"_Manim a Yea agus a wurrah!_"* exclaimed one of them, "if the black man hasn"t brought it up from the bridge! _Dher a larna heena_**, he did; for it was above the bridge we first seen him: jist for all the world--the Lord be about us--as Antony and me war coming out on the road at the bridge, there he was standing--a headless man, all black, without face or eyes upon him--and then we left the coffin and cut acra.s.s the fields home."
* My soul to G.o.d and the Virgin.
** By the very book--meaning the Bible, which, in the Irish, is not simply called the book, but the very book, or the book itself.
"But where is he now, Eman?" said one of them, "are you sure you seen him?"
"Seen him!" both exclaimed, "do you think we"d take to our sc.r.a.pers like two hares, only we did; arrah, bad manners to you, do you think the coffin could walk up wid itself from the bridge to this, only he brought it?--isn"t that enough?"
"Thrue for yez," the rest exclaimed, "but what"s to be done?"
"Why to bring the coffin home, now that we"re all together," another observed; "they say he never appears to more than two at wanst, so he won"t be apt to show himself now, when we"re together."
"Well, boys, let two of you go down to it," said one of them, "and we"ll wait here till yez bring it up."
"Yes," said Eman Dhu, "do you go down, Owen, as you have the Scapular*
on you, and the jug of holy water in your hand, and let Billy M"Shane, here repate the confeethurs (* _The Confiteor_) along wid you."
* The scapular is one of the highest religious orders, and is worn by both priest and layman. It is considered by the people a safeguard against evil both spiritual and physical.
"Isn"t it the same thing, Eman," replied Owen, "if I shake the holy water on you, and whoever goes wid you? sure you know that if only one dhrop of it touched you, the devil himself couldn"t harm you!"
"And what needs yourself be afraid, then," retorted Eman; "and you has the Scapular on you to the back of that? Didn"t you say, you war coming out, that if it was the devil, you"d dispa.r.s.e him?"
"You had betther not be mintioning his name, you _omadhaun_," replied the other; "if I was your age, and hadn"t a wife and childre on my hands, it"s myself that would trust in G.o.d, and go down manfully; but the people are hen-hearted now, besides what they used to be in my time."
During this conversation, I had resolved, if possible, to keep up the delusion, until I could get myself extricated with due secrecy out of this ridiculous situation; and I was glad to find that, owing to their cowardice, there was some likelihood of effecting my design.
"Ned," said one of them to a little man, "go down and speak to it, as it can"t harm you."
"Why sure," said Ned, with a tremor in his voice, "I can speak to it where I am, widout going within rache of it. Boys, stand close to me: hem--In the name of--but don"t you think I had betther spake to it in the Latin I sarve ma.s.s* wid; it can"t but answer that, for the sowl of it, seeing it"s a blest language?"
* The person who serves ma.s.s, as it is called, is he who makes the responses to the priest during that ceremony. As the ma.s.s is said in Latin the serving of it must necessarily fall upon many who are ignorant of that language, and whose p.r.o.nunciation of it is, of course, extremely ludicrous.
"Very well," the rest replied; "try that Ned; give it the best and ginteelest grammar you have, and maybe it may thrate us dacent."
Now it so happened that, in my schoolboy days, I had joined a cla.s.s of young fellows who were learning what is called the "_Sarvin" of Ma.s.s_"
and had impressed it so accurately on a pretty retentive memory, that I never forgot it. At length, Ned pulled, out his beads, and bedewed himself most copiously with the holy water. He then shouted out, with a voice which resembled that of a man in an ague fit, "Dom-i-n-us vo-bis-c.u.m?" "Et c.u.m spiritu tuo," I replied, in a husky sepulchral tone, from behind the coffin. As soon as I uttered these words, the whole crowd ran back instinctively with fright; and Ned got so weak, that they were obliged to support him.
"Lord have marcy on us!" said Ned; "hoys, isn"t it an awful thing to speak to a spirit? my hair is like I dunna what, it"s sticking up so stiff upon my head."
"Spake to it in English, Ned," said they, till we hear what it will say.
Ax it does anything trouble it; or whether its sowl"s in Purgatory."
"Wouldn"t it be betther," observed another, "to ax it who murthered it; maybe it wants to discover that?"
"In the--na-me of Go-o-d-ness," said Ned, down to me, "what are you?"
"I"m the soul," I replied in the same voice, "of the pedlar that was murdered on the bridge below."
"And--who--was---it, sur, wid--submission, that--murdhered--you?"
To this I made no reply.
"I say," continued Ned, "in--the--name--of--G-o-o-d-ness--who was it--that took the liberty of murdhering you, dacent man?"
"Ned Corrigan," I answered, giving his own name.
"Hem! G.o.d presarve us! Ned Corrigan!" he exclaimed. "What Ned, for there"s two of them--is it myself or the other vagabone?"
"Yourself, you murderer!" I replied.
"Ho!" said Ned, getting quite stout, "is that you, neighbor? Come, now, walk out wid yourself out of that coffin, you vagabone you, whoever you are."
"What do you mane, Ned, by spaking to it that-a-way?" the rest inquired.
"Hut," said Ned, "it"s some fellow or other that"s playing a thrick upon us. Sure I never knew either act nor part of the murdher, nor of the murdherers; and you know, if it was anything of that nature, it couldn"t tell me a lie, and me a Scapularian along wid axing it in G.o.d"s name, with Father Feasthalagh"s Latin."
"Big tare-an"-ouns;" said the rest; "if we thought it was any man making fun of us, but we"d crop the ears off his head, to tache him to be joking!"
To tell the truth, when I heard this suggestion, I began to repent of my frolic; but I was determined to make another effort to finish the adventure creditably.
"Ned," said they, "throw some of the holy water on us all, and in the name of St. Pether and the Blessed Virgin, we"ll go down and examine it in a body."
This they considered a good thought, and Ned was sprinkling the water about him in all directions, whilst he repeated some jargon which was completely unintelligible. They then began to approach the coffin at dead-march time, and I felt that this was the only moment in which my plan could succeed; for had I waited until they came down all would have been discovered. As soon, therefore, as they began to move towards me, I also began, with equal solemnity, to retrograde towards them; so that, as the coffin was between us, it seemed to move without human means.
"Stop, for G.o.d"s sake, stop,"--shouted Ned; "it"s movin"! It has made the coffin alive; don"t you see it thravelling this way widout hand or foot, barring the boords?"
There was now a halt to ascertain the fact: but I still retrograded.
This was sufficient; a cry of terror broke from the whole group, and, without waiting for further evidence, they set off in the direction they came from, at full speed, Ned flinging the jug of holy water at the coffin, lest the latter should follow, or the former enc.u.mber him in his flight. Never was there so complete a discomfiture; and so eager were they to escape, that several of them came down on the stones; and I could hear them shouting with desperation, and imploring the more advanced not to leave them behind. I instantly disentangled myself from the coffin, and left it standing exactly in the middle of the road, for the next pa.s.senger to give it a lift as far as Denis Kelly"s, if he felt so disposed. I lost no time in making the best of my way home; and on pa.s.sing poor Denis"s house I perceived, by the bustle and noise within, that he was dead.
I had given my friends no notice of this visit; my reception was consequently the warmer, as I was not expected. That evening was a happy one, which I shall long remember. At supper I alluded to Kelly, and received from my brother a full account, as given in the following narrative, of the circ.u.mstances which caused his death.
"I need not remind you, Toby, of our schoolboy days, nor of the principles usually imbibed at such schools as that in which the two tiny factions of the Caseys and the Murphys qualified themselves, among the latter of whom you cut so distinguished a figure. You will not, therefore, be surprised to hear that these two factions are as bitter as ever, and that the boys who at Pat Mulligan"s school belabored each other, in imitation of their brothers and fathers, continue to set the same iniquitous example to their children; so that this groundless and hereditary enmity is likely to descend to future generations; unless, indeed, the influence of a more enlightened system of education may check it. But, unhappily, there is a strong suspicion of the object proposed by such a system; so that the advantages likely to result from it to the lower orders of the people will be slow and distant."
"But, John," said I, "now that we are upon that subject, let me ask what really is the bone of contention between Irish factions?"
"I a.s.sure you," he replied, "I am almost as much at a loss, Toby, to give you a satisfactory answer, as if you asked me the elevation of the highest mountain on the moon; and I believe you would find equal difficulty in ascertaining the cause of their feuds from the factions themselves. I really am convinced they know not, nor, if I rightly understand them, do they much care. Their object is to fight, and the turning of a straw will at any time furnish them with sufficient grounds for that. I do not think, after all, that the enmity between them is purery personal: they do not hate each other individually; but having originally had one quarrel upon some trifling occasion, the beaten party cannot bear the stigma of defeat without another trial of strength.
Then, if they succeed, the onus of retrieving lost credit is thrown upon the party that was formerly victorious. If they fail a second time, the double triumph of their conquerors excites them to a greater determination to throw off the additional disgrace; and this species of alternation perpetuates the evil.
"These habits, however, familiarize our peasantry to acts of outrage and violence--the bad pa.s.sions are cultivated and nourished, until crimes, which peaceable men look upon with fear and horror, lose their real magnitude and deformity in the eyes of Irishmen. I believe this kind of undefined hatred between either parties or nations, is the most dangerous and fatal spirit which can pervade any portion of society.
If you hate a man for an obvious and palpable injury, it is likely that when he cancels that injury by an act of subsequent kindness, accompanied by an exhibition of sincere sorrow, you will cease to look upon him as your enemy; but where the hatred is such that, while feeling you cannot, on a sober examination of your heart, account for it, there is little hope that you will ever be able to stifle the enmity that you entertain against him. This, however, in politics and religion, is what is frequently designated as principle--a word on which men, possessing higher and greater advantages than the poor ignorant peasantry of Ireland, pride themselves. In sects and parties, we may mark its effects among all ranks and nations. I therefore, seldom wish, Toby, to hear a man a.s.sert that he is of this party or that, from principle; for I am usually inclined to suspect that he is not, in this case, influenced by conviction.
"Kelly was a man who, but for these scandalous proceedings among us, might have been now alive and happy. Although his temperament was warm, yet that warmth communicated itself to his good as well as to his evil qualities. In the beginning his family were not attached to any faction--and when I use the word faction, it is in contradistinction to the word party--for faction, you know, is applied to a feud or grudge between Roman Catholics exclusively. But when he was young, he ardently attached himself to the Murphys; and, having continued among them until manhood, he could not abandon them, consistently with that sense of mistaken honor which forms so prominent a feature in the character of the Irish peasantry. But although the Kellys were not _faction-men_, they were bitter _party-men_, being the ringleaders of every quarrel Which took place between the Catholics and Protestants, or, I should rather say, between the Orangemen and Whiteboys.
"From the moment Denis attached himself to the Murphys, until the day he received the beating which subsequently occasioned his death, he never withdrew from them. He was in all their battles; and in course of time, induced his relations to follow his example; so that, by general consent, they were nicknamed "the Errigle Slashers." Soon after you left the country, and went to reside with my uncle, Denis married a daughter of little d.i.c.k Magrath"s, from the Race-road, with whom he got a little money. She proved a kind, affectionate wife; and, to do him justice, I believe he was an excellent husband. Shortly after his marriage his father died, and Denis succeeded him in his farm; for you know that, among the peasantry, the youngest generally gets the landed property--the elder children being obliged to provide for themselves according to their ability, as otherwise a population would multiply upon a portion of land inadequate to its support.
"It was supposed that Kelly"s marriage would have been the means of producing a change in him for the better, but it did not. He was, in fact, the slave of a low, vain ambition, which constantly occasioned him to have some quarrel or other on his hands; and, as he possessed great physical courage and strength, he became the champion of the parish.