Ballyronan

Front matter

BALLYRONAN BALLYRONAN BY RUPERT ALEXANDER Xon-fcon DIGBY, LONG & CO., PUBLISHERS 1 8 Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, E.C. CONTENTS Chap. Page I. The Brothers . . - - i II. The Lots ----- 5 III. The Ould Grannie - - - 11 IV. John Donovan's Grave - - - 16 V. In Father Tim's Parlour - - 22 VI. Sweet Revenge - - - - 29 VII. The Grey Witch - - - - 36 VIII. " Masther Dick " - 41 IX. Dick Waltzes and Wins - - - 48 X. Correspondence - - - - 56 XI. Misery | ----- 64 XII. "The Bakers' Bower" - • • 73 XIII. R.I.P. ! 81 XIV. At Monte Carlo - - - - 90 XV. Plotting and Planning - - - 96 XVI. Fifteen Years After - - - 105 XVII. Ballyronan Neighbours - - - no XVIII. Tableaux at Ballyronan- - - 117 XIX. Tom Wade's Tableaux - - - 125 XX. "The King is Dead! Long Live the King!" ----- 133 XXI. Cupboard Skeletons - - 142 XXII.

Strange Meetings - - - 153 CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE XXIII. " Pip and Clip ! " - - - - 161 XXIV. A Thorn in the Flesh - - - 170 XXV. At Ballycotton Gate - - 179 XXVI. Deceptions - - - - - 186 XXVII. The Sisters Three - - - 193 XXVIII. "Bikes" at Ballyronan - - - 203 XXIX. Gossip ------ 215 XXX. The Grey Witch's Vengeance - - 226 XXXI. Coming Events and Shadows - - 239 XXXII. Engagements - - - -248 XXXIII. A Conspiracy .... 239 XXXIV. Confidences ----- 264 XXXV. Harold's Hero - - - - 272 XXXVI. "No Rest for the Wicked 1" - - 278 XXXVII. Confessions ----- 285 XXXVIII. John Donovan's Grave - - - 291 XXXIX. General Opinions - - - - 297 XL. The Rising Tide - 303 XLI. Flight- ----- 312 XLII. "Nabbed!" 321 XLI 1 1. Father Tim at the Castle - . 328 XLIV. " Death ! or Confession ! " - . 336 XLV. Mr. O'Paque Advises - - - 345 XLVI. Confession and Death - - - BALLYRONAN

Chapter I

the brothers On a wild night in January in the year 18 — , on a promontory that raised its rocky summit to the sky and looked down on the troubled waters of the Atlantic, as they rolled them selves wrathfully but helplessly against its rugged base, there stood two men of about the same height and build, their faces turned seaward, as if in expectation of some signal from that direction. While they stood thus, and from time to time whispered together, their forms could be seen as the moon, continuing her hurried course, escaped from under the darkness of one cloud only to plunge headlong into the darkness of another. The men were evidently of the peasant class, but one of them seemed to be much better clad than the other, and had a neater appearance, betokening a person something above the ordinary Irish peasant.

After a silence of some duration, unbroken save by the sound of the rushing waters beneath, the fretful moaning of the wind, and the shrill cry of the sea-bird, the elder brother — for brothers they were — drew nearer his companion, and placing his hand on his shoulder, with what one might see was a friendly touch, whispered in trembling tones : " It's a wild night, Mike, for such unholy work ! — an evil night, avick, for the evil deed that ye tell me is to be dun ! " " Whisht ! dhrop it, man ; dhrop it, I tell ye ! Do ye want to make me coward before we shtart at all? I tell ye, this night's work must be dun, evil deed or no evil deed. Shure you have no part or lot in the matther ! Why do ye mix yoursell up in it at all, at all ? Go home, Jack, and lave it to us for to do it, for if the job falls to me, be the holy powers above !

I'll be only too glad to pay off the ould grudge, even with blood." A BALLYRONAN 2 " Shtop, Mike ! shtop, avick ! and for the love of God think ! " cried the other eagerly, as he placed his two hands on the broad shoulders of his brother, and resumed : " I'm willin' to take me share of the risk, and of the blame too. With ye I'll go, me brother, and if it falls to your lot to do the evil deed, shure, Mike, avick ! I'll stand by ye ; but I warn ye, Mike, it's an unholy mission that ye're on to-night. Hear me, me brother. Son of me sainted mother, will ye listen ? " " Don't talk to me of our mother to-night, John, for ye make me narvous whin ye brathe her name," and he shook himself free from the friendly hold of his companion. " But talk to me if ye like of our poor father, that was marthyred for the cause.

Curse the dogs that ron him to his death ! " "Mike," interrupted the other, and he drew his hand slowly across his forehead to wipe away the cold sweat that had gathered there, " Mike, ye wor but a little child ; ye did not know or undershtand, and others have towld ye the tales that arn't thrue, and set yer heart mad for revinge. I was oldher than you wor, Mike, and I knew and undershtood too, though, sure, I was only a gossoon at the time." Pausing once more, he gazed around, then drew his brother beneath the shelter of an adjoining boulder of rock, and almost forcing him down, they seated themselves side by side on the damp sod. He took his brother's hand in his, and, in a voice broken at times with emotion, continued : " I sware to ye, Mike, be me love for ye, that I tell you only the bitther truth to-night.

I heard me father's last words as he shtood, found guilty of murther, in the dock. I heard thim, I tell ye ! I've carried thim about with me, whin I was abroad in furrin parts. I hear thim now, Mike; they're ringin' in me ears, they're burnin' in me sowl, and maybe that's a sign from Heaven for me to spake them, and I'll tell thim to ye, Mike, for yer sowl's good." He arose suddenly from the damp seat, and by the moon's light he might be seen, with face sad and tear-stained, but resolute and determined, holding forth his right hand to his brother as if beseeching his attention. " These words wor me father's words, and be the Biassed Vargin ! " and he slowly crossed himself, " I tell ye nothing but God's naked thruth. I'll tell it to ye, Mike, though it almost kills me to repate it, and it'll hurt ye to hear it."

BALLYRONAN 3 A groan, and " Go on," was the only reply, and John Donovan proceeded : " ' Me curse,' sez me father, ' on all saycret societies, and on all their evil ways — their dhrinkin', their swarin', their maimin', and their murther ! May they, sum day, be eternally and for ever rooted out of this land by the hand of God ! May they for ever be scattered off the face of the earth by the powers of justice, and may our counthry — our poor deluded counthry — be for ever rid of thim.' " Here the speaker paused awhile, and drew his hand across his eyes to wipe away the tears that had been called up, but Mike Donovan sat still, with head bent down upon his knees. " ' It was thim,' sez me father, ' that ruined me life before I hardly knew what it was to live ! It was thim that brought to me the bitther curse, and the black poverty to me door !

It was thim that carried death to me home and took from me Norah — the pride and the joy of me young manhood ! It was thim that led me to take the dhrink, that taught me to neglect me holy religion, that put the red blood on me hand and the black sin on me sowl ! Me curse on all their societies ; it was thim and the thraitors that's always in thim that brought me where I am to-day, at the foot of the gallows. Yer verdict, me lord, is just and fair. I'm ready to die for the foul deed I dun ! Will sum good friend that knew me when I was a boy ; will sum kind neighbour that respected me before the red blood was on me hand, and the black sin on me sowl ; will sum of ye, for the love of God and his Holy Mother, warn me two gossoons to keep out of this divilry, to keep away from thim that brought me to where I am to-day, and may God in heaven eternally bless ye.

I killed the ould lord. I confess it now. I dhrew the lot, and I took the oath to do the deed ; but as God is me judge, I did the deed to save me life that bitther night. The verdict, me lord, is fair and just, — blood for blood, life for life, sowl for sowl, and may the Lord have mercy on me and mine ! ' " A dead silence followed the recital of these words — words almost identical with those spoken by Pat Donovan years before, as he stood convicted of the murder of Lord Morriss. The elder brother walked backwards and forwards, with hands clasped tightly together, as if restraining the terrible storm of emotion that the scene called up. The younger brother sat speechless, motionless, with head bent down, tears flowing from his eyes at the strange story he BALLYRONAN had heard. At length, his face livid with passion, he sprang from the seat where he had so long crouched, and, rushing to his brother, cried : " Who was the damned thraitor, John ?

Who was the black hearted villain that informed ? Tell me, John, tell me ; and if he lives, be me hopes of heaven, I'll face hell itself to plant the heel of my brogue in his cowardly, decateful face ! Who was he, Jack? You know ! You'll tell me ! " and he clutched at his brother and held him, and cried : " Tell me, Jack, asthore, and be — " What he was about to utter was suddenly stopped by the sound of a shrill whistle, that caused each to turn around suddenly and peer into the darkness in the direction from which the sound came. " It's not too late, Mike," whispered John Donovan eagerly, laying his hand on Mike's shoulder, as if to draw him away. " It's not too late, Mike. Remember our father's curse. Come back quietly with me, for the love of God, and lave the evil deed to be dun by dirtier and eviller hands than ours ! " It was too late.

Chapter II The

lots Already two persons had drawn near : one a little man with peevish face, and large mouth, and crooked eyes — a distinctly low type of the Irish peasant : the other a youth of scarcely twenty summers, with a face bright and beaming, " full of divarshin and divilmint," as the neighbours would say, but who, at the present moment, seemed to esteem neither the person he was with nor the mission he was on. " So it's Reilly and Duggan, is it ? " remarked Mike Donovan ; and he laughed a laugh that his brother John knew full well was forced, and added : " Reilly and Duggan ! Thin, begob, they got a nicely matched pair — a rogue and a fool — to help me with the job." "Fine night, boys," was Reilly's salutation, as he came close to the brothers, and peered with his crooked eyes into the face of each.

" Sure, we only expected one, and, bedad, there's two here. Well, the more the merrier for the job." Something had evidently disconcerted him as he gazed into John Donovan's face, for a shadow of hatred passed over his evil countenance ; his eyes glistened as do a ferret's in the dark ; and a malicious grin settled on his evil-looking face, as he muttered to himself the one word, " Damnation." " You here, John Donovan ! Begorrahs now, an' who'd have guessed it, at all, at all ? Cum wid insthructions to the society from furrin parts, or cum to take care of Mike, eh ? " and he laughed uneasily. " It's meself sure enough, Reilly ! " replied John Donovan warmly, and it took him all he could do to restrain himself from laying hands on Reilly as he resumed. " But why I cum, or for what I cum, is my business, and not yours ; and, throth, ye may find to yer cost one day that Mike is well able to take care of himself."

A dead silence followed, and Reilly's face twitched with BALLYRONAN passion, and he eyed John Donovan closely, as if he suspected and feared him. The silence was broken by the boy Duggan, who wondered at the sudden altercation, and looked across at Reilly, and laughingly remarked : "A fine night, did ye say, Reilly ? Oh, ye're the ould willy the-wishp, ye are. Sure, ye're the divil's own say bird, ye are, to be afther carryin' me up here this shtormy night ! May shweet bad luck to me, but I wish I was at home be the fire at a game of five-and-twinty that's to be played to-night for Sandy Hoolighan's goose, inshted of philandherin' on the cliffs wid ye, ye ould gandher ; for I have me doubts of ye, ye innocent craythur, that thim that knows ye too long will one blessed mornin' find the himp too short !

" and Duggan shuffled his feet in a dance, as if striving to warm them. " Ah, me bould boy, there's more than ye think in shtore for ye, as Molly Brady said whin she wint to shtuff the ould dhrake," replied Reilly, resuming an easy friendly manner, and producing a bottle of whisky from some hidden recess of his tattered coat. " Now, boys, a dhrink, and thin to business. I suppose yev cum to jine us, John Donovan, in the night's vinture ? " " Yes," was the short reply. " Right ye are ! A chip of the ould block, eh ? " John Donovan moved towards him with clenched fist, at this reference made by Reilly to his father, but Reilly, unheeding, continued : " Well, here's yer health anyways ! " and after holding up the bottle to the moonlight for inspection with one hand, with the other hand he clapped Mike on the shoulder, exclaiming : " There's not much time to be losht.

We must make our report to headquarthers as soon as the deed's dun. Yer health, boys." And he fixed his eyes on John Donovan's face, as he plunged the neck of the bottle into his large mouth, and helped himself plentifully to the fiery liquid. When satisfied, he gave a long-drawn " Ah ! " rubbed the neck of the bottle with his coat sleeve, and presented the bottle to John Donovan with the remark : " Ye're silent to-night, John Donovan, an' quiet ye are, bedad ! Take a dhrop, man ; it'll liven ye up may be. Ye won't take it, won't ye ? Well thin, yer brother Mike will shame ye, yer sowl ! " and as Mike put the bottle to his lips, added : " Have a care there, Mike, or poor Duggan will shiver the bones out of his body if there's nothin' left for him ; an' what would becum of BALLYRONAN Kitty, the priesht's sarvint ?

" and Reilly chuckled at his own words. Mike handed the bottle to Duggan, who, evidently relishing the possession of it, drained its contents to the last drop, then threw it over the cliff, where it was heard to crash in the lonely silence, frightening some rock-birds from their resting-places, and drawing forth an oath from Reilly, at which Duggan only laughed, and did what he styled "a double shuffle to Kitty, the purtiest girl in the barony ! " "An' now, boys, to business!" exclaimed Reilly. "It's between us three whose to have a whack at the d — d agint. No missin' this time; he's eshcaped twice too often already. He rides by Hindherson's Gate at about half pasht nine to night, so one of the shtable boys towld me. There's a shteep hill there, an' good cover too. He must be hit hard, mind ye; thim's the ordhers from headquarthers."

" Must this murther be dun ? " asked John Donovan, taking Reilly by the arm, and drawing him aside forcibly. " Dun ! dun ! What does he mane, at all ? Mother of mercy, is he mad ? Mike Donovan ! Duggan ! do ye hear him talkin' ? Lishten to what he axes us, and us wid ordhers from headquarthers, and us shtandin' here in the cowld an' rain ! ' Musht this murdher be dun ? ' sez he. Oh, John Donovan, go home, avick ! if yer turned the white coward tin minets afther yev jined us of yer own free well." " We must go on with it now that we've shtarted it at all," replied Mike crossly, whilst the boy Duggan, shivering with cold and fear, cried out : "What — murther's — to be — dun? I'm as innocint of the knowledge of it as the child unborn ! I was dhrawn lasht night for what I was towld would be a bit of divilmint.

But who's to be murdhered at Hindherson's Gate ? " " Weren't ye towld before that ye'd have to keep a quiet tung in yer head, and obey ordhers from yer supariors ? Ye took the oath to be one of us — and, be G — ! one of us you are — an' ye'll soon see what it is that's to be dun," growled Reilly, in response to Duggan. " Well, let us get on to the ould cabin anyway, an' see about the guns. Are ye cumin', John ? " exclaimed Mike Donovan, turning to his brother, who remained behind, holding Reilly by the arm, and reasoning with him in whispered tones, to which Reilly insisted on answering : " No, thin ! Bedad, ye'll do nothin' of the soort I It's agin BALLYRONAN all the regulations of the society. Ye don't belong to the society at all — so ye say. Ye may come with us if ye will, but the divil resave the gun will ye handle, an' the sorra a lot will ye dhraw !

" " Let me dhraw inshtead of Mike ; I'm a betther shot than him. Well, let me dhraw along wid the resht of ye ; sure, that'll give you and the boy Duggan a betther chance." " No, Donovan, thim's not fair words at all — Mike, Duggan and mesell, and us only, musht dhraw for whose to use the guns," and wrenching himself away from John Donovan's grasp, he hastened to join the others, who were some distance in advance. They at length approached an old roofless cabin, supposed by the country people to be haunted, as from time to time lights had been seen in it ; and one ghost seer in particular declared that " ivery Tuesday in the week there was a munthly appearance of a headless horse, with one white ear and one black ear, and a mane of fire, seen cumin' through the open door." They entered the old cabin in silence, and Reilly lit a piece of candle that he found secreted in a hole under the mud wall.

He next drew forth, from a recess in the chimney, two old rifles, evidently very badly kept, as might be supposed from their rusty appearance. These he placed in one corner of the room, then went outside the door, where he pulled three pieces of grass (thraneens), which he divided into three different lengths, as he entered the room once more; and handing them to John Donovan, who was standing silently by the door, he exclaimed: " Well, as yer not allowed by the rules of the society to have a dhraw, ye can see fair play at lashte. Now, who'll dhraw firsht ? " "Am I to dhraw too?" asked poor Duggan, as he began to realise what he had so very innocently let himself in for. "An' was it for this same ye dhragged me here this night, over the cliffs from me poor ould widdy mother ? An' was it for this that ye jined me to the society, ye murtherin' villain?" and falling down on his knees before the brothers, he cried in heart-rending tones: " Don't ask me for to do it, for the love of God !

Me, the poor widdy's only support ! Reilly, are ye a man, a bashte, or a divil?" and springing to his feet, he caught Reilly by the throat, and hurled him back against the mud wall of the hut. Following up the attack, he once more grasped Reilly by BALLYRONAN 9 the throat, but the brothers dragged him off, else, beyond a doubt, the boy Duggan would have had a terrible revenge on Reilly, the author of his present misfortune. When quiet was restored, John Donovan drew Reilly out side, and besought him in terms to which Reilly refused to listen. Exasperated beyond his patience, Donovan pulled Reilly out of hearing, and taking him by the throat, hissed into his ear : " Let me dhraw for me brother Mike ! " and the half-choked villain answered " No ! " " Let me dhraw thin for the widdy's sun, for poor Duggan that ye have thrapped !

" and his grasp tightened on the old man, and again the smothered reply came, " No ! " " I'll give ye one more chance, Reilly, and if ye refuse, be the Holy Vargin, I'll denounce ye here, an thin God help ye ! I know ye ! I know yer career ! I heard it from Casey, that fled the counthry when he informed on me father. I helped to bury Casey in South Amerikay ; he towld me all before he died. If ye refuse, I'll denounce ye here to Mike as the member of the society who informed on me father to Casey, and who got fifty pounds share of the goold." He felt the wretched man tremble in his grasp ; he saw his eyes startle with fear ; so, raising his voice that the others too might hear, he shouted : " Now, who am I to dhraw for ? For Mike or Duggan — which ? " and his hands loosened as Reilly wheezed out : " For which ye like, and be damned to ye !

" and Donovan threw the trembling creature back into the hut. " No ! No ! " cried Mike and Duggan together, when they understood how matters were ; and each rushed towards John Donovan and caught him round the shoulders, each anxious to have the first hearing. "No, John. May I niver find pace or aize if ye do. I've got naither kith or kin, an' you've got grannie an' the child to look afther and provide for. I sware be me sowl I'll not have yer blood upon me." " An' I'll dhraw for mesell too 1 I'll take me chance ! You'll not be shtandin' in me place to commit a murther ! " cried Duggan, and turning to Reilly with a menace, he added, " An' as God is me witness, Reilly, if I have to do this thing I'll do it, but I'll sthrangle ye for it some time or other," and he made another fierce attack on the author of his mad folly.

It was next arranged that each of the four were to draw, and, BALLYRONAN accordingly, a fourth piece of grass was added. An oath was then taken by all save John Donovan, who refused to take any oath ; the two long grasses were to free the holders, and Mike Donovan and Reilly drew the two short grasses. There was silence as they anxiously examined the shreds of grass. Reilly seemed in no way annoyed at having a share in the evil deed, but went at once, with a wicked look upon his now purple face, and chose one of the old rifles from the corner. Duggan, boy-like, cut a caper at having escaped, rejoicing also that John Donovan was free ; but the latter, with face white with terror, drew Mike aside, and groaned, as he whispered in his ear, " Our father's curse."

Chapter III

the ould grannie It was after ten o'clock, on the night when the incidents already related were being enacted, and a strange scene was taking place in a poor cabin not more than a mile distant from the place known as " Hindherson's Gate." It was one of these cabins so frequently to be met with in almost every part of Ireland ; but this cabin, at one time fairly comfortable inside and outside, now bore such traces of dilapidation that one wondered how it stood the rude shocks of wind and weather. The roof, plentifully thatched at one time, was now lying bare in parts ; grass and moss filled up here and there the hollows caused by the high winds, and the holes made by the daily attacks of hens, crows, and other birds. Inside, a scene of discomfort was plainly visible. The mud floor was badly broken in parts, and the walls bore little or no trace of their last white-washing.

An open fireplace, at each side of which a rough seat had originally been placed, was on a level with the floor, and in about the same condition. From the rafters, black with the smoke of many a turf fire, there hung suspended skeins of cobwebs of a sooty composition, whilst on the rafters there roosted a few hens, that now and then gave forth a sleepy cackle. The whole place, once the pride of a woman's heart for its cleanliness and comfort, now showed signs of the want of a woman's cleanly care. The cups and saucers, plates and dishes — there were not many of them — cracked and rivetted, hung or rested upon an old dresser, told their tale of many a fall. A couple of old wooden chairs, a rickety three-legged stool, a bench that served the various pur poses of seat, bedstead, and bien, a few soot-begrimed pots, a kettle with half a spout, and some common articles of every day use, completed the " furniture " of this, the principal room, of the Donovans' cabin.

A dog growled from his post on the dung-heap outside the door ; and a cat, that bore traces of hard times, blinked her BALLYRONAN eyes from her warm resting-place on one of the old seats at the fireside. In this miserable habitation, there were seated at a poor turf fire an old woman well past the allotted age of threescore years and ten, a boy whose age scarce numbered three years, and the aforesaid cat. The fire had burned low in its bed of white ashes ; and the wind moaned a dreary monotonous kind of tune through the window and door of the cabin, whilst now and again it beat its way down the chimney, with noisier roar, causing the light turf ashes to play about as if in glee. The old woman, the grand mother of John and Mike, kept up a low crone as she clasped her bare, worn-out arms around her knees ; the boy gazed with steady gaze into the quickly dying embers, as if seeing pictures of things past and visions of things that were to come; the cat blinked her green eyes, now at the croning grannie, now at the wondering child, and now at the hens on the sooty rafters, as they moved uneasily from place to place.

The old woman, poorly clad, her chest laid open to the cold, her face pale and emaciated, her figure worn to the extreme, showed terrible signs of want. Her mind — the neighbours declared it was " asthray at times ! " — had now wandered back to former days of trouble and of trial. " Me boy, me bould boy ! " she moaned, the wind keeping unison with her. " Me handsome boy ! they killed ye, did they ? These arms held ye ! These lips kissed ye, an' as they kissed ye, prayed for ye and blessed ye ! This poor ould heart bate for ye ! Ye wor the light of me eyes ; ye wor the pulse of me heart ! Yer gone from me, avick ! yer gone from me for ever ! They took ye from yer home, asthore ; they thried ye for murther — for murther ! for murther ! An' ye tould thim ye wor guilty ! Why did ye tell ? Why did ye tell, acushla ?