than one half his revenge. He was certainly far more
anxious to punish the father than the son, and were it not that he
saw no other mode of effecting his vengeance on Fardorougha, than by
destroying the only object on earth that he loved next to his wealth, he
would have never made the innocent pay the penalty of the guilty. As he
had gone so far, however, self-preservation now made him anxious that
Connor should die; as he knew his death would remove out of his way the
only person in existence absolutely acquainted with his villany. One
would think, indeed, that the sentence pronounced upon his victim ought
to have satisfied him on that head. This, however, it failed to do. That
sentence contained one clause, which utterly destroyed the completeness
of his design, and filled his soul with a secret apprehension either of
just retribution, or some future ill which he could not shake off,
and for which the reward received for Connor's apprehension was but
an ineffectual antidote. The clause alluded to in the judge's charge,
viz.--"the recommendation of the jury to the mercy of the Crown, in
consideration of your youth, and previous good conduct, shall not be
overlooked"--sounded in his ears like some mysterious sentence that
involved his own fate, and literally filled his heart with terror and
dismay. Independently of all this his villanous projects had involved
him in a systematic course of guilt, which was yet far from being
brought to a close. In fact, he now found by experience how difficult it
is to work out a bad action with success, and how the means, and plans,
and instruments necessary to it must multiply and become so deep and
complicated in guilt, that scarcely any single intellect, in the case
of a person who can be reached by the laws, is equal to the task of
executing a great crime against society, in a perfect manner. If this
were so, discovery would be impossible, and revenge certain.

With respect to Connor himself it is only necessary to say that a short
but well-spent life, and a heart naturally firm, deprived death of its
greatest terrors. Still he felt it, in some depressed moods, a terrible
thing indeed to reflect, that he, in the very fullness of strength and
youth, should be cut down from among his fellows--a victim without a
crime, and laid with shame in the grave of a felon. But he had witnessed
neither his mother's piety nor her example in vain, and it was in the
gloom of his dungeon that he fe