The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-07-05

Yesterday tAbt ~ WUS OuCs
perhaps; + did, for it juts out so far and
so boldly into deep water that, from many
parts of the bay, it looks almost like an
island. You cannot see the hermitage from
this, but yonder is the church, perched
right upon the cliffs above.n
that it ssas per'saksd, Tor y 9e & looks a. Il
/" And SO itis, "sas1 Nde~, 4the tower is
out of the perpendicular-& already, and
tainly it Win sosas dsy) crash over me
cliff. 1t ia safe enough, however, in this
calm weather." he added, for he saw that
Nellie was beginning to look nervous, or
1 never should have thought of it as
that matter, it was but choice Of evils, his
life being in jeopardy whichever way he
turned"
"Is he then especially obnoxious :" Nellie
asked "or is it only that, like all our other
pa priests, !, he is forced to do his mission
" Especially obnoxions7 should think
indeed he was,' said Roger, g for he was
chaplain to the brave old bishop whom they
hanged ct the siege Of Clonmel, and was
present ct his death. How he managed TO
me but escape he did, and came hither for q
hermitage over head; with q few other poor
fellows who are Outlawed like myself,
and in greater danger, and his presence
has never been even suspected by the
minded, have escaped long ago by sea. But
when he found us here, without sacraments
or sacrifice, flor our priests have been long
since driven into banishment,( he elected
to remain, and now at the peril of his lite,
he does duty as a parish, priest among U.S."
SnakfJJ 1nH
Nellie clapping her hands. .He must feel
very near to heaven, think, engaged in
such Il mission, and living like real
hermit up there on that barren rock"
"And SO, in fact, he is; or at least he lives
IN b ren in snd t@s s saa K Isge BY
holy man, in whose memory the rock is
sometimes called the hermit though moreN
generally known as the chieftain's rock ~
But why the change of names ?" asked
Nellie.
60 Because he answered, with the least
possible shade of bitterness in his manner,
" because, as often happens IN this wicked
world, persons who have been made heroes
in the eyes of men are made more account
of than those who are heroes only in the
for many years in peace and quiet, when
the chief of tribe of Creaghts, at enmity
with Grana UaiHe, having been beaten by
her in o battle, t0Ok refuge with him among
these soek hg saeani A'd acl h,sa n the
sanctuary, even Grsns .Uaille, stout and
interruptions as she was in most things, |
did not dare invade in order to drag him
from it's shelter. But she swore-Our good
old Grana could swear upon occasion as
Justify as her rival sovereign your own |
Queen Bess-Grana swore that neither the
sanctity of his hermit friend or of his place
of refuge should avail him aught, and that
sooner or later, she would starye him into
submission. She landed accordingly with
her men, and surrounded church and her
mitage upon the land side, that toward the
sea being left unguarded and unmatched
because owing to the height and steepness
of the cliff itself, and the position of the
church tower, built almost Immediately
upon its edge, there seemed no human
possibility of evasion that way. The chief,
however, and his hermit proved too many
for her after all; for by dint of working
day and night, they succeeded, before their
store of provisions was entirely exhausted,
in cutting through the floor and outer wall
of the church, and SO making passage
which gave them instant access to. the
cliffs outside This was by no means so
difficult a task as at first sight it seems for
the floor of the building is only hardened
earth, and its walls mere mixture of mud
and rubble, the very tower itself being only
partially built of stone have often, when !
a boy, crept through the aperture, but it is |
nearly filed up with rubbish now, and al |
most, or think quite forgotten among the |
people, who have been using the church for
the last twenty years as a storehouse for |
peat and driftwood for their winter firing.
Useful enough, however, the poor chieftain |
found it; for one fine moonlight night he |
walked quietly through it into the open air. |
swung himself down the cliffs as uncon-
cernedly as if he had been merely searching
for puffins' nests, and finally escaped in |
boat left there by his friends for that very
purpose. Next day, the hermit threw the |
church gates open, and sent word to Queen
her. You may imagine what rage the
virago chieftainess was in at finding her
self thus outwitted but l have not time to |