land!” he said, with infinite pity in his tone. “Poor little white lamb, in a land of ravening wolves! Christ pity and protect thee, and His Holy Mother shield thee.” Then he was silent, with closed eyes, the death weakness conquering for the moment the strong will.
Maidoch said, between her sobs, “Oh, if help would but come!” She glanced wildly around.
“I am past all human aid, my child, but I would crave to see Father Tuathal, that he may shrive me before I die. Yet stay,” he said, holding out his hand to detain her. “Before thou goest I must bind thy soul with a vow to my dying breath. Yon wretched man hath a soul too, and I would bring his soul to the Christ, even as the thief upon the Cross was brought. If he be punished now for his crime, he will be taken off in all his sins. So kneel thou down beside me, while life lasts, and remember this my dying prayer until the hour of thy own death.”
Father Meilge raised his palsied hand and made the sign of the cross upon both of Maidoch’s tearful eyes. “When thou art asked of the manner of my death, thou hast seen nothing, for I seal thy eyes with this sacred sign, and,” touching both her ears, “thou hast heard nothing, for I close thy ears with this sacred sign; and,” laying his trembling fingers upon her mouth, “with Christ’s holy sign I close thy lips forever as to the manner of my death.”
