258 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



THE LEGEND OF ROSE ROCHE. 



At sixteen Rose Roche was the loveliest maid in Ulster. 

 In infancy she was found exposed at the gate of the 

 Ursulines, and her beauty and destitution recommended 

 her to the charity of the sisterhood. Educated, accord- 

 ingly, for a conventual life, she had never passed the 

 boundary of the garden-walls, and accident discovered 

 the existence of beauty, which else had faded unseen 

 and unadmired within those cloisters, to which from 

 childhood it had been devoted. 



Cormac More, Lord of Iveagh, was the patron and 

 protector of the community at Balleek. At primes 

 and vespers a mass was celebrated for his soul's weal. 

 His Easter-offering was ten beeves and five casks of 

 Bordeaux wine ; and on the last Christmas vigil he 

 presented six silver candlesticks to the altar of Our Lady. 

 No wonder that this powerful chief was held in high 

 honour by the sisterhood of Saint Ursula. 



One tempestuous night in October, wearied with 

 hunting, and separated from his followers by darkness 

 and the storm, Cormac More found himself beneath the 

 walls of the convent of Balleek. Approaching the 

 gate, he wound his horn loudly, and begged for shelter 

 and refreshment. Proud of this opportunity of affording 

 hospitality to so noble and munificent a protector, the 

 wicket was unbarred, the Lord of Iveagh admitted, and 

 received in honourable state by the Lady Superior, 

 and inducted with due form into the parlour of the 

 Ursulines. 



There a plentiful repast was speedily prepared, and 



