THE LEGEND OF ROSE ROCHE. 267 



lay for three days and nights in the chancel, in great 

 state ; and was interred on the fourth morning, with all 

 the ceremonies that both Ursulines and Dominicans 

 could bestow. 



The days of mourning passed over : Rose Roche 

 exercised her resignation ; and Dhu Castle became a 

 different place to what it had been during the latter days 

 of the defunct Baron, and mirth and music were ex- 

 changed for the rude revelry of Cormac More. Her 

 hall was rilled with guests ; at the board she did the 

 honours nobly ; and when she visited the green wood, 

 with her gold-belled hawks and gallant retinue, she 

 looked as if she had been ennobled from the Conquest, 

 and in bearing and attire seemed " every inch a queen." 



But amid all this splendour and magnificence, poor 

 Rose had her own secret causes of inquietude. Beauty, 

 accompanied by broad lands, could not but induce 

 suitors without number to come forward, and never 

 was woman, not excepting Penelope herself, more 

 vigorously besieged. From past experience, Rose was 

 not ambitious to exchange wealth and liberty for becoming 

 the wife of some doughty baron, who would probably 

 undervalue her charms, just as much as he would over- 

 estimate his own great condescension in giving her 

 his name. A tender recollection of one, long since 

 lost, would cross her mind occasionally ; and in her 

 solitary hours the black-eyed page haunted her imagina- 

 tion. Accordingly, she eschewed all offers for her hand, 

 with excellent discretion. Few were offended, she 

 managed her rejections so prudently : and through the 

 first year of widowhood neither lands nor liberty were 

 lost. 

 The consort of the wise Ulysses herself could not 



