The first days of the assizes were now near, and among all those who awaited them, there was none whose fate excited so profound an interest as that of old Condy Dalton.  His family had now recovered from their terrible sufferings, and were able to visit him in his prison—­a privilege which was awarded to them as a mark of respect for their many virtues, and of sympathy for their extraordinary calamities and trials.  They found him resigned to his fate, but stunned with wonder at the testimony on which he was likely to be convicted.  The pedlar, who appeared to take so singular an interest in the fortunes of his family, sought and obtained a short interview with him, in which he requested him to state, as accurately as he could remember, the circumstances on which the prosecution was founded, precisely as they occurred.  This he did, closing his account by the usual burthen of all his conversation ever since he went to gaol: 

“I know I must suffer; but I think nothing of myself, only for the shame it will bring upon my family.”

Sarah’s unexpected illness disconcerted at least one of the projects of Donnel Dhu.  There were now only two days until the assizes, and she was as yet incapable of leaving her bed, although in a state of convalescence.  This mortified the Prophet very much, but his subtlety and invention never abandoned him.  It struck him that the most effectual plan now would be—­as Sarah’s part in aiding to take away Mave was out of the question—­to merge the violence to which he felt they must resort, into that of the famine riots; and under the character of one of these tumults, to succeed, if possible, in removing Mave from her father’s house, ere her family could understand the true cause of her removal.  Those who were to be engaged in this were, besides, principally strangers, to whom neither Mave nor her family were personally known; and as a female cousin of hers—­an orphan—­had come to reside with them until better times should arrive, it would be necessary to have some one among the party who knew Mave sufficiently to make no mistake as to her person.  For this purpose he judiciously fixed upon Thomas Dalton, as the most appropriate individual to execute this act of violence against the very family who were likely to be the means of bringing his father to a shameful death.  This young man had not yet recovered the use of his reason, so as to be considered sane.  He still roved about as before, sometimes joining the mobs, and leading them on to the outrage, and sometimes sauntering in a solitary mood, without seeming altogether conscious of what he did or said.  To secure his co-operation was a matter of little or difficulty, and the less so as he heard, with infinite satisfaction, that Dalton was perpetually threatening every description of vengeance against the Sullivans, about to be tried, and very likely to suffer for the murder.