human
So you are boycotted?
gpt
Horse, foot, and dragoons,
human
What's to come of it, I wonder? Tom as he said this was sitting at an open window making up some horse's drug to which was attached some very strong odour.
gpt
I am boycotted too, and the poor hounds, which have given hours of amusement to many of these wretches, for which they have not been called upon to pay a shilling. I shall have to sell the pack, I'm afraid,
human
Not yet, I hope, Mr. Daly.
gpt
What do you mean by that? Who's to keep them without any subscription? And who's to subscribe without any prospect of hunting? For the matter of that who's to feed the poor dumb brutes? One pack will be boycotted after another till not a pack of hounds will be wanted in all Ireland.
human
Has the same thing happened to any other pack?
gpt
Certainly it has. They turned out against the Muskerry; and there's been a row in Kildare. We are only at the beginning of it yet.
human
I don't suppose it will go on for ever,
gpt
Why don't you suppose so? What's to be the end of it all? Do you see any way out of it?--for I do not. Does your father see his way to bringing those meadows back into his hands? I'm told that some of those fellows shot at Clayton the other day down at Headford. How are we to expect a man like Clayton to come forward and be shot at in that fashion? As far as I can see there will be no possibility for anyone to live in this country again. Of course it's all over with me. I haven't got any rents to speak of, and the only property I possess is now useless.
human
What property?
gpt
What property? rejoined Tom in a voice of anger.
human
What property? Ain't the hounds property, or were property a few weeks ago? Who'll subscribe for next year? We had a meeting in February, you know, and the fellows put down their names the same as ever. But they can't be expected to pay when there will be no coverts for them to draw. The country can do nothing to put a stop to this blackguardism. When they've passed this Coercion Bill they're going to have some sort of Land Bill,--just a law to give away the land to somebody. What's to come of the poor country with such men as Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright to govern it? They're the two very worst men in the whole empire for governing a country. Martial law with a regiment in each county, and a strong colonel to carry it out,--that is the only way of governing left us. I don't pretend to understand politics, but every child can see that. And you should do away with the constituencies, at any rate for the next five years. What are you to expect with such a set of men as that in Parliament,--men whom no one would speak to if they were to attempt to ride to hounds in County Galway. It makes me sick when I hear of it.
gpt
It's nonsense talking of a poor devil like me being ruined. You ask me what property I have got.
human
I don't think I ever asked that,
gpt
It don't matter. You're quite welcome. You'll find eight or nine pair of leather breeches in that press in there. And round about the room somewhere there are over a dozen pair of top-boots. They are the only available property I have got. They are paid for, and I can do what I please with them. The four or five hundred acres over there on the road to Tuam are mostly bog, and are strictly entailed so that I cannot touch them. As there is not a tenant will pay the rent since I've been boycotted it doesn't make much matter. I have not had a shilling from them for more than twelve months; and I don't suppose I ever shall see another. The poor hounds are eating their heads off; as fine a pack of hounds as any man ever owned, as far as their number goes. I can't keep them, and who'll buy them? They tell me I must send them over to Tattersall's. But as things are now I don't suppose they'll pay the expense. I don't care who knows it, but I haven't three hundred pounds in the world. And I'm over fifty years of age. What do you think of that as the condition for a man to be brought to?
human
His own boy to turn against him! Tom had said.
gpt
And to become a Papist! A boy of ten years old to call himself a Papist, as if he would know anything about it. And then to lie,--to lie like that! I feel that his case is almost worse than mine. Therefore he had burst out with his sudden eloquence to Frank Jones, whom he had liked.
human
Oh, yes! I can send you over to Woodlawn Station. I have got a horse and car left about the place. Here's William Persse of Galway. He's the stanchest man we have in the county, but even he can do nothing.
gpt
Well, Tom, said Persse, as he walked into the house,
human
They've boycotted us, that's all.
gpt
So I understand. Is it not odd that some self-appointed individual should send out an edict, and that suddenly all organised modes of living among people should be put a stop to! Here's Tom not allowed to get a packet of greaves into his establishment unless he sends to Dublin for it.
human
Nor to have it sent over here, said Tom,