The Irish Witch

'And what of yourself?' Roger asked. ‘I traced you to the Grown and Shamrock and learned that you had been there for two nights, also that you had called on Maureen Luggala, although she swore she had not seen you. After that I could get no further, and could only suppose that, reverting to your membership of the Hell Fire Club, you had perhaps been persuaded by Susan to join their witches coven.'

'No! No!' Charles shook his head. 'As you discovered, I waited on Maureen the first day I was in Dublin. She pretended great distress and told me the same story she had written to my mother. But she said she had been endeavouring to trace the girls, and that did I give her another day or two, she had hopes of succeeding. Obviously she needed the time to let Katie know that I had arrived in Dublin and make arrangements for my reception here. The third day of my stay she sent a message, bidding me to dinner. On arriving at her home I found her there with a repulsive priest named Father Damien. It was he who acted as Abbot at the Hell Fire Club in London. He told me that Katie had done him an evil, and he had quarrelled with her; so he was agreeable to take me that night to the place where she had the girls. It was a trap to get me here.

We made the journey by coach, arriving in the early hours of the morning. The boat was moored by the lake shore. As we got into it he told me he had bribed one of the servants to let us into the castle. When we reached the great door, he rapped a special signal on it, and it was opened by a huge negro named Aboe, who was another of Katie's assistants when she ran the Hell Fire Club.

'At that moment Father Damien seized my arms from behind. As you see, I was in uniform, so was wearing a sword and I had come with a pistol in my sash, Aboe deprived me of them both, then the two of them hustled me up a stone staircase to the newer part of the building, along a corridor, pushed me into a bedroom and locked me in. As soon as they had gone, I attempted to break out, but the door was too stout. Then I tried the windows but found that they were thirty feet above a ledge of rock lapped by the water. Had I dropped down I would certainly have killed myself.'

'Why then, since they had you securely imprisoned, did they transfer you to this dungeon?'

'Because I attempted to rescue Susan. You must have realised how deadly quiet it is here. On my third night in the bedroom, just as I was about to fall asleep, I caught the sound of sobs behind my bedhead. From the beginning I had been convinced that Susan was no witch, and had been brought here against her will, so it flashed upon me that it was probably she who was crying, and that as I could hear the sobs the wall between the rooms must be quite thin.

'Pushing away the bed, I went to work on the wall at once with the stout prong in the buckle of my belt. The wall proved to be only lath and plaster. After an hour's strenuous work I'd made a hole the size of a crown piece. It was Susan on the other side. Having heard my scraping, she had pushed aside her bed and was listening there, so replied immediately I spoke. That was how I learned all that had befallen her, and now I had found her I at once started to plan a way in which we might both escape.

'In addition to Father Damien and the negro, Aboe, who I gather acts as cook, Katie has two Irish peasants here. They are burly, wild-looking creatures, with beards and great mops of red hair, who speak no English. I call them Gog and Magog. One or other of them brought my meals and, as Susan was also locked in, hers also. We planned that she should be dressed ready to leave at the hour when our supper was brought to us the following evening. I'd hoped to overcome the man, get his keys and release her and that both of us might escape before anyone else in the castle knew what was adoing.

'But fortune was against me. I lurked behind the door until Gog came with my supper, and as he walked in carrying the tray I brought a milking stool that was in the room down on his head. It felled him, but I opine, the thickness of his hair saved him from being completely deprived of his wits. He was in bad shape, though, and having got my hands round his throat I could have choked him into insensibility.

'Alas, I had not counted on there being two supper trays. Magog had brought up Susan's. Hearing his fellow barbarian shout, he dropped his tray outside Susan's door, dashed into my room and hurled himself on top of me. Gog recovered sufficiently to roll from under us and I stood no chance against the two of them. In no time they had me lashed to the end of my bed, and locked in again. I was monstrous lucky to get off with no worse than a kick in the ribs and a black eye.'

Roger nodded. 'You were. And it was a gallant, even if ill-fated, attempt. What happened then ?'

'A quarter of an hour later the two brutes returned, accompanied by Father Damien. They untied me, hustled me along from that end of the castle to this, and pushed me down the shute by which you arrived.'

'And what has happened since ?'

Charles pointed up to where the cone-shaped walls of the cell seemed to meet above in the shadows. 'The shute is not the only entrance to die dungeon. Up there, immediately above us, is a round manhole. From time to time one or other of them opens it. By a stout rope with a hook on the end, they lowered this palliasse for me to sleep on, the big jar that contains water, and the other things you see here. And every morning they let down in a bag enough cold food to keep me in provender for the day.'

'And even books,' Roger commented. 'That, at least, is considerate of them.'

'Jemima sent them down, and from time to time comes to talk with me.'

'That little she-devil fooled me completely, and I still cannot make her out, nor the witch's interest in the two girls. The story Jemima spun to me was that for the acquisition of supreme occult powers, the use of a virgin's body was necessary. She then begged me to rescue her as well as Susan from this horror, yet tricked and made a prisoner of me.'

'She did so because she is devoted to Katie, and has naught to fear. Of that I am convinced.'

'What, though, of Susan?' Roger asked anxiously. 'Clearly she is no disciple of the witch. Why should they have drugged and brought her here ? Virgins are plentiful enough in this country, where the Church of Rome is dominant. They could, with ease, kidnap some peasant wench upon whom to perform their abominable ceremony.'

Charles shook his head sadly. 'Uncle Roger, I have been obtuse, and failed to make the situation clear to you. Doubtless these Satanists do, from time to time, perform a Black Mass; but 'twas not for that they invited my sweet Susan to Ireland, then drugged and imprisoned her. She was only the lure to get me here.'

'What the devil mean you ?'

'Jemima is determined that I should take her for my wife.'

'This is news indeed!' Roger exclaimed with a frown.

'Have you been having an affair with her? But, no; how could you, seeing you have been so long abroad.'

'I was to some extent embroiled with her before I voyaged to Spain. During the summer and winter before last I saw much of her. She is attractive, witty and a passionate young creature. Susan and I had always had an understanding that we would marry in good time; but, until we were ready to do so, we should amuse ourselves by flirting with anyone who took our fancy. I've never loved anyone but Susan and never shall. To me Jemima was no more than a gay companion. I studiously refrained from giving her any reason to believe that my intentions toward her were serious. But she set herself to get me if she could, even to the point of endeavouring to seduce me —a trap into which I was not foolish enough to fall.