When Thady reached the end of the avenue, where the fracas had taken place between himself and Keegan, he met Pat Brady.
As I fear that this talented young man must by this time be subject to heavy suspicions; that his faith and honesty must be greatly doubted; and as, even with those who may still look upon him as a trusty servant, it would be impossible to keep up the delusion much longer, I may as well now make his character no longer doubtful, by explaining some passages which had occurred in his life during the last few months.
In the first place, however, we must return for a short time to Mr. Keegan.
It will be remembered that this gentleman was the son-in-law of Larry Macdermot’s creditor, Mr. Flannelly; and it had been arranged between the two worthy relations that if, by some law-craft or other means, Keegan could obtain possession of the estate of Ballycloran in payment of the debt due by the proprietor, it should become his, Keegan’s, property.
Now, this gentleman had long looked forward to the day when he should be able to describe himself as Hyacinth Keegan, Esq., of Ballycloran — having been aware that, after his father-in-law’s death, all right in the property would become his own; but since he had induced the old man to make a gift instead of a legacy of the debt, his passion to become an estated gentleman had hourly increased. An ambitious man in his own way was Hyacinth Keegan: he had first longed to obtain admission into the more decent society of Carrick-on-Shannon — that he had some time since achieved; he then sought to mix among the second-rate country gentlemen; and by making himself useful to them, by plausibility, by some degree of talent, and by great effrontery, he had become sufficiently intimate with many of them to shake hands with them at race-courses and ordinaries, and to talk of them to others as “Blake,” “Brown,” and “Jones.” To some few, who now usually called him “Hyacinth,” and occasionally invited him to drinking parties at their houses, he had lent small sums of money on good security; and now he was looking to obtain the sub-shrievalty of the county, and to be Hyacinth Keegan, Esq., of Ballycloran.
Since the immediate probability of realizing this brilliant vision had occurred to him, he had left nothing undone which could, as he thought, lead to its completion. From the constant business which he had with Thady, he pretty well knew all the difficulties of the Macdermots, and the great poverty of their house; and he had observed how completely Pat Brady was in young Macdermot’s confidence. He also knew that if any direct legal steps were necessary in selling the estate under the mortgage, or if any underhand scheming should be required to drive the Macdermots into further difficulties, Pat Brady could, and probably would — for a consideration — give him his zealous cooperation. There were also other reasons why he desired the assistance of our friend Pat. It was a part of Mr. Keegan’s daily practice to obtain what information he could of the habits of those with whom he was likely to form any connection; and it was generally believed through the county, that he could usually tell those who were, and who were not, guilty of the common crimes of the times — illicit distillation, and secret conspiracies among the poor to injure their superiors, or to redress their fancied wrongs. It was from his accurate information on these points that he was usually employed in their defence when they were brought to trial, and that he had been able to detect and punish those by whom he had himself been attacked. This, moreover, as his character became known, had materially led to his own safety; for the boys knew that he knew everything through the county, and thus had learnt to become afraid of him.
He felt, therefore, that as it was probable that Ballycloran would become his own, Pat Brady’s assured services might be of great utility; and he found but little difficulty in obtaining them. Pat was clever enough to foresee that the days of the Macdermots were over, and that it was necessary for him to ingratiate himself with the probable future “masther;” and though he, of course, made sufficiently good market of his treachery, he felt that in all ways he consulted his own interest best in making himself useful to Keegan. He had dim prospects, too, of great worldly advantages which might accrue from being chief informer to so conspicuous a man as Mr. Keegan was likely to prove himself, and, with no false self-vanity, he felt himself qualified for such a situation. There was considerable danger in being always among people of a wild and savage nature, to entrap and ensnare whom would be his duty, and he felt that he had the requisite courage. Moreover, there was a certain cunning and prudence necessary, and in that also he, with some truth, fancied himself not deficient; and as Mr. Keegan’s scheme opened upon him, the idea of entrapping his young master into the difficulties which lay around, offered not a bad opportunity for the display of his talents.
That such a man as Brady is described to be, should exist and find employment in a country, is a fact which must shock and disgust; but that it is a fact in great parts of Ireland, those who are most conversant with the country will not pretend to deny. It is true, that by paid spies and informers, real criminals may not unfrequently be brought to justice; but those who have observed the working of the system must admit that the treachery which it creates — the feeling of suspicion which it generates — but, above all, the villanies to which it gives and has given rise, in allowing informers, by the prospect of blood-money, to give false informations, and to entrap the unwary into crimes — are by no means atoned for by the occasional detection and punishment of a criminal.
Let the police use such open means as they have — and, God knows, in Ireland they should be effective enough; but I cannot but think the system of secret informers — to which those in positions of inferior authority too often have recourse — has greatly increased crime in many districts of Ireland. I by no means intend to assert that this system is patronised or even recognised by Government. I believe the contrary most fully; but those to whom the execution of the criminal laws in detail are committed, and who look to obtain advancement and character by their activity, do very frequently employ what I must call a most iniquitous system of espionage.
A very few years since I was walking down the street of a small town with a gentleman who was at that time in the immediate employment of the Government. It was a fair day, and we were strolling through the crowd, which was moving slowly hither and thither, as though in absolute idleness. The dusk was fast commencing, and he pointed out to me two or three men, who had come in from the country like the others, telling me that they were waiting till it was dark to speak to him; that they did not dare to speak to him during the light; that they were in his pay; and that they had information to give him respecting illegal societies, and hidden arms. He ridiculed me when I questioned the propriety of his system; in fact he was so accustomed to it that he could not conceive the possibility of going on without it. In the same way I have had men pointed out to me by the officer leading a party of revenue police in quest of illicit stills, who were dressed as policemen though not belonging to the force, and who were brought in that disguise that they might not be known by their neighbours whose haunts they were going to disclose.
The momentary success no doubt reconciles this usage to the officer employing it; but the result must be to create suspicion of each other among the poor, and fearfully to increase instead of diminishing crime.
Now that our friend Brady’s character is perfectly understood, we will return to our story; first, however, explaining that he had witnessed the scene between the attorney and his master, and had determined to make the most of it.
Thady had turned on the road towards the priest’s house without taking any notice of his dependant, but this Pat could not allow.
“Well, Mr. Thady, you’ll live to be even with him yet — the born ruffian! faix and a good sight more nor even; else it’ll be no one’s fault but yer own.”
“Even with who?”
“With who now? why didn’t I see it with my own eyes? — the born thief of the world! Didn’t he knock flashes out of yer shoulther with the shilaleh he had — Mr. Keegan, I main? And if it worn’t that you hadn’t — bad cess to the luck of it! — your own bit of a stick in your hand, wouldn’t you have knocked the life out of him for the name he put on your sisther, Miss Feemy? — the blackguard!”
“And did you hear him, Pat?”
“Shure I did, yer honer.”
“And did you see him?”
“See him, yes, shure; I seed him riz his big stick, and I thought it was nigh kilt you were.”
“And you heard him call your misthress the name he called; and you saw him sthrike at me the way he did, and I having nothing but my fist to help me; and were you so afraid of a man like Keegan, you wouldn’t step forward to strike a blow for me?”
“Afraid of Keegan! No, Masther Thady, I arn’t afraid of him; but you wouldn’t have had me come up, jist to witness that you war the first to strike at him.”
“Nonsense! wasn’t he the first to call my sisther the name he did?”
“Ah! but that warn’t a braich of the pace. You see, Mr. Thady, thim divils of lawyers is so cute; and av I had come to help you, or sthrike a blow, or riz my stick, he’d have had both before old Jonas Brown tomorrow morning; and where’d we’ve been then? But, Mr. Thady, as I said before, you’ll be more nor even with Mr. Keegan yet, any way.”
“How’ll I be even with him, Pat?”
“But where are you going, Mr. Thady? shure an’t it your dinner time at the house? and remimber you’ve to be at the wedding to-night.”
“Oh! d —— n the wedding. Do you think I’d be playing the fool at weddings to-night, afther what just took place? I want to see Father John; and I’ll go and catch him before he goes down to your sisther.”
“What, Mr. Thady! to tell about the blow, and the dishonour the ruffian put on you and Miss Feemy? — shurely you wouldn’t be doing that.”
“And why not? — won’t all Carrick have it before long?”
“That’s no rule why you should be going and telling Father John about it yourself. And won’t he be putting you against revenging yourself; and you wouldn’t, Mr. Thady, with the owld blood in your veins, and in Miss Feemy’s — may the divil’s curse blacken him for the name he give her! — you wouldn’t be putting up quiet and aisy with what he’s done? — and the like of him too!”
By this time Thady had stopped, and was beginning to waver in his determination of going to the priest. He felt that what Brady said was true — that the priest would implore him not to avenge himself, in the manner in which his heart strongly prompted him to do. He felt he could not forego the impulse to inflict personal punishment on Keegan. And after all, what could Father John do for him?
“Besides, Mr. Thady, now I think of it, Father John an’t in it at all, for he was to be at Drumsna before the wedding; and I know he’s to dine with Mrs. McKeon; he does mos............