My Lords of Strogue Volume I Part 11

'I ought to have said _ashamed_,' 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 please _me_, 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 t.i.tle. 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 pa.s.sed.

'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 a.s.sociate 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 a _half-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 n.o.ble house to brand his heir-presumptive with being a 'half-mounted!' Now the half-mounted were a distinct cla.s.s--a reckless f.e.c.kless 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 cla.s.s 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 n.o.ble 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 const.i.tutionally p.r.o.ne, 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 bra.s.s. 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 cornucopiae 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 Ca.s.sidy, 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. Ca.s.sidy 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 a.s.sure 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 Const.i.tution, 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 const.i.tution. 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 n.o.bles 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 a.s.sumes 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 const.i.tution 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 const.i.tution. 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 a.s.sured 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 Ess.e.x 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 sh.e.l.l. He was hard on you, touching you on the raw, and you got the worst of it, and flew in a pa.s.sion, 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.