LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 307, 7 June 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

KATHLEEN’S REVENGE,

By E. J. Curtis.

(Continued.) ‘You must not be frightened,’ he said, ‘ if they run along beside the carriage to have a good look at you; I think I can say that I am a favourite -with them, and I know you will be popular for your own sake—there is nothing Paddy likes better than a pretty face!’ Her arch reply, ‘ A s if I did not know that already,’ was drowned in the shouts of ‘Welcome, yer honour,’ ‘Welcome, me lady !’ which met them from the crowd of men, women, and children upon the road; the men flung their hats into the air and hurrahed, the women courtesyed, the children shouted shrilly, and all pressed about the carriage, ‘ Whethin good luck to yer honour, but ye brought us home a rale beauty anyhow—the heavens be her bed !’ ‘ Shure isn’t it himself ’ud have his pick an’ choice iv the best ?’

* Musha, thin, she’s purty enough for an Irishwoman!’

‘ Good luck to the pair of yees, and may we soon be at the christenin’!’ and then there was a rush and a scramble for the money which Edward flung out liberally amongst them. Leaving the excited crown behind, the carriage passed on to meet at the entrance gates another expectant group, but it was less demonstrative than the first; and standing out well in front, with her eyes fixed upon the advancing carriage, there was a figure which O’Brian remembered only too well. It was Kathleen Donovan, looking as if ten years had passed over her head instead of two since he had seen her last. She was beautiful still, but there was an expression in her eyes which made him wince, and he instinctively caught his wife’s hand. The carriage stopped for a few seconds to allow the gates to be opened, and the crowd to fall back; and, as it drew up, Kathleen made a step or two forward, and then, falling on her knees, she raised her hands above her head, and invoked an imprecation from heaven upon the heads of the young man and his bride.

Before she could finish her evil prayer, two women seized her, and actually forced her upon her feet again. ‘ls it mad ye are, Kathleen Donovan ?’ cried one of them, while the other put her hand over the girl’s mouth. *ls it mad ye are? or is it that ye wadt to make us h’lieve that his honour ’ud ever have demaned himself wid lookin’ at the likes iv ye; go home an’ chate the revenue wid the thievin’ set that owns ye, an’ don’t come here makin’ a disturbance before the young misthress.’ With such angry comments Kathleen found herself assailed on every side as the carriage passed out of sight; but she shook herself free from the women, and with black thoughts of vengeance in her heart, started for her mountain home.

‘ Is that poor thing mad, Edward ?’ whispered little Mrs O’Brian, nestling up close to her husband when they were out of earshot of the commotion raised by Kathleen’s outbreak.

‘Mad?’ I should think so, indeed,’ replied Edward, who was both angry and startled at the tragic element which had intruded itself into the midst of his triumphal progress, ‘ She is a half sort of gipsy, and I believe her people live a wild sort of life up in the mountains. I knew nothing about them, and I’m sure I don’t know why she should break out into a fury all at once like that; I never did her any harm,” ‘ Of course not; she must be mad,’ replied the young wife, happy in her ignorance, and quite ready to assert before all the world that her adoring husband had never looked, with even momentary admiration, at any pretty face save her own. ‘Of course not.’ she repeatedly, decidedly; ‘I dare say you never spoke to the creature in your life.’ *'Welcome to JLoane,’ was O’Brian’s answer, as the horses gallloped up to the door; and leaping out of the carriage with a bound, he ■almost lifted his wife .across the threshold of iher new home.

For many weeks after she had forced herself to see the homecoming of the O’Brians, Kathleen was iU with a kind of low fever, and her poor old father was distracted lest he should lose her, for she was the one being on earth for whom he cared. Religious observances were by no means in his way, but like the majority of his class in Ireland, he was superstitious, although not religious, and his belief in spells and charms, and the wonder-working power of saints, was great .in proportion to his ignorance. He therefore resolved to make a pilgrimage ■sto A holy well in the neighborhood, and there .to .-offer up prayers to the patron saint for the recovery of his daughter. The astonishment of the old crones who frequented. the ■holy place to tell their beads, was unbounded when Donovan suddenly appeared amongst them, and went down on his knees 'before the rude cross which marked the starting point of the pilgrims. ‘ Was ever anything seen like the devotion of Black Donovan all on a suddent ?’ whispered one old woman to another, as she took a rest from her ‘ beads. ’

‘Glory be to the saints, it’s wonderful,’ muttered the other; ‘ but shure he must have hard work afore him to make up for lost time; isn’t myself at it hammer an’ tongs every day, an’ I have a dale to nr ak« up yit.’ ‘ Musha, thin, my tongue’s wore as thin as a sixpence wid them for prayers,’ returned the first speaker, as she dropped down and prepared to move round the well on her bare knees. ‘ I wish we had a light for the pipe, any. how, avic,' whispered her companion, evidently seeing no reason why she should not lighten the road to heaven with her chiefest earthly comfort, ‘lt’s a great help intirely; I’ll ax Mr Donovan iv he has one about him afore he begins his second round.’ But they might as well have addressed the atones under their feet as ‘Black Donovan’ while he was praying, as he believed, for the recovery of his favorite child. Kathleen Donovan recovered, but whether her restoration to health was owing to her father’s prayers at the holy well, or to her own good constitution, it is not for me to say: still she was never again the bright, high-spirited girl she had been the day she met Edward O’Brian for the first time; neither was she so handsome —or rather, she was handsome still, but not beautiful. She made no second attempt to molest O’Brian or his wife, but the former lived for some weeks in a state of perpetual dread lest she should contrive to meet Mrs O’Brian alone, and frighten her with threats and menaces, but ph© was never seen in the neighborhood of

Inane; she even, to a great extent, gave up her visits to Sligo and her chapel-going, and lived on an uneventful life with her father and brothers, helping them in their work, and daily growing more hard and more unwomanly. Within the first year of her marriage, Mrs O’Brian gave birth to a daughter, who quickly became the idol of her father, and not even the arrival of his son and heir, when little Norah was two years old, could deprive her of the first place in her father’s heart. These additions to the happy household at Inane were all known to the sullen and disappointed Kathleen, whose wild dream of being lifted, through the love of O’Brian, into a sphere far beyond her birth and station, and for which she was wholly unfitted by habits and education, had been so roughly broken up; she would willingly have gone with him from one end of the world to the other, had he said ‘Come;’ but her firm belief had been that he would make her his wife, and the sight of another woman in the place she had aspired to fill, almost drove her mad, and she swore a fearful oath to be revenged. But time went on, and no way of carrying out her designs against the peace and happiness of the O’Brians ever presented itself. Unseen by any member of the family, she made herself acquainted with all their ways and habits; she watched little Nor ah grow from a pretty baby into a merry sprite, able to run about and play alone, then into a dignified little maiden of six, with sunny hair curling upon her shoulders, and her father’s eyes and smile. During the seven years which had passed since O’Brian had brought home His bride, the Donovans had not prospered; the Government had been considerably on the alert, and constant searches were being made in the wildest part of the Curlews for illicit whisky, and more especially for ‘ stills’ actually at work. The sheeling of the Donovans had hitherto escaped detection, in spite of the vigilance of the revenue police; it had been so judiciously placed in a secluded glen not very high up upon the mountain, that the searchers actually passed it many times, not thinking that any' one would venture to carry on the dangerous trade of illicit distillation in so apparently open and unprotected a spot. But although they were as yet undiscovered, the Donovans found that the sale of ‘ mountain dew’ grew very slack, people became cautious of meddling with contraband goods, and so the family got gradually poorer and poorer. *We can’t stan’ this much longer,’ said Phelim one night, as a scanty supply of stirabout and sour butter-milk was served out for the supper of the party. ‘Them damned gaugers passed within a stone’s throw iv us ag’in not an hour ago, an O’Brian iv Inane was wid them, as a magistrate, iv coorse; I think the likes iv him might find better work nor hunting poor matures that’s doing’ no Harm. ” ‘ O’Brian of Inane ?’ repeated Kathleen, who had not been listening very attentively until the name struck her.

‘ Ay, just O’Brian, an’ a fine looking’ chap he is too, although I don’t like a bone in his skin. Boss, there, saw him as well as me, an’ I prayed that his horse might come down on the mountain road an’ break his neck, but shure prayers is only waste iv breath, for they’re never answered; I’ve thought iv a plan though, which would be a dale better for us nor his bein’ kilt, for he’s not the only magistrate in the country: if we could get hoult iv that child iv his, the colleen wid the yalla hair, we might make terms wid him afore we’d give her up, an’ shure iv all failed, five'minutes ’ud do for her at anytime.’ Kathleen’s apathy had now quite passed away, and she was sitting erect, listening intently; the old man was dozing, with his feet stretched out into the turf embers, and paying no attention to what was said. ‘lt’s asy sayin’ get hoult iv her,’ said Ross, who was by no means so daring as his brother, ‘ but how are ye to do it? an’ iv yer cotch, where ’ud ye be?’ ‘ln Sligo gaol,’ replied Phelim, ‘but we may as well hang for a sheep as a lamb. I have reason to know that them revenue chaps have got information about us, an’ are huntin’ for us up and down the Curlews every day; iv we could get the child here afore they find us out, we’d be able to make our own terms wid O’Brian, for they say he thinks the like iv her never was born. What’s Katty starin’ at, wid the eyes startin’ out iv her head ?’

‘ Listen,’ she answered, * there’ssome one at the door, and I hear a child crying’; don’t ye hear it now.?’ ‘Ay, faith,’cried Phelim, as the wailing sound of a child’s voice was heard outside. ‘ Who’s there ?’ he called out.

‘Let me in, Mr Donovan;’ it was a woman who spoke, ‘ I’m Molly Murphy, yer neighbour there beyant, an’ I’ve a poor little crature here I found out on the mountain, looking’ for her dada, she says, an’ she’s perished wid hunger and cowld, an’ I can’t carry her a fut farther, me poor old back’s so stiff. ’ This long explanation was shouted through the closed door at the top of a shrill old voice. *

‘ Begorra, then she’s come to the goat’s house to look for wool,’ returned Phelim, as he got up to let the speaker in; half expecting some trick, he pulled the door open but a little way, but pushing it before her as he gave way, an old woman staggered in, carrying a burden under her cloak which was evidently too heavy for her, Kathleen jumped up to relieve her, and placed upon the floor a daintily-dressed little girl, who was crying bitterly, and calling out every moment, ‘I want papa,’ The Donovans looked at each other, and Phelim felt inclined to retract his statement about the futility of prayers. The child was Norah O’Brian.

‘I found her,’ the old woman explained, ‘ near a mile higher up, where I was looking’ for some herbs to make a drink for the rheumatics, which is terrible bad on me this while back, an’ when I axed her what tuk her so far from home, she said she come to look for her dada, who went out ridia’ early in the morning’—shure,. I seen him meself, goin’ by wid the polis—an’ she couldn’t find her way back, the crature, and her dayney little boots was all cut wid the stones, an’ she’s as tired as a dog, an’ meself had to carry her every fut here, an’ I as stiff as a stake; so I thought I’d come an’ ax one of you boys to carry her down to Inane, an’ shure it’s a fine reward ye’ll be afther gettin’ from his honour an’ Mrs O’Brian, when they see her safe an’ sound. Don’t cry, me lanna,’ she added, to the frightened child. ‘ Shure Mr Phelim ’ill take ye home as nateas ninepence, an’ ye won’t forget to tell yer dada that Molly Murphy found ye on the side iv the mountain, cryin’ yer purty eyes out.

To be continued »