If I have dwelt with unnecessary prolixity on this dark portion of my
story, it is because the only lesson my life teaches has lain in similar
passages. The train of evils which flows from one misdirection in early
life,--the misfortunes which ensue from a single false and inconsiderate
step,--frequently darken the whole subsequent career. This I now thought
over in the solitude of my cell. However I could acquit myself of the
crime laid to my charge, I could not so easily absolve my heart of the
early folly which made me suppose that the regeneration of a land should
be accomplished by the efforts of a sanguinary and bigoted rabble. To
this error could I trace every false step I made in life,--to this cause
attribute the long struggle I endured between my love of liberty and my
detestation of mob rule; and yet how many years did it cost me to learn,
that to alleviate the burdens of the oppressed may demand a greater
exercise of tyranny than ever their rulers practised towards them. Like
many others, I looked to France as the land of freedom; but where was
despotism so unbounded! where the sway of one great mind so unlimited!
They had bartered liberty for equality, and because the pressure was
equal on all, they deemed themselves free; while the privileges of class
with us suggested the sense of bondage to the poor man, whose actual
freedom was yet unencumbered.
Of all the daydreams of my boyhood, the ambition of military glory
alone survived; and that lived on amid the dreary solitude of my prison,
comforting many a lonely hour by memories of the past. The glittering
ranks of the mounted squadrons; the deep-toned thunder of the artillery;
the solid masses of the infantry, immovable beneath the rush of
cavalry,--were pictures I could dwell on for hours and days, and my
dearest wish could point to no higher destiny than to be once more a
soldier in the ranks of France.
During all this time my mind seldom reverted to the circumstances of
my imprisonment, nor did I feel the anxiety for the result my position
might well have suggested. The conscious sense of my innocence kept the
flame of hope alive, without suffering it either to flicker or vary. It
burned like a steady fire within me, and made even the dark cells of a
jail a place of repose and tranquillity. And thus time rolled on: the
hours of pleasure and happiness to thousands, too short and flitting for
the enjoyments they brought. They went by also to the prisoner, as to
one who waits on the bank of the stream, nor knows what fortune may
await him on his voyage.
A stubborn feeling of conscious right had prevented my taking even the
ordinary steps for my defence, and the day of trial was now drawing nigh
without any preparation on my part. I was ignorant how essential the
habits and skill of an advocate are in the conduct of every case,
however simple; and implicitly relied on my guiltlessness, as though men
can read the heart of a prisoner and know its workings. M'Dougall, the
only member of the bar I knew even by name, had accepted a judicial
appointment in India, and was already on his way thither, so that I had
neither friend nor adviser in my difficulty. Were it otherwise, I felt I
could scarcely have bent my pride to that detail of petty circumstances
which an advocate might deem essential to my vindication; and was
actually glad to think that I should owe the assertion of my innocence
to nothing less than the pure fact.
When November at length arrived, I learned that the trial had been
deferred to the following February; and so listless and indifferent had
imprisonment made me, that I heard the intelligence without impatience
or regret. The publicity of a court of justice, its exposure to the gaze
and observation of the crowd who throng there, were subjects of more
shrinking dread to my heart than the weight of an accusation which,
though false, might peril my life; and for the first time I rejoiced
that I was friendless. Yes! it brought balm and comfort to me to think
that none would need to blush at my relationship nor weep over my fate.
Sorrow has surely eaten deeply into our natures, when we derive pleasure
and peace from what in happier circumstances are the sources of regret.
Let me now hasten on. My reader will readily forgive me if I pass with
rapid steps over a portion of my story, the memory of which has not yet
lost its bitterness. The day at last came; and amid all the ceremonies
of a prison I was marched from my cell to the dock. How strange the
sudden revolution of feeling,--from the solitude and silence of a jail
to the crowded court, teeming with looks of eager curiosity, dread, or
perhaps compassion, all turned towards him, who himself, half forgetful
of his condition, gazes on the great mass in equal astonishment and
surprise!
My thoughts at once recurred to a former moment of my life, when I stood
accused among the Chouan prisoners before the tribunal of Paris. But
though the proceedings were less marked by excitement and passion, the
stern gravity of the English procedure was far more appalling; and in
the absence of all which could stir the spirit to any effort of its own,
it pressed with a more solemn dread on the mind of the prisoner.
I have said I would not linger over this part of my life. I could not
do so if I would. Real events, and the impressions they made upon
me,--facts, and the passing emotions of my mind,--are strangely confused
and commingled in my memory; and although certain minute and trivial
things are graven in my recollection, others of moment have escaped me
unrecorded.
The usual ceremonial went forward: the jury were impanelled, and the
clerk of the Crown read aloud the indictment, to which my plea of “Not
guilty” was at once recorded; then the judge asked if I were provided
with counsel, and hearing that I was not, appointed a junior barrister
to act for me, and the trial began.
I was not the first person who, accused of a crime of which he felt
innocent, yet was so overwhelmed by the statements of imputed guilt,--so
confused by the inextricable web of truth and falsehood, artfully
entangled.--that he actually doubted his own convictions when opposed to
views so strongly at variance with them.
The first emotion of the prisoner is a feeling of surprise to discover,
that one utterly a stranger--the lawyer he has perhaps never seen, whose
name he never so much as heard of--is perfectly conversant with his
own history, and as it were by intuition seems acquainted with his
very thoughts and motives. Tracing out not only a line of acting but
of devising, he conceives a story of which the accused is the hero, and
invests his narrative with all the appliances to belief which result
from time and place and circumstance. No wonder that the very accusation
should strike terror into the soul; no wonder that the statement of
guilt should cause heart-sinking to him who, conscious that all is not
untrue, may feel that his actions can be viewed in another and very
different light to that which conscience sheds over them.
Such, so far as I remember, was the channel of my thoughts. At first
mere astonishment at the accuracy of detail regarding my name, age,
and condition in life, was uppermost; and then succeeded a sense of
indignant anger at the charges laid against me; which yielded gradually
to a feeling of confusion as the advocate continued; which again merged
into a sort of dubious fear as I heard many trivial facts repeated,
some of which my refreshed memory acknowledged as true, but of which
my puzzled brain could not detect the inapplicability to sustain the
accusation,--all ending in a chaos of bewilderment, where conscience
itself was lost, and nothing left to guide or direct the reason.
The counsel informed the jury that, although they were not placed in the
box to try me on any charge of a political offence, they must bear in
mind, that the murderous assault of which I was accused was merely part
of a system organized to overthrow the Government; that, young as I then
was, I was in intimate connection with the disaffected party which the
mistaken leniency of the Crown had not thoroughly eradicated on the
termination of the late rebellion, my constant companion being one whose
crimes were already undergoing their but too merciful punishment in
transportation for life; that, to tamper with the military, I had
succeeded in introducing myself into the barrack, where I obtained the
confidence of a weak-minded but good-natured officer of the regiment.
“These schemes,” continued he, “were but partially successful. My
distinguished client was then an officer of the corps; and with that
ever-watchful loyalty which has distinguished him, he determined to keep
a vigilant eye on this intruder, who, from circumstances of youth and
apparent innocence, already had won upon the confidence of the majority
of the regiment. Nor was this impression a false one. An event,
apparently little likely to unveil a treasonable intention, soon
unmasked the true character of the prisoner and the nature of his
mission.”
He then proceeded to narrate with circumstantial accuracy the night in
the George's Street barracks, when Hilliard, Crofts, and some others
came with Bubbleton to his quarters to decide a wager between two of the
parties. Calling the attention of the jury to this part of the case, he
detailed the scene which occurred; and, if I could trust my memory, not
a phrase, not a word escaped him which had been said.
“It was then, gentlemen,” said he, “at that instant, that the prisoner's
habitual caution failed him, and in an unguarded moment developed the
full story of his guilt. Captain Bubbleton lost his wager, of which my
client was the winner. The habits of the service are peremptory in these
matters; it was necessary that payment should be made at once. Bubbleton
had not the means of discharging his debt, and while he looked around
among his comrades for assistance, the prisoner steps forward and
supplies the sum. Mark what followed.
“A sudden call of service now summoned the officers beneath; all save
Crofts, who, not being on duty, had no necessity for accompanying them.
The bank-note so opportunely furnished by the prisoner lay on the table;
and this Crofts proceeded leisurely to open and examine before he left
the room. Slowly unfolding the paper, he spread it out before him; and
what, think you, gentlemen, did the paper display? A Bank of England
bill for twenty pounds, you'll say, of course. Far from it, indeed! The
paper was a French assignat, bearing the words, 'Payez au porteur la
somme de deux mille livres.' Yes; the sum so carelessly thrown on the
table by this youth was an order for eighty pounds, issued by the French
Government.
“Remember the period, gentlemen, when this occurred. We had just
passed the threshold of a most fearful and sanguinary rebellion,--the
tranquillity of the land scarce restored after a convulsion that shook
the very constitution and the throne to their centres. The interference
of France in the affairs of the country had not been a mere threat; her
ships had sailed, her armies had landed, and though the bravery and the
loyalty of our troops had made the expedition result in utter defeat
and overthrow, the emissaries of the land of anarchy yet lingered on our
shores, and disseminated that treason in secret which openly they dared
not proclaim. If they were sparing of their blood, they were lavish
of their gold; what they failed in courage they supplied in assignats.
Large promises of gain, rich offers of booty, were rife throughout the
land; and wherever disaffection lurked or rebellion lingered, the enemy
of England found congenial allies. Nothing too base, nothing too
low, for this confederacy of crime; neither was anything too lowly in
condition or too humble in efficiency. Treason cannot choose its agents;
it must take the tools which chance and circumstances offer: they may
be the refuse of mankind, but if inefficient for good, they are not the
less active for evil. Such a one was the youth who now stands a prisoner
before you, and here was the price of his disloyalty.”
At these words he held up triumphantly the French assignat, and waved it
before the eyes of the court. However little the circumstances weighed
within me, such was the impression manifestly produced upon the jury by
this piece of corroborative evidence, that a thrill of anxiety for the
result ran suddenly through me.
Until that moment I believed Darby had repossessed himself of the
assignat when Crofts lay insensible on the ground; at least I remembered
well that he stooped over him and appeared to take something from him.
While I was puzzling my mind on this point, I did not remark that
the lawyer was proceeding to impress on the jury the full force of
conviction such a circumstance implied.
The offer I had made to Crofts to barter the assignat for an English
note; my urgent entreaty to have it restored to me; the arguments I had
employed to persuade him that no suspicion could attach to my possession
of it,--were all narrated with so little of exaggeration that I was
actually unable to say what assertion I could object to, while I was
conscious that the inferences sought to be drawn from them were false
and unjust.
Having displayed with consummate skill the critical position this paper
had involved me in, he took the opportunity of contrasting the anxiety I
evinced for my escape from my difficulty, with the temperate conduct
of my antagonist, whose loyalty left him no other course than to retain
possession of the note, and inquire into the circumstances by which it
reached my hands.
Irritated by the steady determination of Crofts, it was said that I
endeavored by opprobrious epithets and insulting language to provoke
a quarrel, which a sense of my inferiority as an antagonist rendered a
thing impossible to be thought of. Baffled in every way, I was said to
have rushed from the room, double-locking it on the outside, and hurried
down the stairs and out of the barrack; not to escape, however, but with
a purpose very different,--to return in a few moments accompanied by
three fellows, whom I passed with the guard as men wishing to recruit.
To ascend the stairs, unlock the door, and fall on the imprisoned
officer, was the work of an instant. His defence, although courageous
and resolute, was but brief. His sword being broken, he was felled by a
blow of a bludgeon, and thus believed dead. The ruffians ransacked his
pockets, and departed.
The same countersign which admitted, passed them out as they went; and
when morning broke the wounded man was found weltering in his blood,
but with life still remaining, and strength enough to recount what had
occurred. By a mere accident, it was stated, the French bank-note had
not been consigned to his pocket, but fell during the struggle, and was
discovered the next day on the floor.
These were the leading features of an accusation, which, however
improbable while thus briefly and boldly narrated, hung together with a
wonderful coherence in the speech of the lawyer, supported as they were
by the number of small circumstances corroboratory of certain immaterial
portions of the story. Thus, the political opinions I professed; the
doubtful--nay, equivocal--position I occupied; the intercourse with
France or Frenchmen, as proved by the _billet de banque_; my sudden
disappearance after the event, and my escape thither, where I continued
to live until, as it was alleged, I believed that years had eradicated
all trace of, if not my crime, myself,--such were the statements
displayed with all the specious inferences of habitual plausibility, and
to confirm which by evidence Sir Montague Crofts was called to give his
testimony.
There was a murmur of expectancy through the court as this well-known
individual's name was pronounced; and in a few moments the throng around
the inner bar opened, and a tall figure appeared upon the witness table.
The same instant that I caught sight of his features he had turned his
glance on me, and we stood for some seconds confronting each other.
Mutual defiance seemed the gage between us; and I saw, with a thrill
of savage pleasure, that after a minute or so his cheek flushed, and he
averted his face and appeared ill at ease and uncomfortable.
To the first questions of the lawyer he answered with evident
constraint, and in a low, subdued voice; but soon recovering his
self-possession, gave his testimony freely and boldly, corroborating by
his words all the statements of his advocate. By both the court and
the jury he was heard with attention and deference; and when he took
a passing occasion to allude to his loyalty and attachment to the
constitution, the senior judge interrupted him by saying,--
“On that point, Sir Montague, no second opinion can exist. Your
character for unimpeachable honor is well known to the court.”
The examination was brief, lasting scarcely half an hour; and when the
young lawyer came forward to put some questions as cross-examination,
his want of instruction and ignorance were at once seen, and the witness
was dismissed almost immediately.
Sir Montague's advocate declined calling any other witness. The regiment
to which his client then belonged was on foreign service; but he felt
satisfied that the case required nothing in addition to the evidence the
jury had heard.
A few moments of deliberation ensued among the members of the bench; and
then the senior judge called on my lawyer to proceed with the defence.
The young barrister rose with diffidence, and expressed in few words his
inability to rebut the statements that had been made by any evidence in
his power to produce. “The prisoner, my lord,” said he, “has confided
nothing to me of his case. I am ignorant of everything, save what has
taken place in open court.”
“It is true, my lord,” said I, interrupting. “The facts of this unhappy
circumstance are known but to three individuals. You have already heard
the version which one of them has given; you shall now hear mine. The
third, whose testimony might incline the balance in my favor, is, I am
told, no longer in this country; and I have only to discharge the debt
I feel due to myself and to my own honor, by narrating the real
occurrence, and leave the issue in your hands, to deal with as your
consciences may dictate.”
With the steadiness of purpose truth inspires, and in few words, I
narrated the whole of my adventure with Crofts, down to the moment of
Darby's sudden appearance. I told of what passed between us; and how
the altercation, that began in angry words, terminated in a personal
struggle, where, as the weaker, I was overcome, and lay beneath the
weapon of my antagonist, by which already I had received a severe and
dangerous wound.
“I should hesitate here, my lords,” said I, “before I spoke of one who
then came to my aid, if I did not know that he is already removed by
a heavy sentence, both from the penalty his gallant conduct might call
down on him, and the enmity which the prosecutor would as certainly
pursue him with. But he is beyond the reach of either, and I may speak
of him freely.”
I then told of Darby's appearance that night in the barrack, disguised
as a ballad-singer; how in this capacity he passed the sentry, and was
present in the room when the officers entered to decide the wager; that
he had quitted it soon after their arrival, and only returned on hearing
the noise of the scuffle between Crofts and myself. The struggle itself
I remembered but imperfectly, but so far as my memory bore me out,
recapitulated to the court.
“I will relate, my lords,” said I, “the few events which followed,--not
that they can in any wise corroborate the plain statement I have made,
nor indeed that they bear, save remotely, on the events mentioned; but
I will do so in the hope,--a faint hope it is,--that in this court there
might be found some one person who could add his testimony to mine, and
say, 'This is true; to that I can myself bear witness.'”
With this brief preface, I told how Darby had brought me to a house in
an obscure street, in which a man, apparently dying, was stretched upon
a miserable bed; that while my wound was being dressed, a car came to
the door with the intention of conveying the sick man away somewhere.
This, however, was deemed impossible, so near did his last hour appear;
and in his place I was taken off, and placed on board the vessel bound
for France.
“Of my career in that country it is needless that I should speak; it
can neither throw light upon the events which preceded it, nor have
any interest for the court My commission as a captain of the Imperial
Hussars may, however, testify the position that I occupied; while the
certificate of the minister of war on the back will show that I quitted
the service voluntarily, and with honor.”
“The court would advise you, sir,” said the judge, “not to advert to
circumstances which, while they contribute nothing to your exculpation,
may have a very serious effect on the minds of the jury against you.
Have you any witnesses to call?”
“None, my lord.”
A pause of some minutes ensued, when the only sounds in the court were
the whispering tones of Crofts's voice, as he said something into his
counsel's ear. The lawyer rose.
“My task, my lords,” said he, “is a short one. Indeed, in all
probability, I need not trouble either your lordships or the jury
with an additional word on a case where the evidence so conclusively
establishes the guilt of the accused, and where attempt to contradict
it has been so abortive. Never, perhaps, was a story narrated within
the walls of a court so full of improbable--might I not almost say
impossible--events, as that of the prisoner.”
He then recapitulated, with rapid but accurate detail, the principal
circumstances of my story, bestowing some brief comment on each as he
went. He sneered at the account of the struggle, and turned the whole
description of the contest with Crofts into ridicule,--calling on the
jury to bestow a glance on the manly strength and vigorous proportions
of his client, and then remember the age of his antagonist,--a boy of
fourteen.
“I forgot, gentlemen (I ask your pardon), he confesses to one
ally,--this famous piper. I really did hope that was a name we had done
with forever. I indulged the dream, that among the memories of an
awful period this was never to recur; but unhappily the expectation was
delusive. The fellow is brought once more before us; and perhaps, for
the first time in his long life of iniquity, charged with a crime he did
not commit.” In a few sentences he explained that a large reward was at
that very moment offered for the apprehension of Darby, who never would
have ventured under any disguise to approach the capital, much less
trust himself within the walls of a barrack.
“The tissue of wild and inconsistent events which the prisoner has
detailed as following the assault, deserves no attention at my hands.
Where was this house? What was the street? Who was this doctor of which
he speaks? And the sick man, how was he called?”
“I remember his name well; it is the only one I remember among all I
heard,” said I, from the dock.
“Let us hear it, then,” said the lawyer, half contemptuously.
“Daniel Fortescue was the name he was called by.”
Scarcely was the name uttered by me, when Crofts leaned back in his seat
and became pale as death; while, stretching out his hand, he took hold
of the lawyer's gown and drew him towards him. For a second or two he
continued to speak with rapid utterance in the advocate's ear; and then
covering his face with his handkerchief, leaned his head on the rail
before him.
“It is necessary, my lords,” said the lawyer, “that I should explain the
reason of my client's emotion, and at the same time unveil the baseness
which has dictated this last effort of the prisoner, if not to injure
the reputation, to wound the feelings, of my client. The individual
whose name has been mentioned was the half brother of my client; and
whose unhappy connection with the disastrous events of the year '98
involved him in a series of calamities which ended in his death,
which took place in the year 1800, but some months earlier than the
circumstance which we now are investigating. The introduction of this
unhappy man's name was, then, a malignant effort of the prisoner to
insult the feelings of my client, on which your lordships and the jury
will place its true value.”
A murmur of disapprobation ran through the crowded court as these words
were spoken; but whether directed against me or against the comment of
the lawyer I could not determine; nor, such was the confusion I then
felt, could I follow the remainder of the advocate's address with
anything like clearness. At last he concluded; and the chief justice,
after a whispered conversation with his brethren of the bench, thus
began:--
“Gentlemen of the jury, the case which you have this day to try, to my
mind presents but one feature of doubt and difficulty. The great fact
for your consideration is, to determine to which of two opposite and
conflicting testimonies you will accord your credence. On the one side
you have the story of the prosecutor, a man of position and character,
high in the confidence of honorable men, and invested with all the
attributes of rank and station; on the other, you have a narrative
strongly coherent in some parts, equally difficult to account for in
others, given by the prisoner, whose life, even by his own showing, has
none of those recommendations to your good opinions which are based
on loyalty and attachment to the constitution of these realms. Both
testimonies are unsupported by any collateral evidence. The prosecutor's
regiment is in India, and the only witnesses he could adduce are many
thousand miles off. The prisoner appeals also to the absent, but with
less of reason; for if we could call this man, M'Keown, before us,--if,
I say, we had this same Darby M'Keown in court--”
A tremendous uproar in the hall without drowned the remainder of the
sentence; and although the crier loudly proclaimed silence, and
the bench twice interposed its authority to enforce it, the tumult
continued, and eventually extended within the court itself, where all
semblance of respect seemed suddenly annihilated.
“If this continues one moment longer,” exclaimed the chief justice, “I
will commit to Newgate the very first disorderly person I can discover.”
The threat, however, did but partially calm the disturbance, which, in
a confused murmur, prevailed from the benches of the counsel to the very
galleries of the court.
“What means this?” said the judge, in a voice of anger. “Who is it that
dares to interfere with the administration of justice here?”
“A witness,--a witness, my lord,” called out several voices from the
passage of the court; while a crowd pushed violently forward, and came
struggling onwards till the leading figures were pressed over the inner
bar.
Again the judge repeated his question, while he made a signal for the
officer of the court to approach him.
“'Tis me, my lord,” shouted a deep-toned voice from the middle of
the crowd. “Your lordship was asking for Darby M'Keown, and it isn't
himself's ashamed of the name!”
A perfect yell of approval broke from the ragged mob, which now filled
every avenue and passage of the court, and even jammed up the stairs
and the entrance halls. And now, raised upon the shoulders of the crowd,
Darby appeared, borne aloft in triumph; his broad and daring face,
bronzed with sun and weather, glowed with a look of reckless effrontery,
which no awe of the court nor any fear for himself was able to repress.
Of my own sensations while this scene was enacting I need not speak;
and as I gazed at the weather-beaten features of the hardy piper, it
demanded every effort of my reason to believe in the testimony of my
eyesight. Had he come back from death itself the surprise would scarcely
have been greater. Meanwhile the tumult was allayed; and the lawyers on
either side--for, now that a glimmer of hope appeared, my advocate had
entered with spirit on his duties--were discussing the admissibility
of evidence at the present stage of the proceedings. This point being
speedily established in my favor, another and a graver question arose:
how far the testimony of a convicted felon--for such the lawyer at once
called Darby--could be received as evidence.
Cases were quoted and authorities shown to prove that such cannot be
heard as witnesses,--that they are among those whom the law pronounces
infamous and unworthy of credit; and while the lawyer continued to pour
forth on this topic a perfect ocean of arguments, he was interrupted by
the court, who affirmed the opinion, and concurred in his view of the
case.
“It only remains, then, my lord,” said my counsel, “for the Crown to
establish the identity of the individual--”
“Nothing easier,” interposed the other.
“I beg pardon; I was about to add,--and produce the record of his
conviction.”
This last seemed a felling blow; for although the old lawyer never
evinced here or at any other time the slightest appearance of
discomfiture at any opposition, I could see by the puckering of the
deep lines around his mouth that he felt vexed and annoyed by this new
suggestion.
An eager and animated discussion ensued, in which my advocate was
assisted by the advice of some senior counsel; and again the point was
ruled in my favor, and Darby M'Keown was desired to mount the table.
It required all the efforts of the various officers of the court to
repress another outbreak of mob enthusiasm at the decision; for already
the trial had assumed a feature perfectly distinct from any common
infraction of the law. Its political bearing had long since imparted
a character of party warfare to the whole proceeding; and while Sir
Montague Crofts found his well-wishers among the better dressed and more
respectable persons present, a much more numerous body of supporters
claimed me as their own, and in defiance of all the usages and solemnity
of the place, did not scruple to bestow on me looks and even words of
encouragement at every stage of the trial. Darby's appearance was the
climax of this popular enthusiasm. There were few who had not seen,
or at least heard of, the celebrated piper in times past. His daring
infraction of the law; his reputed skill in evading detection; his
acquaintance with every clew and circumstance of the late rebellion; the
confidence he enjoyed among all the leaders--had made him a hero in a
land where such qualities are certain of obtaining their due estimation.
And now, the reckless effrontery of his presence as a witness in a court
of justice while the sentence of transportation still hung over him, was
a claim to admiration none refused to acknowledge.
His air and demeanor as he took his seat on the table seemed an
acknowledgment of the homage rendered him: for though, as he placed his
worn and ragged hat beside his feet, and stroked down his short black
hair on his forehead, a careless observer might have suspected him
of feeling awed and abashed by the presence in which he sat, one more
conversant with his countrymen would have detected in the quiet leer of
his roguish black eye, and a certain protrusion of his thick under lip,
that Darby was as perfectly at his ease there as the eminent judge was
who now fixed his eyes upon him. A short, but not disrespectful nod was
the only notice he bestowed on me; and then concealing his joined hands
within his sleeves, and drawing his legs back beneath the chair, he
assumed that attitude of mock humility your least bashful Irishman is so
commonly fond of.
The veteran barrister was meanwhile surveying the witness with the
peculiar scrutiny of his caste: he looked at him through his spectacles,
and then he stared at him above them; he measured him from head to foot,
his eye dwelling on every little circumstance of his dress or demeanor,
as though to catch some clew to his habits of thinking or acting.
Never did a matador survey the brawny animal with which he was about
to contend in skill or strength with more critical acumen than did the
lawyer regard Darby the Blast. Nor was the object of this examination
unaware of it; very far from this, indeed. He seemed pleased by the
degree of attention bestowed on him, and felt all the flattery
such notice conveyed; but while doing so, you could only detect his
satisfaction in an occasional sidelong look of drollery, which, brief
and fleeting as it was, had still a numerous body of admirers through
the court, whose muttered expressions of “Divil fear ye, Darby! but
ye 're up to them any day;” or “Faix! 't is himself cares little about
them!” showed they had no lack of confidence in the piper.
[Illustration: BrownDarbyInTheChair294]
“Your name is M'Keown, sir?” said the lawyer, with that abruptness
which so often succeeds in oversetting the balance of a witness's
self-possession. “Yes, sir; Darby M'Keown.” “Did you ever go by any
other than this?” “They do call me 'Darby the Blast' betimes, av that 'a
a name.”
“Is that the only other name you have been called by?” “I misremember
rightly, it's so long since I was among friends and acquaintances; but
if yer honor would remind me a little, maybe I could tell.” “Well, were
you ever called 'Larry the Flail?'” “Faix, I was,” replied he, laughing;
“divil a doubt of it.”
“How did you come by the name of 'Larry the Flail'?”
“They gave me the name up at Mulhuldad there, for bating one M'Clancy
with a flail.”
“A very good reason. So you got the name because you beat a certain
M'Clancy with a flail?”
“I didn't say that; I only said they gave me the name because they said
I bate him.”
“Were you ever called 'Fire-the-Haggard'?”
“I was, often.”
“For no reason, of course?”
“Divil a may son. The boys said it in sport, just as they talk of yer
honor out there in the hall.”
“How do you mean,--talk of me?”
“Sure I heard them say myself, as I was coming in, that you wor a clever
man and a 'cute lawyer. They do be always humbugging that way.”
A titter ran round the benches of the barristers at this speech, which
was delivered with a naïve simplicity that would deceive many.
“You were a United Irishman, Mr. M'Keown, I believe?” rejoined the
counsel, with a frown of stern intimidation.
“Yes, sir; and a White Boy, and a Defender, and a Thrasher besides. I
was in all the fun them times.”
“The Thrashers are the fellows, I believe, who must beat any man they
are appointed to attack; isn't that so?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So that, if I was mentioned to you as a person to be assaulted,
although I had never done you any injury, you 'd not hesitate to waylay
me?”
“No, sir, I wouldn't do that. I'd not touch yer honor.”
“Come, come; what do you mean? Why wouldn't you touch me?”
“I' d rather not tell, av it was plazing to ye.”
“You must tell, sir; speak out! Why wouldn't you attack me?”
“They say, sir,” said Darby,--and as he spoke, his voice assumed a
peculiar lisp, meant to express great modesty,--“they say, sir, that
when a man has a big wart on his nose there, like yer honor, it's not
lucky to bate him, for that's the way the divil marks his own.”
This time the decorum of the court gave way entirely, and the unwashed
faces which filled the avenues and passages were all expanded in open
laughter; nor was it easy to restore order again amid the many marks of
approval and encouragement bestowed on Darby by his numerous admirers.
“Remember where you are, sir,” said the judge, severely.
“Yes, my lord,” said Darby, with an air of submission. “'T is the first
time I was ever in sich a situation as this. I 'm much more at my ease
when I 'm down in the dock there; it's what I 'm most used to, God help
me.”
The whining tone in which he delivered this mock lament on his
misfortunes occasioned another outbreak of the mob, who were threatened
with expulsion from the court if any future interruption took place.
“You were, then, a member of every illegal society of the time, Mr.
Darby?” said the lawyer, returning to the examination. “Is it not so?”
“Most of them, anyhow,” was the cool reply.
“You took an active part in the doings of the year '98 also?”
“Throth I did,--mighty active. I walked from beyant Castlecomer one day
to Dublin to see a trial here. Be the same token, it was Mr. Curran made
a hare of yer honor that day. Begorrah I wonder ye ever held up yer head
after.”
Here a burst of laughter at the recollection seemed to escape Darby
so naturally, that its contagious effects were felt throughout the
assembly.
“You are a wit, Mr. M'Keown, I fancy, eh?”
“Bedad I 'm not, sir; very little of that same would have kept out of
this to-day.”
“But you came here to serve a friend,--a very old friend, he calls you.”
“Does he?” said Darby, with an energy of tone and manner very different
from what he had hitherto used. “Does Master Tom say that?”
As the poor fellow's cheek flushed, and his eyes sparkled with proud
emotion, I could perceive that the lawyer's face underwent a change
equally rapid. A look of triumph at having at length discovered the
assailable point of the witness's temperament now passed over his pale
features, and gave them an expression of astonishing intelligence.
“A very natural thing it is, Darby, that he should call you so. You were
companions at an early period,--at least of his life; fellow-travellers,
too, if I don't mistake?”
Although these words were spoken in a tone of careless freedom, and
intended to encourage Darby to some expansion on the same theme, the
cunning fellow had recovered all his habitual self-possession, and
merely answered, if answer it could be called,--
“I was a poor man, sir, and lived by the pipes.”
The advocate and the witness exchanged looks at this moment, in which
their relative positions were palpably conveyed. Each seemed to say it
was a drawn battle; but the lawyer returned with vigor to the charge;
desiring Darby to mention the manner in which our first acquaintance
began, and how the intimacy was originally formed.
He narrated with clearness and accuracy every step of our early
wanderings; and while never misstating a single fact, contrived
to exhibit my career as totally devoid of any participation in the
treasonable doings of the period. Indeed, he laid great stress on the
fact that my acquaintance with Charles de Meudon had withdrawn me from
all relations with the insurgent party, between whom and the French
allies feelings of open dislike and distrust existed. Of the scene at
the barrack his account varied in nothing from that I had already given;
nor was all the ingenuity of a long and intricate cross-examination able
to shake his testimony in the most minute particular.
“Of course, then, you know Sir Montague Crofts? It is quite clear that
you cannot mistake a person with whom you had a struggle such as you
speak of.”
“Faix, I'd know his skin upon a bush,” said Darby, “av he was like what
I remember him; but sure he may be changed since that. They tell me
I'm looking ould myself; and no wonder. Hunting kangaroos wears the
constitution terribly.”
“Look around the court, now, and say if he be here.”
Darby rose from his seat, and shading his eyes with his hand, took
a deliberate survey of the court. Though well knowing, from past
experience, in what part of the assembly the person he sought would
probably be, he seized the occasion to scrutinize the features of the
various persons, whom under no other pretence could he have examined.
“It's not on the bench, sir, you need look for him,” said the lawyer,
as M'Keown remained for a considerable time with his eyes bent in that
direction.
“Bedad there's no knowing,” rejoined Darby, doubtfully; “av he was
dressed up that way, I wouldn't know him from an old ram.”
He turned round as he said this, and gazed steadfastly towards the bar.
It was an anxious moment for me: should Darby make any mistake in the
identity of Crofts, his whole testimony would be so weakened in the
opinion of the jury as to be nearly valueless. I watched his eyes,
therefore, as they ranged over the crowded mass, with a palpitating
heart; and when at last his glance settled on a far part of the court,
very distant from that occupied by Crofts, I grew almost sick with
apprehension lest he should mistake another for him.
“Well, sir,” said the lawyer; “do you see him now?”
“Arrah, it's humbugging me yez are,” said Darby, roughly, while he threw
himself down into his chair in apparent ill temper.
A loud burst of laughter broke from the bar at this sudden ebullition of
passion, so admirably feigned that none suspected its reality; and while
the sounds of mirth were subsiding, Darby dropped his head, and placed
his hand above his ear. “There it is, by gorra; there's no mistaking
that laugh, anyhow,” cried he; “there's a screech in it might plaze an
owl.” And with that he turned abruptly round and faced the bench where
Crofts was seated. “I heard it a while ago, but I couldn't say where.
That's the man,” said he, pointing with his finger to Crofts, who seemed
actually to cower beneath his piercing glance.
“Remember, sir, you are on your solemn oath. Will you swear that the
gentleman there is Sir Montague Crofts?”
“I know nothing about Sir Montague,” said Darby, composedly, while
rising he walked over towards the edge of the table where Crofts was
sitting, “but I'll swear that's the same Captain Crofts that I knocked
down while he was shortening his sword to run it through Master Burke;
and by the same token, he has a cut in the skull where he fell on the
fender.” And before the other could prevent it, he stretched out his
hand, and placed it on the back of the crown of Crofts's head. “There it
is, just as I tould you.”
The sensation these words created in the court was most striking,
and even the old lawyer appeared overwhelmed at the united craft and
consistency of the piper. The examination was resumed; but Darby's
evidence tallied so accurately with my statement that its continuance
only weakened the case for the prosecution.
As the sudden flash of the lightning will sometimes disclose what in the
long blaze of noonday has escaped the beholder, so will conviction
break unexpectedly upon the human mind from some slight but striking
circumstance which comes with the irresistible force of unpremeditated
truthfulness. From that moment it was clear the jury to a man were with
Darby. They paid implicit attention to all he said, and made notes of
every trivial fact he mentioned; while he, as if divining the impression
he had made, became rigorously cautious that not a particle of his
evidence could be shaken, nor the effect of his testimony weakened by
even a passing phrase of exaggeration. It was, indeed, a phenomenon
worth studying, to see this fellow, whose natural disposition was the
irrepressible love of drollery and recklessness,--whose whole heart
seemed bent on the indulgence of his wayward, careless humor,--suddenly
throw off every eccentricity of his character, and become a steady and
accurate witness, delivering his evidence carefully and cautiously,
and never suffering his own leanings to repartee, nor the badgering
allusions of his questioner, to draw him for a moment away from the
great object he had set before him; resisting every line, every bait,
the cunning lawyer threw out to seduce him into that land of fancy
so congenial to an Irishman's temperament, he was firm against
all temptation, and even endured that severest of all tests to the
forbearance of his country,--he suffered the laugh more than once to be
raised at his expense, without an effort to retort on his adversary.
The examination lasted three hours; and at its conclusion, every fact
I stated had received confirmation from Darby's testimony, down to the
moment when we left the barrack together.
“Now, M'Keown,” said the lawyer, “I am about to call your recollection,
which is so wonderfully accurate that it can give you no trouble in
remembering, to a circumstance which immediately followed the affair.”
As he got thus far, Crofts leaned over and drew the counsel towards
him while he whispered some words rapidly in his ear. A brief dialogue
ensued between them; at the conclusion of which the lawyer turned round,
and addressing Darby, said,--
“You may go down, sir; I 've done with you.” “Wait a moment,” said the
young barrister on my side, who quickly perceived that the interruption
had its secret object. “My learned friend was about to ask you
concerning something which happened after you left the barrack; and
although he has changed his mind on the subject, we on this side would
be glad to hear what you have to say.”
Darby's eyes flashed with unwonted brilliancy; and I thought I caught
a glance of triumphant meaning towards Crofts, as he began his recital,
which was in substance nothing more than what the reader already knows.
When he came to the mention of Fortescue's name, however, Crofts, whose
excitement was increasing at each moment, lost all command over himself,
and cried out,--
“It's false! every word untrue! The man was dead at the time.”
The court rebuked the interruption, and Darby went on.
“No, my lord; he was alive. But Mr. Crofts is not to blame, for he
believed he was dead; and, more than that, he thought he took the sure
way to make him so.”
These words produced the greatest excitement throughout the court;
and an animated discussion ensued, how far the testimony could go to
inculpate a party not accused. It was ruled, at last, the evidence
should be heard, as touching the case on trial, and not immediately as
regarded Crofts. And then Darby began a recital, of which I had never
heard a syllable before, nor had I conceived the slightest suspicion.
The story, partly told in narrative form, partly elicited by
questioning, was briefly this.
Daniel Fortescue was the son of a Roscommon gentleman of large fortune,
of whom also Crofts was the illegitimate child. The father, a man
of high Tory politics, had taken a most determined part against the
patriotic party in Ireland, to which his son Daniel had shown himself,
on more than one occasion, favorable. The consequence was, a breach of
affection between them; widened into an actual rupture, by the old man,
who was a widower, taking home to his house the illegitimate son, and
announcing to his household that he would leave him everything he could
in the world.
To Daniel, the blow was all that he needed to precipitate his ruin. He
abandoned the university, where already he had distinguished himself,
and threw himself heart and soul into the movement of the “United
Irish” party. At first, high hopes of an independent nation,--a separate
kingdom, with its own train of interests, and its own sphere of power
and influence,--was the dream of those with whom he associated. But
as events rolled on it was found, that to mature their plans it was
necessary to connect themselves with the masses, by whose agency the
insurrectionary movement was to be effected; and in doing so, they
discovered, that although theories of liberty and independence, high
notions of pure government, may have charms for men of intellect and
intelligence, to the mob the price of a rebellion must be paid down
in the sterling coin of pillage and plunder,--or even, worse, the
triumphant dominion of the depraved and the base over the educated and
the worthy.
Many who favored the patriotic cause, as it was called, became so
disgusted at the low associates and base intercourse the game of party
required, that they abandoned the field at once, leaving to others, less
scrupulous or more ardent, the path they could not stoop to follow. It
was probable that young Fortescue might have been among these, had he
been left to the guidance of his own judgment and inclination; for, as a
man of honor and intelligence, he could not help feeling shocked at the
demands made by those who were the spokesmen of the people. But this
course he was not permitted to take, owing to the influence of a man who
had succeeded in obtaining the most absolute power over him.
This was a certain Maurice Mulcahy, a well-known member of the various
illegal clubs of the day, and originally a country schoolmaster. Mulcahy
it was who first infected Fortescue's mind with the poison of this
party,--now lending him volumes of the incendiary trash with which
the press teemed; now newspapers, whose articles were headed, “Orange
outrage on a harmless and unresisting peasantry!” or, “Another sacrifice
of the people to the bloody vengeance of the Saxon!” By these, his
youthful mind became interested in the fate of those he believed to be
treated with reckless cruelty and oppression; while, as he advanced in
years, his reason was appealed to by those great and spirit-stirring
addresses which Grattan and Curran were continually delivering, either
in the senate or at the bar, and wherein the most noble aspirations
after liberty were united with sentiments breathing love of country and
devoted patriotism. To connect the garbled and lying statements of a
debased newspaper press with the honorable hopes and noble conceptions
of men of mind and genius, was the fatal process of his political
education; and never was there a time when such a delusion was more
easy.
Mulcahy, now stimulating the boyish ardor of a high-spirited youth, now
flattering his vanity by promises of the position one of his ancient
name and honored lineage must assume in the great national movement,
gradually became his directing genius, swaying every resolution and
ruling every determination of his mind. He never left his victim for a
moment; and while thus insuring the unbounded influence he exercised, he
gave proof of a seeming attachment, which Fortescue confidently believed
in. Mulcahy, too, never wanted for money; alleging that the leaders of
the plot knew the value of Fortescue's alliance, and were willing
to advance him any sums he needed, he supplied the means of every
extravagance a wild and careless youth indulged in, and thus riveted the
chain of his bondage to him.
When the rebellion broke out, Fortescue, like many more, was
horror-struck at the conduct of his party. He witnessed hourly scenes
of cruelty and bloodshed at which his heart revolted, but to avow his
compassion for which would have cost him his life on the spot. He was
in the stream, however, and must go with the torrent; and what will not
stern necessity compel? Daily intimacy with the base-hearted and the
low, hourly association with crime, and perhaps more than either,
despair of success, broke him down completely, and with the blind
fatuity of one predestined to evil, he became careless what happened to
him, and indifferent to whatever fate was before him.
Still, between him and his associates there lay a wide gulf. The tree,
withered and blighted as it was, still preserved some semblance of its
once beauty; and among that mass of bigotry and bloodshed, his nature
shone forth conspicuously as something of a different order of being. To
none was this superiority more insulting than to the parties themselves.
So long as the period of devising and planning the movement of an
insurrection lasts, the presence of a gentleman, or a man of birth
or rank, will be hailed with acclamation and delight. Let the hour of
acting arrive, however, and the scruples of an honorable mind, or the
repugnance of a high-spirited nature, will be treated as cowardice by
those who only recognized bravery in deeds of blood, and know no heroism
save when allied to cruelty.
Fortescue became suspected by his party. Hints were circulated, and
rumors reached him, that he was watched; that it was no time for hanging
back. He who sacrificed everything for the cause to be thus accused! He
consulted Mulcahy; and to his utter discomfiture discovered that
even his old ally and adviser was not devoid of doubt regarding him.
Something must be done, and that speedily,--he cared not what. Life had
long ceased to interest him either by hope or fear. The only tie that
bound him to existence was the strange desire to be respected by those
his heart sickened at the thought of.
An attack was at that time planned against the house and family of a
Wexford gentleman, whose determined opposition to the rebel movement had
excited all their hatred. Fortescue demanded to be the leader of that
expedition; and was immediately named to the post by those who were glad
to have the opportunity of testing his conduct by such an emergency.
The attack took place at night,--a scene of the most fearful and
appalling cruelty, such as the historian yet records among the most
dreadful of that dreadful period. The house was burned to the ground,
and its inmates butchered, regardless of age or sex. In the effort to
save a female from the flames, Fortescue was struck down by one of his
party; while another nearly cleft his chest across with a cut of a large
knife. He fell, covered with blood, and lay seemingly dead. When his
party retreated, however, he summoned strength to creep under shelter of
a ditch, and lay there till near daybreak, when he was found by another
gang of the rebel faction, who knew nothing of the circumstances of his
wound, and carried him away to a place of safety.
For some months he lay dangerously ill. Hectic fever, consequent on long
suffering, brought him to the very brink of the grave; and at last he
managed by stealth to reach Dublin, where a doctor well known to
the party resided, and under whose care he ultimately recovered, and
succeeded at last in taking a passage to America. Meanwhile his death
was currently believed, and Crofts was everywhere recognized as the heir
to the fortune.
Mulcahy, of whom it is necessary to speak a few words, was soon after
apprehended on a charge of rebellion, and sentenced to transportation.
He appealed to many who had known him, as he said, in better times,
to speak to his character. Among others, Captain Crofts--so he then
was--was summoned. His evidence, however, was rather injurious than
favorable to the prisoner; and although not in any way influencing the
sentence, was believed by the populace to have mainly contributed to its
severity.
Such was, in substance, the singular story which was now told before the
court,--told without any effort at concealment or reserve; and to the
proof of which M'Keown was willing to proceed at once.
“This, my lord,” said Darby, as he concluded, “is a good time and place
to give back to Mr. Crofts a trifling article I took from him the night
at the barracks. I thought it was the bank-notes I was getting; but it
turned out better, after all.”
With that he produced a strong black leather pocket-book, fastened by a
steel clasp. No sooner did Crofts behold it, than, with the spring of a
tiger, he leaped forward and endeavored to clutch it. But Darby was on
his guard, and immediately drew back his hand, calling out,--
“No, no, sir! I didn't keep it by me eight long years to give it up that
way. There, my lords,” said he, as he handed it to the bench, “there's
his pocket-book, with plenty of notes in it from many a one well
known,--Maurice Mulcahy among the rest,--and you'll soon see who it was
first tempted Fortescue to ruin, and who paid the money for doing it.”
A burst of horror and astonishment broke from the assembled crowd as
Darby spoke.
Then, in a loud, determined tone, “He is a perjurer!” screamed Crofts. “I
repeat it, my lord; Fortescue is dead.”
“Faix! and for a dead man he has a remarkable appetite,” said Darby,
“and an elegant color in his face besides; for there he stands.”
And as he spoke, he pointed with his finger to a man who was leaning
with folded arms against one of the pillars that supported the gallery.
Every eye was now turned in the direction towards him; while the young
barrister called out, “Is your name Daniel Fortescue?”
But before any answer could follow, several among the lawyers, who
had known him in his college days, and felt attachment to him, had
surrounded and recognized him.
“I am Daniel Fortescue, my lord,” said the stranger. “Whatever may be
the consequences of the avowal, I say it here, before this court,
that every statement the witness has made regarding me is true to the
letter.”
A low, faint sound, heard throughout the stillness that followed these
words, now echoed throughout the court; and Crofts had fallen, fainting,
over the bench behind him.
A scene of tumultuous excitement now ensued, for while Crofts's friends,
many of whom were present, assisted to carry him into the air, others
pressed eagerly forward to catch a sight of Fortescue, who had already
rivalled Darby himself in the estimation of the spectators.
He was a tall, powerfully-built man, of about thirty-five or thirty-six,
dressed in the blue jacket and trousers of a sailor; but neither the
habitude of his profession nor the humble dress he wore could conceal
the striking evidence his air and bearing indicated of condition and
birth. As he mounted the witness table,--for it was finally agreed
that his testimony in disproof or corroboration of M'Keown should be
heard,--a murmur of approbation went round, partly at the daring step he
had thus ventured on taking, and partly excited by those personal gifts
which are ever certain to have their effect upon any crowded assembly.
I need not enter into the details of his evidence, which was given in
a frank, straightforward manner, well suited to his appearance; never
concealing for a moment the cause he had himself embarked in, nor
assuming any favorable coloring for actions which ingenuity and the zeal
of party would have found subjects for encomium rather than censure.
His narrative not only confirmed all that Darby asserted, but also
disclosed the atrocious scheme by which he had been first induced to
join the ranks of the disaffected party. This was the work of Crofts,
who knew and felt that Fortescue was the great barrier between himself
and a large fortune. For this purpose Mulcahy was hired; to this end the
whole long train of perfidy laid, which eventuated in his ruin: for
so artfully had the plot been devised, each day's occurrence rendered
retreat more difficult, until at last it became impossible.
The reader is already aware of the catastrophe which concluded his
career in the rebel army. It only remains now to be told that he escaped
to America, where he entered as a sailor on board a merchantman;
and although his superior acquirements and conduct might have easily
bettered his fortune in his new walk in life, the dread of detection
never left his mind, and he preferred the hardships before the mast to
the vacillation of hope and fear a more conspicuous position would have
exposed him to.
The vessel in which he served was wrecked off the coast of New Holland,
and he and a few others of the crew were taken up by an English ship on
her voyage outward. In a party sent on shore for water, Fortescue came
up with Darby, who had made his escape from the convict settlement, and
was wandering about the woods, almost dead of starvation, and scarcely
covered with clothing. His pitiful condition, but perhaps more still,
his native drollery, which even then was unextinguished, induced the
sailors to yield to Fortescue's proposal, and they smuggled him on
board in a water cask; and thus concealed, he made the entire voyage to
England, where he landed about a fortnight before the trial. Fearful of
being apprehended before the day, and determined at all hazards to give
his evidence, he lay hid till the time we have already seen, when he
suddenly came forward to my rescue.
Mulcahy, who worked in the same gang with Darby, or, to use the piper's
grandiloquent expression,--for he burst out in this occasionally,--was
“in concatenated proximity to him,” told the whole story of his own
baseness, and loudly inveighed against Crofts for deserting him in
his misfortunes. The pocket-book taken from Crofts by Darby amply
corroborated this statement. It contained, besides various memoranda
in the owner's handwriting, several letters from Mulcahy, detailing the
progress of the conspiracy: some were in acknowledgment of considerable
sums of money; others asking for supplies; but all confirmatory of the
black scheme by which Fortescue's destruction was compassed.
Whatever might have been the sentiments of the crowded court regarding
the former life and opinions of Fortescue and the piper, it was clear
that now only one impression prevailed,--a general feeling of horror at
the complicated villany of Crofts, whose whole existence had been one
tissue of the basest treachery.
The testimony was heard with attention throughout; no cross-examination
was entered on; and the judge, briefly adverting to the case which
was before the jury, and from whose immediate consideration subsequent
events had in a great measure withdrawn their minds, directed them to
deliver a verdict of “Not guilty.”
The words were re-echoed by the jury, who, man for man, exclaimed these
words aloud, amid the most deafening cheers from every side.
As I walked from the dock, fatigued, worn out, and exhausted, a dozen
hands were stretched out to seize mine; but one powerful grasp caught my
arm, and a well-known voice called in my ear,--
“An' ye wor with Boney, Master Tom? Tare and 'ounds, didn't I know you'd
be a great man yet.”
At the same instant Fortescue came through the crowd towards me, with
his hands outstretched.
“We should be friends, sir,” said he, “for we both have suffered from a
common enemy. If I am at liberty to leave this--”
“You are not, sir,” interposed a deep voice behind. We turned and beheld
Major Barton. “The massacre at Kil-macshogue has yet to be atoned for.”
Fortescue's face grew actually livid at the mention of the word, and his
breathing became thick and short.
“Here,” continued Barton, “is the warrant for your committal. And you
also, Darby,” said he, turning round; “we want your company once more in
Newgate.”
“Bedad, I suppose there's no use in sending an apology when friends is
so pressing,” said he, buttoning his coat as coolly as possible; “but I
hope you 'll let the master come in to see me.”
“Mr. Burke shall be admitted at all times,” said Barton, with an
obsequious civility I had never witnessed in him previously.
“Faix, maybe you 'll not be for letting him out so aisy,” said Darby,
dryly, for his notions of justice were tempered by a considerable dash
of suspicion.
I had only time left to press my purse into the honest fellow's hand,
and salute Fortescue hastily, as they both were removed, under the
custody of Barton. And I now made my way through the crowd into the
hall, which opened a line for me as I went; a thousand welcomes meeting
me from those who felt as anxious about the result of the trial as if a
brother or a dear friend had been in peril.
One face caught my eye as I passed; and partly from my own excitement,
partly from its expression being so different from its habitual
character, I could not recognize it as speedily as I ought to have done.
Again and again it appeared; and at last, as I approached the door into
the street, it was beside me.
“If I might dare to express my congratulations,” said a voice, weak
from the tremulous anxiety of the speaker, and the shame which, real or
affected, seemed to bow him down.
“What,” cried I, “Mr. Basset!” for it was the worthy man himself.
“Yes, sir. Your father's old and confidential agent,--I might venture to
say, friend,--come to see the son of his first patron occupy the station
he has long merited.”
“A bad memory is the only touch of age I remark in you, sir,” said I,
endeavoring to pass on, for I was unwilling at the moment of my escape
from a great difficulty to lose temper with so unworthy an object.
“One moment, sir, just a moment,” said he, in a low whisper. “You'll
want money, probably. The November rents are not paid up; but there's a
considerable balance to your credit. Will you take a hundred or two for
the present?”
“Take money!--money from you!” said I, shrinking back.
“Your own, sir; your own estate. Do you forget,” said he, with a
miserable effort of a smile, “that you are Mr. Burke of Cromore, with a
clear rental of four thousand a year? We gained the Cluan Bog lawsuit,
sir,” continued he. “'Twas I, sir, found the satisfaction for the bond.
Your brother said he owed it all to Tony Basset.”
The two last words were all that were needed to sum up the measure of my
disgust and I once more tried to get forward.
“I know the property, sir, for thirty-eight years I was over it. Your
father and your brother always trusted me--”
“Let me pass on, Mr. Basset,” said I, calmly. “I have no desire to
become a greater object of mob curiosity. Pray let me pass on.”
“And for Darby M'Keown,” whispered he.
“What of him?” said I; for he had touched the most anxious chord of my
heart at that instant.
“I'll have him free; he shall be at liberty in forty-eight hours for
you. I have the whole papers by me; and a statement to the privy council
will obtain his liberation.”
“Do this,” said I, “and I 'll forgive more of your treatment of me than
I could on any other plea.”
“May I call on you this evening, or to-morrow morning, at your hotel?
Where do you stop, sir?”
“This evening be it, if it hasten M'Keown's liberation. Remember,
however, Mr. Basset, I'll hold no converse with you on any other subject
till that be settled, and to my perfect satisfaction.”
“A bargain, sir,” said he, with a grin of satisfaction; and dropping
back, he suffered me to proceed.
Along the quays I went, and down Dame Street, accompanied by a great mob
of people, who thought in my acquittal they had gained a triumph. For
so it was; every case had its political feature, and seemed to be
intimately connected with the objects of one party or the other.
Partisan cheers,--the watchwords of faction,--were uttered as I went,
and I was made to suffer that least satisfactory of all conditions,
which bestows notoriety without fame, and popularity without merit.
As I entered the hotel, I recognized many of the persons I had seen
there before; but their looks were no longer thrown towards me with the
impertinence they then assumed. On the contrary, a studied desire to
evince courtesy and politeness was evident. “How strange is it!” thought
I; “how differently does the whole world smile to the rich man and to
the poor!” Here were many who could in nowise derive advantage from my
altered condition,--as perfectly independent of me as I of them; and
yet even they showed that degree of deference in their manner which the
expectant bestows upon a patron. So it is, however. The position which
wealth confers is recognized by all; the individual who fills it is but
an attribute of the station.
Life had, indeed, opened on me with a new and very different aspect; and
I felt, as I indulged in the daydreams which the sudden possession of
fortune excites, that to enjoy thoroughly the blessings of independence,
one must have experienced, as I had, the hard pressure of adversity. It
seemed to me that the long road of gloomy fate had at length reached its
turning point, and that I should now travel along a calmer and happier
path. Thoughts of the new career that lay before me were blended with
the memories of the past; hopes they were, but dashed with the shadows
which a blighted affection will throw over the whole stream of life.
Still that evening was one of happiness; not of that excited pleasure
derived from the attainment of a long coveted object, but the calmer
enjoyment felt in the safety of the haven by him who has experienced the
hurricane and the storm.
With such thoughts I went to rest, and laid my head on my pillow in
thoughtfulness and peace. In my dreams my troubles still lingered. But
who regrets the anxious minutes of a vision which wakening thoughts
dispel? Are they not rather the mountain shadows that serve to brighten
the gleam of the sunlight in the plain?
It was thus the morning broke for me, with all the ecstasy of danger
passed, and all the crowding hopes of a happy future. The hundred
speculations which in poverty I had formed for the comfort of the poor
and the humble might now be realized; and I fancied myself the centre of
a happy peasantry, confiding and contented. It would be hard, indeed,
to forget “the camp and the tented field” in the peaceful paths of a
country life. But simple duties are often as engrossing as those of a
higher order, and bring a reward not less grateful to the heart; and I
flattered myself to think my ambition reached not above them.
The moments in which such daydreams are indulged are the very happiest
of a lifetime. The hopes which are based on the benefits we may render
to others are sources of elevation to ourselves; and such motives purify
the soul, and exalt the mind to a pitch far above the petty ambitions of
the world.
To myself, and to my own enjoyments, wealth could contribute less than
to most men. The simple habits of a soldier's life satisfied every wish
of my mind. The luxuries which custom makes necessary to others I never
knew; and I formed my resolution not to wander from this path of humble,
inexpensive tastes, so that the stream of charity might flow the wider.
These were my waking thoughts. Alas, how little do we ever realize of
such speculations! and how few glide down the stream of life unswayed by
the eddies and crosscurrents of fortune! The higher we build the temple
of our hopes, the more surely will it topple to its fall. Who shall say
that our greatest enjoyment is not in raising the pile, and our happiest
hours the full abandonment to those hopes our calmer reason never
ratified?
As yet it had not occurred to me to think what position the world might
concede to one whose life had been passed like mine, nor did I bestow a
care upon a matter whereon so much of future happiness depended. These,
however, were considerations which could not be long averted. How they
came, and in what manner they were met must remain for a future chapter
of my history.