My Lords of Strogue. Volume 1 of 3

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 Dublin monde, 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 not de rigueur for youths to sigh intermittently after domesticated cousins till the moment for the grande passion arrives, 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:

'Is this quite irrevocable? The house will be so dull without you.'

'I would stay if you really wished it,' blurted out the inflammable youth, pinching a cold nose till the dog-its owner-broke away howling. 'You know there is nothing I would not do to please you, Doreen!'

'Is there not?' she returned, with a ring of bitterness, for she was too straightforward to feel aught but impatience for idle protestations. 'To please me, would you give up all for Erin, as Theobald has done? No-you would not. A fine-weather sailor, Terence! You give up anything, who have all your life been lapped in luxury-and why should you? Thanks to Mr. Curran, the legal ball is at your foot, and you only need to work to become rich and happy. But I shall be sorry to miss your bright face, for all that.'

A second flash, as of a burn in sunlight, carried the lad beyond his usual prudence. With disconcerting suddenness he seized her hand and brought his flushed cheek close to hers.

'Doreen!' he gasped. 'If you will love me and be my wife, I will do anything and bear anything. You've only to direct. I'm poor I know, but I will work, for I am capable of better things if I have an object.'

But Miss Wolfe, though far from a coquette, was gifted with presence of mind. Her intention had been not to provoke an untoward declaration such as would exasperate her aunt, and, possibly, Lord Glandore; but to use this impulsive swain as a bulwark of protection against the assaults of my lady. Perchance, under the circumstances, it was better that he should depart for a few months to cool his too explosive ardour. It would not do to encourage, nor yet to quarrel with him. She escaped from him therefore, holding up her pretty hands, and said demurely:

'Of course, if Mr. Curran really wishes it, you had better obey. It is a long ride for you every morning from the Abbey to the Four-courts.'

The Priory, on the other side of Dublin, was about the same distance from the Four-courts, Terence thought with anger. The girl was playing with him, as she always did.

'I hope Sara will make you comfortable,' she went on. 'No doubt she will, she is so sweet a girl. Then we shall meet at Castle balls, and you shall lead me out for a rigadoon like a mere stranger. That will be funny, will it not? You don't mean what you say one bit, and it is a relief to me to know that it is all flummery-you silly, hot-pated, blarneying Pat! Come along. We will go and eat our breakfast and be thankful that we have one to eat, instead of talking nonsense. That is all that you or I are fit for, I am afraid! For it is not such as you nor I who are destined to save poor Ireland!'

CHAPTER IX.

THE PRIORY

A year went by, and Terence was still away from home, an inmate of the Priory; settled down, much against his will, as a sober councillor, principal assistant to Mr. Curran, the continually rising advocate. Sober is scarcely the fitting epithet, for conviviality was the besetting sin of all classes of Irish in the eighteenth century, and it was notorious that legal gentlemen, from Judge Clonmel to the meanest attorney, were constantly in the habit of going drunk to roost. Where lawyers led, Dublin was fain to follow, for the Bar took the lead in the society of the metropolis, occupying a strong middle position of its own between 'gentlemen to the backbone' and 'half-mounted' ditto, from, which it dictated to both. As the policy of ministers grew more and more unpopular, it became more and more urgent that Government patronage should be expended in purchasing support for the measures under which the country groaned; and where could support be more easily found than among the exponents of forensic wisdom?

Successfully to do battle with Flood and Grattan it was necessary to scrape together as much intellect as was available, and so every promising barrister became certain of a seat in parliament if he would furbish up his brains for the Viceroy's benefit. This gave to the lawyers a prestige which drew sons of peers within their ranks, and they assumed superior airs, which no man challenged, in that their profession was a nursery to the senate-a step-ladder to the highest honours. Younger sons of noble houses invariably lean towards the middle class, because a wide difference of income divides them in feeling and ways of thought from their elder brothers. Such lordlings as possessed a competence chose to while away their hours elegantly in gowns and bands. And so the Bar became the fashion, the lawyers being credited with such attributes as they thought proper to adopt, and being permitted to wield an arbitrary sway which was beneficial and mirth-inspiring. They assumed the right of mind over matter, and people bowed the knee without inquiry, for they were pre-eminently jolly dogs who made life the merrier, whose scraps of legal lore sounded mightily sonorous to ignorant ears, and who, if one was rash enough to presume to dispute their law, were always ready to take refuge behind the inevitable pistol. But human nature at its best is frail, and even lawyers are not always pure. When came the tug of war-when the Four-courts were closed and courts-martial juggled away men's lives-the councillors prated no more of their incorruptible virtue, but donned the uniform as others did, and truckled, with a few bright exceptions, as meanly as the rest.

But we are now in 1796, when King Claret ruled the roast; when all were besotted with drink, from Clonmel who gave sentence with a drop in his eye, to the beggar in the dock who starved his stomach to buy a drain of spirits; when out of the six thousand houses which formed Dublin, thirteen hundred were occupied as boozing-kens; when guests were deprived of their shoes by a host who understood hospitality, and broken glass was sprinkled in the passages to prevent a man from jibbing at his liquor.

Mr. Curran's fears were being realised in this year of '96, for the criminal business to which he had turned his attention was increasing on his hands through the swelling torrent of treasonable charges. My Lord Clare's policy was bearing its full crop of evils, for he had succeeded in moulding the too plastic Viceroy into the shape that suited him, according to the plan laid down by Mr. Pitt. Lord Camden, whilst meaning to do well, was repeatedly led astray, as many a better man has been before him. To Clare he was a docile cat. He submitted to the secret council of Lords-that mysterious wehmgericht-who were urged by the chancellor to the most violent proceedings, and became unconsciously a scapegoat for the bearing of the sins of others.