CHAPTER I.
THE BARONY OF DESMOND.
I wonder whether the novel-reading world--that part of it, at least, which may honour my pages--will be offended if I lay the plot of this story in Ireland! That there is a strong feeling against things Irish it is impossible to deny.

Irish servants need not apply; Irish acquaintances are treated with limited confidence; Irish cousins are regarded as being decidedly dangerous; and Irish stories are not popular with the booksellers.
For myself, I may say that if I ought to know anything about any place, I ought to know something about Ireland; and I do strongly protest against the injustice of the above conclusions.

Irish cousins I have none.

Irish acquaintances I have by dozens; and Irish friends, also, by twos and threes, whom I can love and cherish--almost as well, perhaps, as though they had been born in Middlesex.

Irish servants I have had some in my house for years, and never had one that was faithless, dishonest, or intemperate.