'And it's ho! ro! the sup of good drink--And ho! ro! the heart would not think;Oh, had I a shilling lapped up in a clout,It's a sup of good drink that would wheedle it out!'
'And it's ho! ro! the sup of good drink--And ho! ro! the heart would not think;Oh, had I a shilling lapped up in a clout,It's a sup of good drink that would wheedle it out!'
Doreen sat staring till the chill of morning penetrated to her bones through the light robe of muslin. Then she crept stiff and weary into bed, while her teeth chattered and alternate douches of hot and cold water seemed pouring down her back. She had been studying Shane with a new interest, and trembled for her future peace, for, as she watched with senses sharpened, she was dismayed at the hideous preponderance of the animal in her cousin's nature. Never had she looked at him so earnestly before. It was like binding one's self to a hog for life. Sure Holofernes was not so degraded, or the fortitude of Judith would have given way. He was a warrior, mighty in battle, who, though an enemy, commanded respect. A glorious athlete such as 'tis woman's prerogative to outwit--as Delilah outwitted Samson, as Omphale conquered Hercules. Her ordeal too was of short duration. How differently severe would be the self-appointed task of this modern Judith, who contemplated tying herself deliberately for the whole of her life to a man who disgusted her in spite of his good looks; who, when shorn of the vulgar halo of animal courage, was no better than a brawler and a bravo. She might not strive to reform him, for with his reformation he would of course take the reins of his affairs, and the power of his wife would end, for which alone she married him. It would be her duty rather to encourage him in evil ways, and coax him down the ladder. Was she capable, she kept asking herself, as shuddering she drew the sheets around her, of so tremendous a sacrifice as this? Tone's, sublime as she considered it, was nothing to what hers would be. He had thrown away earthly pelf, was a fugitive and an outlaw; but he retained his self-respect. Could she retain hers if Shane became her husband? No. Doreen confessed to herself that the position would be impossible. If it had been Terence, now! He was foolish and gay and distressingly healthy; under no pressure whatever could he bud into a hero. He was humdrum, and her native romance revolted from the humdrum. A fine grown man with a good temper and a prosaic appetite. Why, if he were to occupy Shane's shoes, all Dublin would be envying her luck and remarking how brazenly she had set her cap at him. Horror of horrors! How terribly commonplace! Then the girl upbraided herself for such foolish thoughts. Terence would never become Lord Glandore, and as a simple fisherman and sportsman could never win his cousin. Perhaps my lady was right in warning her to remember that he was grown up. He was a dear good boy, but wofully prosaic. But what had such as she to do with unmaidenly meditations anent marrying and giving in marriage? Sackcloth and ashes were the portion of the Catholics, who were treated as the Jews had been by the Crusaders. The sooner they died out the better. What a wonderful idea that was of Aunt Glandore's! If she were seriously bent on anything, she was not easy to baffle. Would it be best to speak out at once and brave a certain storm, or to let things be, hoping to be delivered by some unexpected means? While she was debating this knotty question, her thoughts became gradually confused, and she sank into troubled slumber.
Mr. Curran took the bait tendered to him by the chancellor. He made inquiries, sorted the fragments of his puzzle after his own fashion, and, filled with suspicions, became anxious to unveil without delay the fresh dangers which menaced his friends. And dangers so easy to unveil! The fowler cared not, it seemed, to mask his engines of destruction. Mr. Curran, from his place in the senate, publicly warned ministers of the iniquity of their proceedings, but nobody troubled to listen. The friends of government gaped, vowing that the orator was a maniac, that he had the secret society on the brain, and ought to be carted to the madhouse; the few who were on the other side laughed, declaring that Mr. Curran was misinformed. What could he do then but sigh and hold his peace? At least he would speak to the Emmetts and adjure them to be cautious, for the sake of all concerned.
When Tone's society for the promotion of universal concord was driven by artful goading to become a secret one, the conspirators met to discuss their grievances in a cellar in Backlane, near the corn-market; but when the time came for extinguishing Tone and others, Sirr, the captain of Lord Clare's sbirri, swept them thence, and they were forced to find another trysting-place. Pending final decision on this point, it was arranged as a miracle of cleverness that the younger Emmett should suddenly become hospitable. Trinity was always celebrated for its rollicking wine-parties. What more natural than that young Robert should do as others did; that he, hitherto so studious, should be led astray a little by the contagious force of bad example? A good cellaret of claret was provided at the common expense; songs were sung with open windows, at all hours of the day and night, of a convivial and bacchanalian character. There was no end to the shifts to which the patriots resorted, under the belief that they were hoodwinking Major Sirr. There arose a mania for ball-playing. Clerks, shopkeepers, attorneys, would meet of an afternoon at a hall taken for the purpose, and emerge thence in an hour or two singularly cool and fresh for men who had been practising athletics. There was also a rage for fencing--a plausible excuse enough for meeting in numbers, considering that the fire-eaters of the south had just revised the laws of the duello. The youthful aristocracy, in accordance with one of the new rules, had already formed themselves into a club, called the Knights of Tara, whose members met three times a week in the theatre at Capel Street to display their prowess with the rapier before an audience of Dublin belles. What then should there be suspicious if the middle class followed their example?
The case was not quite the same, though; for while the Knights of Tara courted observation and loved to be seen lounging in cambric shirts and broidered slippers, with their hair in curl-papers, the members of the other fencing club kept rigorously closed doors, through which no one ever heard the familiar cry, sharp as a pistol-crack, of 'Ha! a hit!'
One evening, shortly after Tone's departure, there was a full gathering in the chambers on the second floor which looked on the grand quadrangle. It was necessary to instal with solemn rites a new chief in place of the wanderer, and to fix on a distinct plan of operations for enlarging the limits of the society. Tone had left his mantle to Thomas Addis Emmett as the oldest and wisest of the band--he was thirty-five--and so, in obedience to his last wishes, the editor of thePresswas duly elected to the dangerous pre-eminence. Submitting to his brother's entreaties, he commenced his reign by administering the oath to young Robert, the dreamy lad of seventeen, which was done with awful ceremonies, as became the doings of conspirators. Blinds were drawn for a few minutes that no prying gaze might penetrate the Holy of Holies; then all sat down, with the neophyte standing in their midst, while their president read through the constitution. Then the oath was administered upon the Scriptures, which, together with the constitution, were clasped on the bared breast, and after that a lock of hair was cut away under the queue behind, and a formula learnt by heart, by means of which one member could recognise another. It was touching to look on these brothers standing side by side, the elder receiving the younger into a fraternity, each unit of which, before many months were out, might possibly be called upon to meet an ignominious death. Thomas was big and burly, with a sedate cast of countenance which betokened thought, whilst Robert was slight of build, and looked almost like a girl, as with eyes fixed on space he repeated the strange sentences, his face aglow with enthusiasm, his body trembling like a leaf.
'Are you straight?'
'I am.'
'How straight?'
'As straight as a rush.'
'Go on then?'
'In truth and trust; in unity and liberty.'
'What have you in your hand?'
'A green bough.'
'Where did it grow?'
'In America.'
'Where did it bud?'
'In France.'
'Where will you plant it?'
'In the Crown of Great Britain.'
'God be with you then, and with us all,' Thomas concluded; 'and now a glass all round to the health of the new member.'
The pledge was gravely accepted, each one raising his beaker and saying: 'To the diffusion of light!' ere he drained its contents and replaced it on the table bottom upwards.
'Now, gentlemen,' pursued Thomas. 'We have serious business before us. Theobald will be away a year at least before help can come, and it is his wish that we should without delay prepare to graft the military upon our civil functions. With arms and ammunition Tone will provide us if he can, but they will be of little service unless we know how to use them. In the halcyon days of the Volunteers every Irishman was a soldier. Let us show that the martial spirit of our ancient kings, which then for awhile revived, is not quite dead in us.'
'I will never consent to bloodshed,' shuddered young Robert. 'Internecine strife is too horrible!'
'You have been sworn in by your own desire,' returned his brother, sternly, 'and your first duty is blind obedience. It is Tone's conviction that we must fight, and fight we will when the time comes--to the death! In revolutions there is nothing certain but blood. The march of the captives is through a Red Sea. After forty years of seeking new abodes, which of those who lead them shall touch the Promised Land? Lord Clare shows us his cards, and a pretty hand it is. Sirr is organising his paid spies into a battalion who are to dwell at the Castle like pampered pets. It is hard to believe that Irishmen will be so base. These informers are to lieperduuntil wanted--are to worm themselves into the confidence of suspected persons, to eat of their bread and salt, to nurse their little ones upon their knees, and then, upon a signal, to give them over to the hangman.'
'But the Viceroy!' cried Cassidy in indignation. 'Lord Camden is a man of honour who would never consent to such a plan!'
Thomas Emmett shook his head mournfully.
'We all know,' he said, 'that the cabinet rules the Viceroy, and that Lord Clare is master of the cabinet.'
'Seeing's believing,' retorted the giant doggedly, as he stretched out his great hand for the claret bottle. 'Of course we must watch that no such villain shall creep among us. I won't believe that the English are without mercy.'
'At the battle of Aughrim,' replied Thomas, 'the blood sank into the soil of seven thousand Irishmen who were only defending their rights.'
'As for drilling and such like,' said Cassidy, 'I'm with you, and the sooner we start the business the better. I've learnt a new song that we'll sing as we march to battle----'
'Oh, you simpleton!' laughed Terence Crosbie, who, slightly touched with wine, had followed the proceedings of the two Emmetts with amusement. 'Romancing as usual--giving credence to every scandalous tale you hear. Even if there were truth in them, your grievances would not give birth to generals. You will never make colonels out of linendrapers.'
'No more than purses out of sows' ears,' returned Cassidy, with a merry twinkle. 'No, councillor, that we never will. But we'll wheedle a few aristocrats like your honour, whose blue blood shall mingle with our muddy stuff. When the day dawns, you and a few like yourself shall lead the boys to victory.'
Terence looked annoyed, but said nothing; while Cassidy and the others scanned his face narrowly. He was not affiliated to the society, nor had the remotest ambition of becoming so; for he knew that it behoved not one of his order to join in such movements as this. Yet there was a fascination for him in its doings, which kept him dangling upon its outskirts. Some of his most valued friends were enrolled on the list of United Irishmen, and he knew well how Doreen was praying for their success. So he attended the supper-parties sometimes in his purposeless way, and they permitted him to do so freely, despite the maxim that in troublous times half-friends are no friends. They knew, or thought they knew, that he was the soul of honour, who would never betray a confidence; and hoped, encouraged by Cassidy, that some day he might be cajoled or stung into their ranks, which would be a feather in their cap indeed; for to be led by a Crosbie of Ennishowen would give them a prestige at once such as in these democratic days we can hardly realise. And Terence, seeing through the simple scheme (for he was sharp enough, though lazy), was flattered by their confidence. Yet for all that he promised himself to hold aloof from active co-operation with hot-pated friends who made mountains out of mole-hills. He had no intention of heading the forlorn hope of a misguided rabblement who would fly helter-skelter before the first puff of cannon smoke. So he prudently refrained from picking up the gauntlet, and listened to the giant, who was delivered of an idea.
'I've a notion!' cried Cassidy, thumping the table till the glasses rang again.
'Be cool now!' cautioned Tom Emmett. 'You are as dangerous as a powder-magazine.'
'Is it dangerous I am?' grumbled the other. 'Sure something must be risked, or we'll niver get along. I've an idaya, gintlemen, which I'm willing to see to at my own expense, though a poor man. I've reason to know that the militia may be tampered with. Their hearts are with the cause, and they're as poor as rats or your humble servant. Money and drink will do much, and women will settle the matter. Here's a letter from Belfast which says that two hundred and fifty of the men in camp there have secretly declared for us, and that it only needs the personal presence of a delegate to bring over half the rest. When the French land they'll rise and kill their officers. Think of the fine fright that'll give the royalists! Sure and isn't that the way to out-plot England? Shall I go to Belfast and reconnoitre? Of coorse ye must give me credentials. A little note, signed, will do the trick, and show I'm honest. As for the town-major of whom ye're all so frightened, his bark's worse nor his bite. The Irish Jonathan Wild can be bribed. I'll answer for him; but there's time galore for that. Dangerous, am I? I'm the only one, I think, with a drain of sperit. There's a great speech. Phew, I'm dhry! Hand round the clart, boys, and we'll have a stave.'
The simple giant's harangue was favourably received, the paper was penned and signed, and he was wetting his whistle for a song when Tom Emmett raised his hand.
'Hark! who comes?'
There was a footstep on the creaking stair; then a knock; and a familiar voice said: 'It is I. Curran.'
'Nurse Curran!' sneered Cassidy, annoyed. 'Come to look after his foster-babby.'
The little advocate entered, and leaned against the door with his arms folded.
'Terence, my lad,' he said. 'You must come away with me. What would my lady say, if you came to be arrested?'
'Arrested!' echoed a dozen voices. 'Within Trinity? Impossible!'
'I fail to see that it's impossible,' snarled Curran. 'Hide those foolish papers there, or burn them--children, too easily beguiled with toys! And you, Terence, come away with me at once. Why? Are not convenient edicts being passed each day to simplify the work of government? Laws for the suppression of gaming, profane swearing, atheistical assemblies, which places every man's home under surveillance of the town-major?'
'You have explicit information?' inquired Tom Emmett, anxiously.
'I don't say that!' stammered Curran, somewhat confused. 'I only say that your threshold might be invaded at any moment, and that ye've yourselves to thank if ye get into a hopeless scrape. A few hours since, a carpenter who is under obligation to me was at work in Ely Place. While repairing the floor between two double doors he distinctly heard Lord Clare in conversation with the town-major, in which Sirr told his chief that there would be a strong muster to-night in this boy's chambers. Am I making too free in asking you to lock away those documents, or would ye prefer hanging at once to save trouble? The carpenter wrenched off a hinge and begged to be allowed to fetch a new one; but instead of going straight to the ironmonger's he ran to me with commendable speed, gave the office, and returned to his work. What it all means I am not in a position to say; but mark my words, you have a traitor in your midst, who reports to the enemy every word you utter. Your necks are your own, to do with as you like; but I'm responsible for you, Terence, to your mother, and I summon you to go away with me.'
Tom Emmett flushed scarlet, and involuntarily placed a hand upon the pistol in his breast. A low murmur went round the room as Cassidy sprang to his feet.
'Take care!' he shouted, 'how ye bring vague charges. Many a disfigured corpse has Moiley eaten--many an informer has floated out to sea. Give a name--only a name--and I'll scrunch the spalpeen so flat that ye'll not know him from a sheet of paper, save for the coat on him!'
Curran shrugged his shoulders.
'Do you think if I knew the scoundrel I'd not have pointed at him long ago? It's for you to find him out. Don't glare at me, man--I'm not a youngster who has never blazed. Mind, I've warned you to be circumspect. The Irish nature is too open. It can't keep a secret without telling a lie, and lies lead to awful tangles. It's no affair of mine. Terence, come along.'
The junior rose and stretched himself, and prepared to follow his chief.
A betrayer in their midst! The case did seem hopeless to the young councillor; so hopeless as to be almost contemptible. Possibly Lord Clare was a trifle over-strict with them, but he certainly appeared justified to a certain extent in assuming with the children the manner of a severe pedagogue. What a pity that they persisted in fathering every enormity upon him!
'It's a bad job, my friends,' he said. 'Curran's right about the papers. Good-night.'
As they crossed the quadrangle his mentor became wondrous voluble. He was garrulous as to my lady, and her unfortunate penchant for the chancellor; talked of Glandore, and all the titled in the land, till his companion eyed him in indolent surprise. To occupy his attention was the design of his mentor, for lurking in the shadow of doorways were certain darkling figures who were not gownsmen; and the little king's counsel feared lest Terence, if he perceived danger to be imminent, should be ill-judged enough to retrace his steps and get mixed up in the misfortunes of his friends.
The spectres allowed the pair to pass, and then, gliding to the door from which they had issued, left half their number there, whilst the rest stole through the gateway to the inner court--so as to command two special windows which were pointed out to them.
Meanwhile the party above, having completed the business of the evening, prepared itself to be jolly. The story of the proposed arrest, the vague charge about an informer, were evidently Bugaboos invented by nurse Curran for the luring away of his junior.
Cassidy, who was in great spirits to-night, and had drank deeply, demonstrated with the utmost clearness that the fabrication was absurd. By an old law of Queen Elizabeth (the only pleasant law she ever made for Ireland), no bumbailiff or importunate creditor might set his foot within the College-gates. Alma Mater was a sanctuary from which none might be taken an any account without an order from the authorities of Trinity, who were too jealous of their rights ever to grant such order. Moreover, the watch (harmless old women!) were always friends with the gownsmen--ready to lend a staff or lanthorn, or feign sleep or assume deafness, just as the frolicsome young gentlemen should decree. It was quite unlikely that they would witness any threatening demonstration without instantly giving an alarm, and even Sirr would think twice before daring an assault upon the inmates of Trinity without the assistance of the junior dean. Not that the undergraduates were as bold a body now as when they slew my Lord Glandore, or so unanimous either, as none knew better than Lord Clare. Yet they were no cowards, and always ready for a 'blaze.'
The younger Emmett, alarmed at first by Curran's dismal prophecies, was convinced by Cassidy's gibes that his terrors were ill-placed, and set about producing from mysterious lurking-places the elements of a good supper--ham, chickens, bread--furtively glancing in the mirror now and then at the tiny tonsure which marked him for a patriot. The giant arranged knives and forks, and filled the round-bottomed claret decanters, trimming the table with a tasty eye as a patriotic table should be laid. In the centre he placed the constitution--bulwark of the society--throned on a loaf of bread. Close to it the president's badge, whilom Tone's--Tom Emmett's bauble now which consisted of a shamrock in green silk bearing a harp without a crown. Near this the copy of the Scriptures; and by his own place a list of toasts such as should help to pass the time till chapel-hour. When all was ready he called on his companions to fall to; and discussed with the president, while the viands disappeared, the details of his journey to Belfast.
As they talked the claret waned, and the views of the company grew rosier. Thomas agreed that it would be a wise system to spread disaffection among the soldiery. The patriotism of the militia might surely be counted on, he thought. With the yeomanry it might be otherwise, as it was officered by the upper class. Deliberation and prudence must be the watchwords of the giant at Belfast, for months must pass before Tone could hope to accomplish anything; and all were of one mind as to the necessity of French assistance. At the earliest, no French fleet could be expected till the summer of '96, therefore it behoved the leaders of the cause to keep the broth gently simmering till the moment of the crisis--organising battalions, drilling companies during the night, establishing a vast military system which should enable the four provinces to effect a simultaneous rising. That was the important point, spontaneity of movement; and he, Emmett, would make it his business to see that the unity of action should be complete.
The danger was (he impressed on Cassidy) lest the wickedness of England should exasperate the people too soon. A given degree of cruelty will drive the wisest mad. Patience is among the greatest of virtues. Here was another thing, which it was all-important to consider. Terence Crosbie had put his finger on one of their weakest points--their lack of military genius. The best army in Christendom is powerless without a general. What a pity that Tone should be gone away, for the germ was visible in him which would have blossomed forth into glorious fruition under the sun of opportunity!
'Now!' Cassidy cried, after a while, remarking that some of the delegates were beginning to snore, 'fill your glasses, and I'll sing ye the new song which shall sound the knell of the Sassanagh. 'Tis written by Barry, a mere gossoon, who's in Kilmainham at this minute. Bad cess to the ruffians as put him there!' Then, draining off a bumper, he loosened the voluminous folds of his cravat, and commenced in his mellow voice, while those who were sober enough yelled the refrain:
'"What rights the brave? The sword!What frees the slave? The sword!What cleaves in twain the despot's chain, and makes his gyvesand dungeons vain? The sword!Then cease the proud task never! while rests a link to sever.Guard of the free, well cherish thee, and keep thee bright for ever!"'
'"What rights the brave? The sword!What frees the slave? The sword!
What cleaves in twain the despot's chain, and makes his gyvesand dungeons vain? The sword!
Then cease the proud task never! while rests a link to sever.Guard of the free, well cherish thee, and keep thee bright for ever!"'
So loudly was 'The Sword' trolled forth, that more peaceful neighbours, worn out with study, turned uneasily in bed, cursing the rackety crew ere they slept again; so loudly was the final chorus shrieked, that none heard the tramp of footsteps on the stairs, none heeded the groping of unaccustomed fingers upon the handle, till the door was flung open, displaying a body of men upon the landing whose crossbelts showed white through a disguise. The young men stared bewildered as on some horrid vision, and strove to get up on their feet. Thomas, more sober than the rest, laid his hand upon his pistol, but withdrew it again, seeing how numerous were those who stood without.
'What do you want?' he asked.
A short man stepped from behind the rest. He was remarkable for a hooked beak, eyes too close together, shaded by heavy brows which met in a tuft over his nose. He wore a tight stock with a large silver buckle, hair plainly clubbed, and a silver whistle like a boatswain's attached to a buttonhole by a thong.
'I am Major Sirr,' he snapped, 'and arrest all present in the King's name. Seize those documents!'
Cassidy took a paper from his flapped pocket and tried to swallow it, but the major's men, marking his clumsy movement, pressed his bull-throat till he gave it forth again. How arbitrary is the effect of drink! Some men it renders furious, endowing them with double strength; others it makes dull and stupid, robbing them of the power that they had. Cassidy's giant bulk and tremendous muscles should have stood him in good stead now or never; but he certainly had imbibed a portentous quantity of claret, and the shaking he was getting seemed quite to muddle him.
'Ah now, major dear,' he whimpered, smiling a sickly smile, 'you'd not take it from me and shame a poor colleen? Don't look at her name now! Bad luck to ye! Don't, now!'
''Tis an order signed by the committee of the United Irishmen--no lady's billet,' Major Sirr replied coldly, holding the paper to the candle. 'My friend, I regret to see you in this plight--but I must do my duty.'
Robert, on the first entrance of Sirr's lambs--for such he knew them at once to be, though robed in long gowns--made a rush to the window of the inner room in order to alarm the college, but speedily drew in his head again, for a row of muskets was pointed at him which glinted, pallid, in the light of early dawn.
'Trapped!' he exclaimed, wringing his hands in despair. 'No, not yet!' Then, perceiving that Sirr and his band, expecting no resistance, were busily engaged gleaning together badge, constitution, and list of treasonable toasts, he stole to the discomfited giant--a hero but a moment since--and whispered rapidly, 'Come! A dash at the door, and we can get downstairs. I'll lead you to the campanile. One ring at the bell, and the college will awake!'
Cassidy shook himself and appeared to understand. Flinging aside the two men who loosely held him, he butted forward, upsetting table and lights, and in the confusion and darkness all who barred the passage. Swiftly he rolled, rather than ran, down the steep staircase, closely followed by Robert, and sent sprawling in the doorway a fat old person, who yelped piteously for mercy.
'The junior dean!' ejaculated Robert. 'The dastard! Himself to betray our ancient rights! But come--we'll attend to him later--to the campanile, to rouse the college!'
Sirr's lambs, recovering from their surprise, pursued the fugitives; but a little time was gained by their all tumbling in a heap over the unhappy dean, before he had time to scramble out of the way.
'O Lord! O Lord! I'm kilt! Follow them!' he panted; 'the campanile's at the corner of the inner yard. If they ring the bell for a rescue, I'm a dead man, for they'll surely murder me! Oh that I had never mixed in this hellish business!'
His lamentations died away in a groan, for Sirr held a pistol to his head, calling the skies to witness that he would shoot him unless he instantly led the way. Never since he was a child did the pursy old gentleman run as fast as he did now. Terror gave wings to his gouty feet, and the invading party reached the campanile to see Cassidy's burly shoulder force in the door, and Robert Emmett precipitate himself within. It was a race who should first reach the platform.
'Is it the dean that's rooned us?' Cassidy had been exclaiming. 'By Jabers, then, I'll wring his neck for him before he's much older! Run, jewel, for you know the place, which I don't, while I attend to him. Here's a string that'll do the job.'
And in a trice he had cut the rope which swung before him as high up as his long arms reached, and was fastening at one end a noose.
'What are you doing?' cried Robert, in dismay, 'the ringing-rope of the great bell!'
'Oh, tear and 'ounds! is it?' murmured the giant, with a blank look, as he dropped it. 'Sure, I tuk it to hang the dean with!'
It was a fatal piece of stupidity, but the mischief was irretrievable. The rope-end dangled just out of Robert's reach. The men who had been watching in the inner yard closed in, and levelling their muskets, summoned them to surrender quietly. By the time Sirr's party came up with the panting dean the giant was pinioned with the unlucky rope, while Robert was in the grip of two sturdy soldiers.
So much rowdiness was habitually perpetrated within Trinity--such a succession of practical jokes and madcap tricks--that none were likely to heed the hubbub of this chase. Thomas, who had so sagely recommended prudence half an hour since, stood in bitter reverie among his fellow-prisoners, reproaching himself mournfully for his blindness; wondering in self-abasement whether it was not better after all that one who had at starting shown himself so bad a chief, should be thus summarily deposed from office. For he saw at once that his fate would be the same as that of those already sacrificed--either exile beyond seas, or dreary rotting in Newgate or Kilmainham--for was not his signature appended, in the capacity of newly-elected president, to the paper which loyal Cassidy had tried to swallow? And what a covey had been captured beside himself! what gaps there would be now in the already thinned ranks of those who were prepared to win or perish! Curran's words had come true with regard to the capture--was his other assertion equally correct? Was there a Judas in their midst who was handing them over to the avenger, the while he gave the kiss of fellowship? The thought was too horrible. Whom was he to suspect? Not Cassidy, or Bond, or McLaughlin, or his fervent brother Robert--or Curran himself. None of these--who then? It must be Terence Crosbie, whom they had weakly admitted behind the veil, trusting to his honour as a gentleman. His honour! One of the semi-English aristocrats, whose brother was a Blaster--whose mother was Clare's dearest friend. Scales seemed to fall from his eyes, and he stood staring at his own folly. It was evident that Terence had coquetted with them merely to study their plans. That frank air ofbonhomiewas assumed. He was like his brother Glandore--only more crafty and astute instead of imbecile; that was all. He was deceiving Curran now as he had deceived them, and Curran was watching over him with the solicitude of a father. It was all too horrible--the world a place of blackest infamy--Ireland the darkest spot upon its face. Yet no. His better judgment revolted against such a belief. The fresh air was balmy; the yellowing sky of surpassing loveliness. Man, if made of stuff so innately vile, would never have been placed in so fair a casket. Facts are stubborn things, though. The meeting had been betrayed by somebody. Who was the wretch?
It was by this time quite light, and the town-major deemed it wise to remove his prey before early-rising undergraduates should be stirring. He gave his orders therefore--softly, but with martinet decision--and the party marched away, leaving Robert sitting on the platform.
'I am ready,' he said, leaping up. 'I am one with them, and will go quietly;' but Major Sirr held up his hand and grinned.
'You are fine devil's spawn, no doubt,' he said, while his nose wrinkled, 'but we don't want you just yet. You're but a baby blustering like a man. Look at his smooth chin--or is it a girl? Newgate's a brave residence for summer, if your purse is well lined; if not, best hang yourself before going thither. No, no! I've no warrant to arrest your ladyship--but your time will come, I doubt not.'
'Let him be!' cried his brother Thomas. 'Whither do you take us?'
'First to Kilmainham with you,' Sirr replied sharply. 'Then with the rest to Newgate; then to your offices to seize your precious newspaper, demolish your press, and scatter your type. Have you any objection?'
'That is illegal,' Thomas affirmed, 'till the paper is condemned for sedition.'
The town-major gave vent to a grumbling cachinnation like the rattling of a skeleton in a cupboard, but no smile lit up his sinister countenance. Then he echoed:
'Illegal, ha, ha! That can be set right. Forward--march!'
The cortége moved across the quadrangle, and the massive gates of Alma Mater closed behind it. Robert Emmett sat dazed, while the yellow in the sky above the roofs changed to pink and then to blue; for they were gone--away from the sanctuary into the wicked world without; no hue and cry could save them now. The junior dean, his nerves calmed by whisky-punch, lay cosily between the blankets, dreaming of the bishopric he had won that night. An early gownsman, flinging wide his shutters before settling to his morning's work, smiled down on the wild rake who must have come in too drunk to find his way to bed. Boys will be boys, though their mammas wish that they would act as sages; and they must season their heads while they are young.
But the studious undergraduate was wrong in his surmise. Excitable by temperament, delicate in body, and overwrought in mind, Robert Emmett had swooned away.
Next morning Mr. Curran rode early to the Abbey, with news of the arrests which he had been powerless to prevent. He looked with an eye less jaundiced than usual upon the world, for the sea-breeze instilled fresh life into him, weary and jaded as he was from many causes, and he felt that he deserved well of her ladyship for saving her son from a scandal. Though he laughed and joked in company, in private he was nearly always sad, partly by constitution, partly by reason of the sights he saw around him; and as he rode along this morning and meditated concerning his foe Lord Clare, the flecks of sunlight that chequered his mind vanished, leaving only darkness and despondency behind. Oh, that chancellor! Would no one free Ireland from a tutelage which became hourly more oppressive and capricious? Why could not the innocent conspirators be left alone? Theobald, the whale, was gone. Sure, naught but stirring up of dirty water could be gained by harrying the minnows. It was unwise to have locked up the lads with such a rattling of locks and muskets. The raid upon Tom Emmett's office, too, was a deplorable proceeding. No new or special charge of iniquity had been brought against his paper. Yet the place was ransacked in his absence, his property destroyed, his chairs and tables tossed out of window as though they carried treason in their varnish. Lord Clare must be mad, or desperately wicked. If he brought the country to ruin, it should not be for want of warning. To protest in parliament is one thing, to argue and implore in private is another. The little lawyer decided to speak openly to Lord Clare at their very next meeting, and clinched the matter in his mind with such a thump of his hunting-crop as caused his pony to leap forward and nearly throw his master from the saddle.
Madam Gillin and her daughter Norah were gardening as he rode past their hedge, and the former hallooed to him to stop. Mr. Curran could scarce forbear laughing at her appearance, so grotesquely serious did she look in a frayed turban soiled with pomade, and a crumpled frock of extravagant fashion, from under which peeped a pair of satin slippers down at heel. It was a thrifty habit with Madam Gillin to wear out her old quality-clothes at home, for she said that Norah must have a fine dowry somehow, and that for that purpose it would be needful to economise. Now her garments and her child's were always of the flimsiest and most tawdry mode, profusely adorned with feathers and spangles, trimmed with outrageous frills and furbelows; and the twain, who did not trouble soap and water unless about to receive company, might be seen any day over the hedge which divided their property from the main-road, strutting up and down among the flower-beds like moulting peacocks or birds of paradise in a decline. Madam Gillin was lying nervously in wait for news this morning, and hailed Curran's appearance with relief, for her nurse, Jug Coyle, had heard of the arrests from frequenters of her shebeen, and vague rumours were afloat that Terence was among the captured. Oddly enough, although she had appointed herself guardian in ambush to the younger son, she had never spoken to him: yet was she well posted in all that concerned herprotégédown to minutest details; for were not all the array of grooms, farriers, dog-boys, foot-boys, tay-boys--what not?--in the habit of frequenting that too-convenient boozing-ken whose insidious hospitality was so offensive to their mistress at the Abbey? This was Madam Gillin's real reason for having established Jug at the Irish Slave. Through her she commanded an army of spies who, for a drop of the crather, studied my lady's face, translated her thoughts, imagined motives, as servants will who are argus-eyed, imaginative, inquisitive, endowed with a hundred ears. She was true to her trust of watching over Terence, though she seemed to know nothing at all about him, resolved, if need were, to do battle on his behalf, to point the finger of public-opinion at my lady if she behaved badly; and now she was sore perplexed concerning him, albeit he wist not of a guardian angel in a dirty old turban and crushed ostrich feathers.
Mr. Curran set her mind at rest, and turned up the avenue which led to the Abbey. The youth had certainly been present at the meeting, because the Emmetts were among his closest friends; but he was not affiliated, he assured her; and both agreed that his imagination must not be permitted to take fire; that he must never be allowed to become a member of the society.
When his nag turned the corner of the shrubbery, the little lawyer found those he sought grouped in front of the hall-door. My lady, in grey brocade, with a twist of lace through her white hair, was standing erect with crossed arms, looking with satisfaction at Doreen and Shane. The girl, though self-willed, had evidently taken her hint, and was preparing to lay siege to Shane; at least his fond mother chose to think so, and was deceived, as mothers often are. Just as grave people, for an idle whim, will turn for a moment from lofty contemplations to consider a pebble by the wayside, so calm Doreen had been bitten by a conceit. In her self-examination she had become convinced, with sorrow, that the part of Judith was beyond her strength, if Shane was to play Holofernes; and, disgusted with her own weakness, had permitted her mind to settle on my lady's nickname of Miss Hoyden. Being proved incapable of supreme sacrifice, she felt a wrathful desire for self-abasement, and resolved that, if she could not please her aunt in great things, she would do so at least in little ones, at the expense of private tastes.
So, to Lady Glandore's surprise, she appeared on this very morning in fashionable attire, which a week ago she had haughtily declined to wear; a sumptuous high-waisted percale, broidered in forget-me-nots, with great puffed sleeves and tight short skirt; low shoes of blue satin with wide strings; her beautiful hair in a straight sheet down her back, plaited together with straw, as the prevailing fashion was. Perched on the top of her head was a dainty straw bonnet, fit only for a fairy, and she looked under it, with her thoughtful brown face and solemn eyes, like some lovely victim tricked out in incongruous frippery, who was destined to figure in some Hibernianauto-da-fé.
'Young ladies of a strong-minded and serious turn do evidently not array themselves in wonderful garments without a reason,' so my lady argued. 'Neither do they descend to coquetry, save for the snaring of young men. Whom could Miss Wolfe desire to snare, if not her cousin Shane?'
This was well--extremely well. Unhappily, the young lord was not struck with the bonnet, or with the forget-me-nots. His mother saw that she would have to guide his attention to his cousin's blandishments.
Alack! he was in no mood to play the lover, being prosaically engrossed with a throbbing brow and swollen tongue. Shane, although he had 'made his head,' and could drink claret against most people, was apt to feel faded of a morning, and to retaliate for physical ills upon the first person who came within his reach. Last night he had presided over the Blasters, had shattered a decanter on the pate of a gentleman who presumed to breathe hard in his presence, and who, of course, had challenged him to fight. So far so good; but the stranger had shown himself so ill-bred as absolutely to decline to draw his sword till certain business matters could be arranged, and so the meeting was perforce postponed for a few hours--a most rude and inconsiderate proceeding! For might not the champion Blaster, the admirable Hellfire, the Prince of Cherokees, have other work upon his hands before dinner-time? And besides, though money-debts may wait for months without a smirching of the niceties of honour, it is a bad example for the multitude to allow duels to accumulate. Moreover, Shane had promised, as it happened, to promenade with the Gillins, in the Beaux Walk, on this particular afternoon. Even an Irish earl cannot, like Roche's bird, be in two places at a time; and so the youthful fire-eater fretted and fumed, cross with himself and everybody else, heedless of his cousin's bonnet, and longed to force a quarrel upon some one.
Terence was seated a few yards off, on the steps of the young men's wing, which led to his own apartment, giving some directions to his private henchman with regard to the manufacture of flies. Now and then he threw a displeased glance at his pretty cousin, marvelling for whose behoof she had made herself so bewitching, and then, gnawed by carking jealousy, turned to vent his spleen upon his servant.
But honest Phil only grinned as he twined the bright feathers with a skilful hand, nor heeded his master's ill-humour; for was he not his foster-brother, who loved the ground he trod on with the blind devotion of a clansman? He had been brought up with Terence at a respectful distance, had learnt Bible-stories with him from the tiles about the hearth, and made himself generally useful as he increased in years. Nothing came amiss to him. He could farry, cure a cow of the murrain, tin a saucepan, dance a jig, knit a stocking, sing a cronane against any young fellow in the county. There was nothing he would not do for Master Terence. He followed at his heels like a dog, looking into his eyes for orders as dogs do, bearing his whims and caprices with stoical endurance, as we bear the wind that blows on us. He was a type, was Phil, of a creature who vanished with the century; who, sharp and clever enough, professed to no intellect of his own, and was content to be led in all things by another. His attire under all circumstances was the same. A green plush coat, a scarlet vest, and buckskin breeches. A black leather hunting-cap was always, in or out of doors, cocked on one side of his shock head. Some people said he went to bed in it. In his capacity of farrier, he invariably carried a firing-iron as a walking-stick; so that what with the angel in ambush in the dirty finery, and the athletic follower with the firing-iron, Terence Crosbie may be said to have been well protected, even in days when none were out of danger.
The Abbey party had also heard of the arrests, and were all equally pleased when Curran's figure turned the corner of the drive--the queer squat figure which all Dublin looked on with respect, with its tightly-buttoned high-collared coat, snuffy wave of loose necktie, white kerseymere breeches, and top-boots.
'Yes,' he said, in answer to a chorus of inquiries, 'the evil rumour was too true. He had ridden over early to beg my lady to interfere on behalf of the young people. Her influence over the chancellor was great. The father of the Emmetts had been state-physician, and, as such, had often prescribed draughts for the countess's household. Would she try to save his sons from peril?'
'No, she would not. Lord Clare doubtless had the best motives for what he did, and it would be unseemly in the associate of his leisure-hours to meddle in state affairs. It was plain that the scum must be kept in their place, or what would become of the nobles? The abrogation of the Penal Code was the wild fantasy of optimists; for you might as well give power to monkeys as to Catholics. It could not, should not, be altered or lightened, for the safety of the dominant minority depended on the Penal Code. The French disgrace of '89 would never have appalled Europe, if the King had been less soft-hearted.'
So spake my lady, in her most majestic way, and Curran, as he smiled at the kindly, narrow-minded woman, thought she looked more like Queen Bess than ever. There was no help to be expected from this quarter for the poor fellows; Doreen's stern face convinced him of that much. He must even buckle on his armour and have at Lord Clare in person, when the first opportunity offered.
Terence's brow darkened as his chief talked of the arrests, and of the outrage at Tone's offices. If the chancellor was personally responsible for the ill-judged performance, then was he distinctly in the wrong. Might there be some truth in the pile of accusations which were being heaped upon the minister in power?
My lady's high-flown babble jarred on his nerves. Is there anything more painful than hearing one you love and respect talking nonsense? But no! It was not possible that the chancellor should be acting as he did without good reason. We are all apt to jump at conclusions and to blame people, without seeking first for motives which may not happen to lie upon the surface. Terence tried to shake off his suspicions, and succeeded to a certain extent, moved thereto, possibly, by feeling Doreen's scrutiny fixed on him. When she appeared on the terrace in her strange costume, she found the brothers at high words, and reproved them straightway. Shane had used bad language in an undertone; Terence had blushed, and hung his head. There was thunder in the air, which the damsel had striven to dissipate. She was looking anxiously on now, fearful of a collision of antagonistic elements, and bit her lips and stamped her little foot as Shane turned crossly to the visitor.
'Is it true, Curran,' he asked, with dyspeptic peevishness, 'that my brother was with those rascals? I've asked him more than once, but it seems he's afraid to confess.'
'Afraid!' Terence cried, as white as ashes; then, catching his cousin's eye, he went back, with set teeth, to his fly-making.
'I ought to have saidashamed,' apologised his languid lordship. 'I presume that, being a Crosbie, you are capable of feeling shame? Or not? You are so queer, I think you were changed at birth.'
'To pleaseme, be quiet,' implored Miss Wolfe, with an earnestness which charmed my lady. 'You two are perpetually squabbling!'
'It is not my fault,' Terence grumbled, crushing his fingers together to keep down his ire. 'Never think, please, that I am afraid of you, Shane. We cannot be afraid of that which we despise. If I am queer, you are more so. I did not answer, because I don't choose that you should interfere with me; but there is no reason why I should not. I was at Robert's chambers last night. What then? The purity of that handful of fellows shines out through the general darkness in a way that enforces one's respect. I do not say that they may not be carried too far, but sometimes they make me loathe myself and you and all my belongings; for in the abstract we are bad, and deserve any retribution which may fall on us.'
'Better join them,' sneered Shane, with a feverish hand upon his throbbing temples. 'When they confiscate this property, maybe they'll make you a present of it with the title. Oh, my head!'
'Yes, I was there,' continued Terence, doggedly; 'and they spoke wisdom mixed with folly--with more of the one and less of the other than you are accustomed to bestow on us. I do not mind admitting that I wish I'd stopped. Maybe they'll think that, knowing what was going to happen, I sneaked away, and then I shall lose their esteem.'
'Oho! What a delectable conspirator!' laughed my lord, cooling his aching head against the wall, while the cicatrice on his forehead grew red, and an evil glitter shone in his eyes. 'Love and esteem, eh? And how about mine? Will ye take a corner of that?'
With a spiteful movement he flicked a square of cambric at his brother, who placed his hands behind him and drew back; for the insulting action, innocent in itself, was one much in vogue for egging on a quarrel.
My lady turned as white as Terence, while she cried out hastily:
'Shane! what are you doing?'
Doreen looked on distressed, and Curran sighed, while honest Phil was too discreetly busy with his hackles to note anything that passed.
'Shane, how dare you, before my face!' said his mother; then, her anger kindling, she turned sharply on her younger son. 'It is your fault. You know how easily provoked he is. I cannot wonder at his being shocked by your behaviour.'
'I too, mother, am easily provoked,' Terence answered, his brow black with frowns.
'As I have said before, more than once, though you take no heed, you disgrace yourself by the society you keep. The Emmetts are well enough--I say nothing to the contrary, for indeed their father was a worthy man. But I am told that some of these people are linen-drapers. Is it fitting that a Crosbie should associate with tradesmen? They act blindly because they are low and do not know better, but the same cannot be said of you.'
My lady's lecture broke down, for whilst speaking of low people she remembered that her favourite Shane also was addicted to low company. Alas! she knew too well that he was the beloved of tavern-roysterers and petticoat-pensioners, who wept oily drops of maudlin affection over his drunken generosity, and that that smart zebra-suit of his--yellow and crimson striped--had not been donned to captivate his family.
If Shane was easily provoked, which was very true, he was also as easily bored as his father. Rising with a gesture of impatience to retire from the field, he cried out:
'There, there! what a pother, to be sure! I was only in joke. To hear your clatter, mother, one would think the house was burning. If Terence likes linen-drapers, I have no objection, but I can't admire his taste. Faugh! He's no better than ahalf-mounted!'
'Mother,' whispered Terence, trembling, 'do you stand by and hear him?'
But my lady made as though she was unaware of this fresh taunt, though it was a dreadful one. What a fearful thing for the head of a noble house to brand his heir-presumptive with being a 'half-mounted!' Now the half-mounted were a distinct class--a reckless feckless crew, each of whom possessed little beyond his horse and suit of clothes; who had no principles or education; who existed by pandering to the vices of their betters. They kept the ground at horse-races, helped a lord to steal a wench, knocked down her male relations, and made themselves generally agreeable; in return for which they were tolerated, supplied with bed and board, and treated to as much claret as they could carry. They swarmed, not to be industrious like the working bee, but to consume like the drone, and to do mischief like the wasp. This class it was which in '97 and '98 developed into the royalist yeomanry--the bully band of licentious executioners who did the filthy work which was disdained by English soldiers. A noble was described by the peasantry at this time as 'a gentleman to the backbone;' a landed squire as 'a gentleman every inch of him.' The younger sons of one of these, restrained as they were by gentility from any but three professions, sank more often than not into the habits of dissolute idleness to which young Ireland was constitutionally prone, and dwindled into the condition of the 'half-mounted,' whose career was usually closed by a tap from a shillalagh in a brawl, or an attack of delirium tremens. Therefore, that Terence should be accused of being one of the swashbucklers by his overbearing brother cut him to the quick, while it roused as well the anger of the man who was as a second father to him. Mr. Curran might possibly have given the earl a bit of his mind, and so have hammered such a breach 'twixt the two families as both would have deplored in equal measure, had not happily a huge golden coach come rumbling round the corner at this moment, whose gorgeousness attracted general attention, and diverted the thoughts of the group into another channel.
Its body glistened in the sun like brass. Each door-panel was adorned by an allegorical picture by Mr. Hamilton, R.A. A posse of sculptured cupids on the roof groaned under an enormous coronet; Wisdom and Justice, carved and gilded, supported the coachman on either side; while Commerce and Industry stretched forth their cornucopiæ behind and clasped their hands together around the footmen's legs. A triumphal car it was, blazing with gold and colour, enriched with velvet and embroidery, weighed down with gilded figures, dragged along by six black horses sumptuously caparisoned. This was my Lord Clare's new coach, which had cost him no less than four thousand guineas--the outward and visible sign of his amazing arrogance and splendour. The party on the steps stood wonder-stricken; but what surprised Curran even more than the magnificent carriage, was the presence of the person within it, who sat beside the chancellor. It was Cassidy, the jolly giant, whom report said to be in durance vile. He was released then. So were, of course, the others, and Lord Clare had remedied his blunder before its effects could be seriously felt. So much the better. Such gladness of heart was the little lawyer's that he forgot all about the half-mounted, and proceeded to congratulate his enemy.
'I don't understand,' the latter drawled, looking down from under half-closed lids. 'Mr. Cassidy is out because there was really nothing against him, and his excellency talks of freeing the others by-and-by, except Emmett, who is a ringleader--a beast who must be caged.'
Curran felt a twinge of disappointment. 'A man who must be made a martyr!' he retorted. 'If you leave him languishing, and free the rest, the injustice of the proceeding will set them plotting more than ever. That which is now but a heat-spot may be irritated into a prevailing gangrene. Mind, I have warned you. Yet how idle is it! Such tricks as yours may be expected from a renegade!'
The last words were muttered to himself, yet Lord Clare heard them, but pretended not to do so, as it was always his policy to excite his adversary whilst keeping his own temper.
'I assure you I am powerless,' he remarked blandly. 'The Privy Council----'
'Potent, grave, and reverend seniors!' scoffed the other; 'scene-shifters and candle-snuffers from Smock Ally, robed in old curtains!'
'These turbulent fellows would destroy the Constitution, my good Curran.'
'Turbulent! A pack of boys! What does not exist cannot be destroyed. A Commons chosen by the people who hold thereby the strings of the public purse--that is the first principle of a constitution. The sham you prate about is, as you know right well, deluged with corruption, flooded with iniquity, a mere puppet in your hands, Lord Clare. How sad it is that the vital interests of millions should be sacrificed to the vices of an individual! You, and such as you, who have risen from small things to a place in the Upper House, should unite the nobles and the people instead of trying to estrange them. But no, you think of none except yourself. Erin is divided between the slaves of your dominion, the servants of your patronage, the enemies of your tyranny. Your ambition will wreck us all. Your monument shall be the execration of your motherland--the curse of a ruined race your requiem!'
Lord Clare's impudent leer was doing its work, for Curran, with every moment, grew more chafed.
'Really, our friend is quite amusing!' exclaimed the chancellor, pleasantly. 'Your ladyship's jester assumes all the license which custom accords to such persons. I confess that his exuberance bears me down, for the art of managing foolish people is as distinct and arduous as that of governing lunatics.'
'Whenever I see a man treat the world as if it were made of fools,' sneered Curran, 'I suspect him instantly to be a knave.'
'Very pretty!' laughed the other. 'Parliament, my good fellow----'
'Parliament!' echoed his foe. 'You are always ringing the changes on parliament and constitution in a jangle that means nothing. Your parliament has as much to do with the country as a corpse with a crowner's quest. The rulers of this unhappy land have played bowls with the constitution. Our experience of government is through the vices of its shifting plunderers, instead of the paternal protection of its sovereign--harpies who encamp awhile, then retire laden with spoil--all save one, who, to our grief, is bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. That one, my lord, is splendid indeed--by the grandeur of his infamy--for he never knew shame or decency or conscience! He is double-faced; a traitor to that which he should love most in all the world. He degrades his talent to the vilest uses, and invents sham dangers to hide real ones. Like the sailor who, to possess himself of a bag of money, tossed a burning brand into the hold, he cries "Fire, fire!" to divert attention from himself.'
'Really, really, my lady!' laughed the chancellor, with constraint, 'your jester improves daily. He wallows in imagery as the swine in mire. My good fellow, I fail to follow your meanderings, though I seem to apprehend that you are cross about these arrests? I have naught to do with them--will you be more comfortable if I swear it?--but I must admit, while doing so, that I am no advocate for ill-judged leniency.'
'If a man is so poor a rider as to cling to his nag by the spurs, he must needs apply a strong curb to control the madness he provokes.'
'And I am that rider? Thank you. Your ladyship's palace resembles the home of the tranced Beauty. It is grievously begirt with thorns and stinging-nettles. I vow I know not why our dear Curran nourishes such asperity against me, for I never did him a favour. But there, there! He's politically insane. A mountebank with one half his talent for rant would make his fortune!'
'Were I one, my lord,' returned Curran, with a bow, 'so presumptuous as to set my little head against the opinions of a nation, I should be glad if folks said I were insane!'
Lord Clare's cheeks were beginning to be unusually rosy, for Doreen gazed at him with undisguised contempt, and my lady was evidently amused in a half-malicious way at the encounter.
'If you think,' he said loftily, 'that it will help you into consequence, you are welcome to bespatter me; but be assured that I value you so little, either as a lawyer or a man, that I must decline to address you further till you learn manners.'
Lord Glandore was enchanted, and almost forgot his headache, for he sniffed a good duel in the wind, and was an artist in such matters.
'I desired to plead with you against yourself,' the little man said stiffly, 'wherein I was a fool, because your heart, as we know, is ice. Nay, I have done; for I may not carry on a conflict wherein victory can bring no honour!'
The countess smiled with thin lips, as Bess may have smiled when Leicester and Essex were bickering. The fact of these sworn foes being constantly here together, was in itself an indirect compliment to her fascinations. Bowing low to her ladyship, Curran trudged across to the stable-yard, whither his pony had trotted before; and Terence, from whose face the devil had been peeping ever since the speech about the half-mounted, followed him in silence thither.
Lord Clare flicked the dust from his pink silk stockings, and plumed himself complacently, as a hawk does after a tussle with some formidable fowl.
'Fore Gad, my lady,' he said, 'you are too indulgent. That animal must be banished from your menagerie, for he is too rough a bear!'
'A good man and true!' returned my lady, with decision; 'despite his sharp tongue and unprepossessing shell. He was hard on you, touching you on the raw, and you got the worst of it, and flew in a passion, and were rude, though you pride yourself upon your temper. You must make it up before you sit down to breakfast.'
Terence found his chief standing over his pony, a prey to violent agitation.
'My boy,' he cried out at once, 'I must have a blaze at that rascal!'
'What rascal?' asked the other, who, wounded by his mother's indifference, was brooding on his own trouble.
'There's but one rascal in the world, and his name's Clare! I'll make a window through him, I will, with sword or pistol, as suits him best. Go and tell him so.'
'Most obliging, no doubt,' said Terence, with a half-smile; 'but you must refrain this time, for my sake. Indeed, you employed language such as sure never before was used to a lord chancellor. If he survives your words, no bullet can affect him.'
'It's no use!' persisted the little man, shivering like an aspen; 'I shan't sleep until I shoot that rascal.'
But Terence passed his arm affectionately within his, and Curran perceived that there was something amiss with him.
'You have other duties, my old friend,' the young man sighed. 'Come, come--you must be dignified.'
'Is it I?' returned the other, rubbing his nose ruefully. 'I fear dignity is a robe which he who would box must lay aside during the sparring. Maybe, when the fight's done, he'll find that it has been stolen during the battle! A fig for dignity! I'd rather have a blaze.'
'No!' pursued the young man, mournfully. 'For my sake, you will abandon this quarrel. I must leave this house, and to whose should I fly if not to yours? I must go away, for this can be borne no longer. There is a limit to human patience, and mine is a small allowance.'
'Do nothing rashly,' Curran urged.
'I tell you I cannot bear it,' the young man retorted with vehemence. 'Who knows to what I might be tempted if Shane should go too far? I tell you I dare not trust myself. And my mother has no sympathy for me, as you saw; for she was superbly indifferent when he threw that insult in my teeth. What cares she if I am insulted or not? Such words from another man, and I would have sprung at his throat at once. When we fear temptation, it is best to run away from it.'
Curran reflected for a moment, and then grunted:
'Boy! Coriolanus replied to his pleading parent, "Mother, you have conquered." To oblige you, I will not shoot Lord Clare.'
'I thank you for making an old woman of me!' Terence replied, with a tinge of humour. 'My conduct was somewhat like a woman's, I confess, for sure no man should bear so great an insult, even from a brother!'
'You know best,' the little man said, patting his companion's shoulder fondly. 'But it seems sad thus to shake off the dust of your ancestral home. Maybe, if he sees you won't be put upon, my lord may grow more civil. Shane no doubt is trying, and you are a warm-complexioned young gentleman. Having no son, I would gladly take you to fill the vacant place, as no one knows better than yourself. You shall stay with me for a few months, and I'll speak to her ladyship about my lord, who must be taught to cultivate a civil tongue and apologise; for there must be no open rupture between you. We'll say it's for convenience' sake, as I want to make a great lawyer of you. There are briefs you must study for me, and they pour in, you know. How'll I get through the papers at all at all, unless I have my junior near me?'
And thus the matter was settled between them, while the elder wondered what Mrs. Gillin would think of the arrangement. She must be hoodwinked without delay to prevent mischief, or she would come clamouring up to the Abbey in her quality-clothes, and all the fat would be in the fire at once.
Hearing a light footstep on the gravel, Terence turned, and a pang shot through his heart as he beheld his cousin. It was dreadful to leave her behind, in the maw as it were of Shane. Yet what difference could his absence make to one who treated him so scurvily? And those smart garments, too--that aggravatingly bewitching bonnet--for whose behoof were they intended? Not for his, certainly. All things considered, it was best that he should go.
Meanwhile my lady calmly discussed a late breakfast in the oak parlour with Lord Clare, unconscious that the behaviour of her sons had been more indecorous than usual, while the originator of the quarrel trifled languidly with an egg, speculating about time and place, whether the duel between Curran and the chancellor was to be with sword or pistol. Why not directly after breakfast in the rosary? a capital spot, sheltered from wind and observation. Terence would of course be Curran's second; Cassidy here, who had been hanging about in a deprecatory manner, first on one leg, then on the other, would be the chancellor's; while he, my lord, would see fair play. An excellent arrangement. Then the combatants might amicably return together to Dublin in the golden coach to set about the business of the day.
Having settled the party of pleasure to his liking and reviewed its details, the King of the Cherokees was no little disgusted to see Mr. Curran enter presently and take his seat as if nothing had happened. My lady, on the other hand, was mightily relieved, for she liked the two almost equally well, leaning a little perhaps to the side of the chancellor, on account of his polish and fine manners. She was not blind to the faults of either of her friends. Clare, she knew, despised literature, in which Curran delighted. He disdained the arts of winning; was sullen sometimes, and always overbearing; and when he condescended to be jocular was usually offensive. But then he was a dazzling light. Curran was particularly interesting to the stately countess by reason of his marvellous energy and originality. He was quicksilver--surcharged with life--restless, sparkling, bewildering; and it amused her to try to control his erratic movements. Many a time she lectured, in private, Curran with reference to Clare--Clare with regard to Curran.
The latter was in the habit of deploring that the former was a patriot lost, seduced by England, because of his aristocratic proclivities. A patriot cannot be a courtier, he constantly declared. The ways of the aristocracy grow more brutal and more reckless with impunity; the coarseness of their debauchery would have disgusted the crew of Comus; their drunkenness, their blasphemy, their ferocity, have left the ignorant English squires far behind. To this the countess would reply (who knew little of the Dublinmonde, living as she did a retired life) that he was biassed by the prejudice of his Irish slovenliness, in that he could not look upon a man as honest who wore clean linen and velvet small-clothes. And so the friendly conflict would go on, one scoring a point and then the other, one breaking into rage and the other apologising; and so the incongruous cronies wrangled along the road of life, battling with the breezes which blew round them, whether from east or west.
Mr. Curran sat down to his breakfast as if nothing had happened, tucking a napkin into his vest, and handing my Lord Clare, with biting amiability, the salt or the butter or the bread, while my lady marked with satisfaction that this tempest was but a squall. That the chairs of Terence and her niece should remain unoccupied was a matter of no moment, for the former was probably sulky after his snubbing; while as for Doreen, her conduct was always more or less improper. Perhaps her serene ladyship would have been ruffled if she could have looked on them in the stable-yard, for they were standing very close together, the one subdued by the prospect of leaving his home for the first time, the other saddened with thinking of the arrests.
They stood very close together, oblivious of the morning meal; and Terence caressed the moist muzzles of the hounds with lingering fingers, while his cousin observed that an interesting air of sadness suited him. A too healthy look, a too ruddy cheek, are to be deprecated as unfavourable to romance; yet is there a peculiar and specially captivating interest about a humdrum exterior with a blight on it. Terence was too fat and sleek; unheroic, prosaic to an absurd degree. At least his cousin chose to think so as she looked at him. Then she glanced down at her own fine raiment with disgust, and hated prosperity. What right had she to flaunt in delicate muslins while her people were in bondage? Sackcloth and ashes would become her better, now that the last champions of her faith were pining in duress. As for the youth here, it was only fitting that he should be fat and sleek; for was he not a Protestant, one of the oppressors? What was his trouble to her trouble--sorrow for a race ground down? True, his mother loved him not, and his brother was inconsiderate. He should have spoken boldly, putting his foot down as Doreen would have done, though his was big and hers was tiny--demanding at least some sort of respectful consideration, instead of wrapping himself in injured airs as he proposed to do. And as the thought passed through her mind it was touched by a tinge of self; for if Terence were to go away, one of the safeguards of his cousin's peace would slip from her. With the instinct of intrigue, which is planted in the staidest of female bosoms, she had determined that the best way, perhaps, of counteracting her aunt's eccentric marriage scheme would be to play one brother off against the other. As to a match with Shane, that was out of the question; to marry Terence would be equally undesirable. Even now, the wistful humility with which he surveyed her fairy bonnet was conducive only to laughter. He did not care for her any more than she cared for him--of course not. But is it notde rigueurfor youths to sigh intermittently after domesticated cousins till the moment for thegrande passionarrives, when they breathe like furnaces and threaten to fling themselves out of windows? His was clearly a case of primary intermittent fever, which was not a serious cause for alarm; and the damsel was quite justified in employing its vagaries for the protection of her own peace. My lady's project, she considered, would tumble to pieces in time through inherent weakness. Till that auspicious moment arrived it would be necessary to stave off a crisis. It was merely a matter of time--a brief struggle between two strong wills, in which my lady would succumb, as she invariably did when pitted against her stubborn niece. For this reason it was annoying that Terence should go away, and Doreen felt tempted to employ such arts as she might, without being unmaidenly, for the prevention of a family split. She said therefore, with a distracting glance of her brown eyes, while eager muzzles wormed into her hand: