There was a painful pause. For a moment I thought his secret would die with him. Then he murmured, pointing to the ceiling with his thumb, "We brought her _here_!"
"What?" I cried in amazement; "Miss Kit is in this house now?"
Martin raised himself with difficulty on his elbow, fumbled feebly in his belt, and handed me a rusty key. Before I could seize it he fell back on the floor, and I had to take the key from his dead hand.
In the midst of my woe a wild throb of joy shot through me as I realised what this unlooked-for news meant.
As I looked from Martin to his dead comrade, and from him to my poor bruised Tim, from whom, as I feared, life was rapidly ebbing away, my mind was filled with the pathos and a sense of the useless suffering of it all. Addressing the two men who only a minute or two ago were his a.s.sailants and mine, but who now stood with downcast faces, I said,--
"Boys, I don"t doubt that ye are both acting from what ye consider to be a sense of duty to old Ireland, and maybe even to your Maker, in all this terrible bloodshed and unhappiness. To my thinking it"s a sadly mistaken sense of duty, and will only land you and the dear country in shame and misery. But that is not here or there. Let us part without hatred. You will find a pa.s.sage here to the sea," said I, showing them the opening by the fireplace through which I had entered the room; "and in a cave at the end of the pa.s.sage you will find a boat. Carry your dead to it, and see them taken to their places."
Both men said gravely, as in a chorus, "G.o.d save Ireland!" to which I could utter, though in a different sense from theirs, "Amen!"
Then they did as I bade them, and laboriously carried away their dead comrades.
I turned to Tim. He was stirring slowly and feebly. I took off my coat and rolled it into a pillow for his head. Presently he opened his eyes, and a smile like the smile of an angel pa.s.sed over his face.
"Barry," said he, "dear old Barry, and is it you, my brother?"
I bent over him and kissed his cheek.
"Methinks, Barry dear," said he, "I have struck my last blow for beloved Ireland. G.o.d bless her! But it has been a paltry, poor bit of work-- all that I have been able to do."
"Cheer up, Tim, my boy, keep up your heart; we"ll soon have you right again," said I, though my own heart misgave me as I spoke. "Do you know, Tim, that I have just heard that Kit is here, in this house, now--"
"Kit? Dear old Barry!" He took my hand in his and held it there, but all the strength was gone from his grip. I saw that he read my secret.
"Now that her father is dead, Barry, this is _her_ house," he said, trying to smile.
"No, Tim. This house and these lands are yours."
His face seemed to flush at this.
"Is that so? are you sure?" said he. "As sure as that I am here."
"And it is I who am heir to the estates?"
"It is. You are a rich man, for your father besides had land in England with your mother."
Tim"s eyes were wide open. He lay silent for a time. "Barry, boy," he said, now almost fainting for lack of blood, "we have always been brothers, haven"t we? even when we differed and fought when we were boys, eh? Nothing, nothing can unbrother you and me, Barry. I hand on all my rights to you and Kit--G.o.d bless ye both!"
His eyes closed wearily, but on his face there came again the happy smile of boyhood.
"Tim dear, shall I bring Kit down?--if, indeed, she is here."
"No, Barry, no; this is no place to bring a lady to, nor am I in a condition to see any lady."
As I looked at the blood-stained floor and table, and the walls which bore marks of the fray, I could not but agree with him. It was easy to see also that poor Tim"s moments were numbered. His eyes were sunk deep in his head, his face was pallid, and his breathing became more and more difficult. His lips moved in broken utterance, but I saw he was not addressing me; there was a far-off, unworldly expression in his eyes. I could hear him murmur,--
"Ah, the tragedy! ah, the farce of it all!--I dreamed of a free, happy country, of a free, happy people prospering and blessed when the tyrant was overthrown--I thought I could help on this glorious time; and what happens? I am struck down by the hand of a friend in a miserable squabble; inglorious, farcical!--O Ireland, Ireland! the follies of your own children may be a greater curse to you in the days to come than have been the crimes of the stranger who has usurped your rights."
While I held his hand, stooping over him, with a heart too full for speech, he opened his eyes again, and said,--
"Barry, brother, you have forgiven me for that stone I threw at ye on Fanad Head?--ay, and the poor old mother is gone, and father too--and the guns are in Kilgorman--and Wolfe Tone is coming--and the French are preparing to deliver us; yes, they are on the way--and a time of joy is coming to Ireland--Barry, Barry, do ye hear the rustle of silk by the hearthstone? Do ye think the ghost is here?--I hear something--put but the light, boy, and lie close--there, there--my G.o.d, it is mother!" and he swooned away.
I thought he was dead, and I began to pray, when I heard him murmur,--
"Barry, are ye there, dear?--I can"t see ye at all, at all. Why don"t ye light the lamp?--there is no air!--open the window!--light, light, give me light!" and he fell back dead.
It was the bitterest, saddest moment of my life. Yet I felt a curious envy of him. He was out of the whirl and confusion and chaos of our unhappy time! Peace be with him! I loved him as my own soul, with a love which was not weakened but made only more pathetic to me that his ideals for the happiness of our loved country were not my ideals.
But there was comfort for me--of a kind I perhaps little deserved--close at hand. When I had drawn my coat over Tim"s face, I rushed upstairs, calling aloud as I went,--
"Kit, Kit, I am coming! where are you, Kit?"
Then by-and-by I heard, far off, from a remote attic up in the roof of the rambling old building to which I had never before penetrated--I heard, faintly, a voice calling me by name, which fell on my heart like sweetest music. And when the rusty key had turned in the rusty old lock, and the crazy door was pushed open, I found a pair of arms flung tightly about my neck, and a pair of lips pressed close against mine, with cries of "Thank G.o.d, Barry! thank G.o.d, Barry! you are here at last."
It was a meeting of smiles and tears, of most delicious joy, with a background of infinite sadness.
Kit and Biddy McQuilkin were quickly brought by me to more comfortable quarters in Knockowen, and where they were more likely to have better protection. Captain Felton, on my signal, came ash.o.r.e from the _Gnat_, and I found in him a friend indeed. He urged me to take Kit and Biddy to the house of his aunt (the widow of one of the canons of Salisbury Cathedral), who lived a peaceful life in one of the quaint old houses in the Close of that lovely cathedral city--at any rate until quieter times for Ireland. Not only this, but he managed so that Kit and Biddy and I were landed at Stranraer, on the Scottish coast, bearing letters from him to his aunt, who received us hospitably, and in whose care I was content to leave my beloved one, with a lighter heart concerning her than I had experienced during all the years I had known her.
I am not going to detail here all the b.l.o.o.d.y work of the next few months in our loved country. The wars of brothers are best left untold. Of the terrible doings in the north and south and west, but especially in County Wexford, at Enniscorthy and Vinegar Hill, where blood was spilt like water, we had enough, and more than enough, in the public prints, and on the loud tongue of rumour, at the time. But I was in the sea- fight off Lough Sw.i.l.l.y, when we made mincemeat of the French squadron in October of that black year 1798, and pluckier fighting against enormous odds than was done on that day by the French frigate _Hoche_ I had never seen, nor ever again wish to see. It was courage worthy of a better cause.
It was for the part I had in that affair that, later on, to my joy, I received my promotion, and gained the coveted right to place the honoured word "captain" after my name. With the defeat of the French expeditions in the west and north, and the capture and subsequent tragic death of the heroic if erratic genius Wolfe Tone, and after many weary days of suffering on the part of Ireland"s n.o.blest sons and daughters, there came gradually a modifying of the brutal spirit of hatred and bloodshed throughout the land. And with the better and more kindly understanding between the peoples there came by-and-by a measure of peace and prosperity and a calm after the long period of storm and disturbance.
In the spring of 1799 Kit and I were wedded in Salisbury. My friend Captain Felton was my "best man." At first our home was in Belfast, but we made frequent expeditions to Knockowen and Kilgorman as the countryside became more settled; for the place, in spite of all that had pa.s.sed, had a fascination for both of us. And as the painful a.s.sociations died away, we have long since returned to Donegal. There for many a day we and our little ones--beloved Tim and Kit and Eileen-- have made our home by the side of our lovely lough, as happy a home as any to be found throughout Ireland, in a renovated and regenerated Kilgorman.
THE END.