“You mean to say that he is engaged in this rebellion, and a sworn member of the Celt association?”
“I do. There 's more than thirty already off to transportation not so deep in it as him.”
“And if it should turn out that he is a man of station, and who once had a great fortune, and that in his whole life he never meddled with politics,—that he has friends amongst the first families of England, and has only to ask to have men of rank and position his sureties,—what then?”
“He 'll have to show what he was 'at' a year ago when he lodged in my house at Cullen's Wood, and would n't give his name, nor the name of the young man that was with him, nor ever went out till it was dark night, and stole away at last with all sorts of tools and combustibles. He 'll have to show that I did n't give his description up at the Castle, and get Mr. Balfour's orders to watch him close; and what's more, that he did n't get a private visit one night from the Lord-Lieutenant himself, warning him to be off as quick as he could. I heard their words as I listened at the door.”
“So that, according to your veracious story, Mr. O'Rear-don, the Viceroy himself is a Celt and a rebel, eh?”
“It's none of my business to put the things together, and say what shows this, and what disproves that; that's for Mr. Hacket and the people up at the Castle. I 'm to get the facts,—nothing but the facts,—and them's facts that I tell you.”
“You 're on a wrong scent this time, O'Reardon; he is no rebel. I wish he was. I 'd be better pleased than yourself if we could keep him fast where he is, and never let him leave it.”
“Well, he's out now, and it'll not be so easy to get him 'in' again.”
“How do you mean?—out!”
“I mean he's free. Mr. Balfour came himself with two other gentlemen, and they took him away in a coach.”