to a
surrender. Mr. Webb went so far as to interfere with Mr. Keegan,
and to point out to him that in all humanity he should stay his
proceedings till after Thady's trial, but Keegan replied that he was
only acting for Mr. Flannelly, who was determined to have the matter
settled at once; that all he wanted was his own, and that he had
already waited too long.

When Keegan found that Larry Macdermot, in spite of his infirmities,
was too wary to be caught, he endeavoured to bribe Mary to open the
door to his emissaries, and to betray the old man; but though Mary
was very fond of money, she was too honest for this, and she replied
to the attorney by telling him, "that for all the money in the bank
of Carrick, she wouldn't be the one to trate the ould blood that
way." Larry consequently still held out at Ballycloran, living on the
chance presents of his friends, who sent him at one time a few stone
of potatoes, at another a pound of tea, then a bit of bacon, or a few
bottles of whiskey; this last, however, was confided to Mary, with
injunctions not to allow him too frequently to have recourse to the
only comforter that was left to him.

Though Keegan failed to gain admission into the house, and could not
therefore put himself into absolute possession of the estate, still
he could do what he pleased with the lands, and he was not long in
availing himself of the power. In January he served notices on all
the tenants that unless the whole arrears were paid on or before the
end of the next month, they would be ejected; and to many of those
who held portions of the better part of the land, he sent summary
notices to quit on the first of May next following. These notices
were all served by Pat, who assured the tenants that he only
performed the duties which he had now undertaken that he might look
after Mr. Thady's interests, and as, as he said, "there could be
no use in life in his refusing to do it, for av he didn't, another
would, and the tenants would be no betther, and he a dale the worse."

These things by no means tended to make Keegan's name popular on the
estate, particularly at Drumleesh, where the tenants were but ill
prepared to pay their rent by small portions at a time, and were
utterly confounded at the idea of having to pay up the arrears in a
lump; but Pat assured him that although they were surly and sullen,
they gave no signs or showed any determination of having recourse to
violence, or of openly rebelling