there was something in the voice, that seemed rather familiar to my ears, it was not without exceeding horror that I perceived the figure that spoke advance out of the ranks and slowly follow me.

We had not gone many steps, when I politely motioned to him to take precedence-not feeling quite comfortable with such a goblin after me. He, accordingly, went before, and having conducted me to a spot, at some distance from the band, where we could not be observed by them, turned hastily round, and took me, with much cordiality, by the hand.

I now perceived-what the reader must have anticipated—that this personage was no other than the disguised gentleman in green spectacles; nor was it long before I learned, from his own lips, that I then actually stood in the presence of the great CAPTAIN ROCK.

What passed between the Captain and me at that interview, I do not feel myself, as yet, at liberty to reveal. I can only state that it was in the course of that short meeting, he presented me with the Manuscript which I have now the honour of submitting to the Public-requesting of me, as a favour, that I would read it attentively over, before

I threw away any further labour or thought upon the mission which I had undertaken.

I lost no time, as may easily be supposed, in complying with the Captain's wish. That very night, before I slept, I carefully perused the whole of his Manuscript; and so strong was the impression it left upon my mind, that it is the Rulers, not the People of Ireland, who require to be instructed and converted, that I ordered horses early the next morning-returned with all possible dispatch to my constituents—called instantly a full meeting of the Ladies of the Society, and proposed that a new mission should forthwith be instituted, for the express purpose of enlightening certain Dignitaries both of Church and State, who are, in every thing that relates to Ireland, involved in the most destitute darkness.

The ladies listened to my proposal with apparent interest, but no steps have, as yet, been taken on the subject—and the only result of my communication to them has been a Romance by Miss-—, on the story of Captain Rock, which is, at present, I understand, in the printer's hands, and which I shall not be surprised to find much more extensively read than the Captain's own authentic Me

moirs.

With respect to the style of the following pages, though frequently rambling and ill-constructed, it will, I have no doubt, surprise the reader, as being much more civilized and correct than could be expected from a hero like the Captain. The classical quotations will also excite some surprise -but this kind of learning was once very common among persons of his rank in Ireland; and Smith, in his History of Kerry, tells us, "that classical reading extends itself, even to a fault, among the lower orders of Ireland-many of whom have a greater knowledge in this way, than some of the better sort in other places."

March 31, 1824.

S. E.