“He went wid us to the mountains, I know,” said the former speaker; “an’ I think it likely he’ll be found wid Owen, wherever he is.  Come, boys, step out:  it’s a dismal night, any way, the Lord knows.

“Och, och!” And with sorrowful but vigorous steps they went in quest of the missing brother.

Nothing but the preternatural character of the words which Were so mysteriously pronounced immediately before Owen’s pursuit of M’Kenna, could have prevented that circumstance, together with the flight of the latter, from exciting greater attention among the crowd.  His absence, however, now that they had time to reflect on it, produced unusual alarm, not only on account of M’Kenna’s bad character, but from the apprehension of Owen being lost in the mountains.

The inextinguishable determination of revenge with which an Irishman pursues any person who, either directly or indirectly, takes the life of a near relation, or invades the peace of his domestic affections, was strongly illustrated by the nature of Owen’s pursuit after M’Kenna, considering the appalling circumstances under which he undertook it.  It is certainly more than probable that M’Kenna, instead of flying would have defended himself with the loaded gun, had not his superstitious fears been excited by the words which so mysteriously charged him with the murder.  The direction he accidentally took led both himself and his pursuer into the wildest recesses of the mountains.  The chase was close and desperate, and certainly might have been fatal to Reillaghan, had M’Kenna thought of using the gun.  His terror, however, exhausted him, and overcame his presence of mind to such a degree, that so far from using the weapon in his defence, he threw it aside, in order to gain ground upon his pursuer.  This he did but slowly, and the pursuit was as yet uncertain.  At length Owen found the distance between himself and his brother’s murderer increasing; the night was dark, and he himself feeble and breathless:  he therefore gave over all hope of securing him, and returned to follow those who had accompanied him to the spot where his brother’s body lay.  It was when retracing his path that the nature of his situation occurred to him:  the snow had not began to fall, but the appearance of the sky was strongly calculated to depress him.

Every person knows with what remarkable suddenness snow storms descend.  He had scarcely advanced homewards more than twenty minutes, when the gray tempest spread its dusky wings over the heavens, and a darker shade rapidly settled upon the white hills—­now becoming indistinct in the gloom of the air, which was all in commotion, and groaned aloud with the noise of the advancing storm.  When he saw the deep gloom, and felt the chilling coldness pierce his flesh so bitterly, he turned himself in the direction which led by the shortest possible line towards his father’s house.  He was at this time nearly three miles from any human habitation; and as he looked into the darkness, his heart began to palpitate with an alarm almost bordering on hopelessness.  His dog, which had, up till this boding’ change, gone on before him, now partook in his master’s apprehensions, and trotted anxiously at his feet.