He then returned to his companion having carefully closed the door after him so as to prevent, as much as possible the motions of M’Carthy from being seen or heard.  On rejoining them he observed “well, if ever a poor boy was fairly broken down, and he is—­throth he was no sooner, on the bed than he was off; an’ among ourselves, the sleep must be heavy on him when he could close his eyes an’ a dead man in the bed wid him.”

CHAPTER XIII.—­Strange Faces—­Dare-Devil O’Driscol Aroused

We have already stated that the proctors daughters had relieved their mother from the duty which, that kind-hearted woman had been in the habit of imposing on herself we mean that of attending and relieving the sick and indigent in her immediate neighborhood.  On the morning in question Juli Purcel, who, together with her sister, for some time past been attending the bed of an interesting young female, to one of her father’s workmen, had got up at an early hour to visit her—­scarcely with a hope, it is true, that she would find the poor invalid alive.  Much to her satisfaction, however, she found her better, and with some dawning prospects of ultimate recovery.  She left with her mother the means of procuring such comforts as she considered might be suitable to her in the alternative of her convalescence, and had got more than home when she felt startled for a by the appearance of a person who seemed to have been engaged in some of these nightly outrages that were then so numerous in the country.  The person in question had just leaped from an open breach in the hedge which bounded the right-hand side of the road exactly opposite where she was passing.  The stranger’s appearance was certainly calculated to excite terror, especially in a female; for although he did not wear the shirt over his clothes, his face was so deeply blackened that a single shade of his complexion could not be recognized.  We need not again assure our readers that Julia Purcel possessed the characteristic firmness and courage of her family, but notwithstanding this she felt somewhat alarmed at the appearance of a lawless Whiteboy, who was at that moment most probably on his return from the perpetration of some midnight atrocity.  This alarm was increased on seeing that the person in question approached her, as if with some deliberate intent.

[Illustration:  PAGE 445—­ Alarmed at the appearance of a lawless Whiteboy]

“Stand back, sir,” she exclaimed.  “What can you mean by approaching me?  Keep your distance.”

“Why, good God! my dear Julia, what means this?  Do you not know me?”

“Know you!  No, sir,” she replied, “how could I know such a person?”

She had unconsciously paused a moment when the Whiteboy, as she believed him to be, first made his appearance, but now she pursued her way home, the latter, however, accompanying her.

“Why, my dear Julia, I am thunderstruck!  What can I have done thus to incur your displeasure?”