ssed her bleeding
to his bosom. He gasped for breath: "Anne," said he, "Anne, I am without
hope, an' there's none to forgive me except you;--none at all: from God,
to the poorest of his creatures, I am hated an' cursed, by all, except
you! Don't curse me, Anne; don't curse me! Oh, isn't it enough, darlin',
that my sowl is now stained with your blood, along with my other crimes?
In hell, on earth, an' in heaven, there's none to forgive your father
but yourself!--none! none! Oh, what's comin' over me! I'm dizzy an'
shiverin'! How cowld the day's got of a sudden! Hould up, avourneen
machree! I was a bad man; but to you Anne, I was not as I was to every
one! Darlin', oh look at me with forgiveness in your eye, or any way
don't curse me! Oh! I'm far cowlder now! Tell me that you forgive me,
_acushla oge machree!--Manim asthee ha_, darlin', say it. I darn't look
to God! but oh! do you say the forgivin' word to your father before you
die!"

"Father," said she, "I deserve this--it's only just: I have plotted with
that divilish Martin to betray them all, except yourself, an' to get
the reward; an' then we intended to go--an'--live at a distance--an'
in wickedness--where we--might not be known--he's at our house--let him
be--secured. Forgive me, father; you said so often that there was no
thruth in religion--that I began to--think so. Oh!--God! have mercy upon
me!" And with these words she expired.

Meehan's countenance, on hearing this, was overspread with a ghastly
look of the most desolating agony: he staggered back, and the body of
his daughter, which he strove to hold, would have fallen from his
arms, had it not been caught by the bystanders. His eye sought out his
brother, but not in resentment. "Oh! she died, but didn't say 'I forgive
you!' Denis," said he, "Denis, bring me home--I'm sick--very sick--oh,
but it's eowld--everything's reeling--how cowld--cowld it is!"--and as
he uttered the last words, he shuddered, fell down in a fit of apoplexy,
never to rise again; and the bodies of his daughter and himself were
both waked and buried together.

The result is brief. The rest of the gang were secured: Denis became
approver, by whose evidence they suffered that punishment decreed by law
to the crimes of which they had been guilty. The two events which I
we have just related, of course added to the supernatural fear and
reverence previously entertained for this terrible relic. It is still
used as an ordeal of expurgation,