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.

“Peter,” said he, “I beg your pardon; let me take the trouble of supporting her for a few minutes, after which I must talk to you seriously—­very seriously.”

The firm, authoritative tone in which the priest spoke, together with Peter’s consciousness that he had acted wrongly by neglecting to join in the Rosary, induced him to retire from the bed with a rebuked air.  The priest immediately laid back the head’ of Mrs. Connell on the pillow, and composed the features of her lifeless face with his own hands.  Until this moment none of them, except himself, knew that she was dead.

“Now,” continued he, “all her cares, and hopes, and speculations, touching this world, are over—­so is her pain; her blood will soon be cold enough, and her head will ache no more.  She is dead.  Grief is therefore natural; but let it be the grief of a man, Peter.  Indeed, it is less painful to look upon her now, than when she suffered such excessive agony.  Mrs. Mulcahy, hear me!  Oh, it’s in vain!  Well, well, it is but natural; for it was an unexpected and a painful death!”

The cries of her husband and daughter soon gave intimation to her servants that her pangs were over.  From the servants it immediately went to the neighbors, and thus did the circle widen until it reached the furthest ends of the parish.  In a short time, also, the mournful sounds of the church-bell, in slow and measured strokes, gave additional notice that a Christian soul had passed into eternity.

It is in such scenes as these that the Roman Catholic clergy knit themselves so strongly into the affections of the people.  All men are naturally disposed to feel the offices of kindness and friendship more deeply, when tendered at the bed of death or of sickness, than under any other circumstances.  Both the sick-bed and the house of death are necessarily the sphere of a priest’s duty, and to render them that justice which we will ever render, when and wheresoever it may be due, we freely grant that many shining, nay, noble instances of Christian virtue are displayed by them on such occasions.

When the violence of grief produced by Ellish’s death had subsided, the priest, after giving them suitable exhortations to bear the affliction which had just befallen them with patience, told Peter, that as God, through the great industry and persevering exertions of her who had then departed to another world, had blessed him abundantly with wealth and substance, it was, considering the little time which had been allowed her to repent in a satisfactory manner for her transgressions, his bounden and solemn duty to set aside a suitable portion of that wealth for the delivery of her soul from purgatory, where, he trusted, in the mercy of God, it was permitted to remain.