gs, for the birds had been affrighted by the sudden loudness of
the noise. The mocking voices were nothing but the echoes, rendered
naturally more awful by the scene, the mysterious object of the meeting,
and the solemn hour of the night.

When the candle was again lighted, and these startling circumstances
accounted for, the persons whose vengeance had been deepening more and
more during the night, rushed to the altar in a body, where each, in
a voice trembling with passionate eagerness, repeated the oath, and as
every word was pronounced, the same echoes heightened the wildness
of the horrible ceremony, by their long and unearthly tones. The
countenances of these human tigers were livid with suppressed rage;
their knit brows, compressed lips, and kindled eyes, fell under the dim
light of the taper, with an expression calculated to sicken any heart
not absolutely diabolical.

As soon as this dreadful rite was completed, we were again startled by
several loud bursts of laughter, which proceeded from the lower darkness
of the chapel; and the Captain, on hearing them, turned to the
place, and reflecting for a moment, said in Irish, "_Gutsho nish,
avohenee_--come hither now, boys."

A rush immediately took place from the corner in which they had secreted
themselves all the night; and seven men appeared, whom we instantly
recognized as brothers and cousins of certain persons who had been
convicted, some time before, for breaking into the house of an honest
poor man in the neighborhood, from whom, after having treated him with
barbarous violence, they took away such fire-arms as he kept for his own
protection.

It was evidently not the Captain's intention to have produced these
persons until the oath should have been generally taken, but the
exulting mirth with which they enjoyed the success of his scheme
betrayed them, and put him to the necessity of bringing them forward
somewhat before the concerted moment.

The scene which now took place was beyond all power of description;
peals of wild, fiendlike yells rang through the chapel, as the party
which stood on the altar and that which had crouched in the darkness
met; wringing of hands, leaping in triumph, striking of sticks and
fire-arms against the ground and the altar itself, dancing and cracking
of fingers, marked the triumph of some hellish determination. Even the
Captain for a time was unable to restrain their fury; but, at length, he
mounted the platform before