Page:Irish assassin, or, The misfortunes of the family of O'Donnel (2).pdf/2

 THE

was the night, and bleak blow the wind, as t guilty O'Donnel, the mention of whose name instil dread wherever it was heard, paced to and fro with entious steps in the front of a splendid mansion, situated in Sackville street in the city of Dublin: a death-like silence prevailed, and nought but the shrill sighings the gale occured to interrupt the gloomy broodings of his anguished mind. "Approach! Approach!" he cried in a voice of smothered rage. "thou cursed villain, who blasted machinations have for ever destroyed the fa and the family of my forefathers and let the last existing branch of that once proud and distinguished clan fini the cataloguo of his crimes, of which thou hast been t primary cause, by sheathing his trusty weapon in t blackened heart, in which has been engendered all those hell-born schemes of mischief that have mado him the wreteh ho is!"

At that moment, a person whose ontward appearance bespoke him of the middling order of life, approached and ran quickly up the few stone steps that led to hall-door, before which O'Donnel had been anxiously watching. He had lifted his hand to tho knocker, and was about to give the accustomed rap, when ho was seized by tho sinewy arm of O'Donnel, who instantly plunged a poignard into his side, and exclaimed with savage oxultation: "That, to thy heart, thou fiend hell, and by this," repeating his thrusts, "bo the man of murdered innocence appeased!" A hollow groan w the only sound that escaped the stranger, who fell senseless against tho railings. O'Donnel contemplated dreadful work for a few moments with a steady gaze and then directing his impious eyes towards heaven,