ther and mother were never such as they practise and preach
among you. Why don't you lave them, I say?"

"Don't you know," replied Michael, "that that step would be my death
warrant? Once we join them we must remain with them, let what may
happen. No man laving them, unless he gets clear of the country
altogether, may expect more than a week's lease of life; in general not
so much. They look upon him as a man that has been a spy among them, and
who has left them to make his peace, and gain a fortune from government
for betraying them; and you know how often it has happened."

"It is too true, Michael," replied his brother, "for unfortunately it
so happens that, whether for good or evil, Irishmen can never be got to
stand by each other. Ay, it is true--too true. In the meantime call on
me to-morrow with liberty from Shawn to attend your meeting, and we will
both go there together."

"Very well," replied his brother, "I will do so."

The next night was one of tolerably clear moonlight; and about the
hour of twelve or one o'clock some twenty or twenty-five outlaws were
assembled immediately adjoining the spot where Charles Lindsay was
so severely and dangerously wounded. The appearance of those men was
singular and striking. Their garbs, we need scarcely inform our readers,
were different from those of the present day. Many--nay, most, if not
all of them, were bitter enemies to the law, which rendered it penal for
them to wear their glibs, and in consequence most of those present had
them in full perfection around their heads, over which was worn the
_barrad_ or Irish cap, which, however, was then beginning to fall into
desuetude. There was scarcely a man of them on whose countenance was not
stamped the expression of care, inward suffering, and, as it would seem,
the recollection of some grief or sorrow which had befallen themselves
or their families. There was something, consequently, determined and
utterly reckless in their faces, which denoted them to be men who had
set at defiance both the world and its laws. They all wore the _truis_,
the brogue, and beneath the cloaks which covered them were concealed the
celebrated Irish skean or mid-dogue, so that at the first glance they
presented the appearance of men who were in a peaceful garb and unarmed.
The persons of some of them were powerful and admirably symmetrical,
as could be guessed from their well-defined outlines. They arranged
themselves in a kind of circle aro