HOW THE WEDDING PARTY WAS CONCLUDED.
When Thady entered the room where the party was dancing, the welcomes
with which he was greeted by McGovery and his wife prevented him from
immediately seeking Pat Brady, as he had intended; for he was obliged
to stop to refuse the invitations and offers which he received, that
supper should be got for him. And it was well for those that made
the offers that he did refuse them; for every vestige of what was
eatable in the house had been devoured, and had he acceded to Mary's
reiterated wishes that he would "take jist the laste bit in the
world," it would have puzzled her to make good her offer in the most
literal sense of the words.
Luckily, however, Thady declined her hospitality, and was passing
through to the inner room when he was stopped by Ussher, who, as we
have before said, was standing up to dance with Feemy. The last time
the two young men had met was at the priest's house, when, it will
be remembered, Thady had shown a resolution not to be on good terms
with the Captain, and subsequent events had not at all mollified his
temper; so when Ussher good-humoredly asked him how he was, and told
him he wanted to speak to him a word or two as soon as he should have
tired Feemy dancing, or, what was more probable, Feemy should have
tired him, Thady answered him surlily enough, saying that if Captain
Ussher had anything to say to him, he should be within, but that he
didn't mean to stay there all night, and that perhaps Captain Ussher
had better say it at once.
"Well, Macdermot, perhaps I had; so, if your sister 'll excuse me,
I won't be a minute.--Just step to the door a moment, will you?" and
Thady followed him out.
"Well, Captain Ussher, what is it?"
"I don't know why it is, Macdermot, but for the last two or three
days you seem to want to quarrel with me; if it is so, why don't you
speak out like a man?"
"Is that what you were wanting to say to me?"
"Indeed it was not; for it's little I care whether you choose to
quarrel or let it alone; but I heard something to-night, which,
though I don't wholly believe it, may like enough be partly true; and
if you choose to listen, I will tell you what it was; perhaps you can
tell me whether it was all false; and if you cannot, what I tell you
may keep yourself out of a scrape."
"Well."
"McGovery tells me that he thinks some of the boys that are here
to-night are come to hold some secret meeting; and that, from the
brothers of the two men I arrested the other day being in it, he
thinks their purpose is to revenge themselves on me."
"And if it war so, Captain Ussher, what have I to do with it?"
Ussher looked very hard at Thady's face, but it was much too dark for
him to see anything that was there.
"Probably not much yourself; but I thought that as these men were
your father's tenants, you might feel unwilling that they should turn
murderers; and as I am your father's friend, you might, for his sake,
wish to prevent them murdering me."
"And is it from what such a gaping fool as McGovery says, you have
become afraid that men would murder you, who never so much as raised
their hand agin any of those who are from day to day crushing and
ruining them?"
"If I had been afraid, I should not have come here. Indeed, it was
to show them that I am not afraid of coming among them without my
own men at my back that I came here. But though I am not afraid, and
though it is not what McGovery says I mind--and he is not such a fool
as some others--nevertheless I do think, in fact, from different
sources, I know, that there is something going on through the
country, which will bring the poor into worse troubles than they've
suffered yet; and if, as I much think, they've come here to talk of
their plans to-night, and if you know that it is so, you're foolish
to be among them."
"Is that all you've to say to me, Captain Ussher?"
"Not quite; I wanted to ask you, on your honour, as a man and an
Irishman, do you know whether there is any conspiracy among them
to murder or do any injury to me?" Ussher paused for a moment; and
as Thady did not answer him, he went on--"and I wanted to warn you
against one who is, I know, trying his best to ruin you and your
father."
"Who is that, Captain Ussher? I believe I know my own friends and my
own inimies," said Thady, who thought the revenue officer alluded to
Keegan.
"Answer my question first."
"And suppose I don't choose to answer it?"
"Why, if you won't answer it, I cannot but think you are aware of
such a conspiracy, and that you approve of it."
"Do you mean to say, Captain Ussher, that I have conspired to murdher
you?"
"No, I say no such thing; but surely, if you heard of such a scheme,
or thought there was such an intention in the country, wouldn't you
tell me, or any one else that was so doomed, that they might be on
their guard?"
"You're very much frightened on a sudden, Captain."
"That's not true, Macdermot; you know I'm not frightened; but will
you answer the question?"
Thady was puzzled; he did not know what to say exactly. He had not
absolutely heard that the men whom he was going to meet that night,
and whom he knew he meant to join, intended to murder Ussher; but
Brady had told him that they were determined to have a fling at him,
and it was by their promise to treat the attorney in the same way,
that Thady had been induced to come down to them. It had never
struck him that he was going to join a body of men pledged to commit
murder--that he was to become a murderer, and that he was to become
so that very night. His feeling had been confined to the desire of
revenging himself for the gross and palpable injuries with which
he had been afflicted, whilst endeavouring to do the best he could
for his father, his sister, and his house. But now--confronted with
Ussher--asked by him as to the plots of the men whom he was on the
point of joining, and directly questioned as to their intentions by
the very man he knew they were determined to destroy, Thady felt
awed, abashed, and confused.
Then it occurred to him that he had not, at any rate as yet, pledged
himself to any such deed, or even in his mind conceived the idea of
such a deed; that there was no cause why he should give his surmises
respecting what he believed might be the intentions of others to
the man whom, of all others--perhaps, not excepting the lawyer--he
disliked and hated; and that there could be no reason why he should
warn Captain Ussher against danger. Though these things passed
through Thady's mind very quickly, still he paused some time, leaning
against the corner of an outhouse, till Ussher said,
"Well, Macdermot, surely you 'll not refuse to answer me such a
question as that. Though--God knows why--we mayn't be friends, you
would not wish to have such ill as that happen to me."
"I don't know why you should come to me, Captain Ussher, to ask such
questions. If you were to ask your own frinds that you consort with,
in course they would feel more concerned in answering you than I can.
Not that I want to have art or part in your blood, or to have you
murdhered--or any one else. But to tell you God's holy truth, if you
were out of the counthry intirely, I would be better plased, as would
be many others. And since you are axing me, I'll tell you, Captain
Ussher, that I do think the way you do be going on with the poor
in the counthry--dhriving and sazing them, and having spies over
them--isn't such as is likely to make you frinds in the counthry,
except with such as Jonas Brown and the like. And though, mind you, I
know nothing of plots and conspiracies among the boys, I don't think
you're over safe whilst staying among thim you have been trating that
way; and if they were to shoot you some night, it's no more than many
would expect. To tell you the truth, then, Captain Ussher, I think
you'd be safer anywhere than at Mohill."
Thady considered that he thus made a just compromise between the
faith he thought he owed to the men with whom he was going to league
himself, and the duty, which he could not but feel he ought to
perform, of warning Ussher of the danger in which he was placed.
Ussher felt quite satisfied with what Thady had said. He was not at
all surprised at his expressions of personal dislike, and he felt
confident, from the manner in which young Macdermot had spoken of
his perilous situation, that even if any conspiracy had been formed,
of which he was the object, there was no intention to put it into
immediate operation, and that, at any rate in Macdermot's opinion, no
concerted plan had yet been made to attack him. A good many reasons
also induced Ussher to think that he stood in no danger of any
personal assault. In the first place, though the country was in a
lawless state--though illicit distillation was carried to a great
extent--though many of the tenants refused to pay either rent,
tithes, or county cesses till compelled to do so--the disturbances
arising from these causes had not lately led to murder or bloodshed.
He had carried on his official duties in the same manner for a
considerable time without molestation, and custom had begotten the
feeling of security. Moreover, he thought the poor were cowed and
frightened. He despised them too much to think they would have
the spirit to rise up against him. In fact, he made up his mind
that Thady's intention was to frighten him out of the country, if
possible, and he resolved that he would not allow anything he had
heard on the subject either to disturb his comfort, or actuate his
conduct.
"Well, Macdermot, that's fair and above board--and what I expected,
though it's neither friendly nor flattering; and I am not vexed with
you for that; for if you don't feel friendly to me you shouldn't
speak as if you did, and therefore I'm obliged to you. And I will say
that if I am to be shot down, like a dog, whilst performing my duty
to the best of my ability, at any rate, I won't let the fear of such
a thing frighten me out of my comfort before it happens. And now if
you'll let me say a word or two to you about yourself--"
"I'm much obliged to you, Captain Ussher, but if you can take care of
yourself, so can I of myself."
"Why how cranky you are, man! If you hate me, hate me in God's name,
but don't be so absurd as to forget you're a man, and to act like a
child. I listened to you--and why can't you listen to me?"
"Well, spake on, I'll listen."
"Mind, I don't pretend to know more of your affairs than you would
wish me; but, as I am intimate with your father, I cannot but see
that you, in managing your father's concerns, put great confidence in
the man within there."
"What! Pat Brady?"
"Yes, Brady! Now if you only employed him as any other farm servant,
he would not, probably, have much power to injure you; but I believe
he does more than that--that he collects your rents, and knows the
affairs of all your tenants."
"Well?"
"I have very strong reason to think that he is also in the
employment, or at any rate in the pay, of Mr. Keegan, the attorney at
Carrick."
"What makes you think that, Captain Ussher?"
"I could hardly explain the different things which make me think so;
but I'm sure of it; and it is for you to judge whether, if such be
the case, your confidence will not enable him, under the present
state of affairs at Ballycloran, to do you and your father much
injury. He is also, to my certain knowledge, joined in whatever
societies--all of them illegal--are being formed in the country; and
he is a man, therefore, not to be trusted. I may add also that if you
listen too much to his advice and counsels, you will be likely to
find yourself in worse troubles than even those which your father's
property brings on you."
"Don't alarm yourself about me; I don't be in the habit of taking a
servant's advice about things, Captain Ussher."
"There's your back up again; I don't mean to offend you, I tell you;
however, if you remember what I have said to you, it may prevent much
trouble to you:"--and Ussher walked into the house.
"Prevent throubles," soliloquised Thady; "there is no way with me
to prevent all manner of throuble--I believe I'll go in and get a
tumbler of punch;"--and determined to adopt this mode of quieting
troubles, if he could not prevent them, he followed Ussher.
Ussher was now dancing with Feemy, and the fun had become universal
and incessant; there were ten or twelve couple dancing on the earthen
floor of Mrs. Mehan's shop. The piper was playing those provocative
Irish tunes, which, like the fiddle in the German tale, compel the
hearers to dance whether they wish it or no; and they did dance
with a rapidity and energy which showed itself in the streams of
perspiration running down from the performers' faces. Not much to
their immediate comfort a huge fire was kept up on the hearth; but
the unnecessary heat thus produced was atoned for by the numerous
glasses of punch with which they were thereby enabled to regale
themselves, when for a moment they relaxed their labours.
This pleasant recreation began also to show its agreeable effects in
the increased intimacy of the partners and the spirit of the party.
All diffidence in standing up had ceased--and now the only difficulty
was for the aspirants to get room on which to make their complicated
steps; and oh, the precision, regularity, and energy of those
motions! Although the piper played with a rapidity which would have
convinced the uninitiated of the impossibility of dancing to the
time, every foot in the room fell to the notes of the music as surely
as though the movements of the whole set had been regulated by a
steam machine. And such movements as they were! Not only did the feet
keep time, but every limb and every muscle had each its own work, and
twisted, shook and twirled itself in perfect unison and measure, the
arms performed their figure with as much accuracy as the legs.
"Take a sup of punch now, Miss Tierney; shure you're fainting away
entirely for the want of a dhrop." The lady addressed was wiping,
with the tail of her gown, a face which showed the labour that had
been necessary to perform the feat of dancing down the whole company
to the tune of the "wind that shakes the barley," and was now leaning
against the wall, whilst her last partner was offering her punch made
on the half and half system: "Take a sup, Miss Tierney, then; shure
you're wanting it."
"Thank ye, Mr. Kelly, but I am afther taking a little jist now, and
the head's not sthrong with me afther dancing;" she took the tumbler,
however. "Faix, Mr. Kelly, but it's yourself can make a tumbler of
punch with any man."
"'Deed then there's no sperrits in it at all--only a thrifle to take
the wakeness off the water. Come, Miss Tierney, you didn't take
what'd baptize a babby."
"It'd be a big babby then; one like yerself may be."
"Here's long life to the first you have yerself, any way, Miss
Tierney!" and he finished the glass, of which the blushing beauty had
drunk half. "Might a boy make a guess who'd be the father of it?"
"Go asy now, masther Morty,"--the swain rejoiced in the name of
Mortimer Kelley. "It'll be some quiet, dacent fellow, that an't given
to chaffing nor too fond of sperrits."
"By dad, my darling, and an't that me to a hair's breadth?"
"Is it you a dacent, asy boy?"
"Shure if it an't me, where's sich a one in the counthry at all? And
it's I'd be fond of the child--and the child's mother more especial,"
and he gave her a loving squeeze, which in a less energetic society
might have formed good ground for an action for violent assault.
"Ah don't! Go asy I tell you, Morty. But come, an't you going to
dance instead of wasting your time here all night?" and the pair,
re-invigorated by their intellectual and animal refreshment, again
commenced their dancing.
Whilst the fun was going on fast and furious among the dancers, those
in the inner room were not less busily engaged. Brady was still
sitting in the chair which he had occupied during the supper, at the
bottom of the table, though he had turned round a little towards the
fire. At the further end of it Thady was seated, with a lighted pipe
in his mouth, and a tumbler of punch on the shelf over the fireplace.
Joe Reynolds was seated a little behind, but between Thady and Pat
Brady; and a lot of others were standing around, or squatting on the
end of the table--leaning against the fireplace, or sitting two on a
chair, wherever two had been lucky enough to secure one between them.
They were all drinking, most of them raw spirits--and all of them
smoking. At the other end of the room, three or four boys and girls
were standing in the door-way, looking at the dancing, and getting
cool after their own performances; and Denis McGovery was sitting in
the chair which Father John had occupied, with his head on the table,
apparently asleep, but more probably intent on listening to what was
going on among them at the other end of the room, whom he so strongly
suspected of some proposed iniquity. The noise, however, of the music
and the dancing, the low tones in which the suspected parties spoke,
and the distance at which they sat, must have made Denis's occupation
of eaves-dropping difficult, if not impracticable.
Thady had just been speaking, and it was evident from the thickness
of his voice that the whiskey he had drunk was beginning to have its
effects on him. Instead of eating his dinner, he had been drinking
raw spirits in the morning, to which he was not accustomed; for
though when cold, or when pressed by others, he could swallow a
glass of raw whiskey with that facility which seems to indicate an
iron throttle, he had been too little accustomed to give way to any
temptation to become habitually a drunkard. Now, however, he was
certainly becoming tipsy, and, therefore, more likely to agree to
whatever those around him might propose.
"Asy, Mr. Thady!" said Pat; "there's that long-eared ruffian,
McGovery, listening to every word he can catch. Be spaking now as if
you war axing the boys about the rint."
"And isn't it about that he is axing?" said Joe. "But how can he get
the rint, or we be paying it, unless he gives us his hand to rid the
counthry of thim as robs us of our manes, and desthroys him and us,
and all thim as should be frinds to him and the owld Masther, and to
Ballycloran?"
"You know, all of ye, that I never was hard on you," continued Thady,
"when, God knows, the money was wanted bad enough at Ballycloran. You
know I've waited longer for what was owed than many a one has done
who has never felt what it was to want a pound. Did I ever pull the
roof off any of you? And though queer tenants you've most of you
been, an't the same set on the land now mostly that there was four
years ago? There's none of you can call me a hard man, I think; and
when I've stuck to you so long, it isn't now I'll break away from
you."
"Long life to you, Mr. Thady!" "Long life to yer honer--and may ye
live to see the esthate your own yet, and not owe a shilling!" "It's
thrue for the masther what he says; why should he turn agin his own
now? God bless him!" Such were the exclamations with which Thady's
last speech was received.
"And I'll tell you what it is," and he now spoke in a low thick
whisper, "I'll tell you what's on my mind. Those that you hate, I
don't love a bit too well. You all know Hyacinth Keegan, I think?"
"'Deed we do--may the big devil fetch him home!"
"Well, then, would you like him for your landlord, out and out? such
a fine gentleman as he is!"
"Blast him for a gintleman!" said Joe; "I'd sooner have his father;
he war an honest man, more by token he war no Protestant; he sarved
processes for Richard Peyton, up by Loch Allen."
"Well then," continued Thady, "if you don't like him, boys, I can
tell you he don't like you a bit better; and if he can contrive to
call himself masther at Ballycloran, as I can tell you he manes to
try, it's not one of you he'll lave on the land."
"Did he tell you that himself, Mr. Thady?" whispered Brady. Now
though young Macdermot was nearly drunk--quite drunk enough to
have lost what little good sense was left to him, after being fool
enough to come at all among those with whom he was at present
drinking--still what Ussher had said about his follower was not
forgotten, and though he did not absolutely believe that Brady was a
creature of Keegan's, what he had heard prevented his having the same
inclination to listen to Pat, or the same confidence in what he said.
"Faith then, he told me so with his own mouth; and it isn't only the
others 'd be going, but you'd have to walk yourself, masther Pat."
"And why wouldn't I? D'ye think I'd be staying at Ballycloran afther
you war gone, Mr. Thady?"
"Don't be making any vows, Pat; maybe you wouldn't be axed, and
maybe, av you war, you wouldn't refuse to ate yer bread, though it
war Keegan paid for it."
"That the first mouthful may choke me that I ever ate of his paying
for!"
"Well, however, boys, Hyacinth Keegan will sthrip the roof off
every mother's son of you if he ever conthrives to put his foot in
Ballycloran; but, by God, he never shall! Mind, boys, he can never do
that till he can lay his hands on the owld man; and where'll you all
be, I wonder, to let him or any one he sends do that, or take a sod
of turf, or a grain of oats off the land either?"
"By dad, you're right, Mr. Thady," said one of them. "Shure wouldn't
we have him in a bog-hole, or as many as he'd send; and then they
might take away what they could carry in their mouths."
"I'll tell you what, Sir," said Joe Reynolds, and he laid his hand
on Thady's knee, and leant forward till his mouth was near the young
man's ear--so near, that not only could not McGovery overhear his
words, but of the whole party round the fire, only Brady and Byrne,
besides Thady himself, could catch what he said; "I'll tell you what,
Sir, Keegan shall never harum you or yours, if you'll be one of
us--one of us heart and sowl; and I know you will, and I know it's
not in you to put up with what they're putting on you; an' dearly
he'll pay for the blow he strik you, an' the word he said--surely,
Mr. Thady!" And he whispered still lower into his ear, "Let alone the
esthate, an' the house, an' all that, you'd niver put up with what he
has been about this day, paceable an' in quiet?"
"You're thrue in that, Joe, by G----d!"
"Well then, won't we see you righted? Let the bloody ruffian come
to Ballycloran, an' then see the way he'll go back again to Carrick.
Will you say the word, Mr. Thady? Will you join us agin thim that is
as much, an' a deal more, agin you than they are agin us?"
"But what is it you main to do?"
"That's what you'll know when you've joined us; but you know it
isn't now or here we'd be telling you that which, maybe, would put
our necks in your hand. But when you've taken the oath we've all
taken, we'll be ready then not only to tell you all, but follow you
anywhere."
The young man paused.
"Isn't it enough for you to know that our inimies is your
inimies--that thim you wishes ill to, we wishes ill to? Isn't Keegan
the man you've most cause to hate, an' won't we right you with him?
Don't we hate that bloody Captain that is this moment playing his
villain's tricks with your own sisther in the next room there? and
shure you can't feel very frindly to him. By the holy Virgin, when
you're one of us, it's not much longer he shall throuble you. If you
can put up with what the likes of them is doing to you--if you can
bear all that--why, Mr. Thady, you're not the man I took you for.
But mind, divil a penny of rint 'll ever go to Ballycloran agin from
Drumleesh; for the matter's up now;--you're either our frind or
our inimy. But if, Mr. Thady, you've the pluck they all says you
have--an' which I iver see in you, God bless you!--it's not only one
of us you'll be, but the head of us all; for there isn't one but 'll
go to hell's gate for your word; an' then the first tinant on the
place that pays as much as a tinpenny to Keegan, or to any but jist
yourself--by the cross! he may dig his own grave."
What Thady immediately said does not much signify; before long he had
promised to come over to Mrs. Mulready's at Mohill with Pat Brady, on
an appointed night, there to take the oath of the party to whom he
now belonged.
Though it was agreed that the secret determinations of the party
were not to be divulged to him until he had joined them there,
it nevertheless was pretty clearly declared that their immediate
and chief object was the destruction of Ussher, and, if possible,
the liberation of the three men who had lately been confined in
Ballinamore Bridewell, for the malt that had been seized in the
cabin by Loch Sheen. However, to prevent the evil arising from this
carelessness in the performance of their duties as conspirators,
Thady was requested to swear on a cross made with the handles of two
knives, that he would not divulge anything that had occurred or been
said in that room that night--with which request he complied.
By the time this was done most of them were drunk, but none were
so drunk as poor Macdermot. His intoxication, moreover, was
unfortunately not of that sort which was likely to end in quiescence
and incapability. It was a sign of the great degradation to which
Macdermot had submitted, in joining these men, that in talking over
the injuries which Ussher had inflicted on them all, he had quietly
heard them canvass Ussher's conduct to his sister, and that in no
measured terms. This had gone much against the grain with him at
first, because he could not but strongly feel that, in abusing
Ussher, they were equally reproaching Feemy. But the fall of high and
fine feelings, when once commenced, is soon accomplished, even when
the fall is from a higher dignity than those of Thady's had ever
reached; and though, a few hours since, he would have allowed no
one but Father John, even to connect his sister's name with Ussher,
he had soon accustomed himself to hear the poorest tenant on his
father's property speak familiarly on the subject, when urging him
to join them in common cause against his enemy. But though he had so
far sacrificed his sister's dignity in his drunken conversation with
these men, he was not the less indignant with the man whose name
they had so unceremoniously joined with hers; and he got up with the
resolution to inform Ussher that the intercourse between him and
Feemy must immediately cease. The spirits he had taken gave him a
false feeling of confidence that he should find means to carry his
resolution into effect without delay.
When he got into the outer room, Ussher and Feemy were not there.
The dancing and drinking were going on as fast as ever; Shamuth,
the piper, was in the same seat, with probably not the same tumbler
of punch beside him, and was fingering away at his pipes as if the
feeling of fatigue was unknown to him; and Mary, the bride, was still
dancing as though her heart had not been broken all the morning with
the work she had had to do. Biddy also, the Ballycloran housemaid,
was in the seventh heaven of happiness--for hadn't she music and
punch galore? and though the glory of her once well-starched cap was
dimmed, if not totally extinguished by the dust and heat, her heart
was now too warm with the fun to grieve for that, especially when
such a neat made boy as Barney Egan was dancing foranenst her. It did
not, however, add to her happiness, when, after being addressed once
or twice in vain, she heard her young master's voice.
"Biddy--d'ye hear, and be d----d to you!--is your misthress gone
home?"
"'Deed, Mr. Thady, I think she be."
"And why the divil, then, a'nt you gone with her? d'you mane to be
dancing here all night?"
Now Thady was in general so very unobservant--so little inclined
to interfere with, if he could not promote, the amusements of his
dependants--moreover, so unaccustomed to scold--that Biddy and the
others round her soon saw that something was the matter.
"What are you staring at, you born fool? If Miss Feemy's gone up to
Ballycloran, do you follow her."
Thady's thick voice, red face, and sparkling eyes showed that he
was intoxicated, and Biddy, if not preparing to obey him--for the
temptation to stay was too strong--was preparing to pretend to do so,
when Mary McGovery, by way of allaying Macdermot's wrath, said,
"I don't believe then, Mr. Thady, that Miss Feemy's gone home, at all
at all. I think she and the Captain is only walked down the lane a
bit, jist to cool themselves, for sure it's hot work dancing--"
Thady did not stop to ask any more questions, but hurried out of
the door, and turning away from Ballycloran, walked as fast as his
unsteady legs would carry him towards Mohill; and, unfortunately,
Ussher and Feemy were strolling down the lane in that direction.
When Pat Brady saw Macdermot hurry out of the house, he said to his
sister, "Begad! Mary, you'd better hurry down the lane--if Captain
Ussher and Miss Feemy is in it--jist to take care of her; for he and
the masther 'll have a great fight of it this night. The masther's
blood's up, and the two'll be slating one another afore they're
parted."
"Goodness gracious!" exclaimed Mary, "why don't you go yourself, Pat?
Mr. Thady's taken a dhrop, and maybe he'll be hurting Miss Feemy
or the Captain. Denis, dear,"--her husband came in the room just
then,--"there's a ruction between the Captain and Mr. Thady; in God's
name go and bring away Miss Feemy!"
Ussher and Feemy had not been out of the house many minutes; it was a
beautiful mild moonlight night in October, and as the girl had said,
they had come out to cool themselves after the heat and noise and
dirt of the room in which they had been dancing. Myles was in one of
his best humours; he had persuaded himself that he had no real danger
to fear from the men who, as he was told, were so hostile to him.
Feemy, too, had looked very pretty and nice, and had not contradicted
him; and whereas what Thady had drunk had made him cross, Ussher had
only just had enough to make him good-humoured. Feemy too was very
happy; she had contrived to forget her brother's croaking and Father
John's warning, or at least the misery which they had occasioned
her, and was very happy in Ussher's good-humour. It were bootless to
repeat their conversation, or to tell how often it was interrupted by
some unchided caress on the part of Ussher. Feemy, however, had not
forgotten her resolution, and was bringing up all her courage to make
some gentle hint to Myles on the subject on which she had promised
Father John to speak to him, when her heart sunk within her, on
hearing her brother's voice calling to her from behind.
"Good heaven, Myles, there's Thady! what can he be wanting here?"
Ussher's arm fell from the fair girl's waist as he answered, "Never
fear, dear, don't you speak to him; leave him to me." By this time,
Thady had nearly joined them.
"Is that you, Feemy, here at this hour? What the d---- are you doing
there, this time of night? Here, take my arm, and come home; it's
time you had some one to mind you, I'm thinking."
Feemy saw that her brother was intoxicated, and was frightened; she
turned, though she did not take his arm, and Ussher turned too.
"Your sister's not alone, Macdermot; as I'm with her, I don't think
you have much cause to fear, because she is about a mile from
Ballycloran."
"May be, Captain Ussher, you're being with her mayn't make her much
safer; at any rate you'll let me manage my own affairs. I suppose I
can take my sisther to her own home without your interference," and
he took hold of his sister's arm, as if to drag it within his own.
"Good heavens, Thady, what are you afther? shure an't I walking with
you; don't be dragging me!"
"It appears to me, Macdermot," said Ussher, "that though your sister
was in want of no protector before you came, she is in great want of
one now."
"She wanted it thin, and she wants it now, and will do as long as
she's fool enough to put herself in the way of such as you; but, by
G----d, as long as I'm with her, she shall have it!" and he dragged
her along by the arm.
"But, Thady," said the poor girl, afraid both of her brother and her
lover, and hardly knowing to which to address herself; "but, Thady,
you're hurting me, and I'll walk with you quiet enough. I was only
getting a little cool afther the dancing, and what's the great harm
in that?"
"Well--there," and he let her go, "I'm not hurting you now; it's very
tender you've got of a sudden, when I touch you. Captain Ussher, if
you'll plaze to go on, or stay behind, I'll be obliged, for I want to
spake to Feemy; and there's no occasion in life for my throubling you
to hear what I've to say."
"You can say what you like, Macdermot, but I shan't leave you; for
though Feemy's your sister, you're not fit to guide her, or yourself
either, for you're drunk."
"And there you lie, Captain Ussher! you lie--that's what you're used
to! but it's the last of your lies she'll hear."
"Ah! you're drunk," replied Ussher, "besides, you know I'd not notice
what you'd say before your sister; if, however, you're not so very
drunk as to forget what you've called me to-morrow morning, and would
then like to repeat it, I'll thrash you as you deserve."
"Then, by Jasus, you'll have your wish! you asked me to-night if
I had a mind to quarrel with you, and now I'll tell you, if I find
you at Ballycloran schaming agin, you'll find me ready and willing
enough."
"That's where you'll find me to-morrow morning then, for I'll
certainly come to ask your sister how she is, after the brutal manner
you've frightened her this night; and then perhaps you'll have the
goodness to tell me what you mean by what you call 'schaming.'"
"I'll tell you now, then; it's schaming to be coming with your lies
and your blarney afther a girl like Feemy, only maning to desave
her--it's schaming to go about humbugging a poor silly owld man like
my father,--and it's the higth of schaming and blackguardness to
pretend to be so frindly to a family, when you know you're maning
them all the harum in your power to do. But you'll find, my fine
Captain, it an't quite so asy to play your thricks at Ballycloran as
you think, though we are so poor."
Feemy, when the young men had begun to use hard words to one another,
had commenced crying, and was now sobbing away at a desperate rate.
"Don't distress yourself, Feemy," said Ussher, "your brother 'll be
more himself to-morrow morning; he'll be sorry for what he has said
then--and if he is so, I am not the man to remember what any one says
when they've taken a little too much punch."
They had now come near enough to Mrs. Mehan's to see that there were
a number of people outside the door. As soon after Thady's departure
as Denis McGovery and the rest had been able to make up their minds
what it would be the best to do in the emergency of the case, Denis
and his wife sallied forth; the former to carry home whichever of the
combatants might be slaughtered in the battle, and Mary to give to
Feemy what comfort and assistance might be in her power. Pat Brady
prudently thought that under all circumstances it would be safest for
himself to remain where he was. The married pair, however, bent on
peace if possible, and if not, on assuaging the horrors of war, had
barely got into the road, when they encountered Father John returning
to the wedding party.
"Oh, and it's yer riverence is welcome agin this blessed evening. God
be praised that sent you, for it's yerself 'll be wanted, I'm afeard,
and that immediately."
It was some time before the priest could learn what was the
matter. At last he discovered that Ussher and Feemy had gone out
walking,--that Thady had got drunk, and had gone after them; and
he was inquiring whether he had gone towards Mohill, or towards
Ballycloran, which none of them knew, when the three came in sight.
Father John instantly walked up to them, and if he had learnt it from
nothing else, soon discovered from Feemy's tears, that something was
the matter.
"How are you, Thady?" he said, putting out his hand to take the young
man's, which was given with apparent reluctance; "how are you? is
there anything wrong, that Feemy is crying so?"
"Oh, you know, Father John, there is a d----d deal wrong, and I've
jist told the Captain what it is, that's all. I'll not have the girl
humbugged any longer, that's all."
"There must be a great deal wrong, Thady, when you'd curse that way
before me."
"I can't be picking my words now, for priest or parson."
They were now surrounded by the whole crowd out of the house, who
were staring and gaping, and absolutely shocked at Thady's impudence
to his friend and priest. Feemy was sobbing, and on Ussher offering
her his arm to take her from the crowd, took it.
"By G----d!" exclaimed Thady, "if you touch that ruffian's arm again,
I'll niver call you sisther, or shall you iver call me brother; so
now choose betwixt us."
Feemy dropped her hand from Ussher's arm, but turning to the priest,
she said, "For heaven's sake take him away, Father John, he's drunk!"
"Drunk or sober, you may choose now; it's either me or him; but if
you disgrace yourself, you shall not disgrace me!"
Father John took Feemy's arm on his, and telling the people to go
back to their dancing, laid his hand on Thady's shoulder, and said,
"At any rate, Thady, come a little out of this; if you must speak to
your sister in that way, you don't wish all the parish to hear what
you're saying."
"What matthers, Father John; what matthers? Shure they've all
heard too much already;--don't they all say she's the blackguard's
misthress?"
"Oh, Thady, how can you repeat that word of me?" sobbed the poor
girl.
"Why did you let them say it? Why don't you tell the man that's
blackening your name while he's desaving you, to be laving you now,
and not following you through the country like a curse?"
By this time the whole party, consisting of Father John, the two
young men, and Feemy, were walking on rapidly towards Ballycloran.
Feemy was crying, but saying nothing. Ussher was silent, although
Thady was heaping on him every term of abuse he could think of;--and
Father John was in vain attempting to moderate his wrath. Thus they
continued until they came to the avenue leading up to the house, and
on Ussher's proceeding with them through the gate, Thady put himself
in the way, stopping him.
"You'll not come a step in here, Captain, if I know it; you might
follow us along the road, for I couldn't help it,--but, by G----d,
you don't come in here!"
"Nonsense, man; do you think I'll stop out for a drunken man's riot?
let me pass."
"Set a foot in here, you blackguard, and I'll stretch you!"
Thady had an alpine in his hand, and was preparing to strike a blow
at the Captain, exactly on the spot where Keegan had struck him,
when the priest pushed his burly body in between them. "I'll have
no blows, boys, at any rate while I'm with you; put your stick down,
Thady," and he forced the young man's stick down; "run up to the
house, Feemy, and get to bed; I'll see you in the morning." Feemy,
however, did not move. "Now, Captain Ussher, I am not saying a word
on the matter, one way or other, for I don't well know how the
quarrel began,--but do you think it's well to be forcing your way in
here, when the master desires you not?"
"But, Mr. McGrath, I've yet to learn that this drunken fellow is
master here; besides, I suppose it is not a part of his project to
rob me of my horse, which is in his father's stable."
Thady was at length persuaded to allow Ussher to go to the stables
for his horse, and the Captain, after what had passed, did not now
wish to go into the house. He was, however, going up to Feemy to
shake hands with her, when the priest caught him by the arm,
saying,--
"Why would you anger a drunken man, and that too, when the feeling in
his heart is right? I'll tell you what, Captain, if what that young
man fears is true, you're almost as much worse than him as vice is
than virtue."
"Spare me your sermon now, Father John; if I see you to-morrow I'll
hear it in patience," and he galloped down the avenue.
Thady and Feemy went into the house, and we hope each got to
bed without further words; and Father John walked slowly home,
thinking of all the misery he saw in store for his parishioners at
Ballycloran.