I slept late on the morning after my introduction to the Monks of the
Screw, and probably should have continued to indulge still longer, had
not O'Grady awoke me.
'Come, Jack,' he cried, 'this is the third time I have been here to-day.
I can't have mercy on you any longer; so rub your eyes, and try if
you can't wake sufficiently to listen to me. I have just received my
appointment as captain in the Forty-first, with an order to repair
immediately to Chatham to join the regiment, which is under orders for
foreign service.'
'And when do you go, Phil?'
'To-night at eight o'clock. A private note from a friend at the Horse
Guards tells me not to lose a moment; and as I shall have to wait on
the duke to thank him for his great kindness to me, I have no time to
spare.'
This news so stunned me that for a moment or two I couldn't reply.
O'Grady perceived it, and, patting me gaily on the shoulder, said--
'Yes, Jack, I am sorry we are to separate. But as for me, no other
course was open; and as to you, with all your independence from fortune,
and with all your family influence to push your promotion, the time is
not very distant when you will begin to feel the life you are leading
vapid and tiresome. You will long for an excitement more vigorous and
more healthy in its character; and then, my boy, my dearest hope is that
we may be thrown once more together.'
Had my friend been able at the moment to have looked into the secret
recesses of my heart and read there my inmost thoughts, he could not
more perfectly have depicted my feelings, nor pictured the impressions
that, at the very moment he spoke, were agitating my mind. The time he
alluded to had indeed arrived. The hour had come when I wished to be a
soldier in more than the mere garb; but with that wish came linked
another even stronger still; and this was, that, before I went on
service, I should once more see Louisa Bellew, explain to her the nature
and extent of my attachment to her, and obtain, if possible, some pledge
on her part that, with the distinction I hoped to acquire, I should look
to the possession of her love as my reward and my recompense. Young as I
was, I felt ashamed at avowing to O'Grady the rapid progress of my
passion. I had not courage to confess upon what slight encouragement I
built my hopes, and at the same time was abashed at being compelled to
listen tamely to his prophecy, when the very thoughts that flashed
across me would have indicated my resolve.
While I thus maintained an awkward silence, he once more resumed--
'Meanwhile, Jack, you can serve me, and I shall make no apologies
for enlisting you. You've heard me speak of this great Loughrea
steeplechase: now, somehow or other, with my usual prudence, I have gone
on adding wager to wager, until at last I find myself with a book of
some eight hundred pounds--to lose which at a moment like this, I need
not say, would almost ruin all my plans. To be free of the transaction,
I this morning offered to pay half forfeit, and they refused me. Yes,
Hinton, they knew every man of them the position I stood in. They saw
that not only my prospects but my honour was engaged; that before a week
I should be far away, without any power to control, without any means to
observe them. They knew well that, thus circumstanced, I must lose; and
that if I lost, I must sell my commission, and leave the army beggared
in character and in fortune.'
'And now, my dear friend,' said I, interrupting, 'how happens it that
you bet with men of this stamp? I understood you it was a friendly
match, got up at a dinnerparty.'
'Even so, Jack. The dinner was in my own rooms, the claret mine, the men
my _friends_. You may smile, but so the world is pleased to call those
with whom from day to day we associate, with no other bond of union than
the similarity of a pursuit which has nothing more reprehensible in it
than the character of the intimacies it engenders. Yes, Hinton, these
are my sporting friends, sipping my wine while they plot my ruin.
Conviviality with them is not the happy abandonment to good fellowship
and enjoyment, but the season of cold and studied calculation--the hour
when, unexcited themselves, they trade upon the unguarded and unwary
feelings of others. They know how imperative is the code of honour as
regards a bet, and they make a virtue to themselves in the unflinching
firmness of their exaction, as a cruel judge would seek applause for the
stern justice with which he condemns a felon. It is usual, however, to
accept half forfeit in circumstances like these of mine: the condition
did not happen to be inserted, and they rejected my offer.'
'Is this possible,' said I, 'and that these men call themselves your
friends?'
'Yes, Jack; a betting-book is like Shylock's bond, and the holder of one
pretty much about as merciful as the worthy Israelite. But come, come!
it is but boyish weakness in one like me to complain of these things;
nor, indeed, would I speak of them now, but with the hope that my words
may prove a warning to you, while they serve to explain the service I
look for from you, and give you some insight into the character of those
with whom you 'll have to deal.'
'Only tell me,' said I, 'only explain, my dear O'Grady, what I can do,
and how; it is needless for me to say I 'm ready.'
'I thought as much. Now listen to me. When I made this unlucky match
it was, as I have said, over a dinnerparty, when, excited by wine and
carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment, I made a proposition
which, with a calmer head, I should never have ventured. For a second or
two it was not accepted, and Mr. Burke, of whom you 've heard me speak,
called out from the end of the table, “A sporting offer, by Jove! and
I'll ride for you myself.” This I knew was to give me one of the first
horsemen in Ireland; so, while filling my glass and nodding to him,
accepted his offer, I cried out, “Two to one against any horse named
at this moment!” The words were not spoken when I was taken up, at both
sides of the table; and as I leaned across to borrow a pencil from a
friend, I saw that a smile was curling every lip, and that Burke himself
endeavoured with his wine-glass to conceal the expression of his face.
I needed no stronger proof that the whole match had been a preconcerted
scheme between the parties, and that I had fallen into a snare laid
purposely to entrap me. It was too late, however, to retract; I booked
my bets, drank my wine, congeed my friends, went to bed, and woke the
next morning to feel myself a dupe.
'But come, Jack; at this rate I shall never have done. The match was
booked, the ground chosen, Mr. Burke to be my jockey, and, in fact,
everything arranged, when, what was my surprise, my indignation, to find
that the horse I destined for the race (at the time in possession of
a friend) was bought up for five hundred and sent off to England! This
disclosed to me how completely I was entrapped. Nothing remained for me
then but to purchase one which offered at the moment! and this one,
I 've told you already, has the pleasant reputation of being the most
wicked devil and the hardest to ride in the whole west; in fact, except
Burke himself, nobody would mount him on a road, and as to crossing a
country with him, even _he_, they say, has no fancy for it. In any case,
he made it the ground of a demand which I could not refuse--that, in the
event of my winning, he was to claim a third of the stakes. At length
the horse is put in training, improves every hour, and matters seem to
be taking a favourable turn. In the midst of this, however, the report
reaches me, as you heard yourself yesterday morning, that Burke will
not ride. However I affected to discredit it at the moment, I had great
difficulty to preserve the appearance of calm. This morning settles the
question by this letter:--
'“Red House, Wednesday Morning.”
'“Dear Sir,--A friendly hint has just reached me that I am to be
arrested on the morning of the Loughrea race for a trifle of a hundred
and eighteen pounds and some odd shillings. If it suits your convenience
to pay the money, or enter into bail for the amount, I'll be very happy
to ride your horse; for, although I don't care for a double ditch, I've
no fancy to take the wall of the county jail, even on the back of as
good a horse as Moddiridderoo.--Yours truly, Ulick Burke.”'
'Well,' said I, as, after some difficulty, I spelled through this
ill-written and dirty epistle, 'and what do you mean to do here?'
'If you ask me,' said Phil, 'what I 'd like to do, I tell you fairly
it would be to horsewhip my friend Mr. Burke as a preliminary, pay the
stakes, withdraw my horse, and cut the whole concern; but my present
position is, unhappily, opposed to each of these steps. In the first
place, a rencontre with Burke would do me infinite disservice at the
Horse Guards, and as to the payment of eight hundred pounds, I don't
think I could raise the money, unless some one would advance five
hundred of it for a mortgage on Corny Delany. But to be serious,
Jack--and, as time passes, I must be serious--I believe the best way on
this occasion is to give Burke the money (for as to the bill, that's
an invention); yet as I must start to-night for England, and the affair
will require some management, I must put the whole matter into your
hands, with full instructions how to act.'
'I am quite ready and willing,' said I; 'only give me the _carte du
pay_.'
'Well, then, my boy, you'll go down to Loughrea for me the day before
the race, establish yourself as quietly as you can in the hotel, and, as
the riders must be named on the day before the running, contrive to see
Mr. Burke, and inform him that his demand will be complied with. Have
no delicacy with him---it is a mere money question; and although by
the courtesy of the turf he is a gentleman, yet there is no occasion
to treat him with more of ceremony than is due to yourself in your
negotiation. This letter contains the sum he mentions. In addition to
that, I have inclosed a bank cheque for whatever you like to give him;
only remember one thing, Hinton--_he_ must ride, and _I_ must win.'
All the calmness with which O'Grady had hitherto spoken deserted him
at this moment; his face became scarlet, his brow was bent, and his lip
quivered with passion, while, as he walked the room with hurried steps
he muttered between his teeth--
'Yes, though it cost my last shilling, I'll win the race! They thought
to ruin me; the scheme was deeply laid and well planned too, but they
shall fail. No, Hinton,' resumed he in a louder tone--'no, Hinton;
believe me, poor man that I am, this is not with me a question of so
many pounds: it is the wounded _amour propre_ of a man who, all through
his life, held out the right hand of fellowship to those very men who
now conspire to be his ruin. And such, my dear boy, such, for the most
part, are the dealings of the turf. I do not mean to say that men
of high honour and unblemished integrity are not foremost in the
encouragement of a sport which, from its bold and manly character,
is essentially an English one; but this I would assert, that probity,
truth, and honour are the gifts of but a very small number of those who
make a traffic of the turf, and are, what the world calls, “racing men.”
And oh how very hard the struggle, how nice the difficulty, of him who
makes these men his daily companions, to avoid the many artifices which
the etiquette of the racecourse permits, but which the feelings of a
gentleman would reject as unfair and unworthy! How contaminating that
laxity of principle that admits of every stratagem, every trick, as
legitimate, with the sole proviso that it be successful! And what a
position is it that admits of no alternative save being the dupe or the
blackleg! How hard for the young fellow entering upon life with all the
ardour, all the unsuspecting freshness of youth about him, to stop
short at one without passing on to the other stage! How difficult, with
offended pride and wounded self-love, to find himself the mere tool
of sharpers! How very difficult to check the indignant spirit, that
whispers retaliation by the very arts by which he has been cheated! Is
not such a trial as this too much for any boy of twenty? and is it
not to be feared that, in the estimation he sees those held in whose
blackguardism is their pre-eminence, a perverted ambition to be what is
called a sharp fellow may sap and undermine every honourable feeling
of the heart, break down the barriers of rigid truth and scrupulous
fidelity, teaching him to exult at what formerly he had blushed, and to
recognise no folly so contemptible as that of him who believes the word
of another? Such a career as this has many a one pursued, abandoning
bit by bit every grace, every virtue, and every charm of his character,
that, at the end, he should come forth a “sporting gentleman.”'
He paused for a few seconds, and then, turning towards me, added, in a
voice tremulous from emotion, 'And yet, my boy, to men like this I would
now expose you! No, no, Jack; I' ll not do it. I care not what turn the
thing may take; I 'll not embitter my life with this reflection.' He
seized the letter, and crushing it in his hand, walked towards the
window.
'Come, come, O'Grady,' said I, 'this is not fair; you first draw a
strong picture of these men, and then you deem me weak enough to fall
into their snares. That would hardly say much for my judgment and good
sense; besides, you have stimulated my curiosity, and I shall be sadly
disappointed if I'm not to see them.'
'Be it so, Jack!' said he with a sigh. 'I shall give you a couple
of letters to some friends of mine down there; and I know but one
recompense you'll have for all the trouble and annoyance of this
business--your pretty friend, Miss Bellew, is on a visit in the
neighbourhood, and is certain to be at the race.'
Had O'Grady looked at me while he spoke he would have seen how deeply
this intelligence affected me, while I myself could with difficulty
restrain the increased interest I now felt in all about the matter,
questioning him on every particular, inquiring into a hundred minute
points, and, in fact, displaying an ardour on the subject that nothing
short of my friend's preoccupation could have failed in detecting the
source of. My mind now fixed on one object, I could scarcely follow him
in his directions as to travelling down, secrecy, etc.
I heard something about the canal-boat, and some confused impression was
on my mind about a cross-road and a jaunting-car; but the prospect of
meeting Louisa, the hope of again being in her society, rendered me
indifferent to all else; and as I thrust the letters he gave me into my
coat-pocket, and promised an implicit observance of all his directions,
I should have been sorely puzzled had he asked me to repeat them.
'Now,' continued O'Grady, at the end of about half-an-hour's rapid
speaking, 'I believe I've put you in possession of all the bearings
of this case. You understand, I hope, the kind of men you have to deal
with, and I trust Mr. Ulick Burke is thoroughly known to you by this
time?'
'Oh, perfectly,' said I, half mechanically.
'Well, then, my boy, I believe I had better say good-bye. Something
tells me we shall meet ere long; meanwhile, Jack, you have my best
wishes.' He paused for a moment and turned away his head, evidently
affected, then added, 'You'll write to me soon, of course; and as that
old fool Corny follows me in a week----'
'And is Corny going abroad?'
'Ay, confound him! like the old man in Sindbad, there 's no getting
him off one's shoulders. Besides, he has a kind of superstition that he
ought to close the eyes of the last of the family; and as he has frankly
confessed to me this morning he knows I am in that predicament, he
esteems it a point of duty to accompany me. Poor fellow, with all his
faults, I can't help feeling attached to him; and were I to leave him
behind me, what would become of him? No, Jack, I am fully sensible of
all the inconvenience, all the ridicule of this step, but, 'faith, I
prefer both to the embittering reflection I should have did I desert
him.'
'Why does he remain after you, Phil? He 'll never find his way to
London.'
'Oh, trust him! What with scolding, cursing, and abusing every one he
meets, he'll attract notice enough on the road never to be forgotten, or
left behind. But the fact is, it is his own proposition; and Corny
has asked for a few days' leave of absence, for the first time for
seven-and-twenty years!'
'And what the deuce can that be for?'
'You 'd never guess if you tried until to-morrow--to see his mother.'
'Corny's mother! Corny Delany's mother!'
'Just so--his mother. Ah, Hinton! you still have much to learn about us
all here. And now, before we part, let me instruct you on this point;
not that I pretend to have a reason for it, nor do I know that there
is any, but somehow I'll venture to say that whenever you meet with a
little cross-grained, ill-conditioned, ill-thriven old fellow, with a
face as if carved in the knot of a crab-tree, the odds are about fifteen
to one that the little wretch has a mother alive. Whether it is that the
tenacity of life among such people is greater, or whether Nature has
any peculiar objects of her own in view in the matter, I can't say, but
trust me for the fact. And now, I believe, I have run myself close to
time; so once more, Jack, good-bye, and God bless you!'
He hurried from the room as he spoke, but, as the door was closing, I
saw that his lip trembled and his cheek was pale; while I leaned against
the window-shutter and looked after him with a heavy and oppressed
heart, for he was my first friend in the world.