judge.

Macdermot kept up his heart wonderfully through the whole week. He
never repined, nor once even alluded to Keegan. Father John spent the
whole of Sunday with him. It was to be his last in this world; the
last time he was to watch the light growing out of the darkness--and
the darkness following the light. As the minutes flew by, his face
became gradually paler, and his hand occasionally trembled. The brave
soldier goes to meet Death, and meets him without a shudder when he
comes. The suffering woman patiently awaits him on her bed of
sickness, and conscious of her malady dies slowly without a struggle.
A not uncommon fortitude enables men and women to leave their mortal
coil, and take the dread leap in the dark with apparent readiness and
ease. But to wait in full health and strength for the arrival of the
fixed hour of certain death--to feel the moments sink from under you
which are fast bringing you to the executioner's hand;--to know that
in twelve--ten--eight--six hours by the clock, which hurries through
the rapid minutes, you are to become--not by God's accomplished
visitation--not in any gallant struggle of your own--but through the
stern will of certain powerful men--a hideous, foul, and dislocated
corse;--to know that at one certain ordained moment you are to be
made extinct--to be violently put an end to;--to be fully aware that
this is your fixed fate, and that though strong as a lion, you must
at that moment die like a dog;--to await the doom without
fear--without feeling the blood grow cold round the heart,--without a
quickened pulse and shaking muscles, exceeds the bounds of mortal
courage, and requires either the ignorant unimaginative indifference
of a brute, or the superhuman endurance of an enthusiastic martyr.

Thady was neither the one nor the other; and the blood did grow cold
round his heart--his pulse quickened, and his nerves shook within
him; but these were involuntary signs of his human nature. He spent
the day in the performance of his religious duties, and made
continual efforts to fix his mind on those subjects to which it was
directed by the priest; and at last he received from him final
absolution for his sins, with a full assurance in its efficacy. And
if true and deep repentance can make absolution available, the
priest's assurance was not ill grounded.

Father Cullen, at Drumsna, and different priests in the neighbouring
parishes again desired their congregations to absent th