhe.
I’ve run the outlaw’s
brief career,
And borne his
load of ill,
His troubled rest, his ceaseless
fear,
With fixed sustaining
will;
And should his last dark chance
befall,
E’en that
shall welcome be,
In death, I’ll love
thee, most of all,
A Chuisle geal
mo chroidhe.
I was awakened next morning by a strange voice, with an accent, as I thought, different from that which we had been accustomed to. Our immediate conclusion was that we were betrayed. But a short time convinced us that our visitor had come to warn us that if we remained many hours where we were, our fate would be sealed. He represented “Finey” (as our hostess was familiarly called, in derision of her affected pride) in colours not very flattering to her virtue. He said he could positively furnish us with the means of escape; described his resources as unlimited, and his interest in us as paramount to every consideration he had on earth. He was an ecclesiastical student, and had left college to take part in the struggle of his country. He bitterly lamented that Dillon and O’Gorman were not in the way, that he might have the happiness of assisting in saving them also. Agreeably to his advice, we left our den and proceeded up the mountain.