The Red Hand of Ulster Part 36

"Hold on a minute," said Bland.

He got out a note-book and a pencil and prepared to write.

"Now," he said, "go on."

Bland's expectant att.i.tude, and the fact that he was evidently going to take down what I said in shorthand, embarra.s.sed me. When I write essays I like to work deliberately and to correct carefully. I aim at a polished elegance of style. I do not care for the kind of offhand composition Bland asked for.

"'Interview with a Revolutionary Peer,'" said Bland, "'Lord Kilmore on the Ulster Situation.' You were just going to say--"

"Oh, nothing much. Only that the feelings of that New Zealander--"

"Meditating on the ruins of a shattered civilization," said Bland. "I can put in that part myself."

"--Are nothing to yours--" I said.

"_Yours_," said Bland.

"Well, mine, if this must be an interview; but I'd rather you had the whole credit.--Are nothing to mine when I survey the vacant pedestal of that statue. You catch the idea now?"

"No," said Bland. "I don't. Is there one?"

"Yes, there is. These unrecognizable fragments of stone, the once majestic statue, Ulster's loyalty."

"Good," said Bland. "I have it now." He began to write rapidly. "'To the thoughtful mind there was something infinitely tragic in the shattered statue of the great queen, symbol of the destruction of an ideal. England bought the friendship of Nationalist Ireland at a heavy price when the guns of her Fleet annihilated the loyalty of Ulster.'

That's your idea."

"You've got it exactly," I said.

"I'll send it off at once."

"Yes. You'd better hurry. It's almost certain to occur to Babberly, and the moment it does he'll put it into a speech. If he does, the whole credit will go to him."

This impressed Bland. He hurried away towards the post-office. I felt that I was not likely to get anything more out of the statue. I put a small bit of it in my pocket to keep as a souvenir, and then strolled along Donegal Place.

I met Crossan, who saluted me gravely.

"The provisional Government," he said, "desires your lordship's presence in the City Hall."

"I'm glad there's a provisional Government," I said. "We want something of the sort. Do you happen to know if I'm a member of it?"

"I've been looking for you, my lord," said Crossan, severely, "for over an hour, and there's no time to waste."

I hurried off. The Government, after driving off the British Fleet, was likely to be in a good temper, but I did not wish to keep it waiting for me too long.

When I entered the room I found Conroy, McNeice, Malcolmson, Cahoon and the Dean seated at the table. Moyne was not there.

"I congratulate you, gentlemen," I said, "on the result of the naval engagement. Malcolmson was perfectly magnificent. It was you, wasn't it, who--?"

"I didn't see anything magnificent about it," said Malcolmson, sulkily.

"We're d.a.m.ned well sick of being played with," said McNeice.

"If the English Government means to fight us--" said the Dean, speaking explosively.

"Do you mean to say," I said, "that you think the Admiral was not in earnest in that bombardment?"

"No more than the soldiers were yesterday," said McNeice. "They fired over our heads."

"And we're not going to stand any more fooling," said Malcolmson.

"We're business men," said Cahoon, "and this sort of play-acting won't do for Belfast."

"Your boss politicians," said Conroy, "have been flooding us out with telegrams."

There was a large pile of telegrams in front of him and some forty or fifty loose sheets of flimsy yellow paper were scattered about the table.

"Their notion," said Conroy, "is that we should send a man over to negotiate."

"An amba.s.sador," I said, "Plenipotentiary?"

"Lord Moyne won't go," said the Dean.

"He's the proper man," I said. "Let's try to persuade him."

"He's up at the barracks," said McNeice. "He's been there all morning trying to get the General to arrest him."

"It would be far better," I said, "if he went to London and handed himself over to the Prime Minister."

"European convention," said Conroy, "makes it necessary, so I am informed, that this particular kind of job should be done by a member of your aristocracy."

I was, I think, with the exception of Moyne, the only member of the House of Lords in Belfast at the moment. The committee had evidently fixed on me as an amba.s.sador.

"There is," I said, "a tradition that the Diplomatic Service should be--but our circ.u.mstances are so very peculiar--I am not sure that we ought to feel bound--"

"Will you go?" said Conroy.

"Of course, I'll go," I said. "There's nothing I should like better."

"The _Finola_ is lying off Bangor," said Conroy. "I'll run you and Power down there in my motor. He'll land you wherever you like."

"Good," I said. "I suppose I'll go in my shirt with a rope round my neck, like the burghers of Calais."

"If that's the regular costume," said Conroy.

He spoke so severely that I thought I had better drop the subject of clothes.

"Now, as to the terms which you are prepared to offer the Government,"

I said.