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Saint Brigid was abandoned, and the church deserted by the friars. Early
one morning, either by accident or treachery, two of the friars, who had
come there to pray, were seized by the soldiery. One of them, Bernard
O'Ferrall, attempted to escape, and was struck down with four-and-twenty
mortal wounds, in the doorway of the church, at the threshold of which
he was left for dead. He survived to be carried to a place of safety,
where he received the last Sacrament from one of the brotherhood who was
hiding in the neighbourhood. Laurence O'Ferrall, the other, was seized
within the church, and hurried before their officer by the exulting
soldiery, who anticipated a day's savage sport in roasting or hanging
the Popish priest, not an unusual amusement with them. He was recognized
by the officer as an adherent of the Catholic army during the late
troubles, and was ordered out for execution next day. A respite of three
days was granted at the intercession of some persons, whose advocacy the
martyr complained of, as unprofitable and unwelcome, and during the
three days' interval he ceased not to pray, with abundant tears, that
God would not suffer the palm of martyrdom to be snatched from him. On
the third morning, when led out for execution, he addressed the
assembled people from the scaffold in eloquent, fervent language, and
denounced the bloody persecutions and violence of the fanatics with such
force, that the officer in charge--stung to rage--ordered him to be
silenced with the rope, and flung off without further parley. He then
bade farewell to the people, and having placed his rosary around his
neck, and taken the crucifix in his right hand, he calmly arranged both
hands under the scapular of his habit, and submitted himself to the
executioner. After he had been cast off, and when he was hanging at the
end of the fatal rope, and life extinct, both hands were drawn from
under the habit, and uniting raised the crucifix over his head as the
symbol and pledge of his triumph. This most extraordinary sight made a
very great impression on the beholders, and the officer himself was so
much struck and terrified that he ordered the body to be at once cut
down respectfully, and gave it over to the people to be buried without
molestation. We find that a safe-conduct was even given to some of the
priests hiding in the neighbourhood to attend his obsequies, at which
the people too attended in an immense concourse. The story of Bernard