This artful and vindictive woman had, as we have
stated, been closely dogged through all her turnings and windings, by
the emissaries of Mr. Brookleigh. For this haunt where she was in the
habit of meeting her private friends. The preparations, however, for the
approaching fight, and the tumult it excited in the town, afforded her
an opportunity of giving her spies the slip. She went, on the evening
before the battle, to a small dark cabin in one of the most densely
inhabited parts of the town, where, secure in their privacy, she found
Nanse M'Collum, who had never left the town since the night of the
robbery, together with the man called Rody, and another hardened ruffian
with red hair.
"_Dher ma chuirp_," said she, without even a word of precious
salutation, "but I'll,lay my life that Lamh Laudher bates the black. In
that case he'd be higher up wid the town than ever. He knocked him down
last night."
"Well," said Rody, "an' what if he does? I would feel rather satisfied
at that circumstance. I served the black dog for five years, and a more
infernal tyrant never existed, nor a milder or more amiable woman than
his wife. Now that you have his money, the sooner the devil gets himself
the better."
"To the black _diouol_ wid yourself an' your Englified _gosther_,"
returned Nell indignantly; "his wife! _Damno' orth_, don't make my blood
boil by speaking a word in her favor.
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