AT LISCANNOR.
The young lord slept one night at Ennis, and on the third morning after
his departure from Scroope, started in his gig for Liscannor and the
cliffs of Moher. He took a servant with him and a change of clothes. And
as he went his heart was very heavy. He could not live a coward in his
own esteem. Were it not so how willingly would he have saved himself
from the misery of this journey, and have sent to his Kate to bid her
come to him in England! He feared the priest, and he feared his Kate's
mother;--not her dagger, but her eyes and scorching words. He altogether
doubted his own powers to perform satisfactorily the task before him. He
knew men who could do it. His brother Jack would do it, were it possible
that his brother Jack should be in such a position. But for himself, he
was conscious of a softness of heart, a feminine tenderness, which,--to
do him justice,--he did not mistake for sincerity, that rendered him
unfit for the task before him. The farther he journeyed from Scroope
and the nearer that he found himself to the cliffs the stronger did
the feeling grow within him, till it had become almost tragical in its
dominion over him. But still he went on. It was incumbent on him to pay
one more visit to the cliffs and he journeyed on.
At Limerick he did not even visit the barracks to see his late
companions of the regiment. At Ennis he slept in his old room, and of
course the two officers who were quartered there came to him. But they
both declared when they left him that the Earl of Scroope and Fred
Neville were very different persons, attributing the difference solely
to the rank and wealth of the new peer. Poor Simpkinson had expected
long whispered confidential conversations respecting the ladies of
Ardkill; but the Earl had barely thanked him for his journey; and the
whispered confidence, which would have been so delightful, was at once
impossible. "By Heaven, there's nothing like rank to spoil a fellow. He
was a good fellow once." So spoke Captain Johnstone, as the two officers
retreated together from the Earl's room.
And the Earl also saw Mr. Crowe the attorney. Mr. Crowe recognized at
its full weight the importance of a man whom he might now call "My Lord"
as often as he pleased, and as to whose pecuniary position he had made
some gratifying inquiries. A very few words sufficed. Captain O'Hara
had taken his departure, and the money would be paid regularly. Mr.
Crowe also noticed the stern silence of the man, but thought that it
was becoming in an Earl with so truly noble a property. Of the Castle
Quin people who could hardly do more than pay their way like country
gentlefolk, and who were mere Irish, Mr. Crowe did not think much.
Every hour that brought the lord nearer to Liscannor added a weight to
his bosom. As he drove his gig along the bleak road to Ennistimon his
heart was very heavy indeed. At Maurice's mills, the only resting-place
on the road, it had been his custom to give his horse a mouthful of
water; but he would not do so now though the poor beast would fain
have stopped there. He drove the animal on ruthlessly, himself driven
by a feeling of unrest which would not allow him to pause. He hated
the country now, and almost told himself that he hated all whom it
contained. How miserable was his lot, that he should have bound himself
in the opening of his splendour, in the first days of a career that
might have been so splendid, to misfortune that was squalid and mean as
this. To him, to one placed by circumstances as he was placed, it was
squalid and mean. By a few soft words spoken to a poor girl whom he
had chanced to find among the rocks he had so bound himself with vile
manacles, had so crippled, hampered and fettered himself, that he
was forced to renounce all the glories of his station. Wealth almost
unlimited was at his command,--and rank, and youth, and such personal
gifts of appearance and disposition as best serve to win general love.
He had talked to his brother of his unfitness for his earldom; but he
could have blazoned it forth at Scroope and up in London, with the best
of young lords, and have loved well to do so. But this adventure, as he
had been wont to call it, had fallen upon him, and had broken him as it
were in pieces. Thousands a year he would have paid to be rid of his
adventure; but thousands a year, he knew well, were of no avail. He
might have sent over some English Mr. Crowe with offers almost royal;
but he had been able so to discern the persons concerned as to know that
royal offers, of which the royalty would be simply money royalty, could
be of no avail. How would that woman have looked at any messenger
who had come to her with offers of money,--and proposed to take her
child into some luxurious but disgraceful seclusion? And in what
language would Father Marty have expressed himself on such a proposed
arrangement? And so the Earl of Scroope drove on with his heart falling
ever lower and lower within his bosom.
It had of course been necessary that he should form some plan. He
proposed to get rooms for one night at the little inn at Ennistimon,
to leave his gig there, and then to take one of the country cars on to
Liscannor. It would, he thought, be best to see the priest first. Let
him look at his task which way he would, he found that every part of it
was bad. An interview with Father Marty would be very bad, for he must
declare his intentions in such a way that no doubt respecting them must
be left on the priest's mind. He would speak only to three persons;--but
to all those three he must now tell the certain truth. There were causes
at work which made it impossible that Kate O'Hara should become Countess
of Scroope. They might tear him to pieces, but from that decision he
would not budge. Subject to that decision they might do with him and
with all that belonged to him almost as they pleased. He would explain
this first to the priest if it should chance that he found the priest at
home.
He left his gig and servant at Ennistimon and proceeded as he had
intended along the road to Liscannor on an outside car. In the
mid-distance about two miles out of the town he met Father Marty riding
on the road. He had almost hoped,--nay, he had hoped,--that the priest
might not be at home. But here was the lion in his path. "Ah, my Lord,"
said the priest in his sweetest tone of good humour,--and his tones when
he was so disposed were very sweet,--"Ah, my Lord, this is a sight good
for sore eyes. They tould me you were to be here to-day or to-morrow,
and I took it for granted therefore it 'd be the day afther. But you're
as good as the best of your word." The Earl of Scroope got off the car,
and holding the priest's hand, answered the kindly salutation. But he
did so with a constrained air and with a solemnity which the priest
also attributed to his newly-begotten rank. Fred Neville,--as he had
been a week or two since,--was almost grovelling in the dust before
the priest's eyes; but the priest for the moment thought that he was
wrapping himself up in the sables and ermine of his nobility. However,
he had come back,--which was more perhaps than Father Marty had
expected,--and the best must be made of him with reference to poor
Kate's future happiness. "You're going on to Ardkill, I suppose, my
Lord," he said.
"Yes;--certainly; but I intended to take the Liscannor road on purpose
to see you. I shall leave the car at Liscannor and walk up. You could
not return, I suppose?"
"Well,--yes,--I might."
"If you could, Father Marty--"
"Oh, certainly." The priest now saw that there was something more in the
man's manner than lordly pride. As the Earl got again up on his car, the
priest turned his horse, and the two travelled back through the village
without further conversation. The priest's horse was given up to the boy
in the yard, and he then led the way into the house. "We are not much
altered in our ways, are we, my Lord?" he said as he moved a bottle of
whiskey that stood on the sideboard. "Shall I offer you lunch?"
"No, thank you, Father Marty;--nothing, thank you." Then he made a gasp
and began. The bad hour had arrived, and it must be endured. "I have
come back, as you see, Father Marty. That was a matter of course."
"Well, yes, my Lord. As things have gone it was a matter of course."
"I am here. I came as soon as it was possible that I should come. Of
course it was necessary that I should remain at home for some days after
what has occurred at Scroope."
"No doubt;--no doubt. But you will not be angry with me for saying that
after what has occurred here, your presence has been most anxiously
expected. However here you are, and all may yet be well. As God's
minister I ought perhaps to upbraid. But I am not given to much
upbraiding, and I love that dear and innocent young face too well to
desire anything now but that the owner of it should receive at your
hands that which is due to her before God and man."
He perceived that the priest knew it all. But how could he wonder at
this when that which ought to have been her secret and his had become
known even to Lady Mary Quin? And he understood well what the priest
meant when he spoke of that which was due to Kate O'Hara before God
and man; and he could perceive, or thought that he perceived, that the
priest did not doubt of the coming marriage, now that he, the victim,
was again back in the west of Ireland. And was he not the victim of a
scheme? Had he not been allured on to make promises to the girl which
he would not have made had the truth been told him as to her father?
He would not even in his thoughts accuse Kate,--his Kate,--of being
a participator in these schemes. But Mrs. O'Hara and the priest had
certainly intrigued against him. He must remember that. In the terrible
task which he was now compelled to begin he must build his defence
chiefly upon that. Yes; he must begin his work, now, upon the instant.
With all his golden prospects,--with all his golden honours already in
his possession,--he could wish himself dead rather than begin it. But he
could not die and have done it. "Father. Marty," he said, "I cannot make
Miss O'Hara Countess of Scroope."
"Not make her Countess of Scroope! What will you make her then?"
"As to that, I am here to discuss it with you."
"What is it you main, sir? Afther you have had your will of her, and
polluted her sweet innocence, you will not make her your wife! You
cannot look me in the face, Mr. Neville, and tell me that."
There the priest was right. The young Earl could not look him in the
face as he stammered out his explanation and proposal. The burly, strong
old man stood perfectly still and silent as he, with hesitating and
ill-arranged words, tried to gloze over and make endurable his past
conduct and intentions as to the future. He still held some confused
idea as to a form of marriage which should for all his life bind him
to the woman, but which should give her no claim to the title, and her
child no claim either to the title or the property. "You should have
told me of this Captain O'Hara," he said, as with many half-formed
sentences he completed his suggestions.
"And it's on me you are throwing the blame?"
"You should have told me, Father Marty."
"By the great God above me, I did not believe that a man could be such
a villain! As I look for glory I did not think it possible! I should
have tould you! Neither did I nor did Mistress O'Hara know or believe
that the man was alive. And what has the man to do with it? Is she vile
because he has been guilty? Is she other than you knew her to be when
you first took her to your bosom, because of his sin?"
"It does make a difference, Mr. Marty."
"Afther what you have done it can make no difference. When you swore to
her that she should be your wife, and conquered her by so swearing, was
there any clause in your contract that you were not to be bound if you
found aught displaising to you in her parentage?"
"I ought to have known it all."
"You knew all that she knew;--all that I knew. You knew all that her
mother knew. No, Lord Scroope. It cannot be that you should be so
unutterably a villain. You are your own masther. Unsay what you have
said to me, and her ears shall never be wounded or her heart broken by
a hint of it."
"I cannot make her Countess of Scroope. You are a priest, and can use
what words you please to me;--but I cannot make her Countess of
Scroope."
"Faith,--and there will be more than words used, my young lord. As to
your plot of a counterfeit marriage,--"
"I said nothing of a counterfeit marriage."
"What was it you said, then? I say you did. You proposed to me,--to me a
priest of God's altar,--a false counterfeit marriage, so that those two
poor women, who you are afraid to face, might be cajoled and chaited and
ruined."
"I am going to face them instantly."
"Then must your heart be made of very stone. Shall I tell you the
consequences?" Then the priest paused awhile, and the young man,
bursting into tears, hid his face against the wall. "I will tell you the
consequences, Lord Scroope. They will die. The shame and sorrow which
you have brought on them, will bring them to their graves,--and so there
will be an end of their throubles upon earth. But while I live there
shall be no rest for the sole of your foot. I am ould, and may soon
be below the sod, but I will lave it as a legacy behind me that your
iniquity shall be proclaimed and made known in high places. While I live
I will follow you, and when I am gone there shall be another to take
the work. My curse shall rest on you,--the curse of a man of God, and
you shall be accursed. Now, if it suits you, you can go up to them at
Ardkill and tell them your story. She is waiting to receive her lover.
You can go to her, and stab her to the heart at once. Go, sir! Unless
you can change all this and alter your heart even as you hear my words,
you are unfit to find shelter beneath my roof."
Having so spoken, waiting to see the effect of his indignation, the
priest went out, and got upon his horse, and went away upon his journey.
The young lord knew that he had been insulted, was aware that words had
been said to him so severe that one man, in his rank of life, rarely
utters them to another; and he had stood the while with his face turned
to the wall speechless and sobbing! The priest had gone, telling him
to leave the house because his presence disgraced it; and he had made
no answer. Yet he was the Earl of Scroope,--the thirteenth Earl of
Scroope,--a man in his own country full of honours. Why had he come
there to be called a villain? And why was the world so hard upon him
that on hearing himself so called he could only weep like a girl? Had he
done worse than other men? Was he not willing to make any retribution
for his fault,--except by doing that which he had been taught to think
would be a greater fault? As he left the house he tried to harden his
heart against Kate O'Hara. The priest had lied to him about her father.
They must have known that the man was alive. They had caught him among
them, and the priest's anger was a part of the net with which they had
intended to surround him. The stake for which they had played had been
very great. To be Countess of Scroope was indeed a chance worth some
risk. Then, as he breasted the hill up towards the burial ground, he
tried to strengthen his courage by realizing the magnitude of his own
position. He bade himself remember that he was among people who were his
inferiors in rank, education, wealth, manners, religion and nationality.
He had committed an error. Of course he had been in fault. Did he wish
to escape the consequences of his own misdoing? Was not his presence
there so soon after the assumption of his family honours sufficient
evidence of his generous admission of the claims to which he was
subject? Had he not offered to sacrifice himself as no other man would
have done? But they were still playing for the high stakes. They
were determined that the girl should be Countess of Scroope. He was
determined that she should not be Countess of Scroope. He was still
willing to sacrifice himself, but his family honours he would not
pollute.
And then as he made his way past the burial ground and on towards the
cliff there crept over him a feeling as to the girl very different from
that reverential love which he had bestowed upon her when she was still
pure. He remembered the poorness of her raiment, the meekness of her
language, the small range of her ideas. The sweet soft coaxing loving
smile, which had once been so dear to him, was infantine and ignoble.
She was a plaything for an idle hour, not a woman to be taken out into
the world with the high name of Countess of Scroope.
All this was the antagonism in his own heart against the indignant words
which the priest had spoken to him. For a moment he was so overcome
that he had burst into tears. But not on that account would he be beaten
away from his decision. The priest had called him a villain and had
threatened and cursed him! As to the villainy he had already made up
his mind which way his duty lay. For the threats it did not become him
to count them as anything. The curses were the result of the man's
barbarous religion. He remembered that he was the Earl of Scroope, and
so remembering summoned up his courage as he walked on to the cottage.