I was not quite satisfied with the good priest for his having cut me, no
matter what his reasons. I was not overmuch pleased with the tone of the
whole meeting itself, and certainly I was very little satisfied with the
part I had myself taken therein; for as cooler judgment succeeded to hot
excitement, I perceived in what a mesh of difficulties I had involved
myself, and how a momentary flush of passionate indignation had carried
me away beyond the bounds of reason and sense, to undertake what but
half an hour previously I should have shrunk from with shame, and the
very thought of which now filled me with apprehension and dread--not
indeed as to the consequences to myself, physically considered, for most
willingly would I have compounded for a fractured limb, or even two, to
escape the ridicule I was almost certain of incurring. This it was which
I could not bear, and my _amore propre_ recoiled from the thought of
being a laughing-stock to the underbred and ill-born horde that would
assemble to witness me.
When I arrived at the inn poor Joe was there awaiting me; he had been
down to see the horse, which for precaution's sake was kept at a mill a
little distance from the town, and of whose heart and condition he spoke
in glowing terms.
'Och! he is a raal beauty--a little thick in fat about the crest,
but they say he always trains fleshy, and his legs are as clean as a
whistle. Sorra bit, but it will give Mr. Ulick as much as he can do to
ride him to-morrow. I know by the way he turns his eyes round to you in
the stable he's in the devil's temper.'
'But it is not Mr. Burke, Joe--I am going to ride him.'
'You are going to do it! You! Oh! by the powers! Mr. Ulick wasn't
far out when he said the master was as mad as the man. “Tell me your
company,” says the old proverb; and you see there it is. What comes of
it? If you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas; and that's the
fruits of travelling with a fool.'
I was in no temper for badinage at the moment, and replied to the poor
fellow in a somewhat harsher tone than I should have used; and as he
left the room without speaking, I felt ashamed and angry with myself
for thus banishing the only one that seemed to feel an interest in my
fortunes.
I sat down to my dinner discontented and unhappy. But a few hours
previous, and I awoke high in heart and hope; and now without any
adverse stroke of fortune, without any of those casualties of fate which
come on us unlooked for and unthought of, but simply by the un-guided
exercise of a passionate temperament, I found myself surrounded by
embarrassments and environed by difficulties, without one friend to
counsel or advise me.
Yes--I could not conceal it from myself--my determination to ride the
steeplechase was the mere outbreak of passion. The taunting insolence
of Burke had stung me to adopt a course which I had neither previously
considered, nor, if suggested by another, could ever have consented to.
True, I was what could be called a good horseman. In the two seasons I
had spent in Leicestershire, on a visit to a relative, I had acquitted
myself with credit and character; but a light weight splendidly mounted
on a trained hunter, over his accustomed country, has no parallel with
the same individual upon a horse he has never crossed, over a country he
has never seen. These and a hundred similar considerations came rushing
on me now when it was too late. However, the thing was done, and
there being no possible way of undoing it, there was but one road, the
straightforward, to follow in the case. Alas! half of our philosophy in
difficulties consists in shutting our eyes firmly against consequences,
and, _tête baissée_, rushing headlong at the future. Though few may be
found willing to admit that the bull in the china-shop is the model of
their prudence, I freely own it was mine, and that I made up my mind to
ride the horse with the unspeakable name as long as he would permit
me to ride him, at everything, over everything, or through everything
before me. This conclusion at length come to, I began to feel more easy
in my mind. Like the felon that feels there is no chance of a reprieve,
I could look my fate more steadily in the face.
I had no great appetite for my dinner, but I sat over an excellent
bottle of port, sipping and sipping, each glass I swallowed lending a
rose tint to the future. The second bottle had just been placed on
the table before me, when O'Gradys groom came in to receive his
instructions. He had heard nothing of my resolution to ride, and
certainly looked aghast when I announced it to him. By this time,
however, I had combated my own fears, and I was not going to permit his
to terrify me. Affecting the easy nonchalance of that excellent type Mr.
Ulick Burke, I thrust my hands into my coat-pockets, and standing with
my back to the fire, began questioning him about the horse. Confound it!
there's no man so hard to humbug as an Irishman, but if he be a groom,
I pronounce the thing impossible. The fellow saw through me in a
moment; and as he sipped the glass of wine I had filled out for him, he
approached me confidentially, while he said in a low tone--
'Did you say you 'd ride him?'
'Yes, to be sure I did.'
'You did! well, well! there's no helping it, since you said it. There's
only one thing to be done'--he looked cautiously about the room, lest
any one should overhear him. 'There's but one thing I know of---let him
throw you at the first leap. Mind me now, just leave it to himself; hell
give you no trouble in life; and all you have to do is to choose the
soft side. It's not your fault after that, you know, for I needn't tell
you he won't be caught before night.'
I could not help laughing at this new receipt for riding a steeplechase,
although I confess it did not raise my courage regarding the task before
me.
'But what does he do?' said I--'this infernal beast; what trick has he?'
'It isn't one, but a hundred that he has. First of all, it isn't so easy
to get on his back, for he is as handy with his hind foot as a fiddler;
and if you are not mighty quick in mounting, he 'll strike you down with
it. Then, when you are up, maybe he won't move at all, but stand with
his forelegs out, his head down, and his eyes turned back just like a
picture, hitting his flanks between times with his long tail You may
coax him, pet him, and pat him--'faith, you might as well be tickling
a milestone; for it's laughing at you he 'll be all the time. Maybe at
last you 'll get tired, and touch him with the spur. Hurroo! begorra,
you 'll get it then!'
'Why--what happens then?'
'What happens, is it? Maybe it's your neck is broke, or your thigh, or
your collar-bone at least. He 'll give you a straight plunge up in the
air, about ten feet high, throw his head forward till he either pulls
the reins out of your hands or lifts you out of the saddle, and at the
same moment he'll give you a blow with his hind-quarters in the small of
the back. Och, murther!' said he, placing both hands upon his loins, and
writhing as he spoke, 'it'll be six weeks to-morrow since he made one of
them buck-leaps with me, and I never walked straight since. But that is
not all.'
'Come, come,' said I impatiently, 'this is all nonsense; he only wants a
man with a little pluck to bully him out of all this.'
As I said these valorous words I own that to my own heart I didn't
exactly correspond to the person I described; but as the bottle of port
was now finished, I set forth with my companion to pay my first visit to
this redoubted animal.
The mill where the stable lay was about a mile from the town; but the
night was a fine moonlight one, with not an air of wind stirring, and
the walk delightful When we reached the little stream that turned the
mill, over which a plank was thrown as a bridge, we perceived that a
country lad was walking a pair of saddle-horses backwards and forwards
near the spot. The suspicion of some trickery, some tampering with the
horse, at once crossed me; and I hinted as much to the groom.
'No, no,' said he, laughing, 'make your mind easy about that. Mr. Ulick
Burke knows the horse well, and he'll leave it all to himself.'
The allusion was a pleasant one; but I said nothing, and walked on.
Having procured a lantern at the mill, the groom preceded me to the
little outhouse, which acted as stable. He opened the door cautiously,
and peeped in.
'He's lying down,' said he to me in a whisper, and at the same moment
taking the candle from the lantern, he held it up to permit my obtaining
a better view. 'Don't be afeard,' continued he, 'he 'll not stir
now, the thief of the earth! When once he's down that way, he lies as
peaceable as a lamb.'
As well as I could observe him, he was a magnificent horse--a little too
heavy perhaps about the crest and forehand, but then so strong behind,
such powerful muscle about the haunches, that his balance was well
preserved. As I stood contemplating him in silence, I felt the breath of
some one behind me. I turned suddenly around; it was Father Tom Loftus
himself. There was the worthy priest, mopping his forehead with a huge
pocket-handkerchief and blowing like a rhinoceros.
'Ugh!' said he at length, 'I have been running up and down the roads
this half-hour after you, and there's not a puff left in me.'
'Ah, father! I hoped to have seen you at the inn.' 'Whisht! I darn't.
I thought I'd do it better my own way; but, see now, we've no time to
lose. I knew as well as yourself you never intended to ride this race.
No matter; don't say a word, but listen to me. I know the horse better
than any one in these parts; and it isn't impossible, if you can keep
the saddle over the first two or three fences, that you may win. I say,
if you can--for 'faith it's not in a “swing-swong” you'll be! But, come
now, the course was marked out this evening. Burke was over it before
dinner; and, with a blessing, we will be before supper. I've got a
couple of hacks here that'll take us over every bit of it; and perhaps
it is not too much to say you might have a worse guide.'
''Faith, your reverence,' chimed in the groom, 'he'd find it hard to
have a better.'
Thanking the kind priest for his good-natured solicitude, I followed him
out upon the road, where the two horses were waiting us.
'There, now,' said he, 'get up; the stirrups are about your length. He
looks a little low in flesh, but you'll not complain of him when he's
under you.'
The next moment we were both in the saddle. Taking a narrow path that
led off from the highroad, we entered a large tilled field; keeping
along the headlands of which, we came to a low stone wall, through a gap
of which we passed, and came out upon an extensive piece, of grassland,
that gently sloped away from where we were standing to a little stream
at its base, an arm of that which supplied the mill.
'Here, now,' said the priest, 'a little to the left yonder is the start.
You come down this hill; you take the water there, and you keep along
by Freney's house, where you see the trees there. There's only a small
stone wall and a clay ditch between this and that; afterwards you turn
off to the right. But, come now, are you ready? We'll explore a bit.'
As he spoke, the good priest, putting spurs to his hackney, dashed on
before me, and motioning me to follow, cantered down the slope. Taking
the little mill-stream at a fly, he turned in his saddle to watch my
performance.
'Neat! mighty neat!' cried he, encouraging me. 'Keep your hand a little
low. The next is a wall----'
Scarcely had he spoke when we both came together at a stone-fence, about
three feet high. This time I was a little in advance, as my horse was
fresher, and took it first.
'Oh, the devil a better!' said Father Tom. 'Burke himself couldn't beat
that! Here, now: keep this way out of the deep ground, and rush him at
the double ditch there.'
Resolved on securing his good opinion, I gripped my saddle firmly with
my knees, and rode at the fence. Over we went in capital style; but
lighting on the top of a rotten ditch, the ground gave way, and my
horse's hind legs slipped backwards into the gripe. Being at full
stretch, the poor animal had no power to recover himself, so that,
disengaging his forelegs, I pulled him down into the hollow, and then
with a vigorous dash of the spur and a bold lift carried him clean over
it into the field.
'Look, now!' said the priest; 'that pleases me better than all you did
before. Presence of mind--that's the real gift for a horseman when he's
in a scrape; but, mind me, it was your own fault, for here's the way to
take the fence.' So saying, he made a slight semicircle in the field,
and then, as he headed his horse towards the leap, rushed him at it
furiously, and came over like the bound of a stag.
'Now,' said Father Tom, pointing with his whip as he spoke, 'we have a
beautiful bit of galloping-ground before us; and if you ever reach this
far, and I don't see why you shouldn't, here's where you ought to make
play. Listen to me now,' said he, dropping his voice: 'Tom Molloy s mare
isn't thoroughbred, though they think she is. She has got a bad drop in
her. Now, the horse is all right, clean bred, sire and dam, by reason he
'll be able to go through the dirt when the mare can't; so that all you
've to do, if, as I said before, you get this far, is to keep straight
down to the two thorn-bushes--there, you see them yonder. Burke won't
be able to take that line, but must keep upon the headlands, and go all
round yonder; look, now, you see the difference--so that before he can
get over that wide ditch you'll be across it, and making for the stone
wall After that, by the powers, if you don't win, I, can't help you!'
'Where does the course turn after, father?' said I.
'Oh! a beautiful line of flat country, intersprinkled with walls,
ditches, and maybe a hedge or two; but all fair, and only one rasping
fence--the last of all. After that, you have a clean gallop of about a
quarter of a mile, over as nice a sod as ever you cantered.'
'And that last fence, what is it like?'
''Faith, it is a rasper! It's a wide gully, where there was a _boreen_
once, and they say it is every inch of sixteen feet--that'll make it
close upon twenty when you clear the clay on both sides. The grey horse,
I'm told, has a way of jumping in and jumping out of these narrow roads;
but take my advice, and go it in a fly. And now, Captain, what between
the running, and the riding, and the talking altogether, I am as dry as
a limekiln; so what do you say if we turn back to town, and have a bit
of supper together? There's a kind of a cousin of mine, one Bob Mahon,
a Major in the Roscommon, and he has got a grouse-pie, and something hot
to dilute it with, waiting for us.'
'Nothing will give me more pleasure, father; and there's only one thing
more--indeed I had nearly forgotten it altogether----''
'What's that?' said the priest, with surprise.
'Not having any intention to ride, I left town without any racing
equipment; breeches and boots I have, but as to a cap and a jacket----'
'I 've provided for both,' said Father Tom. 'You saw the little man
with a white head that sat at the head of the table--Tom Dillon of Mount
Brown; you know him?'
'I am not acquainted with him.'
'Well, he knows you; that's all the same. His son, that's just gone to
Gibraltar with his regiment, was about your size, and he had a new cap
and jacket made for this very race, and of course they are lying there
and doing nothing. So I sent over a little gossoon with a note, and I
don't doubt but they are all at the inn this moment.'
'By Jove, father!' said I, 'you are a real friend, and a most thoughtful
one, too.'
'Maybe I'll do better than that for you,' said he, with a sly wink of
his eye, that somehow suggested to my mind that he knew more of and took
a deeper interest in me than I had reason to believe.