"Will you watch over your brothers, and sister Bridget, and go with them
to the priest, telling him not to forget that I gave ye all up to his
care, and the care of God and his blessed mother?"

"O, I will."

"Bridget, Patrick, and Eugene, will ye obey, and be said by Paul, who is
the oldest?"

"Yes, mother, please God," they answered, amidst sobbing and tears that
half choked them.

"God bless ye, and guard ye, and save ye from all dangers of soul and
body. I give ye up to God. I place ye under the holy care of the
blessed mother of God. I pray that ye may preserve pure the faith
of Saint Patrick. I bless ye. O, pray for me. Jesus, into thy
hands--Jesus--Mary--Jesus----." There was a sigh, and by a single effort
the soul extricated itself from its prison of clay to join the ranks of
its kindred spirits. The widow O'Clery is no more, and Paul and his
brethren are orphans indeed.

For a few minutes there was a deep silence in that chamber of death, and
Paul repeated the "De Profundis," in English, out of his Prayer Book;
but when the cold and ghastly form of death was perceived by this poor
company to be all that was left of their darling and affectionate
mother, loud and mournful were their lamentations. Then, and not till
then, did the forlorn state to which they were reduced reveal itself
even to their juvenile minds. There they were, helpless and destitute,
without father or mother, friend or relation; on every side strangers,