That prospect was at once grand, beautiful and mournful.

The corn crop began to be tinged with coming ripeness; but the potato was blighted, and presented a spectacle as black and dismal as the country's hopes.

This widespread ruin was the dread work of an hour.

On the morning, when Mr.O'Brien appeared in Carrick, that crop was the most abundant, promising and healthy that had been seen for years.

Then it appeared from sea to sea one mass of unvaried rottenness and decay.