The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1874-10-16
A HEADLESS HORSEMAN.

hOoley, after his oAu IrlenO ana SooO
Charley Culnane, who at
length had turned his face homeward
with the prospect of as dreary ride,
and as dark night as ever fell upon
the Blackwater, along whose banks he
was about to journey.
Charley Culnane knew the country
well, and moreover, was as bold and as
daring a rider as any Mallow boy that |
ever ratified 3 four-year-old upon Drum
rue race course. He had gone to Fer |
moy in the morning as well for the pur-
pose of purchasing some ingredients |
for the Christmas dinner by his |
wife, as to crafty his own vanity by |
having new reins fitted in his snaff1e, in
which he intended showing off the old
ynare at the approaching st. Stephens
u " hunt.
Charley did not get out of Fermoy
until late for although he was not one
of your very particular sort in anything
relating to the common occurrences of
life, yet in all the appointments relating
to hunting, riding, leaping, in short,
In whatever was connected with the old
mare, Charley, the saddler said, ''was
xhe devil to plase." An illustration of
this fastidiousness was afforded by his
going such distance for a snaff1e bri-
die. Mallow was full twelve miles
nearer Charley's farm (Which lay just
three quarters of mile below Carrick)
than Fermoy, but Charley had quar-
relied with all the Mallow saddlers, and
no one wsuld content him in all partic-
ulars but honest Mick Twomey, of Fer
moy, who used TO assert-and who will
doubt it that he could stitch saddle
better than the Lord Lieutenant, al
though they made him all as one as
King over ireland.
The delay in the arrangement of the
snafie bride did not allow Charley
Culnane so long a visit as he had at
first intended to his old friend and gos-
sip, Con. Buckley, of the Harp of Erin.
Con, however, knew the value of time,
and insisted upon Charley making
good use of what he had to spare. ''
won't bother you waiting for water, be-
cause think you'll have enough of the
same before you get home ; so drink of
your liquor, man, it's as good Parlia-
ment as ever a gentleman tasted.
Charley, it must be confessed, moth
ing 10th, drank success to Con, and
success to the jolly ''Harp of Erin, %
with its head of beauty and its strings
of the hair OF gold, and to their better
acquaintance, and so on, from the bot
tom of his soul, until the bottom of the
bottle reminded him that Carrick was
side of Castletown Roche, and that he
had got no further on his road than his
gossip's at Ballyhooley, close to the big
gate at Connamore. Catching hold of
his oilskin hat, therefore, while Con.
Buckley went to the cupboard for an
other bottle of the 'treal stuff, - he reg
u1arly, as he termed it, bolted from his
friends hospitality, darted to the estable,
fightened his girths, and put the old
mare into canter toward home.
Charley cantered gayly, regardless of
the rain, which, IS his friend Con. had
anticipated, fell in torrents the good
old woman's currants and raisins were
carefully packed between the folds Of
his yeomanry cloak, which Charley,
who was proud of showing that he be-
Ionged to the Royal Ma1low Light
Horse Volunteers" always strapped
before him, and took care to never de-
stroy the military effect by putting it
on.
Notwithstanding that the visit to the
Jolly Harp of Erin % had little in
creased the natural complacency of his
mind, the drenching of his snaf1e reins
began to disturb him, and then followed
q train of more anxious thoughts than
even were occasioned by the dreaded
defeat of the pride of his long antici-
pated turnout on st. Stephens day.
In an hour of good fellowship, when
Is heart was warm, and his head not
over cool, Charley had backed his old
mare against Mr.. Jepson's bay FLY
Desdemona, for neat hundred, and he
felt sore misgivings as to the prudence
of the match.
He now arrived at the bottom of Kill
GUNNER Hill, and his eye fell on the
old walls that belonged, in former
times, to the Knights Templars; but the
silent gloom of the ruin was broken
only by the heavy rain which splashed
and pattered on the grave stones. He
then looked up to the sky to see if there
was, among the clouds, any hope for
mercy on his new snaffie reins; and no
sooner were his eyes lowered than his
attention WAS arrested by an object so
extraordinary as almost led him to
doubt his senses. The head apparent
1y of white horse, with short, cropped
ears, large, open nostrils, and immense
eyes, seemed rapidly to follow him.
No connection with body, legs or rider
could possibly be traced. The head
advanced-C Charley's old mare, too, wa9
moved by this unnatural sight, and,
snorting violently, increased her trot up
the hill.
The head moved forward and passed
On, OuaE40y puISu1AS u WIN 6Ao oeOAA1SA--
ing gaze, and wondering by what means
and for what purpose this detached head
thus proceeded through the air; he did
not perceive the corresponding body
until he was suddenly startled by find
ing it close by his side. Charley turned
to examine what was thus SO sociably
jogging on with him, when most un-
exampled apparition presented itself to
his view. A figure, whose height he
computed to be at least eight feet. was
seated on the body and legs of white
horse fully eighteen hands and half
high. In this measurement Charley
could not be mistaken, for his own mare
was exactly fifteen hands high, and the
body that thus logged alongside, he
could at once determine, was at least
three hands and half higher.
After the first feeling of astonishment
was over, he exclaimed, I'm sold now
forever r But still he directed his at
4ention to this extraordinary body, and
having examined it with the eye of
oonnoisseur, he proceeded to recon
noiter the figure so unusually mounted,
who had hitherto remained perfectly
mute. Wishing to see whether his COM
panion's silence arose from bad temper,
want of conversational powers, or from