at this, Considine cried out suddenly, “Too infamous, by Jove; we’re murdered men.”
“What do you mean?” said I.
“Don’t you see that?” said he, pointing to something black which floated fro a pole at the opposite side of the river.
"Yes, what is it?”
“It’s his coat they’ve put upon an oar to show the people he’s killed, that’s all. Every man here’s his tenant, and look—there—they’re not giving us much doubt as to their intention.” Here a tremendous yell burst forth from the mass of people we the shore, which, rising to a terrific cry, sunk gradually down to a low wailing, then rose and fell again several times, as the Irish death-cry filled the air and rose to heaven, as if imploring vengeance on a murderer.
The appalling influence of the keen, as it is called, had been familiar to me from my infancy, but it needed the awful situation I was placed in to consummate its horrors. It was at once my accusation and my doom. I knew well, none better, the vengeful character of the Irish peasant of the west, and that my death was certain I had no doubt. The very crime that sat upon my heart quailed its courage and unnerved my arm. As the boatmen looked from us towards the shore, and again at our faces, they, as if instinctively, lay upon their oars, and waited for our decision as to what course to pursue.
“Rig the sprit-sail, my boys,” said Considine, “and let her head lie up the river, and be alive, for I see they’re baling a boat below the little reef there, and will be after us in no time.”
The poor fellows, who, although strangers to us, sympathised in what they perceived to be our imminent danger, stepped the light spar which acted us mast, and shook out their scanty rag of canvas in a minute. Considine, meanwhile, went aft, and steadying her head with an oar, held the small craft up to the wind, till she lay completely over, and, as she rushed through the water, ran dipping her gunnel through the white foam.
“Where can we make without tacking, boys?” inquired the Count.
“If it blows on as fresh, sir, we’ll run you ashore within half a mile of the castle.”
“Put out an oar to leeward,” said Considine, “and keep her up more to the wind, and I promise you, my lads, you will not go home fresh and fasting if you land us where you say.”
“Here they come,” said the other boatman, as he pointed back with his finger towards a large yawl which shot suddenly from the shore, with six sturdy fellows pulling at their oars, while three or four others were endeavouring to get up their rigging, which appeared tangled and confused at the bottom of the boat. The white splash of water which fell each moment beside her showing that the process of baling was still continued.
“Ah, then, may I never—av it isn’t the ould Dolphin they have launched for the cruise,” said one of our fellows.
“What’s the Dolphin, then?”
“An onld boat of the Lord’s (Lord Clanricarde’s) that didn’t see water, except when it rained, these four years, and is sun-cracked from stem to stern.”
