The Tithe-Proctor Part 43

"No," they replied; "Go on, and more power!"

At this moment M'Carthy shouted out in loud and powerful tones--"The Cannie Soogah!" and the words were no sooner uttered than Mogue started, a rapid stir and murmur pervaded, the mult.i.tude, and almost instantly a most hearty and vociferous cheer awakened the echoes that slept among the neighboring hills. The moment this had subsided, the same voice repeated the name with an addition--"The Cannie Soogah to the rescue--here he is!"

Our facetious friend, for it was he, threw up his hand in a peculiar manner, that made the act understood by all present, with the exception of M'Carthy and Alick Purcel.

"Yes, boys," he exclaimed, "I am here; and I thank you for your kindness. You have had a full revenge to-night on Purcel and his family; but, as I have been a long time in search of a good wife, I suppose you have no objection that I should take charge of the ladies."

These words were followed by another astounding cheer, and the Cannie, riding over to the spot where Mrs. Purcel and her daughter stood--for she and Mary had now joined Julia--was about to speak to them, when the report of a pistol was heard, and at the same moment a bullet whizzed past his ear.

"Treachery!" he shouted, "treachery against your commander! Seize upon that person, in the name of Captain Right."

His words came late; another report followed the first, with an interval of less than a quarter of a minute between them, and instantly our pious friend, who had flattered himself with the prospect of a long and happy life in the possession of Julia Purcel, fell stone-dead to the earth.

"What!" shouted the Cannie, "is this more treachery? But wait, I'll soon cure this."

He put a horn to his lips as he spoke, and having given it a sharp, quick, and hasty blast, he nodded his head, as much as to say, "Wait a moment."

"The last shot wasn't threachery anyhow," exclaimed Jerry Joyce, whose voice Alick immediately recognized; "somebody," he added, with a significant look, "has ped honest Mogue for his."

"Is he dead?" asked the Cannie.

"He is dead, captain," replied several, "and so may every one die that's a traitor to the Cannie Soogah--our bold Captain Right.'"

A body of about a thousand men now made their appearance, every one of them personally devoted to the Cannie Soogah; and brought there for the humane purpose, if possible, of saving Purcel and his sons that night.

"It was a false alarm, my friends," said he, as they came up; "there was only one traitor among them, and he has been brought to his account. I didn't wish for his death, and he might have got some other punishment, but it can't be helped now; I'm only sorry for the false-hearted vagabond because he wasn't fit to die."

He then, after a few words of advice, dismissed them to their respective homes, with the exception of a certain number of faithful followers, whom he retained for the purpose of a.s.sisting him to escort Mrs. Purcel and her daughters to the house of our worthy magistrate. Another body he also appointed to the task of carrying the dead and wounded away to some remote place, where they could be interred, or so concealed that their indentification might not involve their surviving relatives.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Destruction of the Castle]

Our narrative, we may say, is closed. The Cannie now having placed Mrs.

Purcel and her daughters on horseback, directed his friends to proceed to the residence of the redoubtable Fitzy O'Driscol, who was by no means prepared for seeing such a number of Whiteboys about his house. Alick Purcel and M'Carthy also got horses, and as they went along, M'Carthy received from him a solution to the mysterious occurrences in which he had been involved.

"Mr. Purcel's family," said he, but not in hearing of the females, "is the last family that I ought to protect this night. They have shot my twin brother, the man that went by the name of Buck English. He is now gone to his reckonin' and may G.o.d forgive him! He was tried and found guilty of murdher in the county of Cork, and the worst of it was that it was in the act of robbin' a gentleman's house that the murdher was committed. While he was in gaol I contrived to get into him, and we managed so well that he escaped, and I was kept in his place. The next day I tould them the truth, and he was taken again; but it seems that the gintleman that prosecuted, on hearin' that there was another person so like him, felt unaisy in his mind and got him off for the murdher, in dread he might have sworn against the wrong man. He couldn't keep himself quiet though, for, on the very day before his pardon came, he was caught, along wid some others, in the act of breakin' out of the gaol, and for that he got a severe wound and seven years'

transportation. All our lives, I and my other brother--"

"Why, have you another brother, Cannie?" asked M'Carthy.

"Troth, and I have; and you may thank G.o.d that I have, or it isn't here but in heaven, I hope, you'd be this night. Well, as I was sayin', I an' my other brother spent our whole life in tryin' to defate him in his plans and skames--may G.o.d forgive him! We often did, but not always; for sometimes he was too many for both of us."

"But, Cannie, about the night I was in Frank Finnerty's, who was it that saved my life twice?"

"One of them--he that wounded the fellows--I don't wish to name--but, indeed I'm crippled here, bekaise you know, gintlemen, that there are laws in the land. A friend to your family met Mogue Moylan, and, suspectin' what was in the wind, sent that friend to a.s.sist you, and it was by volunteerin' to take your life that he was able to save you. My brother, afther meetin' him, and hearin' from him what happened was the man that met you aftherwards, that gave you the pa.s.swords, and showed you how to open the windey. There were others there that knew you, for I hope you don't think that every man goin' out at night wid a white s.h.i.+rt and a black face on him is a murdherer."

"G.o.d forbid!" said M'Carthy, "I've been disguised by both myself, as it happens. It is difficult, however, for any country to be happy, or any people either industrious or moral, when such secret confederacies are made the standard of both law and morality."

"That's thruth, Mr. M'Carthy, and no man knows it betther than I do; I and my brother--not him that's gone to his account to night, but the other--were forced to join them for our own safety, but, as long as we wor of them, we endeavored to do as much good--that is, to prevent as much evil--as we could. It was I that sent you, Mr. M'Carthy, the letter to Dublin, and it was I that sent the messenger for you this evenin'; I took it for granted that if you had remained in Mr. Purcel's you'd been shot, and, besides, I wanted you to watch Mogue Moylan, for I had raison to know that he intended to play a trick on me to night in regard to Miss Julia. I had my doubts all along whether I could come in time to save the whole family and defate my brother, and I could not, for I had an immense number of my own men to get together; however, G.o.d's will be done; I did all that lay in my power."

On reaching Na.s.sau Lodge, the party antic.i.p.ated some danger from Fergus O'Driscol's fire-arms. Alick, however, knocked, and on hearing the window open, exclaimed:--

"Don't be alarmed, Fergus, we are friends. My mother and sisters are here, and wish to get in. This has been a dreadful night!--a night of bloodshed and murder!"

"My G.o.d!" exclaimed Fergus, "what is this you tell me? But why, Alick, are you surrounded by such a number of Whiteboys. I can see distinctly that they are such by the light of the moon."

"Boys," said the Cannie Soogah, "disperse now--and thank you; I feel your kindness, and I won't forget it--you see the people of the house are alarmed--but that's not the worst of it--what," he added, with a peculiar smile, "if you bring that terrible dare-divil, O'Driscol, upon you!"

The crowd immediately dispersed, and in a few minutes the melancholy group were admitted to the welcome shelter of the magistrate's hospitable roof; for such, in fact, it was.

We do not intend to dwell upon this melancholy meeting of the neighboring families, nor upon the heart-rending details which were given of the dreadful circ.u.mstances that made that night so hideous. All the O'Driscols were present, and deeply partic.i.p.ated in the affliction of the late proctor's family with the exception of the magistrate himself, who, much to their astonishment, was not forthcoming. Every successive moment, however, he was looked for; but as he did not, after an unusual period of expectation, make his appearance, some alarm began to be felt, which gradually increased, especially on the part of his daughter, until she proposed that a search should be made for him. This was accordingly done, when--but let it not reach the ears of his friend the Castle, he was discovered somewhat in the position of Philosopher Square, behind Molly Seagrim's curtain, squatted upon his hunkers, as they say, in the furthest and darkest corner of the coal hole.

In about half an hour after this discovery, a knock came to the door, and it was intimated to Alick Purcel and M'Carthy, that the Cannie Soogah wished to see them for a minute or two,--but that he declined coming in.

"Gentlemen," said he, when they came to the hall-door, "I have made up my mind since I left you awhile ago, and I'm come to bid you both farewell. This at present is not a paceful country to live in, and I'm tired of the work that's goin' on in it. I'm now come to bid you both farewell, and my brother is goin' along wid me. The other will be laid in his grave this night. I wish, Mr. Purcel, I could a' done more for your family; but what's done can't be undone. Farewell, then," said he, and, as he spoke, his voice was filled with deep but manly emotion--"Farewell to you both! When you think of me, let it be kindly, for from this night out you will never see the Cannie Soogah more."

He put his two hands upon his face, gave a sob or two, and immediately departed at a rapid pace, and never was seen in the country afterwards.

It is necessary to say now that Alick Purcel and his beloved Miss O'Driscol were united;--that M'Carthy, in due time, after having been called to the bar, was made happy in the possession of Julia Purcel; and that Jerry Joyce, in imitation of his betters, was blessed by the hand and honest heart of Letty Lenehan.