The appearance of this symbol or device of a rabbit, upon old examples of playing cards, as referred to by SYMBOL, is easily accounted for. These "devil's books" came to us originally from Spain; and in ancient cards of that country, columbines were Spades, _rabbits_[7] Clubs, pinks Diamonds, and roses Hearts.--Fosb. _ut sup._, p. 602. COWGILL. [Footnote 6: This lady afterwards married Raymond, Count de St. Gilles, son of the Count of Toulouse. Eleanora, another of Richard's sisters, married Alphonso, third king of Castile.] [Footnote 7: The Clubs, in Spanish cards, are not, as with us, trefoils, but cudgels, i. e. _bastos_: the Spades are swords, i. e. _espadas_.--Fosb. _ut sup._; see the plate of "Sports, Amusements," &c.] _Spanish Vessels wrecked on the Irish Coast_ (Vol. v., p. 491.).--A fair account of this eventful visitation may be expected from the _Annals of the Four Masters_, a work compiled within forty years of the occurrence, and not near so many miles removed from the waters over which most of its fatalities were felt: "A large fleet (says this work) consisting of eight sure ships, came on the sea from the King of Spain this year (1588), and some say it was their intention to take harbour and land on the coasts of England should they obtain an opportunity; but in that they did not succeed, for the Queen's fleet encountered them at sea, and took four of their ships, and the rest of the fleet was scattered and dispersed along the coasts of the neighbouring countries, viz., on the eastern side of England, on the north-eastern shores of Scotland, and on the north-western coast of Ireland. A great number of the Spaniards were drowned in those quarters, their ships having been completely wrecked; and the smaller proportion of them returned to Spain, and some assert that 9,000 of them were lost on that occasion." This narrative is utterly innocent of the wholesale, or of any _execution_ of the unfortunate invaders; and, in truth, our Lord Deputies have too much to answer for, without throwing the barbarism of such a massacre upon one of them. Some colouring is, however, given to the charge by the writings of Smith, _History of Kerry_; Cox, _Hibernia Anglicana_; and even Leland, _History of Ireland_, vol. ii. p. 322. The deviation of these Spaniards northwards can be, I think, accounted for by the discomfitures they sustained from the English and Dutch fleets, who so kept the seas east and south of England, as to make a circuit round the Orkney Islands, with a descent to the westward of Ireland, the most advisable, though as it proved, not the less dangerous line of return. JOHN D'ALTON. 48. Summer Hill, Dublin.