e proceeded, "this is how you are to act; your silence will give
consent to any question that is asked of you. Are you willin' that these
twelve men should thry Valentine M'Clutchy and his son for their lives;
and that the sentence is to be put in execution on them?" To this there
was a profound and ominous silence.

"Very well," said he, "you agree to this. Now," said he to the jurors,
"find your sentence."

The men met together, and whispered in the centre of the floor, for a
few minutes--when he, who acted as foreman, turned towards O'Regan and
said--"They're doomed."

"To what death?"

"To be both shot."

"Are you all satisfied with this sentence?"

Another silence as deep and ominous as before.

"Very well," said he, "you all agree. As for the sentence, it is a just
one; none of you need throuble yourselves any farther about that; you
may take my word for it, that it will be carried into execution. Are you
willing it should?"

For the third time an unbroken silence. "That's enough," said he; "and
now let us go quietly home."

"It is not enough," said a voice at the door; "let none depart without
my permission, I command you;" and the words were no sooner uttered than
the venerable Father Roche entered the house.

"Wretched and misguided men," said he, to what a scene of blood and
crime have I just now been an ear witness? Are you men who live under
my ministry?--who have so often heard and attended to my sincere and
earnest admonitions? I cannot think ye are, and yet, I see no face here
that is unknown to me. Oh, think for a moment, reflect, if you can, upon
what you have been doing!--planning the brutal, ungodly murder of two
of your fellow creatures! And What makes the crime still more revolting,
these two fellow creatures father and son. What constituted you judges
over them? If they have oppressed you, and driven many of you to ruin
and distress, and even to madness, yet, do you not know that there is
a just God above to whom they must be accountable for the deeds done in
the flesh? Are you to put yourselves in the place of the Almighty?--to
snatch the sceptre of justice and judgment out of his hands, and take
that awful office into your own, which belongs only to him? Are ye
indeed mad, my friends? Do you not know that out of the multitude
assembled here this moment there is not one of you whose life would not
be justly forfeited to the law? not one. I paused at the half closed
door before I enter