1030.] The Devil's Mill. 171 



them and their vassals " there was a great gulf fixed/' and I could tell 

 you tales for a twelvemonth, of their desperate feats in drinking, hunt- 

 ing, courtship, and duelling, gathered from the descendants of those 

 very vassals, and handed down in fear and wonder from father to son : 

 somewhat distorted, perhaps, by reason of the wide separation I have 

 alluded to between the castes, but yet possessing strong traits of charac- 

 ter, national and individual, and, like all other traditional tales, shadow- 

 ing out real events of by-gone times, even in their wildest flights. The 

 memory of many a noble, of the times I speak of, is tainted with the 

 charge of league and compact with the powers of darkness ; and I do 

 not wonder at it : the miserable country was convulsed by civil wars of 

 the most unsparing nature, and torn to the very vitals by every con- 

 ceivable alternation of unflinching pitiless cruelty, as either party was 

 hurried along by the tide of fortune, evil or good, by the headlong fury 

 of victory or defeat ; and it is in no way strange that the scared pea- 

 santry, as they beheld with awe and wonder the excesses of their supe- 

 riors, should attribute them to a deeper influence than the mere ordinary 

 passions of human nature, and that they should see in the wild unnatural 

 merriment of their midnight festivities, as well as in the sweeping fury 

 of their partizan warfare, the workings of the inspiration of the spirit 

 of evil, rather than the mere abuse of sensual pleasures and lawless 

 power. 



Among the latest who fell under the heavy imputation I have described, 

 was a former possessor of the beautiful, though sombre-looking, seat, 

 whose ancient trees overshadow the road at the spot where the scene of 

 my legend is laid. The mansion and demesne then bore the name of 

 L town, from the family to which it belonged ; its present proprie- 

 tor, however, has called it Woodlands, and, while in his hands, I will 

 warrant it from witnessing any feats which may require either the head 

 or the heart of the daring few, who at any time have been suspected of 

 encountering the dwellers in the dark abodes, though, to tell the truth, 

 his father might have been in possession of the philosopher's stone, for 

 aught I can say to the contrary, inasmuch as he commenced his career 

 as a flying stationer, that is to say, an itinerant vender of pamphlets, 

 and died a member of parliament worth half a million sterling. 



It is said that one of the L family (the former possessors of the 



estate) shewed William the Third the passage across the Boyne ; at all 

 events, without pretending to investigate that point of history, I can 

 only say, that there are few names to which the Irish peasant attaches 

 such deep damnation, and which he pronounces with such a fervour of 

 hatred and horror as that of L . 



At the time I speak of, the L of the day seemed fairly deter- 

 mined to earn in his own person all the anathemas which the people 

 had ever poured out upon his race ; he drank like a Frey Graf of the 

 fourteenth century he rode like the wild huntsman he was the first 

 and the last in the revel and the field, and though frequently engaged 

 in the sanguinary duels of the period, as well as in all other hazardous 

 exploits, that seemed to promise a short and speedy termination to his 

 fierce career, yet he ever escaped unhurt, as if he bore a charmed life ; 

 but of all the passions which swayed his mind by turns, that of play 

 seemed the master, and the ruler : for this he would sacrifice all else 

 besides, and night and day, when the fit was upon him, lights danced, 



1 rafters rang, and the very owls and ravens whooped and croaked as 



Z 2 



