there must be a future state, and was very sure that while he lived in this world, it was his duty to do all the good he could to his fellow-creatures. Yet what he did not exhibit in his own conduct, he appeared to respect in others; for he took care that no noise nor disturbance should be made in the castle on Sundays, while the family and many Protestants from the town were assembled in the library at their devotions.

Bondet, the next in rank to the commandant, was a captain of foot, a native of Normandy, twenty-eight years of age. His father, he said, was still living, though sixty-seven years old when he was born. His height was six feet two inches. In person, complexion, and gravity he was no inadequate representation of the Knight of La Mancha, whose example he followed, in a recital of his own prowess and wonderful exploits, delivered in a measured language, and an imposing seriousness of aspect. The writer ascribes to him vanity, pride, and an irascible temper; but believed him to have more than an ordinary share of feeling; and that his integrity and courage appeared unquestionable; and says, "on the whole, when we became familiar to his failings, we saw reason every day to respect his virtues."

Another French officer described by this writer was Ponson, only five feet and a half in stature, but actuated by an unremitted flow of animal spirits, and incessantly noisy." He was hardy, and patient to admiration of labour and want of rest. A continued watching of five days and nights together, when the rebels were growing desperate for prey and mischief, did not appear to sink his spirits in the smallest degree. He was strictly honest, and could not bear the want of this quality in others; so that his patience was pretty well tried by his Irish allies ;” but he expressed a contempt of the forms of religion, to an excess which is justly ascribed to "vanity, the miserable affectation of appearing to be more wicked than he really was." A fifth officer, named Truc, is described as a man of brutal behaviour, and of an appearance corresponding to his character; a front of brass, an incessant fraudful smile, manners altogether vulgar, and in his dress and person a neglect of cleanliness even beyond the affected negligence of republicans.

The characters of these officers may be little interesting to some readers, but they were far from being matters of no concern to the inhabitants of Killala and its neighbourhood. If they had all been of the same description as Truc, or even if they had not been men of active humanity, the county of Mayo might have exhibited scenes of massacre similar to those of the county of Wexford; since without their exertions the Protestants would have been imprisoned by the rebels as hostages, on whom the deaths of their associates, taken prisoners and hanged by the king's army, should be retaliated. Highly indeed to the honour of the French forces in general, the ingenious narrator of the transactions at Killala, gives the following testimony with respect to the behaviour of Humbert's army.

"And

here it would be an act of great injustice to the excellent discipline constantly maintained by these invaders, while they remained in our town, not to remark, that with every temptation to plunder, which the time and the number of valuable articles within their reach, presented to them in the bishop's palace, from a sideboard of plate and glasses, a hall filled with hats, whips, and great-coats, as well of the guests as of the family, not a single particular of private property was found to have been carried away, when the owners, after the first fright was over, came to look for their effects, which was not for a day or two after the landing. Immediately upon entering the dining-room, a French officer had called for the bishop's butler, and gathering up the spoons and glasses, had desired him to take them to his pantry. Beside the entire use of other apartments, during the stay of the French in Killala, the attic story, containing a library and three bed-chambers, continued sacred to the bishop and his family. And so scrupulous was the delicacy of the French not to disturb the female part of the house, that not one of them was ever seen to go higher than the middle floor, except on the evening of their success at Castlebar, when two officers begged leave just to carry to the family the news of the battle, and seemed a little mortified that the intelligence was received with an air of dissatisfaction."

Its

This army, however, so respectful of persons and private property, had come into the kingdom destitute of money for the advancement of their enterprize. leaders promised that "ready money was to come over in the ships expected every day from France: in the meantime, whatever was brought in voluntarily, or taken by necessity, to answer the occasions of the army, should be punctually paid for in drafts on the future directory of Ireland, of which the owners of the goods demanded were courteously invited to accept. For the first two or three days, many people did apply for such drafts to the French commissary of stores, whose whole time appeared to be taken up with writing them. Indeed the bishop himself was of opinion that the losers would act wisely to accept of them, not, as he told the people, that they would ever produce payment where it was promised, but because they might serve as documents to our own government, when, at a future period, it should come to inquire into the losses sustained by its loyal subjects. The trouble, however, of the commissary, in issuing drafts on a bank in prospect, was not of long duration. The people smiled first, and he joined himself in the smile at last, when he offered the airy security.' Thus, though private plunder for the emolument of individuals was neither allowed nor practised, yet the necessitous condition in which this army landed, obliged its leaders to adopt this mode of public regulated plunder for its subsistence. If cash had not been wanting to the rulers of France, they might be supposed to have acted from policy in sending none into a country which must remain hostile, if the invasion should prove abortive; and

6

which otherwise they might think, ought to be obliged to sustain the expenses of its own revolution."

X.

ABOUT four miles from Ballina lies LOCH CONN, a large sheet of water, not much less than fourteen miles in length, and varying in breadth from one to three miles, except at the point of junction between the upper and lower lakes, where the breadth is contracted to the size of a river. It is a singular fact, that Loch Conn regularly ebbs and flows, though not at periods corresponding with the tides. The lake is situated considerably above the sea, and has no tide-communication with it. The banks are, in many parts, of fine sand, which shows the high-water line. The shores of the lower lake on the west side, abound in little bays and creeks, and show some bold outlines. The PONTOON BRIDGE, crossing the channel between the upper and lower lakes, is a very beautiful spot, and the view from the rocky hill just above the inn at this place, is uncommonly fine.

From the point of Castlebar there is little to interest the traveller in search of the picturesque. Castlebar is a place of some stir and business, but having little or no attractions for the eye; and few tourists stop longer in it than to procure a fresh car for Westport. After passing the small but beautiful Loch Dan, the road begins to descend towards Westport, and the scenery becomes exceedingly attractive. In no part of Ireland, says Fraser, is there such an extraordinary combination of scenery as is here displayed, nor is there any town in it, the view of which strikes the traveller so forcibly as does that of Westport, when first seen under a favourable light from many parts of this road. The country around the town is very highly cultivated, the bay stretches out before the eye, with the town set in its curve like a jewel in a tiara, and to the right and left stretch away the ranges of mountains, the majestic Reek rising directly from the shore, and towering nobly over the surrounding landscape. The town of WESTPORT itself is embellished with a wall enclosing a stream, and running through the principal street, and at the further end of this is a gate entering to the grounds of Lord Sligo, the principal proprietor of the country. The best hotel in the west of Ireland is Robinson's, at Westport, situated on the side of the wall. The lofty eminence of the Reek, or Croagh Patrick, which is the conspicuous feature of all the views in this neigh