Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/235

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REMOVAL TO DUBLIN.
229

city of Dublin, and to try to maintain my family by keeping a school for instruction in Latin, Greek and French.

I found a house on St. Stephen's Green, that I thought would answer our purpose extremely well. It had been originally very well built, but was a good deal out of repair, owing to its having been long without a tenant; and it had, moreover, the reputation of being haunted by evil spirits. My wife and I entertained no apprehension of being disturbed by any unearthly visitors, so we were very glad to get this house upon lower terms in consequence of the prejudice that existed. I obtained a lease of it for ninety and nine years at £10 per annum. It was a large house, forty feet square, it had good substantial stone walls, and all the carpenters' work was of oak. There was a yard and a garden attached to it three hundred feet in depth, and the width of the house.

I was obliged to leave Dublin before we took possession of the house, in order to prosecute my claim for damages, upon the county of Cork, for injuries received at the hands of Irishmen in the French privateer. By law, the county is liable to make good all losses sustained by violence and robbery, provided the persons committing the act are natives and not foreigners. I had given due notice to the High Constable of the Barony, within the time limited by act of Parliament, and all that remained for me now to do was to prove the facts to the satisfaction of the grand jury of the county of Cork. I took my son James and two servants with me as witnesses, and I had no difficulty whatever in proving the robbery, and also that there were many Irishmen among the assailants. I presented an inventory of the property I had lost, particularizing those articles which had been carried away, and those which had been destroyed by fire.