M'Carthy and his lady had a fine life of it, they lacking for no
comfort or splendour at all. The officer's commission he had, brought
himself over to England from time to time, and the lady M'Carthy would
mind all until he was home. He saved up what money was superfluous, and
all was gathered to repay the loan to the Jew only for a few pounds.
Well it happened that M'Carthy went to England, and there he fell
in with a droll sort of a man was the best of company. They played
cards together and they drank a great power of wine. In the latter
end a dispute came about between them, for the both claimed to have
the best woman.
"I have a lady beyond in Ireland," says M'Carthy, "and she is an
ornament to the roads when she is passing along. But no person gets
seeing her these times and that is a big misfortune to the world."
"What's the cause?" asks the Englishman.
"I'd have a grief on me to think another man might be looking on
her and I not standing by," says M'Carthy. "So she gives me that
satisfaction on her promised word: all the time I do be away she
never quits the house, and no man body is allowed within."
The Englishman let a great laugh out of him at the words.
"You are simple enough!" says he. "Don't you know rightly when you
are not in it herself will be feasting and entertaining and going on
with every diversion?"
M'Carthy was raging at the impertinence of him, and he offered for
to fight.
"What would that be proving?" says the Englishman. "Let you make a
powerful big bet with myself that I will not be able for to bring
you a token from your lady and a full description of her appearance."
"I'll be winning the money off you, surely!" says M'Carthy.
"Not at all," says the Englishman. "I'm not in the least uneasy about
it, for I'm full sure it's the truth I'm after speaking of how she
does be playing herself in your absence."
"You'll find me in this place and you coming back," says M'Carthy. "Let
you be prepared with the money to have along with you."
The Englishman took ship to Ireland, and he came to the house of the
lady M'Carthy. Herself was in the kitchen making a cake, and she seen
the man walking up to the door. Away she run to the parlour, and in
the hurry she forgot the lovely pearl ring she took off her finger
when she began at the cooking. Well, he found the door standing open,
and he seen the ring on the kitchen table. It was easy knowing it
was no common article would be in the possession of any one but the
mistress of the house. What did the lad do, only slip in and put it
in his pocket. With that the waiting maid came and asked his business,
the lady M'Carthy was after sending her down.
"Oh, no business at all," says he. "But I am weary travelling and I
thought I might rest in this place."
He began for to flatter the girl and to offer her bribes, and in the
latter end he got her to speak. She told him all what the mistress
of the house was like; how she had a mole under her right arm and
one on her left knee. Moreover she gave him a few long golden hairs
she got out of the lady's comb.
The Englishman went back to M'Carthy, brought him the tokens,
and demanded the payment of the bet. And that is the way the poor
gentleman spent the money he had saved up for the Jew.
M'Carthy sent word to his wife that he was coming home, and for her to
meet him on the ship. She put her grandest raiment upon her and started
away at once. She went out to the ship and got up on the deck where
she seen her husband standing. When she went over to him he never said
a word at all, but he swept her aside with his arm the way she fell
into the water. Then he went on shore full sure he had her drowned.
But there was another ship coming in, and a miller that was on her
seen the lady struggling in the sea. He was an aged man, yet he
ventured in after her and he saved the poor creature's life.
Well, the miller was a good sort of a man and he had great compassion
for herself when she told him her story. She had no knowledge of the
cause of her husband being vexed with her, and she thought it hard
to believe the evidence of her senses that he was after striving to
make away with her. The miller advised the lady M'Carthy to go on
with the ship was sailing to another port, for may be if she went
home after the man he would be destroying her.
When the ship came into harbour the news was going of a great
lawsuit. The miller heard all, and he brought word to the lady that
M'Carthy was in danger of death.
"There are three charges against him," says the miller. "Your father
has him impeached for stealing you away and you not wishful to be
with him: that is the first crime."
"That is a false charge," says she, "for I helped for to plan the
whole elopement. My father is surely saying all in good faith, but
it is a lie the whole time."
"A Jew has him accused for a sum of money was borrowed, and it due
for repayment: that is the second crime," says the miller.
"The money was all gathered up for to pay the debt," says the
lady. "Where can it be if M'Carthy will not produce it?"
"The law has him committed for the murder of yourself: and that is
the third crime," says the miller.
"And a false charge too, seeing you saved me in that ill hour. I am
thinking I'd do well to be giving evidence in court of law, for it's
maybe an inglorious death they'll be giving him," says she.
"Isn't that what he laid out for yourself?" asks the miller.
"It is surely, whatever madness came to him. But I have a good wish
for him the whole time."
"If that is the way of it we had best be setting out," says he.
The lady and the miller travelled overland, it being a shorter journey
nor the one they were after coming by sea. When they got to the court
of law wasn't the judge after condemning M'Carthy; and it was little
the poor gentleman cared for the sentence of death was passed on him.
"My life is bitter and poisoned on me," says he, "maybe the grave is
the best place."
With that the lady M'Carthy stood up in the court and gave out that she
had not been destroyed at all, for the miller saved her from the sea.
They began the whole trial over again, and herself told how she
planned the elopement, and her father had no case at all. She could not
tell why M'Carthy was wishful to destroy her, and he had kept all to
himself at the first trial. But by degrees all was brought to light:
the villainy of the Englishman and the deceit was practised on them
by him and the servant girl.
It was decreed that the money was to be restored by that villain,
and the Jew was to get his payment out of it.
The lady M'Carthy's father was in such rejoicement to see his
daughter and she alive, that he forgave herself and the husband for
the elopement. Didn't the three of them go away home together and
they the happiest people were ever heard tell of in the world.