Lord Kilgobbin: a tale of Ireland in our own time

Front matter

LORD KILGOBBIN 31 sale of Irclanb in out (Otou time. B_ CHARLES LEVER, LL.D., AUTHOR OF "THE BRAMLEIGHS OF BISHOP'S FOLLY," "THAT BOY OF NORCOTT's,' etc. etc. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE 1872. [THE RIGHT OF TRANSLATION IS RESERVED.! CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. CHAP. PAGE I. On a Visit at Kilgobbin 1 II. The Moate Station 14 III. How the "Goats" Revolted _ 21 IV. An Uxlookejd-for Pleasure 31 V. Plmnuddm Castle, North AVales 41 VI. At Tea-tisie 50 VII. A Drive at Sunrise 57 VEIL The Excursion 70 IX. The Return 91 X. "O'Shea's Barn" 97 XI. An Early Gallop 110 XII. Old Memories 119 XIII. Two Familiar Epistles 126 XIV. An Evening in the Drawing-room 133 XV. Some Night- Thoughts 144 XVI. The Head Constable 155 X VH. Some Irishries CONTENTS. IV CHAP. PiGE XVHI.

Sage Advice 168 XIX. Reproof 173 XX. How Men in Office Make Love 182 XXI. A Cup of Tea 195 XXII. Cross Purposes 204 XXIII. Awakenings 214 XXIV. " A Chance Agreement " 224 XXV " A Scrape " 236 XXVI. "How it Befell" 244 XXVII. Two J. P.'S 256 XXVIII. Before the Door 265 XXIX. A Doctor 273 XXX. In Turkey "

Chapter I. On A' Visit At Kilgobbin

Before Kearney had risen from his bed the next morning, Donogan was in his room, his look elated and his cheek glowing with recent exercise. " I have had a burst of two hours' sharp walking over the bog," cried he ; " and it has put me in such spirits as I have not known for many a year. Do you know, Mr. Kearney, that what with the fantastic effects of the morning mists, as they lift them selves over these vast wastes — the glorious patches of blue heather and purple anemone that the sun displays through the fog — and, better than all, the springiness of a soil that sends a thrill to the heart, like a throb of youth itself — there is no walking in the world can compare with a bog at sunrise ! There's a sentiment to open a paper on nationalities ! I came up with the postboy, and took his vol. ii. letters to save him a couple of miles.

Here's one for you, I think from Atlee ; and this is also to your address, from Dublin ; and here's the last number of the Pike, and you'll see they have lost no time. There's a few lines about you. ' Our readers will be grateful to us for the tidings we announce to-day, Avith authority, — that Richard Kearney, Esq., son of Mathew Kearney, of Kilgobbin Castle, will contest his native county at the approaching election. It will be a proud day for Ireland when she shall see her representation in the names of those who dignify the exalted station they hold in virtue of their birth and blood, by claims of admitted talent and recognized ability. Mr. Kearney, junior, has swept the university of its prizes, and the College gate has long seen his name at the head of her prizemen. He contests the seat in the National interest.

It is needless to say all our sympathies, and hopes, and best wishes go with him.' " Dick shook with laughing while the other read out the paragraph in a high-sounding and pretentious tone. "I hope," said Kearney, at last, "that the information as to my college successes is not vouched for on authority." " Who cares a fig about them ? The phrase rounds off a sentence, and nobody treats it like an affidavit." " But some one may take the trouble to remind the readers that my victories have been defeats, and that in my last examination but one I got ' cautioned.' " " Do you imagine, Mr. Kearney, the House of Com mons in any way reflects college distinction ? Do you look for senior-wranglers and double-firsts on the Treasury bench ? and are not the men who carry away distinction the men of breadth, not depth ?

Is it not the wide acquaintance with a large field of knowledge, and the subtle power to know how other men regard these topics, that make the popular leader of the present day ? and remember, it is talk, and not oratory, is the mode. You must be commonplace, and even vulgar, practical, dashed with a small morality, so as not to be classed with the low Radical ; and if then you have a bit of high falutin for the peroration, you'll do. The morning papers will call you a young man of great promise, and the whip will never pass you without a shake-hands." " But there are good speakers." " There is Bright — I don't think I know another — and he only at times. Take my word for it, the secret of success Avith ' the collective wisdom ' is reiteration. Tell them the same thing, not once or twice or even ten, but fifty times, and don't vary very much even the way you tell it.

Go on repeating your platitudes, and by the time you find you are cursing your own stupid persistence, you may swear you have made a convert to your opinions. If you are bent on variety, and must indulge it, ring your changes on the man who brought these views before them — yourself, but beyond these never soar. O'Connell, who had a variety at will for his own countrymen, never tried it in England : he knew better. The chawbacons that we sneer at are not always in smock-frocks, take my word for it ; they many of them wear wide-brimmed hats and broad cloth, and sit above the gangway. Ay, sir," cried he, warming with the theme, " once I can get my countrymen fully awakened to the fact of who and what are the men who rule them, I'll ask for no Catholic Associations, or Repeal Committees, or Nationalist Clubs — the card-house of British supremacy w-ill tumble of itself; there will be no conflict, but simply submission."

" We're a long day's journey from these convictions, I suspect," said Kearney, doubtfully. " Not so far, perhaps, as you think. Do you remark how little the English press deal in abuse of us to what Avas once their custom ? They have not, I admit, come down to civility; but they don't deride us in the old fashion, nor tell us, as I once saw, that we are intellectually and physically stamped with inferiority. If it was true, Mr. Kearney, it was stupid to tell it to us." " I think we could do better than dwell upon these things." "I deny that: deny it in toto. The moment you forget, in your dealings with the Englishman, the cheap estimate he entertains, not alone of your brains and your skill, but of your resolution, your persistence, your strong will, ay, your very integrity, that moment, I say, places him in a position to treat you as something below him.

Bear in mind, however, how he is striving to regard you, and it's your own fault if you're not his equal, and some thing more perhaps. There Avas a man more than tbe master of them all, and his name was Edmund Burke • and how did they treat him ? How insolently did they behave to O'Connell in the House till he put his heel on them ? Were they generous to Sheil ? Were they just to Plunkett ? No, no. The element that they decry in our people they know they have not got, and they'd like to crush the race, when they cannot extinguish the quality." Donogan had so excited himself now that he walked up and down the room, his voice ringing Avith emotion, and his arms wildly tossing in all the extravagance of passion. " This is from Joe Atlee," said Kearney, as he tore open the envelope : — " ' Dear Dick, — I cannot account for the madness that seems to have seized you, except that Dan Donogan, the most rabid dog I know, has bitten you.

If so, for heaven's sake have the piece cut out at once, and use the strongest cautery of common sense, if you know of any one Avho has a little to spare. I only remembered yesterday that I ought to have told you I had sheltered Dan in our rooms, but I can already detect that you have made his acquaintance. He is not a bad fellow. He is sincere in his opinions, and incorruptible, if that be the name for a man Avho, if bought to-morrow, would not be worth sixpence to his owner. " ' Though I resigned all respect for my own good sense in telling it, I was obliged to let H. E. know the contents of your despatch, and then, as I saw he had never heard of Kilgobbin, or the great Kearney family, I told more lies of your estated property, your county station, your influence generally, and your abilities individually, than the fee-simple of your property, converted into masses, will see me safe through purgatory; and I have conse quently baited the trap that has caught myself ; for, per suaded by my eloquent advocacy of you all, H. E. has written to Walpole to make certain inquiries concerning you, which if satisfactory, he, Walpole, will put himself in communication with you, as to the extent and the mode to which the Government will support you.

I think I can see Dan Donogan's fine hand in that part of your note which foreshadoAvs a threat, and hints that the Walpole story would, if published abroad, do enormous damage to the Ministry. This, let me assure you, is a fatal error, and a blunder which could only be committed by an out sider in political life. The days are long past since a scandal could smash an administration ; and we are so strong now that arson or forgery could not hurt, and I don't think that infanticide would affect us. " ' If you are really bent on this wild exploit, you should see Walpole, and confer with him. You don't talk well, but you write worse, so avoid correspondence, and do all your indiscretions verbally. Be angry if you like Avith my candour, but follow my council. " ' See him, and show him, if you are able, that, all questions of nationality apart, he may count upon your vote ; that there are certain impracticable and impossible conceits in politics — like repeal, subdivision of land, re storation of the confiscated estates, and such like — on which Irishmen insist on being free to talk balderdash, and air their patriotism; but that, rightfully considered, they are as harmless and mean just as little as a discussion on the Digamma, or a debate on perpetual motion.

The stupid Tories could never be brought to see this. Like genuine dolts, they would have an army of supporters, one-minded with them in everything. We knoAv better, and hence we buy the Radical vote by a little coquetting Avith communism, and the model working-man and the rebel by an occasional gaol-delivery, and the Papist by a sop to the Holy Father. Bear in mind, Dick — and it is the grand secret of political life — it takes all sort of people to make a " party." When you have thoroughly digested this aphorism, you are fit to start in the world. " ' If you were not so full of what I am sure you would call your "legitimate ambitions," I'd like to tell you the glorious life we lead in this place. Disraeli talks of " the Avell-sustained splendour of their stately lives," and it is just the phrase for an existence in which all the appliances to ease and enjoyment are supplied by a sort of magic, that never shows its machinery, nor lets you hear the sound of its working.

The saddle-horses know when I want to ride by the same instinct that makes the butler give me the exact wine I wish at my dinner. And so on throughout the day, " the sustained splendour " being an ever-present luxuriousness, that I drink in with a thirst that knows no slaking. " 'I have made a hit with H. E., and, from copying some rather muddle-headed despatches, I am now promoted to writing short skeleton sermons on politics, which, duly filled out and fattened with official nutriment, will one day astonish the Irish Office, and make one of the Nestors of bureaucracy exclaim, " See how Danesbury has got up the Irish question." "'I have a charming collaborateur, my lord's niece, who was acting as his private secretary up to the time of my arrival, and whose explanation of a variety of things I found to be so essential that, from being at first in the continual necessity of seeking her out, I have now arrived at a point at which we write in the same room, and pass our mornings in the library till luncheon.

She is stun ningly handsome, as tall as the Greek cousin, and with a stately grace of manner and a cold dignity of demeanour I'd give my heart's blood to subdue to a mood of womanly tenderness and dependence. Up to this, my position is that of a very humble courtier in the presence of a queen, and she takes care that by no momentary forgetfulness shall I lose sight of the " situation. " " ' She is engaged, they say, to be married to Walpole ; but as I have not heard that he is heir-apparent, or has even the reversion to the crown of Spain, I cannot perceive what the contract means. " ' I rode out with her to-day by special invitation, or per mission — which was it ? — and in the few words that passed between us, she asked me if I had long known Mr. Wal pole, and put her horse into a canter without waiting for my answer.

" ' With H. E. I can talk away freely, and without constraint. I am never very sure that he does not know the things he questions me on better than myself — a practice some of his order rather cultivate ; but, on the whole, our intercourse is easy. I know he is not a little puzzled about me, and I intend that he should remain so. "'When you have seen and spoken with Walpole, write me what has taken place between you ; and though I am fully convinced that what you intend is unmitigated folly, I see so many difficulties in the way, such obstacles, and such almost impossibilities to be overcome, that I think Fate will be more merciful to you than your ambitions, and spare you, by an early defeat, from a crushing disappointment. " ' Had you ambitioned to be a governor of a colony, a bishop, or a Queen's messenger, — they are the only irre sponsible people I can think of, — I might have helped you ; but this conceit to be a Parliament man is such irredeem able folly, one is powerless to deal with it.

" ' At all events, your time is not worth much, nor is your public character of a very graA-e importance. Give them both, then, freely to the effort, but do not let it cost you money, nor let Donogan persuade you that you are one of those men who can make patriotism self-supporting. " 'H. E. hints at a very confidential mission on which he desires to employ me ; and though I should leave this place now, with much regret, and a more tender sorrow than I could teach you to comprehend, I shall hold myself at his orders for Japan if he wants me. Meanwhile, write to me what takes place with Walpole, and put your faith firmly in the goodwill and efficiency of " 'Yours truly, " ' Joe Atlee.' " ' If you think of taking Donogan down with you to Kilgobbin, I ought to tell you that it would be a mistake.

Women invariably dislike him, and he would do you no credit.'" Dick Kearney, who had begun to read this letter aloud, saw himself constrained to continue, and went on boldlj-, without stop or hesitation, to the last word. " I am very grateful to you, Mr. Kearney," for this mark of trustfulness, and I'm not in the least sore about all Joe has said of me." " He is not over complimentary to myself," said Kear ney, and the irritation he felt was not to be concealed. " There's one passage in his letter," said the other, thoughtfully, "well worth all the stress he lays on it. He tells you never to forget it ' takes all sorts of men to make a party.' Nothing can more painfully prove the fact than that we need Joe Atlee amongst ourselves ! And it is true, Mr. Kearney," said he, sternly, "treason must now, to have any chance at all, be many-handed.

We want not only all sorts of men, but in all sorts of places ; and at tables where rebel opinions dared not be boldly announced and defended, we want people who can coquet with felony, and get men to talk over treason with little if any cere mony. Joe can do this — he can write, and, what is better, sing you a Fenian ballad, and if he sees he has made a mistake, he can quizz himself and, his song as cavalierly as he has sung it ! And now, on my solemn oath, I say it, I don't knoAv that anything worse has befallen us than the fact that there are such men as Joe Atlee amongst us, and that we need them — ay, sir, we need them ! " " This is brief enough, at any rate," said Kearney, as he broke open the second letter : — 1 ' Dublin Castle, Wednesday Evening. " ' Dear Sir,— " ' Would you do me the great favour to call on me here at your earliest convenient moment?

I am still an invalid, and confined to a sofa, or would ask for permission to meet you at your chambers. " ' Believe me, yours faithfully, " ' Cecil Walpole.' ' " That cannot be delayed, I suppose ? " said Kearney, in the tone of a question. " Certainly not. " " I'll go up by the night mail. You'll remain where you are, and wrhere I hope you feel you are with a wel come. " " I feel it, sir — I feel it more than I can say." And his face was blood-red as he spoke. " There are scores of things you can do while I am away. You'll have to study the county in all its baronies and subdivisions. There, my sister can help you ; and you'll have to learn the names and places of our great county swells, and mark such as may be likely to assist us. You'll have to stroll about in our own neighbourhood, and learn what the people near home say of the intention, and pick up what you can of public opinion in our towns of Moate and Kilbeggan."

"I have bethought me of all that " He paused here and seemed to hesitate if he should say more ; and, after an effort, he went on : " You'll not take amiss what I'm going to say, Mr. Kearney. You'll make full allow ance for a man placed as I am ; but I want, before you go, to learn from you in what way, or as what, you have presented me to your family ? Am I a poor sizar of Trinity, whose hard struggle with poverty has caught your sympathy? Am I a chance acquaintance, whose only claim on you is being known to Joe Atlee ? I'm sure I need not ask you, have you called me by my real name and given me my real character ? " Kearney flushed up to the eyes, and laying his hand on the other's shoulder — " This is exactly what I have done. I have told ray sister that you are the noted Daniel Donogan — United Irishman and rebel."

" But only to your sister ?" " To none other." " She'll not betray me, I know that. " You are right there, Donogan. Here's how it happened, for it was not intended." And now he related how the name had escaped him. " So that the cousin knows nothing ? " "Nothing whatever. My sister Kate is not one to make rash confidences, and you may rely on it she has not told her." " I hope and trust that this mistake will serve you for a lesson, Mr. Kearney, and show you that to keep a secret, it is not enough to have an honest intention, but a man must have a watch over his thoughts and a padlock on his tongue. And now to something of more importance. In your meeting with Walpole, mind one thing : no modesty, no humility ; make your demands boldly, and declare that your price is well worth the paying ; let him feel that, as he must make a choice between the priests and the nationalists, that we are the easier of the two to deal with : — first of all, we don't press for prompt payment; and, secondly, we'll not shock Exeter Hall !

Show him that strongly, and tell him that there are clever fellows amongst us who'll not compromise him or his party, and will never desert him on a close division. Oh, dear me, how I wish I was going in your place." " So do I, with all my heart ; but there's ten striking, and we shall be late for breakfast."

Chapter II. The Moate Station

The train by which Miss Betty O'Shea expected her nephew was late in its arrival at Moate, and Peter Gill, Avho had been sent with the car to fetch him over, was busily discussing his second supper when the passengers arrived. " Are you Mr. Gorman O'Shea, sir ? " asked Peter of a Avell-dressed and well-looking young man, who had just taken his luggage from the train. " No ; here he is," replied he, pointing to a tall power ful young fellow, whose tweed suit and billycock-hat could not completely conceal a soldierlike bearing and a sort of compactness that comes of " drill." "That's my name. What do you want with me?" cried he, in a loud but pleasant voice. " Only that Miss Betty has sent me over with the car for your honour, if it's plazing to you to drive across." " What about this broiled bone, Miller ?

" asked O'Shea. "I rather think I like the notion better than when you proposed it." THE MOATE STATION. 15 "I suspect you do," said the other; "but we'U have to step over to the ' Blue Goat.' It's only a few yards off, and they'll be ready, for I telegraphed them from town to be prepared as the train came in." " You seem to know the place well." " Yes. I may say I know something about it. I can- A'assed this part of the county once for one of the Idlers, and I secretly determined, if I ever thought of trying for a seat in the House, I'd make the attempt here. They are a most pretentious set of beggars these small towns-folk, and they'd rather hear themselves talk politics, and give their notions of what they think ' good for Leland,' than actually pocket bank-notes ; and that, my dear friend, is a virtue in a constituency never to be ignored or forgotten.

The moment, then, I heard of M. 's retirement, I sent off a confidential emissary down here to get up what is called a requisition, asking me to stand for the county. Here it is, and the answer, in this morning's Freeman. You can read it at your leisure. Here we are now at the ' Blue Goat ; ' and I see they are expecting us." Not only was there a capital fire in the grate, and the table ready laid for supper, but a half-dozen or more of the notabilities of Moate were in waiting to receive the new candidate, and confer with him over the coming contest. " My companion is the nephew of an old neighbour of yours, gentlemen," said Miller; " Captain Gorman O'Shea, of the Imperial Lancers of Austria. I know you have heard of, if you have not seen him." A round of very hearty and demonstrative salutations followed, and O'Gorman was well pleased at the friendly reception accorded him.

Austria was a great country, one of the company observed. They had got liberal institutions and a free press, and they were good Catholics, who would give those heretical Prussians a fine lesson one of these days ; and Gorman O'Shea's health, coupled with these sentiments, Avas drank with all the honours. " There's a jolly old face that I ought to remember well," said Gorman, as he looked up at the portrait of Lord Kilgobbin over the chimney. " When I entered the service, and came back here on leave, he gave me the first sword I ever wore, and treated me as kindly as if I was his son. The hearty speech elicited no response from the hearers, who only exchanged significant looks with each other, while Miller, apparently less under restraint, broke in with, " That stupid adventure the Engbsh newspapers called ' The gallant resistance of Kilgobbin Castle ' has lost that man the esteem of Irishmen."

A perfect burst of approval followed these words ; and while young O'Shea eagerly pressed for an explanation of an incident of which he heard for the first time, they one and all proceeded to give their versions of what had occurred ; but with such contradictions, corrections and emendations that the young man might be pardoned if he comprehended little of the event. " They say his son will contest the county with you Mr. Miller," cried one. THE MOATE STATION. 17 " Let me have no weightier rival, and I ask no more." " Faix, if he's going to stand," said another, "his father might have taken the trouble to ask us for our votes . Would you believe it, sir, it's going on six months since he put his foot in this room ? " " And do the ' Goats ' stand that ? " asked Miller. " I don"t wonder he doesn't care to come into Moate.

There's not a shop in the town he doesn't owe money to." " And we never refused him credit — " For anything but his principles," chimed in an old fellow, whose oratory was heartily relished. " He's going to stand in the national interest," said one. " That's the safe ticket when you have no money," said another. " Gentlemen," said Miller, who rose to his legs to give greater importance to his address : — ■" If we want to make Ireland a country to live in, the only party to support is the Whig Government ! The nationalist may open the gaols, give licence to the press, hunt down the Orangemen, and make the place generally too hot for the English. But are these the things that you and I want or strive for ? We want order and quietness in the land, and the best places in it for ourselves to enjoy these blessings.

Is Mr. Casey down there satisfied to keep the post-office in Moate when he knows he could be the first secretary in Dublin, at the head office, with two thousand a year? Will my friend Mr. McGloin say that he'd rather pass his life here than be a Commissioner of Customs, and live in Merrion Square ? VOL. ii. Ain't we men ? Ain't Ave fathers and husbands ? HaA-e we not sons to advance and daughters to marry in the world, and how much will nationalism do for these ? " I will not tell you that the Whigs love us or have any strong regard for us ; but they need us, gentlemen, and they know well that, Avithout the Radicals, and Scotland, and our party here, they couldn't keep power for three weeks. Now why is Scotland a great and prosperous country ? I'll tell you. Scotland has no sentimental nolitics.

Scotland says, in her own homely adage, ' Ca' me and I'll ca' thee.' Scotland insists that there should be Scotchmen everywhere — in the Post Office, in the Privy- Council, in the Pipe-water and in the Punjaub ! Does Scotland go on vapouring about an extinct nationality or the right of the Stuarts ? Not a bit of it. She says, Burn Scotch coal in the navy, though the smoke may blind you and you never get up steam ! She has no national ab surdities : she neither asks for a flag nor a parliament. She demands only what will pay. And it is by supporting the Whigs, you will make Leland as prosperous as Scotland. Literally, the Fenians, gentlemen, will never make my friend yonder a baronet, nor put me on the Bench ; and now that we are met here in secret committee, I can say all this to you and none of it get abroad.

" Mind, I neA'er told you the Whigs love us, or said that we love the Whigs ; but we can each of us help the other. When they smash the Protestant party, they are doing a fine stroke of work for Liberalism in pulling down a cruel ascendency and righting the Romanists. And when THE MOATE STATION. 19 we crush the Protestants, we are opening the best places in the land to ourselves by getting rid of our only rivals. Look at the Bench, gentlemen, and the high offices of the courts. Have not we Papists, as they call us, our share in both ? And this is only the beginning, let me tell you. There is a university in College Green due to us, and a number of fine palaces that then bishops once lived in, and grand old cathedrals whose very names show the rightful ownership ; and when we have got all these — as the Whigs will give them one day — even then we are only beginning.