XII.
Catherine Hayes.
The Swan of Erin.
1825-1861.
SOME scenes in the lives of some people stand out, with all the clearness and distinctness of a picture, before the mind's eye. It is impossible to forget them, they stamp themselves on the memory. Such a scene belongs to the life-story of the gifted Irishwoman, of whom a slight account will be now given.
A summer evening on the shores of the Shannon, "the silver Shannon spreading like a sea," gardens sloping down to the river's brink, mists of twilight slowly spreading over the tops of the hills, clothing them with mystery. From the City of Limerick—Limerick the Beautiful—boats flit up and down, It was a time for whispering lovers, for music, for romance. The silence was broken by the sound of a voice—a voice clear and silvery, sweet and strong; it seemed to be coming from a woodbine-covered arbour in the grounds of the Earl of
