THE
EVE OF ALL-HALLOWS;
OR,
ADELAIDE OF TYRCONNEL;
A ROMANCE.
_IN THREE VOLUMES._
BY MATTHEW WELD HARTSTONGE, ESQ. M.R.I.A.
Nescia mens hominum, fati sortisque futuræ
Et servare modum, rebus sublata secundis!
........................... tempus erit,
............. et quum spolia ista diemque
Oderit!
VIRGILIUS, Æ. x.I. 501.
VOL. III.
LONDON:
FOR G. B. WHITTAKER, AVE MARIA LANE.
1825.
THE EVE OF ALL-HALLOWS.
CHAPTER I.
Upon your art, Sir, and your faith to assist it,
Shall I believe you, then, his wound's not mortal?
LOVE'S PILGRIMAGE.
The banditti who made the fierce and fiery attack, as recounted in our
last chapter, a few days subsequent to that sad event were arrested
by the _Gens d'Armes_ in Soignies wood. They had been composed, it
appeared upon examination, of the daring and desperate of different
nations, and that their leader was a Spaniard.
But it is indeed full time that we should return to the mansion of
Tyrconnel, where all was distress and dismay. But amid all this
incidental confusion and alarm no time whatever had been lost in
calling in surgical assistance; two surgeons of reputed eminence being
instantly summoned--an English practitioner of the name of Leach, who
long had been a resident at Brussels, and a Monsieur Bourreau, a French
surgeon in considerable practice, likewise a resident of this ancient
city, who immediately obeyed the summons.
Monsieur Bourreau was the first to arrive, who had a conference with
Sir Patricius Placebo, understanding that he was a medical gentleman.
MONSIEUR BOURREAU.--"_Ah! serviteur, Monsieur._--_Mais je demand
votre pardon! car je pourrois dire_, LE CHEVALIER _Aussi-bon_!"
SIR PATRICIUS PLACEBO.--"Hem, hem! Placebo, _je dis_
Placebo!--_Prononces comme il faut, si vous plais, Monsieur
Chirurgien!_"
MONSIEUR BOURREAU.--"_Oh, pardon encore, je demand tres humblement
de votre mains. Je dis, Chevalier Placebo, que les blesseurs
portées de les fusils sont toujours trop dangereux; et pour moi,
Chevalier Assebo, je prefere dix blesseurs de l'epée partout, à une
diable blesseure de portée de fusil!--Mais, neanmoins, toujours
chacun à son goût!_"
SIR PATRICIUS.--"_Cette remarque, Monsieur Chirurgien, est trop
vrai; et vous-avez sans doute beaucoup de raison certainment; car
comme ils ont dit autrefois_,
'De gustibus non disputandum!'
Hem, hem, ahem!"--having immediate recourse to his Carolus' snuff-box,
which in the first instance he most politely handed to Monsieur
Bourreau. And here the name of Surgeon Leach being announced, the two
surgeons with due formality were conducted by the medical baronet to
the sick man's chamber.
They found their patient suffering under much bodily pain, attended
also with inflammation and a considerable degree of fever. They
alternately felt his pulse, holding forth their watches, upon which
they intently gazed; then looked at each other grave and portentous as
the visages of two undertakers in their vocation, and most sadly shook
their sapient sconces.
However, it was not long before a very decided difference of opinion
arose between the knights of the lance--to wit, M. Bourreau was for the
immediate extraction of the ball, insisting most strenuously that such
an operation was unavoidably necessary, thus to effect the enlargement
of the wound, in order finally to extract the ball, which was the
immediate and important consideration of the case, and thus finally to
facilitate the cure; but at the same time with candour he acknowledged
that the operation would not be unattended with pain. Meanwhile Mr.
Leach was for leaving the bullet gradually to work out its own tranquil
way in the quiet lapse of years and time, which result, he insisted
pertinaciously, he had known to be the case in numerous instances,
where bullets have remained innocuously lodged in several parts of the
human body, until eventually, after a long lapse of years, they have
worked forth a passage to the surface, and have been easily extracted.
And other cases he knew, where individuals have retained with impunity
bullets within their bodies, from a gun-shot or pistol wound, even to
the closing hour of a protracted life.
Mr. Leach was likewise too of opinion that, as the wound was placed
upon a joint, assuredly, that both knife and forceps should be put
under due restraint, nor should any more opening be made than what was
quite absolutely and imperatively necessary to meet the circumstances
of the case.
It was considered incumbent by the duke, from this most serious
difference of opinion, that a third surgeon should instantly be called
in as umpire, and that his opinion in this intended consultation should
be absolute.
Accordingly a Dutch surgeon, _cognomine_ Mynheer Van Phlebodem, a
practitioner of considerable repute, was called in, who, in conferring
with his learned brethren, after a minute examination of the patient,
whom he found labouring under a restless accession of fever, and having
understood that Sir David Bruce had not sustained any loss of blood
worth noticing, as issuing from the wound, the sage Mynheer considered
it advisable to open a vein immediately, as he was decidedly of
opinion, from a course of long established practice, that repeated
and copious bleedings, promptly and immediately adopted in the
commencement, seldom or never fail of being attended with success. They
prevented too, he said, much pain; kept down likewise inflammation,
and diminished the assaults of fever, &c. &c.--This determination was
accordingly carried into effect.
At one time, from long continued pain and continued loss of sleep, it
was found necessary liberally to administer opium; at another period
the medical attendants, fearing symptoms of mortification to appear,
were not sparing in administering doses of Peruvian bark, with which
they drenched their victim.
For the first fifteen or twenty days considerable apprehensions
were entertained for the safety of the patient's life. We feel,
however, most happy to state that none of those predicted evils
ensued, although certainly circumstances existed to call forth such
apprehensions--namely, the violent heat of summer, the deadly pain
of the wound, the irritation caused by fever, the inflamed state of
the patient's blood; these certainly were conducive in exciting those
melancholy forebodings. A constantly cooling regimen was rigidly
enforced, and the patient kept quiet, free from noise or irritation. At
another stage of the patient's confinement gangrene was again seriously
indeed apprehended; however, from the external application of warm
emolients, &c. &c., this apprehended danger was completely obviated,
suppuration was successfully brought on, and the learned triumvirate
freely acknowledged that the patient might now be pronounced as
nearly out of danger; and in about ten days, or longer, the ball was
cautiously and safely extracted, and with no other ill result, we are
happy to state, than the operation having caused a considerable degree
of torture in the shoulder of our wounded hero.
Nothing could exceed the manifold attentions which were shown, and the
intense interest that was felt by every individual in the family of
Tyrconnel, and that innumerable kindnesses were fully manifested from
a certain quarter our readers will not be at a loss to guess, during
the illness and progress of recovery of the wounded patient, whose
convalescence, we are happy to state, had so far advanced that he was
daily permitted to walk for an hour in the garden pertaining to the
mansion of Tyrconnel.
One afternoon the dinner cloth had been just removed; and the family
were seated at their wine, when lo! to the great amazement of the duke
and duchess, a king's messenger was announced, bearing a despatch from
the King of England, which, under envelope and direction of the Lord
Privy Seal, was duly directed "For his Grace the Duke of Tyrconnel,
these--Lonsdale P. S."
Upon opening and reading the contents of the despatch, the astonishment
of the duke was no way abated. It contained the following:--
"I revoke the edict of your banishment; your attainture is taken
off; your honours are restored; and you may now return in safety to
your native land! _You are a man of honour--I will not desire
you to act against your principle. Disturb not the government, and
we shall be very good friends._
(L. S.) W. R."
This important and quite unexpected change in the mind of the English
monarch, which now called forth in return the immediate gratitude
and acknowledgments of him upon whom these favours had so graciously
been bestowed, had happily been effected through the interest and
intercession of the Elector Palatine, the firm friend and patron of Sir
David Bruce; thus no doubt could possibly exist but that through the
earnest representations, and at the especial request of the latter,
this important and conciliatory measure was effectuated. Indeed this
was fully corroborated by the same messenger bearing a despatch from
the Elector Palatine, addressed to Sir David Bruce, which stated that
the Elector felt most happy in having to acquaint him of the complete
success of his interference with the King of England in the behalf of
Sir David's exiled friends.
The immediate departure of the Duke and Duchess of Tyrconnel from
Brussels, so soon as circumstances would permit, was fully determined
upon. No obstacle, therefore, to preclude the union of Sir David Bruce
and the Lady Adelaide remained, save the delay of their voyage and
journey to Ireland, where, upon the event of their return to Tyrconnel
Castle, it was agreed that the marriage was duly to be solemnized.
The day previous to their final departure from Brussels Adelaide
devoted in bidding a fond and final farewell to those she sincerely
regarded, and from whom were received numberless attentions during her
sojourn. Adelaide took a parting look at scenes that were endeared to
her by past associations and pleasing recollections.
"Farewell!" she mentally said, "thou fair and flourishing
city!--patroness of the arts, the mistress of painting--thou queen
of fountains, farewell! Ever rich and luxuriant be thy valleys, thy
gardens, and thy groves; and long may the olive on thy undulating hills
shadow this happy realm in peace!"
Then, with her accustomed enthusiasm, Adelaide wrote the following
FAREWELL TO BELGIUM!
Farewell, blest land! I leave the while
Serene and social spot;
Ne'er winding Scheldt, nor devious Dyle,
By mem'ry be forgot!
Dear peaceful scenes for many a year,
While shaded from the foe,
Which oft aroused the filial fear,
Hence far from thee I go!
If not ungrateful 'twould appear,
I'd ne'er review thy shore;
Yet still through each revolving year
I'd think on thee the more!
Farewell, fair Belgium! fertile land,
On thee may freedom ever smile;
While commerce courts thy happy strand!
I seek mine own, lov'd, native isle!
The Duchess of Tyrconnel wrote, according to promise, to Mrs.
Cartwright, duly recording to her the happy turn that fortune had taken
in their favour. A copy of this epistle now lies before us; but as we
are no admirers of unnecessary repetition, we must take the liberty of
wholly suppressing the letter of her Grace.
Before we close this short, but eventful chapter, we have to observe
that the Soignies banditti, who had been arrested, were tried,
identified, and executed.
Not once nor twice was Sir Patricius Placebo overheard soliloquizing
to himself thus: "I am," quoth the knight, "in sooth no longer a
philosopher, who is desirous _inter silvas foresti (non academi)
quærere verum_--no, no--_horribile dictu!_ After this confounded
_rencontre_ in cursed Soignies wood, I shall for ever forego and
forswear the eating of Ortolan or Perigord pies, while I live--ahem!
except--that is to say, unless I can eat them with safety in the city!
for there is no general rule or law without an exception; and indeed
the long-robed gentry say as much--_exceptio probat regulam_--ahem!
"DOSS MOI, TANE STIGMEN!"
It was at the close of the last week in August, which had now arrived,
when the duke and family took their departure from Brussels, on their
route for Ireland; and while they are on their way we shall conduct our
readers in their transit to the succeeding chapter.