"Oh, yeah, yeah, Felix, are you dead? brother, agra, can't you speak to
me?"

With rapid steps they rushed to the spot; but, ah! what a scene was
there to blast their sight and sear the brain of his sister, and indeed
of all who could look upon it. The young bridegroom smote down when
his foot was on the very threshold of happiness, and by the hand of a
brother?

Hugh, in the mean time, had turned up Felix from the prone posture in
which he lay, with a hope--a frenzied, a desperate hope of ascertaining
whether or not life was extinct. In this position the stricken boy was
lying, his brother, like a maniac, standing over him, when Maura and
the servants arrived. One glance, a shudder, then a long ghastly gaze at
Hugh, and she sank down beside the insensible victim of his fury.

"What," said Hugh, wildly clenching his hands, "Mother of glory, have
I killed both? Oh, Felix, Felix! you are happy, you are happy, agra,
brother; but for me, oh, for me, my hour of mercy is past an' gone. I
can never look to heaven more! How can I live," he muttered furiously
to himself, "how can I live? and I daren't die. O God! O God! my brain's
turnin'. I needn't pray to God to curse the hand that struck you dead,
Felix dear, for I feel this minute that His curse is on me."

Felix was borne in, but no arm would Hugh suffer to encircle him but
his own. Poor Maura recovered and although in a state of absolute
distraction, yet she had presence of mind to remember that they ought
to use every means in their power to restore the boy to life if it were
possible. Water was got, with which his face was sprinkled; in a little