clear of. It was whispered, too, that Mrs. Lonergan, with a laudable solicitude for the welfare of her soul, was undergoing a species of voluntary martyrdom, having laid herself under an obligation to St. Veronica (believed to be a warm patron of the Church), not to put scissors to her hair for seven years, and to dine upon fish three days in each week for a like period, and many there were who commiserated her for the privations she had subjected herself to; but we would not have been amongst the number-for, if it were true that she had made such a vow, she was no great sufferer after all. As for her hair, it was so remarkably fine and luxuriant, it would have been quite a pity to have parted with any of it; and her partiality for salmon, turbot, and other light trifles of the kind, rendered her abstinence from meat anything but a privation. In fact, it would have been absurd to pity her, for she thrived and flourished, and was fresh and blooming withal.

And now how untoward seemed the prospects of the young lovers! On the one hand was a youth sprung from a race of ultra Tories, who despised Roman Catholics, and contemned and abhorred their belief,-on the other, a young girl, whose family was remarkable for its ascetic Romanism, and for its implacable hatred to Protestantism, each of them obstinately in love with the other. The Widow Lonergan, it was well known, would never permit her daughter to wed a heretic; and as for Alderman Elliott, he would rather see his son a lifeless corpse than the husband of a Catholic. Such, alas! were the extreme opinions prevailing at the time amongst the

two orders of Christians who peopled this fair country. It is refreshing, however, to be enabled to record that, although sectarian differences thus separated their families, the young people trusted each other with unfaltering faith, and loved with all the intensity of their fresh and ardent natures; for love, which was planted in our breasts by the Creator, will assert its sway, regardless of the logic of the sectary, or the ban of the bigot. Seeing the chasm that lay between them, they had thought at one time of braving all dangers, and crossing it, unmindful of the peril of the adventure; and, the better to enable them to carry out their arrangements for an elopement, had taken into their confidence Rody Cormick, who has been already referred to; but Rody, who under a rough and apparently dull exterior possessed an ample fund of sound, good sense, strenuously dissuaded them from repairing to Gretna Green; and, taking a cool, business-like view of affairs, assured them there was no necessity for such precipitancy, and that, if they waited patiently, all would come right in the end. They took his advice, unpalatable though it was, and contented themselves for the present with the consolations afforded by occasional secret interviews, and the frequent interchange of billets-doux, which Rody contrived to carry to and fro, to the intense gratification of the writers, and to his own decided profit, as the deposit of many a glittering piece of silver in his broad brown hands by the grateful lovers substantially testified. And thus days wore on; the young people looking forward hopefully to the blissful future, when

all obstacles to their union should be removed, and never once giving way to despair.

Now, Thomas-street, wherein the lovers dwelt, is a wide and populous thoroughfare, quite different from your genteel, half-private street, where the occupants are in most cases intimate with each other's appearance. People might live in Thomas-street for years, and yet remain total strangers to each other. Such being the case, it will not surprise the reader when we add that the lovers not only carried on their wooing unknown to their parents, but that the latter were perfect strangers to each other. So little idea, indeed, had the young lady's mother of the actual state of affairs, that she had privately entered into a treaty with Dr. O'Flynn for the marriage of Catherine to a faithful son of the Church, and a protegé of his reverence—a meek young man, in a long coat of sombre hue, a white neckcloth free from starch, and a shovel hat, who used to glide from door to door with his eyes on mother earth, collecting funds in aid of the Cornwall Mission. Oh, how they counted without their host! the youthful Juliet did not spurn the overtures of the noble County Paris more heartily than Catherine would have shrunk from an alliance with the collector. But we shall leave the lovers for the present, and commence another chapter, in which circumstances most eventful to them have to be recorded.

CHAPTER II.

"For aught that ever I could read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth :
But either it was different in blood;

Or else misgrafted in respect of years;

Or else it stood upon the choice of friends;

Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,

War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it."

UPON one of those festive occasions when Alderman Elliott was in the habit of meeting his brethren, and giving utterance for the thousandth time to that loyalty to the British crown and constitution which no one ever questioned, a deputation from one of the provincial lodges waited upon them, in order, as the spokesman of the party expressed himself, "to confer upon some points of vital importance to the body at large." After discussing these weighty matters, and refreshing themselves meanwhile with abundant potations of "King Billy's cordial," for which the "Grand Lodge of the Purple Arch and the Scarlet Banner" was famed throughout Orangedom, and having disposed of the usual "loyal" toasts, and, in speeches of a brilliancy that only they who worship devoutly at the shrine of Bacchus

ever succeed in approaching, declared their readiness to turn out at a moment's notice, and annihilate all who presumed to differ from them in considering the laws prevailing in this kingdom (which at the time were chiefly remarkable for their intolerant and penal character) the most just and benign that this or any country was ever blessed with, and that he who attempted to modify or improve them was a dangerous revolutionist, to be shunned by all true men, and but a visionary enthusiast, who would "gild refined gold, or paint the lily" after, we say, enjoying themselves thus, the members of this distinguished Lodge, by way of complimenting their provincial brothers, and entertaining themselves at the same time, decided on adjourning to the Theatre, where an actress of great celebrity was just then delighting the citizens of Dublin with her histrionic powers. To the Theatre, accordingly, Alderman Elliott and his confreres repaired, and there, for the present, we shall leave them.

Now it happened that, on the very same evening on which the Orangemen had thus decided on patronizing the drama, young Elliott and his affianced bride, by way of consoling themselves for past privations, had concerted measures also for going to the Theatre, in order to enjoy the pathetic tragedy of "Romeo and Juliet," which was announced for the occasion; and when the curtain rose our young friends were found occupying prominent seats in the boxes, and looking as happy for the time as a newly-married couple during the first week of the honeymoon. That they were delighted