Aftermath

Now the blast was over - all was silent and sad. Our houseless tenants were sheltered under our roof; we sat down with Mary and Anne, - the closed windows concealing our dead friend from us. Mary, pale as death, shook the table on which she leaned with her excessive trembling; and when Anne saw the body carried along and thrown over the little wall at the corner where the elm-tree once stood, her cry of grief was heart-piercing; - while I sate like a stone. The report of the soldiers intending to return made his neighbours afraid to shelter in their houses those dear remains. Here there were carefully watched, for the swine snuffing blood, were waiting to make a horrid repast. For several months there was no sale for bacon cured in Ireland, from the well-founded dread of the hogs having fed upon the flesh of men.

The first use we made of our minds' returning strength was to visit Maria Johnson. She knew not that her husband was in the hands of his enemies, nor that they were his enemies, until one of the Tyrone militia came raging into the house, boasting that the doctor was shot, and calling for his wife that he might cut her head off. She sank down upon her knees in a state that baffles description; her sister was little better, and the lamentations of the children touched even the hearts of the soldiers-so that instead of doing farther injury they endeavoured to soothe their distress. I saw those mourners looking so sweet, so innocent, so sorrowful that I could not bear it, but hastened into the garden; thither their servant followed me to consult what should be done with her master's body. We concluded on having him buried in our graveyard without loss of time, in whatever clothes were left upon him, for alas! even his corpse was plundered. This needful conversation calmed my feelings, and I was able to return and sit with the widow.