"STOP THIEF!"
A candid Englishman must own, and deplore the fact, that Flavia
McMurrough's tears were due to the wrongs of her country. Broken by
three great wars waged by three successive generations, defeated in the
last of three desperate struggles for liberty, Ireland at this period
lay like a woman swooning at the feet of her captors. Nor were these
minded that she should rise again quickly, or in her natural force. The
mastery which they had won by the sword the English were resolved to
keep by the law.
They were determined that the Irishman of the old faith should cease
to exist; or if he endured, should be _nemo_, no one. Confined to hell
or Connaught, he must not even in the latter possess the ordinary
rights. He must not will his own lands or buy new lands. If his son,
more sensible than he, "_went over_," the father sank into a mere
life-tenant, bound to furnish a handsome allowance, and to leave all
to the Protestant heir. He might not marry a Protestant, he might not
keep a school, nor follow the liberal professions. The priest who
confessed him was banished if known, and hanged if he returned. In a
country of sportsmen he might not own a fowling-piece, nor a horse
worth more than five pounds; and in days when every gentleman carried
a sword at his side, he must not wear one. Finally, his country grew
but one article of great value--wool: and that he must not make into
cloth, but he must sell it to England at England's price--which was
one-fifth of the continental price. Was it wonderful that, such being
Ireland's status, every Roman Catholic of spirit sought fortune
abroad; that the wild geese, as they were called, went and came
unchecked; or that every inlet in Galway, Clare, and Kerry swarmed
with smugglers, who ran in under the green flag with brandy and
claret, and, running out again with wool, laughed to scorn England's
boast that she ruled the waves?
Nor was it surprising that, spent and helpless as the land lay, some
sanguine spirits still clung to visions of a change and of revenge. A
few men, living in the vague remotenesses beyond the bridling Shannon
and its long string of lakes, or on the western shore where the long
rollers broke in spume and the French and Spanish tongues were spoken
more freely than English, still hoped for the impossible. Passing their
lives far from the Castle and the Four Courts, far even from the
provincial capitals, they shut their eyes to facts and dreamed of
triumph. The Sullivans of Morristown and Skull were of these; as were
some of their neighbours. And Flavia was especially of these. As she
looked from her window a day or two after the Colonel's arrival, as she
sniffed the peat reek and plumbed the soft distances beyond the lake,
she was lost in such a dream; until her eyes fell on a man seated
cross-legged under a tree between herself and the shore. And she
frowned. The man sorted ill with her dream.
It was Bale, Colonel John's servant. He was mending some article taken
from his master's wardrobe. His elbow went busily to and fro as he
plied the needle, while sprawling on the sod about him half a dozen
gossoons watched him inquisitively.
Perhaps it was the suggestive contrast between his diligence and their
idleness which irritated Flavia; but she set down her annoyance to
another cause. The man was an Englishman, and therefore an enemy: and
what did he there? Had the Colonel left him on guard?
Flavia's heart swelled at the thought. Here, at least, she and hers
were masters. Here, three hours west of Tralee--and God help the horse
on that road that was not a "lepper"--they brooked no rival. Colonel
John had awakened mixed feelings in her. At times she admired him. But,
admirable or not, he should rue his insolence, if he had it in his mind
to push his authority, or interfere with her plans.
In the meantime she stood watching William Bale, and a desire to know
more of the man, and through him of the master, rose within her. The
house was quiet. The McMurrough and his following had gone to a
cocking-match and race-meeting at Joyce's Corner. She went down the
stairs, took her hood, and crossed the courtyard. Bale did not look up
at her approach, but he saw her out of the corner of his eye, and when
she paused before him he laid down his work and made as if he would
rise.
She looked at him with a superciliousness not natural to her. "Are all
the men tailors where you come from?" she asked. "There, you need not
rise."
"Where I came from last," he replied, "we were all trades, my lady."
"Where was that?"
"In the camp," he answered.
"In Sweden?"
"God knows," he replied. "They raise no landmarks there, between
country and country, or it might be all their work to move them."
For a moment she was silent. Then, "Have you been a soldier long?" she
asked, feeling herself rebuffed.
"Twenty-one years, my lady."
"And now you have done with it."
"It is as his honour pleases."
She frowned. He had a way of speaking that sounded uncivil to ears
attuned to the soft Irish accent and the wheedling tone. Yet the man
interested her, and after a moment's silence she fixed her eyes more
intently on his work. "Did you lose your fingers in battle?" she asked.
His right hand was maimed.
"No," he answered--grudgingly, as he seemed to answer all her
questions--"in prison."
"In prison?" she repeated; "where?"
He cast an upward look at his questioner. "In the Grand Turk's land,"
he said. "Nearer than that, I can't say. I'm no scholar, my lady."
"But why?" she asked, puzzled. "I don't understand."
"Cut off," he said, stooping over his work.
Flavia turned a shade paler. "Why?" she repeated.
"'One God, and Mahomet His prophet'--couldn't swallow it. One finger!"
the man answered jerkily. "Next week--same. Third week----"
"Third week?" she murmured, shuddering.
"Exchanged."
She lifted her eyes with an effort from his maimed hand. "How many were
you?" she inquired.
"Thirty-four." He laughed drily. "We know one another when we meet," he
said. He drew his waxed thread between his finger and thumb, held it up
to the light, then looked askance at the gossoons about him, to whom
what he said was gibberish. They knew only Erse.
The day was still, the mist lay on the lake, and under it the water
gleamed, a smooth pale mirror. Flavia had seen it so a hundred times,
and thought naught of it. But to-day, moved by what she had heard, the
prospect spoke of a remoteness from the moving world which depressed
her. Hitherto the quick pulse and the energy of youth had left her no
time for melancholy, and not much for thought. If at rare intervals she
had felt herself lonely, if she had been tempted to think that the
brother in whom were centred her hopes, her affections, and her family
pride was hard and selfish, rude and overbearing, she had told herself
that all men were so; that all men rode rough-shod over their women.
And that being so, who had a better right to hector it than the last of
the McMurroughs, heir of the Wicklow kings, who in days far past had
dealt on equal terms with Richard Plantagenet, and to whom, by virtue
of that never-forgotten kingship, the Sullivans and Mahonies, some of
the McCarthys, and all the O'Beirnes, paid rude homage? With such
feelings Sir Michael's strange whim of disinheriting the heir of his
race had but drawn her closer to her brother. To her loyalty the act
was abhorrent, was unnatural, was one that could only have sprung, she
was certain, from second childhood, the dotage of a man close on
ninety, whose early years had been steeped in trouble, and who loved
her so much that he was ready to do wrong for her sake.
Often she differed from her brother. But he was a man, she told
herself; and he must be right--a man's life could not be ruled by the
laws which a woman observed. For the rest, for herself, if her life
seemed solitary she had the free air and the mountains; she had her
dear land; above all, she had her dreams. Perhaps when these were
realised--and the time seemed very near now--and a new Ireland was
created, to her too a brighter world would open.
She had forgotten Bale's presence, and was only recalled to every-day
life by the sound of voices. Four men were approaching the house. Uncle
Ulick, Colonel John, and the French skipper were three of these; at the
sight of the fourth Flavia's face fell. Luke Asgill of Batterstown was
the nearest Justice, and of necessity he was a Protestant. But it was
not this fact, nor the certainty that Augustin was pouring his wrongs
into his ears, that affected Flavia. Asgill was distasteful to her,
because her brother affected him. For why should her brother have
relations with a Protestant? Why should he, a man of the oldest blood,
stoop to intimacy with the son of a "middleman," the son of one of
those who, taking a long lease of a great estate and under-letting at
rack rents, made at this period huge fortunes? Finally, if he must have
relations with him, why did he not keep him at a distance from his
home--and his sister?
It was too late, or she would have slipped away. Not that Asgill--he
was a stout, dark, civil-spoken man of thirty-three or four--wore a
threatening face. On the contrary, he listened to the Frenchman's
complaint with a droll air; and if he had not known of the matter
before, his smile betrayed him. He greeted Flavia with an excess of
politeness which she could have spared; and while Uncle Ulick and
Colonel John looked perturbed and ill at ease, he jested on the matter.
"The whole cargo?" he said, with one eye on the Frenchman and one on
his companions. "You're not for stating that, sir?"
"All the tubs," Augustin answered in a passion of earnestness. "What
you call, every tub! Every tub!"
"The saints be between us and harm!" Asgill responded. "Are you hearing
this, Miss Flavia? It's no less than felony that you're accused of, and
I'm thinking, by rights, I must arrest you and carry you to
Batterstown."
"I do not understand," she answered stiffly. "And The McMurrough is not
at home."
"Gone out of the way, eh?" Asgill replied with a deprecatory grin. "And
the whole cargo was it, Captain?"
"All the tubs, perfectly!"
"You'd paid your dues, of course?"
"Dues, _mon Dieu_! But they take the goods!"
"Had you paid your dues?"
"Not already, because----"
"That's unfortunate," Asgill answered in a tone of mock condolence.
"Mighty unfortunate!" He winked at Uncle Ulick. "Port dues, you know,
Captain, must be paid before the ship slips her moorings."
"But----"
"Mighty unfortunate!"
"But what are the dues?" poor Augustin cried, dimly aware that he was
being baited.
"Ah, you're talking now," the magistrate answered glibly. "Unluckily,
that's not in my province. I'm made aware that the goods are held under
lien for dues, and I can do nothing. However, upon payment, of
course----"
"But how much? Eh, sir? How much? How much?"
Luke Asgill, who had two faces, and for once was minded to let both be
seen, enjoyed the Frenchman's perplexity. He wished to stand well with
Flavia, and here was a rare opportunity of exhibiting at once his
friendliness and his powers of drollery. He was surprised, therefore,
and taken aback, when a grave voice cut short his enjoyment.
"Still, if Captain Augustin," the voice interposed, "is willing to pay
a reasonable sum on account of dues?"
The magistrate turned about abruptly. "Eh?" he said. "Oh, Colonel
Sullivan, is it?"
"Then, doubtless, the goods will be released, so that he may perform
his duty to his customer."
Asgill had only known the Colonel a few minutes, and, aware that he was
one of the family, he did not see how to take it. It was as if treason
lifted its head in the camp. He coughed.
"I'd not be denying it," he said. "But until The McMurrough
returns----"
"Such a matter is doubtless within Mr. Sullivan's authority," the
Colonel said, turning from him to Uncle Ulick.
Uncle Ulick showed his embarrassment. "Faith, I don't know that it is,"
he said.
"If Captain Augustin paid, say, twenty per cent. on his bills of
lading----"
"_Ma foi_, twenty per cent.!" the Captain exclaimed in astonishment.
"Twenty--but yes, I will pay it. I will pay even that. Of what use to
throw the handle after the hatchet?"
Luke Asgill thought the Colonel either a fool or very simple. "Well,
I've nothing to say to this, at all!" he said, shrugging his shoulders.
"It's not within my province."
Colonel John looked at the girl in a way in which he had not looked at
her before; and she found herself speaking before she knew it. "Yes,"
she cried impulsively; "let that be done, and the goods be given up!"
"But The McMurrough?" Asgill began.
"I will answer for him," she said impulsively. "Uncle Ulick, go, I beg,
and see it done."
"I will go with you," Colonel Sullivan said. "And doubtless Mr. Asgill
will accompany us, and lend the weight of his authority in the event of
any difficulty arising."
Asgill's countenance fell, and he looked the uncertainty he felt. He
was between two stools, for he had no mind to displease Flavia or
thwart her brother. At length, "No," he said, "I'll not be doing
anything in The McMurrough's absence--no, I don't see that I can do
that!"
Colonel John looked in the same strange fashion at Flavia. "I have
legal power to act, sir," he said, "as I can prove to you in private.
And that being so, I must certainly ask you to lend me the weight of
your authority."
"And I will be d----d if I do!" Asgill cried. There was a change in his
tone, and the reason was not far to seek. "Here's The McMurrough," he
continued, "and he'll say!"
They all turned and looked along the road which ran by the edge of the
lake. With James McMurrough, who was still a furlong away, were the two
O'Beirnes. They came slowly, and something in their bearing, even at
that distance, awoke anxiety.
"They're early from the cocking," Uncle Ulick muttered doubtfully, "and
sober as pigs! What's the meaning of that? There's something amiss, I'm
fearing."
A cry from Flavia proved the keenness of her eyes. "Where is Giralda?"
she exclaimed. "Where is the mare?"
"Ay, what have they done with the mare?" Uncle Ulick said in a tone of
consternation. "Have they lamed her, I'm wondering? The garron Morty's
riding is none of ours."
"I begged him not to take her!" Flavia cried, anger contending with her
grief. Giralda, her grey mare, ascribed in sanguine moments to the
strain of the Darley Arabian, and as gentle as she was spirited, was
the girl's dearest possession. "I begged him not to take her!" she
repeated, almost in tears. "I knew there was danger."
"James was wrong to take her up country," Uncle Ulick said sternly.
"They've claimed her!" Flavia wailed. "I know they have! And I shall
never recover her! I shall never see her again! Oh, I'd rather--I'd far
rather she were dead!"
Uncle Ulick lifted up his powerful voice. "Where's the mare?" he
shouted.
James McMurrough shrugged his shoulders, and a moment later the riders
came up and the tale was told. The three young men had halted at the
hedge tavern at Brocktown, where their road ran out of the road to
Tralee. There were four men drinking in the house, who seemed to take
no notice of them. But when The McMurrough and his companions went to
the shed beside the house to draw out their horses, the men followed,
challenged them for Papists, threw down five pounds in gold, and seized
the mare. The four were armed, and resistance was useless.
The story was received with a volley of oaths and curses. "But by the
Holy," Uncle Ulick flamed up, "I'd have hung on their heels and raised
the country! By G--d, I would!"
"Ay, ay! The thieves of the world!"
"They took the big road by Tralee," James McMurrough explained sulkily.
"What was the use?"
"Were there no men working in the bogs?"
"There were none near by, to be sure," Morty said. "But I'd a notion if
we followed them we might light on one friend or another--'twas in
Kerry, after all!"
"'Twas not more than nine miles English from here!" Uncle Ulick cried.
"That was just what I thought," Morty continued with some hesitation.
"Just that, but----" And his eye transferred the burden to The
McMurrough.
James answered with an oath. "A nice time this to be bringing the
soldiers upon us," he cried, "when, bedad, if the time ever was, we
want no trouble with the Englishry! What's the use of crying over spilt
milk? I'll give you another mare."
"But it'll not be Giralda!" Flavia wailed.
"Sure it's the black shame, it is!" Uncle Ulick cried, his face dark.
"It's enough to raise the country! Ay, I say it, though you're
listening, Asgill. It's more than blood can stand!"
"No one is more sorry than myself," Asgill replied, with a look of
concern. "I don't make the laws, or they'd be other than they are!"
"True for you," Uncle Ulick answered. "I'm allowing that. And it is
true, too, that to make a stir too early would ruin all. I'm afraid you
must be making the best of it, Flavvy! I'd go after them myself, but
the time's not convenient, as you know, and by this they're in Tralee,
bad cess to it, where there's naught to be done. They'll be for selling
her to one of the garrison officers, I'm thinking; and may the little
gentleman in black velvet break his neck for him! Or they'll take her
farther up country, maybe to Dublin."
Flavia's last hopes died with this verdict. She could not control her
tears, and she turned and went away in grief to the house.
Meantime the hangers-on and the beggars pressed upon the gentry,
anxious to hear. The McMurrough, not sorry to find some one on whom to
vent his temper, turned upon them and drove them away with blows of his
whip. The movement brought him face to face with Captain Augustin. The
fiery little Frenchman disdained to give way, in a trice angry words
passed, and--partly out of mischief, for the moment was certainly not
propitious--Asgill repeated the proposal which Colonel John had just
made. The Colonel had stood in the background during the debate about
the mare, but thus challenged he stood forward.
"It's a fair compromise," he argued. "And if Captain Augustin is
prepared to pay twenty per cent----."
"He'll not have his cargo, nor yet a cask!" The McMurrough replied with
a curt, angry laugh. "Loss and enough we've had to-day."
"But----"
"Get me back the mare," the young man cried, cutting the Colonel short
with savage ridicule. "Get me back the mare, and I'll talk. That's all
I have to say."
"It seems to me," Colonel John replied quietly, "that those who lose
should find. Still--still," checking the young man's anger by the very
calmness of his tone, "for Captain Augustin's sake, who can ill bear
the loss, and for your sister's sake, I will see what I can do."
The McMurrough stared. "You?" he cried. "You?"
"Yes, I."
"Heaven help us, and the pigs!" the young man exclaimed. And he laughed
aloud in his scorn.
But Colonel John seemed no way moved. "Yes," he replied. "Only let us
understand one another"--with a look at Uncle Ulick which made him
party to the bargain--"if I return to-morrow evening or on the
following day--or week--with your sister's mare----"
"Mounseer shall have his stuff again to the last pennyworth," young
McMurrough returned with an ironical laugh, "and without payment at
all! Or stay! Perhaps you'll buy the mare?"
"No, I shall not buy her," Colonel John answered, "except at the price
the man gave you."
"Then you'll not get her. That's certain! But it's your concern."
The Colonel nodded, and, turning on his heels, went away towards the
house, calling William Bale to him as he passed.
The McMurrough looked at the Frenchman. He had a taste for tormenting
some one. "Well, monsieur," he jeered, "how do you like your bargain?"
"I do not understand," the Frenchman answered. "But he is a man of his
word, _ma foi_! And they are not--of the common."