The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
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The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“'What, you murderers,' says his Reverence, 'are you bint to have each
other's blood upon your heads; ye vile infidels, ye cursed unchristian
Anthemtarians?* are ye going to get yourself hanged like sheep-stalers?
down with your sticks, I command you: do you know--will you give
yourselves time to see who's spaking to you--you bloodthirsty set of
Episcopalians? I command you, in the name of the Catholic Church and the
Blessed Virgin Mary, to stop this instant, if you don't wish me,'
says he, 'to turn you into stocks and stones where you stand, and make
world's wonders of you as long as you live.--Doran, if you rise your
hand more, I'll strike it dead on your body, and to your mouth you'll
never carry it while you have breath in your carcass,' says he.--'Clear
off, you Flanagans, you butchers you--or by St. Domnick I'll turn the
heads round upon your bodies, in the twinkling of an eye, so that you'll
not be able to look a quiet Christian in the face again. Pretty respect
you have for the decent couple at whose house you have kicked up such
a hubbub. Is this the way people are to be deprived of their dinners on
your accounts, you fungaleering thieves!'
* Antitrinitarians; the peasantry are often extremely fond
of hard and long words, which they call tall English.
“'Why then, plase your Riverence, by the--hem--I say Father Corrigan, it
wasn't my fault, but that villain Flanagan's, for he knows I fairly
won the bottle--and would have distanced him, only that when I was far
before him, the vagabone, he galloped across me on the way, thinking to
thrip up the horse.'
“'You lying scoundrel,' says the priest, 'how dare you tell me a
falsity,' says he, 'to my face? how could he gallop acrass you if you
were far before him? Not a word more, or I'll leave you without a mouth
to your face, which will be a double share of provision and bacon saved
any way. And, Flanagan, you were as much to blame as he, and must be
chastised for your raggamuffianly conduct,' says he, 'and so must you
both, and all your party, particularly you and be, as the ringleaders.
Right well I know it's the grudge upon the lawsuit you had and not the
bottle, that occasioned it: but by St. Peter, to Loughderg both of you
must tramp for this.'
“'Ay, and by St. Pether, they both desarve it as well as a thief does
the gallows,' said a little blustering voice belonging to the tailor,
who came forward in a terrible passion, looking for all the world like
a drowned rat. 'Ho, by St. Pether, they do, the vagabones; for it was
myself that won the bottle, your Reverence; and by this and by that,'
says he, 'the bottle I'll have, or some of their crowns, will crack for
it: blood or whiskey I'll have, your Reverence, and I hope that you'll
assist me.
“'Why, Billy, are you here?' says Father Corrigan, smiling down upon
the figure the little fellow cut, with his long spurs and his big whip;
'what in the world tempted you to get on horseback, Billy?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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