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"Not the least taste in life," Asgill answered gaily, "unless it is backed by the gentleman or the lady." "Yet I believe, sir, that I have a means to persuade you," Colonel John replied. "It is no more than a week ago, Mr. Asgill, since a number of persons in my presence assumed a badge so notoriously treasonable that a child could not doubt its meaning."
Asgill cared, as has been said, little or nothing for the inheritance, but he swore that the other man should never live to possess the woman. "It is a pity," Payton meditated, "for, with his aid, I could take the girl, willing or unwilling. She'd not be the first Irish girl who has gone to her marriage across the pommel!"
But the former was not slow to get the upper hand, and "Enough said," he replied, in a voice that trembled, but not with fear. "If you are willing to make it good, you'll be coming this way." "Willingly!" Asgill answered. "I'll have one of my men for witness. Ay, that I will! I don't trust you, Mr. Asgill, and that's flat. Get you whom you please! In five minutes, in the garden, then?"
Both died bravely; the priest sustaining and exhorting his companion to the last. Still another band of the Wexford men, under Father John Murphy and Walter Devereux, crossed the Barrow at Gore's bridge, and marched upon Kilkenny. At Lowgrange they surprised an outpost; at Castlecomer, after a sharp action, they took the town, which Sir Charles Asgill endeavoured, but without success, to relieve.
But The McMurrough knew the strength of his position. "And if I were to tell her?" Asgill said slowly. "What?" "That we've made a bargain about her." "It's the last strand of hope you'd be breaking, my man," the younger man answered briskly. "For you'd lose my help, and she'd not believe you though every priest in Douai backed your word!"
"She likes him," he said, "as we all do." "Some more, some less," Payton answered with a grin. "Just so," the Irishman returned, controlling himself. "Some more, some less. And why not, I'm asking." "I think I must stay over to-morrow," Payton remarked, smiling at the ceiling. "There must be a good deal to be seen here." "Ah, there is," Asgill answered in apparent good humour.
Therefore a law was passed by Congress, directing that Captain Asgill should be set at liberty and allowed to return to his family.
This was not much to the taste of The McMurrough or of Asgill, who, inwardly raging, saw the interloper founding a reputation on the ruse which they had devised for another end. It was abruptly and with an ill grace that the master of the house cut short the scene and bade all sit down if they wanted their meat. "What are we waiting for?" he continued querulously. "Where's the girl?
He feared, if he did not know, that things were going ill. He saw the blighting shadow of Asgill begin to darken the scene. He believed that The McMurrough, unable to raise money on the estate since he had no title was passing under Asgill's control. And still he had not raised his voice.
Asgill continued, a twinkle, which he made no attempt to hide, in his eye. "No one, I'm meaning, Major, of his sort of force at all! Begad, boys, you'll see some fine fencing for once! Ye'll think ye've never seen any before I'm doubting!" "I'm not sure that I can remain to-morrow," Payton said in a surly tone. For he began to suspect that Asgill was quizzing him.
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