right puiffantly, 'twas the certainty of being led with skill and confidence that gave them heart. In every part of the long line of troops the Earl feemed ever to be prefent, William befide him, 'Zekiel at his hench. Here he was leading, there directing. Now front to face with. the enemy, next i' the very midst of his forlorn hope. Again you should find him in the rere, carefully keeping order; anon encouraging those who, guarding the baggage, were galled, yet out of the excitement of the fight. He was among the first to cross that defperate trench. He was with the last who left that treacherous wood. And it was not till the little army had debouched from the narrow pass, that the full danger of the fituation, and the odds of the oppofing power, became apparent. So well had been arranged the advance, that the loss of the English was inconsiderable; and, had not certain officers been rather over-valiant than punctual in obeying orders, that lofs had been even lefs. That night my Lord's tent was pitched on a circular mound, or Rath as they call it; being partly a natural and partly an artificial hill. On the morrow it was discovered that there were on it many little pits fome one and two feet deep, choked with grey embers, burnt stones, and charred bones. And all around, for nearly two feet deep under the fod, there were layers of half-decayed and combusted animal defpofit. The natives, who were brought in kindly, whether for guides or intelligencers, said these were their Chiefs' cooking-places, for thus they roasted meat, heating the stones and burying the animals whole thereupon, till fufficiently, dreffed: when, with ravenous hands and greedy mouths, they tear and devour the flesh, throwing the mangled bones and pelt behind them. And we had a fpecimen of their rudeness presently: for on the heels of our fuccefs cometh the O'Dempsey to crave a compofition with her Grace; whom my Lord willingly received without state. With a manly step, the chieftain standeth at the tent opening. My Lord rifeth with his courtsey as to an English gentleman: the native is not a whit behind him i' the making of a leg. To the surprise of all he useth our tongue clearly, though with a fmack neither foreign nor provincial. "Shall I have the Queen's favour?" quoth he. "An you will deferve it," faid my Lord. "I will fubmit," quoth he. "On the faith of her Lieutenant, then," said Effex; and the O'Dempsey, asking no more, knelt, kiffing the Earl's hand. My Lord bade him be seated; and a Banquet was ferved. 'Twas miraculous what lafhions the O'Dempsey quaffed to the health of Her Grace-to my Lord's health -to the other Lords-to William-to the Captains-to the other Gentlemen. You might conceive how much he drank: but no imagination could stretch to the measure of his thirst! He was a large man, a Chief in Offaley; not fo tall as Effex or Cheney, but broader i' the body-straight and well made; but clownish, unkempt, unwashed, undecked. His tawny hair had neither been cut nor combed fince the hour of his birth, and lay like a dry rug upon his large head, and adown to his fhoulders. His forehead was low and receding, the brows fhaggy, and, with the high and prominent cheekbone, almost hiding the cold grey bleared eyes beneath. Nor had his beard been touched save by the broth he had eaten; but the butter and the grease lay thick upon it. His nose was broad and flat: his fkin covered with yellow freckles, his upper lip thin and long: his mouth coarse, with irregular and foul teeth; for the jaw was the heaviest feature in his face. He wore a long loose many-folded shirt of a rough linen, pafted rather than starched with a Saffron dye, and over this a ponderous cloak of skins, which he wrapped around his ample body with the air of a great commander (a trick o' the Spaniard belike). His brawny arms and thick legs were bare. Strength and endurance was in every limb. His bearing showed him at once glorious and frank: his talk was free, quick-witted, capable. When my Lord fpake to him of his people and their miserable state, you would think there was some kindliness in his heart, though overlaid with customary contempt for those beneath him. It may not have been fo, notwithstanding. "Totus mundus agit hiftrionem ;" and, of a truth, 'tis said that the chiefs were most tyrannical over their vaffals, ufing them at their pleasure, fpending upon them with their trains in Coyne and Livery, acting towards them ever after their own lufts, commanding all, not to be gainfayed of any. And as this man liftened to my Lord, charging the native nobles with cruelty and injuftice, you could fee that he was an ireful diffembler, if not by nature yet by habit-that he kept and hugged a fecret displeasure against all but his own fept-and that he |