Who Fired the First Shot? or, Ned Rusheen. An Irish story

Front matter

FOUND DEAD. -PctJV 72. WHO FIRED THE FIRST SHOT? on NED RUSHEEN %\x $nslj Starjj DUBLIN 1,1. II. GILL AND SON CQ UPPER SACKVILLE STREET l883 [77*_f right of translation ami reproduction is reserved.] CONTENTS. CHIP. yicr. I. THE NIOHT BEFORE THE SHOT WAS EIKED, . . . 1 II. SHORT AND EXPLANATORY, IS III. THREE HOURS AFTER MIDNIGHT, .... 22 IV. WHAT HAPPENED AT DAYBREAK, .... 39 V. FATHER AND SON, 58 VI. WHO FIRED THE FIRST SHOT ? 66 VII. CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE, 87 VIII. MORE CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE 105 IX. WAS NED RUSHEEN A MURDERER ? . . . .122 X. NED RUSHEEN IS ACCUSED OF FIRING THE FIRST SHOT, 131 XI. THE INQUEST, 151 XII. THE VERDICT, 170 XIII. THE CONSEQUENCES OF CRIME, 185 XIV. ORANNY 205 XV. JACK, VI CONTENTS. cuat. riCg XVI. IN JAIL 227 XVII. FOUND OUT, 244 XVIII. FAREWELLS, . . . . . • . . . 256 XIX.

ELLIE M'CARTHY, 266 XX. AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR, 279 XXI. TRIED FOR HIS LIFE, 304 XXII. THE CASE IS DECIDED, 322 XXIII. NED AND ELLIE, 344 XXIV. MONTEM COLLEGE, 355 XXV. THE TRUTH IS KNOWN AT LAST, .... OE, WHO FIRED THE FIRST SHOT?

Chapter I. The Night Before The Shot Was Fieed

KEEN, cold, clear moonlight night The poor— God help them ! — who had scant covering, crejut shivering to their straw beds ; the rich stirred up their bright fires, threw on more coals, and made themselves comfortable. In a noble, old castellated building, some five miles to the south of the city of Dublin, two people were sitting silently reading in a spacious and luxuriantly-furnished apartment. It was near Christ mas. A3 well as I can remember after the lapse of many years, the date was the 14th of December. Visitors were expected the following day, and the household were occupied with those friendly, bustling preparations, which in every family seem a necessary preliminary to the close of the old year and the advent of the new Lord Elmsdale was leaning against a richly carved marble statue which stood near the ample hearth.

There was a strange look of care in his face — a strange, wandering, asking look, as if some dim foreshadowing of coming evil had cast a spell over him; and yet he had not even the faintest presentiment of the future. No thought, no appre hension of coming ill, troubled him. How, indeed, could it? For who could have anticipated that, before twelve hours had tolled, he would have looked his last on earth and sea and skies ! He moved over slowly to the large bay-window, and lifted the heavy curtains. It was a peculiarity of Elmsdale Castle that there were no window shutters. Lord Elmsdale had built the place him self, and had his own plans, which were carried out, as the plans of rich men will be. As he turned back to the fireplace, after a cursory glance Lady Elmsdale spoke. " They cannot be here before to-morrow evening."

Lord Elmsdale smiled; but his smile was sad and weird. His wife fancied she knew what had prompted his last movement ; but who can truly divine the mystery of human life ? He expected his boys with as much pleasure as their mother expected them, but a man's love and a woman's are very different in their modes of exterior ex pression. Half an hour passed. No other word was spoken, and Lady Elmsdale appeared as if she had not observed that the only reply to her observation had been a smile. But she ld_ed to provoke those smiles. It was many a long year now since she had seen them for the first time, and she did not desire them less. If she had known how few there were left for her ! The timepiece rung out its chimes for eleven and a half. It was one of Lord Elmsdale's fancies to have musical clocks all through the castle.

Visitors did not always like them, though it was no noisy carillon they chimed. Their music was some slow solemn air, or a few bars of some quaint old melody. It was the first three bars of the " Land o' the Leal " that rung out now — " There is no sorrow there,. There 's neither cold nor care — But it 's all, all fair ( In the land o' the leal." A strange, wild rush of sound, half-nielody, half discord, and wholly unearthly, followed. It seemed a continuation of the chimes as it died away. Lady Elmsdale started, and laid down the book she had been reading. " What a strange noise ! " she exclaimed. " If any accident happened the boys to-morrow, we might get up a ghost-story, and say we had heard the banshee." " It was only the sough of the wind," replied her husband; "but I confess it did startle me for the moment."

They were silent for a little while, and then he spoke again. " Have you said anything to Edward ? " " No ; it seems so difficult to know what to say. If I tax him with it openly, it may put an idea into his mind which is not there already, and that would probably be the very means of accomplishing what we most tried to prevent. I have thought of speak ing to Ellie." " I would not advise that — the girl, too, may have no idea of what we suspect ; and, after all, we have only suspicion to guide us." • " I wish we could know the truth." " It is always most difficult in such cases ; but did you not tell me some of the servants said she was engaged to Ned Rusheen ? " " My maid told me, or hinted it to me, but I did not enter on the subject, doubting what to do. I thought the less we allowed to be said the better."

" I suppose Ned would be a good match for her ; he seems very steady. James is getting too old for the post of head-keeper, and I would be inclined to pension him off and promote Rusheen." " The boys like him, and I always feel safe when he is with them ; but I must confess I dread to see them handling fire-arms so young, and then one reads such fearful things in the papers." " Poor mamma ! " and the smile broke over the noble face once more, with a depth of tenderness more often felt than shown ; " but you should re member " What Lady Elmsdale was to remember cannot now be recorded, for a loud peal of the bell, a noisy rush up the marble stairs, and a shout when the door was flung open of — " I say, Fred, this is jolly ! " put an abrupt termination to her husband's observations. " My clear, dear boys ! you are unexpected, but none the less welcome." ..

There Fred, Harry, pray remember your mother is made of flesh and blood, and that it would be possible to smother her ! " exclaimed Lord Elms dale, his voice sounding as if he were trying to reprove, while his look of gratification showed his pleasure at the boys' fondness for their mother. They were two noble fellows, of whom any father might well be proud. They were twins ; but, unlike the generality of twins, there was little resemblance in their personal appearance. The strong, remarkable bond of attachment, which seems to be an instinct of such relationship, was, however, a marked feature in the character of each. They were rarely seen apart ; their hopes and fears were confided to each other without the shadow of re serve. They could scarcely be said to have separate sorrows or separate joys ; their love for their gentle mother had hitherto been the all-absorbing passion of their young lives.

But their personal appearance must be carefully noted, for this had an important bearing on the events which are about to be recorded. It is past midnight now. A heavy, sudden fall of snow, which had followed the weird blast that startled Lord and Lady Elmsdale, had prevented them from hearing the carriage which had brought the boys home from Kingstown pier. But the servants had not lost a moment after their arrival, and the old butler had opened the door and an nounced that supper was ready for them. Barnes had grown gray in the service of the family ; and the boys bounded after him down the long gallery and the marble stairs which led to the dining-room. Lady Elmsdale followed slowly : Lord Elmsdale rung for his personal attendant, and retired to his dressing-room. Fred had already made acquaintance with the contents of a cold grouse-pie when his mother en tered the apartment.

Harry was talking to Barnes, apparently more interested in the remote prospect of shooting game than in the immediate one of eating it. He was inquiring for Ned Rusheen, and requesting Barnes to see that he came up to the castle as early as possible next morning. Harry was very much taller than his brother. For his age — the twins had just passed tlieir fifteenth birthday — he was exceptionally tall ; his figure was manly, and his appearance, particularly when the youthful expression of his countenance was rendered indis tinct by distance, was remarkably like that of his brother. You have not heard much of Edward yet, but it takes time to become acquainted with the different members of a family. Harry's complexion was dark, so was Edward's. Fred was fair, and he had something of the gentle delicacy of his mother in his appearance as well as in his manner.

You might suppose, as he sat quietly at the side of the long dining-table, that he was one who enjoyed the dolcefar niente, who would rather yield than strive, even if a rich prize were to be the guerdon of his efforts. He looked up to Harry : even strangers noticed this after a short acquaintance ; and as far as twins can have priority of birthright, the priority was on his brother's side, who had entered this lower world just half an hour before Fred. The boys were not long at the supper-table. Healthy lads seldom linger over their meals, or care much what their fare may be. It requires training and years to become an epicure. Fred knelt on the rug beside his mother, his hands clasped in hers. Harry stood leaning care lessly against the mantelpiece, his very attitude, the turn of his head, the bend of his knee, his smile, the way his hair lay in thick masses thrown back from his high square forehead, — all were so like his father.

The mother seemed to take a mental photograph of the two. Years and years after, when she was an old woman, when her hair was white with the braiding of sorrow rather than with the snow of age, she remembered that night. Mother-like, and almost unconsciously, she was looking at every feature, every lineament ; and she thought of it all long and long afterwards. Her quick eye fancied that Harry had his hair arranged differently to the way in which he had formerly settled it. It looked almost as if he had used some strong mixture to keep it down over his forehead at one side. He used to wear it brushed back. Un intentionally, rather than from thought, she put up her hand to push it off. The movement was so sudden, so impulsive, so natural, that Harry had only time to exclaim — " 0 mother ! " Lady Elmsdale looked very pale for a moment ; she was not a strong-minded woman.

I doubt if her boys would have loved her so dearly if she had been. But she was not a fool, as women who are not strong-minded are sometimes, not very logically, supposed to be. " My dear boy, how did this happen ? " " 'Twas not Harry's fault, mamma," exclaimed Fred, impetuously; " it was I that did it." "Nonsense, Fred; you" " But I tell you, mamma, it was ; or if I didn't do it," he continued, with boy-like disregard for accuracy of explanation, " it was all the same, for Harry got it defending me from that blackguard fellow Morris, who had nearly thrashed another fellow to death — a little boy too — and he a great bullying brute, that could beat six of us by sheer size and fists ; but Harry did for him ; and it was a jolly row after all, and the boys like fair-play in the .end." It was destined to be a night of interruptions.

Lady Elmsdale was endeavouring to make what sense she could out of Fred's incoherent explana tion, and wondering how boys could think rows jolly that cut their heads open, when the door softly opened, and another member of the family made his appearance. There are certain persons who have the power, voluntarily or involuntarily, probably involuntarily, of acting as a kind of moral douche-bath; — the moment they enter a room conversation is either stopped or changed. If we were asked, or if we asked ovnselves the reason, except in some peculiar, marked cases, we should be perplexed to assign a cause. But the fact remains the same. The cold water distributors are out of harmony with nature generally, and you feel it. There was an awkward pause. Edward Elmsdale seldom spoke in the family circle unless he was directly addressed.

Fred and Harry were afraid of him. He was ten years their senior, and he made them feel it. His father had paid his gambling and other debts too frequently to enable him to place the trust and confidence in him which a father should wish to place in an eldest son. His mother was his mother ; and when that has been said, we have said enough. Edward looked embarrassed himself. If he had known who were the occupants of the apartment, he would not have come in. He had just returned from a convivial party of his particular friends. They were not persons whom he could have asked to his father's house ; and acquaintances of this kind are no advantage to any young man, — a discovery which is generally made when it is entirely too late to remedy the evil effected thereby. I have said there was an awkward pause.

After a moment Edward spoke: "I did not know you were here." His tone was something between apology and annoyance, and suggested that he thought no one had any business to be anywhere, if their presence caused him the least inconvenience. " Your brothers came here unexpectedly," replied Lady Elmsdale. But the eldest born offered no word of welcome to the younger boys. He was seldom rude to them, but he was quietly tyrannical when they interfered in the least degree with his plans. For the rest, he simply ignored their existence. A hasty exit was his only reply. The boys looked what they felt, as if they had received a moral cold-water bath. They ought certainly to have been accustomed to Edward by this time, but youth is impressionable (as we all know, or, at least, we say we know it, and forget it the next half-hour), and the boys had not yet become world-hardened.

Lady Elmsdale rose. With that ready courtesy which is at once so rare and so peculiarly attractive in a boy, Harry lit a night-lamp, and held it for her till she reached her door. With a final embrace, the lads left their mother, and went quietly to the well-remembered, long-loved chamber in the western tower, which they, had shared from the first proud day in which they had been emancipated from nurses and nursery rule. The boys hurried into bed, tired from their journey, tired from the excitement of their return home, eager to rest in preparation for the pleasures of the coming day, the day which had already begun legally. Harry had undressed first, Freddy ex tinguished their light, and only a faint glimmer from the fire showed that he had not yet lain down. Harry waited a moment, and then sat up.

"You're not at your prayers, Fred?" he ex claimed, in that tone of utter incredulity which people use when they ask a question in amazement at a fact which, notwithstanding the query, is self-evident. Fred was at his prayers, as the boys in Montem College rather vaguely termed every kind of devo tional exercise. But Fred was rather ashamed of himself; it was a work of supererogation. The boys used to say prayers long ago in the nursery, and for a while after they lefc it ; but they had been partly laughed at, and partly threatened out of the custom, soon after they entered the public school. Not by the masters? By no means ; they would have been extremely shocked if their attention had been called to the fact that there were certain dormitories in which prayers were not allowed, one or two in which they were tolerated as a weakness, because the elder boys were lazy or good-natured.

In one instance, however, two boys slept in the same part of the building, who would not give up this custom. One of these boys was the son of evangelical parents. He read a chapter in tlie Bible every night when he could get a light, and said some long extempore prayers. The other boy was the son of a very High Church or Puseyite clergyman, as they were then called. His father preached celibacy, aud practised matrimony ; and Aldridge seemed very likely to follow his father's example. He did not read the Bible, but he had a book of prayers, adapted from Catholic sources, which he did read. Some of the boys said he had beads, and said a rosary in private like any Papist ; but that was a mere invention. They were both steady, sensible fellows, earnest in their own way, but unfortunately they had little influence over the other boys.

Aldridge said Johnstone was little better than a Dissenter. Johnstone said Aldridge was as bad as a Papist, Then* companions laughed at them both, and the general respect for religion was not much increased by the sharp recriminations which passed between them at times. Fred was ashamed of himself ; and made some thing very like a resolution not to be guilty of such a weakness again. The fact was that he felt very happy ; it seemed like " old times " to be home again, and even boys have their old times ; and he had knelt down to say his prayers rather by instinct, and the unconscious impulse of old custom, than from any definite idea of fulfilling a duty. In a few moments both boys were sleeping soundly. They did not hear a door opening softly near them, nor a light footfall upon the stairs.

Probably they would not have heard it if they had been awake ; but, as the clock chimed two hours after midnight, a watchful listener with very quick hearing might have known that there was a movement in the house ; and, if he had risen to ascer tain the cause, might have seen a man stealing softly down the marble stans described before, and shading a light carefully with his hands. We have said that it was one of Lord Elmsdale's peculiarities to have ho shutters to the windows. As the figure passed the large oriel-window on the first landing, he shaded the light less. carefully. It never occurred to him that he could be seen by any One outside ; he never for a moment supposed that any one was watching him ; but he was seen, and his further movements watched, by Ned Rusheen. CHAPTER IT. SHORT AND EXPLANATORY, ,OME of the guests who were expected fA to spend the Christmas at Elmsdale Castle were English.

Lord Elmsdale was English, or at least he liked to be thought of that nation. It was fashion able. His property was not large, his father had left it fearfully encumbered, and it was only by the most careful man agement that he had been able to make himself independent. Lady Elmsdale was an heiress, but her fortune was not settled on her self. A considerable part of it had been expended SHORT AND EXPLANATORY. 19 in clearing off mortgages, the rest had been used to build Elmsdale Castle. On the whole, the heir of Elmsdale might con sider himself fortunate. He was considered fortunate, and he was very much envied by a great many people, who thought no state of life could be so happy as that of the heir-expectant to a title and an estate, except indeed the present possessor. But then there is something in possession which either destroys romance or precludes hope ; and curiously enough, people are more frequently envied, by the young at least, for their expectations than for their possessions.

Edward Elmsdale was in a dangerous position — the heir to a property and to a title, into the possession of which he could not hope, and, it is to be presumed, did not wish, to enter, until death should come and sever what should be one of the dearest of earthly ties. As an eldest son, if his father had allowed him a judicious share in the management of the property, it would at least have afforded him occupation, and the healthy interest in life which such occupation, or, indeed, any legitimate employ ment, must give. But Lord Elmsdale had toiled, NED RUSHEEN. 20 and saved, and planned, in his own early career ; he had succeeded to the title long before his minority was over, and he had virtually managed the pro perty from the time he was eighteen* He was a kind father, a good landlord, a faithful friend, and an excellent husband ; but he had not that peculiar and rare gift which enables men to enter into the feelings and realise the position of others.

It never even occurred to him that he was doing his son an injustice, in more ways than one, by depriving him of the interests belonging to his position in life. The result was, that after Edward Elmsdale had been a year home from Oxford, he had found in terests and society for himself, but they were not. of a kind to prove advantageous to his future. Another indiscretion — shall we say? — on Lord Elmsdale's part was, that he did not give his son that free permission to invite his friends to his house, which, within certain limits, every young man should have. Lord Elmsdale did not like strangers. He had lived very much alone, from economical motives, as a young man. Later in life, he liked to have great family gatherings at Christ mas ; he wished Lady Elmsdale to go to the Castle SHORT AND EXPLANATORY. 21 levees occasionally; he gave, now and then, very formal dinner-parties ; but that pleasant society which should form one of the chief attractions of every household where there are young men, was conspicuously absent, and Edward felt it.

Lord Elmsdale had also a prejudice against governesses. He firmly believed that if he admitted one into his house, her sole object in life would be to entrap his son into a clandestine marriage. The consequence was that Mary, his only daughter, was educated at school, and another tie which should have bound the eldest-born to home was thus wanting. You have not heard of Mary yet ; but she is coming home now, a confidential servant having been sent for her.

Chapter III. Two Hours After Midnight

r'S no good he 's up to, that I '11 warrant, or my name 's not Ned Rusheen. Why can't he leave a poor girl alone, when he might have the pick and choice of the country round, with his title and his handsome face, though, hy the powers, it looks dark enough when he 's put out." The speaker, or rather soliloquiser, was Ned Busheen, who had seen Edward Elmsdale on the landins,* through the oriel-window, and conjectured rightly that he was "after no good." Let us look at Ned for a moment, as he stands, still and hushed, in the cold midnight, his gun on his shoulder, his dog at his heels, pursuing his lawful avocation of watching Lord Elmsdale's preserves. He was a handsome fellow, a true type of an Irishman — not the stereotyped Irishman of modern writers, who says "yez" and "yarrah" at every other word ; who curses " by gorra," or by " the holy poker;" who is lazy and won't work; who is dirty and won't be clean; who has the imperish able gifts of fortune showered on him by a bene volent landlord, and won't accept them.

Such an Irishman exists only in the imagination of those who take their ideas of the nation from purely mythical description. Ned stood six feet two inches in his "stockiug feet." If his figure had a fault, it was its extreme slightness ; but the agility, the grace, the ease — I had almost said the elegance — of his movements, more than compensated for any deficiency of bulk. He was Edward Elmsdale's foster-brother, and at one time the tie of attachment between them had been very strong. Lady Elmsdale had nearly lost her life at the birth of her eldest son ; and Ned's mother, then the gatekeeper's wife, had taken the infant and nursed him with her own boy. In their young days Ned had worshipped the little lord, as he called his young master, with an almost adoring fondness. When Edward went to a public school, the boy lost his spirits for weeks, and nearly lost his health for ever.

When Edward returned home, with his larger experience of the world and his new ideas on the subject of pleasure, Ned received his first lesson in the vanity of human attachment. He submitted without a murmur, but the wound rankled ; and when he found, at a later period, that Edward had worse faults than ingrati tude, he was neither troubled nor surprised. The breach was now widened hopelessly. It has been said that visitors were expected from England to spend the Christmas at Elmsdale Castle. They were to arrive by the Liverpool packet, and might be expected a few hours after midnight. They might not come for some hours, later. In the uncertainty, everything had been prepared for their reception, should they make their appearance even earlier than had been anticipated. The heads of the family had agreed to retire to rest, as Miss Elms dale, who was with the travellers, would be able to act as hostess ; and it was supposed they would prefer retiring to rest as speedily as possible to exchanging civilities in all the discomposure whicli must follow a sea-voyage at such a season.

The upper-housemaid had been charged to remain up and look after the fires ; and Edward Elmsdale was in quest of her when he entered the dining room, where he found his mother and brothers. He was looking for her now. He was taking a mean advantage of an unprotected ghl — and he knew it. Ellie McCarthy was still young, and yet she held a responsible position in the household. Her aunt was the housekeeper ; and when her mother died she was taken into service in the castle. Her manner arid appearance were so attractive, that Lady Elmsdale would have had her trained as her own maid, if she had not already possessed a trea sure in that capacity — one who was almost as much friend as servant. It was settled, then, that she should be taught the duties of a housemaid, and she became upper-housemaid through the marriage of two fellow-servants before she had reached her twentieth year.

I have described Ned, and I suppose something must be said about Ellie ; but I confess consider able difficulty in the task. I do not claim for all Irish girls her rare gifts of mind and person, but they have very frequently an indescribable purity of look and tone and manner, to which no words can do justice, which must be seen and felt to be understood. There was a fawn-like shyness and brightness in her eye, an exceeding sweetness in her smile, and a timidity which was at once trustful and hesitating in its expression. She had gone from one room to the other tending the fires, pausing awhile in each, and singing to herself some snatches of the Christmas carols which she had been taught in her baby-days at the convent-school, and which she loved for the sake of those who taught her, as well as for their holy words.

She was now in the dining-room, removing the remains of the boys' supper, and putting things, as she would have expressed it, " to rights." It was a very large apartment, and she stood with her back to the double doors which opened into it from the great hall. The inside doors were covered with baize, studded with large brass nails, and there was, besides, a swinging door, which she had fastened ajar. Edward came in so quietly that she did not notice his entrance, until he came against a chair, which he threw down unintentionally, for his object was to attract her to his presence by some quiet movement. The girl gave an exclamation of terror, as well she might. She little expected that any of the family would be moving about at such an hour, and she had every reason to fear her young master's presence.