This

gatory the knight was led to a gate in a resplendent wall, which was set with pearls and precious stones. heavenly sight caused him to forget the dangers and sufferings he had hitherto undergone. Here the most enchanting sights and the sweetest melody captivated his heart, so that he desired never to depart from this paradise. But he was not permitted to remain there; and on his return met with the fifteen ecclesiastics he had seen when first he entered the cave. Having spent a day in their society, and being made acquainted by them with the future events of his life, he left the cave, and received the congratulations of the Prior and canons on his safe return. Having spent fifteen more days on the island, and after relating his vision and adventures to the community of monks, he took his departure from Lough Derg, and amongst others communicated the account of his pilgrimage to Gilbert of Lud, an English monk, who, in his turn, related it to Henry of Saltrey. After leading a truly Christian life to a ripe old age, death closed the pilgrim-soldier's career

"He died and went the bright way,

To the bliss that lasts for aye;
To that bliss may He us bring

That of all is Lord and King."

Henry of Saltrey thus accounts for his knowledge of Owen's vision:-He says that Gervasius, Abbot of Louth, in Lincolnshire, obtained from King Stephen a grant of land in Ireland on which to build a monastery. For this purpose one of his monks, Gilbert, was sent into Ireland with the Knight Owen, who accompanied him as servant

and interpreter of the Irish language. Whenever they were alone together the monk asked him minutely concerning Purgatory, and the marvellous modes of punishment which he had there seen and felt; but the knight, who could never hear about Purgatory without weeping bitterly, told his friend, for his edification, and under the seal of secrecy, all that he had seen and experienced, and affirmed. that he had seen it all with his own eyes. By the care and diligence of the monk all that the knight had said was reduced to writing, together with the narratives of the bishops and other ecclesiastics of that country, who, for truth's sake, gave their testimony to the facts. Lately, also, I did speak with one who was nephew of Patrick,* the third of that name, the companion of St. Malachius, by name Florentianus, in whose bishopric, as he said, that Purgatory was; of whom having curiously inquired, he answered: "Truly, brother, that place is within my bishopric, and many perish in that Purgatory; and those, who by chance return, do, by reason of the extreme torments they have endured, ever look pale and languid." The aforesaid narrative the said Gilbert did often repeat in my hearing, according as he had often heard it from the knight.

Henry of Saltrey wrote his account of Owen's pilgrimage in Latin prose, in the year 1153. The narrative was translated into several languages in the metrical style then so popular.. According to Sister Mary F. Clare, in her

Nosuch name is to be found in Ware's List of Bishops for Clogher or Raphoe about the time in question.

Life of St. Patrick, there are some of these metrical versions still in existence. There are two of them in the British Museum. One is contained in the Cotton collection, and dates from the fifteenth century; the other is a MS. of the fourteenth century in the Auchinleck collection in Scotland. In the same valuable work of the "Nun of Kenmare" is given a vignette representing a pilgrim entering the purgatorial cave, followed by a procession of monks chanting hymns.

With regard to the penance performed by the Knight Owen, there is no reason for saying that it differed substantially from the course of penance there pursued at the present day, highly embellished though the statement be by the chronicler as well as the pilgrim. It is even quite possible that visions regarding the future state of the soul-regarding the different degrees of punishment for sin and also the happy state of the blessed, may have been vouchsafed to this great penitent-such visions God having deigned to grant to many of the saintsamong others to His illustrious servants, St. Catherine and St. Theresa.

At all events, the narrative of the Knight Owen served, under divine Providence, to spread abroad the fame of St. Patrick's Purgatory, and to attract to its sanctuary, from every nation throughout Christendom, pilgrims of every rank, from the prince to the peasant.

Henry of Saltrey's narrative had been copied from monastery to monastery, till it became quite familiar over the continent of Europe. It had also found its way into the hands of the great mediæval poets. Ariosto

had read it, as appears from the extract prefixed to this chapter. It would also appear from the plan and various passages. in the Divina Comedia, that "the divine poet, the inimitable Dante," had been conversant with it. It is stated that the second part of the Divina Comedia, "Il Purgatorio," is founded on Saltrey's account of Lough Derg. The Spanish poet, Calderon-so celebrated for his sacred dramas-upon this same pilgrimage, wrote one of his most charming plays, to which we have already referred, and shall have occasion to refer again hereafter.

CHAPTER X.

TIERNAN O'ROURKE, PRINCE OF BREFFNY, ON PILGRIMAGE AT LOUGH DERG-DISTINGUISHED FOREIGN PILGRIMSNARRATIVE OF JACOBUS DE VORAGINE.

IERNAN O'ROURKE, prince of Breffny, was one of the most warlike of Irish chieftains. For about half a century, from 1124 down to the year 1172, when he met with an untimely death, he took part in the wars, predatory incursions, deeds of daring and bloodshed, which distracted his unhappy country, as also in the laudable attempt to resist the English invasion. In 1152, his wife, Dervorgilla, that "degenerate daughter of Erin," eloped with his rival, the infamous M'Murrough. Dervorgil, after having reached the advanced age of eighty-five, closed

her ill-fated career in the convent of Mellifont in the year 1193, after undergoing a lengthened course of penance.

It is stated that at the time of her elopement with M'Murrough, her husband had been away on pilgrimage; and the tradition is kept at Lough Derg that it was there he sought consolation for his troubled conscience when he returned to find himself betrayed by M'Murrough. Dr. O'Donovan, in his Donegal Letters, also refers to the same tradition. This incident is wedded to immortal verse in the well-known melody of Moore, beginning thus:

"The valley lay smiling before me,

Where lately I left her behind;

Yet I trembled, and something hung o'er me,
That sadden'd the joy of my mind.

I looked for the lamp which, she told me,
Should shine when her pilgrim return'd,
But though darkness began to infold me,
No lamp from the battlements burn'd."

Nor will it militate against this tradition to say that on the occasion referred to, Tiernan O'Rourke made pilgrimage to Clonmacnoise, or some other of the many places of pilgrimage which were then frequented throughout Ireland; for about this period it was quite usual to make pilgrimage, without interruption, round the most famous sanctuaries of Ireland. Even those who journeyed to foreign sanctuaries, fortified and prepared themselves for such distant journeys by first making pilgrimage to the most famous shrines of religion in their own