Page images
PDF
EPUB

Now, by my hopes of heaven, I would drug the bowl, or whet the knife, that destroyed you!"

She was still in high excitement, when the door unclosed, and unannounced, Donovan stood before her. Flashing eyes and heightened colour bespoke her agitation, but they added to her natural charms-for she looked a beautiful bacchante. The man who could have seen such loveliness unmoved, must have been insensible indeed. Short was the interview that succeeded-Donovan offered his hand, and Harriette accepted it.

In a few days she knelt at the altar of God with a being she detested. Her vows of constancy and affection were "false as dicers' oaths," and she left the church, a perjured wife and wretched woman!

[blocks in formation]

The dying man cried, "Hold! I've got my gruel !"

Don Juan.

TIME passed rapidly; month succeeded month, and the mountain retreat of Cæsar Blake bloomed in all its beauty. The eventful summer of Ninety-eight had set in with unusual sultriness, for it was the hottest that the oldest man could recollect. For weeks together, not a shower refreshed the parched earth, and a cloudless sun shone with an intensity, that appeared better suited to a southern sky, than to the humid and capricious climate of the Emerald Isle. The insurrection, which, for the past year had been on the eve of explosion, suddenly broke out upon the twenty-third of May, and after a continued scene of ferocious crime, in which a savage population and an excited soldiery, seemed to emulate each other in deeds of blood and rapine, it was suppressed, although, for many a month afterward, the country was devastated by banditti, and the towns disgraced by military

executions.

The ferocious character of the Irish rebellion was not without exceptions. The Western insurgents were of milder

mood than their Leinster brethren; and plunder was the chief crime that marked the out-breaking of the peasantry in Connaught. Few lives were consequently lost among the loyalists, although the vengeance of the executive descended with frightful severity on the miserable adherents of the French, after the republican troops had surrendered at Ballinamuck.

Until the landing of Humbert, the ex-major remained quietly in his romantic dwelling-and from its remoteness, but vague reports of scenes of violence elsewhere transacted, reached this secluded family. While others left their houses, and flocked into garrison towns for protection, Cæsar Blake dwelt in his mountain-home without any apprehension. Indeed, he had little to fear: the shepherds and fishermen who lived among the hills, or occupied the little village on an inlet of the sea, contiguous to the lodge, were utterly unacquainted with passing events, and knew and cared about the progress of the insurrection as little, as though the scene had been placed in Japan.

As my father's isolated residence was entirely out of the line of operations of either royalists or rebels, he had nothing to apprehend but from straggling plunderers, and his own followers were quite sufficient to repel any aggression of that kind. Hence, in his highland retreat, he remained in undisturbed tranquillity; and while the storm was raging at a distance, the glen that contained his youthful bride was a sort of Goshen, where the danger that menaced life and property elsewhere was unknown.

It may be readily imagined, that the gallant major was not' of a temper to remain inactive when martial scenes were passing in his father-land, had not other feelings restrained his military ardour. To leave the timid and beloved stranger with none but servants to comfort and protect her in the wild dwelling in which he had placed her, would be cruel and unmanly. As yet, no overt acts of violence had occurred; and it seemed, judging from appearances, that unnecessary alarm had been raised, and useless severity exercised by those functionaries to whom government had confided the safety of the country. Cæsar Blake, moreover, felt that he had been, on the occasion of his recent retirement from his regiment, very indifferently treated by the commander-inchief; he considered himself an ill-used man, and resolved to remain a quiet spectator of a popular commotion, that he felt persuaded had been fostered for sinister purposes by those în

power, who had ample means of suppression in their hands, so soon as the political objects for which the storm was raised should be effected.

But these resolutions were at once abandoned, when a trusty courier brought him intelligence that the French had landed in force at Killalla. Love and pique were overcome by the master-passion of a soldier, and he determined to set off, without delay, for the head-quarters of the royalists at Castlebar, and join some regiment as a volunteer, until a battle should decide the fate of the bold invaders, and prove how far a French demonstration could produce a general outbreaking of the disaffected. Leaving his little garrison under the charge of Dennis O'Brien, he feigned an apology for a short absence, by pretending that important business called him suddenly to Castle Blake, and took a tender farewell of the gentle Ellen, who little imagined that her adored husband was leaving her arms for a battle-field.

Cæsar Blake selected the cool of the evening for crossing the mountains that divided the neighbouring garrison from his highland home. The dew was rising from the fen, the moon was dancing on the lake, and never had a lovelier evening closed upon the romantic valley he was quitting. Mounted on a trained and powerful charger, with pistols in his holsters, a sabre at his side, and a small valise behind the saddle, to contain a change of linen, the soldier, with his military-cloak flung round him, rode unattended along the path, which wound through the hills for several miles, before it reached the main road. All was silent as the grave, and nothing was heard at this sweet hour, but the challenge of the cock-grouse, or bleatings from the sheep-pens. Now and again the shepherd's dog, roused by the hoof-sounds of the traveller, alarmed the tenants of the lonely bouillie ;* but all else was quiet as the grave, and without interruption the belated traveller reached the defile, which united the mountainpath with the road that led to his destination.

This gorge into the hill-country was formed by a deep ravine between cliffs of grey limestone. The moonlight was shaded by the rocks, and the pass was dark and embarrassed by loose stones which had fallen from the face of the heights. The horseman was consequently obliged to ride with caution, and at a deliberate pace he entered the defile.

He had reached the centre of the pass when the foot-falls

*Bouillies, are summer bivouacs, used by shepherds when depasturing heir flocks in the mountains.

of an advancing traveller were heard. It was an awkward place to meet an enemy. My father tightened his reins, and drew a pistol from the holster, and next moment a rider appeared through the gloom.

66

Who goes there?" demanded the soldier.

"Who are you?" responded the unknown horseman. "Advance a step and I fire !" rejoined the major.

"That liberty I'll take first," was the cool reply, as a pistol flashed, and a bullet whistled past my father.

Cæsar was no sluggard. Promptly the fire was returned, and forcing his horse forward with the spur, in a second he was sword-in-hand alongside his assailant, ready to cut him down.

"Hold!" cried a voice, with a groan. needless, friend. The pistol did its duty. my arm, and I surrender. But, good God! here? What! Cæsar Blake?"

[ocr errors]

"Your sword is

That shot broke whom have we

"The same-Conolly! Is it possible?" and the riders mutually recognised each other.

[ocr errors]

"What a cursed chance!" exclaimed the wounded horseman. Who the devil could have expected that you should at this late hour be wandering among the mountains. That scarlet cloak deceived me, and I took you for a patrol." "And what brings you here, Conolly? No treason, I

trust ?"

[ocr errors]

Why, my dear Cæsar, the truth may fairly out.

I am

sped for many a long day; and as the French say, hors de combat. Humbert is advancing on Castlebar, and I was despatched from head quarters to visit you, and raise the Galway people."

"Me!"

"Ay-you. No folly with friends. I know your heart is with us, and I have a splendid offer from the General. Why, man, you shall be en second,' to himself!”

"Conolly, is this a time for fooling?" said the major.

[ocr errors]

"Fooling!" replied the disabled rider. "Heaven knows I am in sorry humour for that to-night. Why, my arm is shattered and lies as useless by my side as the scabbard of your sabre. No, faith, I know you are with us; for Donnovan apprised General Hutchinson, that you were to hold a principal command. This you may depend on, for it comes through a secret agent, that acquaints us with all the drunken hogs are twaddling about, and the channel is sure."

66

Conolly, you are sadly misinformed. I am at this mo

ment on my way to join the king's troops, and old George has not a more devoted follower."

"Humph! After all he used you scurvily enough if that blanket and chimney business be as it was generally represented," said the stranger, with a sneer.

66

No matter. I swore allegiance to old square-toes. That oath with me is sacred. Not but that I wish the good old gentleman had better military counsellors."

"You would not, however, betray me, Blake?"

[ocr errors]

66

No more than sell my soul to the foul fiend."

I thought so," said the stranger.

"I am," replied the soldier, "a loyal subject, but no spy to divulge the secret which a feather-headed friend communicated, without taking the trouble of asking whether I was with or against him."

"Alas! Cæsar, I am completely bothered."

"Be advised, my dear fellow, by me," returned the soldier. "Hasten to the lodge. Say you have been riding in the dark; that your horse came down, and your arm was broken, and you want it attended to. Remain quietly until the storm blows over, and you will not only save your limb, but most probably your neck into the bargain."

The wounded man was silent for a minute. "You are right, friend Cæsar. I am useless now, and would only be an incumbrance. There are old women

enough on both sides without me, and I should be an ass to stretch a rope, without the sorry satisfaction of striking a blow or two before I graced the gallows. But time presses you and me. Ride for before twelve hours, the French

will enter Castlebar."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Nonsense," replied the soldier.

Nay, honest Cæsar, it is true. And now, God speed you! I shall follow your advice, and avail myself of your kindness. A time may come; but no matter."

"Shall I be interrupted?" asked the royalist.

[ocr errors]

"If

"Likely enough," replied the wounded horseman. you are stopped, inquire. if the moon is near the full.' But ask the question in Irish. I must be off, for I can hardly keep the saddle. Confound you, Cæsar! how close you shoot, where none beside yourself and the owls can know a man from a haystack. And yet I levelled at you pretty correctly."

[ocr errors]

Too close to be agreeable," replied the royalist; "I heard the whistle of the bullet."

« PreviousContinue »