



Produced by David Widger from page images generously
provided by the Internet Archive









DAIREEN

Volume 1 of 2

By Frank Frankfort Moore


(Transcriber's Note: Chapters XX to XXIV were taken from a print
copy of a different edition as these chapters were missing from the 1889
print edition from which the rest of the Project Gutenberg edition was
taken. In the inserted four chapters it will be noted that the normal
double quotation marks were printed as single quote marks.)




CHAPTER I.


                        A king

               Upon whose property...

               A damn'd defeat was made.

                        A king

               Of shreds and patches.

The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must
the inheritor himself have no more? _Hamlet._


|MY son, said The Macnamara with an air of grandeur, my son, you've
forgotten what's due--he pronounced it jew--to yourself, what's
due to your father, what's due to your forefathers that bled, and
The Macnamara waved his hand gracefully; then, taking advantage of its
proximity to the edge of the table, he made a powerful but ineffectual
attempt to pull himself to his feet. Finding himself baffled by the
peculiar formation of his chair, and not having a reserve of breath to
draw upon for another exertion, he concealed his defeat under a pretence
of feeling indifferent on the matter of rising, and continued fingering
the table-edge as if endeavouring to read the initials which had been
carved pretty deeply upon the oak by a humorous guest just where his
hand rested. Yes, my son, you've forgotten the blood of your ancient
sires. You forget, my son, that you're the offspring of the Macnam