e house of death, the corpse of an aged female was carried out amidst
the shrieks and imprecations of both men and women! The sick child that
clung with faintness to the bosom of its distracted mother, was put out
under the freezing blast of the north; and on, on, onward, from house to
house, went the steps of law, accompanied still by the increasing tumult
of misery. This was upon Christmas eve--a day of "joy and festivity!"

At length they reached O'Regan's,and it is not our intention to describe
the occurrence at any length. It could not be done. O'Regan clasped his
hands, so did his wife; they knelt--they wept--they supplicated.
They stated the nature of his malady--decline--from having ruptured a
blood-vessel. They ran to M'Clutchy, to M'Slime, to the squat figure
on horseback. They prayed to Darby, and especially entreated a ruffian
follower who had been remarkable for, and wanton in, his inhumanity, but
with no effect. Darby shook his head.

"It couldn't be done," said he.

"No," replied the other, whose name was Grimes, "we can't make any
differ between one and another--so out he goes."

"Father," observed the meek boy, "let them. I will only be the sooner in
heaven."

He was placed sitting up in bed by the bailiff's, trembling in the cold
rush of the blast; but the moment the father saw their polluted and
sacrilegious hands upon him--he rushed forward accompanied by his
mother.

"Stay," he said, in a loud, hoarse voice, "since you will have him out,
let our hands, not yours, be upon him."

The ruffian told him they could not stand there all day, and without any
farther respect for their feelings, they rudely wrapped the bed-clothes
about him, and, carrying him out, he was placed upon a chair before the
door. His parents were immediately beside him, and took him now into
then own care; but it was too late--he smiled as he looked into their
faces, then looked at his little brother, and giving one long drawn
sigh, he passed, without pain or suffering, saving a slight shudder,
into happiness. O'Regan, when he saw that his noble and beloved boy was
gone, surrendered him into the keeping of his wife and other friends,
who prevented his body from falling off the chair. He then bent his eye
sternly upon the group of bailiffs, especially upon the rude ruffian,
Grimes, whose conduct was so atrocious.

"Now listen," said he, kneeling down beside his dead son--"listen all
of you that has wrought this murder of my