Tom Burke Of "Ours" Volume Ii Part 57

"You were a United Irishman, Mr. M'Keown, I believe?" rejoined the counsel, with a frown of stern intimidation.

"Yes, sir; and a White Boy, and a Defender, and a Thrasher besides. I was in all the fun them times."

"The Thrashers are the fellows, I believe, who must beat any man they are appointed to attack; isn't that so?"

"Yes, sir."

"So that, if I was mentioned to you as a person to be a.s.saulted, although I had never done you any injury, you 'd not hesitate to waylay me?"

"No, sir, I wouldn't do that. I'd not touch yer honor."

"Come, come; what do you mean? Why wouldn't you touch me?"

"I' d rather not tell, av it was plazing to ye."

"You must tell, sir; speak out! Why wouldn't you attack me?"

"They say, sir," said Darby,--and as he spoke, his voice a.s.sumed a peculiar lisp, meant to express great modesty,--"they say, sir, that when a man has a big wart on his nose there, like yer honor, it's not lucky to bate him, for that's the way the divil marks his own."

This time the decorum of the court gave way entirely, and the unwashed faces which filled the avenues and pa.s.sages were all expanded in open laughter; nor was it easy to restore order again amid the many marks of approval and encouragement bestowed on Darby by his numerous admirers.

"Remember where you are, sir," said the judge, severely.

"Yes, my lord," said Darby, with an air of submission. "'T is the first time I was ever in sich a situation as this. I 'm much more at my ease when I 'm down in the dock there; it's what I 'm most used to, G.o.d help me."

The whining tone in which he delivered this mock lament on his misfortunes occasioned another outbreak of the mob, who were threatened with expulsion from the court if any future interruption took place.

"You were, then, a member of every illegal society of the time, Mr.

Darby?" said the lawyer, returning to the examination. "Is it not so?"

"Most of them, anyhow," was the cool reply.

"You took an active part in the doings of the year '98 also?"

"Throth I did,--mighty active. I walked from beyant Castlecomer one day to Dublin to see a trial here. Be the same token, it was Mr. Curran made a hare of yer honor that day. Begorrah I wonder ye ever held up yer head after."

Here a burst of laughter at the recollection seemed to escape Darby so naturally, that its contagious effects were felt throughout the a.s.sembly.

"You are a wit, Mr. M'Keown, I fancy, eh?"

"Bedad I 'm not, sir; very little of that same would have kept out of this to-day."

"But you came here to serve a friend,--a very old friend, he calls you."

"Does he?" said Darby, with an energy of tone and manner very different from what he had hitherto used. "Does Master Tom say that?"

As the poor fellow's cheek flushed, and his eyes sparkled with proud emotion, I could perceive that the lawyer's face underwent a change equally rapid. A look of triumph at having at length discovered the a.s.sailable point of the witness's temperament now pa.s.sed over his pale features, and gave them an expression of astonishing intelligence.

"A very natural thing it is, Darby, that he should call you so. You were companions at an early period,--at least of his life; fellow-travellers, too, if I don't mistake?"

Although these words were spoken in a tone of careless freedom, and intended to encourage Darby to some expansion on the same theme, the cunning fellow had recovered all his habitual self-possession, and merely answered, if answer it could be called,--

"I was a poor man, sir, and lived by the pipes."

The advocate and the witness exchanged looks at this moment, in which their relative positions were palpably conveyed. Each seemed to say it was a drawn battle; but the lawyer returned with vigor to the charge; desiring Darby to mention the manner in which our first acquaintance began, and how the intimacy was originally formed.

He narrated with clearness and accuracy every step of our early wanderings; and while never misstating a single fact, contrived to exhibit my career as totally devoid of any partic.i.p.ation in the treasonable doings of the period. Indeed, he laid great stress on the fact that my acquaintance with Charles de Meudon had withdrawn me from all relations with the insurgent party, between whom and the French allies feelings of open dislike and distrust existed. Of the scene at the barrack his account varied in nothing from that I had already given; nor was all the ingenuity of a long and intricate cross-examination able to shake his testimony in the most minute particular.

"Of course, then, you know Sir Montague Crofts? It is quite clear that you cannot mistake a person with whom you had a struggle such as you speak of."

"Faix, I'd know his skin upon a bush," said Darby, "av he was like what I remember him; but sure he may be changed since that. They tell me I'm looking ould myself; and no wonder. Hunting kangaroos wears the const.i.tution terribly."

"Look around the court, now, and say if he be here."

Darby rose from his seat, and shading his eyes with his hand, took a deliberate survey of the court. Though well knowing, from past experience, in what part of the a.s.sembly the person he sought would probably be, he seized the occasion to scrutinize the features of the various persons, whom under no other pretence could he have examined.

"It's not on the bench, sir, you need look for him," said the lawyer, as M'Keown remained for a considerable time with his eyes bent in that direction.

"Bedad there's no knowing," rejoined Darby, doubtfully; "av he was dressed up that way, I wouldn't know him from an old ram."

He turned round as he said this, and gazed steadfastly towards the bar.

It was an anxious moment for me: should Darby make any mistake in the ident.i.ty of Crofts, his whole testimony would be so weakened in the opinion of the jury as to be nearly valueless. I watched his eyes, therefore, as they ranged over the crowded ma.s.s, with a palpitating heart; and when at last his glance settled on a far part of the court, very distant from that occupied by Crofts, I grew almost sick with apprehension lest he should mistake another for him.

"Well, sir," said the lawyer; "do you see him now?"

"Arrah, it's humbugging me yez are," said Darby, roughly, while he threw himself down into his chair in apparent ill temper.

A loud burst of laughter broke from the bar at this sudden ebullition of pa.s.sion, so admirably feigned that none suspected its reality; and while the sounds of mirth were subsiding, Darby dropped his head, and placed his hand above his ear. "There it is, by gorra; there's no mistaking that laugh, anyhow," cried he; "there's a screech in it might plaze an owl." And with that he turned abruptly round and faced the bench where Crofts was seated. "I heard it a while ago, but I couldn't say where.

That's the man," said he, pointing with his finger to Crofts, who seemed actually to cower beneath his piercing glance.

"Remember, sir, you are on your solemn oath. Will you swear that the gentleman there is Sir Montague Crofts?"

"I know nothing about Sir Montague," said Darby, composedly, while rising he walked over towards the edge of the table where Crofts was sitting, "but I'll swear that's the same Captain Crofts that I knocked down while he was shortening his sword to run it through Master Burke; and by the same token, he has a cut in the skull where he fell on the fender." And before the other could prevent it, he stretched out his hand, and placed it on the back of the crown of Crofts's head. "There it is, just as I tould you."

The sensation these words created in the court was most striking, and even the old lawyer appeared overwhelmed at the united craft and consistency of the piper. The examination was resumed; but Darby's evidence tallied so accurately with my statement that its continuance only weakened the case for the prosecution.

As the sudden flash of the lightning will sometimes disclose what in the long blaze of noonday has escaped the beholder, so will conviction break unexpectedly upon the human mind from some slight but striking circ.u.mstance which comes with the irresistible force of unpremeditated truthfulness. From that moment it was clear the jury to a man were with Darby. They paid implicit attention to all he said, and made notes of every trivial fact he mentioned; while he, as if divining the impression he had made, became rigorously cautious that not a particle of his evidence could be shaken, nor the effect of his testimony weakened by even a pa.s.sing phrase of exaggeration. It was, indeed, a phenomenon worth studying, to see this fellow, whose natural disposition was the irrepressible love of drollery and recklessness,--whose whole heart seemed bent on the indulgence of his wayward, careless humor,--suddenly throw off every eccentricity of his character, and become a steady and accurate witness, delivering his evidence carefully and cautiously, and never suffering his own leanings to repartee, nor the badgering allusions of his questioner, to draw him for a moment away from the great object he had set before him; resisting every line, every bait, the cunning lawyer threw out to seduce him into that land of fancy so congenial to an Irishman's temperament, he was firm against all temptation, and even endured that severest of all tests to the forbearance of his country,--he suffered the laugh more than once to be raised at his expense, without an effort to retort on his adversary.

The examination lasted three hours; and at its conclusion, every fact I stated had received confirmation from Darby's testimony, down to the moment when we left the barrack together.

"Now, M'Keown," said the lawyer, "I am about to call your recollection, which is so wonderfully accurate that it can give you no trouble in remembering, to a circ.u.mstance which immediately followed the affair."

As he got thus far, Crofts leaned over and drew the counsel towards him while he whispered some words rapidly in his ear. A brief dialogue ensued between them; at the conclusion of which the lawyer turned round, and addressing Darby, said,--

"You may go down, sir; I 've done with you." "Wait a moment," said the young barrister on my side, who quickly perceived that the interruption had its secret object. "My learned friend was about to ask you concerning something which happened after you left the barrack; and although he has changed his mind on the subject, we on this side would be glad to hear what you have to say."

Darby's eyes flashed with unwonted brilliancy; and I thought I caught a glance of triumphant meaning towards Crofts, as he began his recital, which was in substance nothing more than what the reader already knows.

When he came to the mention of Fortescue's name, however, Crofts, whose excitement was increasing at each moment, lost all command over himself, and cried out,--