led him]

His friends had now all abandoned him; decent people avoided him--he
had fallen long ago below pity, and was now an object of contempt.
His family at home were destitute; every day brought hunger--positive,
absolute want of food wherewith to support nature. His clothes were
reduced to tatters; so were those of his wife and children. His frame,
once so strong and athletic, was now wasted away to half its wonted
size; his hands were thin, tremulous, and flesh-less; his face pale and
emaciated; and his eye dead and stupid. He was now nearly alone in the
world. Low and profligate as were his drunken companions, yet even they
shunned him; and so contemptuously did they treat him, now that he was
no longer able to pay his way, or enable the scoundrels to swill at his
expense, that whenever he happened to enter Barney Scaddhan's tap, while
they were in it, they immediately expelled him without ceremony, or
Barney did it for them. He now hated home; there was nothing there for
him, but cold, naked, shivering destitution. The furniture had gone by
degrees for liquor; tables, chairs, kitchen utensils, bed and bedding,
with the exception of a miserable blanket for Margaret and the child,
had all been disposed of for about one-tenth part of their value.
Alas, what a change is this from comfort, industry, independence, and
respectability, to famine, wretchedness, and the utmost degradation!
Even Margaret, whose noble heart beat so often in sympathy with the
distresses of the poor, has scarcely any one now who will feel sympathy
with her own. Not that she was utterly abandoned by all. Many a time
have the neighbors, in a stealthy way, brought a little relief in the
shape of food, to her and her children. Sorry are we to say, however,
that there were in the town of Ballykeerin, persons whom she had herself
formerly relieved, and with whom the world went well since, who now
shut their eyes against her misery, and refused to assist her. Her lot,
indeed, was now a bitter one, and required all her patience, all her
fortitude to enable her to bear up under it. Her husband was sunk
down to a pitiable pitch, his mind consisting, as it were, only of two
elements, stupidity and ill-temper. Up until the disposal of all the
furniture, he had never raised his hand to her, or gone beyond verbal
abuse; now, however, his temper became violent and brutal. All sense
of shame--every pretext for decency--all notions of self-respect, were
gon