y, apathy, restlessness,
and all the symptoms of a breaking constitution and a broken heart,
soon began to set in and mark her for an early, and what was worse, an
ignominious grave. It was then that her brothers deemed it full time to
act. Their father, on the night before the day on which poor Raymond was
rescued from death, observed them secretly preparing firearms,--for they
had already, as the reader knows, satisfied themselves that M'Clutchy,
junior, would not fight--took an opportunity of securing their weapons
in a place where he knew they could not be found. This, however, was of
little avail--they told him it must and should be done, and that neither
he nor any other individual in existence should debar them from the
execution of their just, calm, and reasonable vengeance--for such were
their very words. In this situation matters were, when about eleven
o'clock the next morning, Father Roche, who, from the beginning, had
been there to aid and console, as was his wont, wherever calamity or
sorrow called upon him, made his appearance in the family, much to the
relief of M'Loughlin's mind, who dreaded the gloomy deed which his sons
had proposed to themselves to execute, and who knew besides, that in
this good and pious priest he had a powerful and eloquent ally. After
the first salutations had passed, M'Loughlin asked for a private
interview with him; and when they had remained about a quarter of an
hour together, the three sons were sent for, all of whom entered with
silent and sullen resolution strongly impressed on their stern, pale,
and immovable features. Father Roche himself was startled even into
something like terror, when he witnessed this most extraordinary change
in the whole bearing and deportment of the young men, whom he had always
known so buoyant and open-hearted.

"My dear young friends," said he, calmly and affectionately, "your
father has just disclosed to me a circumstance, to which, did it not
proceed from his lips, I could not yield credit. Is it true that
you have come to the most unchristian and frightful determination of
shedding blood?"

"Call it just and righteous," said John, calmly.

"Yes," followed the other two, "it is both."

"In his cowardly crime he has evaded the responsibility of law,"
continued John, "and we care not if his punishment goes beyond law
itself. We will answer for it with our lives--but in the mean time, he
must die."

"You see, Father Roche," observed M'Lou