a, as the men said, you must go to a lawyer and see what can
be done to defind him."

The old man rose up and proceeded to his son's bedroom.

"Honor," said he, "come here;" and while uttering these words he gazed
upon her face with a look of unutterable and hopeless distress; "there's
his bed, Honor--his bed--he may never sleep on it more--he may be cut
down like a flower in his youth--an' then what will become of us?"

"Forever, from this day out," said the distracted mother, "no hands
will ever make it but my own; on no other will I sleep--we will
both sleep--where his head lay there will mine be too--avick
machree--machree! Och, Fardorougha, we can't stand this; let us not take
it to heart, as we do; let us trust in God, an' hope for the best."

Honor, in fact, found it necessary to assume the office of a comforter;
but it was clear that nothing urged or suggested by her could for a
moment win back the old man's heart from the contemplation of the loss
of his son. He moped about for a considerable time; but, ever and anon,
found himself in Connor's bedroom, looking upon his clothes and such
other memorials of him as it contained.

During the occurrence of these melancholy incidents at Fardorougha's,
others of a scarcely less distressing character were passing under the
roof of Bodagh Buie O'Brien.

Our readers need not be informed that the charge brought by Bartle
Flanagan against Connor, excited the utmost amazement in all who heard
it. So much at variance were his untarnished reputation and amiable
manners with a disposition so dark and malignant as that which must have
prompted the perpetration of such a crime, that it was treated at first
by the public as an idle rumor. The evidence, however, of Phil Curtis,
and his deposition to the conversation which occurred between him and
Connor, at the time and place already known to the reader, together with
the corroborating circumstances arising from the correspondence of
the footprints about the haggard with the shoes produced by the
constable--all, when combined together, left little doubt of his guilt.
No sooner had this impression become general, than the spirit of
the father was immediately imputed to the son, and many sagacious
observations made, all tending to show, that, as they expressed it, "the
bad drop of the old rogue would sooner or later come out in the young
one;" "he wouldn't be what he was, or the bitter heart of the miser
would appear;" with man