TO CORRESPONDENTS. All communications for the EDITOR of the DUBLIN MONTHLY MAGAZINE must be addressed to the care of Mr. MACHEN, 8, D'OLIER-STREET. Advertisements and Books for Review to be forwarded to the same. We cannot undertake to return short pieces, either prose or poetry. Contributions intended for insertion in the succeeding number must be forwarded on or before the first Saturday in the month. It is requested that persons sending to the publishers for MSS. will state in full the title of the paper required, and the name or initials affixed to it; as several mistakes have occurred for want of this precaution. The extract from Pickwick, which is curious enough, arrived too late to be made use of. As it is our wish that the volumes of our journal for each year should be complete in themselves, we have postponed some articles of importance till the commencement of a new volume and a new year. M. R. F.—H. D. R. (ballad)—M. (translation)—W. L. T.—R. B. (Waterford)— G. W. (Cork)-do not suit us. We have a variety of new arrangements in contemplation, which must be our excuse to those friends and correspondents with whom we are in arrear. Webb and Chapman, Printers, 160, Great Brunswick-strect. THE FATE OF LE POER. SECOND FRAGMENT OF A NATIONAL TALE.* THE morning broke wildly, and with a stormy aspect; the clouds, which in the evening were heavy and dense, had now become scattered and edged with a dull red, allowing large grey patches of sky to be discerned between them; whilst the sea ran so high, as to require considerable management on the part of the mariners to keep the ill-constructed, though strongly timbered vessel from going fast to leeward; and this induced the captain, as soon as the least light appeared, to send a man to the mast-head in order to see how the land lay, as their imperfect mode of navigation did not enable them to calculate with any certainty how much offing they had acquired by keeping the vessel's course well to windward during the night. The man having ascended the rigging, hastily scanned the horison, and, when he had looked to seaward with a steady gaze for a few seconds, he suddenly called out "A sail, a sail !" "How does she head?" inquired the captain. "She lies our course, and is broad on our weather beam," answered the seaman. "Then," said the captain, turning to the man at the helm, "steady." "Now they begin to keep her away two or three points," said the man at the mast-head ;-"now they are putting her dead before it, and she shows no flag." This was pleasing intelligence to the commander of the shallop, for, owing to her clumsy shape, his vessel sailed infinitely better before the wind than close hauled, as she had been during the night; so, turning again to the man at the helm, he said— "Bring us before the wind also, and we shall overhaul this strange sail: perhaps it may be a Sassenach war ship with despatches." This command was no sooner uttered than it was put in execution, and the heavy shallop, as if relieved from the strong exertion of keeping a windward course, went round with amazing swiftness, and soon showed in her accelerated motion how much better calculated she was for going before the wind. The weather continued to increase in roughness, but as each succeeding mountain wave threatened to topple over her high stern, it lent additional impetuosity to her course, and enabled her to gain fast on the stranger, who appeared doubtful as to his vessel's power of carrying sail, for he did not crowd half the canvas on her that, notwithstanding the severity of the weather, she might have borne: indeed they were now so close, that one could perceive there were altogether less bustle and confusion on board the strange sail than was consistent with * Vide THE RAID OF RORY OGE in the preceding number, p. 296. |