THE SEARCH FOR ARMS
When the hour of luncheon came, and no guests made their appearance, the
young girls at the castle began to discuss what they should best do. ‘I
know nothing of fine people and their ways,’ said Kate--‘you must take the
whole direction here, Nina.’
‘It is only a question of time, and a cold luncheon can wait without
difficulty.’
And so they waited till three, then till four, and now it was five o’clock;
when Kate, who had been over the kitchen-garden, and the calves’ paddock,
and inspecting a small tract laid out for a nursery, came back to the house
very tired, and, as she said, also very hungry. ‘You know, Nina,’ said she,
entering the room, ‘I ordered no dinner to-day. I speculated on our making
our dinner when your friends lunched; and as they have not lunched, we
have not dined; and I vote we sit down now. I’m afraid I shall not be as
pleasant company as that Mr.--do tell me his name--Walpole--but I pledge
myself to have as good a appetite.’
Nina made no answer. She stood at the open window; her gaze steadily bent
on the strip of narrow road that traversed the wide moor before her.
‘Ain’t you hungry? I mean, ain’t you famished, child?’ asked Kate.
‘No, I don’t think so. I could eat, but I believe I could go without eating
just as well.’
‘Well, I must dine; and if you were not looking so nice and fresh, with a
rose-bud in your hair and your white dress so daintily looped up, I’d ask
leave not to dress.’
‘If you were to smooth your hair, and, perhaps, change your boots--’
‘Oh I know, and become in every respect a little civilised. My poor dear
cousin, what a mission you have undertaken among the savages. Own it
honestly, you never guessed the task that was before you when you came
here.’
‘Oh, it’s very nice savagery, all the same,’ said the other, smiling
pleasantly.
‘There now!’ cried Kate, as she threw her hat to one side, and stood
arranging her hair before the glass. ‘I make this toilet under protest, for
we are going in to luncheon, not dinner, and all the world knows, and all
the illustrated newspapers show, that people do not dress for lunch. And,
by the way, that is something you have not got in Italy. All the women
gathering together in their garden-bonnets and their morning-muslins, and
the men in their knickerbockers and their coarse tweed coats.’
‘I declare I think you are in better spirits since you see these people are
not coming.’
‘It is true. You have guessed it, dearest. The thought of anything
grand--as a visitor; anything that would for a moment suggest the
unpleasant question, Is this right? or, Is that usual? makes me downright
irritable. Come, are you ready? May I offer you my arm?’
And now they were at table, Kate rattling away in unwonted gaiety, and
trying to rally Nina out of her disappointment.
‘I declare Nina, everything is so pretty I am ashamed to eat. Those
chickens near you are the least ornamental things I see. Cut me off a wing.
Oh, I forgot, you never acquired the barbarous art of carving.’
‘I can cut this,’ said Nina, drawing a dish of tongue towards her.
‘What! that marvellous production like a parterre of flowers? It would be
downright profanation to destroy it.’
‘Then shall I give you some of this, Kate?’
‘Why, child, that is strawberry-cream. But I cannot eat all alone; do help
yourself.’
‘I shall take something by-and-by.’
‘What do young ladies in Italy eat when they are--no, I don’t mean in
love--I shall call it--in despair?’
‘Give me some of that white wine beside you. There! don’t you hear a noise?
I’m certain I heard the sound of wheels.’
‘Most sincerely I trust not. I wouldn’t for anything these people should
break in upon us now. If my brother Dick should drop in I’d welcome him,
and he would make our little party perfect. Do you know, Nina, Dick can be
so jolly. What’s that? there are voices there without.’
As she spoke the door was opened, and Walpole entered. The young girls
had but time to rise from their seats, when--they never could exactly say
how--they found themselves shaking hands with him in great cordiality.
‘And your friend--where is he?’
‘Nursing a sore throat, or a sprained ankle, or a something or other. Shall
I confess it--as only a suspicion on my part, however--that I do believe
he was too much shocked at the outrageous liberty I took in asking to be
admitted here to accept any partnership in the impertinence?’
‘We expected you at two or three o’clock,’ said Nina.
‘And shall I tell you why I was not here before? Perhaps you’ll scarcely
credit me when I say I have been five hours on the road.’
‘Five hours! How did you manage that?’
‘In this way. I started a few minutes after twelve from the inn--I on
foot, the car to overtake me.’ And he went on to give a narrative of his
wanderings over the bog, imitating, as well as he could, the driver’s
conversations with him, and the reproaches he vented on his inattention to
the road. Kate enjoyed the story with all the humoristic fun of one who
knew thoroughly how the peasant had been playing with the gentleman, just
for the indulgence of that strange, sarcastic temper that underlies the
Irish nature; and she could fancy how much more droll it would have been to
have heard the narrative as told by the driver of the car.
‘And don’t you like his song, Mr. Walpole!’
‘What, “The Wearing of the Green”? It was the dreariest dirge I ever
listened to.’
‘Come, you shall not say so. When we go into the drawing-room, Nina shall
sing it for you, and I’ll wager you recant your opinion.’
‘And do you sing rebel canticles, Mademoiselle Kostalergi?’
‘Yes, I do all my cousin bids me. I wear a red cloak. How is it called?’
‘Connemara?’
Nina nodded.
‘That’s the name, but I’m not going to say it; and when we go abroad--that
is, on the bog there, for a walk--we dress in green petticoats and wear
very thick shoes.’
‘And, in a word, are very generally barbarous.’
‘Well, if you be really barbarians,’ said Walpole, filling his glass, ‘I
wonder what I would not give to be allowed to join the tribe.’
‘Oh, you’d want to be a sachem, or a chief, or a mystery-man at least; and
we couldn’t permit that,’ cried Kate.
‘No; I crave admission as the humblest of your followers.’
‘Shall we put him to the test, Nina?’
‘How do you mean?’ cried the other.
‘Make him take a Ribbon oath, or the pledge of a United Irishman. I’ve
copies of both in papa’s study.’
‘I should like to see these immensely,’ said Walpole.
‘I’ll see if I can’t find them,’ cried Kate, rising and hastening away.
For some seconds after she left the room there was perfect silence. Walpole
tried to catch Nina’s eye before he spoke, but she continued steadily to
look down, and did not once raise her lids.
‘Is she not very nice--is she not very beautiful?’ asked she, in a low
voice.
‘It is of _you_ I want to speak.’
And he drew his chair closer to her, and tried to take her hand, but she
withdrew it quickly, and moved slightly away.
‘If you knew the delight it is to me to see you again, Nina--well,
Mademoiselle Kostalergi. Must it be Mademoiselle?’
‘I don’t remember it was ever “Nina,”’ said she coldly.
‘Perhaps only in my thoughts. To my heart, I can swear, you were Nina. But
tell me how you came here, and when, and for how long, for I want to know
all. Speak to me, I beseech you. She’ll be back in a moment, and when shall
I have another instant alone with you like this? Tell me how you came
amongst them, and are they really all rebels?’
Kate entered at the instant, saying, ‘I can’t find it, but I’ll have a good
search to-morrow, for I know it’s there.’
‘Do, by all means, Kate, for Mr. Walpole is very anxious to learn if he be
admitted legitimately into this brotherhood--whatever it be; he has just
asked me if we were really all rebels here.’
‘I trust he does not suppose I would deceive him,’ said Kate gravely. ‘And
when he hears you sing “The blackened hearth--the fallen roof,” he’ll not
question _you_, Nina.--Do you know that song, Mr. Walpole?’
He smiled as he said ‘No.’
‘Won’t it be so nice,’ said she, ‘to catch a fresh ingenuous Saxon
wandering innocently over the Bog of Allen, and send him back to his
friends a Fenian!’
‘Make me what you please, but don’t send me away.’
‘Tell me, really, what would you do if we made you take the oath?’
‘Betray you, of course, the moment I got up to Dublin.’
Nina’s eyes flashed angrily, as though such jesting was an offence.
‘No, no, the shame of such treason would be intolerable; but you’d go your
way and behave as though you never saw us.’
‘Oh, he could do that without the inducement of a perjury,’ said Nina, in
Italian; and then added aloud, ‘Let’s go and make some music. Mr. Walpole
sings charmingly, Kate, and is very obliging about it--at least he used to
be.’
[Illustration: ‘How that song makes me wish we were back again where I
heard it first’]
‘I am all that I used to be--towards that,’ whispered he, as she passed him
to take Kate’s arm and walk away.
‘You don’t mean to have a thick neighbourhood about you,’ said Walpole.
‘Have you any people living near?’
‘Yes, we have a dear old friend--a Miss O’Shea, a maiden lady, who lives a
few miles off. By the way, there’s something to show you--an old maid who
hunts her own harriers.’
‘What! are you in earnest?’
‘On my word, it is true! Nina can’t endure her; but Nina doesn’t care for
hare-hunting, and, I’m afraid to say, never saw a badger drawn in her
life.’
‘And have you?’ asked he, almost with horror in his tone.
‘I’ll show you three regular little turnspit dogs to-morrow that will
answer that question.’
‘How I wish Lockwood had come out here with me,’ said Walpole, almost
uttering a thought.
‘That is, you wish he had seen a bit of barbarous Ireland he’d scarcely
credit from mere description. But perhaps I’d have been better behaved
before him. I’m treating you with all the freedom of an old friend of my
cousin’s.’
Nina had meanwhile opened the piano, and was letting her hands stray over
the instrument in occasional chords; and then in a low voice, that barely
blended its tones with the accompaniment, she sang one of those little
popular songs of Italy, called ‘Stornelli’---wild, fanciful melodies, with
that blended gaiety and sadness which the songs of a people are so often
marked by.
‘That is a very old favourite of mine,’ said Walpole, approaching the piano
as noiselessly as though he feared to disturb the singer; and now he stole
into a chair at her side. ‘How that song makes me wish we were back again,
where I heard it first,’ whispered he gently.
‘I forget where that was,’ said she carelessly.
‘No, Nina, you do not,’ said he eagerly; ‘it was at Albano, the day we all
went to Pallavicini’s villa.’
‘And I sang a little French song, “_Si vous n’avez rien à me dire_,” which
you were vain enough to imagine was a question addressed to yourself; and
you made me a sort of declaration; do you remember all that?’
‘Every word of it.’
‘Why don’t you go and speak to my cousin; she has opened the window and
gone out upon the terrace, and I trust you understand that she expects you
to follow her.’ There was a studied calm in the way she spoke that showed
she was exerting considerable self-control.
‘No, no, Nina, it is with you I desire to speak; to see you that I have
come here.’
‘And so you do remember that you made me a declaration? It made me laugh
afterwards as I thought it over.’
‘Made you laugh!’
‘Yes, I laughed to myself at the ingenious way in which you conveyed to me
what an imprudence it was in you to fall in love with a girl who had no
fortune, and the shock it would give your friends when they should hear she
was a Greek.’
‘How can you say such painful things, Nina? how can you be so pitiless as
this?’
‘It was you who had no pity, sir; I felt a deal of pity; I will not deny it
was for myself. I don’t pretend to say that I could give a correct version
of the way in which you conveyed to me the pain it gave you that I was not
a princess, a Borromeo, or a Colonna, or an Altieri. That Greek adventurer,
yes--you cannot deny it, I overheard these words myself. You were talking
to an English girl, a tall, rather handsome person she was--I shall
remember her name in a moment if you cannot help me to it sooner--a Lady
Bickerstaffe--’
‘Yes, there was a Lady Maude Bickerstaffe; she merely passed through Rome
for Naples.’
‘You called her a cousin, I remember.’
‘There is some cousinship between us; I forget exactly in what degree.’
‘Do try and remember a little more; remember that you forgot you had
engaged me for the cotillon, and drove away with that blonde beauty--and
she was a beauty, or had been a few years before--at all events, you lost
all memory of the daughter of the adventurer.’
‘You will drive me distracted, Nina, if you say such things.’
‘I know it is wrong and it is cruel, and it is worse than wrong and cruel,
it is what you English call underbred, to be so individually disagreeable,
but this grievance of mine has been weighing very heavily on my heart, and
I have been longing to tell you so.’
‘Why are you not singing, Nina?’ cried Kate from the terrace. ‘You told me
of a duet, and I think you are bent on having it without music.’
‘Yes, we are quarrelling fiercely,’ said Nina. ‘This gentleman has been
rash enough to remind me of an unsettled score between us, and as he is the
defaulter--’
‘I dispute the debt.’
‘Shall I be the judge between you?’ asked Kate.
‘On no account; my claim once disputed, I surrender it,’ said Nina.
‘I must say you are very charming company. You won’t sing, and you’ll only
talk to say disagreeable things. Shall I make tea, and see if it will
render you more amiable?’
‘Do so, dearest, and then show Mr. Walpole the house; he has forgotten what
brought him here, I really believe.’
‘You know that I have not,’ muttered he, in a tone of deep meaning.
‘There’s no light now to show him the house; Mr. Walpole must come
to-morrow, when papa will be at home and delighted to see him.’
‘May I really do this?’
‘Perhaps, besides, your friend will have found the little inn so
insupportable, that he too will join us. Listen to that sigh of poor Nina’s
and you’ll understand what it is to be dreary!’
‘No; I want my tea.’
‘And it shall have it,’ said Kate, kissing her with a petting affectation
as she left the room.
‘Now one word, only one,’ said Walpole, as he drew his chair close to her:
‘If I swear to you--’
‘What’s that? who is Kate angry with?’ cried Nina, rising and rushing
towards the door. ‘What has happened?’
‘I’ll tell you what has happened,’ said Kate, as with flashing eyes and
heightened colour she entered the room. ‘The large gate of the outer yard,
that is every night locked and strongly barred at sunset, has been left
open, and they tell me that three men have come in, Sally says five, and
are hiding in some of the outhouses.’
‘What for? Is it to rob, think you?’ asked Walpole.
‘It is certainly for nothing good. They all know that papa is away, and
the house so far unprotected,’ continued Kate calmly. ‘We must find out
to-morrow who has left the gate unbolted. This was no accident, and now
that they are setting fire to the ricks all round us, it is no time for
carelessness.’
‘Shall we search the offices and the outbuildings?’ asked Walpole.
‘Of course not; we must stand by the house and take care that they do not
enter it. It’s a strong old place, and even if they forced an entrance
below, they couldn’t set fire to it.’
‘Could they force their way up?’ asked Walpole.
‘Not if the people above have any courage. Just come and look at the stair;
it was made in times when people thought of defending themselves.’ They
issued forth now together to the top of the landing, where a narrow, steep
flight of stone steps descended between two walls to the basement-storey.
A little more than half-way down was a low iron gate or grille of
considerable strength; though, not being above four feet in height, it
could have been no great defence, which seemed, after all, to have been its
intention. ‘When this is closed,’ said Kate, shutting it with a heavy bang,
‘it’s not such easy work to pass up against two or three resolute people at
the top; and see here,’ added she, showing a deep niche or alcove in the
wall, ‘this was evidently meant for the sentry who watched the wicket: he
could stand here out of the reach of all fire.’
‘Would you not say she was longing for a conflict?’ said Nina, gazing at
her.
‘No, but if it comes I’ll not decline it.’
‘You mean you’ll defend the stair?’ asked Walpole.
She nodded assent.
‘What arms have you?’
‘Plenty; come and look at them. Here,’ said she, entering the dining-room,
and pointing to a large oak sideboard covered with weapons, ‘Here is
probably what has led these people here. They are going through the country
latterly on every side, in search of arms. I believe this is almost the
only house where they have not called.’
‘And do they go away quietly when their demands are complied with?’
‘Yes, when they chance upon people of poor courage, they leave them with
life enough to tell the story.--What is it, Mathew?’ asked she of the old
serving-man who entered the room.
‘It’s the “boys,” miss, and they want to talk to you, if you’ll step out on
the terrace. They don’t mean any harm at all.’
‘What do they want, then?’
‘Just a spare gun or two, miss, or an ould pistol, or a thing of the kind
that was no use.’
‘Was it not brave of them to come here, when my father was from home?
Aren’t they fine courageous creatures to come and frighten two lone
girls--eh, Mat?’
‘Don’t anger them, miss, for the love of Joseph! don’t say anything hard;
let me hand them that ould carbine there, and the fowling-piece; and if
you’d give them a pair of horse-pistols, I’m sure they’d go away quiet.’
A loud noise of knocking, as though with a stone, at the outer door, broke
in upon the colloquy, and Kate passed into the drawing-room, and opened
the window, out upon the stone terrace which overlooked the yard: ‘Who is
there?--who are you?--what do you want?’ cried she, peering down into the
darkness, which, in the shadow of the house, was deeper.
‘We’ve come for arms,’ cried a deep hoarse voice.
‘My father is away from home--come and ask for them when he’s here to
answer you.’
A wild, insolent laugh from below acknowledged what they thought of this
speech.
‘Maybe that was the rayson we came now, miss,’ said a voice, in a lighter
tone.
‘Fine courageous fellows you are to say so! I hope Ireland has more of such
brave patriotic men.’
‘You’d better leave that, anyhow,’ said another, and as he spoke he
levelled and fired, but evidently with intention to terrify rather than
wound, for the plaster came tumbling down from several feet above her head;
and now the knocking at the door was redoubled, and with a noise that
resounded through the house.
‘Wouldn’t you advise her to give up the arms and let them go?’ said Nina,
in a whisper to Walpole; but though she was deadly pale there was no tremor
in her voice.
‘The door is giving way, the wood is completely rotten. Now for the stairs.
Mr. Walpole, you’re going to stand by me?’
‘I should think so, but I’d rather you’d remain here. I know my ground
now.’
‘No, I must be beside you. You’ll have to keep a rolling fire, and I can
load quicker than most people. Come along now, we must take no light with
us--follow me.’
‘Take care,’ said Nina to Walpole as he passed, but with an accent so full
of a strange significance it dwelt on his memory long after.
‘What was it Nina whispered you as you came by?’ said Kate.
‘Something about being cautious, I think,’ said he carelessly.
‘Stay where you are, Mathew,’ said the girl, in a severe tone, to the old
servant, who was officiously pressing forward with a light.
‘Go back!’ cried she, as he persisted in following her.
‘That’s the worst of all our troubles here, Mr. Walpole,’ said she boldly;
‘you cannot depend on the people of your own household. The very people you
have nursed in sickness, if they only belong to some secret association,
will betray you!’ She made no secret of her words, but spoke them loud
enough to be heard by the group of servants now gathered on the landing.
Noiseless she tripped down the stairs, and passed into the little dark
alcove, followed by Walpole, carrying any amount of guns and carbines under
his arm.
‘These are loaded, I presume?’ said he.
‘All, and ready capped. The short carbine is charged with a sort of
canister shot, and keep it for a short range--if they try to pass over
the iron gate. Now mind me, and I will give you the directions I heard my
father give on this spot once before. Don’t fire till they reach the foot
of the stair.’
‘I cannot hear you,’ said he, for the din beneath, where they battered at
the door, was now deafening.
‘They’ll be in in another moment--there, the lock has fallen off--the door
has given way,’ whispered she; ‘be steady now, no hurry--steady and calm.’
As she spoke, the heavy oak door fell to the ground, and a perfect silence
succeeded to the late din. After an instant, muttering whispers could be
heard, and it seemed as if they doubted how far it was safe to enter, for
all was dark within. Something was said in a tone of command, and at the
moment one of the party flung forward a bundle of lighted straw and tow,
which fell at the foot of the stairs, and for a few seconds lit up the
place with a red lurid gleam, showing the steep stair and the iron bars of
the little gate that crossed it.
‘There’s the iron wicket they spoke of,’ cried one. ‘All right, come on!’
And the speaker led the way, cautiously, however, and slowly, the others
after him.
‘No, not yet,’ whispered Kate, as she pressed her hand upon Walpole’s.
‘I hear voices up there,’ cried the leader from below. ‘We’ll make them
leave that, anyhow.’ And he fired off his gun in the direction of the upper
part of the stair; a quantity of plaster came clattering down as the ball
struck the ceiling.
‘Now,’ said she. ‘Now, and fire low!’
He discharged both barrels so rapidly that the two detonations blended
into one, and the assailants replied by a volley, the echoing din almost
sounding like artillery. Fast as Walpole could fire, the girl replaced
the piece by another; when suddenly she cried, ‘There is a fellow at the
gate--the carbine--the carbine now, and steady.’ A heavy crash and a cry
followed his discharge, and snatching the weapon from him, she reloaded and
handed it back with lightning speed. ‘There is another there,’ whispered
she; and Walpole moved farther out, to take a steadier aim. All was still,
not a sound to be heard for some seconds, when the hinges of the gate
creaked and the bolt shook in the lock. Walpole fired again, but as he did
so, the others poured in a rattling volley, one shot grazing his cheek,
and another smashing both bones of his right arm, so that the carbine fell
powerless from his hand. The intrepid girl sprang to his side at once, and
then passing in front of him, she fired some shots from a revolver in quick
succession. A low, confused sound of feet and a scuffling noise followed,
when a rough, hoarse voice cried out, ‘Stop firing; we are wounded, and
going away.’
‘Are you badly hurt?’ whispered Kate to Walpole.
‘Nothing serious: be still and listen!’
‘There, the carbine is ready again. Oh, you cannot hold it--leave it to
me,’ said she.
From the difficulty of removal, it seemed as though one of the party
beneath was either killed or badly wounded, for it was several minutes
before they could gain the outer door.
‘Are they really retiring?’ whispered Walpole.
‘Yes; they seem to have suffered heavily.’
‘Would you not give them one shot at parting--that carbine is charged?’
asked he anxiously.
‘Not for worlds,’ said she; ‘savage as they are, it would be ruin to break
faith with them.’
‘Give me a pistol, my left hand is all right.’ Though he tried to speak
with calmness, the agony of pain he was suffering so overcame him that he
leaned his head down, and rested it on her shoulder.
‘My poor, poor fellow,’ said she tenderly, ‘I would not for the world that
this had happened.’
‘They’re gone, Miss Kate, they’ve passed out at the big gate, and they’re
off,’ whispered old Mathew, as he stood trembling behind her.
‘Here, call some one, and help this gentleman up the stairs, and get a
mattress down on the floor at once; send off a messenger, Sally, for Doctor
Tobin. He can take the car that came this evening, and let him make what
haste he can.’
‘Is he wounded?’ said Nina, as they laid him down on the floor. Walpole
tried to smile and say something, but no sound came forth.
‘My own dear, dear Cecil,’ whispered Nina, as she knelt and kissed his
hand, ‘tell me it is not dangerous.’ He had fainted.