Princes of Ireland - Edward Rutherfurd [276]
It was true enough. Walsh took a deep breath.
“If you’re going to kill me,” he said, “you’d better get on with it.”
He awaited the blow, but none came. Instead he thought he heard a quiet chuckle.
“I’ll be taking your horse. It’s a fine horse you have. You can walk home.” Walsh heard his horse move as O’Byrne took the bridle. “What’s his name?”
“Finbarr.”
“A good Irish name. Are you hurt?”
“I think I broke my wrist.”
“Ah.” O’Byrne was already starting to move away. Walsh got up painfully. He’d have some bruises in the morning. He could make out the shadows of the two horses moving down the track. He stared after them. Then he called out.
“What’s the game?”
But the only reply he thought he could discern was a soft laugh.
Dawn would soon be breaking over the sea. The sky was still dark, but a faint hint of lightness was just perceptible along the eastern horizon, and soon Dalkey island would turn from a shadow into a shape.
Michael MacGowan gazed across the water. The last of the three ships was already well out to sea. The business had been accomplished.
The organisation had been brilliant—there was no question about the fact and he was proud of it. The whole town of Dalkey had been busily employed that night in what was probably the biggest single unloading of cargo that the little harbour had ever seen. Hogsheads of wine, bales of fine cloth, barrels of spices. And not a single load dropped in the water. A miracle, really.
Everything had been stored away by dawn. Some of the goods were in Doyle’s fortified house; but there were other, secret hiding places that MacGowan had prepared. Every cart and barrow in the town had been brought into service. Tom Tidy’s transport had come in useful there; indeed, his unexpected return from Dublin the day before had meant that there was another large wagon available that MacGowan had not originally been counting on. All in all, things could hardly have gone better. But it had been a nerve-racking business dealing with Tidy, all the same. His presence there could have spoiled everything. For needless to say, though he had been living in Dalkey some time now, Tom Tidy knew nothing about Doyle’s business.
When Doyle had contrived to get himself appointed as water bailiff, there had been little doubt in anybody’s mind what the true nature of the arrangement would be. Indeed, the feudal world was largely constructed upon such accommodations. True, the obligations which a feudal king and his officials could exact from the lords and landholders were a good deal more thoroughgoing than the rough-and-ready tribute payments of old Celtic Ireland, but especially in the great feudal Liberties, where the lord was almost like a petty king, and in the Marcher borderlands, where law and order only existed if the local lord could impose it, the feudal landholder essentially paid the crown a ground rent after which he was free to make what he could of the place. In a similar fashion, collectors of royal taxes were often in practice and sometimes in name, tax farmers. The royal officials in Dublin, with modest manpower and falling revenues, were glad enough to get in what taxes they could. So if Doyle could bring them a reasonable stream of revenue from the customs due at Dalkey, they were unlikely to trouble him too much over the details of his accounting. If certain discrepancies and irregularities may have existed, if a certain percentage of the shipments was imperfectly accounted for, well, that was the merchant’s profit from his office. It might not be quite legal, it might not be quite moral, but given the circumstances on the island at the time, it was surely the most intelligent way to proceed. Entrepreneurial talent, in government as in trade, thrives on profit.
This was what Doyle had done. The accounts he submitted were always thorough, and seemed to be complete. And they were, nearly. But the tallies which MacGowan kept differed from Doyle’s official records by about ten percent. The goods which left Doyle’s strong house all bore his official stamp stating that customs