Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Beth Trapaga and PG Distributed Proofreaders. This file was produced from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions RIDGEWAY AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF THE FENIAN INVASION OF CANADA By Scian Dubh “On our side is virtue and Erin; On theirs’ is the Saxon and guilt.”--MOORE. 1868 [Transcriber’s Note: The nonstandard spellings of the original have been retained in this etext.] INTRODUCTION. In the dark, English crucible of seven hundred years of famine, fire and sword, the children of Ireland have been tested to an intensity unknown to the annals of any other people. From the days of the second Henry down to those of the last of the Georges, every device that human ingenuity could encompass or the most diabolical spirit entertain, was brought to bear upon them, not only with a view to insuring their speedy degradation, but with the further design of accomplishing ultimately the utter extinction of their race. Yet notwithstanding that confiscation, exile and death, have been their bitter portion for ages--notwithstanding that their altars, their literature and their flag have been trampled in the dust, beneath the iron heel of the invader, the pure, crimson ore of their nationality and patriotism still flashes and scintillates before the world; while the fierce heart of “Brien of the Cow Tax,” bounding in each and every of them as of yore, yearns for yet another Clontarf, when hoarse with the pent-up vengeance of centuries, they shall burst like unlaired tigers upon their ancient, and implacable enemy, and, with one, long, wild cry, hurl her bloody and broken from their shores forever.