Although Kate had, as we have already stated, encountered Lauder on more
than one occasion in Buffalo, without any very uneasy feeling as to his
unpleasant proximity, yet she was not totally devoid of suspicion that
she was, in some way or other, the cause of his presence in that city.
True, she had rejected his heart and hand in the most decided manner;
but then there was something about the man so obtrusive and yet so
cunning, that at times she could have wished herself totally beyond
has reach or hopes, as the wife of the noble young fellow she loved so
ardently. When in Toronto, she had been sorely tried by the insidious
attacks and insinuations of her persecutor, bearing upon the character
and vocation of Nicholas, regarding which he appeared to be exceedingly
well informed. He spoke of the uniform faithlessness of soldiers in
general--their wretched mode of life and morals, together with the
stigma that invariably attached to the wife of any individual who wore
a private’s coat in the service. In addition, he seemed to be conversant
with the pecuniary embarrassments of Kate, as well as with the
circumstances of the chancery suit, and, as he averred, the settled
opinion at home, that it would be soon decided, and, without any
possible doubt, in favor of the son of Philip Darcy. All this was
heart-rending in the extreme to the poor girl; but yet her faith never
faltered for a single moment in the truth and fidelity of her lover; and
what cared she for aught else in the world, so long as he was left her
without spot or blemish. Observing the foothold that Lauder had in
the house and estimation of her relatives, she did not feel herself
at liberty to treat him with all the contempt and severity that he
deserved; so that she was too often, for appearances sake and out of
respect for the feelings of those under whose roof she was, constrained
not to notice in anger much that had escaped his lips regarding
Nicholas, or, rather, the possible character which he had turned out to
be under the baneful influence of a soldier’s life. When, however, she
accepted the hospitality and kindness of that portion of the family who
had taken up their residence in Buffalo, and who were the staunchest
friends of young Barry, she, at once, cut the acquaintance of her
rejected suitor, and, as already observed, passed him once or twice in
the street without deigning to notice him.
This probed Lauder to the quick, and aroused all the fiend within him;
and now that Barry had reached Canada, he determined to work in some way
the ruin of either the one or the other, in order to make their union
impossible, were even the most revolting crime necessary to that end.
While dwelling on this subject, every vestige of humanity disappeared
from the heart and face of the wretch who would encompass such ruin, and
that, too, in the case of two individuals who had never injured him in
thought, word or act. He was slighted and rejected by the only woman on
earth that he cared to marry, and he would be avenged at even the
risk of his life. He would dog her footsteps were she to move to the
uttermost ends of the earth, until an opportunity to put his infernal
plans in operation arrived; and as he had abundance of means at his
command, he would enlist in his service those who would not hesitate to
sell their souls for gold. Moved by this diabolical impulse, he followed
her to Buffalo, and there made the acquaintance of two unmitigated
villains who kept a low gambling house in one of the vilest streets in
the city, and who were capable of any atrocity known to the annals of
crime. These two vagabonds were already refugees from Canadian justice,
having been concerned in one of the bank robberies so frequent in the
Provinces, and had an accomplice of their own stamp on the Canadian
frontier, not far from their present den, to whom they were in the habit
of secretly forwarding goods stolen on the American side, to be
kept until the excitement regarding the robbery had subsided, and an
opportunity presented itself for disposing of them in some part of the
Province where detection would be impossible. Under the cover of night
one or the other of these wretches frequently stole across the lines
and visited this locality, where he remained concealed until a fitting
period occurred for returning to his old haunt.
Of this stamp were the two persons whom Lauder now took into his
confidence and employment in relation to the abduction of Kate McCarthy
from her friends, and her transportation into Canada to some place of
secrecy and of safety, until he should be able to force her into an
alliance with him, or failing in this, make such a disposition of her
as should, at least, place an eternal barrier between her and Nicholas.
Among their friends and acquaintances these two villains were known as
“black Jack” and the “Kid,”--the former as forbidding a specimen of the
human race as ever breathed the vital air. He was low and thick set,
with a neck like a bull, and a frame of prodigious strength.. His nose
was broad and flat, his month large, his ears of immense size, his
forehead low and retreating, while the breadth between his ears at the
back of his head was inconceivable.
His companion in crime, the Kid, in so far as external appearance was
concerned, was his intensified antipodes. He was slightly formed and
of rather prepossessing appearance; and were it not for a sinister
expression of his full watery, grey eyes, remarkable when excited by
anger, and some coarse and sensual lines about his mouth, perceptible
upon all occasions, he might pass unnoticed among the thousands that
crowded daily the locality in which he lived. He was the general, Jack
the army--he plotted, Jack executed; and thus it was, that, through his
consummate cunning, they had both been enabled to avoid justice so
long. They ostensibly kept a sort of drinking saloon, from which they
professed to banish all disreputable characters, and which, through the
clear-headedness of the one, and the awe in which the great personal
strength of the other was held, was unusually free from the disreputable
rows and scenes that generally characterize such places.
If the Kid and Black Jack differed from each other in personal
appearance, they were nearly if not quite as much opposed to each other
in dress. Jack’s attire was of the very coarsest description, and
always slovenly in appearance. No matter what the season of the year,
he invariably wore a dark blue flannel shirt, a short, heavy over-coat,
with huge, deep pockets, thick, iron-shod boots, coarse, loose trousers,
and a huge, greasy, slouched, hat, of black felt, invariably pulled
over his eyes when out through the city. The only difference as to the
disposition of his attire, touching winter and summer, was, that during
the former season he always served his customers with his slouched hat
and jacket on, while throughout the warmest part of the latter, he
was invariably to be found behind his dark, dingy bar, with his shirt
sleeves tucked up and his collar unbuttoned and thrown open, displaying
a pair of huge, swarthy arms, covered with coarse, black hair, and
a broad and massive chest, presenting a similar aspect, and which
exhibited all the characteristics, in this connection, of the most
savage denizens of the forest. Such, then, were the personal appearance
and the character of the two men whom Lauder now visited by stealth from
time to time, but always in a disguise which defied detection, and which
was made up with the most consummate skill.
Unconscious of all the danger that surrounded her, Kate still kept the
even tenor of her way, happy in the prospect of soon becoming the wife
of the man she loved; while Barry, on the other hand, felt but little
apprehension as to any fears that she had expressed in relation to the
proximity of Lander; believing, as he did, that she was totally beyond
his reach or power, and that his presence in Buffalo was occasioned by
some business not in any degree connected with her. What, he argued, had
she to fear from any man whom she despised, and from whose society she
had deliberately and pointedly estranged herself? The days of feudal
abductions had passed away, and if in this practical age a woman refused
to become the wife of any man, she had a perfect right so to do, and
there the matter ended. Besides, was she not beneath the roof of her own
relatives, who loved her with the sincerest warmth, and who were able to
protect her until she could claim the shelter of his own breast, as he
stood by her side the husband of her heart. All this went to reassure
him, so that when he sat down to reply to the letter which urged him to
procure his discharge at once, he wrote in the most cheering and happy
manner, bidding her to be of good heart, that she was safe from the
importunities and machinations of any individual who sought to gain her
affections; but intimating, at the same time, that he should at once, or
as soon as practicable, leave the army and as quickly as possible join
her on the other side of the great lakes.
In the love that exists between two true Irish hearts that have been
pledged to each other, deliberately and solemnly on the threshold of man
and womanhood, there is often something so confiding, so unreasoning
and so unselfish, as to put one in good humor with humanity. There is
no country on earth in which the love of gain intermixes with the
affections of the heart to so small an extent as in Ireland. In this
relation we, from time to time, witness in the Green Isle such genuine
and grateful glimpses of the better phases of human nature, that, no
matter to what subsequent inconvenience and embarrassments they may
tend, they, for the time being, at least, charm us into a recognition
of something that is, after all, beautiful and truthful in our souls.
Except where the inexorable tyranny of birth creeps in, our matrimonial
alliances are, for the most part, purged of the cool calculation of
Scotland, or the bread and beef considerations of the English. This may
be censurable in us, and doubtless it is; but, still, the charge
lies more against our heads than our hearts. It is a fact the most
indisputable, that in England most of the marriages in high or low life
are those of _convenance_, while in Ireland the contrary is the case.
Even the poorest Irish girl in the land gives her hand only, where she
can bestow her heart; nor, as a general thing, can any amount of wealth
induce her to ignore her pride or affections in this connection; while,
should her love be given to even the simplest peasant that ever stood by
her milking pail, she is totally beyond the reach of temptation. On the
part of both there is an out-going of souls in this direction that
may be said to be peculiar to Ireland. Completely outside all physical
accidents and circumstances, there is a commingling of spirit which
ratifies a compact for all time, and lives in the future as well as the
present. Stretching beyond the hoar, such souls are not dependent upon
mere personal contact or intercourse for the vitality of the passion
that animates them, for they are ever _en rapport_ with each other,
and clasped breast to breast wherever their individual physical
organizations may be. In this manner they bid defiance to fate and all
materiality; living on, undivided, and secure in the continuence of the
power that binds them to each other. Such individualities become one
spiritually--all their aspirations are identical--all their sentiments
are the same, and so closely do they become united, that you cannot
destroy the one without destroying the other. We know and feel,
beyond any shadow of doubt, that there are beings whose loss or total
annihilation we should be unable to survive, and if doomed to live,
whose place could never be filled in our souls, throughout the endless
ages of eternity. Hence the generous and beautiful, provision of the All
Wise and All Good. To every human heart, that interprets His Laws aright
and conforms to His will, he presents that beautiful counterpart which,
although mysteriously foreign, is yet, so delightfully and essentially,
a part and parcel of our two-fold nature.
In no country in the world, then, does this divine law of natural
affinities prevail more than in Ireland; and in no case had it ever been
more clearly illustrated than in the case of Nicholas Barry and Kate
McCarthy; as each, if so inclined, could have sacrificed the other in
forming a matrimonial alliance respectively, identified with what was
believed, to be undoubted wealth. For the hand of Kate, long before
she left her native land, there had been more than one suitor of means;
while handsome Nick, previous to his entering the army, was an object of
the warmest admiration on the part of many a damsel whose prospects were
of the most flattering description. But all to no purpose; not one of
the wealthy women was Kate McCarthy in the one case, and not a single
well-to-do gentleman was Nick Barry, in the other. So this made all the
difference; and Nick and Kate, without pausing to cast their horoscope,
gave themselves to each other, as already described, by the banks of
the Shannon--a river whose bright murmuring waters have reflected more
beautiful eyes and manly forms than those of any other in Europe, or
perhaps the world. Without a thought for the future at the moment of
which we have already spoken, they plighted their faith for all time
and eternity; and well they kept their vows; although previous to the
arrival of Nicholas in America, they had been upwards of three years
separated from each other-the one leading the life of a soldier in a
sunny clime, and the other, on a far distant shore, hoping for the hour
when they should be once more side by side.
When, however, our hero found himself the plighted lover of the being he
adored, and discovered himself simultaneously separated from her toy
the most cruel, unexpected and perverse fate, he bent, as previously
observed, every energy towards effecting his release from the bonds he
had assumed for her sake. He consequently, instead of wasting his hours
in sullen and useless repining, set actively to work and kept both his
mind and his body in a healthy condition; never losing confidence for a
moment, in his own ability to secure freedom or permitting the hope to
be shaken, that he should ultimately join the woman of his love in the
new world, and there realize an independence for both. And here we may
observe, that this feature in the character of Nicholas was one of the
noblest and most dignified that could possibly distinguish any member of
the race to which we belong. The world has been lost to many a man, from
the fact of his not sitting down to look circumstances fairly in the
face, with a full determination to grapple with them and give them a
tussel for if wherever a good man and true places any reasonable
and legitimate object before him, no matter how dark the clouds that
surround him, in nine cases out often he achieves it. The grave error in
this connection is, that finding our inability to move the great mass
of our difficulties out of our road _en bloc_ and at once, ignoring the
lesson taught by the constant drop that wears the stone, we sit down
overwhelmed, and never set sturdily about trying to remove it piecemeal.
The most profusely illustrated lesson that heaven has yet taught to
man, is that of industry and perseverence. Whether within the fragrant
chambers of the golden hive, or in the kingdoms of the busy ant, or mid
the curious nests that swing from forest boughs, we roam in thought,
we find what perseverence can accomplish, and that too, by steps almost
imperceptible in themselves. It is the individual atoms that build up
the mighty and effective aggregate that overawes all opposition, and
like an avalanche sweeps all resistance before it. The loftiest pyramid
that throws its shadow over the desert to-day, and that dwarfs at its
foot the beholder into the most incomparable insignificance, incapable
of being removed in fragments not larger than a pea, from its present
site to the other side of the globe; and the grandest structure ever
erected by human hands, has been built up from almost imperceptible
beginnings, into the imposing dimensions which so overshadow the admirer
and excite in his bosom feelings of almost superstitious awe. So that
look where we may, throughout the whole range of nature, of science or
of art, we find tee lesson of industry and perseverence inculcated in
the most impressive manner, and in a language that should reach and
influence our spirit struggles to the core.
If less distinct than we have here delineated them, such were the
sentiments and convictions that influenced the actions and conduct of
our hero and heroine when fate had separated them. Moved by the same
impulses, they both set about accomplishing the same end, and in the
same manner. Barry’s pen and Kate’s needle flew at intervals; and the
result, as already intimated, was, that each had accumulated a sum
sufficient to effect this release from the army, and that it now was to
be brought into requisition for the purpose of accomplishing that end.
Had Nicholas been made of that sort of stuff which, with the
greatest possible degree of coolness, lays a friend or relative under
contribution, he might have been able, through its instrumentality, to
realize a sufficient sum to have taken him to America, at the
period that Kate sailed, without having had recourse to the dreadful
alternative of enlisting in the English army; but not being built of
such questionable material, he bowed beneath the heavy yoke, believing,
as he did, that however distasteful and derogatory to his feelings, it
was more honorable and independent to be indebted to himself, even at
so great a sacrifice, for the means of joining his beloved on the other
side of the Atlantic, than to be constrained to traverse its trackless
waste, weighed down with the conviction, that, for the purpose of
accomplishing an object that could at least be honestly attained
otherwise, he had deprived those whom he had left behind of that of
which they themselves stood sorely in need. Besides, he felt satisfied
from what he knew of himself, and the prospects open to even an
industrious soldier on the shores of Canada, he should soon be able to
relieve himself of his bondage, and stand erect once more, freed from
the humiliation of the uniform he wore. But, as already seen, the fates
were against him in the first moments of his military career; and for
the time every fibre of his being was almost crushed beneath the most
frightful tension to which could have been possibly subjected. How
dreadful must have been the appalling intelligence of the countermand of
his regiment to the Mediteranean, when it first fell upon his ear; and
how sufficient was the awful announcement to crush any ordinary mortal.
Yet, with the elasticity which is ever inseparable from a true and noble
spirit, when the first crash of the news bore him almost to the earth,
he steadily began to brace himself against it, and ultimately, though by
slow and painful degrees, straightened himself beneath it, and, although
it was not the less heavy, stood erect under it at last, and bore it
squarely upon his shoulders.
Poor Kate, although brave, too, had at first almost given up hope,
when, a few days after her arrival at Quebec, she learned the fatal
intelligence contained in the letter already referred to; but soon
perceiving, as he did, that nothing was to be achieved by useless
murmuring or hopeless inactivity, she shook herself, as free as her
strength would permit, from the dreadful incubus of the sorrow that
bowed her to the earth, and turned whatever talents she possessed to
good account; working night and day to accomplish the great and only
desire of her heart, and trusting to heaven for the rest. In this way
her constant and unwearied exertions lightened much of the load that
could not have failed under less favorable promptings, to have crushed
her completely, and have, in all human probability, consigned her to a
premature grave.
And thus, we see, that these two brave young spirits had all but
accomplished the wish of their hearts, at the period at which our story
opens, and that they were now but simply awaiting the hour when Nicholas
should be able to exchange the hated red jacket that he wore, for a
dress more in consonance with not only his own feelings, but those of
the being he so faithfully loved.