unate father, in
times of scarcity and famine, should sit in his miserable cabin, and see
about him six or seven of his family, some dying of fever, and others
dying from want of food; and suppose that he was driven to despair by
reflecting that unless he forced it from the rich who would not out of
their abundance prevent his children from starving, he can procure
them relief in no other way, and they must die in the agonies of hunger
before his face. Suppose this, and that some wealthy man, without
sympathy for his fellow-creatures, regardless of the cries of the
poor-heartless, ambitious, and oppressive; and suppose besides that it
was this very heartless and oppressive man of wealth who, by his pride
and tyranny, and unchristian vengeance, drove that poor man and his
wretched family to the state I have painted them for you, in that cold
and dreary hovel; suppose all this, I say, and that that wretched
poor man, his heart bursting, and his brain whirling, stimulated by
affection, goaded by hunger and indescribable misery; suppose, I say,
that in the madness of despair he sallies out, and happens to meet the
very individual who brought him and his to such a dreadful state--do you
think that he ought to let him pass--"

"I see," interrupted the officer, "without bleeding him; I knew you
would come to that--go along."

"That he ought to let that wealthy oppressor pass, and allow the wife
of his bosom and his gasping little ones to perish, whilst he knows
that taking that assistance from him by violence which he ought to give
freely would save them to society and him? Mark me, I'm not justifying
robbery. Every general rule has its exception; and I'm only supposing a
case where the act of robbery may be more entitled to compassion than to
punishment--but, as I said, I'm not defending it."

"Ain't you, faith?" replied the officer; "it looks devilish like it,
though. Don't you think so, ma'am?"

"I never listens to no nonsense like that ere," replied the lady. "All I
say is, that a gentleman as I've the honor of being acquainted with, 'as
been robbed the other night of a pocket-book stuffed with banknotes, and
a case of Hirish pistols that he kept to shoot robbers, and sich other
wulgar wretches as is to be found nowhere but in Hireland."

"Stuffed!" exclaimed the priest, disdainfully; "as much stuffed, ma'am,
as you are."

The officer's very veins tingled with delight on hearing the admission
which was involved in t