'That is right, that is a fair price, but I will not speak till I
have good protection, for if the Dermotts lay their hands upon me in
any boreen after sundown, or in Cool-a-vin by day, I will be left to
rot among the nettles of a ditch, or hung on the great sycamore,
where they hung the horse-thieves last Beltaine four years.' And
while he spoke he tied the reins of his garron to a bar of rusty iron
that was mortared into the wall.
'I will make you my piper and my bodyservant,' said Costello, 'and no
man dare lay hands upon the man, or the goat, or the horse, or the
dog that is Tumaus Costello's.'
'And I will only tell my message,' said the other, flinging the
saddle on the ground, 'in the corner of the chimney with a noggin in
my hand, and a jug of the Brew of the Little Pot beside me, for
though I am ragged and empty, my forbears were well clothed and full
until their house was burnt and their cattle harried seven centuries
ago by the Dillons, whom I shall yet see on the hob of hell, and they
screeching'; and while he spoke the little eyes gleamed and the thin
hands clenched.
Costello led him into the great rush-strewn hall, where were none of
the comforts which had begun to grow common among the gentry, but a
feudal gauntness and bareness, and pointed to the bench in the great
chimney; and when he had sat down, filled up a horn noggin and set it
on the bench beside him, and set a great black jack of leather beside
the noggin, and lit a torch that slanted out from a ring in the wall,
his hands trembling the while; and then turned towards him and said:
'Will Dermott's daughter come to me, Duallach, son of Daly?'
'Dermott's daughter will not come to you, for her father has set
women to watch her, but she bid me tell you that this day sennight
will be the eve of St.
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