The Colleen Bawn by Richard Lloyd Fitzgerald

CHAPTER VII.

The Knight of Glin, who took such prompt and active measures to trace out and arrest the perpetrators of this horrible crime, had, during the progress of the inquest, received information that Lieutenant Scanlon, who had just been pronounced guilty by the coroner's jury, was lurking somewhere in the neighbourhood, determined at once to use every exertion in his power to have him arrested.

We were now on the Clare side of the river, and the Knight's residence was several miles up, towards Limerick, on the opposite bank. As he knew he could not, by any possibility, return home that night without giving up the pursuit, and, feeling that his young and beautiful wife might feel uneasy at his absence, without receiving intimation of the cause of it, he addressed me thus: "Richard, will you have the kindness to return at once to Glin Castle in the yacht, and tell Betty that I have felt myself called upon, after the dreadful revelations which have come to my knowledge since I saw her this morning, to endeavour to arrest the villains, who, no doubt, are the perpetrators of this shocking crime, and I have strong reason to believe that one of them is not far off from where we are now standing. To-morrow morning come yourself, if you can, or, at all events, send the yacht to meet me at Cahercon, when I hope to be able to report the capture of one or both of the murderers of this poor young woman."

After some further conversation, I got the vessel under weigh, and in about an hour's sail up the river, reached the beautiful baronial mansion of my kinsman, where I found the family on the tiptoe of expectation and anxious to know the result of the excursion which was so hurriedly undertaken in the early part of the day.

Having given them a brief description and the leading circumstances of the inquest, and having stated who the persons were against whom the verdict had been pronounced, all were struck with amazement when they learned that an officer, who was connected with some of the first families in the county, was declared guilty (with scarcely a shadow of doubt) of the fearful crime of murder.

After the exertion and excitement of that long and fearful day, and having partaken of the hospitality of Glin Castle, I was truly glad to seek repose, as I had again to leave at an early hour the next morning to join the Knight of Glin at the rendezvous he had appointed.

Having enjoyed a comfortable and refreshing slumber, I took a hasty breakfast, and was soon skimming over the waters of the beautiful Shannon, and ere long reached Cahercon, where, with his usual punctuality, I found the Knight of Glin waiting for me.

"Well, Richard," he said, addressing me, "I have not been so successful as I had hoped; the villain Scanlon has escaped me for the present. Had I been an hour sooner on his track, you would, more than probably, have seen him now in the hands of justice. I have, however, made such arrangements that I think it scarcely possible he can escape much longer, and I shall be greatly disappointed if, at the next assizes, he does not plead, before God and his country, respecting the atrocious crime with which he and Stephen Sullivan, his companion in guilt, stand charged."

Notwithstanding all the exertions that this active and unwearied magistrate could make, and every plan which the authorities and police force (which, in consequence of the disturbances that then prevailed,<13> was very large) could devise, no trace could be had of the hiding place of Lieutenant Scanlon, who, it was almost certain, was still in the country; but it was generally believed that his man, Stephen Sullivan, had escaped to America.

A very decided impression had got abroad that several influential persons in the county, with whom the wretched criminal was closely connected, had helped to screen him from justice, hoping that means could be adopted to convey him to some distant land. With, however, these few exceptions, almost every man's hand through the country was against him, and, after many unsuccessful searches, he was at length arrested where it would have been least expected that he would venture to lie hid.