hope is gone. We
must now make as much of the time as possible. Leave the room for a few
minutes till I anoint her, I will then call you in."

They accordingly withdrew, but in about fifteen or twenty minutes he
once more summoned them to the bed of the dying woman.

"Come in," said he, "I have anointed her--come in, and kneel down till
we offer up a Rosary to the Blessed Virgin, under the hope that she may
intercede with God for her, and cause her to pass out of life happily.
She was calling for you, Peter, in your absence; you had better stay
with her."

"I will," said Peter, in a broken voice; "I'll stay nowhere else."

"An'I'll kneel at the bed-side," said the daughter. "She was the kind
mother to me, and to us all; but to me in particular. 'Twas with me she
took her choice to live, when they war all striving for her. Oh," said
she, taking her mother's hand between hers, and kneeling-down to kiss
it, "a Vahr dheelish! (* sweet mother) did we ever think to see you
departing from us this way! snapped away without a minute's warning! If
it was a long-sickness, that you'd be calm and sinsible in, but to be
hurried away into eternity, and your mind dark! Oh, Vhar dheelish, my
heart is broke to see you this way!"

"Be calm," said the priest; "be quiet till I open the Rosary."

He then offered up the usual prayers which precede its repetition,
and after having concluded them, commenced what is properly called the
Rosary itself, which consists of fifteen Decades, each Decade containing
the Hail Mary repeated ten times, and the Lord's Prayer once. In this
manner the Decade goes round from one to another, until, as we have said
above, it is repeated fifteen times; or, in all, the Ave Maria's one
hundred and sixty-five times, without variation. From the indistinct
utterance, elevated voice, and rapid manner in which it is pronounced,
it certainly has a wild effect, and is more strongly impressed with
the character of a mystic rite, or incantation, than with any other
religious ceremony with which we could compare it.

"When the priest had repeated the first part, he paused for the
response: neither the husband nor daughter, however, could find
utterance.

"Denis," said he, to his nephew, "do you take up the next."

His nephew complied; and with much difficulty Peter and his daughter
were able to join in it, repeating here and there a word or two, as well
as their grief and sobbings would permit them.

The heart mus