Retentive Memory
At Darrynane, he was sitting one morning, surrounded by country people,
some asking his advice, some his assistance, others making their
grievances known. Amongst the rest was a farmer rather advanced in life,
a swaggering sort of fellow, who was desirous to carry his point by
impressing the Liberator with the idea of his peculiar honesty and
respectability. He was anxious that O'Connell should decide a matter in
dispu
e between him and a neighboring farmer who, he wished to
insinuate, was not as good as he ought to be. For my part, I, at least,
can boast that neither I nor mine were ever brought before a judge or
sent to jail, however it was with others.
Stop, stop, my fine fellow, cried the Liberator--Let me see, pausing
a moment. Let me see; it is now just twenty-five years ago, last
August, that I myself saved you from transportation, and had you
discharged from the dock.
The man was thunderstruck; he thought such a matter could not be
retained in the great man's mind. He shrunk away, murmuring that he
should get justice elsewhere, and never appeared before the Liberator
afterwards.