But I made my peace, with little effort too; and then, for the first time, saw a dead body lying on the bed from whence the man had come, "waking," in the Irish fashion of the lower orders. It was a child of about seven years old. Its last resting place on earth was dressed with flowers, and the mother's hand had evidently done the most within its feeble power to give honour to the dead. Rising, she with her apron rubbed the chair she had been sitting on, and placed it for me; thus offering, in her simple way, the double respect of tendering _her own_ seat, and seeking to make it more fit for my reception by dusting it. I need not repeat all the tale of misery, the cause of their suffering then, was apparent. "She was their last Colleen--th' uther craturs wur at home with the Granny," and "_he_ had cum to thry his forthin in Inglind; _an' bad forthin it was_. But the Lord's will be done, fur the little darlint was happy, any how--an' sure they had more av thim at home--an' why should she be mopin' an' cryin' her eyes out for her Colleen, that was gone to God!" Thus the poor creature reasoned as she cried and blamed herself for crying; for miserable as she was, she evidently felt that she should be thankful for the other blessings that were left her. Do we all feel thus? Yet, at the moment that she did so, I believe there was not a morsel of food within reach of her means, and that her last penny had been spent to deck with flowers the death-bed of her child. It is needless for me to describe the general miseries of "St. Giles,"--now no more. Its wretched habitations have yielded their place to palaces; its dreaded locality lives but in recollection; and its inhabitants have gone forth--Whither? _Perhaps to greater wretchedness._ Aye, almost surely! The misery of St. Giles's has ceased, mayhap to make misery double elsewhere; but, thank God! there no longer exists in London a special spot upon which the ban is placed of _Irish residence being tantamount to crime_. * * * * * Years and years have since gone by, and many a time the story of "the _two_ dreadful Irishmen" has risen to my mind, as I have read paragraph after paragraph in the English papers, telling of some direful thing which had occurred and was wrapped in mystery, but concluding after the following fashion:-- "HIGHWAY ROBBERY--(_Particulars_). There is no clue whatever to discover the parties who committed this atrocious act--but _two Irish labourers who live in the neighbourhood are, it is supposed, the delinquents_!" "BURGLARY AT ---- (_Particulars_). The parties who committed this robbery acted in the most daring manner. _The country is now filled with Irish harvest labourers!_" "FOOTPAD.--A daring attempt was made by a most desperate-looking man to rob a farmer some days since--(_further particulars_) after a great struggle he got off. _He is supposed to be an Irishman!_"