LADY NUGENT: [...] The only one in the world is Robert Munro. I love him; but be does not love me. The day shall come when I shall see me crave at my feet for mercy. He love Squire Gray’s daughter. If you mean George Gray he is many miles from here; he is a fellow with a price on his head. He cannot - dare not - return to Ireland. I used to love him when I was young, but I found it was just a passing fancy’. [320]
GEORGE: Lost, - Lost - And forever. Oh God! What a fool I have been. yet thank God, there is one great hope left, and that would be to die for Ireland of a Hundred Sorrows. [321]
BETSY: Oh yes, death would be a glorious thing. Why, I was ony thinking last night of how the women of Limerick fought and died like heroes with patrick Sarsfield but little over a hundred years ago. Don’t you think there are a few women left in Ireland still who could do as much for the land they loved as in those days. [322]
BETSY, ‘Robert dearest ... I love you more than life itself, - love you so well that I would lay down my life for Ireland and you.’ [322] LADY NUGENT, ‘... Tho’ you wed him - yet I shall wait in silence for the day when my vengeance shall fall showly but surely on both your heads ... next to the Colonel with the news.’ [323]
BETSY: [...} You scale the garden wall and conceal yourself by the hedge along which leads to the small gate at which I shall be waiting for you. Dermot will leave a horse ready saddled in the stable for me and before many hours will pass, with the aid of my brown mare, we shall be on our way to Dublin before tomorrow dawn.
[332] JOHNSTON: [accuses Munro of] ‘incit[ing people of this country to a breach of t he peace by an armed force, and to overpower, if you are able, the Government in Ireland for the purpose of obtaining for the people of Ireland what they call their rights and Freedom - an act which is punishable by law.’ [326]
ROBERT, Yes, it is the hope of every Irishman to make her what she was; and if God gives us the strength she shall again be a nation. [326]
I am an Irishman and love Ireland, and my hope is that some day I may see her once more placed among the nations. And before I should see the girl I love tied to a scoundrel and my country’s enemy, I say death - yes a thousand times. [326]
LADY NUGENT, ‘Robert Munro ... Give up Betsy and come and marry me who loves you. ... I tell you Robert Munro that I shall see you swing, and when I next meet face to face with Betsy Gray the Assassin’s dagger shall do its work.’ [327]
BETSY, [...] Curse on the laws that set class against class and creed against creed, that can only rule us by sword in our disunity. But God shall give us strength that some day we shall yet be a nation free.’ [328]
JOHNSTON [to Betsy], ‘Yes, by heaveans, I mean to have you here and now. [332] [Later] ... you shall remain a prisoner until you consent to become my wife and forget that you ever knew Robert Munro.’ [333]
JOHNSTON: It is against the rules to allow lovemaking in the prisons, particularly in the case of a Rebel. [337]
ROBERT: Do not bind my eyes; I am an Irishman and I am not afraid to die, but glad to give my life for Ireland and the girl I love. [Munro falls] [339]
COL. BRUCE: By heavens, I shall teach you [Johnston] that you shall not insult an old soldier ... Come you cowardly dog, who makes war on women; here is my card, and for this insult I shall kill you here and now.
MATT: Things are bad for some people, but for Ireland things are glorious, an ‘tis [?recte, this] time we people of Ireland will have our country a heap of red ashes or she’ll be free. [343].
ROBERT: [...] This war has been forced upon us, and as Irishmen, we are in honour bound to make one desperate effort to regain our country’s Independence. [350; ...] Oh! God! What a sad day for Ireland ... yet the men who have shed their blood have not shed it in vain. Oh, God! when shall the day ever dawn that will bring hope and freedom to our poor unhappy country again.’ [356]
GEORGE: ‘[...] while there is a man left to shoulder a musket or handle a pike, the fight for Ireland shall still go on in spite of defeat. [356]
BETSY: Leave me to rest, Robert, where I fell. I am dying for my country. ... Let me die in peace. Good-bye to all.*
[END].
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