n were too frequently both alike remarkable for the
exhibition of such principles. Of this class was our friend M'Clutchy,
who was now a justice of the peace, a grand juror, and a captain of
cavalry--his corps having, a little time before, been completed. With
this posse, as the officers of justice, the pranks he played were
grievous to think of or to remember. He and they were, in fact, the
terror of the whole Roman Catholic population; and from the spirit in
which they executed justice, were seldom called by any other name than
that of M'Clutchy's Bloodhounds. Upon the present occasion they were
unaccompanied by M'Clutchy himself--a circumstance which was not to
be regretted, as there was little to be expected from his presence but
additional brutality and insult.

On arriving at the door, they hastily dismounted, and rushed into the
cabin with their usual violence and impetuosity, each being armed with a
carbine and bayonet.

"Hallo!" said the leader, whose name was Sharpe; "what's here? shamming
sickness is it?"

"No," said Father Roche; "it is death?"

"Ay! shamming death then. Never mind--we'll soon see that. Come, Steele,
give him a prod--a gentle one--and I'll engage it'll make him find
tongue, if anything will."

Steele, to whom this was addressed, drew his bayonet, and commenced
screwing it on, for the purpose of executing his orders.

"A devilish good trick, too," said he; "and the first of the kind that
has been practised on us yet--here goes--"

Up until this moment O'Regan's wife sat beside the dead body of
her husband, without either word or motion. A smile of--it might
be satisfaction, perhaps even joy, at his release; or it might be
hatred--was on her face, and in her eye; but when the man pointed his
bayonet at the corpse of her husband, she started to her knees, and
opening out her arms, exclaimed--

"Here's my heart--and through that heart your bayonet will go, before it
touches his body. Oh, if you have hearts in your bodies, you will surely
spare the dead!"

"Here goes, ma'am," he repeated, "and you had better lave that--we're
not in the habit of being checked by the like of you, at any rate, or
any of your creed."

"I am not afeared to profess my creed--nor ashamed of it," she
exclaimed; and if it went to that, I would die for it--but I tell you,
that before your bayonet touches the dead body of my husband, it must
pass through my heart!"

"Don't be alarmed, Mary," said the priest;