“Stand back!” cried Ileen, in a loud and determined tone, placing herself betuxt the coffin and the brink of the grave;--“I'd like to see the man who dare pollute the dust of my husband, with that of a strange woman! I am the wife of him whose grave is here--of him, and of none but him: I lay in his bosom when he was alive--and do you think, any of you, I'll stand by, while there's a drop of blood left in my veins, to see another be put in my place, now that he's dead? Have I lived for fifty long years with the hope of one day being united in death to the joy of my life, to have another laid by his side at last?--Who broke this holy earth?--What accursed wretch was it?--Where is he?--Shew him to me--that I may grip him by the throat?” “Mother, mother!” said Patrick, “for the sake of him you spake of, be not so violent! If I've done wrong--” “_If_ you've done wrong?--Thank God, Patrick, it wasn't your own hand did this!” “Well! I'm sorry now that any hand did it: but it's too late to waste time in words: and I _must_ have the remains of my wife respected.” “Wretched--unnatural child!--what respect have you shown to those of my husband--my husband, and your father, Patrick?--Oh! this earth which covered him,” continued Ileen, stooping to pick up a handful of the mould she stood upon,--and at that moment, for the first time, she saw the bones!--She shrieked out at the sight, and no tongue could describe the look of agony which she cast at her son. Patrick, however, who'd more love for the wife he'd lived thirty years with, than the father he couldn't remember, much as he was grieved at the sorrow and anger of his mother, resolved that the corpse shouldn't be treated with a shew of insult: so says he to those about him, “Come, let us make an end of this; I will set you an example.” The words were scarcely out of his mouth, when Ileen snatched up one of her husband's bones, and gave her son so violent a blow with it on his head, that he staggered and fell nearly senseless into the grave. His friends got Patrick out again as quick as they could: but before he recovered, Ileen had carefully gathered up the bones, folded them in a kerchief, which she tore off her bosom, dropped them into the grave, and proceeded to throw in the earth again with her hands. No one attempted to hinder her--but it was only when she had made the ground level, and cast herself, moaning, upon it, that the people persuaded her son to let them carry his wife's coffin away, and bury it elsewhere.