MEMOIR OF HENNESSEY. .299 



husband, far outstripped them : like a deer he hounded over 

 the beach that interposed between the cabin and the sands 

 he reached it a groan of exquisite agony was heard from 

 within next moment he was stooping over his exhausted wife 

 a dead infant was pressed wildly to her bosom : she turned a 

 dying look of love upon his face, and was a corpse within the 

 arms of the ill-starred homicide ! 



" When the tidings of the melancholy fate of poor Kath- 

 leein were carried to the Lodge, I got the hooker under weigh 

 and stood over to the island. My unhappy foster-brother 

 appeared paralysed with sorrow, and incapable of any exer- 

 tion. We brought him, with the bodies of the young mother 

 and the dead babe, to the house ; and the latter were in due 

 season interred with every mark of sympathy and respect. 



' c For a time I dreaded that the unfortunate homicide would 

 have sunk into hopeless idiocy ; but he suddenly appeared to 

 rouse his torpid faculties ; he became gloomy and morose 

 and, deaf to all my remonstrances, to the least of which for- 

 merly he would have paid the most marked regard, he wan- 

 dered over the country and seemed to court an arrest, or 

 rather an attempt at it ; for from his desperation, I am inclined 

 to think he would have done some new deed of blood had his 

 enemies ventured to assail him. All I could do to prevent 

 mischief I did. I had the bullets drawn from his fire-arms 

 when he slept ; I kept him under constant espionage, and 

 retained him as much about my person as I could possibly 

 contrive. Whether none would grapple with a desperate and 

 well-armed man, or that some feeling for his sufferings softened 

 the rancour of his enemies for a time, I know not, but he 

 passed unmolested through the country ; and the most daring 

 of the Sweenies and Malleys left the road when they acci- 

 dentally met my unhappy foster-brother. Time has gradually 

 softened his distress, and the asperity of his temper has sub- 

 sided ; he has lost the fierce and savage look that lately no 

 stranger could meet without being terror-stricken ; and I shall 

 endeavour to get the death of his miserable rival, which 

 decidedly was unpremeditated and accidental, accommodated. 

 Some intelligence has made it advisable for Hennessey to leave 

 the Lodge, although I hardly think any of his enemies would 

 dare to seek him here ; but still we cannot be too cautious, 

 and to be placed in the power of his former foeman at this 

 moment, would be to involve his life in imminent peril. 



