Luttrell Of Arran Part 2

"I drank none of it. I took some of that Moselle cup, and it was tolerably good. By the way, when and how are we to get some ice? Carter says we have very little left."

"Perhaps there may be glaciers in the wild region beside us. Ireland and Iceland have only a consonant between them. What if we go ash.o.r.e and have a look at the place?"

A careless shrug of a.s.sent was the answer, and soon afterwards the trim yawl, manned by four stout fellows, skimmed across the smooth bay, and landed Vyner and his friend on a little rocky promontory that formed a natural pier.

It was complete desolation on every side of them: the mountain which rose from the sea was brown and blue with moss and heather, but not a human habitation, not an animal, marked its side; a few sea-birds skimmed fearlessly across the water, or stood perched on peaks of rock close to the travellers, and a large seal heavily plunged into the depth as they landed; save these, not a sign of anything living could be seen.

"There is something very depressing in this solitude," said Grenfell; "I detest these places where a man is thrown back upon himself."

"Do you know, then, that at this very moment I was speculating on buying a patch of land here to build a cottage; a cabin of three or four rooms, where one might house himself if ever he came this way."

"But why should he come this way? What on earth should turn any man's steps twice in this direction?"

"Come, come, George! You'll not deny that all this is very fine: that great mountain rising abruptly from the sea, with that narrow belt of yellow beach below it; those wild fantastic rocks, with their drooping seaweed; those solemn caves, wherein the rumbling sea rushes to issue forth again in some distant cleft,--are all objects of grandeur and beauty, and, for myself, I feel as if I could linger for days amongst them unwearied."

"What was that?" cried Grenfell, as they now gained a crest of the ridge, and could see a wild irregular valley that lay beneath, the shades of evening deepening into very blackness the lower portions of the landscape. "Was that thunder, or the roar of the sea? There it is again!"

They listened for a few moments, and again there came, borne on the faint land-breeze, a sound that swelled from a feeble wail to a wild sustained cry, rising and falling till it died away just as it had begun. It was indescribably touching, and conveyed a sense of deep sorrow, almost of despair. It might have been the last cry of a sinking crew as the waves closed above them; and so indeed did it seem to Vyner, as he said, "If there had been a storm at sea, I'd have sworn that sound came from a shipwreck."

"I suppose it is only some other pleasant adjunct of the charming spot you would select for a villa," said Grenfell; "perhaps the seals or the grampuses are musical."

"Listen to that!" cried Vyner, laying a hand on his arm; "and see!

yonder--far away to the left--there is a light!"

"Well, if there be inhabitants here, I'm not astonished that they cry over it."

"Let us find out what it can mean, George."

"Have you any arms about you? I have left my revolver behind, and have nothing but this sword-cane."

"I have not as much, and feel pretty certain we shall not need it. Every traveller in Ireland, even in the remotest tracts, bear witness to the kindness which is extended to the stranger."

"They who come back from the Rocky Mountains are invariably in love with the Sioux Indians. The testimony that one wants, is from the fellows who have been scalped."

"What an intense prejudice you have against all that is Irish!"

"Say, if you like, that I have a prejudice against all mock cordiality, mock frankness, mock hospitality, and mock intrepidity."

"Stay, George! you can't impugn their courage."

"I don't want to impugn anything beyond the inordinate pretensions to be something better, braver, more amiable, and more gifted than all the rest of the world. I say, Vyner, I have had quite enough of this sort of walking; my feet are cut to pieces with these sharp stones, and every second step is into a puddle. Do you mean to go on?"

"Certainly; I am determined to see what that light means." "Then I turn back. I'll send the boat in again, and tell them to hoist a lantern, which, if the natives have not done for you in the mean while, you'll see on the beach."

"Come along; don't be lazy."

"It's not laziness. I could walk a Parisian Boulevard for these three hours; what I object to is, the certainty of a cold, and the casualty of a sprained ankle. A pleasant journey to you;" and, as he spoke, he turned abruptly round, and began to retrace his steps.

Vyner looked after him; he called after him too, for a moment, but, as the other never heeded, he lighted a fresh cigar and continued his way.

The light, which seemed to tremble and flicker at first, shone steadily and brightly as he drew nearer, and at length he hit upon a sort of pathway which greatly a.s.sisted his advance. The way, too, led gradually downwards, showing that the glen or valley was far deeper than he at first supposed it. As he went on, the moon, a faint crescent, came out, and showed him the gable of an old ruin rising above some stunted trees, through whose foliage, at times, he fancied he saw the glitter of a light. These lay in a little cleft that opened to the sea, and on the sh.o.r.e, drawn up, were two boats, on whose sides the cold moonlight shone clearly.

"So, there are people who live here!" thought he; "perhaps Grenfell was right. It might have, been as well to have come armed!" He hesitated to go on. Stories of wreckers, tales of wild and law-less men in remote untravelled' lands, rose to his mind and he half doubted if it were prudent to proceed farther. Half ashamed of his fears, half dreading the bantering he was sure to meet from Grenfell, he went forward. The path-led to a small river in which stepping-stones were placed, and crossing this, the foot track became broader and evidently had been more travelled. The night was now perfectly still and calm, the moonlight touched the mountain towards its peak, but all beneath was in sombre blackness, more especially near the old church, whose ruined gable his eyes, as they grew familiarised with the darkness, could clearly distinguish. Not a sound of that, strange unearthly dirge that he first heard was audible; all was silent; so silent, indeed, that he was startled by the sharp crackling of the tall reeds which grew close; to the path and which he occasionally broke as he pressed forward. His path stopped abruptly at a stone stile, over which he clambered, and found himself in a little enclosure planted with potatoes, beyond which was a dense copse of thorns and hazel, so tangled that the path became very tortuous and winding. On issuing from this, he found himself in front of a strong glare of light, which issued from a circular window of the gable several feet above his head; at the same time that he heard a sort of low monotonous moaning sound, broken at intervals by a swell of chorus, which he at length detected was the response of people engaged in prayer. Creeping stealthily around through dockweeds and nettles, he at last found a narrow loopholed window to which his hands could just reach, and to which, after a brief effort, he succeed in lifting: himself. The scene on which he now looked never faded from his memory.

In the long narrow aisle of the old Abbey a company of men and women sat two deep round the walls, the s.p.a.ce in the centre being occupied by a coffin placed on trestles; rude torches of bog-pine stuck in the walls threw a red and lured glare over the faces, and lit up their expressions with a vivid distinctness. At the head of the coffin sat an old grey-headed man of stern and forbidding look, and an air of savage determination, which even grief had not softened; and close beside him, on a low stool, sat a child, who, overcome by sleep as it seemed, had laid his head on the old man's knee, and slept profoundly. From this old man proceeded the low muttering words which the others answered by a sort of chant, the only interruption to which was when any one of the surrounders would rise from his place to deposit some small piece of money on a plate which stood on the coffin, and was meant to contain the offerings for the priest.

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If the language they spoke in was strange and unintelligible to Vyner's ears, it did not the less convey, as the sound of Irish unfailingly does to all unaccustomed ears, a something terribly energetic and pa.s.sionate--every accent was striking, and every tone full of power--but far more still was he struck by the faces on every side. He had but seen the Irish of St. Giles's; the physiognomy he alone knew was that blended one of sycophancy and dissipation that a degraded and demoralised cla.s.s wear. He had never before seen that fierce vigour and concentrated earnestness which mark the native face. Still less had he any idea what its expression could become when heightened by religious fervour. There were fine features, n.o.ble foreheads wide and s.p.a.cious, calm brows, and deeply-set eyes, in many around, but in all were the lower jaw and the mouth coa.r.s.e and depraved-looking. There was no lack of power, it is true, but it was a power that could easily adapt itself to violence and cruelty, and when they spoke, so overmastering seemed this impulse of their natures, that the eyes lost the gentleness they had worn, and flashed with an angry and vindictive brilliancy.

Drink was served round at intervals, and freely partaken of, and from the gestures and vehemence of the old man, Vyner conjectured that something like toasts were responded to. At moments, too, the prayers for the dead would seem to be forgotten, and brief s.n.a.t.c.hes of conversation would occur, and even joke and laughter were heard; when suddenly, and as though to recal them to the solemn rites of the hour, a voice, always a woman's, would burst in with a cry, at first faint, but gradually rising till it became a wild yell, at one particular cadence of which--just as one has seen a spaniel howl at a certain note--the rest would seem unable to control themselves, and break in with a rush of sound that made the old walls ring again. Dreadful as it had seemed before, it was far more fearful now, as he stood close by, and could mark, besides, the highly-wrought expressions--the terribly pa.s.sionate faces around.

So fascinated was he by the scene--so completely had its terrible reality impressed him--that Vyner could not leave the spot, and he gazed till he knew, and for many a long year after could remember, every face that was there. More than once was he disposed to venture in amongst them, and ask, as a stranger, the privilege of joining the solemnity, but fear withheld him; and as the first pinkish streak or dawn appeared, he crept cautiously down and alighted on the gra.s.s.

By the grey half-light he could now see objects around him, and perceive that the Abbey was a small structure with little architectural pretensions, though from the character of the masonry of very great age. At one end, where a square tower of evidently later date stood, something like an attempt at a dwelling-house existed--at least, two windows of unequal size appeared, and a low doorway, the timbers of which had once formed part of a ship. Pa.s.sing round the angle of this humble home, he saw a faint streak of light issue from an open cas.e.m.e.nt, over which a wild honeysuckle had grown, attaching itself to the iron bars that guarded the window, and almost succeeding in shutting out the day. Curious for a glance within this strange dwelling-place, Vyner stole near and peeped in. A tiny oil-lamp on a table was the only light, but it threw its glare on the face of a man asleep in a deep armchair--a pale, careworn, melancholy face it was, with a ma.s.s of white hair unkempt hanging partly across it! Vyner pa.s.sed his hands across his eyes as though to satisfy himself that he was awake. He looked again; he even parted the twigs of the honeysuckle to give him more s.p.a.ce, and, as he gazed, the sleeper turned slightly, so that the full features came to view.

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"Good G.o.d! It is Luttrell!" muttered Vyner, as he quietly stole away and set out for the beach.

Anxious at his long absence, two of his crew had come in search of him, and in their company he returned to the sh.o.r.e and went on board.

CHAPTER III. AN OLD STORY

It was late in the day when Vyner awoke, and got up. Late as it was, he found Grenfell at breakfast. Seated under an awning on the deck, before a table spread with every luxury, that much-to-be-pitied individual was, if not watering his bread with tears, sipping his chocolate with chagrin. "He had no newspaper!"--no broad sheet of gossip, with debates, divorces, bankruptcies, and defalcations--no moral lessons administered to foreign Kings and Kaisers, to show them how the Press of England had its eye on them, and would not fail to expose their short-comings to that great nation, which in the succeeding leader was the text for a grand paean over increased revenue and augmented exports.

Grenfell had a very national taste for this sort of reading. It supplied to him, as to many others, a sort of patent patriotism, which, like his father's potted meats, could be carried to any climate, and be always fresh.

"Is not this a glorious day, George?" said Vyner, as he came on deck. "There is something positively exhilarating in the fresh and heath-scented air of that great mountain."

"I'd rather follow a watering-cart down Piccadilly, if I was on the look-out for a sensation. How long are we to be moored in this dreary spot?"

"Not very long. Don't be impatient, and listen while I recount to you my adventure of last night."

"Let me fill my pipe, then. Carter, fetch me my meerschaum. Now for it,"

said he, as he disposed his legs on an additional chair. "I only hope the story has no beautiful traits of Irish peasant life, for I own to no very generous dispositions with regard to these interesting people, when I see the place they live in."

Not in the slightest degree moved by the other's irritability, Vyner began a narrative of his ramble, told with all the power that a recent impression could impart of the scene of the wake, and pictured graphically enough the pa.s.sion-wrought faces and wild looks of the mourners.

"I was coming away at last," said he, "when, on turning an angle of the old church, I found myself directly in front of a little window, from which a light issued. I crept close and peeped in, and there, asleep in a large arm-chair, was a man I once knew well--as well, or even better, than I know you--a man I had chummed with at Christ Church, and lived for years with, on terms of close affection. If it were not that his features were such as never can be forgotten, I might surely have failed to recognise him, for though my own contemporary, he looked fully fifty."

"Who was he?" abruptly broke in Grenfell.

"You shall hear. Luttrell!"

"Luttrell! Luttrell! You don't mean the fellow who was to have married your sister-in-law?"