if she strove
to suppress a laugh. At length O'Rorke heard a low gurgling sound
proceed from her chest; it increased; she pressed his arm more tightly,
and in a loud burst of ferocious mirth, which she immediately subdued
into a condensed shriek that breathed the very luxury of revenge, she
said--

"_Lamh Laudher Oge_, listen--ax the father of you, when you see him,
what has become _of his own child_--of the first that ever God sent him;
an' listen again--when he tells me what has become of mine, I'll tell
him what has become of his, Now go to Ellen--but before you go, let
me _cuggher_ in your ear that I'll blast you both. I'll make the _Lamh
Laudhers, Lamh Lhugs_. I'll make the strong arm the weak arm afore I've
done wid 'em."

She struck the point of her stick against the pavement, until the iron
ferrule with which it was bound dashed the fire from the stones, after
which she passed on, muttering threats and imprecations as she left him.

O'Rorke stood and looked after her with sensations of fear and
astonishment. The age was superstitious, and encouraged a belief in the
influence of powers distinct from human agency. Every part of Ireland
was filled at this time with characters, both male and female, precisely
similar to old Nell M'Collum.. The darkness in which this woman walked,
according to the opinions of a people but slightly advanced in knowledge
and civilization, has been but feebly described to the reader. To meet
her, was considered an omen of the most unhappy kind; a circumstance
which occasioned the imprecation of Lamh Laudher. She was reported
to have maintained an intercourse with the fairies, to be capable
of communicating the blight of an evil eye, and to have carried on a
traffic which is said to have been rather prevalent in Ireland at the
time we speak of--namely, that of kidnapping. The speculations with
reference to her object in perpetrating the crimes were strongly
calculated to exhibit the degraded state of the people at that period.
Some said that she disposed of the children to a certain class of
persons in the metropolis, who subsequently sent them to the colonies,
when grown, at an enormous profit. Others maintained that she never
carried them to Dublin at all, but insisted that, having been herself
connected with the fairies, she possessed the power of erasing, by
some secret charm, the influence of baptismal protection, and that she
consequently acted as agent for the "gentry" to whom