lors load a gun with anything in the heat of an action.'

'I'm not in a condition to talk of sea-fights, Mr. Kearney, though I'm
obliged to you all the same for trying to amuse me. You'll not think me
rude if I ask you to send Kate to me? And please to tell Father Luke that
I'll not see him this morning. My nerves have been sorely tried. One word
before you go, Mathew Kearney; and have compassion enough not to answer me.
You may be a just man and an honest man, you may be fair in your dealings,
and all that your tenants say of you may be lies and calumnies, but to
insult a poor old woman on her death-bed is cruel and unfeeling; and I'll
tell you more, Mathew, it's cowardly and it's--'

Kearney did not wait to hear what more it might be, for he was already at
the door, and rushed out as if he was escaping from a fire.

'I'm glad he's better than they made him out,' said Miss Betty to herself,
in a tone of calm soliloquy; 'and he'll not be worse for some of the
home truths I told him.' And with this she drew on her silk mittens, and
arranged her cap composedly, while she waited for Kate's arrival.

As for poor Kearney, other troubles were awaiting him in his study, where
he found his son and Mr. Holmes, the lawyer, sitting before a table covered
with papers. 'I have no head for business now,' cried Kearney. 'I don't
feel over well to-day, and if you want to talk to me, you'll have to put it
off till to-morrow.'

'Mr. Holmes must leave for town, my lord,' interposed Dick, in his most
insinuating tone, 'and he only wants a few minutes with you before he
goes.'

'And it's just what he won't get. I would not see the Lord-Lieutenant if he
was here now.'

'The trial is fixed for Tuesday the 19th, my lord,' cried Holmes,' and
the National press has taken it up in such a way that we have no chance
whatever. The verdict will be "Guilty," without leaving the box; and the
whole voice of public opinion will demand the very heaviest sentence the
law can pronounce.'

'Think of that poor fellow O'Shea, just rising from a sick-bed,' said Dick,
as his voice shook with agitation.

'They can't hang him.'

'No, for the scoundrel Gill is alive, and will be the chief witness on the
trial; but they may give him two years with prison labour, and if they do,
it will kill him.'

'I don't know that. I've seen more than one fellow come out fresh and
hearty after a spell. In fact, the plain diet, and the regular work, and
the steady habi