stealthily passing through it, I found myself in a room containing
nothing but a few raw hides, which rendered the atmosphere nearly
intolerable.
Here I checked myself, for I heard voices in busy conversation in the
next room.
I stole softly to the door which separated the chamber in which I stood
from that from which the voices proceeded.
A moment served to convince me that any attempt upon it would be worse
than fruitless, for it was secured upon the outside by a strong lock,
besides two bars, all which I was enabled to ascertain by means of
the same defect in the joining of the planks which I have mentioned as
belonging to the inner door.
I had approached this door very softly, so that, my proximity being
wholly unsuspected by the speakers within, the conversation continued
without interruption.
Planting myself close to the door, I applied my eye to one of the chinks
which separated the boards, and thus obtained a full view of the chamber
and its occupants.
It was the very apartment into which I had been first conducted. The
outer door, which faced the one at which I stood, was closed, and at a
small table were seated the only tenants of the room--two officers, one
of whom was Captain Oliver. The latter was reading a paper, which I made
no doubt was the document with which I had been entrusted.
'The fellow deserves it, no doubt' said the junior officer. 'But,
methinks, considering our orders from head-quarters, you deal somewhat
too hastily.'
'Nephew, nephew,' said Captain Oliver, 'you mistake the tenor of our
orders. We were directed to conciliate the peasantry by fair and gentle
treatment, but not to suffer spies and traitors to escape. This packet
is of some value, though not, in all its parts, intelligible to me. The
bearer has made his way hither under a disguise, which, along with the
other circumstances of his appearance here, is sufficient to convict him
as a spy.'
There was a pause here, and after a few minutes the younger officer
said:
'Spy is a hard term, no doubt, uncle; but it is possible--nay, likely,
that this poor devil sought merely to carry the parcel with which he was
charged in safety to its destination. Pshaw! he is sufficiently punished
if you duck him, for ten minutes or so, between the bridge and the
mill-dam.'
'Young man,' said Oliver, somewhat sternly, 'do not obtrude your advice
where it is not called for; this man, for whom you plead, murdered your
own father!'
I could not see how this announcement affected the person to whom it was
addressed, for his back was towards me; but I conjectured, easily, that
my last poor chance was gone, for a long silence ensued. Captain Oliver
at length resumed:
'I know the villain well. I know him capable of any crime; but, by ----,
his last card is played, and the game is up. He shall not see the moon
rise to-night.'
There was here another pause.
Oliver rose, and going to the outer door, called:
'Hewson! Hewson!'
A grim-looking corporal entered.
'Hewson, have your guard ready at eight o'clock, with their carbines
clean, and a round of ball-cartridge each. Keep them sober; and,
further, plant two upright posts at the near end of the bridge, with
a cross one at top, in the manner of a gibbet. See to these matters,
Hewson: I shall be with you speedily.'
The corporal made his salutations, and retired.
Oliver deliberately folded up the papers with which I had been
commissioned, and placing them in the pocket of his vest, he said:
'Cunning, cunning Master Hardress Fitzgerald hath made a false step;
the old fox is in the toils. Hardress Fitzgerald, Hardress Fitzgerald, I
will blot you out.'
He repeated these words several times, at the same time rubbing his
finger strongly upon the table, as if he sought to erase a stain:
'I WILL BLOT YOU OUT!'
There was a kind of glee in his manner and expression which chilled my
very heart.
'You shall be first shot like a dog, and then hanged like a dog: shot
to-night, and hung to-morrow; hung at the bridgehead--hung, until your
bones drop asunder!'
It is impossible to describe the exultation with which he seemed to
dwell upon, and to particularise the fate which he intended for me.
I observed, however, that his face was deadly pale, and felt assured
that his conscience and inward convictions were struggling against his
cruel resolve. Without further comment the two officers left the room,
I suppose to oversee the preparations which were being made for the deed
of which I was to be the victim.
A chill, sick horror crept over me as they retired, and I felt, for the
moment, upon the brink of swooning. This feeling, however, speedily
gave place to a sensation still more terrible. A state of excitement so
intense and tremendous as to border upon literal madness, supervened; my
brain reeled and throbbed as if it would burst; thoughts the wildest
and the most hideous flashed through my mind with a spontaneous rapidity
that scared my very soul; while, all the time, I felt a strange and
frightful impulse to burst into uncontrolled laughter.
Gradually this fearful paroxysm passed away. I kneeled and prayed
fervently, and felt comforted and assured; but still I could not view
the slow approaches of certain death without an agitation little short
of agony.
I have stood in battle many a time when the chances of escape were
fearfully small. I have confronted foemen in the deadly breach. I have
marched, with a constant heart, against the cannon's mouth. Again and
again has the beast which I bestrode been shot under me; again and again
have I seen the comrades who walked beside me in an instant laid for
ever in the dust; again and again have I been in the thick of battle,
and of its mortal dangers, and never felt my heart shake, or a single
nerve tremble: but now, helpless, manacled, imprisoned, doomed, forced
to watch the approaches of an inevitable fate--to wait, silent and
moveless, while death as it were crept towards me, human nature was
taxed to the uttermost to bear the horrible situation.
I returned again to the closet in which I had found myself upon
recovering from the swoon.
The evening sunshine and twilight was fast melting into darkness, when
I heard the outer door, that which communicated with the guard-room in
which the officers had been amusing themselves, opened and locked again
upon the inside.
A measured step then approached, and the door of the wretched cell in
which I lay being rudely pushed open, a soldier entered, who carried
something in his hand; but, owing to the obscurity of the place, I could
not see what.
'Art thou awake, fellow?' said he, in a gruff voice. 'Stir thyself; get
upon thy legs.'
His orders were enforced by no very gentle application of his military
boot.
'Friend,' said I, rising with difficulty, 'you need not insult a dying
man. You have been sent hither to conduct me to death. Lead on! My
trust is in God, that He will forgive me my sins, and receive my soul,
redeemed by the blood of His Son.'
There here intervened a pause of some length, at the end of which the
soldier said, in the same gruff voice, but in a lower key:
'Look ye, comrade, it will be your own fault if you die this night. On
one condition I promise to get you out of this hobble with a whole skin;
but if you go to any of your d----d gammon, by G--, before two hours are
passed, you will have as many holes in your carcase as a target.'
'Name your conditions,' said I, 'and if they consist with honour, I will
never balk at the offer.'
'Here they are: you are to be shot to-night, by Captain Oliver's orders.
The carbines are cleaned for the job, and the cartridges served out to
the men. By G--, I tell you the truth!'
Of this I needed not much persuasion, and intimated to the man my
conviction that he spoke the truth.
'Well, then,' he continued, 'now for the means of avoiding this ugly
business. Captain Oliver rides this night to head-quarters, with the
papers which you carried. Before he starts he will pay you a visit,
to fish what he can out of you with all the fine promises he can make.
Humour him a little, and when you find an opportunity, stab him in the
throat above the cuirass.'
'A feasible plan, surely,' said I, raising my shackled hands, 'for a man
thus completely crippled and without a weapon.'
'I will manage all that presently for you,' said the soldier. 'When you
have thus dealt with him, take his cloak and hat, and so forth, and put
them on; the papers you will find in the pocket of his vest, in a red
leather case. Walk boldly out. I am appointed to ride with Captain
Oliver, and you will find me holding his horse and my own by the door.
Mount quickly, and I will do the same, and then we will ride for our
lives across the bridge. You will find the holster-pistols loaded in
case of pursuit; and, with the devil's help, we shall reach Limerick
without a hair hurt. My only condition is, that when you strike Oliver,
you strike home, and again and again, until he is FINISHED; and I trust
to your honour to remember me when we reach the town.'
I cannot say whether I resolved right or wrong, but I thought my
situation, and the conduct of Captain Oliver, warranted me in acceding
to the conditions propounded by my visitant, and with alacrity I told
him so, and desired him to give me the power, as he had promised to do,
of executing them.
With speed and promptitude he drew a small key from his pocket, and in
an instant the manacles were removed from my hands.
How my heart bounded within me as my wrists were released from the
iron gripe of the shackles! The first step toward freedom was made--my
self-reliance returned, and I felt assured of success.
'Now for the weapon,' said I.
'I fear me, you will find it rather clumsy,' said he; 'but if well
handled, it will do as well as the best Toledo. It is the only thing I
could get, but I sharpened it myself; it has an edge like a skean.'
He placed in my hand the steel head of a halberd. Grasping it firmly, I
found that it made by no means a bad weapon in point of convenience; for
it felt in the hand like a heavy dagger, the portion which formed the
blade or point being crossed nearly at the lower extremity by a small
bar of metal, at one side shaped into the form of an axe, and at the
other into that of a hook. These two transverse appendages being muffled
by the folds of my cravat, which I removed for the purpose, formed a
perfect guard or hilt, and the lower extremity formed like a tube, in
which the pike-handle had been inserted, afforded ample space for the
grasp of my hand; the point had been made as sharp as a needle, and the
metal he assured me was good.
Thus equipped he left me, having observed, 'The captain sent me to
bring you to your senses, and give you some water that he might find you
proper for his visit. Here is the pitcher; I think I have revived you
sufficiently for the captain's purpose.'
With a low savage laugh he left me to my reflections.
Having examined and adjusted the weapon, I carefully bound the ends of
the cravat, with which I had secured the cross part of the spear-head,
firmly round my wrist, so that in case of a struggle it might not
easily be forced from my hand; and having made these precautionary
dispositions, I sat down upon the ground with my back against the wall,
and my hands together under my coat, awaiting my visitor.
The time wore slowly on; the dusk became dimmer and dimmer, until it
nearly bordered on total darkness.
'How's this?' said I, inwardly; 'Captain Oliver, you said I should
not see the moon rise to-night. Methinks you are somewhat tardy in
fulfilling your prophecy.'
As I made this reflection, a noise at the outer door announced the
entrance of a visitant. I knew that the decisive moment was come, and
letting my head sink upon my breast, and assuring myself that my
hands were concealed, I waited, in the attitude of deep dejection, the
approach of my foe and betrayer.
As I had expected, Captain Oliver entered the room where I lay. He was
equipped for instant duty, as far as the imperfect twilight would allow
me to see; the long sword clanked upon the floor as he made his way
through the lobbies which led to my place of confinement; his ample
military cloak hung upon his arm; his cocked hat was upon his head, and
in all points he was prepared for the road.
This tallied exactly with what my strange informant had told me.
I felt my heart swell and my breath come thick as the awful moment which
was to witness the death-struggle of one or other of us approached.
Captain Oliver stood within a yard or two of the place where I sat, or
rather lay; and folding his arms, he remained silent for a minute or
two, as if arranging in his mind how he should address me.
'Hardress Fitzgerald,' he began at length, 'are you awake? Stand up, if
you desire to hear of matters nearly touching your life or death. Get
up, I say.'
I arose doggedly, and affecting the awkward movements of one whose hands
were bound,
'Well,' said I, 'what would you of me? Is it not enough that I am thus
imprisoned without a cause, and about, as I suspect, to suffer a most
unjust and violent sentence, but must I also be disturbed during the
few moments left me for reflection and repentance by the presence of my
persecutor? What do you want of me?'
'As to your punishment, sir,' said he, 'your own deserts have no doubt
suggested the likelihood of it to your mind; but I now am with you to
let you know that whatever mitigation of your sentence you may look for,
must be earned by your compliance with my orders. You must frankly and
fully explain the contents of the packet which you endeavoured this day
to destroy; and further, you must tell all that you know of the designs
of the popish rebels.'
'And if I do this I am to expect a mitigation of my punishment--is it
not so?'
Oliver bowed.
'And what IS this mitigation to be? On the honour of a soldier, what is
it to be?' inquired I.
'When you have made the disclosure required,' he replied, 'you shall
hear. 'Tis then time to talk of indulgences.'
'Methinks it would then be too late,' answered I. 'But a chance is a
chance, and a drowning man will catch at a straw. You are an honourable
man, Captain Oliver. I must depend, I suppose, on your good faith. Well,
sir, before I make the desired communication I have one question more
to put. What is to befall me in case that I, remembering the honour of
a soldier and a gentleman, reject your infamous terms, scorn your
mitigations, and defy your utmost power?'
'In that case,' replied he, coolly, 'before half an hour you shall be a
corpse.'
'Then God have mercy on your soul!' said I; and springing forward, I
dashed the weapon which I held at his throat.
I missed my aim, but struck him full in the mouth with such force that
most of his front teeth were dislodged, and the point of the spear-head
passed out under his jaw, at the ear.
My onset was so sudden and unexpected that he reeled back to the wall,
and did not recover his equilibrium in time to prevent my dealing a
second blow, which I did with my whole force. The point unfortunately
struck the cuirass, near the neck, and glancing aside it inflicted but a
flesh wound, tearing the skin and tendons along the throat.
He now grappled with me, strange to say, without uttering any cry of
alarm; being a very powerful man, and if anything rather heavier and
more strongly built than I, he succeeded in drawing me with him to the
ground. We fell together with a heavy crash, tugging and straining in
what we were both conscious was a mortal struggle. At length I succeeded
in getting over him, and struck him twice more in the face; still he
struggled with an energy which nothing but the tremendous stake at issue
could have sustained.
I succeeded again in inflicting several more wounds upon him, any one
of which might have been mortal. While thus contending he clutched his
hands about my throat, so firmly that I felt the blood swelling the
veins of my temples and face almost to bursting. Again and again I
struck the weapon deep into his face and throat, but life seemed to
adhere in him with an almost INSECT tenacity.
My sight now nearly failed, my senses almost forsook me; I felt upon
the point of suffocation when, with one desperate effort, I struck him
another and a last blow in the face. The weapon which I wielded had
lighted upon the eye, and the point penetrated the brain; the body
quivered under me, the deadly grasp relaxed, and Oliver lay upon the
ground a corpse!
As I arose and shook the weapon and the bloody cloth from my hand, the
moon which he had foretold I should never see rise, shone bright and
broad into the room, and disclosed, with ghastly distinctness, the
mangled features of the dead soldier; the mouth, full of clotting blood
and broken teeth, lay open; the eye, close by whose lid the fatal wound
had been inflicted, was not, as might have been expected, bathed in
blood, but had started forth nearly from the socket, and gave to the
face, by its fearful unlikeness to the other glazing orb, a leer more
hideous and unearthly than fancy ever saw. The wig, with all its rich
curls, had fallen with the hat to the floor, leaving the shorn head
exposed, and in many places marked by the recent struggle; the rich lace
cravat was drenched in blood, and the gay uniform in many places soiled
with the same.
It is hard to say, with what feelings I looked upon the unsightly and
revolting mass which had so lately been a living and a comely man. I had
not any time, however, to spare for reflection; the deed was done--the
responsibility was upon me, and all was registered in the book of that
God who judges rightly.
With eager haste I removed from the body such of the military
accoutrements as were necessary for the purpose of my disguise. I
buckled on the sword, drew off the military boots, and donned them
myself, placed the brigadier wig and cocked hat upon my head, threw
on the cloak, drew it up about my face, and proceeded, with the papers
which I found as the soldier had foretold me, and the key of the outer
lobby, to the door of the guard-room; this I opened, and with a firm
and rapid tread walked through the officers, who rose as I entered, and
passed without question or interruption to the street-door. Here I was
met by the grimlooking corporal, Hewson, who, saluting me, said:
'How soon, captain, shall the file be drawn out and the prisoner
despatched?'
'In half an hour,' I replied, without raising my voice.
The man again saluted, and in two steps I reached the soldier who held
the two horses, as he had intimated.
'Is all right?' said he, eagerly.
'Ay,' said I, 'which horse am I to mount?'
He satisfied me upon this point, and I threw myself into the saddle; the
soldier mounted his horse, and dashing the spurs into the flanks of the
animal which I bestrode, we thundered along the narrow bridge. At the
far extremity a sentinel, as we approached, called out, 'Who goes there?
stand, and give the word!' Heedless of the interruption, with my heart
bounding with excitement, I dashed on, as did also the soldier who
accompanied me.
'Stand, or I fire! give the word!' cried the sentry.
'God save the king, and to hell with the prince!' shouted I, flinging
the cocked hat in his face as I galloped by.
The response was the sharp report of a carbine, accompanied by the whiz
of a bullet, which passed directly between me and my comrade, now riding
beside me.
'Hurrah!' I shouted; 'try it again, my boy.'
And away we went at a gallop, which bid fair to distance anything like
pursuit.
Never was spur more needed, however, for soon the clatter of horses'
hoofs, in full speed, crossing the bridge, came sharp and clear through
the stillness of the night.
Away we went, with our pursuers close behind; one mile was passed,
another nearly completed. The moon now shone forth, and, turning in the
saddle, I looked back upon the road we had passed.
One trooper had headed the rest, and was within a hundred yards of us.
I saw the fellow throw himself from his horse upon the ground.
I knew his object, and said to my comrade:
'Lower your body--lie flat over the saddle; the fellow is going to
fire.'
I had hardly spoken when the report of a carbine startled the echoes,
and the ball, striking the hind leg of my companion's horse, the poor
animal fell headlong upon the road, throwing his rider head-foremost
over the saddle.
My first impulse was to stop and share whatever fate might await my
comrade; but my second and wiser one was to spur on, and save myself and
my despatch.
I rode on at a gallop, turning to observe my comrade's fate. I saw his
pursuer, having remounted, ride rapidly up to him, and, on reaching the
spot where the man and horse lay, rein in and dismount.
He was hardly upon the ground, when my companion shot him dead with one
of the holster-pistols which he had drawn from the pipe; and, leaping
nimbly over a ditch at the side of the road, he was soon lost among the
ditches and thornbushes which covered that part of the country.
Another mile being passed, I had the satisfaction to perceive that the
pursuit was given over, and in an hour more I crossed Thomond Bridge,
and slept that night in the fortress of Limerick, having delivered
the packet, the result of whose safe arrival was the destruction of
William's great train of artillery, then upon its way to the besiegers.
Years after this adventure, I met in France a young officer, who I found
had served in Captain Oliver's regiment; and he explained what I had
never before understood--the motives of the man who had wrought my
deliverance. Strange to say, he was the foster-brother of Oliver, whom
he thus devoted to death, but in revenge for the most grievous wrong
which one man can inflict upon another!
'THE QUARE GANDER.'
Being a Twelfth Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis
Purcell, P.P. of Drumcoolagh.
As I rode at a slow walk, one soft autumn evening, from the once noted
and noticeable town of Emly, now a squalid village, towards the no less
remarkable town of Tipperary, I fell into a meditative mood.
My eye wandered over a glorious landscape; a broad sea of corn-fields,
that might have gladdened even a golden age, was waving before me;
groups of little cabins, with their poplars, osiers, and light mountain
ashes, clustered shelteringly around them, were scattered over the
plain; the thin blue smoke arose floating through their boughs in the
still evening air. And far away with all their broad lights and shades,
softened with the haze of approaching twilight, stood the bold wild
Galties.
As I gazed on this scene, whose richness was deepened by the melancholy
glow of the setting sun, the tears rose to my eyes, and I said:
'Alas, my country! what a mournful beauty is thine. Dressed in
loveliness and laughter, there is mortal decay at thy heart: sorrow,
sin, and shame have mingled thy cup of misery. Strange rulers have
bruised thee, and laughed thee to scorn, and they have made all thy
sweetness bitter. Thy shames and sins are the austere fruits of thy
miseries, and thy miseries have been poured out upon thee by foreign
hands. Alas, my stricken country! clothed with this most pity-moving
smile, with this most unutterably mournful loveliness, thou
sore-grieved, thou desperately-beloved! Is there for thee, my country, a
resurrection?'
I know not how long I might have continued to rhapsodize in this strain,
had not my wandering thoughts been suddenly recalled to my own immediate
neighbourhood by the monotonous clatter of a horse's hoofs upon the
road, evidently moving, at that peculiar pace which is neither a
walk nor a trot, and yet partakes of both, so much in vogue among the
southern farmers.
In a moment my pursuer was up with me, and checking his steed into a
walk he saluted me with much respect. The cavalier was a light-built
fellow, with good-humoured sun-burnt features, a shrewd and lively
black eye, and a head covered with a crop of close curly black hair, and
surmounted with a turf-coloured caubeen, in the packthread band of which
was stuck a short pipe, which had evidently seen much service.
My companion was a dealer in all kinds of local lore, and soon took
occasion to let me see that he was so.
After two or three short stories, in which the scandalous and
supernatural were happily blended, we happened to arrive at a narrow
road or bohreen leading to a snug-looking farm-house.