THE LEGEND OF ROSE ROCHE. 26 1 



willingly acceded to his request ; his offers were accepted, 

 and, ere the vesper-bell had tolled, the preliminaries 

 were completed, and the fair novice had consented to 

 become the bride of Cormac More. 



But, alas ! the wild ardour of the good Knight, and 

 the carnal motives of the Abbess, caused both to neglect 

 consulting another personage, namely, the blessed 

 Ursula herself, in thus disposing of one devoted to her 

 service from the cradle ; and the Saint felt the over- 

 sight. That night the Abbess was tormented with 

 fearful and portentous dreams ; the Lord of Iveagh 

 tossed restlessly upon the Bishop's bed ; and, if the novice 

 closed an eye, her slumbers were broken with strange 

 and incoherent visions. In vain, next day, the Knight 

 hunted from sunrise to curfew — his hounds were eternally 

 at fault, and his followers appeared besotted or bewitched ; 

 the deer, when pressed to the utmost, vanished on the 

 bare moor ; and knight, squire, and yeoman unani- 

 mously agreed that the several parties interested in the 

 chase were under the immediate influence of the Prince 

 of Darkness. 



Nor did the holy Superior of the Ursulines fare better 

 than the persecuted Knight and his afflicted com- 

 panions. Everything about the convent went astray, and 

 the culinary preparations for entertaining the Lord of 

 Iveagh were awfully interrupted by accident and for- 

 getfulness. The sister who presided over the pastry, 

 and whose conserves, throughout a long and blameless 

 life, had been pronounced unique and irreproachable, 

 now actually omitted the necessary ingredients ; the 

 soup, when uncovered for a second, was invaded with 

 such a discharge of soot, as reduced it, in colour, at least 

 to an equality with the broth of Sparta The nun at 



