Who is the hero who won the freedom that all three parts of Ireland had been waiting for? I'll tell you.
My Uncle Donal often told me, as his grandfather had told him more than once, that when Limerick finally surrendered to William of Orange and there was no longer any point in resisting: on one hill of Ireland the French flag fluttered, and on the other - William of Orange, so that the Irish soldiers could choose which side to go over to, and so, when the Irish with the whole army, led by the brave Patrick Sarsfield, surrendered to the French, one simple guy named Rory, who delighted everyone with his fearlessness in battle, decided not to go with them. Captain Sarsfield, standing under the flag of King Louis, saw that Rory was left on his own, and called out to him:
“Rory, aren’t you surrendering to France with us?”
- No! - Rory answered firmly.
“Aren’t you going to see Wilhelm?”
- No no! - Rory replied.
“Then, in the name of God, tell me who you chose?”
— I chose Ireland.
-You're crazy! Ireland is lost. There wasn't a soul left in it. Who are you going to protect?
- We stayed in Ireland! - That's what Rory answered, or something like that. “And I will fight for her.”
“But no one is coming for you, and England has hundreds of thousands of warriors.”
“It’s okay, I’ll have a bigger army behind me,” Rory replied, “more than the hairs on your head.”
- What do you want to say?
“The Lord will send his angels to help me, and he will give them sharpened swords, and hundreds of thousands of Englishmen will scatter before us like smoke.”
- When will this be? - the captain asked with a grin.
- When God sends. Maybe in a year, or maybe in five hundred years, sooner or later Rory will still win!
And, throwing his musket over his shoulder, Rory turned and walked towards the hills.
In the old days they said:
Beware of three things: a horse's hooves, a bull's horns, and an Englishman's smile.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru