Valentine Mcclutchy the Irish Agent Author:William Carleton Subtitle: Or, the Chronicles of Castle Cumber; Together With the Pious Aspirations, Permissions, Vouchsafements and Other Sanctified Privileges of Solomon Mcslime, a Religious Attorney General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1848 Original Publisher: J. Duffy Subjects: Ireland History / Europe / Ireland Travel / ... more »Europe / Ireland Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER VIII A Winter Morning Poverty And Sorrow -- Father Roche -- A Mountain Journey Raymond-na-hattha Cabin On The Moors -- M'clutchy's Blood-hounds -- The Conflict -- A Trebijc Death. It is the chill and ghastly dawn of a severe winter morning; the gray, cheerless opening of day borrows its faint light only fpr the purpose of enabling you to see that the country about you is partially covered with snow, and that the angry sky is loaded with storm. The rising sun, like some poverty-stricken invalid, driven, as it were, by necessity, to the occupation of the day, seems scarcely able to rise, and does so with a sickly and reluctant aspect. Abroad, there is no voice of joy or kindness -- no cheerful murmur with which the heart can sympathize -- all the warm and exhilarating harmonies that breathe from nature in her more genial moods are silent. A black, freezing spirit darkens the very light of day, and throws its dismal shadow upon every thing about us, whilst the only sounds that fall upon the ear, are the roaring of the bitter winds among the naked trees, or the hoarse voice of the half-frozen river, rising and falling -- now near, and now far away in the distance. On such a morning as this, it was, and at such an hour, that a pale-faced, thin woman, with all the melancholy evidences of destitution and sorrow ab...« less