We feel utterly incapable of describing, during the progress of this
heavy night, the scorching and fiery anguish of his brother Hugh, or
the distracted and wailing sorrow of poor Maura. The unexpected and
delightful revulsion of feeling produced upon both, especially on the
former, by his temporary recovery, now utterly incapacitated them from
bearing his relapse with anything like fortitude. The frantic remorse of
the guilty man, and the stupid but pungent grief of his sister, appeared
but as the symptoms of weak minds and strong passions, when contrasted
with the deep but patient affliction of his innocent and uncomplaining
wife. She wasted no words in sorrow; for during this hopeless night,
self, happiness, affection, hope, were all forgotten in the absorbing
efforts at his recovery. Never, indeed, did the miseries and calamities
of life draw from the fruitful source of a wife's attached and faithful
heart, a nobler specimen of that pure and disinterested devotion which
characterizes woman, than was exhibited by the stricken-hearted Alley
Bawn.

There was something in this peculiar case, as, indeed there are in all
family occurrences of a similar nature, which induced them to try upon
the suffering boy the full extent of their humble skill, rather than
call in a strange physician to witness the disastrous, perhaps fatal,
effects of domestic violence. Had the cause of Felix's illness been
unknown to Hugh or Maura, they would have procured medical advice in the
early part of the night. Let us, however, not press too severely on the
repentant brother. Shame, and remorse, and penitence, ought to plead
strongly for "the hope deferred that made his heart sick." Hugh's
passions arose to violence, but not to murder, a distraction which both
law and morality too frequently forget to make.

When Hugh saw, however, that nothing except medical skill could save