MacCarthy more, or, The fortunes of an Irish chief in the reign of ...

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The Fortunes of an Irisu Cuief. 26
ward within the castle, where, in the privacy ofLady
Clancarthy's oratory, wuth only the Countess, her
daughter, and their attendants, for a congregntion,
the holy Sacrifice of the ]Mas8 was being offered up
by a venerable priest, whoso snow-white locks and
furrowed cheeks were more from sorrow and suffer-
ing than from age.
A. strange and awful thing it was that in those
stormy days of religious persecution it was a capital
oftence to celebrate Mass, and almost as great a one
to assist at its celebration. Hence it was that the
chapels originally attached to the feudal castles of
the chiefs had fallen into disuse, ever since the inauspicious
reign of Henry VIII., and the priests who
ventured to remain in the country secretly harbored
in the dwellings of the Catholic lords and gentry, or
hiding, with the ingenious aid of the faithful people of
the country, in caves and vaults, and other secret
places, might only say Mass by stealth, with every
precaution agahist discovery. As in the present in-
stance, it was not deemed expedient to celebrate
Mass publicly, oven in the castle ofMacCarthy More,
fearing lest one of the "meaner sort" might be
tempted by the large reward offereu for the appre-
hension of a priest, or any information concerning
the solemnization of those " Popish rites," which
were amongst the highest crimes known to those Tu-
dor laws.
No sunbeam glanced through stained window on
priest or altar that day in Pallice (Castle j the room
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