The priest bent his ear a moment, and distinctly heard the gurgling noise produced by the phlegm, which is termed with wild poetical accuracy, by the peasantry—the “dead rattle,” or “death rattle,” because it is the immediate and certain forerunner of death.
“True,” said the priest—“too true; the last shadow of hope is gone. We must now make as much of the time as possible. Leave the room for a few minutes till I anoint her, I will then call you in.”
They accordingly withdrew, but in about fifteen or twenty minutes he once more summoned them to the bed of the dying woman.
“Come in,” said he, “I have anointed her—come in, and kneel down till we offer up a Rosary to the Blessed Virgin, under the hope that she may intercede with God for her, and cause her to pass out of life happily. She was calling for you, Peter, in your absence; you had better stay with her.”
“I will,” said Peter, in a broken voice; “I'll stay nowhere else.”
“An'I'll kneel at the bed-side,” said the daughter. “She was the kind mother to me, and to us all; but to me in particular. 'Twas with me she took her choice to live, when they war all striving for her. Oh,” said she, taking her mother's hand between hers, and kneeling-down to kiss it, “a Vahr dheelish! (* sweet mother) did we ever think to see you departing from us this way! snapped away without a minute's warning! If it was a long-sickness, that you'd be calm and sinsible in, but to be hurried away into eternity, and your mind dark! Oh, Vhar dheelish, my heart is broke to see you this way!”
“Be calm,” said the priest; “be quiet till I open the Rosary.”
He then offered up the usual prayers which precede its repetition, and after having concluded them, commenced what is properly called the Rosary itself, which consists of fifteen Decades, each Decade containing the Hail Mary repeated ten times, and the Lord's Prayer once. In this manner the Decade goes round from one to another, until, as we have said above, it is repeated fifteen times; or, in all, the Ave Maria's one hundred and sixty-five times, without variation. From the indistinct utterance, elevated voice, and rapid manner in which it is pronounced, it certainly has a wild effect, and is more strongly impressed with the character of a mystic rite, or incantation, than with any other religious ceremony with which we could compare it.
“When the priest had repeated the first part, he paused for the response: neither the husband nor daughter, however, could find utterance.
“Denis,” said he, to his nephew, “do you take up the next.”