those hopes, with which he had entered life, and which had the independence of his country for their object." Lady Dunore was the daughter of this gentleman's sister, and he loved her for the sake of her mother. The Earl of L, Lady Dunore's father, had refused his consent to her marriage with the Honourable General Fitzadelm, the younger of two brothers, whose father, the Marquis of Dunore, still lived, and who sought her hand to obtain the immense fortune to which she was sole heiress. But the obstinate and blind young lady, chose to accept the pretended lover, from the motive of self-will principally; and suffered for the want of tenderness and the want of money, till the death of her father and that of the Marquis Dunore and his sons united the property of all in herself, and her two sons; the elder of whom was become hopelessly insane, and the younger now abroad, employed his mother's present cares and efforts. Lady Dunore once proposing to canvass among the freeholders, as much to divert ennui as to advance the election, was accompanied by the two Mr. Crawleys in her expedition, which was so directed, as to create as much disgust as possible in the fastidious lady's mind, against her tenantry; the object of the Crawleys being to keep these poor people wholly in their power, and to prevent if possible, any more visits to Ireland that might interfere with it. Lady Dunore's carriage was ordered to such a dangerous and unfrequented road as to excite much alarm, and the commands of the lady to her driver might have endangered the whole party, had not the spirited and timely aid of a certain Padreen Gar, assisted the coachman, and relieved all apprehension. Lady Dunore was loud in the poor Padreen's praise, and declared her admiration for the whole race of Irish peasantry. Here was a defeat, and a fresh call for new devices. Lady Dunore soon receives an anonymous letter assuring her that the spirit of rebellion was fermenting in secret, hinting at the horrors of attack and assassination-declaring that Padreen Gar's feigned assistance was only a plan to surprize her carriage, which was frustrated by the presence of the two Crawleys-that a plot was now in agitation between Padreen Gar and certain associates of his, called Padreen Gar Boys, to meet at the holy-well of the neighbouring village of Ballydab on St. Gobnate's eve, and thence to make an attack on Dunore Castle. Lady Dunore who enjoyed all manner of excitement, liked these terrors, so opportunely produced for prevention; and immediately consulted her good friends about suitable measures for the detection and punishment of the enemy. The Crawleys advised that on the night specified, the incendiary and his party should be arrested at Ballydab, and brought to the castle where previous to their commitment to prison, their countenances and appearance would go far to establish their guilt or innocence. This little self-constituted court was quite consonant to Lady Dunore's love of authority and adventure. St. Gobnate's eve was a few days distant, and the interval was employed by the Crawleys in prepossessing the judgment and awakening the fears of Lady Dunore, by all manner of details printed and oral, concerning the atrocities of Irish rebels. "Meantime the rumour of an insurrection had been spread through the town of Dunore, and had reached the steward's room and servants' hall of the castle; whence it ascended to the drawing-room, where some Lady Dunore and the Crawleys preserved a laughed and some trembled at it. Although profound silence on the subject, it was understood that a party of the New-Town legion occupied the flank towers of the Mount Crawley supplementary auxiliary castle every night after sun-set. Expresses had been forwarded to Dublin, and many leave to return to their native country. of the English servants bad applied for What, however, had spread the greatest consternation in the neighbourhood, was, that Terence Oge O'Leary's house had been entered by constables, his papers seized, and officers of justice stationed to arrest any persons found lurking about the cemetry of escaped by being absent on some of his the Monaster-ny-oriel. O'Leary himself usual antiquarian researches." We have not particularly noticed the members of Lady Dunore's party, precisely because they are not worth noticing for any merit they have; but it may not be amiss to mention two of them, as possessing a little more vivacity than the rest. Lord Frederick Eversham is a young nobleman attached to the viceregal establishment in Dublin; has lived in Paris; is a great talker; styles Ireland the celestial empire; gives to the elder Crawley the order of the yellow button, and to Counsellor Con, that of the peacock's feather. Lord Rosbrin is a mad-cap, with his head full of theatricals, and his conversation of nonsense. In what manner these visitors treated Lady Dunore's fears, as well as their general frivolity, is exhibited on the morning which preceded St. Gobnate's eve. : "On that day, observed in the country as the feast of St. Gobnate, Lady Dunore descended earlier than usual into the breakfast room, her cheek flushed, and her eye wandering she was also dressed in black, as was usual with her when under the influence of grief or anxiety. She spoke little, and refused to breakfast, alleging that she had been drinking gunpowder tea since daylight. She was restless and unquiet, appeared and disappeared like a phantom, despatched note after note to Mr. Crawley, and seemed so agitated by ill suppressed emotions, that Lord Frederick, who was sipping his caffe au lait, and reading a French novel, at last inquired of her, in his usual tone of affectation, Mais qu'est ce qu'il y a donc, belle Chatelaine? What is the matter my marchioness? Are the reports we have heard of incipient rebellion in the celestial empire really true, or are they only got up by the chop-mandarins for their own special purposes? I dare say that professeur de bavardisse, Duke Conway Townsend Crawley, of the peacock's feather, is at the bottom of all this; or that my own ching-foo, of the yellow button, is amusing himself with a plot, like the honest rentleman that got his own effigy shot at, to alarm the sleeping sensibility of the lenient government people at the castle.* Now pray speak: are we to be roasted a la mode Irelandaise before a slow fire, like so many chesnuts, or spitted like the children in the old rebellion, like so many snipes-Voyons donc !' "Here Lord Frederick was interrupted by the loud stamping of feet outside the door, which was suddenly burst open, and Lord "Fact-the ingenious party was a magis trate, and proh pudor, a clergyman," 'Confusion has made his master-piece, Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Temple, and stolen thence—' «Murder!' said Mr. Daly, shuddering. "Stolen ! stolen what?' interrupted Lord Frederick, becoming suddenly serious. "Lady Dunore, now believing that there was reason for her fears, continued to scream louder than before; and Lord Rosbrin, pointing to a letter he held in his hand, observed, with a little paraphrase in his citation, Approach this letter, and destroy your sight With a new gorgon.' "Who is it from?' said Mr. Daly, snatching the letter, and searching for his spectacles. "Who from?' continued Lord Rosbrin, pacing up and down the room with frantic, but with theatrical gestures. deputy prompter of Covent Garden Theatre. 'Tis from the Oh! insupportable, oh heavy hour! It should be now an huge eclipse o' the sun;' for oh! my friends, Mrs. Siddons's point lace, Mrs. Siddons's lace, alas! she has no lace! but her point lace that was, and that I should have worn, is stolen away from her dressing-room at the theatre; all, all gone!' Nor left a wreck behind.' and resuming his newspaper, so,' as Mo"So,' said Mr. Daly, much provoked, liere says of his capricious lady, ou fait la sottise et nous sommes les sots.' 6 vulsions of laughter; Mr. Pottinger and the "Meantime, Lord Frederick rolled in conladies dried their humid eyes; and Mr. He.. neage, smelling a flower-box in the window, observed, the mignionette harvest has been vastly abundant this year." " A timely visit from two Irish Judges, though so often falsely attributed to mediBaron Boulter and Judge Aubrey, gave a "ocrity and ignorance." turn to this affair not exactly within the calculation of its projectors. The character of Judge Aubrey is as free from Lady Morgan's faults of delineation as any passage we remember in her writings. "Judge Aubrey was in character a melange of those temperaments which produce a quick and irritable sensibility, a prompt uncalculating sympathy, and a warm deepseated, violent indignation; qualities which form so broad a basis for human excellence, while they unfit it for a patient endurance of baseness, meanness, and cupidity. These were powerfully worked on, and hourly called into action, by the political situation of a country, which he loved with all the fervour of an ancient Roman; and by the systematic degradation of a profession, he venerated as the guardian of human rights; his bile and his experience increased together; the hopes of the patriot, and the health of the man, suffered in equal proportion; and the social simplicity and playful gayety, which formed the charm of his domestic hearth, from which the world was shut out, deserted him in that public tribunal, where the liberty he worshipped was sacrificed, and the profession he revered was debased. "Ireland, his native country, was his object; he had upheld her cause in the senate, until her independence had breathed its last gasp; and he retired from the scene of her ruin with a minority that might be deemed glorious,' in every sense of the word. Ireland was still his object; and the lowliest of her children found redemption from his mercy, solace in his commiseration, and relief from his liberality. From the bench he expounded the causes of their crimes, while he lamented their effects; he taught while he judged, he wept when he condemned. "From the period of the Union, Judge Aubrey had retired from what is called the world, from the bustling walks of life, and from the giddy round of fashionable circles; living for and with a few, he had for many years made no progress in the successive modes and jargons of succeeding fashions; and it was in part to this circumstance that he owed much of that peculiar freshness of character, and something of that austerity of manner, which the friction of society is so apt to efface. This well preserved individuality was set off by a peculiar manner, idiom, and phrase, which, as well as his broad accent, were genuine Irish. To profound classical reading, and considerable scientific acquirement, be added an unpretending simplicity, which is inseparably connected with the highest order of talent, VOL. IV.-No. v. 43 Lord Rosbrin, determined to make the trial amusing as possible, got up the arrangement for it, after his own notion of that in "Venice Preserved;" and the wily Crawleys failed not to get into custody, and to present at the appointed place, a party of men and one woman. All the depositions proved nothing, and after going through some forms, half ludicrous and half serious, the Judge dismissed the prisoners. Counsellor Con expostulated—he has some further charges, and entreats that they may be examined. The amount of these charges were, that in the absence of old Terence O'Leary his papers had been ravaged and certain documents found, showing that the last Florence Macarthy, Earl of Clancare, had returned from exile in Spain, and had died in poverty in Ireland-that some infatuated people were determined to assert the claims to the estatés-and that a certain Catholic Priest meant to assume the Archbishopric of Dublin-that, in fact, he had, in a letter to the late Earl of Clancare, signed himself Yo Mateo, Arcobispo de Dublin. This conspiracy, so consistent and probable, was wonderfully alarming; but alarm was changed to unrestrained laughter by the declaration of Judge Aubrey, that this, indeed, was in some of its parts a genuine plot-the principal misstatement being in the date, as it might be found in the annals of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Counsellor Con rested a good part of the plausibility of his scheme, upon the unknown Spanish Priest, for such he assumed as a fact, that the stranger, heretofore called the Commodore, was; and having procured some false testimony from a certain Mr. James Bryan, obtained, upon the strength of it, a warrant from Baron Boulter, to apprehend this suspected person. The actual existence of such a person he urged as a confutation of Judge Aubrey's declaration; but at that moment Terence O'Leary appeared, asserting, that his stolen papers related sence were necessary to frustrate the designs of that gentleman's enemies. Who this secret friend could be, was beyond conjecture-neither of the objects of her kindness had any clew to discovery. to the forgotten insurrection only; and ter, and that his interference and preat the same moment the Commodore was presented to Baron Boulter, informing him that he was prisoner upon the deposition of a man who had been publicly condemned for perjury, and demanding liberty in the name of the law and his own innocence. Baron Boulter did not retract the warrant, and the stranger, after a little spirited remonstrance, prepared to submit to temporary imprisonment, in hopes of speedy justice. Judge Aubrey pronounced the transaction to be illegal, and recommended to the stranger to procure bail till it could be proved so. At that moment a noble look ing person came forward with offered responsibility, and the prisoner immediately recognised his friend and fellow-traveller Mr. De Vere. " Pray who are you?" insolently demanded young Crawley. "I am Lord Adelm Fitzadelm-Pray who are you?" was the rejoinder. We are left to imagine the feelings of Mr. Crawley. Lord Fitzadelm introduced the supposed Priest to the company as his friend, General Fitzwalter, from South America, a distinguished officer in the Patriot service. The business of giving bail was completed, by forcing the discomfited old Crawley to become joint security with Lord Fitzadelm. The female proves to be no other than the celebrated Ban Tierna, who has suffered herself to be taken prisoner for reasons of her own, and whom Lady Dunore discovers to be the same Lady Clancare whom she had known and admired in London. After the dispersion of the company, the two friends walked out together, and Lord Fitzadelm showed to General Fitzwalter three letters, with the same seal annexed, as to the letter once addressed to O'Leary in behalf of the General. The first letter was despatched to Portugal, to give informa tion of Lady Dunore's borough intrigues, the second intimated that the writer's abode was near Kilcolman, and the third acquainted Lord Fitzadelm that his travelling companion was General Fitzwal The dinners, suppers, and theatrical entertainments of Dunore Castle, are the most tasteless things in the world.— The Ban Tierna, however, gave them all the interest they possess. Lord Fitzadelm does not like her, but Genera! Fitzwalter becomes absolutely in love with her. Lord Fitzadelm once came near to the discovery of his unknown correspondent, having received a summons to meet this person at a rock near the castle; but his mother interrupted the appointment, and he found at the place nothing but a black scarf of Spanish manufacture, on which was marked the initials F. M., and on its centre was an embroidered red cross. This scarf was again lost and found by O'Leary, who informed the General that it must belong to a certain Florence Macarthy, a cousin of Lady Clancare, who had come over from Spain, and was now at a convent in Tipperary. It requires no great penetration to discover, that General Fitzwalter was the son of the Black Baron Fitzadelm. His uncle, the Red Baron, had endeavoured to procure his death; but his preservation was effected, and when the attempt to drown him was made, he was of an age to retain a history of his life. He had risen by his bravery and good fortune to rank and power, and had now returned to Ireland, to prosecute his claims to his birthright. A few years before this period, he had formed a very sudden connexion in South America. Colonel Macarthy, an Irish officer, in dying, left to his protection a daughter, whom he was immediately to have married; but, before the ceremony was finished, a sudden alarm of the enemy severed him from his bride, to whom he had never been reunited. This lady was Florence Macarthy, and this intelligence of Terence O'Leary, was the first which her hus band had received; and that too, at a time when his heart was devoted to another. He determined, if possible, to break this tie, and to effect his purpose sought the aid of Lady Clancare. On making her a visit, he found the Ban Tierna employed in setting the example of industry, and encouraging the labours of the peasantry. The benevolence of her sentiments and manners, her beauty, her unprotected condition, the mingled liveliness and sadness of her conversation, inspired a stronger passion than ever, in the breast of her visiter. Lady Clancare professed herself the faithful friend of Florence Macarthy, and declared she would hold no intercourse with that lady's husband, till she had herself absolved him from his half contracted vow; and she promised to carry on a correspondence between the General and the Nun of Tip perary. The object of his affection, and the state of his heart at this period, are thus described: "The person of Lady Clancare was not particularly distinguished by its beauty, but it was characteristic. Fresh, healthful, and intelligent, she had neither the symmetry of statuary loveliness, nor the brilliant colouring of pictured charms; but she was piquante, graceful, and vivacious: her mouth and teeth were well compared by O'Leary to those of a young hound; her head was picturesque, and her whole appearance the very personification of womanhood. Silent, and at rest, she was scarcely distinguishable from the ordinary class of women; but when her countenance was thrown into play, when she spoke with the anxiety or the consciousness of pleasing, or under the impression of being pleased, there was a mobility, a variety of expression and colouring, which corres ponded with the vigour, spirit, and energy of her extraordinary mind. "This indication, which might have repelled others, was the charm that fascinated Fitzwalter. The kindling susceptibility it betrayed harmonized with his own prompt and impetuous disposition, bespeaking a congeniality of feeling, and a reciprocity of intelligence, which he had never found in man, which he had never sought for in woman, and which, whether it took the calm and steady form of friendship, or the bright intoxicating aspect of love, was still the object of his unconscious research, and the indispensable ingredient of his perma nent schemes of happiness. Hitherto he had lived unassociated and solitary in the midst of the universe; his deep and lonely feelings preyed on a mind left to its own resources, unanswered, unreciprocated. He now found one like himself, vigorous in intellect, and rapid in action; full of that life and spirit which suited his own habits and modes of being; devoted to that country whose interests was the object of his future life; and drooping like himself, in that feeble and futile society, whose very atmosphere is fatal to the elevation of great minds, or the vivacity of lively and ener getic ones. "This conviction struck at once upon his imagination with that force which accompanied all its strong and promptly received impressions. It awakened his passions in all their natural vehemence; and, impatient of all suspense, ill brooking even ine. vitable delay, he would have gone at once to the head and front' of his views and have followed their object from pole to hopes; he would, in his own language, pole, over alps and oceans, or have remained fixed and rooted to the spot she inhabitcherished her; and, according to the started, wooed her, won her, elung to her, and ling conclusion of Lord Adelm, married her,' but that he was already married; married, at least, he considered himself in ho nour, ir gratitude, until she who shared his bondage voluntarily broke it." To ascertain his fate, and to relieve his exquisite suspense, general Fitzwalter immediately wrote to his quondam bride, committed the letter to Lady Clancare, and to beguile the interval, passed a few days in riding over the neighbouring country. On the evening of the fifth day he meets the object of all his thoughts, coming from a cottage in which an infectious disease was raging. This accidental meeting produces a long conversation, in which the Ban Tierna expatiates on the suffering fondness, the unyielding constancy of Florence Macarthy, and in pleading for the happiness of the deserted wise, she excites a fresh and heightened admiration, for her own exalted friendship and disinterestedness. The only fault which the lover had discerned in Lady Clancare, was her frivolous participation in the amusements and plans of Dunore Castle, and her apparent friendship for its mistress; but she justified these compliances upon the ground, that the influence which she thus obtained, might direct the caprices of these unfeeling fa |
