“Grace O’Malley,” Eva went on, not heeding my interruption, “did not fail to understand his meaning. She herself was the pledge of his fidelity to which he had referred. She must give herself to him, or he would betray her to the English; that, and not obscurely, was the threat he made—that, and nothing else. And she knew that she was in his power.”
“Horrible, horrible!” said Burke in anguish.
“Desmond,” said Eva, “strove, however, to conceal the trap under the cloak of an appeal to her devotion to the cause. She had only to say the word, and the standards of the Geraldines would be arrayed against the Queen, and then, with the English so unprepared as they were, success was certain. It rested with her. Hers was it to bid him go or stay.”
It was a strong temptation, I thought, but I was too overcome to speak.
“Then,” continued Eva, “he sought to inflame her ambition. As his wife, suggested he, might she not become not only Countess of Desmond and the greatest lady in the south, but even Queen of Ireland, once the English had been driven out of the country?”
Another strong temptation, thought I.
Desmond had certainly played his cards adroitly enough. He had sought to touch her through her hatred of the English, her love for her country, and her ambition—all powerful forces. Women had sacrificed themselves, nay, had willingly given themselves, for less. And I could well understand that to a soul like hers self-sacrifice was very possible.
“But even,” said Eva, “in the background of all his speaking, there lurked, like an evil beast, that hint of what he would do, if she refused to submit herself to him.”
After all, I said to myself, Desmond was a fool, for that was the worst way to address a woman who had the spirit of my mistress.
“To gain a little time, perhaps to escape from Askeaton,” continued Eva, “Grace O’Malley asked to be allowed the night to consider what he had said. And to this he agreed, saying roughly, however, as they parted, that she must have her answer ready for him in the morning, and that there must be an end to trifling. All this she told me, and then we sought some way of escape, but Desmond had taken good care that there should be none, for we soon found that we were prisoners.”