wan book, but by way of comfort you're down in
another"

"What other, Bartle?"

"The black list. An' now I have nothin' more to say except that if
there's anything on your mind that wants absolution, look to it."

We must now pause for a moment to observe upon that which we suppose the
sagacity of the reader has already discovered--that is, the connection
between what has occurred in Flanagan's lodge, and the last dialogue
which took place between Nogher and Connor O'Donovan. It is evident
that Nogher had spirits at work for the purpose both of watching and
contravening all Flanagan's plans, and, if possible, of drawing him into
some position which might justify the "few friends," as he termed
them, first in disgracing him, and afterwards of settling their account
ultimately with a man whom they wished to blacken, as dangerous to the
society of which they were members. The curse, however, of these secret
confederacies, and indeed of ribbonism in general, is, that the savage
principle of personal vengeance is transferred from the nocturnal
assault, or the midday assassination, which may be directed against
religious or political enemies, to the private bickerings and petty
jealousies that must necessarily occur in a combination of ignorant
and bigoted men, whose passions are guided by no principle but one of
practical cruelty. This explains, as we have just put it, and justly put
it, the incredible number of murders which are committed in this unhappy
country, under the name of way-layings and midnight attacks, where the
offence that caused them cannot be traced by society at large, although
it is an incontrovertible fact, that to all those who are connected with
ribbonism, in its varied phases, it often happens that the projection
of such murders is known for weeks before they are perpetrated.
The wretched assassin who murders a man that has never offended
him personally, and who suffers himself to become the instrument of
executing the hatred which originates from a principle of general enmity
again a class, will not be likely, once his hands are stained with
blood, to spare any one who may, by direct personal injury, incur his
resentment. Every such offence, where secret societies are concerned,
is made a matter of personal feeling and trial of strength between
factions, and of course a similar spirit is superinduced among persons
of the same creed and principles to that which actuates them against
those who differ