d it.

"I always thought Crowe was a smart fellow," said Fleming. "There's one
thing certain; he'll have plenty of money now, and as I have always
said, 'I'm a Protestant,'" and then Mat repeated his characteristic
saying.

"Do you mean to say," said Mat, with a face fierce with rage and
surprise, "that you'd vote again for Crowe, after his treason?"

"And why shouldn't he vote for him?" asked Mat's mother, in a voice
almost as fierce as his own. "Isn't he a Government man, and doesn't
every one know that the people who can do anything for themselves or
anybody else in Ireland are Government men?"

Mat, fond as he was of his mother, felt almost as if he could have
killed her at that moment; he could not speak for a few minutes for
rage. At last he almost shrieked, "If there was any decency in Ballybay
Crowe would never leave the town alive."

"Ah! the crachure!" said Tom Flaherty.

"Ah! the crachure! Why shouldn't he look out for himself; shure, isn't
that what we're all trying to do? God bless us."

Mary glanced uneasily at Mat, but he refused to look at her; she seemed
for a moment spoiled in his eyes by her kinship with this polluted and
degraded creature. His father gave him a wistful glance, but said
nothing. Whenever there was a tempest between his wife and his son he
remained silent.

And so this was how Ballybay regarded the great betrayal! Mat felt
inclined to throw himself into the Shannon, and have done with life as
quickly as he was losing hope and faith.

He took a look once more at the bare and squalid streets and gloomy
people; and then at the frowning castle and the passing regiment of the
English garrison; and he despaired of his country.

But he had come to help in the fight against Crowe; and after the
involuntary tribute of this brief interval of despondency, he at once
set to work. After many disappointments he found a few men who shared
his views of the situation, and a committee was formed to go out and ask
Captain Ponsonby to stand once more; for though Mat hated the politics
of Ponsonby, he thought any stick was good enough to beat the foul
traitor with. Captain Ponsonby consented, and so the contest was
started. The _Nation_ newspaper sent down several of its staff; the old
Tenant Right Party held meetings, asked that Ballybay should do its
duty, and save the whole country from the awful calamity of triumphant
treason. Everything was thus arranged for a struggle with Crowe that
wou