When young Barry spoke of the girl of his love, he referred to Kate
McCarthy, now in her twentieth year, and certainly one of the most
beautiful Irish girls that had emigrated to America for many a long day.
Kate and he had been schoolfellows and neighbors from their infancy,
and, as they grew up, were regarded as a sort of “matter of course
match,” from the fact, that they were always together, and apparently
cut out for each other. They were both natives of the county Leitrim,
and born on the banks of the Shannon, in the sweet little town of
Drumsna. It was by the beautiful waters of this noble river that they
first felt that impassioned glow that colors all the after life of man
or woman, and which is as different from the feelings that characterize
early boy or girlhood, as the noon-day solar blaze is from the cold and
placid beams of the pale new moon. There is one point at which the
true passion of love, in all great hearts, leaps into fierce and
instantaneous existence. There may be many imperceptible approaches
to it in some cases, we know, but out of these it is possible to turn
aside. When the hour arrives, however, in a single moment the storming
party, under one wild impulse, unknown before, mounts the ramparts of
the heart, and, after a moment’s sweet confusion, the garrison falls and
is surrendered forever into the hands of the enemy. And thus it was with
our hero and heroine. Although they had long been the dearest of friends
and constant companions--although they had long felt that the happiness
of the one was necessary to that of the other, the great secret of their
existence was never fully revealed to them, until they felt they were
about to be separated from each other for an indefinite period; Kate
to accompany her only relatives to America and poor Barry to enter the
British army, under a pressure of poverty too dreadful to relate. As
already intimated, the prospects of both had been blighted through
oppression and villainy, brought to bear upon them by distant relatives,
who were the infamous agents of a still more infamous government. The
case of Nick, although sore enough in its way, was not so heartrending
as that of Kate. He was of a sex fitted to wrestle with the storms
of life, but she, proud and brave as she was, occupied a different
position. Fortunately for both, however, through the instrumentality
of a small pittance set aside by the Courts in her case, and a kind
relation in that of Barry, their education was far above their
pecuniary pretensions, so that at the age of twenty Kate was really an
accomplished and refined girl, while her lover, at that of twenty-five,
was a dashing young fellow, with a well stored mind and quite as capable
of acquitting himself agreeably in society as any man, no matter
what his rank, in the regiment to which he belonged. It was, then, in
consequence of his education that he was looked up to by his comrades;
although neglected and studiously kept in the back grounds by some of
the officers of his company, who, viewing his attainments through
the medium of their English spectacles, closed the door of preferment
against him, and never suffered a single stripe to appear on his jacket.
With as good blood in his veins as the best of them, and with a sense of
the wrongs inflicted upon his country by the government whose abettors
they were, he could never bring himself to stoop to the fawning and
servility through which the lower grades of rank are attainable, only
in the service; and thus, it was that, from first to last, he was
viewed with an eye of suspicion by his superiors, who regarded him as
an incorrigible young Irishman, who, notwithstanding that he wore
the uniform of a British soldier, had no love for the service or the
interests it represented.
Barry entered the army under the most terrific pressure only. He found
that Kate and her friends were destined for America, and being himself,
at the period, totally destitute of funds and without the means of
realizing them speedily, in a moment of desperation he enlisted in a
regiment that was under sailing orders for that country, in the hope of
being stationed somewhere near the being he loved, and of being able, at
least, to keep up a constant and unbroken correspondence with her until
fortune should turn the wheel in his favor. And so he enlisted and
parted from Kate and her friends, to follow her in a short period across
the Atlantic, and renew his vows of love and affection upon another
shore.
The ship that had borne her away from his view had been scarcely two
days at sea, when the deadly intelligence reached his ear that the
sailing orders of his regiment had been countermanded, and that instead
of proceeding to Quebec, it was to sail for Malta, where it was likely
to remain for perhaps a couple of years. This dreadful news almost
annihilated him. He had made a sacrifice to no purpose, and was now
bound hand and foot beyond the hope of redemption. Before Kate and he
parted, he had agreed to write her to Quebec, in care of a friend, if
anything should occur that might postpone the sailing of his regiment,
or that portion of it that was for foreign service; and now the dreadful
opportunity arrived, when he found himself called upon to convey to
her the intelligence, that not only was the sailing of the regiment
postponed, but its destination altered. In due course the fatal
disclosure reached her, and almost deprived her of life and reason. In
the space of one brief hour she passed through the agony of years.
The being she loved, in the burning ardor of his young soul, had
hastily--thoughtlessly sacrificed his freedom; and all for her! It
had been a sufficient dagger to her soul to see him attired in the
blood-stained uniform of the enemies of her country, yet she knew that
he had been driven by the most inexorable circumstances to assume the
hated garb. But now he was overtaken with twofold desolation--he was
a slave, and beyond the reach of one kind word of solace from her, for
whom he had sacrificed all, save and except that which might be borne to
him, through the ordinary channels, across the trackless deep.
Racked as she was with those torturing reflections, and while the first
wild burst of grief was yet rolling down her cheeks, she determined to
begin her lone, young widowhood by instantly writing to him and bidding
him hope. In this epistle, all the nobility of her true heart and nature
blazed forth so transcendently, and with such fierce, womanly fervor,
that the moment it reached the hands of the young soldier the light was
re-kindled within him, and he at once set about procuring his discharge,
or rather realizing the means of effecting his release from the bonds
into which he had allowed his pure ‘though ungovernable passion to
betray him. His education, as already observed, was most excellent, and
now, when off duty, he turned it to good account, and slowly but surely
began to add daily to what trifle he was able to save from his paltry
pay, in the hope of yet commanding a sufficient sum to purchase his
freedom and enable him, ultimately, to sail for America. In this way,
and during the two years he was stationed at Malta, he spent his spare
moments, being throughout that whole period particularly fortunate in
keeping up what was life to him, an unbroken correspondence with his
beloved.
At the expiration of three years, having been quartered, on his return
from the Mediterranean, for the last one, in England, at length came the
welcome and startling intelligence, that the regiment, now indeed, was
to proceed forthwith to Canada, where it would be likely to remain for
a considerable period. In a delirium of joy he communicated the happy
intelligence to his love, and had just time to receive a hurried epistle
in reply, in which the very arms of the true-hearted and beautiful Kate
seemed thrown open to receive him. For some months previously, however,
she had been informing him, from time to time, of a very disagreeable
position in which she had been placed, through the persistent attentions
paid her by an Irish gentleman named Lauder, who, by some means or
other, had so ingratiated himself with her relatives, as to win them
over to urge his suit; and who was reputed to be a person of means.
These hints, however disagreeable, were always accompanied by a renewal
of the vows they had long since plighted on the banks of the Shannon,
and the fervent assurance that no one living or yet to live should ever
lead Kate McCarthy a bride to the altar, save her own Nicholas Barry.
When Kate and her relatives arrived at Quebec, they remained in that
city but a short period, as they had friends at Toronto, as well as
near Fort Erie and at Buffalo, in the State of New York, whom they
were desirous of visiting, and near whom they had determined to settle
permanently. Unfortunately for Barry, the more intimate guardians
or relatives of Kate had become unfriendly to his suit ever since he
entered the army; impressed, as they had become, with that Irish idea,
that the red coat of a private soldier in the British service was the
most disreputable that could be worn. In this light, therefore, they
encouraged the advances of Lauder, in the hope that absence would so
weaken the first love of Kate, as to induce her to yield ultimately to
her new suitor. But they little new the girl with whom they had to deal;
for when Lauder, under their sanction, made a formal declaration of his
passion to her, she quenched his hopes, as she supposed, forever, by
informing him that both her heart and her hand were previously engaged,
and that were they even at her disposal, she should be quite unable
to bestow them upon any gentleman for whom she did not and could not
entertain a single particle of true love, although he might have secured
her esteem. This rejection, however, did not, as she supposed it would,
preclude the possibility of any further advances from such a quarter,
for Lauder, nothing daunted, kept up the siege when and wherever he
could, without giving absolute offense; so cunningly and intangibly did
he still pursue the object set before him. At last, nevertheless, so
constant were his visits at the house, and so permanent a footing was he
getting in the estimation of her friends, that, after having resided at
Toronto upwards of two years, she left it at the instance of one of the
family, who, on their first arrival in America, had settled in Buffalo,
to which city she proceeded, and in which she now took up her residence.
While in Toronto the thought struck her that she might be able to turn
whatever abilities she had to account, in the hope of being able to
accumulate sufficient funds to aid our young hero in purchasing his
discharge, fearing, as she did, that his own opportunities, in this
relation, would be greatly restricted. So with her needle, and through
the instrumentality of a small private school, she ultimately found
herself mistress of the required amount, and was about to forward it
to Nicholas, at the very period when she received intelligence of his
regiment being ordered to America. She therefore thought it better
to wait until they met, as she had made up her mind to set out, when
apprised of his arrival, for any place in which he might happen to be
quartered, and there plan for their future and his freedom.
In due time Barry reached Quebec, and from thence was ordered, with his
company, to the town in which we first encountered him. Here he was soon
joined by the true-hearted Kate, who remained for a few days with her
cousins, Big Tom and his sister. During this period it was decided that
Nicholas should purchase his discharge when he found that there was any
prospect of the regiment being called home. The reasons for his not
at once availing himself of the freedom he knew he could obtain at any
moment, need not now be referred to more minutely; and as Kate left him
to return to Buffalo, just four months previous to the opening of our
story, after having made more than one pilgrimage from the United States
to spend a few days with her cousins as she averred, it was settled upon
finally, that he should quit the service in the ensuing summer, when
they should become man and wife, as well as residents of the great
Republic of the United States of America.
The intimacy, then, between Big Tom and Nick, is now accounted for in
a satisfactory manner; and thus it was, that whenever the young soldier
got leave to spend a night out of the Fort, he invariably took up his
quarters at the sign of the Harp, where he not only knew he was welcome
on his own account, but was sure to find company that was agreeable to
him, and sympathized with all his aspirations in relation to his poor,
down-trodden country.
Kate McCarthy, as we have already said, was in her twentieth year at
the time we were first introduced to O’Brien and his customers, and
certainly, as previously intimated, a more lovely woman could scarcely
be found in a day’s walk. Her face and figure were absolute mirages of
beauty, while, if there could be such a thing as black sunbeams, her
eyes and hair would have illustrated them to intensity. She was above
the medium height, with a slightly olive complexion that harmonized
superbly with the glorious orbs through which the pure light of her soul
poured forth a mellow blaze, and the dark, heavy tresses that fell in
shining masses upon her pearly shoulders. Nothing, too, could surpass
the intensified loveliness of her soft, rounded arms, and exquisitely
shaped hands and feet, while her delicious mouth and beautifully
chiseled nose and ears were really mysteries of loveliness so rare, that
few could entertain the idea that she who possessed them could have laid
her whole heart at the feet of a common soldier, and that, too, when it
was in her power to turn such charms to high account in the every day
market of society. But she knew Nicholas Barry and the nobility of his
nature, and was aware, in addition, that had he not, like herself, been
the victim of foul play and of a government that fostered crime in its
adherents, he would never have been constrained to swear allegiance to
the flag he both hated and despised, or have been obliged to exchange
the garb of the son of a true Irish gentleman for that which had so
lowered him, in the eyes of her relatives at least. But rich or poor,
in scarlet or homespun, he was all the same to her; and now that he was
almost at her side, and master, in a measure, of his own fate, she only
looked forward to the period when she should have a legal right to his
protection, and to call him by that name which, beyond all others is the
one that lies nearest a woman’s heart.
The relative and his wife with whom Kate lived in Buffalo, were, in
reality, noble and true-hearted people. They had known Nicholas from his
childhood, and had always loved him for his manliness and bold struggles
to gain some position at home in which he might be able to realize a
sufficiency to maintain both himself and the girl of his love, before he
led her to the altar. They had witnessed his repeated failures when he
applied for any vacant situation where his education could be turned to
account, and felt for his dire disappointment upon many an occasion
when he was denied even a subordinate office in connection with the
management of the large property that had once belonged to his family.
With pain and anger they saw his praiseworthy exertions baffled at every
turn, and, unlike the rest of their relations, discovered more of his
self-sacrificing spirit still, in the desperate step he took for the
purpose of joining his betrothed upon a foreign shore--a step which they
would have gladly prevented, had their own slender means been sufficient
to have transported him with them to their new home. Moved by this
spirit of kindness and esteem, these worthy people were the very
main-stay of Kate in the hour of her sorest trial, and now that Barry
was near her once more, they entered heart and hand into all her
projects, and were delighted to know that his discharge should be
purchased before his regiment was ordered to leave the colony.
It must not be presumed, however, that Kate, since her arrival in
America, had permitted herself to be a burden, in even the slightest
degree, upon any of her friends or relations. Far from it; from the
moment that they became settled at Toronto, up to the hour of Nicholas’
arrival in the colony, she not only supported herself through her
industry and perseverence, but contributed, in a degree, to
the maintenance of some of them also. Of course, in view of the
all-absorbing object she had before her, regarding her lover, she could
not be expected to do much in this latter relation; yet she did what
she could, and so satisfied her pride and her conscience. Sometimes the
recollection of the long and weary chancery suit would obtrude itself
upon her, but only to provoke a hopeless and languid smile, prompted
by the conviction that her enemy, whom she had never seen, and who had
recently succeeded to the claims of his father--Philip Darcy, now but
a few months dead--had too much influence with the government and its
legal minions, to permit her to indulge in the slightest hope, that,
were the case decided tomorrow, it could be otherwise than against her.
Consequently, it mattered but little to her whether she was worsted
by Philip the elder or Philip the younger; so, in this way, she
now invariably disposed of the unpleasant matter. Yet, she felt,
notwithstanding, deeply and bitterly upon the subject: and knew that she
was the victim of a most diabolical plot; but she did not permit this
to interfere with her daily avocations, or induce her to sit down in
apathetic sorrow, and repine over a fate that no effort of hers could
influence in any degree whatever.
Still, as may be readily supposed, both from her education and a
knowledge of her own personal wrongs, and those which had for centuries
been inflicted upon the unhappy land of her birth, she was no friend or
admirer of the government or people who had wrought her so much ruin in
this connection. On this head she was most inexorable, and felt that
it was the duty of every true Irishman and Irishwomen in existence, to
conspire, as best they could, against a power which had plunged their
race and country into such frightful ruin; and she believed, firmly,
that, in so far as her native land was concerned, its children were
justified in using any means by which they could rid themselves of
a tyrant and usurper, who, in violation of every law, both human and
divine, subjected them to sword and flame for ages.
It will be perceived, then, that both Kate McCarthy and Nicholas were
influenced by the same just and deadly spirit against England; and that
neither thought it otherwise than meritorious, to hurl that tyrant
to the dust, at any time and under any circumstances. The iron had
penetrated their souls; and now that rumors were afloat touching the
intention of the great organization of Fenianism, which overspread
the American Union, to make a descent upon the Canadas, with a view
to destroying the power of England upon this continent, and ultimately
rescuing Ireland from the grasp of the oppressor, Kate’s eye was lit,
from time to time, with the most patriotic fervor; while the world
could, at any moment, discover the true nature of the fame that burned
within her soul, from the emerald sheen of the silken band which
invariably bound up her raven hair, and encircled her snowy throat.
Once or twice she happened to encounter Lauder in Buffalo, so as to
recognize him without the possibility of mistake; while on several
occasions, she could not divest herself of the idea that he had just
passed her in disguise; although she could not imagine what prompted him
to such secrecy, when she never noticed him since she had left Toronto,
or recognized him on the two occasions when she chanced to meet him in
the public street. Yet, a strange presentiment seemed to impress her
that he had not, after all her plainness with him, abandoned the idea
of obtaining her hand, notwithstanding the repugnance she had always
evinced towards him. Now, however, that Nicholas was almost within hail
of her, and that her friends, in Buffalo at least, were true to her
in every relation, she felt secure from whatever machinations her
imagination conjured up; and, therefore, whenever the subject suddenly
obtruded itself upon her thoughtful moments, she dismissed it as
summarily; reassured by the conviction that she was totally beyond the
reach of any schemes that might have been concocted in relation to her
or her future.
For the purpose, however, of setting the matter at rest forever, she
was resolved that her lover should leave the service now as early as
possible; and, stimulated by this desire, on returning to her residence,
one evening towards the middle of April of the year in which we first
encountered him on the bridge leading from the Fort, she addressed a
letter to Nicholas, urging him to leave the army as soon as practicable,
assigning as a reason the presence of Lauder in Buffalo, whom she had,
as she felt assured, again encountered or rather discovered in the
vicinity of her residence, and adding a further reason, based upon the
rumor, that the Army of the Irish Republic would soon move upon Canada,
and that his regiment could not fail to be called out to oppose it--a
circumstance that would, as she well knew, be the cause of more actual
pain to him, than anything that could possibly occur in the discharge of
what was termed his duty.
This letter Barry received the second day after it was written; and on
consulting with O’Brien, at once set about procuring his discharge; but
as the Colonel of his regiment had gone to the Lower Provinces, from
which he was not to return for a week or two, the matter was left in
abeyance until he should again arrive in town. In due course, however,
he did return, and the necessary application being made, no objection
was offered to granting the discharge, as Barry’s conduct had always
been most unexceptionable since he entered the service.
In this way matters stood, then, on the night on which we found Big
Tom in secret conclave with his two friends, Nick and Burk, in his own
little sanctum; Nick having got leave to stay out until morning, as the
officer in command informed him, it was probably the last request he
should have the power of granting him.