Page:Irish assassin, or, The misfortunes of the family of O'Donnel (1).pdf/3

 3 and then directing his impious eyes towards Heaven, re- turned thanks for the opportunity given to him of perpe- trating the horrid deed. The sound of voices within the house now filled his guilty bosom with alarm, and with the swiftness of lightning he flew towards the country. Towards the latter end of the Summer of 1793, our hero arrived at his eighteenth year, a season when the heart of youth is most susceptable of the softer impres- sions. As he was riding one evening at this period, through the lands in the vicinity of his father's estate; oppressed by the heat, he entered under the refreshing shade of a neighbouring wood, which cloathed the sides of a steep mountain that reared its head before him. The appearance of the spot was bewitchingly picturesque the verdure of the meadows, the grouping of the cattle, with here and there a cottage embosomed in the foilage of the wood, and the varying shrubs which climbed along the occasional rugged projections of the craig, all tend- ed to heighten the beauty of the scene. The sombre shares of night were fast approaching, the setting Sun smiled with a farewell lustre on the smmits of the hilts, and the water of a neighbouring stream, which flowed slowly o'er its sandy bed, received a deeper gloom from the lengthening shadows of the mountains. The night closed in ere he could tear himself from the enchanting region, which he promised to visit once more on the en- suing morning. The succeeding day was excessively hot, but as even- ing approached nature again assumed her mellow colour- ing, and again did Arthur dwell with rapture on the sceites he had viewed with so much pleasure the night before. He entered the wood and pursued a path that ran in an oblique direction gently winding up the hill; lit was soft as moss. and of a vivid green, and through many little openings in the wood, the crags, the adjacent village, and the meandering stream were seen to great advantage. He had not proceeded far, before a 'neat while cottage, built on a little level, on the side of a hill,