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frequently, confessed that she felt "greatly
through-other, surely," at the thought of
what might be before her on the Island, it
being her first visit; upon which she received
encouragement from the rest, and information
as to how she ought to proceed. An
indulgence is promised to those who guide
others; and from this, added to the natural
disposition of the people, it results that
information is most readily given to the
newcomers by those who have been already
initiated.

But now the attention of the old women
who conversed about the Picture was riveted
by the startling statement of a man at my
side, that he believed the end of the world to
be at hand. Being anxiously requested to
give his reasons for holding this opinion, he
expoundedand really it was hard to avoid
being impressed by the simple eloquence and
the gravity of conviction with which he spoke
the prophecies of plagues to fall on the
beasts, and on the fishes of the sea, and on
the fruits of the earth, and on mankind, as
now in course of fulfilment; to which the
women responded by murmuring short
prayers, and uplifting their hands and eyes.
Then some one reminded the rest how the
ferry-boat has been twice lost, with its cargo
of pilgrims, and how it is to be lost the third
time; and next, the question arose, whether
those so drowned are entitled to any special
"benefit " in the future state from the nature
of their death; upon which opinions seemed
to differ. A considerable time wore on in
talk of this kind, mingled with some
interchanges of confidence on more personal affairs,
in which I remarked, as I often have amongst
the Irish peasantry, a high average of delicacy
of manner, both in asking and answering
questions.

I may mention, that, hearing one person
alluded to as "a Stationer from Strabane,"
I laboured for some time under the mistake
that he was one who, when at home, sold
paper, quills, and so on, till it suddenly flashed
upon me that " Stationer " was the technical
name for a Pilgrim.

An old bugle sounded from Pilgrim Lodge
not having succeeded in calling to us the
attention of those on the Island, the
conversation, at least in the knot of Stationers
with which I consorted, gradually dropped,
and I was left to muse in silence over the
many strange facts and traditions connected
with the lake, whose clear water was rippling
over little pebbles up to the grass on which
we lay, while its hills were now cheered with
sunshine amid the breadths of shadow thrown
on them by a circle of great white clouds
ranged at their backs. Fionn-lough, the Fair
Lake, was its name, say the old legends, until
baptised Lough Derg, the Red Lake, in the
blood of a monster who inhabited it, slain by
Saint Patrick. Whether the island " Purgatory"
was established in the fifth century by
the saint himself, or in the ninth, or the
twelfth, its origin runs back far enough into
the night of time to be invested with all the
mystery of those strange indefinite years of
the past; and it was curious to picture to
oneself the arrival on the shore of that wild
and remote little lake, five hundred years
ago, of Malatesta, Knight of Hungary, and
Nicholas de Beccario of Ferrara, with a safe
conduct to St. Patrick's Purgatory from King
Edward the Third; or, forty years later, of
Raymond, Viscount de Perilleux, Knight of
Rhodes, with a train of twenty men and thirty
horses, bearing a like protection from King
Richard the Second; these names standing
prominent out of many successions and generations
of pilgrims. Sliding in fancy down to
later times, the tender story about Carolan
the Harper rises in the memory. Carolan's
stations completed, the boat in which he sits
has reached this quay on the mainland, where
a crowd of new pilgrims wait its arrival, as
we are now waiting. All are eager to assist
the blind old man in landing; a woman's
hand touches his; and Carolan, suddenly
pausing, exclaims, in a tone of surprise
mingled with deep feeling, " That is the hand of
Bridget Cruise! " He was not wrong; it
was the hand of his first love, who had
inspired his finest song when his heart was
warm and his genius in its prime; though he
had been a stranger to the touch of it for
many a long year.

By this time a concourse of between thirty
and forty pilgrims have arrived at the shore;
some of them, to my comfort, well-dressed.
All the women, rich and poor, are barefoot,
but not all the men; for it is not absolutely
necessary to take off the shoes until the duties
of the penance be commenced. At last the
boat, a large clumsy one, with an awning
over the stern-sheets, quits the Island and
slowly nears the quay; the delay having been
caused by its absence on a trip to the Saint's
Island,* distant about a quarter of a mile
from Station Island. It comes alongside;
and the passengers, chiefly women, disembark
and exchange greetings and blessings with
those who are about to take their places. The
latter obtain tickets, price sixpence-halfpenny,
from the Lessee of the island, a short stout
jovial man, wearing a glazed hat, who attends
on every trip, and has a good-humoured word
for everybody; the boat gets gradually filled
with passengers; the rowers place themselves
two or three to each of the heavy Oars; the
rope is cast off, and we crawl away from the
shore, impelled with short splashing strokes,
and steered by the Lessee himself, seated
beneath the awning among the " decent"
minority of the company, who pay a shilling
each for this distinguished position on board.

* Saint's Island was the original site of the Purgatory,
but was found to be too accessible from the shore. It
contains the ruins of an abbey, and seems fertile of hay. The
pilgrims visit it occasionally.

At the Island quay many of both sexes are
waiting to receive the new arrivals. We