Laws in Conflict Read Online Free PDF Page B

she sit while leafing through his rather meagre collection of books. His practice seemed to be mainly a commercial one, she thought as she eavesdropped shamelessly on the conversations that he held with his clerk – most of the letters that he dictated were to do with claiming his fee for drawing up bills of sale. Buying and selling, that was what made Galway so prosperous. One man imports one hundred and ten tuns of wine, pays eleven tuns of that as tax to the mayor and then sells the remaining ninety-nine casks to someone like her son-in-law Oisín. The sums involved, even for wine alone, since each cask held over two hundred gallons, were immense. No wonder the city seemed filled with small castles! No wonder, also, that the office of mayor was so lucrative and that there was enough employment for three lawyers within a space of less than half a square mile.
    By the time the four o’clock bell chimed from St Nicholas’s, Mara was glad to accept Henry’s escort back through the crowded streets. Her scholars were just arriving from an opposite direction when they turned into Lombard Street. They seemed pleased to see her and even from a distance she could make out Aidan saying to Fiona, in what he thought was a low voice, ‘You tell her.’
    But it was only while Mara was getting dressed for the evening’s entertainment that she remembered the overheard phrase and she was not surprised when a tap came at her door. Quickly she pulled her purple gown over her head, slipped on a light pair of shoes and then went to the door.
    ‘Thank goodness,’ said Fiona, coming in, clad only in her
léine
. ‘I thought that woman, Jane Bodkin, would be hovering around for ever.’
    ‘Let’s hope she wasn’t still hovering – she would be rather shocked if she saw you going around the house dressed like that with all the young men upstairs,’ pointed out Mara, and then her face grew serious as Fiona said impulsively, ‘Brehon, Fachtnan is very worried. The man in the gaol is called Sheedy. Do you know who he is? Sheedy O’Connor?’
    ‘Sheedy O’Connor!’ repeated Mara in a shocked whisper. ‘So that’s what’s become of him! Poor Sheedy! Whatever brought him to Galway?’
    ‘That’s what Fachtnan said.’ Fiona looked troubled. ‘He told me that you had announced at judgement day a few years ago that he was to be classified as a
dásachtach
.’
    ‘That’s right,’ said Mara unhappily. And then she stopped. Heavy footsteps were coming up the stairs. ‘Go back into my room,’ she hissed, feeling relieved that she herself had already changed. This was the master of the house himself, not a bad fellow, she thought, basically honest, keen to make money, that had been obvious from what she heard today, but not in favour of a death penalty for a poor old man half out of his wits.
    ‘I’m sorry to delay you on your way up to get ready,’ she began rapidly, ‘but one of my scholars caught a glimpse of the man that you have in custody and he is a man that I have formally declared to be insane.’
    ‘He escaped from a Bedlam hospital or something equivalent; is that the case?’ Lawyer Bodkin looked at her enquiringly.
    ‘We don’t have hospitals for the insane in our kingdoms,’ explained Mara. ‘Brehon law stated that an insane man should be held by his nearest relative until he could be questioned at the law court on judgement day. If he were found to be permanently insane then the kin group, that was all of the descendants of the same great-grandfather, would have to care for him, either by drawing lots or by some other arrangement. The usual thing is to pass the insane person around from household to household on a monthly rotation, unless some charitable person could be found to take permanent care of him.’
    Lawyer Bodkin raised his eyebrows and looked rather sceptical. It did sound a little haphazard, thought Mara. But mainly speaking it worked. It was just very bad luck that Sheedy had escaped from poor