Fardorougha, The Miser: The Works of William Carleton, Volume OneCarleton, William
General
Fardorougha, The Miser: The Works of William Carleton, Volume One
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
The trial at length proceeded; and, after a long and able statement from
the Attorney-General, Bartle Flanagan was called up on the table. The
prisoner, whose motions were keenly observed, betrayed, on seeing him,
neither embarrassment nor agitation; all that could be perceived was
a more earnest and intense light in his eyes, as they settled upon his
accuser. Flanagan detailed, with singular minuteness and accuracy,
the whole progress of the crime from its first conception to its
perpetration. Indeed, had he himself been in the dock, and his evidence
against Connor a confession of his own guilt, it would, with some
exceptions, have been literally true. He was ably cross-examined, but no
tact, or experience, or talent, on the part of the prisoner's counsel,
could, in any important degree, shake his testimony. The ingenuity
with which he laid and conducted the plot was astonishing, as was his
foresight, and the precaution he adopted against detection. Cassidy,
Connor's attorney, had ferreted out the very man from whom he purchased
the tinder-box, with a hope of proving that it was not the prisoner's
property but his own; yet this person, who remembered the transaction
very well, assured him that Flanagan said he procured it by the desire
of Fardorougha Donovan's son.
During his whole evidence, he never once raised his eye to look upon the
prisoner's face, until he was desired to identify him. He then turned
round, and, standing with the rod in his hand, looked for some moments
upon his victim. His dark brows got black as night, whilst his cheeks
were blanched to the hue of ashes--the white smile as before sat upon
his lips, and his eyes, in which there blazed the unsteady fire of a
treacherous and cowardly heart, sparkled with the red turbid glare of
triumph and vengeance. He laid the rod upon Connor's head, and they
gazed at each other face to face, exhibiting as striking a contrast as
could be witnessed. The latter stood erect and unshaken--his eye calmly
bent upon that of his foe, but with a spirit in it that seemed to him
alone by whom it was best understood, to strike dismay into the very
soul of falsehood within him. The villain's eyes could not withstand the
glance of Connor's--they fell, and his whole countenance assumed such a
blank and guilty stamp, that an old experienced barrister, who watched
them both, could not avoid saying, that if he had his will they should
exchange situations.
“I would not hang a dog,” he whispered, “on that fellow's evidence--he
has guilt in his face.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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