“Kick away, honey!” said the hag; “as strong men as yourself tried that a'ready; and—d'ye hear?—it's done now; it 's over!” These terrible words were in allusion to a low kind of sobbing sound, which grew fainter and fainter, and then ceased altogether.
“They 're taking the body away,” whispered she, after a pause of death-like stillness.
“Where to?” said I, half breathless with terror.
“To the river! the stream runs fast, and the corpse will be down below Goose Island,—ay, in the Gulf, 'fore morning!”
The two young girls, unable longer to control their feelings, here burst out a crying; and the old man, pulling out a rosary, turned to the wall and began his prayers.
“'Tis a bloody place; glory be to God!” said Joe, at last, with a sigh, and clasped his hands before him, like one unable to decide on what course to follow.
I saw, now, that all were so paralyzed by fear that it devolved upon me to act for the rest; so, summoning my best courage, I said, “Will you allow us to stay here for the night, since we are strangers, and do not know where to seek shelter?” She shook her head, not so much with the air of refusing my request as to convey that I had asked for something scarce worth the granting.
“We only want a shelter for the night—”
“And a bit to eat,” broke in the old man, turning round from his prayers. “Sanctificatur in sec'la,—if it was only a bit of belly bacon, and—Tower of Ivory, purtect us—with a pot of praties, and—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—”
“Is he a friar?” said the hag to me, eagerly; “does he belong to an 'ordher'?”