The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“'Let me alone, will yez,' said he--'let me alone! I'll either save my
child, Rose, or die along with her! How could I live after her? Merciful
God, any of them but her! Oh! Rose, darling,' he exclaimed, 'the
favorite of my heart--will no one save you?' All this passed in less
than a minute.
“'Just as these words were uttered, a plunge was heard a few yards below
the bridge, and a man appeared in the flood, making his way with rapid
strokes to the drowning girl. Another cry now arose from the spectators:
'It's John O'Callaghan,' they shouted--'it's John O'Callaghan, and
they'll both be lost.' 'No,' exclaimed others; 'if it's in the power of
man to save her, he will!' 'O, blessed father, she's lost!' now burst
from all present; for, after having struggled and been kept floating for
some time by her garments, she at length sunk, apparently exhausted and
senseless, and the thief of a flood flowed over her, as if she had not
been under it's surface.
“When O'Callaghan saw that she went down, he raised himself up in the
water, and cast his eye towards that part of the bank opposite which she
disappeared, evidently, as it proved, that he might have a mark to guide
him in fixing on the proper spot where to plunge after her. When he came
to the place, he raised himself again in the stream, and, calculating
that she must by this time have been borne some distance from the spot
where she sank, he gave a stroke or two down the river, and disappeared
after her. This was followed by another cry of horror and despair,
for somehow, the idea of desolation which marks, at all times, a deep,
over-swollen torrent, heightened by the bleak mountain scenery around
them, and the dark, angry voracity of the river where they had sunk,
might have impressed the spectators with utter hopelessness as to the
fate of those now engulfed in its vortex. This, however, I leave to
those who are deeper read in philosophy than I am.
“An awful silence succeeded the last shrill exclamation, broken only by
the hoarse rushing of the waters, whose wild, continuous roar, booming
hollowly and dismally in the ear, might be heard at a great distance
over all the country. But a new sensation soon invaded the multitude;
for after the lapse of about half a minute, John O'Callaghan emerged
from the flood, bearing in his sinister hand the body of his own Rose
Galh--for it's he that loved her tenderly. A peal of joy congratulated
them from the assembled crowd; hundreds of directions were given to him
how to act to the best advantage. Two young men in especial, who were
both dying about the lovely creature that he held, were quite anxious to
give advice.
“'Bring her to the other side, John, ma bouchal; it's the safest,' said
Larry Carty.
“'Will you let him alone, Carty?' said Simon Tracy, who was the other,
'you'll only put him in a perplexity.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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