MEMOIR OF HENNESSEY. 363 



for a raging sea was roaring round the island, and all 

 communication with the mainland was interrupted. 

 Whether fear precipitated the dreaded event I know not ; 

 but in the middle of the night, while the elemental war 

 was in its fury, symptoms of approaching travail were 

 perceived by poor Kathleein, and the unhappy girl 

 became more and more sensible of the terrible danger 

 that was coming on. What was to be done ? It 

 wanted some hours of morning, and even were it light, 

 until the tide fell, no mortal could cross that stormy 

 water. 



" Poor wretch ! with a withered heart, all that he 

 could do to cheer his sinking companion was done ; 

 but every hour she became worse, and every moment her 

 pain and danger were increasing. Driven to madness, 

 at the first dawn of morning he rushed madly to the 

 beach, and though the retiring tide rushed between the 

 island and the mainland with furious violence, he 

 plunged into the boiling eddies, and with great strength 

 and desperate courage made good his passage to the 

 opposite shore. 



" To obtain help was, of course, attended with delay ; 



at last, however, it was accomplished, and the tide fell 



sufficiently to permit some females to cross the farset* 



He, the unhappy husband, far outstripped them : like 



a deer he bounded 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 ! 



* The stand commuuicating at low water between an island and 

 the main. 



