“I thought you said your father was a loyal man.”
“So he is. There isn’t a loyaller man in Ireland. You’d know that if you’d ever seen him singing ‘God Save the King.’ He swells out an inch all over when he’s doing it.”
“If he’s as loyal as all that,” said Waterhouse, “he wouldn’t consult with rebels.”
“My dad, though loyal, has some sense, and so, as it happened, had O’Farrelly. Neither one nor the other of them wanted to see a battle fought in the streets of Ballymahon. You’ve seen battles, Waterhouse, and you know what they’re like. Messy things. You can understand my father’s feelings. O’Farrelly was awfully nice about it. He said that the people of Ballymahon, including my father and even the police, were a decent lot, and he’d hate to see licentious English soldiers rioting through the streets of the town. His idea was that my dad should use his influence with the C.O. of the troops and get him to march his men off somewhere else, so as to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. O’Farrelly promised he wouldn’t go after them or molest them in any way if they left the neighbourhood. My dad said he couldn’t do that and even if he could, he wouldn’t. He suggested that O’Farrelly should take his army away. O’Farrelly said he was out to fight and not to run away. I chipped in at that point and said he could fight just as well in a lonelier place, where there weren’t any houses and no damage would be done. I said I felt pretty sure the soldiers would go after him to any bog he chose to select. O’Farrelly seemed to think there was something in the suggestion and said he’d hold a council of war and consult his officers.”
“What an amazing liar you are, Power,” said Waterhouse.
Captain Power took no notice of the insult. He went on with his story.
“The Council of War assembled next morning,” he said, “and sat for about four hours. It might have all day if an English officer hadn’t ridden in on a motor-bike about noon. He was stopped by a sentry, of course, and said he wanted to see the C.O. of the rebel army. So the sentry blindfolded him——”
“What on earth for?”
“In civilized war,” said Power severely, “envoys with flags of truce are invariably blindfolded. I told you at the start that our war was properly conducted; but you wouldn’t believe me. Now you can see for yourself that it was. The sentry led that officer into the council, which was sitting in the court house. I told you, didn’t I, that the court house was the rebel H.Q.?”
“You didn’t mention it, but it doesn’t matter.”