“Why, you see, as I am informed from good authority, the baste has come, an’ it’s clear from the _ten_ horns that he could be no other than Harry the Eighth, who was married to _five_ wives, an’ by all accounts they strengthened an’ ornamented him sore against his will. Now, set in case that each o’ them--five times two is ten--hut! the thing’s as clear as crystal. But I’ll prove it betther. You see the woman wid the two wings is the church, an’ she flew into the wildherness at the very time Harry the Eighth wid his ten horns on him was in his greatest power.” “Bedad that’s puttin’ the explanations to it in great style.” “But the woman wid the wings is only to be in the wildherness for a time, times, an’ half a time, that’s exactly three hundred an’ fifty years, an’ afther that there’s to be no more Prodestans.” “Faith that’s great!” “Sure Columkill prophesied that until H E M E I A M should come, the church would be in no danger, but that afther that she must be undher a cloud for a time, times, an’ half a time, jist in the same way.” “Well, but how do you explain that, Barney?” “An’ St Bridget prophesied that when D O C is uppermost, the church will be hard set in Ireland. But, indeed, there’s no end to the prophecies that there is concerning Ireland an’ the church. However, neighbours, do you know that I feel the heat o’ the fire has made me rather drowsy, an’ if you have no objection, I’ll take a bit of a nap. There’s great things near us, any how. An’ talkin’ about DOC brings to my mind another ould prophecy made up, they say, betune Columkill and St Bridget; an’ it is this, that the triumph of the counthry will never be at hand till the DOC flourishes in Ireland.” Such were the speculations upon which the harmless mind of Barney M’Haighery ever dwelt. From house to house, from parish to parish, and from province to province, did he thus trudge, never in a hurry, but always steady and constant in his motions. He might be not inaptly termed the Old Mortality of traditionary prophecy, which he often chiselled anew, added to, and improved, in a manner that generally gratified himself and his bearers. He was a harmless kind man, and never known to stand in need of either clothes or money. He paid little attention to the silent business of ongoing life, and was consequently very nearly an abstraction. He was always on the alert, however, for the result of a battle; and after having heard it, he would give no opinion whatsoever until he had first silently compared it with his own private theory in prophecy. If it agreed with this, he immediately published it in connection with his established text; but if it did not, he never opened his lips on the subject.