Steele drew back his gun, and looked round on his companions to ascertain their feeling.
"Gentleman," said Father Roche, anxious to mollify them as much as he could--"gentleman, for the sake of that poor heart-broken widowed woman and her orphan son--for her and his sake, and if not for theirs then, for the sake of God himself, before whose awful judgment-seat we must all stand to render an account of our works, I entreat--I implore you to withdraw--do, gentlemen, and leave her and her children to their sorrows and their misery, for the world has little else for them." "I'm willing to go," said a fellow, ironically called Handsome Hacket, because he was blind of an eye and deeply pock-pitted--"there's no use in quarrellin' with a woman certainly--and I don't think there can be any doubt about the man's death; devil a bit." "Well said, Vainus," exclaimed Sharpe, "and it is not ten days since we were defrauded of Parra Rackan who escaped from us in Jemmy Reilly's coffin--when we thought to nab him in the wakehouse--and when we went away didn't they set him at large, and then go back to bury the man that was dead.

Now, how da you know, Vainus, my purty boy, that this fellow's not playin' us a trick o' the same color ?" "Come, come," said another of them who had not yet spoke, "it's aisy to know that.

Curse me, Steele, if you don't give him a tickle, I will--that's all--we're losin' the day and I want my breakfast Living or dead, and be hanged to him, I'm starved for want of something to eat--and to drink, too--so be quick I tell you." "Very well, my buck," said Steele--"that's your sort--here goes--" He once more advanced with a savage determination to effect his purpose--when the priest gently and in a mild spirit of remonstrance laid his hand upon his shoulder; but he had scarcely done so, when one of them seized him by the collar and flung, or rather attempted to fling, him back with great violence.
"Go on, Steele," shouted the last speaker, whose name was Harpur--"Go on--and be cursed, man, we will support you." The words, however, were scarcely out of his lips, when Raymond, his eye glaring like that of a tiger with the wildness of untamed resentment, sprang upon him with a bound, and in a moment they once more grappled together.

It was, however, only for a moment--for by the heavy blow he received from Raymond, the man staggered and fell, but ere he reached the ground, the gun, which had been ineffectually aimed at the poor fool, went off, and lodged its contents in the heart of the last speaker, who staggered, groaned, and fell lifeless where he stood.
For a minute or so, this fatal and unexpected catastrophe stunned them.
They looked upon each other amazed and apparently stupefied, "What," cried Sharpe, "is Harpur dead ?" Two of them then placed their arms against the wall in order to ascertain the exact nature of the injury inflicted.
At this moment, Sharpe, who saw at once the man was indeed lifeless, raised his gun about to take aim at Raymond, when a blow from Harman felled him to the earth.
"And here's for your kindness, Mister Harman," shouted Steele; but ere the words were uttered, O'Regan's wife threw herself upon him so effectually, that he felt it impossible to avail himself of his fire-arms.
"Fight now," she shouted in Irish, "it is for your lives--it is for the widow--for the orphan--for the bed of death--and the dead that's upon it--fight now--for God will be with us! May his strength and power be in your arms and your hearts, prays the woeful widow this day! Villain--villain," she shouted, "I have you powerless now--but it's the strength of God that is in me, and not my own!" The conflict that ensued now was bitter, savage, deadly.

The moment Sharpe was knocked down, Raymond flew to their firearms, handed one to Harman, and kept the other himself.