The Fortunes Of Glencore

Up the wide stairs and into a spacious salon they now carried the figure, whose drooping head and hanging limbs gave little signs of life. They placed him on a sofa, and Traynor, with a ready hand, untied the mask and removed it. “Merciful Heavens,” cried he, “it’s my Lord himself!”

The youth bent down, gazed for a few seconds at the corpse-like face, and fell fainting to the floor.

“My Lord Glencore himself!” said the Duke, who was himself an old and attached friend.

“Hush! not a word,” whispered Traynor; “he ‘s rallyin’ – he ‘s comin’ to; don’t utter a syllable.”

Slowly and languidly the dying man raised his eyelids, and gazed at each of those around him. From their faces he turned his gaze to the chamber, viewing the walls and the ceiling all in turn; and then, in an accent barely audible, he said, “Where am I?”

“Amongst friends, who love and will cherish you, dear Glencore,” said the Duke, affectionately.

“Ah, Brignolles, I remember you. And this, – who is this?”

“Traynor, my Lord, – Billy Traynor, that will never leave you while he can serve you!”

“Whose tears are those upon my hand, – I feel them hot and burning,” said the sick man; and Billy stepped back, that the light should fall upon the figure that knelt beside him.

“Don’t cry, poor fellow,” said Glencore; “it must be a hard world, or you have many better and dearer friends than I could have ever been to you. Who is this?”

Billy tried, but could not answer.

“Tell him, if you know who it is; see how wild and excited it has made him,” cried the Duke; for, stretching out both hands, Glencore had caught the boy’s face on either side, and continued to gaze on it, in wild eagerness. “It’ is – it is!” cried he, pressing it to his bosom, and kissing the forehead over and over again.

“Whom does he fancy it? Whom does he suspect?”

“This is – look, Brignolles,” cried the dying man, in a voice already thick with a death-rattle, – “this is the seventh Lord Viscount Glencore. I declare it. And now – ”

He fell back, and never spoke more. A single shudder shook his feeble frame, and he was dead.

We have had occasion once before in this veracious history to speak of the polite oblivion Florentine society so well understands to throw over the course of events which might cloud, even for a moment, the sunny surface of its enjoyment. No people, so far as we know, have greater gifts in this way; to shroud the disagreeables of life in decent shadow – to ignore or forget them is their grand prerogative.

Scarcely, therefore, had three weeks elapsed, than the terrible catastrophe at the Palazzo della Torre was totally consigned to the bygones; it ceased to be thought or spoken of, and was as much matter of remote history as an incident in the times of one of the Medici. Too much interested in the future to waste time on the past, they launched into speculations as to whether the Countess would be likely to marry again; what change the late event might effect in the amount of her fortune; and how far her position in the world might be altered by the incident. He who, in the ordinary esteem of society, would have felt less acutely than his neighbors for Glencore’s sad fate, – Upton, – was in reality deeply and sincerely affected. The traits which make a consummate man of the world – one whose prerogative it is to appreciate others, and be able to guide and influence their actions – are, in truth, very high and rare gifts, and imply resources of fine sentiment as fully as stores of intellectual wealth. Upton sorrowed over Glencore as for one whose noble nature had been poisoned by an impetuous temper, and over whose best instincts an ungovernable self-esteem had ever held the mastery. They had been friends almost from boyhood, and the very worldliest of men can feel the bitterness of that isolation in which the “turn of life” too frequently commences. Such friendships are never made in later life. We lend our affections when young on very small security, and though it is true we are occasionally unfortunate, we do now and then make a safe investment. No men are more prone to attach an exaggerated value to early friendships than those who, stirred by strong ambitions, and animated by high resolves, have played for the great stakes in the world’s lottery. Too much immersed in the cares and contests of life to find time to contract close personal attachments, they fall back upon the memory of school or college days to supply the want of their hearts. There is a sophistry, too, that seduces them to believe that then, at least, they were loved for what they were, for qualities of their nature, not for accidents of station, or the proud rewards of success. There is also another and a very strange element in the pleasure such memories afford. Our early attachments serve as points of departure by which we measure the distance we have travelled in life. “Ay,” say we, “we were schoolfellows; I remember how he took the lead of me in this or that science, how far behind he left me in such a thing; and yet look at us now!” Upton had very often to fall back upon similar recollections; neither his school nor his college life had been remarkable for distinction; but it was always perceived that every attainment he achieved was such as would be available in after life. Nor did he ever burden himself with the toils of scholarship while there lay within his reach stores of knowledge that might serve to contest the higher and greater prizes that he had already set before his ambition.

But let us return to himself as, alone and sorrow-struck, he sat in his room of the Hôtel d’Italie. Various cares and duties consequent on Glencore’s death had devolved entirely upon him. Young Massy had suddenly disappeared from Florence on the morning after the funeral, and was seen no more, and Upton was the only one who could discharge any of the necessary duties of such a moment. The very nature of the task thus imposed upon him had its own depressing influence on his mind; the gloomy pomp of death – the terrible companionship between affliction and worldliness – the tear of the mourner – the heart-broken sigh drowned in the sharp knock of the coffin-maker. He had gone through it all, and sat moodily pondering over the future, when Madame de Sabloukoff entered.

“She ‘s much better this morning, and I think we can go over and dine with her to-day,” said she, removing her shawl and taking a seat.

He gave a little easy smile that seemed assent, but did not speak.

“I perceive you have not opened your letters this morning,” said she, turning towards the table, littered over with letters and despatches of every size and shape! “This seems to be from the King, – is that his mode of writing ‘G. R.’ in the corner?”

“So it is,” said Upton, faintly. “Will you be kind enough to read it for me?”

“Pavilion, Brighton.

“Dear Upton, – Let me be the first to congratulate you on an appointment which it affords me the greatest pleasure to confirm —

“What does he allude to?” cried she, stopping suddenly, while a slight tinge of color showed surprise, and a little displeasure, perhaps, mingled in her emotions.

“I have not the very remotest conception,” said Upton, calmly. “Let us see what that large despatch contains; it comes from the Duke of Agecombe. Oh,” said he, with a great effort to appear as calm and unmoved as possible, “I see what it is, they have given me India!”

“India!” exclaimed she, in amazement.

“I mean, my dear Princess, they have given me the Governor-Generalship.”

“Which, of course, you would not accept.”

“Why not, pray?”

“India!” It is banishment, barbarism, isolation from all that really interests or embellishes existence, – a despotism that is wanting in the only element which gives a despot dignity, that he founds or strengthens a dynasty.”

“No, no, charming Princess,” said he, smiling; “it is a very glorious sovereignty, with unlimited resources and – a very handsome stipend.”

“Which, therefore, you do not decline,” said she, with a very peculiar smile.

“With your companionship, I should call it a paradise,” said he.

“And without such?”

“Such a sacrifice as one must never shrink from at the call of duty,” said he, bowing profoundly.

The Princess dined that day with the Countess of Glencore, and Sir Horace Upton journeyed towards England.

CHAPTER LIV. THE END

Tears have gone over, and once more – it is for the last time – we come back to the old castle in the West, beside the estuary of the Killeries. Neglect and ruin have made heavy inroads on it. The battlements of the great tower have fallen. Of the windows, the stormy winds of the Atlantic have left only the stone mullions. The terrace is cumbered with loose stones and fallen masonry. Not a trace of the garden remains, save in the chance presence of some flowering plant or shrub, half-choked by weeds, and wearing out a sad existence in uncared-for solitude. The entrance-gate is closely barred and fastened, but a low portal, in a side wing, lies open, entering by which we can view the dreary desolation within. The apartments once inhabited by Lord Glencore are all dismantled and empty. The wind and the rain sweep at will along the vaulted corridors and through the deep-arched chambers. Of the damp, discolored walls and ceilings, large patches litter the floors with fragments of stucco and carved architraves.

One small chamber, on the ground-floor, maintains a habitable aspect. Here a bed and a few articles of furniture, some kitchen utensils and a little bookshelf, all neatly and orderly arranged, show that some one calls this a home! Sad and lonely enough is it! Not a sound to break the weary stillness, save the deep roar of the heavy sea; not a living voice, save the wild shrill cry of the osprey, as he soars above the barren cliffs! It is winter, and what desolation can be deeper or gloomier! The sea-sent mists wrap the mountains and even the lough itself in their vapory shroud. The cold thin rain falls unceasingly; a cheerless, damp, and heavy atmosphere dwells even within doors; and the gray half light gives a shadowy indistinctness even to objects at hand, disposing the mind to sad and dreary imaginings.

In a deep straw chair, beside the turf fire, sits a very old man, with a large square volume upon his knee. Dwarfed by nature and shrunk by years, there is something of almost goblin semblance in the bright lustre of his dark eyes, and the rapid motion of his lips as he reads to himself half aloud. The almost wild energy of his features has survived the wear and tear of time, and, old as he is, there is about him a dash of vigor that seems to defy age. Poor Billy Traynor is now upwards of eighty; but his faculties are clear, his memory unclouded, and, like Moses, his eye not dimmed. “The Three Chronicles of Loughdooner,” in which he is reading, is the history of the Glencores, and contains, amongst its family records, many curious predictions and prophecies. The heirs of that ancient house were, from time immemorial, the sport of fortune, enduring vicissitudes without end. No reverses seemed ever too heavy to rally from; no depth of evil fate too deep for them to extricate themselves. Involved in difficulties innumerable, engaged in plots, conspiracies, luckless undertakings, abortive enterprises, still they contrived to survive all around them, and come out with, indeed, ruined fortunes and beggared estate, but still with life, and with what is the next to life itself, an unconquerable energy of character.

It was in the encouragement of these gifts that Billy now sought for what cheered the last declining days of his solitary life. His lord, as he ever called him, had been for years and years away in a distant colony, living under another name. Dwelling amongst the rough settlers of a wild remote tract, a few brief lines at long intervals were the only tidings that assured Billy he was yet living; yet were they enough to convince him, coupled with the hereditary traits of his house, that some one day or other he would come back again to resume his proud place and the noble name of his ancestors. More than once had it been the fate of the Glencores to see “the hearth cold, and the roof-tree blackened;” and Billy now muttered the lines of an old chronicle where such a destiny was bewailed: —

“Where are the voices, whispering low,Of lovers side by side?And where the haughty dames who sweptThy terraces in pride?Where is the wild and joyous mirthThat drown’d th’ Atlantic’s roar,Making the rafters ring againWith welcome to Glencore?“And where’s the step of belted knight,That strode the massive floor?And where’s the laugh of lady bright,We used to hear of yore?The hound that bayed, the prancing steed,Impatient at the door,May bide the time for many a year —They ‘ll never see Glencore!

“And he came back, after all, – Lord Hugo, – and was taken prisoner at Ormond by Cromwell, and sentenced to death!” said Billy. “Sentenced to death! – but never shot! Nobody knew why, or ever will know. After years and years of exile he came back, and was at the Court of Charles, but never liked, – they say dangerous! That ‘s exactly the word, – dangerous!”

He started up from his revery, and, taking his stick, issued from the room. The mist was beginning to rise, and he took his way towards the shore of the lough, through the wet and tangled grass. It was a long and toilsome walk for one so old as he was, but he went manfully onward, and at last reached the little jetty where the boats from the mainland were wont to put in. All was cheerless and leaden-hued over the wide waste of water; a surging swell swept heavily along, but not a sail was to be seen. Far across the lough he could descry the harbor of Leenane, where the boats were at anchor, and see the lazy smoke as it slowly rose in the thick atmosphere. Seated on a stone at the water’s edge, Billy watched long and patiently, his eyes turning at times towards the bleak mountain-road, which for miles was visible. At last, with a weary sigh, he arose, and muttering, “He won’t come to-day,” turned back again to his lonely home.

To this hour he lives, and waits the “coming of Glencore.”

THE END