THE COLONEL'S TERMS
Passive courage--courage in circumstances in which a man cannot help
himself, but must abide with bound hands whatever a frowning fortune
and his enemy's spite threaten--is so much higher a virtue than that
which carries him through hot emprises, and is so much more common
among women, that the palm for bravery may fairly be given to the
weaker sex. True, it is not in the first face of danger that a woman
shines; time must be given her to string her nerves. But grant time and
there is no calamity so dreadful, no fate so abhorrent to trembling
humanity, that a woman has not met it smiling: in the sack of cities,
or in the slow agony of towns perishing of hunger, in the dungeon, or
in the grip of disease.
The bravest men share this gift, and some whom the shock of conflict
appals. Cammock and the Bishop belonged to the former class. Seized in
a moment of activity, certain only that they were in hostile hands, and
hurried, blind and helpless, to an unknown doom, they might have been
pardoned had they succumbed to despair. But they did not succumb. The
habit of danger, and a hundred adventures and escapes, had hardened
them; they felt more rage than fear. Stunned for a moment by the
audacity of the attack, and humiliated by its success, they had not
been dragged a hundred yards before they began to reason and to
calculate the chances. If the purpose of those into whose hands they
had fallen were to murder them they would have been piked on the spot.
On the other hand, if their captors' object was to deliver them to
English justice, it was a long way to the Four Courts, and farther to
Westminster. Weeks, if not months, must elapse before they stood at the
bar on a capital charge; much water must flow under the bridges, and
many a thing might happen, by force or fraud, in the interval.
So, half-stifled and bitterly chagrined as they were, they did not
waste their strength in a vain resistance. They allowed themselves to
be pushed this way and pulled that, took what care they could of their
limbs, and for their thoughts gave as many to vengeance as to safety.
They had known many reverses in many lands. They did not believe that
this was the end. And presently it would be their turn.
With the third of the prisoners it was otherwise. The courage of the
Irish is more conspicuous in the advance than in the retreat; and even
of that recklessness in fight, that joy in the conflict, which is their
birthright and their fame, Flavia had taken more than her woman's
share. In James McMurrough's mean and narrow nature there was small
room for the generous passions. Unlike his sister, he would have struck
the face of no man in whose power he lay; nor was he one to keep a
stout heart when his hands were bound. Conscience does not always make
cowards. But he knew into whose hands he had fallen, he knew the fate
to which he had himself consigned Colonel John--or would have consigned
him but for self-interest--and his heart was water, his knees were
aspens, his hair rose, as, helpless, he pictured in livid hues the fate
that now awaited himself.
As he had meant to do to the other, it would be done to him! He felt
the cruel pike rend the gasping throat; he had heard that it was the
most painful death that a man could die, and that the shrieks of men
dying on the pike-point could be heard a mile! Or would they throw him,
bound and blind as he was, into the sullen lake--yes, that was it! They
were carrying him that way, they were taking him to the lake.
And once and twice, in the insanity of fear, he fought with his bonds
until the blood came, even throwing himself down, until the men, out of
patience, pricked him savagely, and drove him, venting choked cries of
pain, to his feet again. After the second attempt, if attempt that
could be called which had no reasoning behind it, but only sheer animal
fear, he staggered on, beaten, hopeless. He was aware that Colonel John
was not with them; and then, again, that he was with them; and
then--they were on the wide track now between the end of the lake and
the sea--that they were proceeding with increased caution. That might
have given a braver man hope, the hope of rescue. But rescue had itself
terrors for The McMurrough. His captors, if pressed, might hasten the
end, or his friends might strike him in the _melee_. And so, with every
furlong of the forced journey, he died a fresh death.
And the furlongs seemed interminable, quickly and roughly as he was
hurried along. In his terror the pains of his position, the heat, the
friction of the rough sacking, the want of air, went for little. But at
last he heard the fall of the waves on the shore, gorse pricked his
legs or tripped him up, the men about him spoke louder, he caught a
distant hail. Laughter, and exclamations of triumph reached him, and
the voices of men who had won in spite of odds.
Then a boat grated on the pebbles, he was lifted into it, and thrust
down in the bottom. He felt it float off, and heard the measured sound
of the oars in the thole-pins. A few moments elapsed, the sound of the
oars ceased, the boat bumped something. He was raised to his feet, his
hands were unbound, he was set on a rope-ladder, and bidden to climb.
Obeying with shaking knees, he was led across what he guessed to be a
deck, and down steep stairs. Then his head was freed from the sack,
and, sweating, dishevelled, pale with exhaustion and fear, he looked
about him.
The fog was still thick outside, turning day into twilight, and the
cabin lamp had been lit and swung above the narrow table, filling the
lowbrowed, Dutch-like interior with a strong but shifting light. Behind
the table Colonel John and the skipper leant against a bulkhead; before
them, on the nearer side of the table, were ranged the three captives.
Behind these, again, the dark, grinning faces of the sailors, with
their tarred pigtails and flashing eyes, filled the doorway; and,
beyond doubt, viewed under the uncertain light of the lamp, they showed
a wild and savage crew. As James McMurrough looked, his hopes, which
had risen during the last few minutes, sank. Escape, or chance of
escape, there was none. He was helpless, and what those into whose
hands he had fallen determined, he must suffer. For a moment his heart
stood still, his mouth gaped, he swayed on his feet. Then he clutched
the table and steadied himself.
"I am--giddy," he muttered.
"I am sorry that you have been put to so much inconvenience," Colonel
John answered civilly.
The words, the tone, might have reassured him, if he had not suspected
a devilish irony. Even when Colonel John proceeded to direct one of the
men to open a porthole and admit more air, he derived no comfort from
the attention. But steady! Colonel John was speaking again.
"You, too, gentlemen," he said, addressing Cammock and the Bishop, "I
am sorry that I have been forced to put you to so much discomfort. But
I saw no other way of effecting my purpose. And," he went on with a
smile, "if you ask my warranty for acting as I have acted----"
"I do!" the Bishop said between his teeth. The Admiral said nothing,
but breathed hard.
"Then I can only vouch," the Colonel answered, "the authority by virtue
of which you seized me yesterday. I give you credit, reverend father,
and you, Admiral, for a belief that in acting as you did you were doing
your duty; that in creating a rising here you were serving a cause
which you think worthy of sacrifice--the sacrifice of others as well as
of yourselves. But I tell, you, as frankly, I feel it my duty to thwart
that purpose and prevent that rising; and for the moment fortune is
with me. The game, gentlemen, is for the present in my hand; the move
is mine. Now I need hardly say," Colonel John continued, with an
appearance almost of _bonhomie_, "that I do not wish to proceed to
extremities, or to go farther than is necessary to secure my purpose.
We might set sail for the nearest garrison port, and I might hand you
over to the English authorities, assured that they would pay such a
reward as would compensate the shipmaster. But far be it from me to do
that! I would have no man's blood on my hands. And though I say at once
I would not shrink, were there no other way of saving innocent lives,
from sending you to the scaffold----"
"A thousand thanks to you!" the Bishop said. But, brave man as he was,
the irony in his voice masked relief; and not then, but a moment later,
he passed his handkerchief across his brow. Cammock said nothing, but
the angry, bloodshot eyes which he fixed on the Colonel lost a little
of their ferocity.
"I say, I would not shrink from doing that," Colonel John continued
mildly, "were it necessary. Fortunately for us all, it is not
necessary. Still I must provide against your immediate return, against
immediate action on your part. I must see that the movement which will
die in your absence is not revived by any word from you, or by tidings
of you! To that end, gentlemen, I must put you to the inconvenience of
a prolonged sea-voyage."
"If I could speak with you in private?" the Bishop said.
"You will have every opportunity," Colonel John answered, smiling, "of
speaking to Captain Augustin in private."
"Still, sir, if I could see you alone I think I could convince you----"
"You shall have every opportunity of convincing Captain Augustin,"
Colonel John returned, smiling more broadly, "and of convincing him by
the same means which I venture to think, reverend sir, you would employ
with me. To be plain, he will take you to sea for a certain period, and
at the end of that time, if your arguments are sufficiently weighty, he
will land you at a convenient harbour on the French shore. He will be
at the loss of his cargo, and that loss I fear you will have to make
good. Something, too, he may charge by way of interest, and for your
passage." By this time the sailors were on the broad grin. "A trifle,
perhaps, for landing dues. But I have spoken with him to be moderate,
and I doubt not that within a few weeks you, Admiral Cammock, will be
with your command, and the reverend father will be pursuing his calling
in another place."
For a moment there was silence, save for a titter from the group of
seamen. Then Cammock laughed--a curt, barking laugh. "A bite!" he said.
"A d----d bite! If I can ever repay it, sir, I will! Be sure of that!"
Colonel John bowed courteously.
The Bishop took it otherwise. The veins on his forehead swelled, and he
had much ado to control himself. The truth was, he feared ridicule more
than he feared danger, perhaps more than he feared death; and such an
end to such an enterprise was hard to bear. To have set forth to raise
the south of Ireland, to have undertaken a diversion that would never
be forgotten, that, on the contrary, would be marked by historians as a
main factor in the restoration of the house of Stuart--to have embarked
on such an enterprise and to be deported like any troublesome villager
delivered to the pressgang for his hamlet's good! To end thus! It was
too much.
"Is there no alternative?" he asked, barely able to speak for the
chagrin that took him by the throat.
"One, if you prefer it," Colonel Sullivan answered suavely. "You can
take your chance with the English authorities. For myself, I lean to
the course I have suggested."
"If money were paid down--now? Now, sir?"
"It would not avail."
"Much money?"
"No."
The Bishop glared at him for a few seconds. Then his face relaxed, his
eyes grew mild, his chin sank on his breast. His fingers drummed on the
table. "His will be done!" he said--"His will be done! I was not
worthy."
His surrender seemed to sting Cammock. Perhaps in the course of their
joint adventures he had come to know and to respect his companion, and
felt more for him than for himself.
"If I had you on my quarter-deck for only half an hour," he growled, "I
would learn who was the better man! Ah, my man, I would!"
"The doubt flatters me," Colonel John answered, viewing them both with
great respect; for he saw that, bad or good, they were men. Then, "That
being settled," he continued, "I shall ask you, gentlemen, to go on
deck for a few moments, that I may say a word to my kinsman."
"He is not to go with us?"
"That remains to be seen," Colonel John replied, a note of sternness in
his voice. Still they hesitated, and he stood; but at last, in
obedience to his courteous gesture, they bowed, turned--with a deep
sigh on the Bishop's part--and clambered up the companion. The seamen
had already vanished at a word from Augustin, who himself proceeded to
follow his prisoners on deck.
"Sit down!" Colonel Sullivan said, the same sternness in his voice. And
he sat down on his side of the table, while James McMurrough, with a
sullen look but a beating heart, took his seat on the other. The fear
of immediate death had left the young man; he tried to put on an air of
bravado, but with so little success that if his sister had seen him
thus she had been blind indeed if she had not discerned, between these
two men seated opposite to one another, the difference that exists
between the great and the small, the strong and the infirm of purpose.
It was significant of that difference that the one was silent at will,
while the other spoke because he had not the force to be silent.
"What are you wanting with me?" the young man asked.
"Is it not you," Colonel John answered, with a piercing look, "will be
wanting to know where O'Sullivan Og is--O'Sullivan Og, whom you sent to
do your bidding this morning?"
The young man turned a shade paler, and his bravado fell from him. His
breath seemed to stop. Then, "Where?" he whispered--"where is he?"
"Where, I pray, Heaven," Colonel John answered, with the same
solemnity, "may have mercy upon him."
"He is not dead?" The McMurrough cried, his voice rising on the last
word.
"I have little doubt he is," the Colonel replied. "Dead, sir! And the
men who were with him--dead also, or the most part of them. Dead, James
McMurrough, on the errand they went for you."
The shock of the news struck the young man dumb, and for some moments
he stared at the Colonel, his face colourless. At length, "All dead?"
he whispered. "Not all?"
"For what I know," Colonel John replied. "Heaven forgive them!" And, in
half a dozen sentences, he told him what had happened. Then, "They are
the first fruits," he continued sternly, "God grant that they be the
last fruits of this reckless plot! Not that I blame them, who did but
as they were bid. Nor do I blame any man, nor any woman who embarked on
this--reckless as it was, foolish as it was--with a single heart,
either in ignorance of the things that I know, or knowing them, for the
sake of an end which they set above their own lives. But--but"--and
Colonel John's voice grew more grave--"there was one who had neither of
these two excuses. There was one who was willing to do murder, not in
blind obedience, nor for a great cause, but to serve his own private
interest and his own advantage!"
"No! no!" the young man cried, cowering before him. "It is not true!"
"One who was ready to do murder," Colonel John continued pitilessly,
"because it suited him to remove a man!"
"No! no!" the wretched youth cried, almost grovelling before him. "It
was all of them!--it was all!"
"It was not all!" Colonel John retorted; but there was a keenness in
his face which showed that he had still something to learn.
"It was--those two-on deck!" The McMurrough cried eagerly. "I swear it
was! They said--it was necessary."
"They were one with you in condemning! Be it so! I believe you! But who
spared?"
"I!" The McMurrough cried, breathlessly eager to exculpate himself. "It
was I alone. I! I swear it. I sent the boy!"
"You spared? Yes, and you alone!" the Colonel made answer. "So I
thought, and out of your own mouth you are condemned. You spared
because you learned that I had made a will, and you feared lest that
which had passed to me in trust might pass to a stranger for good and
all! You spared because it was--because you thought it was to your
interest, your advantage to spare! I say, out of your own mouth you are
condemned."
James McMurrough had scarcely force to follow the pitiless reasoning by
which the elder man convicted him. But his conscience, his knowledge of
his own motives, filled the hiatus, and what his tongue did not own his
colourless face, his terrified eyes, confessed.
"You have fallen into our hands," Colonel John continued, grave as
fate. "Why should we not deal with you as you would have dealt with us?
No!"--the young man by a gesture had appealed to those on deck, to
their escape, to their impunity--"no! They may have consented to my
death; but as the judge condemns, or the soldier kills; you--you, for
your private profit and advantage. Nevertheless, I shall not deal so
with you. You can go as they are going--abroad, to return at a
convenient season, and I hope a wiser man. Or----"
"Or--what?" the young man cried hurriedly.
"Or you can stay here," Colonel John continued, "and we will treat the
past as if it had not been. But on a condition."
James's colour came back. "What'll you be wanting?" he muttered,
averting his gaze.
"You must swear that you will not pursue this foolish plan further.
That first."
"What can I be doing without _them_?" was the sullen answer.
"Very true," Colonel John rejoined. "But you must swear also, my
friend, that you will not attempt anything against me, nor be party to
anything."
"What'd I be doing?"
"Don't lie!" the Colonel replied, losing his temper for a single
instant. "You know what you have done, and therefore what you'd be
likely to do. I've no time to bandy words, and you know how you stand.
Swear on your hope of salvation to those two things, and you may stay.
Refuse, and I make myself safe by your absence. That is all I have to
say."
The young man had the sense to know that he was escaping lightly. The
times were rough, the district was lawless, he had embarked--how
foolishly he saw--on an enterprise too high for him. He was willing
enough to swear that he would not pursue that enterprise further. But
the second undertaking stuck in his gizzard. He hated Colonel John. For
the past wrong, for the past defeat, above all for the present
humiliation, ay, and for the very magnanimity which spared him, he, the
weak spirit, hated the strong with a furious, if timid malignity.
"I'm having no choice," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Very good," Colonel John answered curtly. And, going to the door, he
called Bale from his station by the hatchway, and despatched him to the
Bishop and to Admiral Cammock, requesting them to do him the honour to
descend.
They came readily enough, in the hope of some favourable turn. But the
Colonel's words quickly set them right.
"Gentlemen," he said politely, "I know you to be men of honour in
private life. For this reason I have asked you to be present as
witnesses to the bargain between my cousin and myself. Blood is thicker
than water: he has no mind to go abroad, and I have no mind to send him
against his will. But his presence, after what has passed, is a
standing peril to myself. To meet this difficulty, and to free me from
the necessity of banishing him, he is ready to swear by all he holds
sacred, and upon his honour, that he will attempt nothing against me,
nor be a party to it. Is that so, sir?" the speaker continued. "Do you
willingly, in the presence of these gentlemen, give that undertaking?"
The young man, with averted eyes and a downcast face, nodded.
"I am afraid I must trouble you to speak," Colonel John said.
"I do," he muttered, looking at no one.
"Further, that you will not within six months attempt anything against
the Government?" Colonel John continued.
"I will not."
"Very good. I accept that undertaking, and I thank these gentlemen for
their courtesy in condescending to act as witnesses. Admiral Cammock
and you, reverend father," Colonel John continued, "it remains but to
bid you farewell, and to ask you to believe"--the Colonel paused--"that
I have not pushed further than was necessary the advantage I gained."
"By a neat stroke, Colonel Sullivan," the Bishop replied, with a rather
sour smile, "not to say a bold one. I'm not denying it. But one, I'd
have you notice, that cannot be repeated."
"Maybe not," the Colonel answered. "I am content to think that for some
time to come I have transferred your operations, gentlemen, to a sphere
where I am not concerned for the lives of the people."
"There are things more precious than lives," the Bishop said.
"I admit it. More by token I'm blaming you little--only you see, sir, I
differ. That is all."
With that Colonel Sullivan bowed and left the cabin, and The
McMurrough, who had listened to the colloquy with the air of a whipped
hound, slunk after him. On deck the Colonel and Augustin talked apart
for a moment, then the former signed to the young man to go down into
the boat, which lay alongside with a couple of men at the oars, and
Bale seated in the sternsheets. The fog still hung upon the water, and
the land was hidden. The young man could not see where they lay.
After the lapse of a minute or two Colonel John joined him, and the
rowers pushed off, while Augustin and the crew leant over the rail to
see them go, and to send after them a torrent of voluble good wishes. A
very few, strokes of the oars brought the passengers within misty view
of the land; in less than two minutes after leaving the _Cormorant_ the
boat grated on the rocks, and the Colonel, James McMurrough, and Bale
landed. The young man made out that they were some half-mile eastward
of Skull Harbour.
Bale stayed to exchange a few words with the seamen, while Colonel John
and The McMurrough set off along the beach. They had not walked fifty
yards before the fog isolated them; they were alone. And astonishment
filled the young man, and grew as they walked. Did Colonel John, after
all that had happened, mean to return to Morristown? to establish
himself calmly--he, alone--in the midst of the conspirators whose
leaders he had removed?
It seemed incredible! For though he, James McMurrough, thirst for
revenge as he might, was muzzled by his oath, what of the others? What
of Sir Donny and old Timothy Burke? What of the two O'Beirnes? Nay,
what of his sister, whom he could fancy more incensed, more vindictive,
more dangerous than them all? What, finally, of the barbarous rout of
peasants, ready to commit any violence at a word from him?
And still the Colonel walked on by his side. And now they were in sight
of Skull--of the old tower and the house by the jetty, looming large
through the dripping mist. And at last Colonel John spoke.
"It was fortunate that I made my will as I came through Paris," he
said.