Your sermon is excellent; your reasons are unanswerable;--but I happen
to believe the contrary; and belief is, as you know, a thing which not
only removes mountains, but often builds up such as it is impossible to
see over. No conversion can consequently be effectual, be the subject
what it may, till the opposite belief has already begun to totter. Till
that point is reached, though you speak with the wisdom of Plato, and
act with the purity of Jesus, every man will retain his belief, on which
reason and good sense have ordinarily little influence. He who wishes to
produce any sudden change in the minds of men before they are already
disposed to it, will either be confined as a madman, or stoned and
crucified as a martyr. History teaches us this in every page. What is
applicable universally, is also applicable individually,--and now,
'parlez-moi raison si vous l'osez.'--But, seriously speaking, a man who
has the misfortune to be born with a too independent spirit, and who
cares little for common opinion, merely because it is common, should
remain unchanged all his life. The consequences of such a turn of mind,
and the hostilities it excites, becomes painful, and at length
dangerous, only when he grows weak and ceases to be self-sustained; when
instead of despising, as before, the opinions of others, he begins to
fear them. The multitude are quick to perceive the change, and instantly
begin a steady and vigorous pursuit of the game which flees before them,
and which, so long as it stood at bay and looked them boldly in the
face, they dared not openly attack. For getting on in the world, there
is no better maxim than this, 'Bouche riante, et front d'airain, et vous
passez par tout.' We Germans are almost always too earnest as well as
too timid, and are capable of only momentary struggles against these
defects, which, like all such attempts, generally overshoot the mark.
This makes us so fond of retirement and of converse with our own
fancy,--our best and faithfullest companion;--we are sovereign lords of
the regions of air, as Madame de Staël says. The world, as it is, does
not please us, and we are just as little fitted to please the world.
Retirement, and with it freedom, are therefore what we love best.
We have had a strange accomplishment of a prophecy.--Miss Kitty, one of
my host's daughters, and a very nice girl, had her fortune told
yesterday by gipseys. I was by, and heard the woman say to her, among
many common-place predictions, "Be upon your guard; for a shot will be
fired in at your window, and your stay in B---- will not be long after
that." We thought the prediction rather serious, and communicated it to
the family on our return, but were only laughed at. The next morning
early, we were all alarmed by the firing of two shots; Miss Kitty rushed
down stairs half dressed, and nearly fainting from terror; and every one
in the house ran to see what was the matter. We found that two of
Kitty's younger brothers, who had been on a visit to Mrs. M----, had
returned quite unexpectedly to fetch their sister, had played the silly
trick of firing their fowling-pieces up at her window, and had done it
so awkwardly that they had broken it. They were soundly rated, and then
drove off with Miss Kitty; so that everything happened precisely as the
old woman,--Heaven only knows how!--had seen in the lines of her hand.
_September 15th._
I was a little hypochondriacal and dull yesterday, but to-day I am
better in health, and consequently full of philanthropical
sentiments,--virtuous, 'faute d'occasion de pêcher,' and merry, because
I can laugh at myself 'faute de trouver quelque chose de plus ridicule.'
Meanwhile the scene here has altered. The fair African is arrived, and
we immediately set out, ten in number, on a ride; in the course of which
the old Captain showed us his bog cultivation and his draining with all
the ardour of a young man. He was as much enchanted by a field of
potatoes as I by my fair companion. Pointing to a good crop, he cried
out with enthusiasm, "Is not that a magnificent sight?" it certainly
never came into his head that we could be thinking of other things, and
that we assented only out of civility. I found some peasants for my plan
of colonization; they were all eager to go, but unfortunately had not a
penny in the world in furtherance of such a scheme. One runs no risk in
promising them that they will find everything better than they have
here, where a man must subsist from half an acre of land; and if he be
ever so willing to seek work abroad, cannot find it. Those of them who
are best off live in dwellings which our peasants would think too bad
for their cows or horses. I visited one of these cabins and found the
walls built of rude blocks of stone, with moss stuffed into the
interstices, and a roof covered partly with straw, partly with turf. The
floor consisted of the bare earth; there was no ceiling, and the roof
admitted the light in many places. Chimneys seem to be esteemed a
useless luxury. The smoke ascended from the open hearth, and found its
way through the holes, which served as windows. A lower shed on the
right was the bed-room of the whole family; a similar one on the left,
the habitation of the pig and the cow. The house stood in the middle of
a field, without garden, and utterly bare, and this they all called an
_excellent_ house.
When we got home our pretty visitor's hands were nearly frozen, even at
this season. They were perfectly white and insensible, and were rubbed a
quarter of an hour before the blood and life returned to them. 'C'est le
sang Africain.' She is in perfect comfort only when seated close to a
glowing turf fire, which would scorch any body else; then she recovers
her child-like freedom and sportiveness, which sometimes carries even me
away with it.
_September 17th._
To-day Mr L---- came to visit us. How strangely are the good things of
this world distributed! * * *
He is a furious Orangeman: it was to be expected that such a character
as his would range itself on the side of injustice, and delight in party
rage. But on what principles! As this is a specimen of the height to
which the spirit of party has reached, and the shamelessness with which
it dares to avow itself, I will give you the quintessence of his
conversation.
"I have served my king for nearly thirty years in almost every part of
the world, and want rest. Nevertheless, it is my most ardent wish, which
I daily pray God to grant, that I may live to see a 'good sound
rebellion' in Ireland. If I were called out to serve again, or if I were
to lay down my life the very day it broke out, I should make the
sacrifice willingly, could I but be sure that the blood of five millions
of Catholics would flow at the same time with my own. Rebellion!--that's
the point at which I want to see them, at which I wait for them, and to
which they must be led on, that we may make an end of them at once; for
there can be no peace in Ireland till the whole race is exterminated,
and nothing but an open rebellion, and an English army to put it down,
can effect this!"--Would it not be right to confine such a wicked madman
for life, dear Julia, and give his sweet wife to some one more worthy of
her? The youthful and uncorrupted hearts of the sons of my host were
roused as much as my own: they manfully combatted these diabolical
principles; but this exasperated the maniac Orangeman still more, till
at length all were silent. Several had early dropped off from table to
escape from such revolting conversation.
_September 18th._
Mr L----'s visit fortunately lasted only a few days, and we are once
more alone. We took advantage of our recovered freedom to make an
excursion of twenty miles to Mount B----, the beautiful residence of a
nobleman, and did not get back till late at night. The park at Mount
B---- affords a perfect study for the judicious distribution of masses
of water, to which it is so difficult to give the character of grandeur
and simplicity that ought always to belong to them. It is necessary to
study the forms of nature for the details; but the principal thing is
never to suffer an expanse of water to be completely overlooked, or seen
in its whole extent. It should break on the eye gradually, and if
possible lose itself at several points at the same time, in order to
give full play to the fancy,--the true art in all landscape gardening.
The lord of the demesne, who is rich, possesses a numerous collection of
pictures, some of which are excellent. There is a winter landscape of
Ruysdaal's, the only one of its kind which I remember to have seen by
that master. The character of the cold foggy air, and the crisp frozen
snow, are so perfectly given, that I almost shivered before it; I felt
at least that the flickering blaze in the fire-place beneath had a
double charm. A fine and undoubted Rubens, the 'Miraculous Draught of
Fishes,' is chiefly remarkable for a strange singularity. St Peter has a
scarlet wig, and yet the general expression of the picture is not
injured. It has the effect of a glory, and seems to shed light around.
I should think it was a trial of skill, perhaps undertaken by the
painter in consequence of some jest, 'pour prouver la difficulté
vaincue.' A very laborious landscape on wood, by an unknown hand, was
formerly in the private collection of Charles I., whose cipher and name,
with the crown above, are branded on the back. The gem of the collection
appeared to me a picture of Rembrandt's, supposed to be the portrait of
an Asiatic Jew; it is, at any rate, the ideal of one. The reality of the
eyes and their blighting look is almost terrific; the dark and sinister,
yet sublime expression of the whole is increased by the inky blackness
of the rest of the picture, out of which the fiery eyes and satanic
mouth look as if peeping forth frightfully from the midst of Egyptian
night.
After breakfast several hunters and racers were brought out, and we
exhibited our feats of horsemanship to the ladies. The hunters of this
country are not, perhaps, quite so swift as the best English ones, but
they are unequalled at leaping, to which they are trained from their
youth. They go up to a wall with the most perfect composure, and mount
it with their fore and hind feet like a dog. If there is a ditch on the
other side, they leap that also by giving themselves a fresh 'élan' on
the top of the wall. The less the rider attempts to help a well trained
horse the better. If he keeps a steady light rein upon him he may safely
leave him to himself.
I don't know whether these details of horsemanship are very interesting
to you, but as my letters are at the same time my journal (for how
should I find time to keep any other?) you must be so kind as to receive
with indulgence whatever has any interest, not only for you, but for
myself.
_Galway, Sept. 19th, Evening._
You know that my determinations are often of a very sudden nature,--my
pistol-shots, as you used to call them. I have just discharged one. You
may think that I did not quit such cordial friends without great regret,
but I had resolved to go, and adhered steadily to my resolution. To
avoid the delay of sending for post-horses, I rode with James for the
last time on 'Doctor,' his admirable hunter, to Tuam, leaving all
needful arrangements to my servant. I intended to leave Tuam by the
mail, but it was not its day for going, and no species of conveyance to
Galway was to be had, except the little two-wheeled cart of the man who
carries the letter-bags, in which there is room for two passengers. I
did not deliberate long, but giving James a last shake by the hand,
sprang into this frail vehicle, and 'clopin-clopant,' away rattled the
old horse with us through the streets. The other passenger was a fine
athletic young man, well dressed, with whom I soon got into an
interesting conversation on the beauties and wonders of his country, and
the character of his countrymen. He was not long without affording me a
fresh proof of the hearty kindness and civility of the latter. I was
very lightly dressed, and heated with riding, so that I suffered from
the cold wind. I offered the driver some money to surrender his cloak to
me: on a nearer view, however, this appeared so fearfully dirty and
disgusting, that I could not bring myself to put it on. The young man
immediately took off a magnificent great-coat of vast dimensions, and
almost forced me to take it, protesting that he never caught cold, that
he could sleep in the water without taking any harm, and that he had put
on the great-coat only because he did not know what to do with it. This
friendly act of his made us more quickly acquainted than we should
otherwise have been; and the time passed away, amid all sorts of talk,
much more rapidly than I had ventured to hope; for the distance was six
German miles, the road very rough, the equipage as bad as possible, the
seat uneasy, the country monotonous and dreary. Not a hill, not a tree
to be seen; only a network of walls drawn over the whole surface. Every
field is enclosed within walls of loose stones without mortar, but so
well constructed, that unless violently shaken they stand very firm.
Many ruins of castles were visible, but in such a flat, desert plain,
without one bush or bough to break it, they produced no romantic effect.
We found the ragged potatoe-eating people everywhere gay and joyous.
They always beg, to be sure, but they beg laughing, with wit, humour,
and the drollest expressions, without importunity, and without 'rancune'
if they get nothing. Most striking, amid such singular poverty, is the
no less singular honesty of these people; perhaps, however, the one
arises out of the other, for luxury makes us covetous, and the poor man
can often bear the privation of necessaries more easily than the rich of
superfluities.
We saw a number of labourers sitting by the road-side on heaps of stone,
which they were breaking. My companion said, "Those are conquerors;
their whole business is to break in pieces and destroy, and they rise on
the ruins they make." Meanwhile our driver blew his horn to announce the
post, for which, as with us, everything must make way: the tone,
however, came forth with such difficulty and sounded so piteously, that
we all laughed. A pretty boy, of about twelve, looking like a
personification of happiness and joy, though half naked, was sitting on
a heap of stones, hammering. He shouted with mischievous glee, and
called out to the angry driver, "Oh ho, friend! your trumpet has caught
cold; it is as hoarse as my old grandmother: cure it directly with a
glass of potheen, or it will die of a consumption before you reach
Galway!" A loud laugh from all the labourers followed as chorus.
"There," said my companion, "there you see our people,--starvation and
laughter,--that is their lot. Would you believe that, from the number of
labourers and the scarcity of labour, not one of these men earns enough
to buy sufficient food; and yet every one of them will spare something
to his priest: and if you go into his cabin, will give you half of his
last potatoe and a joke into the bargain."
We now approached the Galway mountains, over which the sun was setting
magnificently. This is a spectacle which I can never behold unmoved; it
always enchants me, and leaves a feeling of calm and security, arising
from the certainty that this language, which God himself speaks to us,
cannot lie, though human revelations be but piece-meal, differently
understood by every different interpreter, and often abused to the
purposes of cunning and selfishness.
We alighted at the same inn at which I had been during the races; and to
make some return for my young friend's civility, I invited him to sup
with me. It was late when we separated,--probably forever; but such
acquaintanceships I like; they leave no time for dissembling: ignorant
of each other's social relations, each values in the other only _the
man_. Whatever each obtains from the other of kind feeling or good
opinion, he owes to himself alone.
_Sept. 20th, Morning._
I had hoped my carriage would have arrived during the night, but it is
not yet come; and I therefore employed my leisure in taking a more
perfect survey of this ancient city. I was greatly assisted by some
fragments of an old Chronicle, which I accidentally picked up in a
grocer's shop, where I made some inquiries. In an obscure corner of the
town stands a house of extreme antiquity, over the door of which are
still to be seen a skull and cross-bones, remarkably well sculptured, in
black marble. This house is called "The Cross-bones," and its tragical
history is as follows.
In the fifteenth century, James Lynch, a man of old family and great
wealth, was chosen mayor of Galway for life;--an office which was then
nearly equal to that of a sovereign in power and influence. He was
reverenced for his inflexible rectitude, and loved for his condescension
and mildness. But yet more beloved,--the idol of the citizens and their
fair wives,--was his son, according to the Chronicle, one of the most
distinguished young men of his time. To perfect manly beauty and the
most noble air, he united that cheerful temper, that considerate
familiarity, which subdues while it seems to flatter,--that attaching
grace of manner, which conquers all hearts without an effort, by its
mere natural charm. On the other hand, his oft-proved patriotism, his
high-hearted generosity, his romantic courage, and complete mastery in
all warlike exercises, forming part of an education singular in his age
and country, secured to him the permanency of an esteem which his first
aspect involuntarily bespoke.
So much light was not without shadow. Deep and burning passions, a
haughty temper, jealousy of all rival merit, rendered all his fine
qualities only so many sources of danger to himself and others. Often
had his stern father, although proud of such a son, cause for bitter
reproof, and for yet more anxious solicitude about the future. But even
he could not resist the sweetness of the youth,--as quick to repent as
to err, and who never for a moment failed in love and reverence to
himself. After his first displeasure was past, the defects of his son
appeared to him as they did to all others, only spots on the sun. He was
soon still further tranquillized by the vehement and tender attachment
which the young man appeared to have conceived for Anna Blake, the
daughter of his best friend, and a girl possessing every lovely and
attaching quality. He looked forward to their union as the fulfilment of
all his wishes. But fate had willed it otherwise.
While young Lynch found more difficulty in conquering the heart of the
present object of his love than he had ever experienced before, his
father was called by business to Cadiz;--for the great men of Galway,
like the other inhabitants of considerable sea-ports in the middle ages,
held trade on a large scale to be an employment nowise unworthy even men
of noble birth. Galway was at that time so powerful and so widely known,
that, as the Chronicle relates, an Arab merchant, who had long traded to
these coasts from the East, once inquired "in what part of Galway
Ireland lay?"
After James Lynch had delegated his authority to trusty hands, and
prepared every thing for a distant journey, with an overflowing heart he
blessed his son, wished him the best issue to his suit, and sailed for
his destination. Wherever he went, success crowned his undertakings. For
this he was much indebted to the friendly services of a Spanish merchant
named Gomez, towards whom his noble heart conceived the liveliest
gratitude.
It happened that Gomez also had an only son, who, like Edward Lynch, was
the idol of his family, and the darling of his native city, though in
character, as well as in external appearance, entirely different from
him. Both were handsome; but Edward's was the beauty of the haughty and
breathing Apollo; Gonsalvo's of the serene and mild St. John. The one
appeared like a rock crowned with flowers; the other like a fragrant
rose-covered knoll, threatened by the storm. The Pagan virtues adorned
the one; Christian gentleness and humility the other. Gonsalvo's
graceful person exhibited more softness than energy; his languid dark
blue eyes, more tenderness and love than boldness and pride; a soft
melancholy overshadowed his countenance, and an air of voluptuous
suffering quivered about his smiling lips, around which a timid smile
rarely played, like a gentle wave gliding over pearls and coral. His
mind corresponded to such a person: loving and endearing, of a grave and
melancholy serenity, of more internal than external activity, he
preferred solitude to the bustle and tumult of society, but attached
himself with the strongest affection to those who treated him with
kindness and friendship. His inmost heart was thus warmed by a fire,
which, like that of a volcano buried too deep to break out at the
surface, is only seen in the increased fertility of the soil above,
which it clothes in the softest green, and decks with the brightest
flowers. Thus captivating, and easily captivated, was it a wonder if he
stole the palm even out of the hand of Edward Lynch? But Edward's father
had no such anticipations. Full of gratitude to his friend, and of
affection for his engaging son, he determined to propose to the old
Gomez a marriage between Gonsalvo and his daughter. The offer was too
flattering to be refused. The fathers were soon agreed; and it was
decided that Gonsalvo should accompany his future father-in-law to the
coast of Ireland, and if the inclinations of the young people favoured
the project, their union should take place at the same time with
Edward's, after which they should immediately return to Spain. Gonsalvo,
who was just nineteen, accompanied the revered friend of his father with
joy. His young romantic spirit enjoyed in silent and delighted
anticipation the varying scenes of strange lands which he was about to
see; the wonders of the deep which he would contemplate; the new sort of
existence of unknown people with whom he was to be connected; and his
warm heart already attached itself to the girl, of whose charms her
father gave him, perhaps, a too partial description.
Every moment of the long voyage, which at that time abounded with
dangers and required a much longer period than now, increased the
intimacy and mutual attachment of the travellers: and when at length
they descried the port of Galway, the old Lynch congratulated himself
not only on the second son which God had sent him, but on the beneficial
influence which the unvarying gentleness of the youth would have on
Edward's darker and more vehement character.
This hope appeared likely to be completely fulfilled. Edward, who found
all in Gomez that was wanting in himself, felt his own nature as it were
completed by his society; and as he had already learned from his father
that he was to regard him as a brother, their friendship soon ripened
into the warmest and most sincere affection.
But not many months had passed before some uneasy feelings arose in
Edward's mind to trouble this harmony. Gonsalvo had become the husband
of his sister, but had deferred his return to Spain for an indefinite
time. He was become the object of general admiration, attention, and
love. Edward felt that he was less happy than formerly. For the first
time in his life neglected, he could not conceal from himself that he
had found a successful rival of his former universal and uncontested
popularity. But what shook him most fearfully, what wounded his heart no
less than his pride, what prepared for him intolerable and restless
torments, was the perception, which every day confirmed, that Anna, whom
he looked upon as _his_,--though she still refused to confess her
love,--that _his_ Anna had ever since the arrival of the handsome
stranger grown colder and colder towards himself. Nay, he even imagined
that in unguarded moments he had seen her speaking eyes rest, as if
weighed down with heavy thoughts, on the soft and beautiful features of
Gomez, and a faint blush then pass over her pale cheek; but if his eye
met hers, this soft bloom suddenly become the burning glow of fever.
Yes, he could not doubt it; her whole deportment was altered:
capricious, humoursome, restless, sometimes sunk in deep melancholy,
then suddenly breaking into fits of violent mirth, she seemed to retain
only the outward form of the sensible, clear-minded, serene, and equal
tempered girl she had always appeared. Everything betrayed to the quick
eye of jealousy that she was the prey of some deep-seated passion,--and
for whom?--for whom could it be but for Gomez! for him, at whose every
action it was evident the inmost cords of her heart gave out their
altered tone. It has been wisely said, that love is more nearly akin to
hate than to liking. What passed in Edward's bosom was a proof of this.
Henceforth it seemed his sole enjoyment to give pain to the woman he
passionately loved: and now, in the bitterness of his heart, held guilty
of all his sufferings. Wherever occasion presented itself, he sought to
humble and to embarrass her, to sting her by disdainful pride, or to
overwhelm her with cutting reproaches; till, conscious of her secret
crime, shame and anguish overpowered the wretched girl, and she burst
into torrents of tears, which alone had power to allay the scorching
fever of his heart. But no kindly reconciliation followed these scenes,
and, as with lovers, resolved the dissonance into blessed harmony. The
exasperation of each was only heightened to desperation: and when he at
length saw enkindled in Gomez,--so little capable of concealment,--the
same fire which burnt in the eyes of Anna; when he thought he saw his
sister neglected and himself betrayed by a serpent whom he had cherished
in his bosom,--he stood at that point of human infirmity, of which the
All-seeing alone can decide whether it be madness, or the condition of a
still accountable creature.
On the same night in which suspicion had driven Edward from his couch, a
restless wanderer, it appears that the guilty lovers had for the first
time met in secret. According to the subsequent confession of Edward, he
had concealed himself behind a pillar, and had seen Gomez, wrapped in
his mantle, glide with hurried steps out of a well-known side-door in
the house of Anna's father, which led immediately to her apartments.--At
the horrible certainty which now glared upon him, the fury of hell took
possession of his soul: his eyes started from their sockets, the blood
rushed and throbbed as if it would burst his veins, and as a man dying
of thirst pants for a draught of cooling water, so did his whole being
pant for the blood of his rival. Like an infuriate tiger he darted upon
the unhappy youth, who recognized him, and vainly fled. Edward
instantly overtook him, seized him, and burying his dagger a hundred
times, with strokes like lightning-flashes, in the quivering body,
gashed with satanic rage the beautiful features which had robbed him of
his beloved, and of peace. It was not till the moon broke forth from
behind a dark cloud, and suddenly lighted the ghastly spectacle before
him,--the disfigured mass, which retained scarcely a feature of his once
beloved friend, the streams of blood which bathed the body and all the
earth around it,--that he waked with horror as from some infernal dream.
But the deed was done, and judgment was at hand.
Led by the instinct of self-preservation, he fled, like Cain, into the
nearest wood. How long he wandered there he could not recollect. Fear,
love, repentance, despair, and at last madness, pursued him like
frightful companions, and at length robbed him of consciousness,--for a
time annihilating the terrors of the past in forgetfulness; for kind
nature puts an end to intolerable sufferings of mind, as of body, by
insensibility or death.
Meanwhile the murder was soon known in the city; and the fearful end of
the gentle youth, who had confided himself, a foreigner, to their
hospitality, was learned by all with sorrow and indignation. A dagger,
steeped in blood, had been found lying by the velvet cap of the
Spaniard, and not far from it a hat, ornamented with plumes and a clasp
of gems, showed the recent traces of a man who seemed to have sought
safety in the direction of the wood. The hat was immediately recognized
as Edward's; and as he was nowhere to be found, fears were soon
entertained that he had been murdered with his friend. The terrified
father mounted his horse, and, accompanied by a crowd of people calling
for vengeance, swore solemnly that nothing should save the murderer,
were he even compelled to execute him with his own hands.
We may imagine the shouts of joy, and the feelings of the father, when
at break of day Edward Lynch was found sunk under a tree, living, and
although covered with blood, yet apparently without any dangerous wound.
We may imagine the shudder that ran through the crowd,--but the feelings
of the father we _cannot_ imagine,--when, restored to sense, he embraced
his father's knees, declared himself the murderer of Gonsalvo, and
earnestly implored instant punishment.
He was brought home bound, tried before a full assembly of the
magistrates, and condemned to death by his own father. But the people
would not lose their darling. Like the waves of the tempest-troubled
sea, they filled the market-place and the streets, and forgetting the
crime of the son in the relentless justice of the father, demanded with
threatening cries the opening of the prison and the pardon of the
criminal. During the night, though the guards were doubled, it was with
great difficulty that the incensed mob were withheld from breaking in.
Towards morning, it was announced to the mayor that all resistance would
soon be vain, for that a part of the soldiers had gone over to the
people;--only the foreign guard held out, and all demanded with furious
cries the instant liberation of the criminal.
At this, the inflexible magistrate took a resolution, which many will
call inhuman, but whose awful self-conquest certainly belongs to the
rarest examples of stoical firmness.--Accompanied by a priest, he
proceeded through a secret passage to the dungeon of his son; and when,
with newly-awakened desire of life, excited by the sympathy of his
fellow-citizens, Edward sunk at his feet, and asked eagerly if he
brought him mercy and pardon? The old man replied with unfaultering
voice, "No, my son, in this world there is no mercy for you: your life
is irrevocably forfeited to the law, and at sunrise you must die.
One-and-twenty years have I prayed for your earthly happiness,--but that
is past,--turn your thoughts now to eternity; and if there be yet hope
there, let us now kneel down together and implore the Almighty to grant
you mercy hereafter;--but then I hope my son, though he could not live
worthy of his father, will at least know how to die worthy of him." With
these words he rekindled the noble pride of the once dauntless youth,
and after a short prayer, he surrendered himself with heroic resignation
to his father's pitiless will.
As the people, and the greater part of the armed men mingled in their
ranks, now prepared, amidst more wild and furious menaces, to storm the
prison, James Lynch appeared at a lofty window; his son stood at his
side with the halter round his neck. "I have sworn," exclaimed the
inflexible magistrate, "that Gonsalvo's murderer should die, even though
I must perform the office of the executioner myself. Providence has
taken me at my word; and you, madmen, learn from the most wretched of
fathers that nothing must stop the course of justice, and that even the
ties of nature must break before it."
While he spoke these words he had made fast the rope to an iron beam
projecting from the wall, and now suddenly pushing his son out of the
window, he completed his dreadful work. Nor did he leave the spot till
the last convulsive struggles gave certainty of the death of his unhappy
victim.
As if struck by a thunder-clap, the tumultuous mob had beheld the
horrible spectacle in death-like silence, and every man glided as if
stunned to his own house. From that moment the mayor of Galway resigned
all his occupations and dignities, and was never beheld by any eye but
those of his own family. He never left his house till he was carried
from it to his grave. Anna Blake died in a convent. Both families in
course of time disappeared from the earth; but the skull and cross-bones
still mark the scene of this fearful tragedy.
_Limerick, Sept. 21st._
At ten o'clock my carriage arrived, and I immediately quitted Galway. As
long as the country remained monotonous, I beguiled the time by reading.
At Gort it becomes more interesting. Not far from it flows a river,
which, like that at Cong, looses itself several times in the earth. One
of the deepest basins which it forms is called "The Punch-bowl." To fill
such a bowl would require a larger tun than that at Heidelberg.
You now begin to approach the Clare mountains: and Nature decks herself
in more picturesque attire. A park belonging to Lord Gort broke upon me
like a magnificent picture: it is bounded by a broad lake, in which are
thirteen beautiful wooded islands; these, with the mountains in the
back-ground, and the expanse of water, which the eye never completely
embraces, in front, produced a grand and striking effect. One of the
most miserable post-horses seemed to participate so intensely in my
delight, that it was impossible to make him stir. After many vain
attempts to induce him to change his position, during which the
postilion repeatedly protested that it was only this one spot to which
he was so attached, but that if we could once get him away from it, he
would go like the devil himself, we were obliged to unharness him;--he
had begun to kick and to break our crazy equipage. In comparison with
the Irish post establishment, that of Saxony, erst so celebrated, might
fairly be called excellent. Bleeding skeletons, galled all over, starved
and superannuated, are fastened by rotten harness to your carriage, and
if you ask your postilion (whose dress consists of a few rags,) if he
thinks that such cattle can go a mile, much more a stage of twelve or
fifteen, he answers very seriously, "Sure there's no better equipage in
England; I shall take your honour there in less than nothing." Scarcely,
however, have you gone twenty steps, when something breaks, one horse is
restive, and the other falls down exhausted: this does not put him the
least out of countenance, he has always some admirable excuse ready, and
at last, if nothing else will do, he declares himself bewitched.
This was the course of things to-day. We must probably have passed the
night in the park of Gort, had not assistance and horses been most
hospitably despatched to us from the house. Notwithstanding this, our
stay was so long that it was ten before I reached Limerick. My letter is
so thick that I must send it away before its corpulence becomes
'impayable.' You will not hear of me again in less than a fortnight, as
I am determined to plunge into those wild regions, which foreign foot
has seldom trod. Pray for a prosperous journey for me; and above all,
love me with the same tenderness as ever.
Your faithful L----.