calls her "_The old Countess of Desmond of_ INCHEQUIN:" this is in itself proof, all but positive, that the lady was an _O'Bryen_, for none other could have "part or lot" in the hereditary designation of that family: hence I have no hesitation in adhering to the conclusion, which, with slight correction of dates, I have adopted from accurate authorities, that "MARGARET O'BRIEN, WIFE OF JAMES, NINTH EARL OF DESMOND, WHO WAS MURDERED IN 1587, WAS THE GENUINE AND ONLY 'OLD COUNTESS.'" Upon the only point on which I venture to correct my authority, namely, as to the date of the earl's death, I find, on reference to an older authority than any to which we have hitherto referred, that my emendation is confirmed. In the Annals of the Four Masters, compiled from more ancient documents still, in the year 1636, I find, under the date 1487, the following: "The Earl of Desmond, James Fitzgerald, was treacherously killed by his own people at Rathgeola (Rathkeale, co. Limerick), at the instigation of his brother John." A. B. R. Belmont. THE IMPERIAL EAGLE OF FRANCE. On reading the _Times_ of the 7th ult. at our city library, in which the following translation of a paragraph in the French journal, _Le Constitutionnel_, appeared, application was made to me for an explanation of that part where the Emperor Napoleon is represented as stating, among other advantages of preferring an eagle to a cock as the national emblem or ensign, which, during the ancient dynasty of France, the latter had been-- "_that it owes its origin to a pun._ I will not have the cock, said the Emperor; it lives on the dunghill, and allows itself to have its throat twisted by the fox. I will take the eagle, which bears the thunderbolt, and which can gaze on the sun. The French eagles shall make themselves respected, like the Roman eagles. The cock, besides, has the disadvantage of owing its origin to a pun," &c. Premising that the French journalist's object is to authorise the present ruler of France's similar adoption and restoration of the noble bird on the French standard by the example of his uncle, I briefly stated the circumstance to which Napoleon, on this occasion, referred; and as not unsuited, I should think, to your miscellany, I beg leave to repeat it here.