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"There is something on my mind this night," said Barney; "I can't tell what it is; but I think he is bent on some villainous scheme that ought to be watched, and in the name of God I will watch him." Woodward went out of the house more stealthily than usual, and took his way towards the town of Rathfillan.
"Well, when I marry, as I will soon, I'll call upon you; I dare say my wife will get jealous, for I love the ladies, if that's a fault." Another grin was his first reply to this, after which he said: "Well, sir, if she does, come to me." "Where in Rathfillan do you live?" "O, anybody will tell you; inquire for ould Sol Donnel, the yarrib man, and you'll soon find me out."
The town, in fact, was crowded as if it had been for an illumination; but as illuminations, unless they could be conducted with rushlights, were pageants altogether unknown in such small remote towns as Rathfillan, the notion of one had never entered their heads. All around the country, however, even for many miles, the bonfires were blazing, and shone at immense distances from every hill-top.
"And, sir, I am Harry Woodward, son favorite son to, Mrs. Lindsay of Rathfillan House." "What! are you a son of that old fagot?" "Her favorite son, as I said; that old fagot, sir, is my mother." "Ay, but who was your father?" asked his lordship, with a grin, "for that's the rub." "That is the rub," said Woodward, laughing; "how the devil can I tell?"
We have said before that Lindsay was both a popular landlord and a popular magistrate; and, on this account alone the disposition to do honor to any member of his family was recognized by the people as an act of gratitude and duty. The town of Rathfillan presented a scene of which we who live in the present day can form but a faint conception.
Instead of proceeding to the little town of Rathfillan, she changed her mind and turned her steps to Rathfillan House, the residence, as our readers are aware, of the generous and kind-hearted Mr. Lindsay. On arriving there she met our old acquaintance, Barney Casey, on the way from the kitchen to the stable.
At this crisis a discovery was made in connection with the Haunted House, which was privately, through Casey, communicated to Greatrakes, who called a meeting of the neighboring magistrates upon it. This he did by writing to them privately to meet him on a particular day at his little inn in Rathfillan. For obvious reasons, and out of consideration to his feelings, Mr. Lindsay's name was omitted.
"Act as you like," replied Michael; "but this I can tell you, and this I do tell you, that if, for the safety of this villain, you take a single step that may bring Shawn-na-Middogue into danger, if you were my brother ten times over I will not prevent him Shawn I mean from letting loose his vengeance upon you. No, nor upon Rathfillan House and all that it contains, you among the number."
He looked sternly at Woodward as he uttered the last words, and then took his departure to Rathfillan, having first told Barney Casey to call on him the next day. After Greatrakes had gone, Woodward repaired to the room of his mother, in a state of agitation which we cannot describe. "Mother," said he, "unless we can manage that old peer and his niece, I am a lost man."
"O, I am very sorry to hear she is unwell," said Woodward, with an appearance of disappointment and chagrin, which he did not wish to conceal; or, to speak the truth, which, in a great measure, he assumed. After lunch his horse was ordered, and he set out on his way to Rathfillan, meditating upon his visit, and the rather indifferent reception he had got from Alice.
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