The O'Donoghue Part 57

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII. TAMPERING AND PLOTTING

While they who meditated the invasion of Ireland were thoroughly informed on the state of parties, and the condition of public opinion in that kingdom, the English Government were satisfied with vague and insufficient rumours of those intentions, derived from sources of questionable accuracy, or communicated by persons in the pay of their opponents. Certain it is, neither the magnitude of the peril was appreciated, nor its nearness suspected. Many, in England, regarded the whole in the light of a menace, and believed that the embarra.s.sments of the French Directory were quite sufficient to withdraw their thoughts from foreign aggression, to troubles nearer home. Their great want of money, arms, and all the munitions of war, was well known and trusted to as a guarantee of security. Others supposed that a rash attempt might be made, but were equally sure of its being defeated by our naval forces before a landing could be effected; and many more believed that the pretence of foreign aid was but a threat of the malcontents at home, to enforce compliance with their demands. The event itself was to show how unfounded were all these calculations, and how little reason we had to regard our security as derived from our own measures of foresight and precaution.

Const.i.tuted as the French Government of the day was, nothing would have been easier than to have ample knowledge of all the projects. The men in high situations were newly elevated to power, from positions of very humble pretension, with no habits of public business, no experience of the mode of conducting difficult affairs, and many of them of very questionable character for integrity; and yet, with these opportunities at our disposal, a few scattered facts, ill-authenticated and vague, were all that our Government attained to; and even these were unattended to, save when they implicated the conduct of some suspected character nearer home; then, indeed, party violence a.s.sumed an appearance of statesmanlike vigilance, and crown prosecutions and ex-officio informations, seemed the safeguard of the empire.

On occasions of this kind, the activity of the Government was most remarkable, and while the great question of national security was overlooked, no pains were spared to track out the narrow path where some insignificant treason was plodding, and bring the plotter to the scaffold. Large sums of money were spent in obtaining secret information, and the whole science of government was reduced to a system of "espionage." This little-minded and narrow policy was, in a great measure, the consequence of entrusting so much of the Government to the influence of the lawyers, who, regarding everything through the light of their own profession, placed the safety of the empire on the success of a crown prosecution.

It was at a moment when this favourite policy was in the ascendant, that Hemsworth reached Dublin, little aware, indeed, how far events there, were hastening forward the catastrophe for which he was interested.

Lanty Lawler, who for a long time had never communicated, save to Hemsworth, his knowledge of the United Irish movement, had, at length, become alarmed for his own safety; and putting but slight trust in Hemsworth's good faith, should any calamity befall him, had come forward and revealed to Major Sirr all that he knew of the plot, the names of several parties implicated, and in particular the whole history of Mark O'Donoghue's complicity. The information came well-timed. The crown lawyers were desirous of exhibiting the parade of a state prosecution, and all the ordinary measures were taken to secure its success. Lanty, now a prisoner in Newgate, but, with the promise of a free pardon and a reward, had been repeatedly examined by the Attorney and Solicitor-general, and his statement found perfectly accurate and consistent. He narrated the various interviews he had been present at among the Delegates in Dublin--the messages he had conveyed from them to different individuals through the country--the depots where pikes and muskets were stored, and the several places of rendezvous agreed upon, whenever the rising should take place. He also revealed many facts of the feeling prevalent among the people, and exemplified the conflicting state of opinion then in the country--how, that many were worn out and discouraged by delay, and believed themselves betrayed by France--while others were full of hope and confidence, eager for the time to come, and ready to incur any peril. While, in all these disclosures he was most candid and explicit, he never once betrayed the name of Mary M'Kelly, nor even alluded, in any way, to her cabin, as the resort of the French spies, and the secret depot of arms and ammunition, It might have been that in the blackness of his treachery to others, this one spark of better feeling survived towards her--that some lurking affection lingered in a heart dead to every other n.o.ble sentiment, or perhaps the lesser motive swayed him, that in excepting her from the general ruin, he was securing to himself one, who as a wife, would bring him no small share of worldly wealth. Either may be the explanation of his conduct, for strange as it may seem, the vilest actions are sometimes conceived with a reserve of conscience, that shows what casuistry guilt requires, and how much the spirit of evil lacks of courage, when it has to borrow the energy to act from even the semblance of something good.

It was not without reluctance, at first, that Lanty ventured on the betrayal of Mark O'Donoghue; nor did he even consent to do so, until his own safety had been threatened by Hemsworth, and also a solemn promise given, that he should never be brought forward to give evidence against him, nor exhibited before the world as an informer. This was the character he most dreaded--it was the only reproach that had any terror for his mind. Gradually, however, and by the frequency of his revelations to Hemsworth, this dread diminished, and in proportion, the fears for his own safety increased. Hemsworth's game was to make him believe that such depended solely on him--that at any moment he could give information of a character sufficient to convict him--and by this tie was he bound to a man he detested with all his hatred. After much vacillation and doubt it was, that Lanty determined, whatever the consequences to his fame, to make a full disclosure to Government, and only bargain for his own life. Hemsworth's absence from Dublin afforded the opportunity, and he seized it at once. Such, then, was the position of affairs when Hemsworth reached the capital, and learned that his agent, Lanty, was no longer at his disposition, but at that very moment a prisoner in the gaol of Newgate, strict orders being given that n.o.body was to be admitted to converse with him without the special leave of the law officers of the crown. Now, although Hemsworth had, personally, little to fear from any disclosure Lanty might make, yet his information might thwart all the plans he had so artfully devised regarding the O'Donoghues; the events impending that family being, up to that moment, perfectly at his own direction and disposal, to delay or precipitate which, const.i.tuted the essence of his policy. Mark could not be brought to trial, he well knew, without exhibiting himself in the light of an enemy and an accuser, he being the person to whom Lanty originally communicated his informations. This hostile part would form an impa.s.sible obstacle to any success with Kate, and consequently to his great plan of obtaining the Glenflesk estate.

Hemsworth lost not a moment, after his arrival in town, in his endeavours to have an interview with Lanty; and, being on terms of old intimacy with the sheriff, at length persuaded him to grant him a brief opportunity of speaking to him; a permission, under the circ.u.mstances, most reluctantly acceded. It was near nine o'clock--the latest hour at which a visit to the gaol was practicable--when Hemsworth presented himself, with the sheriff's order at the gate. A brief delay ensued, for even on such an authority, the goaler scrupled to deviate from the directions given him, and he was admitted. Following the turnkey for some minutes, through pa.s.sages and across courts, they reached an angle of the building dedicated to the reception of those who were held over by the crown as "approvers" against their former friends and a.s.sociates.

Many of these had been in confinement several months, the time not having arrived when the evidence, which they were to corroborate, was perfected; and not a few preferring the security of a prison, to the dangers the character of an informer would expose them, to without doors. A confused noise of voices and coa.r.s.e laughter was heard as they came near, and the turnkey, striking his bunch of keys against a heavy door, called, "Be silent there, b----t ye, there's more trouble with six of ye than we have with the whole condemned ward," then turning to Hemsworth, he added, in a lower voice, "them chaps is awaitin' a pa.s.sage over seas--they've given their evidence long ago, and they're not wanted now. That one with the cracked voice is Cope, the fellow that tracked Parson Jackson--but here, this is your man's cell--we cannot give you more than a quarter of an hour, and so, don't lose anymore time."

Hemsworth laid his hand on the gaoler's arm as he extended it with the key. "One second--just wait one second," said he, as he pressed his fingers across his brow, and seemed to reflect, then added, "Yes, that will do--open it now, and I shall be ready to retire whenever you please."

Whether the sound without had drowned the noise, or that his attention was too much engaged to notice it, Lanty never stirred nor looked round, as the heavy door was unbarred, and fastened again behind Hemsworth.

Seated in a recess of the window, and with his face pressed against the iron bars, he was watching, with interest, the movement in the street below, where a considerable number of people went past, their eyes directed upwards, to the front of the building, but all view of which was impossible to him. Hemsworth stood and looked at him for some minutes without speaking--he was as if calculating the very thoughts of the other's brain--then advancing gently, he laid his hand on Lawler's shoulder, as he said--

"Ay, Lanty, that's the reward they get. Two of them are to be turned off to-morrow."

"Two of whom, sir?" asked Lanty, as, starting at the voice, his face became the colour of death.

"I thought you knew!" said he, affecting astonishment; "they are the approvers against Bond. The Government has no use for the rascals now, and it saves expense to hang them; and so, they tried them for a murder at Sallins, in March last. I hear they were not there; but no matter, they've enough to answer for, without that."

"But, sure, Mr. Hemsworth, they'll never treat their own friends that way?"

"Wouldn't they, Lanty! You don't know them as well as I do. They keep little faith with scoundrels, and more fools the scoundrels for being caught; but I mustn't lose time; it was that very thing brought me here.

I heard this evening the sc.r.a.pe you were in."

"Me, in a sc.r.a.pe!" exclaimed Lanty, his eyes growing wider with terror.

"To be sure it is, and a devilish ugly sc.r.a.pe, too, my friend: havn't you given information to the Attorney-general against the young O'Donoghue?"

Lanty nodded, and he went on--

"Havn't you confessed the whole of the plot, and told them everything?"

"Very nearly, faix!" said Lanty, dropping his head, and sighing.

"And what do you expect to gain by that, Master Lanty? Is it by showing that you are of no use to them--that you've nothing more left in you--that you hope for a reward. Is it for the sake of your family and friends, or on account of your remarkable honesty, they're so fond of you?" Then checking this sneering tone, he added, in a slow and solemn voice, "Are you a fool, man?--or don't you see what you're bringing yourseif to? What will be your claim when the trial of the young O'Donoghue is over? The crown lawyers will have you up in the witness-box till they've drained you dry. Devil a drop they'll leave in you; and when they say 'Go down,' take my word for it, it's down you'll go in earnest; and all the world wouldn't lift you up afterwards."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 378]

Hemsworth permitted the words to sink into his heart for a few seconds in silence, and then went on--

"So long as you trusted _me_, you were safe. I'd never expose you in open court."

"No, sir, nor the Attorney-general neither. He said that all they wanted was my information on oath."

"And you gave it!" exclaimed Hemsworth, in a voice of ill-dissembled anxiety.

"Not all out, sir," said Lanty, with a shrewd glance of malicious intelligence. "I asked them for a copy, to read it over before I signed it, and they gave me one"--here he produced a roll of paper from his breast pocket, and showed it to Hemsworth--"and I'm to give it back to-morrow, with my name to it."

"They've played you off well, Lanty," said Hemsworth, while, carelessly opening the paper, he affected not to pay it any attention. "The lawyers have got round you nicely; and, faith, I always thought you a clever fellow before. Your evidence, so long as it was your own, was worth five thousand pounds, and I wouldn't give five for your chance of escape, now, that they know your secret."

"What would you say if they didn't know it?" said Lanty, with a look of impudent familiarity, he had never ventured on before. "What would you say, now, if the best of my evidence was to come out yet?--that I never told one word about the French clipper that landed the muskets in Glengariff-bay, and left two pipes of wine at your own house the same night?"

"Ah! you'd try that game, would you?" said Hemsworth, with a smile of deadly malice; "but I've thought of that part, my honest Lanty. I've already given information on that very matter. You don't suppose that I afforded those fellows my protection for the sake of the bribe. No, faith!--but I made them pay for the very evidence that can any day convict them;--ay, _them_ and _you_; you, a paid spy of France, a sworn United Irishman, who have administered the oaths to eighteen soldiers of the Roscommon militia, and are at this moment under a signed and witnessed contract, bound to furnish horses for a French cavalry force on their landing here in Ireland. Are these truths, Mr. Lanty, or are they mere matters of fancy?"

"I'm a crown witness," said Lawler, st.u.r.dily, "and if I speak out all I know, they're bound to protect me."

"Who is to bind them?" said Hemsworth, jeeringly: "is it your friends, the United Irishmen, that you betrayed?--is it they are to watch over your precious life?--or do you think your claims are stronger with the other party, that you only swore to ma.s.sacre? Where's the sympathy and protection to come from? Tell me that, for I'm curious on the point."

Lanty turned a fierce look upon him--his eyeb.a.l.l.s glared, and his nether lip shook convulsively, while his hands were firmly clenched together.

Hemsworth watched these evidences of growing anger, but without seeming to regard them, when the key grated roughly in the lock, the door opened, and the gaoler called out, with a savage attempt at laughter--

"Time's up. I must turn you off, sir."

"A short reprieve," said Hemsworth, humouring the ruffian jest, and he pitched his purse into the fellow's hand.

"To settle family matters, I suppose," said the turnkey, with a grin, as he retired, and closed the door once more.

The interruption seemed to offer a favourable opportunity to Hemsworth of giving an amicable turn to the interview, for with a changed voice, and a look of well-a.s.sumed friendship, he said--

"I have misspent my moments here sadly, Lanty. I came to befriend you, and not to interchange words of angry meaning. If I had been in Dublin, I'm certain you would never have fallen into this perilous position.

Let us see how best to escape from it. This information--I see it is all confined to young O'Donoghue's business--is of no value whatever, until signed by you. It is just as if it were never spoken. So that, if you steadily determine not to sign it, you need give no reason whatever, but simply refuse when asked. Do this, and all's safe."

"Couldn't they transport me?" said Lanty, in a feeble voice, but whose very accent betrayed the implicit trust he reposed in Hemsworth's answer.

"They'll threaten that, and worse, too; but never flinch; they've nothing against you save, your own evidence. When the time comes--mark me, I say, when the time comes--your evidence is worth five thousand pounds; but, now, all it will do is convict young O'Donoghue, and warn all the others not to go forward. I don't suppose you want that; the young fellow never did you any harm."

"Never," said Lanty, dropping his head with shame, for even in such a presence his conscience smote him.

"Very well--there's no use in bringing him to trouble. Keep your own counsel, and all will be well."

"I'm just thinking of a plan I've a notion in my head will do well,"

said Lanty, musingly. "I'm to see Father Kearney, the priest of Luke's Chapel, to-morrow morning--he's coming over to confess me. Well, when the Attorney-general and the others come for me to write my name, I'll just say that I daren't do it. I'll not tell why nor wherefore--sorra word more, but this, 'I dar'n't do it.' They'll think at once it's the priest set me against it. I know well what they'll say. That Father Kearney put me under a vow, and so they may. They'll scarcely get _him_ to say much about it, and I'll take care they won't make me."

"That thought was worthy of you, Lanty," said Hemsworth, laughing, "but take care that you don't swerve from your determination. Remember that there is no accusation against you--not a word nor a syllable of testimony. Of course they'll threaten you with the worst consequences.

You'll be told of prosecutions for perjury, and all that. Never mind--wait patiently your time. When the hour arrives, _I'll_ make your bargain for you, and it will not be merely the evidence against an individual, but the disclosure of a great plot of rebellion, they must pay you for. c.o.c.kayne got four thousand pounds and a free pardon. _Your_ services will rank far higher."

"If they won't bring me up in open court," said Lanty, timidly, "I'll do whatever they please."

"For that very reason you must adhere to my advice. There, now, I perceive the fellow is about to lock up for the night, and I must leave this. You may want some money from time to time. I'll take means of sending whatever you stand in need of. For the present, ten pounds will, I suppose, be sufficient."

Lanty took the money with a mixture of humility and sullenness. He felt it as a bribe rather than a gift, and he measured the services expected of him by the consideration they were costing. The turnkey's presence did not admit of further colloquy, and they parted in mutual suspicion and distrust, each speculating how far self-interest might be worked upon as the guiding principle to sway the other's actions.

"I'm scarcely sure of him yet," said Hemsworth, as he slowly returned to his hotel. "They'll stop at nothing to terrify him into signing the informations, and if the prosecution goes on, and the young O'Donoghue is convicted, the plot is blown up. The others will escape, and all my long-projected disclosures to the Government become useless. Besides, I fail where failure is of more consequence. It was to little moment that I prevented a marriage between Travers and the girl, if I cannot make her my own; but yet, that alliance should have been thwarted on every ground of policy. It would have been to plant the Travers here on the very spot I destine for myself. No, no. I must take care that they never see Ireland more. Indeed this breaking off the marriage will prove a strong obstacle to their returning." Thus did he review his plans, sometimes congratulating himself on the success of the past, sometimes fearing for the future, but always relying with confidence on the skill of his own negociations--an ingenuity that never yet had failed him in his difficulties.