Being a Fifth Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis
Purcell, P.P. of Drumcoolagh.

The following paper is written in a
female hand, and was no doubt
communicated to my much-regretted
friend by the lady whose early
history it serves to illustrate, the Countess
D----. She is no more--she long since
died, a childless and a widowed wife, and,
as her letter sadly predicts, none survive
to whom the publication of this narrative
can prove 'injurious, or even painful.'
Strange! two powerful and wealthy
families, that in which she was born,
and that into which she had married,
have ceased to be--they are utterly
extinct.

To those who know anything of the
history of Irish families, as they were
less than a century ago, the facts which
immediately follow will at once suggest
THE NAMES of the principal actors; and to
others their publication would be useless--
to us, possibly, if not probably, injurious.
I have, therefore, altered such of the
names as might, if stated, get us into
difficulty; others, belonging to minor
characters in the strange story, I have left