'We all know,' he said, 'that the cabinet rules the Viceroy, and that Lord Clare is master of the cabinet.'
'Seeing's believing,' retorted the giant doggedly, as he stretched out his great hand for the claret bottle. 'Of course we must watch that no such villain shall creep among us. I won't believe that the English are without mercy.'
'At the battle of Aughrim,' replied Thomas, 'the blood sank into the soil of seven thousand Irishmen who were only defending their rights.'
'As for drilling and such like,' said Cassidy, 'I'm with you, and the sooner we start the business the better. I've learnt a new song that we'll sing as we march to battle----'
'Oh, you simpleton!' laughed Terence Crosbie, who, slightly touched with wine, had followed the proceedings of the two Emmetts with amusement. 'Romancing as usual--giving credence to every scandalous tale you hear. Even if there were truth in them, your grievances would not give birth to generals. You will never make colonels out of linendrapers.'
'No more than purses out of sows' ears,' returned Cassidy, with a merry twinkle. 'No, councillor, that we never will. But we'll wheedle a few aristocrats like your honour, whose blue blood shall mingle with our muddy stuff. When the day dawns, you and a few like yourself shall lead the boys to victory.'
Terence looked annoyed, but said nothing; while Cassidy and the others scanned his face narrowly. He was not affiliated to the society, nor had the remotest ambition of becoming so; for he knew that it behoved not one of his order to join in such movements as this. Yet there was a fascination for him in its doings, which kept him dangling upon its outskirts. Some of his most valued friends were enrolled on the list of United Irishmen, and he knew well how Doreen was praying for their success. So he attended the supper-parties sometimes in his purposeless way, and they permitted him to do so freely, despite the maxim that in troublous times half-friends are no friends. They knew, or thought they knew, that he was the soul of honour, who would never betray a confidence; and hoped, encouraged by Cassidy, that some day he might be cajoled or stung into their ranks, which would be a feather in their cap indeed; for to be led by a Crosbie of Ennishowen would give them a prestige at once such as in these democratic days we can hardly realise. And Terence, seeing through the simple scheme (for he was sharp enough, though lazy), was flattered by their confidence. Yet for all that he promised himself to hold aloof from active co-operation with hot-pated friends who made mountains out of mole-hills. He had no intention of heading the forlorn hope of a misguided rabblement who would fly helter-skelter before the first puff of cannon smoke. So he prudently refrained from picking up the gauntlet, and listened to the giant, who was delivered of an idea.
'I've a notion!' cried Cassidy, thumping the table till the glasses rang again.
'Be cool now!' cautioned Tom Emmett. 'You are as dangerous as a powder-magazine.'
'Is it dangerous I am?' grumbled the other. 'Sure something must be risked, or we'll niver get along. I've an idaya, gintlemen, which I'm willing to see to at my own expense, though a poor man. I've reason to know that the militia may be tampered with. Their hearts are with the cause, and they're as poor as rats or your humble servant. Money and drink will do much, and women will settle the matter. Here's a letter from Belfast which says that two hundred and fifty of the men in camp there have secretly declared for us, and that it only needs the personal presence of a delegate to bring over half the rest. When the French land they'll rise and kill their officers. Think of the fine fright that'll give the royalists! Sure and isn't that the way to out-plot England? Shall I go to Belfast and reconnoitre? Of coorse ye must give me credentials. A little note, signed, will do the trick, and show I'm honest. As for the town-major of whom ye're all so frightened, his bark's worse nor his bite. The Irish Jonathan Wild can be bribed. I'll answer for him; but there's time galore for that. Dangerous, am I? I'm the only one, I think, with a drain of sperit. There's a great speech. Phew, I'm dhry! Hand round the clart, boys, and we'll have a stave.'