Which could evade, if unforgiven,
The patient search and vigil long
Of him who treasures up a wrong.
It is questionable whether Byron had the operation of the Lands Occupation Act for the colony of New South Wales in view when he penned these lines, but they apply as closely to the general consequences of that great statute as if his lordship had intended to settle the affairs of Australia, after leading to victory the anti-Turkish party of the day.
The brothers Freeman, by a peculiar mental process, had managed to ignore the very substantial aid in cash and employment, the former still unrepaid, furnished by Mr. Neuchamp. By fixing all their attention upon his latter line of conduct, they became convinced that in denying their cattle access to every portion of the Rainbar run he had inflicted upon them a great wrong. This they determined to avenge if not to redress; and one fine morning an ill-written note, brought by a brown-faced urchin of ten years old about breakfast time, informed Mr. Neuchamp that William and Joseph Freeman had discovered three hundred and forty-seven of his cattle trespassing upon their land, which cattle were now in their custody, and which they proposed driving to Drewarrina pound (about seventy miles off) if not forthwith released with damages and expenses paid.
‘What in the name of all that’s rascally can we do?’ inquired Ernest of Charley Banks, as he tossed the note over to him across the breakfast table. ‘I feel inclined to go down and take the cattle by force. The dishonest, scheming vagabonds!’
‘That’s what I should like to do,’ said Banks, ‘and I think Jack and I could hammer that Bill Freeman and his brother, but I’m afraid it won’t do. If we rescue the cattle we can be summoned and fined; besides taking us all the way to that rascally hole of a township.’
‘Then let them keep them, and drive them over to the pound. The damage can’t be much.’
‘And let them hunt them over, and yard them half the time?’ demanded Mr. Banks. ‘No, that wouldn’t do either. The cattle wouldn’t recover it for the whole season. You’ll have to buy him off. So much a head. It’s the shortest way through it.’
Mr. Neuchamp groaned. This way was degrading. A pecuniary loss, for which he did not care so much as he ought to have done, for Ernest was one of those people who rarely regard a cheque or order as the bag of golden sovereigns that anything over a ten-pound note really is. Also, a loss of dignity, which he felt keenly, that he should be placed in the dilemma of having to pay to release his own cattle from his own tenants, so to speak, or to see them injured and lowered in value by those base burghers of the corporation he had himself led into the land of promise!