SHIANA
119
He was a poor simple, sinless old man. He asked that a priest might be brought to him, and he was brought. When he had made his confession, and they were taking him up to the gallows, his legs were bending under him with terror. He could neither stand nor walk. Then the priest spoke to him and said, "You need not be so much afraid. No sooner will your soul have parted from your body on the gallows than you will be enjoying the bliss of heaven at once." "Do you tell me so?" said the poor old man. "I do, certainly," said the priest." Jesus Christ and Mary, His Mother, are up there waiting for you." Strength and courage came to him immediately. "Keep away from me!" said he to them. He went up the ladder without help, and they hanged him. He was eighty years old.
Kate.—It was a nice thing to do! If I got a chance at them I would hang them as I would hang mad dogs. The hateful cowards! The poor old man. And they must have known that he was not, and could not be, guilty. Oughtn't they to have been ashamed?
Abbie.—Ashamed! Why, what did those fellows know about shame? They used to be shooting and hanging the people everywhere at that time. Isn't there that man down in Macroom, who came along up by Gortnalicka one Sunday morning on horseback, with his gun in front of him, and when he saw a poor man on his knees beside a bush saying the Rosary, he put a bullet through him?
Kate.—Yes, indeed, Abbie, it is quite true. He did
