_Horatio_. My lord, the King your father.
_Hamlet_. The King--my father?
_Horatio_. Season your admiration for a while.
In what particular thought to work I know not;
But in the gross and scope of mine opinion
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
Our last King,
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
... by a sealed compact
Did forfeit... all those his lands
Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror.
_Hamlet._
|MY son,” said The Macnamara, “you ought to be ashamed of your
threatment of your father. The like of your threatment was never known
in the family of the Macnamaras, or, for that matter, of the O'Dermots.
A stain has been thrown upon the family that centuries can't wash out.”
“It is no stain either upon myself or our family for me to have set
out to do some work in the world,” said Standish proudly, for he felt
capable of maintaining the dignity of labour. “I told you that I would
not pass my life in the idleness of Innishdermot. I-----------”
“It's too much for me, Standish O'Dermot Macnamara--to hear you talk
lightly of Innishdermot is too much for the blood of the representative
of the ancient race. Don't, my boy, don't.”
“I don't talk lightly of it; when you told me it was gone from us I felt
it as deeply as any one could feel it.”
“It's one more wrong added to the grievances of our thrampled counthry,”
cried the hereditary monarch of the islands with fervour. “And yet you
have never sworn an oath to be revenged. You even tell me that you
mean to be in the pay of the nation that has done your family this
wrong--that has thrampled The Macnamara into the dust. This is the
bitterest stroke of all.”
“I have told you all,” said Standish. “Colonel Gerald was kinder to me
than words could express. He is going to England in two months, but only
to remain a week, and then he will leave for the Castaway Islands.
He has already written to have my appointment as private secretary
confirmed, and I shall go at once to have everything ready for his
arrival. It's not much I can do, God knows, but what I can do I will for
him. I'll work my best.”
“Oh, this is bitter--bitter--to hear a Macnamara talk of work; and just
now, too, when the money has come to us.”
“I don't want the money,” said Standish indignantly.
“Ye're right, my son, so far. What signifies fifteen thousand pounds
when the feelings of an ancient family are outraged?”
“But I can't understand how those men had power to take the land, if you
did not wish to give it to them, for their railway and their hotel.”
“It's more of the oppression, my son--more of the thrampling of our
counthry into the dust. I rejected their offers with scorn at first;
but I found out that they could get power from the oppressors of our
counthry to buy every foot of the ground at the price put on it by a man
they call an arbithrator--so between thraitors and arbithrators I knew
I couldn't hold out. With tears in my eyes I signed the papers, and now
all the land from the mouth of Suangorm to Innishdermot is in the hands
of the English company--all but the castle--thank God they couldn't
wrest that from me. If you'd only been by me, Standish, I would
have held out against them all; but think of the desolate old man
sitting amongst the ruins of his home and the tyrants with the gold--I
could do nothing.”
“And then you came out here. Well, father, I'm glad to see you, and
Colonel Gerald will be so too, and--Daireen.”
“Aye,” said The Macnamara. “Daireen is here too. And have you been
talking to the lovely daughter of the Geralds, my boy? Have you been
confessing all you confessed to me, on that bright day at Innishdermot?
Have you----”
“Look here, father,” said Standish sternly; “you must never allude to
anything that you forced me to say then. It was a dream of mine, and now
it is past.”
“You can hold your head higher than that now, my boy,” said The
Macnamara proudly. “You're not a beggar now, Standish; money's in the
family.”
“As if money could make any difference,” said Standish.
“It makes all the difference in the world, my boy,” said The Macnamara;
but suddenly recollecting his principles, he added, “That is, to some
people; but a Macnamara without a penny might aspire to the hand of
the noblest in the land. Oh, here she comes--the bright snowdhrop of
Glenmara--the arbutus-berry of Craig-Innish; and her father too--oh, why
did he turn to the Saxons?”
The Macnamara, Prince of Innishdermot, Chief of the Islands and Lakes,
and King of all Munster, was standing with his son in the coffee-room of
the hotel, having just come ashore from the steamer that had brought him
out to the Cape. The patriot had actually left his land for the first
time in his life, and had proceeded to the colony in search of his son,
and he found his son waiting for him at the dock gates.
That first letter which Standish received from his father had indeed
been very piteous, and if the young man had not been so resolute in his
determination to work, he would have returned to Innishdermot once more,
to comfort his father in his trials. But the next mail brought a second
communication from The Macnamara to say that he could endure no longer
the desolation of the lonely hearth of his ancestral castle, but would
set out in search of his lost offspring through all the secret places
of the earth. Considering that he had posted this letter to the definite
address of his offspring, the effect of the vagueness of his expressed
resolution was somewhat lessened.
Standish received the letter with dismay, and Colonel Gerald himself
felt a little uneasiness at the prospect of having The Macnamara
quartered upon him for an uncertain period. He was well aware of the
largeness of the ideas of The Macnamara on many matters, and in regard
to the question of colonial hospitality he felt that the views of the
hereditary prince would be liberal to an inconvenient degree. It was
thus with something akin to consternation that he listened to the
eloquent letter which Standish read with flushed face and trembling
hands.
“We shall be very pleased to see The Macnamara here,” said Colonel
Gerald; and Daireen laughed, saying she could not believe that
Standish's father would ever bring himself to depart from his kingdom.
It was on the next day that Colonel Gerald had an interview of
considerable duration with Standish on a matter of business, he said;
and when it was over and the young man's qualifications had been judged
of, Standish found himself in a position either to accept or decline the
office of private secretary to the new governor of the lovely Castaway
group. With tears he left the presence of the governor, and went to
his room to weep the fulness from his mind and to make a number of firm
resolutions as to his future of hard work; and that very evening Colonel
Gerald had written to the Colonial Office nominating Standish to the
appointment; so that the matter was considered settled, and Standish
felt that he did not fear to face his father.
But when Standish had met The Macnamara on the arrival of the mail
steamer a week after he had received that letter stating his intentions,
the young man learned, what apparently could not be included in a letter
without proving harassing to its eloquence, that the extensive lands
along the coastway of the lough had been sold to an English company of
speculators who had come to the conclusion that a railway made through
the picturesque district would bring a fortune to every one who might be
so fortunate as to have money invested in the undertaking. So a railway
was to be made, and a gigantic hotel built to overlook the lough. The
shooting and fishing rights--in fact every right and every foot of
ground, had been sold for a large sum to the company by The Macnamara.
And though Standish had at first felt the news as a great blow to him,
he subsequently became reconciled to it, for his father's appearance at
the Cape with several thousand pounds was infinitely more pleasing to
him than if the representative of The Macnamaras had come in his former
condition, which was simply one of borrowing powers.
“It's the snowdhrop of Glenmara,” said The Macnamara, kissing the hand
of Daireen as he met her at the door of the room. “And you, George, my
boy,” he continued, turning to her father; “I may shake hands with you
as a friend, without the action being turned to mean that I forgive the
threatment my counthry has received from the nation whose pay you are
still in. Yes, only as a friend I shake hands with you, George.”
“That is a sufficient ground for me, Macnamara,” said the colonel. “We
won't go into the other matters just now.”
“I cannot believe that this is Cape Town,” said Daireen. “Just think of
our meeting here to-day. Oh, if we could only have a glimpse of the dear
old Slieve Docas!”
“Why shouldn't you see it, white dove?” said The Macnamara in Irish to
the girl, whose face brightened at the sound of the tongue that brought
back so many pleasant recollections to her. “Why shouldn't you?” he
continued, taking from one of the boxes of his luggage an immense bunch
of purple heather in gorgeous bloom. “I gathered it for you from the
slope of the mountain. It brings you the scent of the finest hill in the
world.”
The girl caught the magnificent bloom in both her hands and put her face
down to it. As the first breath of the hill she loved came to her in
this strange land they saw her face lighten. Then she turned away and
buried her head in the scents of the hills--in the memories of the
mountains and the lakes, while The Macnamara spoke on in the musical
tongue that lived in her mind associated with all the things of the land
she loved.
“And Innishdermot,” said Colonel Gerald at length, “how is the seat of
our kings?”
“Alas, my counthry! thrampled on--bethrayed--crushed to the ground!”
said The Macnamara. “You won't believe it, George--no, you won't. They
have spoiled me of all I possessed--they have driven me out of the
counthry that my sires ruled when the oppressors were walking about in
the skins of wild beasts. Yes, George, Innishdermot is taken from me and
I've no place to shelter me.”
Colonel Gerald began to look grave and to feel much graver even than he
looked. The Macnamara shelterless was certainly a subject for serious
consideration.
“Yes,” said Standish, observing the expression on his face, “you would
wonder how any company could find it profitable to pay fifteen thousand
pounds for the piece of land. That is what the new railway people paid
my father.”
Once more the colonel's face brightened, but The Macnamara stood up
proudly, saying:
“Pounds! What are pounds to the feelings of a true patriot? What can
money do to heal the wrongs of a race?”
“Nothing,” said the colonel; “nothing whatever. But we must hasten out
to our cottage. I'll get a coolie to take your luggage to the railway
station. We shall drive out. My dear Dolly, come down from yonder
mountain height where you have gone on wings of heather. I'll take out
the bouquet for you.”
“No,” said Daireen. “I'll not let any one carry it for me.”
And they all went out of the hotel to the carriage.
The _maître d'hôtel_, who had been listening to the speech of The
Macnamara in wonder, and had been finally mystified by the Celtic
language, hastened to the visitors' book in which The Macnamara had
written his name; but this last step certainly did not tend to make
everything clear, for in the book was written:
“Macnamara, Prince of the Isles, Chief of Innish-dermot and the Lakes,
and King of Munster.”
“And with such a nose!” said the _maître d'hôtel_.