Irish Jesuit Province

The Lake of BolsenaAuthor(s): Eugene DavisSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 15, No. 167 (May, 1887), p. 284Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20497559 .

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284 The Lake og Bolsena.

wise was not a servant of God, but a slave of the devil." He was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to be hanged, beheaded, and quartered.

He suffered the extreme penalty on Gallows-green, Limerick, with much resolution, showing remarkable devotion and composure on the scaffold.

Sir Thomas Brown and other gentlemen of position, obtained from the Lord President an order remitting the more barbarous part of the sentence; so that his body was delivered up to his family unmutilated. He was buried by them in St. John's church vard, Limerick, on the 20th December, 1607. No trace of his tomb is now to be found.

His confessor, Father Matthew Crahy (Creagh), wrote his biography. A contemporary writer speaks of him as the "illustrious champion of his faith: of good strength both in castles and followers." He was "pietate et aliarurm virtutumn orna

mento non obscurus, sacerdot-um patronus clartosimus." Sir John

Bourke left nine children, none of whom inherited his ample estates which were granted by King James to Theobald Bourke, who was created Baron of Brittas in 1618.

THE LAKE OF BOLSENA.

(From the French.*)

BEHIND us fade the Apennines in mist, For, step by step, the staircase of the clouds

We have descended. Home of amethyst ! Sweet Tuscan land, in beauty's purple shrouds

Arrayed, farewell ! We tread the barren rocks Still black with the volcano's dying breath;

But lo! amid the charred remains of death, Rent by the fierv steel of nature's shocks,

We see thee, loved Bolsena, golden tress'd, For ever chosen mirror of the sun,

A honeyed lake that skirts the desert dun Aurora's balm to troubled sleep of care I

The light of day when shadows steal to rest! A heavenly ray that banishes despair!

EUGEN DBAnS.

* The original may be found in Lee Nuits Italiennes of M6ry. I was so struck by the fidelity of M6ry's description of the lake as I passed along its shore some months ago that I could not resist the temptation of giving some kind of an English version of his pen-and-ink portrait.

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