oom and sorrow. In this state they
sat, when the voice of grief was heard loud in the distance; the strong
cry of men, broken and abrupt, mingled with the shrieking wail of female
lamentation.

The M'Kennas started, and Frank's countenance assumed an expression
which it would be difficult to describe. There was, joined to his
extreme paleness, a restless, apprehensive, and determined look; each
trait apparently struggling for the ascendancy in his character, and
attempting' to stamp his countenance with its own expression.

"Do you hear that?" said his father. "Oh, musha, Father of heaven, look
down an' support that family this night! Frank if you take my advice,
you'll lave their sight; for surely if they brain you on the spot, who
could blame them?"

"Why ought I lave their sight?" replied Frank. "I tell you all that I had
no hand in his death. The gun went off by accident as he was crassin' a
wreath o' snow. I was afore him, and when I heard the report, an' turned
round, there he lay, shot an' bleedin'. I thought it mightn't signify,
but on lookin' at him closely, I found him quite dead. I then ran home,
never touchin' the gun at all, till his family and the neighbors 'ud see
him. Surely, it's no wondher I'd be distracted in my mind; but that's no
rason you should all open upon me as if I had murdhered the boy!"

"Well," said the father, "I'm glad to hear you say even that much. I
hope it maybe betther wid you than we all think; an' oh! grant it, sweet
mother o' Heaven, this day! Now carry yourself quietly afore the people.
If they abuse you, don't fly into a passion, but make allowance for
their grief and misery."

In the mean time, the tumult was deepening as it approached M'Kenna's
house. The report had almost instantly spread through in the village
which Reillaghan lived; and the loud cries of his father and brothers,
who, in the wildness of their despair, continually called upon his name,
had been heard at the houses which lay scattered over the neighborhood.
Their inmates, on listening to such unusual sounds, sought the direction
from which they proceeded, for it was quite evident that some terrible
calamity had befallen the Reillaghans, in consequence of the son's name
being borne on the blasts of night with such loud and overwhelming
tones of grief and anguish. The assembly, on reaching M'Kenna's, might,
therefore, be numbered at thirty, including the females of Reillaghan's
immediate family, who had bee