Standish O'Grady; selected essays and passages

IRISH POLITICS AND POLITICAL HISTORY 185
daily more weak, spiritless, and gaunt. Such, indeed,
was their condition that they became the sport of the
country-side, and Blue Beard himself would sometimes
point the joke, for the old gentleman had a little coarse
humour. At last the hounds reduced to the doors of
death by this system, and famished for want of food
to the point of not caring what they got, provided only
that it was food, set upon the huntsman himself, and,
indeed, not to put too fine point upon it, hoped to eat the
poor man. On this occasion Blue Beard, who still believed
that the huntsman might be of service to him, intervened
again—^he and his men—drew off the hounds, and sternly
rated the huntsman for cruelty, selfishness, oppression, and
so forth. He bade his men throw him down and bind
him, and, having cut off one of his legs, he flung it to the
hounds to eat. It was not much, but it pacified the hounds
for a while. Then they became hungry again. Blue
Beard's dole of rations being so exceedingly small, so much
so that the weak and sick hounds were actually eaten by
the strong. This time, when he intervened, it was with
a smiling and sympathetic countenance. Nevertheless,
he chopped off another leg, which the hounds ate, too, but
with little outward improvement in their condition. If
it be asked how the huntsman took this unkind treatment,
we reply that curiously enough he loved Blue Beard during
the whole operation, calling him " Uncle " and " dear
cousin," and other such names, and begged him, if he
would cut, to cut below the knee, and be careful to staunch
the effusion of blood. For Blue Beard was a great
enchanter, and cast spells over the mind of the huntsman.