The Tithe-Proctor: The Works of William Carleton, Volume TwoCarleton, William
General
The Tithe-Proctor: The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Mogue Moylan was, indeed, a fellow of a very original and peculiar
character. Grave, sly, and hypocritical, yet apparently quiet and not
susceptible of strong or vehement emotions, he was, nevertheless, more
suggestive of evil designs and their fulfilment than any man, perhaps,
in his position of life that ever existed. Though utterly without
spirit, or the slightest conception of what personal courage meant, the
reader not be surprised that he was also vindictive, and consequently
treacherous and implacable. He could project crime and outrage with a
felecity of diabolical invention that was almost incredible. He was,
besides, close and cautious, unless when he thought that he could risk a
falsehood with safety; and, in the opinion of some few who knew him,
not merely dishonest, but an actual thief. His manner, too, was full
of plausible assumption of great conscientiousness and simplicity. He
seemed always calm and cool, was considered rather of a religious turn,
and always expressed a strong horror against cursing or swearing in any
shape. Indeed he had a pat anecdote, which he occasionally told, of
a swoon or faint into which he usually fell, when a youth of about
nineteen, in consequence of having been forced to take a book oath,
for the first time, another act against which he entertained a peculiar
antipathy. Now, all this was indeed very singular and peculiar; but he
accounted for it by the scrupulous love of truth with which not only
he himself, but his whole family, many of whom he said had given their
lives for their country, were affected. The only foible that could be
brought to the charge of honest Mogue, was a singular admiration for his
own visage, which he never omitted to survey with remarkable complacency
several times a day in a broken piece of looking, glass, which he kept
for that especial purpose. This, and its not unnatural consequences
a belief that almost ever female who spoke to him with civility was
smitten by his face and figure, constituted the only two weaknesses in
a character otherwise so spotless and perfect as that of Mogue Moylan.
Mogue was also a good deal subject to the influence of the pathetic,
especially when he alluded to the misfortune, glory be to God, which
had befallen the family, in the person of a lone line of ancestors, and
especially in that of big poor, simple father, whose word, as every
one knew, was as good as his oath; and, indeed, very few doubted that
remarkable fact, but who, notwithstanding had been transported during
the space of seven years for suspicion of perjury; “for didn't the judge
tell him, when he passed sentence upon him, that if he had been found
guilty all out, or of anything beyant suspicion of it, he would be
transported for life; 'an' instead of that,' said the judge, 'bekaise
I persave,' says he, 'that you're an honest man, an' has been sworn
against wrongfully in this business, and bekaise I see clearly that you
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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