He

for all the inmates of the family, except the priest himself, were actually Protestants. In a quarter of an hour the father and child were brought up into the parlour, the scene of this Rev. worthy's miracles. There was nothing remarkable in the room, which was plainly furnished; on the wall was fixed a wooden crucifix, larger by far than ordinary; and opposite it hung the Tree of the Church. On a table in the corner was placed a ponderous folio, between the leaves of which, in many places, lay ribbons of various colours to mark the different exorcisms. The name he bestowed on this book was Bully; a fact well known in the parish in which he lived. Beside the table was placed an immense tub more than half full of holy water, sanctified fifty degrees above the common sacerdotal temperature. Beside Bully lay a smaller crucifix, with a string of beads attached to it long enough to stretch across the room. was, when Hughes entered the parlour, walking up and down with a book in his hand, and his face knit into a severe frown; he spoke not for some minutes, but seemed too intensely absorbed in prayer and contemplation to notice any thing connected with this world. Father 0-1 was a man above the middle size; rather stout and able-bodied; his face was like his holy water of a high temperature; not that I mean to say his complexion was heightened by the use of water either profane or holy a fact this, as well known in the parish as the name of Bully. His black coat and waistcoat were powdered about the breasts with snuff; his beard was for that day, at least unshaven; his cravat was rolled with very indifferent taste about his neck, and his linen was a proof that whenever the clean and unclean come in contact, the former is apt to be de'filed. He wore grey small-clothes, and large dark-coloured topboots, that might have been polished some three months before. With respect to the lineaments of his face much could not be said. It was one of those human faces divine which, notwithstanding the glossing of the poet, it is not pleasant to look upon: it was round and firm, though fleshy; it had few lines in which character or expression could be traced; his brows were heavy-unpleasantly so; his eyes hard and grey, but yet such as would induce you to think of a cunning, adroit man-stubborn, selfish, and secret. He was said, however, to possess faculties of a peculiar nature to a prodigious extent; that which phrenologists call Individuality and Locality, for instance; for he could by only seeing any man once, remember him for forty years afterwards; or by walking along the streets of a crowded metropolis, and only accurately marking the signs, numbers, and names, of the respective houses, could repeat them with precision for ten to come. These gifts, to a man of his peculiar calling, must of course have been very serviceable.

When the abstraction had ceased, and he descended to earth once more, he turned towards Hughes, and looking sternly upon him, commanded him to sit down. "So," said he, "Jemmy Hughes from K Rock, you're here, with your blasted child!" Hughes's face became expanded with astonishment; he could scarcely speak-"yes with your child blasted by the K

fairies," Hughes disentangled the handkerchief in which he carried the poteen, and placed the bottle over on the table beside Bully. "Why thin, Sir, plase yer Reverence" "Silence," said the priest sternly, take your bottle from that book, except you wish to have it burst to pieces before your eyes don't go near it; open that cupboard and put your bottle into it. Why would you let your child go after sunset to the fairy well, Jemmy Hughes ?" "Why thin, Sir, plase" "Silence, Jemmy Hughes-I know it all; silence." "Holy father," said Hughes, "I'll not be afther attimptin' to tell your Reverence any more about it." "You needn't" said the priest; "I know it-did you think I would not know it? dare you think it?" "Why thin, plase your Reverence "Silence, Jemmy Hughes," exclaimed the priest in a louder and sterner tone; sit there, and don't interrupt me for a few minutes, till I meditate;" and he walked up and down with his eyes closed, and his hands laid devoutly together upon his breast. After traversing the parlour for some time in this profound contemplation, he went over to a chair, against the seat of which he placed his knees, in an attitude somewhat between kneeling and standing; he then repeated aloud, in the language of his church, a prayer, which he suspended for a few minutes, beckoning at the same time the child to approach him. The father rose to bring her over, but he frowned angrily and mysteriously, intimating to him by signs to keep his distance. When the little girl was beside him, he closed his eyes, put his hand upon her head, and in a low rapid tone of voice concluded the prayer over her, which, of course, neither father nor daughter understood. The child, on finding herself under his hand, trembled excessively, and the father was in a state of breathless awe and attention. This being over, he relapsed into a less stern mood, and Hughes ventured to ask him if he thought he could cure the child: on the question being put he turned round, and dilating his face and person into an assumption of some mysterious power beyond humanity, solemnly swore an awful oath that he could cure here." Hughes's eye was rivetted on him; his whole countenance expressing astonishment, terror, and curiosity-astonishment at the oath, terror and curiosity at his singular conduct, and the conjecture as to what his mode of proceeding, as to the cure, would be. He then repeated the oath, and feeling by the expression of Hughes's countenance, that an explanation was necessary, "Yes," he replied; "do you not know that it is by God, that is, through the power of God, I will cure her.*

He immediately prepared for the ceremony of the miraculous cure by occasioning a female attendant to undress the child in another room, and clothe her with a bathing garment; this being done, he placed her in the tub, which was, I believe, a barrel cut across he then took a bowl of supersanctified water, which he dashed upon her head, and instantly had her dressed by the attend

* This was his usual reply on being put such questions; they were, however, always accompanied by the above explanation.

ant. After this he placed her on her knees beside him, and taking the long beads, he put them at once about his own neck and that of the child; he next opened Bully, and commenced the exorcisms with rapidity and vigour. After having concluded this ceremony he bid her stand up. "How do you feel now, my dear ?” “Better entirely, your Reverence."."Are you in a glow of heat ?” “I am, Sir," said she, "all warm, so I am." "Jemmy Hughes," said the priest solemnly, "do you hear that?" "Blessed be heaven for id not forgetting your Reverence-I do hear id." The priest added no more, but looked the impression of the mystery which he intended to convey. He then made a most unexpected transition: "Jemmy," said he, “who's your landlord at the Rock?" “ Mr. M‘K——," replied Hughes. "What kind of a man is he?" “Why, a very good man, plase your Reverence." "Does he know the state of this child, Hughes?" "He does, Sir." He desired you, of course, to apply to a doctor; and which you did not do, for fear she might never be cured ?" "We wor afraid, your Reverence, sure enough, that the docther might bleed her, an' that if it was any thing from the fairies, she couldn't be cured at all afther the bleedin." "Is there a dispensary in your neighbourhood?” “Musha, if myself rightly knows what your Reverence manes," replied Hughes. "Is there a doctor's shop where the poor get medicine for nothing?" "There is, Sir, one opened about a year agone." The priest got a slip of paper, on which he wrote a prescription, for he made medicine his study as well as miracles; and handing it to Hughes, continued, "now, Hughes, that the child is cured, it is not my wish to take the credit of the cure to myself. We must be humble, and not boast of what we do, for humility is the queen of all virtues. Go to the dispensary, in compliance with the wish of your landlord, and get this medicine-the doctors will tell you how to use it. She is now cured, mark that; but to-morrow you will get eight leeches put to her temples, and she'll take this medicine night and morning; for I wish that they or any one else should have the credit of the cure rather than myself. We must be humble, for humility, as I said, is the queen of all virtues."

Hughes now uttered an ejaculation of thanksgiving and praise for what had been done for his child.

The priest proceeded-"You will take this home with you, it is holy water, such as you could find no where else;—give me that handkerchief.” He took the cotton hankerchief, retired into an inner room, and soon returned with a bottle of holy water tied up in it-he handed it to Hughes: "Now," said he, "carry this in your hand; but above all things, take care and do not stumble. 1 tell you candidly, that if the fairies can, they will break it before you reach home: bathe the child in a tub three times a week, just as I have done, first mixing a few drops of this with the water in which you bathe her. I would rather you wouldn't mention who

This is the opinion of the peasantry.

cured her; but if you speak of it at all, let it be only to your own friends and once for all, 1 desire you to remove from your present residence as soon as you can. Now God bless you both, go home; mind what I said, and the fairies of K

Rock will have no more power over your child. Give my blessing to Molly and your other four children."

The tears of gratitude and delight were falling down poor Hughes's cheeks; and after once more thanking God and his Reverence, he departed with his child on his back. "Molly an' the four children-Blessed Mother," he exclaimed, "how he knew that!" In the course of a few minutes he re-entered the room. "I ask your Reverence's pardon," said he," but maybe you would excuse me for a requist I'm afther goin' to make in behalf of my Molly, your Reverence a bit of cloth it is, or a button, or any thing belonging to your Reverence's clothes 'tis a watherbrash that troubles her, an' she thinks that any thing belonging to a Blessed Priest might be good to have about her."

66

The priest, who, when Hughes re-entered, was in the act of shutting the cupboard, turned round on him with an expression of absolute extermination in his inflated visage :-" Get out, you baste you," he replied "you're nothing but a thorough-bred rascal. How dare you, Sir-how dare you impose a bottle of water on me for a bottle of whisky? How dare you attempt to gull me after such a manner?" "A bottle of wather! Holy Mother!" the man' exclaimed-" but that bates the globe entirely for a mistake—an' me thought, your Reverence, that it was the poteen, when it was only a bottle of holy wather that Molly brought home wid her from Dan Kelly's station! Well, to be sure! afther that I may do any thing! Sure I would as soon cut both my arms off of me, as to drame of dooin' up your Reverence that way-an' you would know it, any how?" "And am I to get nothing for curing the child?" Not if I had it, your Reverence, is there a man in Europe would give it sooner; but, God help me, I'm only a very poor man, wid a family of small childher lookin' to me for their bit, an' their mother not able to do much for them." 'Well," said the priest, "it doesn't signify now-the cure is performed, and that's enough-I will take nothing from you." "What, an' is it for me not to bring you the right bottle to morrow, your Reverence manes? an' it is by the skriek of day itself I'll be on my way to you wid id, God willin'." "At all events, let me hear from the child in a few days," said the priest." "Plase God, Sir-hem-bud about Molly, Sir-maybe your Reverence would have a bit of any ould coat, or a spare button, 'tis to keep about her, Sir." Nothing, I believe, that I could spare now," replied the priest; "but you know I'll see you in a few days." "Thank your Reverence," replied the poor man-"may the Lord spare your days, any how."

66

At this moment Father Solomon Nondescript, alias the half-fool, entered the room, after the manner of a privileged person, exclaiming-"Quick, Father O—1; quick, there's another." "Get out, sirrah," said the priest-" why do you drive forward in this way

go to the kitchen.” "Do you folly me then immediently; for this is a soople chap, an' he'll be here before your Reverence could leap over the moon, any how-hurk-hurk-hurk-hee-ogh," said the creature, with an oafish, knavish, inarticulate chuckle, intended for a laugh at his own humour. He then snapped his fingers triumphantly, and sang out―

"Och, I'm the boy for bewitchin' them,

I'm the boy for bewitchin' them,

I'm the boy for bewitchin' them.

Toor'l lol loor'I lol-loo-hoo-hoo,

Toor'l lol loor'l lol-loo."

Hughes proceeded on his journey, and had arrived within a few miles of his own house, when suddenly the bottle of super-extra holy water, which he carried at his breast in the same manner as the whisky, dropped on the ground, and was broken to a thousand pieces. He stood-he took off his hat-he blessed himself-crossed himself—and, stooping down, caught on his fingers some of the moisture, and applied it to the child and himself. He then examined the handkerchief, and found a rent, as if it had been cut through, all except a few threads in different places. Of course, what the priest said concerning the attempt which the fairies would make to destroy the blessed water flashed across his mind, and really established in his belief an opinion that there was scarcely any thing impossible to such a man. "He knew my name,' thought he "that of my wife, the number of my childher, and every thing about Kand little Norah here!-Lord bless

me!"

The next day he returned punctually to Thaumaturgus with the bottle of poteen, for which he got a bottle of the strongest possible holy water-that is, such as would, by its peculiar power, keep away the fairies; for the peasants think that ordinary holy water, though it may banish or exclude evil spirits, is of no efficacy against the good people. I need not say that Hughes most strictly followed the priest's advice by getting the medicine, the leeches, and by giving his child the bath. The fact is, that the medicine was extremely proper for her complaint, and proved ultimately the means of restoring her to health, whilst the whole cure was ascribed to the miraculous power of the Blessed Priest. Her convalescence, it is true, was gradual, and rather tedious; for she had several fits even after the miraculous cure was performed. The father left the glen, and took a cotter's take in the inland part of the country in about a fortnight afterwards, by which the cause of the impressions that, in the beginning, disposed the child's mind to these wild fancies, was removed. But in the teeth of all the circumstances I have mentioned, the child's cure and recovery were ascribed to the extraordinary power of this Reverend worthy, whose character for the miraculous was raised by this circumstance at least one hundred per cent. in this neighbourhood.

Now, Gentlemen, this story is true. The scenery described is