Charles O'Malley ... With ... illustrations by A. Rackham

Front matter

CHARLES O'MALLEY THE IRISH DRAGOON * Ibiii W\_ to criti |\c,, AVwtopVvjsIrvf tlje. off t)°rs_. / 'age 5: CHARLES O'MALLEY THE IRISH DRAGOON BY CHARLES LEVER WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS BY ARTHUR RACKHAM fLottuon SERVICE & PAT ON 5 HENRIETTA STREET The Illustrations in this Volume arc the copyright of Service & Paton, Ijmdon TO THE MOST NOBLE THE MARQUIS OF DOURO M.P., D.C.L., ETC, ETC. My deab Lord, The imperfect attempt to picture forth some scenes of the most brilliant period of my country's history might naturally suggest their dedication to the son of him who gave that era its glory. I feel, however, in the weakness of the effort, the pre sumption of such a thought, and would simply ask of you to uccept these volumes as a souvenir of many delightful hours passed long since in your society, and a testimony of the deep pride with which I regard the honour of your friendship.

Believe me, my dear Lord, With every respect and esteem, Yours most sincerely, THE AUTHOR. Bhuxeij.es, November 1841 A WORD OF EXPLANATION Kind Public, — Having so lately taken my leave of the stage, in a farewell benefit, it is but fitting that I should explain the circum stances which once more bring me before you — that 1 may not appear intrusive where I have met with hut too much indulgence. A blushing debutunt — eutre nous, the most impudent Irishman that ever swaggered down Sackville Street — has requested me to present him to your acquaintance. He has every ambition to be a favourite with vou ; but says — God forgive him — he is too bashful for the foot lights'. He has remarked — as, doubtless, many others have done — upon what very slight grounds, and with what slender pretension, my Confessions have met with favour at the hands of the Press and the public ; and the idea has occurred to him to indite his own.

Had his determination ended here I should have nothing to object to ; but, unfortunately, he expects me to become his Editor, and in some sort responsible for the faults of his production. I have wasted much eloquence and more breath in assuring him that I was no tried favourite of the public, who dared to take liherties with them — that the small rag of reputation I enjoyed was a very scanty covering for my own nakedness; that the plank which swam with one would most inevitably sink with two ; and, lastly, that the indulgence so often be-towed upon a first effort is as frequently converted into censure on the older offender. My arguments have, however, totally failed, and he remains obdurate and unmoved. Under these circumstances I have yielded ; and as, happily for me, the short and pithy direction to the river Thames, in the Critic, " to keep between its banks," has been imitated by my friend, I find all that is required of me is to write my name upon the title — and go in peace.

Chapter I

daly's club house The rain was dashing in torrents against the window-panes, and the wind sweeping in heavy and fitful gusts along the dreary and deserted streets, as a party of three persons sat over their wine, in that stately old pile which once formed the resort of the Irish Members, in College Green, Dublin, aud went by the name of Daly's Club House. The clatter of falling tiles and chimney-pots — the jarring of the window frames and howling of the storm without, seemed little to affect the spirits of those within, as they drew closer to a blazing fire, before which stood a small table covered with the debris of a dessert, and an abundant supply of bottles, whose characteristic length of neck indi cated the rarest wines of France and Germany ; while the portly magnum of claret — the wine, par excellence, of every Irish gentleman of the day — passed rapidly from hand to hand, the conversation did not languish, and many a deep and hearty laugh followed the stories which every now and then were told, as some reminiscence of early days was recalled, or some trait of a former companion remembered.

One of the party, however, was apparently engrossed by other thoughts than those of the mirth and merriment around ; for, in the midst of all, he would turn suddenly from the others, and devote him self to a number of scattered sheets of paper, upoii which he had written some lines, but whose crossed and blotted sentences attested how little success had waited upon his literary labours. This individual was a short, plethoric-looking, white-haired man, of about fifty, with a deep, round voice, and a chuckling, smothering laugh, which, whenever he indulged it, not only shook his own ample person, but generally created a petty earthquake on every side of him.

For the present, I shall not stop to particularise him more closely ; but, when I add that the person in question was a well-known Member of the Irish House of Commons, whose acute understanding and practical good sense were veiled under an affected and well-dissembled habit of blundering, that did far more for his party than the most violent and pointed attacks of his more accurate associates, some of my readers A may anticipate me in pronouncing him to be Sir Harry Boyle. ' -pon his left sat a figure the most unlike him possible : he was a tall, thin, bony mao, with ■ bolt-upright air, and a most saturnine expression ; his eye< were covered by a'deep green shade, which fell far over his face,' but failed to conceal a blue scar, that, crossing his cheek, ended in the angle of his mouth, and imparted to that feature, when he spoke, nn apparently abortive attempt to extend towards his eyebrow ; his upper lip was covered with a grizzly and ill-trimmed moustache, which added much to the ferocity of his look, while a thin aud pointed beard on his chin gave an apparent length to the whole face that completed its rueful character.

His dress was a single-breasted, tightly buttoned frock, in one button-hole of which a red ribbon was fastened, the deco ration of a foreign service, which conferred upon its wearer the title of Count; and though Billy Considine, as he was familiarly called by his friends, was a thorough Irishman in all his feelings and affections, yet he had no objection to the designation he had gained in the Austrian army. The Count was certainly no beauty, but, somehow, very few men of his day had a fancy for telling him so ; a deadlier hand and a steadier eye never covered his man in the Phœnix ; and though he never had a seat in the House, he was always regarded as one of the Government party, who more than once had damped the ardour of an Opposition Member by the very significant threat of "setting Billy at him."

The third figure of the group was a large, powerfully built and handsome man, older than either of the others, but not betraying in his voice and carriage any touch of time. He was attired in the green coat and buff vest which formed the livery of the Club ; and in his tall, ample forehead, clear, well-set eye, and still handsome mouth, bore evidence that no great flattery was necessary at the time which called Godfrey O'Malley the handsomest man in Ireland. " Upon my conscience," said Sir Harry, throwing down his pen with an air of ill-temper, " I can make nothing of it ; I have got into such an infernal habit of making bulls, that I can't write sense when I want it." " Come, come," said O'Malley, " try again, my dear fellow. If you can't succeed, I'm sure Billy and I have no chance." "What have you written?

Let us see," said Considine, drawing the paper towards him, and holding it to the light ; " why, what the devil is all this ? you have made him ' drop down dead after dinner, of a lingering illness, brought on by the debate of yesterday.' " " Oh, impossible 1 " "Well, read it yourself; there it is, and, as if to make the thing less credible, you talk of his • Bill for the Better Recovery of Small Debts.' I'm sure, O'Malley, your last moments were not employed in that manner." " Come, now," said Sir Harry, " I'll set all to rights with a post script. 'Any one who questions the above statement is politely requested to call on Mr. Considine, 16 Kildare Street, who will feel happy to afford him every satisfaction upon Mr. O'Malley's decease, or upon miscellaneous matters." " Worse and worse," said O'Malley.

" Killing another man will never persuade the world that I'm dead." DALY'S CLUB HOUSE 3 " But we'll wake you, and have a glorious funeral." "And if any man doubt the statement, I'll call him out," said the Count. " Or, better still," said Sir Harry, " O'Malley has his action at law for defamation." " I see I'll never get down to Galway at this rate," said O'Malley ; "and as the new election takes place on Tuesday week, time presses. There are more writs flying after me this instant than for all the Government boroughs." " And there will be fewer returns, I fear," said Sir Harry. " Who is the chief creditor ? " asked the Count " Old Stapleton the attorney, in Fleet Street, has most of the mortgages." " Nothing to be done with him in this way," said Considine, balanc ing the cork-screw like a hair-trigger.

"No chance of it" " Maybe," said Sir Harry, " he might come to terms if I were to call and say you are anxious to close accounts, as your death has just taken place. You know what I mean." " I fear so should he, were you to say so. No, no, Boyle, just try a plain straightforward paragraph about my death. We'll have it in Falkner's paper to-morrow ; on Friday the funeral can take place, and, with the blessing o' God, I'll come to life on Saturday at Athlone, in time to canvass the market." " I think it wouldn't be bad if your ghost were to appear to old Timins the tanner, in Naas, on your way down ; you know he arrested you once before." " I prefer a night's sleep," said O'Malley; "but come, finish the squib for the paper." " Stay a little," said Sir Harry, musing ; " it just strikes me that if ever the matter gets out, I may be in some confounded scrape.

Who knows if it is not a breach of privilege to report the death of a Member, and, to tell you truth, I dread the Sergeant and the Speaker's warrant with a very lively fear." " Why, when did you make his acquaintance ? " said the Count. " Is it possible you never heard of Boyle's committal . " said O'Malley ; " you surely must have been abroad at the time ; but it's not too late to tell it yet "Well, it's about two years since old Townsend brought in his Enlistment Bill, and the whole country was scoured for all our voters, who were scattered here and there, never anticipating another call of the House, and supposing that the Session was just over. Among others, up came our friend Harry, here, and the night he arrived they made him a ' monk of the screw,' and very soon made him forget his senatorial dignities.

" On the evening after his reaching town the Bill was brought in, and at two in the morning the division took place — a vote was of too much consequence not to look after it closely — and a Castle messenger was in waiting in Exchequer Street, who, when the debate was closing, put Harry, with three others, into a coach, and brought them down to the House. Unfortunately, however, they mistook their friends, voted against the Bill, and, amid the loudest cheering ofthe Opposition, the Government party were defeated. The rage of the Ministers knew no bounds, and looks of defiance and even threats were exchanged between the Ministers and the deserters. Amid all this poor Harry fell fast asleep, and dreamed that, he was once more in Exchequer Street, pre siding among the monks, and mixing another tumbler.

At length he awoke and looked about him — the clerk was just at the instant reading out, in his usual routine manner, a clause of the new Bill, and the remainder of the House was in dead silence. Harry looked again around on every side, wondering where was the hot water, and what had become of the whisky-bottle, and, above all, why the company were so extremely dull and ungenial. At length, with a half shake, he roused up a little, and giving a look of unequivocal contempt on every side, called out, * Upon my soul, you're pleasant companions — but I'll give you a chant to enliven you.' So saying, he cleared his throat with a couple of short coughs, and struck up, with the voice of a Stentor, the following verse of a popular ballad : — And they nibbled away both night and day, Like mice in a round of Glo'ster ; Groat rogues they were all, both great and small, From Flood to Loslie Foster.

" 'Great rogues all.' '" Chorus, boys.' " If he was not joined by the voices of his friends in the song, it was probably because such a roar of laughing never was heard since the walls were roofed over. The whole House rose in a mass, and my friend Harry was hurried over the benches by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and left for three weeks in Newgate to practise his melody." " All true," said Sir Harry, " and worse luck to them for not liking music ; but come, now, will this do ? — ' It is our melancholy duty to announce the death of Godfrey O'Malley, Esq., late Member for the county of Galway, which took place on Friday evening, at Daly's Club House. This esteemed gentleman's family — one of the oldest in Ireland, and among whom it was hereditary not to have any children Here a burst of laughter from Considine and O'Malley interrupted the reader, who with the greatest difficulty could be persuaded that he was again bulling it.

" The devil fly away with it," said he, " I'll never succeed." "Never mind," said O'Malley; "the first part will do admirably ; and let us now turn our attention to other matters." A fresh magnum was called for, and over its inspiring contents all the details ofthe funeral were planned ; and, as the clock struck four, the party separated for the night, well satisfied with the result of their labours. THE ESCAPE 5

Chapter II The Escape

When the dissolution of Parliament was announced the following morning in Dublin, its interest in certain circles was manifestly increased by the fact that Godfrey O'Malley was at last open to arrest — for, as in olden times certain gifted individuals possessed some happy immunity against death by fire or sword, so the worthy O'Malley seemed to enjoy a no less valuable privilege, and for many a year had passed, among the myrmidons of the law, as writ-proof. Now, how ever, the charm seemed to have yielded, and pretty much with the same feeling as a storming party may be supposed to experience on the day that a breach is reported as practicable, did the honest attorneys retained in the various suits against him rally round each other that morning in the Four Courts. Bonds, mortgages, post-obits, promissory notes — iu fact, every imaginahle species of invention for raising the O'Malley exchequer, for the preceding thirty years — were handed about on all sides ; suggesting to the mind of an uninterested observer, the notion that, had the aforesaid O'Malley been an independent and absolute monarch, instead of merely being the Member for Galway, the kingdom over whose destinies he had been called to preside, would have suffered not a little from a depreciated currency and an extravagant issue of paper.

Be that as it might, one thing was clear, the whole estates of the family could not possibly pay one-fourth of the debt ; and the only question was one which occasionally arises at a scanty dinner on a mail-coach road — who was to be the lucky individual to carve the joint, where so many were sure to go off hungry. It was now a trial of address between these various and highly gifted gentlemen, who should first pounce upon the victim ; and when the skill of their caste is taken into consideration, who will doubt that every feasible expedient for securing him was resorted to? While writs were struck against him in Dublin, emissaries were despatched to the various surrounding counties, to procure others, in the event of his escape. Ne exeats were sworn, and water bailiffs engaged to follow him on the high seas ; and, as the great Nassau balloon did not exist in those days, no imaginable mode of escape appeared possible, and bets were offered at long odds, that within twenty-four hours the late Member would be enjoying his otium cum dignitate in his Majesty's gaol of Newgate.

Expectation was at the highest — confidence hourly increasing — success all but certain — when, in the midst of all this high-bounding hope, the dreadful rumour spread that O'Malley was no more. One had seen it just five minutes before, in the evening edition of Falkner's paper — another heard it in the courts — a third overheard the Chief Justice stating it to the Master of the Rolls— and, lastly, a breathless witness arrived from College Green, with the news that Daly's Club House was shut up, and the shutters closed. To describe the consternation the intelligence caused on every side is impossible ; nothing m history squab it. except, perhaps, the entrance of the French army into Moscow, deserted and forsaken by its former inhabitants. \\ bile terror and dismay, therefore, spread amid that wide and respectable body who formed O'Malley's creditors, the preparations sor his funeral were going on with every rapidity— relays of horses were ordered at every stage of the journey ; and it was announced that, in testimony of his worth, a large party of his friends were to accompany his remains to Portumna Abbey — a'test much more indicative of resistance in the event of any attempt to arrest the body, than of anything like reverence for their departed friend.

Such was the state of matters in Dublin, when a letter reached me one morning at O'Malley Castle, whose contents will at once explain the writer's intention, anil also serve to introduce my unworthy self to my reader. It ran thus : — " Dear Charley, — " Your uncle Godfrey, whose debts [God pardon him] are more numerous than the hairs of his wig, was obliged to die here last night We did the thing for him completely ; and all doubts as to the reality of the event are silenced by the circumstantial detail of the newspaper ' that he was confined six weeks to his bed, from a cold he caught ten days ago while on guard.' Repeat this, for it's better we had all the same story, till he comes to life again, which, maybe, will not take place hefore Tuesday or Wednesday. At the same time, canvass the county for him, and say he'll be with his friends next week, and up in Woodford, and the Scariff barony : say he died a true Catholic ; it will serve him on the hustings.

Meet us in Athlone on Saturday, and bring your uncle's mare with you — he says he'd rather ride home ; and tell Father MacShane to have a bit of dinner ready about four o'clock, for the corpse can get nothing after he leaves Mountinellick. — No more now, from yours, ever. "Harry Boyle. " Daly's, about eight in the evening. "To Charles O'Malley, Esq., " O'Malley Castle, Galway. " When this not over-clear document reached me, I was the sole in habitant of O'Malley Castle, a very ruinous pile of incongruous masoury, that stood in a wild and dreary part of the county of Galway, bordering ou the Shannon. On every side stretched the property of my uncle, or at least what had once been so ; and, indeed, so numerous were its present claimants that he would have been a subtle lawyer who could have pronounced upon the rightful owner.

The demesne around the castle contained some well-grown and handsome timber, and, as the soil was undulating and fertile, presented many features of beauty ; beyond it all was sterile, bleak, and barren. Long tracts of brown heath-clad mountain, or not less unprofitable valleys of tall and waving fern, were all that the eye could discern, except where the broad Shannon, expanding into a tranquil and glassy lake, lay still aud motionless beneath the dark mountains ; a few islands, with some THE ESCAPE 7 ruined churches and a round tower, alone breaking the dreary waste of water. Here it was that I had passed my infancy and my youth, and here I now stood at the age of seventeen, quite unconscious that the world contained aught fairer and brighter than that gloomy valley, with its rugged frame of mountains. ■ When a mere child I was left an orphan to the care of my worthy uncle.

My father, whose extravagance had well sustained the family reputation, had squandered a large and handsome property in con testing elections for his native county, and in keeping up that system of unlimited hospitality for which Ireland in general, and Galway more especially, was renowned. The result was, as might be expected, ruin and beggary : he died, leaving every one of his estates encum bered with heavy debts, and the only legacy he left to his brother was a boy of four years of age, entreating him, with his last breath — " Be anything you like to him, Godfrey, but a father, or at least such a one as I have proved." Godfrey O'Malley, some short time previous, had lost his wife, and when this new trust was committed to him he resolved never to re marry, but to rear me up as his own child, and the inheritor of his estates.

How weighty and onerous an obligation this latter might prove, the reader can form some idea ; the intention was, however, a kind one ; and, to do my uncle justice, he loved me with all the affection of a warm and open heart From my earliest years his whole anxiety was to fit me for the part of a country gentleman, as he regarded that character — viz., I rode boldly with foxhounds ; I was about the best shot within twenty miles of us ; I could swim the Shannon at Holy Island ; I drove four-in-hand better than the coachman himself; and from finding a hare to hooking a salmon, my equal could not be found from Killaloe to Banagher. These were the staple of my endowments ; besides which, the parish priest had taught me a little Latin, a little French, and a little geometry, and a great deal of the life and opinions of St. Jago, who presided over a holy well in the neighbourhood, and was held in very considerable repute.

When I add to this portraiture of my accomplishments that I was nearly six feet high, with more than a common share of activity and strength for my years, and no inconsiderable portion of good looks, I have finished my sketch, and stand before my reader. It is now time that I should return to Sir Harry's letter, which so completely bewildered me that, but for the assistance of Father Roach, I should have been totally unable to make out the writer's intentions. By his advice, I immediately set out for Athlone, where, when I arrived, I found my uncle addressing the mob from the top of the hearse, and recounting his miraculous escapes as a new claim upon their gratitude. " There was nothing else for it, boys ; the Dublin people insisted on my being their Member, and besieged the club-house. I refused — ■ they threatened — I grew obstinate — they furious. ' I'll die first,' said I. 'Galway or nothing '"'—"Hurrah !" from the mob.

"O'Malley for ever ! " — " And ye see I kept my word, boys — I did die ; I died that evening at a quarter past eight There, read it for yourselves there's the paper — was waked and carried out, and here I am after all, ready to die in earnest for you— but never to desert you. " The cheers here were deafening; and my uncle was carried through the market, down to the mayor's house, who, being a friend of the opposite party, was complimented with three groans ; then up the Mall to the chapel, beside which Father MacShane resided ; he was then suffered to touch the earth once more, when, having shaken hands with all of his constituency within reach, he entered within the house, to partake of the kindest welcome and best reception the good priest could afford him. My uncle's progress homeward was a triumph ; the real secret of his escape had somehow come out, and his popularity rose to a white heat.

" Au' it's little O'Malley cares for the law — bad luck to it 1 it's himself can laugh at judge aiid jury. Arrest him ! — na bocklish — catch a weasel asleep," &c. Such were the encomiums that greeted him as he passed on towards home ; while shouts of joy and blazing bonfires attested that his success was regarded as a national triumph. The west has certainly its strong features of identity. Had my uncle possessed the claims of the immortal Howard — had he united in his person all the attributes which confer a lasting and an ennobling fame upon humanity — he might have passed on unnoticed and unoh served ; but for the man that had duped a judge and escaped the sheriff, nothing was sufficiently flattering to mark their approbation. The success of the exploit was twofold : the news spread far and near, and the very story canvassed the county better than Billy Davern himself, the Athlone attorney.

This was the prospect now before us ; and, however little my readers may sympathise with my taste, I must honestly avow that I looked forward to it with a most delighted feeling. O'Malley Castle was to be the centre of operations, and filled with my uncle's supporters ; while I, a mere stripling, and usually treated as a boy, was to be entrusted with an important mission, and sent off to canvass a distant relation, with whom my uncle was not upon terms, and who might possibly be approachable by a younger branch of the family, with whom he had never had any collision.

Chapter III Mr

BLAKE Nothing but the exigency of the case could ever have persuaded my uncle to stoop to the humiliation of canvassing the individual to whom I was now about to proceed as envoy-extraordinary, with full powers to make any or every amende, provided only his interest, and that of his followers, should be thereby secured to the O'Malley cause. The evening before I set out was devoted to giving me all the necessary instructions how I was to proceed, and what difficulties I was to avoid. MR. BLAKE 9 "Say your uncle's in high feather with the Government party," said Sir Harry, "and that he only votes against them as a ruse de guerre, as the French call it" " Insist upon it, that I am sure of the election without him ; but that for family reasons he should not stand aloof from me; that people are talking of it in the country."

" And drop a hint," said Considine, " that O'Malley is greatly im proving in his shooting." " And don't get drunk too early in the evening, for Phil Blake has beautiful claret," said another. "And be sure you don't make love to the red-headed girls," added a third ; " he has four of them, each more sinfully ugly than the other." "You'll be playing whist, too," said Boyle; "and never mind losing a few pounds. Mrs. B., long life to her, has a playful way of turning the king." " Charley will do it all well," said my uncle — " leave him alone ; and now let us have in the supper." It was only on the following morning, as the tandem came round to the door, that I began to feel the importance of my mission, and certain misgivings came over me as to my ability to fulfil it. Mr. Blake and his family, though estranged from my uncle for several years past, had been always most kind and good-natured to me ; and although I could not, with propriety, have cultivated any close intimacy with them, I had every reason to suppose that they entertained towards me nothing but sentiments of goodwill.

The head of the family was a Galway squire of the oldest and most genuine stock ; a great sports man, a negligent farmer, a most careless father ; he looked upon a fox as an infinitely more precious part of the creation than a French governess, and thought that riding well with hounds was a far better gift than all the learning of a Porson. His daughters were after his own heart — the best-tempered, least-educated, most high-spirited, gay, dashing, ugly girls in the country — ready to ride over a four-foot paling without a saddle, and to dance the " Wind that shakes the barley," for four consecutive hours, against all the officers that their hard fate, and the Horse Guards, ever condemned to Galway. The mamma was only remarkable for her liking for whist, and her invariable good fortune thereat ; a circumstance the world were agreed in ascribing less to the blind goddess than her own natural endowments.