“In that work-box,—no, in the upper part. Do you want it?”
“What a question! Of course I want it, somewhat more than Gary does, I promise you. I was going off to-day with just five sovereigns in my pocket. By-bye. I shall be late if I don't hurry myself.” As he reached the door he turned round. “What was it I had to tell you,—some piece of news or other,—what could it have been?”
“Nothing pleasant, I 'm sure, so it's as well unremembered.”
“Polite, certainly,” said he, walking slowly back while he seemed trying to recall something. “Oh, I have it. The transport that took out the—th has been wrecked somewhere off Sardinia. Engine broken down, paddle-wheels carried away, quarter-boats smashed, and, in fact, total wreck. I have no time to tell you more;” and so saying, he hurried away, but, opening the door noiselessly, he peeped in, and saw her with her head buried in her hands, leaning on the table; and, stealing stealthily down the corridor, he hastened to his room to pack up for his journey; and it was while thus occupied the Chief's message reached him.
When the Chief Baron asked Haire to call at the Police Office and inquire if he might not be permitted to see the person who had been arrested that morning at Howth, he had not the very vaguest idea what step he should next take, nor what proceedings institute, if his demand might be acceded to. The indignant anger he felt at the slight put upon him by the Government in passing him over on the Commission, had got such entire possession of him that he only thought of a reprisal without considering how it was to be effected. “I am not one to be insulted with impunity. Are these men such ignorant naturalists as not to know that there is one species of whale that the boldest never harpoons? Swift was a Dean, but he never suffered his cassock to impede the free use of his limbs. I am a Judge, but they shall see that the ermine embarrasses me just as little. They have provoked the conflict, and it is not for me to decline it. They are doing scores of things every day in Ireland that, if there was one man of ability and courage opposed to them, would shake the Cabinet to its centre. I will make Pemberton's law a proverb and a byword. The public will soon come to suspect that the reason I am not on the Bench at these trials is not to be looked for in the spiteful malignity of the Castle, but in the conscientious scruples of one who warned the Crown against these prosecutions. They were not satisfied with native disaffection, and they have invented a new crime for Ireland, which they call treason-felony; but they have forgotten to apprise the people, who go on blunderingly into treason as of old, too stupid to be taught by a statute! The Act is a new one. It would give me scant labor to show that it cannot be made law, that its clauses are contradictory, its provisions erroneous, its penalties evasive. What is to prevent me introducing, as a digression, into my next charge to a grand jury, my regrets or sorrows over such bungling legislation? Who is to convict me for arraigning the wisdom of Parliament, or telling the country, You are legislated for by ignorance! your statutes are made by incompetence! The public press is always open, and it will soon be bruited about that the letter signed 'Lycurgus' was written by William Lendrick. I will take Barnewell or Perrin, or some other promising young fellow of the junior bar, and instruct him for the defence. I will give him law enough to confute, and he shall furnish the insolence to confront this Attorney-General. There never was a case better suited to carry the issue out of the Queen's Bench and arraign the Queen's advisers. Let them turn upon me if they dare: I was a citizen before I was a lawyer, I was an Irishman before I became a judge. There was a bishop who braved the Government in the days of the volunteers. They shall find that high station in Ireland is but another guarantee for patriotism.” By such bursts of angry denunciation had he excited himself to such a degree that when Sewell entered the room the old man's face was flushed, his eye flashing, and his lip quivering with passion.
“I was not aware of your absence, sir!” said he, sternly; “and a mere accident informed me that you were going away again.”
“A sudden call required my presence at Killaloe, my Lord; and I found when I had got there I had left some papers behind here.”
“The explanation would be unexceptionable, sir, if this house were an inn to which a man comes and returns as he pleases; but if I err not, you are my guest here, and I hope if a host has duties he has rights.”
“My Lord, I attached so very little importance to my presence that I never flattered myself by thinking I should be missed.”
“I seldom flatter, sir, and I never do so where I intend to censure!” Sewell bowed submissively, but the effort to control his temper cost him a sharp pang and a terrible struggle. “Enough of this, at least for the present; though I may mention, passingly, that we must take an early opportunity of placing our relations towards each other on some basis that may be easily understood by each of us. The law of contracts will guide us to the right course. My object in sending for you now is to ask a service at your hands, if your other engagements will leave you at liberty to render it.”