My Lords of Strogue, Vol. 2 (of 3)

by Lewis Wingfield

  CHAPTER II.

  DOREEN'S PLANS.

  It is proverbial that the preaching of the wisest sage may be reckonedas naught in its influence on a young man's fancy when opposed by asiren's smile. Doreen had never, during the years of her sojourn atthe Abbey, tried to enlist Terence on the side of her oppressedpeople. It would have been disloyal to have done so. But now that hislong-careless heart had taken the flame of its own accord, it was notlikely she should attempt to extinguish it. Having communed with TomEmmett, she directed her admirer to ride forthwith to Cork, ostensiblyon professional business, slip thence with secrecy across the water tosee Hoche, and then return with as little delay as might be. He was totell the French general that ten thousand soldiers were expected--thatless than five thousand would be useless--that arms without soldierswould be refused, because a rising would be the immediate consequenceof a landing of arms, and it was not thought desirable to turn theattempt, which should be made in force, into a desultory species ofChouannerie. Further, he was to employ all his eloquence to ensure aspeedy start, declaring that Erin yearned to break her bonds, that asmall nucleus of regular troops was all that was required to startwith, as the peasantry were prepared to rise if sure of being properlyled.

  These orders being succinctly given by a demure girl with rich darkhair and a touching sadness of expression, was it probable that thediatribes of an insignificant little person with shaggy elf-locks andquestionable linen should meet with even common courtesy? Curranargued with his junior contrary to his own convictions, striving byforensic imagery to save him from the vortex if he could; declaredthat nothing but ruin could possibly come of a rising; that thepopular cause was hopeless; that the French would possibly make atemporary disturbance to spite perfidious Albion, but that so soon asit should suit their interests, Erin would be blandly restored to theavenger, to reap the reward of her temerity. What sympathy couldFrance have for Ireland? What recked the Directory, or Hoche, orBuonaparte (the clever young general who was becoming celebrated),whether Erin was a slave or not? Other nations as interesting as theIrish were slaves, and would remain so. Just now Hoche was warm uponthe subject because he was jealous of Buonaparte and eager for rivallaurels. Granted that he were victorious, he would soon weary of whatto him must be a worthless and precarious possession, would carry itto market in a treaty of peace, and surrender it to expiate by yetmore grinding servitude the false hopes which were born only toperish. But Mr. Curran (who didn't quite believe all this in his heartof hearts) might as well have talked to the trees in his own Prioryorchard.

  'You'll be dragged farther than you intend,' he urged. 'Your vanitywill induce you to take an active part, and then you'll be punished bythe revolting slavery entailed by a mob command.'

  It was all in vain. Terence went away, and his chief gave out that hehad despatched him on business to Cork.

  The unfortunate Orr was hanged, and the result quite pleased thechancellor. A thrill of horror ran through all but the most callous.The oath anent the bough was taken by hundreds in desperation. Thetoast 'Remember Orr!' became a watchword. People shook their heads,wondering what would come of it. Riots grew more frequent, which weresuppressed or not according to caprice. Major Sirr's Battalion ofTestimony lived on the fat of the land, for there was no difficulty inunearthing traitors, now that the spirit of recklessness had goneforth. Lord Clare pretended to be pained. The ingratitude andwickedness of his countrymen--their hardened fits of daring--made himblush, he vowed. The country was in danger, the yeomanry must bestirthemselves, England must send regiments too steady to be undermined;if the people were so disgracefully unruly, martial law would have tobe proclaimed. He deeply grieved to suggest such a thing, but themajesty of the executive, whose gravest sin was leniency, must at allhazards be respected.

  The capital was quite in a fever, shivering as pigeons do in theircote when they feel the electric current. Every one was lookingtowards France. Was that armament which was assembling at Brestintended for their coasts? If the fleet were to appear in the offing,how would Government behave? It seemed evident enough how they wouldbehave, for troops kept pouring in from England. Hessians,Highlanders, Englishmen, under command of Lord Carhampton, arrived byshiploads, and, spreading over the counties, were placed at freequarters in the cottages. Dublin and the great towns undertook to lookto themselves. The armed squireens, yeomanry, fencibles, strutted inscarlet in the streets, clothed in the bully airs which characterisebrief authority.

  The burning zeal of Orangeism was let loose in all its excess ofwildness, and a fanatical orgy commenced--a saturnalia of fiends whoacted in the name of religion--which endured for two whole years. Men,who in the past had made themselves objectionable to Government, werenot forgotten now. Even the semblance of moderation was tossed aside.They were delivered to privileged marauders, to be kept under lock andkey and ultimately sacrificed in the 'confusion of the times;' whilstas for private enemies, nothing was easier than to charge such an onewith treason, and lay him low by purchasing the good offices of aninformer. People went openly to the Staghouse, where the 'band oftestimony' were kennelled, just as in our modern days they go toScotland Yard to engage the services of a detective.

  In the military mania which revived (how different from the Volunteermovement! the first was an impulse towards good; the latter a carnivalof demons), everybody sported a uniform. The Bar chose its specialfacings, so did the 'prentices, so did the adherents of each opulentgrandee. My Lord Powerscourt armed his tenants, but retained them inthe hills of Wicklow, declaring that his contingent was not to bemade a rabble of aggression. Even the Catholics deemed it prudentto don the red coat in self-defence, as a disguise; and went forthrebel-hunting, sometimes to lay violent hands on their own brethren.But the warriors somehow invariably took the wrong road, ordiscovered, upon reaching their destination, that gossoons had runforward to give warning. The Right Honourable Claudius Beresford, notto be outdone in zeal, set up a riding-school on Marlborough Green,which later on assumed infamous notoriety as a torture-chamber. Herethe yeomen met to try their horses, to accustom them to the sound ofdrum and clarion, to break a friendly bottle. Dublin assumed theaspect of a garrison; the country of a vast camp.

  Still my lord-chancellor vapoured airily of 'martial law;' not that itsignified much practically whether such were declared or no, but itwas as well to accustom polite ears to the words before they becamelegal facts.

  The arch-conspirators being unaccountably set free, without anypromises having been extorted from them, they naturally set to work atonce to take advantage of the general simmering, and the peculiarcondition of society was favourable to the attainment of their ends.More than ever now was the anomaly made manifest which has been hintedat before, namely, the promiscuous mixing in convivial intercourse ofpersons of the most opposite views. At time-serving Arthur Wolfe's,for instance, Clare hobbed and nobbed with the disaffected; such,that is, as had not gone so far as to frighten the well-meaningattorney-general. At Strogue Abbey, again, he chatted quite amicablywith Curran, who was never weary of abusing him in Parliament, orstrolled in the rosary with Cassidy, who was known to be a UnitedIrishman. But the strangest scene of all was the Beaux-walk inStephen's Green, more especially on a fine Sabbath, when the _beaumonde_ appeared in glory. The mall, where carriages paraded, ran atthat time along the north side, between a low wall and an impregnablehaha, or dyke; and there, on a Sunday afternoon, might be seen thestrangest medley of muslins and chip hats, fine coaches and swingingnoddies, mingled with cross-belts and helmets and military plumes andgear; might be heard the wildest diversity of opinions openly broachedand bandied. Horse-races took place sometimes as an ostensible reasonfor the gathering, and none marvelled to behold those who wereprisoned traitors a week ago arm in arm with Government officials, orto hear acquaintances joking each other on the inconvenience ofgetting hanged. Thus it failed specially to shock young Robert as apiece of bad taste, when, walking with other undergra
duates, if afriend rallied him about his brother's newspaper, and the certain fatewhich must befall its owner; though it must be admitted that such wasnot the case with Sara, who moaned and shuddered with dismay, like arabbit in a den of serpents. Tom Emmett's newspaper was openlypublished now twice a week, and no one interfered with it, though itsought out the joints of Lord Clare's harness; and the chief of theDirectory was weak enough to imagine that his foe had grown afraid ofhim for his boldness in pointing at injustice. Other newspapers weregagged or bribed; why should his be privileged? Tom Emmett and Bondand the rest held their secret meetings as heretofore, and strolled inthe Beaux-walk, and talked treason, like hot-pated Patlanders, to thetop of their bent, oblivious of the claw of the cat, because itremained uplifted--poor guileless band of mice! They met frequentlyand talked earnestly, and squabbled not a little among themselves, fortheir opinions were divided on a point--a most important point, uponwhich unanimity was essential--no less a one than the grand basis offuture operations.

  Bond and Russell and others argued that misgovernment had come to sucha pass, that it might be endured no more without merited disgrace.These bully squireens, these venal, brow-beating grandees, must beshown, before more harm was done, that there must be a bound to theirarrogance.

  If a tide be bravely stemmed, it will rage awhile; then settle withinits limits. Were the French coming? French or no French, the peoplemust rise; observant Europe would applaud, for even unfortunateheroism commands respect and pity; pike-heads by thousands lurkedbeneath potato plots, pike-poles in myriads were stacked underthatched roofs. Surely the spirit of the ancient kings would animatetheir sons in this emergency!

  Most of the conspirators were for doing something definite at once.Tom Emmett and his brother were in favour of delay.

  'We have waited so long,' Tom said, 'that a few weeks more will makelittle difference, save in the increased exasperation of the people.Lord Clare was obliged by public opinion to set us free. We must doour duty as men. With French assistance success is certain; withoutit, more than doubtful. Wait, at least, till Terence Crosbie'sreturn--the young aristocrat who has taken up our cudgels. We shall benone the worse for waiting; and now that he has been baptised into thetrue cause, his presence will be valuable in our councils. Thelabourer who entered the vineyard at the last hour was not deprived ofhis reward. We are terribly weak in military capacity; maybe Heaven,who has awakened so late in the day a scion of a noble house, maypoint to him as a future leader. Wait at least and see him.'

  Young Robert enthusiastically seconded his brother's motion, for hisinstinctive dread of bloodshed impelled him to postpone the decisivemoment; and he was possessed, besides, with a strong belief inTerence, whom he had known intimately during his sojourn at thePriory. Russell and the others obstinately combated the point, urgedthereto by youthful jealousy and wounded self-esteem. True, none ofthe council were of mature years; but to be lectured and prated at bythis boy Robert, who was yet a student in Alma Mater, was an indignitywhich it behoved them to resent.

  Doreen, who, after her noteworthy row upon the bay, threw aside theappearance of apathy she had assumed, saw this new danger withconcern. Torn well-nigh to death already by factions of many kinds,was Erin to sit by and see her last forlorn hope, her last bodyguardof champions, scattered by the same curse? Miss Wolfe became seized bya frenzy for galloping across country. Her horses were constantlybrought back to the stable with their coats turned, their flanksheaving, their skins reeking with foam.

  'No doubt the girl was crazed,' my lady averred, as constantly as shemarked the grooming of the animals from her bedroom window-seat. 'Whycould she not ride like a well-brought-up young person in the greenalleys of the Ph[oe]nix, or amble on the mall of Stephen's Green?'

  My lady did not know that Doreen met separately, at certain cottages,the different members of the Directory; that she prayed and exhortedeach one, as though he were alone to blame, to wisdom and a sacrificeof paltry vanity; and that she came away from each interview with sucha dread of impending failure--a distrust of these buddinggeneralissimos--that it required the most reckless gallops, with adangerous fence or two _en route_, to calm her nerves sufficiently tomeet my lady's scrutiny with the accustomed mask of composure on herface.

  At the Abbey she had little to complain of now, for all were too busyto take much heed of her. Shane, with a prospect of departingnorthward, which rumours of accumulating outrages seemed to make moreand more urgent, shilly-shallied and delayed, and selected guns andfishing-rods, and invited little knots of Cherokees, and spent moreand more time at the Little House, as though the effort to tearhimself away from Dublin delights and beloved Norah were too much forhis resolution.

  Under the circumstances he was not likely to trouble his cousin withattentions; and Doreen breathed freely again so far as her privateaffairs were concerned, for she perceived that this project of heraunt's was fading into a vision which never would and never could berealised. Any one who watched might see that Shane was desperatelysmitten with Norah, and Doreen was in no wise jealous. Norah was anice girl, Doreen determined, who was worthy to become a countess, andshe would help to make her happy as much as she could.

  My lady's fancies were mere whimsies. If the marriage could beaccomplished, she would of course come in time to like her newdaughter-in-law. Many domineering old ladies object to eligiblemaidens, merely because they have not fixed on them themselves.

  Miss Wolfe, in her regained independence of thought, felt halfinclined to carry it beyond her own concerns, to speak openly toShane, to go and call on Norah, or meet her as if by chance, anddeclare that she had come over to the enemy.

  But the little love-idyl was destined to an interruption, whether sheinterfered or not; for Glandore was pledged to go to the north--totear himself from the arms of metaphoric Capua. Would he remainfaithful to his lady-love, when removed from the direct influence ofher attractions? The notion of his going, Doreen remembered with aquiet sense of fun, was her own; and selfishly glad she was to havebeen so inspired, for away at Ennishowen his thoughts would bediverted into a new channel. Even if he did not learn there to forgetNorah, his mind would certainly be freed from vague visions of hisabsent cousin. Thus she, in any case, would be safe. Situated as theconcerns of the patriots were, all her own energies would be needed onthe spot--for without some one to threaten and cajole, the bundle wassure to fall to pieces.

  She would be glad, therefore, when the establishment at the Abbeyshould break up, when all the vans and horses and carriages shouldmigrate to Donegal, leaving her--a waif--behind, with nothing toattend to but serious business.

  Of course when my lady and her son started for Ennishowen, she wouldreturn to her old home in Dublin. She would inhabit once more herlittle bedroom in Molesworth Street, and would make herself sonecessary to her father by fond artful prodigalities of love andtenderness, as to prevent him from ever allowing her to leave him anymore. It was all very well, when she was a child, to send her to abidewith her aunt, but now she was a woman, and her place was with herfather. Then a small inward voice whispered, which caused her heart tobeat quick time:

  'What if, by my loving influence, I might change at length his views?He is weak, but so kind and excellent; he leans on my aunt becausehers is the more masculine nature of the two; and he yearns forsupport and countenance. Why should he not come to lean on me? My willis as strong as hers--our mutual affection unstained by a difference,unruffled by a ripple! Oh! if I could persuade him that there arenobler aspirations than mere gathering of gold. That if, instead ofmoney-grubbing to make me a fortune (well-meaning, tender father!) hewould spend all he has freely for his country's sake, I would love himall the more dearly for my beggary; what if, by constant dropping onthe stone of obstinacy, I could bring him to feel this--how happy, howtruly happy, we might come to be together!'

  Then, in less exalted moments of reflection, she felt that shedeceived herself, that this might never be; that if she elected, intheory, to embrace for a holy cause the
vow of poverty in her ownperson, she had no right to force her convictions upon a man whoseglass of life was more than half run out, whose life ran in a groove,and who had so distinct a predilection for flesh-pots. Well, withoutgoing to extremes, it would be a joy to guide him just a little, toprevent his truckling too glaringly to Castle influence. If only hewere not attorney-general and prosecutor for the Crown!' When theFrench expedition shall have arrived,' she thought, 'and swept thiswicked Government into the sea, how intense a satisfaction will it beto say to the Irish Directory, "Spare at least my father, for my sake!I have worked heart and soul in the cause; you owe me this boon, theonly one I ask of you!"'

  Certainly, from every point of view it seemed necessary for the younglady to separate herself from the Abbey and her prejudiced aunt withall speed, and assume her proper place in her own home.

  Hence for more reasons than one she looked forward to the forthcomingbreak in the Abbey _menage_ as to the commencement of a new era ofreviving hope and usefulness, and quite longed for Shane's departurewith all his bags and baggage.