the hour of five o'clock
It is true he did not leave him without shedding tears , and bitter tears ; but they were unaccompanied by the wild vehemence of grief which had , on former occasions , raged through and almost desolated his heart . The reader may entertain some notion of what he would have felt on this occasion , were it not for the `` plan '' as he called it , which supported him so much , when we tell him that he blessed his son three or four times dining their interview , without being conscious ; that he had blessed him more than once . His last words to him were to keep up his spirits , for that there was little doubt that they would meet again . The next morning , at daybreak , `` their noble boy , '' as they fondly and proudly called him , was conveyed , to the transport , in company with many others ; and at the hour of five o'clock p. m. , that melancholy vessel weighed anchor , and spread her broad sails to the bosom of the ocean . Although the necessary affairs of life are , after all , the great assuager of sorrow , yet there are also cases where the heart persists in rejecting the consolation brought by time , and in clinging to the memory of that which it loved . Neither Honor O'Donovan nor Una O'Brien could forget our unhappy hero , nor school their affections into the apathy of ordinary feelings . Of Fardorougha we might say the same ; for , although he probably felt the want of his son 's presence more keenly even than his wife , yet his grief , notwithstanding its severity , was mingled with the interruption of a habit -- such as is frequently the prevailing cause of sorrow in selfish and contracted minds .