Page:The Yellow Book - 07.djvu/97

 "They will be making peace with the English?" the Chief demanded.

"They will be keeping their tongues behind their teeth," said the other briefly.

It was Turlogh's turn to nod comprehension.

"So it will be the end, then!" he said, musing aloud. "We have been true to God, and He will not restrain the hand of our heretic enemies. I have been all my days loyal to my family; I have withheld nothing in their service; I have made my Dunbeekin a tower of refuge for all my kinsmen when troubles assailed them, and when their own fathers and brothers sought their live—and now you do be seeing their gratitude. You have it from me, Goron, son of Tiarnan, there is not in Heaven nor on earth any thankfulness for good deeds rendered."

Goron looked into his lord’s sad old face and smiled. In stature and girth he might have been Turlogh's twin, but his garments were of the coarsest, and his skin was burnt and tanned by the life of a low-born man. His face, lean and pointed like the other’s, was shrewd and bluntly single-minded. He stood well enough with his chief, these many years, to speak in freedom.

"I know only what I am told about Heaven," he replied, "but the earth I observe with my own eyes. Men will get nothing here but what they can take with their right arm. You have made no one afraid of you, Turlogh, son of Fineen. You have belonged to no man's party, and marched with him to spoil and waste all others. You speak the truth that your cousins found refuge in Dunbeekin from the wrath of their fathers. But it was true as well that these fathers would be coming next year to be protected from the fury of their sons. Your walls were a strong shelter for them both, in their day of need, but they left when it was safe to do so without thanks to you in their hearts. They have