d and the
low, hourly association with crime, and perhaps more than either,
despair of success, broke him down completely, and with the blind
fatuity of one predestined to evil, he became careless what happened to
him, and indifferent to whatever fate was before him.

Still, between him and his associates there lay a wide gulf. The tree,
withered and blighted as it was, still preserved some semblance of its
once beauty; and among that mass of bigotry and bloodshed, his nature
shone forth conspicuously as something of a different order of being. To
none was this superiority more insulting than to the parties themselves.
So long as the period of devising and planning the movement of an
insurrection lasts, the presence of a gentleman, or a man of birth
or rank, will be hailed with acclamation and delight. Let the hour of
acting arrive, however, and the scruples of an honorable mind, or the
repugnance of a high-spirited nature, will be treated as cowardice by
those who only recognized bravery in deeds of blood, and know no heroism
save when allied to cruelty.

Fortescue became suspected by his party. Hints were circulated, and
rumors reached him, that he was watched; that it was no time for hanging
back. He who sacrificed everything for the cause to be thus accused! He
consulted Mulcahy; and to his utter discomfiture discovered that
even his old ally and adviser was not devoid of doubt regarding him.
Something must be done, and that speedily,--he cared not what. Life had
long ceased to interest him either by hope or fear. The only tie that
bound him to existence was the strange desire to be respected by those
his heart sickened at the thought of.

An attack was at that time planned against the house and family of a
Wexford gentleman, whose determined opposition to the rebel movement had
excited all their hatred. Fortescue demanded to be the leader of that
expedition; and was immediately named to the post by those who were glad
to have the opportunity of testing his conduct by such an emergency.

The attack took place at night,--a scene of the most fearful and
appalling cruelty, such as the historian yet records among the most
dreadful of that dreadful period. The house was burned to the ground,
and its inmates butchered, regardless of age or sex. In the effort to
save a female from the flames, Fortescue was struck down by one of his
party; while another nearly cleft his chest across with a cut of a large
knife. He fell,