Liam O'Flaherty - Land

Then he took the groom by the arm and said in a most friendly tone:

“Come on over to Mahon’s for a wet.”

As the two men approached the hotel, they were met by Sergeant Geraghty and two constables. One of the constables was leading the runaway horse. He gave the animal to the groom. Then the police advanced on the crowd. The people at once turned their backs and dispersed in silence.

“Mother of Mercy!” said Bartly, who had watched the whole scene from the doorway of his shop. “He’s done it now, the fool.”

Armed and masked men came that evening while the family was reciting the rosary. They seized Clancy in the name of the Committee. They blindfolded him in the yard. They took him to a cave on a small island off the coast. There he heard a man, whose voice he did not recognise, describe the incident at the forge in minute detail.

“Do you admit having made these statements and behaved in this way towards Captain Butcher’s servant?” the man said at the end of his report.

“I’m proud of all I did and said,” Clancy shouted with bravado.

“Do you realise that you disobeyed an order of the Manister Committee?” the man continued.

“I know it full well,” said Clancy.

“Are you now ready to apologise and to swear that you will obey the Committee’s orders in future?” the man said.

Clancy had become terribly afraid of the ruthless voice, which was made ghostly by the echo-making walls of the cave. Yet he stamped his foot and continued to behave with bravado.

“I dare you and I double dare you,” he shouted. “No scut of a Fenian can put fear into me.”

“Strip him,” said the voice.

They stripped him to the waist and let his trousers fall down about his ankles, so that his buttocks also were bare. Finally, they tied his hands to an iron bolt that was embedded in the cave wall.

“You will now be given ten lashes,” the voice said. “When the ten lashes have been delivered, there will be a pause of five minutes. You will again be asked to obey the Committee three times during the pause. If you still refuse to obey the people of Manister, the flogging will continue until you either die or relent.”

The unknown man then raised his voice and said abruptly: “Begin flogging.”

There was a sharp report as the nine thongs of the whip struck at the tender white skin on Clancy’s back. The hapless man ground his teeth and tried to brace himself against the savage pain. He failed. Although he was strong and in excellent condition, he surrendered after only seven blows had fallen.

“I’ll obey,” he screamed as the thongs went hissing through the air to deliver the eighth blow.

His whole back was covered with blood from rump to shoulder blades. The skin and surface flesh had been torn to ribbons. They made him kneel and take a solemn oath of obedience. They then dressed his wounds and put on his clothes.

“If you mention anything that happened to-night,” the voice said to him, as he was being taken to the mainland, “you will be shot dead, together with your wife and parents.”

They abandoned him on the highway, one mile east of the village.

“Run away home now,” the voice said to him, after having removed the blindfold. “Take care not to look behind you. If you do we’ll shoot.”

.One of the men had to give him a kick before he moved. He then began to walk at full speed, even though it pained him terribly to move his limbs. He went through the village without glancing towards his home. He was halfway to Clash before he lay down on his stomach by the roadside for a rest. He burst into tears, with his face resting on his crossed arms.

“They shamed me,” he moaned. “I’ll never again be able to look anybody that knows me in the face.”

He drank steadily during the remainder of the night and the early morning, at an obscure tavern on the outskirts of Clash. On leaving the tavern, he asked the woman of the house to make the sign of the Cross on his forehead with hot ashes from the hearth. Towards noon of that day, he withdrew some money he had on deposit at the savings bank in Clash and then took the train to Galway.

Julia got a short letter from him three days later.

“Fare thee well, dear wife,” he wrote to her from Galway. “When you read these lines, I’ll be on my way to Australia. A great shame was put on me, so that I could never again show my face. May God have mercy on us all and fare thee well.”

Julia was stricken with remorse, now that her husband had met the fate she planned for him. She sat in the corner of the hearth most of each day, in a state of complete torpor.

“I’m afraid she’s done for this time,” her mother said to Bartly. “She wouldn’t mind if you hit her on the head with a hammer. There isn’t a word out of her, good or bad. Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, she’s that gentle. Lord save us! I’d rather she’d set the house on fire than sit like that.”

Bartly just shrugged his shoulders.

“She has me destroyed entirely now,” he said. “The worst that could happen to her would be less than she deserves, for I believe she is the cause of all our bad fortune.”

The little man was in a truly odious position owing to Clancy’s conduct. Hardly anybody came to the shop. People looked the other way when he met them in public.

On the morning of the day that Michael and Lettice were getting married, Julia awoke from her torpor. She put on a new black dress, button boots and a heavy veil.

“Arrah! Where are you going, all dressed up like a great lady?” her mother said to her.

“None of your business,” Julia said as she bounced out of the house.

“Oho! God be praised!” her mother said. “You’re back to your old devilment again.”

Julia went to the church and knelt by the altar rails until the people came to see the wedding. They were angry with her for having come there dressed in black.

“The spiteful magpie should be tarred and feathered,” they whispered in her hearing, “for trying to put bad luck on the beautiful young creatures that are getting married.”

Julia was indifferent to their insults. Although her torpor had passed, her senses remained dulled. When Michael and Lettice went to the altar, she stared at them calmly as if they were strangers to her. She noted every detail of their dress and behaviour with womanly curiosity, without feeling chagrin of any sort. She even remained unaffected when Michael took Lettice in his arms and kissed her on the lips. It was only when the people followed the newly married couple out of the church and she was left alone that grief came to her.

It came with extreme violence. The interior of her body seemed to contract into a ball and to rush up into her throat, seeking exit. Then there was a moment of clarity, during which the agony of being lovelorn was made manifest to her with infinite skill. There was an eternity of suffering in that moment. She was certain that it was her last. Yet she passed from it into a state of exalted happiness. She became weak with delight. Her head dropped on to her shoulder and her arms could not maintain her body upright against the rails. She began to sink slowly to the ground. A mist came before her eyes and she heard the music of trumpets at a distance. Then her head struck against one of the wooden rails and the shock roused her. She resumed her former position hurriedly and looked towards the Statue of the Blessed Virgin. Then the music of the trumpets became loud and she was filled with awe. She passed into a trance during which she saw the statue rise from its pedestal and come towards her. It halted when it was so near that she could reach out and touch it with her hand. The Virgin smiled and her lips moved, as if she were speaking. Julia tried with all her wits to catch the words that Our Lady uttered. It was in vain. The statue began to retreat towards its pedestal. A feeling of infinite loneliness overwhelmed Julia as the Virgin reached her accustomed pedestal and became motionless. Then the mist evaporated.