The Purcell Papers — Volume 3Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan
General
The Purcell Papers — Volume 3
Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan
Fantasy fiction, English; Ireland -- Fiction
So away with the gineral, an' he ordhers out the forlorn hope, all'
tells the band to play, an' everything else, just as Bonypart desired
him. An' sure enough, whin Billy Malowney heerd the music where he
was standin' taking a blast of the dhudheen to compose his mind for
murdherin' the Frinchmen as usual, being mighty partial to that tune
intirely, he cocks his ear a one side, an' down he stoops to listen to
the music; but, begorra, who should be in his rare all the time but a
Frinch grannideer behind a bush, and seeing him stooped in a convanient
forum, bedad he let flies at him sthraight, and fired him right forward
between the legs an' the small iv the back, glory be to God! with what
they call (saving your presence) a bum-shell.
Well, Bill Malowney let one roar out iv him, an' away he rowled over the
field iv battle like a slitther (as Bonypart and the Duke iv Wellington,
that was watching the manoeuvres from a distance, both consayved) into
glory.
An' sure enough the Frinch was overjoyed beyant all bounds, an' small
blame to them--an' the Duke of Wellington, I'm toult, was never all out
the same man sinst.
At any rate, the news kem home how Billy Malowney was murdhered by the
Frinch in furrin parts.
Well, all this time, you may be sure, there was no want iv boys comin'
to coort purty Molly Donovan; but one way ar another, she always
kept puttin' them off constant. An' though her father and mother was
nathurally anxious to get rid of her respickably, they did not like to
marry her off in spite iv her teeth.
An' this way, promising one while and puttin' it off another, she
conthrived to get on from one Shrove to another, until near seven years
was over and gone from the time when Billy Malowney listed for furrin
sarvice.
It was nigh hand a year from the time whin the news iv Leum-a-rinka
bein' killed by the Frinch came home, an' in place iv forgettin' him,
as the saisins wint over, it's what Molly was growin' paler and more
lonesome every day, antil the neighbours thought she was fallin' into a
decline; and this is the way it was with her whin the fair of Lisnamoe
kem round.
It was a beautiful evenin', just at the time iv the reapin' iv the oats,
and the sun was shinin' through the red clouds far away over the hills
iv Cahirmore.
Her father an' mother, an' the boys an' girls, was all away down in the
fair, and Molly Sittin' all alone on the step of the stile, listening
to the foolish little birds whistlin' among the leaves--and the sound of
the mountain-river flowin' through the stones an' bushes--an' the crows
flyin' home high overhead to the woods iv Glinvarlogh--an' down in the
glen, far away, she could see the fair-green iv Lisnamoe in the mist,
an' sunshine among the grey rocks and threes--an' the cows an' the
horses, an' the blue frieze, an' the red cloaks, an' the tents, an'
the smoke, an' the ould round tower--all as soft an' as sorrowful as a
dhrame iv ould times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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