The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, 29 January 1920, Page 3

The Storyteller

By William Carleton.

WILLY REILLY AND HIS DEAR COLEEN BAWN. (A Tale Founded upon Fact)

CHAPTER XII— SIR ROBERT MEETS A BROTHERSPORTSMAN; DRAWS HIS NETS, BUT CATCHES NOTHING. ._ v , " 'Tis conscience that makes cowards of us all," said Shakespere, with that wonderful wisdom which enlightens his glorious pages and, in fact, Sir Robert Whitecraft, in his own person, fully corroborated the truth of the poet's apothegm. The man, besides, was naturally a coward; and when to this we add the consciousness of his persecutions and cruelties, and his apprehensions from the revenge of Reilly,—the destruction of whose property, without any authority from Government for the act, he felt himself guilty of—the reader may understand the nature and extent of his terrors on his way home. The distance between his own houes and that of his intended father-in-law was about four miles, and there lay a long space of level road, hedged in, as was then the custom, on both sides, from behind which hedges an excellent aim could be taken. As Sir Robert proceeded along this lonely path his horse stumbled against some stones that were in his way, or perhaps, that had been purposely placed there. Be that as it may, the baronet fell, and a small man, of compact size and vigorous frame, was found aiding him to rise. Having helped him into his saddle, the baronet asked him, with an infirm and alarmed voice, who he was. "Why, Sir Robert," he replied, "you must know I am not a papist, or I wouldn't be apt to render you any assistance; I am somewhat of your own kidney,—a bit of a priest-hunter on a small scale. I used to set them for Captain Smellpriest, but he paid me badly, and, as there was a great risk among the bloody Papists, I made up my mind to withdraw out of his service; but you are a gentleman, Sir Robert, what Captain Smellpriest is not and if you want an active and useful enemy to Popery, I am your man." "I want such a person, certainly," replied the baronet, who, in consequence of the badness of the road and the darkness of the night, was obliged to walk his horse with caution. "By the way," said he, "did you not hear a noise behind tho hedge?" "I did," replied the other, "but it was the noise of cattle." "I am not aware," replied Sir Robert, "what the devil cattle can have to do immediately behind the hedge. I rather think they are some of our own species;" and, as they ceased speaking, the tremendous bray of a jackass came upon their ears. "You were right, Sir Robert," replied his companion; "I beg pardon, I mean that I was right; you know now it was cattle." "What is your name?" asked Sir Robert. "Rowland Drum, Sir Robert; and, if you will permit me, I should like to see you safe home. I need not say that you are hated by the Papists; and, as the road is lonesome and dangerous, as a priest-hunter myself, I think it an act of duty not to leave you." *- "Thank you," said Sir Robert; "you are a civil person, and I will accept your escort." "Whatever danger you may run, Sir Robert, I will stand by your side and partake of it." "Thank you, friend," replied Sir Robert; there is a lonely place before us, where a ghost is said to be seen — the ghost of a priest whom I hunted for a long time. Smellpriest, it is said, shot him at the place I allude to. He was disguised as a drummer, and is said to haunt the locality where he was shot." "Well, I shall see you safe over the place, Sir Robert, and go home with you afterwards, provided you will promise to give me a bed and my supper; to-morrow we can talk on matters of business." •.. „ "I shall certainly do so," replied Sir Robert, "not only in consequence of your attention to me, but of our common purpose." *> ;.; ' They then proceeded onwards— the haunted spot without either hearing or seeing the spectral drummer. On arriving at home, Sir Robert, who drank privately, ordered wine for himself, and sent Rowland Drum v to the kitchen, where he was rather meagrely entertained, and was afterwards lodged for the night in the garret.:

The next morning, after breakfast, Sir Robert • sent for Mr. Drum, who, on entering the breakfast parlor, was thus addressed "by-his new patron :r- ' ' "What's this you say your name is?" "Rowland Drum, sir." "Rowland Drum! Well, now, Rowland Drum, are you well acquainted with the priests of this diocese?" "No man better," replied the redoubtable Rowland. "I know most of them by person, and have got private descriptions of them all from Captain Smellpriest, which will be invaluable to you, Sir Robert. The fact is—and this I mention in the strictest confidencethat Smellpriest is suspicious of your attachment to our glorious constitution." "The d d rascal," replied the baronet. "Did he ever, burn as many Popish houses as I have done? He has no appetite for anything but the pursuit and capture of priests; but I have a far more general and unsparing practice; for I not only capture the priests where I can, but every lay Papist that we suspect in the country. Here, for instance. Do you see those papers? They are blank protections, transmitted to me from the Secretary of State, that I may be enabled, by his authority, to extend protection to such Papists as will give useful information to the Government. Here they are signed by the Secretary, but the blanks are left for myself to fill up." "I wish we could get Reilly to come over," said Mr. Drum. "O the d d villain," said the baronet; "all the protections from the Secretary's office would not nor could not save him. Old Folliard and I will hang him if-there was not another man to be hanged in* the three kingdoms." At this moment a servant came in and said: "Sir Robert, there is a woman here who wishes to have some private conversation with you." "What kind of a woman is she?" asked the baronet. "Faith, your honor, a sturdy and strapping wench, somewhat rough in the face, but of great proportions." Now, it so happened that Mr. Drum had been sitting at the window during this-brief conversation, and at once recognised, under the disguise of a woman, the celebrated informer, the Rev. Mr. Hennessy, a wretch whose criminal course of life, as we said before, was so gross and reprobate, that his pious bishop deemed it his duty to suspend him from all clerical functions. "Sir Robert," said Drum, "I must go up to my room and shave. My presence, I apprehend, won't be necessary where there is a lady in question." "Very well," replied tho baronet; "I know not what her business may be; but I shall be glad to speak with you after she shall have gone." It was very well that Hennessy did not see Drum, whom he would at once have recognised; but, at all events, the interview between the reprobate priest and the baronet lasted at least an hour. After the Rev. Miss Hennessy had taken her departure, Mr. Drum was sent for by the baronet, whom he still found in the breakfast-parlor. "Drum," said he, "you have now an opportunity of essentially serving not only me, but the Government of the country. This lady turns out to be a Popish priest in disguise, and I have taken him into my confidence, as a guide and auxiliary. Now, you have given me proofs of personal attachment, which is certainly more than he has done. I have heard of his character as an immoral priest; and the man who could be false to bis own creed is not a man to be relied upon. He has described to me the position of a cavern, in which are now hiding a d d set of proscribed priests; but I cannot have confidence in his information, and I wish you to go to the ravine, or cavern, or whatever the devil it is, and return to me with correct intelligence. It may be a lure to draw me into danger, or perhaps to deprive me of my life; but, on second thought, I think I shall get a military force and go myself." "And perhaps never return, unless with your heels foremost, Sir Robert. I tell you that this Hennessy is the damnedest and most treacherous scoundrel on the face of the earth. You do not know what he's at, but I will tell you, for I have it from his own cousin. His object is to have you assassinated, in order to restore himself to the good graces of the bishop and the Catholic party, who, I must say, however, would not countenance such a murderous act; still, Sir Robert, if you were taken off, the man who took you off would have his name honored and exalted throughout the country." "Yes, I believe you are right, Drum ; they are thirsting for my blood, but not more than I am thirsting for theirs." • "Well, then," said Drum, "don't trust yourself to the counsels of this Hennessy, who, in my opinion, only wants to make a scapegoat of you. Allow me to go to the place he mentions, for I know the ravine well, but

I never knew nor do I believe that there is a cavern at all in it, and that is what makes me suspect the scoundrel's motives. He can have hundreds of outlaws secretly armed, who would never suffer {you to escape with your life. The thing is an ambuscade; take my word for it, it is nothing less. Gf course you can go, yourself and your party, if you wish. You will prevent me from running a great risk; but I am only anxious for your safety." '- - .. "Well, then," said Sir Robert, "you shall go upon this mission. It may not be safe for me to do so. Try if you can make out this cavern, if there be a cavern." "I will try, Sir Robert- and I will venture to say, that if it can be made out I will make it out." Rowland Drum, accordingly, set out upon his mission, and having arrived at the cavern, with which he was so well acquainted, he entered it with the usual risk. His voice, however, was recognised, and he got instant admittance. " "My dear friends," said he, after he had entered-the inner part of the cavern, "you must disperse immediately. Hennessy has betrayed you, and if you remain here twentyfour hours longer, Sir Robert Whitecraft and a party of military, guided, probably, by the treacherous scoundrel himself, will be upon you. The villain had a long interview with him, and gave a full detail of the cavern and its inmates." "But how did you become acquainted with him?" asked tho bishop. "In order, my lord, to ascertain his intentions and future proceedings," replied Mr. Drum, "that we might guard against his treachery and persecution. On his way home from a dinner at Squire Folliard's, I met him in a lonely part of the road, where he was thrown from his horse; I helped him into his saddle, told him I was myself a priest-hunter, and thus got into his confidence so far as to be able to frustrate Hennessy's treachery, and to counteract his own designs." "Sir," said the bishop, sternly, "you have acted a part unworthy of a Christian clergyman. We should not do evil, that good may follow; and you have done evil in associating yourself, in any sense, and for any purpose, with this bloodthirsty tiger and persecutor of the faithful." "My lord," replied the priest, "this is not a time to enter into a discussion on such a subject. Hennessy has betrayed us; and if you do not disperse to other places of safety he will himself, as I said, lead Sir Robert Whitecraft and -a military party to this very cavern, and then may God have mercy on you all." ''Brethren," said the bishop, it is, after all, possible that our brother has, by the mercy and providence of God, through his casual meeting with this remorseless man, been made the instrument of our safety. As for myself, I am willing to embrace the crown of martyrdom, and to lay down my life, if necessary, for the faith that is in me. You all know what I have already suffered, and you know that persecution drives a wise man mad. My children," ho added, "it is possible, and I fear, too, probable, that some of us may never see each other in this life again; but, at the same time, let it be our hope and consolation that me shall meet in a better. And for this purpose, and in order to secure a futurity of happiness, let us live spotless and irreproachable lives; such as will enable us to meet the hour of death, whether it comes by the hand of God or the persecution of man. Be "faithful to the principles of our holy religionbe faithful to truthto moral virtuebe faithful to God, before Whose awful tribunal we must all appear, and render an account of our lives. It would be mere wantonness to throw yourselves into the hands of our persecutors. Reserve yourselves for the continuance and the sustainment of our blessed religion ; but if you should happen to fall, by the snares and devices of the enemy, into the power of those who are striving to work our extermination, and if they should press you to renounce your faith, upon the alternative of banishment, or death, then, I say, banishment, or death itself, sooner than become apostates to your religion. I shall retire to a neighborhood, only a few miles distant from this, where the poor Catholic population are without spiritual aid or consolation. I have been there before, and I know their wants, and were it not that I was hunted and pursued with a view to my death my murder, 1 should rather sayl would have remained with them still. But that I considered it a duty to that portion of the Church over which God called upon me to preside and watch, I would not have avoided those inhuman traffickers in the blood of God's people. Yet I am bound to say, that from the clergymen of the Established Church we have received kindness, sympathy, and shelter. Their doors, their hearths, and their hearts have been open tc us, and that, too, in a truly Christian spirit. Let us, then, render them good for good; let us pray for their conversion, and that they may return to the right path."

* "They have acted generously and nobly," added Reilly, "and in a truly Christian spirit. Were it not for the shelter and protection which I myself received from one of them, my mangled body would, probably, be huddled down into some obscure grave, as a felon and my propertywhich is mine only by a necessary fiction and evasion of the —have passed into the hands of Sir Robert Whitecraft. I am wrong, however, in saying that it could Mr. Hastings, a generous and liberal Protestant, took it in his own name for my father, but gave me a deed of assignment, placing it as securely in my hands, and in my power, as if I were Sir Robert Whitecraft himself ; and I must —which I do with pleasurethat the deed in question is now in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Brown, the amiable rector of the parish." "But ho is a heretic," said a red-faced little man, dressed in leather breeches, top-boots, and a huntsman's cap; "vade retro sathanas. It is a damnable crime to have any intercourse with them, or to receive any protection from them: vade retro sathanas." "If I don't mistake," said the cook — an archdeacon, by the way — "you yourself received protection from them, and were glad to receive it." "If I did receive protection from one of their heretic parsons it was for Christian purposes. My object was not so milch to seek protection from him, as to work out his salvation by withdrawing him from his heresy. But then the fellow was as obstinate as sathanas himself, and had Greek and Hebrew at his ringers' ends. I made several passes at —tried Irish, and told him it was Italian. 'Well,' said he, smiling, 'I understand Italian, too' ; and to my astonishment he addressed me in the best Irish I ever heard spoken. 'Now,' said he, still smiling, 'you perceive that I understand Italian nearly— will not so well — as you do.' Now, as lam a sinner, that, I say, was ungenerous treatment. He was perfectly irreclaimable. This man was, like Mr. Maguire, what has been termed a.hedge-priest, a character which, as wo have already said, the poverty of the Catholic people, during the existence of the penal laws, and the consequent want of spiritual instruction, rendered necessary. There were no Catholic colleges in the country, and the result was that tho number of foreign priestsby which I mean Irish priests educated in foreign collegeswas utterly inadequate to meet the spiritual necessities of the Irish population. Under those circumstances, men of good and virtuous character' who understood something of the Latin tongue, were ordained by their respective bishops, for the purpose which we have already mentioned. But what a difference was there between those half-educated men, and the class of educated clergymen who now adorn, not only their Church, but the literature of the country! "Well, my dear friend," said the bishop, "let us be thankful for the protection which we have received at the hands of the Protestant clergy, and of many of the Protestant laity also. We now separate, and I for one am sensible how much this cruel persecution has strengthened the bonds of Christian love among us, and excited our sympathy for our poor persecuted flock, so many of whom are now without a shepherd. I leave you with tears, but they are tears of affection, and not of ' despair. I shall' endeavor to be useful, wherever I may abide. Let each of you do all the spiritual good you canall the earthly good— good in its most enlarged and purest sense. But we must separate —probably some of us for ever ; and now may the blessing of tho Almighty God —of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghostrest upon you all, and be with you and abide in your hearts, now and for ever! Amen!" Having pronounced these words, he covered his face with his two hands, and wept bitterly. Thorn were, indeed, few dry eyes around him; they knelt before him, kissed his ring, and prepared to take their departure out of the cavern. "My lord," said Reilly, who still entertained apprehensions of the return of his malady, "if you will permit me, I shall share your fate, whatever it may be. The poor people you allude to are not in the condition tc attend to your wants. Allow me, then, to attend and accompany you in your retreat." "My dear friend," said the bishop, clasping his hand, "you are heaping coals of fire upon my head. I trust you will forgive me; for I knew not what I did. I shall be, glad of your companionship. I fear I still stand in need of such a friend. Be it so, then," he proceeded, "be it so, my dear friend; only that I should not wish you to involve yourself in unnecessary danger on my account." "Danger, my lord!" replied Reilly; "there is not an individual here against whom personal malignity has directed the vengeance of the law with such a bloodthirsty and vindictive spirit as against myself. Why else am I here? No, I will accompany your lordship, and share your fate." j

It was so determined, and they left the cavern, each to procure some place of safety for himself. (To be continued.)