Part 15 (1/2)

”For Heaven's sake,” said Father Mulcahy, ”what do you mean?--are you mad?”

”Oh! uncle dear! don't you hear?--don't you hear?--listen an' sure you will--all hope's gone now--gone--gone! The dead rattle!--listen!--the dead rattle's in her throat!”--

The priest bent his ear a moment, and distinctly heard the gurgling noise produced by the phlegm, which is termed with wild poetical accuracy, by the peasantry--the ”dead rattle,” or ”death rattle,”

because it is the immediate and certain forerunner of death.

”True,” said the priest--”too true; the last shadow of hope is gone. We must now make as much of the time as possible. Leave the room for a few minutes till I anoint her, I will then call you in.”

They accordingly withdrew, but in about fifteen or twenty minutes he once more summoned them to the bed of the dying woman.

”Come in,” said he, ”I have anointed her--come in, and kneel down till we offer up a Rosary to the Blessed Virgin, under the hope that she may intercede with G.o.d for her, and cause her to pa.s.s out of life happily.

She was calling for you, Peter, in your absence; you had better stay with her.”

”I will,” said Peter, in a broken voice; ”I'll stay nowhere else.”

”An'I'll kneel at the bed-side,” said the daughter. ”She was the kind mother to me, and to us all; but to me in particular. 'Twas with me she took her choice to live, when they war all striving for her. Oh,” said she, taking her mother's hand between hers, and kneeling-down to kiss it, ”a Vahr dheelis.h.!.+ (* sweet mother) did we ever think to see you departing from us this way! snapped away without a minute's warning! If it was a long-sickness, that you'd be calm and sinsible in, but to be hurried away into eternity, and your mind dark! Oh, Vhar dheelish, my heart is broke to see you this way!”

”Be calm,” said the priest; ”be quiet till I open the Rosary.”

He then offered up the usual prayers which precede its repet.i.tion, and after having concluded them, commenced what is properly called the Rosary itself, which consists of fifteen Decades, each Decade containing the Hail Mary repeated ten times, and the Lord's Prayer once. In this manner the Decade goes round from one to another, until, as we have said above, it is repeated fifteen times; or, in all, the Ave Maria's one hundred and sixty-five times, without variation. From the indistinct utterance, elevated voice, and rapid manner in which it is p.r.o.nounced, it certainly has a wild effect, and is more strongly impressed with the character of a mystic rite, or incantation, than with any other religious ceremony with which we could compare it.

”When the priest had repeated the first part, he paused for the response: neither the husband nor daughter, however, could find utterance.

”Denis,” said he, to his nephew, ”do you take up the next.”

His nephew complied; and with much difficulty Peter and his daughter were able to join in it, repeating here and there a word or two, as well as their grief and sobbings would permit them.

The heart must indeed have been an unfeeling one, to which a scene like this would not have been deeply touching and impressive. The poor dying woman reclined with her head upon her husband's bosom; the daughter knelt at the bed-side, with her mother's hand pressed against her lips, she herself convulsed with sorrow--the priest was in the att.i.tude of earnest supplication, having the stole about his neck, his face and arms raised towards heaven--the son-in-law was bent over a chair, with his face buried in his hands. Nothing could exceed the deep, the powerful expression of entreaty, which marked every tone and motion of the parties, especially those of the husband and daughter. They poured an energy into the few words which they found voice to utter, and displayed such a concentration of the faculties of the soul in their wild unregulated att.i.tudes, and streaming, upturned eyes, as would seem to imply that their own salvation depended upon that of the beloved object before them. Their words, too, were accompanied by such expressive tokens of their attachment to her, that the character of prayer was heightened by the force of the affection which they bore her. When Peter, for instance, could command himself to utter a word, he pressed his dying wife to his bosom, and raised his eyes to heaven in a manner that would have melted any human heart; and the daughter, on joining occasionally in the response, pressed her mother's hand to her heart, and kissed it with her lips, conscious that the awful state of her parent had rendered more necessary the performance of the two tenderest duties connected with a child's obedience--prayer and affection.

When the son-in-law had finished his Decade, a pause followed, for there was none now to proceed but her husband, or her daughter.

”Mary, dear,” said the priest, ”be a woman; don't let your love for your mother prevent you from performing a higher duty. Go on with the prayer--you see she is pa.s.sing fast.”

”I'll try, uncle,” she replied--”I'll try; but--but--it's hard, hard, upon me.”

She commenced, and by an uncommon effort so far subdued her grief, as to render her words intelligible. Her eyes, streaming with tears, were fixed with a mixture of wildness, sorrow, and devotedness, upon the countenance of her mother, until she had completed her Decade.

Another pause ensued. It was now necessary, according to the order and form of the Prayer, that Peter should commence and offer up his supplications for the happy pa.s.sage from life to eternity of her who had been his inward idol during a long period. Peter knew nothing about sentiment, or the philosophy of sorrow; but he loved his wife with the undivided power of a heart in which nature had implanted her strongest affections. He knew, too, that his wife had loved him with a strength of heart equal to his own. He loved her, and she deserved his love.

The pause, when the prayer had gone round to him, was long; those who were present at length turned their eyes towards him, and the priest, now deeply affected, cleared his voice, and simply said, ”Peter,” to remind him that it was his duty to proceed with the Rosary.

Peter, however, instead of uttering the prayer, burst out into a tide of irrepressible sorrow.--”Oh!” said he, enfolding her in his arms, and pressing his lips to hers: ”Ellish, ahagur machree! sure when I think of all the goodness, an' kindness, an' tendherness that you showed me--whin I think of your smiles upon me, whin you wanted me to do the right, an'

the innocent plans you made out, to benefit me an' mine!--Oh! where was your harsh word, avillish?--where was your could brow, or your bad tongue? Nothin' but goodness--nothin' but kindness, an' love, an'

wisdom, ever flowed from these lips! An' now, darlin', pulse o' my broken heart! these same lips can't spake to me--these eyes don't know me--these hands don't feel me--nor your ears doesn't hear me!”

”Is--is--it you?” replied his wife feebly--”is it--you?--come--come near me--my heart--my heart says it misses you--come near me!”

Peter again pressed her in an embrace, and, in doing so, unconsciously received the parting breath of a wife whose prudence and affection had saved him from poverty, and, probably, from folly or crime.

The priest, on turning round to rebuke Peter for not proceeding with the prayer, was the first who discovered that she had died; for the grief of her husband was too violent to permit him to notice anything with much accuracy.