The Knight Of Gwynne Volume I Part 58

Dunn. We have just heard that the noted Freney has taken up his lodgings here, and are curious to see him."

"I 'm afraid I must refuse your request, Mr. Daly; my orders are most positive about the admission of any one to the prisoner: there have been I can't say how many people here on the same errand since four o'clock, when he arrived."

"I think I ought to be free of the house," said Daly, laughing; "I matriculated here at least, if I didn't take out a high degree."

"So you did, sir," said Dunn, joining in the laugh. "Freney is in the very same cell you occupied for four months."

"Come, come, then, you can't refuse me paying a visit to my old quarters."

"There is another objection, and a stronger one,--. Freney himself declines seeing any one, and asked a special leave of the sheriff to refuse all comers admission to him."

"This surprises me," said Daly. "Why, the fellow has a prodigious deal of personal vanity, and I cannot conceive his having adopted such a resolution."

"Perhaps I can guess his meaning," said the jailer, shrewdly; "the greater number of those who came here, and also who tried to see him in Liverpool, were artists of one kind or other, wanting to take busts or profiles of him. Now, my surmise is, Freney would not dislike the notoriety, if it were not that it might be inconvenient one of these days. To be plain, sir, though he is doubly ironed, and in the strongest part of the strongest jail in Ireland, he is at this moment meditating on an escape, in the event of which he calculates all the trouble and annoyance it would give him to have his picture or his cast stuck up in every town and village of the kingdom. This, at least, is my reading of the mystery; but I think it is not without some show of probability."

"Well, the objection could scarcely apply to me," said Daly; "if his portrait be not taken by a more skilful artist than I am, he may be very easy on the score of recognition. Pray let me send in my name to him, and if he refuses to see me, I 'll not press the matter further."

Partly from an old feeling of kindness towards Daly, Dunn gave no further opposition, but in reality he was certain that Freney's refusal would set the matter at rest. His surprise was consequently great when the turnkey returned with a civil message from Freney that he would be very glad to see Mr. Daly.

"Your friend can remain here," said Dunn, in a voice that plainly showed he was not quite easy in his mind as to the propriety of the interview; and Daly, to alleviate suspicions natural enough in one so circ.u.mstanced, a.s.sented, and walked on after the turnkey, alone.

"That's the way he spends his time; listen to him now," whispered the turnkey, as they stopped at the door of the cell, from within which the deep tones of a man's voice were heard singing to himself, as he slowly paced the narrow chamber, his heavy fetters keeping a melancholy time to the melody:--

"'T was afther two when he quitted Naas, But he gave the spar, and he went the pace, 'As many an like may now give chase,'

Says he, 'I give you warning.

You may raise the country far and near, From Malin Head down to Cape Clear, But the divil a man of ye all I fear, I 'll be far away before morning.'

"By break of day he reach'd Kildare, The black horse never turn'd a hair; Says Freney, 'We 've some time to spare, This stage we 've rather hasten'd.'

So he eat four eggs and a penny rowl, And he mix'd of whiskey such a bowl!

The drink he shared with the beast, by my sowl, For Jack was always dacent.

"'You might tighten the girths,' Jack Freney cried, 'For I 've soon a heavy road to ride.'

'Twas the truth he tould, for he never lied; The way was dark and rainy.

'Good-by,' says he, 'I 'll soon be far, And many a mile from Mullingar.'

So he kiss'd the girl behind the bar, 'T is the divil you wor, Jack Freney!"

"Sorra lie in that, any way," said the robber, as he repeated the last line over once more, with evident self-satisfaction.

"Who comes there?" cried he, sternly, as the heavy bolts were shot back, and the ma.s.sive door opened.

"Why don't you say, 'Stand and deliver'?" said the turnkey, with a laugh as harsh and grating as the creak of the rusty hinges.

"And many a time I did to a better man," said Freney.

"You may leave us now," said Daly, to the turnkey.

"Mr. Daly, your sarvant," said the robber, saluting him; "you 're the only man in Ireland I wanted to see."

"I wish our meeting had been anywhere else," said Daly, sorrowfully, as he took his seat on a stool opposite the bed where Freney sat.

"Well, well, so it is, sir; it's just what every one prophesied this many a day,--as if there was much cunning in saying that I 'd be hanged some time or other; why, if they wanted to surprise me, they 'd have tould me I 'd never be taken. You heard how it was, I suppose?"

Daly nodded, and Freney went on:--

"The English horse wouldn't rise to the rail; if I was on the chestnut mare or Black Billy, I would n't be where I am now."

"I have several things to ask you about, Freney; but first, how I can serve you? You must have counsel in this business."

"No, sir, I thank you; it's only throwing good money after bad. I'll plead guilty,--it will save time with us all."

"But you give yourself no chance, man."

"Faix, I spoiled my chance long ago, Mr. Daly. Do you know, sir,"--here he spoke in a low, determined tone,--"there's not a mail in Ireland I did n't stop at one time or other. There's few country gentlemen I have n't lightened of their guineas; the court wouldn't hold the witnesses against me if I were to stand my trial."

"With all that, you must still employ a lawyer; these fellows are as crafty in _their_ walk as ever you were in _yours_. Who will you have?

Name the man, and leave the rest to me."

Freney seemed to deliberate for a few moments, and he threw his eyes down at the heavy irons on his legs, and he gazed at the strong stanchions of the windows, and then said, in a low voice,--

"There's a chap called Hosey M'Garry, in a cellar in Charles Street: he's an ould man with one eye, and not a tooth in his head; but he's the only man that could sarve me now."

"Hosey M'Garry," repeated Daly, "Charles Street," as he wrote down the address with his pencil: "a strange name and residence for a lawyer."

"I did n't say he was, sir," said Freney, laughing.

"And who and what is he, then?"

"The only man, now alive, that can make a cowld chisel to cut iron without noise."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 440]

"Ah! that's what you're thinking of; you'd rather trust to the flaws of the iron than of the indictment. Perhaps you are not far wrong, after all."

"If I was in the court below without the fetters," said Freney, eagerly, "I could climb the wall with a holdfast and a chisel, and get down the same way on the other side; once there, Mr. Daly, I 'd sing the ould ballad,--

"For the divil a man of ye all I fear, I 'll be far away before morning."

"And how are these tools to reach you here? If they admit any of your friends, won't they search them first?"

"So they will, barrin' it was a gentleman," replied Freney, while his eyes twinkled with a peculiarly cunning l.u.s.tre.

"So, then, you rely on _me_ for this piece of service?" said Daly, after a pause.

"Troth, you're the only gentleman of my acquaintance," said Freney, quaintly.

"Well, I suppose I must not give you a bad impression of the order; I 'll do it."

"I knew you would," rejoined Freney, calmly. "You might bring two files at the same time, and a phial of sweet oil to keep down the noise. Hus.h.!.+

here's Gavin coming to turn you out,--he said ten minutes."