“You have done it,” he said, “and I knew you would. Now, listen to me—are you not as aiger to make convarts as either M'Slime or Lucre?”
“You will have it again, you scoundrel,” said the curate, approaching him with uplifted whip.
“Stand back,” said Darby, “I've jist got all I wanted—stand back, or by all the vestments ever you wore, if your whip only touches my body, as light as if it wouldn't bend a feather, I'll have you in heaven, or purgatory, before you can cry 'God forgive me.'”
The other still advanced, and was about to let the whip fall, when Darby stretched his right hand before him, holding a cocked and loaded pistol presented to the curate's breast.
“Now,” said he, “let your whip fall if you like; but if you do, I'll lodge this bullet,” touching the pistol with his left forefinger, “in your heart, and your last mass is said. You blame Lucre and M'Slime for making convarts; but ai'en't you every bit as anxious to bring over the Protestants as they are to bring over us? Aren't you paradin' them Sunday af'ther Sunday, and boastin' that you are takin' more from the heretics than they are takin' from you? Wasn't your last convart Bob Beatty, that you brought over because he had the fallin' sickness, and you left it upon him never to enter a church door, or taste bacon; and now you have him that was a rank Orangeman and a blood-hound six weeks ago, a sound Catholic to-day? Why, your reverence, with regard to convart makin' divil the laist taste o' differ I see between you on either side, only that they are able to give betther value in this world for the change than you are—that's all. You're surprised at seeing my pistols, but of late I don't go any where unprovided; for, to tell you the thruth, either as a bailiff or a convart, it's not likely I'd be safe widout them; and I think that yourself are a very good proof of it.”
“Very well, my good, fine, pious convart; I'll keep my eye on you. I understand your piety.”
“And I can tell you, my good, meek, pious priest, I'll keep mine on you; and now pass on, if you're wise—and so bannath lath.”
Each then passed on, pursuing his respective destination. They had not gone far, however, when both chanced to look back at the same moment—M'Cabe shook his whip, with a frown, at Darby, who, on the other side, significantly touched the pocket in which he carried his fire-arms, and nodded his head in return.
Now, it is an undeniable fact, that characters similar to that of Darby, were too common in the country; and, indeed, it is to be regretted that they were employed at all, inasmuch as the insolence of their conduct, on the one hand, did nearly as much harm as the neglect of the hard-hearted landlord himself, on the other. Be this as it may, however, we are bound to say that Darby deserved much more at M'Cabe's hands than either that Rev. gentleman was aware of then, or our readers now. The truth was, that no sooner had M'Slime's paragraph touching Darby's conversion gone abroad, than he became highly unpopular among the Catholics of the parish. Father M'Cabe, in consequence of Darby's conduct, and taking him as a specimen, uttered some lively prophecies, touching' the ultimate fate of the new Reformation. He even admonished his flock against Darby:—
“I have warned you all now,” he said, “and if after this I hear of a single perversion, woe be unto that pervert, for it is better for his miserable soul that he had never been born. Is there a man here base enough to sell his birthright for a mess of Mr. Lucre's pottage? Is there a man here, who is not too strongly imbued with a hatred of heresy, to laugh to scorn their bribes and their Bibles. Not a man, or, if there is, let him go out from amongst us, in order that we may know him—that we may avoid his outgoings and his incomings—that we may flee from him as a pestilence—a plague—a famine. No, there is none here so base and unprincipled as all that—and I here prophesy that from this day forth, this Reformation has got its death-blow—and that time will prove it. Now, remember, I warn you against their arts, their bribes, and their temptations—and if, as I said, any one of this flock shall prove so wicked as to join them—then, I say again, better for his unfortunate soul that he had never come into existence, than to come in contact with this leprous and polluted heresy.”