er the question?"

Thady was puzzled; he did not know what to say exactly. He had not
absolutely heard that the men whom he was going to meet that night,
and whom he knew he meant to join, intended to murder Ussher; but
Brady had told him that they were determined to have a fling at him,
and it was by their promise to treat the attorney in the same way,
that Thady had been induced to come down to them. It had never
struck him that he was going to join a body of men pledged to commit
murder--that he was to become a murderer, and that he was to become
so that very night. His feeling had been confined to the desire of
revenging himself for the gross and palpable injuries with which
he had been afflicted, whilst endeavouring to do the best he could
for his father, his sister, and his house. But now--confronted with
Ussher--asked by him as to the plots of the men whom he was on the
point of joining, and directly questioned as to their intentions by
the very man he knew they were determined to destroy, Thady felt
awed, abashed, and confused.

Then it occurred to him that he had not, at any rate as yet, pledged
himself to any such deed, or even in his mind conceived the idea of
such a deed; that there was no cause why he should give his surmises
respecting what he believed might be the intentions of others to
the man whom, of all others--perhaps, not excepting the lawyer--he
disliked and hated; and that there could be no reason why he should
warn Captain Ussher against danger. Though these things passed
through Thady's mind very quickly, still he paused some time, leaning
against the corner of an outhouse, till Ussher said,

"Well, Macdermot, surely you 'll not refuse to answer me such a
question as that. Though--God knows why--we mayn't be friends, you
would not wish to have such ill as that happen to me."

"I don't know why you should come to me, Captain Ussher, to ask such
questions. If you were to ask your own frinds that you consort with,
in course they would feel more concerned in answering you than I can.
Not that I want to have art or part in your blood, or to have you
murdhered--or any one else. But to tell you God's holy truth, if you
were out of the counthry intirely, I would be better plased, as would
be many others. And since you are axing me, I'll tell you, Captain
Ussher, that I do think the way you do be going on with the poor
in the counthry--dhriving and sazing them, and having spies over
them--isn't suc