e sentence was
changed to banishment--and the very day appointed for Owen's death
was that of his wife's successful return. One week previous to the
embarkation of those sentenced to transportation, a man was to be
executed for sheep-stealing. On the drop he confessed his guilt, and
that he, and not Duncan, was the murderer of Daly. Owen was immediately
released, and a subscription raised for him, with which, as well as with
a weighty purse presented to Ellen by Lady ------, he took a comfortable
farm, and rebought "Black Bess."

THE PROCTORS DAUGHTER

"Huroo! at id agin. Success, Briney. Ha! take that, you ould dust.
Will you bewitch our cattle now, Nanny? Whoo--ha, ha, ha!--at id agin,
boys--that's your sort."

Such were a few of the explosives of mingled fun and devilment that
proceeded from a group of ragged urchins, who were busily employed in
pelting with hard mud, sods and other missiles, an old and decrepit
woman, whose gray hair and infirmities ought to have been her
protection, but whose reputation as an evil disposed witch proved quite
the contrary. Nanny, for such was her name, was leaning, or rather
sitting, against a bank at the road side, shaking occasionally her
crutch at her tormentors, and muttering a heavy curse as missile after
missile fell thickly around her. The shouts of laughter proceeding from
the annoying children, as she tried in vain to rise, and impotently
threatened, made her imprecations come doubly bitter; but her eye was
never wet, nor did she once even by a look appeal to their pity. Her
figure was bent with age, and her shaking hands brown and fleshless--her
hair was gray and wiry, and escaped from beneath her cap, in short,
thin, tangled masses--her eyes were dark and deep set, and her lips and
mouth had fallen in as her teeth had gradually decayed. She was clad
in a russet gown, much the worse for the wear, and a scarlet cloak, or
rather a cloak that had once been scarlet, but was now completely faded
from its original color. It had been broken here and there, but was
pieced with different colored cloths, so as to appear a motley and
strange garment; and her bony feet were bare and unprotected. Nanny,
from different circumstances, was unanimously elected the witch or
bugbear of the village; and though the brats were then so busy annoying
her, at night, or in a lonesome place, they would fly like lightning
even at her approach; and some of them actually trembled while sho