tumbling down in a miserable way. I expected him in pieces on the ground, as I had him full in my view. There seemed no possibility of an escape, and yet he received no harm. In the middle of the descent, he stuck in another projecting thick tree, and from it came safely down. This was a deliverance. Providence often saves us in a wonderful manner, till the work appointed to be finished is done, or the limited time of our trial over. In relation to such escapes, I could give myself as an instance many a time, and will here mention one extraordinary case. As I travelled once in the county of Kerry in Ireland, with the White Knight, and the Knight of the Glen*. We called at Terelah O Crohane's, an * Such knights were honourable creations made by the Irish kings. We have an account of them in the Psalter of Tarah, before the reigns of Conaire the Great, A.M. 3970, ante Christum 34; Cormac Ulfadda, A.D. 230; and the glorious Brien Boiroimhe, A.D. 1027: the three greatest monarchs that ever Ireland had. Fitzgerald, the first knight of Glen, was so made by the immortal Brien Boiroimhe, who fell in the bloody fight between him and Maolmorda king of Leinster, who had joined with the Danes, A.D. 1239. The king of Ireland and the king of Leinster slew each other; and with Brien Boiroimhe set the glory of Ireland. The states from old Irish gentleman, our common friend, who kept up the hospitality of his ancestors, and shewed how this time began to decay; and Roderic O'Connor, whe came to the crown, A.D. 1168, was the last king of Ireland. Our Henry II., got the kingdom A.D. 1172, by two means; one of which was a grant the Pope made of it to him; who was allowed by the natives to be supreme Lord of the island in temporals, and the nobility had by commission resigned it to him, after the death of Brien Boiroimhe. The other mean, and what effectually did the work, was the king of Leinster's joining with Strangwell, who was at the head of the English forces, and had married that king's daughter. An old chronicle says she was the most beautiful woman upon earth of her time, and very learned: but inferior nevertheless in beauty and learning to the six princesses we read of in the Psalter of Tarah, who were fair beyond all mortals that ever lived, and wonderful in the extent of their knowledge; to wit The princess Mac Diarmuid. The princess Mac Faolain. The princess O'Flaherty. These six were Druidesses, says the Psalter of Tarah. they lived, when Cormac Mac Cuillenan, the Generous, from whose house he descended; was king of Munster and archbishop of Cashel in the year 913*. By the way, reader, let me tell you, that from this same Psalter of Tarah, I wrote out one of the finest and most improving love stories that ever I read. It is called 'the Adventure of Terlagh Mac Shain and the beautiful Gara O'Mulduin; which happened in the reign of Cormac Ulfada, king of Ireland, in the year of salvation 213, that Faon Maccumhail, commonly called Fian Maccul, the mighty champion, beat the Picts, and brought off among other prisoners, the beautiful Ciarnuit, daughter to the king of the Picts, whom Cormac Ulfada took for his concubine.' This story is likewise more shortly told in The Red Book of Mac Eogane, a very valuable old Irish manuscript: and from both those books I will give my reader the best part of this adventure as soon as I can see a proper place to bring it in. * This Cormac Cuillenan wrote the famous Psalter of Cashel, a very extraordinary and valuable book, which he composed from ancient poems of the bards, who thus wrote their history, and from venerable records, as this king and prelate declares in his will. The clause is this 'My psalter, which preserves the ancient records and monuments of my native country, which are transcribed with great fidelity, I leave to Ronal Cashel, to be preserved to after-times and ages yet to come." There is another remarkable clause in this great man's will, to 66 'There was no end of eating and drinking and the famous DOWNE FALVEY played on the harp. For wit, "My soul for mercy I commit to heaven; my body leave to dust and rottenness." There is not a word of any saint in it; and of consequence, there was no saintworship then in Ireland. Cormac wrote his will the day before he fought the bloody battle of Maghailbe with the king of Leinster, and therein fell. It begins in this manner: "Summon'd away by death, which I perceive I find that short will be my life and reign : I do bequeath &c. My coat of mail of bright and polish'd steel To whom I give it; and my golden chain My golden vestment for most sacred use, To &c. a day and a night we sat to it by candle-light, without shirts or clothes on; naked excepting that we Now from this antique piece verbally translated, I think it is evident, that the kings of the four provinces of Ireland were not such poor and ignorant chiefs as they are generally imagined to be; and of consequence, that one of the four to whom the other three did homage, and who was therefore called the king of Ireland, was always a potent prince, and could do great matters, when they were all united. This consideration, I fancy, and the address let me add of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, and of Lanfranc, archbishop of the same see," to Mortogh O'Brien king of Ireland, and Terlagh O'Brien king of Ireland, Moriardacho Glorioso and Terdeluacho Magnifico. To the most magnificent Terlagh O'Brien, king of Ireland, our benediction," &c. as you may read them at large in Usher's Primordia* ought to give some credit to O'Flaherty's Ogygia, Keating's History, and Mac Curtins' Annals; which those writers really took from very ancient records, and principally from the very valuable manuscripts, called the Psalters of Cashel and Tarah. What the Psalter of Cashel was I have told you, reader; and as to the Psalter of Tarah, the history of it is this. * These letters were written by the English archbishops to the Irish kings, Turlogh and Murtogh, in the years 1098 and 1110. |