deavouring to extract a confession, which Kimlin appeared to make reluctantly, as his replies were given in hasty and querulous tones.

"Did I not tell ye I was there already?" was his answer to the priest's question.

Again the friar whispered-"No," returned the convict, "Connor, that was hung in Foxford, fired the shot that killed him."

"Who murdered Peter Donovan ?" said the confessor.

"How do I know? I was in Roscommon the night it happened."

"You fired at Mr. O'Roark," observed the priest.

'Well, if I did, I missed him—and more 's the pity."

"Were you not at Marley's robbery?” asked the friar.

"Arrah! ye bother one wid questionin-I was, and I'll tell ye no more!"

66

"Well, attend to me," replied the friar; are ye sorry for your crimes, and do ye heartily repent?"

"I'll tell ye what I repint most," said the villain with a ferocious oath; "and that is,

I

that I had'nt more cartridges, and, by would have shot as many of them blood-hounds," and he pointed to the yeomen, “as would have covered that table, and it's a long one-and, now will ye give me the rites ?"

"I'll give you the rope!" exclaimed the judge, who had overheard the sanguinary declaration-" Away with him at once; and before twelve strikes, let me see him strapped up!"

Immediately the captors seized the prisoner, and the black drummer resumed his coil, which he had deposited on the table.

"Massa Browne," said the sable artist, "mind, two poun' due now; me come back for money when the job done-me have child to cristin-him beauty-black as a crow-colour of him father-him beauty:" and Sambo showed his white tusks as he laughed heartily. At the door the convict paused, turned on the judge a look of undying hatred-" May my curse light upon you and yours, Denis Browne!" he ejaculated; then clinching his teeth together, without murmuring another word, he doggedly accompanied his escort.

The look and imprecation were not lost on the person to whom they were addressed. They produced no other effect, however, than eliciting a bitter and sarcastic smile; and in ten minutes, Denis Browne was calmly contemplating from his window the agonized struggles of the expiring robber.

It was determined that the body should be suspended for several days, as a wholesome example to the "mauvais sujets" of the neighbourhood; and, accordingly a manifesto to that effect was issued by the " Right Honourable." Aware that Kimlin's gang were in the vicinity of the town, and that they would naturally wish to remove their deceased leader, precautionary measures were adopted to protect the corpse against any attempt at abstraction. As the Mall was directly opposite the jail, of course the fatal tree was visible to the sentries round the prison. It was, therefore, intimated to the guard, that Mr. Kimlin was placed under their especial surveillance, and that to the living criminals beneath their charge, they had received the addition of a dead one.

Three days passed, and every thing went on

as usual. Sambo richer by two pound-notes and a suit of clothes. Kimlin ceased to be a lion-the maidservants were tired of admiring him-and there was not a nurse for miles around, who had not gratified her infant charge with an exhibition of the departed murderer. To Sambo alone the sight was still an interesting one, and this was from a pardonable vanity. Every evening, at tattoo, while exercising the large drum, as he passed underneath the tree that bore his handywork, he grinned as he looked up, and remarked to the mulatto who operated on the tambourine beside him, "Hegh, Bill, him robber well hung; dam good hemp too, or two strands would never hold so big a villain up" and his vigorous stick would descend with additional force upon the sheep-skin. Enough for example had now been done; and it was decided that, on the next day, Kimlin should be committed to his mother earth.

Mayo was minus a robber, and

We have already described the evening as stormy. At midnight the gale was awful, and the sentries, as they peered from their boxes, could occasionally observe through the gloom,

the body of the dead outlaw oscillating wildly back and forward in every blast of wind. Within the prison, the jail-guard were circled round a blazing turf fire; yet it was in truth a cold and dreary watch; and Sergeant O'Tool feeling an unusual chilliness of the stomach, despatched private Rafferty to procure some whiskey to correct the same, precisely at the moment when the accoucheur departed from his house, hurrying to the assistance of my mother.

Now, Doctor Donovan was well skilled in pharmacy and obstetrics—but, moreover, he was an adept in freemasonry, and a worthy professor of that ancient and honourable craft. That night he had presided over "the enlightened few," and whether obnubilated by the arcana of the mysterious science, confused by Mark Haggarty's alarm, or bothered by the storm, he could never himself discover; but certain it is, that totally oblivious of Mr. Kimlin being suspended in the Mall, he took the short cut, which he of the red-plush breeches had so judiciously avoided.

Before the doctor sallied forth, Biddy Boyle, to the best of her abilities, endeavoured to