Tom Burke Of "Ours" Volume I Part 26

"I say, Tom," said he, at length, as he stared me full in the face, and laid his hand impressively on my knee, "there 's good stuff in that,--excellent stuff, depend upon it."

"Good stuff! what do you mean?" said I, in amazement.

"I mean," replied he, "there's bone in it, sinew in it, substance in it; there are some admirable situations too. How Fulham would come out in Tony Ba.s.set,--brown shorts, white stockings, high shoes and buckles, his own very costume. And there's that little thing, Miss Booth, for Nelly; give her a couple of songs,--ballad airs take best. Williams should be Barton; a devilish fine villain in coa.r.s.e parts, Williams,--I think I see him stealing along by the flats with his soldiers to the attack. Then the second act should open: interior of hut; peasants round a table (eating always successful on the stage; nothing like seeing a fat fellow bolting hard eggs, and bl.u.s.tering out unp.r.o.nounceable jokes over a flagon of colored water). You, by right, should have your own part; splendid thing, devilish fine,--your sensations when the cabin was on tire, and the fellows were prodding about with their bayonets to discover you."

"And who 's to perform Captain Bubbleton?" asked I, venturing for once to humor his absurdity.

"Eh? Oh I there's nothing for me; no marked feature, nothing strong, nothing characteristic. That has been through life my greatest, my very highest ambition,--that no man should ever detect, by anything in my manner, my dress, or my style of conversation, that I was not John Nokes or Peter Styles. You 'll meet me at a dinner party, Tom; you 'll converse with me, drink with me; we'll sit the evening together, grow intimate, perhaps you 'll borrow fifty pounds of me; and yet I 'd wager another, you'd never guess that I rode a hippopotamus across the Ganges after tiffin one day, to pay my respects to the Governor-Greneral. That, let me tell you, Tom, is the very proudest boast a man can make. Do you see that scar? It looks nothing now. That was a bite from a ferocious boa: the villain got into my room before breakfast; he had eaten my chokeedar, a fellow I was very fond of--"

"Ah, I remember you mentioned that to me. And now to come back to my dull story, to which, I a.s.sure you, however dramatic you may deem it, I 'd prefer adding an act or so before it comes before the world. I intend to leave this to-morrow."

"No, no; you mustn't think of it yet awhile. Why, my dear fellow, you 've a hundred pounds; only think of that! Twenty will bring you to Paris; less, if you choose. I once travelled from Glugdamuck to the Ghauts of Bunderamud for half a rupee; put my elephants on three biscuits a day; explained to them in Hindostanee--a most expressive language--that our provisions had fallen short; that on our arrival all arrears of grub should be made up. They tossed up their trunks thus in token of a.s.sent, and on we marched. Well, when we came to Helgie, there was no water--"

"Very true," interrupted I, half in despair at the torrent of story-telling I had got involved in. "But you forget I have neither elephants, nor camels, nor coolies, nor chokeedars; I'm a mere adventurer, with, except yourself, not a friend in the world."

"Then why not join us?" cried the ever ready captain. "We are to have our orders for foreign service in a few weeks; you 've only to volunteer; you 've money enough to buy your kit. When you 're fairly in, it 's only writing to your brother. Besides, something always turns up; that 's my philosophy. I rarely want anything I don't find means to obtain, somehow or other."

"No," said I, resolutely, "I will never join the service of a country which has inflicted such foul wrong on my native land."

"All stuff and nonsense!" cried Bubbleton. "Who cares the deuce of clubs about politics? When you 're my age, you 'll find that if you 're not making something of politics, they 'll make very little of you. I 'd as soon sell figs for my grocer or snuff for my tobacconist as I 'd bother my head governing the kingdom for Billy Pitt. He 's paid for it,--that's his business, not mine. No, no, my boy; join us,--you shall be 'Burke of Ours!' We 'll have a glorious campaign among the Yankees. I 'll teach you the Seneca language, and we 'll have a ramble through the Indian settlements. Meanwhile you dine to-day at the mess; to-morrow we picnic at the Dargle; next day we--What the deuce is next day to be? Oh yes!

next day we all dine with you. Nothing stiff or formal,--a snug, quiet thing for sixteen; I'll manage it all."

Here was an argument there was no resisting; so I complied at once, comforting myself with a silent vow, come what might, I 'd leave Ireland the day after my dinner party.

Under whatever guise--with what history of my rank, wealth, and family influence--Bubbleton thought proper to present me to his brother officers, I cannot say; but nothing could possibly be more kind, or even more cordial, than their reception of me. And although I had some difficulty in replying to questions put under mistaken notions of my position and intentions, I readily followed, as far as I was able, the line suggested by my imaginative friend, whose representations, I suspected, would be received with a suitable limitation by his old a.s.sociates.

There is, perhaps, no species of society so striking and so captivating to the young man entering on life as that of a military mess. The easy, well-bred intimacy, that never degenerates into undue familiarity; the good-humored, playful raillery, that never verges on coa.r.s.eness or severity; the happy blending of old men's wisdom and young men's buoyancy,--are all very attractive features of social intercourse, even independently of the stronger interest that invests the companionship of men whose career is arms. I felt this, and enjoyed it too; not the less pleasantly that I discovered no evidence of that violent partisan feeling I had been led to believe was the distinguishing mark of the Royalist soldier. If by chance any allusion was made to the troubles of the period, it was invariably done rather in a tone of respect for mistaken and ill directed political views, than in reprehension of disloyalty and rebellion; and when I heard the dispa.s.sionate opinions and listened to the mild counsels of these men, whom I had always believed to be the veriest tyrants and oppressors, I could scarcely credit my own senses, so utterly opposed were my impressions and my experience. One only of the party evinced an opposite feeling. He was a pale, thin, rather handsome man, of about five and twenty, who had lately joined them from a dragoon regiment, and who by sundry little innuendoes, was ever bringing uppermost the preference he evinced for his former service, and his ardent desire to be back again in the cavalry.

Captain Montague Crofts was indeed the only exception I witnessed to the almost brotherly feeling that prevailed in the Forty-fifth. Instead of identifying himself with the habits and opinions of his brother officers, he held himself studiously apart. Regarding his stay in the regiment like a period of probation, he seemed resolved to form neither intimacies nor friendships, but to wait patiently for the time of his leaving the corps to emanc.i.p.ate himself from a society below his caste.

The cold, repulsive, steady stare, the scarcely bowed head, the impa.s.sive silence with which he heard the words of Bubbleton's introduction of me, formed a strong contrast with the warm cordiality of the others; and though at the time little disposed to criticise the manner of any one, and still less to be dissatisfied with anything, I conceived from the moment a dislike to Captain Crofts, which I felt to increase with every minute I spent in his company. The first occasion which suggested this dislike on my part, was from observing that while Bubbleton--whose historical accuracy or blind adherence to reality no one in the corps thought of requiring--narrated some of his incredible adventures. Crofts, far from joining in the harmless mirth which such tales created, invariably took delight in questioning and cross-questioning the worthy captain, quoting him against himself, and playing off a hundred tricks, which, however smart and witty in a law court, are downright rudeness when practised in society. Bubbleton, it is true, saw nothing in all this save the natural interest of a good listener,--but the others did; and it was quite clear to me, that while one was the greatest favorite in the regiment, the other had not a single friend amongst them. To me, Crofts manifested the most perfect indifference, not ever mixing himself in any conversation in which I bore a part. He rarely turned his head towards that part of the table at which I sat; and by an air of haughty superciliousness, gave me plainly to understand that our acquaintance, though confessedly begun, was to proceed no further. I cannot say how happy I felt to learn that one I had so much cause to dislike was a violent aristocrat, an ultra-Tory, a most uncompromising denouncer of the Irish Liberal party, and an out-and-out advocate of severe and harsh measures towards the people.

He never missed an opportunity for the enunciation of such doctrines, which, whatever might be the opinions of the listeners, there was at the time I speak of no small risk in gainsaying, and this immunity did Crofts enjoy to his heart's content.

Slight as these few reminiscences of the mess are, they are the called-up memories of days not to be forgotten by me; for now, what with my habitual indecision on the one hand, and Bubbleton's solicitations on the other, I continued to linger on in Dublin,--leading the careless, easy life of those about me, joining in all the plots for amus.e.m.e.nt which the capital afforded, and mixing in every society to which my military friends had access. Slender as were my resources, they sufficed, in the eyes of all who knew not their limit, to appear abundant. Crofts was the only rich man in the regiment; and my willingness to enter into every scheme of pleasure, regardless of cost, impressed them all with the notion that Bubbleton for once was right, and that "Burke was a kind of Westcountry Croesus," invaluable to the regiment.

Week after week rolled on, and still did I find myself a denizen of George's Street. The silly routine of the barrack life filled all my thoughts, save when the waning condition of my purse would momentarily turn them towards the future; but these moments of reflection came but seldom, and at last came not at all. It was autumn; the town almost divested of its inhabitants,--at least of all who could leave it,--and along the parched, sunburned streets a stray jingle or a noddy was rarely seen to pa.s.s. The squares, so lately crowded with equipages and cavalcades of hors.e.m.e.n, were silent and deserted; the closed shutters of every house, and the gra.s.s-grown steps, vouched for the absence of the owners. The same dreamy lethargy that seemed to rest over the deserted city appeared to pervade everything; and save a certain subdued activity among the officials of the Castle,--a kind of ground-swell movement that boded something important,--there was nothing stirring. The great measure of the Union, which had been carried on the night of the riots, had, however, annihilated the hopes of the Irish Liberal party; and many who once had taken a leading part in politics had now deserted public life forever.

They with whom I a.s.sociated cared but little for these things. There were but two or three Irish in the regiment, and they had long since lost all their nationality in the wear and tear of the service; so that I heard nothing of what occupied the public mind, and lived on, in the very midst of the threatening hurricane, in a calm as deep as death itself.

I had seen neither Barton nor Ba.s.set since the day of my leave-taking; and, stranger still, never could meet with Darby, who seemed to have deserted Dublin. The wreck of the party he belonged to seemed now effectually accomplished, and the prospect of Irish independence was lost, as it seemed, forever.

I was sitting one evening in the window of Bubbleton's quarters, thinking over these things; not without self-reproach for the life I was leading, so utterly adverse to the principles I had laid down for my guidance. I thought of poor De Meudon, and all his ambitious dreams for my success, and I felt my cheek flush with shame for my base desertion of the cause to which, with his dying breath, he devoted me. I brought up in memory those happy evenings as we wandered through the fields, talking over the glorious campaigns of Italy or speculating on the mighty changes we believed yet before us; and then I thought of the reckless orgies in which my present life was pa.s.sed. I remembered how his full voice would falter when one great name fell from his lips; and with what reverence he touched his chapeau as the word "Bonaparte"

escaped from him; and how my heart thrilled to think of an enthusiasm that could light up the dying embers of a broken heart, and make it flash out in vivid brilliancy once more,--and longed to feel as he did.

For the first time for some weeks I found myself alone. Bubbleton was on guard; and though I had promised to join him at supper, I lingered at home to think and ponder over the past,--I scarcely dared to face the future. It was growing dusky. The richly golden arch of an autumn moon could be seen through the hazy mist of that half frost which is at this season the sure harbinger of a hot day on the morrow. The street noises had gradually died away, and save the distant sound of a ballad-singer, whose mournful cadence fell sadly on the ear, I heard nothing.

Without perceiving it, I found myself listening to the doggerel of the minstrel, who, like most of her fellows of the period, was celebrating the means that had been used by Government to carry their favorite measure,--the Union with England. There was, indeed, very little to charm the ear or win the sense, in either the accent or the sentiment of the melody; yet somehow she had contrived to collect a pretty tolerable audience, who moved slowly along with her down the street, and evinced by many an outburst of enthusiasm how thoroughly they relished the pointed allusions of the verse, and how completely they enjoyed the dull satire of the song.

As they approached the barracks, the procession came to a halt,--probably deeming that so valuable a lesson should not be lost to his Majesty's service; and forming into a circle round the singer, a silence was commanded, when, with that quavering articulation so characteristic of the tribe, and that strange quality of voice that seems to alternate between a high treble and a deep ba.s.s, the lady began:--

"Don't be crowdin' an me that a way. There it is now,--ye 're tearin'

the cloak off the back o' me! Divil receave the note I 'll sing, if ye don't behave! And look at his honor up there, with a tenpenny bit in the heel of his fist for me. The Lord reward your purty face; 't is yourself has the darlin' blue eyes! Bad scran to yez, ye blaggards! look at my elegant bonnet the way you 've made it!"

"Arrah! rise the tune, and don't be blarneying the young gentleman,"

said a voice from the crowd,--and then added, in a lower but very audible tone, "Them chaps hasn't a farthin' beyond their pay,--three and ninepence a day, and find themselves in pipeclay!"

A rude laugh followed this insolent speech; and the ballad-singer, whose delay had only been a ruse to attract a sufficient auditory, then began to a very well-known air:

"Come hither, M.P.'s, and I 'll tell My advice, and I 'm sure you 'll not mock it: Whoe'er has a country to sell, Need never want gold in his pocket.

Your brother a bishop shall be; Yourself--if you only will make a Voice in our ma-jo-rity-- We'll make you chief judge In Jamaica.

Tol, lol de rol, tol de rol lay!"

The mob chorus here broke in, and continued with such hearty enthusiasm that I lost the entire of the next verse in the tumult.

"Your father, they say, is an a.s.s, And your mother not noted for knowledge; But he 'll do very well at Madras, And she shall be provost of college.

Your aunt, lady's-maid to the Queen; And Bill, if he 'll give up his rakin', And not drunk in daytime be seen, I 'll make him a rosy archdeacon.

Tol, lol de rol, tol de rol lay!

"A jollier set ne'er was seen Than you 'll be, when freed from your callin'; With an empty house in College Green,-- What an elegant place to play ball in!

Ould Foster stand by with his mace, He 'll do mighty well for a marker; John Toler--"

"Here 's the pollis!" said a gruff voice from the crowd; and the word was repeated from mouth to mouth in every accent of fear and dread; while in an instant all took to flighty--some dashing down obscure lanes and narrow alleys, others running straight onwards towards Dame Street, but all showing the evident apprehension they felt at the approach of these dreaded officials. The ballad' singer alone did not move,--whether too old or too infirm to trust to speed, or too much terrified to run, I know not; but there she stood, the last cadence of her song still dying on her lips, while the clattering sounds of men advancing rapidly were heard in the distant street.

I know not why,--some strange momentary impulse, half pity, half caprice, moved me to her rescue, and I called out to the sentry, "Let that woman pa.s.s in!" She heard the words, and with an activity greater than I could have expected, sprang into the barrack yard, while the police pa.s.sed eagerly on in vain pursuit of their victims.

I remained motionless in the window-seat, watching the now silent street, when a gentle tap came to my door. I opened it, and there stood the figure of the ballad-singer, her ragged cloak gathered closely across her face with one hand, while with the other she held the bundle of printed songs, her only stock-in-trade.

CHAPTER XIX. THE QUARREL

While I stood gazing at the uncouth and ragged figure before me, she pushed rudely past, and shutting the door behind her, asked, in a low whisper, "Are ye alone?"--and then, without waiting for a reply, threw back the tattered bonnet that covered her head, and removing a wig of long black hair, stared steadfastly at me.

"Do you know me, now?" said the hag, in a voice of almost menacing eagerness.

"What!" cried I, in amazement; "it surely cannot be--Darby, is this really you?"

"Ye may well say it," replied he, bitterly.--"Ye had time enough to forget me since we met last; and 'tis thinking twice your grand friends the officers would be, before they 'd put their necks where mine is now to see you. Read that,"--as he spoke, he threw a ragged and torn piece of printed paper on the table,--"read that, and you 'll see there 's five hundred pounds of blood money to the man that takes me. Ay, and here I stand this minit in the King's barrack, and walked fifty-four miles this blessed day just to see you and speak to you once more. Well, well!" He turned away his head while he said this, and wiping a starting tear from his red eyeball, he added, "Master Tom, 'tis myself would never b'lieve ye done it."

"Did what?" said I, eagerly. "What have I ever done that you should charge me thus?"

But Darby heard me not; his eyes were fixed on vacancy, and his lips moved rapidly as though he were speaking to himself.

"Ay," said he, half aloud, "true enough; 'tis the gentlemen that betrayed us always,--never came good of the cause where they took a part. But you,"--here he turned full round, and grasping my arm, spoke directly to me, "you that I loved better than my own kith and kin, that I thought would one day be a pride and glory to us all; you that I brought over myself to the cause--"

"And when have I deserted,--when have I betrayed it?"

"When did you desert it?" repeated he, in a tone of mocking irony.

"Tell me the day and hour ye came here, tell me the first time ye sat down among the red butchers of King George, and I 'll answer ye that. Is it here you ought to be? Is this the home for him that has a heart for Ireland? I never said you betrayed us. Others said it; but I stood to it, ye never did that. But what does it signify? 'Tis no wonder ye left us; we were poor and humble people; we had nothing at heart but the good cause--"