I charged Tibbot in the meantime not to allow our men to wander away, but to keep them, as far as possible, in the galleys, and so to be prepared for any emergency. And I enjoined upon him that he was not to offer attack, but only to stand on his defence in case of assault.
Having spoken in the same terms to Calvagh, who was to act as Tibbot’s lieutenant, I took but one attendant, thinking that if more went with me I should not be able to get to Askeaton as quickly as I wished.
It was not yet evening as I came in sight of Askeaton, and as I gazed down upon it from the high ground opposite, I noticed that there was nothing unusual in its appearance, except that the drawbridge was up, and that there were perhaps a few more soldiers on the walls than was customary. Descending the edge of the stream I shouted to the watch, peering at me through the wicket, to open the gate. I could not but have been well known to them, but I was kept waiting for some minutes—at which I marvelled much. I had no thought, however, of turning back.
At length, the chains of the drawbridge, as they clashed and clattered through the sheaves, began to move, and the bridge fell into place, the gate being opened at the same instant.
What followed was so sudden that I have only a confused recollection of it.
My feet had no more than trodden the creaking planks of the drawbridge, as it seemed to me, or I may have been just within the door, when I was set upon by several of Desmond’s men.
I was taken completely off my guard, albeit I struggled with all my strength, but, being at a disadvantage, this availed me not a whit. In any case, I must soon have been overpowered; but the matter was the quicker settled by a blow on my head, under which I went down like a felled ox.
When I had come somewhat to my senses again, it was to find myself sick and giddy from the blow, while my hands and feet were tightly bound with ropes, so that my flesh was chafed and cut; there had been a gag thrust into my mouth, and my eyes were bandaged. I could not speak, nor see, nor move. I could feel I was lying on the earth, but where I was I knew not.
“He is coming to himself,” said a voice. My brain was reeling, reeling, reeling; but there was that in the voice that seemed not strange, yet I could not remember whose it was, so far off was it—as if from another world.