258 LIFE IN IRELAND 



gratified with the idea that he had performed success- 

 fully a very perilous enterprise, which, when he em- 

 barked upon, bore a bad complexion, and was in very 

 truth a forlorn hope. 



What a strange and unaccountable creature is man, 

 either Irish-man or English-man : to-day we censure 

 and condemn, in the person of our friend, what the 

 very next we practise in ourselves. 



Sir Shawn had just taken the very greatest trouble 

 to extricate Brian from perdition, and souse he runs 

 his head slap into the same halter; probably he was 

 not meant to be executed in the same way, his estates 

 and property were not doomed to perdition, for with 

 all his gentlemanly failings and foibles, he had a power 

 over himself at will — he could rein in or rush onward, 

 according to whim or fancy, fast or slow, as he pleased. 



This little Downshire lass of Sir Shawn O'Dog- 

 herty's fancy, was born in the village of Strangford, 

 one of the most beautiful places on the banks of 

 Loughbogle : how she came to stray is a thing of no 

 importance — stray she did, and with a Catholic Parson, 

 who gave her an absolution for every sin she com- 

 mitted, till at last she fancied there was nothing but 

 what could be brought within the pale of forgiveness. 



She robbed the holy man, and run him in debt : so 

 much so, that in order to get rid of her, he gave her 

 an absolution for every sin she might be entitled to 

 commit during the remainder of her life. 



With such an unlimited licence she roamed at large, 

 and caught at everything in her way ; but the devil a 

 finer fish did she ever hook than Sir Shawn O'Dog- 

 HERTY : he had the capabilities and the conscience to 



