THE LEGEND OP HOSE ROCHE. 225 



which offered an excuse for being absent from his joyless 

 home. 



Gentlewomen, in these perilous days, acquired and pos- 

 sessed an astonishing portion of philosophy. No baron's 

 lady " in the Pale,"* submitted to a frequent separation from 

 her lord with more laudable submission than Rose Roche. 

 The customary resource of " wives bereaved," appeared any 

 thing but consolatory to the dame. She determined to avoid 

 crying, as being an unchristian waste of beauty and, instead 

 of useless lamentations, she wisely substituted mirth and 

 minstrelsy. 



There was not a more accomplished bard in Ulster than 

 Connor O'Cahan, and for seventy years he had resided with 

 the lords of Iveagh. No tale or tradition connected with this 

 puissant race was unknown to this gifted minstrel : yet, by 

 some strange infirmity of taste, young Rose preferred the 

 light romances of her lord's English page, to all the legendary 

 lore of the grey-haired harper ; and listened with more de- 

 light to a merry roundelay from Edwin's lute than to the 

 deeds of Cormac's grandfather, as set out in song by Connor 

 O'Cahan. The bard, it is true, was blind, and the page had 

 the blackest eyes imaginable. 



This unhappy predilection was not concealed from her 

 lord. His jealousy instantly took fire, and the handsome 

 page was suddenly removed, and none knew whither. The 

 absence of an heir had now become matter for serious 

 complaint: it was whispered among the Baron's followers 

 that there was no cause for hope, and maliciously insi- 

 nuated, moreover, that the close coif adopted by the dame 

 was worn to conceal some natural deformity. Cormac, a 

 slave to suspicion, and instigated by his rude companions, 

 insisted that the hood should be discarded, or that Rose 

 Roche should retire in disgrace to the convent from whence 

 she came. 



On the alternative being proposed, the lady proved posi- 



* The Pale was the line of demarcation drawn by the English settlers 

 cetween their acquired possessions and the remoter districts, which were 

 still- permitted to remain with the ancient proprietors. As this boundary 

 was the " debatable land" of Ireland, it was the scene of constant raid 

 and skirmish : and the locale of many a wild tradition is placed beside 

 this dangerous border. 



Q 



