This was an auspicious omen to the common people in our neighbourhood, by whom they were universally beloved--it spoke well, they said, for the new lady.

In his own family, the union and happiness she would secure were soon felt, but her superior qualities, her accurate knowledge, judgment, and abilities, in decision and in action, appeared only as occasions arose and called for them.

She was found always equal to the occasion, and superior to the expectation.' Maria had not at first been in favour of her father's marrying Miss Beaufort, but she soon changed her opinion after becoming intimate with her, and writing of her father's choice of a wife says: 'He did not late in life marry merely to please his own fancy, but he chose a companion suited to himself, and a mother fit for his family.
This, of all the blessings we owe to him, has proved the greatest.' The family at Edgeworth Town passed the summer quietly and happily, but (Maria continues) 'towards the autumn of the year 1798, this country became in such a state that the necessity of resorting to the sword seemed imminent.

Even in the county of Longford, which had so long remained quiet, alarming symptoms appeared, not immediately in our neighbourhood, but within six or seven miles of us, near Granard.

The people were leagued in secret rebellion, and waited only for the expected arrival of the French army to break 'out.