“You refuse, then, to answer our questions?” said the hard-featured little person who sat at the far end of the table.
“Until you show authority to put them, I peremptorily do refuse to answer them,” replied the young man.
The little person looked expressively at the priest, who appeared to hold a high influence among the party. He answered the look by saying, —
“His blood be upon his own head.”
“Nay, not so fast, holy father; let us debate upon this matter for a few minutes, ere we execute sentence,” said a singularly noble-looking man who stood beside the priest. “Remove the prisoner,” he added, with a voice of command, “and keep him strictly guarded.”
“Well, be it so,” said he, reluctantly.
The little man who sat at the head of the table made a gesture to those who guarded O’Connor, and the order thus given and sanctioned was at once carried into execution.
CHAPTER XLIV.
THE DOOM.
The young man was conveyed from the chamber by his two athletic conductors, the door closed upon the deliberations of the stern tribunal who were just about to debate upon the question of his life or death, and he was led round the corner of a lobby, a few steps from the chamber where his judges sat; a stout door in the wall was pushed open and he himself thrust through it into a cold, empty apartment, in perfect darkness, and the door shut and barred behind him.
Here, in solitude and darkness, the horrors of his situation rushed upon him with tremendous and overwhelming reality. His life was in the hands of fierce and relentless men, by whom, he had little doubt, he was already judged and condemned; bound and helpless, he must await, without the power of hastening or of deferring his fate by a single minute, the cold-blooded deliberations of the conclave who sat within. Unable even to hear the progress of the debate on whose result his life was suspended, a faint and dizzy sickness came upon him, and the cold dew burst from every pore; ghastly, shapeless images of horror hurried with sightless speed across his mind, and his brain throbbed with the fearful excitement of madness. With a desperate effort he roused his energies; but what could human ingenuity, even sharpened by the presence of urgent and terrific danger, suggest or devise? His hands were firmly bound behind his back; in vain he tugged with all his strength, in the fruitless hope of disengaging the cords which crushed them together. He groaned in downright agony as, strength and hope exhausted, he gave up the desperate attempt; nothing then could be done; there remained for him no hope — no chance. In this horrible condition he walked with slow steps to and fro in the dark chamber, in vain endeavouring to compose his terrible agitation.
“Were my hands but free,” thought he, “I should let the villains know that against any odds a resolute man may sell his life dearly. But it is in vain to struggle; they have bound me here but too securely.”
Thus saying, he leaned himself against the partition, to await, passively, the event which he knew could not be far distant. The surface against which he leaned was not that of the wall — it yielded slightly to his pressure — it was a door. With his knee and shoulder he easily forced it open, and entered another chamber, at the far-side of which he distinctly saw a stream of light, which, passing through a chink, fell upon the opposite wall, and, at the same time, he clearly heard the muffled sound of voices in debate. He made his way to the aperture through which the light found entrance, and as he did so, the sound of the voices fell more and more distinctly upon his ear. A small square, of about two feet each way, was cut in the wall, affording an orifice through which, probably, the closet in which he stood was imperfectly lighted in the daytime. A plank shutter was closed over this, and barred upon the outside, through the imperfect joints of which the light had found its way, and O’Connor now scanned the contents of the outer chamber. It was that in which the assembly, in whose presence he had, but a few minutes before, been standing, were congregated. A low, broad-shouldered man, whose dress was that of mourning, and who wore his own hair, which descended in meagre ringlets of black upon either side, leaving the bald summit of his head exposed, and who added to the singularity of his appearance not a little by a long, thick beard, which covered his chin and upper lip — this man, who sat nearly opposite to the opening through which O’Connor looked, was speaking and addressing himself to some person who stood, as it appeared, divided by little more than the thickness of the wall from the party whose life he was debating.
“And against all this,” continued the speaker, “what weighs the life of one man — one life, at best useless to the country, and useless to the king — at best, I say? What came we here for? No light matter to take in hand, sirs; to be pursued with no small risk; each comes hither, cinctus gladio, in the cause of the king. That cause with our own lives we are bound to maintain; and why not, if need be, at the cost of the lives of others? No good can come of sparing this fellow — at the best, no advantage to the cause: and, on the other hand, should he prove a traitor, a spy, or even an idle babbler, the heaviest damage may befall us. Tush, tush, gentlemen, it is ill straining at gnats in such times. We are here a court-martial, or no court at all. If I find that such dangerous vacillation as this carries it in your councils, I shall, for one, henceforward hang my sword over the mantelpiece, and obey the new laws. What! one life against such a risk — one execution, to save the cause and secure us all. To us, who have served in the king’s wars, and hanged rebels by the round dozen — even on suspicion of being so — such indecision seems incredible. There ought not to be two words about the matter. Put him to death.”
Having thus acquitted himself, this somewhat unattractive personage applied himself, with much industry and absorption, to the task of chopping, shredding, rolling up, and otherwise preparing a piece of tobacco for the bowl of his pipe.
“I confess,” said someone whom O’Connor could not see, “that in pleading what may be said on behalf of this young man, I have no ground to go upon beyond a mere instinctive belief in the poor fellow’s honesty, and in the truth of his story.”
“Pardon me, sir,” replied one in whose voice O’Connor thought he recognized that of the priest, “if I say, that to act upon such fanciful impressions, as if they were grounded upon evidence, were, in nine cases out of every ten, the most transcendent and mischievous folly. I repeat my own conviction, upon something like satisfactory evidence, that he is not honest. I talked with the fellow this evening — perhaps a little too freely — but in that conference, if he lied not, I learned that he belonged to that most dangerous class — the worst with whom we have to contend — the lukewarm, professing, passive Catholics — the very stuff of which the worst kind of spies and informers are made. He, no doubt, guessed, from what I said — for, to be plain with you, I spoke too freely by a great deal, in the belief, I know not how assumed, that he was one of ourselves — he guessed, I say, something of the nature of my mission, and tracked me hither — at all events, by some strange coincidence, hither he came. It is for you to weigh the question of probabilities.”
“It matters not, in my mind, why or how he came hither,” observed the ill-favoured gentleman, who sate at the head of the table; “he is here, and he hath seen our meeting, and could identify many of us. This is too large a confidence to repose in a stranger, and I for one do not like it, and therefore I say let him be killed without any more parley or debate.”
The old man paused, and a silence followed. With an agonized attention, O’Connor listened for one word or movement of dissent; it came not.
“All agreed?” said the bearded hero, preparing to light his tobacco pipe at the candle. “Well, so I expected.”
The little man who had spoken before him knocked sharply with the butt of a pistol upon the table, and O’Connor heard the door of the room open. The same person beckoned with his hand, and one of the stalwart men who had assisted in securing him, advanced to the foot of the board.
“Let a grave be digged in the orchard,” said he, “and when it is ready, bring t
he prisoner out and despatch him, Let it be all done and the grave closed in half an hour.”
The man made a rude obeisance, and left the room in silence.
Bound as he was, O’Connor traced the four walls of the room, in the vague hope that he might discover some other outlet from the chamber than that which he had just entered. But in vain; nothing encountered him but the hard, cold wall; and even had it been otherwise, thus helplessly manacled, what would it have availed him? He passed into the room into which he had been first thrust by the two guards, and in a state little short of frenzy, he cast himself upon the floor.
“Oh God!” said he, “it is terrible to see death thus creeping toward me, and not to have the power to help myself. I am doomed — my life already devoted, and before another hour I shall lie under the clay, a corpse. Is there nothing to be done — no hope, no chance? Oh, God! nothing!”
As he lay in this strong agony, he heard, or thought he heard, the clank of the spade upon the stony soil without. The work was begun — the grave was opened. Madly he strained at the cords — he tugged with more than human might — but all in vain. Still with horrible monotony he heard the clank of the iron mattock tinkling and clanking in the gravelly soil. Oh! that he could have stopped his ears to exclude the maddening sound. The pulses smote upon his brain like floods of fire. With closed eyes, and teeth set, and hands desperately clenched, he drew himself together, in the awful spasms of uncontrollable horror. Suddenly this fearful paroxysm departed, and a kind of awful calm supervened. It was no dull insensibility to his real situation, but a certain collectedness and calm self-possession, which enabled him to behold the grim adversary of human kind, even arrayed in all the terrors of his nearest approach, with a steady eye.
“After all, when all’s done, what have I to lose? Life had no more joys for me — happy I could never more have been. Why should the miserable dread death, and cling to life like cowards? What is it? A brief struggle — the agony of a few minutes — the instinctive yearnings of our nature after life; and this over, comes rest — eternal quiet.”
He then endeavoured, in prayer, earnestly to commend his spirit to its Maker. While thus employed he heard steps upon the hard tiles of the passage. His heart swelled as though it would burst. He rightly guessed their mission. The bolt was slowly drawn; the dusky light of a lantern streamed into the room, and revealed upon the threshold the forms of three tall men.
“Lift him up — rise him, boys,” said he who carried the lantern.
“You must come with us,” said one of the two who advanced to O’Connor.
Resistance was fruitless, and he offered none. A cold, sick, overwhelming horror unstrung his joints and dimmed his sight. He suffered them to lead him passively from the room.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE MAN IN THE CLOAK — AND HIS BEDCHAMBER.
As O’Connor approached the outer door through which he was to pass to certain and speedy death, it were not easy to describe or analyze his sensations; every object he beheld in the brief glance he cast around him as he passed along the hall appeared invested with a strangely sharp and vivid intensity of distinctness, and had in its aspect something indefinably spectral and ghastly — like things beheld under the terrific spell of a waking nightmare. His tremendous situation seemed to him something unreal, incredible; he walked in an appalling dream; in vain he strove to fix his thoughts myriads and myriads of scenes and incidents, never remembered since childhood’s days, now with strange distinctness and wild rapidity whirled through his brain. The hall-door stood half open, and the fellow who led the way had almost reached it, when it was on a sudden thrown wide, and a figure, muffled in a cloak, confronted the funeral procession.
The foremost man raised the ponderous weapon which he carried, and held it poised in the air, ready to shiver the head of the intruder should he venture to advance — the two guards who held O’Connor halted at the same time.
“How’s this, Cormack!” said the stranger. “Do you lift your weapon against the life of a friend? — rub your eyes and waken — how is it you cannot know me? — you’ve been drinking, sirrah.”
At the sound of the speaker’s voice the man at once lowered his hatchet and withdrew, a little sulkily, like a rebuked mastiff.
“What means all this?” continued he in the cloak, looking searchingly at the party in the rear; “whom have we got here? — where made you this prisoner? So, so — this must be looked to. How were you about to deal with him, fellow?” he added, addressing himself to him whom he had first encountered.
“According to orders, captain,” replied the man, doggedly.
“And how may that have been?” interrogated the gentleman in the cloak.
“End him,” replied he, sulkily.
“Has he been before the council in the great parlour?” inquired the stranger.
“Yes, captain — long enough, too,” replied the fellow.
“And they have ordered this execution?” added the newly arrived.
“Yes, sir — who else? Come on, boys — bring him out, will you? Time is running short,” he added, addressing his comrades, and himself approaching the door.
“Re-conduct the prisoner to the council-board,” said the stranger, in a tone of command.
Without a moment’s hesitation they obeyed the order; and O’Connor, followed by the muffled figure of the stranger, for the second time entered the apartment where his relentless judges sate.
The newcomer strode up the room to the table at which the self-styled council were seated.
“God save you, gentlemen,” said he, “and prosper the good work ye have taken in hand;” and thus speaking, he removed and cast upon the table his hat and cloak, thereby revealing the square-built form and harsh features of O’Hanlon.
O’Connor no sooner recognized the traits of his mysterious acquaintance, than he felt a hope which thrilled with a strange agony of his heart — a hope — almost a conviction — that he should escape; and unaccountable though it may appear, in this hope he felt more unmanned and agitated than he had done but a few moments before, in the apparent certainty of immediate and inevitable destruction.
The salutation of O’Hanlon was warmly, almost enthusiastically, returned, and after this interchange of friendly greeting, and a few brief questions and answers touching comparatively indifferent matters, he glanced toward O’Connor, and said, —
“I’ve so far presumed upon my favour with you, gentlemen, as to stay your orders in respect of that young gentleman, whom, it would appear, you have judged worthy of death. Death is a matter whose importance I’ve never very much insisted upon — that you know — at least, several among you, gentlemen, well know it, for you have seen me deal it somewhat unsparingly when the cause required it; but I profess I do not care in cool blood to take life upon insufficient reason. Life is lightly taken; but once gone, who can restore it? Therefore, I think it very meet that patient consideration should be had of all cases, when such deliberation is possible and convenient, before proceeding to the last irrevocable extremity. Pray you inform me upon what charges does this youth stand convicted, that his life should be forfeit?”
“It is briefly told,” replied the priest. “On my way hither I encountered him; we rode and conversed together; and conjecturing that he travelled on the same errand as myself, I talked to him more freely than in all discretion I ought to have done. I discovered my mistake, and at Chapelizod I turned and left him, telling him with threats not to follow me; yet scarcely had I been here ten minutes, when this gentleman is found lurking near the house — and about to enter it. He is seized, bound, brought in here, and witnesses our assembly and proceedings. Under these suspicious circumstances, and with the knowledge of our meeting and its objects, were it wise to let him go? Surely not so — but the veriest madness.”
“Young man,” said O’Hanlon, turning to O’Connor, “what say you to this?”
“No more than what I already told these gentlemen — simply, that taking
the upper level to avoid the sloughs by the river side, I became in the darkness entangled in the dense woods which cover these grounds, and at length, after groping my way through the trees as best I might, arrived by the merest chance at this place, and without the slightest knowledge, or even suspicion, either that I was following the course taken by that gentleman, or intruding myself upon any secret councils. I have no more to say — this is the simple truth.”
“Well, gentlemen,” said O’Hanlon, “you hear the prisoner’s defence. What think you?”
“We have decided already, and he has now produced nothing new in his favour. I see no reason why we should alter our decision,” replied the priest.
“You would, then, put him to death?” inquired he.
“Assuredly,” replied the priest, calmly.
“But this shall not be, gentlemen; he shall not die. You shall slay me first,” replied O’Hanlon. “I know this youth; and every word he has spoken I believe. He is the son of one who risked his life a hundred times, and lost all for the sake of the king and his country — one who, throughout the desperate and fruitless struggles of Irish loyalty, was in the field my constant comrade, and a braver and a better one none ever need desire. The son of such a man shall not perish by our hands; and for the risk of his talking elsewhere of this night’s adventure, I will be his surety, with my life, that he mentions it to no one, and nowhere.”
A silence of some seconds followed this unexpected declaration.
“Be it so, then,” said the priest; “for my part, I offer no resistance.”
Delphi Complete Works of Sheridan Le Fanu Page 31