'We shall all have to emigrate,' Sir Charles murmured reflectively.
'The law is in abeyance,' said Mr. Lynch.
'Precisely,' replied Milord; 'and as I once said to Lord Granville, "Les moeurs sont les hommes, mais la loi est la raison du pays."'
Mr. Adair looked up; he seemed about to contest the truth of this aphorism, but he relapsed into his consideration of Mr. Gladstone's political integrity. The conversation had fallen, but at the end of a long silence Mr. Ryan said:
'Begorra, I am very glad they were murthered.'
All drew back instinctively. This was too horrible, and doubt of Mr.
Ryan's sanity was expressed on every face.
At last Mr. Adair said, conscious that he was expressing the feelings of the entire company: 'What do you mean, sir? Have you gone mad? Do you not know that this is no fitting time for buffoonery?'
'Will ye hear me cousin out?' said Mr. Lynch.
'Begorra, I'm glad they were murthered,' continued Mr. Ryan; 'for if they hadn't been we'd have been—there's the long and the short of it. I know the counthry well, and I know that in six months more, without a proper Coercion Act, we'd have been burned in our beds.'
The unanswerableness of Mr. Ryan's words, and the implacable certainty which forced itself into every heart, that he spoke but the truth, did not, however, make the company less inclined to oppose the utilitarian view he took of the tragedy.