Chapter 2: A Valiant Band.
Chapter 3: A Strange Adventure.
Chapter 4: At Versailles.
Chapter 5: A New Friend.
Chapter 6: An Ambuscade.
Chapter 7: In Paris Again.
Chapter 8: To Scotland.
Chapter 9: An Escape From Newgate.
Chapter 10: Kidnapping A Minister.
Chapter 11: On the Frontier.
Chapter 12: Oudenarde.
Chapter 13: Convalescent.
Chapter 14: A Mission.
Chapter 15: Treachery.
Chapter 16: Captured.
Chapter 17: An Old Friend.
Chapter 18: War.
Chapter 19: In Search of a Family.
Chapter 20: Gerald O'Carroll.
Preface.
The evils arising from religious persecution, sectarian hatred,
ill government, and oppression were never more strongly
illustrated than by the fact that, for a century, Ireland, which
has since that time furnished us with a large proportion of our
best soldiers, should have been among our bitterest and most
formidable foes, and her sons fought in the ranks of our greatest
continental enemy. It was not because they were adherents of the
house of Stuart that Irishmen left their native country to take
service abroad, but because life in Ireland was rendered well-nigh
intolerable for Catholics, on account of the nature and severity
of the laws against them, and the bitterness with which those laws
were carried into effect.
An Irish Catholic had no prospects of employment or advancement at
home. He could hold no civil appointment of any kind. He could not
serve as an officer, nor even enlist as a private, in the army. He
could not hold land. He was subject to imprisonment, and even
death, on the most trifling and frivolous accusations brought
against him by the satellites of the Irish Government. Not only
could he not sit in the parliament of Dublin, but he could not
even vote at elections. It was because they believed that the
return of the Stuarts would mean relief, from at least some of
their disabilities, and liberty to carry out the offices of their
religion openly, and to dwell in peace, free from denunciation and
persecution, that the Irish remained so long faithful to the
Jacobite cause.
It was not, indeed, until 1774 that the Catholics in Ireland were
admitted to qualify themselves as subjects of the crown, and not
until the following year that they were permitted to enlist in the
army. Irish regiments had enlisted in France, previous to the
Convention of Limerick; but it was the Irish army that defended
that town, and, having been defeated, passed over to France, that
raised the Irish Brigade to the position of an important factor in
the French army, which it held for nearly a hundred years, bearing
a prominent part in every siege and battle in Flanders, Germany,
Italy, and Spain. A long succession of French marshals and
generals have testified to the extraordinary bravery of these
troops, and to their good conduct under all circumstances. Not
only in France did Irishmen play a prominent part in military
matters, but they were conspicuous in every continental army, and
their descendants are still to be found bearing honoured names
throughout Europe.
Happily, those days are past, and for over a hundred years the
courage and military capacity of Irishmen have been employed in
the service of Great Britain. For records of the doings of some of
the regiments of the Irish Brigade, during the years 1706-1710, I
am indebted to the painstaking account of the Irish Brigade in the
service of France, by J. C. O'Callaghan; while the accounts of the
war in Spain are drawn from the official report, given in Boyer's
Annals of the Reign of Queen Anne, which contains a mine of
information of the military and civil events of the time.
G. A. Henty.
Chapter 1: Fresh from Ireland.
A number of officers of O'Brien's regiment of foot, forming a part
of the Irish Brigade in the service of France, were gathered in a
handsome apartment in the Rue des Fosses, on the 20th of June,
1701, when the door opened, and their colonel entered with a young
officer in the uniform of the regiment.
"I have asked you here, gentlemen all," he said, "to present to
you a new comrade, Desmond Kennedy, who, through the good offices
of the Marshal de Noailles, has been appointed, by His Gracious
Majesty, to a cornetcy in our regiment.
"Now, gentlemen, I have known, and doubtless you can all of you
recall, instances where the harmony of a regiment has been
grievously disturbed, and bad blood caused, owing to the want of a
clear understanding upon matters connected with a family; which
might have been avoided, had proper explanations been given at the
commencement. I have spoken frankly to Mr. Kennedy, and he has
stated to me certain particulars, and has not only authorized me,
but requested me to repeat them to you, feeling that you had a
right to know who it was that had come among you, and so to avoid
questioning on matters that are, of all others, prone to lead to
trouble among gentlemen.
"Beyond the fact that he is a Kennedy, and that his father had to
fly from Ireland, two years after the siege of Limerick, owing to
a participation in some plot to bring about a fresh rising in
favour of King James, he is unacquainted with his family history.
He has never heard from his father, and only knows that he made
for France after throwing the usurper's spies off his track, and
there can be little doubt that it was his intention to take
service in this brigade. There have been several Kennedys in the
service, and I have little doubt that this young gentleman's
father was the Murroch Kennedy who joined the third regiment,
about that time, and was killed a few months afterwards at the
battle of Breda. His death would account for the fact that his son
never received a letter from him. At the time when he left
Ireland, the child was some two years old, and, as communication
was difficult, and the boy so young, Murroch might very well have
put off writing until the boy grew older, not thinking that death
might intervene, as it did, to prevent his doing so.
"This is all simple and straightforward enough, and you will, I am
sure, have no hesitation in extending the hand of friendship to
the son of a gallant Irishman, who died fighting in the ranks of
the Irish Brigade, exiled, like the rest of us, for loyalty to our
king.
"Still, gentlemen, you might, perhaps, wonder how it is that he
knows no more of his family, and it was that this question might
be disposed of, once for all, that I am making this statement to
you on his behalf. He was not brought up, as you might expect,
with some of his father's connections. Whether the family were so
scattered that there was no one to whom he could safely entrust
the child, I know not, but, in point of fact, he sent him to one
of the last houses where a loyal gentleman would wish his son to
be brought up. We all know by name and reputation--I and your
majors knew him personally--the gallant James O'Carroll, who died,
fighting bravely, at the siege of Limerick. He was succeeded in
his estate by his brother John, one of the few Irishmen of good
family who turned traitor to his king, and who secured the
succession to his brother's possessions by becoming an ardent
supporter of the usurper, and by changing his religion.
"Why Murroch Kennedy should have chosen such a man as the guardian
of his son is a mystery. Whether they had been great friends in
earlier times, when John O'Carroll professed as warm an attachment
to the Stuart cause as did his brother James, or whether Kennedy
possessed such knowledge of O'Carroll's traitorous dealings with
the Dutchman as would, if generally known, have rendered him so
hateful to all loyal men that he could no longer have remained in
the country, and so had a hold over him, Mr. Kennedy can tell us
nothing. He was brought by his nurse to Castle Kilkargan, and was
left with John O'Carroll. It is clear that the latter accepted the
charge unwillingly, for he sent the child to a farm, where he
remained until he was eight years old, and then placed him with
the parish priest, who educated him. The lad visited at the houses
of the neighbouring gentry, shot and rowed and fished with their
sons. O'Carroll, however, beyond paying for his maintenance, all
but ignored his existence, showing no interest whatever in him, up
to the time when he furnished him with a letter of introduction to
de Noailles, except that he made him a present of a gun, as soon
as he became of an age to use one. He never attempted to tamper
with his loyalty to King James, and in fact, until he sent for him
to ask what profession he would choose, he never exchanged ten
words with him, from the time that he was brought to the castle.
"We can each form our own theory as to the cause of such strange
conduct. He may have given a pledge, to Murroch, that the boy
should be brought up a loyalist, and a true son of the church. It
may have been that the loyalty of the boy's father formed so
unpleasant a contrast to his own disloyalty, and apostasy, that he
disliked the sight of him. However, these theories can make no
difference in our reception of Desmond Kennedy, as a gentleman of
a good family, and as the son of a loyal adherent of the king; and
as such, I think that I can, from what I have already seen of him,
assert that he is one who will be a good comrade, a pleasant
companion, and a credit to the regiment."
The subject of these remarks was a tall and handsome young fellow,
some sixteen years of age. He was already broad at the shoulders,
and promised to become an exceedingly powerful man. He had stood
somewhat behind the colonel, watching calmly the effect of his
words on those whose comrade he was to be, for he knew how
punctilious were his countrymen, on the subject of family, placing
as much or even more value than did the Scots, on points of
genealogy, and of descent from the old families. His frank open
face, his bearing and manner, did as much to smooth his way as did
the speech of his colonel, who, when he had been introduced to
him, two days before, had questioned him very closely on the
subject of his family. It had almost been a matter of satisfaction
to Desmond when he heard, from the colonel, that the officer who
had fallen at Breda was probably the father of whom he had no
remembrance; for, from the time he attained the age of boyhood, it
had been a grief and pain that he should never have heard from his
father, who, it now appeared, had been prevented by death from
ever communicating with him.
The officers received him cordially. They had little doubt that he
was the son of the Murroch Kennedy, of Dillon's regiment,
although, after they separated, some wonder was expressed as to
the reason why the latter had committed his son to the care of so
notorious a traitor as John O'Carroll.
Desmond had been specially introduced to two of the young
lieutenants, Patrick O'Neil and Phelim O'Sullivan, and these took
him off with them to their quarters.
"And what is the last news from Ireland? I suppose that the
confiscations have ceased, for the excellent reason that they have
seized the estates of every loyal gentleman in the country?"
"That was done long ago, in the neighbourhood of Kilkargan, and,
so far as I know, everywhere the feeling is as bitter as ever,
among those who have been dispossessed, and also among the tenants
and peasantry, who have found themselves handed over to the
mercies of Dutchmen, or other followers of William. At Kilkargan
there was not that grievance; but, although they had still one of
the old family as their master, they could not forgive him for
deserting to the side of the usurper, nor for changing his
religion in order to do pleasure to William. Certainly, he can
have derived but little satisfaction from the estates. He seldom
showed himself out of doors, never without two or three armed
servants, all of whom were strangers from the north, and he was
often away, for months together, at Dublin."
"And what did you do with yourself?"
"I fished, shot, and rode. I had many friends among the gentry of
the neighbourhood, who would, doubtless, have shown less kindness
than they did, had it not been for the neglect with which
O'Carroll treated me. His unpopularity was all in my favour.
"However, I have one good reason for being obliged to him, since
it was through him that I obtained my commission. He told me that,
in his young days, he had been at a French college with the duke.
They had been great friends there, and he thought that, in memory
of this, de Noailles would procure me a commission."
"I suppose the real fact was, Kennedy, that he was glad to get rid
of you altogether?"
"I think that is likely enough. He certainly raised no objection,
whatever, to my going abroad, and seemed to think it natural that
I should choose the Irish Brigade, here, in preference to the
British service. He said something unpleasant about its not being
singular that I should be a rebel, when I always associated with
rebels, to which I replied that it seemed to me that I could
hardly be blamed for that, seeing that my father had been what he
called a rebel, and that I had little choice in the matter of my
associates; and that if I had been educated at a school in
England, instead of by good Father O'Leary, I might have had other
sentiments. He replied that my sentiments were nothing to him, one
way or the other. He was glad to wash his hands of me altogether;
and, at any rate, if I went to France, I could drink the health of
King James every day without his being involved in my treason."
"It almost looked as if he wished you to grow up a rebel, Kennedy,
or he would hardly have placed you in the charge of a priest. He
may have reckoned that if there was another rising, you might join
it, and so be taken off his hands, altogether."
"Whatever the reason was, I have certainly cause for satisfaction
that he removed me from the care of the farmer's wife, with whom
he at first placed me, and arranged with the priest to take charge
of me altogether. O'Leary himself had been educated at Saint Omer,
and was a splendid fellow. He was very popular on the countryside,
and it was owing to my being with him that I was admitted to the
houses of the gentry around, whereas, had I remained in the
farmhouse in which O'Carroll first placed me, I should only have
associated with the sons of other tenants."
"It looked, at any rate, as if he wished to make a gentleman of
you, Kennedy."
"Yes, I suppose my father had asked him to do so. At any rate, I
was infinitely better off than I should have been if he had taken
me in at Kilkargan, for in that case I should have had no
associates, whatever. As it was, I scarcely ever exchanged a word
with him, until that last meeting. He sent down, by one of his
servants, the letter to the Duc de Noailles, and a bag containing
money for my outfit here, and for the purchase of a horse,
together with a line saying that he had done his duty by me, and
had no desire to hear from me in the future. I was inclined to
send the money back to him, but Father O'Leary persuaded me not to
do so, saying that I must be in a position to buy these things, if
I obtained a commission; and that, no doubt, the money had been
given me, not for my own sake, but because he felt that he owed it
to me, for some service rendered to him by my father."
"It was an ungracious way of doing it," O'Sullivan said, "but, in
your circumstances, I should have taken the money had it come from
the old one himself. It is, perhaps, as well that it should have
been done in such a manner that you may well feel you owe no great
gratitude towards such a man."
"And how did you get over here?"
"There was no great difficulty about that. In spite of the
activity of the English cruisers, constant communication is kept
up between Ireland and France, and fortunately I had, a short time
before, made the acquaintance of one of your officers, who was
over there, in disguise, gathering recruits for the Brigade."
"Yes, there are a good many agents in Ireland engaged in that
work. There is no difficulty in obtaining recruits, for there is
scarcely a young Irishman who does not long to be with his
countrymen, who have won such credit out here, and many abstain
from joining only because they do not know how to set about it.
The work of the agents, then, is principally to arrange means for
their crossing the channel. It is well that the supply is steadily
kept up, for, I can assure you, every battle fought makes very
heavy gaps in our ranks; but in spite of that, three fresh
regiments have been raised, in the last year, partly by fresh
comers from Ireland, and partly by Irish deserters from
Marlborough's regiments.
"But I am interrupting your story."
"Well, after leaving Mr. O'Carroll, and making my preparations, I
paid a visit to the cottage where the officer was staying, in
disguise, and told him that I wanted to cross. He gave instructions
as to how to proceed. I was to go to a certain street in Cork, and
knock at a certain door. When it was opened, I was to say, 'The sea
is calm and the sky is bright'.
"'Then', he said, 'you will be taken in hand, and put on board one
of the craft engaged in the work of carrying our recruits across
the water. You will be landed at Saint Malo, where there is an
agent of the Brigade, who gives instructions to the recruits as to
how they are to proceed, supplies them with money enough for the
journey, and a man to accompany each party, and act as interpreter
on the way.
"I carried out his instructions, crossed the channel in a lugger
with thirty young peasants, bound also for Paris, and, on landing
at Saint Malo, took my place in the diligence for Paris; having,
fortunately, no need for an interpreter. On my presenting my
letter to the Marquis de Noailles, he received me with great
kindness, and treated me as a guest, until he had obtained me a
commission in your regiment.
"Now, when are we likely to go on active service?"
"Soon, I expect," O'Neil said; "but whether we shall be sent to
the Peninsula, or to Flanders, no one knows. In fact, it is likely
enough that we shall, for the present, remain here; until it is
seen how matters go, and where reinforcements will be most
required. It is but ten months since we came into garrison, in
Paris, and we may therefore expect to be one of the last regiments
ordered off.
"For my part, I am in no particular hurry to exchange comfortable
quarters, and good living, and such adventures as may fall to the
lot of a humble subaltern, for roughing it in the field; where, as
has been the case ever since the Brigade was formed, we get a good
deal more than our fair share of hard work and fighting."
"I should have thought that you would all have liked that,"
Desmond said, in some surprise.
"Enough is as good as a feast," the other said; "and when you have
done a few weeks' work in trenches, before a town you are
besieging; stood knee deep for hours in mud, soaked to the skin
with rain, and with the enemy's shot coming through the parapet
every half minute or so; you will see that it is not all fun and
glory.
"Then, too, you see, we have no particular interest in the
quarrels between France and Germany. When we fight, we fight
rather for the honour of the Irish Brigade, than for the glory of
France. We have a grudge against the Dutch, and fight them as
interested parties, seeing that it was by his Dutch troops that
William conquered Ireland. As to the English troops, we have no
particular enmity against them. Cromwell's business is an old
story, and I don't suppose that the English soldier feels any
particular love for Queen Anne, or any animosity against us. And
after all, we are nearer in blood to them than we are to the
Germans, Austrians, or Spaniards, for there are few, even of our
oldest families, who have not, many times since the days of
Strongbow, intermarried with the English settlers. At any rate,
there are still plenty of adherents of King James in England and
Scotland. We speak the same language, and form part of the same
nation, and I own that I would rather fight against any foreign
foe than against them."
"So would I," Desmond said heartily. "Our only point of difference
is that we don't agree as to who should be king. We want a
Catholic king, and the majority of the English want a Protestant
king. We have fought on the subject, and been beaten. Next time,
we hope that we may succeed. If the king were to land in England
again, I would fight heart and soul in his cause; but whether the
French beat the English, in the present war, or the English beat
the French, will not, as far as I can see, make much difference to
King James; who, Father O'Leary tells me, is, in his opinion,
supported here by the French king from no great love for himself,
but because, so long as James has adherents in Ireland, Scotland,
and England, he is able to play him off against the English
Government."
The other young men laughed.
"For heaven's sake, Kennedy, keep such sentiments as these to
yourself. It is a matter of faith, in our brigade, that we are
fighting in the cause of King James, as against the English
usurper. Now that William is dead, and James's daughter on the
throne, matters are complicated somewhat; and if the Parliament
had settled the succession, after Anne, on her brother, there
might have been an end of the quarrel altogether. But now that
they have settled it on Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James
the 1st, and her descendants, subject to the restriction that they
shall be Protestants, the quarrel does not seem likely to be
healed."
"This priest of yours must be a dangerous man," O'Sullivan said.
"Not at all. I can assure you, he is devoted to the king; but, as
he told me, there is no use in Irishmen always closing their eyes
to the true state of things. He says that we must rely upon
ourselves, and our loyal friends in Scotland and England, but that
he is sure the king will never be placed on his throne by French
bayonets. A small auxiliary force may be sent over, but, in all
these years, Louis has made no real effort to assist him; and even
if, for his own purposes, he sent a great army to England, and
placed him on the throne, he would not be able to maintain himself
there for a month after the French had withdrawn, for even a
rightful king would be hated by the people upon whom he had been
forced, by a foreign power, especially a power that had, for
centuries, been regarded as their chief enemy. If he had been in
earnest, Louis would have sent over a great army, instead of a few
thousand men, to Ireland, when such a diversion would have turned
the scale in our favour. As he did not do so then, he is not
likely to do so in the future. The king is useful to him, here, by
keeping up an agitation that must, to some extent, cripple the
strength of England; but, were a Stuart on the throne, he would
have to listen to the wishes of the majority of his people, and
France would gain nothing by placing him there. Moreover, she
would lose the services of twenty thousand of her best soldiers,
for naturally the exiles would all return home, and what is now
the most valuable force in the French service, might then become
an equally important one in the service of Britain."
"I am glad that this priest of yours remains quietly in Kilkargan,
for, if he were to come here, and expound his views among our
regiments, he might cause quite a defection among them. At any
rate, Kennedy, I should advise you not to take to propagating his
views in the regiment. It would not add to your comfort, or ours,
and there are a good many hot-headed men who would take up the
idea that you had been infected by O'Carroll's principles."
"It would not be well for anyone to say as much to my face,"
Desmond said. "Father O'Leary is loyal to the backbone, although
he has his own ideas as to the hopelessness of our obtaining any
efficient help from Louis. He thinks that it will be far better to
trust to our friends at home, and that, even did Louis carry out
his promises, it would in the long run harm rather than benefit
King James."
"I am not saying that his view may not be correct, Kennedy. I am
only saying that the view would be a very unpopular one, among the
Brigade. We are fighting for France because we believe that
France, in turn, will aid in placing our rightful king on the
throne, and if we once entertained the notion that Louis was
deceiving us, that he had no intention of helping us, and that, if
he did place James on the throne, he would alienate all his
sympathizers at home, we should ask ourselves of what use was it,
spending our blood in fighting the battles of France."
"At any rate, I will take your advice, O'Sullivan, and will keep
my lips sealed, as to Father O'Leary's views. As you see, by my
presence here, he has not convinced me, and as long as there is a
hope that, by the aid of a French army, we may yet see our king
come to his own again, I shall do my best to prove myself a
faithful soldier of France. I have chosen my career with my eyes
open. A loyal Irishman cannot obtain employment, still less
military employment, in his own country, and accordingly, we are
to be found fighting as soldiers of fortune in every country in
Europe. At least there is some chance that we may be benefiting
the royal cause by fighting for the country that gave King James
shelter, and rendered him armed assistance in his struggle with
the usurper, and will probably give aid, more or less efficient,
when the next attempt is made. In other countries we are but
soldiers of fortune. In France we may regard ourselves as serving
our own king by serving King Louis."
"Do you speak French well, Kennedy?" O'Neil said, changing the
conversation abruptly.
"Yes. Father O'Leary took care of that, for I always said that I
should take service abroad, as there was clearly nothing else to
do for a living, and, consequently, he generally talked to me in
that language, and I speak it as well as I do English or Irish."
"You have not had much practice with the sword, I suppose?"
"Not so much as I could wish, though I never lost an opportunity
of practising. There were several of the tenants who served in the
regiment James O'Carroll raised. I used to practise with them, but
I shall lose no time in getting the best instruction I can, here."
"You may want it, Kennedy. We are not particularly liked by the
French officers, because we are generally chosen to lead an
assault, or for other desperate service. Duelling is, of course,
forbidden, but that in no way prevents duels from being frequent.
As for fighting in action, as far as I have seen or heard,
swordsmanship does not go for a great deal. If you press on hard
enough, and there are men following you, the enemy give way,
generally, before it comes to hand-to-hand fighting. If, on the
other hand, they are the more numerous, and hold their position in
the breach, it is the musketry that settles it. It is only when
two officers happen to meet, in a fierce fight, that swordsmanship
becomes of importance.
"We have a good school in the regiment, and there are several
famous masters of fence in the town, so I should advise you to
give a couple of hours a day, for a time, to making yourself a
first-rate swordsman. I have just left off. Our maitre d'armes
tells me I am too hotheaded ever to make a fine blade; but I
should fancy, from the way you have been arguing, that you are
likely to be cooler than most of us in a fencing bout. It is the
fault with us all that we are apt to lose our tempers, and indeed
Maitre Maupert, who is the best teacher here, declines absolutely
to take any of us as pupils, saying that, while we may do
excellently well in battle, he can never hope to make first-class
fencers of men who cannot be relied upon to keep their heads cool,
and to fight with pointed weapons as calmly as they might fence
with a friend in a saloon."
"Well, I shall work hard to become a fair swordsman," Desmond
said, with a laugh. "I suppose there is plenty of time to spare."
"Plenty. We have a couple of hours' drill in the morning, and
after that, except when you are officer of the day, you can spend
your time as you like. The colonel and two of his officers attend
at the king's levees, when he is in Paris, but, as he spends the
greater portion of his time at Versailles, we are seldom called
upon for that duty."
A few days after Desmond's arrival, the colonel took him with him
to Saint Germain, where James the 3rd, as his supporters called
him, held a miniature court. The colonel presented Desmond as a
loyal subject of His Majesty, and a newly-joined cornet in his
regiment.
The young prince was a lad of eighteen. He was surrounded by a
group of courtiers, who had accompanied or followed his father
into exile, and whose insistence upon treating him with the
respect due to a monarch was in no slight degree galling to him,
for, as he often declared to the few friends he had about his own
age, he had all the disadvantages of being a king, without any of
the advantages.
He was at once taken with the appearance of Desmond Kennedy.
"Ah, Monsieur Kennedy," he said, after the ceremony of
presentation had been completed; "I wish that I had all my
faithful subjects, of the Irish Brigade, across the water with me;
and that I could put on a uniform like yours, and fight at their
head for my rights."
"I would that you had, Sire. It would be a good day for us all;
and believe me, that either in Ireland or Scotland you would soon
find yourself at the head of an army, many times more numerous
than our brigade."
"They all tell me that I must wait," the young prince said, with a
sigh, "but I have been waiting a long time now, and it seems no
nearer than when I was a child. However, the King of France has
promised me that it cannot be much longer; and that, when
Marlborough is defeated, and his army driven back across the sea,
he will send a fleet and an army to place me on my throne."
"We shall all rejoice, indeed, when that time comes, Sire; and I
am sure there is not a man in the Irish Brigade who will not
follow you to the death, and serve you as faithfully as many of
them did your royal father."
"I hope you will come here often, Monsieur Kennedy. I am sure that
I shall like you very much, and I think that you would always say
what you thought, and tell me the real truth about things."
"Sire!" one of the older men exclaimed, reproachfully.
"I mean no reflection on anyone, Dillon. You all say what I am
sure you feel, but you have grown accustomed to waiting, and all
think of what is politic, and complain that I speak too frankly.
Monsieur Kennedy comes straight from Ireland, and he is not old
enough, yet, to have learned to measure his words, and will not be
always afraid that anything he may say will be carried to the
king.
"How I wish that the king would send me with Marshal Tallard!"
"That would never do, Sire. The English are your subjects, and
they would never forgive you, if you were to appear in the field
with a French army, fighting against them."
"But the Irish Brigade fight, Dillon?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, but they are in the service of France, and, by
the terms of the treaty of Limerick, were allowed to expatriate
themselves, and to enter the French service. We have, in fact,
renounced our nationality, with the consent of the English, and,
if taken prisoners, could only be treated as captured foes, and
not as traitors. Of course, when Your Majesty ascends the throne,
we shall again become British subjects."
"I trust that that may come soon, Dillon, and for your sake,
rather than my own. When the time comes, you will not find me
backward, but this weary waiting tries me sorely, and, were it not
for those who have remained faithful to our cause, I would gladly
resign such chances as I have of succeeding to the throne of
England, and take a commission in the Irish Brigade."
Dillon and some of the elder men shook their heads.
"Can you wonder?" the young prince said, passionately. "Here is
Master Kennedy, who is younger than myself, though a free life and
exercise have made him a man, in comparison to me. He has his life
before him. He will bear his part in many a pitched battle, and,
doubtless, in many a private adventure. He is his own master, and,
as long as he does his duty, there are none to say, 'you must not
do that; you must not say that; you must preserve your dignity;
you must speak softly and discreetly; you must wait patiently.'
"I envy you, Master Kennedy. I envy you, from the bottom of my
heart! Come often to see me. You will always be welcome;" and,
turning abruptly away, he left the chamber hurriedly, to conceal
the tears which filled his eyes.
His counsellors shook their heads solemnly, but Colonel O'Brien
said, warmly:
"What the king says is natural, for a man of his age; and, for my
part, it has increased my respect for him. I say it without
offence, but what could be duller than the life this lad leads
here? He has been brought up, literally, without a pleasure. His
late Majesty, heaven rest his soul! was absorbed in his religious
exercises, and nothing could have been more trying, to a boy, than
a court in which the priests and confessors were practically
supreme. Since his father's death, things have been but little
better, and now I see that, at heart, the young king has plenty of
spirit and energy, I can feel that his life has been that of a
caged hawk, and I am not surprised that he occasionally breaks out
into revolt against it. It would, methinks, do him a world of
good, had he a few companions about his own age, like Ensign
Kennedy. I would even say that, although I can quite understand
that, as King of England, he could not well take a commission in
one of our regiments, he might at least be placed with one of our
most experienced and honoured colonels, in order to learn military
exercises, and to mix with the officers as any other nobleman
might do, when attached to the regiment."
Murmurs of dissent arose among the counsellors.
"Well, gentlemen," the colonel went on, "I have no desire to
interfere with your functions, but, in my opinion, it is good that
a king should also be a general. Did anyone think any the worse of
Dutch William, that he was able to command his army, personally?
None of us can believe that King James will ever succeed to the
inheritance of his fathers, without fighting; and it would be
well, indeed, that he should not appear as a puppet, but as one
qualified to command. It was the fault, or rather the misfortune,
of his father, that he was unfit to lead his troops in the field.
Had he been able to do so, he would, in all probability, have died
King of England, instead of as a fugitive and a pensioner of King
Louis. In one way, it grieves me to see that the young king feels
his position acutely; but, on the other hand, I am rejoiced to see
that he is in no way lacking in spirit, and that he longs to be
out of his cage, and to try his wings for himself.
"Well, gentlemen, having had my say, I will take my leave of you,
as duty calls me back to my regiment. I trust that the frankness
with which I have spoken will not be misunderstood."
So saying, with a bow to the courtiers he left the room, followed
by Kennedy.
"They mean well," he said, after they had mounted, and ridden off
at a gallop; "but it is a pity that these gentlemen, all loyal and
honourable men as they are, should surround the young king. They
suited, well enough, to the mood of his father, who was always
wanting in spirit, and was broken down, not only by the loss of
his kingdom, but by the conduct of his daughters; and, what with
that, and his devotion to religion, he was rather a monk than a
monarch. He believed--but most mistakenly--that he had a genius
for politics, and was constantly intriguing with his adherents at
home, notably Marlborough and other lords, from whom he obtained
fair words and promises of support, but nothing else. But though
he could plan, he did not possess a spark of energy, and was one
of the most undecided of men, though, like most undecided men, he
could be extremely obstinate; and, unfortunately, the more wrong
he was, the more obstinately he held to his course.
"However, all this can make no difference in our devotion to the
Stuart cause. But I hail, with satisfaction, the prospect that, in
his son, we may have one to whom we may feel personally loyal; for
there can be no doubt that men will fight with more vigour, for a
person to whom they are attached, than for an abstract idea."
"I have heard Father O'Leary say the same, sir. His opinion was
that, had the late king possessed the qualities that commanded the
personal admiration and fidelity of his followers, and excited
something like enthusiasm among the people at large, he would
never have lost his throne; nor, could he have led his armies, as
did Gustavus or Charles the 12th of Sweden, would William of
Orange ever have ventured to cross to England."
"It was a bad business, altogether, lad. His cause was practically
lost, from the day that William set foot upon English soil. He
had, in reality, no personal friends; and those who would have
remained faithful to the cause, were paralysed by his indecision
and feebleness. Charles the Martyr made many mistakes, but he had
the passionate adherence of his followers. His personality, and
his noble appearance, did as much for him as the goodness of his
cause; while his son, James, repelled rather than attracted
personal devotion. I trust that his grandson will inherit some of
his qualities. His outburst, today, gave me hope that he will do
so; but one must not build too much on that. It may have been only
the pettishness of a young man, sick of the constant tutelage to
which he is subjected, and the ennui of the life he leads, rather
than the earnestness of a noble spirit.
"Of course, Kennedy, I need not tell you that it would be well to
make no mention, to anyone, of the scene that you have witnessed."
"I shall certainly make no mention of it to anyone, sir. I am
sorry, indeed, for the young king. His life must be a dreadful
one, conscious of the impossibility of breaking the bonds in which
he is held, and knowing that his every word and action will be
reported, by spies, to the King of France."
For three months, Desmond Kennedy worked hard at drill and sword
exercise. He became a general favourite in the regiment, owing to
his good temper, high spirits, and readiness to join in everything
that was going on.
He went over, several times, to Saint Germain. At first, the
king's counsellors looked but coldly upon him, and he would have
ceased to come there, had it not been for the unaffected pleasure
shown by the king at his visits. In time, however, two of the
principal men at the little court requested him to have a
conversation with them, before going into the king's chamber.
"You will understand, Mr. Kennedy," one of them said, when they
had seated themselves in a quiet spot in the garden; "that we,
standing in the position of His Majesty's counsellors, are in a
position of great responsibility. His Majesty, as we admit is but
natural, chafes over the inaction to which he is condemned by
circumstances; and is apt, at times, to express his desire for
action in terms which, if they came to the ears of King Louis, as
we have every reason to believe is sometimes the case, would do
him and the cause serious injury. Naturally, we should be glad for
him to have companions of his own age, but it behoves us to be
most careful that such companionship should not add to our
difficulties in this direction; and we should view with
satisfaction a friendship between the young king and one who, like
yourself, is nearly of his own age and, as we can see, full of
spirit and energy. In these matters the king is deficient; but it
would be better that he should, for the present, remain as he is,
rather than that he should, in acquiring more manly habits, grow
still more impatient and discontented with his position.
"We have naturally taken some little trouble in finding out how
you stand in your regiment, and we hear nothing but good of you.
You are much liked by your comrades, pay the greatest attention to
your military exercises, and are regarded as one who will, some
day, do much credit to the regiment; and we feel that, in most
respects, your influence could not but be advantageous to the
young king; but the good that this might do him would be more than
balanced, were you to render him still more impatient than he is
for action. You may well suppose that we, exiles as we have been
for so many years from our country, are not less impatient than he
for the day of action; but we know that such action must depend
upon the King of France, and not upon ourselves. We would gladly
risk all, in an effort to place him on the throne of England, to
repair past injustices and cruel wrongs; but, were we to move
without the assistance of Louis, instead of achieving that object
we might only bring fresh ruin, confiscations, and death upon the
royalists of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Are you of our
opinion?"
"Completely so, sir. Of course, I know but little of what is
passing, save in the neighbourhood where I have been brought up;
but I know that there, even among the king's most devoted
adherents, there is a feeling that nothing can possibly be done
until France lends her aid, in earnest. The English army is far
stronger than it was when we were last in arms, and when William
had to rely, almost entirely, upon his Dutch troops and Dutch
generals; while the friends of the Stuarts are almost without
arms, without leaders, and without organization."
"That is good, Mr. Kennedy; and, if we were to sanction King
James's forming an intimacy with you, can I understand that we
could rely upon your not using your influence to add to his
impatience for action, and discontent with his present position?"
"Certainly, sir. Being so recently from Ireland, I could assure
him that even his most devoted adherents, there, are of opinion
that no rising could be attended with success, unless backed by
French arms, and especially by the aid of the Irish Brigade, which
has already won such renown for itself, and whose appearance would
excite the greatest enthusiasm among all Irishmen."
"In that case, Mr. Kennedy, so far from throwing any difficulties
in the way of His Majesty seeking your companionship, we shall
encourage him, and shall be glad to see you here, as often as your
military duties will permit."