Latest / Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry / 016 - A Lamantation for the Death of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald - The Banshee of the MacCarthys

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016 - A Lamantation for the Death of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald - The Banshee of the MacCarthys · Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry

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  Speaker 1: Section fifteen of Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Douglas W. Taylor Squim
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  Speaker 1: Washington on Facebook at Papa Doug Actor. Fairry and Folk
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  Speaker 1: Tales of the Irish Peasantry, edited and selected by W. B.
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  Speaker 2: Yates.
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  Speaker 1: Section fifteen a lamentation for the death of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald,
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  Speaker 1: the Knight of Carrey, who was killed in Flanders sixteen
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  Speaker 1: forty two from the Irish by Clarence mangan There was
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  Speaker 1: lifted up one voice of woe, one the meant of
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  Speaker 1: more than mortal grief, through the wide south, to and
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  Speaker 1: fro for a fallen chafe in the dead of night.
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  Speaker 1: That cry thrilled through me. I looked out upon the
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  Speaker 1: midnight air. My own soul was all as gloomy as
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  Speaker 1: I knelt in prayer o'er Lochgore that night. Once twice,
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  Speaker 1: yea thrice pasted a wail of anguish for the brave
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  Speaker 1: that half curled into ice its.
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  Speaker 2: Moon mirroring wave.
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  Speaker 1: Then up rose a many torne wild hymn in coral
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  Speaker 1: swell from Ogre's dark Ravine and Moguli's phantom women mourned
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  Speaker 1: the Geraldine far on Caramona's emerald planes. Shrieks and sighs
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  Speaker 1: were blended many hours, and for moy In fitful strains
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  Speaker 1: answered from her towers. Yogol Quen al Miki Emo Keeley
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  Speaker 1: mourned in concert, and their piercing keen woke to wondering
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  Speaker 1: life the stilly glens of InChI Queen, from long woe
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  Speaker 1: to yellow dunnan Or there was fear. The traders of
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  Speaker 1: Trolley gathered up their golden store and prepared to flee
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  Speaker 1: for in ship and haul. From night till mornings showed
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  Speaker 1: the first faint beamings of the sun. All the foreigners
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  Speaker 1: heard the warning of the dreaded one. This they spake,
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  Speaker 1: pretendeth death to us, if we fly not swiftly from
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  Speaker 1: our fate. Self conceited idiots, thus ravingly to prate. Not
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  Speaker 1: for beast born higgling saxon trocksters ring laments like those
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  Speaker 1: by Shor and Sea, Not for charles with souls like hucksters.
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  Speaker 1: We'll let our benshee for the high Malaysian race alone
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  Speaker 1: never flows the music of her woe, for slain air
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  Speaker 1: to buy gun throne, and for chief laid low hark
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  Speaker 1: again methinks I hear her weeping yonder she near me?
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  Speaker 2: Now? Is then?
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  Speaker 1: Who was but the night wind sweeping down the hollow glen?
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  Speaker 1: The benshee of the McCarthys t Crofton Croaker. Charles McCarthy was,
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  Speaker 1: in the year seventeen forty nine the only surviving son
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  Speaker 1: of a very numerous family. His father died when he
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  Speaker 1: was little more than twenty, leaving him the MacCarthy estate
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  Speaker 1: not much encumbered, considering that it was an Irish one.
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  Speaker 1: Charles was gay, handsome, and fettered either by poverty, a father,
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  Speaker 1: or guardians, and therefore was not, at the age of
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  Speaker 1: one and twenty a pattern of regularity and virtue. In
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  Speaker 1: plain terms, he was an exceedingly dissipated, I fear I
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  Speaker 1: may say debouched young man. His companions were, as may
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  Speaker 1: be supposed, of the higher classes of the youth in
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  Speaker 1: his neighborhood, and in general, of those whose fortunes were
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  Speaker 1: larger than his own, whose dispositions to pleasure were therefore
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  Speaker 1: under still less restrictions, and in whose example he found
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  Speaker 1: it once an incentive and an apology for his irregularities. Besides, Ireland,
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  Speaker 1: a place to this day not very remarkable for the
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  Speaker 1: coolness and steadiness of its youth, was then one of
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  Speaker 1: the cheapest countries in the world. In most of those
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  Speaker 1: articles which money supplies for the indulgence of the passions,
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  Speaker 1: the odious exciseman, with his portentous book in one hand,
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  Speaker 1: his unrelenting pen held in the other, or stuck beneath
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  Speaker 1: his hatband, and the ink bottle black emblem of the
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  Speaker 1: informer dangling from his waistcoat button, went not then from
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  Speaker 1: alehouse to alehouse, denouncing all those patriotic dealers in spirits
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  Speaker 1: who preferred sellen whiskey, which had nothing to do with
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  Speaker 1: English laws, but to loud them to retailing that poisonous
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  Speaker 1: liquor which derived its name from the British Parliament that
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  Speaker 1: compelled its circulation among our reluctant people. Or if the
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  Speaker 1: gager recording angel of the law wrote down the peccadillo
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  Speaker 1: of a publican, he dropped a tear upon the word
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  Speaker 1: and blotted at halt forever fort Welcome to the tables
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  Speaker 1: of their hospitable neighbors, the guardians of the excise where
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  Speaker 1: they existed at all, scrupled to abridge those luxuries which
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  Speaker 1: they freely shared. And thus the competition the market between
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  Speaker 1: the smuggler, who incurred little hazard and the personage heclapped
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  Speaker 1: fair trader, who enjoyed little protection, made Ireland the land
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  Speaker 1: flowing not merely with milk and honey, but with whiskey
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  Speaker 1: and wine. In the enjoyment supplied by these, and in
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  Speaker 1: the many kindred pleasures to which frail youth is but
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  Speaker 1: too prone, Charles McCarthy indulged to such a degree that
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  Speaker 1: just about the time when he had completed his far
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  Speaker 1: and twentieth year, after a week of gray excesses, he
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  Speaker 1: was seized with a violent fever, which, from its malignity
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  Speaker 1: and the weakness of his frame, left scarcely a hope
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  Speaker 1: of his recovery. His mother, who had at first made
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  Speaker 1: many efforts to check his vices, and at last had
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  Speaker 1: been obliged to look on his rapid progress to ruin
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  Speaker 1: in silent despair, watched day and night at his pillow.
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  Speaker 1: The anguish of parental feeling was blended with that too
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  Speaker 1: deeper misery which those only know who have striven hard
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  Speaker 1: to rear in virtue and piety a beloved and favorite child,
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  Speaker 1: have found him grow up all that their hearts could
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  Speaker 1: desire until he reached manhood. And then, when their pride
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  Speaker 1: was the highest and their hopes almost ended in the
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  Speaker 1: fulfillment of their fondest expectations, have seen this idol of
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  Speaker 1: their affections plunge headlong into a course of a reckless profligacy, and,
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  Speaker 1: after a rapid career of vice, hang upon the verge
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  Speaker 1: of eternity, without the leisure or the power of repentence.
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  Speaker 1: Fervently she prayed that if his life could not be spared,
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  Speaker 1: at least the delirium, which continued with increasing violence from
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  Speaker 1: the first few hours of his disorder, might vanish before
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  Speaker 1: death and leave enough of light and of calm for
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  Speaker 1: making his peace with offended heaven. After several days, however,
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  Speaker 1: nature seemed quite exhausted, and he sunk into a state
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  Speaker 1: too like death to be mistaken for the repose of sleep.
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  Speaker 1: His face had that pale, glossy marble look, which is
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  Speaker 1: in general so sure a symptom that life has left
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  Speaker 1: its tenement of clay. His eyes were closed and sunk,
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  Speaker 1: the lids, having that compressed and stiffened appearance, which seemed
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  Speaker 1: to indicate that some friendly hand had done its last office.
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  Speaker 1: The lips half closed and perfectly ashy. Discovered just so
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  Speaker 1: much of the teeth as to give to the features
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  Speaker 1: of death their most ghastly but most impressive look. He
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  Speaker 1: lay upon his back with his hands stretched beside him, quiet, motionless,
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  Speaker 1: and his distracted mother, after repeated trials, could discover not
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  Speaker 1: the least symptom of animation. The medical man who attended,
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  Speaker 1: having tried the usual modes for ascertaining the presence of life,
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  Speaker 1: declared at last his opinion that it was flown, and
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  Speaker 1: prepared to depart from the house of mourning. His horse
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  Speaker 1: was seen to come to the door. A crowd of
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  Speaker 1: people who were collected before the windows, or scattered in
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  Speaker 1: groups on the lawn in front, gathered around when the
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  Speaker 1: door opened. These were tenants, fosterers, and poor relations of
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  Speaker 1: the family with others, attracted by affection, or by that
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  Speaker 1: interest which partakes of curiosity but is something more, and
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  Speaker 1: which collects the lower ranks round a house where a
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  Speaker 1: human being is in his passage to another world. They
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  Speaker 1: saw the professional men come out from the hall door
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  Speaker 1: and approach his horse, And while slowly and with a
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  Speaker 1: melancholy air, he prepared to mount, they clustered round him
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  Speaker 1: with inquiring and wistful looks. Not a word was spoken,
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  Speaker 1: but their meaning could not be misunderstood. And the physician,
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  Speaker 1: when he had got into his saddle, and while the
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  Speaker 1: servant was still holding the bridle as if to delay him,
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  Speaker 1: and was looking anxiously at his face, as if expecting
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  Speaker 1: that he would relieve the general's suspense, shook his head
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  Speaker 1: and said, in a low voice, it's all over, James,
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  Speaker 1: and moved slowly away. The moment he had spoken, the
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  Speaker 1: women present, who were very numerous, uttered a shrill cry, which,
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  Speaker 1: having been sustained for about half a minute, fell suddenly
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  Speaker 1: into a full loud continued and a discordant but plaintive wailing,
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  Speaker 1: above which occasionally were heard the deep sounds of a
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  Speaker 1: man's voice, sometimes in deep sobs, sometimes in more distinct
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  Speaker 1: exclamations of Sarah. This was Charles Foster brother, who moved
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  Speaker 1: about the crowd, now clapping his hands, now rubbing them
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  Speaker 1: together in an agony of grief. The poor fellow had
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  Speaker 1: been Charles, his playmate, and companion when a boy and
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  Speaker 1: afterwards his servant had always been distinguished by his peculiar regard,
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  Speaker 1: and loved his young master as much at least as
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  Speaker 1: he did his own life. When Missus McCarthy became convinced
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  Speaker 1: that the blow was indeed struck, and that her beloved
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  Speaker 1: son was sent to his last account, even in the
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  Speaker 1: blossoms of his sin, she remained for some time, gazing
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  Speaker 1: with fixedness upon his cold features. Then, as if something
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  Speaker 1: had suddenly touched the string of her tenderest affections, tear
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  Speaker 1: after tear trickled down her cheeks. Pale with anxiety, and
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  Speaker 1: watching still, she continued looking at her son, apparently unconscious
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  Speaker 1: that she was weeping, without once lifting her handkerchief to
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  Speaker 1: her eyes, until reminded of the sad duties which the
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  Speaker 1: custom of the country imposed upon her by the crowd
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  Speaker 1: of females belonging to the better class at the peasantry, who,
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  Speaker 1: now crying audibly, nearly filled the apartment. She then withdrew
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  Speaker 1: to give directions for the ceremony of waking, and for
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  Speaker 1: supplying the numerous visitors of all ranks with the professhments
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  Speaker 1: usual on these melancholy occasions, though her voice was scarcely
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  Speaker 1: heard in the know and saw her, but the servants
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  Speaker 1: and one or two old followers of the family who
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  Speaker 1: assisted her in the necessary arrangements. Everything was conducted with
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  Speaker 1: the greatest regularity, and though she made no effort to
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  Speaker 1: check her sarre's they never once suspended her attention, now
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  Speaker 1: more than ever required to preserve order in her household, which,
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  Speaker 1: in this season of calamity but for her, would have
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  Speaker 1: been all confusion.
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  Speaker 2: The night was pretty far advanced.
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  Speaker 1: The boisterous lamentations which had prevailed her in part of
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  Speaker 1: the day and at about the house had given place
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  Speaker 1: to a solemn and mournful stillness, and missus McCarthy, whose heart,
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  Speaker 1: notwithstanding her long fatigue and watching, was yet too oar
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  Speaker 1: for sleep, was kneeling in fervent prayer in the chamber,
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  Speaker 1: joining that of her son. Suddenly her devotions were disturbed
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  Speaker 1: by an unusual noise proceeding from the persons who were
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  Speaker 1: watching round the body. First there was a low murmur,
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  Speaker 1: then all was silent, as if the movements of those
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  Speaker 1: in the chamber were checked by a sudden panic, And
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  Speaker 1: then a loud cry of terror burst from all within
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  Speaker 1: the door of the chamber was thrown open, and all
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  Speaker 1: who were not overturned, and the press rushed wildly into
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  Speaker 1: the passage, which led to the stairs, and into which
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  Speaker 1: Missus mc carthy's room opened. Missus MacCarthy made her way
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  Speaker 1: through the crowd into her son's chamber, where she found
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  Speaker 1: him sitting up in bed and looking vacantly around, like
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  Speaker 1: one risen from the grave. The glare thrown upon his
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  Speaker 1: sunk features in thin, lathy frame gave an unearthly horror
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  Speaker 1: to his whole aspect. Missus macarthy was a woman of
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  Speaker 1: some firmness, but she was a woman and not quite
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  Speaker 1: free from the superstitions of her country.
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  Speaker 2: She dropped on her knees.
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  Speaker 1: And, clasping her hands, began to pray aloud.
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  Speaker 2: The form before her moved only its lips and barely
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  Speaker 2: uttered Mother.
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  Speaker 1: But though the pale lips moved as if there was
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  Speaker 1: a design to finish the sentence, the tongue refused its office.
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  Speaker 1: Missus mc carthy sprung forward, and, catching the arm of
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  Speaker 1: her son, exclaimed, speak in the name of God and
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  Speaker 1: his Saints, speak, you willlive. He turned to her slowly
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  Speaker 1: and said, speaking still with apparent difficulty, Yes, my mother alive,
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  Speaker 1: and but sit down and collect yourself. I have that
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  Speaker 1: to tell which will astonish you more than what you
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  Speaker 1: have seen. He leaned back upon his pillow, and while
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  Speaker 1: his mother kneeling by the bedside, holding one of his
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  Speaker 1: hands clasped in hers, and gazing on him with the
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  Speaker 1: look of one who distrusted all her senses, he proceeded,
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  Speaker 1: do not interrupt me until I have done. I wish
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  Speaker 1: to speak while the excitement of returning life is upon me.
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  Speaker 1: As I know I shall soon need much repose of
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  Speaker 1: the commencement of my illness. I have only a confused recollection.
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  Speaker 1: But within the last twelve hours I have been before
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  Speaker 1: the judgment seat of God. Do not stare incredulously on me.
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  Speaker 1: Tis as true as have been my crimes, and as
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  Speaker 1: I trust shall be repentance. I saw the awful judge, hurried,
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  Speaker 1: and all the terrors which invest him. When mercy gives
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  Speaker 1: place to justice, the dreadful pomp of offended omnipotence I saw.
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  Speaker 1: I remember it is fixed here, printed on my brain,
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  Speaker 1: and characters indelible. But it passeth human language. What I
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  Speaker 1: can describe my will, I may speak it briefly. It
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  Speaker 1: is enough to say I was weighed in the balance
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  Speaker 1: and found wanting. The irrevocable sentence was upon the point
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  Speaker 1: of being pronounced. The eye of my almighty Judge, which
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  Speaker 1: had already glanced upon me, half spalk my doom. When
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  Speaker 1: I observed the Guardian said, to whom you so often
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  Speaker 1: directed my prayers when I was a child, looking at
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  Speaker 1: me with an expression of benevolence and compassion, I stretched
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  Speaker 1: forth my hands to him and besought his intercession. I
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  Speaker 1: implored that one year, one month might be given me
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  Speaker 1: on earth to do penance and atonement for my transgressions.
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  Speaker 1: He throw himself at the feet of my judge and
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  Speaker 1: supplicated for mercy.
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  Speaker 2: Ah.
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  Speaker 1: Never, not if I should pass through ten thousand successive
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  Speaker 1: states of being, Never for it ternity shall I forget
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  Speaker 1: the horrors of that moment when my fate hung suspended,
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  Speaker 1: when an instant was to decide whether torments unutterable were
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  Speaker 1: to be my portion for endless ages. But justice suspended
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  Speaker 1: its decree, and mercy spoke in accents of firmness. But
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  Speaker 1: mildness returned to that world in which thou hast lived,
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  Speaker 1: but to outrage the laws of him who made that world,
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  Speaker 1: and THEE three years are given, THEE for repentance. When
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  Speaker 1: these are ended, thou shalt again stand here to be
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  Speaker 1: saved or lost forever. Child's strength continued just long enough
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  Speaker 1: to finish these last words, and on uttering them, he
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  Speaker 1: closed his eyes and lay quite exhausted. His mother, though,
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  Speaker 1: as was before said, somewhat disposed to give credit to
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  Speaker 1: supernatural visitations, yet hesitated whether or not she should believe that,
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  Speaker 1: although awakened from a swoon which might have been the
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  Speaker 1: crisis of his disease, he was still under the influence
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  Speaker 1: of delirium. Repose, however, was at all events necessary, and
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  Speaker 1: she took immediate measures that he should enjoy it undisturbed.
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  Speaker 1: After some hours sleep, he awoke, refreshed, and thenceforward gradually
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  Speaker 1: but steadily recovered. Still, he persisted in his account of
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  Speaker 1: the vision as he had at first related it, and
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  Speaker 1: his persuasion of its reality had an obvious and decided
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  Speaker 1: influence on his habits and conduct. He did not altogether
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  Speaker 1: abandon the society of his former associates, for his temper
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  Speaker 1: was not soured by his reformation, but he never joined
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  Speaker 1: in their excesses, and often endeavored to reclaim them. How
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  Speaker 1: his pious exertion succeeded. I have never learned, but of
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  Speaker 1: himself it is recorded that he was religious without ostentation,
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  Speaker 1: and temperate without austerity, given a practical proof that vice
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  Speaker 1: may be exchanged for virtue without the loss of respectability, popularity,
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  Speaker 1: or happiness. Time rolled on, and long before the three
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  Speaker 1: years were ended, the story of his vision was forgotten, or,
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  Speaker 1: when spoken of, was usually mentioned as an instance proven
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  Speaker 1: the folly of believing in such things. Charles's health, from
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  Speaker 1: the temperance and regularity of his habits, became more robust
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  Speaker 1: than ever. His friends indeed had often occasion to rally
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  Speaker 1: him upon a seriousness and abstractedness of demeanor, which grew
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  Speaker 1: upon him as he approached the completion of his seven
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  Speaker 1: and twentieth year. But for the most part his manner
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  Speaker 1: exhibited the same animation and cheerfulness for which he had
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  Speaker 1: always been remarkable in company. He evaded every endeavor to
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  Speaker 1: draw from him a distinct opinion on the subject of
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  Speaker 1: the supposed prediction, but among his own family it was
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  Speaker 1: well known that he still firmly believed it. However, when
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  Speaker 1: the day had nearly arrived on which the prophecy was
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  Speaker 1: if at all to be fulfilled. His whole appearance gave
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  Speaker 1: such promise of a long and healthy life that he
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: was persuaded by his friends to ask a large party
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  Speaker 1: to an entertainment at spring House to celebrate his birthday.
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  Speaker 1: But the occasion of this party and the circumstances which
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  Speaker 1: attended it, will be best learned from a perusal of
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  Speaker 1: the following letters, which have been carefully preserved by some
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  Speaker 1: relations of his family. The first is from missus McCarthy
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  Speaker 1: to a lady a very near connection and valued friend
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  Speaker 1: of hers, who lived in the County of cark At,
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  Speaker 1: about fifty miles distance from spring House. To Missus Barry
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  Speaker 1: castle Berry, spring House, Tuesday morning, October fifteenth, seventeen fifty two.
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  Speaker 1: My dearest Mary, I am afraid I am going to
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  Speaker 1: put your affection for your old friend and kinswoman to
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  Speaker 1: a severe trial, a two days journey at this season,
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  Speaker 1: over bad roads and through a troubled country. It will
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  Speaker 1: indeed require friendship such as yours to persuade a sober
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  Speaker 1: woman to encounter. But the truth is I have a fancy.
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  Speaker 1: I have more than usual cause for wishing you near me.
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  Speaker 1: You know my son's starry I can't tell you how
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  Speaker 1: it is, but his next Sunday approach is when the
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  Speaker 1: prediction of his dream or vision will be proved false
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  Speaker 1: or true. I feel a sicken another heart which I
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  Speaker 1: cannot suppress, but which your presence, my dear Mary, will soften,
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  Speaker 1: as it has done so.
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  Speaker 2: Many of my sorrow's.
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  Speaker 1: My nephew James Ryan is to be married to Jane Osborne,
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  Speaker 1: who you know is my son's ward, and the bridal
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  Speaker 1: entertainment will take place here on Sunday next, though Charles
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  Speaker 1: pleaded hard to have it postponed for a day too
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  Speaker 1: longer would to God.
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  Speaker 2: But no mare this till we meet.
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  Speaker 1: Do prevail upon yourself to leave your good men for
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  Speaker 1: one week if his farming concerns will not admit of
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  Speaker 1: his accompanying you, and come to us with the girls
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  Speaker 1: as so and before Sunday as you can ever, my
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  Speaker 1: dear Mary's attached cousin and friend, Anne Macarthy. Although this
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: letter reached Castlebury early on Wednesday, the messenger having traveled
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: on foot over bog and more by paths impassable to
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: horse or carriage, Missus Barry, who at once determined on going,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: had so many arrangements to make for the regulation of
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: her domestic affairs, which in Ireland among the middle orders
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: of the gentry fall soon into confusion when the mistress
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: of the family is away. That she and her two
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: young daughters were unable to leave until late on the
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: morning of Friday. The eldest daughter remained to keep her
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: father company and superintend the concerns of the household. As
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the travelers were to journey in an open one horse
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: vehicle call the jounton car, still used in Ireland, and
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: as the roads bad at all times, were rendered still
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: worse by the heavy rains, it was their design to
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: make two easy stages, to stop about midway the first
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: night and reach spring House early on Saturday morning. This
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: arrangement was now altered, for they found that from the
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: lateness of their departure, they could proceed at the utmost
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: no farther than twenty miles on the first day, and
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: they therefore purposed sleeping at the house of a mister Burke,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: a friend of theirs, who lived it somewhat less than
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: that distance from Castle Burry. They reached mister Burke's in
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: safety after a rather disagreeable royd what befelled them on
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: their journey the next day to spring House, and after
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: their arrival there is fully recounted in a letter from
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the second Miss Barry to her eldest's sister, spring House,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Sunday evening, twentieth October seventeen fifty two. Allen as my
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: mother's letter which encloses this, we'll announce to you briefly
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the sad intelligence which I shall hear relate more fully.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I think it better to go regularly through the recital
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: of the extraordinary events of the last two days. The
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Berks kept us up so late on Friday night that
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: yesterday was pretty far advanced before we could begin our journey,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: and the day closed when we were nearly fifteen miles
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: distant from this place. The roads were excessively deep from
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: the heavy rains of the last week, and we proceeded
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: so slowly that at last my mother resolved on passing
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: the night at the house of mister Burke's brother, who
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: lives about a quarter of a mile off the road,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: and coming here to breakfast in the morning. The day
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: had been windy and showery, and the sky looked fitfull, gloomy,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: and uncertain. The moon was full, and the times shone
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: clear and bright. At others it was wholly concealed behind
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: the thick, black and rugged masses of clouds that rolled
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: rapidly along and where every moment becoming larger and collecting together,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: as if gathering strength for a coming storm. The wind
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: which blew in our faces, whistled bleakly along the low
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: ledges of the narrow road on which we proceeded with
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: difficulty from the number of deep sloughs, and which afforded
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: not the least shelter, no plantation, being within some miles
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: of us. My mother therefore asked Leary, who drove the
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: jaunting car, how far we were from mister Barks. Tis
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: about ten spades from this to the cross and we
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: have then only to turn to the left into the avenue.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Ma'am very well, Leary.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Turn up to mister Barks as soon as you reach
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the crossroads. My mother had scarcely spoken these words when
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: a shriek that made us thrill, as if our very
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: hearts were pierced by it, burst from the hedge to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the right of our way. If it resembled any in earthly,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: it seemed the cry of a female struck by a
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: sudden and mortal blow and given out her life in
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: one long, deep pang of expire in agony. Heaven defend us,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: exclaimed my mother. Go you over the hedge, Leary, and
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: say that woman, if she is not yet dead, while
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: we run back to the hut we have just passed
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and alarmed the village near it. Woman, said Leary, beating
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: the horse violently, while his voice trembled, that's no woman.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: The sooner we get on, Ma'm the better, and he
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: continued his efforts to quicken the horse's pace.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: We saw nothing.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: The moon was hid, it was quite dark, and we
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: had been for some time expecting a heavy fall of rain.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: But just as Larry had spoken and had succeeded in
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: making the horse trot briskly forward, we distinctly heard a
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: loud clapping of hands, followed by a succession of streams
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: that seemed to denote the last excess of disease, spare
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: and anguish, and to issue from a person running forward
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: inside the hedge to keep pace with our progress. Still,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: we saw nothing until when we were within about ten
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: yards of the place where an avenue branched off to
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: mister Burke's to the left, and the road turned to
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: spring House on the right. The moon started suddenly from
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: behind the cloud and enabled us to see, as plainly
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: as I now see this paper, the figure of a tall,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: thin woman with uncovered head and long hair that floated
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: round her shoulders, Attired in something which seemed either a
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: loose white cloak or sheet thrown hastily about her. She
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: stood on the corner hedge where the road on which
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: we were met, that which leads to spring House, with
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: her face towards us, her left hand pointing to this place,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: and her right arm waving rapidly and violently, as if
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: to draw us on in that direction. The horse had stopped,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: apparently fright at the sudden presence of the figure, which
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: stood in the manner I have described, still uttering the
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: same piercing cries for about half a minute. It then
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: leapt upon the road, disappeared from our view for one instant,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and the next was seen standing upon a high wall
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a little way up the avenue on which we were purposed,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: going still pointing towards the road to spring House, but
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: in an attitude of defiance and command, as if prepared
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: to appause our passage up the avenue. The figure was
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: now quite silent, and its garments, which had before flown
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: loosely in the wind, were closely wrapped around it. Go on, Leary,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: to spring House in God's name, said my mother. Whatever
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: world it belongs to, we will provoke it. No longer
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: tis the benshee, mem said Leary. And I would not,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: for what my life is worth, go anywhere this blessed
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: a knight, but the spring House. But I'm afraid there's
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: something and bad going forward, or she would not send
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: us there. So saying, he drave forward. And as we
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: turned on the road to the right, the moon suddenly
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: withdrew its light, and we saw the apparition no more,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: but we heard plainly a prolonged clapping of hands, gradually
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: dying away, as if it issued from a person rapidly retreating.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: We proceeded as quickly as the badness of the roads
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: and the fatigue of the poor animal that drew us
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: would allow, and arrived here about eleven o'clock last night.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: The saying which awaited us you have learned from my
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: mother's letter. To explain it fully, I must recount to
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: you some of the transactions which took place here during
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the last week. You are aware that Jane Osborne was
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: to have been married this day to James Ryan, and
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: that they and their friends had been here for the
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: last week. On Tuesday last, the very day on the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: morning of which cousin MacCarthy dispatched the letter inviting us here,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the whole of the company were walking around the grounds
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: a little before dinner. It seems that an unfortunate creature
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: who had been seduced by James Ryan, was seen prowling
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood in moody melancholy state. For some days previous.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: He had separated from her for several months, and they say,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: had provided for her rather handsomely, But she had been
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: seduced by the promise of his marrying her, and the
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: shame of her unhappy condition, uniting with disappointment and jealousy,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: had disordered her intellects. During the whole forenoon of this Tuesday,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: she had been walking in the plantations near spring House
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: with her cloak folded tight round her, the hood nearly
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: covering her face, and she had avoided conversing with or
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: even meeting any of the family. Charles McCarthy at the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: time I mentioned, was walking between James Ryan and another
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: at a little distance from the rest on a gravel
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: path skirt and a shrubbery. The whole party was thrown
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: into the utmost consternation by the report of a pistol
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: fired from a thickly planted part of the shrubbery which
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Charles and his companions had just passed. He felt instantly,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: and it was found that he had been wounded in
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the leg. One of the party was a medical man,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: whose assistance was immediately given, and on examining he declared
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: that the injury was very slight, that no bone was broken,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: it was merely a flash wound, and that it would
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: certainly be well in a few days. We shall know
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: more by Sunday, said Charles, as he was carried to
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: his chamber. His wound was immediately dressed, and so slight
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: was the inconvenience which it gave that several of his
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: friends spent a portion of the evening in his apartment.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: On inquiry, it was frowned that the unlucky shot was
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: fired by the park girl I just mentioned. It was
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: also manifest that she had aimed not at Charles, but
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: at the destroyer of her innocence and happiness, who was
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: walking beside him. After a frauntless searched for her through
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the grounds. She walked into the house of her own accord,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: laughing and dancing and singing wildly, and every moment its naim,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: and that she had at last killed mister Ryan. When
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: she heard that it was Charles and not mister Ryan
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: who was shot, she fell into a violent fit, out
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: of which, after working convulsively for some time, she sprung
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: to the door, escaped from the crowd that pursued her,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: and could never be taken until last night, when she
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: was brought here perfectly frantic, a little before our arrival.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Charles wound was thought of such a little consequence that
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: the preparations went forward as usual for the wedding entertainment
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: on Sunday. But on Friday night he grew restless and feverish,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: and on Saturday yesterday morning felt so ill that it
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: was deemed necessary to obtain additional medical advice. Two physicians
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: and a surgeon met in consultation about twelve o'clock in
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: the day, and the dreadful intelligence was announced that unless
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: a change hardly hoped for took place before night, death
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: must happen within twenty four hours after the wound. It
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: seems had been too tightly bandaged and otherwise injudiciously treated.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: The physicians were right in their anticipations. No favorable symptom appeared,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and long before we reached spring House every ray of
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: hope had vanished. The scene we witnessed on our arrival
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: would have wrung the heart of a demon. We heard
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: briefly at the gate that mister Charles was upon his
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: death bed. When we reached the house, the information was
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: confirmed by the servant who opened the door, But just
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: as we entered we were horrified by the most appalling
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: screams issuing from the staircase. My mother thought she heard
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: the voice of poor Missus McCarthy, and sprung forward. We fought,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: and on ascending a few steps of the stairs, we
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: found a young woman in a state of frantic passion,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: struggling furiously with the two men servants, whose united strength
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: was hardly sufficient to prevent her rushing upstairs over the
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: body of Missus mc carthy, who was roying in strong
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: hysterics upon the steps. This I afterwards discovered was the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: unhappy girl I before described, who was attempted to gain
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: access to Charles's room to get his forgiveness as she
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: said before he went away, to accuse her for having
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: killed him. This wild idea was mingled with another which
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: seemed to dispute with the former possession of her mind.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: In one sentence, she called on Charles to forgive her.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: In the next, she would denounce James Ryan as the
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: murderer both of Charles and her. At length, she was
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: torn away, and the last words I heard her scream were.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: James Ryan, twas you killed him and not I. Twas
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: you killed him and not I.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Missus mc carthy, on recovering, fell into the arms of
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: my mother, whose presence seemed a great relief to her.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: She wept the first tears I was told that she
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: had shed since the fatal accident. She conducted us to
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Charles's room, who she said had desired to see us
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: the moment of our arrival, as he found his end
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: approaching and wished to devote the last hours of his
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: existence to uninterrupted prayer and meditation. We found him perfectly calm, resigned,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: and even cheerful. He spoke of the awful event which
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: was at hand with courage and confidence, and treated it
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: as a doom for which he had been preparing ever
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: since his former remarkable illness, and which he never once
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: doubted was truly foretold to him. He bade his farewell
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: with the air of one who was about to travel
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: a short and easy journey, And we left him with
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: impressions which, notwithstanding all their anguish will I trust never
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: in ti entirely forsake us bar missus McCarthy. But I
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: am just called away. There seems a slight stir in
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: the family. Perhaps the above letter was never finished, the
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: enclosure to which it more than once loots told the
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: sequel briefly, And it is all that I have ever
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: further learned of the family of McCarthy. Before the sun
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: had gone down upon Charles's seventh and twentieth birthday, his
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: soul had gone to render its last account to its creator.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: End of section fifteen. Recording by Douglas Taylor Squim Washington
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: on Facebook at Papa Doug Actor