mewhat
across the path, on which he sat down; for he felt that he could not
go to the house before he had considered, in his sad heart, what he
would say there, and how he would say it.

Keegan, when he found that his antagonist, like a dog cowed by a
blow, was not inclined to come again to the fight, turned on his
heel, and walked back to the place where he had left his horse.

For some time Thady did not recover from the immediate sharp pain
arising from the blow, and during these minutes firm determinations
of signal vengeance filled his imagination, damped by no thought of
the punishment to which he might thereby be subjecting himself. But
the luxury of these resolves--for they had a certain luxury--was
soon banished by the thoughts that crowded on his mind, when pain
gave him liberty to think. Firstly, his own impotence with regard to
retaliating on Keegan; secondly, the horrid charge brought against
Feemy, and the conviction that the scurrility of it would not
have occurred to Keegan had it not previously been rumoured or
suggested by others; and the dreadful doubt--for it was dreadful
to Thady--whether there could be any grounds for it: then the
recollection of their defenceless state--the certainty that Flannelly
would take every legal step against them, and that Keegan's threat,
that they should be turned out to wander through the roads, would be
realized:--all these things forced themselves on his recollection,
and he could not go up to the house. He could not meet his father,
and tell him that, between them, they had destroyed all hopes of
conciliation; that they must wander forth as beggars, to starve. He
could not ask counsel from Feemy; his inability to protect her made
him averse to see her.

In his misery, and half broken-hearted as he was, he all but made
up his mind to join the boys, who, he knew, were meeting with some
secret plans for proposed deliverance from their superiors. Better,
at any rate, join them now, thought he, than be driven to do it when
he was no better than them--as would soon be the case; and, if he was
to perish, better first strike a blow at those who had pressed him so
low! And then it occurred to him that, at any rate, he would first go
to his only good counsellor; and he accordingly retraced his steps to
the bottom of the avenue, resolved, if he could find him, to tell all
his new sorrow to Father John.

CHAPTER XI.

PAT BRADY.

When Thady reached the end of th