upon the subject of the letter was naturally great, so, smothering
any little scruples which I might have felt, I resolved to look at the
address of the letter which lay, as my husband had left it, with its
face upon the table. I accordingly drew it over to me and turned up the
direction.
For two or three moments I could scarce believe my eyes, but there
could be no mistake--in large characters were traced the words, 'To the
Archangel Gabriel in Heaven.'
I had scarcely returned the letter to its original position, and in
some degree recovered the shock which this unequivocal proof of insanity
produced, when the closet door was unlocked, and Lord Glenfallen
re-entered the study, carefully closing and locking the door again upon
the outside.
'Whom have you there?' inquired I, making a strong effort to appear
calm.
'Perhaps,' said he, musingly, 'you might have some objection to seeing
her, at least for a time.'
'Who is it?' repeated I.
'Why,' said he, 'I see no use in hiding it--the blind Dutchwoman. I have
been with her the whole morning. She is very anxious to get out of that
closet; but you know she is odd, she is scarcely to be trusted.'
A heavy gust of wind shook the door at this moment with a sound as if
something more substantial were pushing against it.
'Ha, ha, ha!--do you hear her?' said he, with an obstreperous burst of
laughter.
The wind died away in a long howl, and Lord Glenfallen, suddenly
checking his merriment, shrugged his shoulders, and muttered:
'Poor devil, she has been hardly used.'
'We had better not tease her at present with questions,' said I, in as
unconcerned a tone as I could assume, although I felt every moment as if
I should faint.
'Humph! may be so,' said he. 'Well, come back in an hour or two, or when
you please, and you will find us here.'
He again unlocked the door, and entered with the same precautions
which he had adopted before, locking the door upon the inside; and as
I hurried from the room, I heard his voice again exerted as if in eager
parley.
I can hardly describe my emotions; my hopes had been raised to the
highest, and now, in an instant, all was gone--the dreadful consummation
was accomplished--the fearful retribution had fallen upon the guilty
man--the mind was destroyed--the power to repent was gone.
The agony of the hours which followed what I would still call my AWFUL
interview with Lord Glenfallen, I cannot describe; my solitude was,
however, broken in upon by Martha, who came to inform me of the arrival
of a gentleman, who expected me in the parlour.
I accordingly descended, and, to my great joy, found my father seated by
the fire.
This expedition upon his part was easily accounted for: my
communications had touched the honour of the family. I speedily informed
him of the dreadful malady which had fallen upon the wretched man.
My father suggested the necessity of placing some person to watch him,
to prevent his injuring himself or others.
I rang the bell, and desired that one Edward Cooke, an attached servant
of the family, should be sent to me.
I told him distinctly and briefly the nature of the service required
of him, and, attended by him, my father and I proceeded at once to the
study. The door of the inner room was still closed, and everything in
the outer chamber remained in the same order in which I had left it.
We then advanced to the closet-door, at which we knocked, but without
receiving any answer.
We next tried to open the door, but in vain--it was locked upon the
inside. We knocked more loudly, but in vain.
Seriously alarmed, I desired the servant to force the door, which was,
after several violent efforts, accomplished, and we entered the closet.
Lord Glenfallen was lying on his face upon a sofa.
'Hush!' said I, 'he is asleep.' We paused for a moment.
'He is too still for that,' said my father.
We all of us felt a strong reluctance to approach the figure.
'Edward,' said I, 'try whether your master sleeps.'
The servant approached the sofa where Lord Glenfallen lay. He leant his
ear towards the head of the recumbent figure, to ascertain whether the
sound of breathing was audible. He turned towards us, and said:
'My lady, you had better not wait here; I am sure he is dead!'
'Let me see the face,' said I, terribly agitated; 'you MAY be mistaken.'
The man then, in obedience to my command, turned the body round, and,
gracious God! what a sight met my view. He was, indeed, perfectly dead.
The whole breast of the shirt, with its lace frill, was drenched with
gore, as was the couch underneath the spot where he lay.
The head hung back, as it seemed, almost severed from the body by a
frightful gash, which yawned across the throat. The instrument which had
inflicted it was found under his body.
All, then, was over; I was never to learn the history in whose
termination I had been so deeply and so tragically involved.
The severe discipline which my mind had undergone was not bestowed in
vain. I directed my thoughts and my hopes to that place where there is
no more sin, nor danger, nor sorrow.
Thus ends a brief tale whose prominent incidents many will recognise
as having marked the history of a distinguished family; and though it
refers to a somewhat distant date, we shall be found not to have taken,
upon that account, any liberties with the facts, but in our statement
of all the incidents to have rigorously and faithfully adhered to the
truth.
AN ADVENTURE OF HARDRESS FITZGERALD, A ROYALIST CAPTAIN.
Being an Eleventh Extract from the Legacy of the late
Francis Purcell, P.P. of Drumcoolagh.
The following brief narrative contains a faithful account of one of
the many strange incidents which chequered the life of Hardress
Fitzgerald--one of the now-forgotten heroes who flourished during the
most stirring and, though the most disastrous, by no means the least
glorious period of our eventful history.
He was a captain of horse in the army of James, and shared the fortunes
of his master, enduring privations, encountering dangers, and submitting
to vicissitudes the most galling and ruinous, with a fortitude and a
heroism which would, if coupled with his other virtues have rendered the
unhappy monarch whom he served, the most illustrious among unfortunate
princes.
I have always preferred, where I could do so with any approach to
accuracy, to give such relations as the one which I am about to submit
to you, in the first person, and in the words of the original narrator,
believing that such a form of recitation not only gives freshness to
the tale, but in this particular instance, by bringing before me and
steadily fixing in my mind's eye the veteran royalist who himself
related the occurrence which I am about to record, furnishes an
additional stimulant to my memory, and a proportionate check upon my
imagination.
As nearly as I can recollect then, his statement was as follows:
After the fatal battle of the Boyne, I came up in disguise to Dublin,
as did many in a like situation, regarding the capital as furnishing
at once a good central position of observation, and as secure a
lurking-place as I cared to find.
I would not suffer myself to believe that the cause of my royal master
was so desperate as it really was; and while I lay in my lodgings, which
consisted of the garret of a small dark house, standing in the lane
which runs close by Audoen's Arch, I busied myself with continual
projects for the raising of the country, and the re-collecting of the
fragments of the defeated army--plans, you will allow, sufficiently
magnificent for a poor devil who dared scarce show his face abroad in
the daylight.
I believe, however, that I had not much reason to fear for my personal
safety, for men's minds in the city were greatly occupied with public
events, and private amusements and debaucheries, which were, about
that time, carried to an excess which our country never knew before,
by reason of the raking together from all quarters of the empire, and
indeed from most parts of Holland, the most dissolute and desperate
adventurers who cared to play at hazard for their lives; and thus there
seemed to be but little scrutiny into the characters of those who sought
concealment.
I heard much at different times of the intentions of King James and his
party, but nothing with certainty.
Some said that the king still lay in Ireland; others, that he had
crossed over to Scotland, to encourage the Highlanders, who, with Dundee
at their head, had been stirring in his behoof; others, again, said
that he had taken ship for France, leaving his followers to shift for
themselves, and regarding his kingdom as wholly lost, which last was the
true version, as I afterwards learned.
Although I had been very active in the wars in Ireland, and had done
many deeds of necessary but dire severity, which have often since
troubled me much to think upon, yet I doubted not but that I might
easily obtain protection for my person and property from the Prince of
Orange, if I sought it by the ordinary submissions; but besides that my
conscience and my affections resisted such time-serving concessions, I
was resolved in my own mind that the cause of the royalist party was by
no means desperate, and I looked to keep myself unimpeded by any pledge
or promise given to the usurping Dutchman, that I might freely and
honourably take a share in any struggle which might yet remain to be
made for the right.
I therefore lay quiet, going forth from my lodgings but little, and that
chiefly under cover of the dusk, and conversing hardly at all, except
with those whom I well knew.
I had like once to have paid dearly for relaxing this caution; for going
into a tavern one evening near the Tholsel, I had the confidence to
throw off my hat, and sit there with my face quite exposed, when a
fellow coming in with some troopers, they fell a-boozing, and being
somewhat warmed, they began to drink 'Confusion to popery,' and the
like, and to compel the peaceable persons who happened to sit there, to
join them in so doing.
Though I was rather hot-blooded, I was resolved to say nothing to
attract notice; but, at the same time, if urged to pledge the toasts
which they were compelling others to drink, to resist doing so.
With the intent to withdraw myself quietly from the place, I paid my
reckoning, and putting on my hat, was going into the street, when the
countryman who had come in with the soldiers called out:
'Stop that popish tom-cat!'
And running across the room, he got to the door before me, and, shutting
it, placed his back against it, to prevent my going out.
Though with much difficulty, I kept an appearance of quietness, and
turning to the fellow, who, from his accent, I judged to be northern,
and whose face I knew--though, to this day, I cannot say where I had
seen him before--I observed very calmly:
'Sir, I came in here with no other design than to refresh myself,
without offending any man. I have paid my reckoning, and now desire to
go forth. If there is anything within reason that I can do to satisfy
you, and to prevent trouble and delay to myself, name your terms, and if
they be but fair, I will frankly comply with them.'
He quickly replied:
'You are Hardress Fitzgerald, the bloody popish captain, that hanged the
twelve men at Derry.'
I felt that I was in some danger, but being a strong man, and used to
perils of all kinds, it was not easy to disconcert me.
I looked then steadily at the fellow, and, in a voice of much
confidence, I said:
'I am neither a Papist, a Royalist, nor a Fitzgerald, but an honester
Protestant, mayhap, than many who make louder professions.'
'Then drink the honest man's toast,' said he. 'Damnation to the pope,
and confusion to skulking Jimmy and his runaway crew.'
'Yourself shall hear me,' said I, taking the largest pewter pot that
lay within my reach. 'Tapster, fill this with ale; I grieve to say I can
afford nothing better.'
I took the vessel of liquor in my hand, and walking up to him, I first
made a bow to the troopers who sat laughing at the sprightliness of
their facetious friend, and then another to himself, when saying, 'G----
damn yourself and your cause!' I flung the ale straight into his face;
and before he had time to recover himself, I struck him with my whole
force and weight with the pewter pot upon the head, so strong a blow,
that he fell, for aught I know, dead upon the floor, and nothing but the
handle of the vessel remained in my hand.
I opened the door, but one of the dragoons drew his sabre, and ran at
me to avenge his companion. With my hand I put aside the blade of the
sword, narrowly escaping what he had intended for me, the point actually
tearing open my vest. Without allowing him time to repeat his thrust,
I struck him in the face with my clenched fist so sound a blow that he
rolled back into the room with the force of a tennis ball.
It was well for me that the rest were half drunk, and the evening dark;
for otherwise my folly would infallibly have cost me my life. As it was,
I reached my garret in safety, with a resolution to frequent taverns no
more until better times.
My little patience and money were wellnigh exhausted, when, after much
doubt and uncertainty, and many conflicting reports, I was assured that
the flower of the Royalist army, under the Duke of Berwick and General
Boisleau, occupied the city of Limerick, with a determination to hold
that fortress against the prince's forces; and that a French fleet of
great power, and well freighted with arms, ammunition, and men, was
riding in the Shannon, under the walls of the town. But this last report
was, like many others then circulated, untrue; there being, indeed, a
promise and expectation of such assistance, but no arrival of it till
too late.
The army of the Prince of Orange was said to be rapidly approaching the
town, in order to commence the siege.
On hearing this, and being made as certain as the vagueness and
unsatisfactory nature of my information, which came not from any
authentic source, would permit; at least, being sure of the main point,
which all allowed--namely, that Limerick was held for the king--and
being also naturally fond of enterprise, and impatient of idleness, I
took the resolution to travel thither, and, if possible, to throw myself
into the city, in order to lend what assistance I might to my former
companions in arms, well knowing that any man of strong constitution
and of some experience might easily make himself useful to a garrison in
their straitened situation.
When I had taken this resolution, I was not long in putting it into
execution; and, as the first step in the matter, I turned half of the
money which remained with me, in all about seventeen pounds, into small
wares and merchandise such as travelling traders used to deal in; and
the rest, excepting some shillings which I carried home for my immediate
expenses, I sewed carefully in the lining of my breeches waistband,
hoping that the sale of my commodities might easily supply me with
subsistence upon the road.
I left Dublin upon a Friday morning in the month of September, with a
tolerably heavy pack upon my back.
I was a strong man and a good walker, and one day with another travelled
easily at the rate of twenty miles in each day, much time being lost
in the towns of any note on the way, where, to avoid suspicion, I was
obliged to make some stay, as if to sell my wares.
I did not travel directly to Limerick, but turned far into Tipperary,
going near to the borders of Cork.
Upon the sixth day after my departure from Dublin I learned, CERTAINLY,
from some fellows who were returning from trafficking with the soldiers,
that the army of the prince was actually encamped before Limerick, upon
the south side of the Shannon.
In order, then, to enter the city without interruption, I must needs
cross the river, and I was much in doubt whether to do so by boat from
Kerry, which I might have easily done, into the Earl of Clare's land,
and thus into the beleaguered city, or to take what seemed the easier
way, one, however, about which I had certain misgivings--which, by the
way, afterwards turned out to be just enough. This way was to cross the
Shannon at O'Brien's Bridge, or at Killaloe, into the county of Clare.
I feared, however, that both these passes were guarded by the prince's
forces, and resolved, if such were the case, not to essay to cross, for
I was not fitted to sustain a scrutiny, having about me, though pretty
safely secured, my commission from King James--which, though a dangerous
companion, I would not have parted from but with my life.
I settled, then, in my own mind, that if the bridges were guarded
I would walk as far as Portumna, where I might cross, though at a
considerable sacrifice of time; and, having determined upon this course,
I turned directly towards Killaloe.
I reached the foot of the mountain, or rather high hill, called
Keeper--which had been pointed out to me as a landmark--lying directly
between me and Killaloe, in the evening, and, having ascended some way,
the darkness and fog overtook me.
The evening was very chilly, and myself weary, hungry, and much in need
of sleep, so that I preferred seeking to cross the hill, though at some
risk, to remaining upon it throughout the night. Stumbling over rocks
and sinking into bog-mire, as the nature of the ground varied, I slowly
and laboriously plodded on, making very little way in proportion to the
toil it cost me.
After half an hour's slow walking, or rather rambling, for, owing to
the dark, I very soon lost my direction, I at last heard the sound of
running water, and with some little trouble reached the edge of a brook,
which ran in the bottom of a deep gully. This I knew would furnish
a sure guide to the low grounds, where I might promise myself that I
should speedily meet with some house or cabin where I might find shelter
for the night.
The stream which I followed flowed at the bottom of a rough and swampy
glen, very steep and making many abrupt turns, and so dark, owing more
to the fog than to the want of the moon (for, though not high, I believe
it had risen at the time), that I continually fell over fragments of
rock and stumbled up to my middle into the rivulet, which I sought to
follow.
In this way, drenched, weary, and with my patience almost exhausted, I
was toiling onward, when, turning a sharp angle in the winding glen, I
found myself within some twenty yards of a group of wild-looking men,
gathered in various attitudes round a glowing turf fire.
I was so surprised at this rencontre that I stopped short, and for a
time was in doubt whether to turn back or to accost them.
A minute's thought satisfied me that I ought to make up to the fellows,
and trust to their good faith for whatever assistance they could give
me.
I determined, then, to do this, having great faith in the impulses of
my mind, which, whenever I have been in jeopardy, as in my life I often
have, always prompted me aright.
The strong red light of the fire showed me plainly enough that the group
consisted, not of soldiers, but of Irish kernes, or countrymen, most
of them wrapped in heavy mantles, and with no other covering for their
heads than that afforded by their long, rough hair.
There was nothing about them which I could see to intimate whether their
object were peaceful or warlike; but I afterwards found that they had
weapons enough, though of their own rude fashion.
There were in all about twenty persons assembled around the fire, some
sitting upon such blocks of stone as happened to lie in the way; others
stretched at their length upon the ground.
'God save you, boys!' said I, advancing towards the party.
The men who had been talking and laughing together instantly paused,
and two of them--tall and powerful fellows--snatched up each a weapon,
something like a short halberd with a massive iron head, an instrument
which they called among themselves a rapp, and with two or three long
strides they came up with me, and laying hold upon my arms, drew me,
not, you may easily believe, making much resistance, towards the fire.
When I reached the place where the figures were seated, the two men
still held me firmly, and some others threw some handfuls of dry fuel
upon the red embers, which, blazing up, cast a strong light upon me.
When they had satisfied themselves as to my appearance, they began to
question me very closely as to my purpose in being upon the hill at
such an unseasonable hour, asking me what was my occupation, where I had
been, and whither I was going.
These questions were put to me in English by an old half-military
looking man, who translated into that language the suggestions which his
companions for the most part threw out in Irish.
I did not choose to commit myself to these fellows by telling them my
real character and purpose, and therefore I represented myself as a
poor travelling chapman who had been at Cork, and was seeking his way
to Killaloe, in order to cross over into Clare and thence to the city of
Galway.
My account did not seem fully to satisfy the men.
I heard one fellow say in Irish, which language I understood, 'Maybe he
is a spy.'
They then whispered together for a time, and the little man who was
their spokesman came over to me and said:
'Do you know what we do with spies? we knock their brains out, my
friend.'
He then turned back to them with whom he had been whispering, and talked
in a low tone again with them for a considerable time.
I now felt very uncomfortable, not knowing what these savages--for they
appeared nothing better--might design against me.
Twice or thrice I had serious thoughts of breaking from them, but the
two guards who were placed upon me held me fast by the arms; and even
had I succeeded in shaking them off, I should soon have been overtaken,
encumbered as I was with a heavy pack, and wholly ignorant of the lie of
the ground; or else, if I were so exceedingly lucky as to escape out of
their hands, I still had the chance of falling into those of some other
party of the same kind.
I therefore patiently awaited the issue of their deliberations, which I
made no doubt affected me nearly.
I turned to the men who held me, and one after the other asked them, in
their own language, 'Why they held me?' adding, 'I am but a poor pedlar,
as you see. I have neither money nor money's worth, for the sake of
which you should do me hurt. You may have my pack and all that it
contains, if you desire it--but do not injure me.'
To all this they gave no answer, but savagely desired me to hold my
tongue.
I accordingly remained silent, determined, if the worst came, to declare
to the whole party, who, I doubted not, were friendly, as were all the
Irish peasantry in the south, to the Royal cause, my real character and
design; and if this avowal failed me, I was resolved to make a desperate
effort to escape, or at least to give my life at the dearest price I
could.
I was not kept long in suspense, for the little veteran who had spoken
to me at first came over, and desiring the two men to bring me after
him, led the way along a broken path, which wound by the side of the
steep glen.
I was obliged willy nilly to go with them, and, half-dragging and
half-carrying me, they brought me by the path, which now became very
steep, for some hundred yards without stopping, when suddenly coming to
a stand, I found myself close before the door of some house or hut,
I could not see which, through the planks of which a strong light was
streaming.
At this door my conductor stopped, and tapping gently at it, it was
opened by a stout fellow, with buff-coat and jack-boots, and pistols
stuck in his belt, as also a long cavalry sword by his side.
He spoke with my guide, and to my no small satisfaction, in French,
which convinced me that he was one of the soldiers whom Louis had sent
to support our king, and who were said to have arrived in Limerick,
though, as I observed above, not with truth.
I was much assured by this circumstance, and made no doubt but that I
had fallen in with one of those marauding parties of native Irish, who,
placing themselves under the guidance of men of courage and experience,
had done much brave and essential service to the cause of the king.
The soldier entered an inner door in the apartment, which opening
disclosed a rude, dreary, and dilapidated room, with a low plank
ceiling, much discoloured by the smoke which hung suspended in heavy
masses, descending within a few feet of the ground, and completely
obscuring the upper regions of the chamber.