The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-05-29
THE PRIEST HUNTER,
An Irish Tale Of the Penal Times.
(Continued.)
CuADTuvp ~
BY NJ. ARcHDEAcoN, Esq.


The ensuing day was the Sabbath. L
was likewise q day of cloud and storm
The gale of the preceding day had died in
to an intense calm towards morning; and q
mist, dense and impenetrable as the cur.
tain that separates life from Immortality
overspread sky and ocean, conceaiine
island, and peak, and headland. But to.
wards noon the wind arose again, like a
warrior after his repose, scattering the mist
beforeit, and driving the waves, with tur-
bnIence and uproar, into an ocean cavern,
in which were assembled, among others,
in the last chapter.
1t was wild and impressive scene, in
which stood, among considerable group,
Frank Lynch and Father Bernard
Kifger; for the elder stranger was, as Null
lowry suspected, an Irish priest who was
returning to his native parish from Portu-
gal, in the teeth of all danger and pros
cription. The waters had worn themselves
spacious entrance into an isolated cliff of
the wild and lonely shore. Into this lofty
and extended cavern the pillows of the At
1antic, unbrOken by rock or isle in their
transit from the western world, poured at
times, sweeping with them, with terrific
noise, stones of various sizes, uptorn from
the depths of ocean, and shooting up col
umns of spray to the height of many feet,
through two perforations worn in the
cavern roof
was mass wont to Re occasionally celebrat
for the widely scattered peasantry, at that
dark and dreary period of Ireland's history,
when it can be scarcely new to any reader
that the worship Of God, after the manner
Of his fathers, was visited Cd the Irish peer
and peasant with penalty and fine-when
their priests were hunted over the face of
the land with an ardor far fiercer, because
in the end greatly more remunerative, than
that of the wOlf-hunt in elder times; and
when expatriation was the laws merciful
award for uttering the words of salvation
to prescribed people.
Here n0,0 was gathering stealthi1y, and
= one by one large portion of the popula-
ton of that wild coast, while, here and
there scattered over the waters, was seen
struggling, well-filled boat, struggling
t eth a. the waves; for, With VII the raPidity Of
that mass whould be celebrated on this day,
for the first time during many months, in
the cavarn of PatRdthampuI; and the hardy
and devoutly-inclined Islanders were re-
solved to brave all perils from ocean and
discovery, in order to be once more listen
ers to the prohibited word of God.
AT the inner extremity of the cavern a
large detached rock served for an altar.
Behind it stood or kneIt the priest, the
space for few yards around him being in
general dry, except during stormy spring
Cloes, when It's occupants had often run no
small risk of being dashed to pieces by the
stones hurled in by the tumultuous waves,
and piles of which-the accumulation of
ages-were now heaped in various direc-
tlons.=fhe day we now treat of, however,
chanced to be one of neap- tide; and,
though the wind was high, there was space
for the members of the congregation to
kneei along the side of the cavern on the
at1ppeTy aud weed covered stones that Dor
dered the agitated mitlstream.
The caudes were lighted, and as their
Iays we're reflected in QuiveriDg and broken
lines on the tossed waters-And partially
revealed and partly threw into deeper sha- |
1ow AZ rugged sides and splintered roof
ne S=sssn iuto which the light of the |
gloomy day had penetrated but dimly, !