LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 813, 30 January 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE BANSHEE’S WARNING. “ How oft lias tlie banshee cried 1 How oft has death untied Bright links that glory wove, Sweet bonds entwined by love 1 ” —Thomas Moore. _ One dull December evening, arriving in London from Portsmouth, I took the shortest way towards the West-End, in which quarter of the town an aunt and sister of mine resided. I intended spending Christmas with them at the house of a friend in Lincolnshire, which I generally did when I happened to be in England at this time ; so that I hoped not only to have the pleasure of seeing them shortly, but also that of their company down. As I passed through the different streets on my route, I noted the various preparations for the approaching Christmas ; but they failed to awaken in me those pleasurable sensations which they usually arouse : in their stead was a sickening presentiment of coming evil, though in what form or from what quarter it would come I felt alike ignorant. It is said that “coming events cast their shadows before; ” and I knew that a shadow was upon me then, as dark and drear as the sky above me, and do what I would I could not shake it off. This presentiment will not appear so unreasonable when I explain a little, to do which it will be necessary to mention a few particulars respecting myself and family. _ I was the youngest son of an Irish family formerly living in the north-west of Ireland. There were five of us, all speaking brogues as thick as the fog that lost mother Maloney in the bog. When Norah and I were still very young, my three brothers went abroad one after another, consequently we were the only children left to my father to make anything like a home for him. Our mother had been dead some time, and the care of us had devolved upon an old woman who had been in the family for years, and who was as fond of us as if we had been her own. It is well known that the peasantry of the west of Ireland retain more of the customs and superstitions of the early Irish than that of the other portions of the island ; this may result from their having had less intercourse with their English neighbours. It was among these people and still wilder surroundings that our childhood was passed, listening to and becoming familiar with the wild legends current among them, which we believed in as firmly as we did the earth we trod, or the air we breathed. But it was from our old nurse that we first heard of the ‘ good people,’ as the fairies are called in Ireland; and in the long winter evenings, when the snow lay thick outside, Norah and I would sit in the glow of the turf-fire while she told ua weird stories of the Pookah and the Banshee, till we fancied we heard the mournful cry of the last, mingling with the moaning of the wind as it swept over the bleak hills that lay in the rear of our house. The belief in the Banshee is now so generally known that I presume any explanations I might offer here with regard to it would only prove unnecessary. The first time I ever heard it was late one dreary winter’s night. I was waiting for my father, who had been away since early morning. As I sat listening intently, imagining often I dhtinguiaed his horse’s hoofs coming over the frozen ground, my brain filled with strange fancies, and a vague fear benumbing my senses, the stillness, which had seemed to grow more awful each moment, was suddenly broken by the mournful cry—which once heard is never to be forgotten—the dreaded voice of the Banshee, My father never came home that night; but he was discovered next morning at some little distance from the house quite dead ; and his horse, which it is supposed had stumbled and thrown him, standing by him whinnying. After this sad event our home of course was quite broken up. Norah went to live with a rich aunt in London, while, through the interest of some of my father’s friends, a berth was obtained for me on board the Daphne. At the time my story opens I no longer sported the middy’s short jacket, but was happy in the dignity conferred by a tailcoat and odd epaulette when worn, in the Queen’s service. Remembering well my father’s death and the stvango warning that preceded it, my very blood was oh died when I heard the Banshee, for the second time one dark night as we stood up the Channel. What did the mystic voice portend ? I only knew that as surely as the shadow proclaims the presence of au object from which it derives its being, so surely was it the forerunner of some evil; what, I could not know yet, though come 1 felt it must, o,qd that all I could do would neither prevent uoi defer it. My mind givqn oyer to reflection of a most gloomy character, X arrived at my aunt’s

house, but only to learn from the housekeeper that Miss Norah and Miss O’Hara had gone down to Lincolnshire the week before, and that young Mr Leyton had come up for the express purpose of escorting them thither. I bore my disappointment with as good a grace as possible; and as there was nothing for it but to wait till the morrow and take the early coach, I sat down in front of a fire which my coming had given life to, and read some letters which I found awaiting me, while tea was being prepared for me. The letters were from my aunt and friend respectively, and were both to the effect that Fergus O’Hara —my respected self—would transport himself to Leyton Hall at the first possible opportunity; which lof course fully intended to do. Harry Leyton and I were old and fast friends, though we saw each other rarely, and this friendship, which was no common one, his engagement to Norah tended to strengthen; and I did hope that in the future another tie might bo added which would cement it still more closely. I first made his acquaintance through my aunt, at whose house he used to bo a frequent visitor. He was a handsome young fellow, had studied for the Bar, and was then making some little name. I felt rather solitary partaking of my meal alone ; the room which to another’s eyes would have no doubt appeared cheerful enough seemed desolate to me, myself the only tenant, where I had expected to see Norah’s pretty person and my dear old aunt. My meal over, I thought an early retreat to bed the best means of disposing of the remainder of a miserable evening, and of securing a good night’s rest, as I should be forced to rise early to be in time for the coach. I arrived at Leyton Hall early in the evening of the following day. ‘Well, old fellow,’ said Harry, bursting into the apartment which I had been shown into, and which was to be mine during my stay, ‘ I’m glad you’re come at last. Here,’ giving a look round, ‘ let me take your traps into my room till that fire looks a little brighter; ’ and suiting the action to the word lie seized upon as many articles as he could conveniently transport there, in spite of my remonstrances. I was not long in making my toilette, when we went to the drawingroom together. The scene which met my eyes was indeed a happy one, and well worthy of the season which had occasioned it, and speedily banished the dark fears which had oppressed me during the past few days. The guests were as numerous as they appeared happy. Norah and my aunt were delighted to see me, and Sir Henry and Lady Leyton gave me as warm a welcome as I could have desired. All this time there was a young lady, with red flowers in her hair, who was unaware, or pretended to be so, of my presence, till Harry apprising her of it, she rose from the piano, at which she had been playing, to greet mo. _ The vivid blush that dyed her fair face at sight of me, and the pretty look of surprise that accompanied it, made her appear more charming and bewiching than I had ever before seen her. She resumed her seat at the instrument, and took up the verse of a ballad which my approach had interrupted. When it was liuished I selected some old favorites of mine, and requested her to sing tiem, which she did : thus listening, and talking in the pauses of the songs, I passed one of the happiest hours it is ever permitted a mortal to enjoy. The next morning at breakfast a ball was planned for the same evening; and as the time for the proper decoration of the large dining-hall in which it was principally to take place was rather short, all hands were pressed into the service. There is no season like Christmas for making people sociable. All seemed to enter heart and soul into the spirit of the thing, and showed the greatest interest in what was going forward. Even the two Miss Mills, a couple of unusually crabbed spinsters, who rarely relaxed from their grim frigidity, became quite genial under its influence, much to the astonishment of everybody; which so affected a short, puffy old gentleman, a neighbour of theirs, who was nailing up holly hard by them, that he either made a joke or paid a compliment to the younger of the ladies in question. lam inclined to think it was the latter, for the elder Miss Mills seemed slightly resentful to the sister for some little time afterwards. Well, at last, after a great deal of laughing and talking and directing, a great deal of hammering and noise, the immense piles of green which the servants had been constantly bringing in were transferred from the floor to the dark panelled walls, where the pictures looked out from their annual frames of scarlet and green. There was not an available spot where holly could be put that we did not put it—swords were wreathed with it, helmets were crowned with it; and the fire, blazing and crackling on the hearth, glinted on tho ancient breastplates and headpieces through the friendly branches of the holly and mistletoe. When I entered the ballroom in the evening, it really presented a most pleasing and splendid appearance, and we were well repaid for the labors of the morning. The wax tapers, which were plentifully distributed throughout tho apartment, shed a brilliant though soft light over the happy scene. The gaiety around me was so contagious that I grew infected with it, and, casting care and dark thoughts to the winds, I entered on the pleasures of the evening with full determination to enjoy them. I had just ended a careful survey of the company, to discover if Harry’s sister were yet present, when I espied her in the doorway, a vision of loveliness to remember. She was attired in a sofo creamy-tinted material, with crimson flowers in her hair — the flowers in her hair were always red, the color, I suppose, became her best From the centre of the oak ceiling a huge bough of mistletoe depended, which was the cause of much fun and amusement. No sooner did any unwary maiden wander beneath it than some cavalier, instantly taking advantage of the occasion thus offered, claimed the legal kiss, when would ensue struggles of resistance, either assumed or reil, which called forth such shouts of laughter as made tho. old room ring again. Alice I could have kissed several times, but I lacked both courage and inclination to d,c, ao. Alice’s manner had been very cold towards me during the few minutes that I was allowed to enjoy her society ; for directly the dancing commenced I saw little of her. I was no proficient in the Terpsichorean art myself.

I was the more surprised and then, when she came over to me, and said, with a very sweet smile, ‘ Don’t you dance, Fergus ?’ ‘ No,’ I replied, wishing with all my heart I could give a different answer—‘or.-at least,’ I hastened to add, ‘very indifie* rentiy.’ * Which means that you are afraid of being laughed at, did you make the attempt,’ she returned mischievously. ‘ Not at all; but though I do not object to making myself food for mirth on an espe dal occasion like the present, I should grtaily regret having rendered a lady such.* ‘ 0, if that is your scruple lay it aside for once ; and as I fear a laugh as little as you do, accept my guidance through the next quadrille. You must—everyone is dancing to-night.’ To be continued.