heptarchy ruled over the barbarous Saxons. Like all the royal and noble
houses of Europe, the O'Clerys, after ages of glory and prosperity, had
their hour of decline and decay also. But it was a question whether the
virtues of this renowned house were more brilliant or conspicuous in the
zenith of its glory, or in its fallen or humbled state. The Irish church
founded by Saint Patrick never wanted an O'Clery to adorn her sanctuary
or to record her victories. The annals of the Four Masters will stand to
the end of the world as a proud monument of the services rendered to the
Irish church and to history by these illustrious annalists; and when the
deeds of the most renowned knights and chieftains of this royal house
shall have been obliterated by the merciless chisel of time, the authors
of the Four Masters' Annals will become only brighter among the shining
stars that adorn the literary firmament of old Ireland.

The martyrology of the Irish church can attest the virtues of constancy
and patriotism with which the O'Clerys bore their share of the wrongs of
Erin and of her faithful sons. Whether or not the subjects of our
narrative, the poor emigrant orphans, had any of this royal and noble
blood flowing in their veins, is a thing that we cannot genealogically
vouch. But that they were not degenerate sons of Erin, or faithless to
their allegiance to the glorious old church of their fathers, we trust
this history will amply demonstrate. At all events, the uncle of our
hero, Paul O'Clery, held a very high station in the Irish hierarchy.
Having, with eclat, finished his ecclesiastical and literary primary
studies in the colleges of his native land, he subsequently repaired to
Rome, where he won with distinction the title of "doctor in divinity and
canon law," and carried the first premium from many French, German, and
even Italian competitors. Hence, soon after his return from abroad, on
account of his learning, as well as his tried virtues, he was appointed
the vicar general of the diocese of Kil----, a promotion which, far from