58 A TEAR OF LIBEETI ; OR, 



hair youthful gloss or beauty; the wrinkles are there; and for old 

 cities the only cosmetics are fire and powder, too costly for general 

 use. 



Londonderry has strong claims on the stranger, and as you and I 

 have a reputation for paying our debts, we will stroll round the 

 ramparts, which, in fact, will be giving an I U for the amount. I 

 wish my tailor's little bill were as easily disposed of. 



Externally, at least, the walls of Derry are as sound as when 

 Hamilton, defeated and disheartened, fell back towards Strabane. 

 Doubtless the good citizens are proud of their city, and take all care 

 of their time-honoured ramparts. Had there been rents in the old 

 garment, so carefully were they darned that I could not find them 

 out. Here, in the principal battery, stands a handsome pillar crowned 

 with a statue of the dauntless Rector of Donaghmore, and below are 

 the old guns his hands pointed so often against the foe ; his especial 

 pet, *' roaring Meg," seeming still able to shout as defiantly as ever. 

 But ladies, we have heard, are adepts in getting up ; so perhaps 

 "Meg " is neither so sound nor young as she looked. 



It is a spirit-stirring place, this old battery, for here, in the plea- 

 sant month of April, commenced a sensation drama, which has 

 enjoyed a long run, even till to-day. Faint with famine, weary with 

 wounds and watching, dwindled to a handful, the defenders of the 

 maiden city stood where I now stand, in an evening of July, wildly 

 looking for succour long delayed. The sermon was over ; not one of 

 your fifteen-minute affairs, but a good old-fashioned article, with its 

 "twenty-thirdly," "lastly," "to conclude," and the "yet one word 

 more " ^these stout hearts liked such things, and found they could 

 fight their daily battles all the better for them ; well, the seraion 

 was over, and the congregation, with haggard faces and tottering 

 steps, but with spirits unsubdued, remembered that by no art 

 could even their loathsome food hold out two days more. The 

 tide was at the flood ; it was now or never. On comes the Mourdjoy, 

 Micaiah Browning, himself a "Derry boy," at the wheel. Will 

 chain and boom at Culmore stand the charge ? For an instant 

 the smoke of the guns hides the headmost ship, it clears, and blank 



