egan the attack himself. The
labourers agreed that the vengeance of the fairies would fall upon
the head of the presumptuous mortal who first disturbed them in their
retreat [See GLOSSARY 11].] Though a learned man in the law, he was a
little too incredulous in other matters. I warned him that I heard the
very Banshee that my grandfather heard under Sir Patrick's window a few
days before his death. [The Banshee is a species of aristocratic fairy,
who, in the shape of a little hideous old woman, has been known to
appear, and heard to sing in a mournful supernatural voice under the
windows of great houses, to warn the family that some of them are soon
to die. In the last century every great family in Ireland had a Banshee,
who attended regularly; but latterly their visits and songs have been
discontinued.] But Sir Murtagh thought nothing of the Banshee, nor
of his cough, with a spitting of blood, brought on, I understand, by
catching cold in attending the courts, and overstraining his chest with
making himself heard in one of his favourite causes. He was a great
speaker with a powerful voice; but his last speech was not in the courts
at all. He and my lady, though both of the same way of thinking in some
things, and though she was as good a wife and great economist as you
could see, and he the best of husbands, as to looking into his affairs,
and making money for his family; yet I don't know how it was, they had
a great deal of sparring and jarring between them. My lady had her privy
purse; and she had her weed ashes [See GLOSSARY 12], and her sealing
money [See GLOSSARY 13] upon the signing of all the leases, with
something to buy gloves besides; and, besides, again often took money
from the tenants, if offered properly, to speak for them to Sir Murtagh
about abatements and renewals. Now the weed ashes and the glove money he
allowed her clear perquisites; though once when he saw her in a new gown
saved out of the weed ashes, he told her to my face (for he could say a
sharp thing) that she should not put on her weeds before her husband's
death. But in a dispute about an abatement my lady would have the last
word, and Sir Murtagh grew mad [See GLOSSARY 14]; I was within hearing
of the door, and now I wish I had made bold to step in. He spoke so
loud, the whole kitchen was out on the stairs [See GLOSSARY 15]. All
on a sudden he stopped, and my lady too. Something has surely happened,
thought I; and so it was, for Sir Murtagh