thackeray_lyndon.txt

BARRY LYNDON

BY
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY


CHAPTER I
Since the days of Adam, there has been hardly a mischief done in
this world but a woman has been at the bottom of it. Ever since ours
was a family (and that must be very NEAR Adam's time,--so old,
noble, and illustrious are the Barrys, as everybody knows) women
have played a mighty part with the destinies of our race.
I presume that there is no gentleman in Europe that has not heard of
the house of Barry of Barryogue, of the kingdom of Ireland, than
which a more famous name is not to be found in Gwillim or D'Hozier;
and though, as a man of the world, I have learned to despise
heartily the claims of some PRETENDERS to high birth who have no
more genealogy than the lacquey who cleans my boots, and though I
laugh to utter scorn the boasting of many of my countrymen, who are
all for descending from kings of Ireland, and talk of a domain no
bigger than would feed a pig as if it were a principality; yet truth
compels me to assert that my family was the noblest of the island,
and, perhaps, of the universal world; while their possessions, now
insignificant and torn from us by war, by treachery, by the loss of
time, by ancestral extravagance, by adhesion to the old faith and
monarch, were formerly prodigious, and embraced many counties, at a
time when Ireland was vastly more prosperous than now. I would
assume the Irish crown over my coat-of-arms, but that there are so
many silly pretenders to that distinction who bear it and render it
common.
Who knows, but for the fault of a woman, I might have been wearing
it now? You start with incredulity. I say, why not? Had there been a
gallant chief to lead my countrymen, instead or puling knaves who
bent the knee to King Richard II., they might have been freemen; had
there been a resolute leader to meet the murderous ruffian Oliver
Cromwell, we should have shaken off the English for ever. But there
was no Barry in the field against the usurper; on the contrary, my
ancestor, Simon de Bary, came over with the first-named monarch, and
married the daughter of the then King of Munster, whose sons in
battle he pitilessly slew.
In Oliver's time it was too late for a chief of the name of Barry to
lift up his war-cry against that of the murderous brewer. We were
princes of the land no longer; our unhappy race had lost its
possessions a century previously, and by the most shameful treason.
This I know to be the fact, for my mother has often told me the
story, and besides had worked it in a worsted pedigree which hung up
in the yellow saloon at Barryville where we lived.
That very estate which the Lyndons now possess in Ireland was once
the property of my race. Rory Barry of Barryogue owned it in
Elizabeth's time, and half Munster beside. The Barry was always in
feud with the O'Mahonys in those times; and, as it happened, a
certain English colonel passed through the former's country with a
body of men-at-arms, on the very day when the O'Mahonys had made an
inroad upon our territories, and carried off a frightful plunder of
our flocks and herds.
This young Englishman, whose name was Roger Lyndon, Linden, or
Lyndaine, having been most hospitably received by the Barry, and
finding him just on the point of carrying an inroad into the
O'Mahonys' land, offered the aid of himself and his lances, and
behaved himself so well, as it appeared, that the O'Mahonys were
entirely overcome, all the Barrys' property restored, and with it,
says the old chronicle, twice as much of the O'Mahonys' goods and
cattle.
It was the setting in of the winter season, and the young soldier
was pressed by the Barry not to quit his house of Barryogue, and
remained there during several months, his men being quartered with
Barry's own gallowglasses, man by man in the cottages round about.
They conducted themselves, as is their wont, with the most
intolerable insolence towards the Irish; so much so, that fights and
murders continually ensued, and the people vowed to destroy them.
The Barry's son (from whom I descend) was as hostile to the English
as any other man on his domain; and, as they would not go when
bidden, he and his friends consulted together and determined on
destroying these English to a man.
But they had let a woman into their plot, and this was the Barry's
daughter. She was in love with the English Lyndon, and broke the
whole secret to him; and the dastardly English prevented the just
massacre of themselves by falling on the Irish, and destroying
Phaudrig Barry, my ancestor, and many hundreds of his men. The cross
at Barrycross near Carrignadihioul is the spot where the odious
butchery took place.
Lyndon married the daughter of Roderick Barry, and claimed the
estate which he left: and though the descendants of Phaudrig were
alive, as indeed they are in my person,[Footnote: As we have never
been able to find proofs of the marriage of my ancestor Phaudrig
with his wife, I make no doubt that Lyndon destroyed the contract,
and murdered the priest and witnesses of the marriage.--B. L.] on
appealing to the English courts, the estate was awarded to the
Englishman, as has ever been the case where English and Irish were
concerned.
Thus, had it not been for the weakness of a woman, I should have
been born to the possession of those very estates which afterwards
came to me by merit, as you shall hear. But to proceed with my
family, history.
My father was well known to the best circles in this kingdom, as in
that of Ireland, under the name of Roaring Harry Barry. He was bred
like many other young sons of genteel families to the profession of
the law, being articled to a celebrated attorney of Sackville Street
in the city of Dublin; and, from his great genius and aptitude for
learning, there is no doubt he would have made an eminent figure in
his profession, had not his social qualities, love of field-sports,
and extraordinary graces of manner, marked him out for a higher
sphere. While he was attorney's clerk he kept seven race-horses, and
hunted regularly both with the Kildare and Wicklow hunts; and rode
on his grey horse Endymion that famous match against Captain Punter,
which is still remembered by lovers of the sport, and of which I
caused a splendid picture to be made and hung over my dining-hall
mantelpiece at Castle Lyndon. A year afterwards he had the honour of
riding that very horse Endymion before his late Majesty King George
II. at New-market, and won the plate there and the attention of the
august sovereign.
Although he was only the second son of our family, my dear father
came naturally into the estate (now miserably reduced to L400 a
year); for my grandfather's eldest son Cornelius Barry (called the
Chevalier Borgne, from a wound which he received in Germany)
remained constant to the old religion in which our family was
educated, and not only served abroad with credit, but against His
Most Sacred Majesty George II. in the unhappy Scotch disturbances in
'45. We shall hear more of the Chevalier hereafter.
For the conversion of my father I have to thank my dear mother, Miss
Bell Brady, daughter of Ulysses Brady of Castle Brady, county Kerry,
Esquire and J.P. She was the most beautiful woman of her day in
Dublin, and universally called the Dasher there. Seeing her at the
assembly, my father became passionately attached to her; but her
soul was above marrying a Papist or an attorney's clerk; and so, for
the love of her, the good old laws being then in force, my dear
father slipped into my uncle Cornelius's shoes and took the family
estate. Besides the force of my mother's bright eyes, several
persons, and of the genteelest society too, contributed to this
happy change; and I have often heard my mother laughingly tell the
story of my father's recantation, which was solemnly pronounced at
the tavern in the company of Sir Dick Ringwood, Lord Bagwig, Captain
Punter, and two or three other young sparks of the town. Roaring
Harry won 300 pieces that very night at faro, and laid the necessary
information the next morning against his brother; but his conversion
caused a coolness between him and my uncle Corney, who joined the
rebels in consequence.
This great difficulty being settled, my Lord Bagwig lent my father
his own yacht, then lying at the Pigeon House, and the handsome Bell
Brady was induced to run away with him to England, although her
parents were against the match, and her lovers (as I have heard her
tell many thousands of times) were among the most numerous and the
most wealthy in all the kingdom of Ireland. They were married at the
Savoy, and my grandfather dying very soon, Harry Barry, Esquire,
took possession of his paternal property and supported our
illustrious name with credit in London. He pinked the famous Count
Tiercelin behind Montague House, he was a member of 'White's,' and a
frequenter of all the chocolate-houses; and my mother, likewise,
made no small figure. At length, after his great day of triumph
before His Sacred Majesty at Newmarket, Harry's fortune was just on
the point of being made, for the gracious monarch promised to
provide for him. But alas! he was taken in charge by another
monarch, whose will have no delay or denial,--by Death, namely, who
seized upon my father at Chester races, leaving me a helpless
orphan. Peace be to his ashes! He was not faultless, and dissipated
all our princely family property; but he was as brave a fellow as
ever tossed a bumper or called a main, and he drove his coach-and-
six like a man of fashion.
I do not know whether His gracious Majesty was much affected by this
sudden demise of my father, though my mother says he shed some royal
tears on the occasion. But they helped us to nothing: and all that
was found in the house for the wife and creditors was a purse of
ninety guineas, which my dear mother naturally took, with the family
plate, and my father's wardrobe and her own; and putting them into
our great coach, drove off to Holyhead, whence she took shipping for
Ireland. My father's body accompanied us in the finest hearse and
plumes money could buy; for though the husband and wife had
quarrelled repeatedly in life, yet at my father's death his high-
spirited widow forgot all her differences, gave him the grandest
funeral that had been seen for many a day, and erected a monument
over his remains (for which I subsequently paid), which declared him
to be the wisest, purest, and most affectionate of men.
In performing these sad duties over her deceased lord, the widow
spent almost every guinea she had, and, indeed, would have spent a
great deal more, had she discharged one-third of the demands which
the ceremonies occasioned. But the people around our old house of
Barryogue, although they did not like my father for his change of
faith, yet stood by him at this moment, and were for exterminating
the mutes sent by Mr. Plumer of London with the lamented remains.
The monument and vault in the church were then, alas! all that
remained of my vast possessions; for my father had sold every stick
of the property to one Notley, an attorney, and we received but a
cold welcome in his house--a miserable old tumble-down place it was.
[Footnote: In another part of his memoir Mr. Barry will be found to
describe this mansion as one of the most splendid palaces in Europe;
but this is a practice not unusual with his nation; and with respect
to the Irish principality claimed by him, it is known that Mr.
Barry's grandfather was an attorney and maker of his own fortune.]
The splendour of the funeral did not fail to increase the widow
Barry's reputation as a woman of spirit and fashion; and when she
wrote to her brother Michael Brady, that worthy gentleman
immediately rode across the country to fling himself in her arms,
and to invite her in his wife's name to Castle Brady.
Mick and Barry had quarrelled, as all men will, and very high words
had passed between them during Barry's courtship of Miss Bell. When
he took her off, Brady swore he would never forgive Barry or Bell;
but coming to London in the year '46, he fell in once more with
Roaring Harry, and lived in his fine house in Clarges Street, and
lost a few pieces to him at play, and broke a watchman's head or two
in his company,--all of which reminiscences endeared Bell and her
son very much to the good-hearted gentleman, and he received us both
with open arms. Mrs. Barry did not, perhaps wisely, at first make
known to her friends what was her condition; but arriving in a huge
gilt coach with enormous armorial bearings, was taken by her sister-
in-law and the rest of the county for a person of considerable
property and distinction. For a time, then, and as was right and
proper, Mrs. Barry gave the law at Castle Brady. She ordered the
servants to and fro, and taught them, what indeed they much wanted,
a little London neatness; and 'English Redmond,' as I was called,
was treated like a little lord, and had a maid and a footman to
himself; and honest Mick paid their wages,--which was much more than
he was used to do for his own domestics,--doing all in his power to
make his sister decently comfortable under her afflictions. Mamma,
in return, determined that, when her affairs were arranged, she
would make her kind brother a handsome allowance for her son's
maintenance and her own; and promised to have her handsome furniture
brought over from Clarges Street to adorn the somewhat dilapidated
rooms of Castle Brady.
But it turned out that the rascally landlord seized upon every chair
and table that ought by rights to have belonged to the widow. The
estate to which I was heir was in the hands of rapacious creditors;
and the only means of subsistence remaining to the widow and child
was a rent-charge of L50 upon my Lord Bagwig's property, who had
many turf-dealings with the deceased. And so my dear mother's
liberal intentions towards her brother were of course never
fulfilled.
It must be confessed, very much to the discredit of Mrs. Brady of
Castle Brady, that when her sister-in-law's poverty was thus made
manifest, she forgot all the respect which she had been accustomed
to pay her, instantly turned my maid and man-servant out of doors,
and told Mrs. Barry that she might follow them as soon as she chose.
Mrs. Mick was of a low family, and a sordid way of thinking; and
after about a couple of years (during which she had saved almost all
her little income) the widow complied with Madam Brady's desire. At
the same time, giving way to a just though prudently dissimulated
resentment, she made a vow that she would never enter the gates of
Castle Brady while the lady of the house remained alive within them.
She fitted up her new abode with much economy and considerable
taste, and never, for all her poverty, abated a jot of the dignity
which was her due and which all the neighbourhood awarded to her.
How, indeed, could they refuse respect to a lady who had lived in
London, frequented the most fashionable society there, and had been
presented (as she solemnly declared) at Court? These advantages gave
her a right which seems to be pretty unsparingly exercised in
Ireland by those natives who have it,--the right of looking down
with scorn upon all persons who have not had the opportunity of
quitting the mother-country and inhabiting England for a while.
Thus, whenever Madam Brady appeared abroad in a new dress, her
sister-in-law would say, 'Poor creature! how can it be expected that
she should know anything of the fashion?' And though pleased to be
called the handsome widow, as she was, Mrs. Barry was still better
pleased to be called the English widow.
Mrs. Brady, for her part, was not slow to reply: she used to say
that the defunct Barry was a bankrupt and a beggar; and as for the
fashionable society which he saw, he saw it from my Lord Bagwig's
side-table, whose flatterer and hanger-on he was known to be.
Regarding Mrs. Barry, the lady of Castle Brady would make
insinuations still more painful. However, why should we allude to
these charges, or rake up private scandal of a hundred years old? It
was in the reign of George II that the above-named personages lived
and quarrelled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they
are all equal now; and do not the Sunday papers and the courts of
law supply us every week with more novel and interesting slander?
At any rate, it must be allowed that Mrs. Barry, after her husband's
death and her retirement, lived in such a way as to defy slander.
For whereas Bell Brady had been the gayest girl in the whole county
of Wexford, with half the bachelors at her feet, and plenty of
smiles and encouragement for every one of them, Bell Barry adopted a
dignified reserve that almost amounted to pomposity, and was as
starch as any Quakeress. Many a man renewed his offers to the widow,
who had been smitten by the charms of the spinster; but Mrs. Barry
refused all offers of marriage, declaring that she lived now for her
son only, and for the memory of her departed saint.
'Saint forsooth!' said ill-natured Mrs. Brady.
'Harry Barry was as big a sinner as ever was known; and 'tis
notorious that he and Bell hated each other. If she won't marry now,
depend on it, the artful woman has a husband in her eye for all
that, and only waits until Lord Bagwig is a widower.'
And suppose she did, what then? Was not the widow of a Barry fit to
marry with any lord of England? and was it not always said that a
woman was to restore the fortunes of the Barry family? If my mother
fancied that SHE was to be that woman, I think it was a perfectly
justifiable notion on her part; for the Earl (my godfather) was
always most attentive to her: I never knew how deeply this notion of
advancing my interests in the world had taken possession of mamma's
mind, until his Lordship's marriage in the year '57 with Miss
Goldmore, the Indian nabob's rich daughter.
Meanwhile we continued to reside at Barryville, and, considering the
smallness of our income, kept up a wonderful state. Of the half-
dozen families that formed the congregation at Brady's Town, there
was not a single person whose appearance was so respectable as that
of the widow, who, though she always dressed in mourning, in memory
of her deceased husband, took care that her garments should be made
so as to set off her handsome person to the greatest advantage; and,
indeed, I think, spent six hours out of every day in the week in
cutting, trimming, and altering them to the fashion. She had the
largest of hoops and the handsomest of furbelows, and once a month
(under my Lord Bagwig's cover) would come a letter from London
containing the newest accounts of the fashions there. Her complexion
was so brilliant that she had no call to use rouge, as was the mode
in those days. No, she left red and white, she said (and hence the
reader may imagine how the two ladies hated each other) to Madam
Brady, whose yellow complexion no plaster could alter. In a word,
she was so accomplished a beauty, that all the women in the country
took pattern by her, and the young fellows from ten miles round
would ride over to Castle Brady church to have the sight of her.
But if (like every other woman that ever I saw or read of) she was
proud of her beauty, to do her justice she was still more proud of
her son, and has said a thousand times to me that I was the
handsomest young fellow in the world. This is a matter of taste. A
man of sixty may, however, say what he was at fourteen without much
vanity, and I must say I think there was some cause for my mother's
opinion. The good soul's pleasure was to dress me; and on Sundays
and holidays I turned out in a velvet coat with a silver-hilted
sword by my side and a gold garter at my knee, as fine as any lord
in the land. My mother worked me several most splendid waistcoats,
and I had plenty of lace for my ruffles, and a fresh riband to my
hair, and as we walked to church on Sundays, even envious Mrs. Brady
was found to allow that there was not a prettier pair in the
kingdom.
Of course, too, the lady of Castle Brady used to sneer, because on
these occasions a certain Tim, who used to be called my valet,
followed me and my mother to church, carrying a huge prayer-book and
a cane, and dressed in the livery of one of our own fine footmen
from Clarges Street, which, as Tim was a bandy-shanked little
fellow, did not exactly become him. But, though poor, we were
gentlefolks, and not to be sneered out of these becoming appendages
to our rank; and so would march up the aisle to our pew with as much
state and gravity as the Lord Lieutenant's lady and son might do.
When there, my mother would give the responses and amens in a loud
dignified voice that was delightful to hear, and, besides, had a
fine loud voice for singing, which art she had perfected in London
under a fashionable teacher; and she would exercise her talent in
such a way that you would hardly hear any other voice of the little
congregation which chose to join in the psalm. In fact, my mother
had great gifts in every way, and believed herself to be one of the
most beautiful, accomplished, and meritorious persons in the world.
Often and often has she talked to me and the neighbours regarding
her own humility and piety, pointing them out in such a way that I
would defy the most obstinate to disbelieve her.
When we left Castle Brady we came to occupy a house in Brady's town,
which mamma christened Barryville. I confess it was but a small
place, but, indeed, we made the most of it. I have mentioned the
family pedigree which hung up in the drawingroom, which mamma called
the yellow saloon, and my bedroom was called the pink bedroom, and
hers the orange tawny apartment (how well I remember them all!); and
at dinner-time Tim regularly rang a great bell, and we each had a
silver tankard to drink from, and mother boasted with justice that I
had as good a bottle of claret by my side as any squire of the land.
So indeed I had, but I was not, of course, allowed at my tender
years to drink any of the wine; which thus attained a considerable
age, even in the decanter.
Uncle Brady (in spite of the family quarrel) found out the above
fact one day by calling at Barryville at dinner-time, and unluckily
tasting the liquor. You should have seen how he sputtered and made
faces! But the honest gentleman was not particular about his wine,
or the company in which he drank it. He would get drunk, indeed,
with the parson or the priest indifferently; with the latter, much
to my mother's indignation, for, as a true blue Nassauite, she
heartily despised all those of the old faith, and would scarcely sit
down in the room with a benighted Papist. But the squire had no such
scruples; he was, indeed, one of the easiest, idlest, and best-
natured fellows that ever lived, and many an hour would he pass with
the lonely widow when he was tired of Madam Brady at home. He liked
me, he said, as much as one of his own sons, and at length, after
the widow had held out for a couple of years, she agreed to allow me
to return to the castle; though, for herself, she resolutely kept
the oath which she had made with regard to her sister-in-law.
The very first day I returned to Castle Brady my trials may be said,
in a manner, to have begun. My cousin, Master Mick, a huge monster
of nineteen (who hated me, and I promise you I returned the
compliment), insulted me at dinner about my mother's poverty, and
made all the girls of the family titter. So when we went to the
stables, whither Mick always went for his pipe of tobacco after
dinner, I told him a piece of my mind, and there was a fight for at
least ten minutes, during which I stood to him like a man, and
blacked his left eye, though I was myself only twelve years old at
the time. Of course he beat me, but a beating makes only a small
impression on a lad of that tender age, as I had proved many times
in battles with the ragged Brady's Town boys before, not one of
whom, at my time of life, was my match. My uncle was very much
pleased when he heard of my gallantry; my cousin Nora brought brown
paper and vinegar for my nose, and I went home that night with a
pint of claret under my girdle, not a little proud, let me tell you,
at having held my own against Mick so long.
And though he persisted in his bad treatment of me, and used to cane
me whenever I fell in his way, yet I was very happy now at Castle
Brady with the company there, and my cousins, or some of them, and
the kindness of my uncle, with whom I became a prodigious favourite.
He bought a colt for me, and taught me to ride. He took me out
coursing and fowling, and instructed me to shoot flying. And at
length I was released from Mick's persecution, for his brother,
Master Ulick, returning from Trinity College, and hating his elder
brother, as is mostly the way in families of fashion, took me under
his protection; and from that time, as Ulick was a deal bigger and
stronger than Mick, I, English Redmond, as I was called, was left
alone; except when the former thought fit to thrash me, which he did
whenever he thought proper.
Nor was my learning neglected in the ornamental parts, for I had an
uncommon natural genius for many things, and soon topped in
accomplishments most of the persons around me. I had a quick ear and
a fine voice, which my mother cultivated to the best of her power,
and she taught me to step a minuet gravely and gracefully, and thus
laid the foundation of my future success in life. The common dances
I learned (as, perhaps, I ought not to confess) in the servants'
hall, which, you may be sure, was never without a piper, and where I
was considered unrivalled both at a hornpipe and a jig.
In the matter of book-learning, I had always an uncommon taste for
reading plays and novels, as the best part of a gentleman's polite
education, and never let a pedlar pass the village, if I had a
penny, without having a ballad or two from him. As for your dull
grammar, and Greek and Latin and stuff, I have always hated them
from my youth upwards, and said, very unmistakably, I would have
none of them.
This I proved pretty clearly at the age of thirteen, when my aunt
Biddy Brady's legacy of L100 came in to mamma, who thought to employ
the sum on my education, and sent me to Doctor Tobias Tickler's
famous academy at Ballywhacket--Backwhacket, as my uncle used to
call it. But six weeks after I had been consigned to his reverence,
I suddenly made my appearance again at Castle Brady, having walked
forty miles from the odious place, and left the Doctor in a state
near upon apoplexy. The fact was, that at taw, prison-bars, or
boxing, I was at the head of the school, but could not be brought to
excel in the classics; and after having been flogged seven times,
without its doing me the least good in my Latin, I refused to submit
altogether (finding it useless) to an eighth application of the rod.
'Try some other way, sir,' said I, when he was for horsing me once
more; but he wouldn't; whereon, and to defend myself, I flung a
slate at him, and knocked down a Scotch usher with a leaden
inkstand. All the lads huzza'd at this, and some or the servants
wanted to stop me; but taking out a large clasp-knife that my cousin
Nora had given me, I swore I would plunge it into the waistcoat of
the first man who dared to balk me, and faith they let me pass on. I
slept that night twenty miles off Ballywhacket, at the house of a
cottier, who gave me potatoes and milk, and to whom I gave a hundred
guineas after, when I came to visit Ireland in my days of greatness.
I wish I had the money now. But what's the use of regret? I have had
many a harder bed than that I shall sleep on to-night, and many a
scantier meal than honest Phil Murphy gave me on the evening I ran
away from school. So six weeks' was all the schooling I ever got.
And I say this to let parents know the value of it; for though I
have met more learned book-worms in the world, especially a great
hulking, clumsy, blear-eyed old doctor, whom they called Johnson,
and who lived in a court off Fleet Street, in London, yet I pretty
soon silenced him in an argument (at 'Button's Coffeehouse'); and in
that, and in poetry, and what I call natural philosophy, or the
science of life, and in riding, music, leaping, the small-sword, the
knowledge of a horse, or a main of cocks, and the manners of an
accomplished gentleman and a man of fashion, I may say for myself
that Redmond Barry has seldom found his equal. 'Sir,' said I to Mr.
Johnson, on the occasion I allude to--he was accompanied by a Mr.
Buswell of Scotland, and I was presented to the club by a Mr.
Goldsmith, a countryman of my own--'Sir,' said I, in reply to the
schoolmaster's great thundering quotation in Greek, 'you fancy you
know a great deal more than me, because you quote your Aristotle and
your Pluto; but can you tell me which horse will win at Epsom Downs
next week?--Can you run six miles without breathing?--Can you shoot
the ace of spades ten times without missing? If so, talk about
Aristotle and Pluto to me.'
'D'ye knaw who ye're speaking to?' roared out the Scotch gentleman,
Mr. Boswell, at this.
'Hold your tongue, Mr. Boswell,' said the old schoolmaster. 'I had
no right to brag of my Greek to the gentleman, and he has answered
me very well.'
'Doctor,' says I, looking waggishly at him, 'do you know ever a
rhyme for ArisTOTLE?'
'Port, if you plaise,' says Mr. Goldsmith, laughing. And we had SIX
RHYMES FOR ARISTOTLE before we left the coffee-house that evening.
It became a regular joke afterwards when I told the story, and at
'White's' or the 'Cocoa-tree' you would hear the wags say, 'Waiter,
bring me one of Captain Barry's rhymes for Aristotle.' Once, when I
was in liquor at the latter place, young Dick Sheridan called me a
great Staggerite, a joke which I could never understand. But I am
wandering from my story, and must get back to home, and dear old
Ireland again.
I have made acquaintance with the best in the land since, and my
manners are such, I have said, as to make me the equal of them all;
and, perhaps, you will wonder how a country boy, as I was, educated
amongst Irish squires, and their dependants of the stable and farm,
should arrive at possessing such elegant manners as I was
indisputably allowed to have. I had, the fact is, a very valuable
instructor in the person of an old gamekeeper, who had served the
French king at Fontenoy, and who taught me the dances and customs,
and a smattering of the language of that country, with the use of
the sword, both small and broad. Many and many a long mile I have
trudged by his side as a lad, he telling me wonderful stories of the
French king, and the Irish brigade, and Marshal Saxe, and the opera-
dancers; he knew my uncle, too, the Chevalier Borgne, and indeed had
a thousand accomplishments which he taught me in secret. I never
knew a man like him for making or throwing a fly, for physicking a
horse, or breaking, or choosing one; he taught me manly sports, from
birds'-nesting upwards, and I always shall consider Phil Purcell as
the very best tutor I could have had. His fault was drink, but for
that I have always had a blind eye; and he hated my cousin Mick like
poison; but I could excuse him that too.
With Phil, and at the age of fifteen, I was a more accomplished man
than either of my cousins; and I think Nature had been also more
bountiful to me in the matter of person. Some of the Castle Brady
girls (as you shall hear presently) adored me. At fairs and races
many of the prettiest lasses present said they would like to have me
for their bachelor; and yet somehow, it must be confessed, I was not
popular.
In the first place, every one knew I was bitter poor; and I think,
perhaps, it was my good mother's fault that I was bitter proud too.
I had a habit of boasting in company of my birth, and the splendour
of my carriages, gardens, cellars, and domestics, and this before
people who were perfectly aware of my real circumstances. If it was
boys, and they ventured to sneer, I would beat them, or die for it;
and many's the time I've been brought home well-nigh killed by one
or more of them, on what, when my mother asked me, I would say was
'a family quarrel.' 'Support your name with your blood, Reddy my
boy,' would that saint say, with the tears in her eyes; and so would
she herself have done with her voice, ay, and her teeth and nails.
Thus, at fifteen, there was scarce a lad of twenty, for half-a-dozen
miles round, that I had not beat for one cause or other. There were
the vicar's two sons of Castle Brady--in course I could not
associate with such beggarly brats as them, and many a battle did we
have as to who should take the wall in Brady's Town; there was Pat
Lurgan, the blacksmith's son, who had the better of me four times
before we came to the crowning fight, when I overcame him; and I
could mention a score more of my deeds of prowess in that way, but
that fisticuff facts are dull subjects to talk of, and to discuss
before high-bred gentlemen and ladies.
However, there is another subject, ladies, on which I must
discourse, and THAT is never out of place. Day and night you like to
hear of it: young and old, you dream and think of it. Handsome and
ugly (and, faith, before fifty, I never saw such a thing as a plain
woman), it's the subject next to the hearts of all of you; and I
think you guess my riddle without more trouble. LOVE! sure the word
is formed on purpose out of the prettiest soft vowels and consonants
in the language, and he or she who does not care to read about it is
not worth a fig, to my thinking.
My uncle's family consisted of ten children; who, as is the custom
in such large families, were divided into two camps, or parties; the
one siding with their mamma, the other taking the part of my uncle
in all the numerous quarrels which arose between that gentleman and
his lady. Mrs. Brady's faction was headed by Mick, the eldest son,
who hated me so, and disliked his father for keeping him out of his
property: while Ulick, the second brother, was his father's own boy;
and, in revenge, Master Mick was desperately afraid of him. I need
not mention the girls' names; I had plague enough with them in
after-life, Heaven knows; and one of them was the cause of all my
early troubles: this was (though to be sure all her sisters denied
it) the belle of the family, Miss Honoria Brady by name.
She said she was only nineteen at the time; but I could read the
fly-leaf in the family Bible as well as another (it was one of the
three books which, with the backgammon-board, formed my uncle's
library), and know that she was born in the year '37, and christened
by Doctor Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin: hence she was three-
and-twenty years old at the time she and I were so much together.
When I come to think about her now, I know she never could have been
handsome; for her figure was rather of the fattest, and her mouth of
the widest; she was freckled over like a partridge's egg, and her
hair was the colour of a certain vegetable which we eat with boiled
beef, to use the mildest term. Often and often would my dear mother
make these remarks concerning her; but I did not believe them then,
and somehow had gotten to think Honoria an angelical being, far
above all the other angels of her sex.
And as we know very well that a lady who is skilled in dancing or
singing never can perfect herself without a deal of study in
private, and that the song or the minuet which is performed with so
much graceful ease in the assembly-room has not been acquired
without vast labour and perseverance in private; so it is with the
dear creatures who are skilled in coquetting. Honoria, for instance,
was always practising, and she would take poor me to rehearse her
accomplishment upon; or the exciseman, when he came his rounds, or
the steward, or the poor curate, or the young apothecary's lad from
Brady's Town: whom I recollect beating once for that very reason. If
he is alive now I make him my apologies. Poor fellow! as if it was
HIS fault that he should be a victim to the wiles of one of the
greatest coquettes (considering her obscure life and rustic
breeding) in the world.
If the truth must be told--and every word of this narrative of my
life is of the most sacred veracity--my passion for Nora began in a
very vulgar and unromantic way. I did not save her life; on the
contrary, I once very nearly killed her, as you shall hear. I did
not behold her by moonlight playing on the guitar, or rescue her
from the hands of ruffians, as Alfonso does Lindamira in the novel;
but one day, after dinner at Brady's Town, in summer, going into the
garden to pull gooseberries for my dessert, and thinking only of
gooseberries, I pledge my honour, I came upon Miss Nora and one of
her sisters, with whom she was friends at the time, who were both
engaged in the very same amusement.
'What's the Latin for gooseberry, Redmond?' says she. She was always
'poking her fun,' as the Irish phrase it.
'I know the Latin for goose,' says I.
'And what's that?' cries Miss Mysie, as pert as a peacock.
'Bo to you!' says I (for I had never a want of wit); and so we fell
to work at the gooseberry-bush, laughing and talking as happy as
might be. In the course of our diversion Nora managed to scratch her
arm, and it bled, and she screamed, and it was mighty round and
white, and I tied it up, and I believe was permitted to kiss her
hand; and though it was as big and clumsy a hand as ever you saw,
yet I thought the favour the most ravishing one that was ever
conferred upon me, and went home in a rapture.
I was much too simple a fellow to disguise any sentiment I chanced
to feel in those days; and not one of the eight Castle Brady girls
but was soon aware of my passion, and joked and complimented Nora
about her bachelor.
The torments of jealousy the cruel coquette made me endure were
horrible. Sometimes she would treat me as a child, sometimes as a
man. She would always leave me if ever there came a stranger to the
house.
'For after all, Redmond,' she would say, 'you are but fifteen, and
you haven't a guinea in the world.' At which I would swear that I
would become the greatest hero ever known out of Ireland, and vow
that before I was twenty I would have money enough to purchase an
estate six times as big as Castle Brady. All which vain promises, of
course, I did not keep; but I make no doubt they influenced me in my
very early life, and caused me to do those great actions for which I
have been celebrated, and which shall be narrated presently in
order.
I must tell one of them, just that my dear young lady readers may
know what sort of a fellow Redmond Barry was, and what a courage and
undaunted passion he had. I question whether any of the jenny-
jessamines of the present day would do half as much in the face of
danger.
About this time, it must be premised, the United Kingdom was in a
state of great excitement from the threat generally credited of a
French invasion. The Pretender was said to be in high favour at
Versailles, a descent upon Ireland was especially looked to, and the
noblemen and people of condition in that and all other parts of the
kingdom showed their loyalty by raising regiments of horse and foot
to resist the invaders. Brady's Town sent a company to join the
Kilwangan regiment, of which Master Mick was the captain; and we had
a letter from Master Ulick at Trinity College, stating that the
University had also formed a regiment, in which he had the honour to
be a corporal. How I envied them both! especially that odious Mick
as I saw him in his laced scarlet coat, with a ribbon in his hat,
march off at the head of his men. He, the poor spiritless creature,
was a captain, and I nothing,--I who felt I had as much courage as
the Duke of Cumberland himself, and felt, too, that a red jacket
would mightily become me! My mother said I was too young to join the
new regiment; but the fact was, that it was she herself who was too
poor, for the cost of a new uniform would have swallowed up half her
year's income, and she would only have her boy appear in a way
suitable to his birth, riding the finest of racers, dressed in the
best of clothes, and keeping the genteelest of company.
Well, then, the whole country was alive with war's alarums, the
three kingdoms ringing with military music, and every man of merit
paying his devoirs at the court of Bellona, whilst poor I was
obliged to stay at home in my fustian jacket and sigh for fame in
secret. Mr. Mick came to and fro from the regiment, and brought
numerous of his comrades with him. Their costume and swaggering airs
filled me with grief, and Miss Nora's unvarying attentions to them
served to make me half wild. No one, however, thought of attributing
this sadness to the young lady's score, but rather to my
disappointment at not being allowed to join the military profession.
Once the officers of the Fencibles gave a grand ball at Kilwangan,
to which, as a matter of course, all the ladies of Castle Brady (and
a pretty ugly coachful they were) were invited. I knew to what
tortures the odious little flirt of a Nora would put me with her
eternal coquetries with the officers, and refused for a long time to
be one of the party to the ball. But she had a way of conquering me,
against which all resistance of mine was in vain. She vowed that
riding in a coach always made her ill. 'And how can I go to the
ball,' said she, 'unless you take me on Daisy behind you on the
pillion?' Daisy was a good blood-mare of my uncle's, and to such a
proposition I could not for my soul say no; so we rode in safety to
Kilwangan, and I felt myself as proud as any prince when she
promised to dance a country-dance with me.
When the dance was ended, the little ungrateful flirt informed me
that she had quite forgotten her engagement; she had actually danced
the set with an Englishman! I have endured torments in my life, but
none like that. She tried to make up for her neglect, but I would
not. Some of the prettiest girls there offered to console me, for I
was the best dancer in the room. I made one attempt, but was too
wretched to continue, and so remained alone all night in a state of
agony. I would have played, but I had no money; only the gold piece
that my mother bade me always keep in my purse as a gentleman
should. I did not care for drink, or know the dreadful comfort of it
in those days; but I thought of killing myself and Nora, and most
certainly of making away with Captain Quin!
At last, and at morning, the ball was over. The rest of our ladies
went off in the lumbering creaking old coach; Daisy was brought out,
and Miss Nora took her place behind me, which I let her do without a
word. But we were not half-a-mile out of town when she began to try
with her coaxing and blandishments to dissipate my ill-humour.
'Sure it's a bitter night, Redmond dear, and you'll catch cold
without a handkerchief to your neck.' To this sympathetic remark
from the pillion, the saddle made no reply.
'Did you and Miss Clancy have a pleasant evening, Redmond? You were
together, I saw, all night.' To this the saddle only replied by
grinding his teeth, and giving a lash to Daisy.
'O mercy! you'll make Daisy rear and throw me, you careless creature
you: and you know, Redmond, I'm so timid.' The pillion had by this
got her arm round the saddle's waist, and perhaps gave it the
gentlest squeeze in the world.
'I hate Miss Clancy, you know I do!' answers the saddle; 'and I only
danced with her because--because--the person with whom I intended to
dance chose to be engaged the whole night.'
'Sure there were my sisters,' said the pillion, now laughing
outright in the pride of her conscious superiority; 'and for me, my
dear, I had not been in the room five minutes before I was engaged
for every single set.'
'Were you obliged to dance five times with Captain Quin?' said I;
and oh! strange delicious charm of coquetry, I do believe Miss Nora
Brady at twenty-three years of age felt a pang of delight in
thinking that she had so much power over a guileless lad of fifteen.
Of course she replied that she did not care a fig for Captain Quin:
that he danced prettily, to be sure, and was a pleasant rattle of a
man; that he looked well in his regimentals too; and if he chose to
ask her to dance, how could she refuse him?
'But you refused me, Nora.'
'Oh! I can dance with you any day,' answered Miss Nora, with a toss
of her head; 'and to dance with your cousin at a ball, looks as if
you could find no other partner. Besides,' said Nora--and this was a
cruel, unkind cut, which showed what a power she had over me, and
how mercilessly she used it,--'besides, Redmond, Captain Quin's a
man and you are only a boy!'
'If ever I meet him again,' I roared out with an oath, 'you shall
see which is the best man of the two. I'll fight him with sword or
with pistol, captain as he is. A man indeed! I'll fight any man--
every man! Didn't I stand up to Mick Brady when I was eleven years
old?--Didn't I beat Tom Sullivan, the great hulking brute, who is
nineteen?--Didn't I do for the Scotch usher? O Nora, it's cruel of
you to sneer at me so!'
But Nora was in the sneering mood that night, and pursued her
sarcasms; she pointed out that Captain Quin was already known as a
valiant soldier, famous as a man of fashion in London, and that it
was mighty well of Redmond to talk and boast of beating ushers and
farmers' boys, but to fight an Englishman was a very different
matter.
Then she fell to talk of the invasion, and of military matters in
general; of King Frederick (who was called, in those days, the
Protestant hero), of Monsieur Thurot and his fleet, of Monsieur
Conflans and his squadron, of Minorca, how it was attacked, and
where it was; we both agreed it must be in America, and hoped the
French might be soundly beaten there.
I sighed after a while (for I was beginning to melt), and said how
much I longed to be a soldier; on which Nora recurred to her
infallible 'Ah! now, would you leave me, then? But, sure, you're not
big enough for anything more than a little drummer.' To which I
replied, by swearing that a soldier I would be, and a general too.
As we were chattering in this silly way, we came to a place that has
ever since gone by the name of Redmond's Leap Bridge. It was an old
high bridge, over a stream sufficiently deep and rocky, and as the
mare Daisy with her double load was crossing this bridge, Miss Nora,
giving a loose to her imagination, and still harping on the military
theme (I would lay a wager that she was thinking of Captain Quin)--
Miss Nora said, 'Suppose now, Redmond, you, who are such a hero, was
passing over the bridge, and the inimy on the other side?'
'I'd draw my sword, and cut my way through them.'
'What, with me on the pillion? Would you kill poor me?' (This young
lady was perpetually speaking of 'poor me!')
'Well, then, I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd jump Daisy into the
river, and swim you both across, where no enemy could follow us.'
'Jump twenty feet! you wouldn't dare to do any such thing on Daisy.
There's the Captain's horse, Black George, I've heard say that
Captain Qui--'
She never finished the word, for, maddened by the continual
recurrence of that odious monosyllable, I shouted to her to 'hold
tight by my waist,' and, giving Daisy the spur, in a minute sprang
with Nora over the parapet into the deep water below. I don't know
why, now--whether it was I wanted to drown myself and Nora, or to
perform an act that even Captain Quin should crane at, or whether I
fancied that the enemy actually was in front of us, I can't tell
now; but over I went. The horse sank over his head, the girl
screamed as she sank and screamed as she rose, and I landed her,
half fainting, on the shore, where we were soon found by my uncle's
people, who returned on hearing the screams. I went home, and was
ill speedily of a fever, which kept me to my bed for six weeks; and
I quitted my couch prodigiously increased in stature, and, at the
same time, still more violently in love than I had been even before.
At the commencement of my illness, Miss Nora had been pretty
constant in her attendance at my bedside, forgetting, for the sake
of me, the quarrel between my mother and her family; which my good
mother was likewise pleased, in the most Christian manner, to
forget. And, let me tell you, it was no small mark of goodness in a
woman of her haughty disposition, who, as a rule, never forgave
anybody, for my sake to give up her hostility to Miss Brady, and to
receive her kindly. For, like a mad boy as I was, it was Nora I was
always raving about and asking for; I would only accept medicines
from her hand, and would look rudely and sulkily upon the good
mother, who loved me better than anything else in the world, and
gave up even her favourite habits, and proper and becoming
jealousies, to make me happy.
As I got well, I saw that Nora's visits became daily more rare: 'Why
don't she come?' I would say, peevishly, a dozen times in the day;
in reply to which query, Mrs. Barry would be obliged to make the
best excuses she could find,--such as that Nora had sprained her
ankle, or that they had quarrelled together, or some other answer to
soothe me. And many a time has the good soul left me to go and break
her heart in her own room alone, and come back with a smiling face,
so that I should know nothing of her mortification. Nor, indeed, did
I take much pains to ascertain it: nor should I, I fear, have been
very much touched even had I discovered it; for the commencement of
manhood, I think, is the period of our extremest selfishness. We get
such a desire then to take wing and leave the parent nest, that no
tears, entreaties, or feelings of affection will counter-balance
this overpowering longing after independence. She must have been
very sad, that poor mother of mine--Heaven be good to her!--at that
period of my life; and has often told me since what a pang of the
heart it was to her to see all her care and affection of years
forgotten by me in a minute, and for the sake of a little heartless
jilt, who was only playing with me while she could get no better
suitor. For the fact is, that during the last four weeks of my
illness, no other than Captain Quin was staying at Castle Brady, and
making love to Miss Nora in form. My mother did not dare to break
this news to me, and you may be sure that Nora herself kept it a
secret: it was only by chance that I discovered it.
Shall I tell you how? The minx had been to see me one day, as I sat
up in my bed, convalescent; she was in such high spirits, and so
gracious and kind to me, that my heart poured over with joy and
gladness, and I had even for my poor mother a kind word and a kiss
that morning. I felt myself so well that I ate up a whole chicken,
and promised my uncle, who had come to see me, to be ready against
partridge-shooting, to accompany him, as my custom was.
The next day but one was a Sunday, and I had a project for that day
which I determined to realise, in spite of all the doctor's and my
mother's injunctions: which were that I was on no account to leave
the house, for the fresh air would be the death of me.
Well, I lay wondrous quiet, composing a copy of verses, the first I
ever made in my life; and I give them here, spelt as I spelt them in
those days when I knew no better. And though they are not so
polished and elegant as 'Ardelia ease a Love-sick Swain,' and 'When
Sol bedecks the Daisied Mead,' and other lyrical effusions of mine
which obtained me so much reputation in after life, I still think
them pretty good for a humble lad of fifteen:--
THE ROSE OF FLORA.
Sent by a Young Gentleman of Quality to Miss Br-dy, of Castle Brady.
On Brady's tower there grows a flower,
It is the loveliest flower that blows,--
At Castle Brady there lives a lady
(And how I love her no one knows):
Her name is Nora, and the goddess Flora
Presents her with this blooming rose.
'O Lady Nora,' says the goddess Flora,
'I've many a rich and bright parterre;
In Brady's towers there's seven more flowers,
But you're the fairest lady there:
Not all the county, nor Ireland's bounty,
Can projuice a treasure that's half so fair!
What cheek is redder? sure roses fed her!
Her hair is maregolds, and her eye of blew
Beneath her eyelid is like the vi'let,
That darkly glistens with gentle jew?
The lily's nature is not surely whiter
Than Nora's neck is,--and her arrums too.
'Come, gentle Nora,' says the goddess Flora,
'My dearest creature, take my advice,
There is a poet, full well you know it,
Who spends his lifetime in heavy sighs,--
Young Redmond Barry, 'tis him you'll marry,
If rhyme and raisin you'd choose likewise.'
On Sunday, no sooner was my mother gone to church, than I summoned
Phil the valet, and insisted upon his producing my best suit, in
which I arrayed myself (although I found that I had shot up so in my
illness that the old dress was wofully too small for me), and, with
my notable copy of verses in my hand, ran down towards Castle Brady,
bent upon beholding my beauty. The air was so fresh and bright, and
the birds sang so loud amidst the green trees, that I felt more
elated than I had been for months before, and sprang down the avenue
(my uncle had cut down every stick of the trees, by the way) as
brisk as a young fawn. My heart began to thump as I mounted the
grass-grown steps of the terrace, and passed in by the rickety hall-
door. The master and mistress were at church, Mr. Screw the butler
told me (after giving a start back at seeing my altered appearance,
and gaunt lean figure), and so were six of the young ladies.
'Was Miss Nora one?' I asked.
'No, Miss Nora was not one,' said Mr. Screw, assuming a very
puzzled, and yet knowing look.
'Where was she?' To this question he answered, or rather made
believe to answer, with usual Irish ingenuity, and left me to settle
whether she was gone to Kilwangan on the pillion behind her brother,
or whether she and her sister had gone for a walk, or whether she
was ill in her room; and while I was settling this query, Mr. Screw
left me abruptly.
I rushed away to the back court, where the Castle Brady stables
stand, and there I found a dragoon whistling the 'Roast Beef of Old
England,' as he cleaned down a cavalry horse. 'Whose horse, fellow,
is that?' cried I.
'Feller, indeed!' replied the Englishman: 'the horse belongs to my
captain, and he's a better FELLER nor you any day.'
I did not stop to break his bones, as I would on another occasion,
for a horrible suspicion had come across me, and I made for the
garden as quickly as I could.
I knew somehow what I should see there. I saw Captain Quin and Nora
pacing the alley together. Her arm was under his, and the scoundrel
was fondling and squeezing the hand which lay closely nestling
against his odious waistcoat. Some distance beyond them was Captain
Fagan of the Kilwangan regiment, who was paying court to Nora's
sister Mysie.
I am not afraid of any man or ghost; but as I saw that sight my
knees fell a-trembling violently under me, and such a sickness came
over me, that I was fain to sink down on the grass by a tree against
which I leaned, and lost almost all consciousness for a minute or
two: then I gathered myself up, and, advancing towards the couple on
the walk, loosened the blade of the little silver-hilted hanger I
always wore in its scabbard; for I was resolved to pass it through
the bodies of the delinquents, and spit them like two pigeons. I
don't tell what feelings else besides those of rage were passing
through my mind; what bitter blank disappointment, what mad wild
despair, what a sensation as if the whole world was tumbling from
under me; I make no doubt that my reader hath been jilted by the
ladies many times, and so bid him recall his own sensations when the
shock first fell upon him.
'No, Norelia,' said the Captain (for it was the fashion of those
times for lovers to call themselves by the most romantic names out
of novels), 'except for you and four others, I vow before all the
gods, my heart has never felt the soft flame!'
'Ah! you men, you men, Eugenio!' said she (the beast's name was
John), 'your passion is not equal to ours. We are like--like some
plant I've read of--we bear but one flower and then we die!'
'Do you mean you never felt an inclination for another?' said
Captain Quin.
'Never, my Eugenio, but for thee! How can you ask a blushing nymph
such a question?'
'Darling Norelia!' said he, raising her hand to his lips.
I had a knot of cherry-coloured ribands, which she had given me out
of her breast, and which somehow I always wore upon me. I pulled
these out of my bosom, and flung them in Captain Quin's face, and
rushed out with my little sword drawn, shrieking, 'She's a liar--
she's a liar, Captain Quin! Draw, sir, and defend yourself, if you
are a man!' and with these words I leapt at the monster, and
collared him, while Nora made the air echo with her screams; at the
sound of which the other captain and Mysie hastened up.
Although I sprang up like a weed in my illness, and was now nearly
attained to my full growth of six feet, yet I was but a lath by the
side of the enormous English captain, who had calves and shoulders
such as no chairman at Bath ever boasted. He turned very red, and
then exceedingly pale at my attack upon him, and slipped back and
clutched at his sword--when Nora, in an agony of terror, flung
herself round him, screaming, 'Eugenio! Captain Quin, for Heaven's
sake spare the child--he is but an infant.'
'And ought to be whipped for his impudence,' said the Captain; 'but
never fear, Miss Brady, I shall not touch him; your FAVOURITE is
safe from me.' So saying, he stooped down and picked up the bunch of
ribands which had fallen at Nora's feet, and handing it to her, said
in a sarcastic tone, 'When ladies make presents to gentlemen, it is
time for OTHER gentlemen to retire.'
'Good heavens, Quin!' cried the girl; 'he is but a boy.'
'I am a man,' roared I, 'and will prove it.'
'And don't signify any more than my parrot or lap-dog. Mayn't I give
a bit of riband to my own cousin?'
'You are perfectly welcome, miss,' continued the Captain, 'as many
yards as you like.'
'Monster!' exclaimed the dear girl; 'your father was a tailor, and
you are always thinking of the shop. But I'll have my revenge, I
will! Reddy, will you see me insulted?'
'Indeed, Miss Nora,' says I, 'I intend to have his blood as sure as
my name's Redmond.'
'I'll send for the usher to cane you, little boy,' said the Captain,
regaining his self-possession; 'but as for you, miss, I have the
honour to wish you a good-day.'
He took off his hat with much ceremony, made a low CONGE, and was
just walking off, when Mick, my cousin, came up, whose ear had
likewise been caught by the scream.
'Hoity-toity! Jack Quin, what's the matter here?' says Mick; 'Nora
in tears, Redmond's ghost here with his sword drawn, and you making
a bow?'
'I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Brady,' said the Englishman: 'I have
had enough of Miss Nora, here, and your Irish ways. I ain't used to
'em, sir.'
'Well, well! what is it?' said Mick good-humouredly (for he owed
Quin a great deal of money as it turned out); 'we'll make you used
to our ways, or adopt English ones.'
'It's not the English way for ladies to have two lovers' (the
'Henglish way,' as the captain called it), 'and so, Mr. Brady, I'll
thank you to pay me the sum you owe me, and I'll resign all claims
to this young lady. If she has a fancy for schoolboys, let her take
'em, sir.'
'Pooh, pooh! Quin, you are joking,' said Mick.
'I never was more in earnest,' replied the other.
'By Heaven, then, look to yourself!' shouted Mick. 'Infamous
seducer! infernal deceiver!--you come and wind your toils round this
suffering angel here--you win her heart and leave her--and fancy her
brother won't defend her? Draw this minute, you slave! and let me
cut the wicked heart out of your body!'
'This is regular assassination,' said Quin, starting back; 'there's
two on 'em on me at once. Fagan, you won't let 'em murder me?'
'Faith!' said Captain Fagan, who seemed mightily amused, 'you may
settle your own quarrel, Captain Quin;' and coming over to me,
whispered, 'At him again, you little fellow.'
'As long as Mr. Quin withdraws his claim,' said I, 'I, of course, do
not interfere.'
'I do, sir--I do,' said Mr. Quin, more and more flustered.
'Then defend yourself like a man, curse you!' cried Mick again.
'Mysie, lead this poor victim away--Redmond and Fagan will see fair
play between us.'
'Well now--I don't--give me time--I'm puzzled--I--I don't know which
way to look.'
'Like the donkey betwixt the two bundles of hay,' said Mr. Fagan
drily, 'and there's pretty pickings on either side.'
CHAPTER II
I SHOW MYSELF TO BE A MAN OF SPIRIT
During this dispute, my cousin Nora did the only thing that a lady,
under such circumstances, could do, and fainted in due form. I was
in hot altercation with Mick at the time, or I should have, of
course, flown to her assistance, but Captain Fagan (a dry sort of
fellow this Fagan was) prevented me, saying, 'I advise you to leave
the young lady to herself, Master Redmond, and be sure she will come
to.' And so indeed, after a while, she did, which has shown me since
that Fagan knew the world pretty well, for many's the lady I've seen
in after times recover in a similar manner. Quin did not offer to
help her, you may be sure, for, in the midst of the diversion,
caused by her screaming, the faithless bully stole away.
'Which of us is Captain Quin to engage?' said I to Mick; for it was
my first affair, and I was as proud of it as of a suit of laced
velvet. 'Is it you or I, Cousin Mick, that is to have the honour of
chastising this insolent Englishman?' And I held out my hand as I
spoke, for my heart melted towards my cousin under the triumph of
the moment.
But he rejected the proffered offer of friendship. 'You--you!' said
he, in a towering passion; 'hang you for a meddling brat: your hand
is in everybody's pie. What business had you to come brawling and
quarrelling here, with a gentleman who has fifteen hundred a year?'
'Oh,' gasped Nora, from the stone bench, 'I shall die: I know I
shall. I shall never leave this spot.'
'The Captain's not gone yet,' whispered Fagan; on which Nora, giving
him an indignant look, jumped up and walked towards the house.
'Meanwhile,' Mick continued, 'what business have you, you meddling
rascal, to interfere with a daughter of this house?'
'Rascal yourself!' roared I: 'call me another such name, Mick Brady,
and I'll drive my hanger into your weasand. Recollect, I stood to
you when I was eleven years old. I'm your match now, and, by Jove,
provoke me, and I'll beat you like--like your younger brother always
did.' That was a home-cut, and I saw Mick turn blue with fury.
'This is a pretty way to recommend yourself to the family,' said
Fagan, in a soothing tone.
'The girl's old enough to be his mother,' growled Mick.
'Old or not,' I replied: 'you listen to this, Mick Brady' (and I
swore a tremendous oath, that need not be put down here): 'the man
that marries Nora Brady must first kill me--do you mind that?'
'Pooh, sir,' said Mick, turning away, 'kill you--flog you, you mean!
I'll send for Nick the huntsman to do it;' and so he went off.
Captain Fagan now came up, and taking me kindly by the hand, said I
was a gallant lad, and he liked my spirit. 'But what Brady says is
true,' continued he; 'it's a hard thing to give a lad counsel who is
in such a far-gone state as you; but, believe me, I know the world,
and if you will but follow my advice, you won't regret having taken
it. Nora Brady has not a penny; you are not a whit richer. You are
but fifteen, and she's four-and-twenty. In ten years, when you're
old enough to marry, she will be an old woman; and, my poor boy,
don't you see--though it's a hard matter to see--that she's a flirt,
and does not care a pin for you or Quin either?'
But who in love (or in any other point, for the matter of that)
listens to advice? I never did, and I told Captain Fagan fairly,
that Nora might love me or not as she liked, but that Quin should
fight me before he married her--that I swore.
'Faith,' says Fagan, 'I think you are a lad that's likely to keep
your word;' and, looking hard at me for a second or two, he walked
away likewise, humming a tune: and I saw he looked back at me as he
went through the old gate out of the garden. When he was gone, and I
was quite alone, I flung myself down on the bench where Nora had
made believe to faint, and had left her handkerchief; and, taking it
up, hid my face in it, and burst into such a passion of tears as I
would then have had nobody see for the world. The crumpled riband
which I had flung at Quin lay in the walk, and I sat there for
hours, as wretched as any man in Ireland, I believe, for the time
being. But it's a changeable world! When we consider how great our
sorrows SEEM, and how small they ARE; how we think we shall die of
grief, and how quickly we forget, I think we ought to be ashamed of
ourselves and our fickle-heartedness. For, after all, what business
has time to bring us consolation? I have not, perhaps, in the course
of my multifarious adventures and experience, hit upon the right
woman; and have forgotten, after a little, every single creature I
adored; but I think, if I could but have lighted on the right one, I
would have loved her for EVER.
I must have sat for some hours bemoaning myself on the garden bench,
for it was morning when I came to Castle Brady, and the dinner-bell
clanged as usual at three o'clock, which wakened me up from my
reverie. Presently I gathered up the handkerchief, and once more
took the riband. As I passed through the offices, I saw the
Captain's saddle was still hanging up at the stable-door, and saw
his odious red-coated brute of a servant swaggering with the
scullion-girls and kitchen-people. 'The Englishman's still there,
Master Redmond,' said one of the maids to me (a sentimental black-
eyed girl, who waited on the young ladies). 'He's there in the
parlour, with the sweetest fillet of vale; go in, and don't let him
browbeat you, Master Redmond.'
And in I went, and took my place at the bottom of the big table, as
usual, and my friend the butler speedily brought me a cover.
'Hallo, Reddy my boy!' said my uncle, 'up and well?--that's right.'
'He'd better be home with his mother,' growled my aunt.
'Don't mind her,' says Uncle Brady; 'it's the cold goose she ate at
breakfast didn't agree with her. Take a glass of spirits, Mrs.
Brady, to Redmond's health.' It was evident he did not know of what
had happened; but Mick, who was at dinner too, and Ulick, and almost
all the girls, looked exceedingly black, and the Captain foolish;
and Miss Nora, who was again by his side, ready to cry. Captain
Fagan sat smiling; and I looked on as cold as a stone. I thought the
dinner would choke me: but I was determined to put a good face on
it, and when the cloth was drawn, filled my glass with the rest; and
we drank the King and the Church, as gentlemen should. My uncle was
in high good-humour, and especially always joking with Nora and the
Captain. It was, 'Nora, divide that merry-thought with the Captain!
see who'll be married first.' 'Jack Quin, my dear boy, never mind a
clean glass for the claret, we're short of crystal at Castle Brady;
take Nora's and the wine will taste none the worse;' and so on. He
was in the highest glee,--I did not know why. Had there been a
reconciliation between the faithless girl and her lover since they
had come into the house?
I learned the truth very soon. At the third toast, it was always the
custom for the ladies to withdraw; but my uncle stopped them this
time, in spite of the remonstrances of Nora, who said, 'Oh, pa! do
let us go!' and said, 'No, Mrs. Brady and ladies, if you plaise;
this is a sort of toast that is drunk a great dale too seldom in my
family, and you'll plaise to receive it with all the honours. Here's
CAPTAIN AND MRS. JOHN QUIN, and long life to them. Kiss her, Jack,
you rogue: for 'faith you've got a treasure!'
'He has already '----I screeched out, springing up.
'Hold your tongue, you fool--hold your tongue!' said big Ulick, who
sat by me; but I wouldn't hear.
'He has already,' I screamed, 'been slapped in the face this
morning, Captain John Quin; he's already been called coward, Captain
John Quin; and this is the way I'll drink his health. Here's your
health, Captain John Quin!' And I flung a glass of claret into his
face. I don't know how he looked after it, for the next moment I
myself was under the table, tripped up by Ulick, who hit me a
violent cuff on the head as I went down; and I had hardly leisure to
hear the general screaming and skurrying that was taking place above
me, being so fully occupied with kicks, and thumps, and curses, with
which Ulick was belabouring me. 'You fool!' roared he--' you great
blundering marplot--you silly beggarly brat' (a thump at each),
'hold your tongue!' These blows from Ulick, of course, I did not
care for, for he had always been my friend, and had been in the
habit of thrashing me all my life.
When I got up from under the table all the ladies were gone; and I
had the satisfaction of seeing the Captain's nose was bleeding, as
mine was--HIS was cut across the bridge, and his beauty spoiled for
ever. Ulick shook himself, sat down quietly, filled a bumper, and
pushed the bottle to me. 'There, you young donkey,' said he, 'sup
that; and let's hear no more of your braying.'
'In Heaven's name, what does all the row mean?' says my uncle. 'Is
the boy in the fever again?'
'It's all your fault,' said Mick sulkily: 'yours and those who
brought him here.'
'Hold your noise, Mick!' says Ulick, turning on him; 'speak civil of
my father and me, and don't let me be called upon to teach you
manners.'
'It IS your fault,' repeated Mick. 'What business has the vagabond
here? If I had my will, I'd have him flogged and turned out.'
'And so he should be,' said Captain Quin.
'You'd best not try it, Quin,' said Ulick, who was always my
champion; and turning to his father, 'The fact is, sir, that the
young monkey has fallen in love with Nora, and finding her and the
Captain mighty sweet in the garden to-day, he was for murdering Jack
Quin.'
'Gad, he's beginning young,' said my uncle, quite good-humouredly.
''Faith, Fagan, that boy's a Brady, every inch of him.'
'And I'll tell you what, Mr. B.,' cried Quin, bristling up: 'I've
been insulted grossly in this 'OUSE. I ain't at all satisfied with
these here ways of going on. I'm an Englishman I am, and a man of
property; and I--I'--'If you're insulted, and not satisfied,
remember there's two of us, Quin,' said Ulick gruffly. On which the
Captain fell to washing his nose in water, and answered never a
word.
'Mr. Quin,' said I, in the most dignified tone I could assume, 'may
also have satisfaction any time he pleases, by calling on Redmond
Barry, Esquire, of Barryville.' At which speech my uncle burst out
a-laughing (as he did at everything); and in this laugh, Captain
Fagan, much to my mortification, joined. I turned rather smartly
upon him, however, and bade him to understand that as for my cousin
Ulick, who had been my best friend through life, I could put up with
rough treatment from him; yet, though I was a boy, even that sort of
treatment I would bear from him no longer; and any other person who
ventured on the like would find me a man, to their cost. 'Mr. Quin,'
I added, 'knows that fact very well; and if HE'S a man, he'll know
where to find me.'
My uncle now observed that it was getting late, and that my mother
would be anxious about me. 'One of you had better go home with him,'
said he, turning to his sons, 'or the lad may be playing more
pranks.' But Ulick said, with a nod to his brother, 'Both of us ride
home with Quin here.'
'I'm not afraid of Freny's people,' said the Captain, with a faint
attempt at a laugh; 'my man is armed, and so am I.'
'You know the use of arms very well, Quin,' said Ulick; 'and no one
can doubt your courage; but Mick and I will see you home for all
that.'
'Why, you'll not be home till morning, boys. Kilwangan's a good ten
mile from here.'
'We'll sleep at Quin's quarters,' replied Ulick: 'WE'RE GOING TO
STOP A WEEK THERE.'
'Thank you,' says Quin, very faint; 'it's very kind of you.'
'You'll be lonely, you know, without us.'
'Oh yes, very lonely!' says Quin.
'And in ANOTHER WEEK, my boy,' says Ulick (and here he whispered
something in the Captain's ear, in which I thought I caught the
words 'marriage,' 'parson,' and felt all my fury returning again).
'As you please,' whined out the Captain; and the horses were
quickly brought round, and the three gentlemen rode away.
Fagan stopped, and, at my uncle's injunction, walked across the old
treeless park with me. He said that after the quarrel at dinner, he
thought I would scarcely want to see the ladies that night, in which
opinion I concurred entirely; and so we went off without an adieu.
'A pretty day's work of it you have made, Master Redmond,' said he.
'What! you a friend to the Bradys, and knowing your uncle to be
distressed for money, try and break off a match which will bring
fifteen hundred a year into the family? Quin has promised to pay off
the four thousand pounds which is bothering your uncle so. He takes
a girl without a penny--a girl with no more beauty than yonder
bullock. Well, well, don't look furious; let's say she IS handsome--
there's no accounting for tastes,--a girl that has been flinging
herself at the head of every man in these parts these ten years
past, and MISSING them all. And you, as poor as herself, a boy of
fifteen--well, sixteen, if you insist--and a boy who ought to be
attached to your uncle as to your father'--
'And so I am,' said I.
'And this is the return you make him for his kindness! Didn't he
harbour you in his house when you were an orphan, and hasn't he
given you rent-free your fine mansion of Barryville yonder? And now,
when his affairs can be put into order, and a chance offers for his
old age to be made comfortable, who flings himself in the way of him
and competence?--You, of all others; the man in the world most
obliged to him. It's wicked, ungrateful, unnatural. From a lad of
such spirit as you are, I expect a truer courage.'
'I am not afraid of any man alive,' exclaimed I (for this latter
part of the Captain's argument had rather staggered me, and I
wished, of course, to turn it--as one always should when the enemy's
too strong); 'and it's _I_ am the injured man, Captain Fagan. No man
was ever, since the world began, treated so. Look here--look at this
riband. I've worn it in my heart for six months. I've had it there
all the time of the fever. Didn't Nora take it out of her own bosom
and give it me? Didn't she kiss me when she gave it me, and call me
her darling Redmond?'
'She was PRACTISING,' replied Mr. Fagan, with a sneer. 'I know
women, sir. Give them time, and let nobody else come to the house,
and they'll fall in love with a chimney-sweep. There was a young
lady in Fermoy'--
'A young lady in flames,' roared I (but I used a still hotter word).
'Mark this; come what will of it, I swear I'll fight the man who
pretends to the hand of Nora Brady. I'll follow him, if it's into
the church, and meet him there. I'll have his blood, or he shall
have mine; and this riband shall be found dyed in it. Yes, and if I
kill him, I'll pin it on his breast, and then she may go and take
back her token.' This I said because I was very much excited at the
time, and because I had not read novels and romantic plays for
nothing.
'Well,' says Fagan after a pause, 'if it must be, it must. For a
young fellow, you are the most blood-thirsty I ever saw. Quin's a
determined fellow, too.'
'Will you take my message to him?' said I, quite eagerly.
'Hush!' said Fagan: 'your mother may be on the look-out. Here we
are, close to Barryville.'
'Mind! not a word to my mother,' I said; and went into the house
swelling with pride and exultation to think that I should have a
chance against the Englishman I hated so.
Tim, my servant, had come up from Barryville on my mother's return
from church; for the good lady was rather alarmed at my absence, and
anxious for my return. But he had seen me go in to dinner, at the
invitation of the sentimental lady's-maid; and when he had had his
own share of the good things in the kitchen, which was always better
furnished than ours at home, had walked back again to inform his
mistress where I was, and, no doubt, to tell her, in his own
fashion, of all the events that had happened at Castle Brady. In
spite of my precautions to secrecy, then, I half suspected that my
mother knew all, from the manner in which she embraced me on my
arrival, and received our guest, Captain Fagan. The poor soul looked
a little anxious and flushed, and every now and then gazed very hard
in the Captain's face; but she said not a word about the quarrel,
for she had a noble spirit, and would as lief have seen anyone of
her kindred hanged as shirking from the field of honour. What has
become of those gallant feelings nowadays? Sixty years ago a man was
a MAN, in old Ireland, and the sword that was worn by his side was
at the service of any gentleman's gizzard, upon the slightest
difference. But the good old times and usages are fast fading away.
One scarcely every hears of a fair meeting now, and the use of those
cowardly pistols, in place of the honourable and manly weapon of
gentlemen, has introduced a deal of knavery into the practice of
duelling, that cannot be sufficiently deplored.
When I arrived at home I felt that I was a man in earnest, and
welcoming Captain Fagan to Barryville, and introducing him to my
mother, in a majestic and dignified way, said the Captain must be
thirsty after his walk, and called upon Tim to bring up a bottle of
the yellow-sealed Bordeaux, and cakes and glasses, immediately.
Tim looked at the mistress in great wonderment: and the fact is,
that six hours previous I would as soon have thought of burning the
house down as calling for a bottle of claret on my own account; but
I felt I was a man now, and had a right to command; and my mother
felt this too, for she turned to the fellow and said, sharply,
'Don't you hear, you rascal, what YOUR MASTER says! Go, get the
wine, and the cakes and glasses, directly.' Then (for you may be
sure she did not give Tim the keys of our little cellar) she went
and got the liquor herself; and Tim brought it in, on the silver
tray, in due form. My dear mother poured out the wine, and drank the
Captain welcome; but I observed her hand shook very much as she
performed this courteous duty, and the bottle went clink, clink,
against the glass. When she had tasted her glass, she said she had a
headache, and would go to bed; and so I asked her blessing, as
becomes a dutiful son--(the modern BLOODS have given up the
respectful ceremonies which distinguished a gentleman in my time)--
and she left me and Captain Fagan to talk over our important
business.
'Indeed,' said the Captain,' I see now no other way out of the
scrape than a meeting. The fact is, there was a talk of it at Castle
Brady, after your attack upon Quin this afternoon, and he vowed that
he would cut you in pieces: but the tears and supplications of Miss
Honoria induced him, though very unwillingly, to relent. Now,
however, matters have gone too far. No officer, bearing His
Majesty's commission, can receive a glass of wine on his nose--this
claret of yours is very good, by the way, and by your leave we'll
ring for another bottle--without resenting the affront. Fight you
must; and Quin is a huge strong fellow.'
'He'll give the better mark,' said I. 'I am not afraid of him.'
'In faith,' said the Captain,' I believe you are not; for a lad, I
never saw more game in my life.'
'Look at that sword, sir,' says I, pointing to an elegant silver-
mounted one, in a white shagreen case, that hung on the mantelpiece,
under the picture of my father, Harry Barry. 'It was with that
sword, sir, that my father pinked Mohawk O'Driscol, in Dublin, in
the year 1740; with that sword, sir, he met Sir Huddlestone
Fuddlestone, the Hampshire baronet, and ran him through the neck.
They met on horseback, with sword and pistol, on Hounslow Heath, as
I dare say you have heard tell of, and those are the pistols' (they
hung on each side of the picture) 'which the gallant Barry used. He
was quite in the wrong, having insulted Lady Fuddlestone, when in
liquor, at the Brentford assembly. But, like a gentleman, he scorned
to apologise, and Sir Huddlestone received a ball through his hat,
before they engaged with the sword. I am Harry Barry's son, sir, and
will act as becomes my name and my quality.'
'Give me a kiss, my dear boy,' said Fagan, with tears in his eyes.
'You're after my own soul. As long as Jack Fagan lives you shall
never want a friend or a second.'
Poor fellow! he was shot six months afterwards, carrying orders to
my Lord George Sackville, at Minden, and I lost thereby a kind
friend. But we don't know what is in store for us, and that night
was a merry one at least. We had a second bottle, and a third too (I
could hear the poor mother going downstairs for each, but she never
came into the parlour with them, and sent them in by the butler, Mr.
Tim): and we parted at length, he engaging to arrange matters with
Mr. Quin's second that night, and to bring me news in the morning as
to the place where the meeting should take place. I have often
thought since, how different my fate might have been, had I not
fallen in love with Nora at that early age; and had I not flung the
wine in Quin's face, and so brought on the duel. I might have
settled down in Ireland but for that (for Miss Quinlan was an
heiress, within twenty miles of us, and Peter Burke, of Kilwangan,
left his daughter Judy L700 a year, and I might have had either of
them, had I waited a few years). But it was in my fate to be a
wanderer, and that battle with Quin sent me on my travels at a very
early age: as you shall hear anon.
I never slept sounder in my life, though I woke a little earlier
than usual; and you may be sure my first thought was of the event of
the day, for which I was fully prepared. I had ink and pen in my
room--had I not been writing those verses to Nora but the day
previous, like a poor fond fool as I was? And now I sat down and
wrote a couple of letters more: they might be the last, thought I,
that I ever should write in my life. The first was to my mother:--
'Honoured Madam'--I wrote--'This will not be given you unless I fall
by the hand of Captain Quin, whom I meet this day in the field of
honour, with sword and pistol. If I die, it is as a good Christian
and a gentleman,--how should I be otherwise when educated by such a
mother as you? I forgive all my enemies--I beg your blessing as a
dutiful son. I desire that my mare Nora, which my uncle gave me, and
which I called after the most faithless of her sex, may be returned
to Castle Brady, and beg you will give my silver-hiked hanger to
Phil Purcell, the gamekeeper. Present my duty to my uncle and Ulick,
and all the girls of MY party there. And I remain your dutiful son,
'REDMOND BARRY.'
To Nora I wrote:--
'This letter will be found in my bosom along with the token you gave
me. It will be dyed in my blood (unless I have Captain Quin's, whom
I hate, but forgive), and will be a pretty ornament for you on your
marriage-day. Wear it, and think of the poor boy to whom you gave
it, and who died (as he was always ready to do) for your sake.
'REDMOND.'
These letters being written, and sealed with my father's great
silver seal of the Barry arms, I went down to breakfast; where my
mother was waiting for me, you may be sure. We did not say a single
word about what was taking place: on the contrary, we talked of
anything but that; about who was at church the day before, and about
my wanting new clothes now I was grown so tall. She said I must have
a suit against winter, if--if--she could afford it. She winced
rather at the 'if,' Heaven bless her! I knew what was in her mind.
And then she fell to telling me about the black pig that must be
killed, and that she had found the speckled hen's nest that morning,
whose eggs I liked so, and other such trifling talk. Some of these
eggs were for breakfast, and I ate them with a good appetite; but in
helping myself to salt I spilled it, on which she started up with a
scream. 'THANK GOD,' said she, 'IT'S FALLEN TOWARDS ME.' And then,
her heart being too full, she left the room. Ah! they have their
faults, those mothers; but are there any other women like them?
When she was gone I went to take down the sword with which my father
had vanquished the Hampshire baronet, and, would you believe it?--
the brave woman had tied A NEW RIBAND to the hilt: for indeed she
had the courage of a lioness and a Brady united. And then I took
down the pistols, which were always kept bright and well oiled, and
put some fresh flints I had into the locks, and got balls and powder
ready against the Captain should come. There was claret and a cold
fowl put ready for him on the sideboard, and a case-bottle of old
brandy too, with a couple of little glasses on the silver tray with
the Barry arms emblazoned. In after life, and in the midst of my
fortune and splendour, I paid thirty-five guineas, and almost as
much more interest, to the London goldsmith who supplied my father
with that very tray. A scoundrel pawnbroker would only give me
sixteen for it afterwards; so little can we trust the honour of
rascally tradesmen!
At eleven o'clock Captain Fagan arrived, on horseback, with a
mounted dragoon after him. He paid his compliments to the collation
which my mother's care had provided for him, and then said, 'Look
ye, Redmond my boy; this is a silly business. The girl will marry
Quin, mark my words; and as sure as she does you'll forget her. You
are but a boy. Quin is willing to consider you as such. Dublin's a
fine place, and if you have a mind to take a ride thither and see
the town for a month, here are twenty guineas at your service. Make
Quin an apology, and be off.'
'A man of honour, Mr. Fagan,' says I, 'dies, but never apologises.
I'll see the Captain hanged before I apologise.'
'Then there's nothing for it but a meeting.'
'My mare is saddled and ready,' says I; 'where's the meeting, and
who's the Captain's second?'
'Your cousins go out with him,' answered Mr. Fagan.
'I'll ring for my groom to bring my mare round,' I said, 'as soon as
you have rested yourself.' Tim was accordingly despatched for Nora,
and I rode away, but I didn't take leave of Mrs. Barry. The curtains
of her bedroom windows were down, and they didn't move as we mounted
and trotted off... BUT TWO HOURS AFTERWARDS, you should have seen
her as she came tottering downstairs, and heard the scream which she
gave as she hugged her boy to her heart, quite unharmed and without
a wound in his body.
What had taken place I may as well tell here. When we got to the
ground, Ulick, Mick, and the Captain were already there: Quin,
flaming in red regimentals, as big a monster as ever led a grenadier
company. The party were laughing together at some joke of one or the
other: and I must say I thought this laughter very unbecoming in my
cousins, who were met, perhaps, to see the death of one of their
kindred.
'I hope to spoil this sport,' says I to Captain Fagan, in a great
rage, 'and trust to see this sword of mine in yonder big bully's
body.'
'Oh! it's with pistols we fight,' replied Mr. Fagan. 'You are no
match for Quin with the sword.'
'I'll match any man with the sword,' said I.
'But swords are to-day impossible; Captain Quin is--is lame. He
knocked his knee against the swinging park-gate last night, as he
was riding home, and can scarce move it now.'
'Not against Castle Brady gate,' says I: 'that has been off the
hinges these ten years.' On which Fagan said it must have been some
other gate, and repeated what he had said to Mr. Quin and my
cousins, when, on alighting from our horses, we joined and saluted
those gentlemen.
'Oh yes! dead lame,' said Ulick, coming to shake me by the hand,
while Captain Quin took off his hat and turned extremely red. 'And
very lucky for you, Redmond my boy,' continued Ulick; 'you were a
dead man else; for he is a devil of a fellow--isn't he, Fagan?'
'A regular Turk,' answered Fagan; adding, 'I never yet knew the man
who stood to Captain Quin.'
'Hang the business!' said Ulick; 'I hate it. I'm ashamed of it. Say
you're sorry, Redmond: you can easily say that.'
'If the young FELLER will go to DUBLING, as proposed'--here
interposed Mr. Quin.
'I am NOT sorry--I'll NOT apologise--and I'll as soon go to DUBLING
as to--!' said I, with a stamp of my foot.
'There's nothing else for it,' said Ulick with a laugh to Fagan.
'Take your ground, Fagan,--twelve paces, I suppose?'
'Ten, sir,' said Mr. Quin, in a big voice; 'and make them short
ones, do you hear, Captain Fagan?'
'Don't bully, Mr. Quin,' said Ulick surlily; 'here are the pistols.'
And he added, with some emotion, to me, 'God bless you, my boy; and
when I count three, fire.'
Mr. Fagan put my pistol into my hand,--that is, not one of mine
(which were to serve, if need were, for the next round), but one of
Ulick's. 'They are all right,' said he. 'Never fear: and, Redmond,
fire at his neck--hit him there under the gorget. See how the fool
shows himself open.' Mick, who had never spoken a word, Ulick, and
the Captain retired to one side, and Ulick gave the signal. It was
slowly given, and I had leisure to cover my man well. I saw him
changing colour and trembling as the numbers were given. At 'three,'
both our pistols went off. I heard something whizz by me, and my
antagonist, giving a most horrible groan, staggered backwards and
fell.
'He's down--he's down!' cried the seconds, running towards him.
Ulick lifted him up--Mick took his head.
'He's hit here, in the neck,' said Mick; and laying open his coat,
blood was seen gurgling from under his gorget, at the very spot at
which I aimed.
'How is it with you?' said Ulick. 'Is he really hit?' said he,
looking hard at him. The unfortunate man did not answer, but when
the support of Ulick's arm was withdrawn from his back, groaned once
more, and fell backwards.
'The young fellow has begun well,' said Mick, with a scowl. 'You had
better ride off, young sir, before the police are up. They had wind
of the business before we left Kilwangan.'
'Is he quite dead?' said I.
'Quite dead,' answered Mick.
'Then the world's rid of A COWARD,' said Captain Fagan, giving the
huge prostrate body a scornful kick with his foot. 'It's all over
with him, Reddy,--he doesn't stir.'
'WE are not cowards, Fagan,' said Ulick roughly, 'whatever he was!
Let's get the boy off as quick as we may. Your man shall go for a
cart, and take away the body of this unhappy gentleman. This has
been a sad day's work for our family, Redmond Barry: you have robbed
us of 1500(pounds) a year.'
'It was Nora did it,' said I; 'not I.' And I took the riband she
gave me out of my waistcoat, and the letter, and flung them down on
the body of Captain Quin. 'There!' says I--'take her those ribands.
She'll know what they mean: and that's all that's left to her of two
lovers she had and ruined.'
I did not feel any horror or fear, young as I was, in seeing my
enemy prostrate before me; for I knew that I had met and conquered
him honourably in the field, as became a man of my name and blood.
'And now, in Heaven's name, get the youngster out of the way,' said
Mick.
Ulick said he would ride with me, and off accordingly we galloped,
never drawing bridle till we came to my mother's door. When there,
Ulick told Tim to feed my mare, as I would have far to ride that
day; and I was in the poor mother's arms in a minute.
I need not tell how great were her pride and exultation when she
heard from Ulick's lips the account of my behaviour at the duel. He
urged, however, that I should go into hiding for a short time; and
it was agreed between them that I should drop my name of Barry, and,
taking that of Redmond, go to Dublin, and there wait until matters
were blown over. This arrangement was not come to without some
discussion; for why should I not be as safe at Barryville, she said,
as my cousin and Ulick at Castle Brady?--bailiffs and duns never got
near THEM; why should constables be enabled to come upon me? But
Ulick persisted in the necessity of my instant departure; in which
argument, as I was anxious to see the world, I must confess, I sided
with him; and my mother was brought to see that in our small house
at Barryville, in the midst of the village, and with the guard but
of a couple of servants, escape would be impossible. So the kind
soul was forced to yield to my cousin's entreaties, who promised
her, however, that the affair would soon be arranged, and that I
should be restored to her. Ah! how little did he know what fortune
was in store for me!
My dear mother had some forebodings, I think, that our separation
was to be a long one; for she told me that all night long she had
been consulting the cards regarding my fate in the duel: and that
all the signs betokened a separation; then, taking out a stocking
from her escritoire, the kind soul put twenty guineas in a purse for
me (she had herself but twenty-five), and made up a little valise,
to be placed at the back of my mare, in which were my clothes,
linen, and a silver dressing-case of my father's. She bade me, too,
to keep the sword and the pistols I had known to use so like a man.
She hurried my departure now (though her heart, I know, was full),
and almost in half-an-hour after my arrival at home I was once more
on the road again, with the wide world as it were before me. I need
not tell how Tim and the cook cried at my departure: and, mayhap, I
had a tear or two myself in my eyes; but no lad of sixteen is VERY
sad who has liberty for the first time, and twenty guineas in his
pocket: and I rode away, thinking, I confess, not so much of the
kind mother left alone, and of the home behind me, as of to-morrow,
and all the wonders it would bring.
CHAPTER III
A FALSE START IN THE GENTEEL WORLD
I rode that night as far as Carlow, where I lay at the best inn; and
being asked what was my name by the landlord of the house, gave it
as Mr. Redmond, according to my cousin's instructions, and said I
was of the Redmonds of Waterford county, and was on my road to
Trinity College, Dublin, to be educated there. Seeing my handsome
appearance, silver-hiked sword, and well-filled valise, my landlord
made free to send up a jug of claret without my asking; and charged,
you may be sure, pretty handsomely for it in the bill. No gentleman
in those good old days went to bed without a good share of liquor to
set him sleeping, and on this my first day's entrance into the
world, I made a point to act the fine gentleman completely; and, I
assure you, succeeded in my part to admiration. The excitement of
the events of the day, the quitting my home, the meeting with
Captain Quin, were enough to set my brains in a whirl, without the
claret; which served to finish me completely. I did not dream of the
death of Quin, as some milksops, perhaps, would have done; indeed, I
have never had any of that foolish remorse consequent upon any of my
affairs of honour: always considering, from the first, that where a
gentleman risks his own life in manly combat, he is a fool to be
ashamed because he wins. I slept at Carlow as sound as man could
sleep; drank a tankard of small beer and a toast to my breakfast;
and exchanged the first of my gold pieces to settle the bill, not
forgetting to pay all the servants liberally, and as a gentleman
should. I began so the first day of my life, and so have continued.
No man has been at greater straits than I, and has borne more
pinching poverty and hardship; but nobody can say of me that, if I
had a guinea, I was not free-handed with it, and did not spend it as
well as a lord could do.
I had no doubts of the future: thinking that a man of my person,
parts, and courage, could make his way anywhere. Besides, I had
twenty gold guineas in my pocket; a sum which (although I was
mistaken) I calculated would last me for four months at least,
during which time something would be done towards the making of my
fortune. So I rode on, singing to myself, or chatting with the
passers-by; and all the girls along the road said God save me for a
clever gentleman! As for Nora and Castle Brady, between to-day and
yesterday there seemed to be a gap as of half-a-score of years. I
vowed I would never re-enter the place but as a great man; and I
kept my vow too, as you shall hear in due time.
There was much more liveliness and bustle on the king's highroad in
those times, than in these days of stage-coaches, which carry you
from one end of the kingdom to another in a few score hours. The
gentry rode their own horses or drove in their own coaches, and
spent three days on a journey which now occupies ten hours; so that
there was no lack of company for a person travelling towards Dublin.
I made part of the journey from Carlow towards Naas with a well-
armed gentleman from Kilkenny, dressed in green and a gold cord,
with a patch on his eye, and riding a powerful mare. He asked me the
question of the day, and whither I was bound, and whether my mother
was not afraid on account of the highwaymen to let one so young as
myself to travel? But I said, pulling out one of them from a
holster, that I had a pair of good pistols that had already done
execution, and were ready to do it again; and here, a pock-marked
man coming up, he put spurs into his bay mare and left me. She was a
much more powerful animal than mine; and, besides, I did not wish to
fatigue my horse, wishing to enter Dublin that night, and in
reputable condition.
As I rode towards Kilcullen, I saw a crowd of the peasant-people
assembled round a one-horse chair, and my friend in green, as I
thought, making off half a mile up the hill. A footman was howling
'Stop thief!' at the top of his voice; but the country fellows were
only laughing at his distress, and making all sorts of jokes at the
adventure which had just befallen.
'Sure you might have kept him off with your blunderBUSH!' says one
fellow.
'Oh, the coward! to let the Captain BATE you; and he only one eye!'
cries another.
'The next time my Lady travels, she'd better lave you at home!' said
a third.
'What is this noise, fellows?' said I, riding up amongst them, and,
seeing a lady in the carriage very pale and frightened, gave a slash
of my whip, and bade the red-shanked ruffians keep off. 'What has
happened, madam, to annoy your Ladyship?' I said, pulling off my
hat, and bringing my mare up in a prance to the chair window.
The lady explained. She was the wife of Captain Fitzsimons, and was
hastening to join the Captain at Dublin. Her chair had been stopped
by a highway-man: the great oaf of a servant-man had fallen down on
his knees armed as he was; and though there were thirty people in
the next field working when the ruffian attacked her, not one of
them would help her; but, on the contrary, wished the Captain, as
they called the highwayman, good luck.
'Sure he's the friend of the poor,' said one fellow, 'and good luck
to him!'
'Was it any business of ours?' asked another. And another told,
grinning, that it was the famous Captain Freny, who, having bribed
the jury to acquit him two days back at Kilkenny assizes, had
mounted his horse at the gaol door, and the very next day had robbed
two barristers who were going the circuit.
I told this pack of rascals to be off to their work, or they should
taste of my thong, and proceeded, as well as I could, to comfort
Mrs. Fitzsimons under her misfortunes. 'Had she lost much?'
'Everything: her purse, containing upwards of a hundred guineas; her
jewels, snuff-boxes, watches, and a pair of diamond shoe-buckles of
the Captain's.' These mishaps I sincerely commiserated; and knowing
her by her accent to be an Englishwoman, deplored the difference
that existed between the two countries, and said that in OUR country
(meaning England) such atrocities were unknown.
'You, too, are an Englishman?' said she, with rather a tone of
surprise. On which I said I was proud to be such: as, in fact, I
was; and I never knew a true Tory gentleman of Ireland who did not
wish he could say as much.
I rode by Mrs. Fitzsimon's chair all the way to Naas; and, as she
had been robbed of her purse, asked permission to lend her a couple
of pieces to pay her expenses at the inn: which sum she was
graciously pleased to accept, and was, at the same time, kind enough
to invite me to share her dinner. To the lady's questions regarding
my birth and parentage, I replied that I was a young gentleman of
large fortune (this was not true; but what is the use of crying bad
fish? my dear mother instructed me early in this sort of prudence)
and good family in the county of Waterford; that I was going to
Dublin for my studies, and that my mother allowed me five hundred
per annum. Mrs. Fitzsimons was equally communicative. She was the
daughter of General Granby Somerset of Worcestershire, of whom, of
course, I had heard (and though I had not, of course I was too well-
bred to say so); and had made, as she must confess, a runaway match
with Ensign Fitzgerald Fitzsimons. Had I been in Donegal?--No! That
was a pity. The Captain's father possesses a hundred thousand acres
there, and Fitzsimonsburgh Castle's the finest mansion in Ireland.
Captain Fitzsimons is the eldest son; and, though he has quarrelled
with his father, must inherit the vast property. She went on to tell
me about the balls at Dublin, the banquets at the Castle, the horse-
races at the Phoenix, the ridottos and routs, until I became quite
eager to join in those pleasures; and I only felt grieved to think
that my position would render secrecy necessary, and prevent me from
being presented at the Court, of which the Fitzsimonses were the
most elegant ornaments. How different was her lively rattle to that
of the vulgar wenches at the Kilwangan assemblies! In every sentence
she mentioned a lord or a person of quality. She evidently spoke
French and Italian, of the former of which languages I have said I
knew a few words; and, as for her English accent, why, perhaps I was
no judge of that, for, to say the truth, she was the first REAL
English person I had ever met. She recommended me, further, to be
very cautious with regard to the company I should meet at Dublin,
where rogues and adventurers of all countries abounded; and my
delight and gratitude to her may be imagined, when, as our
conversation grew more intimate (as we sat over our dessert), she
kindly offered to accommodate me with lodgings in her own house,
where her Fitzsimons, she said, would welcome with delight her
gallant young preserver.
'Indeed, madam,' said I, 'I have preserved nothing for you.' Which
was perfectly true; for had I not come up too late after the robbery
to prevent the highwayman from carrying off her money and pearls?
'And sure, ma'am, them wasn't much,' said Sullivan, the blundering
servant, who had been so frightened at Freny's approach, and was
waiting on us at dinner. 'Didn't he return you the thirteenpence in
copper, and the watch, saying it was only pinch-beck?'
But his lady rebuked him for a saucy varlet, and turned him out of
the room at once, saying to me when he had gone, 'that the fool
didn't know what was the meaning of a hundred-pound bill, which was
in the pocket-book that Freny took from her.'
Perhaps had I been a little older in the world's experience, I
should have begun to see that Madam Fitzsimons was not the person of
fashion she pretended to be; but, as it was, I took all her stories
for truth, and, when the landlord brought the bill for dinner, paid
it with the air of a lord. Indeed, she made no motion to produce the
two pieces I had lent to her; and so we rode on slowly towards
Dublin, into which city we made our entrance at nightfall. The
rattle and splendour of the coaches, the flare of the linkboys, the
number and magnificence of the houses, struck me with the greatest
wonder; though I was careful to disguise this feeling, according to
my dear mother's directions, who told me that it was the mark of a
man of fashion never to wonder at anything, and never to admit that
any house, equipage, or company he saw, was more splendid or genteel
than what he had been accustomed to at home.
We stopped, at length, at a house of rather mean appearance, and
were let into a passage by no means so clean as that at Barryville,
where there was a great smell of supper and punch. A stout red-faced
man, without a periwig, and in rather a tattered nightgown and cap,
made his appearance from the parlour, and embraced his lady (for it
was Captain Fitzsimons) with a great deal of cordiality. Indeed,
when he saw that a stranger accompanied her, he embraced her more
rapturously than ever. In introducing me, she persisted in saying
that I was her preserver, and complimented my gallantry as much as
if I had killed Freny, instead of coming up when the robbery was
over. The Captain said he knew the Redmonds of Waterford intimately
well: which assertion alarmed me, as I knew nothing of the family to
which I was stated to belong. But I posed him, by asking WHICH of
the Redmonds he knew, for I had never heard his name in our family.
He said he knew the Redmonds of Redmondstown. 'Oh,' says I, 'mine
are the Redmonds of Castle Redmond;' and so I put him off the scent.
I went to see my nag put up at a livery-stable hard by, with the
Captain's horse and chair, and returned to my entertainer.
Although there were the relics of some mutton-chops and onions on a
cracked dish before him, the Captain said, 'My love, I wish I had
known of your coming, for Bob Moriarty and I just finished the most
delicious venison pasty, which his Grace the Lord Lieutenant sent
us, with a flask of Sillery from his own cellar. You know the wine,
my dear? But as bygones are bygones, and no help for them, what say
ye to a fine lobster and a bottle of as good claret as any in
Ireland? Betty, clear these things from the table, and make the
mistress and our young friend welcome to our home.'
Not having small change, Mr. Fitzsimons asked me to lend him a
tenpenny-piece to purchase the dish of lobsters; but his lady,
handing out one of the guineas I had given her, bade the girl get
the change for that, and procure the supper; which she did
presently, bringing back only a very few shillings out of the guinea
to her mistress, saying that the fishmonger had kept the remainder
for an old account. 'And the more great big blundering fool you, for
giving the gold piece to him,' roared Mr. Fitzsimons. I forget how
many hundred guineas he said he had paid the fellow during the year.
Our supper was seasoned, if not by any great elegance, at least by a
plentiful store of anecdotes, concerning the highest personages of
the city; with whom, according to himself, the Captain lived on
terms of the utmost intimacy. Not to be behindhand with him, I spoke
of my own estates and property as if I was as rich as a duke. I told
all the stories of the nobility I had ever heard from my mother, and
some that, perhaps, I had invented; and ought to have been aware
that my host was an impostor himself, as he did not find out my own
blunders and misstatements. But youth is ever too confident. It was
some time before I knew that I had made no very desirable
acquaintance in Captain Fitzsimons and his lady; and, indeed, went
to bed congratulating myself upon my wonderful good luck in having,
at the outset of my adventures, fallen in with so distinguished a
couple.
The appearance of the chamber I occupied might, indeed, have led me
to imagine that the heir of Fitzsimonsburgh Castle, county Donegal,
was not as yet reconciled with his wealthy parents; and, had I been
an English lad, probably my suspicion and distrust would have been
aroused instantly. But perhaps, as the reader knows, we are not so
particular in Ireland on the score of neatness as people are in this
precise country; hence the disorder of my bedchamber did not strike
me so much. For were not all the windows broken and stuffed with
rags even at Castle Brady, my uncle's superb mansion? Was there ever
a lock to the doors there, or if a lock, a handle to the lock or a
hasp to fasten it to? So, though my bedroom boasted of these
inconveniences, and a few more; though my counterpane was evidently
a greased brocade dress of Mrs. Fitzsimons's, and my cracked toilet-
glass not much bigger than a half-crown, yet I was used to this sort
of ways in Irish houses, and still thought myself in that of a man
of fashion. There was no lock to the drawers, which, when they DID
open, were full of my hostess's rouge-pots, shoes, stays, and rags;
so I allowed my wardrobe to remain in my valise, but set out my
silver dressing-apparatus upon the ragged cloth on the drawers,
where it shone to great advantage.
When Sullivan appeared in the morning, I asked him about my mare,
which he informed me was doing well. I then bade him bring me hot
shaving-water, in a loud dignified tone.
'Hot shaving-water!' says he, bursting out laughing (and I confess
not without reason). 'Is it yourself you're going to shave?' said
he. 'And maybe when I bring you up the water I'll bring you up the
cat too, and you can shave her.' I flung a boot at the scoundrel's
head in reply to this impertinence, and was soon with my friends in
the parlour for breakfast. There was a hearty welcome, and the same
cloth that had been used the night before: as I recognised by the
black mark of the Irish-stew dish, and the stain left by a pot of
porter at supper.
My host greeted me with great cordiality; Mrs. Fitzsimons said I was
an elegant figure for the Phoenix; and indeed, without vanity, I may
say of myself that there were worse-looking fellows in Dublin than
I. I had not the powerful chest and muscular proportion which I have
since attained (to be exchanged, alas! for gouty legs and chalk-
stones in my fingers; but 'tis the way of mortality), but I had
arrived at near my present growth of six feet, and with my hair in
buckle, a handsome lace jabot and wristbands to my shirt, and a red
plush waistcoat, barred with gold, looked the gentleman I was born.
I wore my drab coat with plate buttons, that was grown too small for
me, and quite agreed with Captain Fitzsimons that I must pay a visit
to his tailor, in order to procure myself a coat more fitting my
size.
'I needn't ask whether you had a comfortable bed,' said he. 'Young
Fred Pimpleton (Lord Pimpleton's second son) slept in it for seven
months, during which he did me the honour to stay with me, and if HE
was satisfied, I don't know who else wouldn't be.'
After breakfast we walked out to see the town, and Mr. Fitzsimons
introduced me to several of his acquaintances whom we met, as his
particular young friend Mr. Redmond, of Waterford county; he also
presented me at his hatter's and tailor's as a gentleman of great
expectations and large property; and although I told the latter that
I should not pay him ready cash for more than one coat, which fitted
me to a nicety, yet he insisted upon making me several, which I did
not care to refuse. The Captain, also, who certainly wanted such a
renewal of raiment, told the tailor to send him home a handsome
military frock, which he selected.
Then we went home to Mrs. Fitzsimons, who drove out in her chair to
the Phoenix Park, where a review was, and where numbers of the young
gentry were round about her; to all of whom she presented me as her
preserver of the day before. Indeed, such was her complimentary
account of me, that before half-an-hour I had got to be considered
as a young gentleman of the highest family in the land, related to
all the principal nobility, a cousin of Captain Fitzsimons, and heir
to L10,000 a year. Fitzsimons said he had ridden over every inch of
my estate; and 'faith, as he chose to tell these stories for me, I
let him have his way--indeed, was not a little pleased (as youth is)
to be made much of, and to pass for a great personage. I had little
notion then that I had got among a set of impostors--that Captain
Fitzsimons was only an adventurer, and his lady a person of no
credit; but such are the dangers to which youth is perpetually
subject, and hence let young men take warning by me.
I purposely hurry over the description of my life in which the
incidents were painful, of no great interest except to my unlucky
self, and of which my companions were certainly not of a kind
befitting my quality. The fact was, a young man could hardly have
fallen into worse hands than those in which I now found myself. I
have been to Donegal since, and have never seen the famous Castle of
Fitzsimonsburgh, which is, likewise, unknown to the oldest
inhabitants of that county; nor are the Granby Somersets much better
known in Worcestershire. The couple into whose hands I had fallen
were of a sort much more common then than at present, for the vast
wars of later days have rendered it very difficult for noblemen's
footmen or hangers-on to procure commissions; and such, in fact, had
been the original station of Captain Fitzsimons. Had I known his
origin, of course I would have died rather than have associated with
him: but in those simple days of youth I took his tales for truth,
and fancied myself in high luck at being, at my outset into life,
introduced into such a family. Alas! we are the sport of destiny.
When I consider upon what small circumstances all the great events
of my life have turned, I can hardly believe myself to have been
anything but a puppet in the hands of Fate; which has played its
most fantastic tricks upon me.
The Captain had been a gentleman's gentleman, and his lady of no
higher rank. The society which this worthy pair kept was at a sort
of ordinary which they held, and at which their friends were always
welcome on payment of a certain moderate sum for their dinner. After
dinner, you may be sure that cards were not wanting, and that the
company who played did not play for love merely. To these parties
persons of all sorts would come: young bloods from the regiments
garrisoned in Dublin: young clerks from the Castle; horse-riding,
wine-tippling, watchman-beating men of fashion about town, such as
existed in Dublin in that day more than in any other city with which
I am acquainted in Europe. I never knew young fellows make such a
show, and upon such small means. I never knew young gentlemen with
what I may call such a genius for idleness; and whereas an
Englishman with fifty guineas a year is not able to do much more
than starve, and toil like a slave in a profession, a young Irish
buck with the same sum will keep his horses, and drink his bottle,
and live as lazy as a lord. Here was a doctor who never had a
patient, cheek by jowl with an attorney who never had a client:
neither had a guinea--each had a good horse to ride in the Park, and
the best of clothes to his back. A sporting clergyman without a
living; several young wine-merchants, who consumed much more liquor
than they had or sold; and men of similar character, formed the
society at the house into which, by ill luck, I was thrown. What
could happen to a man but misfortune from associating with such
company?--(I have not mentioned the ladies of the society, who were,
perhaps, no better than the males)--and in a very very short time I
became their prey.
As for my poor twenty guineas, in three days I saw, with terror,
that they had dwindled down to eight: theatres and taverns having
already made such cruel inroads in my purse. At play I had lost, it
is true, a couple of pieces; but seeing that every one round about
me played upon honour and gave their bills, I, of course, preferred
that medium to the payment of ready money, and when I lost paid on
account.
With the tailors, saddlers, and others, I employed similar means;
and in so far Mr. Fitzsimons's representation did me good, for the
tradesmen took him at his word regarding my fortune (I have since
learned that the rascal pigeoned several other young men of
property), and for a little time supplied me with any goods I might
be pleased to order. At length, my cash running low, I was compelled
to pawn some of the suits with which the tailor had provided me; for
I did not like to part with my mare, on which I daily rode in the
Park, and which I loved as the gift of my respected uncle. I raised
some little money, too, on a few trinkets which I had purchased of a
jeweller who pressed his credit upon me; and thus was enabled to
keep up appearances for yet a little time.
I asked at the post-office repeatedly for letters for Mr. Redmond,
but none such had arrived; and, indeed, I always felt rather
relieved when the answer of 'No' was given to me; for I was not very
anxious that my mother should know my proceedings in the extravagant
life which I was leading at Dublin. It could not last very long,
however; for when my cash was quite exhausted, and I paid a second
visit to the tailor, requesting him to make me more clothes, the
fellow hummed and ha'd, and had the impudence to ask payment for
those already supplied: on which, telling him I should withdraw my
custom from him, I abruptly left him. The goldsmith too (a rascal
Jew) declined to let me take a gold chain to which I had a fancy;
and I felt now, for the first time, in some perplexity. To add to
it, one of the young gentlemen who frequented Mr. Fitzsimons's
boarding-house had received from me, in the way of play, an IOU for
eighteen pounds (which I lost to him at piquet), and which, owing
Mr. Curbyn, the livery-stable keeper, a bill, he passed into that
person's hands. Fancy my rage and astonishment, then, on going for
my mare, to find that he positively refused to let me have her out
of the stable, except under payment of my promissory note! It was in
vain that I offered him his choice of four notes that I had in my
pocket--one of Fitzsimons's for L20, one of Counsellor Mulligan's,
and so forth; the dealer, who was a Yorkshireman, shook his head,
and laughed at every one of them; and said, 'I tell you what, Master
Redmond, you appear a young fellow of birth and fortune, and let me
whisper in your ear that you have fallen into very bad hands--it's a
regular gang of swindlers; and a gentleman of your rank and quality
should never be seen in such company. Go home: pack up your valise,
pay the little trifle to me, mount your mare, and ride back again to
your parents,--it's the very best thing you can do.'
In a pretty nest of villains, indeed, was I plunged! It seemed as if
all my misfortunes were to break on me at once; for, on going home
and ascending to my bedroom in a disconsolate way, I found the
Captain and his lady there before me, my valise open, my wardrobe
lying on the ground, and my keys in the possession of the odious
Fitzsimons. 'Whom have I been harbouring in my house?' roared he, as
I entered the apartment. 'Who are you, sirrah?'
'SIRRAH! Sir,' said I, 'I am as good a gentleman as any in Ireland.'
'You're an impostor, young man: a schemer, a deceiver!' shouted the
Captain.
'Repeat the words again, and I will run you through the body,'
replied I.
'Tut, tut! I can play at fencing as well as you, Mr. REDMOND BARRY.
Ah! you change colour, do you--your secret is known, is it? You come
like a viper into the bosom of innocent families; you represent
yourself as the heir of my friends the Redmonds of Castle Redmond; I
inthrojuice you to the nobility and genthry of this methropolis'
(the Captain's brogue was large, and his words, by preference,
long); 'I take you to my tradesmen, who give you credit, and what do
I find? That you have pawned the goods which you took up at their
houses.'
'I have given them my acceptances, sir,' said I with a dignified
air.
'UNDER WHAT NAME, unhappy boy--under what name?' screamed Mrs.
Fitzsimons; and then, indeed, I remembered that I had signed the
documents Barry Redmond instead of Redmond Barry: but what else
could I do? Had not my mother desired me to take no other
designation? After uttering a furious tirade against me, in which he
spoke of the fatal discovery of my real name on my linen--of his
misplaced confidence of affection, and the shame with which he
should be obliged to meet his fashionable friends and confess that
he had harboured a swindler, he gathered up the linen, clothes,
silver toilet articles, and the rest of my gear, saying that he
should step out that moment for an officer and give me up to the
just revenge of the law.
During the first part of his speech, the thought of the imprudence
of which I had been guilty, and the predicament in which I was
plunged, had so puzzled and confounded me, that I had not uttered a
word in reply to the fellow's abuse, but had stood quite dumb before
him. The sense of danger, however, at once roused me to action.
'Hark ye, Mr. Fitzsimons,' said I; 'I will tell you why I was
obliged to alter my name: which is Barry, and the best name in
Ireland. I changed it, sir, because, on the day before I came to
Dublin, I killed a man in deadly combat--an Englishman, sir, and a
captain in His Majesty's service; and if you offer to let or hinder
me in the slightest way, the same arm which destroyed him is ready
to punish you; and by Heaven, sir, you or I don't leave this room
alive!'
So saying, I drew my sword like lightning, and giving a 'ha! ha!'
and a stamp with my foot, lunged within an inch of Fitzsimons's
heart, who started back and turned deadly pale, while his wife, with
a scream, flung herself between us.
'Dearest Redmond,' she cried, 'be pacified. Fitzsimons, you don't
want the poor child's blood. Let him escape--in Heaven's name let
him go.'
'He may go hang for me,' said Fitzsimons sulkily; 'and he'd better
be off quickly, too, for the jeweller and the tailor have called
once, and will be here again before long. It was Moses the
pawnbroker that peached: I had the news from him myself.' By which I
conclude that Mr. Fitzsimons had been with the new laced frock-coat
which he procured from the merchant tailor on the day when the
latter first gave me credit.
What was the end of our conversation? Where was now a home for the
descendant of the Barrys? Home was shut to me by my misfortune in
the duel. I was expelled from Dublin by a persecution occasioned, I
must confess, by my own imprudence. I had no time to wait and
choose: no place of refuge to fly to. Fitzsimons, after his abuse of
me, left the room growling, but not hostile; his wife insisted that
we should shake hands, and he promised not to molest me. Indeed, I
owed the fellow nothing; and, on the contrary, had his acceptance
actually in my pocket for money lost at play. As for my friend Mrs.
Fitzsimons, she sat down on the bed and fairly burst out crying. She
had her faults, but her heart was kind; and though she possessed but
three shillings in the world, and fourpence in copper, the poor soul
made me take it before I left her--to go--whither? My mind was made
up: there was a score of recruiting-parties in the town beating up
for men to join our gallant armies in America and Germany; I knew
where to find one of these, having stood by the sergeant at a review
in the Phoenix Park, where he pointed out to me characters on the
field, for which I treated him to drink.
I gave one of my shillings to Sullivan the butler of the
Fitzsimonses, and, running into the street, hastened to the little
alehouse at which my acquaintance was quartered, and before ten
minutes had accepted His Majesty's shilling. I told him frankly that
I was a young gentleman in difficulties; that I had killed an
officer in a duel, and was anxious to get out of the country. But I
need not have troubled myself with any explanations; King George was
too much in want of men then to heed from whence they came, and a
fellow of my inches, the sergeant said, was always welcome. Indeed,
I could not, he said, have chosen my time better. A transport was
lying at Dunleary, waiting for a wind, and on board that ship, to
which I marched that night, I made some surprising discoveries,
which shall be told in the next chapter.
CHAPTER IV
IN WHICH BARRY TAKES A NEAR VIEW OF MILITARY GLORY
I never had a taste for anything but genteel company, and hate all
descriptions of low life. Hence my account of the society in which I
at present found myself must of necessity be short; and, indeed, the
recollection of it is profoundly disagreeable to me. Pah! the
reminiscences of the horrid black-hole of a place in which we
soldiers were confined; of the wretched creatures with whom I was
now forced to keep company; of the ploughmen, poachers, pickpockets,
who had taken refuge from poverty, or the law (as, in truth, I had
done myself), is enough to make me ashamed even now, and it calls
the blush into my old cheeks to think I was ever forced to keep such
company. I should have fallen into despair, but that, luckily,
events occurred to rouse my spirits, and in some measure to console
me for my misfortunes.
The first of these consolations I had was a good quarrel, which took
place on the day after my entrance into the transport-ship, with a
huge red-haired monster of a fellow--a chairman, who had enlisted to
fly from a vixen of a wife, who, boxer as he was, had been more than
a match for him. As soon as this fellow--Toole, I remember, was his
name--got away from the arms of the washerwoman his lady, his
natural courage and ferocity returned, and he became the tyrant of
all round about him. All recruits, especially, were the object of
the brute's insult and ill-treatment.
I had no money, as I said, and was sitting very disconsolately over
a platter of rancid bacon and mouldy biscuit, which was served to us
at mess, when it came to my turn to be helped to drink, and I was
served, like the rest, with a dirty tin noggin, containing somewhat
more than half a pint of rum-and-water. The beaker was so greasy and
filthy that I could not help turning round to the messman and
saying, 'Fellow, get me a glass!' At which all the wretches round
about me burst into a roar of laughter, the very loudest among them
being, of course, Mr. Toole. 'Get the gentleman a towel for his
hands, and serve him a basin of turtle-soup,' roared the monster,
who was sitting, or rather squatting, on the deck opposite me; and
as he spoke he suddenly seized my beaker of grog and emptied it, in
the midst of another burst of applause.
'If you want to vex him, ax him about his wife the washerwoman, who
BATES him,' here whispered in my ear another worthy, a retired link-
boy, who, disgusted with his profession, had adopted the military
life.
'Is it a towel of your wife's washing, Mr. Toole?' said I. 'I'm told
she wiped your face often with one.'
'Ax him why he wouldn't see her yesterday, when she came to the
ship,' continued the link-boy. And so I put to him some other
foolish jokes about soapsuds, henpecking, and flat-irons, which set
the man into a fury, and succeeded in raising a quarrel between us.
We should have fallen to at once, but a couple of grinning marines,
who kept watch at the door, for fear we should repent of our bargain
and have a fancy to escape, came forward and interposed between us
with fixed bayonets; but the sergeant coming down the ladder, and
hearing the dispute, condescended to say that we might fight it out
like men with FISTES if we chose, and that the fore-deck should be
free to us for that purpose. But the use of fistes, as the
Englishman called them, was not then general in Ireland, and it was
agreed that we should have a pair of cudgels; with one of which
weapons I finished the fellow in four minutes, giving him a thump
across his stupid sconce which laid him lifeless on the deck, and
not receiving myself a single hurt of consequence.
This victory over the cock of the vile dunghill obtained me respect
among the wretches of whom I formed part, and served to set up my
spirits, which otherwise were flagging; and my position was speedily
made more bearable by the arrival on board our ship of an old
friend. This was no other than my second in the fatal duel which had
sent me thus early out into the world, Captain Fagan. There was a
young nobleman who had a company in our regiment (Gale's foot), and
who, preferring the delights of the Mall and the clubs to the
dangers of a rough campaign, had given Fagan the opportunity of an
exchange; which, as the latter had no fortune but his sword, he was
glad to make. The sergeant was putting us through our exercise on
deck (the seamen and officers of the transport looking grinning on)
when a boat came from the shore bringing our captain to the ship;
and though I started and blushed red as he recognised me--a
descendant of the Barrys--in this degrading posture, I promise you
that the sight of Fagan's face was most welcome to me, for it
assured me that a friend was near me. Before that I was so
melancholy that I would certainly have deserted had I found the
means, and had not the inevitable marines kept a watch to prevent
any such escapes. Fagan gave me a wink of recognition, but offered
no public token of acquaintance; it was not until two days
afterwards, and when we had bidden adieu to old Ireland and were
standing out to sea, that he called me into his cabin, and then,
shaking hands with me cordially, gave me news, which I much wanted,
of my family. 'I had news of you in Dublin,' he said. ''Faith you've
begun early, like your father's son; and I think you could not do
better than as you have done. But why did you not write home to your
poor mother? She has sent a half-dozen letters to you at Dublin.'
I said I had asked for letters at the post-office, but there were
none for Mr. Redmond. I did not like to add that I had been ashamed,
after the first week, to write to my mother.
'We must write to her by the pilot,' said he, 'who will leave us in
two hours; and you can tell her that you are safe, and married to
Brown Bess.' I sighed when he talked about being married; on which
he said with a laugh, 'I see you are thinking of a certain young
lady at Brady's Town.'
'Is Miss Brady well?' said I; and indeed, could hardly utter it, for
I certainly WAS thinking about her: for, though I had forgotten her
in the gaieties of Dublin, I have always found adversity makes man
very affectionate.
'There's only seven Miss Bradys now,' answered Fagan, in a solemn
voice. 'Poor Nora'--
'Good heavens! what of her?' I thought grief had killed her.
'She took on so at your going away that she was obliged to console
herself with a husband. She's now Mrs. John Quin.'
'Mrs. John Quin! Was there ANOTHER Mr. John Quin?' asked I, quite
wonder-stricken.
'No; the very same one, my boy. He recovered from his wound. The
ball you hit him with was not likely to hurt him. It was only made
of tow. Do you think the Bradys would let you kill fifteen hundred a
year out of the family?' And then Fagan further told me that, in
order to get me out of the way--for the cowardly Englishman could
never be brought to marry from fear of me--the plan of the duel had
been arranged. 'But hit him you certainly did, Redmond, and with a
fine thick plugget of tow; and the fellow was so frightened, that he
was an hour in coming to. We told your mother the story afterwards,
and a pretty scene she made; she despatched a half-score of letters
to Dublin after you, but I suppose addressed them to you in your
real name, by which you never thought to ask for them.'
'The coward!' said I (though, I confess, my mind was considerably
relieved at the thoughts of not having killed him). 'And did the
Bradys of Castle Brady consent to admit a poltroon like that into
one of the most ancient and honourable families in the world?'
'He has paid off your uncle's mortgage,' said Fagan; 'he gives Nora
a coach-and-six; he is to sell out, and Lieutenant Ulick Brady of
the Militia is to purchase his company. That coward of a fellow has
been the making of your uncle's family. 'Faith! the business was
well done.' And then, laughing, he told me how Mick and Ulick had
never let him out of their sight, although he was for deserting to
England, until the marriage was completed and the happy couple off
on their road to Dublin. 'Are you in want of cash, my boy?'
continued the good-natured Captain. 'You may draw upon me, for I got
a couple of hundred out of Master Quin for my share, and while they
last you shall never want.'
And so he bade me sit down and write a letter to my mother, which I
did forthwith in very sincere and repentant terms, stating that I
had been guilty of extravagances, that I had not known until that
moment under what a fatal error I had been labouring, and that I had
embarked for Germany as a volunteer. The letter was scarcely
finished when the pilot sang out that he was going on shore; and he
departed, taking with him, from many an anxious fellow besides
myself, our adieux to friends in old Ireland.
Although I was called Captain Barry for many years of my life, and
have been known as such by the first people of Europe, yet I may as
well confess I had no more claim to the title than many a gentleman
who assumes it, and never had a right to an epaulet, or to any
military decoration higher than a corporal's stripe of worsted. I
was made corporal by Fagan during our voyage to the Elbe, and my
rank was confirmed on TERRA FIRMA. I was promised a halbert, too,
and afterwards, perhaps, an ensigncy, if I distinguished myself; but
Fate did not intend that I should remain long an English soldier: as
shall appear presently. Meanwhile, our passage was very favourable;
my adventures were told by Fagan to his brother officers, who
treated me with kindness; and my victory over the big chairman
procured me respect from my comrades of the fore-deck. Encouraged
and strongly exhorted by Fagan, I did my duty resolutely; but,
though affable and good-humoured with the men, I never at first
condescended to associate with such low fellows: and, indeed, was
called generally amongst them 'my Lord.' I believe it was the ex-
link-boy, a facetious knave, who gave me the title; and I felt that
I should become such a rank as well as any peer in the kingdom.
It would require a greater philosopher and historian than I am to
explain the causes of the famous Seven Years' War in which Europe
was engaged; and, indeed, its origin has always appeared to me to be
so complicated, and the books written about it so amazingly hard to
understand, that I have seldom been much wiser at the end of a
chapter than at the beginning, and so shall not trouble my reader
with any personal disquisitions concerning the matter. All I know
is, that after His Majesty's love of his Hanoverian dominions had
rendered him most unpopular in his English kingdom, with Mr. Pitt at
the head of the anti-German war-party, all of a sudden, Mr. Pitt
becoming Minister, the rest of the empire applauded the war as much
as they had hated it before. The victories of Dettingen and Crefeld
were in every-body's mouths, and 'the Protestant hero,' as we used
to call the godless old Frederick of Prussia, was adored by us as a
saint, a very short time after we had been about to make war against
him in alliance with the Empress-queen. Now, somehow, we were on
Frederick's side: the Empress, the French, the Swedes, and the
Russians, were leagued against us; and I remember, when the news of
the battle of Lissa came even to our remote quarter of Ireland, we
considered it as a triumph for the cause of Protestantism, and
illuminated and bonfired, and had a sermon at church, and kept the
Prussian king's birthday; on which my uncle would get drunk: as
indeed on any other occasion. Most of the low fellows enlisted with
myself were, of course, Papists (the English army was filled with
such, out of that never-failing country of ours), and these,
forsooth, were fighting the battles of Protestantism with Frederick;
who was belabouring the Protestant Swedes and the Protestant Saxons,
as well as the Russians of the Greek Church, and the Papist troops
of the Emperor and the King of France. It was against these latter
that the English auxiliaries were employed, and we know that, be the
quarrel what it may, an Englishman and a Frenchman are pretty
willing to make a fight of it.
We landed at Cuxhaven, and before I had been a month in the
Electorate I was transformed into a tall and proper young soldier,
and having a natural aptitude for military exercise, was soon as
accomplished at the drill as the oldest sergeant in the regiment. It
is well, however, to dream of glorious war in a snug arm-chair at
home; ay, or to make it as an officer, surrounded by gentlemen,
gorgeously dressed, and cheered by chances of promotion. But those
chances do not shine on poor fellows in worsted lace: the rough
texture of our red coats made me ashamed when I saw an officer go
by; my soul used to shudder when, on going the rounds, I would hear
their voices as they sat jovially over the mess-table; my pride
revolted at being obliged to plaster my hair with flour and candle-
grease, instead of using the proper pomatum for a gentleman. Yes, my
tastes have always been high and fashionable, and I loathed the
horrid company in which I was fallen. What chances had I of
promotion? None of my relatives had money to buy me a commission,
and I became soon so low-spirited, that I longed for a general
action and a ball to finish me, and vowed that I would take some
opportunity to desert.
When I think that I, the descendant of the kings of Ireland, was
threatened with a caning by a young scoundrel who had just joined
from Eton College--when I think that he offered to make me his
footman, and that I did not, on either occasion, murder him! On the
first occasion I burst into tears (I do not care to own it) and had
serious thoughts of committing suicide, so great was my
mortification. But my kind friend Fagan came to my aid in the
circumstance, with some very timely consolation. 'My poor boy,' said
he, 'you must not take the matter to heart so. Caning is only a
relative disgrace. Young Ensign Fakenham was flogged himself at Eton
School only a month ago: I would lay a wager that his scars are not
yet healed. You must cheer up, my boy; do your duty, be a gentleman,
and no serious harm can fall on you.' And I heard afterwards that my
champion had taken Mr. Fakenham very severely to task for this
threat, and said to him that any such proceedings for the future he
should consider as an insult to himself; whereon the young ensign
was, for the moment, civil. As for the sergeants, I told one of
them, that if any man struck me, no matter who he might be, or what
the penalty, I would take his life. And, 'faith! there was an air of
sincerity in my speech which convinced the whole bevy of them; and
as long as I remained in the English service no rattan was ever laid
on the shoulders of Redmond Barry. Indeed, I was in that savage
moody state, that my mind was quite made up to the point, and I
looked to hear my own dead march played as sure as I was alive. When
I was made a corporal, some of my evils were lessened; I messed with
the sergeants by special favour, and used to treat them to drink,
and lose money to the rascals at play: with which cash my good
friend Mr. Fagan punctually supplied me.
Our regiment, which was quartered about Stade and Luneburg, speedily
got orders to march southwards towards the Rhine, for news came that
our great General, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, had been defeated-
no, not defeated, but foiled in his attack upon the French under the
Duke of Broglio, at Bergen, near Frankfort-on-the-Main, and had been
obliged to fall back. As the allies retreated the French rushed
forward, and made a bold push for the Electorate of our gracious
monarch in Hanover, threatening that they would occupy it; as they
had done before, when D'Estrees beat the hero of Culloden, the
gallant Duke of Cumberland, and caused him to sign the capitulation
of Closter Zeven. An advance upon Hanover always caused a great
agitation in the Royal bosom of the King of England; more troops
were sent to join us, convoys of treasure were passed over to our
forces, and to our ally's the King of Prussia; and although, in
spite of all assistance, the army under Prince Ferdinand was very
much weaker than that of the invading enemy, yet we had the
advantage of better supplies, one of the greatest Generals in the
world: and, I was going to add, of British valour, but the less we
say about THAT the better. My Lord George Sackville did not exactly
cover himself with laurels at Minden; otherwise there might have
been won there one of the greatest victories of modern times.
Throwing himself between the French and the interior of the
Electorate, Prince Ferdinand wisely took possession of the free town
of Bremen, which he made his storehouse and place of arms; and round
which he gathered all his troops, making ready to fight the famous
battle of Minden.
Were these Memoirs not characterised by truth, and did I deign to
utter a single word for which my own personal experience did not
give me the fullest authority, I might easily make myself the hero
of some strange and popular adventures, and, after the fashion of
novel-writers, introduce my reader to the great characters of this
remarkable time. These persons (I mean the romance-writers), if they
take a drummer or a dustman for a hero, somehow manage to bring him
in contact with the greatest lords and most notorious personages of
the empire; and I warrant me there's not one of them but, in
describing the battle of Minden, would manage to bring Prince
Ferdinand, and my Lord George Sackville, and my Lord Granby, into
presence. It would have been easy for me to have SAID I was present
when the orders were brought to Lord George to charge with the
cavalry and finish the rout of the Frenchmen, and when he refused to
do so, and thereby spoiled the great victory. But the fact is, I was
two miles off from the cavalry when his Lordship's fatal hesitation
took place, and none of us soldiers of the line knew of what had
occurred until we came to talk about the fight over our kettles in
the evening, and repose after the labours of a hard-fought day. I
saw no one of higher rank that day than my colonel and a couple of
orderly officers riding by in the smoke--no one on our side, that
is. A poor corporal (as I then had the, disgrace of being) is not
generally invited into the company of commanders and the great; but,
in revenge, I saw, I promise you, some very good company on the
FRENCH part, for their regiments of Lorraine and Royal Cravate were
charging us all day; and in THAT sort of MELEE high and low are
pretty equally received. I hate bragging, but I cannot help saying
that I made a very close acquaintance with the colonel of the
Cravates; for I drove my bayonet into his body, and finished off a
poor little ensign, so young, slender, and small, that a blow from
my pigtail would have despatched him, I think, in place of the butt
of my musket, with which I clubbed him down. I killed, besides, four
more officers and men, and in the poor ensign's pocket found a purse
of fourteen louis-d'or, and a silver box of sugar-plums; of which
the former present was very agreeable to me. If people would tell
their stories of battles in this simple way, I think the cause of
truth would not suffer by it. All I know of this famous fight of
Minden (except from books) is told here above. The ensign's silver
bon-bon box and his purse of gold; the livid face of the poor fellow
as he fell; the huzzas of the men of my company as I went out under
a smart fire and rifled him; their shouts and curses as we came hand
in hand with the Frenchmen,--these are, in truth, not very dignified
recollections, and had best be passed over briefly. When my kind
friend Fagan was shot, a brother captain, and his very good friend,
turned to Lieutenant Rawson and said, 'Fagan's down; Rawson, there's
your company.' It was all the epitaph my brave patron got. 'I should
have left you a hundred guineas, Redmond,' were his last words to
me, 'but for a cursed run of ill luck last night at faro.' And he
gave me a faint squeeze of the hand; then, as the word was given to
advance, I left him. When we came back to our old ground, which we
presently did, he was lying there still; but he was dead. Some of
our people had already torn off his epaulets, and, no doubt, had
rifled his purse. Such knaves and ruffians do men in war become! It
is well for gentlemen to talk of the age of chivalry; but remember
the starving brutes whom they lead--men nursed in poverty, entirely
ignorant, made to take a pride in deeds of blood--men who can have
no amusement but in drunkenness, debauch, and plunder. It is with
these shocking instruments that your great warriors and kings have
been doing their murderous work in the world; and while, for
instance, we are at the present moment admiring the 'Great
Frederick,' as we call him, and his philosophy, and his liberality,
and his military genius, I, who have served him, and been, as it
were, behind the scenes of which that great spectacle is composed,
can only look at it with horror. What a number of items of human
crime, misery, slavery, go to form that sum-total of glory! I can
recollect a certain day about three weeks after the battle of
Minden, and a farmhouse in which some of us entered; and how the old
woman and her daughters served us, trembling, to wine; and how we
got drunk over the wine, and the house was in a flame, presently;
and woe betide the wretched fellow afterwards who came home to look
for his house and his children!
CHAPTER V
BARRY FAR FROM MILITARY GLORY
After the death of my protector, Captain Fagan, I am forced to
confess that I fell into the very worst of courses and company.
Being a rough soldier of fortune himself, he had never been a
favourite with the officers of his regiment; who had a contempt for
Irishmen, as Englishmen sometimes will have, and used to mock his
brogue, and his blunt uncouth manners. I had been insolent to one or
two of them, and had only been screened from punishment by his
intercession; especially his successor, Mr. Rawson, had no liking
for me, and put another man into the sergeant's place vacant in his
company after the battle of Minden. This act of injustice rendered
my service very disagreeable to me; and, instead of seeking to
conquer the dislike of my superiors, and win their goodwill by good
behaviour, I only sought for means to make my situation easier to
me, and grasped at all the amusements in my power. In a foreign
country, with the enemy before us, and the people continually under
contribution from one side or the other, numberless irregularities
were permitted to the troops which would not have been allowed in
more peaceable times. I descended gradually to mix with the
sergeants, and to share their amusements: drinking and gambling
were, I am sorry to say, our principal pastimes; and I fell so
readily into their ways, that though only a young lad of seventeen,
I was the master of them all in daring wickedness; though there were
some among them who, I promise you, were far advanced in the science
of every kind of profligacy. I should have been under the provost-
marshal's hands, for a dead certainty, had I continued much longer
in the army: but an accident occurred which took me out of the
English service in rather a singular manner.
The year in which George II died, our regiment had the honour to be
present at the battle of Warburg (where the Marquis of Granby and
his horse fully retrieved the discredit which had fallen upon the
cavalry since Lord George Sackville's defalcation at Minden), and
where Prince Ferdinand once more completely defeated the Frenchmen.
During the action, my lieutenant, Mr. Fakenham, of Fakenham, the
gentleman who had threatened me, it may be remembered, with the
caning, was struck by a musket-ball in the side. He had shown no
want of courage in this or any other occasion where he had been
called upon to act against the French; but this was his first wound,
and the young gentleman was exceedingly frightened by it. He offered
five guineas to be carried into the town, which was hard by; and I
and another man, taking him up in a cloak, managed to transport him
into a place of decent appearance, where we put him to bed, and
where a young surgeon (who desired nothing better than to take
himself out of the fire of the musketry) went presently to dress his
wound.
In order to get into the house, we had been obliged, it must be
confessed, to fire into the locks with our pieces; which summons
brought an inhabitant of the house to the door, a very pretty and
black-eyed young woman, who lived there with her old half-blind
father, a retired Jagdmeister of the Duke of Cassel, hard by. When
the French were in the town, Meinherr's house had suffered like
those of his neighbours; and he was at first exceedingly unwilling
to accommodate his guests. But the first knocking at the door had
the effect of bringing a speedy answer; and Mr. Fakenham, taking a
couple of guineas out of a very full purse, speedily convinced the
people that they had only to deal with a person of honour.
Leaving the doctor (who was very glad to stop) with his patient, who
paid me the stipulated reward, I was returning to my regiment with
my other comrade--after having paid, in my German jargon, some
deserved compliments to the black-eyed beauty of Warburg, and
thinking, with no small envy, how comfortable it would be to be
billeted there--when the private who was with me cut short my
reveries by suggesting that we should divide the five guineas the
lieutenant had given me.
'There is your share,' said I, giving the fellow one piece; which
was plenty, as I was the leader of the expedition. But he swore a
dreadful oath that he would have half; and when I told him to go to
a quarter which I shall not name, the fellow, lifting his musket,
hit me a blow with the butt-end of it, which sent me lifeless to the
ground: when I awoke from my> trance, I found myself bleeding with a
large wound in the head, and had barely time to stagger back to the
house where I had left the lieutenant, when I again fell fainting at
the door.
Here I must have been discovered by the surgeon on his issuing out;
for when I awoke a second time I found myself in the ground-floor of
the house, supported by the black-eyed girl, while the surgeon was
copiously bleeding me at the arm. There was another bed in the room
where the lieutenant had been laid,--it was that occupied by Gretel,
the servant; while Lischen, as my fair one was called, had, till
now, slept in the couch where the wounded officer lay.
'Who are you putting into that bed?' said he languidly, in German;
for the ball had been extracted from his side with much pain and
loss of blood.
They told him it was the corporal who had brought him.
'A corporal?' said he, in English; 'turn him out.' And you may be
sure I felt highly complimented by the words. But we were both too
faint to compliment or to abuse each other much, and I was put to
bed carefully; and, on being undressed, had an opportunity to find
that my pockets had been rifled by the English soldier after he had
knocked me down. However, I was in good quarters: the young lady who
sheltered me presently brought me a refreshing drink; and, as I took
it, I could not help pressing the kind hand that gave it me; nor, in
truth, did this token of my gratitude seem unwelcome.
This intimacy did not decrease with further acquaintance. I found
Lischen the tenderest of nurses. Whenever any delicacy was to be
provided for the wounded lieutenant, a share was always sent to the
bed opposite his, and to the avaricious man's no small annoyance.
His illness was long. On the second day the fever declared itself;
for some nights he was delirious; and I remember it was when a
commanding officer was inspecting our quarters, with an intention,
very likely, of billeting himself on the house, that the howling and
mad words of the patient overhead struck him, and he retired rather
frightened. I had been sitting up very comfortably in the lower
apartment, for my hurt was quite subsided; and it was only when the
officer asked me, with a rough voice, why I was not at my regiment,
that I began to reflect how pleasant my quarters were to me, and
that I was much better here than crawling under an odious tent with
a parcel of tipsy soldiers, or going the night-rounds or rising long
before daybreak for drill.
The delirium of Mr. Fakenham gave me a hint, and I determined
forthwith to GO MAD. There was a poor fellow about Brady's Town
called 'Wandering Billy,' whose insane pranks I had often mimicked
as a lad, and I again put them in practice. That night I made an
attempt upon Lischen, saluting her with a yell and a grin which
frightened her almost out of her wits; and when anybody came I was
raving. The blow on the head had disordered my brain; the doctor was
ready to vouch for this fact. One night I whispered to him that I
was Julius Caesar, and considered him to be my affianced wife Queen
Cleopatra, which convinced him of my insanity. Indeed, if Her
Majesty had been like my Aesculapius, she must have had a carroty
beard, such as is rare in Egypt.
A movement on the part of the French speedily caused an advance on
our part. The town was evacuated, except by a few Prussian troops,
whose surgeons were to visit the wounded in the place; and, when we
were well, we were to be drafted to our regiments. I determined that
I never would join mine again. My intention was to make for Holland,
almost the only neutral country of Europe in those times, and thence
to get a passage somehow to England, and home to dear old Brady's
Town.
If Mr. Fakenham is now alive, I here tender him my apologies for my
conduct to him. He was very rich; he used me very ill. I managed to
frighten away his servant who came to attend him after the affair of
Warburg, and from that time would sometimes condescend to wait upon
the patient, who always treated me with scorn; but it was my object
to have him alone, and I bore his brutality with the utmost civility
and mildness, meditating in my own mind a very pretty return for all
his favours to me. Nor was I the only person in the house to whom
the worthy gentleman was uncivil. He ordered the fair Lischen hither
and thither, made impertinent love to her, abused her soups,
quarrelled with her omelettes, and grudged the money which was laid
out for his maintenance; so that our hostess detested him as much
as, I think, without vanity, she regarded me.
For, if the truth must be told, I had made very deep love to her
during my stay under her roof; as is always my way with women, of
whatever age or degree of beauty. To a man who has to make his way
in the world, these dear girls can always be useful in one fashion
or another; never mind, if they repel your passion; at any rate,
they are not offended with your declaration of it, and only look
upon you with more favourable eyes in consequence of your
misfortune. As for Lischen, I told her such a pathetic story of my
life (a tale a great deal more romantic than that here narrated,--
for I did not restrict myself to the exact truth in that history, as
in these pages I am bound to do), that I won the poor girl's heart
entirely, and, besides, made considerable progress in the German
language under her instruction. Do not think me very cruel and
heartless, ladies; this heart of Lischen's was like many a town in
the neighbourhood in which she dwelt, and had been stormed and
occupied several times before I came to invest it; now mounting
French colours, now green and yellow Saxon, now black and white
Prussian, as the case may be. A lady who sets her heart upon a lad
in uniform must prepare to change lovers pretty quickly, or her life
will be but a sad one.
The German surgeon who attended us after the departure of the
English only condescended to pay our house a visit twice during my
residence; and I took care, for a reason I had, to receive him in a
darkened room, much to the annoyance of Mr. Fakenham, who lay there:
but I said the light affected my eyes dreadfully since my blow on
the head; and so I covered up my head with clothes when the doctor
came, and told him that I was an Egyptian mummy, or talked to him
some insane nonsense, in order to keep up my character.
'What is that nonsense you were talking about an Egyptian mummy,
fellow?' asked Mr. Fakenham peevishly.
'Oh! you'll know soon, sir,' said I.
The next time that I expected the doctor to come, instead of
receiving him in a darkened room, with handkerchiefs muffled, I took
care to be in the lower room, and was having a game at cards with
Lischen as the surgeon entered. I had taken possession of a
dressing-jacket of the lieutenant's, and some other articles of his
wardrobe, which fitted me pretty well; and, I flatter myself, was no
ungentlemanlike figure.
'Good-morrow, Corporal,' said the doctor, rather gruffly, in reply
to my smiling salute.
'Corporal! Lieutenant, if you please,' answered I, giving an arch
look at Lischen, whom I had instructed in my plot.
'How lieutenant?' asked the surgeon. 'I thought the lieutenant was'--
'Upon my word, you do me great honour,' cried I, laughing; 'you
mistook me for the mad corporal upstairs. The fellow has once or
twice pretended to be an officer, but my kind hostess here can
answer which is which.'
'Yesterday he fancied he was Prince Ferdinand,' said Lischen; 'the
day you came he said he was an Egyptian mummy.'
'So he did,' said the doctor; 'I remember; but, ha! ha! do you know,
Lieutenant, I have in my notes made a mistake in you two?'
'Don't talk to me about his malady; he is calm now.'
Lischen and I laughed at this error as at the most ridiculous thing
in the world; and when the surgeon went up to examine his patient, I
cautioned him not to talk to him about the subject of his malady,
for he was in a very excited state.
The reader will be able to gather from the above conversation what
my design really was. I was determined to escape, and to escape
under the character of Lieutenant Fakenham; taking it from him to
his face, as it were, and making use of it to meet my imperious
necessity. It was forgery and robbery, if you like; for I took all
his money and clothes,--I don't care to conceal it; but the need was
so urgent, that I would do so again: and I knew I could not effect
my escape without his purse, as well as his name. Hence it became my
duty to take possession of one and the other.
As the lieutenant lay still in bed upstairs, I did not hesitate at
all about assuming his uniform, especially after taking care to
inform myself from the doctor whether any men of ours who might know
me were in the town. But there were none that I could hear of; and
so I calmly took my walks with Madame Lischen, dressed in the
lieutenant's uniform, made inquiries as to a horse that I wanted to
purchase, reported myself to the commandant of the place as
Lieutenant Fakenham, of Gale's English regiment of foot,
convalescent, and was asked to dine with the officers of the
Prussian regiment at a very sorry mess they had. How Fakenham would
have stormed and raged, had he known the use I was making of his
name!
Whenever that worthy used to inquire about his clothes, which he did
with many oaths and curses that he would have me caned at the
regiment for inattention, I, with a most respectful air, informed
him that they were put away in perfect safety below; and, in fact,
had them very neatly packed, and ready for the day when I proposed
to depart. His papers and money, however, he kept under his pillow;
and, as I had purchased a horse, it became necessary to pay for it.
At a certain hour, then, I ordered the animal to be brought round,
when I would pay the dealer for him. (I shall pass over my adieux
with my kind hostess, which were very tearful indeed). And then,
making up my mind to the great action, walked upstairs to Fakenham's
room attired in his full regimentals, and with his hat cocked over
my left eye.
'You gWeat scoundWel!' said he, with a multiplicity of oaths; 'you
mutinous dog! what do you mean by dWessing yourself in my
Wegimentals? As sure as my name's Fakenham, when we get back to the
Wegiment, I'll have your soul cut out of your body.'
'I'm promoted, Lieutenant,' said I, with a sneer. 'I'm come to take
my leave of you;' and then going up to his bed, I said, 'I intend to
have your papers and purse.' With this I put my hand under his
pillow; at which he gave a scream that might have called the whole
garrison about my ears. 'Hark ye, sir!' said I, 'no more noise, or
you are a dead man!' and taking a handkerchief, I bound it tight
around his mouth so as well-nigh to throttle him, and, pulling
forward the sleeves of his shirt, tied them in a knot together, and
so left him; removing the papers and the purse, you may be sure, and
wishing him politely a good day.
'It is the mad corporal,' said I to the people down below who were
attracted by the noise from the sick man's chamber; and so taking
leave of the old blind Jagdmeister, and an adieu (I will not say how
tender) of his daughter, I mounted my newly purchased animal; and,
as I pranced away, and the sentinels presented arms to me at the
town-gates, felt once more that I was in my proper sphere, and
determined never again to fall from the rank of a gentleman.
I took at first the way towards Bremen, where our army was, and gave
out that I was bringing reports and letters from the Prussian
commandant of Warburg to headquarters; but, as soon as I got out of
sight of the advanced sentinels, I turned bridle and rode into the
Hesse-Cassel territory, which is luckily not very far from Warburg:
and I promise you I was very glad to see the blue-and-red stripes on
the barriers, which showed me that I was out of the land occupied by
our countrymen. I rode to Hof, and the next day to Cassel, giving
out that I was the bearer of despatches to Prince Henry, then on the
Lower Rhine, and put up at the best hotel of the place, where the
field-officers of the garrison had their ordinary. These gentlemen I
treated to the best wines that the house afforded, for I was
determined to keep up the character of the English gentleman, and I
talked to them about my English estates with a fluency that almost
made me believe in the stories which I invented. I was even asked to
an assembly at Wilhelmshohe, the Elector's palace, and danced a
minuet there with the Hofmarshal's lovely daughter, and lost a few
pieces to his excellency the first huntmaster of his Highness.
At our table at the inn there was a Prussian officer who treated me
with great civility, and asked me a thousand questions about
England; which I answered as best I might. But this best, I am bound
to say, was bad enough. I knew nothing about England, and the Court,
and the noble families there; but, led away by the vaingloriousness
of youth (and a propensity which I possessed in my early days, but
of which I have long since corrected myself, to boast and talk in a
manner not altogether consonant with truth), I invented a thousand
stories which I told him; described the King and the Ministers to
him, said the British Ambassador at Berlin was my uncle, and
promised my acquaintance a letter of recommendation to him. When the
officer asked me my uncle's name, I was not able to give him the
real name, and so said his name was O'Grady: it is as good a name as
any other, and those of Kilballyowen, county Cork, are as good a
family as any in the world, as I have heard. As for stories about my
regiment, of these, of course, I had no lack. I wish my other
histories had been equally authentic.
On the morning I left Cassel, my Prussian friend came to me with an
open smiling countenance, and said he, too, was bound for
Dusseldorf, whither I said my route lay; and so laying our horses'
heads together we jogged on. The country was desolate beyond
description. The prince in whose dominions we were was known to be
the most ruthless seller of men in Germany. He would sell to any
bidder, and during the five years which the war (afterwards called
the Seven Years' War) had now lasted, had so exhausted the males of
his principality, that the fields remained untilled: even the
children of twelve years old were driven off to the war, and I saw
herds of these wretches marching forwards, attended by a few
troopers, now under the guidance of a red-coated Hanovarian
sergeant, now with a Prussian sub-officer accompanying them; with
some of whom my companion exchanged signs of recognition.
'It hurts my feelings,' said he, 'to be obliged to commune with such
wretches; but the stern necessities of war demand men continually,
and hence these recruiters whom you see market in human flesh. They
get five-and-twenty dollars from our Government for every man they
bring in. For fine men--for men like you,' he added, laughing, 'we
would go as high as a hundred. In the old King's time we would have
given a thousand for you, when he had his giant regiment that our
present monarch disbanded.'
'I knew one of them,' said I, 'who served with you: we used to call
him Morgan Prussia.'
'Indeed; and who was this Morgan Prussia?'
'Why, a huge grenadier of ours, who was somehow snapped up in
Hanover by some of your recruiters.'
'The rascals!' said my friend: 'and did they dare take an
Englishman?'
''Faith this was an Irishman, and a great deal too sharp for them;
as you shall hear. Morgan was taken, then, and drafted into the
giant guard, and was the biggest man almost among all the giants
there. Many of these monsters used to complain of their life, and
their caning, and their long drills, and their small pay; but Morgan
was not one of the grumblers. "It's a deal better," said he, "to get
fat here in Berlin, than to starve in rags in Tipperary!"'
'Where is Tipperary?' asked my companion.
'That is exactly what Morgan's friends asked him. It is a beautiful
district in Ireland, the capital of which is the magnificent city of
Clonmel: a city, let me tell you, sir, only inferior to Dublin and
London, and far more sumptuous than any on the Continent. Well,
Morgan said that his birthplace was near that city, and the only
thing which caused him unhappiness, in his present situation, was
the thought that his brothers were still starving at home, when they
might be so much better off in His Majesty's service.
'"'Faith," says Morgan to the sergeant, to whom he imparted the
information, "it's my brother Bin that would make the fine sergeant
of the guards, entirely!"
'"Is Ben as tall as you are?" asked the sergeant.
'"As tall as ME, is it? Why, man, I'm the shortest of my family!
There's six more of us, but Bin's the biggest of all. Oh! out and
out the biggest. Seven feet in his stockin-FUT, as sure as my name's
Morgan!"
'"Can't we send and fetch them over, these brothers of yours?"
'"Not you. Ever since I was seduced by one of you gentlemen of the
cane, they've a mortal aversion to all sergeants," answered Morgan:
"but it's a pity they cannot come, too. What a monster Bin would be
in a grenadier's cap!"
'He said nothing more at the time regarding his brothers, but only
sighed as if lamenting their hard fate. However, the story was told
by the sergeant to the officers, and by the officers to the King
himself; and His Majesty was so inflamed by curiosity, that he
actually consented to let Morgan go home in order to bring back with
him his seven enormous brothers.'
'And were they as big as Morgan pretended?' asked my comrade. I
could not help laughing at his simplicity.
'Do you suppose,' cried I, 'that Morgan ever came back? No, no; once
free, he was too wise for that. He has bought a snug farm in
Tipperary with the money that was given him to secure his brothers;
and I fancy few men of the guards ever profited so much by it.'
The Prussian captain laughed exceedingly at this story, said that
the English were the cleverest nation in the world, and, on my
setting him right, agreed that the Irish were even more so. We rode
on very well pleased with each other; for he had a thousand stories
of the war to tell, of the skill and gallantry of Frederick, and the
thousand escapes, and victories, and defeats scarcely less glorious
than victories, through which the King had passed. Now that I was a
gentleman, I could listen with admiration to these tales: and yet
the sentiment recorded at the end of the last chapter was uppermost
in my mind but three weeks back, when I remembered that it was the
great general got the glory, and the poor soldier only insult and
the cane.
'By the way, to whom are you taking despatches?' asked the officer.
It was another ugly question, which I determined to answer at hap-
hazard; and so I said 'To General Rolls.' I had seen the general a
year before, and gave the first name in my head. My friend was quite
satisfied with it, and we continued our ride until evening came on;
and our horses being weary, it was agreed that we should come to a
halt.
'There is a very good inn,' said the Captain, as we rode up to what
appeared to me a very lonely-looking place.
'This may be a very good inn for Germany,' said I, 'but it would not
pass in old Ireland. Corbach is only a league off: let us push on
for Corbach.'
'Do you want to see the loveliest woman in Europe?' said the
officer. 'Ah! you sly rogue, I see THAT will influence you;' and,
truth to say, such a proposal WAS always welcome to me, as I don't
care to own. 'The people are great farmers,' said the Captain, 'as
well as innkeepers;' and, indeed, the place seemed more a farm than
an inn yard. We entered by a great gate into a Court walled round,
and at one end of which was the building, a dingy ruinous place. A
couple of covered waggens were in the court, their horses were
littered under a shed hard by, and lounging about the place were
some men and a pair of sergeants in the Prussian uniform, who both
touched their hats to my friend the Captain. This customary
formality struck me as nothing extraordinary, but the aspect of the
inn had something exceedingly chilling and forbidding in it, and I
observed the men shut to the great yard-gates as soon as we were
entered. Parties of French horsemen, the Captain said, were about
the country, and one could not take too many precautions against
such villains.
We went into supper, after the two sergeants had taken charge of our
horses; the Captain, also, ordering one of them to take my valise to
my bedroom. I promised the worthy fellow a glass of schnapps for his
pains.
A dish of fried eggs-and-bacon was ordered from a hideous old wench
that came to serve us, in place of the lovely creature I had
expected to see; and the Captain, laughing, said, 'Well, our meal is
a frugal one, but a soldier has many a time a worse:' and, taking
off his hat, sword-belt, and gloves, with great ceremony, he sat
down to eat. I would not be behindhand with him in politeness, and
put my weapon securely on the old chest of drawers where his was
laid.
The hideous old woman before mentioned brought us in a pot of very
sour wine, at which and at her ugliness I felt a considerable ill-
humour.
'Where's the beauty you promised me?' said I, as soon as the old hag
had left the room.
'Bah!' said he, laughing, and looking hard at me: 'it was my joke. I
was tired, and did not care to go farther. There's no prettier woman
here than that. If she won't suit your fancy, my friend, you must
wait a while.'
This increased my ill-humour.
'Upon my word, sir,' said I sternly, 'I think you have acted very
coolly!'
'I have acted as I think fit!' replied the captain.
'Sir,' said I, 'I'm a British officer!'
'It's a lie!' roared the other, 'you're a DESERTER! You're an
impostor, sir; I have known you for such these three hours. I
suspected you yesterday. My men heard of a man escaping from
Warburg, and I thought you were the man. Your lies and folly have
confirmed me. You pretend to carry despatches to a general who has
been dead these ten months: you have an uncle who is an ambassador,
and whose name forsooth you don't know. Will you join and take the
bounty, sir; or will you be given up?'
'Neither!' said I, springing at him like a tiger. But, agile as I
was, he was equally on his guard. He took two pistols out of his
pocket, fired one off, and said, from the other end of the table
where he stood dodging me, as it were,--
'Advance a step, and I send this bullet into your brains!' In
another minute the door was flung open, and the two sergeants
entered, armed with musket and bayonet to aid their comrade.
The game was up. I flung down a knife with which I had armed myself;
for the old hag on bringing in the wine had removed my sword.
'I volunteer,' said I.
'That's my good fellow. What name shall I put on my list?'
'Write Redmond Barry of Bally Barry,' said I haughtily; 'a
descendant of the Irish kings!'
'I was once with the Irish brigade, Roche's,' said the recruiter,
sneering, 'trying if I could get any likely fellows among the few
countrymen of yours that are in the brigade, and there was scarcely
one of them that was not descended from the kings of Ireland.'
'Sir,' said I, 'king or not, I am a gentleman, as you can see.'
'Oh! you will find plenty more in our corps,' answered the Captain,
still in the sneering mood. 'Give up your papers, Mr. Gentleman, and
let us see who you really are.'
As my pocket-book contained some bank-notes as well as papers of Mr.
Fakenham's, I was not willing to give up my property; suspecting
very rightly that it was but a scheme on the part of the Captain to
get and keep it.
'It can matter very little to you,' said I, 'what my private papers
are: I am enlisted under the name of Redmond Barry.'
'Give it up, sirrah!' said the Captain, seizing his cane.
'I will not give it up!' answered I.
'HOUND! do you mutiny?' screamed he, and, at the same time, gave me
a lash across the face with the cane, which had the anticipated
effect of producing a struggle. I dashed forward to grapple with
him, the two sergeants flung themselves on me, I was thrown to the
ground and stunned again; being hit on my former wound in the head.
It was bleeding severely when I came to myself, my laced coat was
already torn off my back, my purse and papers gone, and my hands
tied behind my back.
The great and illustrious Frederick had scores of these white slave-
dealers all round the frontiers of his kingdom, debauching troops or
kidnapping peasants, and hesitating at no crime to supply those
brilliant regiments of his with food for powder; and I cannot help
telling here, with some satisfaction, the fate which ultimately
befell the atrocious scoundrel who, violating all the rights of
friendship and good-fellowship, had just succeeded in entrapping me.
This individual was a person of high family and known talents and
courage, but who had a propensity to gambling and extravagance, and
found his calling as a recruit-decoy far more profitable to him than
his pay of second captain in the line. The sovereign, too, probably
found his services more useful in the former capacity. His name was
Monsieur de Galgenstein, and he was one of the most successful of
the practisers of his rascally trade. He spoke all languages, and
knew all countries, and hence had no difficulty in finding out the
simple braggadocio of a young lad like me.
About 1765, however, he came to his justly merited end. He was at
this time living at Kehl, opposite Strasburg, and used to take his
walk upon the bridge there, and get into conversation with the
French advanced sentinels; to whom he was in the habit of promising
'mountains and marvels,' as the French say, if they would take
service in Prussia. One day there was on the bridge a superb
grenadier, whom Galgenstein accosted, and to whom he promised a
company, at least, if he would enlist under Frederick.
'Ask my comrade yonder,' said the grenadier; 'I can do nothing
without him. We were born and bred together, we are of the same
company, sleep in the same room, and always go in pairs. If he will
go and you will give him a captaincy, I will go too.'
'Bring your comrade over to Kehl,' said Galgenstein, delighted. 'I
will give you the best of dinners, and can promise to satisfy both
of you.'
'Had you not better speak to him on the bridge?' said the grenadier.
'I dare not leave my post; but you have but to pass, and talk over
the matter.'
Galgenstein, after a little parley, passed the sentinel; but
presently a panic took him, and he retraced his steps. But the
grenadier brought his bayonet to the Prussian's breast and bade him
stand: that he was his prisoner.
The Prussian, however, seeing his danger, made a bound across the
bridge and into the Rhine; whither, flinging aside his musket, the
intrepid sentry followed him. The Frenchman was the better swimmer
of the two, seized upon the recruiter, and bore him to the Strasburg
side of the stream, where he gave him up.
'You deserve to be shot,' said the general to him, 'for abandoning
your post and arms; but you merit reward for an act of courage and
daring. The King prefers to reward you,' and the man received money
and promotion.
As for Galgenstein, he declared his quality as a nobleman and a
captain in the Prussian service, and applications were made to
Berlin to know if his representations were true. But the King,
though he employed men of this stamp (officers to seduce the
subjects of his allies) could not acknowledge his own shame. Letters
were written back from Berlin to say that such a family existed in
the kingdom, but that the person representing himself to belong to
it must be an impostor, for every officer of the name was at his
regiment and his post. It was Galgenstein's death-warrant, and he
was hanged as a spy in Strasburg.
'Turn him into the cart with the rest,' said he, as soon as I awoke
from my trance.
CHAPTER VI
THE CRIMP WAGGON--MILITARY EPISODES
The covered waggon to which I was ordered to march was standing, as
I have said, in the courtyard of the farm, with another dismal
vehicle of the same kind hard by it. Each was pretty well filled
with a crew of men, whom the atrocious crimp who had seized upon me,
had enlisted under the banners of the glorious Frederick; and I
could see by the lanterns of the sentinels, as they thrust me into
the straw, a dozen dark figures huddled together in the horrible
moving prison where I was now to be confined. A scream and a curse
from my opposite neighbour showed me that he was most likely
wounded, as I myself was; and, during the whole of the wretched
night, the moans and sobs of the poor fellows in similar captivity
kept up a continual painful chorus, which effectually prevented my
getting any relief from my ills in sleep. At midnight (as far as I
could judge) the horses were put to the waggons, and the creaking
lumbering machines were put in motion. A couple of soldiers,
strongly armed, sat on the outer bench of the cart, and their grim
faces peered in with their lanterns every now and then through the
canvas curtains, that they might count the number of their
prisoners. The brutes were half-drunk, and were singing love and war
songs, such as 'O Gretchen mein Taubchen, mein Herzenstrompet, Mein
Kanon, mein Heerpauk und meine Musket,' 'Prinz Eugen der edle
Ritter.' and the like; their wild whoops and jodels making doleful
discord with the groans of us captives within the waggons. Many a
time afterwards have I heard these ditties sung on the march, or in
the barrack-room, or round the fires as we lay out at night.
I was not near so unhappy, in spite of all, as I had been on my
first enlisting in Ireland. At least, thought I, if I am degraded to
be a private soldier there will be no one of my acquaintance who
will witness my shame; and that is the point which I have always
cared for most. There will be no one to say, 'There is young Redmond
Barry, the descendant or the Barrys, the fashionable young blood of
Dublin, pipeclaying his belt and carrying his brown Bess.' Indeed,
but for that opinion of the world, with which it is necessary that
every man of spirit should keep upon equal terms, I, for my part,
would have always been contented with the humblest portion. Now
here, to all intents and purposes, one was as far removed from the
world as in the wilds of Siberia, or in Robinson Crusoe's Island.
And I reasoned with myself thus:--'Now you are caught, there is no
use in repining: make the best of your situation, and get all the
pleasure you can out of it. There are a thousand opportunities of
plunder, &c., offered to the soldier in war-time, out of which he
can get both pleasure and profit: make use of these, and be happy.
Besides, you are extraordinarily brave, handsome, and clever: and
who knows but you may procure advancement in your new service?'
In this philosophical way I looked at my misfortunes, determining
not to be cast down by them; and bore woes and my broken head with
perfect magnanimity. The latter was, for the moment, an evil against
which it required no small powers of endurance to contend; for the
jolts of the waggon were dreadful, and every shake caused a throb in
my brain which I thought would have split my skull. As the morning
dawned, I saw that the man next me, a gaunt yellow-haired creature,
in black, had a cushion of straw under his head.
'Are you wounded, comrade?' said I.
'Praised be the Lord,' said he, 'I am sore hurt in spirit and body,
and bruised in many members; wounded, however, am I not. And you,
poor youth?'
'I am wounded in the head,' said I, 'and I want your pillow: give it
me--I've a clasp-knife in my pocket!' and with this I gave him a
terrible look, meaning to say (and mean it I did, for look you, A LA
GUERRE C'EST A LA GUERRE, and I am none of your milksops) that,
unless he yielded me the accommodation, I would give him a taste of
my steel.
'I would give it thee without any threat, friend,' said the yellow-
haired man meekly, and handed me over his little sack of straw.
He then leaned himself back as comfortably as he could against the
cart, and began repeating, 'Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott,' by
which I concluded that I had got into the company of a parson. With
the jolts of the waggon, and accidents of the journey, various more
exclamations and movements of the passengers showed what a motley
company we were. Every now and then a countryman would burst into
tears; a French voice would be heard to say, 'O mon Dieu!--mon
Dieu!' a couple more of the same nation were jabbering oaths and
chattering incessantly; and a certain allusion to his own and
everybody else's eyes, which came from a stalwart figure at the far
corner, told me that there was certainly an Englishman in our crew.
But I was spared soon the tedium and discomforts of the journey. In
spite of the clergyman's cushion, my head, which was throbbing with
pain, was brought abruptly in contact with the side of the waggon;
it began to bleed afresh: I became almost light-headed. I only
recollect having a draught of water here and there; once stopping at
a fortified town, where an officer counted us:--all the rest of the
journey was passed in a drowsy stupor, from which, when I awoke, I
found myself lying in a hospital bed, with a nun in a white hood
watching over me.
'They are in sad spiritual darkness,' said a voice from the bed next
to me, when the nun had finished her kind offices and retired: 'they
are in the night of error, and yet there is the light of faith in
those poor creatures.'
It was my comrade of the crimp waggon, his huge broad face looming
out from under a white nightcap, and ensconced in the bed beside.
'What! you there, Herr Pastor?' said I.
'Only a candidate, sir,' answered the white nightcap. 'But, praised
be Heaven! you have come to. You have had a wild time of it. You
have been talking in the English language (with which I am
acquainted) of Ireland, and a young lady, and Mick, and of another
young lady, and of a house on fire, and of the British Grenadiers,
concerning whom you sung us parts of a ballad, and of a number of
other matters appertaining, no doubt, to your personal history.'
'It has been a very strange one,' said I; 'and, perhaps, there is no
man in the world, of my birth, whose misfortunes can at all be
compared to mine.'
I do not object to own that I am disposed to brag of my birth and
other acquirements; for I have always found that if a man does not
give himself a good word, his friends will not do it for him.
'Well,' said my fellow-patient, 'I have no doubt yours is a strange
tale, and shall be glad to hear it anon; but at present you must not
be permitted to speak much, for your fever has been long, and your
exhaustion great.'
'Where are we?' I asked; and the candidate informed me that we were
in the bishopric and town of Fulda, at present occupied by Prince
Henry's troops. There had been a skirmish with an out-party of
French near the town, in which a shot entering the waggon, the poor
candidate had been wounded.
As the reader knows already my history, I will not take the trouble
to repeat it here, or to give the additions with which I favoured my
comrade in misfortune. But I confess that I told him ours was the
greatest family and finest palace in Ireland, that we were
enormously wealthy, related to all the peerage descended from the
ancient kings, &c.; and, to my surprise, in the course of our
conversation, I found that my interlocutor knew a great deal more
about Ireland than I did. When, for instance, I spoke of my
descent,--
'From which race of kings?' said he.
'Oh!' said I (for my memory for dates was never very accurate),
'from the old ancient kings of all.'
'What! can you trace your origin to the sons Japhet?' said he.
''Faith, I can,' answered I, 'and farther too,--Nebuchadnezzar, if
you like.'
'I see,' said the candidate, smiling, 'that you look upon those
legends with incredulity. These Partholans and Nemedians, of whom
your writers fondly make mention, cannot be authentically vouched
for in history. Nor do I believe that we have any more foundation
for the tales concerning them, than for the legends relative to
Joseph of Arimathea and King Bruce which prevailed two centuries
back in the sister island.
And then he began a discourse about the Phoenicians, the Scyths or
Goths, the Tuath de Danans, Tacitus, and King MacNeil; which was, to
say the truth, the very first news I had heard of those personages.
As for English, he spoke it as well as I, and had seven more
languages, he said, equally at his command; for, on my quoting the
only Latin line that I knew, that out of the poet Homer, which
says,--
'As in praesenti perfectum fumat in avi,'
he began to speak to me in the Roman tongue; on which I was fain to
tell him that we pronounced it in a different way in Ireland, and so
got off the conversation.
My honest friend's history was a curious one, and it may be told
here in order to show of what motley materials our levies were
composed:--
'I am,' said he, 'a Saxon by birth, my father being pastor of the
village of Pfannkuchen, where I imbibed the first rudiments of
knowledge. At sixteen (I am now twenty-three), having mastered the
Greek and Latin tongues, with the French, English, Arabic, and
Hebrew; and having come into possession of a legacy of a hundred
rixdalers, a sum amply sufficient to defray my University courses, I
went to the famous academy of Gottingen, where I devoted four years
to the exact sciences and theology. Also, I learned what worldly
accomplishments I could command; taking a dancing-tutor at the
expense of a groschen a lesson, a course of fencing from a French
practitioner, and attending lectures on the great horse and the
equestrian science at the hippodrome of a celebrated cavalry
professor. My opinion is, that a man should know everything as far
as in his power lies: that he should complete his cycle of
experience; and, one science being as necessary as another, it
behoves him.
'I am not of a saving turn, hence my little fortune of a hundred
rixdalers, which has served to keep many a prudent man for a score
of years, barely sufficed for five years' studies; after which my
studies were interrupted, my pupils fell off, and I was obliged to
devote much time to shoe-binding in order to save money, and, at a
future period, resume my academic course. During this period I
contracted an attachment' (here the candidate sighed a little) 'with
a person, who, though not beautiful, and forty years of age, is yet
likely to sympathise with my existence; and, a month since, my kind
friend and patron, University Prorector Doctor Nasenbrumm, having
informed me that the Pfarrer of Rumpelwitz was dead, asked whether I
would like to have my name placed upon the candidate list, and if I
were minded to preach a trial sermon? As the gaining of this living
would further my union with my Amalia, I joyously consented, and
prepared a discourse.
'If you like I will recite it to you--No?--Well, I will give you
extracts from it upon our line of march. To proceed, then, with my
biographical sketch, which is now very near a conclusion; or, as I
should more correctly say, which has very nearly brought me to the
present period of time: I preached that sermon at Rumpelwitz, in
which I hope that the Babylonian question was pretty satisfactorily
set at rest. I preached it before the Herr Baron and his noble
family, and some officers of distinction who were staying at his
castle. Mr. Doctor Moser of Halle followed me in the evening
discourse; but, though his exercise was learned, and he disposed of
a passage of Ignatius, which he proved to be a manifest
interpolation, I do not think his sermon had the effect which mine
produced, and that the Rumpelwitzers much relished it. After the
sermon, all the candidates walked out of church together, and supped
lovingly at the "Blue Stag" in Rumpelwitz.
'While so occupied, a waiter came in and said that a person without
wished to speak to one of the reverend candidates, "the tall one."
This could only mean me, for I was a head and shoulders higher than
any other reverend gentleman present. I issued out to see who was
the person desiring to hold converse with me, and found a man whom I
had no difficulty in recognising as one of the Jewish persuasion.
'"Sir," said this Hebrew, "I have heard from a friend, who was in
your church to-day, the heads of the admirable discourse you
pronounced there. It has affected me deeply, most deeply. There are
only one or two points on which I am yet in doubt, and if your
honour could but condescend to enlighten me on these, I think--I
think Solomon Hirsch would be a convert to your eloquence."
'"What are these points, my good friend?" said I; and I pointed out
to him the twenty-four heads of my sermon, asking him in which of
these his doubts lay.
'We had been walking up and down before the inn while our
conversation took place, but the windows being open, and my comrades
having heard the discourse in the morning, requested me, rather
peevishly, not to resume it at that period. I, therefore, moved on
with my disciple, and, at his request, began at once the sermon; for
my memory is good for anything, and I can repeat any book I have
read thrice.
'I poured out, then, under the trees, and in the calm moonlight,
that discourse which I had pronounced under the blazing sun of noon.
My Israelite only interrupted me by exclamations indicative of
surprise, assent, admiration, and increasing conviction.
"Prodigious!" said he;--"Wunderschon!" would he remark at the
conclusion of some eloquent passage; in a word, he exhausted the
complimentary interjections of our language: and to compliments what
man is averse? I think we must have walked two miles when I got to
my third head and my companion begged I would enter his house, which
we now neared, and partake of a glass of beer; to which I was never
averse.
'That house, sir, was the inn at which you, too, if I judge aright,
were taken. No sooner was I in the place, than three crimps rushed
upon me, told me I was a deserter, and their prisoner, and called
upon me to deliver up my money and papers; which I did with a solemn
protest as to my sacred character. They consisted of my sermon in
MS., Prorector Nasenbrumm's recommendatory letter, proving my
identity, and three groschen four pfennigs in bullion. I had already
been in the cart twenty hours when you reached the house. The French
officer, who lay opposite you (he who screamed when you trod on his
foot, for he was wounded), was brought in shortly before your
arrival. He had been taken with his epaulets and regimentals, and
declared his quality and rank; but he was alone (I believe it was
some affair of love with a Hessian lady which caused him to be
unattended); and as the persons into whose hands he fell will make
more profit of him as a recruit than as a prisoner, he is made to
share our fate. He is not the first by many scores so captured. One
of M. de Soubise's cooks, and three actors out of a troop in the
French camp, several deserters from your English troops (the men are
led away by being told that there is no flogging in the Prussian
service), and three Dutchmen were taken besides.'
'And you,' said I--'you who were just on the point of getting a
valuable living,--you who have so much learning, are you not
indignant at the outrage?'
'I am a Saxon,' said the candidate, 'and there is no use in
indignation. Our government is crushed under Frederick's heel these
five years, and I might as well hope for mercy from the Grand Mogul.
Nor am I, in truth, discontented with my lot; I have lived on a
penny bread for so many years, that a soldier's rations will be a
luxury to me. I do not care about more or less blows of a cane; all
such evils are passing, and therefore endurable. I will never, God
willing, slay a man in combat; but I am not unanxious to experience
on myself the effect of the war-passion, which has had so great an
influence on the human race. It was for the same reason that I
determined to marry Amalia, for a man is not a complete Mensch until
he is the father of a family; to be which is a condition of his
existence, and therefore a duty of his education. Amalia must wait;
she is out of the reach of want, being, indeed, cook to the Frau
Prorectorinn Nasenbrumm, my worthy patron's lady. I have one or two
books with me, which no one is likely to take from me, and one in my
heart which is the best of all. If it shall please Heaven to finish
my existence here, before I can prosecute my studies further, what
cause have I to repine? I pray God I may not be mistaken, but I
think I have wronged no man, and committed no mortal sin. If I have,
I know where to look for forgiveness; and if I die, as I have said,
without knowing all that I would desire to learn, shall I not be in
a situation to learn EVERYTHING, and what can human soul ask for
more?
'Pardon me for putting so many _I_'s in my discourse,' said the
candidate, 'but when a man is talking of himself, 'tis the briefest
and simplest way of talking.'
In which, perhaps, though I hate egotism, I think my friend was
right. Although he acknowledged himself to be a mean-spirited
fellow, with no more ambition than to know the contents of a few
musty books, I think the man had some good in him; especially in the
resolution with which he bore his calamities. Many a gallant man of
the highest honour is often not proof against these, and has been
known to despair over a bad dinner, or to be cast down at a ragged-
elbowed coat. MY maxim is to bear all, to put up with water if you
cannot get Burgundy, and if you have no velvet to be content with
frieze. But Burgundy and velvet are the best, bien entendu, and the
man is a fool who will not seize the best when the scramble is open.
The heads of the sermon which my friend the theologian intended to
impart to me, were, however, never told; for, after our coming out
of the hospital, he was drafted into a regiment quartered as far as
possible from his native country, in Pomerania; while I was put into
the Bulow regiment, of which the ordinary headquarters were Berlin.
The Prussian regiments seldom change their garrisons as ours do, for
the fear of desertion is so great, that it becomes necessary to know
the face of every individual in the service; and, in time of peace,
men live and die in the same town. This does not add, as may be
imagined, to the amusements of the soldier's life. It is lest any
young gentleman like myself should take a fancy to a military
career, and fancy that of a private soldier a tolerable one, that I
am giving these, I hope, moral descriptions of what we poor fellows
in the ranks really suffered.
As soon as we recovered, we were dismissed from the nuns and the
hospital to the town prison of Fulda, where we were kept like slaves
and criminals, with artillerymen with lighted matches at the doors
of the courtyards and the huge black dormitory where some hundreds
of us lay; until we were despatched to our different destinations.
It was soon seen by the exercise which were the old soldiers amongst
us, and which the recruits; and for the former, while we lay in
prison, there was a little more leisure: though, if possible, a
still more strict watch kept than over the broken-spirited yokels
who had been forced or coaxed into the service. To describe the
characters here assembled would require Mr. Gilray's own pencil.
There were men of all nations and callings. The Englishmen boxed and
bullied; the Frenchmen played cards, and danced, and fenced; the
heavy Germans smoked their pipes and drank beer, if they could
manage to purchase it. Those who had anything to risk gambled, and
at this sport I was pretty lucky, for, not having a penny when I
entered the depot (having been robbed of every farthing of my
property by the rascally crimps), I won near a dollar in my very
first game at cards with one of the Frenchmen; who did not think of
asking whether I could pay or not upon losing. Such, at least, is
the advantage of having a gentlemanlike appearance; it has saved me
many a time since by procuring me credit when my fortunes were at
their lowest ebb.
Among the Frenchmen there was a splendid man and soldier, whose real
name we never knew, but whose ultimate history created no small
sensation, when it came to be known in the Prussian army. If beauty
and courage are proofs of nobility, as (although I have seen some of
the ugliest dogs and the greatest cowards in the world in the
noblesse) I have no doubt courage and beauty are, this Frenchman
must have been of the highest families in France, so grand and noble
was his manner, so superb his person. He was not quite so tall as
myself, fair, while I am dark, and, if possible, rather broader in
the shoulders. He was the only man I ever met who could master me
with the small-sword; with which he would pink me four times to my
three. As for the sabre, I could knock him to pieces with it; and I
could leap farther and carry more than he could. This, however, is
mere egotism. This Frenchman, with whom I became pretty intimate--
for we were the two cocks, as it were, of the depot, and neither had
any feeling of low jealousy--was called, for want of a better name,
Le Blondin, on account of his complexion. He was not a deserter, but
had come in from the Lower Rhine and the bishoprics, as I fancy;
fortune having proved unfavourable to him at play probably, and
other means of existence being denied him. I suspect that the
Bastile was waiting for him in his own country, had he taken a fancy
to return thither.
He was passionately fond of play and liquor, and thus we had a
considerable sympathy together: when excited by one or the other, he
became frightful. I, for my part, can bear, without wincing, both
ill luck and wine; hence my advantage over him was considerable in
our bouts, and I won enough money from him to make my position
tenable. He had a wife outside (who, I take it, was the cause of his
misfortunes and separation from his family), and she used to be
admitted to see him twice or thrice a week, and never came empty-
handed---a little brown bright-eyed creature, whose ogles had made
the greatest impression upon all the world.
This man was drafted into a regiment that was quartered at Neiss in
Silesia, which is only at a short distance from the Austrian
frontier; he maintained always the same character for daring and
skill, and was, in the secret republic of the regiment--which always
exists as well as the regular military hierarchy--the acknowledged
leader. He was an admirable soldier, as I have said; but haughty,
dissolute, and a drunkard. A man of this mark, unless he takes care
to coax and flatter his officers (which I always did), is sure to
fall out with them. Le Blondin's captain was his sworn enemy, and
his punishments were frequent and severe.
His wife and the women of the regiment (this was after the peace)
used to carry on a little commerce of smuggling across the Austrian
frontier, where their dealings were winked at by both parties; and
in obedience to the instructions of her husband, this woman, from
every one of her excursions, would bring in a little powder and
ball: commodities which are not to be procured by the Prussian
soldier, and which were stowed away in secret till wanted. They WERE
to be wanted, and that soon.
Le Blondin had organised a great and extraordinary conspiracy. We
don't know how far it went, how many hundreds or thousands it
embraced; but strange were the stories told about the plot amongst
us privates: for the news was spread from garrison to garrison, and
talked of by the army, in spite of all the Government efforts to
hush it up--hush it up, indeed! I have been of the people myself; I
have seen the Irish rebellion, and I know what is the free-masonry
of the poor.
He made himself the head of the plot. There were no writings nor
papers. No single one of the conspirators communicated with any
other than the Frenchman; but personally he gave his orders to them
all. He had arranged matters for a general rising of the garrison,
at twelve o'clock on a certain day: the guard-houses in the town
were to be seized, the sentinels cut down, and--who knows the rest?
Some of our people used to say that the conspiracy was spread
through all Silesia, and that Le Blondin was to be made a general in
the Austrian service.
At twelve o'clock, and opposite the guard-house by the Bohmer-Thor
of Neiss, some thirty men were lounging about in their undress, and
the Frenchman stood near the sentinel of the guard-house, sharpening
a wood hatchet on a stone. At the stroke of twelve, he got up, split
open the sentinel's head with a blow of his axe, and the thirty men,
rushing into the guard-house, took possession of the arms there, and
marched at once to the gate. The sentry there tried to drop the bar,
but the Frenchman rushed up to him, and, with another blow of the
axe, cut off his right hand, with which he held the chain. Seeing
the men rushing out armed, the guard without the gate drew up across
the road to prevent their passage; but the Frenchman's thirty gave
them a volley, charged them with the bayonet, and brought down
several, and the rest flying, the thirty rushed on. The frontier is
only a league from Neiss, and they made rapidly towards it.
But the alarm was given in the town, and what saved it was that the
clock by which the Frenchman went was a quarter of an hour faster
than any of the clocks in the town. The generale was beat, the
troops called to arms, and thus the men who were to have attacked
the other guard-houses, were obliged to fall into the ranks, and
their project was defeated. This, however, likewise rendered the
discovery of the conspirators impossible, for no man could betray
his comrade, nor, of course, would he criminate himself.
Cavalry was sent in pursuit of the Frenchman and his thirty
fugitives, who were, by this time, far on their way to the Bohemian
frontier. When the horse came up with them, they turned, received
them with a volley and the bayonet, and drove them back. The
Austrians were out at the barriers, looking eagerly on at the
conflict. The women, who were on the look-out too, brought more
ammunition to these intrepid deserters, and they engaged and drove
back the dragoons several times. But in these gallant and fruitless
combats much time was lost, and a battalion presently came up, and
surrounded the brave thirty; when the fate of the poor fellows was
decided. They fought with the fury of despair: not one of them asked
for quarter. When their ammunition failed, they fought with the
steel, and were shot down or bayoneted where they stood. The
Frenchman was the very last man who was hit. He received a bullet in
the thigh, and fell, and in this state was overpowered, killing the
officer who first advanced to seize him.
He and the very few of his comrades who survived were carried back
to Neiss, and immediately, as the ringleader, he was brought before
a council of war. He refused all interrogations which were made as
to his real name and family. 'What matters who I am?' said he; 'you
have me and will shoot me. My name would not save me were it ever so
famous.' In the same way he declined to make a single discovery
regarding the plot. 'It was all my doing,' he said; 'each man
engaged in it only knew me, and is ignorant of every one of his
comrades. The secret is mine alone, and the secret shall die with
me.' When the officers asked him what was the reason which induced
him to meditate a crime so horrible?--'It was your infernal
brutality and tyranny,' he said. 'You are all butchers, ruffians,
tigers, and you owe it to the cowardice of your men that you were
not murdered long ago.'
At this his captain burst into the most furious exclamations against
the wounded man, and rushing up to him, struck him a blow with his
fist. But Le Blondin, wounded as he was, as quick as thought seized
the bayonet of one of the soldiers who supported him, and plunged it
into the officer's breast. 'Scoundrel and monster,' said he, 'I
shall have the consolation of sending you out of the world before I
die.' He was shot that day. He offered to write to the King, if the
officers would agree to let his letter go sealed into the hands of
the postmaster; but they feared, no doubt, that something might be
said to inculpate themselves, and refused him the permission. At the
next review Frederick treated them, it is said, with great severity,
and rebuked them for not having granted the Frenchman his request.
However, it was the King's interest to conceal the matter, and so it
was, as I have said before, hushed up--so well hushed up, that a
hundred thousand soldiers in the army knew it; and many's the one of
us that has drunk to the Frenchman's memory over our wine, as a
martyr for the cause of the soldier. I shall have, doubtless, some
readers who will cry out at this, that I am encouraging
insubordination and advocating murder. If these men had served as
privates in the Prussian army from 1760 to 1765, they would not be
so apt to take objection. This man destroyed two sentinels to get
his liberty; how many hundreds of thousands of his own and the
Austrian people did King Frederick kill because he took a fancy to
Silesia? It was the accursed tyranny of the system that sharpened
the axe which brained the two sentinels of Neiss: and so let
officers take warning, and think twice ere they visit poor fellows
with the cane.
I could tell many more stories about the army; but as, from having
been a soldier myself, all my sympathies are in the ranks, no doubt
my tales would be pronounced to be of an immoral tendency, and I had
best, therefore, be brief. Fancy my surprise while in this depot,
when one day a well-known voice saluted my ear, and I heard a meagre
young gentleman, who was brought in by a couple of troopers and
received a few cuts across the shoulders from one of them, say in
the best English, 'You infernal WASCAL, I'll be wevenged for this.
I'll WITE to my ambassador, as sure as my name's Fakenham of
Fakenham.' I burst out laughing at this: it was my old acquaintance
in MY corporal's coat. Lischen had sworn stoutly, that he was really
and truly the private, and the poor fellow had been drafted off, and
was to be made one of us. But I bear no malice, and having made the
whole room roar with the story of the way in which I had tricked the
poor lad, I gave him a piece of advice, which procured him his
liberty. 'Go to the inspecting officer,' said I; 'if they once get
you into Prussia it is all over with you, and they will never give
you up. Go now to the commandant of the depot, promise him a
hundred--five hundred guineas to set you free; say that the crimping
captain has your papers and portfolio' (this was true); 'above all,
show him that you have the means of paying him the promised money,
and I will warrant you are set free.' He did as I advised, and when
we were put on the march Mr. Fakenham found means to be allowed to
go into hospital, and while in hospital the matter was arranged as I
had recommended. He had nearly, however, missed his freedom by his
own stinginess in bargaining for it, and never showed the least
gratitude towards me his benefactor.
I am not going to give any romantic narrative of the Seven Years'
War. At the close of it, the Prussian army, so renowned for its
disciplined valour, was officered and under-officered by native
Prussians, it is true; but was composed for the most part of men
hired or stolen, like myself, from almost every nation in Europe.
The deserting to and fro was prodigious. In my regiment (Bulow's)
alone before the war, there had been no less than 600 Frenchmen, and
as they marched out of Berlin for the campaign, one of the fellows
had an old fiddle on which he was flaying a French tune, and his
comrades danced almost, rather than walked, after him, singing,
'Nous allons en France.' Two years after, when they returned to
Berlin, there were only six of these men left; the rest had fled or
were killed in action. The life the private soldier led was a
frightful one to any but men of iron courage and endurance. There
was a corporal to every three men, marching behind them, and
pitilessly using the cane; so much so that it used to be said that
in action there was a front rank of privates and a second rank of
sergeants and corporals to drive them on. Many men would give way to
the most frightful acts of despair under these incessant
persecutions and tortures; and amongst several regiments of the army
a horrible practice had sprung up, which for some time caused the
greatest alarm to the Government. This was a strange frightful
custom of CHILD-MURDER. The men used to say that life was
unbearable, that suicide was a crime; in order to avert which, and
to finish with the intolerable misery of their position, the best
plan was to kill a young child, which was innocent, and therefore
secure of heaven, and then to deliver themselves up as guilty of the
murder. The King himself--the hero, sage, and philosopher, the
prince who had always liberality on his lips and who affected a
horror of capital punishments--was frightened at this dreadful
protest, on the part of the wretches whom he had kidnapped, against
his monstrous tyranny; but his only means of remedying the evil was
strictly to forbid that such criminals should be attended by any
ecclesiastic whatever, and denied all religious consolation.
The punishment was incessant. Every officer had the liberty to
inflict it, and in peace it was more cruel than in war. For when
peace came the King turned adrift such of his officers as were not
noble; whatever their services might have been. He would call a
captain to the front of his company and say, 'He is not noble, let
him go.' We were afraid of him somehow, and were cowed before him
like wild beasts before their keeper. I have seen the bravest men of
the army cry like children at a cut of the cane; I have seen a
little ensign of fifteen call out a man of fifty from the ranks, a
man who had been in a hundred battles, and he has stood presenting
arms, and sobbing and howling like a baby, while the young wretch
lashed him over the arms and thighs with the stick. In a day of
action this man would dare anything. A button might be awry THEN and
nobody touched him; but when they had made the brute fight, then
they lashed him again into subordination. Almost all of us yielded
to the spell--scarce one could break it. The French officer I have
spoken of as taken along with me, was in my company, and caned like
a dog. I met him at Versailles twenty years afterwards, and he
turned quite pale and sick when I spoke to him of old days. 'For
God's sake,' said he, 'don't talk of that time: I wake up from my
sleep trembling and crying even now.'
As for me, after a very brief time (in which it must be confessed I
tasted, like my comrades, of the cane) and after I had found
opportunities to show myself to be a brave and dexterous soldier, I
took the means I had adopted in the English army to prevent any
further personal degradation. I wore a bullet around my neck, which
I did not take the pains to conceal, and I gave out that it should
be for the man or officer who caused me to be chastised. And there
was something in my character which made my superiors believe me;
for that bullet had already served me to kill an Austrian colonel,
and I would have given it to a Prussian with as little remorse. For
what cared I for their quarrels, or whether the eagle under which I
marched had one head or two? All I said was, 'No man shall find me
tripping in my duty; but no man shall ever lay a hand upon me.' And
by this maxim I abided as long as I remained in the service.
I do not intend to make a history of battles in the Prussian any
more than in the English service. I did my duty in them as well as
another, and by the time that my moustache had grown to a decent
length, which it did when I was twenty years of age, there was not a
braver, cleverer, handsomer, and I must own, wickeder soldier in the
Prussian army. I had formed myself to the condition of the proper
fighting beast; on a day of action I was savage and happy; out of
the field I took all the pleasure I could get, and was by no means
delicate as to its quality or the manner of procuring it. The truth
is, however, that there was among our men a much higher tone of
society than among the clumsy louts in the English army, and our
service was generally so strict that we had little time for doing
mischief. I am very dark and swarthy in complexion, and was called
by our fellows the 'Black Englander,' the 'Schwartzer Englander,' or
the English Devil. If any service was to be done, I was sure to be
put upon it. I got frequent gratifications of money, but no
promotion; and it was on the day after I had killed the Austrian
colonel (a great officer of Uhlans, whom I engaged--singly and on
foot) that General Bulow, my colonel, gave me two Frederics-d'or in
front of the regiment, and said, 'I reward thee now; but I fear I
shall have to hang thee one day or other.' I spent the money, and
that I had taken from the colonel's body, every groschen, that night
with some jovial companions; but as long as war lasted was never
without a dollar in my purse.
CHAPTER VII
BARRY LEADS A GARRISON LIFE, AND FINDS MANY FRIENDS THERE
After the war our regiment was garrisoned in the capital, the least
dull, perhaps, of all the towns of Prussia: but that does not say
much for its gaiety. Our service, which was always severe, still
left many hours of the day disengaged, in which we might take our
pleasure had we the means of paying for the same. Many of our mess
got leave to work in trades; but I had been brought up to none: and
besides, my honour forbade me; for as a gentleman, I could not soil
my fingers by a manual occupation. But our pay was barely enough to
keep us from starving; and as I have always been fond of pleasure,
and as the position in which we now were, in the midst of the
capital, prevented us from resorting to those means of levying
contributions which are always pretty feasible in wartime, I was
obliged to adopt the only means left me of providing for my
expenses: and in a word became the ORDONNANZ, or confidential
military gentleman, of my captain. I spurned the office four years
previously, when it was made to me in the English service; but the
position is very different in a foreign country; besides, to tell
the truth, after five years in the ranks, a man's pride will submit
to many rebuffs which would be intolerable to him in an independent
condition.
The captain was a young man and had distinguished himself during the
war, or he would never have been advanced to rank so early. He was,
moreover, the nephew and heir of the Minister of Police, Monsieur de
Potzdorff, a relationship which no doubt aided in the young
gentleman's promotion. Captain de Potzdorff was a severe officer
enough on parade or in barracks, but he was a person easily led by
flattery. I won his heart in the first place by my manner of tying
my hair in queue (indeed, it was more neatly dressed than that of
any man in the regiment), and subsequently gained his confidence by
a thousand little arts and compliments, which as a gentleman myself
I knew how to employ. He was a man of pleasure, which he pursued
more openly than most men in the stern Court of the King; he was
generous and careless with his purse, and he had a great affection
for Rhine wine: in all which qualities I sincerely sympathised with
him; and from which I, of course, had my profit. He was disliked in
the regiment, because he was supposed to have too intimate relations
with his uncle the Police Minister; to whom, it was hinted, he
carried the news of the corps.
Before long I had ingratiated myself considerably with my officer,
and knew most of his affairs. Thus I was relieved from many drills
and parades, which would otherwise have fallen to my lot, and came
in for a number of perquisites; which enabled me to support a
genteel figure and to appear with some ECLAT in a certain, though it
must be confessed very humble, society in Berlin. Among the ladies I
was always an especial favourite, and so polished was my behaviour
amongst them, that they could not understand how I should have
obtained my frightful nickname of the Black Devil in the regiment.
'He is not so black as he is painted,' I laughingly would say; and
most of the ladies agreed that the private was quite as well-bred as
the captain: as indeed how should it be otherwise, considering my
education and birth?
When I was sufficiently ingratiated with him, I asked leave to
address a letter to my poor mother in Ireland, to whom I had not
given any news of myself for many many years; for the letters of the
foreign soldiers were never admitted to the post, for fear of
appeals or disturbances on the part of their parents abroad. My
captain agreed to find means to forward the letter, and as I knew
that he would open it, I took care to give it him unsealed; thus
showing my confidence in him. But the letter was, as you may
imagine, written so that the writer should come to no harm were it
intercepted. I begged my honoured mother's forgiveness for having
fled from her; I said that my extravagance and folly in my own
country I knew rendered my return thither impossible; but that she
would, at least, be glad to know that I was well and happy in the
service of the greatest monarch in the world, and that the soldier's
life was most agreeable to me: and, I added, that I had found a kind
protector and patron, who I hoped would some day provide for me as I
knew it was out of her power to do. I offered remembrances to all
the girls at Castle Brady, naming them from Biddy to Becky
downwards, and signed myself, as in truth I was, her affectionate
son, Redmond Barry, in Captain Potzdorffs company of the Bulowisch
regiment of foot in garrison at Berlin. Also I told her a pleasant
story about the King kicking the Chancellor and three judges
downstairs, as he had done one day when I was on guard at Potsdam,
and said I hoped for another war soon, when I might rise to be an
officer. In fact, you might have imagined my letter to be that of
the happiest fellow in the world, and I was not on this head at all
sorry to mislead my kind parent.
I was sure my letter was read, for Captain Potzdorff began asking me
some days afterwards about my family, and I told him the
circumstances pretty truly, all things considered. I was a cadet of
a good family, but my mother was almost ruined and had barely enough
to support her eight daughters, whom I named. I had been to study
for the law at Dublin, where I had got into debt and bad company,
had killed a man in a duel, and would be hanged or imprisoned by his
powerful friends, if I returned. I had enlisted in the English
service, where an opportunity for escape presented itself to me such
as I could not resist; and hereupon I told the story of Mr. Fakenham
of Fakenham in such a way as made my patron to be convulsed with
laughter, and he told me afterwards that he had repeated the story
at Madame de Kamake's evening assembly, where all the world was
anxious to have a sight of the young Englander.
'Was the British Ambassador there?' I asked, in a tone of the
greatest alarm, and added, 'For Heaven's sake, sir, do not tell my
name to him, or he might ask to have me delivered up: and I have no
fancy to go to be hanged in my dear native country.' Potzdorff,
laughing, said he would take care that I should remain where I was,
on which I swore eternal gratitude to him.
Some days afterwards, and with rather a grave face, he said to me,
'Redmond, I have been talking to our colonel about you, and as I
wondered that a fellow of your courage and talents had not been
advanced during the war, the general said they had had their eye
upon you: that you were a gallant soldier, and had evidently come of
a good stock; that no man in the regiment had had less fault found
with him; but that no man merited promotion less. You were idle,
dissolute, and unprincipled; you had done a deal of harm to the men;
and, for all your talents and bravery, he was sure would come to no
good.'
'Sir!' said I, quite astonished that any mortal man should have
formed such an opinion of me, 'I hope General Bulow is mistaken
regarding my character. I have fallen into bad company, it is true;
but I have only done as other soldiers have done; and, above all, I
have never had a kind friend and protector before, to whom I might
show that I was worthy of better things. The general may say I am a
ruined lad, and send me to the d---l: but be sure of this, I would go
to the d---l to serve YOU.' This speech I saw pleased my patron very
much; and, as I was very discreet and useful in a thousand delicate
ways to him, he soon came to have a sincere attachment for me. One
day, or rather night, when he was tete-a-tete with the lady of the
Tabaks Rath von Dose for instance, I--But there is no use in telling
affairs which concern nobody now.
Four months after my letter to my mother, I got, under cover to the
Captain, a reply, which created in my mind a yearning after home,
and a melancholy which I cannot describe. I had not seen the dear
soul's writing for five years. All the old days, and the fresh happy
sunshine of the old green fields in Ireland, and her love, and my
uncle, and Phil Purcell, and everything that I had done and thought,
came back to me as I read the letter; and when I was alone I cried
over it, as I hadn't done since the day when Nora jilted me. I took
care not to show my feelings to the regiment or my captain: but that
night, when I was to have taken tea at the Garden-house outside
Brandenburg Gate, with Fraulein Lottchen (the Tabaks Rathinn's
gentlewoman of company), I somehow had not the courage to go; but
begged to be excused, and went early to bed in barracks, out of
which I went and came now almost as I willed, and passed a long
night weeping and thinking about dear Ireland.
Next day, my spirits rose again and I got a ten-guinea bill cashed,
which my mother sent in the letter, and gave a handsome treat to
some of my acquaintance. The poor soul's letter was blotted all over
with tears, full of texts, and written in the wildest incoherent
way. She said she was delighted to think I was under a Protestant
prince, though she feared he was not in the right way: that right
way, she said, she had the blessing to find, under the guidance of
the Reverend Joshua Jowls, whom she sat under. She said he was a
precious chosen vessel; a sweet ointment and precious box of
spikenard; and made use of a great number more phrases that I could
not understand; but one thing was clear in the midst of all this
jargon, that the good soul loved her son still, and thought and
prayed day and night for her wild Redmond. Has it not come across
many a poor fellow, in a solitary night's watch, or in sorrow,
sickness, or captivity, that at that very minute, most likely, his
mother is praying for him? I often have had these thoughts; but they
are none of the gayest, and it's quite as well that they don't come
to you in company; for where would be a set of jolly fellows then?--
as mute as undertakers at a funeral, I promise you. I drank my
mother's health that night in a bumper, and lived like a gentleman
whilst the money lasted. She pinched herself to give it me, as she
told me afterwards; and Mr. Jowls was very wroth with her. Although
the good soul's money was very quickly spent, I was not long in
getting more; for I had a hundred ways of getting it, and became a
universal favourite with the Captain and his friends. Now, it was
Madame von Dose who gave me a Frederic-d'or for bringing her a
bouquet or a letter from the Captain; now it was, on the contrary,
the old Privy Councillor who treated me with a bottle of Rhenish,
and slipped into my hand a dollar or two, in order that I might give
him some information regarding the liaison between my captain and
his lady. But though I was not such a fool as not to take his money,
you may be sure I was not dishonourable enough to betray my
benefactor; and he got very little out of ME. When the Captain and
the lady fell out, and he began to pay his addresses to the rich
daughter of the Dutch Minister, I don't know how many more letters
and guineas the unfortunate Tabaks Rathinn handed over to me, that I
might get her lover back again. But such returns are rare in love,
and the Captain used only to laugh at her stale sighs and
entreaties. In the house of Mynheer Van Guldensack I made myself so
pleasant to high and low, that I came to be quite intimate there:
and got the knowledge of a state secret or two, which surprised and
pleased my captain very much. These little hints he carried to his
uncle, the Minister of Police, who, no doubt, made his advantage of
them; and thus I began to be received quite in a confidential light
by the Potzdorff family, and became a mere nominal soldier, being
allowed to appear in plain clothes (which were, I warrant you, of a
neat fashion), and to enjoy myself in a hundred ways, which the poor
fellows my comrades envied. As for the sergeants, they were as civil
to me as to an officer: it was as much as their stripes were worth
to offend a person who had the ear of the Minister's nephew. There
was in my company a young fellow by the name of Kurz, who was six
feet high in spite of his name, and whose life I had saved in some
affair of the war. What does this lad do, after I had recounted to
him one of my adventures, but call me a spy and informer, and beg me
not to call him DU any more, as is the fashion with young men when
they are very intimate. I had nothing for it but to call him out;
but I owed him no grudge. I disarmed him in a twinkling; and as I
sent his sword flying over his head, said to him, 'Kurz, did ever
you know a man guilty of a mean action who can do as I do now?' This
silenced the rest of the grumblers; and no man ever sneered at me
after that.
No man can suppose that to a person of my fashion the waiting in
antechambers, the conversation of footmen and hangers-on, was
pleasant. But it was not more degrading than the barrack-room, of
which I need not say I was heartily sick. My protestations of liking
for the army were all intended to throw dust into the eyes of my
employer. I sighed to be out of slavery. I knew I was born to make a
figure in the world. Had I been one of the Neiss garrison, I would
have cut my way to freedom by the side of the gallant Frenchman; but
here I had only artifice to enable me to attain my end, and was not
I justified in employing it? My plan was this: I may make myself so
necessary to M. de Potzdorff, that he will obtain my freedom. Once
free, with my fine person and good family, I will do what ten
thousand Irish gentlemen have done before, and will marry a lady of
fortune and condition. And the proof that I was, if not
disinterested, at least actuated by a noble ambition, is this. There
was a fat grocer's widow in Berlin with six hundred thalers of rent,
and a good business, who gave me to understand that she would
purchase my discharge if I would marry her; but I frankly told her
that I was not made to be a grocer, and thus absolutely flung away a
chance of freedom which she offered me.
And I was grateful to my employers; more grateful than they to me.
The Captain was in debt, and had dealings with the Jews, to whom he
gave notes of hand payable on his uncle's death. The old Herr von
Potzdorff, seeing the confidence his nephew had in me, offered to
bribe me to know what the young man's affairs really were. But what
did I do? I informed Monsieur George von Potzdorff of the fact; and
we made out, in concert, a list of little debts, so moderate, that
they actually appeased the old uncle instead of irritating, and he
paid them, being glad to get off so cheap.
And a pretty return I got for this fidelity. One morning, the old
gentleman being closeted with his nephew (he used to come to get any
news stirring as to what the young officers of the regiment were
doing: whether this or that gambled; who intrigued, and with whom;
who was at the ridotto on such a night; who was in debt, and what
not; for the King liked to know the business of every officer in his
army), I was sent with a letter to the Marquis d'Argens (that
afterwards married Mademoiselle Cochois the actress), and, meeting
the Marquis at a few paces off in the street, gave my message, and
returned to the Captain's lodging. He and his worthy uncle were
making my unworthy self the subject of conversation.
'He is noble,' said the Captain.
'Bah!' replied the uncle (whom I could have throttled for his
insolence). 'All the beggarly Irish who ever enlisted tell the same
story.'
'He was kidnapped by Galgenstein,' resumed the other.
'A kidnapped deserter,' said M. Potzdorff; 'la belle affaire!'
'Well, I promised the lad I would ask for his discharge; and I am
sure you can make him useful.'
'You HAVE asked his discharge,' answered the elder, laughing. 'Bon
Dieu! You are a model of probity! You'll never succeed to my place,
George, if you are no wiser than you are just now. Make the fellow
as useful to you as you please. He has a good manner and a frank
countenance. He can lie with an assurance that I never saw
surpassed, and fight, you say, on a pinch. The scoundrel does not
want for good qualities; but he is vain, a spendthrift, and a
bavard. As long as you have the regiment in terrorem over him, you
can do as you like with him. Once let him loose, and the lad is
likely to give you the slip. Keep on promising him; promise to make
him a general, if you like. What the deuce do I care? There are
spies enough to be had in this town without him.'
It was thus that the services I rendered to M. Potzdorff were
qualified by that ungrateful old gentleman; and I stole away from
the room extremely troubled in spirit, to think that another of my
fond dreams was thus dispelled; and that my hopes of getting out of
the army, by being useful to the Captain, were entirely vain. For
some time my despair was such, that I thought of marrying the widow;
but the marriages of privates are never allowed without the direct
permission of the King; and it was a matter of very great doubt
whether His Majesty would allow a young fellow of twenty-two, the
handsomest man of his army, to be coupled to a pimplefaced old widow
of sixty, who was quite beyond the age when her marriage would be
likely to multiply the subjects of His Majesty. This hope of liberty
was therefore vain; nor could I hope to purchase my discharge,
unless any charitable soul would lend me a large sum of money; for,
though I made a good deal, as I have said, yet I have always had
through life an incorrigible knack of spending, and (such is my
generosity of disposition) have been in debt ever since I was born.
My captain, the sly rascal! gave me a very different version of his
conversation with his uncle to that which I knew to be the true one;
and said smilingly to me, 'Redmond, I have spoken to the Minister
regarding thy services,[Footnote: The service about which Mr. Barry
here speaks has, and we suspect purposely, been described by him in
very dubious terms. It is most probable that he was employed to wait
at the table of strangers in Berlin, and to bring to the Police
Minister any news concerning them which might at all interest the
Government. The great Frederick never received a guest without
taking these hospitable precautions; and as for the duels which Mr.
Barry fights, may we be allowed to hint a doubt as to a great number
of these combats. It will be observed, in one or two other parts of
his Memoirs, that whenever he is at an awkward pass, or does what
the world does not usually consider respectable, a duel, in which he
is victorious, is sure to ensue; from which he argues that he is a
man of undoubted honour.] and thy fortune is made. We shall get thee
out of the army, appoint thee to the police bureau, and procure for
thee an inspectorship of customs; and, in fine, allow thee to move
in a better sphere than that in which Fortune has hitherto placed
thee.
Although I did not believe a word of this speech, I affected to be
very much moved by it, and of course swore eternal gratitude to the
Captain for his kindness to the poor Irish castaway.
'Your service at the Dutch Minister's has pleased me very well.
There is another occasion on which you may make yourself useful to
us; and if you succeed, depend on it your reward will be secure.'
'What is the service, sir?' said I; 'I will do anything for so kind
a master.'
'There is lately come to Berlin,' said the Captain, 'a gentleman in
the service of the Empress-Queen, who calls himself the Chevalier de
Balibari, and wears the red riband and star of the Pope's order of
the Spur. He speaks Italian or French indifferently; but we have
some reason to fancy this Monsieur de Balibari is a native of your
country of Ireland. Did you ever hear such a name as Balibari in
Ireland?'
'Balibari? Balyb--?' A sudden thought flashed across me. 'No, sir,'
said I, 'I never heard the name.'
'You must go into his service. Of course you will not know a word of
English: and if the Chevalier asks as to the particularity of your
accent, say you are a Hungarian. The servant who came with him will
be turned away to-day, and the person to whom he has applied for a
faithful fellow will recommend you. You are a Hungarian; you served
in the Seven Years' War. You left the army on account of weakness of
the loins. You served Monsieur de Quellenberg two years; he is now
with the army in Silesia, but there is your certificate signed by
him. You afterwards lived with Doctor Mopsius, who will give you a
character, if need be; and the landlord of the "Star" will, of
course, certify that you are an honest fellow: but his certificate
goes for nothing. As for the rest of your story, you can fashion
that as you will, and make it as romantic or as ludicrous as your
fancy dictates. Try, however, to win the Chevalier's confidence by
provoking his compassion. He gambles a great deal, and WINS. Do you
know the cards well?'
'Only a very little, as soldiers do.'
'I had thought you more expert. You must find out if the Chevalier
cheats; if he does, we have him. He sees the English and Austrian
envoys continually, and the young men of either Ministry sup
repeatedly at his house. Find out what they talk of; for how much
each plays, especially if any of them play on parole: if you can
read his private letters, of course you will; though about those
which go to the post, you need not trouble yourself; we look at them
there. But never see him write a note without finding out to whom it
goes, and by what channel or messenger. He sleeps with the keys of
his despatch-box on a string round his neck. Twenty Frederics, if
you get an impression of the keys. You will, of course, go in plain
clothes. You had best brush the powder out of your hair, and tie it
with a riband simply; your moustache you must of course shave off.
With these instructions, and a very small gratuity, the Captain left
me. When I again saw him, he was amused at the change in my
appearance. I had, not without a pang (for they were as black as
jet, and curled elegantly), shaved off my moustaches; had removed
the odious grease and flour, which I always abominated, out of my
hair; had mounted a demure French grey coat, black satin breeches,
and a maroon plush waistcoat, and a hat without a cockade. I looked
as meek and humble as any servant out of place could possibly
appear; and I think not my own regiment, which was now at the review
at Potsdam, would have known me. Thus accoutred, I went to the 'Star
Hotel,' where this stranger was,--my heart beating with anxiety, and
something telling me that this Chevalier de Balibari was no other
than Barry, of Ballybarry, my father's eldest brother, who had given
up his estate in consequence of his obstinate adherence to the
Romish superstition. Before I went in to present myself, I went to
look in the remises at his carriage. Had he the Barry arms? Yes,
there they were: argent, a bend gules, with four escallops of the
field,--the ancient coat of my house. They were painted in a shield
about as big as my hat, on a smart chariot handsomely gilded,
surmounted with a coronet, and supported by eight or nine Cupids,
cornucopias, and flower-baskets, according to the queer heraldic
fashion of those days. It must be he! I felt quite feint as I went
up the stairs. I was going to present myself before my uncle in the
character of a servant!
'You are the young man whom M. de Seebach recommended?'
I bowed, and handed him a letter from that gentleman, with which my
captain had taken care to provide me. As he looked at it I had
leisure to examine him. My uncle was a man of sixty years of age,
dressed superbly in a coat and breeches of apricot-coloured velvet,
a white satin waistcoat embroidered with gold like the coat. Across
his breast went the purple riband of his order of the Spur; and the
star of the order, an enormous one, sparkled on his breast. He had
rings on all his fingers, a couple of watches in his fobs, a rich
diamond solitaire in the black riband round his neck, and fastened
to the bag of his wig; his ruffles and frills were decorated with a
profusion of the richest lace. He had pink silk stockings rolled
over the knee, and tied with gold garters; and enormous diamond
buckles to his red-heeled shoes. A sword mounted in gold, in a white
fish-skin scabbard; and a hat richly laced, and lined with white
feathers, which were lying on a table beside him, completed the
costume of this splendid gentleman. In height he was about my size,
that is, six feet and half an inch; his cast of features singularly
like mine, and extremely distingue. One of his eyes was closed with
a black patch, however; he wore a little white and red paint, by no
means an unusual ornament in those days; and a pair of moustaches,
which fell over his lip and hid a mouth that I afterwards found had
rather a disagreeable expression. When his beard was removed, the
upper teeth appeared to project very much; and his countenance wore
a ghastly fixed smile, by no means pleasant.
It was very imprudent of me; but when I saw the splendour of his
appearance, the nobleness of his manner, I felt it impossible to
keep disguise with him; and when he said, 'Ah, you are a Hungarian,
I see!' I could hold no longer.
'Sir,' said I, 'I am an Irishman, and my name is Redmond Barry, of
Ballybarry.' As I spoke, I burst into tears; I can't tell why; but I
had seen none of my kith or kin for six years, and my heart longed
for some one.
CHAPTER VIII
BARRY'S ADIEU TO MILITARY PROFESSION
You who have never been out of your country, know little what it is
to hear a friendly voice in captivity; and there's many a man that
will not understand the cause of the burst of feeling which I have
confessed took place on my seeing my uncle. He never for a minute
thought to question the truth of what I said. 'Mother of God!' cried
he, 'it's my brother Harry's son.' And I think in my heart he was as
much affected as I was at thus suddenly finding one of his kindred;
for he, too, was an exile from home, and a friendly voice, a look,
brought the old country back to his memory again, and the old days
of his boyhood. 'I'd give five years of my life to see them again,'
said he, after caressing me very warmly. 'What?' asked I. 'Why,'
replied he, 'the green fields, and the river, and the old round
tower, and the burying-place at Ballybarry. 'Twas a shame for your
father to part with the land, Redmond, that went so long with the
name.'
He then began to ask me concerning myself, and I gave him my history
at some length; at which the worthy gentleman laughed many times,
saying, that I was a Barry all over. In the middle of my story he
would stop me, to make me stand back to back, and measure with him
(by which I ascertained that our heights were the same, and that my
uncle had a stiff knee, moreover, which made him walk in a peculiar
way), and uttered, during the course of the narrative, a hundred
exclamations of pity, and kindness, and sympathy. It was 'Holy
Saints!' and 'Mother of Heaven!' and 'Blessed Mary!' continually; by
which, and with justice, I concluded that he was still devotedly
attached to the ancient faith of our family.
It was with some difficulty that I came to explain to him the last
part of my history, viz., that I was put into his service as a watch
upon his actions, of which I was to give information in a certain
quarter. When I told him (with a great deal of hesitation) of this
fact, he burst out laughing, and enjoyed the joke amazingly. 'The
rascals!' said he; 'they think to catch me, do they? Why, Redmond,
my chief conspiracy is a faro-bank. But the King is so jealous, that
he will see a spy in every person who comes to his miserable capital
in the great sandy desert here. Ah, my boy, I must show you Paris
and Vienna!'
I said there was nothing I longed for more than to see any city but
Berlin, and should be delighted to be free of the odious military
service. Indeed, I thought, from his splendour of appearance, the
knickknacks about the room, the gilded carriage in the remise, that
my uncle was a man of vast property; and that he would purchase a
dozen, nay, a whole regiment of substitutes, in order to restore me
to freedom.
But I was mistaken in my calculations regarding him, as his history
of himself speedily showed me. 'I have been beaten about the world,'
said he, 'ever since the year 1742, when my brother your father (and
Heaven forgive him) cut my family estate from under my heels, by
turning heretic, in order to marry that scold of a mother of yours.
Well, let bygones be bygones. 'Tis probable that I should have run
through the little property as he did in my place, and I should have
had to begin a year or two later the life I have been leading ever
since I was compelled to leave Ireland. My lad, I have been in every
service; and, between ourselves, owe money in every capital in
Europe. I made a campaign or two with the Pandours under Austrian
Trenck. I was captain in the Guard of His Holiness the Pope, I made
the campaign of Scotland with the Prince of Wales--a bad fellow, my
dear, caring more for his mistress and his brandy-bottle than for
the crowns of the three kingdoms. I have served in Spain and in
Piedmont; but I have been a rolling stone, my good fellow. Play--
play has been my ruin; that and beauty' (here he gave a leer which
made him, I must confess, look anything but handsome; besides, his
rouged cheeks were all beslobbered with the tears which he had shed
on receiving me). 'The women have made a fool of me, my dear
Redmond. I am a soft-hearted creature, and this minute, at sixty-
two, have no more command of myself than when Peggy O'Dwyer made a
fool of me at sixteen.'
''Faith sir,' says I, laughing, 'I think it runs in the family!' and
described to him, much to his amusement, my romantic passion for my
cousin, Nora Brady. He resumed his narrative.
'The cards now are my only livelihood. Sometimes I am in luck, and
then I lay out my money in these trinkets you see. It's property,
look you, Redmond; and the only way I have found of keeping a little
about me. When the luck goes against me, why, my dear, my diamonds
go to the pawnbrokers, and I wear paste. Friend Moses the goldsmith
will pay me a visit this very day; for the chances have been against
me all the week past, and I must raise money for the bank to-night.
Do you understand the cards?'
I replied that I could play as soldiers do, but had no great skill.
'We will practise in the morning, my boy,' said he, 'and I'll put
you up to a thing or two worth knowing.'
Of course I was glad to have such an opportunity of acquiring
knowledge, and professed myself delighted to receive my uncle's
instruction.
The Chevalier's account of himself rather disagreeably affected me.
All his show was on his back, as he said. His carriage, with the
fine gilding, was a part of his stock in trade. He HAD a sort of
mission from the Austrian Court:--it was to discover whether a
certain quantity of alloyed ducats which had been traced to Berlin,
were from the King's treasury. But the real end of Monsieur de
Balibari was play. There was a young attache of the English embassy,
my Lord Deuceace, afterwards Viscount and Earl of Crabs in the
English peerage, who was playing high; and it was after hearing of
the passion of this young English nobleman that my uncle, then at
Prague, determined to visit Berlin and engage him. For there is a
sort of chivalry among the knights of the dice-box: the fame of
great players is known all over Europe. I have known the Chevalier
de Casanova, for instance, to travel six hundred miles, from Paris
to Turin, for the purpose of meeting Mr. Charles Fox, then only my
Lord Holland's dashing son, afterwards the greatest of European
orators and statesmen.
It was agreed that I should keep my character of valet; that in the
presence of strangers I should not know a word of English; that I
should keep a good look-out on the trumps when I was serving the
champagne and punch about; and, having a remarkably fine eyesight
and a great natural aptitude, I was speedily able to give my dear
uncle much assistance against his opponents at the green table. Some
prudish persons may affect indignation at the frankness of these
confessions, but Heaven pity them! Do you suppose that any man who
has lost or won a hundred thousand pounds at play will not take the
advantages which his neighbour enjoys? They are all the same. But it
is only the clumsy fool who CHEATS; who resorts to the vulgar
expedients of cogged dice and cut cards. Such a man is sure to go
wrong some time or other, and is not fit to play in the society of
gallant gentlemen; and my advice to people who see such a vulgar
person at his pranks is, of course, to back him while he plays, but
never--never to have anything to do with him. Play grandly,
honourably. Be not, of course, cast down at losing; but above all,
be not eager at winning, as mean souls are. And, indeed, with all
one's skill and advantages, winning is often problematical; I have
seen a sheer ignoramus that knows no more of play than of Hebrew,
blunder you out of five thousand pounds in a few turns of the cards.
I have seen a gentleman and his confederate play against another and
HIS confederate. One never is secure in these cases: and when one
considers the time and labour spent, the genius, the anxiety, the
outlay of money required, the multiplicity of bad debts that one
meets with (for dishonourable rascals are to be found at the play-
table, as everywhere else in the world), I say, for my part, the
profession is a bad one; and, indeed, have scarcely ever met a man
who, in the end, profited by it. I am writing now with the
experience of a man of the world. At the time I speak of I was a
lad, dazzled by the idea of wealth, and respecting, certainly too
much, my uncle's superior age and station in life.
There is no need to particularise here the little arrangements made
between us; the playmen of the present day want no instruction, I
take it, and the public have little interest in the matter. But
simplicity was our secret. Everything successful is simple. If, for
instance, I wiped the dust off a chair with my napkin, it was to
show that the enemy was strong in diamonds; if I pushed it, he had
ace, king; if I said, 'Punch or wine, my Lord?' hearts was meant; if
'Wine or punch?' clubs. If I blew my nose, it was to indicate that
there was another confederate employed by the adversary; and THEN, I
warrant you, some pretty trials of skill would take place. My Lord
Deuceace, although so young, had a very great skill and cleverness
with the cards in every way; and it was only from hearing Frank
Punter, who came with him, yawn three times when the Chevalier had
the ace of trumps, that I knew we were Greek to Greek, as it were.
My assumed dulness was perfect; and I used to make Monsieur de
Potzdorff laugh with it, when I carried my little reports to him at
the Garden-house outside the town where he gave me rendezvous. These
reports, of course, were arranged between me and my uncle
beforehand. I was instructed (and it is always far the best way) to
tell as much truth as my story would possibly bear. When, for
instance, he would ask me, 'What does the Chevalier do of a
morning?'
'He goes to church regularly' (he was very religious), 'and after
hearing mass comes home to breakfast. Then he takes an airing in his
chariot till dinner, which is served at noon. After dinner he writes
his letters, if he have any letters to write: but he has very little
to do in this way. His letters are to the Austrian envoy, with whom
he corresponds, but who does not acknowledge him; and being written
in English, of course I look over his shoulder. He generally writes
for money. He says he wants it to bribe the secretaries of the
Treasury, in order to find out really where the alloyed ducats come
from; but, in fact, he wants it to play of evenings, when he makes
his party with Calsabigi, the lottery-contractor, the Russian
attaches, two from the English embassy, my Lords Deuceace and
Punter, who play a jeu d'enfer, and a few more. The same set meet
every night at supper: there are seldom any ladies; those who come
are chiefly French ladies, members of the corps de ballet. He wins
often, but not always. Lord Deuceace is a very fine player. The
Chevalier Elliot, the English Minister, sometimes comes, on which
occasion the secretaries do not play. Monsieur de Balibari dines at
the missions, but en petit comite, not on grand days of reception.
Calsabigi, I think, is his confederate at play. He has won lately;
but the week before last he pledged his solitaire for four hundred
ducats.'
'Do he and the English attaches talk together in their own
language?'
'Yes; he and the envoy spoke yesterday for half-an-hour about the
new danseuse and the American troubles: chiefly about the new
danseuse.'
It will be seen that the information I gave was very minute and
accurate, though not very important. But such as it was, it was
carried to the ears of that famous hero and warrior the Philosopher
of Sans Souci; and there was not a stranger who entered the capital
but his actions were similarly spied and related to Frederick the
Great.
As long as the play was confined to the young men of the different
embassies, His Majesty did not care to prevent it; nay, he
encouraged play at all the missions, knowing full well that a man in
difficulties can be made to speak, and that a timely rouleau of
Frederics would often get him a secret worth many thousands. He got
some papers from the French house in this way: and I have no doubt
that my Lord Deuceace would have supplied him with information at a
similar rate, had his chief not known the young nobleman's character
pretty well, and had (as is usually the case) the work of the
mission performed by a steady roturier, while the young brilliant
bloods of the suite sported their embroidery at the balls, or shook
their Mechlin ruffles over the green tables at faro. I have seen
many scores of these young sprigs since, of these and their
principals, and, mon Dieu! what fools they are! What dullards, what
fribbles, what addle-headed simple coxcombs! This is one of the lies
of the world, this diplomacy; or how could we suppose, that were the
profession as difficult as the solemn red-box and tape-men would
have us believe, they would invariably choose for it little pink-
faced boys from school, with no other claim than mamma's title, and
able at most to judge of a curricle, a new dance, or a neat boot?
When it became known, however, to the officers of the garrison that
there was a faro-table in town, they were wild to be admitted to the
sport; and, in spite of my entreaties to the contrary, my uncle was
not averse to allow the young gentlemen their fling, and once or
twice cleared a handsome sum out of their purses. It was in vain I
told him that I must carry the news to my captain, before whom his
comrades would not fail to talk, and who would thus know of the
intrigue even without my information.
'Tell him,' said my uncle.
'They will send you away,' said I; 'then what is to become of me?'
'Make your mind easy,' said the latter, with a smile; 'you shall not
be left behind, I warrant you. Go take a last look at your barracks,
make your mind easy; say a farewell to your friends in Berlin. The
dear souls, how they will weep when they hear you are out of the
country; and, as sure as my name is Barry, out of it you shall go!'
'But how, sir?' said I.
'Recollect Mr. Fakenham of Fakenham,' said he knowingly. ''Tis you
yourself taught me how. Go get me one of my wigs. Open my despatch-
box yonder, where the great secrets of the Austrian Chancery lie;
put your hair back off you forehead; clap me on this patch and these
moustaches, and now look in the glass!'
'The Chevalier de Balibari,' said I, bursting with laughter, and
began walking the room in his manner with his stiff knee.
The next day, when I went to make my report to Monsieur de
Potzdorff, I told him of the young Prussian officers that had been
of late gambling; and he replied, as I expected, that the King had
determined to send the Chevalier out of the country.
'He is a stingy curmudgeon,' I replied; 'I have had but three
Frederics from him in two months, and I hope you will remember your
promise to advance me!'
'Why, three Frederics were too much for the news you have picked
up,' said the Captain, sneering.
'It is not my fault that there has been no more,' I replied. 'When
is he to go, sir?'
'The day after to-morrow. You say he drives after breakfast and
before dinner. When he comes out to his carriage, a couple of
gendarmes will mount the box, and the coachman will get his orders
to move on.'
'And his baggage, sir?' said I.
'Oh! that will be sent after him. I have a fancy to look into that
red box which contains his papers, you say; and at noon, after
parade, shall be at the inn. You will not say a word to any one
there regarding the affair, and will wait for me at the Chevalier's
rooms until my arrival. We must force that box. You are a clumsy
hound, or you would have got the key long ago!'
I begged the Captain to remember me, and so took my leave of him.
The next night I placed a couple of pistols under the carriage seat;
and I think the adventures of the following day are quite worthy of
the honours of a separate chapter.
CHAPTER IX
I APPEAR IN A MANNER BECOMING MY NAME AND LINEAGE
Fortune smiling at parting upon Monsieur de Balibari, enabled him to
win a handsome sum with his faro-bank.
At ten o'clock the next morning, the carriage of the Chevalier de
Balibari drew up as usual at the door of his hotel; and the
Chevalier, who was at his window, seeing the chariot arrive, came
down the stairs in his usual stately manner.
'Where is my rascal Ambrose?' said he, looking around and not
finding his servant to open the door.
'I will let down the steps for your honour,' said a gendarme, who
was standing by the carriage; and no sooner had the Chevalier
entered, than the officer jumped in after him, another mounted the
box by the coachman, and the latter began to drive.
'Good gracious!' said the Chevalier, 'what is this?'
'You are going to drive to the frontier,' said the gendarme,
touching his hat.
'It is shameful--infamous! I insist upon being put down at the
Austrian Ambassador's house!'
'I have orders to gag your honour if you cry out,' said the
gendarme.
'All Europe shall hear of this!' said the Chevalier, in a fury.
'As you please,' answered the officer, and then both relapsed into
silence.
The silence was not broken between Berlin and Potsdam, through which
place the Chevalier passed as His Majesty was reviewing his guards
there, and the regiments of Bulow, Zitwitz, and Henkel de
Donnersmark. As the Chevalier passed His Majesty, the King raised
his hat and said, 'Qu'il ne descende pas: je lui souhaite un bon
voyage.' The Chevalier de Balibari acknowledged this courtesy by a
profound bow.
They had not got far beyond Potsdam, when boom! the alarm cannon
began to roar.
'It is a deserter,' said the officer.
'Is it possible?' said the Chevalier, and sank back into his
carriage again.
Hearing the sound of the guns, the common people came out along the
road with fowling-pieces and pitchforks, in hopes to catch the
truant. The gendarmes seemed very anxious to be on the look-out for
him too. The price of a deserter was fifty crowns to those who
brought him in.
'Confess, sir,' said the Chevalier to the police officer in the
carriage with him, 'that you long to be rid of me, from whom you can
get nothing, and to be on the look-out for the deserter who may
bring you in fifty crowns? Why not tell the postilion to push on?
You may land me at the frontier and get back to your hunt all the
sooner.' The officer told the postillion to get on; but the way
seemed intolerably long to the Chevalier. Once or twice he thought
he heard the noise of horse galloping behind: his own horses did not
seem to go two miles an hour; but they DID go. The black and white
barriers came in view at last, hard by Bruck, and opposite them the
green and yellow of Saxony. The Saxon custom-house officers came
out.
'I have no luggage,' said the Chevalier.
'The gentleman has nothing contraband,' said the Prussian officers,
grinning, and took their leave of their prisoner with much respect.
The Chevalier de Balibari gave them a Frederic apiece.
'Gentlemen,' said he, 'I wish you a good day. Will you please to go
to the house whence we set out this morning, and tell my man there
to send on my baggage to the "Three Kings" at Dresden?'
Then ordering fresh horses, the Chevalier set off on his journey for
that capital. I need not tell you that _I_ was the Chevalier.
'From the Chevalier de Balibari to Redmond Barry, Esquire,
Gentilhomme Anglais, a l'Hotel des 3 Couronnes, a Dresde en Saxe.
'Nephew Redmond,--This comes to you by a sure hand, no other than
Mr. Lumpit of the English Mission, who is acquainted, as all Berlin
will be directly, with our wonderful story. They only know half as
yet; they only know that a deserter went off in my clothes, and all
are in admiration of your cleverness and valour.
'I confess that for two hours after your departure I lay in bed in
no small trepidation, thinking whether His Majesty might have a
fancy to send me to Spandau, for the freak of which we had both been
guilty. But in that case I had taken my precautions: I had written a
statement of the case to my chief, the Austrian Minister, with the
full and true story how you had been set to spy upon me, how you
turned out to be my very near relative, how you had been kidnapped
yourself into the service, and how we both had determined to effect
your escape. The laugh would have been so much against the King,
that he never would have dared to lay a finger upon me. What would
Monsieur de Voltaire have said to such an act of tyranny? But it
was a lucky day, and everything has turned out to my wish. As I lay
in my bed two and a half hours after your departure, in comes your
ex-Captain Potzdorff. "Redmont!" says he, in his imperious High-
Dutch way, "are you there?" No answer. "The rogue is gone out," said
he; and straightway makes for my red box where I keep my love-
letters, my glass eye which I used to wear, my favourite lucky dice
with which I threw the thirteen mains at Prague; my two sets of
Paris teeth, and my other private matters that you know of.
'He first tried a bunch of keys, but none of them would fit the
little English lock. Then my gentleman takes out of his pocket a
chisel and hammer, and falls to work like a professional burglar,
actually bursting open my little box!
'Now was my time to act. I advance towards him armed with an immense
water-jug. I come noiselessly up to him just as he had broken the
box, and with all my might I deal him such a blow over the head as
smashes the water-jug to atoms, and sends my captain with a snort
lifeless to the ground. I thought I had killed him.
'Then I ring all the bells in the house; and shout and swear and
scream, "Thieves!--thieves!--landlord!--murder!--fire!" until the
whole household come tumbling up the stairs. "Where is my servant?"
roar I. "Who dares to rob me in open day? Look at the villain whom I
find in the act of breaking my chest open! Send for the police, send
for his Excellency the Austrian Minister! all Europe shall know of
this insult!"
'"Dear Heaven!" says the landlord, "we saw you go away three hours
ago!"
'"ME!" says I; "why, man, I have been in bed all the morning. I am
ill--I have taken physic--I have not left the house this morning!
Where is that scoundrel Ambrose? But, stop! where are my clothes and
wig?" for I was standing before them in my chamber-gown and
stockings, with my nightcap on.
'"I have it--I have it!" says a little chambermaid: "Ambrose is off
in your honour's dress."
'"And my money--my money!" says I; "where is my purse with forty-
eight Frederics in it? But we have one of the villains left.
Officers, seize him!"
'"It's the young Herr von Potzdorff!" says the landlord, more and
more astonished.
'"What! a gentleman breaking open my trunk with hammer and chisel--
impossible!"
'Herr von Potzdorff was returning to life by this time, with a
swelling on his skull as big as a saucepan; and the officers carried
him off, and the judge who was sent for dressed a proces verbal of
the matter, and I demanded a copy of it, which I sent forthwith to
my ambassador.
'I was kept a prisoner to my room the next day, and a judge, a
general, and a host of lawyers, officers, and officials, were set
upon me to bully, perplex, threaten, and cajole me. I said it was
true you had told me that you had been kidnapped into the service,
that I thought you were released from it, and that I had you with
the best recommendations. I appealed to my Minister, who was bound
to come to my aid; and, to make a long story short, poor Potzdorff
is now on his way to Spandau; and his uncle, the elder Potzdorff,
has brought me five hundred louis, with a humble request that I
would leave Berlin forthwith, and hush up this painful matter.
'I shall be with you at the "Three Crowns" the day after you receive
this. Ask Mr. Lumpit to dinner. Do not spare your money--you are my
son. Everybody in Dresden knows your loving uncle,
'THE CHEVALIER DE BALIBARI.'
And by these wonderful circumstances I was once more free again: and
I kept my resolution then made, never to fall more into the hands of
any recruiter, and henceforth and for ever to be a gentleman.
With this sum of money, and a good run of luck which ensued
presently, we were enabled to make no ungenteel figure. My uncle
speedily joined me at the inn at Dresden, where, under pretence of
illness, I had kept quiet until his arrival; and, as the Chevalier
de Balibari was in particular good odour at the Court of Dresden
(having been an intimate acquaintance of the late monarch, the
Elector, King of Poland, the most dissolute and agreeable of
European princes), I was speedily in the very best society of the
Saxon capital: where I may say that my own person and manners, and
the singularity of the adventures in which I had been a hero, made
me especially welcome. There was not a party of the nobility to
which the two gentlemen of Balibari were not invited. I had the
honour of kissing hands and being graciously received at Court by
the Elector, and I wrote home to my mother such a flaming
description of my prosperity, that the good soul very nearly forgot
her celestial welfare and her confessor, the Reverend Joshua Jowls,
in order to come after me to Germany; but travelling was very
difficult in those days, and so we were spared the arrival of the
good lady.
I think the soul of Harry Barry, my father, who was always so
genteel in his turn of mind, must have rejoiced to see the position
which I now occupied; all the women anxious to receive me, all the
men in a fury; hobnobbing with dukes and counts at supper, dancing
minuets with high-well-born baronesses (as they absurdly call
themselves in Germany), with lovely excellencies, nay, with
highnesses and transparencies themselves: who could compete with the
gallant young Irish noble? who would suppose that seven weeks before
I had been a common--bah! I am ashamed to think of it! One of the
pleasantest moments of my life was at a grand gala at the Electoral
Palace, where I had the honour of walking a polonaise with no other
than the Margravine of Bayreuth, old Fritz's own sister: old
Fritz's, whose hateful blue-baize livery I had worn, whose belts I
had pipeclayed, and whose abominable rations of small beer and
sauerkraut I had swallowed for five years.
Having won an English chariot from an Italian gentleman at play, my
uncle had our arms painted on the panels in a more splendid way than
ever, surmounted (as we were descended from the ancient kings) with
an Irish crown of the most splendid size and gilding. I had this
crown in lieu of a coronet engraved on a large amethyst signet-ring
worn on my forefinger; and I don't mind confessing that I used to
say the jewel had been in my family for several thousand years,
having originally belonged to my direct ancestor, his late Majesty
King Brian Boru, or Barry. I warrant the legends of the Heralds'
College are not more authentic than mine was.
At first the Minister and the gentlemen at the English hotel used to
be rather shy of us two Irish noblemen, and questioned our
pretensions to rank. The Minister was a lord's son, it is true, but
he was likewise a grocer's grandson; and so I told him at Count
Lobkowitz's masquerade. My uncle, like a noble gentleman as he was,
knew the pedigree of every considerable family in Europe. He said it
was the only knowledge befitting a gentleman; and when we were not
at cards, we would pass hours over Gwillim or D'Hozier, reading the
genealogies, learning the blazons, and making ourselves acquainted
with the relationships of our class. Alas! the noble science is
going into disrepute now: so are cards, without which studies and
pastimes I can hardly conceive how a man of honour can exist.
My first affair of honour with a man of undoubted fashion was on the
score of my nobility, with young Sir Rumford Bumford of the English
embassy; my uncle at the same time sending a cartel to the Minister,
who declined to come. I shot Sir Rumford in the leg, amidst the
tears of joy of my uncle, who accompanied me to the ground; and I
promise you that none of the young gentlemen questioned the
authenticity of my pedigree, or laughed at my Irish crown again.
What a delightful life did we now lead! I knew I was born a
gentleman, from the kindly way in which I took to the business: as
business it certainly is. For though it SEEMS all pleasure, yet I
assure any low-bred persons who may chance to read this, that we,
their betters, have to work as well as they: though I did not rise
until noon, yet had I not been up at play until long past midnight?
Many a time have we come home to bed as the troops were marching out
to early parade; and oh! it did my heart good to hear the bugles
blowing the reveille before daybreak, or to see the regiments
marching out to exercise, and think that I was no longer bound to
that disgusting discipline, but restored to my natural station.
I came into it at once, and as if I had never done anything else all
my life. I had a gentleman to wait upon me, a French friseur to
dress my hair of a morning; I knew the taste of chocolate as by
intuition almost, and could distinguish between the right Spanish
and the French before I had been a week in my new position; I had
rings on all my fingers, watches in both my fobs, canes, trinkets,
and snuffboxes of all sorts, and each outvying the other in
elegance. I had the finest natural taste for lace and china of any
man I ever knew; I could judge a horse as well as any Jew dealer in
Germany; in shooting and athletic exercises I was unrivalled; I
could not spell, but I could speak German and French cleverly. I had
at the least twelve suits of clothes; three richly embroidered with
gold, two laced with silver, a garnet-coloured velvet pelisse lined
with sable; one of French grey, silver-laced, and lined with
chinchilla. I had damask morning robes. I took lessons on the
guitar, and sang French catches exquisitely. Where, in fact, was
there a more accomplished gentleman than Redmond de Balibari?
All the luxuries becoming my station could not, of course, be
purchased without credit and money: to procure which, as our
patrimony had been wasted by our ancestors, and we were above the
vulgarity and slow returns and doubtful chances of trade, my uncle
kept a faro-bank. We were in partnership with a Florentine, well
known in all the Courts of Europe, the Count Alessandro Pippi, as
skilful a player as ever was seen; but he turned out a sad knave
latterly, and I have discovered that his countship was a mere
imposture. My uncle was maimed, as I have said; Pippi, like all
impostors, was a coward; it was my unrivalled skill with the sword,
and readiness to use it, that maintained the reputation of the firm,
so to speak, and silenced many a timid gambler who might have
hesitated to pay his losings. We always played on parole with
anybody: any person, that is, of honour and noble lineage. We never
pressed for our winnings or declined to receive promissory notes in
lieu of gold. But woe to the man who did not pay when the note
became due! Redmond de Balibari was sure to wait upon him with his
bill, and I promise you there were very few bad debts: on the
contrary, gentlemen were grateful to us for our forbearance, and our
character for honour stood unimpeached. In later times, a vulgar
national prejudice has chosen to cast a slur upon the character of
men of honour engaged in the profession of play; but I speak of the
good old days in Europe, before the cowardice of the French
aristocracy (in the shameful Revolution, which served them right)
brought discredit and ruin upon our order. They cry fie now upon men
engaged in play; but I should like to know how much more honourable
THEIR modes of livelihood are than ours. The broker of the Exchange
who bulls and bears, and buys and sells, and dabbles with lying
loans, and trades on State secrets, what is he but a gamester? The
merchant who deals in teas and tallow, is he any better? His bales
of dirty indigo are his dice, his cards come up every year instead
of every ten minutes, and the sea is his green table. You call the
profession of the law an honourable one, where a man will lie for
any bidder; lie down poverty for the sake of a fee from wealth, lie
down right because wrong is in his brief. You call a doctor an
honourable man, a swindling quack, who does not believe in the
nostrums which he prescribes, and takes your guinea for whispering
in your ear that it is a fine morning; and yet, forsooth, a gallant
man who sits him down before the baize and challenges all comers,
his money against theirs, his fortune against theirs, is proscribed
by your modern moral world. It is a conspiracy of the middle classes
against gentlemen: it is only the shopkeeper cant which is to go
down nowadays. I say that play was an institution of chivalry: it
has been wrecked, along with other privileges of men of birth. When
Seingalt engaged a man for six-and-thirty hours without leaving the
table, do you think he showed no courage? How have we had the best
blood, and the brightest eyes, too, of Europe throbbing round the
table, as I and my uncle have held the cards and the bank against
some terrible player, who was matching some thousands out of his
millions against our all which was there on the baize! when we
engaged that daring Alexis Kossloffsky, and won seven thousand louis
in a single coup, had we lost, we should have been beggars the next
day; when HE lost, he was only a village and a few hundred serfs in
pawn the worse. When, at Toeplitz, the Duke of Courland brought
fourteen lacqueys, each with four bags of florins, and challenged
our bank to play against the sealed bags, what did we ask? 'Sir,'
said we, 'we have but eighty thousand florins in bank, or two
hundred thousand at three months. If your Highness's bags do not
contain more than eighty thousand, we will meet you.' And we did,
and after eleven hours' play, in which our bank was at one time
reduced to two hundred and three ducats, we won seventeen thousand
florins of him. Is THIS not something like boldness? does THIS
profession not require skill, and perseverance, and bravery? Four
crowned heads looked on at the game, and an Imperial princess, when
I turned up the ace of hearts and made Paroli, burst into tears. No
man on the European Continent held a higher position than Redmond
Barry then; and when the Duke of Courland lost, he was pleased to
say that we had won nobly; and so we had, and spent nobly what we
won.
At this period my uncle, who attended mass every day regularly,
always put ten florins into the box. Wherever we went, the tavern-
keepers made us more welcome than royal princes. We used to give
away the broken meat from our suppers and dinners to scores of
beggars who blessed us. Every man who held my horse or cleaned my
boots got a ducat for his pains. I was, I may say, the author of our
common good fortune, by putting boldness into our play. Pippi was a
faint-hearted fellow, who was always cowardly when he began to win.
My uncle (I speak with great respect of him) was too much of a
devotee, and too much of a martinet at play ever to win GREATLY. His
moral courage was unquestionable, but his daring was not sufficient.
Both of these my seniors very soon acknowledged me to be their
chief, and hence the style of splendour I have described.
I have mentioned H.I.H. the Princess Frederica Amelia, who was
affected by my success, and shall always think with gratitude of the
protection with which that exalted lady honoured me. She was
passionately fond of play, as indeed were the ladies of almost all
the Courts in Europe in those days, and hence would often arise no
small trouble to us; for the truth must be told, that ladies love to
play, certainly, but not to PAY. The point of honour is not
understood by the charming sex; and it was with the greatest
difficulty, in our peregrinations to the various Courts of Northern
Europe, that we could keep them from the table, could get their
money if they lost, or, if they paid, prevent them from using the
most furious and extraordinary means of revenge. In those great days
of our fortune, I calculate that we lost no less than fourteen
thousand louis by such failures of payment. A princess of a ducal
house gave us paste instead of diamonds, which she had solemnly
pledged to us; another organised a robbery of the Crown jewels, and
would have charged the theft upon us, but for Pippi's caution, who
had kept back a note of hand 'her High Transparency' gave us, and
sent it to his ambassador; by which precaution I do believe our
necks were saved. A third lady of high (but not princely) rank,
after I had won a considerable sum in diamonds and pearls from her,
sent her lover with a band of cut-throats to waylay me; and it was
only by extraordinary courage, skill, and good luck, that I escaped
from these villains, wounded myself, but leaving the chief aggressor
dead on the ground: my sword entered his eye and broke there, and
the villains who were with him fled, seeing their chief fall. They
might have finished me else, for I had no weapon of defence.
Thus it will be seen that our life, for all its splendour, was one
of extreme danger and difficulty, requiring high talents and courage
for success; and often, when we were in a full vein of success, we
were suddenly driven from our ground on account of some freak of a
reigning prince, some intrigue of a disappointed mistress, or some
quarrel with the police minister. If the latter personage were not
bribed or won over, nothing was more common than for us to receive a
sudden order of departure; and so, perforce, we lived a wandering
and desultory life.
Though the gains of such a life are, as I have said, very great, yet
the expenses are enormous. Our appearance and retinue was too
splendid for the narrow mind of Pippi, who was always crying out at
my extravagance, though obliged to own that his own meanness and
parsimony would never have achieved the great victories which my
generosity had won. With all our success, our capital was not very
great. That speech to the Duke of Courland, for instance, was a mere
boast as far as the two hundred thousand florins at three months
were concerned. We had no credit, and no money beyond that on our
table, and should have been forced to fly if his Highness had won
and accepted our bills. Sometimes, too, we were hit very hard. A
bank is a certainty, ALMOST; but now and then a bad day will come;
and men who have the courage of good fortune, at least, ought to
meet bad luck well: the former, believe me, is the harder task of
the two.
One of these evil chances befell us in the Duke of Baden's
territory, at Mannheim. Pippi, who was always on the look-out for
business, offered to make a bank at the inn where we put up, and
where the officers of the Duke's cuirassiers supped; and some small
play accordingly took place, and some wretched crowns and louis
changed hands: I trust, rather to the advantage of these poor
gentlemen of the army, who are surely the poorest of all devils
under the sun.
But, as ill luck would have it, a couple of young students from the
neighbouring University of Heidelberg, who had come to Mannheim for
their quarter's revenue, and so had some hundred of dollars between
them, were introduced to the table, and, having never played before,
began to win (as is always the case). As ill luck would have it,
too, they were tipsy, and against tipsiness I have often found the
best calculations of play fail entirely. They played in the most
perfectly insane way, and yet won always. Every card they backed
turned up in their favour. They had won a hundred louis from us in
ten minutes; and, seeing that Pippi was growing angry and the luck
against us, I was for shutting up the bank for the night, saying the
play was only meant for a joke, and that now we had had enough.
But Pippi, who had quarrelled with me that day, was determined to
proceed, and the upshot was, that the students played and won more;
then they lent money to the officers, who began to win, too; and in
this ignoble way, in a tavern room thick with tobacco-smoke, across
a deal table besmeared with beer and liquor, and to a parcel of
hungry subalterns and a pair of beardless students, three of the
most skilful and renowned players in Europe lost seventeen hundred
louis! I blush now when I think of it. It was like Charles XII or
Richard Coeur de Lion falling before a petty fortress and an unknown
hand (as my friend Mr. Johnson wrote), and was, in fact, a most
shameful defeat.
Nor was this the only defeat. When our poor conquerors had gone off,
bewildered with the treasure which fortune had flung in their way
(one of these students was called the Baron de Clootz, perhaps he
who afterwards lost his head at Paris), Pippi resumed the quarrel of
the morning, and some exceedingly high words passed between us.
Among other things I recollect I knocked him down with a stool, and
was for flinging him out of the window; but my uncle, who was cool,
and had been keeping Lent with his usual solemnity, interposed
between us, and a reconciliation took place, Pippi apologising and
confessing he had been wrong.
I ought to have doubted, however, the sincerity of the treacherous
Italian; indeed, as I never before believed a word that he said in
his life, I know not why I was so foolish as to credit him now, and
go to bed, leaving the keys of our cash-box with him. It contained,
after our loss to the cuirassiers, in bills and money, near upon
L8000 sterling. Pippi insisted that our reconciliation should be
ratified over a bowl of hot wine, and I have no doubt put some
soporific drug into the liquor; for my uncle and I both slept till
very late the next morning, and woke with violent headaches and
fever: we did not quit our beds till noon. He had been gone twelve
hours, leaving our treasury empty; and behind him a sort of
calculation, by which he strove to make out that this was his share
of the profits, and that all the losses had been incurred without
his consent.
Thus, after eighteen months, we had to begin the world again. But
was I cast down? No. Our wardrobes still were worth a very large sum
of money; for gentlemen did not dress like parish-clerks in those
days, and a person of fashion would often wear a suit of clothes and
a set of ornaments that would be a shop-boy's fortune; so, without
repining for one single minute, or saying a single angry word (my
uncle's temper in this respect was admirable), or allowing the
secret of our loss to be known to a mortal soul, we pawned three-
fourths of our jewels and clothes to Moses Lowe the banker, and with
the produce of the sale, and our private pocket-money, amounting in
all to something less than 800 louis, we took the field again.
CHAPTER X
MORE RUNS OF LUCK
I am not going to entertain my readers with an account of my
professional career as a gamester, any more than I did with
anecdotes of my life as a military man. I might fill volumes with
tales of this kind were I so minded; but at this rate, my recital
would not be brought to a conclusion for years, and who knows how
soon I may be called upon to stop? I have gout, rheumatism, gravel,
and a disordered liver. I have two or three wounds in my body, which
break out every now and then, and give me intolerable pain, and a
hundred more signs of breaking up. Such are the effects of time,
illness, and free-living, upon one of the strongest constitutions
and finest forms the world ever saw. Ah! I suffered from none of
these ills in the year '66, when there was no man in Europe more gay
in spirits, more splendid in personal accomplishments, than young
Redmond Barry.
Before the treachery of the scoundrel Pippi, I had visited many of
the best Courts of Europe; especially the smaller ones, where play
was patronised, and the professors of that science always welcome.
Among the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine we were
particularly well received. I never knew finer or gayer Courts than
those of the Electors of Treves and Cologne, where there was more
splendour and gaiety than at Vienna; far more than in the wretched
barrack-court of Berlin. The Court of the Archduchess-Governess of
the Netherlands was, likewise, a royal place for us knights of the
dice-box and gallant votaries of fortune; whereas in the stingy
Dutch or the beggarly Swiss republics, it was impossible for a
gentleman to gain a livelihood unmolested.
After our mishap at Mannheim, my uncle and I made for the Duchy of
X---. The reader may find out the place easily enough; but I do not
choose to print at full the names of some illustrious persons in
whose society I then fell, and among whom I was made the sharer in a
very strange and tragical adventure.
There was no Court in Europe at which strangers were more welcome
than at that of the noble Duke of X---; none where pleasure was more
eagerly sought after, and more splendidly enjoyed. The Prince did
not inhabit his capital of S---, but, imitating in every respect the
ceremonial of the Court of Versailles, built himself a magnificent
palace at a few leagues from his chief city, and round about his
palace a superb aristocratic town, inhabited entirely by his nobles,
and the officers of his sumptuous Court. The people were rather
hardly pressed, to be sure, in order to keep up this splendour; for
his Highness's dominions were small, and so he wisely lived in a
sort of awful retirement from them, seldom showing his face in his
capital, or seeing any countenances but those of his faithful
domestics and officers. His palace and gardens of Ludwigslust were
exactly on the French model. Twice a week there were Court
receptions, and grand Court galas twice a month. There was the
finest opera out of France, and a ballet unrivalled in splendour; on
which his Highness, a great lover of music and dancing, expended
prodigious sums. It may be because I was then young, but I think I
never saw such an assemblage of brilliant beauty as used to figure
there on the stage of the Court theatre, in the grand mythological
ballets which were then the mode, and in which you saw Mars in red-
heeled pumps and a periwig, and Venus in patches and a hoop. They
say the costume was incorrect, and have changed it since; but for my
part, I have never seen a Venus more lovely than the Coralie, who
was the chief dancer, and found no fault with the attendant nymphs,
in their trains, and lappets, and powder. These operas used to take
place twice a week, after which some great officer of the Court
would have his evening, and his brilliant supper, and the dice-box
rattled everywhere, and all the world played. I have seen seventy
play-tables set out in the grand gallery of Ludwigslust, besides the
faro-bank; where the Duke himself would graciously come and play,
and win or lose with a truly royal splendour.
It was hither we came after the Mannheim misfortune. The nobility of
the Court were pleased to say our reputation had preceded us, and
the two Irish gentleman were made welcome. The very first night at
Court we lost 740 of our 800 louis; the next evening, at the Court
Marshal's table, I won them back, with 1300 more. You may be sure we
allowed no one to know how near we were to ruin on the first
evening; but, on the contrary, I endeared every one to me by my gay
manner of losing, and the Finance Minister himself cashed a note for
400 ducats, drawn by me upon my steward of Ballybarry Castle in the
kingdom of Ireland; which very note I won from his Excellency the
next day, along with a considerable sum in ready cash. In that noble
Court everybody was a gambler. You would see the lacqueys in the
ducal ante-rooms at work with their dirty packs of cards; the coach
and chair men playing in the court, while their masters were punting
in the saloons above; the very cook-maids and scullions, I was told,
had a bank, where one of them, an Italian confectioner, made a
handsome fortune: he purchased afterwards a Roman marquisate, and
his son has figured as one of the most fashionable of the
illustrious foreigners in London. The poor devils of soldiers played
away their pay when they got it, which was seldom; and I don't
believe there was an officer in any one of the guard regiments but
had his cards in his pouch, and no more forgot his dice than his
sword-knot. Among such fellows it was diamond cut diamond. What you
call fair play would have been a folly. The gentlemen of Ballybarry
would have been fools indeed to appear as pigeons in such a hawk's
nest. None but men of courage and genius could live and prosper in a
society where every one was bold and clever; and here my uncle and I
held our own: ay, and more than our own.
His Highness the Duke was a widower, or rather, since the death of
the reigning Duchess, had contracted a morganatic marriage with a
lady whom he had ennobled, and who considered it a compliment (such
was the morality of those days) to be called the Northern Dubarry.
He had been married very young, and his son, the Hereditary Prince,
may be said to have been the political sovereign of the State: for
the reigning Duke was fonder of pleasure than of politics, and loved
to talk a great deal more with his grand huntsman, or the director
of his opera, than with ministers and ambassadors.
The Hereditary Prince, whom I shall call Prince Victor, was of a
very different character from his august father. He had made the
Wars of the Succession and Seven Years with great credit in the
Empress's service, was of a stern character, seldom appeared at
Court, except when ceremony called him, but lived almost alone in
his wing of the palace, where he devoted himself to the severest
studies, being a great astronomer and chemist. He shared in the rage
then common throughout Europe, of hunting for the philosopher's
stone; and my uncle often regretted that he had no smattering of
chemistry, like Balsamo (who called himself Cagliostro), St.
Germain, and other individuals, who had obtained very great sums
from Duke Victor by aiding him in his search after the great secret.
His amusements were hunting and reviewing the troops; but for him,
and if his good-natured father had not had his aid, the army would
have been playing at cards all day, and so it was well that the
prudent prince was left to govern.
Duke Victor was fifty years of age, and his princess, the Princess
Olivia, was scarce three-and-twenty. They had been married seven
years, and in the first years of their union the Princess had borne
him a son and a daughter. The stern morals and manners, the dark and
ungainly appearance, of the husband, were little likely to please
the brilliant and fascinating young woman, who had been educated in
the south (she was connected with the ducal house of S---), who had
passed two years at Paris under the guardianship of Mesdames the
daughters of His Most Christian Majesty, and who was the life and
soul of the Court of X---, the gayest of the gay, the idol of her
august father-in-law, and, indeed, of the whole Court. She was not
beautiful, but charming; not witty, but charming, too, in her
conversation as in her person. She was extravagant beyond all
measure; so false, that you could not trust her; but her very
weaknesses were more winning than the virtues of other women, her
selfishness more delightful than others' generosity. I never knew a
woman whose faults made her so attractive. She used to ruin people,
and yet they all loved her. My old uncle has seen her cheating at
ombre, and let her win 400 louis without resisting in the least. Her
caprices with the officers and ladies of her household were
ceaseless: but they adored her. She was the only one of the reigning
family whom the people worshipped. She never went abroad but they
followed her carriage with shouts of acclamation: and, to be
generous to them, she would borrow the last penny from one of her
poor maids of honour, whom she would never pay. In the early days
her husband was as much fascinated by her as all the rest of the
world was; but her caprices had caused frightful outbreaks of temper
on his part, and an estrangement which, though interrupted by almost
mad returns of love, was still general. I speak of her Royal
Highness with perfect candour and admiration, although I might be
pardoned for judging her more severely, considering her opinion of
myself. She said the elder Monsieur de Balibari was a finished old
gentleman, and the younger one had the manners of a courier. The
world has given a different opinion, and I can afford to chronicle
this almost single sentence against me. Besides, she had a reason
for her dislike to me, which you shall hear.
Five years in the army, long experience of the world, had ere now
dispelled any of those romantic notions regarding love with which I
commenced life; and I had determined, as is proper with gentlemen
(it is only your low people who marry for mere affection), to
consolidate my fortunes by marriage. In the course of our
peregrinations, my uncle and I had made several attempts to carry
this object into effect; but numerous disappointments had occurred
which are not worth mentioning here, and had prevented me hitherto
from making such a match as I thought was worthy of a man of my
birth, abilities, and personal appearance. Ladies are not in the
habit of running away on the Continent, as is the custom in England
(a custom whereby many honourable gentlemen of my country have much
benefited!); guardians, and ceremonies, and difficulties of all
kinds intervene; true love is not allowed to have its course, and
poor women cannot give away their honest hearts to the gallant
fellows who have won them. Now it was settlements that were asked
for; now it was my pedigree and title-deeds that were not
satisfactory: though I had a plan and rent-roll of the Ballybarry
estates, and the genealogy of the family up to King Brian Boru, or
Barry, most handsomely designed on paper; now it was a young lady
who was whisked off to a convent just as she was ready to fall into
my arms; on another occasion, when a rich widow of the Low Countries
was about to make me lord of a noble estate in Flanders, comes an
order of the police which drives me out of Brussels at an hour's
notice, and consigns my mourner to her chateau. But at X---I had an
opportunity of playing a great game: and had won it too, but for the
dreadful catastrophe which upset my fortune.
In the household of the Hereditary Princess there was a lady
nineteen years of age, and possessor of the greatest fortune in the
whole duchy. The Countess Ida, such was her name, was daughter of a
late Minister and favourite of his Highness the Duke of X---and his
Duchess, who had done her the honour to be her sponsors at birth,
and who, at the father's death, had taken her under their august
guardianship and protection. At sixteen she was brought from her
castle, where, up to that period, she had been permitted to reside,
and had been placed with the Princess Olivia, as one of her
Highness's maids of honour.
The aunt of the Countess Ida, who presided over her house during her
minority, had foolishly allowed her to contract an attachment for
her cousin-german, a penniless sub-lieutenant in one of the Duke's
foot regiments, who had flattered himself to be able to carry off
this rich prize; and if he had not been a blundering silly idiot
indeed, with the advantage of seeing her constantly, of having no
rival near him, and the intimacy attendant upon close kinsmanship,
might easily, by a private marriage, have secured the young Countess
and her possessions. But he managed matters so foolishly, that he
allowed her to leave her retirement, to come to Court for a year,
and take her place in the Princess Olivia's household; and then what
does my young gentleman do, but appear at the Duke's levee one day,
in his tarnished epaulet and threadbare coat, and make an
application in due form to his Highness, as the young lady's
guardian, for the hand of the richest heiress in his dominions!
The weakness of the good-natured Prince was such that, as the
Countess Ida herself was quite as eager for the match as her silly
cousin, his Highness might have been induced to allow the match, had
not the Princess Olivia been induced to interpose, and to procure
from the Duke a peremptory veto to the hopes of the young man. The
cause of this refusal was as yet unknown; no other suitor for the
young lady's hand was mentioned, and the lovers continued to
correspond, hoping that time might effect a change in his Highness's
resolutions; when, of a sudden, the lieutenant was drafted into one
of the regiments which the Prince was in the habit of selling to the
great powers then at war (this military commerce was a principal
part of his Highness's and other princes' revenues in those days),
and their connection was thus abruptly broken off.
It was strange that the Princess Olivia should have taken this part
against a young lady who had been her favourite; for, at first, with
those romantic and sentimental notions which almost every woman has,
she had somewhat encouraged the Countess Ida and her penniless
lover, but now suddenly turned against them; and, from loving the
Countess, as she previously had done, pursued her with every manner
of hatred which a woman knows how to inflict: there was no end to
the ingenuity of her tortures, the venom of her tongue, the
bitterness of her sarcasm and scorn. When I first came to Court at
X--, the young fellows there had nicknamed the young lady the Dumme
Grafinn, the stupid Countess. She was generally silent, handsome,
but pale, stolid-looking, and awkward; taking no interest in the
amusements of the place, and appearing in the midst of the feasts as
glum as the death's-head which, they say, the Romans used to have at
their tables.
It was rumoured that a young gentleman of French extraction, the
Chevalier de Magny, equerry to the Hereditary Prince, and present at
Paris when the Princess Olivia was married to him by proxy there,
was the intended of the rich Countess Ida; but no official
declaration of the kind was yet made, and there were whispers of a
dark intrigue: which, subsequently, received frightful confirmation.
This Chevalier de Magny was the grandson of an old general officer
in the Duke's service, the Baron de Magny. The Baron's father had
quitted France at the expulsion of Protestants after the revocation
of the edict of Nantes, and taken service in X--, where he died. The
son succeeded him, and, quite unlike most French gentlemen of birth
whom I have known, was a stern and cold Calvinist, rigid in the
performance of his duty, retiring in his manners, mingling little
with the Court, and a close friend and favourite of Duke Victor;
whom he resembled in disposition.
The Chevalier his grandson was a true Frenchman; he had been born in
France, where his father held a diplomatic appointment in the Duke's
service. He had mingled in the gay society of the most brilliant
Court in the world, and had endless stories to tell us of the
pleasures of the petites maisons, of the secrets of the Parc aux
Cerfs, and of the wild gaieties of Richelieu and his companions. He
had been almost ruined at play, as his father had been before him;
for, out of the reach of the stern old Baron in Germany, both son
and grandson had led the most reckless of lives. He came back from
Paris soon after the embassy which had been despatched thither on
the occasion of the marriage of the Princess, was received sternly
by his old grandfather; who, however, paid his debts once more, and
procured him the post in the Duke's household. The Chevalier de
Magny rendered himself a great favourite of his august master; he
brought with him the modes and the gaieties of Paris; he was the
deviser of all the masquerades and balls, the recruiter of the
ballet-dancers, and by far the most brilliant and splendid young
gentleman of the Court.
After we had been a few weeks at Ludwigslust, the old Baron de Magny
endeavoured to have us dismissed from the duchy; but his voice was
not strong enough to overcome that of the general public, and the
Chevalier de Magny especially stood our friend with his Highness
when the question was debated before him. The Chevalier's love of
play had not deserted him. He was a regular frequenter of our bank,
where he played for some time with pretty good luck; and where, when
he began to lose, he paid with a regularity surprising to all those
who knew the smallness of his means, and the splendour of his
appearance.
Her Highness the Princess Olivia was also very fond of play. On
half-a-dozen occasions when we held a bank at Court, I could see her
passion for the game. I could see--that is, my cool-headed old uncle
could see--much more. There was an intelligence between Monsieur de
Magny and this illustrious lady. 'If her Highness be not in love
with the little Frenchman,' my uncle said to me one night after
play, 'may I lose the sight of my last eye!'
'And what then, sir?' said I.
'What then?' said my uncle, looking me hard in the face. 'Are you so
green as not to know what then? Your fortune is to be made, if you
choose to back it now; and we may have back the Barry estates in two
years, my boy.'
'How is that?' asked I, still at a loss.
My uncle drily said, 'Get Magny to play; never mind his paying: take
his notes of hand. The more he owes the better; but, above all, make
him play.'
'He can't pay a shilling,' answered I. 'The Jews will not discount
his notes at cent. per cent.'
'So much the better. You shall see we will make use of them,'
answered the old gentleman. And I must confess that the plan he laid
was a gallant, clever, and fair one.
I was to make Magny play; in this there was no great difficulty. We
had an intimacy together, for he was a good sportsman as well as
myself, and we came to have a pretty considerable friendship for one
another; if he saw a dice-box it was impossible to prevent him from
handling it; but he took to it as natural as a child does to
sweetmeats.
At first he won of me; then he began to lose; then I played him
money against some jewels that he brought: family trinkets, he said,
and indeed of considerable value. He begged me, however, not to
dispose of them in the duchy, and I gave and kept my word to him to
this effect. From jewels he got to playing upon promissory notes;
and as they would not allow him to play at the Court tables and in
public upon credit, he was very glad to have an opportunity of
indulging his favourite passion in private. I have had him for hours
at my pavilion (which I had fitted up in the Eastern manner, very
splendid) rattling the dice till it became time to go to his service
at Court, and we would spend day after day in this manner. He
brought me more jewels,--a pearl necklace, an antique emerald breast
ornament, and other trinkets, as a set-off against these losses: for
I need not say that I should not have played with him all this time
had he been winning; but, after about a week, the luck set in
against him, and he became my debtor in a prodigious sum. I do not
care to mention the extent of it; it was such as I never thought the
young man could pay.
Why, then, did I play for it? Why waste days in private play with a
mere bankrupt, when business seemingly much more profitable was to
be done elsewhere? My reason I boldly confess. I wanted to win from
Monsieur de Magny, not his money, but his intended wife, the
Countess Ida. Who can say that I had not a right to use ANY
stratagem in this matter of love? Or, why say love? I wanted the
wealth of the lady: I loved her quite as much as Magny did; I loved
her quite as much as yonder blushing virgin of seventeen does who
marries an old lord of seventy. I followed the practice of the world
in this; having resolved that marriage should achieve my fortune.
I used to make Magny, after his losses, give me a friendly letter of
acknowledgment to some such effect as this,--
'MY DEAR MONSIEUR DE BALIBARI,--I acknowledge to have lost to you
this day at lansquenet [or picquet, or hazard, as the case may be: I
was master of him at any game that is played] the sum of three
hundred ducats, and shall hold it as a great kindness on your part
if you will allow the debt to stand over until a future day, when
you shall receive payment from your very grateful humble servant.'
With the jewels he brought me I also took the precaution (but this
was my uncle's idea, and a very good one) to have a sort of invoice,
and a letter begging me to receive the trinkets as so much part
payment of a sum of money he owed me.
When I had put him in such a position as I deemed favourable to my
intentions, I spoke to him candidly, and without any reserve, as one
man of the world should speak to another. 'I will not, my dear
fellow,' said I, 'pay you so bad a compliment as to suppose that you
expect we are to go on playing at this rate much longer, and that
there is any satisfaction to me in possessing more or less sheets of
paper bearing your signature, and a series of notes of hand which I
know you never can pay. Don't look fierce or angry, for you know
Redmond Barry is your master at the sword; besides, I would not be
such a fool as to fight a man who owes me so much money; but hear
calmly what I have to propose.
'You have been very confidential to me during our intimacy of the
last month; and I know all your personal affairs completely. You
have given your word of honour to your grandfather never to play
upon parole, and you know how you have kept it, and that he will
disinherit you if he hears the truth. Nay, suppose he dies to-
morrow, his estate is not sufficient to pay the sum in which you are
indebted to me; and, were you to yield me up all, you would be a
beggar, and a bankrupt too.
'Her Highness the Princess Olivia denies you nothing. I shall not
ask why; but give me leave to say, I was aware of the fact when we
began to play together.'
'Will you be made baron-chamberlain, with the grand cordon of the
order?' gasped the poor fellow. 'The Princess can do anything with
the Duke.'
'I shall have no objection,' said I, 'to the yellow riband and the
gold key; though a gentleman of the house of Ballybarry cares little
for the titles of the German nobility. But this is not what I want.
My good Chevalier, you have hid no secrets from me. You have told me
with what difficulty you have induced the Princess Olivia to consent
to the project of your union with the Grafinn Ida, whom you don't
love. I know whom you love very well.'
'Monsieur de Balibari!' said the discomfited Chevalier; he could get
out no more. The truth began to dawn upon him.
'You begin to understand,' continued I. 'Her Highness the Princess'
(I said this in a sarcastic way) 'will not be very angry, believe
me, if you break off your connection with the stupid Countess. I am
no more an admirer of that lady than you are; but I want her estate.
I played you for that estate, and have won it; and I will give you
your bills and five thousand ducats on the day I am married to it.'
'The day _I_ am married to the Countess,' answered the Chevalier,
thinking to have me, 'I will be able to raise money to pay your
claim ten times over' (this was true, for the Countess's property
may have been valued at near half a million of our money); 'and then
I will discharge my obligations to you. Meanwhile, if you annoy me
by threats, or insult me again as you have done, I will use that
influence, which, as you say, I possess, and have you turned out of
the duchy, as you were out of the Netherlands last year.'
I rang the bell quite quietly. 'Zamor,' said I to a tall negro
fellow habited like a Turk, that used to wait upon me, 'when you
hear the bell ring a second time, you will take this packet to the
Marshal of the Court, this to his Excellency the General de Magny,
and this you will place in the hands of one of the equerries of his
Highness the Hereditary Prince. Wait in the ante-room, and do not go
with the parcels until I ring again.'
The black fellow having retired, I turned to Monsieur de Magny and
said, 'Chevalier, the first packet contains a letter from you to me,
declaring your solvency, and solemnly promising payment of the sums
you owe me; it is accompanied by a document from myself (for I
expected some resistance on your part), stating that my honour has
been called in question, and begging that the paper may be laid
before your august master his Highness. The second packet is for
your grandfather, enclosing the letter from you in which you state
yourself to be his heir, and begging for a confirmation of the fact.
The last parcel, for his Highness the Hereditary Duke,' added I,
looking most sternly, 'contains the Gustavus Adolphus emerald, which
he gave to his princess, and which you pledged to me as a family
jewel of your own. Your influence with her Highness must be great
indeed,' I concluded, 'when you could extort from her such a jewel
as that, and when you could make her, in order to pay your play-
debts, give up a secret upon which both your heads depend.'
'Villain!' said the Frenchman, quite aghast with fury and terror,
'would you implicate the Princess?'
'Monsieur de Magny,' I answered, with a sneer, 'no: I will say YOU
STOLE the jewel.' It was my belief he did, and that the unhappy and
infatuated Princess was never privy to the theft until long after it
had been committed. How we came to know the history of the emerald
is simple enough. As we wanted money (for my occupation with Magny
caused our bank to be much neglected), my uncle had carried Magny's
trinkets to Mannheim to pawn. The Jew who lent upon them knew the
history of the stone in question; and when he asked how her Highness
came to part with it, my uncle very cleverly took up the story where
he found it, said that the Princess was very fond of play, that it
was not always convenient to her to pay, and hence the emerald had
come into our hands. He brought it wisely back with him to S--; and,
as regards the other jewels which the Chevalier pawned to us, they
were of no particular mark: no inquiries have ever been made about
them to this day; and I did not only not know then that they came
from her Highness, but have only my conjectures upon the matter now.
The unfortunate young gentleman must have had a cowardly spirit,
when I charged him with the theft, not to make use of my two pistols
that were lying by chance before him, and to send out of the world
his accuser and his own ruined self. With such imprudence and
miserable recklessness on his part and that of the unhappy lady who
had forgotten herself for this poor villain, he must have known that
discovery was inevitable. But it was written that this dreadful
destiny should be accomplished: instead of ending like a man, he now
cowered before me quite spirit-broken, and, flinging himself down on
the sofa, burst into tears, calling wildly upon all the saints to
help him: as if they could be interested in the fate of such a
wretch as he!
I saw that I had nothing to fear from him; and, calling back Zamor
my black, said I would myself carry the parcels, which I returned to
my escritoire; and, my point being thus gained, I acted, as I always
do, generously towards him. I said that, for security's sake, I
should send the emerald out of the country, but that I pledged my
honour to restore it to the Duchess, without any pecuniary
consideration, on the day when she should procure the sovereign's
consent to my union with the Countess Ida.
This will explain pretty clearly, I flatter myself, the game I was
playing; and, though some rigid moralist may object to its
propriety, I say that anything is fair in love, and that men so poor
as myself can't afford to be squeamish about their means of getting
on in life. The great and rich are welcomed, smiling, up the grand
staircase of the world; the poor but aspiring must clamber up the
wall, or push and struggle up the back stair, or, PARDI, crawl
through any of the conduits of the house, never mind how foul and
narrow, that lead to the top. The unambitious sluggard pretends that
the eminence is not worth attaining, declines altogether the
struggle, and calls himself a philosopher. I say he is a poor-
spirited coward. What is life good for but for honour? and that is
so indispensable, that we should attain it anyhow.
The manner to be adopted for Magny's retreat was proposed by myself,
and was arranged so as to consult the feelings of delicacy of both
parties. I made Magny take the Countess Ida aside, and say to her,
'Madam, though I have never declared myself your admirer, you and
the Court have had sufficient proof of my regard for you; and my
demand would, I know, have been backed by his Highness, your august
guardian. I know the Duke's gracious wish is, that my attentions
should be received favourably; but, as time has not appeared to
alter your attachment elsewhere, and as I have too much spirit to
force a lady of your name and rank to be united to me against your
will, the best plan is, that I should make you, for form's sake, a
proposal UNauthorised by his Highness: that you should reply, as I
am sorry to think your heart dictates to you, in the negative: on
which I also will formally withdraw from my pursuit of you, stating
that, after a refusal, nothing, not even the Duke's desire, should
induce me to persist in my suit.'
The Countess Ida almost wept at hearing these words from Monsieur de
Magny, and tears came into her eyes, he said, as she took his hand
for the first time, and thanked him for the delicacy of the
proposal. She little knew that the Frenchman was incapable of that
sort of delicacy, and that the graceful manner in which he withdrew
his addresses was of my invention.
As soon as he withdrew, it became my business to step forward; but
cautiously and gently, so as not to alarm the lady, and yet firmly,
so as to convince her of the hopelessness of her design of uniting
herself with her shabby lover, the sub-lieutenant. The Princess
Olivia was good enough to perform this necessary part of the plan in
my favour, and solemnly to warn the Countess Ida, that, though
Monsieur de Magny had retired from paying his addresses, his
Highness her guardian would still marry her as he thought fit, and
that she must for ever forget her out-at-elbowed adorer. In fact, I
can't conceive how such a shabby rogue as that could ever have had
the audacity to propose for her: his birth was certainly good; but
what other qualifications had he?
When the Chevalier de Magny withdrew, numbers of other suitors, you
may be sure, presented themselves; and amongst these your very
humble servant, the cadet of Ballybarry. There was a carrousel, or
tournament, held at this period, in imitation of the antique
meetings of chivalry, in which the chevaliers tilted at each other,
or at the ring; and on this occasion I was habited in a splendid
Roman dress (viz., a silver helmet, a flowing periwig, a cuirass of
gilt leather richly embroidered, a light blue velvet mantle, and
crimson morocco half-boots): and in this habit I rode my bay horse
Brian, carried off three rings, and won the prize over all the
Duke's gentry, and the nobility of surrounding countries who had
come to the show. A wreath of gilded laurel was to be the prize of
the victor, and it was to be awarded by the lady he selected. So I
rode up to the gallery where the Countess Ida was seated behind the
Hereditary Princess, and, calling her name loudly, yet gracefully,
begged to be allowed to be crowned by her, and thus proclaimed
myself to the face of all Germany, as it were, her suitor. She
turned very pale, and the Princess red, I observed; but the Countess
Ida ended by crowning me: after which, putting spurs into my horse,
I galloped round the ring, saluting his Highness the Duke at the
opposite end, and performing the most wonderful exercises with my
bay.
My success did not, as you may imagine, increase my popularity with
the young gentry. They called me adventurer, bully, dice-loader,
impostor, and a hundred pretty names; but I had a way of silencing
these gentry. I took the Count de Schmetterling, the richest and
bravest of the young men who seemed to have a hankering for the
Countess Ida, and publicly insulted him at the ridotto; flinging my
cards into his face. The next day I rode thirty-five miles into the
territory of the Elector of B----, and met Monsieur de
Schmetterling, and passed my sword twice through his body; then rode
back with my second, the Chevalier de Magny, and presented myself at
the Duchess's whist that evening. Magny was very unwilling to
accompany me at first; but I insisted upon his support, and that he
should countenance my quarrel. Directly after paying my homage to
her Highness, I went up to the Countess Ida, and made her a marked
and low obeisance, gazing at her steadily in the face until she grew
crimson red; and then staring round at every man who formed her
circle, until, MA FOI, I stared them all away. I instructed Magny to
say, everywhere, that the Countess was madly in love with me; which
commission, along with many others of mine, the poor devil was
obliged to perform. He made rather a SOTTE FIGURE, as the French
say, acting the pioneer for me, praising me everywhere, accompanying
me always! he who had been the pink of the MODE until my arrival; he
who thought his pedigree of beggarly Barons of Magny was superior to
the race of great Irish kings from which I descended; who had
sneered at me a hundred times as a spadassin, a deserter, and had
called me a vulgar Irish upstart. Now I had my revenge of the
gentleman, and took it too.
I used to call him, in the choicest societies, by his Christian name
of Maxime. I would say, 'Bon jour, Maxime; comment vas-TU?' in the
Princess's hearing, and could see him bite his lips for fury and
vexation. But I had him under my thumb, and her Highness too--I,
poor private of Bulow's regiment. And this is a proof of what genius
and perseverance can do, and should act as a warning to great people
never to have SECRETS--if they can help it.
I knew the Princess hated me; but what did I care? She knew I knew
all: and indeed, I believe, so strong was her prejudice against me,
that she thought I was an indelicate villain, capable of betraying a
lady, which I would scorn to do; so that she trembled before me as a
child before its schoolmaster. She would, in her woman's way, too,
make all sorts of jokes and sneers at me on reception days; ask
about my palace in Ireland, and the kings my ancestors, and whether,
when I was a private in Bulow's foot, my royal relatives had
interposed to rescue me, and whether the cane was smartly
administered there,--anything to mortify me. But, Heaven bless you!
I can make allowances for people, and used to laugh in her face.
Whilst her jibes and jeers were continuing, it was my pleasure to
look at poor Magny and see how HE bore them. The poor devil was
trembling lest I should break out under the Princess's sarcasm and
tell all; but my revenge was, when the Princess attacked me, to say
something bitter to HIM,--to pass it on, as boys do at school. And
THAT was the thing which used to make her Highness feel. She would
wince just as much when I attacked Magny as if I had been saying
anything rude to herself. And, though she hated me, she used to beg
my pardon in private; and though her pride would often get the
better of her, yet her prudence obliged this magnificent princess to
humble herself to the poor penniless Irish boy.
As soon as Magny had formally withdrawn from the Countess Ida, the
Princess took the young lady into favour again, and pretended to be
very fond of her. To do them justice, I don't know which of the two
disliked me most,--the Princess, who was all eagerness, and fire,
and coquetry; or the Countess, who was all state and splendour. The
latter, especially, pretended to be disgusted by me: and yet, after
all, I have pleased her betters; was once one of the handsomest men
in Europe, and would defy any heyduc of the Court to measure a chest
or a leg with me: but I did not care for any of her silly
prejudices, and determined to win her and wear her in spite of
herself. Was it on account of her personal charms or qualities? No.
She was quite white, thin, short-sighted, tall, and awkward, and my
taste is quite the contrary; and as for her mind, no wonder that a
poor creature who had a hankering after a wretched ragged ensign
could never appreciate ME. It was her estate I made love to; as for
herself, it would be a reflection on my taste as a man of fashion to
own that I liked her.
CHAPTER XI
IN WHICH THE LUCK GOES AGAINST BARRY
My hopes of obtaining the hand of one of the richest heiresses in
Germany were now, as far as all human probability went, and as far
as my own merits and prudence could secure my fortune, pretty
certain of completion. I was admitted whenever I presented myself at
the Princess's apartments, and had as frequent opportunities as I
desired of seeing the Countess Ida there. I cannot say that she
received me with any particular favour; the silly young creature's
affections were, as I have said, engaged ignobly elsewhere; and,
however captivating my own person and manners may have been, it was
not to be expected that she should all of a sudden forget her lover
for the sake of the young Irish gentleman who was paying his
addresses to her. But such little rebuffs as I got were far from
discouraging me. I had very powerful friends, who were to aid me in
my undertaking; and knew that, sooner or later, the victory must be
mine. In fact, I only waited my time to press my suit. Who could
tell the dreadful stroke of fortune which was impending over my
illustrious protectress, and which was to involve me partially in
her ruin?
All things seemed for a while quite prosperous to my wishes; and in
spite of the Countess Ida's disinclination, it was much easier to
bring her to her senses than, perhaps, may be supposed in a silly
constitutional country like England, where people are not brought up
with those wholesome sentiments of obedience to Royalty which were
customary in Europe at the time when I was a young man.
I have stated how, through Magny, I had the Princess, as it were, at
my feet. Her Highness had only to press the match upon the old Duke,
over whom her influence was unbounded, and to secure the goodwill of
the Countess of Liliengarten, (which was the romantic title of his
Highness's morganatic spouse), and the easy old man would give an
order for the marriage: which his ward would perforce obey. Madame
de Liliengarten was, too, from her position, extremely anxious to
oblige the Princess Olivia; who might be called upon any day to
occupy the throne. The old Duke was tottering, apoplectic, and
exceedingly fond of good living. When he was gone, his relict would
find the patronage of the Duchess Olivia most necessary to her.
Hence there was a close mutual understanding between the two ladies;
and the world said that the Hereditary Princess was already indebted
to the favourite for help on various occasions. Her Highness had
obtained, through the Countess, several large grants of money for
the payment of her multifarious debts; and she was now good enough
to exert her gracious influence over Madame de Liliengarten in order
to obtain for me the object so near my heart. It is not to be
supposed that my end was to be obtained without continual
unwillingness and refusals on Magny's part; but I pushed my point
resolutely, and had means in my hands of overcoming the stubbornness
of that feeble young gentleman. Also, I may say, without vanity,
that if the high and mighty Princess detested me, the Countess
(though she was of extremely low origin, it is said) had better
taste and admired me. She often did us the honour to go partners
with us in one of our faro-banks, and declared that I was the
handsomest man in the duchy. All I was required to prove was my
nobility, and I got at Vienna such a pedigree as would satisfy the
most greedy in that way. In fact, what had a man descended from the
Barrys and the Bradys to fear before any VON in Germany? By way of
making assurance doubly sure, I promised Madame de Liliengarten ten
thousand louis on the day of my marriage, and she knew that as a
play-man I had never failed in my word: and I vow, that had I paid
fifty per cent. for it, I would have got the money.
Thus by my talents, honesty, and acuteness, I had, considering I was
a poor patronless outcast, raised for myself very powerful
protectors. Even his Highness the Duke Victor was favourably
inclined to me; for, his favourite charger falling ill of the
staggers, I gave him a ball such as my uncle Brady used to
administer, and cured the horse; after which his Highness was
pleased to notice me frequently. He invited me to his hunting and
shooting parties, where I showed myself to be a good sportsman; and
once or twice he condescended to talk to me about my prospects in
life, lamenting that I had taken to gambling, and that I had not
adopted a more regular means of advancement. 'Sir,' said I, 'if you
will allow me to speak frankly to your Highness, play with me is
only a means to an end. Where should I have been without it? A
private still in King Frederick's grenadiers. I come of a race which
gave princes to my country; but persecutions have deprived them of
their vast possessions. My uncle's adherence to his ancient faith
drove him from our country. I too resolved to seek advancement in
the military service; but the insolence and ill-treatment which I
received at the hands of the English were not bearable by a high-
born gentleman, and I fled their service. It was only to fall into
another bondage to all appearance still more hopeless; when my good
star sent a preserver to me in my uncle, and my spirit and gallantry
enabled me to take advantage of the means of escape afforded me.
Since then we have lived, I do not disguise it, by play; but who can
say I have done him a wrong? Yet, if I could find myself in an
honourable post, and with an assured maintenance, I would never,
except for amusement, such as every gentleman must have, touch a
card again. I beseech your Highness to inquire of your resident at
Berlin if I did not on every occasion act as a gallant soldier. I
feel that I have talents of a higher order, and should be proud to
have occasion to exert them; if, as I do not doubt, my fortune shall
bring them into play.'
The candour of this statement struck his Highness greatly, and
impressed him in my favour, and he was pleased to say that he
believed me, and would be glad to stand my friend.
Having thus the two Dukes, the Duchess, and the reigning favourite
enlisted on my side, the chances certainly were that I should carry
off the great prize; and I ought, according to all common
calculations, to have been a Prince of the Empire at this present
writing, but that my ill luck pursued me in a matter in which I was
not the least to blame,--the unhappy Duchess's attachment to the
weak, silly, cowardly Frenchman. The display of this love was
painful to witness, as its end was frightful to think of. The
Princess made no disguise of it. If Magny spoke a word to a lady of
her household, she would be jealous, and attack with all the fury of
her tongue the unlucky offender. She would send him a half-dozen of
notes in the day: at his arrival to join her circle or the courts
which she held, she would brighten up, so that all might perceive.
It was a wonder that her husband had not long ere this been made
aware of her faithlessness; but the Prince Victor was himself of so
high and stern a nature that he could not believe in her stooping so
far from her rank as to forget her virtue: and I have heard say,
that when hints were given to him of the evident partiality which
the Princess showed for the equerry, his answer was a stern command
never more to be troubled on the subject. 'The Princess is light-
minded,' he said; 'she was brought up at a frivolous Court; but her
folly goes not beyond coquetry: crime is impossible; she has her
birth, and my name, and her children, to defend her.' And he would
ride off to his military inspections and be absent for weeks, or
retire to his suite of apartments, and remain closeted there whole
days; only appearing to make a bow at her Highness's LEVEE, or to
give her his hand at the Court galas, where ceremony required that
he should appear. He was a man of vulgar tastes, and I have seen him
in the private garden, with his great ungainly figure, running
races, or playing at ball with his little son and daughter, whom he
would find a dozen pretexts daily for visiting. The serene children
were brought to their mother every morning at her toilette; but she
received them very indifferently: except on one occasion, when the
young Duke Ludwig got his little uniform as colonel of hussars,
being presented with a regiment by his godfather the Emperor
Leopold. Then, for a day or two, the Duchess Olivia was charmed with
the little boy; but she grew tired of him speedily, as a child does
of a toy. I remember one day, in the morning circle, some of the
Princess's rouge came off on the arm of her son's little white
military jacket; on which she slapped the poor child's face, and
sent him sobbing away. Oh, the woes that have been worked by women
in this world! the misery into which men have lightly stepped with
smiling faces; often not even with the excuse of passion, but from
mere foppery, vanity, and bravado! Men play with these dreadful two-
edged tools, as if no harm could come to them. I, who have seen more
of life than most men, if I had a son, would go on my knees to him
and beg him to avoid woman, who is worse than poison. Once intrigue,
and your whole life is endangered: you never know when the evil may
fall upon you; and the woe of whole families, and the ruin of
innocent people perfectly dear to you, may be caused by a moment of
your folly.
When I saw how entirely lost the unlucky Monsieur de Magny seemed to
be, in spite of ail the claims I had against him, I urged him to
fly. He had rooms in the palace, in the garrets over the Princess's
quarters (the building was a huge one, and accommodated almost a
city of noble retainers of the family); but the infatuated young
fool would not budge, although he had not even the excuse of love
for staying. 'How she squints,' he would say of the Princess, 'and
how crooked she is! She thinks no one can perceive her deformity.
She writes me verses out of Gresset or Crebillon, and fancies I
believe them to be original. Bah! they are no more her own than her
hair is!' It was in this way that the wretched lad was dancing over
the ruin that was yawning under him. I do believe that his chief
pleasure in making love to the Princess was, that he might write
about his victories to his friends of the PETITES MAISONS at Paris,
where he longed to be considered as a wit and a VAINQUEUR DE DAMES.
Seeing the young man's recklessness, and the danger of his position,
I became very anxious that MY little scheme should be brought to a
satisfactory end, and pressed him warmly on the matter.
My solicitations with him were, I need not say, from the nature of
the connection between us, generally pretty successful; and, in
fact, the poor fellow could REFUSE ME NOTHING: as I used often
laughingly to say to him, very little to his liking. But I used more
than threats, or the legitimate influence I had over him. I used
delicacy and generosity; as a proof of which, I may mention that I
promised to give back to the Princess the family emerald, which I
mentioned in the last chapter that I had won from her unprincipled
admirer at play.
This was done by my uncle's consent, and was one of the usual acts
of prudence and foresight which distinguish that clever man. "Press
the matter now, Redmond my boy," he would urge. "This affair between
her Highness and Magny must end ill for both of them, and that soon;
and where will be your chance to win the Countess then? Now is your
time! win her and wear her before the month is over, and we will
give up the punting business, and go live like noblemen at our
castle in Swabia. Get rid of that emerald, too," he added: "should
an accident happen, it will be an ugly deposit found in our hand."
This it was that made me agree to forego the possession of the
trinket; which, I must confess, I was loth to part with. It was
lucky for us both that I did: as you shall presently hear.
Meanwhile, then, I urged Magny: I myself spoke strongly to the
Countess of Liliengarten, who promised formally to back my claim
with his Highness the reigning Duke; and Monsieur de Magny was
instructed to induce the Princess Olivia to make a similar
application to the old sovereign in my behalf. It was done. The two
ladies urged the Prince; his Highness (at a supper of oysters and
champagne) was brought to consent, and her Highness the Hereditary
Princess did me the honour of notifying personally to the Countess
Ida that it was the Prince's will that she should marry the young
Irish nobleman, the Chevalier Redmond de Balibari. The notification
was made in my presence; and though the young Countess said 'Never!'
and fell down in a swoon at her lady's feet, I was, you may be sure,
entirely unconcerned at this little display of mawkish sensibility,
and felt, indeed, now that my prize was secure.
That evening I gave the Chevalier de Magny the emerald, which he
promised to restore to the Princess; and now the only difficulty in
my way lay with the Hereditary Prince, of whom his father, his wife,
and the favourite, were alike afraid. He might not be disposed to
allow the richest heiress in his duchy to be carried off by a noble,
though not a wealthy foreigner. Time was necessary in order to break
the matter to Prince Victor. The Princess must find him at some
moment of good-humour. He had days of infatuation still, when he
could refuse his wife nothing; and our plan was to wait for one of
these, or for any other chance which might occur.
But it was destined that the Princess should never see her husband
at her feet, as often as he had been. Fate was preparing a terrible
ending to her follies, and my own hope. In spite of his solemn
promises to me, Magny never restored the emerald to the Princess
Olivia.
He had heard, in casual intercourse with me, that my uncle and I had
been beholden to Mr. Moses Lowe, the banker of Heidelberg, who had
given us a good price for our valuables; and the infatuated young
man took a pretext to go thither, and offered the jewel for pawn.
Moses Lowe recognised the emerald at once, gave Magny the sum the
latter demanded, which the Chevalier lost presently at play: never,
you may be sure, acquainting us with the means by which he had made
himself master of so much capital. We, for our parts, supposed that
he had been supplied by his usual banker, the Princess: and many
rouleaux of his gold pieces found their way into our treasury, when
at the Court galas, at our own lodgings, or at the apartments of
Madame de Liliengarten (who on these occasions did us the honour to
go halves with us) we held our bank of faro.
Thus Magny's money was very soon gone. But though the Jew held his
jewel, of thrice the value no doubt of the sums he had lent upon it,
that was not all the profit which he intended to have from his
unhappy creditor; over whom he began speedily to exercise his
authority. His Hebrew connections at X--, money-brokers, bankers,
horse-dealers, about the Court there, must have told their
Heidelberg brother what Magny's relations with the Princess were;
and the rascal determined to take advantage of these, and to press
to the utmost both victims. My uncle and I were, meanwhile, swimming
upon the high tide of fortune, prospering with our cards, and with
the still greater matrimonial game which we were playing; and we
were quite unaware of the mine under our feet.
Before a month was passed, the Jew began to pester Magny. He
presented himself at X--, and asked for further interest-hush-money;
otherwise he must sell the emerald. Magny got money for him; the
Princess again befriended her dastardly lover. The success of the
first demand only rendered the second more exorbitant. I know not
how much money was extorted and paid on this unluckly emerald: but
it was the cause of the ruin of us all.
One night we were keeping our table as usual at the Countess of
Liliengarten's, and Magny being in cash somehow, kept drawing out
rouleau after rouleau, and playing with his common ill success. In
the middle of the play a note was brought into him, which he read,
and turned very pale on perusing; but the luck was against him, and
looking up rather anxiously at the clock, he waited for a few more
turns of the cards, when having, I suppose, lost his last rouleau, he
got up with a wild oath that scared some of the polite company
assembled, and left the room. A great trampling of horses was heard
without; but we were too much engaged with our business to heed
the noise, and continued our play.
Presently some one came into the play-room and said to the Countess,
'Here is a strange story! A Jew has been murdered in the Kaiserwald.
Magny was arrested when he went out of the room.' All the party
broke up on hearing this strange news, and we shut up our bank for
the night. Magny had been sitting by me during the play (my uncle
dealt and I paid and took the money), and, looking under the chair,
there was a crumpled paper, which I took up and read. It was that
which had been delivered to him, and ran thus:-
'If you have done it, take the orderly's horse who brings this. It
is the best of my stable. There are a hundred louis in each holster,
and the pistols are loaded. Either course lies open to you if you
know what I mean. In a quarter of an hour I shall know our fate--
whether I am to be dishonoured and survive you, whether you are
guilty and a coward, or whether you are still worthy of the name of
'M.'
This was in the handwriting of the old General de Magny; and my
uncle and I, as we walked home at night, having made and divided
with the Countess Liliengarten no inconsiderable profits that night,
felt our triumphs greatly dashed by the perusal of the letter. 'Has
Magny,' we asked, 'robbed the Jew, or has his intrigue been
discovered?' In either case, my claims on the Countess Ida were
likely to meet with serious drawbacks: and I began to feel that my
'great card' was played and perhaps lost.
Well, it WAS lost: though I say, to this day, it was well and
gallantly played. After supper (which we never for fear of
consequences took during play) I became so agitated in my mind as to
what was occurring that I determined to sally out about midnight
into the town, and inquire what was the real motive of Magny's
apprehension. A sentry was at the door, and signified to me that I
and my uncle were under arrest.
We were left in our quarters for six weeks, so closely watched that
escape was impossible, had we desired it; but, as innocent men, we
had nothing to fear. Our course of life was open to all, and we
desired and courted inquiry. Great and tragical events happened
during those six weeks; of which, though we heard the outline, as
all Europe did, when we were released from our captivity, we were
yet far from understanding all the particulars, which were not much
known to me for many years after. Here they are, as they were told
me by the lady, who of all the world perhaps was most likely to know
them. But the narrative had best form the contents of another
chapter.
CHAPTER XII
TRAGICAL HISTORY OF PRINCESS OF X----
More than twenty years after the events described in the past
chapters, I was walking with my Lady Lyndon in the Rotunda at
Ranelagh. It was in the year 1790; the emigration from France had
already commenced, the old counts and marquises were thronging to
our shores: not starving and miserable, as one saw them a few years
afterwards, but unmolested as yet, and bringing with them some token
of their national splendour. I was walking with Lady Lyndon, who,
proverbially jealous and always anxious to annoy me, spied out a
foreign lady who was evidently remarking me, and of course asked who
was the hideous fat Dutchwoman who was leering at me so? I knew her
not in the least. I felt I had seen the lady's face somewhere (it
was now, as my wife said, enormously fat and bloated); but I did not
recognise in the bearer of that face one who had been among the most
beautiful women in Germany in her day.
It was no other than Madame de Liliengarten, the mistress, or as
some said the morganatic wife, of the old Duke of X----, Duke
Victor's father. She had left X----a few months after the elder
Duke's demise, had gone to Paris, as I heard, where some
unprincipled adventurer had married her for her money; but, however,
had always retained her quasi-royal title, and pretended, amidst the
great laughter of the Parisians who frequented her house, to the
honours and ceremonial of a sovereign's widow. She had a throne
erected in her state-room, and was styled by her servants and those
who wished to pay court to her, or borrow money from her, 'Altesse.'
Report said she drank rather copiously--certainly her face bore
every mark of that habit, and had lost the rosy, frank, good-
humoured beauty which had charmed the sovereign who had ennobled
her.
Although she did not address me in the circle at Ranelagh, I was at
this period as well known as the Prince of Wales, and she had no
difficulty in finding my house in Berkeley Square; whither a note
was next morning despatched to me. 'An old friend of Monsieur de
Balibari,' it stated (in extremely bad French), 'is anxious to see
the Chevalier again and to talk over old happy times. Rosina de
Liliengarten (can it be that Redmond Balibari has forgotten her?)
will be at her house in Leicester Fields all the morning, looking
for one who would never have passed her by TWENTY YEARS ago.'
Rosina of Liliengarten it was indeed--such a full-blown Rosina I
have seldom seen. I found her in a decent first-floor in Leicester
Fields (the poor soul fell much lower afterwards) drinking tea,
which had somehow a very strong smell of brandy in it; and after
salutations, which would be more tedious to recount than they were
to perform, and after further straggling conversation, she gave me
briefly the following narrative of the events in X----, which I may
well entitle the 'Princess's Tragedy.'
'You remember Monsieur de Geldern, the Police Minister. He was of
Dutch extraction, and, what is more, of a family of Dutch Jews.
Although everybody was aware of this blot in his scutcheon, he was
mortally angry if ever his origin was suspected; and made up for his
fathers' errors by outrageous professions of religion, and the most
austere practices of devotion. He visited church every morning,
confessed once a week, and hated Jews and Protestants as much as an
inquisitor could do. He never lost an opportunity of proving his
sincerity, by persecuting one or the other whenever occasion fell in
his way.
'He hated the Princess mortally; for her Highness in some whim had
insulted him with his origin, caused pork to be removed from before
him at table, or injured him in some such silly way; and he had a
violent animosity to the old Baron de Magny, both in his capacity of
Protestant, and because the latter in some haughty mood had publicly
turned his back upon him as a sharper and a spy. Perpetual quarrels
were taking place between them in council; where it was only the
presence of his august masters that restrained the Baron from
publicly and frequently expressing the contempt which he felt for
the officer of police.
'Thus Geldern had hatred as one reason for ruining the Princess, and
it is my belief he had a stronger motive still--interest. You
remember whom the Duke married, after the death of his first wife?--
a princess of the house of F----. Geldern built his fine palace two
years after, and, as I feel convinced, with the money which was paid
to him by the F----family for forwarding the match.
'To go to Prince Victor, and report to his Highness a case which
everybody knew, was not by any means Geldern's desire. He knew the
man would be ruined for ever in the Prince's estimation who carried
him intelligence so disastrous. His aim, therefore, was to leave the
matter to explain itself to his Highness; and, when the time was
ripe, he cast about for a means of carrying his point. He had spies
in the houses of the elder and younger Magny; but this you know, of
course, from your experience of Continental customs. We had all
spies over each other. Your black (Zamor, I think, was his name)
used to give me reports every morning; and I used to entertain the
dear old Duke with stories of you and your uncle practising picquet
and dice in the morning, and with your quarrels and intrigues. We
levied similar contributions on everybody in X----, to amuse the
dear old man. Monsieur de Magny's valet used to report both to me
and Monsieur de Geldern.
'I knew of the fact of the emerald being in pawn; and it was out of
my exchequer that the poor Princess drew the funds which were spent
upon the odious Lowe, and the still more worthless young Chevalier.
How the Princess could trust the latter as she persisted in doing,
is beyond my comprehension; but there is no infatuation like that of
a woman in love: and you will remark, my dear Monsieur de Balibari,
that our sex generally fix upon a bad man.'
'Not always, madam,' I interposed; 'your humble servant has created
many such attachments.'
'I do not see that that affects the truth of the proposition,' said
the old lady drily, and continued her narrative. 'The Jew who held
the emerald had had many dealings with the Princess, and at last was
offered a bribe of such magnitude, that he determined to give up the
pledge. He committed the inconceivable imprudence of bringing the
emerald with him to X----, and waited on Magny, who was provided by
the Princess with money to redeem the pledge, and was actually ready
to pay it.'
'Their interview took place in Magny's own apartments, when his
valet overheard every word of their conversation. The young man, who
was always utterly careless of money when it was in his possession,
was so easy in offering it, that Lowe rose in his demands, and had
the conscience to ask double the sum for which he had previously
stipulated.
'At this the Chevalier lost all patience, fell on the wretch and was
for killing him; when the opportune valet rushed in and saved him.
The man had heard every word of the conversation between the
disputants, and the Jew ran flying with terror into his arms; and
Magny, a quick and passionate, but not a violent man, bade the
servant lead the villain downstairs, and thought no more of him.
'Perhaps he was not sorry to be rid of him, and to have in his
possession a large sum of money, four thousand ducats, with which he
could tempt fortune once more; as you know he did at your table that
night.'
'Your ladyship went halves, madam,' said I; 'and you know how little
I was the better for my winnings.'
'The man conducted the trembling Israelite out of the palace, and no
sooner had seen him lodged at the house of one of his brethren,
where he was accustomed to put up, than he went away to the office
of his Excellency the Minister of Police, and narrated every word of
the conversation which had taken place between the Jew and his
master.
'Geldern expressed the greatest satisfaction at his spy's prudence
and fidelity. He gave him a purse of twenty ducats, and promised to
provide for him handsomely: as great men do sometimes promise to
reward their instruments; but you, Monsieur de Balibari, know how
seldom those promises are kept. "Now, go and find out," said
Monsieur de Geldern, "at what time the Israelite proposes to return
home again, or whether he will repent and take the money." The man
went on this errand. Meanwhile, to make matters sure, Geldern
arranged a play-party at my house, inviting you thither with your
bank, as you may remember; and finding means, at the same time, to
let Maxime de Magny know that there was to be faro at Madame de
Liliengarten's. It was an invitation the poor fellow never
neglected.'
I remembered the facts, and listened on, amazed at the artifice of
the infernal Minister of Police.
'The spy came back from his message to Lowe, and stated that he had
made inquiries among the servants of the house where the Heidelberg
banker lodged, and that it was the latter's intention to leave X----
that afternoon. He travelled by himself, riding an old horse,
exceedingly humbly attired, after the manner of his people.
'"Johann," said the Minister, clapping the pleased spy upon the
shoulder, "I am more and more pleased with you. I have been
thinking, since you left me, of your intelligence, and the faithful
manner in which you have served me; and shall soon find an occasion
to place you according to your merits. Which way does this
Israelitish scoundrel take?"
'"He goes to R----to-night."
'"And must pass by the Kaiserwald. Are you a man of courage, Johann
Kerner?"
'"Will your Excellency try me?" said the man, his eyes glittering:
"I served through the Seven Years' War, and was never known to fail
there."
'"Now, listen. The emerald must be taken from that Jew: in the very
keeping it the scoundrel has committed high treason. To the man who
brings me that emerald I swear I will give five hundred louis. You
understand why it is necessary that it should be restored to her
Highness. I need say no more."
'"You shall have it to-night, sir," said the man. "Of course your
Excellency will hold me harmless in case of accident."
'"Psha!" answered the Minister; "I will pay you half the money
beforehand; such is my confidence in you. Accident's impossible if
you take your measures properly. There are four leagues of wood; the
Jew rides slowly. It will be night before he can reach, let us say,
the old Powder-Mill in the wood. What's to prevent you from putting
a rope across the road, and dealing with him there? Be back with me
this evening at supper. If you meet any of the patrol, say 'foxes
are loose,'--that's the word for to-night. They will let you pass
them without questions."
'The man went off quite charmed with his commission; and when Magny
was losing his money at our faro-table, his servant waylaid the Jew
at the spot named the Powder-Mill, in the Kaiserwald. The Jew's
horse stumbled over a rope which had been placed across the road;
and, as the rider fell groaning to the ground, Johann Kerner rushed
out on him, masked, and pistol in hand, and demanded his money. He
had no wish to kill the Jew, I believe, unless his resistance should
render extreme measures necessary.
'Nor did he commit any such murder; for, as the yelling Jew roared
for mercy, and his assailant menaced him with a pistol, a squad of
patrol came up, and laid hold of the robber and the wounded man.
'Kerner swore an oath. "You have come too soon," said he to the
sergeant of the police. "FOXES ARE LOOSE." "Some are caught," said
the sergeant, quite unconcerned; and bound the fellow's hands with
the rope which he had stretched across the road to entrap the Jew.
He was placed behind a policeman on a horse; Lowe was similarly
accommodated, and the party thus came back into the town as the
night fell. 'They were taken forthwith to the police quarter; and,
as the chief happened to be there, they were examined by his
Excellency in person. Both were rigorously searched; the Jew's
papers and cases taken from him: the jewel was found in a private
pocket. As for the spy, the Minister, looking at him angrily, said,
"Why, this is the servant of the Chevalier de Magny, one of her
Highness's equerries!" and without hearing a word in exculpation
from the poor frightened wretch, ordered him into close confinement.
'Calling for his horse, he then rode to the Prince's apartments at
the palace, and asked for an instant audience. When admitted, he
produced the emerald. "This jewel," said he, "has been found on the
person of a Heidelberg Jew, who has been here repeatedly of late,
and has had many dealings with her Highness's equerry, the Chevalier
de Magny. This afternoon the Chevalier's servant came from his
master's lodgings, accompanied by the Hebrew; was heard to make
inquiries as to the route the man intended to take on his way
homewards; followed him, or preceded him rather, and was found in
the act of rifling his victim by my police in the Kaiserwald. The
man will confess nothing; but, on being searched, a large sum in
gold was found on his person; and though it is with the utmost pain
that I can bring myself to entertain such an opinion, and to
implicate a gentleman of the character and name of Monsieur de
Magny, I do submit that our duty is to have the Chevalier examined
relative to the affair. As Monsieur de Magny is in her Highness's
private service, and in her confidence I have heard, I would not
venture to apprehend him without your Highness's permission."
'The Prince's Master of the Horse, a friend of the old Baron de
Magny, who was present at the interview, no sooner heard the strange
intelligence than he hastened away to the old general with the
dreadful news of his grandson's supposed crime. Perhaps his Highness
himself was not unwilling that his old friend and tutor in arms
should have the chance of saving his family from disgrace; at all
events, Monsieur de Hengst, the Master of the Horse, was permitted
to go off to the Baron undisturbed, and break to him the
intelligence of the accusation pending over the unfortunate
Chevalier.
'It is possible that he expected some such dreadful catastrophe,
for, after hearing Hengst's narrative (as the latter afterwards told
me), he only said, "Heaven's will be done!" for some time refused to
stir a step in the matter, and then only by the solicitation of his
friend was induced to write the letter which Maxime de Magny
received at our play-table.
'Whilst he was there, squandering the Princess's money, a police
visit was paid to his apartments, and a hundred proofs, not of his
guilt with respect to the robbery, but of his guilty connection with
the Princess, were discovered there,--tokens of her giving,
passionate letters from her, copies of his own correspondence to his
young friends at Paris,--all of which the Police Minister perused,
and carefully put together under seal for his Highness, Prince
Victor. I have no doubt he perused them, for, on delivering them to
the Hereditary Prince, Geldern said that, IN OBEDIENCE TO HIS
HIGHNESS'S ORDERS, he had collected the Chevalier's papers; but he
need not say that, on his honour, he (Geldern) himself had never
examined the documents. His difference with Messieurs de Magny was
known; he begged his Highness to employ any other official person in
the judgment of the accusation brought against the young Chevalier.
'All these things were going on while the Chevalier was at play. A
run of luck--you had great luck in those days, Monsieur de Balibari--
was against him. He stayed and lost his 4000 ducats. He received
his uncle's note, and such was the infatuation of the wretched
gambler, that, on receipt of it, he went down to the courtyard,
where the horse was in waiting, absolutely took the money which the
poor old gentleman had placed in the saddle-holsters, brought it
upstairs, played it, and lost it; and when he issued from the room
to fly, it was too late: he was placed in arrest at the bottom of my
staircase, as you were upon entering your own home.
'Even when he came in under the charge of the soldiery sent to
arrest him, the old General, who was waiting, was overjoyed to see
him, and flung himself into the lad's arms, and embraced him: it was
said, for the first time in many years. "He is here, gentlemen," he
sobbed out,--"thank God he is not guilty of the robbery!" and then
sank back in a chair in a burst of emotion; painful, it was said by
those present, to witness on the part of a man so brave, and known
to be so cold and stern.
'"Robbery!" said the young man. "I swear before Heaven I am guilty
of none!" and a scene of almost touching reconciliation passed
between them, before the unhappy young man was led from the guard-
house into the prison which he was destined never to quit.
'That night the Duke looked over the papers which Geldern had
brought to him. It was at a very early stage of the perusal, no
doubt, that he gave orders for your arrest; for you were taken at
midnight, Magny at ten o'clock; after which time the old Baron de
Magny had seen his Highness, protesting of his grandson's innocence,
and the Prince had received him most graciously and kindly. His
Highness said he had no doubt the young man was innocent; his birth
and his blood rendered such a crime impossible; but suspicion was
too strong against him: he was known to have been that day closeted
with the Jew; to have received a very large sum of money which he
squandered at play, and of which the Hebrew had, doubtless, been the
lender,--to have despatched his servant after him, who inquired the
hour of the Jew's departure, lay in wait for him, and rifled him.
Suspicion was so strong against the Chevalier, that common justice
required his arrest; and, meanwhile, until he cleared himself, he
should be kept in not dishonourable durance, and every regard had
for his name, and the services of his honourable grandfather. With
this assurance, and with a warm grasp of the hand, the Prince left
old General de Magny that night; and the veteran retired to rest
almost consoled, and confident in Maxime's eventual and immediate
release.
'But in the morning, before daybreak, the Prince, who had been
reading papers all night, wildly called to the page, who slept in
the next room across the door, bade him get horses, which were
always kept in readiness in the stables, and, flinging a parcel of
letters into a box, told the page to follow him on horseback with
these. The young man (Monsieur de Weissenborn) told this to a young
lady who was then of my household, and who is now Madame de
Weissenborn, and a mother of a score of children.
'The page described that never was such a change seen as in his
august master in the course of that single night. His eyes were
bloodshot, his face livid, his clothes were hanging loose about him,
and he who had always made his appearance on parade as precisely
dressed as any sergeant of his troops, might have been seen
galloping through the lonely streets at early dawn without a hat,
his unpowdered hair streaming behind him like a madman.
'The page, with the box of papers, clattered after his master,--it
was no easy task to follow him; and they rode from the palace to the
town, and through it to the General's quarter. The sentinels at the
door were scared at the strange figure that rushed up to the
General's gate, and, not knowing him, crossed bayonets, and refused
him admission. "Fools," said Weissenborn, "it is the Prince!" And,
jangling at the bell as if for an alarm of fire, the door was at
length opened by the porter, and his Highness ran up to the Generals
bedchamber, followed by the page with the box.
'"Magny--Magny," roared the Prince, thundering at the closed door,
"get up!" And to the queries of the old man from within, answered,
"It is I--Victor--the Prince!--get up!" And presently the door was
opened by the General in his ROBE-DE-CHAMBRE, and the Prince
entered. The page brought in the box, and was bidden to wait
without, which he did; but there led from Monsieur de Magny's
bedroom into his antechamber two doors, the great one which formed
the entrance into his room, and a smaller one which led, as the
fashion is with our houses abroad, into the closet which
communicates with the alcove where the bed is. The door of this was
found by M. de Weissenborn to be open, and the young man was thus
enabled to hear and see everything which occurred within the
apartment.
'The General, somewhat nervously, asked what was the reason of so
early a visit from his Highness; to which the Prince did not for a
while reply, farther than by staring at him rather wildly, and
pacing up and down the room.
'At last he said, "Here is the cause!" dashing his fist on the box;
and, as he had forgotten to bring the key with him, he went to the
door for a moment, saying, "Weissenborn perhaps has it;" but seeing
over the stove one of the General's couteaux de chasse, he took it
down, and said, "That will do," and fell to work to burst the red
trunk open with the blade of the forest knife. The point broke, and
he gave an oath, but continued haggling on with the broken blade,
which was better suited to his purpose than the long pointed knife,
and finally succeeded in wrenching open the lid of the chest.
'"What is the matter?" said he, laughing. "Here's the matter;--read
that!--here's more matter, read that!--here's more--no, not that;
that's somebody else's picture--but here's hers! Do you know that,
Magny? My wife's--the Princess's! Why did you and your cursed race
ever come out of France, to plant your infernal wickedness wherever
your feet fell, and to ruin honest German homes? What have you and
yours ever had from my family but confidence and kindness? We gave
you a home when you had none, and here's our reward!" and he flung a
parcel of papers down before the old General; who saw the truth at
once;--he had known it long before, probably, and sank down on his
chair, covering his face.
'The Prince went on gesticulating, and shrieking almost. "If a man
injured you so, Magny, before you begot the father of that gambling
lying villain yonder, you would have known how to revenge yourself.
You would have killed him! Yes, would have killed him. But who's to
help me to my revenge? I've no equal. I can't meet that dog of a
Frenchman,--that pimp from Versailles,--and kill him, as if he had
played the traitor to one of his own degree."
'"The blood of Maxime de Magny," said the old gentleman proudly, "is
as good as that of any prince in Christendom."
'"Can I take it?" cried the Prince; "you know I can't. I can't have
the privilege of any other gentleman in Europe. What am I to do?
Look here, Magny: I was wild when I came here; I didn't know what to
do. You've served me for thirty years; you've saved my life twice:
they are all knaves and harlots about my poor old father here--no
honest men or women--you are the only one--you saved my life; tell
me what am I to do?" Thus from insulting Monsieur de Magny, the poor
distracted Prince fell to supplicating him; and, at last, fairly
flung himself down, and burst out in an agony of tears.
'Old Magny, one of the most rigid and cold of men on common
occasions, when he saw this outbreak of passion on the Prince's
part, became, as my informant has described to me, as much affected
as his master. The old man from being cold and high, suddenly fell,
as it were, into the whimpering querulousness of extreme old age. He
lost all sense of dignity; he went down on his knees, and broke out
into all sorts of wild incoherent attempts at consolation; so much
so, that Weissenborn said he could not bear to look at the scene,
and actually turned away from the contemplation of it.
'But, from what followed in a few days, we may guess the results of
the long interview. The Prince, when he came away from the
conversation with his old servant, forgot his fatal box of papers
and sent the page back for them. The General was on his knees
praying in the room when the young man entered, and only stirred and
looked wildly round as the other removed the packet. The Prince rode
away to his hunting-lodge at three leagues from X----, and three
days after that Maxime de Magny died in prison; having made a
confession that he was engaged in an attempt to rob the Jew, and
that he had made away with himself, ashamed of his dishonour.
'But it is not known that it was the General himself who took his
grandson poison: it was said even that he shot him in the prison.
This, however, was not the case. General de Magny carried his
grandson the draught which was to carry him out of the world;
represented to the wretched youth that his fate was inevitable; that
it would be public and disgraceful unless he chose to anticipate the
punishment, and so left him. But IT WAS NOT OF HIS OWN ACCORD, and
not until he had used EVERY means of escape, as you shall hear, that
the unfortunate being's life was brought to an end.
'As for General de Magny, he quite fell into imbecility a short time
after his grandson's death, and my honoured Duke's demise. After his
Highness the Prince married the Princess Mary of F----, as they were
walking in the English park together they once met old Magny riding
in the sun in the easy chair, in which he was carried commonly
abroad after his paralytic fits. "This is my wife, Magny," said the
Prince affectionately, taking the veteran's hand; and he added,
turning to his Princess, "General de Magny saved my life during the
Seven Years' War."
'"What, you've taken her back again?" said the old man. "I wish
you'd send me back my poor Maxime." He had quite forgotten the death
of the poor Princess Olivia, and the Prince, looking very dark
indeed, passed away.
'And now,' said Madame de Liliengarten, 'I have only one more gloomy
story to relate to you--the death of the Princess Olivia. It is even
more horrible than the tale I have just told you.' With which
preface the old lady resumed her narrative.
'The kind weak Princess's fate was hastened, if not occasioned, by
the cowardice of Magny. He found means to communicate with her from
his prison, and her Highness, who was not in open disgrace yet (for
the Duke, out of regard to the family, persisted in charging Magny
with only robbery), made the most desperate efforts to relieve him,
and to bribe the gaolers to effect his escape. She was so wild that
she lost all patience and prudence in the conduct of any schemes she
may have had for Magny's liberation; for her husband was inexorable,
and caused the Chevalier's prison to be too strictly guarded for
escape to be possible. She offered the State jewels in pawn to the
Court banker; who of course was obliged to decline the transaction.
She fell down on her knees, it is said, to Geldern, the Police
Minister, and offered him Heaven knows what as a bribe. Finally, she
came screaming to my poor dear Duke, who, with his age, diseases,
and easy habits, was quite unfit for scenes of so violent a nature;
and who, in consequence of the excitement created in his august
bosom by her frantic violence and grief, had a fit in which I very
nigh lost him. That his dear life was brought to an untimely end by
these transactions I have not the slightest doubt; for the
Strasbourg pie, of which they said he died, never, I am sure, could
have injured him, but for the injury which his dear gentle heart
received from the unusual occurrences in which he was forced to take
a share.
'All her Highness's movements were carefully, though not ostensibly,
watched by her husband, Prince Victor; who, waiting upon his august
father, sternly signified to him that if his Highness (MY Duke)
should dare to aid the Princess in her efforts to release Magny, he,
Prince Victor, would publicly accuse the Princess and her paramour
of high treason, and take measures with the Diet for removing his
father from the throne, as incapacitated to reign. Hence
interposition on our part was vain, and Magny was left to his fate.
'It came, as you are aware, very suddenly. Geldern, Police Minister,
Hengst, Master of the Horse, and the colonel of the Prince's guard,
waited upon the young man in his prison two days after his
grandfather had visited him there and left behind him the phial of
poison which the criminal had not the courage to use. And Geldern
signified to the young man that unless he took of his own accord the
laurelwater provided by the elder Magny, more violent means of death
would be instantly employed upon him, and that a file of grenadiers
was in waiting in the courtyard to despatch him. Seeing this, Magny,
with the most dreadful self-abasement, after dragging himself round
the room on his knees from one officer to another, weeping and
screaming with terror, at last desperately drank off the potion, and
was a corpse in a few minutes. Thus ended this wretched young man.
'His death was made public in the COURT GAZETTE two days after, the
paragraph stating that Monsieur de M----, struck with remorse for
having attempted the murder of the Jew, had put himself to death by
poison in prison; and a warning was added to all young noblemen of
the duchy to avoid the dreadful sin of gambling, which had been the
cause of the young man's ruin, and had brought upon the grey hairs
of one of the noblest and most honourable of the servants of the
Duke irretrievable sorrow.
'The funeral was conducted with decent privacy, the General de Magny
attending it. The carriages of the two Dukes and all the first
people of the Court made their calls upon the General afterwards. He
attended parade as usual the next day on the Arsenal-Place, and Duke
Victor, who had been inspecting the building, came out of it leaning
on the brave old warrior's arm. He was particularly gracious to the
old man, and told his officers the oft-repeated story how at
Rosbach, when the X----contingent served with the troops of the
unlucky Soubise, the General had thrown himself in the way of a
French dragoon, who was pressing hard upon his Highness in the rout,
had received the blow intended for his master, and killed the
assailant. And he alluded to the family motto of "Magny sans tache,"
and said, "It had been always so with his gallant friend and tutor
in arms." This speech affected all present very much; with the
exception of the old General, who only bowed and did not speak: but
when he went home he was heard muttering "Magny sans tache, Magny
sans tache!" and was attacked with paralysis that night, from which
he never more than partially recovered.
'The news of Maxime's death had somehow been kept from the Princess
until now: a GAZETTE even being printed without the paragraph
containing the account of his suicide; but it was at length, I know
not how, made known to her. And when she heard it, her ladies tell
me, she screamed and fell, as if struck dead; then sat up wildly and
raved like a madwoman, and was then carried to her bed, where her
physician attended her, and where she lay of a brain-fever. All this
while the Prince used to send to make inquiries concerning her; and
from his giving orders that his Castle of Schlangenfels should be
prepared and furnished, I make no doubt it was his intention to send
her into confinement thither: as had been done with the unhappy
sister of His Britannic Majesty at Zell.
'She sent repeatedly to demand an interview with his Highness; which
the latter declined, saying that he would communicate with her
Highness when her health was sufficiently recovered. To one of her
passionate letters he sent back for reply a packet, which, when
opened, was found to contain the emerald that had been the cause
round which all this dark intrigue moved.
'Her Highness at this time became quite frantic; vowed in the
presence of all her ladies that one lock of her darling Maxime's
hair was more precious to her than all the jewels in the world: rang
for her carriage, and said she would go and kiss his tomb;
proclaimed the murdered martyr's innocence, and called down the
punishment of Heaven, the wrath of her family, upon his assassin.
The Prince, on hearing these speeches (they were all, of course,
regularly brought to him), is said to have given one of his dreadful
looks (which I remember now), and to have said, "This cannot last
much longer."
'All that day and the next the Princess Olivia passed in dictating
the most passionate letters to the Prince her father, to the Kings
of France, Naples, and Spain, her kinsmen, and to all other branches
of her family, calling upon them in the most incoherent terms to
protect her against the butcher and assassin her husband, assailing
his person in the maddest terms of reproach, and at the same time
confessing her love for the murdered Magny. It was in vain that
those ladies who were faithful to her pointed out to her the
inutility of these letters, the dangerous folly of the confessions
which they made; she insisted upon writing them, and used to give
them to her second robe-woman, a Frenchwoman (her Highness always
affectioned persons of that nation), who had the key of her
cassette, and carried every one of these epistles to Geldern.
'With the exception that no public receptions were held, the
ceremony of the Princess's establishment went on as before. Her
ladies were allowed to wait upon her and perform their usual duties
about her person. The only men admitted were, however, her servants,
her physician and chaplain; and one day when she wished to go into
the garden, a heyduc, who kept the door, intimated to her Highness
that the Prince's orders were that she should keep her apartments.
'They abut, as you remember, upon the landing of the marble
staircase of Schloss X----; the entrance to Prince Victor's suite of
rooms being opposite the Princess's on the same landing. This space
is large, filled with sofas and benches, and the gentlemen and
officers who waited upon the Duke used to make a sort of antechamber
of the landing-place, and pay their court to his Highness there, as
he passed out, at eleven o'clock, to parade. At such a time, the
heyducs within the Princess's suite of rooms used to turn out with
their halberts and present to Prince Victor--the same ceremony being
performed on his own side, when pages came out and announced the
approach of his Highness. The pages used to come out and say, "The
Prince, gentlemen!" and the drums beat in the hall, and the
gentlemen rose, who were waiting on the benches that ran along the
balustrade.
'As if fate impelled her to her death, one day the Princess, as her
guards turned out, and she was aware that the Prince was standing,
as was his wont, on the landing, conversing with his gentlemen (in
the old days he used to cross to the Princess's apartment and kiss
her hand)--the Princess, who had been anxious all the morning,
complaining of heat, insisting that all the doors of the apartments
should be left open; and giving tokens of an insanity which I think
was now evident, rushed wildly at the doors when the guards passed
out, flung them open, and before a word could be said, or her ladies
could follow her, was in presence of Duke Victor, who was talking as
usual on the landing: placing herself between him and the stair, she
began apostrophising him with frantic vehemence:--
'"Take notice, gentlemen!" she screamed out, "that this man is a
murderer and a liar; that he lays plots for honourable gentlemen,
and kills them in prison! Take notice, that I too am in prison, and
fear the same fate: the same butcher who killed Maxime de Magny,
may, any night, put the knife to my throat. I appeal to you, and to
all the kings of Europe, my Royal kinsmen. I demand to be set free
from this tyrant and villain, this liar and traitor! I adjure you
all, as gentlemen of honour, to carry these letters to my relatives,
and say from whom you had them!" and with this the unhappy lady
began scattering letters about among the astonished crowd.
'"LET NO MAN STOOP!" cried the Prince, in a voice of thunder.
"Madame de Gleim, you should have watched your patient better. Call
the Princess's physicians: her Highness's brain is affected.
Gentlemen, have the goodness to retire." And the Prince stood on the
landing as the gentlemen went down the stairs, saying fiercely to
the guard, "Soldier, if she moves, strike with your halbert!" on
which the man brought the point of his weapon to the Princess's
breast; and the lady, frightened, shrank back and re-entered her
apartments. "Now, Monsieur de Weissenborn," said the Prince, "pick
up all those papers;" and the Prince went into his own apartments,
preceded by his pages, and never quitted them until he had seen
every one of the papers burnt.
'The next day the COURT GAZETTE contained a bulletin signed by the
three physicians, stating that "her Highness the Hereditary Princess
laboured under inflammation of the brain, and had passed a restless
and disturbed night." Similar notices were issued day after day. The
services of all her ladies, except two, were dispensed with. Guards
were placed within and without her doors; her windows were secured,
so that escape from them was impossible: and you know what took
place ten days after. The church-bells were ringing all night, and
the prayers of the faithful asked for a person IN EXTREMIS. A
GAZETTE appeared in the morning, edged with black, and stating that
the high and mighty Princess Olivia Maria Ferdinanda, consort of His
Serene Highness Victor Louis Emanuel, Hereditary Prince of X----,
had died in the evening of the 24th of January 1769.
'But do you know HOW she died, sir? That, too, is a mystery.
Weissenborn, the page, was concerned in this dark tragedy; and the
secret was so dreadful, that never, believe me, till Prince Victor's
death, did I reveal it.
'After the fatal ESCLANDRE which the Princess had made, the Prince
sent for Weissenborn, and binding him by the most solemn adjuration
to secrecy (he only broke it to his wife many years after: indeed,
there is no secret in the world that women cannot know if they
will), despatched him on the following mysterious commission.
'"There lives," said his Highness, "on the Kehl side of the river,
opposite to Strasbourg, a man whose residence you will easily find
out from his name, which is MONSIEUR DE STRASBOURG. You will make
your inquiries concerning him quietly, and without occasioning any
remark; perhaps you had better go into Strasbourg for the purpose,
where the person is quite well known. You will take with you any
comrade on whom you can perfectly rely: the lives of both, remember,
depend on your secrecy. You will find out some period when MONSIEUR
DE STRASBOURG is alone, or only in company of the domestic who lives
with him (I myself visited the man by accident on my return from
Paris five years since, and hence am induced to send for him now, in
my present emergency). You will have your carriage waiting at his
door at night; and you and your comrade will enter his house masked;
and present him with a purse of a hundred louis; promising him
double that sum on his return from his expedition. If he refuse, you
must use force and bring him; menacing him with instant death should
he decline to follow you. You will place him in the carriage with
the blinds drawn, one or other of you never losing sight of him the
whole way, and threatening him with death if he discover himself or
cry out. You will lodge him in the old Tower here, where a room
shall be prepared for him; and his work being done, you will restore
him to his home with the same speed and secrecy with which you
brought him from it."
'Such were the mysterious orders Prince Victor gave his page; and
Weissenborn, selecting for his comrade in the expedition Lieutenant
Bartenstein, set out on his strange journey.
'All this while the palace was hushed, as if in mourning, the
bulletins in the COURT GAZETTE appeared, announcing the continuance
of the Princess's malady; and though she had but few attendants,
strange and circumstantial stories were told regarding the progress
of her complaint. She was quite wild. She had tried to kill herself.
She had fancied herself to be I don't know how many different
characters. Expresses were sent to her family informing them of her
state, and couriers despatched PUBLICLY to Vienna and Paris to
procure the attendance of physicians skilled in treating diseases of
the brain. That pretended anxiety was all a feint: it was never
intended that the Princess should recover.
'The day on which Weissenborn and Bartenstein returned from their
expedition, it was announced that her Highness the Princess was much
worse; that night the report through the town was that she was at
the agony: and that night the unfortunate creature was endeavouring
to make her escape.
'She had unlimited confidence in the French chamber-woman who
attended her, and between her and this woman the plan of escape was
arranged. The Princess took her jewels in a casket; a private door,
opening from one of her rooms and leading into the outer gate, it
was said, of the palace, was discovered for her: and a letter was
brought to her, purporting to be from the Duke, her father-in-law,
and stating that a carriage and horses had been provided, and would
take her to B----: the territory where she might communicate with
her family and be safe.
'The unhappy lady, confiding in her guardian, set out on the
expedition. The passages wound through the walls of the modern part
of the palace and abutted in effect at the old Owl Tower, as it was
called, on the outer wall: the tower was pulled down afterwards, and
for good reason.
'At a certain place the candle, which the chamberwoman was carrying,
went out; and the Princess would have screamed with terror, but her
hand was seized, and a voice cried "Hush!" The next minute a man in
a mask (it was the Duke himself) rushed forward, gagged her with a
handkerchief, her hands and legs were bound, and she was carried
swooning with terror into a vaulted room, where she was placed by a
person there waiting, and tied in an arm-chair. The same mask who
had gagged her, came and bared her neck and said, "It had best be
done now she has fainted."
'Perhaps it would have been as well; for though she recovered from
her swoon, and her confessor, who was present, came forward and
endeavoured to prepare her for the awful deed which was about to be
done upon her, and for the state into which she was about to enter,
when she came to herself it was only to scream like a maniac, to
curse the Duke as a butcher and tyrant, and to call upon Magny, her
dear Magny.
'At this the Duke said, quite calmly, "May God have mercy on her
sinful soul!" He, the confessor, and Geldern, who were present, went
down on their knees; and, as his Highness dropped his handkerchief,
Weissenborn fell down in a fainting fit; while MONSIEUR DE
STRASBOURG, taking the back hair in his hand, separated the
shrieking head of Olivia from the miserable sinful body. May Heaven
have mercy upon her soul!'
. . . .
This was the story told by Madame de Liliengarten, and the reader
will have no difficulty in drawing from it that part which affected
myself and my uncle; who, after six weeks of arrest, were set at
liberty, but with orders to quit the duchy immediately: indeed, with
an escort of dragoons to conduct us to the frontier. What property
we had, we were allowed to sell and realise in money; but none of
our play debts were paid to us: and all my hopes of the Countess Ida
were thus at an end.
When Duke Victor came to the throne, which he did when, six months
after, apoplexy carried off the old sovereign his father, all the
good old usages of X----were given up,--play forbidden; the opera
and ballet sent to the right-about; and the regiments which the old
Duke had sold recalled from their foreign service: with them came my
Countess's beggarly cousin the ensign, and he married her. I don't
know whether they were happy or not. It is certain that a woman of
such a poor spirit did not merit any very high degree of pleasure.
The now reigning Duke of X----himself married four years after his
first wife's demise, and Geldern, though no longer Police Minister,
built the grand house of which Madame de Liliengarten spoke. What
became of the minor actors in the great tragedy, who knows? Only
MONSIEUR DE STRASBOURG was restored to his duties. Of the rest--the
Jew, the chamber-woman, the spy on Magny--I know nothing. Those
sharp tools with which great people cut out their enterprises are
generally broken in the using: nor did I ever hear that their
employers had much regard for them in their ruin.
CHAPTER XIII
I CONTINUE MY CAREER AS A MAN OF FASHION
I find I have already filled up many scores of pages, and yet a vast
deal of the most interesting portion of my history remains to be
told, viz. that which describes my sojourn in the kingdoms of
England and Ireland, and the great part I played there; moving among
the most illustrious of the land, myself not the least distinguished
of the brilliant circle. In order to give due justice to this
portion of my Memoirs, then,--which is more important than my
foreign adventures can be (though I could fill volumes with
interesting descriptions of the latter),--I shall cut short the
account of my travels in Europe, and of my success at the
Continental Courts, in order to speak of what befell me at home.
Suffice it to say that there is not a capital in Europe, except the
beggarly one of Berlin, where the young Chevalier de Balibari was
not known and admired; and where he has not made the brave, the
high-born, and the beautiful talk of him. I won 80,000 roubles from
Potemkin at the Winter Palace at Petersburg, which the scoundrelly
favourite never paid me; I have had the honour of seeing his Royal
Highness the Chevalier Charles Edward as drunk as any porter at
Rome; my uncle played several matches at billiards against the
celebrated Lord C----at Spa, and I promise you did not come off a
loser. In fact, by a neat stratagem of ours, we raised the laugh
against his Lordship, and something a great deal more substantial.
My Lord did not know that the Chevalier Barry had a useless eye; and
when, one day, my uncle playfully bet him odds at billiards that he
would play him with a patch over one eye, the noble lord, thinking
to bite us (he was one of the most desperate gamblers that ever
lived), accepted the bet, and we won a very considerable amount of
him.
Nor need I mention my successes among the fairer portion of the
creation. One of the most accomplished, the tallest, the most
athletic, and the handsomest gentlemen of Europe, as I was then, a
young fellow of my figure could not fail of having advantages, which
a person of my spirit knew very well how to use. But upon these
subjects I am dumb. Charming Schuvaloff, black-eyed Sczotarska, dark
Valdez, tender Hegenheim, brilliant Langeac!--ye gentle hearts that
knew how to beat in old times for the warm young Irish gentleman,
where are you now? Though my hair has grown grey now, and my sight
dim, and my heart cold with years, and ennui, and disappointment,
and the treachery of friends, yet I have but to lean back in my arm-
chair and think, and those sweet figures come rising up before me
out of the past, with their smiles, and their kindnesses, and their
bright tender eyes! There are no women like them now--no manners
like theirs! Look you at a bevy of women at the Prince's, stitched
up in tight white satin sacks, with their waists under their arms,
and compare them to the graceful figures of the old time! Why, when
I danced with Coralie de Langeac at the fetes on the birth of the
first Dauphin at Versailles, her hoop was eighteen feet in
circumference, and the heels of her lovely little mules were three
inches from the ground; the lace of my jabot was worth a thousand
crowns, and the buttons of my amaranth velvet coat alone cost eighty
thousand livres. Look at the difference now! The gentlemen are
dressed like boxers, Quakers, or hackney-coachmen; and the ladies
are not dressed at all. There is no elegance, no refinement; none of
the chivalry of the old world, of which I form a portion. Think of
the fashion of London being led by a Br-mm-l! [Footnote: This
manuscript must have been written at the time when Mr. Brummel was
the leader of the London fashion.] a nobody's son: a low creature,
who can no more dance a minuet than I can talk Cherokee; who cannot
even crack a bottle like a gentleman; who never showed himself to be
a man with his sword in his hand: as we used to approve ourselves in
the good old times, before that vulgar Corsican upset the gentry of
the world! Oh, to see the Valdez once again, as on that day I met
her first driving in state, with her eight mules and her retinue of
gentlemen, by the side of yellow Mancanares! Oh, for another drive
with Hegenheim, in the gilded sledge, over the Saxon snow! False as
Schuvaloff was, 'twas better to be jilted by her than to be adored
by any other woman. I can't think of any one of them without
tenderness. I have ringlets of all their hair in my poor little
museum of recollections. Do you keep mine, you dear souls that
survive the turmoils and troubles of near half a hundred years? How
changed its colour is now, since the day Sczotarska wore it round
her neck, after my duel with Count Bjernaski, at Warsaw.
I never kept any beggarly books of accounts in those days. I had no
debts. I paid royally for everything I took; and I took everything I
wanted. My income must have been very large. My entertainments and
equipages were those of a gentleman of the highest distinction; nor
let any scoundrel presume to sneer because I carried off and married
my Lady Lyndon (as you shall presently hear), and call me an
adventurer, or say I was penniless, or the match unequal. Penniless!
I had the wealth of Europe at my command. Adventurer! So is a
meritorious lawyer or a gallant soldier; so is every man who makes
his own fortune an adventurer. My profession was play: in which I
was then unrivalled. No man could play with me through Europe, on
the square; and my income was just as certain (during health and the
exercise of my profession) as that of a man who draws on his Three-
per-cents., or any fat squire whose acres bring him revenue. Harvest
is not more certain than the effect of skill is: a crop is a chance,
as much as a game of cards greatly played by a fine player: there
may be a drought, or a frost, or a hail-storm, and your stake is
lost; but one man is just as much an adventurer as another.
In evoking the recollection of these kind and fair creatures I have
nothing but pleasure. I would I could say as much of the memory of
another lady, who will henceforth play a considerable part in the
drama of my life,--I mean the Countess of Lyndon; whose fatal
acquaintance I made at Spa, very soon after the events described in
the last chapter had caused me to quit Germany.
Honoria, Countess of Lyndon, Viscountess Bullingdon in England,
Baroness Castle Lyndon of the kingdom of Ireland, was so well known
to the great world in her day, that I have little need to enter into
her family history; which is to be had in any peerage that the
reader may lay his hand on. She was, as I need not say, a countess,
viscountess, and baroness in her own right. Her estates in Devon and
Cornwall were among the most extensive in those parts; her Irish
possessions not less magnificent; and they have been alluded to, in
a very early part of these Memoirs, as lying near to my own paternal
property in the kingdom of Ireland: indeed, unjust confiscations in
the time of Elizabeth and her father went to diminish my acres,
while they added to the already vast possessions of the Lyndon
family.
The Countess, when I first saw her at the assembly at Spa, was the
wife of her cousin, the Right Honourable Sir Charles Reginald
Lyndon, Knight of the Bath, and Minister to George II. and George
III. at several of the smaller Courts of Europe. Sir Charles Lyndon
was celebrated as a wit and bon vivant: he could write love-verses
against Hanbury Williams, and make jokes with George Selwyn; he was
a man of vertu like Harry Walpole, with whom and Mr. Grey he had
made a part of the grand tour; and was cited, in a word, as one of
the most elegant and accomplished men of his time.
I made this gentleman's acquaintance as usual at the play-table, of
which he was a constant frequenter. Indeed, one could not but admire
the spirit and gallantry with which he pursued his favourite
pastime; for, though worn out by gout and a myriad of diseases, a
cripple wheeled about in a chair, and suffering pangs of agony, yet
you would see him every morning and every evening at his post behind
the delightful green cloth: and if, as it would often happen, his
own hands were too feeble or inflamed to hold the box, he would call
the mains, nevertheless, and have his valet or a friend to throw for
him. I like this courageous spirit in a man; the greatest successes
in life have been won by such indomitable perseverance.
I was by this time one of the best-known characters in Europe; and
the fame of my exploits, my duels, my courage at play, would bring
crowds around me in any public society where I appeared. I could
show reams of scented paper, to prove that this eagerness to make my
acquaintance was not confined to the gentlemen only; but that I hate
boasting, and only talk of myself in so far as it is necessary to
relate myself's adventures: the most singular of any man's in
Europe. Well, Sir Charles Lyndon's first acquaintance with me
originated in the right honourable knight's winning 700 pieces of me
at picquet (for which he was almost my match); and I lost them with
much good-humour, and paid them: and paid them, you may be sure,
punctually. Indeed, I will say this for myself, that losing money at
play never in the least put me out of good-humour with the winner,
and that wherever I found a superior, I was always ready to
acknowledge and hail him.
Lyndon was very proud of winning from so celebrated a person, and we
contracted a kind of intimacy; which, however, did not for a while
go beyond pump-room attentions, and conversations over the supper-
table at play: but which gradually increased, until I was admitted
into his more private friendship. He was a very free-spoken man (the
gentry of those days were much prouder than at present), and used to
say to me in his haughty easy way, 'Hang it, Mr. Barry, you have no
more manners than a barber, and I think my black footman has been
better educated than you; but you are a young fellow of originality
and pluck, and I like you, sir, because you seem determined to go to
the deuce by a way of your own.' I would thank him laughingly for
this compliment, and say, that as he was bound to the next world
much sooner than I was, I would be obliged to him to get comfortable
quarters arranged there for me. He used also to be immensely amused
with my stories about the splendour of my family and the
magnificence of Castle Brady: he would never tire of listening or
laughing at those histories.
'Stick to the trumps, however, my lad,' he would say, when I told
him of my misfortunes in the conjugal line, and how near I had been
winning the greatest fortune in Germany. 'Do anything but marry, my
artless Irish rustic' (he called me by a multiplicity of queer
names). 'Cultivate your great talents in the gambling line; but mind
this, that a woman will beat you.'
That I denied; mentioning several instances in which I had conquered
the most intractable tempers among the sex.
'They will beat you in the long run, my Tipperary Alcibiades. As
soon as you are married, take my word of it, you are conquered. Look
at me. I married my cousin, the noblest and greatest heiress in
England--married her in spite of herself almost' (here a dark shade
passed over Sir Charles Lyndon's countenance). 'She is a weak woman.
You shall see her, sir, HOW weak she is; but she is my mistress. She
has embittered my whole life. She is a fool; but she has got the
better of one of the best heads in Christendom. She is enormously
rich; but somehow I have never been so poor as since I married her.
I thought to better myself; and she has made me miserable and killed
me. And she will do as much for my successor, when I am gone.'
'Has her Ladyship a very large income?' said I. At which Sir Charles
burst out into a yelling laugh, and made me blush not a little at my
gaucherie; for the fact is, seeing him in the condition in which he
was, I could not help speculating upon the chance a man of spirit
might have with his widow.
'No, no!' said he, laughing. 'Waugh hawk, Mr. Barry; don't think, if
you value your peace of mind, to stand in my shoes when they are
vacant. Besides, I don't think my Lady Lyndon would QUITE condescend
to marry a'----
'Marry a what, sir?' said I, in a rage.
"Never mind what: but the man who gets her will rue it, take my word
on't. A plague on her! had it not been for my father's ambition and
mine (he was her uncle and guardian, and we wouldn't let such a
prize out of the family), I might have died peaceably, at least;
carried my gout down to my grave in quiet, lived in my modest
tenement in Mayfair, had every house in England open to me; and now,
now I have six of my own, and every one of them is a hell to me.
Beware of greatness, Mr. Barry. Take warning by me. Ever since I
have been married and have been rich, I have been the most miserable
wretch in the world. Look at me. I am dying a worn-out cripple at
the age of fifty. Marriage has added forty years to my life. When I
took off Lady Lyndon, there was no man of my years who looked so
young as myself. Fool that I was! I had enough with my pensions,
perfect freedom, the best society in Europe; and I gave up all
these, and married, and was miserable. Take a warning by me, Captain
Barry, and stick to the trumps."
Though my intimacy with the knight was considerable, for a long time
I never penetrated into any other apartments of his hotel but those
which he himself occupied. His lady lived entirely apart from him;
and it is only curious how they came to travel together at all. She
was a goddaughter of old Mary Wortley Montagu: and, like that famous
old woman of the last century, made considerable pretensions to be a
blue-stocking and a bel esprit. Lady Lyndon wrote poems in English
and Italian, which still may be read by the curious in the pages of
the magazines of the day. She entertained a correspondence with
several of the European savans upon history, science, and ancient
languages, and especially theology. Her pleasure was to dispute
controversial points with abbes and bishops; and her flatterers said
she rivalled Madam Dacier in learning. Every adventurer who had a
discovery in chemistry, a new antique bust, or a plan for
discovering the philosopher's stone, was sure to find a patroness in
her. She had numberless works dedicated to her, and sonnets without
end addressed to her by all the poetasters of Europe, under the name
of Lindonira or Calista. Her rooms were crowded with hideous China
magots, and all sorts of objects of VERTU.
No woman piqued herself more upon her principles, or allowed love to
be made to her more profusely. There was a habit of courtship
practised by the fine gentlemen of those days, which is little
understood in our coarse downright times: and young and old fellows
would pour out floods of compliments in letters and madrigals, such
as would make a sober lady stare were they addressed to her
nowadays: so entirely has the gallantry of the last century
disappeared out of our manners.
Lady Lyndon moved about with a little court of her own. She had
half-a-dozen carriages in her progresses. In her own she would
travel with her companion (some shabby lady of quality), her birds,
and poodles, and the favourite savant for the time being. In another
would be her female secretary and her waiting-women; who, in spite
of their care, never could make their mistress look much better than
a slattern. Sir Charles Lyndon had his own chariot, and the
domestics of the establishment would follow in other vehicles.
Also must be mentioned the carriage in which rode her Ladyship's
chaplain, Mr. Runt, who acted in capacity of governor to her son,
the little Viscount Bullingdon,--a melancholy deserted little boy,
about whom his father was more than indifferent, and whom his mother
never saw, except for two minutes at her levee, when she would put
to him a few questions of history or Latin grammar; after which he
was consigned to his own amusements, or the care of his governor,
for the rest of the day.
The notion of such a Minerva as this, whom I saw in the public
places now and then, surrounded by swarms of needy abbes and
schoolmasters, who flattered her, frightened me for some time, and I
had not the least desire to make her acquaintance. I had no desire
to be one of the beggarly adorers in the great lady's train,--
fellows, half friend, half lacquey, who made verses, and wrote
letters, and ran errands, content to be paid by a seat in her
Ladyship's box at the comedy, or a cover at her dinner-table at
noon. 'Don't be afraid,' Sir Charles Lyndon would say, whose great
subject of conversation and abuse was his lady: 'my Lindonira will
have nothing to do with you. She likes the Tuscan brogue, not that
of Kerry. She says you smell too much of the stable to be admitted
to ladies' society; and last Sunday fortnight, when she did me the
honour to speak to me last, said, "I wonder, Sir Charles Lyndon, a
gentleman who has been the King's ambassador can demean himself by
gambling and boozing with low Irish blacklegs!" Don't fly in a fury!
I'm a cripple, and it was Lindonira said it, not I.'
This piqued me, and I resolved to become acquainted with Lady
Lyndon; if it were but to show her Ladyship that the descendant of
those Barrys, whose property she unjustly held, was not an unworthy
companion for any lady, were she ever so high. Besides, my friend
the knight was dying: his widow would be the richest prize in the
three kingdoms. Why should I not win her, and, with her, the means
of making in the world that figure which my genius and inclination
desired? I felt I was equal in blood and breeding to any Lyndon in
Christendom, and determined to bend this haughty lady. When I
determine, I look upon the thing as done.
My uncle and I talked the matter over, and speedily settled upon a
method for making our approaches upon this stately lady of Castle
Lyndon. Mr. Runt, young Lord Bullingdon's governor, was fond of
pleasure, of a glass of Rhenish in the garden-houses in the summer
evenings, and of a sly throw of the dice when the occasion offered;
and I took care to make friends with this person, who, being a
college tutor and an Englishman, was ready to go on his knees to any
one who resembled a man of fashion. Seeing me with my retinue of
servants, my vis-a-vis and chariots, my valets, my hussar, and
horses, dressed in gold, and velvet, and sables, saluting the
greatest people in Europe as we met on the course, or at the Spas,
Runt was dazzled by my advances, and was mine by a beckoning of the
finger. I shall never forget the poor wretch's astonishment when I
asked him to dine, with two counts, off gold plate, at the little
room in the casino: he was made happy by being allowed to win a few
pieces of us, became exceedingly tipsy, sang Cambridge songs, and
recreated the company by telling us, in his horrid Yorkshire French,
stories about the gyps, and all the lords that had ever been in his
college. I encouraged him to come and see me oftener, and bring with
him his little viscount; for whom, though the boy always detested
me, I took care to have a good stock of sweetmeats, toys, and
picture-books when he came.
I then began to enter into a controversy with Mr. Runt, and confided
to him some doubts which I had, and a very very earnest leaning
towards the Church of Rome. I made a certain abbe whom I knew write
me letters upon transubstantiation, &c., which the honest tutor was
rather puzzled to answer. I knew that they would be communicated to
his lady, as they were; for, asking leave to attend the English
service which was celebrated in her apartments, and frequented by
the best English then at the Spa, on the second Sunday she
condescended to look at me; on the third she was pleased to reply to
my profound bow by a curtsey; the next day I followed up the
acquaintance by another obeisance in the public walk; and, to make a
long story short, her Ladyship and I were in full correspondence on
transubstantiation before six weeks were over. My Lady came to the
aid of her chaplain; and then I began to see the prodigious weight
of his arguments: as was to be expected. The progress of this
harmless little intrigue need not be detailed. I make no doubt every
one of my readers has practised similar stratagems when a fair lady
was in the case.
I shall never forget the astonishment of Sir Charles Lyndon when, on
one summer evening, as he was issuing out to the play-table in his
sedan-chair, according to his wont, her Ladyship's barouche and
four, with her outriders in the tawny livery of the Lyndon family,
came driving into the courtyard of the house which they inhabited;
and in that carriage, by her Ladyship's side, sat no other than the
'vulgar Irish adventurer,' as she was pleased to call him: I mean
Redmond Barry, Esquire. He made the most courtly of his bows, and
grinned and waved his hat in as graceful a manner as the gout
permitted; and her Ladyship and I replied to the salutation with the
utmost politeness and elegance on our parts.
I could not go to the play-table for some time afterwards for Lady
Lyndon and I had an argument on transubstantiation, which lasted for
three hours; in which she was, as usual, victorious, and, in which
her companion, the Honourable Miss Flint Skinner, fell asleep; but
when, at last, I joined Sir Charles at the casino, he received me
with a yell of laughter, as his wont was, and introduced me to all
the company as Lady Lyndon's interesting young convert. This was his
way. He laughed and sneered at everything. He laughed when he was in
a paroxysm of pain; he laughed when he won money, or when he lost
it: his laugh was not jovial or agreeable, but rather painful and
sardonic.
'Gentlemen,' said he to Punter, Colonel Loder, Count du Carreau, and
several jovial fellows with whom he used to discuss a flask of
champagne and a Rhenish trout or two after play, 'see this amiable
youth! He has been troubled by religious scruples, and has flown for
refuge to my chaplain, Mr. Runt, who has asked for advice from my
wife, Lady Lyndon; and, between them both, they are confirming my
ingenious young friend in his faith. Did you ever hear of such
doctors, and such a disciple?'
''Faith, sir,' said I, 'if I want to learn good principles, it's
surely better I should apply for them to your lady and your chaplain
than to you!'
'He wants to step into my shoes!' continued the knight.
'The man would be happy who did so,' responded I, 'provided there
were no chalk-stones included!' At which reply Sir Charles was not
very well pleased, and went on with increased rancour. He was always
free-spoken in his cups; and, to say the truth, he was in his cups
many more times in a week than his doctors allowed.
'Is it not a pleasure, gentlemen,' said he, 'for me, as I am drawing
near the goal, to find my home such a happy one; my wife so fond of
me, that she is even now thinking of appointing a successor? (I
don't mean you precisely, Mr. Barry; you are only taking your chance
with a score of others whom I could mention.) Isn't it a comfort to
see her, like a prudent housewife, getting everything ready for her
husband's departure?'
'I hope you are not thinking of leaving us soon, knight?' said I,
with perfect sincerity; for I liked him, as a most amusing
companion. 'Not so soon, my dear, as you may fancy, perhaps,'
continued he. 'Why, man, I have been given over any time these four
years; and there was always a candidate or two waiting to apply for
the situation. Who knows how long I may keep you waiting?' and he
DID keep me waiting some little time longer than at that period
there was any reason to suspect.
As I declared myself pretty openly, according to my usual way, and
authors are accustomed to describe the persons of the ladies with
whom their heroes fall in love; in compliance with this fashion, I
perhaps should say a word or two respecting the charms of my Lady
Lyndon. But though I celebrated them in many copies of verses, of my
own and other persons' writing; and though I filled reams of paper
in the passionate style of those days with compliments to every one
of her beauties and smiles, in which I compared her to every flower,
goddess, or famous heroine ever heard of,--truth compels me to say
that there was nothing divine about her at all. She was very well;
but no more. Her shape was fine, her hair dark, her eyes good, and
exceedingly active; she loved singing, but performed it as so great
a lady should, very much out of tune. She had a smattering of half-
a-dozen modern languages, and, as I have said before, of many more
sciences than I even knew the names of. She piqued herself on
knowing Greek and Latin; but the truth is, that Mr. Runt, used to
supply her with the quotations which she introduced into her
voluminous correspondence. She had as much love of admiration, as
strong, uneasy a vanity, and as little heart, as any woman I ever
knew. Otherwise, when her son, Lord Bullingdon, on account of his
differences with me, ran--but that matter shall be told in its
proper time. Finally, my Lady Lyndon was about a year older than
myself; though, of course, she would take her Bible oath that she
was three years younger.
Few men are so honest as I am; for few will own to their real
motives, and I don't care a button about confessing mine. What Sir
Charles Lyndon said was perfectly true. I made the acquaintance of
Lady Lyndon with ulterior views. 'Sir,' said I to him, when, after
the scene described and the jokes he made upon me, we met alone,
'let those laugh that win. You were very pleasant upon me a few
nights since, and on my intentions regarding your lady. Well, if
they ARE what you think they are,--if I DO wish to step into your
shoes, what then? I have no other intentions than you had yourself.
I'll be sworn to muster just as much regard for my Lady Lyndon as
you ever showed her; and if I win her and wear her when you are dead
and gone, corbleu, knight, do you think it will be the fear of your
ghost will deter me?'
Lyndon laughed as usual; but somewhat disconcertedly: indeed I had
clearly the best of him in the argument, and had just as much right
to hunt my fortune as he had.
But one day he said, 'If you marry such a woman as my Lady Lyndon,
mark my words, you will regret it. You will pine after the liberty
you once enjoyed. By George! Captain Barry,' he added, with a sigh,
'the thing that I regret most in life--perhaps it is because I am
old, blase, and dying--is, that I never had a virtuous attachment.'
'Ha! ha! a milkmaid's daughter!' said I, laughing at the absurdity.
'Well, why not a milkmaid's daughter? My good fellow, I WAS in love
in youth, as most gentlemen are, with my tutor's daughter, Helena, a
bouncing girl; of course older than myself' (this made me remember
my own little love-passages with Nora Brady in the days of my early
life), 'and do you know, sir, I heartily regret I didn't marry her?
There's nothing like having a virtuous drudge at home, sir; depend
upon that. It gives a zest to one's enjoyments in the world, take my
word for it. No man of sense need restrict himself, or deny himself
a single amusement for his wife's sake: on the contrary, if he
select the animal properly, he will choose such a one as shall be no
bar to his pleasure, but a comfort in his hours of annoyance. For
instance, I have got the gout: who tends me? A hired valet, who robs
me whenever he has the power. My wife never comes near me. What
friend have I? None in the wide world. Men of the world, as you and
I are, don't make friends; and we are fools for our pains. Get a
friend, sir, and that friend a woman--a good household drudge, who
loves you. THAT is the most precious sort of friendship; for the
expense of it is all on the woman's side. The man needn't contribute
anything. If he's a rogue, she'll vow he's an angel; if he's a
brute, she will like him all the better for his ill-treatment of
her. They like it, sir, these women. They are born to be our
greatest comforts and conveniences; our--our moral bootjacks, as it
were; and to men in your way of life, believe me such a person would
be invaluable. I am only speaking for your bodily and mental
comfort's sake, mind. Why didn't I marry poor Helena Flower, the
curate's daughter?'
I thought these speeches the remarks of a weakly disappointed man;
although since, perhaps, I have had reason to find the truth of Sir
Charles Lyndon's statements. The fact is, in my opinion, that we
often buy money very much too dear. To purchase a few thousands a
year at the expense of an odious wife, is very bad economy for a
young fellow of any talent and spirit; and there have been moments
of my life when, in the midst of my greatest splendour and opulence,
with half-a-dozen lords at my levee, with the finest horses in my
stables, the grandest house over my head, with unlimited credit at
my banker's, and--Lady Lyndon to boot, I have wished myself back a
private of Bulow's, or anything, so as to get rid of her. To return,
however, to the story. Sir Charles, with his complication of ills,
was dying before us by inches! and I've no doubt it could not have
been very pleasant to him to see a young handsome fellow paying
court to his widow before his own face as it were. After I once got
into the house on the transubstantiation dispute, I found a dozen
more occasions to improve my intimacy, and was scarcely ever out of
her Ladyship's doors. The world talked and blustered; but what cared
I? The men cried fie upon the shameless Irish adventurer; but I have
told my way of silencing such envious people: and my sword had by
this time got such a reputation through Europe, that few people
cared to encounter it. If I can once get my hold of a place, I keep
it. Many's the house I have been to where I have seen the men avoid
me. 'Faugh! the low Irishman,' they would say. 'Bah! the coarse
adventurer!' 'Out on the insufferable blackleg and puppy!' and so
forth. This hatred has been of no inconsiderable service to me in
the world; for when I fasten on a man, nothing can induce me to
release my hold: and I am left to myself, which is all the better.
As I told Lady Lyndon in those days, with perfect sincerity,
'Calista' (I used to call her Calista in my correspondence)--'
Calista, I swear to thee, by the spotlessness of thy own soul, by
the brilliancy of thy immitigable eyes, by everything pure and
chaste in heaven and in thy own heart, that I will never cease from
following thee! Scorn I can bear, and have borne at thy hands.
Indifference I can surmount; 'tis a rock which my energy will climb
over, a magnet which attracts the dauntless iron of my soul!' And it
was true, I wouldn't have left her--no, though they had kicked me
downstairs every day I presented myself at her door.
That is my way of fascinating women. Let the man who has to make his
fortune in life remember this maxim. ATTACKING is his only secret.
Dare, and the world always yields: or, if it beat you sometimes,
dare again, and it will succumb. In those days my spirit was so
great, that if I had set my heart upon marrying a princess of the
blood, I would have had her!
I told Calista my story, and altered very very little of the truth.
My object was to frighten her: to show her that what I wanted, that
I dared; that what I dared, that I won; and there were striking
passages enough in my history to convince her of my iron will and
indomitable courage. 'Never hope to escape me, madam,' I would say:
'offer to marry another man, and he dies upon this sword, which
never yet met its master. Fly from me, and I will follow you, though
it were to the gates of Hades.' I promise you this was very
different language to that she had been in the habit of hearing from
her Jemmy-Jessamy adorers. You should have seen how I scared the
fellows from her.
When I said in this energetic way that I would follow Lady Lyndon
across the Styx if necessary, of course I meant that I would do so,
provided nothing more suitable presented itself in the interim. If
Lyndon would not die, where was the use of my pursuing the Countess?
And somehow, towards the end of the Spa season, very much to my
mortification I do confess, the knight made another rally: it seemed
as if nothing would kill him. 'I am sorry for you, Captain Barry,'
he would say, laughing as usual. 'I'm grieved to keep you, or any
gentleman, waiting. Had you not better arrange with my doctor, or
get the cook to flavour my omelette with arsenic? What are the odds,
gentlemen,' he would add, 'that I don't live to see Captain Barry
hanged yet?'
In fact, the doctors tinkered him up for a year. 'It's my usual
luck,' I could not help saying to my uncle, who was my confidential
and most excellent adviser in all matters of the heart. 'I've been
wasting the treasures of my affections upon that flirt of a
countess, and here's her husband restored to health and likely to
live I don't know how many years!' And, as if to add to my
mortification, there came just at this period to Spa an English
tallow-chandler's heiress, with a plum to her fortune; and Madame
Cornu, the widow of a Norman cattle-dealer and farmer-general, with
a dropsy and two hundred thousand livres a year.
'What's the use of my following the Lyndons to England,' says I, 'if
the knight won't die?'
'Don't follow them, my dear simple child,' replied my uncle. 'Stop
here and pay court to the new arrivals.'
'Yes, and lose Calista for ever, and the greatest estate in all
England.'
'Pooh, pooh! youths like you easily fire and easily despond. Keep up
a correspondence with Lady Lyndon. You know there's nothing she
likes so much. There's the Irish abbe, who will write you the most
charming letters for a crown apiece. Let her go; write to her, and
meanwhile look out for anything else which may turn up. Who knows?
you might marry the Norman widow, bury her, take her money, and be
ready for the Countess against the knight's death.'
And so, with vows of the most profound respectful attachment, and
having given twenty louis to Lady Lyndon's waiting-woman for a lock
of her hair (of which fact, of course, the woman informed her
mistress), I took leave of the Countess, when it became necessary
for her return to her estates in England; swearing I would follow
her as soon as an affair of honour I had on my hands could be
brought to an end.
I shall pass over the events of the year that ensued before I again
saw her. She wrote to me according to promise; with much regularity
at first, with somewhat less frequency afterwards. My affairs,
meanwhile, at the play-table went on not unprosperously, and I was
just on the point of marrying the widow Cornu (we were at Brussels
by this time, and the poor soul was madly in love with me,) when the
London Gazette was put into my hands, and I read the following
announcement:--
'Died at Castle-Lyndon, in the kingdom of Ireland, the Right
Honourable Sir Charles Lyndon, Knight of the Bath, member of
Parliament for Lyndon in Devonshire, and many years His Majesty's
representative at various European Courts. He hath left behind him a
name which is endeared to all his friends for his manifold virtues
and talents, a reputation justly acquired in the service of His
Majesty, and an inconsolable widow to deplore his loss. Her
Ladyship, the bereaved Countess of Lyndon, was at the Bath when the
horrid intelligence reached her of her husband's demise, and
hastened to Ireland immediately in order to pay her last sad duties
to his beloved remains.'
That very night I ordered my chariot and posted to Ostend, whence I
freighted a vessel to Dover, and travelling rapidly into the West,
reached Bristol; from which port I embarked for Waterford, and found
myself, after an absence of eleven years, in my native country.
CHAPTER XIV
I RETURN TO IRELAND, AND EXHIBIT MY SPLENDOUR AND GENEROSITY IN THAT
KINGDOM
How were times changed with me now! I had left my country a poor
penniless boy--a private soldier in a miserable marching regiment. I
returned an accomplished man, with property to the amount of five
thousand guineas in my possession, with a splendid wardrobe and
jewel-case worth two thousand more; having mingled in all the scenes
of life a not undistinguished actor in them; having shared in war
and in love; having by my own genius and energy won my way from
poverty and obscurity to competence and splendour. As I looked out
from my chariot windows as it rolled along over the bleak bare
roads, by the miserable cabins of the peasantry, who came out in
their rags to stare as the splendid equipage passed, and huzza'd for
his Lordship's honour as they saw the magnificent stranger in the
superb gilded vehicle, my huge body-servant Fritz lolling behind
with curling moustaches and long queue, his green livery barred with
silver lace, I could not help thinking of myself with considerable
complacency, and thanking my stars that had endowed me with so many
good qualities. But for my own merits I should have been a raw Irish
squireen such as those I saw swaggering about the wretched towns
through which my chariot passed on its road to Dublin. I might have
married Nora Brady (and though, thank Heaven, I did not, I have
never thought of that girl but with kindness, and even remember the
bitterness of losing her more clearly at this moment than any other
incident of my life); I might have been the father of ten children
by this time, or a farmer on my own account, or an agent to a
squire, or a gauger, or an attorney; and here I was one of the most
famous gentlemen of Europe! I bade my fellow get a bag of copper
money and throw it among the crowd as we changed horses; and I
warrant me there was as much shouting set up in praise of my honour
as if my Lord Townshend, the Lord Lieutenant himself, had been
passing.
My second day's journey--for the Irish roads were rough in those
days, and the progress of a gentleman's chariot terribly slow--
brought me to Carlow, where I put up at the very inn which I had
used eleven years back, when flying from home after the supposed
murder of Quin in the duel. How well I remember every moment of the
scene! The old landlord was gone who had served me; the inn that I
then thought so comfortable looked wretched and dismantled; but the
claret was as good as in the old days, and I had the host to partake
of a jug of it and hear the news of the country.
He was as communicative as hosts usually are: the crops and the
markets, the price of beasts at last Castle Dermot fair, the last
story about the vicar, and the last joke of Father Hogan the priest;
how the Whiteboys had burned Squire Scanlan's ricks, and the
highwaymen had been beaten off in their attack upon Sir Thomas's
house; who was to hunt the Kilkenny hounds next season, and the
wonderful run entirely they had last March; what troops were in the
town, and how Miss Biddy Toole had run off with Ensign Mullins: all
the news of sport, assize, and quarter-sessions were detailed by
this worthy chronicler of small-beer, who wondered that my honour
hadn't heard of them in England, or in foreign parts, where he
seemed to think the world was as interested as he was about the
doings of Kilkenny and Carlow. I listened to these tales with, I
own, a considerable pleasure; for every now and then a name would
come up in the conversation which I remembered in old days, and
bring with it a hundred associations connected with them.
I had received many letters from my mother, which informed me of the
doings of the Brady's Town family. My uncle was dead, and Mick, his
eldest son, had followed him too to the grave. The Brady girls had
separated from their paternal roof as soon as their elder brother
came to rule over it. Some were married, some gone to settle with
their odious old mother in out-of-the-way watering-places. Ulick,
though he had succeeded to the estate, had come in for a bankrupt
property, and Castle Brady was now inhabited only by the bats and
owls, and the old gamekeeper. My mother, Mrs. Harry Barry, had gone
to live at Bray, to sit under Mr. Jowls, her favourite preacher, who
had a chapel there; and, finally, the landlord told me, that Mrs.
Barry's son had gone to foreign parts, enlisted in the Prussian
service, and had been shot there as a deserter.
I don't care to own that I hired a stout nag from the landlord's
stable after dinner, and rode back at nightfall twenty miles to my
old home. My heart beat to see it. Barryville had got a pestle and
mortar over the door, and was called 'The Esculapian Repository,' by
Doctor Macshane; a red-headed lad was spreading a plaster in the old
parlour; the little window of my room, once so neat and bright, was
cracked in many places, and stuffed with rags here and there; the
flowers had disappeared from the trim garden-beds which my good
orderly mother tended. In the churchyard there were two more names
put into the stone over the family vault of the Bradys: they were
those of my cousin, for whom my regard was small, and my uncle, whom
I had always loved. I asked my old companion the blacksmith, who had
beaten me so often in old days, to give my horse a feed and a
litter: he was a worn weary-looking man now, with a dozen dirty
ragged children paddling about his smithy, and had no recollection
of the fine gentleman who stood before him. I did not seek to recall
my-self to his memory till the next day, when I put ten guineas into
his hand, and bade him drink the health of English Redmond.
As for Castle Brady, the gates of the park were still there; but the
old trees were cut down in the avenue, a black stump jutting out
here and there, and casting long shadows as I passed in the
moonlight over the worn grass-grown old road. A few cows were at
pasture there. The garden-gate was gone, and the place a tangled
wilderness. I sat down on the old bench, where I had sat on the day
when Nora jilted me; and I do believe my feelings were as strong
then as they had been when I was a boy, eleven years before; and I
caught myself almost crying again, to think that Nora Brady had
deserted me. I believe a man forgets nothing. I've seen a flower, or
heard some trivial word or two, which have awakened recollections
that somehow had lain dormant for scores of years; and when I
entered the house in Clarges Street, where I was born (it was used
as a gambling-house when I first visited London), all of a sudden
the memory of my childhood came back to me--of my actual infancy: I
recollected my father in green and gold, holding me up to look at a
gilt coach which stood at the door, and my mother in a flowered
sack, with patches on her face. Some day, I wonder, will everything
we have seen and thought and done come and flash across our minds in
this way? I had rather not. I felt so as I sat upon the bench at
Castle Brady, and thought of the bygone times.
The hall-door was open--it was always so at that house; the moon was
flaring in at the long old windows, and throwing ghastly chequers
upon the floors; and the stars were looking in on the other side, in
the blue of the yawning window over the great stair: from it you
could see the old stable-clock, with the letters glistening on it
still. There had been jolly horses in those stables once; and I
could see my uncle's honest face, and hear him talking to his dogs
as they came jumping and whining and barking round about him of a
gay winter morning. We used to mount there; and the girls looked out
at us from the hall-window, where I stood and looked at the sad,
mouldy, lonely old place. There was a red light shining through the
crevices of a door at one corner of the building, and a dog
presently came out baying loudly, and a limping man followed with a
fowling-piece.
'Who's there?' said the old man.
'PHIL PURCELL, don't you know me?' shouted I; 'it's Redmond Barry.'
I thought the old man would have fired his piece at me at first, for
he pointed it at the window; but I called to him to hold his hand,
and came down and embraced him.... Psha! I don't care to tell the
rest: Phil and I had a long night, and talked over a thousand
foolish old things that have no interest for any soul alive now: for
what soul is there alive that cares for Barry Lyndon?
I settled a hundred guineas on the old man when I got to Dublin, and
made him an annuity which enabled him to pass his old days in
comfort.
Poor Phil Purcell was amusing himself at a game of exceedingly dirty
cards with an old acquaintance of mine; no other than Tim, who was
called my 'valet' in the days of yore, and whom the reader may
remember as clad in my father's old liveries. They used to hang
about him in those times, and lap over his wrists and down to his
heels; but Tim, though he protested he had nigh killed himself with
grief when I went away, had managed to grow enormously fat in my
absence, and would have fitted almost into Daniel Lambert's coat, or
that of the vicar of Castle Brady, whom he served in the capacity of
clerk. I would have engaged the fellow in my service but for his
monstrous size, which rendered him quite unfit to be the attendant
of any gentleman of condition; and so I presented him with a
handsome gratuity, and promised to stand godfather to his next
child: the eleventh since my absence. There is no country in the
world where the work of multiplying is carried on so prosperously as
in my native island. Mr. Tim had married the girls' waiting-maid,
who had been a kind friend of mine in the early times; and I had to
go salute poor Molly next day, and found her a slatternly wench in a
mud hut, surrounded by a brood of children almost as ragged as those
of my friend the blacksmith.
From Tim and Phil Purcell, thus met fortuitously together, I got the
very last news respecting my family. My mother was well.
''Faith sir,' says Tim, 'and you're come in time, mayhap, for
preventing an addition to your family.'
'Sir!' exclaimed I, in a fit of indignation.
'In the shape of father-in-law, I mane, sir,' says Tim: 'the
misthress is going to take on with Mister Jowls the praacher.'
Poor Nora, he added, had made many additions to the illustrious race
of Quin; and my cousin Ulick was in Dublin, coming to little good,
both my informants feared, and having managed to run through the
small available remains of property which my good old uncle had left
behind him.
I saw I should have no small family to provide for; and then, to
conclude the evening, Phil, Tim, and I, had a bottle of usquebaugh,
the taste of which I had remembered for eleven good years, and did
not part except with the warmest terms of fellowship, and until the
sun had been some time in the sky. I am exceedingly affable; that
has always been one of my characteristics. I have no false pride, as
many men of high lineage like my own have, and, in default of better
company, will hob and nob with a ploughboy or a private soldier just
as readily as with the first noble in the land.
I went back to the village in the morning, and found a pretext for
visiting Barryville under a device of purchasing drugs. The hooks
were still in the wall where my silver-hiked sword used to hang; a
blister was lying on the window-sill, where my mother's 'Whole Duty
of Man' had its place; and the odious Doctor Macshane had found out
who I was (my countrymen find out everything, and a great deal more
besides), and sniggering, asked me how I left the King of Prussia,
and whether my friend the Emperor Joseph was as much liked as the
Empress Maria Theresa had been. The bell-ringers would have had a
ring of bells for me, but there was but one, Tim, who was too fat to
pull; and I rode off before the vicar, Doctor Bolter (who had
succeeded old Mr. Texter, who had the living in my time), had time
to come out to compliment me; but the rapscallions of the beggarly
village had assembled in a dirty army to welcome me, and cheered
'Hurrah for Masther Redmond!' as I rode away.
My people were not a little anxious regarding me, by the time I
returned to Carlow, and the landlord was very much afraid, he said,
that the highwaymen had gotten hold of me. There, too, my name and
station had been learned from my servant Fritz: who had not spared
his praises of his master, and had invented some magnificent
histories concerning me. He said it was the truth that I was
intimate with half the sovereigns of Europe, and the prime favourite
with most of them. Indeed I had made my uncle's order of the Spur
hereditary, and travelled under the name of the Chevalier Barry,
chamberlain to the Duke of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
They gave me the best horses the stable possessed to carry me on my
road to Dublin, and the strongest ropes for harness; and we got on
pretty well, and there was no rencontre between the highwaymen and
the pistols with which Fritz and I were provided. We lay that night
at Kilcullen, and the next day I made my entry into the city of
Dublin, with four horses to my carriage, five thousand guineas in my
purse, and one of the most brilliant reputations in Europe, having
quitted the city a beggarly boy, eleven years before.
The citizens of Dublin have as great and laudable a desire for
knowing their neighbours' concerns as the country people have; and
it is impossible for a gentleman, however modest his desires may be
(and such mine have notoriously been through life), to enter the
capital without having his name printed in every newspaper and
mentioned in a number of societies. My name and titles were all over
the town the day after my arrival. A great number of polite persons
did me the honour to call at my lodgings, when I selected them; and
this was a point very necessarily of immediate care, for the hotels
in the town were but vulgar holes, unfit for a nobleman of my
fashion and elegance. I had been informed of the fact by travellers
on the Continent; and determining to fix on a lodging at once, I
bade the drivers go slowly up and down the streets with my chariot,
until I had selected a place suitable to my rank. This proceeding,
and the uncouth questions and behaviour of my German Fritz, who was
instructed to make inquiries at the different houses until
convenient apartments could be lighted upon, brought an immense mob
round my coach; and by the time the rooms were chosen you might have
supposed I was the new General of the Forces, so great was the
multitude following us.
I fixed at length upon a handsome suite of apartments in Capel
Street, paid the ragged postilions who had driven me a splendid
gratuity, and establishing myself in the rooms with my baggage and
Fritz, desired the landlord to engage me a second fellow to wear my
liveries, a couple of stout reputable chairmen and their machine,
and a coachman who had handsome job-horses to hire for my chariot,
and serviceable riding-horses to sell. I gave him a handsome sum in
advance; and I promise you the effect of my advertisement was such,
that next day I had a regular levee in my antechamber: grooms,
valets, and maitres-d'hotel offered themselves without number; I had
proposals for the purchase of horses sufficient to mount a regiment,
both from dealers and gentlemen of the first fashion. Sir Lawler
Gawler came to propose to me the most elegant bay-mare ever stepped;
my Lord Dundoodle had a team of four that wouldn't disgrace my
friend the Emperor; and the Marquess of Ballyragget sent his
gentleman and his compliments, stating that if I would step up to
his stables, or do him the honour of breakfasting with him
previously, he would show me the two finest greys in Europe. I
determined to accept the invitations of Dundoodle and Ballyragget,
but to purchase my horses from the dealers. It is always the best
way. Besides, in those days, in Ireland, if a gentleman warranted
his horse, and it was not sound, or a dispute arose, the remedy you
had was the offer of a bullet in your waistcoat. I had played at the
bullet game too much in earnest to make use of it heedlessly: and I
may say, proudly for myself, that I never engaged in a duel unless I
had a real, available, and prudent reason for it.
There was a simplicity about this Irish gentry which amused and made
me wonder. If they tell more fibs than their downright neighbours
across the water, on the other hand they believe more; and I made
myself in a single week such a reputation in Dublin as would take a
man ten years and a mint of money to acquire in London. I had won
five hundred thousand pounds at play; I was the favourite of the
Empress Catherine of Russia; the confidential agent of Frederick of
Prussia; it was I won the battle of Hochkirchen; I was the cousin of
Madame Du Barry, the French King's favourite, and a thousand things
beside. Indeed, to tell the truth, I hinted a number of these
stories to my kind friends Ballyragget and Gawler; and they were not
slow to improve the hints I gave them.
After having witnessed the splendours of civilised life abroad, the
sight of Dublin in the year 1771, when I returned thither, struck me
with anything but respect. It was as savage as Warsaw almost,
without the regal grandeur of the latter city. The people looked
more ragged than any race I have ever seen, except the gipsy hordes
along the banks of the Danube. There was, as I have said, not an inn
in the town fit for a gentleman of condition to dwell in. Those
luckless fellows who could not keep a carriage, and walked the
streets at night, ran imminent risks of the knives of the women and
ruffians who lay in wait there,--of a set of ragged savage villains,
who neither knew the use of shoe nor razor; and as a gentleman
entered his chair or his chariot, to be carried to his evening rout,
or the play, the flambeaux of the footmen would light up such a set
of wild gibbering Milesian faces as would frighten a genteel person
of average nerves. I was luckily endowed with strong ones; besides,
had seen my amiable countrymen before.
I know this description of them will excite anger among some Irish
patriots, who don't like to have the nakedness of our land abused,
and are angry if the whole truth be told concerning it. But bah! it
was a poor provincial place, Dublin, in the old days of which I
speak; and many a tenth-rate German residency is more genteel. There
were, it is true, near three hundred resident Peers at the period;
and a House of Commons; and my Lord Mayor and his corporation; and a
roystering noisy University, whereof the students made no small
disturbances nightly, patronised the roundhouse, ducked obnoxious
printers and tradesmen, and gave the law at the Crow Street Theatre.
But I had seen too much of the first society of Europe to be much
tempted by the society of these noisy gentry, and was a little too
much of a gentleman to mingle with the disputes and politics of my
Lord Mayor and his Aldermen. In the House of Commons there were some
dozen of right pleasant fellows. I never heard in the English
Parliament better speeches than from Flood, and Daly, of Galway.
Dick Sheridan, though not a well-bred person, was as amusing and
ingenious a table-companion as ever I met; and though during Mr.
Edmund Burke's interminable speeches in the English House I used
always to go to sleep, I yet have heard from well-informed parties
that Mr. Burke was a person of considerable abilities, and even
reputed to be eloquent in his more favourable moments.
I soon began to enjoy to the full extent the pleasures that the
wretched place affords, and which were within a gentleman's reach:
Ranelagh and the Ridotto; Mr. Mossop, at Crow Street; my Lord
Lieutenant's parties, where there was a great deal too much boozing,
and too little play, to suit a person of my elegant and refined
habits. 'Daly's Coffee-house,' and the houses of the nobility, were
soon open to me; and I remarked with astonishment in the higher
circles, what I had experienced in the lower on my first unhappy
visit to Dublin, an extraordinary want of money, and a preposterous
deal of promissory notes flying about, for which I was quite
unwilling to stake my guineas. The ladies, too, were mad for play;
but exceeding unwilling to pay when they lost. Thus, when the old
Countess of Trumpington lost ten pieces to me at quadrille, she gave
me, instead of the money, her Ladyship's note of hand on her agent
in Galway; which I put, with a great deal of politeness, into the
candle. But when the Countess made me a second proposition to play,
I said that as soon as her Ladyship's remittances were arrived, I
would be the readiest person to meet her; but till then was her very
humble servant. And I maintained this resolution and singular
character throughout the Dublin society: giving out at 'Daly's' that
I was ready to play any man, for any sum, at any game; or to fence
with him, or to ride with him (regard being had to our weight), or
to shoot flying, or at a mark; and in this latter accomplishment,
especially if the mark be a live one, Irish gentlemen of that day
had no ordinary skill.
Of course I despatched a courier in my liveries to Castle Lyndon
with a private letter for Runt, demanding from him full particulars
of the Countess of Lyndon's state of health and mind; and a touching
and eloquent letter to her Ladyship, in which I bade her remember
ancient days, which I tied up with a single hair from the lock which
I had purchased from her woman, and in which I told her that
Sylvander remembered his oath, and could never forget his Calista.
The answer I received from her was exceedingly unsatisfactory and
inexplicit; that from Mr. Runt explicit enough, but not at all
pleasant in its contents. My Lord George Poynings, the Marquess of
Tiptoff's younger son, was paying very marked addresses to the
widow; being a kinsman of the family, and having been called to
Ireland relative to the will of the deceased Sir Charles Lyndon.
Now, there was a sort of rough-and-ready law in Ireland in those
days, which was of great convenience to persons desirous of
expeditious justice; and of which the newspapers of the time contain
a hundred proofs. Fellows with the nicknames of Captain Fireball,
Lieutenant Buffcoat, and Ensign Steele, were repeatedly sending
warning letters to landlords, and murdering them if the notes were
unattended to. The celebrated Captain Thunder ruled in the southern
counties, and his business seemed to be to procure wives for
gentlemen who had not sufficient means to please the parents of the
young ladies; or, perhaps, had not time for a long and intricate
courtship.
I had found my cousin Ulick at Dublin, grown very fat, and very
poor; hunted up by Jews and creditors: dwelling in all sorts of
queer corners, from which he issued at nightfall to the Castle, or
to his card-party at his tavern; but he was always the courageous
fellow: and I hinted to him the state of my affections regarding
Lady Lyndon.
'The Countess of Lyndon!' said poor Ulick; 'well, that IS a wonder.
I myself have been mightily sweet upon a young lady, one of the
Kiljoys of Ballyhack, who has ten thousand pounds to her fortune,
and to whom her Ladyship is guardian; but how is a poor fellow
without a coat to his back to get on with an heiress in such company
as that? I might as well propose for the Countess myself.'
'You had better not,' said I, laughing; 'the man who tries runs a
chance of going out of the world first.' And I explained to him my
own intention regarding Lady Lyndon. Honest Ulick, whose respect for
me was prodigious when he saw how splendid my appearance was, and
heard how wonderful my adventures and great my experience of
fashionable life had been, was lost in admiration of my daring and
energy, when I confided to him my intention of marrying the greatest
heiress in England.
I bade Ulick go out of town on any pretext he chose, and put a
letter into a post-office near Castle Lyndon, which I prepared in a
feigned hand, and in which I gave a solemn warning to Lord George
Poynings to quit the country; saying that the great prize was never
meant for the likes of him, and that there were heiresses enough in
England, without coming to rob them out of the domains of Captain
Fireball. The letter was written on a dirty piece of paper, in the
worst of spelling: it came to my Lord by the post-conveyance, and,
being a high-spirited young man, he of course laughed at it.
As ill-luck would have it for him, he appeared in Dublin a very
short time afterwards; was introduced to the Chevalier Redmond
Barry, at the Lord Lieutenant's table; adjourned with him and
several other gentlemen to the club at 'Daly's,' and there, in a
dispute about the pedigree of a horse, in which everybody said I was
in the right, words arose, and a meeting was the consequence. I had
had no affair in Dublin since my arrival, and people were anxious to
see whether I was equal to my reputation. I make no boast about
these matters, but always do them when the time comes; and poor Lord
George, who had a neat hand and a quick eye enough, but was bred in
the clumsy English school, only stood before my point until I had
determined where I should hit him.
My sword went in under his guard, and came out at his back. When he
fell, he good-naturedly extended his hand to me, and said, 'Mr.
Barry, I was wrong!' I felt not very well at ease when the poor
fellow made this confession: for the dispute had been of my making,
and, to tell the truth, I had never intended it should end in any
other way than a meeting.
He lay on his bed for four months with the effects of that wound;
and the same post which conveyed to Lady Lyndon the news of the
duel, carried her a message from Captain Fireball to say, 'This is
NUMBER ONE!'
'You, Ulick,' said I, 'shall be NUMBER TWO.'
''Faith,' said my cousin, 'one's enough:' But I had my plan
regarding him, and determined at once to benefit this honest fellow,
and to forward my own designs upon the widow.
CHAPTER XV
I PAY COURT TO MY LADY LYNDON
As my uncle's attainder was not reversed for being out with the
Pretender in 1745, it would have been inconvenient for him to
accompany his nephew to the land of our ancestors; where, if not
hanging, at least a tedious process of imprisonment, and a doubtful
pardon, would have awaited the good old gentleman. In any important
crisis of my life, his advice was always of advantage to me, and I
did not fail to seek it at this juncture, and to implore his counsel
as regarded my pursuit of the widow. I told him the situation of her
heart, as I have described it in the last chapter; of the progress
that young Poynings had made in her affections, and of her
forgetfulness of her old admirer; and I got a letter, in reply, full
of excellent suggestions, by which I did not fail to profit. The
kind Chevalier prefaced it by saying, that he was for the present
boarding in the Minorite convent at Brussels; that he had thoughts
of making his salut there, and retiring for ever from the world,
devoting himself to the severest practices of religion. Meanwhile he
wrote with regard to the lovely widow: it was natural that a person
of her vast wealth and not disagreeable person should have many
adorers about her; and that, as in her husband's lifetime she had
shown herself not at all disinclined to receive my addresses, I must
make no manner of doubt I was not the first person whom she had so
favoured; nor was I likely to be the last.
'I would, my dear child,' he added, 'that the ugly attainder round
my neck, and the resolution I have formed of retiring from a world
of sin and vanity altogether, did not prevent me from coming
personally to your aid in this delicate crisis of your affairs; for,
to lead them to a good end, it requires not only the indomitable
courage, swagger, and audacity, which you possess beyond any young
man I have ever known' (as for the 'swagger,' as the Chevalier calls
it, I deny it in toto, being always most modest in my demeanour);
'but though you have the vigour to execute, you have not the
ingenuity to suggest plans of conduct for the following out of a
scheme that is likely to be long and difficult of execution. Would
you have ever thought of the brilliant scheme of the Countess Ida,
which so nearly made you the greatest fortune in Europe, but for the
advice and experience of a poor old man, now making up his accounts
with the world, and about to retire from it for good and all?
'Well, with regard to the Countess of Lyndon, your manner of winning
her is quite en l'air at present to me; nor can I advise day by day,
as I would I could, according to circumstances as they arise. But
your general scheme should be this. If I remember the letters you
used to have from her during the period of the correspondence which
the silly woman entertained you with, much high-flown sentiment
passed between you; and especially was written by her Ladyship
herself: she is a blue-stocking, and fond of writing; she used to
make her griefs with her husband the continual theme of her
correspondence (as women will do). I recollect several passages in
her letters bitterly deploring her fate in being united to one so
unworthy of her.
'Surely, in the mass of billets you possess from her, there must be
enough to compromise her. Look them well over; select passages, and
threaten to do so. Write to her at first in the undoubting tone of a
lover who has every claim upon her. Then, if she is silent,
remonstrate, alluding to former promises from her; producing proofs
of her former regard for you; vowing despair, destruction, revenge,
if she prove unfaithful. Frighten her--astonish her by some daring
feat, which will let her see your indomitable resolution: you are
the man to do it. Your sword has a reputation in Europe, and you
have a character for boldness; which was the first thing that caused
my Lady Lyndon to turn her eyes upon you. Make the people talk about
you at Dublin. Be as splendid, and as brave, and as odd as possible.
How I wish I were near you! You have no imagination to invent such a
character as I would make for you--but why speak; have I not had
enough of the world and its vanities?'
There was much practical good sense in this advice; which I quote,
unaccompanied with the lengthened description of his mortifications
and devotions which my uncle indulged in, finishing his letter, as
usual, with earnest prayers for my conversion to the true faith. But
he was constant to his form of worship; and I, as a man of honour
and principle, was resolute to mine; and have no doubt that the one,
in this respect, will be as acceptable as the other.
Under these directions it was, then, I wrote to Lady Lyndon, to ask
on my arrival when the most respectful of her admirers might be
permitted to intrude upon her grief? Then, as her Ladyship was
silent, I demanded, Had she forgotten old times, and one whom she
had favoured with her intimacy at a very happy period? Had Calista
forgotten Eugenio? At the same time I sent down by my servant with
this letter a present of a little sword for Lord Bullingdon, and a
private note to his governor; whose note of hand, by the way, I
possessed for a sum--I forget what--but such as the poor fellow
would have been very unwilling to pay. To this an answer came from
her Ladyship's amanuensis, stating that Lady Lyndon was too much
disturbed by grief at her recent dreadful calamity to see any one
but her own relations; and advices from my friend, the boy's
governor, stating that my Lord George Poynings was the young kinsman
who was about to console her.
This caused the quarrel between me and the young nobleman; whom I
took care to challenge on his first arrival at Dublin.
When the news of the duel was brought to the widow at Castle Lyndon,
my informant wrote me that Lady Lyndon shrieked and flung down the
journal, and said, 'The horrible monster! He would not shrink from
murder, I believe;' and little Lord Bullingdon, drawing his sword--
the sword I had given him, the rascal!--declared he would kill with
it the man who had hurt Cousin George. On Mr. Runt telling him that
I was the donor of the weapon, the little rogue still vowed that he
would kill me all the same! Indeed, in spite of my kindness to him,
that boy always seemed to detest me.
Her Ladyship sent up daily couriers to inquire after the health of
Lord George; and, thinking to myself that she would probably be
induced to come to Dublin if she were to hear that he was in danger,
I managed to have her informed that he was in a precarious state;
that he grew worse; that Redmond Barry had fled in consequence: of
this flight I caused the Mercury newspaper to give notice also, but
indeed it did not carry me beyond the town of Bray, where my poor
mother dwelt; and where, under the difficulties of a duel, I might
be sure of having a welcome.
Those readers who have the sentiment of filial duty strong in their
mind, will wonder that I have not yet described my interview with
that kind mother whose sacrifices for me in youth had been so
considerable, and for whom a man of my warm and affectionate nature
could not but feel the most enduring and sincere regard.
But a man, moving in the exalted sphere of society in which I now
stood, has his public duties to perform before he consults his
private affections; and so, upon my first arrival, I despatched a
messenger to Mrs. Barry, stating my arrival, conveying to her my
sentiments of respect and duty, and promising to pay them to her
personally so soon as my business in Dublin would leave me free.
This, I need not say, was very considerable. I had my horses to buy,
my establishment to arrange, my entree into the genteel world to
make; and, having announced my intention to purchase horses and live
in a genteel style, was in a couple of days so pestered by visits of
the nobility and gentry, and so hampered by invitations to dinners
and suppers, that it became exceedingly difficult for me during some
days to manage my anxiously desired visit to Mrs. Barry.
It appears that the good soul provided an entertainment as soon as
she heard of my arrival, and invited all her humble acquaintances of
Bray to be present: but I was engaged subsequently to my Lord
Ballyragget on the day appointed, and was, of course, obliged to
break the promise that I had made to Mrs. Barry to attend her humble
festival.
I endeavoured to sweeten the disappointment by sending my mother a
handsome satin sack and velvet robe, which I purchased for her at
the best mercers in Dublin (and indeed told her I had brought from
Paris expressly for her); but the messenger whom I despatched with
the presents brought back the parcels, with the piece of satin torn
half way up the middle: and I did not need his descriptions to be
aware that something had offended the good lady; who came out, he
said, and abused him at the door, and would have boxed his cars, but
that she was restrained by a gentleman in black; who I concluded,
with justice, was her clerical friend Mr. Jowls.
This reception of my presents made me rather dread than hope for an
interview with Mrs. Barry, and delayed my visit to her for some days
further. I wrote her a dutiful and soothing letter, to which there
was no answer returned; although I mentioned that on my way to the
capital I had been at Barryville, and revisited the old haunts of my
youth.
I don't care to own that she is the only human being whom I am
afraid to face. I can recollect her fits of anger as a child, and
the reconciliations, which used to be still more violent and
painful: and so, instead of going myself, I sent my factotum, Ulick
Brady, to her; who rode back, saying that he had met with a
reception he would not again undergo for twenty guineas; that he had
been dismissed the house, with strict injunctions to inform me that
my mother disowned me for ever. This parental anathema, as it were,
affected me much, for I was always the most dutiful of sons; and I
determined to go as soon as possible, and brave what I knew must be
an inevitable scene of reproach and anger, for the sake, as I hoped,
of as certain a reconciliation.
I had been giving one night an entertainment to some of the
genteelest company in Dublin, and was showing my Lord Marquess
downstairs with a pair of wax tapers, when I found a woman in a grey
coat seated at my doorsteps: to whom, taking her for a beggar, I
tendered a piece of money, and whom my noble friends, who were
rather hot with wine, began to joke, as my door closed and I bade
them all good-night.
I was rather surprised and affected to find afterwards that the
hooded woman was no other than my mother; whose pride had made her
vow that she would not enter my doors, but whose natural maternal
yearnings had made her long to see her son's face once again, and
who had thus planted herself in disguise at my gate. Indeed, I have
found in my experience that these are the only women who never
deceive a man, and whose affection remains constant through all
trials. Think of the hours that the kind soul must have passed,
lonely in the street, listening to the din and merriment within my
apartments, the clinking of the glasses, the laughing, the choruses,
and the cheering.
When my affair with Lord George happened, and it became necessary to
me, for the reasons I have stated, to be out of the way; now,
thought I, is the time to make my peace with my good mother: she
will never refuse me an asylum now that I seem in distress. So
sending to her a notice that I was coming, that I had had a duel
which had brought me into trouble, and required I should go into
hiding, I followed my messenger half-an-hour afterwards: and, I
warrant me, there was no want of a good reception, for presently,
being introduced into an empty room by the barefooted maid who
waited upon Mrs. Barry, the door was opened, and the poor mother
flung herself into my arms with a scream, and with transports of joy
which I shall not attempt to describe--they are but to be
comprehended by women who have held in their arms an only child
after a twelve years' absence from him.
The Reverend Mr. Jowls, my mother's director, was the only person to
whom the door of her habitation was opened during my sojourn; and he
would take no denial. He mixed for himself a glass of rum-punch,
which he seemed in the habit of drinking at my good mother's charge,
groaned aloud, and forthwith began reading me a lecture upon the
sinfulness of my past courses, and especially of the last horrible
action I had been committing.
'Sinful!' said my mother, bristling up when her son was attacked;
'sure we're all sinners; and it's you, Mr. Jowls, who have given me
the inexpressible blessing to let me know THAT. But how else would
you have had the poor child behave?'
'I would have had the gentleman avoid the drink, and the quarrel,
and this wicked duel altogether,' answered the clergyman.
But my mother cut him short, by saying such sort of conduct might be
very well in a person of his cloth and his birth, but it neither
became a Brady nor a Barry. In fact, she was quite delighted with
the thought that I had pinked an English marquis's son in a duel;
and so, to console her, I told her of a score more in which I had
been engaged, and of some of which I have already informed the
reader.
As my late antagonist was in no sort of danger when I spread that
report of his perilous situation, there was no particular call that
my hiding should be very close. But the widow did not know the fact
as well as I did: and caused her house to be barricaded, and Becky,
her barefooted serving-wench, to be a perpetual sentinel to give
alarm, lest the officers should be in search of me.
The only person I expected, however, was my cousin Ulick, who was to
bring me the welcome intelligence of Lady Lyndon's arrival; and I
own, after two days' close confinement at Bray, in which I narrated
all the adventures of my life to my mother, and succeeded in making
her accept the dresses she had formerly refused, and a considerable
addition to her income which I was glad to make, I was very glad
when I saw that reprobate Ulick Brady, as my mother called him, ride
up to the door in my carriage with the welcome intelligence for my
mother, that the young lord was out of danger; and for me, that the
Countess of Lyndon had arrived in Dublin.
'And I wish, Redmond, that the young gentleman had been in danger a
little longer,' said the widow, her eyes filling with tears, 'and
you'd have stayed so much the more with your poor old mother.' But I
dried her tears, embracing her warmly, and promised to see her
often; and hinted I would have, mayhap, a house of my own and a
noble daughter to welcome her.
'Who is she, Redmond dear?' said the old lady.
'One of the noblest and richest women in the empire, mother,'
answered I. 'No mere Brady this time,' I added, laughing: with which
hopes I left Mrs. Barry in the best of tempers.
No man can bear less malice than I do; and, when I have once carried
my point, I am one of the most placable creatures in the world. I
was a week in Dublin before I thought it necessary to quit that
capital. I had become quite reconciled to my rival in that time;
made a point of calling at his lodgings, and speedily became an
intimate consoler of his bed-side. He had a gentleman to whom I did
not neglect to be civil, and towards whom I ordered my people to be
particular in their attentions; for I was naturally anxious to learn
what my Lord George's position with the lady of Castle Lyndon had
really been, whether other suitors were about the widow, and how she
would bear the news of his wound.
The young nobleman himself enlightened me somewhat upon the subjects
I was most desirous to inquire into.
'Chevalier,' said he to me one morning when I went to pay him my
compliments, 'I find you are an old acquaintance with my kinswoman,
the Countess of Lyndon. She writes me a page of abuse of you in a
letter here; and the strange part of the story is this, that one day
when there was talk about you at Castle Lyndon, and the splendid
equipage you were exhibiting in Dublin, the fair widow vowed and
protested she never had heard of you.
'"Oh yes, mamma," said the little Bullingdon, "the tall dark man at
Spa with the cast in his eye, who used to make my governor tipsy and
sent me the sword: his name is Mr. Barry."
'But my Lady ordered the boy out of the room, and persisted in
knowing nothing about you.'
'And are you a kinsman and acquaintance of my Lady Lyndon, my Lord?'
said I, in a tone of grave surprise.
'Yes, indeed,' answered the young gentleman. 'I left her house but
to get this ugly wound from you. And it came at a most unlucky time
too.'
'Why more unlucky now than at another moment?'
'Why, look you, Chevalier, I think the widow was not unpartial to
me. I think I might have induced her to make our connection a little
closer: and faith, though she is older than I am, she is the richest
party now in England.'
'My Lord George,' said I, 'will you let me ask you a frank but an
odd question?--will you show me her letters?'
'Indeed I'll do no such thing,' replied he, in a rage.
'Nay, don't be angry. If _I_ show you letters of Lady Lyndon's to
me, will you let me see hers to you?'
'What, in Heaven's name, do you mean, Mr. Barry?' said the young
gentleman.
'_I_ mean that I passionately loved Lady Lyndon. I mean that I am a
--that I rather was not indifferent to her. I mean that I love her
to distraction at this present moment, and will die myself, or kill
the man who possesses her before me.'
'YOU marry the greatest heiress and the noblest blood in England?'
said Lord George haughtily.
'There's no nobler blood in Europe than mine,' answered I: 'and I
tell you I don't know whether to hope or not. But this I know, that
there were days in which, poor as I am, the great heiress did not
disdain to look down upon my poverty: and that any man who marries
her passes over my dead body to do it. It's lucky for you,' I added
gloomily, 'that on the occasion of my engagement with you, I did not
know what were your views regarding my Lady Lyndon. My poor boy, you
are a lad of courage and I love you. Mine is the first sword in
Europe, and you would have been lying in a narrower bed than that
you now occupy.'
'Boy!' said Lord George: 'I am not four years younger than you are.'
'You are forty years younger than I am in experience. I have passed
through every grade of life. With my own skill and daring I have
made my own fortune. I have been in fourteen pitched battles as a
private soldier, and have been twenty-three times on the ground, and
never was touched but once; and that was by the sword of a French
maitre-d'armes, Whom I killed. I started in life at seventeen, a
beggar, and am now at seven-and-twenty, with twenty thousand
guineas. Do you suppose a man of my courage and energy can't attain
anything that he dares, and that having claims upon the widow, I
will not press them?'
This speech was not exactly true to the letter (for I had multiplied
my pitched battles, my duels, and my wealth somewhat); but I saw
that it made the impression I desired to effect upon the young
gentleman's mind, who listened to my statement with peculiar
seriousness, and whom I presently left to digest it.
A couple of days afterwards I called to see him again, when I
brought with me some of the letters that had passed between me and
my Lady Lyndon. 'Here,' said I, 'look--I show it you in confidence--
it is a lock of her Ladyship's hair; here are her letters signed
Calista, and addressed to Eugenio. Here is a poem, "When Sol bedecks
the mead with light, And pallid Cynthia sheds her ray," addressed by
her Ladyship to your humble servant.'
'Calista! Eugenio! Sol bedecks the mead with light?' cried the young
lord. 'Am I dreaming? Why, my dear Barry, the widow has sent me the
very poem herself! "Rejoicing in the sunshine bright, Or musing in
the evening grey."'
I could not help laughing as he made the quotation. They were, in
fact, the very words MY Calista had addressed to me. And we found,
upon comparing letters, that whole passages of eloquence figured in
the one correspondence which appeared in the other. See what it is
to be a blue-stocking and have a love of letter-writing!
The young man put down the papers in great perturbation. 'Well,
thank Heaven!' said he, after a pause of some duration,--'thank
Heaven for a good riddance! Ah, Mr. Barry, what a woman I MIGHT have
married had these lucky papers not come in my way! I thought my Lady
Lyndon had a heart, sir, I must confess, though not a very warm one;
and that, at least, one could TRUST her. But marry her now! I would
as lief send my servant into the street to get me a wife, as put up
with such an Ephesian matron as that.'
'My Lord George,' said I, 'you little know the world. Remember what
a bad husband Lady Lyndon had, and don't be astonished that she, on
her side, should be indifferent. Nor has she, I will dare to wager,
ever passed beyond the bounds of harmless gallantry, or sinned
beyond the composing of a sonnet or a billet-doux.'
'My wife,' said the little lord, 'shall write no sonnets or billets-
doux; and I'm heartily glad to think I have obtained, in good time,
a knowledge of the heartless vixen with whom I thought myself for a
moment in love.'
The wounded young nobleman was either, as I have said, very young
and green in matters of the world--for to suppose that a man would
give up forty thousand a year, because, forsooth, the lady connected
with it had written a few sentimental letters to a young fellow, is
too absurd--or, as I am inclined to believe, he was glad of an
excuse to quit the field altogether, being by no means anxious to
meet the victorious sword of Redmond Barry a second time.
When the idea of Poynings' danger, or the reproaches probably
addressed by him to the widow regarding myself, had brought this
exceedingly weak and feeble woman up to Dublin, as I expected, and
my worthy Ulick had informed me of her arrival, I quitted my good
mother, who was quite reconciled to me (indeed the duel had done
that), and found the disconsolate Calista was in the habit of paying
visits to the wounded swain; much to the annoyance, the servants
told me, of that gentleman. The English are often absurdly high and
haughty upon a point of punctilio; and, after his kinswoman's
conduct, Lord Poynings swore he would have no more to do with her.
I had this information from his Lordship's gentleman; with whom, as
I have said, I took particular care to be friends; nor was I denied
admission by his porter, when I chose to call, as before.
Her Ladyship had most likely bribed that person, as I had; for she
had found her way up, though denied admission; and, in fact, I had
watched her from her own house to Lord George Poynings' lodgings,
and seen her descend from her chair there and enter, before I myself
followed her. I proposed to await her quietly in the ante-room, to
make a scene there, and reproach her with infidelity, if necessary;
but matters were, as it happened, arranged much more conveniently
for me; and walking, unannounced, into the outer room of his
Lordship's apartments, I had the felicity of hearing in the next
chamber, of which the door was partially open, the voice of my
Calista. She was in full cry, appealing to the poor patient, as he
lay confined in his bed, and speaking in the most passionate manner.
'What can lead you, George,' she said, 'to doubt of my faith? How
can you break my heart by casting me off in this monstrous manner?
Do you wish to drive your poor Calista to the grave? Well, well, I
shall join there the dear departed angel.'
'Who entered it three months since,' said Lord George, with a sneer.
'It's a wonder you have survived so long.'
'Don't treat your poor Calista in this cruel cruel manner, Antonio!'
cried the widow.
'Bah!' said Lord George, 'my wound is bad. My doctors forbid me much
talk. Suppose your Antonio tired, my dear. Can't you console
yourself with somebody else?'
'Heavens, Lord George! Antonio!'
'Console yourself with Eugenio,' said the young nobleman bitterly,
and began ringing his bell; on which his valet, who was in an inner
room, came out, and he bade him show her Ladyship downstairs.
Lady Lyndon issued from the room in the greatest flurry. She was
dressed in deep weeds, with a veil over her face, and did not
recognise the person waiting in the outer apartment. As she went
down the stairs, I stepped lightly after her, and as her chairman
opened her door, sprang forward, and took her hand to place her in
the vehicle. 'Dearest widow,' said I, 'his Lordship spoke correctly.
Console yourself with Eugenio!' She was too frightened even to
scream, as her chairman carried her away. She was set down at her
house, and you may be sure that I was at the chair-door, as before,
to help her out.
'Monstrous man!' said she, 'I desire you to leave me.'
'Madam, it would be against my oath,' replied I; 'recollect the vow
Eugenio sent to Calista.'
'If you do not quit me, I will call for the domestics to turn you
from the door.'
'What! when I am come with my Calista's letters in my pocket, to
return them mayhap? You can soothe, madam, but you cannot frighten
Redmond Barry.'
'What is it you would have of me, sir?' said the widow, rather
agitated.
'Let me come upstairs, and I will tell you all,' I replied; and she
condescended to give me her hand, and to permit me to lead her from
her chair to her drawing-room.
When we were alone I opened my mind honourably to her.
'Dearest madam,' said I, 'do not let your cruelty drive a desperate
slave to fatal measures. I adore you. In former days you allowed me
to whisper my passion to you unrestrained; at present you drive me
from your door, leave my letters unanswered, and prefer another to
me. My flesh and blood cannot bear such treatment. Look upon the
punishment I have been obliged to inflict; tremble at that which I
may be compelled to administer to that unfortunate young man: so
sure as he marries you, madam, he dies.'
'I do not recognise,' said the widow, 'the least right you have to
give the law to the Countess of Lyndon: I do not in the least
understand your threats, or heed them. What has passed between me
and an Irish adventurer that should authorise this impertinent
intrusion?'
'THESE have passed, madam,' said I,--'Calista's letters to Eugenio.
They may have been very innocent; but will the world believe it? You
may have only intended to play with the heart of the poor artless
Irish gentleman who adored and confided in you. But who will believe
the stories of your innocence, against the irrefragable testimony of
your own handwriting? Who will believe that you could write these
letters in the mere wantonness of coquetry, and not under the
influence of affection?'
'Villain!' cried my Lady Lyndon, 'could you dare to construe out of
those idle letters of mine any other meaning than that which they
really bear?'
'I will construe anything out of them,' said I; 'such is the passion
which animates me towards you. I have sworn it--you must and shall
be mine! Did you ever know me promise to accomplish a thing and
fail? Which will you prefer to have from me--a love such as woman
never knew from man before, or a hatred to which there exists no
parallel?'
'A woman of my rank, sir, can fear nothing from the hatred of an
adventurer like yourself,' replied the lady, drawing up stately.
'Look at your Poynings--was HE of your rank? You are the cause of
that young man's wound, madam; and, but that the instrument of your
savage cruelty relented, would have been the author of his murder--
yes, of his murder; for, if a wife is faithless, does not she arm
the husband who punishes the seducer! And I look upon you, Honoria
Lyndon, as my wife.'
'Husband? wife, sir!' cried the widow, quite astonished.
'Yes, wife! husband! I am not one of those poor souls with whom
coquettes can play, and who may afterwards throw them aside. You
would forget what passed between us at Spa: Calista would forget
Eugenio; but I will not let you forget me. You thought to trifle
with my heart, did you? When once moved, Honoria, it is moved for
ever. I love you--love as passionately now as I did when my passion
was hopeless; and, now that I can win you, do you think I will
forego you? Cruel cruel Calista! you little know the power of your
own charms if you think their effect is so easily obliterated--you
little know the constancy of this pure and noble heart if you think
that, having once loved, it can ever cease to adore you. No! I swear
by your cruelty that I will revenge it; by your wonderful beauty
that I will win it, and be worthy to win it. Lovely, fascinating,
fickle, cruel woman! you shall be mine--I swear it! Your wealth may
be great; but am I not of a generous nature enough to use it
worthily? Your rank is lofty; but not so lofty as my ambition. You
threw yourself away once on a cold and spiritless debauchee: give
yourself now, Honoria, to a MAN; and one who, however lofty your
rank may be, will enhance it and become it!'
As I poured words to this effect out on the astonished widow, I
stood over her, and fascinated her with the glance of my eye; saw
her turn red and pale with fear and wonder; saw that my praise of
her charms and the exposition of my passion were not unwelcome to
her, and witnessed with triumphant composure the mastery I was
gaining over her. Terror, be sure of that, is not a bad ingredient
of love. A man who wills fiercely to win the heart of a weak and
vapourish woman MUST succeed, if he have opportunity enough.
'Terrible man!' said Lady Lyndon, shrinking from me as soon as I had
done speaking (indeed, I was at a loss for words, and thinking of
another speech to make to her)--'terrible man! leave me.'
I saw that I had made an impression on her, from those very words.
'If she lets me into the house to-morrow,' said I, 'she is mine.'
As I went downstairs I put ten guineas into the hand of the hall-
porter, who looked quite astonished at such a gift.
'It is to repay you for the trouble of opening the door to me,' said
I; 'you will have to do so often.'
CHAPTER XVI
I PROVIDE NOBLY FOR MY FAMILY
The next day when I went back, my fears were realised: the door was
refused to me--my Lady was not at home. This I knew to be false: I
had watched the door the whole morning from a lodging I took at a
house opposite.
'Your lady is not out,' said I: 'she has denied me, and I can't, of
course, force my way to her. But listen: you are an Englishman?'
'That I am,' said the fellow, with an air of the utmost superiority.
'Your honour could tell that by my HACCENT.'
I knew he was, and might therefore offer him a bribe. An Irish
family servant in rags, and though his wages were never paid him,
would probably fling the money in your face.
'Listen, then,' said I. 'Your lady's letters pass through your
hands, don't they? A crown for every one that you bring me to read.
There is a whisky-shop in the next street; bring them there when you
go to drink, and call for me by the name of Dermot.'
'I recollect your honour at SPAR,' says the fellow, grinning:
'seven's the main, hey?' and being exceedingly proud of this
reminiscence, I bade my inferior adieu.
I do not defend this practice of letter-opening in private life,
except in cases of the most urgent necessity: when we must follow
the examples of our betters, the statesmen of all Europe, and, for
the sake of a great good, infringe a little matter of ceremony. My
Lady Lyndon's letters were none the worse for being opened, and a
great deal the better; the knowledge obtained from the perusal of
some of her multifarious epistles enabling me to become intimate
with her character in a hundred ways, and obtain a power over her by
which I was not slow to profit. By the aid of the letters and of my
English friend, whom I always regaled with the best of liquor, and
satisfied with presents of money still more agreeable (I used to put
on a livery in order to meet him, and a red wig, in which it was
impossible to know the dashing and elegant Redmond Barry), I got
such an insight into the widow's movements as astonished her. I knew
beforehand to what public places she would go; they were, on account
of her widowhood, but few: and wherever she appeared, at church or
in the park, I was always ready to offer her her book, or to canter
on horseback by the side of her chariot.
Many of her Ladyship's letters were the most whimsical rodomontades
that ever blue-stocking penned. She was a woman who took up and
threw off a greater number of dear friends than any one I ever knew.
To some of these female darlings she began presently to write about
my unworthy self, and it was with a sentiment of extreme
satisfaction I found at length that the widow was growing dreadfully
afraid of me; calling me her bete noire, her dark spirit, her
murderous adorer, and a thousand other names indicative of her
extreme disquietude and terror. It was: 'The wretch has been dogging
my chariot through the park,' or, 'my fate pursued me at church,'
and 'my inevitable adorer handed me out of my chair at the
mercer's,' or what not. My wish was to increase this sentiment of
awe in her bosom, and to make her believe that I was a person from
whom escape was impossible.
To this end I bribed a fortune-teller, whom she consulted along with
a number of the most foolish and distinguished people of Dublin, in
those days; and who, although she went dressed like one of her
waiting-women, did not fail to recognise her real rank, and to
describe as her future husband her persevering adorer Redmond Barry,
Esquire. This incident disturbed her very much. She wrote about it
in terms of great wonder and terror to her female correspondents.
'Can this monster,' she wrote, 'indeed do as he boasts, and bend
even Fate to his will?--can he make me marry him though I cordially
detest him, and bring me a slave to his feet. The horrid look of his
black serpent-like eyes fascinates and frightens me: it seems to
follow me everywhere, and even when I close my own eyes, the
dreadful gaze penetrates the lids, and is still upon me.'
When a woman begins to talk of a man in this way, he is an ass who
does not win her; and, for my part, I used to follow her about, and
put myself in an attitude opposite her, 'and fascinate her with my
glance,' as she said, most assiduously. Lord George Poynings, her
former admirer, was meanwhile keeping his room with his wound, and
seemed determined to give up all claims to her favour; for he denied
her admittance when she called, sent no answer to her multiplied
correspondence, and contented himself by saying generally, that the
surgeon had forbidden him to receive visitors or to answer letters.
Thus, while he went into the background, I came forward, and took
good care that no other rivals should present themselves with any
chance of success; for, as soon as I heard of one, I had a quarrel
fastened on him, and, in this way, pinked two more, besides my first
victim Lord George. I always took another pretext for quarrelling
with them than the real one of attention to Lady Lyndon, so that no
scandal or hurt to her Ladyship's feelings might arise in
consequence; but she very well knew what was the meaning of these
duels; and the young fellows of Dublin, too, by laying two and two
together, began to perceive that there was a certain dragon in watch
for the wealthy heiress, and that the dragon must be subdued first
before they could get at the lady. I warrant that, after the first
three, not many champions were found to address the lady; and have
often laughed (in my sleeve) to see many of the young Dublin beaux
riding by the side of her carriage scamper off as soon as my bay-
mare and green liveries made their appearance.
I wanted to impress her with some great and awful instance of my
power, and to this end had determined to confer a great benefit upon
my honest cousin Ulick, and carry off for him the fair object of his
affections, Miss Kiljoy, under the very eyes of her guardian and
friend, Lady Lyndon; and in the teeth of the squires, the young
lady's brothers, who passed the season at Dublin, and made as much
swagger and to-do about their sister's L10,000 Irish, as if she had
had a plum to her fortune. The girl was by no means averse to Mr.
Brady; and it only shows how faint-spirited some men are, and how a
superior genius can instantly overcome difficulties which to common
minds seem insuperable, that he never had thought of running off
with her: as I at once and boldly did. Miss Kiljoy had been a ward
in Chancery until she attained her majority (before which period it
would have been a dangerous matter for me to put in execution the
scheme I meditated concerning her); but, though now free to marry
whom she liked, she was a young lady of timid disposition, and as
much under fear of her brothers and relatives as though she had not
been independent of them. They had some friend of their own in view
for the young lady, and had scornfully rejected the proposal of
Ulick Brady, the ruined gentleman; who was quite unworthy, as these
rustic bucks thought, of the hand of such a prodigiously wealthy
heiress as their sister.
Finding herself lonely in her great house in Dublin, the Countess of
Lyndon invited her friend Miss Amelia to pass the season with her at
Dublin; and, in a fit of maternal fondness, also sent for her son
the little Bullingdon, and my old acquaintance his governor, to come
to the capital and bear her company. A family coach brought the boy,
the heiress, and the tutor from Castle Lyndon; and I determined to
take the first opportunity of putting my plan in execution.
For this chance I had not very long to wait. I have said, in a
former chapter of my biography, that the kingdom of Ireland was at
this period ravaged by various parties of banditti; who, under the
name of Whiteboys, Oakboys, Steelboys, with captains at their head,
killed proctors, fired stacks, houghed and maimed cattle, and took
the law into their own hands. One of these bands, or several of them
for what I know, was commanded by a mysterious personage called
Captain Thunder; whose business seemed to be that of marrying people
with or without their own consent, or that of their parents. The
Dublin Gazettes and Mercuries of that period (the year 1772) teem
with proclamations from the Lord Lieutenant, offering rewards for
the apprehension of this dreadful Captain Thunder and his gang, and
describing at length various exploits of the savage aide-de-camp of
Hymen. I determined to make use, if not of the services, at any rate
of the name of Captain Thunder, and put my cousin Ulick in
possession of his lady and her ten thousand pounds. She was no great
beauty, and, I presume, it was the money he loved rather than the
owner of it.
On account of her widowhood, Lady Lyndon could not as yet frequent
the balls and routs which the hospitable nobility of Dublin were in
the custom of giving; but her friend Miss Kiljoy had no such cause
for retirement, and was glad to attend any parties to which she
might be invited. I made Ulick Brady a present of a couple of
handsome suits of velvet, and by my influence procured him an
invitation to many of the most elegant of these assemblies. But he
had not had my advantages or experience of the manners of Court; was
as shy with ladies as a young colt, and could no more dance a minuet
than a donkey. He made very little way in the polite world or in his
mistress's heart: in fact, I could see that she preferred several
other young gentlemen to him, who were more at home in the ball-room
than poor Ulick; he had made his first impression upon the heiress,
and felt his first flame for her, in her father's house of
Ballykiljoy, where he used to hunt and get drunk with the old
gentleman.
'I could do THIM two well enough, anyhow,' Ulick would say, heaving
a sigh; 'and if it's drinking or riding across country would do it,
there's no man in Ireland would have a better chance with Amalia.'
'Never fear, Ulick,' was my reply; 'you shall have your Amalia, or
my name is not Redmond Barry.'
My Lord Charlemont--who was one of the most elegant and accomplished
noblemen in Ireland in those days, a fine scholar and wit, a
gentleman who had travelled much abroad, where I had the honour of
knowing him--gave a magnificent masquerade at his house of Marino,
some few miles from Dublin, on the Dunleary road. And it was at this
entertainment that I was determined that Ulick should be made happy
for life. Miss Kiljoy was invited to the masquerade, and the little
Lord Bullingdon, who longed to witness such a scene; and it was
agreed that he was to go under the guardianship of his governor, my
old friend the Reverend Mr. Runt. I learned what was the equipage in
which the party were to be conveyed to the ball, and took my
measures accordingly.
Ulick Brady was not present: his fortune and quality were not
sufficient to procure him an invitation to so distinguished a place,
and I had it given out three days previous that he had been arrested
for debt: a rumour which surprised nobody who knew him.
I appeared that night in a character with which I was very familiar,
that of a private soldier in the King of Prussia's guard. I had a
grotesque mask made, with an immense nose and moustaches, talked a
jumble of broken English and German, in which the latter greatly
predominated; and had crowds round me laughing at my droll accent,
and whose curiosity was increased by a knowledge of my previous
history. Miss Kiljoy was attired as an antique princess, with little
Bullingdon as a page of the times of chivalry; his hair was in
powder, his doublet rose-colour, and pea-green and silver, and he
looked very handsome and saucy as he strutted about with my sword by
his side. As for Mr. Runt, he walked about very demurely in a
domino, and perpetually paid his respects to the buffet, and ate
enough cold chicken and drank enough punch and champagne to satisfy
a company of grenadiers.
The Lord Lieutenant came and went in state-the ball was magnificent.
Miss Kiljoy had partners in plenty, among whom was myself, who
walked a minuet with her (if the clumsy waddling of the Irish
heiress may be called by such a name); and I took occasion to plead
my passion for Lady Lyndon in the most pathetic terms, and to beg
her friend's interference in my favour.
It was three hours past midnight when the party for Lyndon House
went away. Little Bullingdon had long since been asleep in one of
Lady Charlemont's china closets. Mr. Runt was exceedingly husky in
talk, and unsteady in gait. A young lady of the present day would be
alarmed to see a gentleman in such a condition; but it was a common
sight in those jolly old times, when a gentleman was thought a
milksop unless he was occasionally tipsy. I saw Miss Kiljoy to her
carriage, with several other gentlemen: and, peering through the
crowd of ragged linkboys, drivers, beggars, drunken men and women,
who used invariably to wait round great men's doors when festivities
were going on, saw the carriage drive off, with a hurrah from the
mob; then came back presently to the supper-room, where I talked
German, favoured the three or four topers still there with a High-
Dutch chorus, and attacked the dishes and wine with great
resolution.
'How can you drink aisy with that big nose on?' said one gentleman.
'Go an be hangt!' said I, in the true accent, applying myself again
to the wine; with which the others laughed, and I pursued my supper
in silence.
There was a gentleman present who had seen the Lyndon party go off,
with whom I had made a bet, which I lost; and the next morning I
called upon him and paid it him. All which particulars the reader
will be surprised at hearing enumerated; but the fact is, that it
was not I who went back to the party, but my late German valet, who
was of my size, and, dressed in my mask, could perfectly pass for
me. We changed clothes in a hackney-coach that stood near Lady
Lyndon's chariot, and driving after it, speedily overtook it.
The fated vehicle which bore the lovely object of Ulick Brady's
affections had not advanced very far, when, in the midst of a deep
rut in the road, it came suddenly to with a jolt; the footman,
springing off the back, cried 'Stop!' to the coachman, warning him
that a wheel was off, and that it would be dangerous to proceed with
only three. Wheel-caps had not been invented in those days, as they
have since been by the ingenious builders of Long Acre. And how the
linch-pin of the wheel had come out I do not pretend to say; but it
possibly may have been extracted by some rogues among the crowd
before Lord Charlemont's gate.
Miss Kiljoy thrust her head out of the window, screaming as ladies
do; Mr. Runt the chaplain woke up from his boozy slumbers; and
little Bullingdon, starting up and drawing his little sword, said,
'Don't be afraid, Miss Amelia: if it's footpads, I am armed.' The
young rascal had the spirit of a lion, that's the truth; as I must
acknowledge, in spite of all my after quarrels with him.
The hackney-coach which had been following Lady Lyndon's chariot by
this time came up, and the coachman seeing the disaster, stepped
down from his box, and politely requested her Ladyship's honour to
enter his vehicle; which was as clean and elegant as any person of
tiptop quality might desire. This invitation was, after a minute or
two, accepted by the passengers of the chariot: the hackney-coachman
promising to drive them to Dublin 'in a hurry.' Thady, the valet,
proposed to accompany his young master and the young lady; and the
coachman, who had a friend seemingly drunk by his side on the box,
with a grin told Thady to get up behind. However, as the footboard
there was covered with spikes, as a defence against the street-boys,
who love a ride gratis, Thady's fidelity would not induce him to
brave these; and he was persuaded to remain by the wounded chariot,
for which he and the coachman manufactured a linch-pin out of a
neighbouring hedge.
Meanwhile, although the hackney-coachman drove on rapidly, yet the
party within seemed to consider it was a long distance from Dublin;
and what was Miss Kiljoy's astonishment, on looking out of the
window at length, to see around her a lonely heath, with no signs of
buildings or city. She began forthwith to scream out to the coachman
to stop; but the man only whipped the horses the faster for her
noise, and bade her Ladyship 'hould on--'twas a short cut he was
taking.'
Miss Kiljoy continued screaming, the coachman flogging, the horses
galloping, until two or three men appeared suddenly from a hedge, to
whom the fair one cried for assistance; and the young Bullingdon
opening the coach-door, jumped valiantly out, toppling over head and
heels as he fell; but jumping up in an instant, he drew his little
sword, and, running towards the carriage, exclaimed, 'This way,
gentlemen! stop the rascal!'
'Stop!' cried the men; at which the coachman pulled up with
extraordinary obedience. Runt all the while lay tipsy in the
carriage, having only a dreamy half-consciousness of all that was
going on.
The newly arrived champions of female distress now held a
consultation, in which they looked at the young lord and laughed
considerably.
'Do not be alarmed,' said the leader, coming up to the door; 'one of
my people shall mount the box by the side of that treacherous
rascal, and, with your Ladyship's leave, I and my companions will
get in and see you home. We are well armed, and can defend you in
case of danger.'
With this, and without more ado, he jumped into the carriage, his
companion following him.
'Know your place, fellow!' cried out little Bullingdon indignantly:
'and give place to the Lord Viscount Bullingdon!' and put himself
before the huge person of the new-comer, who was about to enter the
hackney-coach.
'Get out of that, my Lord,' said the man, in a broad brogue, and
shoving him aside. On which the boy, crying 'Thieves! thieves!' drew
out his little hanger, and ran at the man, and would have wounded
him (for a small sword will wound as well as a great one); but his
opponent, who was armed with a long stick, struck the weapon luckily
out of the lad's hands: it went flying over his head, and left him
aghast and mortified at his discomfiture.
He then pulled off his hat, making his Lordship a low bow, and
entered the carriage; the door of which was shut upon him by his
confederate, who was to mount the box. Miss Kiljoy might have
screamed; but I presume her shrieks were stopped by the sight of an
enormous horse-pistol which one of her champions produced, who said,
'No harm is intended you, ma'am, but if you cry out, we must gag
you;' on which she suddenly became as mute as a fish.
All these events took place in an exceedingly short space of time;
and when the three invaders had taken possession of the carriage,
the poor little Bullingdon being left bewildered and astonished on
the heath, one of them putting his head out of the window, said,--
'My Lord, a word with you.'
'What is it?' said the boy, beginning to whimper: he was but eleven
years old, and his courage had been excellent hitherto.
'You are only two miles from Marino. Walk back till you come to a
big stone, there turn to the right, and keep on straight till you
get to the high-road, when you will easily find your way back. And
when you see her Ladyship your mamma, give CAPTAIN THUNDER'S
compliments, and say Miss Amelia Kiljoy is going to be married.'
'O heavens!' sighed out that young lady.
The carriage drove swiftly on, and the poor little nobleman was left
alone on the heath, just as the morning began to break. He was
fairly frightened; and no wonder. He thought of running after the
coach; but his courage and his little legs failed him: so he sat
down upon a stone and cried for vexation.
It was in this way that Ulick Brady made what I call a Sabine
marriage. When he halted with his two groomsmen at the cottage where
the ceremony was to be performed, Mr. Runt, the chaplain, at first
declined to perform it. But a pistol was held at the head of that
unfortunate preceptor, and he was told, with dreadful oaths, that
his miserable brains would be blown out; when he consented to read
the service. The lovely Amelia had, very likely, a similar
inducement held out to her, but of that I know nothing; for I drove
back to town with the coachman as soon as we had set the bridal
party down, and had the satisfaction of finding Fritz, my German,
arrived before me: he had come back in my carriage in my dress,
having left the masquerade undiscovered, and done everything there
according to my orders.
Poor Runt came back the next day in a piteous plight, keeping
silence as to his share in the occurrences of the evening, and with
a dismal story of having been drunk, of having been waylaid and
bound, of having been left on the road and picked up by a Wicklow
cart, which was coming in with provisions to Dublin, and found him
helpless on the road. There was no possible means of fixing any
share of the conspiracy upon him. Little Bullingdon, who, too, found
his way home, was unable in any way to identify me. But Lady Lyndon
knew that I was concerned in the plot, for I met her hurrying the
next day to the Castle; all the town being up about the enlevement.
And I saluted her with a smile so diabolical, that I knew she was
aware that I had been concerned in the daring and ingenious scheme.
Thus it was that I repaid Ulick Brady's kindness to me in early
days; and had the satisfaction of restoring the fallen fortunes of a
deserving branch of my family. He took his bride into Wicklow, where
he lived with her in the strictest seclusion until the affair was
blown over; the Kiljoys striving everywhere in vain to discover his
retreat. They did not for a while even know who was the lucky man
who had carried off the heiress; nor was it until she wrote a letter
some weeks afterwards, signed Amelia Brady, and expressing perfect
happiness in her new condition, and stating that she had been
married by Lady Lyndon's chaplain Mr. Runt, that the truth was
known, and my worthy friend confessed his share of the transaction.
As his good-natured mistress did not dismiss him from his post in
consequence, everybody persisted in supposing that poor Lady Lyndon
was privy to the plot; and the story of her Ladyship's passionate
attachment for me gained more and more credit.
I was not slow, you may be sure, in profiting by these rumours.
Every one thought I had a share in the Brady marriage; though no one
could prove it. Every one thought I was well with the widowed
Countess; though no one could show that I said so. But there is a
way of proving a thing even while you contradict it, and I used to
laugh and joke so apropos that all men began to wish me joy of my
great fortune, and look up to me as the affianced husband of the
greatest heiress in the kingdom. The papers took up the matter; the
female friends of Lady Lyndon remonstrated with her and cried 'Fie!'
Even the English journals and magazines, which in those days were
very scandalous, talked of the matter; and whispered that a
beautiful and accomplished widow, with a title and the largest
possessions in the two kingdoms, was about to bestow her hand upon a
young gentleman of high birth and fashion, who had distinguished
himself in the service of His M-----y the K--- of Pr----. I won't 
say who was the author of these paragraphs; or how two pictures, one
representing myself under the title of 'The Prussian Irishman,' and
the other Lady Lyndon as 'The Countess of Ephesus,' actually
appeared in the Town and Country Magazine, published at London, and
containing the fashionable tittle-tattle of the day.
Lady Lyndon was so perplexed and terrified by this continual hold
upon her, that she determined to leave the country. Well, she did;
and who was the first to receive her on landing at Holyhead? Your
humble servant, Redmond Barry, Esquire. And, to crown all, the
Dublin Mercury, which announced her Ladyship's departure, announced
mine THE DAY BEFORE. There was not a soul but thought she had
followed me to England; whereas she was only flying me. Vain hope!--
a man of my resolution was not thus to be balked in pursuit. Had she
fled to the antipodes, I would have been there: ay, and would have
followed her as far as Orpheus did Eurydice!
Her Ladyship had a house in Berkeley Square, London, more splendid
than that which she possessed in Dublin; and, knowing that she would
come thither, I preceded her to the English capital, and took
handsome apartments in Hill Street, hard by. I had the same
intelligence in her London house which I had procured in Dublin. The
same faithful porter was there to give me all the information I
required. I promised to treble his wages as soon as a certain event
should happen. I won over Lady Lyndon's companion by a present of a
hundred guineas down, and a promise of two thousand when I should be
married, and gained the favours of her favourite lady's-maid by a
bribe of similar magnitude. My reputation had so far preceded me in
London that, on my arrival, numbers of the genteel were eager to
receive me at their routs. We have no idea in this humdrum age what
a gay and splendid place London was then: what a passion for play
there was among young and old, male and female; what thousands were
lost and won in a night; what beauties there were--how brilliant,
gay, and dashing! Everybody was delightfully wicked: the Royal Dukes
of Gloucester and Cumberland set the example; the nobles followed
close behind. Running away was the fashion. Ah! it was a pleasant
time; and lucky was he who had fire, and youth, and money, and could
live in it! I had all these; and the old frequenters of 'White's,'
'Wattier's,' and 'Goosetree's' could tell stories of the gallantry,
spirit, and high fashion of Captain Barry.
The progress of a love-story is tedious to all those who are not
concerned, and I leave such themes to the hack novel-writers, and
the young boarding-school misses for whom they write. It is not my
intention to follow, step by step, the incidents of my courtship, or
to narrate all the difficulties I had to contend with, and my
triumphant manner of surmounting them. Suffice it to say, I DID
overcome these difficulties. I am of opinion, with my friend the
late ingenious Mr. Wilkes, that such impediments are nothing in the
way of a man of spirit; and that he can convert indifference and
aversion into love, if he have perseverance and cleverness
sufficient. By the time the Countess's widowhood was expired, I had
found means to be received into her house; I had her women
perpetually talking in my favour, vaunting my powers, expatiating
upon my reputation, and boasting of my success and popularity in the
fashionable world.
Also, the best friends I had in the prosecution of my tender suit
were the Countess's noble relatives; who were far from knowing the
service that they did me, and to whom I beg leave to tender my
heartfelt thanks for the abuse with which they then loaded me! and
to whom I fling my utter contempt for the calumny and hatred with
which they have subsequently pursued me.
The chief of these amiable persons was the Marchioness of Tiptoff,
mother of the young gentleman whose audacity I had punished at
Dublin. This old harridan, on the Countess's first arrival in
London, waited upon her, and favoured her with such a storm of abuse
for her encouragement of me, that I do believe she advanced my cause
more than six months' courtship could have done, or the pinking of a
half-dozen of rivals. It was in vain that poor Lady Lyndon pleaded
her entire innocence and vowed she had never encouraged me. 'Never
encouraged him!' screamed out the old fury; 'didn't you encourage
the wretch at Spa, during Sir Charles's own life? Didn't you marry a
dependant of yours to one of this profligate's bankrupt cousins?
When he set off for England, didn't you follow him like a mad woman
the very next day? Didn't he take lodgings at your very door almost--
and do you call this no encouragement? For shame, madam, shame! You
might have married my son--my dear and noble George; but that he did
not choose to interfere with your shameful passion for the beggarly
upstart whom you caused to assassinate him; and the only counsel I
have to give your Ladyship is this, to legitimatise the ties which
you have contracted with this shameless adventurer; to make that
connection legal which, real as it is now, is against both decency
and religion; and to spare your family and your son the shame of
your present line of life.'
With this the old fury of a marchioness left the room, and Lady
Lyndon in tears: I had the whole particulars of the conversation
from her Ladyship's companion, and augured the best result from it
in my favour.
Thus, by the sage influence of my Lady Tiptoff, the Countess of
Lyndon's natural friends and family were kept from her society. Even
when Lady Lyndon went to Court the most august lady in the realm
received her with such marked coldness, that the unfortunate widow
came home and took to her bed with vexation. And thus I may say that
Royalty itself became an agent in advancing my suit, and helping the
plans of the poor Irish soldier of fortune. So it is that Fate works
with agents, great and small; and by means over which they have no
control the destinies of men and women are accomplished.
I shall always consider the conduct of Mrs. Bridget (Lady Lyndon's
favourite maid at this juncture) as a masterpiece of ingenuity: and,
indeed, had such an opinion of her diplomatic skill, that the very
instant I became master of the Lyndon estates, and paid her the
promised sum--I am a man of honour, and rather than not keep my word
with the woman, I raised the money of the Jews, at an exorbitant
interest--as soon, I say, as I achieved my triumph, I took Mrs.
Bridget by the hand, and said, "Madam, you have shown such
unexampled fidelity in my service that I am glad to reward you,
according to my promise; but you have given proofs of such
extraordinary cleverness and dissimulation, that I must decline
keeping you in Lady Lyndon's establishment, and beg you will leave
it this very day:" which she did, and went over to the Tiptoff
faction, and has abused me ever since.
But I must tell you what she did which was so clever. Why, it was
the simplest thing in the world, as all master-strokes are. When
Lady Lyndon lamented her fate and my--as she was pleased to call it--
shameful treatment of her, Mrs. Bridget said, 'Why should not your
Ladyship write this young gentleman word of the evil which he is
causing you? Appeal to his feelings (which, I have heard say, are
very good indeed--the whole town is ringing with accounts of his
spirit and generosity), and beg him to desist from a pursuit which
causes the best of ladies so much pain? Do, my Lady, write: I know
your style is so elegant that I, for my part, have many a time burst
into tears in reading your charming letters, and I have no doubt Mr.
Barry will sacrifice anything rather than hurt your feelings.' And,
of course, the abigail swore to the fact.
'Do you think so, Bridget?' said her Ladyship. And my mistress
forthwith penned me a letter, in her most fascinating and winning
manner:--'Why, sir,' wrote she, 'will you pursue me? why environ me
in a web of intrigue so frightful that my spirit sinks under it,
seeing escape is hopeless from your frightful, your diabolical art?
They say you are generous to others--be so to me. I know your
bravery but too well: exercise it on men who can meet your sword,
not on a poor feeble woman, who cannot resist you. Remember the
friendship you once professed for me. And now, I beseech you, I
implore you, to give a proof of it. Contradict the calumnies which
you have spread against me, and repair, if you can, and if you have
a spark of honour left, the miseries which you have caused to the
heart-broken
'H. LYNDON.'
What was this letter meant for but that I should answer it in
person? My excellent ally told me where I should meet Lady Lyndon,
and accordingly I followed, and found her at the Pantheon. I
repeated the scene at Dublin over again; showed her how prodigious
my power was, humble as I was, and that my energy was still untired.
'But,' I added, 'I am as great in good as I am in evil; as fond and
faithful as a friend as I am terrible as an enemy. I will do
everything,' I said, 'which you ask of me, except when you bid me
not to love you. That is beyond my power; and while my heart has a
pulse I must follow you. It is MY fate; your fate. Cease to battle
against it, and be mine. Loveliest of your sex! with life alone can
end my passion for you; and, indeed, it is only by dying at your
command that I can be brought to obey you. Do you wish me to die?'
She said, laughing (for she was a woman of a lively, humorous turn),
that she did not wish me to commit self-murder; and I felt from that
moment that she was mine.
. . . .
A year from that day, on the 15th of May, in the year 1773, I had
the honour and happiness to lead to the altar Honoria, Countess of
Lyndon, widow of the late Right Honourable Sir Charles Lyndon, K.B.
The ceremony was performed at St. George's, Hanover Square, by the
Reverend Samuel Runt, her Ladyship's chaplain. A magnificent supper
and ball was given at our house in Berkeley Square, and the next
morning I had a duke, four earls, three generals, and a crowd of the
most distinguished people in London at my LEVEE. Walpole made a
lampoon about the marriage, and Selwyn cut jokes at the 'Cocoa-
Tree.' Old Lady Tiptoff, although she had recommended it, was ready
to bite off her fingers with vexation; and as for young Bullingdon,
who was grown a tall lad of fourteen, when called upon by the
Countess to embrace his papa, he shook his fist in my face and said,
'HE my father! I would as soon call one of your Ladyship's footmen
Papa!'
But I could afford to laugh at the rage of the boy and the old
woman, and at the jokes of the wits of St. James's. I sent off a
flaming account of our nuptials to my mother and my uncle the good
Chevalier; and now, arrived at the pitch of prosperity, and having,
at thirty years of age, by my own merits and energy, raised myself
to one of the highest social positions that any man in England could
occupy, I determined to enjoy myself as became a man of quality for
the remainder of my life.
After we had received the congratulations of our friends in London--
for in those days people were not ashamed of being married, as they
seem to be now--I and Honoria (who was all complacency, and a most
handsome, sprightly, and agreeable companion) set off to visit our
estates in the West of England, where I had never as yet set foot.
We left London in three chariots, each with four horses; and my
uncle would have been pleased could he have seen painted on their
panels the Irish crown and the ancient coat of the Barrys beside the
Countess's coronet and the noble cognisance of the noble family of
Lyndon.
Before quitting London, I procured His Majesty's gracious permission
to add the name of my lovely lady to my own; and henceforward
assumed the style and title of BARRY LYNDON, as I have written it in
this autobiography.
CHAPTER XVII
I APPEAR AS AN ORNAMENT OF ENGLISH SOCIETY
All the journey down to Hackton Castle, the largest and most ancient
of our ancestral seats in Devonshire, was performed with the slow
and sober state becoming people of the first quality in the realm.
An outrider in my livery went on before us, and bespoke our lodging
from town to town; and thus we lay in state at Andover, Ilminster,
and Exeter; and the fourth evening arrived in time for supper before
the antique baronial mansion, of which the gate was in an odious
Gothic taste that would have set Mr. Walpole wild with pleasure.
The first days of a marriage are commonly very trying; and I have
known couples, who lived together like turtle-doves for the rest of
their lives, peck each other's eyes out almost during the honeymoon.
I did not escape the common lot; in our journey westward my Lady
Lyndon chose to quarrel with me because I pulled out a pipe of
tobacco (the habit of smoking which I had acquired in Germany when a
soldier in Billow's, and could never give it over), and smoked it in
the carriage; and also her Ladyship chose to take umbrage both at
Ilminster and Andover, because in the evenings when we lay there I
chose to invite the landlords of the 'Bell' and the 'Lion' to crack
a bottle with me. Lady Lyndon was a haughty woman, and I hate pride;
and I promise you that in both instances I overcame this vice in
her. On the third day of our journey I had her to light my pipematch
with her own hands, and made her deliver it to me with tears in her
eyes; and at the 'Swan Inn' at Exeter I had so completely subdued
her, that she asked me humbly whether I would not wish the landlady
as well as the host to step up to dinner with us. To this I should
have had no objection, for, indeed, Mrs. Bonnyface was a very good-
looking woman; but we expected a visit from my Lord Bishop, a
kinsman of Lady Lyndon, and the BIENSEANCES did not permit the
indulgence of my wife's request. I appeared with her at evening
service, to compliment our right reverend cousin, and put her name
down for twenty-five guineas, and my own for one hundred, to the
famous new organ which was then being built for the cathedral. This
conduct, at the very outset of my career in the county, made me not
a little popular; and the residentiary canon, who did me the favour
to sup with me at the inn, went away after the sixth bottle,
hiccuping the most solemn vows for the welfare of such a p-p-pious
gentleman.
Before we reached Hackton Castle, we had to drive through ten miles
of the Lyndon estates, where the people were out to visit us, the
church bells set a-ringing, the parson and the farmers assembled in
their best by the roadside, and the school children and the
labouring people were loud in their hurrahs for her Ladyship. I
flung money among these worthy characters, stopped to bow and chat
with his reverence and the farmers, and if I found that the
Devonshire girls were among the handsomest in the kingdom is it my
fault? These remarks my Lady Lyndon especially would take in great
dudgeon; and I do believe she was made more angry by my admiration
of the red cheeks of Miss Betsy Quarringdon of Clumpton, than by any
previous speech or act of mine in the journey. 'Ah, ah, my fine
madam, you are jealous, are you?' thought I, and reflected, not
without deep sorrow, how lightly she herself had acted in her
husband's lifetime, and that those are most jealous who themselves
give most cause for jealousy.
Round Hackton village the scene of welcome was particularly gay: a
band of music had been brought from Plymouth, and arches and flags
had been raised, especially before the attorney's and the doctor's
houses, who were both in the employ of the family. There were many
hundreds of stout people at the great lodge, which, with the park-
wall, bounds one side of Hackton Green, and from which, for three
miles, goes (or rather went) an avenue of noble elms up to the
towers of the old castle. I wished they had been oak when I cut the
trees down in '79, for they would have fetched three times the
money: I know nothing more culpable than the carelessness of
ancestors in planting their grounds with timber of small value, when
they might just as easily raise oak. Thus I have always said that
the Roundhead Lyndon of Hackton, who planted these elms in Charles
II.'s time, cheated me of ten thousand pounds.
For the first few days after our arrival, my time was agreeably
spent in receiving the visits of the nobility and gentry who came to
pay their respects to the noble new-married couple, and, like
Bluebeard's wife in the fairy tale, in inspecting the treasures, the
furniture, and the numerous chambers of the castle. It is a huge old
place, built as far back as Henry V.'s time, besieged and battered
by the Cromwellians in the Revolution, and altered and patched up,
in an odious old-fashioned taste, by the Roundhead Lyndon, who
succeeded to the property at the death of a brother whose principles
were excellent and of the true Cavalier sort, but who ruined himself
chiefly by drinking, dicing, and a dissolute life, and a little by
supporting the King. The castle stands in a fine chase, which was
prettily speckled over with deer; and I can't but own that my
pleasure was considerable at first, as I sat in the oak parlour of
summer evenings, with the windows open, the gold and silver plate
shining in a hundred dazzling colours on the side-boards, a dozen
jolly companions round the table, and could look out over the wide
green park and the waving woods, and see the sun setting on the
lake, and hear the deer calling to one another.
The exterior was, when I first arrived, a quaint composition of all
sorts of architecture; of feudal towers, and gable-ends in Queen
Bess's style, and rough-patched walls built up to repair the ravages
of the Roundhead cannon: but I need not speak of this at large,
having had the place new-faced at a vast expense, under a
fashionable architect, and the facade laid out in the latest French-
Greek and most classical style. There had been moats, and
drawbridges, and outer walls; these I had shaved away into elegant
terraces, and handsomely laid out in parterres according to the
plans of Monsieur Cornichon, the great Parisian architect, who
visited England for the purpose.
After ascending the outer steps, you entered an antique hall of vast
dimensions, wainscoted with black carved oak, and ornamented with
portraits of our ancestors: from the square beard of Brook Lyndon,
the great lawyer in Queen Bess's time, to the loose stomacher and
ringlets of Lady Saccharissa Lyndon, whom Vandyck painted when she
was a maid of honour to Queen Henrietta Maria, and down to Sir
Charles Lyndon, with his riband as a knight of the Bath; and my
Lady, painted by Hudson, in a white satin sack and the family
diamonds, as she was presented to the old King George II. These
diamonds were very fine: I first had them reset by Boehmer when we
appeared before their French Majesties at Versailles; and finally
raised L18,000 upon them, after that infernal run of ill luck at
'Goosetree's,' when Jemmy Twitcher (as we called my Lord Sandwich),
Carlisle, Charley Fox, and I played hombre for four-and-forty hours
SANS DESEMPARER. Bows and pikes, huge stag-heads and hunting
implements, and rusty old suits of armour, that may have been worn
in the days of Gog and Magog for what I know, formed the other old
ornaments of this huge apartment; and were ranged round a fireplace
where you might have turned a coach-and-six. This I kept pretty much
in its antique condition, but had the old armour eventually turned
out and consigned to the lumber-rooms upstairs; replacing it with
china monsters, gilded settees from France, and elegant marbles, of
which the broken noses and limbs, and ugliness, undeniably proved
their antiquity: and which an agent purchased for me at Rome. But
such was the taste of the times (and, perhaps, the rascality of my
agent), that thirty thousand pounds' worth of these gems of art only
went for three hundred guineas at a subsequent period, when I found
it necessary to raise money on my collections.
From this main hall branched off on either side the long series of
state-rooms, poorly furnished with high-backed chairs and long queer
Venice glasses, when first I came to the property; but afterwards
rendered so splendid by me, with the gold damasks of Lyons and the
magnificent Gobelin tapestries I won from Richelieu at play. There
were thirty-six bedrooms DE MAITRE, of which I only kept three in
their antique condition,--the haunted room as it was called, where
the murder was done in James II.'s time, the bed where William slept
after landing at Torbay, and Queen Elizabeth's state-room. All the
rest were redecorated by Cornichon in the most elegant taste; not a
little to the scandal of some of the steady old country dowagers;
for I had pictures of Boucher and Vanloo to decorate the principal
apartments, in which the Cupids and Venuses were painted in a manner
so natural, that I recollect the old wizened Countess of Frumpington
pinning over the curtains of her bed, and sending her daughter, Lady
Blanche Whalebone, to sleep with her waiting-woman, rather than
allow her to lie in a chamber hung all over with looking-glasses,
after the exact fashion of the Queen's closet at Versailles.
For many of these ornaments I was not so much answerable as
Cornichon, whom Lauraguais lent me, and who was the intendant of my
buildings during my absence abroad. I had given the man CARTE
BLANCHE, and when he fell down and broke his leg, as he was
decorating a theatre in the room which had been the old chapel of
the castle, the people of the country thought it was a judgment of
Heaven upon him. In his rage for improvement the fellow dared
anything. Without my orders he cut down an old rookery which was
sacred in the country, and had a prophecy regarding it, stating,
'When the rook-wood shall fall, down goes Hackton Hall.' The rooks
went over and colonised Tiptoff Woods, which lay near us (and be
hanged to them!), and Cornichon built a temple to Venus and two
lovely fountains on their site. Venuses and Cupids were the rascal's
adoration: he wanted to take down the Gothic screen and place Cupids
in our pew there; but old Doctor Huff the rector came out with a
large oak stick, and addressed the unlucky architect in Latin, of
which he did not comprehend a word, yet made him understand that he
would break his bones if he laid a single finger upon the sacred
edifice. Cornichon made complaints about the 'Abbe Huff,' as he
called him. ('Et quel abbe, grand Dieu!' added he, quite bewildered,
'un abbe avec douze enfans'); but I encouraged the Church in this
respect, and bade Cornichon exert his talents only in the castle.
There was a magnificent collection of ancient plate, to which I
added much of the most splendid modern kind; a cellar which, however
well furnished, required continual replenishing, and a kitchen which
I reformed altogether. My friend, Jack Wilkes, sent me down a cook
from the Mansion House, for the English cookery,--the turtle and
venison department: I had a CHEF (who called out the Englishman, by
the way, and complained sadly of the GROS COCHON who wanted to meet
him with COUPS DE POING) and a couple of AIDES from Paris, and an
Italian confectioner, as my OFFICIERS DE BOUCHE. All which natural
appendages to a man of fashion, the odious, stingy old Tiptoff, my
kinsman and neighbour, affected to view with horror; and he spread
through the country a report that I had my victuals cooked by
Papists, lived upon frogs, and, he verily believed, fricasseed
little children.
But the squires ate my dinners very readily for all that, and old
Doctor Huff himself was compelled to allow that my venison and
turtle were most orthodox. The former gentry I knew how to
conciliate, too, in other ways. There had been only a subscription
pack of fox-hounds in the county and a few beggarly couples of mangy
beagles, with which old Tiptoff pattered about his grounds; I built
a kennel and stables, which cost L30,000, and stocked them in a
manner which was worthy of my ancestors, the Irish kings. I had two
packs of hounds, and took the field in the season four times a week,
with three gentlemen in my hunt-uniform to follow me, and open house
at Hackton for all who belonged to the hunt.
These changes and this train de vivre required, as may be supposed,
no small outlay; and I confess that I have little of that base
spirit of economy in my composition which some people practise and
admire. For instance, old Tiptoff was hoarding up his money to
repair his father's extravagance and disencumber his estates; a good
deal of the money with which he paid off his mortgages my agent
procured upon mine. And, besides, it must be remembered I had only a
life-interest upon the Lyndon property, was always of an easy temper
in dealing with the money-brokers, and had to pay heavily for
insuring her Ladyship's life.
At the end of a year Lady Lyndon presented me with a son--Bryan
Lyndon I called him, in compliment to my royal ancestry: but what
more had I to leave him than a noble name? Was not the estate of his
mother entailed upon the odious little Turk, Lord Bullingdon? and
whom, by the way, I have not mentioned as yet, though he was living
at Hackton, consigned to a new governor. The insubordination of that
boy was dreadful. He used to quote passages of 'Hamlet' to his
mother, which made her very angry. Once when I took a horsewhip to
chastise him, he drew a knife, and would have stabbed me: and,
'faith, I recollected my own youth, which was pretty similar; and,
holding out my hand, burst out laughing, and proposed to him to be
friends. We were reconciled for that time, and the next, and the
next; but there was no love lost between us, and his hatred for me
seemed to grow as he grew, which was apace.
I determined to endow my darling boy Bryan with a property, and to
this end cut down twelve thousand pounds' worth of timber on Lady
Lyndon's Yorkshire and Irish estates: at which proceeding
Bullingdon's guardian, Tiptoff, cried out, as usual, and swore I had
no right to touch a stick of the trees; but down they went; and I
commissioned my mother to repurchase the ancient lands of Ballybarry
and Barryogue, which had once formed part of the immense possessions
of my house. These she bought back with excellent prudence and
extreme joy; for her heart was gladdened at the idea that a son was
born to my name, and with the notion of my magnificent fortunes.
To say truth, I was rather afraid, now that I lived in a very
different sphere from that in which she was accustomed to move, lest
she should come to pay me a visit, and astonish my English friends
by her bragging and her brogue, her rouge and her old hoops and
furbelows of the time of George II.: in which she had figured
advantageously in her youth, and which she still fondly thought to
be at the height of the fashion. So I wrote to her, putting off her
visit; begging her to visit us when the left wing of the castle was
finished, or the stables built, and so forth. There was no need of
such precaution. 'A hint's enough for me, Redmond,' the old lady
would reply. 'I am not coming to disturb you among your great
English friends with my old-fashioned Irish ways. It's a blessing to
me to think that my darling boy has attained the position which I
always knew was his due, and for which I pinched myself to educate
him. You must bring me the little Bryan, that his grandmother may
kiss him, one day. Present my respectful blessing to her Ladyship
his mamma. Tell her she has got a treasure in her husband, which she
couldn't have had had she taken a duke to marry her; and that the
Barrys and the Bradys, though without titles, have the best of blood
in their veins. I shall never rest until I see you Earl of
Ballybarry, and my grandson Lord Viscount Barryogue.'
How singular it was that the very same ideas should be passing in my
mother's mind and my own! The very title she had pitched upon had
also been selected (naturally enough) by me; and I don't mind
confessing that I had filled a dozen sheets of paper with my
signature, under the names of Ballybarry and Barryogue, and had
determined with my usual impetuosity to carry my point. My mother
went and established herself at Ballybarry, living with the priest
there until a tenement could be erected, and dating from 'Ballybarry
Castle;' which, you may be sure, I gave out to be a place of no
small importance. I had a plan of the estate in my study, both at
Hackton and in Berkeley Square, and the plans of the elevation of
Ballybarry Castle, the ancestral residence of Barry Lyndon, Esq.,
with the projected improvements, in which the castle was represented
as about the size of Windsor, with more ornaments to the
architecture; and eight hundred acres of bog falling in handy, I
purchased them at three pounds an acre, so that my estate upon the
map looked to be no insignificant one. [Footnote: On the strength of
this estate, and pledging his honour that it was not mortgaged, Mr.
Barry Lyndon borrowed L17,000 in the year 1786, from young Captain
Pigeon, the city merchant's son, who had just come in for his
property. At for the Polwellan estate and mines, 'the cause of
endless litigation,' it must be owned that our hero purchased them;
but he never paid more than the first L5000 of the purchase-money.
Hence the litigation of which he complains, and the famous Chancery
suit of 'Trecothick v. Lyndon,' in which Mr. John Scott greatly
distinguished himself.-ED.]
I also in this year made arrangements for purchasing the Polwellan
estate and mines in Cornwall from Sir John Trecothick, for L70,000--
an imprudent bargain, which was afterwards the cause to me of much
dispute and litigation. The troubles of property, the rascality of
agents, the quibbles of lawyers, are endless. Humble people envy us
great men, and fancy that our lives are all pleasure. Many a time in
the course of my prosperity I have sighed for the days of my meanest
fortune, and envied the boon companions at my table, with no clothes
to their backs but such as my credit supplied them, without a guinea
but what came from my pocket; but without one of the harassing cares
and responsibilities which are the dismal adjuncts of great rank and
property.
I did little more than make my appearance, and assume the command of
my estates, in the kingdom of Ireland; rewarding generously those
persons who had been kind to me in my former adversities, and taking
my fitting place among the aristocracy of the land. But, in truth, I
had small inducements to remain in it after having tasted of the
genteeler and more complete pleasures of English and Continental
life; and we passed our summers at Buxton, Bath, and Harrogate,
while Hackton Castle was being beautified in the elegant manner
already described by me, and the season at our mansion in Berkeley
Square.
It is wonderful how the possession of wealth brings out the virtues
of a man; or, at any rate, acts as a varnish or lustre to them, and
brings out their brilliancy and colour in a manner never known when
the individual stood in the cold grey atmosphere of poverty. I
assure you it was a very short time before I was a pretty fellow of
the first class; made no small sensation at the coffee-houses in
Pall Mall and afterwards at the most famous clubs. My style,
equipages, and elegant entertainments were in everybody's mouth, and
were described in all the morning prints. The needier part of Lady
Lyndon's relatives, and such as had been offended by the intolerable
pomposity of old Tiptoff, began to appear at our routs and
assemblies; and as for relations of my own, I found in London and
Ireland more than I had ever dreamed of, of cousins who claimed
affinity with me. There were, of course, natives of my own country
(of which I was not particularly proud), and I received visits from
three or four swaggering shabby Temple bucks, with tarnished lace
and Tipperary brogue, who were eating their way to the bar in
London; from several gambling adventurers at the watering-places,
whom I soon speedily let to know their place; and from others of
more reputable condition. Among them I may mention my cousin the
Lord Kilbarry, who, on the score of his relationship, borrowed
thirty pieces from me to pay his landlady in Swallow Street; and
whom, for my own reasons, I allowed to maintain and credit a
connection for which the Heralds' College gave no authority
whatsoever. Kilbarry had a cover at my table; punted at play, and
paid when he liked, which was seldom; had an intimacy with, and was
under considerable obligations to, my tailor; and always boasted of
his cousin the great Barry Lyndon of the West country.
Her Ladyship and I lived, after a while, pretty separate when in
London. She preferred quiet: or to say the truth, I preferred it;
being a great friend to a modest tranquil behaviour in woman, and a
taste for the domestic pleasures. Hence I encouraged her to dine at
home with her ladies, her chaplain, and a few of her friends;
admitted three or four proper and discreet persons to accompany her
to her box at the opera or play on proper occasions; and indeed
declined for her the too frequent visits of her friends and family,
preferring to receive them only twice or thrice in a season on our
grand reception days. Besides, she was a mother, and had great
comfort in the dressing, educating, and dandling our little Bryan,
for whose sake it was fit that she should give up the pleasures and
frivolities of the world; so she left THAT part of the duty of every
family of distinction to be performed by me. To say the truth, Lady
Lyndon's figure and appearance were not at this time such as to make
for their owner any very brilliant appearance in the fashionable
world. She had grown very fat, was short-sighted, pale in
complexion, careless about her dress, dull in demeanour; her
conversations with me characterised by a stupid despair, or a silly
blundering attempt at forced cheerfulness still more disagreeable:
hence our intercourse was but trifling, and my temptations to carry
her into the world, or to remain in her society, of necessity
exceedingly small. She would try my temper at home, too, in a
thousand ways. When requested by me (often, I own, rather roughly)
to entertain the company with conversation, wit, and learning, of
which she was a mistress: or music, of which she was an accomplished
performer, she would as often as not begin to cry, and leave the
room. My company from this, of course, fancied I was a tyrant over
her; whereas I was only a severe and careful guardian over a silly,
bad-tempered, and weak-minded lady.
She was luckily very fond of her youngest son, and through him I had
a wholesome and effectual hold of her; for if in any of her tantrums
or fits of haughtiness--(this woman was intolerably proud; and
repeatedly, at first, in our quarrels, dared to twit me with my own
original poverty and low birth),--if, I say, in our disputes she
pretended to have the upper hand, to assert her authority against
mine, to refuse to sign such papers as I might think necessary for
the distribution of our large and complicated property, I would have
Master Bryan carried off to Chiswick for a couple of days; and I
warrant me his lady-mother could hold out no longer, and would agree
to anything I chose to propose. The servants about her I took care
should be in my pay, not hers: especially the child's head nurse was
under MY orders, not those of my lady; and a very handsome, red-
cheeked, impudent jade she was; and a great fool she made me make of
myself. This woman was more mistress of the house than the poor-
spirited lady who owned it. She gave the law to the servants; and if
I showed any particular attention to any of the ladies who visited
us, the slut would not scruple to show her jealousy, and to find
means to send them packing. The fact is, a generous man is always
made a fool of by some woman or other, and this one had such an
influence over me that she could turn me round her finger.
[Footnote: From these curious confessions, it would appear that Mr.
Lyndon maltreated his lady in every possible way; that he denied her
society, bullied her into signing away her property, spent it in
gambling and taverns, was openly unfaithful to her; and, when she
complained, threatened to remove her children from her. Nor, indeed,
is he the only husband who has done the like, and has passed for
'nobody's enemy but his own:' a jovial good-natured fellow. The
world contains scores of such amiable people; and, indeed, it is
because justice has not been done them that we have edited this
autobiography. Had it been that of a mere hero of romance--one of
those heroic youths who figure in the novels of Scott and James--
there would have been no call to introduce the reader to a personage
already so often and so charmingly depicted. Mr. Barry Lyndon is
not, we repeat, a hero of the common pattern; but let the reader
look round, and ask himself, Do not as many rogues succeed in life
as honest men? more fools than men of talent? And is it not just
that the lives of this class should be described by the student of
human nature as well as the actions of those fairy-tale princes,
those perfect impossible heroes, whom our writers love to describe?
There is something naive and simple in that time-honoured style of
novel-writing by which Prince Prettyman, at the end of his
adventures, is put in possession of every worldly prosperity, as he
has been endowed with every mental and bodily excellence previously.
The novelist thinks that he can do no more for his darling hero than
make him a lord. Is it not a poor standard that, of the summum
bonum? The greatest good in life is not to be a lord; perhaps not
even to be happy. Poverty, illness, a humpback, may be rewards and
conditions of good, as well as that bodily prosperity which all of
us unconsciously set up for worship. But this is a subject for an
essay, not a note; and it is best to allow Mr. Lyndon to resume the
candid and ingenious narrative of his virtues and defects.]
Her infernal temper (Mrs. Stammer was the jade's name) and my wife's
moody despondency, made my house and home not over-pleasant: hence I
was driven a good deal abroad, where, as play was the fashion at
every club, tavern, and assembly, I, of course, was obliged to
resume my old habit, and to commence as an amateur those games at
which I was once unrivalled in Europe. But whether a man's temper
changes with prosperity, or his skill leaves him when, deprived of a
confederate, and pursuing the game no longer professionally, he
joins in it, like the rest of the world, for pastime, I know not;
but certain it is, that in the seasons of 1774-75 I lost much money
at 'White's' and the 'Cocoa-Tree,' and was compelled to meet my
losses by borrowing largely upon my wife's annuities, insuring her
Ladyship's life, and so forth. The terms at which I raised these
necessary sums and the outlays requisite for my improvements were,
of course, very onerous, and clipped the property considerably; and
it was some of these papers which my Lady Lyndon (who was of a
narrow, timid, and stingy turn) occasionally refused to sign: until
I PERSUADED her, as I have before shown.
My dealings on the turf ought to be mentioned, as forming part of my
history at this time; but, in truth, I have no particular pleasure
in recalling my Newmarket doings. I was infernally bit and bubbled
in almost every one of my transactions there; and though I could
ride a horse as well as any man in England, was no match with the
English noblemen at backing him. Fifteen years after my horse, Bay
Bulow, by Sophy Hardcastle, out of Eclipse, lost the Newmarket
stakes, for which he was the first favourite, I found that a noble
earl, who shall be nameless, had got into his stable the morning
before he ran; and the consequence was that an outside horse won,
and your humble servant was out to the amount of fifteen thousand
pounds. Strangers had no chance in those days on the heath: and,
though dazzled by the splendour and fashion assembled there, and
surrounded by the greatest persons of the land,--the royal dukes,
with their wives and splendid equipages; old Grafton, with his queer
bevy of company, and such men as Ancaster, Sandwich, Lorn,--a man
might have considered himself certain of fair play and have been not
a little proud of the society he kept; yet, I promise you, that,
exalted as it was, there was no set of men in Europe who knew how to
rob more genteelly, to bubble a stranger, to bribe a jockey, to
doctor a horse, or to arrange a betting-book. Even _I_ couldn't
stand against these accomplished gamesters of the highest families
in Europe. Was it my own want of style, or my want of fortune? I
know not. But now I was arrived at the height of my ambition, both
my skill and my luck seemed to be deserting me. Everything I touched
crumbled in my hand; every speculation I had failed, every agent I
trusted deceived me. I am, indeed, one of those born to make, and
not to keep fortunes; for the qualities and energy which lead a man
to effect the first are often the very causes of his ruin in the
latter case: indeed, I know of no other reason for the misfortunes
which finally befell me. [Footnote: The Memoirs seem to have been
written about the year 1814, in that calm retreat which Fortune had
selected for the author at the close of his life.]
I had always a taste for men of letters, and perhaps, if the truth
must be told, have no objection to playing the fine gentleman and
patron among the wits. Such people are usually needy, and of low
birth, and have an instinctive awe and love of a gentleman and a
laced coat; as all must have remarked who have frequented their
society. Mr. Reynolds, who was afterwards knighted, and certainly
the most elegant painter of his day, was a pretty dexterous courtier
of the wit tribe; and it was through this gentleman, who painted a
piece of me, Lady Lyndon, and our little Bryan, which was greatly
admired at the Exhibition (I was represented as quitting my wife, in
the costume of the Tippleton Yeomanry, of which I was major; the
child starting back from my helmet like what-d'ye-call'im--Hector's
son, as described by Mr. Pope in his 'Iliad'); it was through Mr.
Reynolds that I was introduced to a score of these gentlemen, and
their great chief, Mr. Johnson. I always thought their great chief a
great bear. He drank tea twice or thrice at my house, misbehaving
himself most grossly; treating my opinions with no more respect than
those of a schoolboy, and telling me to mind my horses and tailors,
and not trouble myself about letters. His Scotch bear-leader, Mr.
Boswell, was a butt of the first quality. I never saw such a figure
as the fellow cut in what he called a Corsican habit, at one of Mrs.
Cornely's balls, at Carlisle House, Soho. But that the stories
connected with that same establishment are not the most profitable
tales in the world, I could tell tales of scores of queer doings
there. All the high and low demireps of the town gathered there,
from his Grace of Ancaster down to my countryman, poor Mr. Oliver
Goldsmith the poet, and from the Duchess of Kingston down to the
Bird of Paradise, or Kitty Fisher. Here I have met very queer
characters, who came to queer ends too: poor Hackman, that
afterwards was hanged for killing Miss Reay, and (on the sly) his
Reverence Doctor Simony, whom my friend Sam Foote, of the 'Little
Theatre,' bade to live even after forgery and the rope cut short the
unlucky parson's career.
It was a merry place, London, in those days, and that's the truth.
I'm writing now in my gouty old age, and people have grown vastly
more moral and matter-of-fact than they were at the close of the
last century, when the world was young with me. There was a
difference between a gentleman and a common fellow in those times.
We wore silk and embroidery then. Now every man has the same
coachmanlike look in his belcher and caped coat, and there is no
outward difference between my Lord and his groom. Then it took a man
of fashion a couple of hours to make his toilette, and he could show
some taste and genius in the selecting it. What a blaze of splendour
was a drawing-room, or an opera, of a gala night! What sums of money
were lost and won at the delicious faro-table! My gilt curricle and
out-riders, blazing in green and gold, were very different objects
from the equipages you see nowadays in the ring, with the stunted
grooms behind them. A man could drink four times as much as the
milksops nowadays can swallow; but 'tis useless expatiating on this
theme. Gentlemen are dead and gone. The fashion has now turned upon
your soldiers and sailors, and I grow quite moody and sad when I
think of thirty years ago.
This is a chapter devoted to reminiscences of what was a very happy
and splendid time with me, but presenting little of mark in the way
of adventure; as is generally the case when times are happy and
easy. It would seem idle to fill pages with accounts of the every-
day occupations of a man of fashion,--the fair ladies who smiled
upon him, the dresses he wore, the matches he played, and won or
lost. At this period of time, when youngsters are employed cutting
the Frenchmen's throats in Spain and France, lying out in bivouacs,
and feeding off commissariat beef and biscuit, they would not
understand what a life their ancestors led; and so I shall leave
further discourse upon the pleasures of the times when even the
Prince was a lad in leading-strings, when Charles Fox had not
subsided into a mere statesman, and Buonaparte was a beggarly brat
in his native island.
Whilst these improvements were going on in my estates,--my house,
from an antique Norman castle, being changed to an elegant Greek
temple, or palace--my gardens and woods losing their rustic
appearance to be adapted to the most genteel French style--my child
growing up at his mother's knees, and my influence in the country
increasing,--it must not be imagined that I stayed in Devonshire all
this while, and that I neglected to make visits to London, and my
various estates in England and Ireland.
I went to reside at the Trecothick estate and the Polwellan Wheal,
where I found, instead of profit, every kind of pettifogging
chicanery; I passed over in state to our territories in Ireland,
where I entertained the gentry in a style the Lord Lieutenant
himself could not equal; gave the fashion to Dublin (to be sure it
was a beggarly savage city in those days; and, since the time there
has been a pother about the Union, and the misfortunes attending it,
I have been at a loss to account for the mad praises of the old
order of things, which the fond Irish patriots have invented); I say
I set the fashion to Dublin; and small praise to me, for a poor
place it was in those times, whatever the Irish party may say.
In a former chapter I have given you a description of it. It was the
Warsaw of our part of the world: there was a splendid, ruined, half-
civilised nobility, ruling over a half-savage population. I say
half-savage advisedly. The commonalty in the streets were wild,
unshorn, and in rags. The most public places were not safe after
nightfall. The College, the public buildings, and the great gentry's
houses were splendid (the latter unfinished for the most part); but
the people were in a state more wretched than any vulgar I have ever
known: the exercise of their religion was only half allowed to them;
their clergy were forced to be educated out of the country; their
aristocracy was quite distinct from them; there was a Protestant
nobility, and in the towns, poor insolent Protestant corporations,
with a bankrupt retinue of mayors, aldermen, and municipal officers
--all of whom figured in addresses and had the public voice in the
country; but there was no sympathy and connection between the upper
and the lower people of the Irish. To one who had been bred so much
abroad as myself, this difference between Catholic and Protestant
was doubly striking; and though as firm as a rock in my own faith,
yet I could not help remembering my grandfather held a different
one, and wondering that there should be such a political difference
between the two. I passed among my neighbours for a dangerous
leveller, for entertaining and expressing such opinions, and
especially for asking the priest of the parish to my table at Castle
Lyndon. He was a gentleman, educated at Salamanca, and, to my mind,
a far better bred and more agreeable companion than his comrade the
rector, who had but a dozen Protestants for his congregation; who
was a lord's son, to be sure, but he could hardly spell, and the
great field of his labours was in the kennel and cockpit.
I did not extend and beautify the house of Castle Lyndon as I had
done our other estates, but contented myself with paying an
occasional visit there; exercising an almost royal hospitality, and
keeping open house during my stay. When absent, I gave to my aunt,
the widow Brady, and her six unmarried daughters (although they
always detested me), permission to inhabit the place; my mother
preferring my new mansion of Barryogue.
And as my Lord Bullingdon was by this time grown excessively tall
and troublesome, I determined to leave him under the care of a
proper governor in Ireland, with Mrs. Brady and her six daughters to
take care of him; and he was welcome to fall in love with all the
old ladies if he were so minded, and thereby imitate his
stepfather's example. When tired of Castle Lyndon, his Lordship was
at liberty to go and reside at my house with my mamma; but there was
no love lost between him and her, and, on account of my son Bryan, I
think she hated him as cordially as ever I myself could possibly do.
The county of Devon is not so lucky as the neighbouring county of
Cornwall, and has not the share of representatives which the latter
possesses; where I have known a moderate country gentleman, with a
few score of hundreds per annum from his estate, treble his income
by returning three or four Members to Parliament, and by the
influence with Ministers which these seats gave him. The
parliamentary interest of the house of Lyndon had been grossly
neglected during my wife's minority, and the incapacity of the Earl
her father; or, to speak more correctly, it had been smuggled away
from the Lyndon family altogether by the adroit old hypocrite of
Tiptoff Castle, who acted as most kinsmen and guardians do by their
wards and relatives, and robbed them. The Marquess of Tiptoff
returned four Members to Parliament: two for the borough of
Tippleton, which, as all the world knows, lies at the foot of our
estate of Hackton, bounded on the other side by Tiptoff Park. For
time out of mind we had sent Members for that borough, until
Tiptoff, taking advantage of the late lord's imbecility, put in his
own nominees. When his eldest son became of age, of course my Lord
was to take his seat for Tippleton; when Rigby (Nabob Rigby, who
made his fortune under Clive in India) died, the Marquess thought
fit to bring down his second son, my Lord George Poynings, to whom I
have introduced the reader in a former chapter, and determined, in
his high mightiness, that he too should go in and swell the ranks of
the Opposition--the big old Whigs, with whom the Marquess acted.
Rigby had been for some time in an ailing condition previous to his
demise, and you may be sure that the circumstance of his failing
health had not been passed over by the gentry of the county, who
were staunch Government men for the most part, and hated my Lord
Tiptoff's principles as dangerous and ruinous, 'We have been looking
out for a man to fight against him,' said the squires to me; 'we can
only match Tiptoff out of Hackton Castle. You, Mr. Lyndon, are our
man, and at the next county election we will swear to bring you in.'
I hated the Tiptoffs so, that I would have fought them at any
election. They not only would not visit at Hackton, but declined to
receive those who visited us; they kept the women of the county from
receiving my wife: they invented half the wild stories of my
profligacy and extravagance with which the neighbourhood was
entertained; they said I had frightened my wife into marriage, and
that she was a lost woman; they hinted that Bullingdon's life was
not secure under my roof, that his treatment was odious, and that I
wanted to put him out of the way to make place for Bryan my son. I
could scarce have a friend to Hackton, but they counted the bottles
drunk at my table. They ferreted out my dealings with my lawyers and
agents. If a creditor was unpaid, every item of his bill was known
at Tiptoff Hall; if I looked at a farmer's daughter, it was said I
had ruined her. My faults are many, I confess, and as a domestic
character, I can't boast of any particular regularity or temper; but
Lady Lyndon and I did not quarrel more than fashionable people do,
and, at first, we always used to make it up pretty well. I am a man
full of errors, certainly, but not the devil that these odious
backbiters at Tiptoff represented me to be. For the first three
years I never struck my wife but when I was in liquor. When I flung
the carving-knife at Bullingdon I was drunk, as everybody present
can testify; but as for having any systematic scheme against the
poor lad, I can declare solemnly that, beyond merely hating him (and
one's inclinations are not in one's power), I am guilty of no evil
towards him.
I had sufficient motives, then, for enmity against the Tiptoffs, and
am not a man to let a feeling of that kind lie inactive. Though a
Whig, or, perhaps, because a Whig, the Marquess was one of the
haughtiest men breathing, and treated commoners as his idol the
great Earl used to treat them--after he came to a coronet himself--
as so many low vassals, who might be proud to lick his shoe-buckle.
When the Tippleton mayor and corporation waited upon him, he
received them covered, never offered Mr. Mayor a chair, but retired
when the refreshments were brought, or had them served to the
worshipful aldermen in the steward's room. These honest Britons
never rebelled against such treatment, until instructed to do so by
my patriotism. No, the dogs liked to be bullied; and, in the course
of a long experience, I have met with but very few Englishmen who
are not of their way of thinking.
It was not until I opened their eyes that they knew their
degradation. I invited the Mayor to Hackton, and Mrs. Mayoress (a
very buxom pretty groceress she was, by the way) I made sit by my
wife, and drove them both out to the races in my curricle. Lady
Lyndon fought very hard against this condescension; but I had a way
with her, as the saying is, and though she had a temper, yet I had a
better one. A temper, psha! A wild-cat has a temper, but a keeper
can get the better of it; and I know very few women in the world
whom I could not master.
Well, I made much of the mayor and corporation; sent them bucks for
their dinners, or asked them to mine; made a point of attending
their assemblies, dancing with their wives and daughters, going
through, in short, all the acts of politeness which are necessary on
such occasions: and though old Tiptoff must have seen my goings on,
yet his head was so much in the clouds, that he never once
condescended to imagine his dynasty could be overthrown in his own
town of Tippleton, and issued his mandates as securely as if he had
been the Grand Turk, and the Tippletonians no better than so many
slaves of his will.
Every post which brought us any account of Rigby's increasing
illness, was the sure occasion of a dinner from me; so much so, that
my friends of the hunt used to laugh and say, 'Rigby's worse;
there's a corporation dinner at Hackton.'
It was in 1776, when the American war broke out, that I came into
Parliament. My Lord Chatham, whose wisdom his party in those days
used to call superhuman, raised his oracular voice in the House of
Peers against the American contest; and my countryman, Mr. Burke--a
great philosopher, but a plaguy long-winded orator--was the champion
of the rebels in the Commons--where, however, thanks to British
patriotism, he could get very few to back him. Old Tiptoff would
have sworn black was white if the great Earl had bidden him; and he
made his son give up his commission in the Guards, in imitation of
my Lord Pitt, who resigned his ensigncy rather than fight against
what he called his American brethren.
But this was a height of patriotism extremely little relished in
England, where, ever since the breaking out of hostilities, our
people hated the Americans heartily; and where, when we heard of the
fight of Lexington, and the glorious victory of Bunker's Hill (as we
used to call it in those days), the nation flushed out in its usual
hot-headed anger. The talk was all against the philosophers after
that, and the people were most indomitably loyal. It was not until
the land-tax was increased, that the gentry began to grumble a
little; but still my party in the West was very strong against the
Tiptoffs, and I determined to take the field and win as usual.
The old Marquess neglected every one of the decent precautions which
are requisite in a parliamentary campaign. He signified to the
corporation and freeholders his intention of presenting his son,
Lord George, and his desire that the latter should be elected their
burgess; but he scarcely gave so much as a glass of beer to whet the
devotedness of his adherents: and I, as I need not say, engaged
every tavern in Tippleton in my behalf.
There is no need to go over the twenty-times-told tale of an
election. I rescued the borough of Tippleton from the hands of Lord
Tiptoff and his son, Lord George. I had a savage sort of
satisfaction, too, in forcing my wife (who had been at one time
exceedingly smitten by her kinsman, as I have already related) to
take part against him, and to wear and distribute my colours when
the day of election came. And when we spoke at one another, I told
the crowd that I had beaten Lord George in love, that I had beaten
him in war, and that I would now beat him in Parliament; and so I
did, as the event proved: for, to the inexpressible anger of the old
Marquess, Barry Lyndon, Esquire, was returned member of Parliament
for Tippleton, in place of John Rigby, Esquire, deceased; and I
threatened him at the next election to turn him out of BOTH his
seats, and went to attend my duties in Parliament.
It was then I seriously determined on achieving for myself the Irish
peerage, to be enjoyed after me by my beloved son and heir.