f PUBLISHED BY J^ES DUFFY lO.WelJingtoji 1846 BOB NORBERRY; SKETCHES FROM THE NOTE BOOK AN IRISH REPORTER. EDITED BY CAPTAIN PROUT. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY HENRY Al ACM AN US, ESQ., A.B.H.A. AND OTHER EMINENT ARTISTS. DUBLIN : PUBLISHED BY JAMES DUFFY, 23, ANGLESEA STREET. 1644. DUBLIN : PRINTED BY JOHN F. FOWLER, 7, CROW STREET. DEDICATION. TO C. BIANCONI, ESQ. SIB, Permit me to offer you some apology, and the reader some explanation, why, without your permission, I venture to dedicate this volume to you. It has been written to vindicate the character of my country- men, by showing how the law was administered half a century ago, and how it is administered at the present day ; leaving the fair iufei^nce to be drawn, that the crimes of the people are to be traced to their want of confidence in the tribunals of the country and the grinding oppressions of an oligarchy, who legislate for them in a spirit of antagonism to all their wants and their feelings, and that they only require to be treated justly to rise to a high station amongst the nations. Many of the incidents are from real life. Let those, then, who carefully peruse this volume, ask themselves, is it not a matter of surprise that the crimes of the Irish people do not far exceed what they are ? But, Sir, my vindication, or that of any writer that has ever written upon Ireland, is weak and unavailing, compared to the 20G0712 iv DEDICATION. practical, triumphant, and irresistible vindication which you have given of the Irish people. I have read your statement made at a meeting of the British Association in Cork, wherein you demonstrate, that so far from pandering to the prejudices of the people with whom you have to do in your very extensive business, you retain no man in your employment who utters a falsehood, and punish with promptitude the slightest theft committed ; and yet, although a foreigner, and resident in the heart of Tipperary, and that your property is spread over the most remote dislricts of the country, and completely at the mercy of the people, the slightest injury has never been done to it ! You treat the people with whom you have to do, justly ; if their rulers and the aristocracy followed your example, Ireland would soon be a prosperous nation. Let those who say that men of capital are afraid, from the savage disposition of the Irish, to embark it in this country, satisfy themselves of the truth of your statement, and then blush for uttering such a calumny. It is, then, because you have vindicated the character of my countrymen, that I venture to dedicate this volume to you, and to subscribe myself, Your faithful friend, THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. Page PREFACE ... ... ... ... ] CHAPTER I. Some account of the Norberry family Who and what the Grandfather of Bob was Dublin sixty years ago ... 3 CHAPTER II. An Abduction and unexpected Rescue ... ... 13 CHAPTER III. Continuation of the History of Bob's ancestors Preparations for the Marriage of Old Hawk ... ... 25 CHAPTER IV. Marriage of Old Hawk The celebrated Doctor OXeary Strange vicissitudes ... ... ... 40 CHAPTER V. Preparation of a Deed A peep into a Private Madhouse Proceedings under the Commission of Lunacy Death of Old Hawk ... ... . 55 CHAPTER VI. Sad disasters of the Fogarty family An Heir born to the House of Norberry Death of Kate A Suit instituted to establish the right of the Heir ... ... 80 VI . CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. Page Funeral of Old Hawk A Duel The revenge of Wormwood gratified ... ... ... ... 97 CHAPTER VIII. Confession and end of Gripe Death of Blind Tim ... 116 CHAPTER IX. A long hiatus in the Family memoirs Discovery of the Son of Kate His eventful History ... ... 1*29 CHAPTER X. Marriage of the young Recruit with the Daughter of O'Kelly Appearance of Bob upon the stage His claim to the Norherry property An Irish Nobleman and Landlord 141 CHAPTER XI. Lord Strangeway astonishes the Norberry family Timely aid Interview of Mrs. Norberry with her Solicitors and Lawyers ... ... ... ... 161 CHAPTER XII. Absence of leading Counsel at the hearing Strange scenes in the Courts A partial Decree made in favour of the Norberrys Some Reflections on a General System of Education for the humble classes O'Kelly visits Lord Strangeway ... ... ... ... 177 CHAPTER XIII. Continuation of O'Kelly's interview* with Lord Strangeway Bob is sent to School A mutual dislike exists between himself and his master He "cuts the connection" for ever 193 CONTENTS. Vii CHAPTER XIV. Page Stoneyhurst Bob sent to College The vengeance of Miss M'Dougal pursues him He returns home, falls in love, and is in danger of losing his vocation ... 207 CHAPTER XV. The ruined Village The Widow's Curse Lord Strangeway in sorrow 225 CHAPTER XVI. Hope and disappointments quickly succeed each other _ Bob is sent to the University of Louvain ... 233 CHAPTER XVII. " The four days in Brussels" Bob a much better adept in Military Tactics than in Theological Studies An unex- pected Meeting ... ... ... 241 CHAPTER XVIII. Bob recovers from his wounds, returns home, and, being at a loss for a profession, becomes a Reporter Lord Strangeway remains abroad ... ... ... 257 CHAPTER XIX. A Scene in the Sanctum" of the Gibbet A Duel prevented Bob obtains an engagement on the Press ... ... 266 CHAPTER XX. Bob makes his " debut" as a Reporter, v.nd causes a great sen- sation amongst the Quidnuncs" of Dublin 276 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. Page A Meeting to establish a Benevolent Loan Fund and Equitable Insurance Society Mr. Grapple brings forward his plan for the relief of the Industrious Classes Bob accelerates the bursting of the bubble ... ... ... 290 CHAPTER XXII. The Administration of Justice in Criminal Courts Incidents of deep interest to the fortunes of Bob occur ... ... 305 CHAPTER XXIII. Knipe made a witness Some of the Trials are proceeded with Lord Strangeway and the Widow at law Last Speech and end of Chief Justice Swingsnap ... ... 321 CHAPTER XXIV. Bob declares to Clements his love for Lady Mary Visits by accident Castle Wilder Unexpected good fortune Is sent to London as Parliamentary Reporter ... ... 330 CHAPTER XXV. Bob meets TomPurcell at the "Blue Boar" in High Holborn Plans for future operations A great crisis arrives ... 345 POSTSCRIPT. To the Editor of "Bob Norberry" ... ... 355 PREFACE. THE compiler of the following pages, which are to be brought out in a series of monthly numbers, deems it right to state why, in this age of literary excellence, he should have the presumption to usher into life a periodical under the denomination of " SKETCHES FROM THE NOTE BOOK OF AN IRISH REPORTER." The Repor- ter is an Irishman, intimately acquainted with the ha- bits, character, and social condition of the Irish people ; and whilst writers from the sister country, who know less of Ireland than they do of the Kalmuck tribes of Russian Tartary, have produced books which pretend to be faithful pictures of Irish life and character, although they are no more than hideous caricatures, calculated to excite feelings of hatred and contempt, it may not be amiss that one who knows the country well, and has mixed with the various classes of Irish society, should attempt to give a faithful history of a variety of scenes, where all the passions that actuate the human heart are developed, and from which the true condition of a peo- ple, and the just administration of the law with regard to them, may be judged. Those who have written of the Irish have, for some sinister purpose, most generally held them up as objects of pity and of scorn ; or they have been deplorably ignorant of the great philosophi- cal maxim, that the race to which a people belongs, their primitive constitution, and their instincts, form the great key to their actions and their motives ; and that it is because rulers do not legislate in the spirit of race, laws are rendered nugatory, and the people demoralised and miserable. Legislation, and too frequently the ad- 2 PREFACE. ministration of the law, have been going on as regards Ireland, for nearly the last seven centuries, on the prin- ciple of a wedge with the wrong end foremost ; and it must excite the astonishment of the philosopher and philanthropist, to find her people, at the end of so many ages of misrule, so patient, brave, and moral as they are. Many of the scenes, truly described in the present sketches, are laid in the criminal courts of justice, where the rubbish which society casts away, and the victims to their own bad passions, and oppressive laws un- justly administered, are daily to be found, and from which the moral alchymist can extract much that may be beneficial to mankind. The reader is the alchymist, and the compiler or author only he who furnishes ma- terials for his laboratory. It may be right to state, that BOB NORBERRY, the luckless Reporter, has been obliged to fly the country for causes that will be hereafter explained, and having left behind him both his note book and a manuscript copy of his family history, their contents shall be published in the order in which the Editor has found them. Whether the heir of that house shall appear again on the stage before the present publication is con- cluded, or a heavy Chancery suit, in which he is deeply interested, decided, time alone can tell ; but even should he never make his appearance again, he has left behind him ample materials, had they been confided to skilful hands, to form a volume of considerable interest. The compiler of the work shall, without further com- ment, proceed to the fulfilment of the task he has under- taken ; and, in presenting the public with " SKETCHES FROM THE NOTE BOOK OF AN IRISH REPORTER," he trusts he shall in some degree contribute to their in- struction and amusement, .BOB NORBER.RY; OR, SKETCHES FROM THE NOTE BOOK OF AN IRISH REPORTER. CHAPTER I. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NORBERRY FAMILY WHO AND WHAT THE GRANDFATHER OF BOB WAS DUBLIN SIXTY YEAR8 AGO. ABOUT sixteen or seventeen ) 7 ears before the act of legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland had passed, and when the west end of Dublin was the seat of commerce, wealth, and industry, there resided in an antiquated mansion in the neigh- bourhood of James's Street, the remains of which are still stand- ing, a wealthy old miser named Nipper Norberry, of very retired and eccentric habits. His residence was one of those tile- covered pent-house dwellings, which formed the general class of private buildings in this city something above two centuries ago ; and he was more attached to it for the sake of old associations, than any comfort or accommodation it afforded. His father before him had made a fortune in the place, which he like a wise and prudent son had considerably increased ; and having no fancy for princely mansions in one of the squares (in truth there were few of them built at the time), he continued to abide there, enjoying more satisfaction in the accumulation of wealth than others find in spending it. The liberties of Dublin, which are now a mass of ruins and dilapidated houses, inhabited by squalid, famished- looking mortals, who would seem to be denied a resting place in any other spot under Heaven, were at that time inhabited by merchants and citizens of good estate. Then the hum of indus- try was heard on all sides, and although machinery was not 4) BOB NORBERRY. brought to any great degree of perfection, still every hand was employed, and the fabric produced was at least as durable and of more intrinsic value than any thing similar in modern times. The fly shuttle and the hand-loom were at work in the lower apart- ments of almost every building, and the silk throwsters and spinners were employed in the upper stories. Every dwelling was a little manufactory, where the artizan worked in his own abode, assisted and cheered on by the presence of a happy wife and family : he was then more moral and more healthy than the inmates of the great English factories of the present day, and his condition in life was infinitely superior. High Street, Thomas Street, Francis Street, James's Street, and all that part of the city west of Dublin Castle, was then a busy scene of active industry ; and here did the ancestors of many noble houses and peers of the present day amass that wealth, as successful traders, which purchased honours and titles for their posterity. Amongst those quiet and prosperous citizens then occupying this district, lived our wealthy merchant, in the same house which had been occupied by his ancestors for some generations previously. If any one asked where Mr. Norberry lived, his next door neighbour, except he happened to be long resident in the place, could not tell, as he was generally designated " Old Hawk." After having retired from the more active pur- suits of mercantile life, he took to lending money arid discounting bills, which was then a very profitable trade, as the present legal facility for the payment of debts did not exist, and bankruptcies arid failures in trade were of very rare occurrence. In this occu- pation, still adding to his wealth, he remained unmarried for many years, his household consisting all the time of an old woman named Shue Shaugness, or, as she would say herself when speaking of her own respectability and her family connections in the county Limerick, " Judith O'Shaugnessey ;" a servant man called blind Tim ; and a kind of clerk, who went backwards and forwards to the banks of Sir George Coldbrooke and Company in Mary's Abbey, and Dawson and Coates in Thomas Street, where his employer made lodgments and did other business in the banking line. Blind Tim lived on board wages, and slept on a stable loft which was attached to a warehouse on the other side of the street ; and old Shue was allowed three testers a- week to get her dinner, and had the privilege of the master's tea-pot, with a round of the loaf every morning when he had breakfasted. He dined every day at a tavern, and paid in proportion to the quantity and quality of the viands consumed. The clerk had a small salary, and lodged in the house of a comb-maker opposite, where he was always within call or under his master's eye. Blind Tim's business was to take care of a pair of horses, each as old as himself, and to drive his master through town in an old chaise which he had taken from BOB NORBERBY. 5 a coach-maker in payment of a bad debt. There are many citi- zens still living who remember the equipage of Old Hawk, amongst whom might be mentioned a venerable alderman, who was then a handsome young lad, and in some way connected with the Nor- berry family, although Old Hawk held him in the greatest con- tempt as a coxcomb that would never rise in the world ; but his predictions in this respect were falsified. The horses were origi- nally black, but had grown grey from age : the solitary occupant of the old coach was in perfect keeping with the driver and horses, and on the whole it might be said that a more suitably appointed "turn out" had been seldom seen in the fair city of Dublin. The tradesmen at work in the Liberty, and the very children in the streets, knew the rumble of Old Hawk's shan- dredan, as he drove about collecting his interest money, and the rents of various houses in that quarter of the town of which he was the owner. Such is a short outline of the household arrangements and manner of living of Old Hawk until he was nearly sixty years of age, when he took it into his head to marry. The social philosophy contained in the aphorism, " Tell me what sort a man's wife is, and I will tell you the life he led," has more wisdom in it than can be at once comprehended ; and it is a remarkable fact, capable of proof amongst us in every-day life, that misers, money-hunters, and men of lax morals, whether in high or low society, hardly ever form respectable matrimonial alliances. Whilst young, the sordid and avaricious will not wed with women of equal rank and fortune, the love of money still prompting them to enter upon fresh speculations which end in disappointment. The man who is not guided by strict morality cannot appreciate female virtue or the endearments of the domus et placens uxor, and hence both are found either in the ranks of old bachelors, or they make matches in after life which seem to be a penalty upon the faults of their early days. An old bachelor is, notwithstanding^ sagacious enough to know that any young woman of equal rank who marries him, does so for the purpose of spending his money, or in the hope of being shortly honoured with the attractive appellation of " the rich widow." The miser knows, too, a marriage of this description would considerably increase his expenses, and hence it is, that the matrimonial alli- ances of such men are, generally speaking, made with women who are content to act in the double capacity of servant and wife. Old Hawk, when nearly sixty, began to entertain serious no- tions of matrimony, and a circumstance occurred which hurried him to the fulfilment of his intentions. One day that he had been more than usually successful in his money speculations, he dined according to custom at his tavern, but having staid out late, blind Tim went to bring him home. He had drank rather freely, and when Tim arrived at the " Ram" in Aungier 6 BOB NORBERRY. Street he found the landlord on the point of sending a messenger to Allen's livery stables and carriage yard in Lazor's Hill for a chariot to convey Old Hawk to his residence in James's Street, he being supposed unable to keep his perpendicular even by the assistance of the watchmen, who, in the good old times, before " teetotalism " was thought of, were in the habit of conveying drunken people from one station to another until arrived at their own home. This, by the way, was often a very lucrative employ- ment to those trusty guardians of the night, who generally eased the pockets of their protegees of any loose money or watches with which they might be encumbered. To tell the truth of Old Hawk, he had never before been qualified to receive the protec- tion of the Dublin watchmen, who were constantly in the habit of visiting his tavern, as well as others, at a late hour of the night, to know if there were any drunken gentlemen to be brought home, to whom they were always ready and willing to act as guardians and conductors. On the night in question, two of those professional gentlemen had made a tour of inspection through all the sitting-rooms at the " Bam," with the view of ascertaining who would require their services, when, to their infinite joy, they discovered Old Hawk, amongst others, a fit subject upon which to exercise their philanthropic intentions. A golden world opened before them : he was rich beyond bounds ; it was a long journey from the " Ram" in Aungier Street to his residence in James's Street, and all the "gentlemen" along the whole line, amongst whom the most perfect sympathy of sentiment and unity of purpose existed, would have at least paid themselves well for their trouble in con- veying him home. The two officious worthies, who thus offered their services, told Tom Fogarty, the landlord of the "Ram," to give the old gentleman another " go," and he would be just fit to travel : they thought he was not sober enough to walk home him- self, nor drunk enough to be quiet, so that unless he got a little more they apprehended they would have considerable trouble with. him. Fogarty was an honest Munster man, who had made a little money by his calling, and had the reputation of treating his cus- tomers fairly and dealing honestly with the world: he refused to allow the watchmen to interfere at all, and had proposed, as already stated, to send to Allen's for a chariot to convey Old Hawk and himself to James's Street, for he intended leaving him safe and sound under his own roof. The professional gentlemen were deeply chagrined at this unexpected interference in a matter so much connected with their own interests, and they told Fogarty he might mark the consequences of his imprudence ; he ought to know the influence they hnd with Recorder Bradstreet and all the magistrates; they never "reported" his house, although that might often have been done ; but if he did not allow them to mind BOB NOBBEBBY. 7 their own affairs, they would open a new leaf, and send the bog- trotter back to Munster among the rebels, instead of allowing him to make money like a gentleman in the loyal city of Dublin. Fogarty was inexorable to their threats and entreaties, and the messenger was just going off for the chariot when blind Tim arrived, and the guardians of the night were obliged to depart, disappointed in their expectations, and vowing vengeance on the honest tavern-keeper. In the mean time he who formed the sub- ject of their discussion had sufficiently recovered from the effects of the brandy punch which he had taken, to understand the na- ture of the conversation, and to appreciate the honest intentions of his worthy host ; then the arrival of his faithful servant, who for upwards of thirty years had never seen him affected by in- toxicating drink, seemed to act upon him like a galvanic bat- tery, and he started from his seat with a vigour which astonished all the spectators. " I have heard," said Old Hawk, "all that passed whilst those robbers, who are a disgrace to our city, were endeavouring to get me into their clutches, and I shall no longer hesitate in the prose- cution of a purpose which has long occupied my mind, but which I have never yet had the resolution to avow: you (looking at Fogarty) shall hear very soon what it is I have in contempla- tion ; there is perhaps no other man in existence who can so materially assist in the accomplishment of my project, and I am sure you will the more readily lend your aid when you find that what I intend to do will be of advantage to yourself; but there is one barrier which must of course be removed before every thing can be finally accomplished." Fogarty replied, that there was nothing in his power that he would not do to make Mr. Norberry happy, for he had been greatly honoured by the patronage which he bestowed on his house so long, as well as for the many friends whom he had recommended there. Whilst this conversation was going on, the chariot which was to take Old Hawk home arrived at the door of the " Ram," and blind Tim proposed conveying his master thither without any further delay ; but his proposal was interrupted by an inquiry from the latter of " What is the hour?" The landlord replied, "Five minutes after twelve." " Right!" said Old Hawk; "it was not twelve when the cha- riot was ordered at Allen's, and I will therefore only have to pay 'day fare' for it." It may be here stated, that in these good old times the price of a chariot for an hour, if engaged before twelve o'clock at night, was only a shilling, but between that and sixo'clock in the morn- ing the fare was one and six pence, and the worthy old gentleman was anxious that he should have the benefit of an engagement 8 BOB NOBBEBBY. made one minute before that hour, being thereby enabled to save six pence. The charioteer interfered by saying he admitted it was a minute or two before twelve when the order came, but the clock had struck before he had " turned out," and he was therefore entitled to night fare. A rejoinder from Old Hawk followed, accompanied by a recommendation from the landlord to compromise the matter, as it seemed to involve a point of law, and after some controversy it was agreed that the contending parties should split the difference between them, and leave the sum to be paid one and three pence, instead of one and six pence. Tim and his master entered the chariot, and on their arrival at home he seemed to have become perfectly sober. They discharged their charioteer, and entered their cheerless dwelling, which gave no signs of life, except the chirping of a swarm of crickets, that occupied the ground floor when all other company were absent. Old Shue had gone to bed, the fire was out, and blind Tim was obliged to go to a neighbouring watch- house to light a candle. On his return, Old Hawk took him into the parlour, which served the treble purpose of office, bed-room, and sitting-room ; near the window was a strong oak desk with an iron railing round it, opposite which was a safe built into the wall ; at the other end was a cupboard or press which served to hold the scanty viands and table ware with which the house was supplied ; behind the door was a huge clock in an oaken case as large as a sentry box, which had stood there for a couple of gene- rations, and whose loud and healthy stroke gave promise that it would continue to vibrate long after many a human heart, bent on worldly gain, and fraught with plans calculated to oppress or deceive their fellow-man, had mouldered into dust. In an- other part of the room was a press-bed, which turned up into a niche in the wall; there were a few oak chairs and two small tables of the same material, which completed the entire furni- ture of Old Hawk's state apartment. When Tim entered with the candle, his master sent him in search of old Shue's firewood, and, after lighting a fire, he sat down, and they drew their chairs together. There are moments when the man who makes himself the outcast of society by his in pursuit of it, feels that he is alone in the world, and that amongst the sons of men there is hardly one with whom he can reciprocate one kindly feeling, or in whom he can confide either in the hour of success or of sorrow ; and that if there be one such friend, it is an old and faithful servant, who has entered into the feelings of his master, and becomes reconciled to his habits and his eccentricities. Tim was one of those faithful domestics, whose nature it was to be attached to any person or thing with which he was connected, and was, in point of fact, as fond of the BOB NOBBEBBY. 9 old horses as he was of his master, and any esteem he might have to spare for a third object was given to old Shue. He was paid his board wages to the hour, and his standing wages was put to interest, which was paid quarterly and added to the principal, so that by careful management, under the direction of his master, he had amassed some money. The master was, besides, naturally quiet in his disposition, and never found fault with any thing, provided he was successful in his money getting pursuits, which was most generally the case ; so that Tim's situation was after all as agreeable as that of a man serving a titled master with a splendid equipage and a numerous retinue of servants. There was there- fore a reciprocity of feeling between them, that, alas ! seldom ex- ists between master and servant. " Tim," said Old Hawk, as the billets of wood that had been lighted blazed up briskly, "hand me the bottle of wine that is in the safe ; I was made a present of a dozen by Mr. Jolly, for whom I cashed a small bill ; we will take a glass before we go to rest : I want to tell you something of my great success to-day, and of my future intentions and prospects." Tim complied, and, having uncorked the bottle, sat down op- posite his master: the wood fire burned cheerfully in the rusty grate, and gave an appearance of comfort to the apartment which it had rarely worn. " Tim," continued Old Hawk, " put out that candle, the fire blazes so prettily that I think the candle light only spoils the effect of it ; and besides, conversation is always pleasanter by a cheerful fire than if the room was completely illuminated." " Why," said Tim, " that's just what I was thinking, and I was really going to put it out before you spoke." " Ah," replied the master, " you are just what I always found you to be, a faithful and considerate servant ; I would hardly have got on in this world and these hard times without such a friend, and in return for your fidelity I will tell you a good deal about my affairs." " Very well," said Tim*, " nothing can give me greater satis- faction than to hear about my master and all that concerns him. I have no other friend after all but you, and I would be the most ungrateful man upon earth if I did not take great interest in your success." Old Hawk then proceeded : " Yes, Tim, I tell you, that I know what you say is true, and you being worthy of my confidence, I have now to inform you that I am about being married, that is, I have made up my mind about the matter, and I hope you shall in a few days have a mistress ; but let me tell you first what I have done this day, or rather what good fortune has befallen me. "Whilst I was in the bank this morning I heard the glorious news that the father of young Lord Flareaway, from whom I got 10 BOB NOEBERBY. the post obit aoout ten days ago, had just dropped dead in a fit of apoplexy : he had been one of a large dinner party at Bishop Bloater's, arid spoiled the fun and feeding by dropping dead at the dinner table before the feast was more than half over. I got a post obit for ten thousand, and all I gave the young rake was two thousand ; he had, besides, to pay Gripe the attorney a thumping bill of costs. And, by the way, that Gripe is a villain that must be closely watched ; he was to have given me half the profits on the young lord's bill of costs, and I have good reason to think that he cheated me oat of a portion of it, but the truth will come out when I am calling in the post obit, which will be now in a few days. Only think of two thousand paid away ten days ago, bringing in five times the amount now ! Providence always favours the honest, saving, industrious man : but sure if we did not get an odd lift of that kind we could never get on these hard times. I knew when I got the post obit that the old lord was such a drunkard and glutton that he could not live for any time, but it was the goodness of God that brought him home so soon. 1 calculated upon two or three years ; only think of ten days ! Come, Tim, fill your glass, and we will drink success to aMpost < obit transactions " Tim filled the glass, and said, "I don't exactly understand the meaning of these words, but what would you think, sir, if we drink to the memory of old Lord Flareaway ?" " A capital idea," said Old Hawk, as he poured out a glass of good brown sherry, " let the toast then be, the memory of Lord Flareaway, and may all lords whose heirs owe honest men money soon meet the same fate." " I say the same," replied Tim, and both swallowed off their wine. " Now listen to me for a moment," said Old Hawk, "whilst I tell you what I am about to do, and ask your advice upon the subject. I know the change I am about to make is a very im- portant one, and will add a good deal to our expense ; but if we expend in one way we can curtail in another, and I know that you will give me all the assistance in your power." Tim replied, that much would depend upon the sort of mistress he would get, and added, that he was most impatient to hear her name. " That," continued his master, " you shall hear presently, and if I mistake not you will approve of her as a person who will not expect too much. I have long thought of the matter, but the occurrences of this night have decided me : Fogarty is an honest man, and I will have his daughter Kate in marriage ; she is a saving, proper young woman, who will be a good wife. I was in her father's house some time ago, when I heard her say that if she were a penny short of a hundred pounds she would not be any BOB NOBBEERY. 11 longer able to pay that sum, and that it was the pennies saved more than the pennies earned that made the money. Now to hear such wisdom from the mouth of a girl so young is rare in this age of extravagance and folly, and if I don't mistake much, the daughter of Fogarty is worthy of being united to the Norberry family ; but this brother of mine, who has such high notions, and whose son is now in college, will not consent to the alliance, and will do all in his power to prevent it, more particularly as he expects to get all my money, but I will disappoint these expectants. Gripe, the villain, will be also disappointed in the accomplishment, of certain plans he had laid for my ruin. You know he is attorney to that broken down spendthrift Colonel Dilkes, who has for many years been living upon the money of other people and keeping up appearances of splendour, regardless as to who will suffer in the end ; he has a daughter who has been forgotten by the world, although she has been all her life accustomed to go into what is called high society, and only think of Gripe proposing to me to marry her, with a view, no doubt, of her father and family laying hold of my hard earned money ; but I shall disappoint them all : why, it would ruin a man, no matter what money he might have, to support a wife accustomed to such extravagance. It won't do, Tim, it won't do, and Gripe shan't pocket the poundage upon a settlement on the daughter of old Dilkes. Fill again ; here's < Kate Fogarty of the Ram.' " " Kate Fogarty of the Ram," echoed Tim, and both again qnaifed their wine. "I approve highly .of your choice," said the old servant, "I would like the beautiful creature for a mistress; but, master, you are too old to marry so young a woman, and you know besides, that you should have her consent : has that been yet obtained ?" "No," said his master, "I have not yet spoken on the subject to herself or her father, for it was only this night I came filially to the conclusion of making her my wife. There can be no dis- appointment in the matter ; only think of the honour that will be done to Fogarty the inn-keeper, by an alliance with the Norberry family, and the certainty that she will have all my wealth after my death. The thing is quite certain. Kate Fogarty the bar-maid at the ' Ram' transformed into Mrs. Norberry ! the thing is too tempting, there can be no disappointment ; and lest any fatality should occur, I will propose the matter to-morrow to the young woman and her father, but it must be kept a secret for some time ; Gripemnst be kept in ignorance of every thing, the post obit shall be called in, and my papers taken out of his hands, before it is spoken of ; but what is to be done with old Shue ?" " Why, of course," said Tim, " she will be a faithful servant to you and the mistress, as she has been to yourself ; and as you must have one, you would not think of putting her away." 12 BOB NOBBERKY. "I don't know how that may be yet; might I not as well marry the old Colonel's daughter, or some one like her, if I were to have servants to attend her ? I think Kate Fogarty, even when she becomes Mrs. Norberry, will not be above her own business, and that we can live very comfortably without the expense of a servant." " I am sure, master," said Tim, " that that will be matter for future arrangement, and I can tell you from experience that your opinions with regard to the management of your affairs will be greatly changed by marriage. I was a very young man when I married Nancy Cassidy ; poor thing, she died after giving birth to a son in little more than a year after our union; and, in plain truth I must tell you, master, that it cost me more that year than for any other five years of my existence ; I loved the poor creature, and in honour of her memory I never thought of marriage again. It is now nearly thirty years since I came to your father's house, and I believe you have always found me a faithful servant ; the loss of my dear wife would have reconciled me to a fate much more un- pleasant than to serve you." " Oh," said Old Hawk, " you alarm me about the expense ; why, if the wife had lived, you should have been ruined." " I forgot to add," replied Tim, " that some way or other my means more than increased in a comparative degree with my expenses ; and I do believe, had God spared me my wife, I would have been better off" in the world than I am, although I might have more care." " Why that is consoling," rejoined the master, " and I think it is now time that we should retire to rest. I feel that new scenes of an extraordinary character are before me ; that even in my old days I shall be blessed with a good wife, and if I had one son to inherit my wealth, I would die happy. To-morrow Kate Fogarty, the handsome daughter of the honest land lord of the ' Ram, ' shall be honoured by a proposal of marriage from the head of the Norberry family, and Gripe, the Colonel my brother, and the clan belonging to his haughty wife, shall be disappointed. Good night, Tim ; not a word about this matter until it is all complete ; above all, old Shue is not to hear it ; I know that a woman cannot keep a secret." Tim finished his glass of wine, and having stirred up the fire- wood in the grate, with a view to cast sufficient light about the apartment to enable his master to see the way to bed, he with- drew by a narrow passage which led to the rear of the house to take his repose on the stable loft. BOB NOBBEERY. 13 CHAPTER II. AN ABDUCTION AND UNEXPECTED RESCUE. THE lofty summits of the Galtie mountains shone in golden splendour amidst the refulgent rays of an autumn sun, on an evening in the month of August, when a small detachment of military were seen in the distance, wending their way by a narrow road running through the fertile plains that mark the boundaries between Tipperary and Limerick ; the corn fields bore the yellow tinge of approachingripeness, and being interspersed with verdant meadows that undulated to the harvest wind, and played in waves before the refreshing breeze, the whole seemed as a sea of emerald and gold on which the reflection of the sun, from the polished arms of the little military party, flashed like a meteor, and formed a scene of peculiar beauty and grandeur. Upon the eastern ridge of mountains stood a party which consisted of two young lads, an elderly man, and four or five stout athletic fellows, who seemed in search of some lost treasure, or in expectation of meeting with friends in whom all their hopes and affections were centred. They appeared wholly regardless of the stupendous beauties of the surrounding landscape, and as the soldiers approached they changed their position, and sheltered themselves from observa- tion behind some projecting rocks that formed the base of the summit from which they had been taking their observations. " Father," said one of the young lads, " the soldiers have a prisoner tied upon a car ; oh ! I suppose Jack Ryan our uncle has been arrested." " Very likely," replied the old man, " one sorrow never comes alone ; your uncle is arrested, and will no doubt be hanged at Clonmel, next assizes ; your niece has been taken away by villains who would have committed murder to accomplish their hellish purpose ; but had I been at home when they came, they should have drank my blood before the daughter of my only brother had left me ; and I think there is more to come : Ryan, I suppose is arrested, and it is likely they have tortured him until he gave information about Pat Butler being at our house, who was obliged to hide for putting a bad landlord out of the way. He, too, will be arrested, and hanged, of course ; so that, my sons, it is a fearful thing after all to live in a country where the law affords no pro- tection, because there is no confidence placed in it, and where it is administered by one party for purposes of cruelty and malice against another. But there is no use in bewailing our fate ; we would be better, after all, bad as the law is, had we obeyed it, and not left ourselves in the power of the perjured informer and villain." " Hush, father," said one of the young lads, " I don't think 1-1 BOB NOKBE11KY. it is a man they have on the car ; it is something very strange ; and whatever it may be it appears to be lifeless." At this moment the soldiers halted, as if in doubt of the road they should go, and the party who had been watching them, believing that they had been observed, retreated through a nar- row pass of the mountain that led to a village of five or six houses, which was so situated as to be inaccessible not only to a car but to any one on horseback, and which had often formed a place of rendezvous for the Whiteboys, who had some time previously been engaged in a crusade against an attempt made to charge tithe for potatoes in Munster. Their object in visiting this stronghold was with a view to summon aid to rescue the person so closely guarded by the military. Half an hour's quick pace over crags, and through denies impassible to any but those accustomed to their intricacies, brought them to the first house in the village, which was owned by a man named Lonergan, and here they unexpectedly met with six young men from a part of the country nearly forty miles distant, who had come over on a matter of business which should be transacted by strangers in that locality. Lonergan's house abutted on a portion of the mountain in which there was a natural cavern of immense extent, that was reached by a kind of "via sacra," and here were often to be found fugitives from the officers of justice, as well as those maimed or wounded in conflicts with tithe proctors, yeomen, barony con- stables, or occasional military detachments sent through the country to arrest notorious offenders. This cavern thus served the purpose of an hospital and depot for such insurgent forces as it was deemed necessary by Captain Rock to call together from time to time ; and although the country people had access to it for the purpose of conveying provisions and administering relief to its occupants, it is a fact, that it was used for the purposes here stated for upwards of half a century before it was discovered. Its existence caused hundreds of criminals to escape punishment, and as many innocent persons to be hanged in their stead. The re- spective parties were not long in explaining to each other the causes which had so unexpectedly brought them together. The leader or spokesman of those who were found in the house of Lo- nergan, having at once recognised in their visitors friends whom, according to the league that then existed amongst the Whiteboys, they were bound to assist, and from whom they could claim assis- tance in return, at once opened the business which brought him- self and his associates to that part of Tipperary. "We understand," said he, " that you are greatly aggrieved by the villainy of Bishop Fowler's land agent, old Tom Bateman, and w.e have come to level his house, and give him a warning to behave himself: the fellow is not yet fit to die, and we will not send him home at BOB NORBERRY. 15 present ; but our principal business is, to level his new house, which we fear will be a difficult job." Now the history of Tom Bateman, or old Pipes, as he was called in the neighbourhood, was shortly this : Doctor Fowler, on being elevated to the See of Kil- laloe, appointed Bateman his agent, in consideration of receiving from him a considerable sum of money : he gave also in return, for his own immediate use, a portion of the church property, which was completely detached from the see, and situated in that part of Limerick which adjoined Tipperary, in the immediate neigh- bourhood of the Galtie mountains. Bateman, on getting posses- sion of these lands, immediately dispossessed the tenants, whose ancestors had resided on them for centuries, levelled their houses, and erected a mansion for himself, which was more like a little fortress than the residence of a quiet country gentleman. Old Pipes was agent to several other landlords who had property in the neighbourhood of Doctor Fowler's church lands, and was noted throughout Tipperary for being most skilful in the appli- cation of the screw ; and such was the detestation in which he was held by the poor people, that none of them would venture to take a farm that might fall out of lease over which he was the agent. To pull down the house of this old gentleman was the immediate business of the strange party who were assembled at the house of Lonergan, when they were met by those who had proceeded thither to obtain aid for the purpose of rescuing the prisoner who was guarded by the detachment of military, who were at that moment passing by the road that skirted the foot of the mountain. Pro- mises of reciprocal assistance were instantly given on both sides ; but the party of strangers who were thus found at Lonergan's re- quired to know the nature of the expedition in which they were sought to be engaged, and who or what the prisoner was whom they were called upon to assist to rescue. The old man stated that he did not know who or what the person was, but he could have little doubt that it was his brother-in-law Jack Ryan, who had, with others, been accused of murdering a tithe proctor, who was also his landlord, who came to make a distress for potatoe tithe. He was sure he had been arrested, as the military had been several days in pursuit of him. " But," continued he, " that was riot our immediate business ; we were out in search of my niece, Kate Fogarty, from Dublin, who had come upon a visit amongst her friends in the country. She was a creature of great beauty, the May-flower was not fairer to behold, and although bred in a city, the sportive lamb was not more playful or inno- cent ; she came amongst us for a little to delight our hearts and gladden our eyes, but whilst myself and my sons were the day before yesteday absent at the fair of Holycross, a party of men came and carried her off from my house by force ; we know not where she is, and although we have been out in pursuit of the 16 BOB NOBBERRY. villains for the last day and night, we have been unable to find the least trace of them ; we thought they were concealed about the mountain, and whilst we were anxiously watching the move- ments of every human being who came under our view, we saw the party of military coming towards us, guarding a prisoner tied on a car, whom we believe to be poor Jack Ryan, and our business now is not to allow him to be carried off before our eyes to suffer a disgraceful death ; let us pledge ourselves to die to a man sooner than suffer such a disgrace to fall upon us." " We are all ready," replied the strangers, " and if we die in the attempt, others will be found in the place from which we came to level the house of old Pipes and shave him into the bargain." Lonergan, who was a man of much experience, having been pre- sent at more councils of war than even the celebrated Irish chief- tain himself, advised that a videt should be despatched in the per- son of a barefooted boy, who was celebrated through Tipperary for his agility, and who was generally employed in transmitting de- spatches from the occupants of the cave to their friends in various parts of the country. This extraordinary fellow, who was able to outstrip the fleetest horse at a long race, was called Cus-duvh, or Blackfoot, a name formerly given to any go-between who was in the habit of carrying messages of an illicit or private character from one party to another. Cus-duvh, who was an innocent looking gom of a fellow, was accordingly despatched, with instructions to cross the country with all speed until he came up with the detach- ment of military, and then, without seeming to manifest any great curiosity, put beyond all doubt who or what it was they were guarding so closely. The poor fellow set off at a moment's notice, and after a run of something more than four miles, he came up with the red coats, carelessly whistling an old Irish tune, and appa- rently wholly regardless of their business or destination. He cast an eye to the car, and, to his infinite surprise, he saw that the pri- soner whom they were so closely guarding was a beautiful young woman, in a state of great exhaustion from terror and fatigue. " Hallo !" said the sergeant who commanded the party, when he saw Cus-duvh, " can you tell us where the house of one Fo- garty is ? we want to leave this creature safe at home with her friends, and the poor soul is so terrified she does not know this country at all, but we are determined not to leave her till we give her safe into the hands of her friends." The poor fellow to whom the joyful news was communicated replied, that he would in less than no time have her friends, who were in pursuit of her, there, to receive her with joy, and he flew with the swiftness of an antelope back to the house of Lonergan, where he informed the assembly of the result of his mission. In a moment all were seeing flying over the mountain in the direction of where the soldiers were, and when they came iu BOB NOBBEBRY. J? view, the sergeant, apprehensive that an attempt would be made to rescue their charge, ordered his men to draw up in close column, and be prepared for the boys who were com- ing, if it should turn out that they were enemies. Cus-duvh flew on before the party as the bearer of a flag of truce, but O'Kelly, who was a prudent fellow, required that the main body should stand at a distance until some one would advance and be recognised by the young woman as her friend. This arrangement was promptly complied with, and the old man, accompanied by one of his sons, a promising fine young lad, ad- vanced to O'Kelly, who conducted them through his men until they were by the side of the car where the young woman was. The meeting between them was affecting ; the old man tenderly embraced his niece, and the young lad was almost frantic with joy at finding his cousin (whom he believed to have been taken away by the Dwyers, who were the most powerful clan in Tip- perary, from whose clutches man or woman had never been known to escape) safely restored to her friends. The sergeant could no longer doubt that he ought to deliver up his charge to his new acquaintances, and the whole body of the countrymen at once came forward, and greeted the deliverers of the young woman with demonstrations of the most joyous affection. " Why, then," said the old man to the sergeant, " how did it come that you were the means of bringing back to us this dear creature, who is the only daughter of my only brother, Tom Fogarty, of the Ram Hotel, whom I have not seen for twenty years ? May the blessings of heaven alight upon your heads ; I will never repine at any misfortune that may befall me, now that I am able to restore to that brother, a treasure which he values beyond all the world." O'Kelly, with all the frankness of a gallant soldier, proceeded to relate the facts connected with the rescue of Kate Fogarty from her abductors. He stated, that he and his party had been conveying two deserters to their regiment which was stationed at Cahir, and wishing, on account of the heat of the weather, to perform their journey back to Thurles, where they were stationed, before the sun rose, they started from Cahir at mid- night, and about two miles from that town they met, at a short turn of the road, a party of five or six men on horseback, having the young woman behind one of them ; the night was bright, and she having observed the arms of the soldiers glisten in the light of the moon, cried out to them for God's sake to rescue her, as she was carried off without her consent. The soldiers without hesitation closed upon the party, resistance was un- availing, and without injury being done on either side, Kate Fogarty ^was in a few moments safe in the hands of her deli- verers, who had with them the car upon which the deserters bad c; 18 13013 NOBBERRY. been conveyed to Cahir ; upon this vehicle they placed her, and were returning in search of the house of her uncle, when they were observed that evening by the party who went out in pursuit of her abductors, and who were taking their observations from a ridge of the Galties. The friends of Fogarty embraced the soldiers with the most unbounded affection ; and as it would be too far for them to march to Thurles that evening, every one of the party who had a house in the locality, insisted that one or two of them should take a bil- let with him for the night, promising them the best refreshment he could give. O' Kelly had an objection thus to separate his men in a mountainous district with which they were not acquainted, although if a village was nigh, where all could be accommodated for the night, he was anxious to postpone his journey till morning. Old Fogarty, who was a comfortable farmer with a good range of to his house, which was only three miles distant, and he would accommodate them in the best way he could. O' Kelly at once consented to this arrangement; and Cus-duvh was despatched by a short way across the country with the joyful news that Kate was restored safe to her friends, and with directions to have a piper and plenty of " poteen" ready for the party as soon as they arrived. The poor fellow flew over hill and valley till he reached the house of Fogarty, and soon spread joy amongst its inmates by the intelligence which he conveyed to them : fires were instantly lighted in the bawn, every pot and pan in the village was col- lected, and a flitch of bacon, and a sack of potatoes, were put in process of cooking ; a large cask of poteen was provided, and every preparation was made to give the expected visitors a warm wel- come. The military and their new acquaintances marched slowly along the narrow and intricate road that led to the house of Fo- garty, where they arrived in about an hour after Cus-duvh had given notice of their coming. By this time the sun had gone down below the horizon, the Galties were dimly seen in the dis- tance, a cool and refreshing breeze played along the vale ; Kate had completely recovered from fright and fatigue, and having bounded light and joyous from the car into the arms of her aunt and cousins, a more merry or happy party never congregated , even in Tipperary. The feast was by this time nearly prepared, a large barn was cleared out, doors were taken off their hinges, and being supported by turf cleeves turned upside down, they were placed from one end of the building to the other, and answered admirably for a row of tables ; all the stools, chairs, and forms in the village were collected, and seats having been arranged to correspond with the tables, the feast began. Old Fogarty took the head of the table, and had his niece upon one side, and her deliverer, the dashing sergeant, on. the other ; the soldiers were promiscuously BOB NOKBEEKY. 19 mingled through the country people ; all had their appetites shar- pened by a weary march and a long fast, and, take them all in all, it would be impossible to find a company more amply prepared to do justice to the repast. The bacon and cabbage and cakes of oaten bread came in, heaped upon wooden dishes, and he who was fortunate enough to possess a kife, was obliged to use it for the benefit of his neighbours as well as his own. The viands disap- peared with astonishing rapidity, and when the task of mastication was performed to the full satisfaction of every one concerned, the temporary tables were removed, and the middle of the house being cl eared of every obstruction, it was evident that preparations were making for a dance. But the most necessary preliminary to this amusement in those days, when teetotalism was unheard of, was copious libations of the mountain dew, and the cask of poteen was placed in the end of the building, the contents of which found their way through a wooden spigot into earthen pitchers, and from thence into egg shells, which were served round to the com- pany by Mrs. Fogarty and the younger branches of her family, with that genuine hospitality and kindness of heart, which are almost unknown in the higher circles of society. The old man, who still continued his seat between his niece and O'Kelly, called for a bumper, and gave " the gallant sergeant and his men," with a hearty good will that was responded to not only by cheers, but by prancing and dancing as if the poor fellows had become frantic with joy. O'Kelly, who was a man of considerable education and knowledge of the world, returned thanks in suitable terms, and made some pointed allusions to the beauty of Miss Fogarty, which caused the maiden to blush, as she listened with surprise to the well turned phrases of her handsome panegyrist and deliverer. Old Fogarty was riot slow in apprehending the allusions made by the sergeant, and expressed a hope that he would yet see his niece Mrs. O'Kelly, and see O'Kelly a captain. When the egg shells had circulated half a dozen of times, the piper commenced operations, the feet of all the younger portion of the company were instantly set in motion ; O'Kelly and Kate led off a country dance, which was followed in quick succession by jigs and horn- pipes, performed with a mirthful agility unknown to the slow and scientific movements of our modern quadrille, or the heavy prance of the gallopade. The music and the dance were occa- sionally relieved by a song and a story, and the night was passing by on the wingsof joy, whenahorseman was heard to dash at full speed into the bawn. Jack Ryan, whose name and peculiar cir- cumstances have been already incidentally mentioned, formed one of the party, and, upon hearing the noise of an equestrian at such a time and place, he was seen to make his exit through a back window of the barn. O'Kelly was not slow in comprehending the meaning of his flight, but he seemed to pass over the circum- 20 BOB NORBERBY. stance unnoticed. All cause of apprehension was, however, in- stantly dispelled, upon a well-dressed, thick set, muscular fellow, with a heavy brow and sinister cast of countenance, rushing into the barn, who was greeted with a hearty welcome, and shouts of " our old friend Queelan, all the way from Dublin." The cause of his unexpected appearance was quickly explained by him, to the infinite pain and embarrassment of some of the company. He said he had been directed by the father of Kate, to pro- ceed at once to Tipperary, and bring her back to Dublin without ever losing sight of her, or delaying a moment ; that the very morning she left home, to pay the long promised visit to her friends in the country, a wealthy merchant of h igh family and connections had proposed for her in marriage ; that great honours awaited the name o" Fogarty by the alliance ; and as no time was to be lost, lie should proceed to the fulfilment of his mission at an early hour in the morning, when he hoped that Kate would be ready. During the recital of this intelligence, O'Kelly cast many an anxious look at Kate, whose face was crimsoned with blushes, whilst a pearly tear forced its way from under the long silken lashes of her dark blue eye to her cheek. Queelan having been regaled with plenty of the mountain dew, joined heartily in the fun and merriment that was going on ; he listened with peculiar attention to the narrative of Kate's fortunate rescue, and the cause that brought together such a heterogeneous assembly. He was then called upon for a song or a story, when he volun- teered to give both. He said, " I am well known to almost every one here, except these brave fellows, who have this day rendered such a signal service to the family of Fogarty ; and perhaps some short account of myself may not be unentertaining to them. I was for many years the Captain Rock of the northern district of Tipperary, and have often led on the Whiteboys to do battle in the cause of their country ; tithe proctors and parsons fled before me like the mist of the morning before a strong wind ; but I was at length taken up, brought to trial, and having escaped, almost by a miracle, from being hanged, I quit the country, and am now doing well in a good public house in Thomas Street, in the city of Dublin." " Come, Queelan," said old Fogarty, " tell the sergeant, and tell us all, how you escaped on that occasion ; I have heard won- ders about your trial, but could never learn the real truth of the matter." " Well, then," continued Queelan, " many of you know the scourge that Disney, the land agent and tithe proctor, was, in this part of Tipperary, and notwithstanding all the warnings we gave him (for we never cut the ears off a tithe proctor, or shot a bad landlord, without giving him timely notice to mend his ways), he still continued to ruin all the poor people with whom he had any BOB NOBBERRY. 21 thing to do. At last it was agreed upon that he should be cropped and carded, and the task of performing those operations having fallen to myself and two others, we proceeded one night to his house for that purpose. We knew he was well armed, and that we might expect a desperate resistance if we attempted to take the house by force, and we had recourse to a stratagem that succeeded in putting the fellow into our power without much trouble. He always kept two or three blood horses which he prized very much, and on a winter's evening after nightfall we got a large jack-ass, which we brought to his stable and turned in amoDgst them. The animals began to kick, squeel, and neigh, as if they were mad. The noise was heard by Disney, who was just after dinner ; the hall door was quickly unbarred, and out he came towards the stable. I placed myself as sentry, to prevent any further egress from the house, the other two fellows seized Disney, and before he had time to utter a sentence, they stopped his mouth with a wad of tow prepared for the pur- pose, carried him off behind the stables, and commenced cutting off his ears. He was, however, armed with a dagger, with which he wounded one of the fellows in the breast, who would have been killed were it not that the point of the weapon was turned by a tobacco-box that was in his waistcoat pocket. Finding such desperate resistance made, the fellows, contrary to our original intention, despatched him, without one of the family inside knowing what had occurred. Our business was then to conceal the body, and leave his disappearance a mystery throughout the country, and for that purpose we carried it upwards of three miles to a bog, and sunk it in a bog-hole. When we separated, a thought came over my mind that one of my companions would turn approver, and that the other and myself would be hanged. I was near my own house, and recollecting that I had at home a fine black coat that belonged to a tithe-proctor, who, about two years previous, was stripped, and tied upon a wild horse, with a whin bush for a saddle, I went home for it, came back to the bog-hole, raised Disney out of it, took off a light coloured coat with gilt buttons which he wore, and with some difficulty put the black coat on in its place. I found that it fitted him admir- ably, and having put him back in the same position in which I found him, I returned home, and did not go to bed that night till I burnt every atom of the real coat, and melted the buttons into slugs. Well, to be sure the next day there was a terrible hullaboloo about Disney ; no tale or tidings could be had of him. He was a single man, and having dined alone on the day he was murdered, he was not missed by the servants for a couple of hours after he went out to the stable. No event ever occurred in Tip- perary that caused such consternation. It was at first reported that having got possession of a large sum of money belonging to 22 BOB NOBBEBKY. several landlords, he fled with it to France, but the finding of his body in the bog-hole in a few weeks after the murder, put the case in its true light, and an enormous reward was offered for the apprehension and conviction of his murderers. One of the vil- lains who was at the perpetration of the deed, went to Dublin, turned approver, and gave information against myself and our other partner in guilt, but he had fortunately fled the country some weeks previous, and was never since heard of. I was accordingly arrested in my own house by a strong body of horse and foot, and brought heavily ironed into Clonmel. The joy of the magistrates, parsons, and proctors throughout Tipperary ex- ceeded all bounds, when they heard that the notorious Queelan, who was regarded as the Captain Rock of the day, had been arrested. The assizes went on in a few days after. Special counsel came down from Dublin to prosecute me ; the court- house was crowded to excess by the gentry of the county, and sentence of death was passed on mo before I was tried at all. In instructing my attorney, I told him the only defence I had was an alibi, not only for myself, but the villain who was going to swear against me ; that neither he nor I had any thing to do with it; but that I knew, as a matter of course, such a defence would riot be believed, and that I gave myself up as a dead man. The trial went on, and the villain declared all the circumstances truly, with the exception that be put himself in my position as sentry on Disney's door, whilst I and the other fellow were murdering him. There were some circumstances of corroboration, and although they were slight, they were quite enough to hang any Whiteboy in Munster. My witnesses were called up to prove that the informer was not near Disney's house the whole of the night or day upon which the murder was committed, but they were all sent down off the table as unworthy of belief. My counsel shook his head, and seemed to say my case was hopeless ; the evidence closed on both sides, and the judge was about to charge the jury, when I said, in a tone loud enough to be heard by his lordship, * Ask that villain, who is swearing my life away, one question.' ' No,' said the attorney, ' I will not instruct your counsel to ask another question.' 'What is it,' said the judge, ' you wish to have asked ?' * Ob, my Lord,' said I, that villain is swearing my life away for money ; he knows nothing of the transaction, as all my witnesses have proved, and it just struck me that I ought to ask what coloured coat or clothes the man had on him when he was murdered and put in the bog-hole, as he swears.' 'A very important question,' said ihe judge, 'and one that has not been put throughout the course of this trial. Call the approver.' The fellow came on the table, and sworu most positively that the murdered man wore a light coloured coat with gilt buttons ; there could be no mistake about it, as he had BOB NOBBEBBY. 23 often seen him out fowling with a coat of the same kind, and that made him take particular notice of it. Several trustworthy witnesses who were at the finding of the body were then called by the directions of the judge, arid all deposed that the deceased had on a fine black coat, such as gentlemen would be likely to wear going to dinner. The counsel for the crown were wholly unprepared for such a question ; no one saw Disney go out of his house that night, and no one was able to prove what coloured coat he had on. The whole aspect of the case was entirely changed ; my counsel triumphantly called for an acquittal, inasmuch as the approver was rendered unworthy of credit, and taking his evidence away, there was nothing that could even fix suspicion on me ; the jury would see that the villain swore to the kind of coat that the gentleman used to go out to shoot in ; that the hand of Providence had almost miraculously interfered to save an innocent man, and that as soon as they returned their verdict of acquittal, he would call upon the judge to order the approver into the dock to be tried for perjury. His lordship was obliged to acquiesce in this new view of the case ; I was trium- phantly acquitted, and the approver was actually put into the dock, more as a punishment for having bungled the case, than with a view to prosecute him, even if he were guilty. Having thus escaped the halter in this extraordinary way, I quit Tip- perary, and am now well to do as an honest citizen of Dublin." O'Kelly, who, with all his comrades, had listened with the most profound attention to the story of Queelan, said, " Why was it that you reserved your defence about the colour of the coat to the last moment, when, if the judge did not allow your question to be put, you would most certainly have been hanged ?" " Ah !" replied the other, " I was a schoolmaster in my early days ; I have read a good deal ; ' Know thy opportunity,' was the saying of one of the seven wise men of Greece, and the man who has riot acquired that knowledge knows nothing. Had that fact been disclosed, even at an early period of the trial, or before the counsel for the prosecution had closed their evidence, they would have got up a case to meet it, and it would have been of no value to me. I knew the question should be asked, and I took the only course that could save my life." " Well, then," said the sergeant, "your story was so good we will now listen with equal attention and delight to your song" " Very well," said Queelan, " then here goes." THE WHITEBOY'S SONG. " Through sweet Tipperary I oft have been weary, In leading the boys to do duty ; We disdained petty pelf, And all thoughts about self, But made parsons and proctors our booty. 24 BOB NO-RBEKBY. " We made middlemen fly As we raised the war-cry, And sure none but rack-renters can hate as ; We made land-bailiff* quake, And the black sluggards ache, When they thought to charge tithe on potatoes. " Oh, then, here's Church and State, May they ne'er separate ; If they do, sure our fun will be over ; And our captain himself Will be laid en the shelf, Or go to sea, where he'll join the Red Rover. " Then, through sweet Tipperary," 3 street and the three magistrates who made the order for closing Fogarty's house : " Mr. Recorder Bradstreet, Mr. Bailie, Mr. Hunt, and Mr. Cecil, I wish you all to know, that I am the friend of honest Fogarty, whom you seek to ruin, upon what you would find to be false information, if you had taken the trouble to inquire about it. Withdraw at once your order for shutting up his house, and I will be security for his good conduct. You all know me, and are accustomed to see me write receipts, so there can be no mistake about this. Send back your answer without delay to "N. NOBBEBBY." "Go," said old Hawk to one of the satellites of power who came to execute the behests of the recorder and magistrates, "and show this letter to the gentlemen who sent you here; take it round to them separately, and when they examine it bring it back to me. If any of them doubt that the handwriting is mine, let them come here and satisfy themselves of the truth of the matter." The fellow was off in an instant, and was not more than a couple of hours absent, when he returned with apologies from all the gentlemen for having had the misfortune to interfere with any friend of Mr. Norberry's, to whom they were under so many obligations. When poor Kate had sufficiently recovered to be informed of what had been done, she felt that her father and his family would have been utterly ruined, were it not for the interference of her intended husband, and she thought she should willingly sacrifice herself for the attainment of such an object. She said, "Mother, I consent; do with me as you please; but I hope that heaven will soon put an end to my existence." "Don't cry, my dear child," said the mother; " these feelings will soon be forgotten. Sure you ought to be the happiest girl in the world this day. Oh ! think of the coach, the silk and satin dresses, the diamond necklace, and all those fine things which you must have very soon. You will be able, besides, to give fortunes to your little sisters, when Mr. Norberry is dead and gone. You will be all to nothing the richest and the hand- somest widow in Dublin not that I would wish poor Mr. Nor- berry to die soon, for I am sure he will make a good husband a man near sixty. Oh ! why did I say sixty ? I suppose he is only between forty and fifty. But a gentleman a little elderly cannot be expected to live as long as a girl of eighteen. Come, Kate, cheer up. You will be a credit to your family. The dresses will be bought this very day." 4>i BOB NOBBEKRy. Kate saw that the die was cast, and that she might as well submit with a good grace. Preparations were accordingly made for purchasing the wedding dresses, and the second or third day after was appointed for the celebration of the marriage. On the morning after Fogarty had been rendered so signal a service by Old Hawk, and whilst Kate was absent, a letter from O'Kelly to her fell into her mother's hands, and was thus pre- vented reaching its destination. Upon perusal of it, the old lady found that it breathed sentiments of the most devoted affection for her daughter, with expressions of surprise that she had not written to him any account of her intended marriage. He added that he would be in Dublin within two or three days, and have the honour of calling to see her. This circumstance induced the mother to hurry the matter to a close, believing that if her daughter either read the letter, or had an opportunity of seeing O'Kelly, the alliance with old Norberry would, after all, most probably have been broken off. Directions were accordingly given to all the servants about the inn to state to any one who inquired for Miss Fogarty, that she was married and gone to the country with her husband. The day appointed for the marriage came ; and here a difficulty arose, which had not been previously foreseen. Old Hawk, who, although by his own confession he had not entered any place of public worship since he was a child, was a reputed Protestant, and Kate being a Catholic, it was necessary that they should be married according to the rites of the Established Church. Besides it was highly penal then for any Popish priest to officiate in any capacity whatever: in point of law, a priest was not supposed to exist in the country at all. Kate and her friends possessed all the bigotry and prejudice that oppression and persecution will ever produce, and next to the pain she felt at being compelled to marry such a man as old Norberry, was that of being obliged to go to a Protestant church to have the ceremony celebrated. Yet all scruples about the matter should be overcome, and she was determined to brave the horrors of the double trial with all the energy and courage she could command. Old Hawk never made the slightest inquiry about the dogmas of any religion, or the faith that was in any man he dealt with, yet he had that intuitive horror of the mere Irish and their religion, which was peculiar to all his family. His notions of orthodoxy may however be judged of from a saying which he commonly made use of, namely, that no man was religiously educated who could not turn all his six-pences into shillings. Preparations for the marriage upon a scale of great magnitude were that day made at the " Ram." It was arranged that after the marriage ceremony had taken place in St. Patrick's ca- BOB NORBERRY. 45 thedral, a second ceremony should be performed privately at Fogarty's house by the celebrated Doctor O'Leary of Cork, who was then in Dublin upon business connected with the publica- tion of his review of the controversy between the Rev. Doctor Carroll and the Rev. Messrs. Wharton and Hawkins, who had, about that time, renounced Protestantism, and became members of the Church of Rome. The morning shone beautifully bright, and Kate, trembling and pale, was led by her bridemaids to the carriage, which was to take her to the cathedral, where, iri a state of utter uncon- sciousness of what was passing, the indissoluble bond was sealed. When the bridal party returned from the Protestant church, O'Leary was in readiness to perform the ceremony according to the rites of his church. Old Hawk was peculiarly struck by the appearance of that singularly-gifted man, who, even in the dreary days of persecution and penal enactments, had the good fortune to win the affection of every man of every creed who had the happiness of his acquaintance, or read his works, which were then shedding light upon the darkness and bigotry of the age. It was said by Yelverton that he was proud to call such a man as O'Leary his particular friend ; that his works might be placed on a footing with the finest writers of any age. They originated from the urbanity of the heart, because, unattached to the world's affairs, he could have none but the purest motives of rendering service to the cause of morality and his country : and, had he not imbibed every sentiment of toleration before he knew Father O'Leary, he should be proud to adopt sentiments of toleration from him. Then his good sense, unaffected piety, and extensive knowledge, gained him the respect and admiration of the learned, whilst his unbounded wit and unrivalled brilliancy of imagina- tion made him the source of delight and entertainment to all who had the happiness of being admitted to his society. He was a native of the county Cork, and, being related to the Fogartys of Tipperary, Kate's mother, to give greater eclat to the festival, obtained his consent to perform the second marriage ceremony. The astonishment of this celebrated ecclesiastic was beyond bounds, when the innocent, youthful, and beautiful Kate, and the hoary headed miser presented themselves before him to have a con- tractalready indissoluble, recorded again in heaven which should never have been entered into upon earth. He made no remark, but performed the ceremony with that dignity and grace which peculiarly marked the performance of all his ministerial duties. He grieved to find that the daughter of his relations had been united to a man who, besides the disparity of years that existed 46 BOB NOBBEBBY. between them, was in a state of total darkness as regarded not only the practices, but the fundamental truths of religion. And he took occasion, after the ceremony was over, to dwell at length upon the majestic greatness of the Catholic faith, the necessity of leading a life in conformity with revelation, the religious fidelity of the Irish people, who, amidst the most sanguinary persecutions and emaciating laws that ever disgraced any coun- try, still preserved the faith as handed down to them by their fathers. " How," said he to Old Hawk, "did you like the ca- thedral where you were married this morning according to the rites of the Protestant faith P" The other replied that he could hardly comprehend the use of so large a building, for it appeared to him that there was only a little corner of it fitted up that all the rest was a mere wilder- ness ; he had been there once before at the funeral of a friend, and had made the same observations ; he wondered what had become of the congregation who originally filled it. This gave O'Leary an opportunity of launching out into one of those elo- quent exordiums for which he was so remarkable when dealing with the evidences of the truth of that faith of which he was then the proud and distinguished defender, whilst he respected the speculative opinions of every other creed. He said, " That church in which you were to-day, stands as a proud monument of the piety and zeal of our fathers : the congregations which filled it in other days have had their blood shed and their pro- perties confiscated, sooner than renounce the faith in honour of which that sacred edifice, and all the other splendid temples that adorned our land, but are now in ruins, had been raised. The time, however, is not far distant, when they shall arise again, pho3nix-like, from their ashes, in more than their original glory. Look around in the world, and you will see that sects, creeds, and empires, have flourished for a time, and then disappeared : the chosen followers of the Jewish dispensation are scattered over the earth, and have been without a kingdom or a temple since their overthrow by Titus ; the empire of Greece, that gave the light of science and of letters to the world, has faded away ; and the power and glory of Rome, after persecuting the primitive Christians for ages, fell beneath the northern invaders, leaving, as it were, amidst the ruin of empires, and seated in the eternal city, the earthly head of the Catholic faith, as a testimony of its durability and its truth ; and that testimony will remain, no matter what revolutions may shake the kingdoms of the earth, until time shall be no more, and we shall all meet in the glories of a purer and brighter world, of which the clouded fa- culties of the human mind can form no conception, except that which is imparted by the light of revelation." BOB NOEBEBBY. 47 Old Hawk listened with astonishment to the eloquence and pathos of the language of O'Leary, and seemed half inclined to proclaim himself a convert to his creed ; but dark shadows of the past flitted over his mind. He thought that the link which binds man on earth to heaven had been long since severed, and that he might as well continue as he was. An early dinner, prepared for the bridal party, of which O'Leary partook, having been ended, a carriage and four blood horses drove up to the door of the " Ram" to take unfortunate Kate and her hoary headed husband to the county Wicklow, to spend the honey-moon. Mrs. Fogarty ran to the window to see if the Cavanaghs were looking out ; her vanity was not gratified, for there was not a stir in the house, no more than if they were all dead ; but there was chalked on one of the window-shutters outside, a representation of a blind old man on crutches, and a young woman leading him. " Well, well," said the good woman, " I knew it would come to that at last. Did any one ever see such an envious thing P I think they have all died of envy this morning ; ha ! let them cope up to us no longer. Oh ! but there is the coach-door open, and the bride-maids are putting Kate in. Oh ! dear me, but Mr. Norberry looks beautiful in his new suit, bought under my directions." Kate was carried out half lifeless, and seated in the carriage ; her husband stepped in after her, and the prancing horses tore up the pavements, as the postillions, who were decorated with white ribbons, drove off, amidst the cheers of a large mob, who were congregated about the " Ram." " Hah !" said Mrs. Fogarty, " although the Cavanaghs won't come out to see, they must hear that. But, hush ! I see two or three of them peeping from behind the window-shutters ; that will do ; let them take that. I will go now and see that all the servants and neighbours who wish to come, be served out with every thing they want. I am, to be sure, the happiest woman that ever the world produced." Human happiness is of short duration, and often, when we fancy ourselves secure in the possession of all that can gratify our wishes, dark clouds are hovering over our heads, which soon burst, and pour down upon us unforeseen misfortunes and sorrow. At the same time, if the history of all the evils that afflict us be traced to their source, it will be found that they have originated in our own faults and follies ; and those only are wise who, by a careful retrospect of the past, can avoid similar errors for the future. Mrs. Fogarty thought she had arrived at the summit of hap- piness, by getting the object upon which all her thoughts and 48 BOB NOBBEBRY. hopes were centred, accomplished ; for she had not sufficient reasoning power to come to that most inevitable conclusion, that where any evil, real or apparent, is avoided by means inconsis- tent with strict morality, or by the violation of feelings dear to the human heart, there is only an avenue opened to a series of troubles, which would never fall in our way had we adhered to the strict principle of right, regardless as to conse- quences. The coach, which conveyed the bride and venerable bride- groom to the mountain scenery of Wicklow, had not been more than an hour on the road, when a fine young man, elegantly dressed, entered the Ram Hotel, and introduced himself to Mrs. Fogarty as Mr. O'Kelly, who had the good fortune to rescue Miss Fogarty from the hands of her abductors, in Tipperary ; he hoped she was well, and begged that she might be informed of his arrival. " Oh !" said the mother, unwilling to abruptly disclose the fact that her daughter had been that day married, " she is just gone to the county Wicklow for a little time, and will not return for some days." " Tell her," replied O'Kelly, " that I called to inquire after her welfare, and to inform her of my own good fortune. A wealthy relation of mine in this city died within the last few days ; he has left me a considerable portion of his property, and I am come to offer my hand and all I possess to your daughter, should she deem me worthy of her consideration." Mrs. Fogarty seemed completely overpowered by this strange and unexpected news. Here was a young man with wealth, the extent of which she was left to guess at it might be, for all she knew, equal to that of old Norberry's ; and as to family and connections, she was in doubt about them too ; so that she began to think it might have been just as well if she had not been so precipitate in forcing on the marriage. She found, however, that concealment of it any longer would answer no purpose, and she said: " I have to inform you, Mr. O'Kelly, that my daugh- ter was married this morning to Mr. Norberry, one of the richest men in Ireland ; they have gone off to Wicklow to spend the honey-moon ; she will have horses, carriages, servants, silks, satins, diamond necklaces, and everything else that a great lady can wish for." O'Kelly's countenance during this extraordinary and unex- pected recital pourtrayed the deep emotions of his heart ; he was hardly able to articulate a word in reply, and after a long pause he said : " Your daughter might be more happy in a state of comfortable independence than in the possession of those superfluities, which, after all, do not constitute true felicity in BOB NOEBERBY. 49 this world ; but I could hardly credit that Miss Fogarty had been married so precipitately, had I heard the news from any but her own mother. There must be something connected with the matter which I have not heard. May I ask, where or by whom the marriage ceremony was performed ?'' Mrs. Fogarty replied, that her daughter had been married in St. Patrick's church by the Protestant clergyman of the parish, and then by her cousin, Doctor O'Leary of Cork, who happened to be in town. " I believe," said O'Kelly, " it is too true. Where shall T see Doctor O'Leary ?" " He is here at this moment," said Mrs. Fogarty, " and is making preparations to start for Cork." O'Kelly was immediately introduced to O'Leary, and had a long interview with him, during which he noted down all the particulars he had heard from him respecting Kate's marriage, and then took his departure, evidently overwhelmed with deep grief. He returned on the following day, and having gained all the further information he could possibly obtain with regard to old Norberry, and the causes which led to his marriage with Kate, he again carefully noted all down. He had even an inter- view with blind Barry, the harper, who gave him no small quantity of material for his memoranda. He saw the father of Kate, who explained to him the urgent necessity which compelled him to give his daughter to old Norberry, and put into his hands the note which had been written by him to the recorder and magistrates, and which had the effect of saving him from ruin. O'Kelly took his final departure not only from the " Ram," but from Dublin, and in order to connect hereafter the thread of this extraordinary history, it will be necessary to follow him on his travels for a short time. His regiment was ordered out to South America, and previous to his departure he purchased a company with the money obtained as a legacy from his friend. On his arrival at his destination he became acquainted with the family of a Spanish merchant, of Moorish descent, who had a daughter of exquisite beauty, who formed an attachment for him. They were married, and shortly afterwards, being ordered to India, he sailed with his wife, and on the voyage to Bombay she gave birth to a daughter. They landed safe in India, where we shall leave him with his regiment and family, until the reader will meet him again after the lapse of many years under circum- stances of peculiar interest. The day after Kate's marriage and O'Kelly's last visit to the " Ram," a Doctor Deering, who kept a private madhouse in the neighbourhood of Dublin, accompanied by Gripe the attorney, a young man fashionably dressed, and two desperate looking ruffians, alighted from a close carriage at Fogarty's door. The S 50 BOB NORBERRY. mad doctor, as he was called (not from being insane himself, but from having driven so many sane persons mad who were given into his clutches) rushed in, followed by these desperate looking fel- lows, and asked Mrs.Fogarty had an old madman named Norberry been stopping at her inn, or if she could give any tidings of him. " An old madman named Norberry !" exclaimed Mrs. Fogarty, with indignant surprise. " You must be mad yourselves, gen- tlemen, to say such a thing. There is no gentleman of the name ever stopped here except the wealthy and the great Mr. Nipper Norberry, to whom, I am happy to tell you, my daughter Kate was married yesterday." " Married yesterday !" said the fashionably dressed young man, who remained outside the door. " Married, does she say, doctor ?" " Yes," replied Mrs. Fogarty, " my daughter has been mar- ried yesterday to the wealthy Mr. Norberry ; she will yet have her coaches and servants, silks, satins, diamond necklaces, and every thing else that a great lady can wish for. I want to know, gentlemen, what concern is her marriage to any of you ?" "I'll be d d," said the young man, " if she shall have all these things in case I live. If I can lay hold of the old madman I shall soon put him up, and you may have your daughter back again to sweep the tap-room." " Mercy be praised," said Mrs. Fogarty, " what does all this mean ? My daughter never swept a tap-room ; she had no tap- room to sweep ; this is a respectable inn for gentlemen, and no common tap, I can tell you ; every one knows the respectability of the Fogartys." " Come, come," said Gripe, who till this moment had been silent, as if picking up all that passed to use as evidence upon some future occasion, " no more palavering, but let us know where this madman is ; for I can tell you, woman, that a com- mission 'delunatico inquirendo' has been issued out against him." " A what ?" said Mrs. Fogarty. " A commission of lunacy," replied Gripe. " Is it that you want to make out he is mad P" rejoined the good woman. " Why, I can tell you that so far from being mad, he has given proof that he is one of the most sensible men in Dublin, for he has married my daughter, who is as handsome a girl as you would find in a month's journey, not that I, who am her mother, ought to say it, but it is well known throughout all the city; and if you were to see them driving off in a beautiful coach, drawn by four fine horses, it would do your hearts good." " A coach and four horses !" said Gripe eagerly. " A coach and four horses ! "Why, no greater proof could be given of the man's madness : he who would look seven times at a shilling before he would part it, to employ a coach and four, even upon BOB NOBBEBRY. 51 the occasion of his marriage (if he be married), is incredible, and can only be accounted for on the ground that his senses have forsaken him. We will have you, ma'am, as a witness to prove that fact." " Why, for that matter," said Mrs. Fogarty, " it was I who employed the coach and horses, and hired the cottage in the county Wicklow for a month, just to vex envious people. I know, to be sure, that Mr. Norberry will pay for all in the end, but up to this he has had nothing to do in these matters." " Worse and worse," replied Gripe; "your last account, which, no doubt, is perfectly true, only proves that this doting old man is a mere tool in the hands of low, designing people. Get me pen and ink at once, till I note down all you have stated, and all the facts connected with this extraordinary case. You will be a capital witness, ma'am, for you will be pinned to your first statement." " You will note nothing here," said Mrs. Fogarty with indig- nation ; " take yourselves away, gentlemen, unless you are going to make the house the better of you, and if you be, you are wel- come to stop and say what you please ; but this I can tell you, that if Mr. Norberry were here he would soon make you beg pardon, as he did the recorder and three aldermen who thought to close up our house without any cause." " Most important ! Do you hear that, Mr. Gripe ?" said the fashionably dressed young man. " He was actually the writer of the letter, of which we have heard so much. Mr. Cecil for- tunately took a copy of it, and we will make use of it on the inquiry. No doubt can remain that the man is mad, is mad perfectly mad." " No doubt," replied Gripe ; "no doubt whatever. But our business now is, to lay hands upon him. Pray, ma'am," turning to Mrs Fogarty, " what part of the county Wicklow is this old lunatic gone to ? I suppose your daughter, who we have heard is devilish handsome, is gone to reside in the neighbourhood of some gay young fellow who will pay attention to her when the old fellow is doting about." Mrs. Fogarty, who, notwithstanding her vanity and eccentri- city, had a high sense of moral rectitude, could no longer bear the rudeness and indelicacy of such language, and ordered her servants to eject the gentlemen by force from her house. Gripe, who knew that he had no authority to remain, withdrew along with his friends before the command of the honest land- lady could be executed. It was by this time within an hour of night, and as it would be a hopeless task to set off then to search amongst the Wicklow mountains for the bridegroom, they all returned to their re- spective homes. 52 BOB NORBERRY. At an early hour on the following morning, the same party were on the road leading to Delgany, in the neighbourhood of which place the object of their search had been located. After some inquiry, they were pointed out the house where the rich old man, who was married to the beautiful young woman, resided. Without even deigning to announce their names or their busi- ness, they rushed in, when, to their great disappointment, they found that Old Hawk was not there, but the beautiful and un- fortunate Mrs. Norberry was ; and the terror caused by such a visit, added to the deep anguish which had preyed upon her heart, from her return to Dublin, so completely overpowered every faculty, that she fell lifeless from her chair in a few moments after the intruders had entered her apartment. The mad doctor, accompanied by the fashionably dressed young man, ran to her assistance, but the latter was so overwhelmed with surprise at her surpassing beauty, that he stood almost motionless, exclaiming, " It is no wonder that she has driven the old fellow out of his senses." By proper applications, Mrs. Norberry was restored to a state of consciousness, and then learned that the party who had come so unexpectedly to visit her were in search of her husband, to have him put under restraint as a lunatic, and she saw no prospect before her but that of hope- less sorrow and misery. She thought of the rashness and preci- pitancy of her parents in forcing her to such an alliance, and she held down her head in a state of mental agony, which is often supportable only from its own intensity, because it destroys the power of feeling. The absence of her husband was caused by a visit paid to him the previous evening by his faithful servant and friend, blind Tim, who, having heard some account of the proceedings which were instituted against him, and the search that was being made for him, proceeded to apprise him of what was going forward. He did not inform his wife of the unpleasant news he had heard, but went to town, in company with Tim, before the sun rose that morning, to take measures to avert the calamities with which he was threatened, and defeat the conspiracy that had been entered into against him. The mad doctor and his companions returned to town in full chase of their prey. They posted direct to the old house in James's Street, where they found Mr. Norberry, with poor Tim, arranging the contents of the safe in his state apartment, which has been already noticed : bags full of gold, old deeds, bonds, and documents of various kinds, were 'on the table beside them. Gripe was the first to enter the room, and his eyes glistened with malicious delight when he beheld the treasure spread out before him, and just within his grasp. " Ho ! my old boy," said he, " caught at last ; it was Providence directed your move- ~ BOB NORBEREY. 53 ments. Why, we have got more by the accident of finding you iii this place, and at such a time, than we could hope to obtain in years through the intervention of depositions, pleadings, bills in equity, and what not. Come, sir, deliver up this money to me ; I am solicitor to the commission de lunatico inquirendo ; I just wanted funds to go on with the proceedings : I will, of course, be accountable for any overplus that may be left when the whole matter is closed. Come, Mr. Nipper Norberry, you have been long watching me, screwing me in costs, and suspect- ing me of acting unfairly by you. I have got you at last, and I promise you, you will never get out of my clutches till you get into those of the only being in existence who can possibly be a match for Gripe the attorney." So saying, he snatched up the bags of gold that lay on the table, whilst the terrified old man and his simple-hearted, faithful servant were motionless with surprise. "Not so fast," said the fashionably dressed young man; " that money should be left in my possession, as petitioner in the matter and heir to the property." "Stop, stop," said Gripe, calling him aside ; "you will ruin the whole proceedings if you interfere. "What you see there is but a mere fraction of the old fellow's wealth. I know it. Be- collect there will be an enormous sum wanted to pay the com- missioners and the jury. You are not to know what they will get. The thing must be left to my management if you wish to succeed. If you don't place confidence in me, take the matter altogether out of my hands, and then you may easily guess what the result will be." He to whom this pithy address was directed, saw that a villain such as Gripe was necessary to the accomplishment of the object in view, and he allowed him to take possession of the bags of gold. "All right! all right!" said Gripe in an ecstacy of delight : come, Doctor Deering, order your men to secure the lunatic ; put him under restraint at once; he may commit violence upon himself. Bless my soul, how I grieve to see my old friend and client in such a position. But the ways of Providence are inscru- table, and we must all submit to the divine decrees." " Very true," said the doctor, "very true, Mr. Gripe." Then in an under tone, " Remember my fees, and a provision for the support of the lunatic. Before we go farther, what am I to have out of the money in hand ? You know nothing can be done without me. Say a thousand guineas as per chance out of what you have ; we will arrange hereafter in proportion to whatever may be realized ; as you said yourself a moment ago, it is but a fraction out of his enormous wealth." 54) BOB NOKBEBKY. "Your demand is exorbitant," said Gripe angrily; "you shall not have it." "Then," said the doctor, " there is an end of the proceed- ings. If what I ask be the fifth part of what you have taken possession of this moment, I will not ask any thing ; and I'll tell you this is no time to be talking about trifles; I am, up to this moment, safe ; I made no affidavit. You know what I mean, Mr. Gripe." " Come, come, my dear doctor," said Gripe, assuming an air of good humour, " you must have what you ask : tell your men at once to secure the lunatic." The worthy doctor then made a signal to the two ruffians who stood outside. They rushed into the room in an instant, laid hold of the wretched old man, bound his hands with cords, and dragged him to the carriage which stood at the door, whilst he cried out, "My bags of gold! my bags of gold! Oh! Tim, Tim, what has become of us ?*' "Right so far," said Gripe, as the fellows placed him in the carriage ; "but this old man of his must be put out of the way for a time, to prevent story-telling. Aye, let me see the poor lunatic will want an attendant in the madhouse; and it will be an act of great kiudness and consideration to send his old ser- vant to take care of him." Then, turning to Tim, " Come, my old fellow, get into the carriage there with your master.'* " I will," said Tim, as- a tear rolled down his aged cheek ; and he accordingly took his seat in the carriage beside his mas- ter and the two bailiffs. The rest of the party entered another carriage, and all drove off to the private madhouse at a place called Bopeep, on the Leixlip road, where Old Hawk and his faithful servant were left, under the tender mercies of Doctor Deering and his myr- midons. BOB NORBEBBY. 55 CHAPTER V. PREPARATION OF A DEED A PEEP INTO A PRIVATE MAD- HOUSE PBOCEEDINGS UNDER THE COMMISSION OF LU- NACYDEATH OF OLD HAWK. GRIPE and his client hatting left Old Hawk and his faithful servant secure in the asylum, returned to town to adopt mea- sures necessary for their future proceedings. "I have," said Gripe as they proceeded on their way, "taken every precaution that human foresight and wisdom could suggest, to have this affair managed so as to render any hostile proceed- ings nugatory, if such should be instituted. My experience in such matters is of the utmost value in conducting a case where so much wealth is at stake ; and if I succeed in bringing the whole to a satisfactory termination, my expectations will be considerable." "Considerable, of course," replied his companion; "and pro- bably it might be well to name a sum contingent upon that success." "Yes," continued Gripe, "it might be well to do so, but we can arrange that point hereafter. I want, however, to know, before we proceed further, why it is that you have taken such pains to conceal your name in a transaction in which you are the principal promovent? You know it cannot go on without your testimony, and, thus coming before the public, I doubt, too, but I may have committed an error that would vitiate the whole proceedings, by putting you forward in the petition under the name of Swingsnap instead of Norberry. By the way, are not you the full nephew to that poor lunatic whose fate we have such an interest in ?" "Yes," replied the worthy client, "I am; but, in fact, my name is Swingsnap, which I have taken from my mother, and by which I hope to obtain considerable property at the death of a family connection of that name in Scotland. Although I am known, as a matter of course, by my father's name, it was by that of Swingsnap that I entered college. I knew what I was about when I prepared the petition in that name ; besides, I would not for any consideration have it thought, if exposure should hereafter occur, that a Norberry was the persecutor of a Norberry. It was always a maxim in our family, that ' dogs don't eat dogs.' A Norberry was never seen plaintiff in a suit against Norberry. When we want to bring a namesake to his senses, or drive sense or feeling out of him, as the case may be, we manage it in the name or person of another." 56 BOB NOBBEBKY. " 1 see," said Gripe, " all is right : it \r as in the name of Swingsnap you entered college, and I suppose that name also appears in the registry of your baptism." " In both," replied Mr. Swingsnap. "All right," rejoined Gripe. "I have arranged that we shall proceed to business on our arrival at my office in Saint Andrew Street, where Counsellor Muggleten is to meet us wi tb the rought draft of a deed." "Muggleten!" exclaimed Swingsnap. "Why, in the name of wonder, call in such a willy-wagtail such a nonentity as Muggleten ? He is utterly despised as a barrister ; he is, in truth, one of the most contemptible in the whole profession." " Stop, stop," said Gripe ; " my good young friend, not so fast : it is not talent we want so much, on an occasion of this kind, as fidelity. Muggleten is a man I can trust ; he and I are members of a secret society, which, by the way, you must join very soon : a member of that society has never been known to betray the secret of a brother : besides, he is not by any means so deficient in acquirements as you seem to think. As to the preparation of the deed, it will be done under my own superin- tendence. I have bad extensive practice in that way, besides having acquired a competent knowledge of deeds and pleadings generally whilst in the office of a conveyancer and equity drafts- man in London. You will find, Mr. Swingsnap, that I will ma- nage the matter right, and if I get compensation according to my merits, my reward for conducting this business will be large indeed, but I scorn to drive a hard bargain with you." The client of Gripe, who plainly saw the kind of man he had to deal with, could hardly forbear from telling him his thoughts, but he curbed his tongue, and merely said, as he cast an eye at the bags of gold that had that morning fallen into his hands : " Indeed, Mr. Gripe, I have already had a specimen of your dis- interestedness in this transaction;" and then, affecting a smile, added, "I know your talents and experience, and that perhaps you are the only man in Dublin capable of conducting a case like this, and I am sure you will keep Mr. Muggleten from com- mitting any mistake in the matter." " That I will," said Gripe with an air of self-satisfaction ; " I keep the bar in check wherever I am ; I seldom employ one of them unless it is necessary to get his name to a pleading ; I am in great favour with the bench, and I generally state my client's case myself. But, surely, Muggleten is not so contemptible as you imagine ; he can make a plausible speech, has a little bit of the actor about him, and will state our case right well to the commissioners and jury who are to sit upon the inquiry." "Very good, very good," replied Swingnap ; "don't for a moment imagine that I intended to dictate to you how you should BOB NORBEBRY. 57 conduct your business, or what professional men you ought to employ ; all must go right in your hands." '* My dear young friend," said Gripe, assuming a look of kind- ness, " I have always had the highest opinion of your talents, integrity, and acquirements ; that opinion has been fully verified by what I have lately seen of you. You are going to the bar yourself, and were I to give you but a portion of the junior business of my office, it would soon put you on the high road to fame. But I shall give it all to you ; we will play out of each other's hands. You will understand me better after a few inter- views, when you get ' the wig' on." " If I don't deceive myself I understand you perfectly this moment," said Swingsnap ; "no doubt can exist that we may be useful to each other in many ways, even after we bring this business to a successful issue." " No doubt in the world," replied Gripe ; " and my future friendship and patronage will depend much upon how you shall act your part in this affair. For myself I think I may say that all my actions shall be purely benevolent and disinterested." " Well, without running any risk of committing an outrage upon truth, I may say," rejoined Swingsnap, " that I shall not be far behind you in the exercise of those high moral qualities ; we understand each other." The worthy solicitor and his young client having at this moment arrived at the office in Saint Andrew Street, their self- laudatory conversation was broken off, and they proceeded at once to business, which, in their opinions, could not safely be delayed for a moment. They found Muggleten, who had a good voice, upon which he frequently dined with those who loved a song, sitting in the office of Gripe, with his back to the door, carolling an old ditty. Swingsnap stopped, and whispered in the ear of Gripe, " There is your man of business; it just corresponds with all that I ever heard of him." " Don't mind," said Gripe peevishly ; " I have already explained the matter to you. Ho ! ho ! Mr. Muggleten, how do you do ? a delightful melody that ; sorry we interrupted you ; suppose after business amusement ; you had the draft deed finished." " Ho! ho ! my dear Gripe," said the counsellor ; " how d'ye do ? the deed is not finished ; I could proceed no further without getting fresh instructions ; and I was just about ordering a chaise to the door to post down to Bopeep after you, whither I knew you had gone ; but you have fortunately arrived in good time." "Mr. Swingsnap," said Gripe, without- deigning a reply to what had been said about the intended posting excursion to Bopeep, and pointing to his client, who was standing in the 58 BOB NOBBEBItY. middle of the room, "Mr. Muggleten, of whose talents and integrity you have heard me speak so highly : he is to be our counsel in this very heavy and intricate case." The gentlemen formally saluted each other, when Muggleten commenced an exordium with regard to his talents and capacity in conducting a case of such peculiar delicacy and so complicated in its various details. " It," he said, " required temper, talent, and ability, for the performance of the duties he had undertaken, and he flattered himself that he possessed some of those qualifi- tioris at least. No power under heaven could shake him from his purpose, or make him do aught but that which he intended to do, although, at the same time, no event that could by possi- bility occur should make him lose his temper ; bis great boast was, the command he had over himself ; and he who conquered himself was sure to conquer others." Swingsnap gave a contemptuous sneer, and cast a withering look at the stunted little egotist, who stood with head erect, evidently attempting to make his physical appearance correspond in some measure with the high mental qualities he had been describing, and said, " I presume, Mr. Muggleten, that your clients must feel irreparable loss for every moment that you are unnecessarily absent from them ; and undoubtedly your absence will be greatly prolonged by the kindness of your disposition in relating to us an account most accurate, no doubt, of those high qualifications you possess, and which are so necessary in con- ducting a case like ours. We know you do so to satisfy our minds that we will be safe in your hands ; but this is unneces- sary, as we fully estimate your talents." Muggleten felt the full force of those sarcastic observations, particularly the allusion to the clients, for the poor fellow could not call to his mind that he had any, except two or three attor- neys for whom he signed declarations at half price, giving them six months' credit into the bargain, arid he conceived at once the most inveterate dislike to his new acquaintance; but he saw he could not afford to fall out with him, so he bit his lips, shut his good eye, and leaving the place .of the other (which had been knocked out by the end of a cue in a billiard-room) open, said nothing, and resumed the seat from which he had arisen. "Come, come," said Gripe, "to business, to business;" and taking a key from his pocket, walked over to a large iron safe that was built into the wall at the opposite side of the room, opened it, and having deposited his newly acquired treasure within this fire-proof and robber-proof magazine, took his seat beside Muggleten with an air of satisfaction and delight that told how well pleased he was with the recent proceedings in which hjj had been engaged. Young Swingsnap stood watching the movements of Gripe, and cast a longing, lingering look after BOB NOBBEBBY. 59 the bags of gold, as he shut the massive doors of the safe with a clank, and gave the key a particular twist, by which twelve strong bolts were sent out as guardians over the valuable con- tents within. He said nothing, but took his seat at the other side of the table, that he might hear the deed read, in which he had so deep an interest. " What further instructions," said Gripe to Muggleten, " did you require from me, that should cause you to post after me, as you intended ?" " Why," replied Muggleten, " there has been no specific de- tail of the property about to be conveyed ; the particulars of which it consists must be enumerated. Chattels or lands cannot be conveyed with sufficient certainty without describing them." " I have read some elementary works upon law," said Swing- snap, " and you are perfectly right, counsellor ; the money got this morning must, of course, be counted over, and included in the conveyance." The eyes of Gripe flashed like an enraged hyena, and he ex- claimed with a furious tone, " No, sir ; I thought we under- stood each other about that matter. Was it not agreed that the trifle alluded to should be hors the deed ? Will it not be wanted for a purpose that was fully explained by me, and agreed to by you this morning ? I fear, Mr. Swingsnap, I have been paying you encomiums this day which you did not merit." " Why," said Swingsnap coolly, "if the deed be executed, the money will not be wanted for the other purpose, because you cannot get a man to execute a valid deed and have him declared a lunatic at the same time. That is the dilemma, Mr. Gripe. The property in question must be mentioned in the conveyance. If we cannot get the deed executed, why then tlie money will go to the purpose contemplated this morning." " Why," said Gripe, assuming an air of good humour, " it is easy to manage the trifle in question without parchment. You forget that other claimants may come forward, and the deed would be indisputable evidence of the amount we should account for, and it would be nothing amiss that you, Mr. Swingsnap, a young man entering into fashionable life and a high profession, should have something that inquisitive people would know nothing about. I told you before to trust to my prudence and skill, or take the thing altogether out of my hands. I added, that all my acts should be benevolent and disinterested ; you assented ; and I am sure it is only necessary to recall those cir- cumstances to your mind, and to show you that it is your interest alone I have in view, to induce you to abandon those mischievous crotchets, and leave the matter to my management." Muggleten at once enlisted upon the side of Gripe, and added, that when a man had a solicitor of high honour and integrity, he 60 BOB NORBEBBY. should leave the whole conduct of his case in his hands, for many men had been ruined by following their own plan instead of the counsel of their law advisers. " And not a few," replied Swingsnap, " have been ruined by their legal advisers too ; but I submit at once to the wisdom, judgment, and discretion of my friend Gripe." *' Ah !" said Gripe, assuming a tone of kindness, and looking with a hideous grin at Swingsnap, which he intended for a good- humoured smile, " I knew I was not mistaken in my young friend, who I am certain will shine in his profession, and yet occupy a seat on the bench." Muggleten introduced the draft deed, which he read over to his clients, and after various alterations and additions, during which the temper and patience of Swingsnap were put to their utmost limit, it was agreed to, for he was obliged to submit to the arrangements dictated by his legal advisers. This preliminary having been so far settled, it was arranged that the document should be given out for engrossment, and that the parties should meet on the second day afterwards, and pro- ceed to the asylum at Bopeep, there to induce Old Hawk to execute it. They were accordingly punctual to their appoint- ment, and on a fine morning, as a crowd of shipping were under full sail up the Liffey to the old custom-house, they were seen seated in an open barouche, going at full speed down the quay towards Queen Street, on their way to Old Hawk. Muggleten, who delighted in nothing so much as posting about in a hurry, under an apparent pressure of business, assumed an air of great importance, and requested that Gripe would again allow him to throw his " eye" over the deed as they proceeded towards their destination. " Stop, my dear counsellor," said his friend ; " your impatience to be engaged in business at every opportunity that can be catched is no doubt most commendable, but there is, after all, a time for every thing. You may depend that all is right ; and, for my own part, I am much more inclined to philosophise upon the glories of this fine morning, and the surpassing beauty of the scene with which we are surrounded, than to speak of business just now. Can any thing be more sublime and soul-stirring than to view the rays of the sun playing upon the full tide that fills that noble river, in which are reflected the long line of buildings at each side, with the shipping seen in the distance, coming up, wafted from the bay by a gentle breeze ? I feel that such scenes as these always call up within me a strong divinity of soul, and I could almost wish that the spirit would burst its bonds, and soar into the glory, of which the scenes we now behold are but faint emblems. Yes, although tied to this world by its cares and its pains, I have bee* always a truly moral man in my heart ; and, BOB NOBBERBY. 61 after all, unless we have morality as a groundwork, our actions cannot bear the test of truth." " You speak like a Christian and a philosopher," said Mug- gleten. " Your sentiments are worthy of a Bossuet or a Fene- lon." "You should add his acts, too," said Swingsnap, drily. " Why, as to acts," said Gripe, " they are mere incidents which rise from the circumstances in which men are placed, and in ninety-nine cases ont of a hundred they are not accountable for them ; but give me the man who loves the sublime, and has a full sense of the goodness of the Deity, and I care not a yard of red tape about his acts, always premising that in every thing he does he will be sure to keep within the law." " Your vocation has been mistaken," said Swingsnap ; " you should have been in the church ; if you were, you would ere now have mounted to the episcopal bench." " Why," continued the worthy attorney, " a man can as well work out his salvation jostling through this busy world as filling the high place of a bishop, who bas nothing to do but eat and drink and die of the gout. No, sir, my habits are too active for the life of a bishop, at the same time that I feel I have sounder morality at bottom than most of them." " No great praise, after all," said Muggleten, who, from the time he was refused a perusal of the deed, had not ventured to edge in a word. " I think you are superior in many respects to all the bishops I have ever heard of; and perhaps in your later days you may seek an asylum in the church, where you will have ample leisure to put into operation those high moral sentiments which do you so much honour : men of your kind are much wanted in it at this moment." " There are enough of good men there already," added Swing- snap ; " it is not, however, the men, but the establishment to which they belong, that has conferred so many blessings on the country. I am an ardent supporter of it, and I have no doubt that I shall yet render it some important services." This conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the parties at the asylum, where Doctor Deering was at the gate waiting to receive them. " You see," said Gripe, alighting from the carriage, " we are punctual as to time. It is one of the peculiar characteristics of my professional career, that I have never yet been known to break an engagement. Business for me, sir ; business, business." " I fear," replied the doctor, in a low tone, " we will have a troublesome business with our protegee, and his stupid, obstinate old servant. He is, of course, as sane as any man in existence. There is one circumstance in the case which can, however, be turned to good account : the words 'my bags of gold, my bags 62 BOB NOBBEBBY. of gold,' have hardly ever left his mouth since he came here, and that stubborn stupid old servant of his is perpetually crying out, ' I'll prove the robbery the moment I get out of this." " These are trifles," said Gripe. " The blind old rascal must get some hush money : that will soon bring him to his senses." " I fear it won't do with him," replied the doctor. " Leave that to me," added Gripe ; " but we have come, as you have been apprised, to get the deed executed, so let's to business." The worthy doctor led the way, and the party followed him through a long, dark corridore, to a small room paved with tiles, and admitting, through a grated window a considerable height from the floor, scarcely as much light as would enable the spec- tators to discern what the apartment contained. " This," said he, pausing at the threshold of the door, " is a room peculiarly fitted to cases of this kind. I have had several distinguished persons here, who came to me in a far worse condition than our friend inside, whom I had perfectly convalescent in two or three months. You understand me, gentlemen?" " Perfectly," replied Gripe. " Amongst those sent to me," continued the doctor, " were an old nobleman, whose son sought my kind protection for his dear father ; and a clergyman, whose wife and daughter sent him to me under circumstances of a very peculiar character. I fear there was not sufficient caution taken in the case; and his malady was the most obstinate I ever had to deal with. He was a man of peculiarly sober habits through life ; and such persons are very difficult to cure. But the old lord, who was partially affected with delirium tremens coming in, was all right in a few weeks. You know what I mean ?" "Oh! my dear friend, not another word to explain your meaning," said Gripe. " I presume you were going to express your apprehension that this poor old man will present one of those inveterate cases which arise from long habits of sobriety and frugality ?" "Precisely so," added the doctor. "In that I think you are mistaken," continued Gripe; "for it will be part of the evidence we will offer, in case we are forced to speed the commission, that the old fellow was latterly in the habit of getting drunk at night with his servant man. The servant woman, whom I have ready to be examined, is pre- pared to depose to that fact ; but if the deed be executed, there will be no necessity for it; we will merely leave him under your kind protection, and you will know how to treat him : he is now very old, and cannot by possibility live many months." " Precisely so," said the doctor ; " and probably if the deed were executed, days, would suit your purpose better." 63. BOB NOBBEREY. 63 " You are a man of business," added Gripe ; " I am certain that every thing shall be properly done in your hands. But you were, I believe, going to explain to us the peculiar construction of this room as a place of convalescence for your patients ?" " Yes," continued the doctor, " it is entirely on a plan known only to myself. You are all friends, and I may confidentially state to you what its effects are. There is, immediately under- neath the floor, a large reservoir of water, impregnated with a chemical preparation, that has long been a secret in my family, and this fills the apartment with a freezing air, whilst its soporific powers set the patient to sleep, who, upon awaking, is generally quite delirious, and cries out for warmth. This is the effect sought to be produced, and, as a matter of kindness, he is either brought out under a burning sun, with a thin cap on his head, or into an over-heated room, w-here he fancies he experiences great comfort from the sudden transition. This operation being gone through half a dozen times, even with ordinary regimen, is generally successful. There is no appearance of coercion, restraint, or ill treatment of any kind ; and if even the servants of the asylum were to be examined as witnesses, they should depose that the patients are treated with kindness and indul- gence. These, gentlemen, are the effects produced by confine- ment in this room." " I suppose," said Gripe, " that course of treatment always effects a cure P" " Why, not always," replied the doctor ; " plaaster for the head is the ultimatum ; but, throughout a long and successful course of practice, I have very seldom been obliged to have recourse to it." " Is the patient inside ?" said Swingsnap eagerly ; "I think we have heard enough about your practice ; let us see what are its effects upon this wretched old man." '* He is inside," replied the doctor, " in one of those balmy slumbers produced by the atmosphere of the apartment." " Call him out," added Gripe, " for I should not like to go in after the information you have given us." "Very w T ell," said the doctor; "I merely wanted to show you how the patient was situated ; but I intend that we shall transact our business in my own apartments." He then entered the cell, in a remote corner of which, stretched upon a miserable bed of straw, lay the man whose wealth had placed many of the lords and nobles of the land within his power, and who never paused for a moment to reflect upon the tears he had caused to flow, or the misery of which he was the author, whilst in the pursuit of gold. He was, however, now the victim of that grasping avarice which can only be satiated by wholesale gains, and is much more culpable than the slow process which 61 BOB NOKBEKBY. leads through the dark and loathsome labyrinths of penury, extortion, self-denial, and deceit in the accumulation of riches ; for although the great bulk of mankind would seize, if they could, upon wealth in a moment, without going through any process by which it could be said, even in the eye of the law, to be fairly earned, there are few, very few, who have patience or perseverance enough to acquire it by labour, united to frugality and self-denial. Whether by the sweat of the brain or the brow, man, to acquire wealth, must labour ; and every man who is idle is a tax upon those who laboured before him, are labouring at present, or are to labour after him. Why mankind should uni- versally condemn the miser, and concede their approbation to the anchorite, is an anomaly well worthy the consideration of the philosopher and theologian. The anchorite, who renounces the world and its wealth, and leads a life of self-denial, is an object of praise and admiration amongst many ; whilst the miser, who, with the means of gratifying all the wishes and wants incident to man, and of indulging in all the luxuries of the world, denies himself every thing, is an object of scorn and reprobation. Truly, if any thing can prove the philosophy and high moral qualities of any man, it is placing him in the enjoyment of immense wealth, without control or restriction of any kind, and then finding him pursue a course of frugality, prudence, and self-denial. The most worthless that the boiling over of great cities ever produced, if they get unexpectedly into the possession of wealth, will enjoy it with the bearing and assumed manners of the aristocrats of the day ; and those who are born to riches, instead of making money produce money, most generally squander what they received without labour or trouble. This would not be so, if they pos- sessed some of the qualities which are so strongly condemned in misers. There is, therefore, something paradoxical in the matter, which philosophers or moralists have not yet accounted for, ex- cept upon the score of motives; but it is with results, and not motives or intentions, that society has any thing to do. The doctor returned, leading poor Old Hawk with him in a state of stupefaction or half consciousness, exclaiming, as he came out of the cell, " Oh, bring me to the heat ; I am shivering with cold." " Yes, my dear sir," said the doctor, " you shall have your wishes gratified ; every thing that humanity and the most active benevolence can dictate shall be done for you. You know how kind I have been to you since you came here, and that kindness shall continue to increase as long as you are under my protection. Your friends are here, waiting to impart some good news to you, and to transact important business with you ; but you must do every thing that they wish ; we are all j-our real friends." M Oh !" said Old Hawk, " have they brought back my bags of BOB NOBBEBBY. 65 gold ? And where is my wife P What has happened to me at all ? And where, above all, is my only friend in this world, poor old Tim ? Oh ! Tim, where are you ? Where are my bags of gold P" " Come, come," said the doctor, " we are going to make you happy ; all will be right; come with me." And, taking him by the hand, he led him up the corridor, and across a court-yard, to his own apartments, whither Gripe and his friends followed. On their way, poor Tim, who was looking through the bars of a window on the opposite side, saw the parties, and cried out, " Oh ! my poor master, my poor master ; and the robbers who took all his gold. I'll swear robbery against every man of you the moment I get out of this that I will ; I'll transport the whole of you, for you are nothing but a gang of robbers. I'll put the law in force against every one of you that I will." " Ho !" said the doctor, " this is a troublesome intrusion. Hallo ! Toby," calling to an athletic, ruffianly- looking fellow, who was seated on a bench under a shed, playing chess with a companion of similar appearance ; " why have you that man in this side of the building ? take him out of that quickly, and bring him to one of the rooms over the vapour bath." Toby and his playmate were on their way in an instant, and in a few moments afterwards the shrieks of the poor old man were heard as they dragged him mercilessly through a long gallery that led to the place which the doctor ordered him to be consigned to. " Stop," said Gripe, " we may want this man; if the com- mission is to be sped we cannot well do without him ; treat him kindly till we see how matters shall terminate." " Toby," shouted the doctor, " bring back that poor man until further orders." The willing satellites conducted Tim back to his former apartment, and then resumed their game with the most perfect sangfroid, wholly regardless of the misery and sorrow, the pining hearts, the blighted hopes, and the ruined intellects of the wretched victims by whom they were surrounded. The doctor and his patient were followed by the rest of the party into a reception room, magnificently furnished, which formed a striking contrast to the loathsome cell from which the wretched Norberry had been brought. When Gripe entered, Old Hawk viewed him with a look of stupid amazement, as if uncertain of the identity of the person upon whom he gazed. At length be uttered, in a loud voice, " My bags of gold ! my bags of gold !" " Ah ! my good, my dear old friend," said Gripe, assuming a lachrymose tone, " how my heart is grieved to see you in your present position ! but a decided step was necessary to save the Norberry family from disgrace and ruin ; it could not be tolerated p 66 BOB NORBERRY. that the very head of that family should form an alliance with the daughter of a lo\v publican and plebeian." " Stop," said Old Hawk ; " where is my wife, where is Kate Fogarty ? but, oh ! my bags of gold, my bags of gold : return to me my money, and I will never think of wife or any thing else ; I will form no mean alliance ; I am not married at all at least I barely recollect it." " A most important admission," said Muggleten ; " let it be noted down ; if there be no marriage, there will be no trouble- some claimants from any other quarter ; let it, by all means, be noted down, and put in my brief. I have always the foresight to catch the points necessary in my case." " Come, my dear, dear old friend and client," said Gripe, " you do not appreciate the kindness that prompted this course ; you do not know your real friends; just sign your name to this piece of parchment, and all will be well. Come, my dear old friend, there take the pen and sign your name opposite that bit of wax, and then you will get all your money aud every thing you want. Come, my dear Norberry, I have rendered you many a service in the execution of bonds, deed s, and post obits; just do what I desire you, and all will be right. You do not appreciate or understand the truly benevolent feelings which actuate your friends. Come, write your name like a worthy gentleman, as you have always been ; don't dishonour the high name you bear." " No," said Old Hawk, " never ; I shall do nothing until my faithful servant and friend, Tim, is present ; he witnessed the robbery that was committed, and he must also witness whatever else may follow." " I knew," said Gripe, calling the doctor aside, " that we would be obliged to make use of that old servant ; let me have an interview with him." Then, turning to Old Hawk, "My dear friend, just compose yourself for a moment ; your faithful servant shall be brought to you ; he is, I am told, a sensible man, and you will do whatever he advises you ; just compose yourself for a moment." " Come," said the doctor, " I may as well at once show you the way to the apartment of the old servant." So, leaving the room, he was followed by Gripe, and both were in a few moments in the presence of Tim, who viewed them with amazement still greater than that manifested by his master, "Ho ! my man," said Gripe, " how are you ? I am just after giving directions that whilst you remain here, every thing shall be done to promote your comfort. The circumstances that have occurred appear strange to you ; because, in the first place, you do not understand the benevolent motives which have directed these proceedings; nor can you foresee the wise ends for which they have been instituted. I have heard much of your integrity BOB NOKBEBRY. G7 and attachment to your poor master. You have considerable influence over him, and we wish you should exercise it to induce him to write his name to a document, the purport of which, as a man of unimpeachable honour, I declare to be, to save the Nor- berry family from disgrace. You heard of your master seeking to be married to the bar-maid of a public house, kept by wily, crafty, cunning, low-bred people, who would be his ruin. We want to take him out of their hands, and it is only by signing the document in question that it can be done. You must prevail on him to do so ; but then if you should fail in that, I will draw up a statement of facts for your perusal, which you will of course depose to on oath at an inquiry which is about to take place. Come, my worthy old man, your integrity must be rewarded." So, taking from his pocket a leather purse, he emptied its con- tents upon the seat of the window, at which Tim was still stand- ing, gazing into the court-yard, as if in hope of catching another glimpse of his master. The poor fellow saw sixty golden guineas told over, and again placed in the purse by Gripe, who, with an ah* of kindness and condescension, presented it to him. " There," said the doctor, as the hand of Gripe was out- stretched with the proffered gift; " there is an act of generosity and benevolence that ought to make you value the friendship of Mr. Gripe, and convince you that all he is doing with regard to your master is founded upon the purest and most disinterested motives." The faithful arid incorruptible Tim, whose actions throughout a long life were prompted by the emotions of a kindly heart and innate rectitude of principle, which had never been corrupted by worldly pursuits, took the purse containing the proffered treasure from the hand of Gripe, and, summoning all the strength he could command, he flung it at his head, and struck him a stunning blow on the right eye. And, by the way, sixty golden guineas, rolled up in a leathern casement, would form a pellet, that, when projected from a strong hand, few would like to be visited by, even for the sake of its contents. The blow had a terrific effect upon Gripe, who staggered back and would have fallen, were he not supported by the doctor, who was dumb with amazement at the scene he had just witnessed. "When Gripe recovered sufficiently to collect his thoughts, he said, in rather a gentle tone, " I see that this wretched old man is as mad as his master, but he is of that dangerous class of luna- tics that requires quite a different mode of treatment ; leave him for the present, and we will consider hereafter what is to be done with him." And then turning round, he walked back towards the apartment where he had left Old Hawk and the other gentle- men. The doctor picked up the rejected gift and followed him. When they entered, Swingsnap inquired where was the servant, or what was the result of the interview with him ? 68 BOB NOBBEBEY. Gripe, whose disappointment far exceeded his rage for he was a man who had perfect control of his temper pointed to his swollen eye, with an assumed smile : " There," said he, "is the result of the interview with that dangerous old maniac ; he is much worse than his master. There is nothing left but to speed the commission." " I will have him sent to one of the rooms over the vapour bath," said the doctor. " I think," said Gripe, " I will manage to have him brought out of this, and placed in Newgate in Dublin, as a dangerous lunatic. I will make a deposition before the magistrates at Mountrath Street Police Office as soon as I go into town, and we will get rid of him in that way." " I have a precedent here in one of the books I brought with me," said Muggleten, " from which you can both frame your deposition, and draw up the form of a commitment, to have ready to be signed by the magistrates. I always come prepared for any contingency that may arise. I am always ready to meet the collateral points as well as the main branch of my case." " If all the world thought as highly of you as you do of your- self, you would soon be lord chancellor," observed Swingsnap with a sneer. " Come, come," said Gripe, " this is no time for either bandy- ing compliments or indulging in malicious jokes ; we have busi- ness of much more importance to think of." And he placed his hand upon his eye, which was causing him much pain. " Hallo ! Toby," said the doctor, " take this old gentleman back to the place from whence he came, and put a collar and waistcoat upon his old servant, who is raging mad." Then, turning to Gripe : " I fear the plaster to the head must be adopted." Toby arid his companion executed in an instant the behests of their master ; and after some further consultation amongst the parties, and such medical advice as the doctor thought applicable to the damaged eye of Gripe, which was beginning to assume a serious appearance, they took their departure for town, rather discomfited and cast down, in the same vehicle which had borne them out in triumph. On their arrival, a deposition and committal, with regard to blind Tim, was prepared by Muggleten, and on the following day Gripe attended before the magistrates of Mountrath Street to swear to it. He had with him a certificate from the doctor, which stated that the individual in question had been sent to his private and peaceful asylum, where repose and quiet were so ne- cessary for its inmates ; but that his insanity being of that boiste- rous and dangerous character, it was unsafe, as regarded both the poor man himself, and the quiet, kind-hearted class of ser- BOB NORBEBRY. 69 vants necessary for the establishment, and unjust to the other inmates, who were all of the highest order of respectability, to allow him to remain there any longer, and that he ought to be sent to one of the public prisons, where treatment would be pursued which by no possibility could be adopted at the retired and happy asylum of Bopeep. Armed with these doeuments, and presenting an eye with a purple circle round the orbit, which radiated into hues of varied yellow, Gripe came before Messrs. Smullet and Ember, the pre- siding magistrates at Mountrath Street, to tender his depositions, with a view to have the unfortunate but faithful Tim removed to the side of Newgate allotted to dangerous lunatics, where hundreds have lived and died in a state of wretchedness and misery without parallel, who were at first driven to paroxysms of despair by the cruelty, the rapacity, the deceit and injustice of their fellow men, but who, by kindly treatment, or one honest voice raised in their behalf to rescue them from such a fate, might have lived amongst society, in possession of the glorious gift of that reason which loathsome dungeons, mismanagement, and neglect, could not fail to destroy. Gripe entered the police court leaning on Muggleten, and followed by a servant in rich livery. " Make way there, constable, make way," said Mr. Ember, as the parties advanced towards the bench. " Bless my soul ! gentlemen, how do you both do ? But what accident has befallen you, my dear Gripe ? When I was a practising lawyer, you were one of my best clients. How grieved I am to see your eye in such a condition : what in the world is the matter with you ?" " Indeed," replied Gripe with a tone of humility, " I am not the first who has been made the victim of an indiscreet genero- sity and ever active benevolence. The documents I have with me will explain the matter better than I can ; but I may shortly mention that a most unaccountable misfortune has befallen one of the oldest clients and best friends I had in the world both himself and his servant have become insane, and under the direc- tions of some members of his family, I had both removed to the asylum of Dr. Deering, which is an earthly paradise. The in- sanity of the master is of an idiotic and harmless kind, but that of the servant is of a most dangerous character. I went yester- day to place a considerable sum of money in the hands of the doctor for the benefit of both, with directions that their comforts should be strictly attended to, although that indeed was wholly useless" (this was the only part of the tale that was true), " when the wretched man seized the purse of gold that I was handing to the doctor, and flung it at my head ; here" (pointing to his eye) " are the effects of it ; and here are the documents that will fur- ther explain every thing." TO BOB NOBBEUKY. " A singular case indeed," said Smullet; "but we are in the habit of hearing such extraordinary cases every day, that we are hardly surprised at any thing. You, however, have the consola- tion to know that you received that injury whilst in the perform- ance of a most sacred and meritorious duty. Pray be seated, gentlemen ; be seated whilst I read over these papers. Mug- gleten, how do you do ? it is a good many years since we were serving our terms together in London ; you see I am tied here to the magisterial bench ; I am almost sorry that I gave up my practice at the bar for it." " I wish," said Muggleten, whispering to Gripe, " that I could exchange places with him." " Don't believe a word he says," answered the attorney in the same pitch of voice; "the fellow never had any practice except when I employed him on particular occasions : he got the place, as all places are got, through family interest." " I trust," said Muggleten, addressing the worthy magistrate, " I shall see your worship elevated still higher. Your high legal attainments and practice at the bar would have entitled you to be chief justice of the King's bench." Ember graciously nodded assent to the complimentary state- ment made by his friend, and then continued with an air of great gravity to read over the papers that had been put into his hands by Gripe. When he concluded, he slowly raised his head, elevated his spectacles from his nose to his forehead, and remarked that it was a singular case indeed ; he had met, he believed, in one of the year books an account of a master and man having become mad simultaneously, but it was after- wards discovered, in the course of a complicated law -suit which grew out of the matter, that they were brothers, although the fact had been a secret for upwards of fifty years. *' Such a discovery," added Gripe, rather testily, " won't be the result in this case." " I don't presume, by any means, to say it will," replied Ember ; " your course, however, is clear: sign this deposition, and I shall sign the committal, which appears to have been drawn up with great care, and the poor unfortunate man must be at once removed to the lunatic side of Newgate, as the place best suited to him." " The committal has been prepared by me," said Muggleten, with an air of self-satisfaction ; " I manage matters with temper and caution. I take care never to lose my temper, so that I come coolly to the performance of all my professional duties." " The document does you great credit," replied Ember, nod- ding graciously. Smullet, the other magistrate, who seemed to be making amends for want of the previous night's sleep, opened his eyes BOB NORBEBBY. 71 when all was over, exclaiming, " What case is this before the bench ?" "Nothing," replied his worthy brother magistrate, " but the committal to prison of a dangerous lunatic." " Oh .' that's a mere matter of course," grunted Smullet, and again began to doze. The documents having been duly executed, Gripe and his friend left the office to make preparations for speeding the com- mission, and Ember despatched two or three confidential con- stables to convey poor Tim from Bopeep to Newgate ; and before the sun set that evening, they had executed their com- mands. " There is nothing for it now," said Gripe to Muggleten, as they passed from the police court into the street, " but to speed the commission without a moment's delay. Your brief is nearly ready ; you must make a truly pathetic statement ; but all will depend on a good jury ; they must be corporation men fellows who love good dinners, and have now visible pursuits or means of existence except what arises from their pay as yeomen, and fees as jurors." Muggleten suggested to Gripe that the corporation roll should be submitted to his inspection before the jury would be struck. He had an opportunity of meeting many of them who were good singers, and were repeatedly asked to parties at which he, too, had the honour of being entertained, where they dined and supped upon the strength of their vocal powers ; they were a class of persons who had nothing to do, or, if they had, they never troubled themselves about it; and he was certain that a few good fellows could be chosen from amongst them who would be anxious to find a favourable verdict in a case where an emi- nent solicitor, who often had jobs of the kind, was concerned ; besides, many of them were members of the society to which both of them belonged, and when delivering his address he would not fail to " throw them up" the sign. " Your suggestions," said Gripe, " are well worthy of consi- deration. You know I am a member of the same society my- self, and that fact has made you my counsel ; but I am told that some of our signs are borrowed from the Freemasons, and it might be dangerous to ' throw up' any of them to the jury, lest some members of it might belong to that honourable and wide- spread fraternity, who have always ranked high amongst man- kind ; and if they thought that any attempt was made to interfere with their craft, our plans would be defeated. You know, my dear Muggleten, that our society are the real sort, swora to be true to each other in every case in which any of its members may be engaged. Ascertain, therefore, in the first instance, how many of ' us' can be placed on the jury ; 72 BOB NOEBEBBY. but don't throw up any signs, lest they might be mistaken by a freemason, if amongst them: get a majority of 'us' by all means, but throw up no signs when delivering your address." "You speak like a man of sense," replied Muggleten, "and I shall attend to your suggestions with the utmost care and caution ; but is not there a hope that old Norberry will yet sign the deed ? Doctor Deering thinks that when the plaster is applied to his head he will consent." " Oh, d the plaster," said Gripe; "the commission, after all, is the better course of proceeding; it must succeed, and I will have something like decent costs to get when the suit is over, and plenty of money on account whilst it is going on." The gentlemen then proceeded to the office in Saint Andrew Street, where it was agreed to meet at the lunatic office in Chancery Lane on the following morning, to make arrangements for summoning a jury and proceeding with the commission. Muggleten, Gripe, and Swingsnap were, accordingly, early in their attendance at the office, where a jury list to the satisfac- tion of the parties was prepared and despatched to the sheriff, with directions to have them summoned for the following Mon- day. A liberal fee accompanied this request, and the sheriff lost no time in having summonses served upon the worthy corpo- rators, whose names had been ear-marked upon the list sent in by Gripe. At an early hour on Monday morning, all the parties con- cerned were in motion. A number of fellows with carbuncled faces, and dressed in shabby black, were seen entering a narrow, dingy, dirty-looking passage in Chancery Lane, which led to the place appointed for proceeding with the commission of lunacy. The commissioners were punctual in their attendance, and took their seats on the bench with an air of gravity suited to the occasion. There was a good attendance of jurors ; many who did not receive summonses came upon the speculation that some of those who did, might, by some fatality, have been absent ; and when the chosen number were sworn, the others left the court with long faces, as soon as they heard the commissioners declare that, as a mark of respect to the feelings of the highly respectable family upon whom a most direful affliction had fallen, the proceedings should be conducted in private. All preliminaries being thus arranged, Muggleten ostenta- tiously unfolded a huge brief, on the back of which a fee of fifty guineas had been marked, and was proceeding at once to state his case, when Gripe rose and walked behind the backs of the jury, who were seated in two rows upon forms removed a consi- derable distance from the bench : as he passed on, each man thrust his hand behind him, which was met by that of Gripe, then hastily withdrawn, and afterwards carelessly thrust into BOB NORBERRY. 73 the capacious pocket of his waistcoat. This process having been gone through, the worthy jurors closed into a narrow circle, and after a short consultation, the foreman, with a good-humoured smile, and a peculiar leer of his eye, announced that they were ready to hear the statement of the learned counsel. Muggleten then rose with great gravity, and having adjusted a large pair of spectacles, which he generally wore for the pur- pose of hiding his bad eye, proceeded thus to address the com- missioners and the jury : " Gentlemen, I am here as counsel in the case of Norberry, a lunatic, and Swingsnap, petitioner ; and if I find myself com- pletely overpowered by the weight of the duty I have to perform, and the feelings which the recital of so painful a case must call up within me, I know that I am addressing gentlemen of humanity, station, and experience as jurors, and that I may confidently calculate upon your indulgence. There are cases where the advocate becomes involved in the profundity of his own thoughts, when he contemplates the inscrutable ways of Providence in visiting the most virtuous, dignified, and upright of the human race with afflictions which are almost too much for humanity to bear. But this collateral contemplation, if I may use the term, would only lead to metaphysical abstraction, and a theological inquiry which, however highly edifying and instructive in itself, would only turn our minds away from the issue you have this day to try. Of all the afflictions that can possibly befall any un- fortunate individual or family, it is that of insanity. It is one of those visitations occasionally sent by an all-wise Creator for pur- poses known only to Himself; and bur duty is to meet such an infliction with virtuous stoicism, and to give our warmest sym- pathies to those who are either immediately or remotely the victims of such a malady. There is one melancholy consolation with regard to the unfortunate maniac, that renders his condi- tion in some degree less painful than that of his family and friends, and that is, his unconsciousness of the malady with which he is afflicted. And, gentlemen of the jury, whilst I implore your sympathies for the unfortunate gentleman who is the object of the present inquiry, I beseech you to extend them in a pecu- liar degree to his sorrowing friends, some of whom will be examined as witnesses here this day ; nay, I would say, extend them to myself, for I am a man who feels poignantly for the sorrow of others ; and whilst I thus address you, I may confi- dently assert that my anguish is at least fully equaHo that of my highly respectable clients, for whom I appear here this day. I find I am almost unable to proceed ; but, gentlemen, you will excuse my weakness the sympathies f the man have overcome whatever little forensic power belongs to the advocate and if you do not extend to me your kind indulgence, I would be just 74 BOB NORBERRY. in as melancholy a condition as the unfortunate old gentleman whose case we have come here this day to consider. You will, perhaps, be inclined to ask me, before I go further, who are my clients in this matter, and at whose instance this commission has been sued out ? and I might reply, that the whole of the high family of Norberry, with all its collateral branches, are my clients ; but those who are immediately concerned in the present proceedings are Mr. Swingsnap, the nephew and heir of the lunatic his father and family, and that highly upright, benevo- lent, and respectable solicitor, Mr. Gripe, who has been for many years the law agent and bosom friend of the lunatic, as well as the confidential adviser of other branches of the house of Nor- berry. His affliction and anguish at the calamity that has befallen his friends are beyond the power of description. The painful task of examining him here this day as a witness will fall to my lot ; and I fear it will be too much for me. Extend then, I beseech you, to my client, Mr. Gripe, the same sympathy which a moment ago I begged might be exercised with regard to my- self ; and any you may then have left is due to my young client, Swingsnap, who has to go through the painful ordeal of a peti- tioner, in a case where his uncle is the lunatic. You may then look remotely towards the various branches of the Norberry family, who, I am instructed to say, are deeply pained at the calamity that has fallen upon their kinsman. Do not think, gentlemen, that I am following the hackneyed track of making an appeal to the feelings and the passions of a jury no such thing. If even my instructions were such, there exists no neces- sity for doing so 'in the present case, because I have the high honour of addressing gentlemen of the most enlarged sympathies, noble minds, and active benevolence, who require not the ad- ventitious aid of an appeal from any advocate to enlist all their feelings in the cause of humanity and truth. " Gentlemen, having now said so much by way of preliminary, permit me to open to you the facts of this extraordinary case. You have all heard of Mr. Nipper Norberry, remarkable alike for his wealth and eccentricity, but still bearing that high name in the mercantile world worthy of the family to which he belonged. He led a very frugal and retired life, and most pro- bably the misfortune that has befallen him would never have occurred were it not that some infernal trap was laid for the un- suspecting old man, by the owners of a tavern where he was in the habit of dining. These people, it is supposed, administered some dose to him that deprived him of his senses, with a view to get him married to their daughter ; and they have actually given out that a marriage has taken place. Be that as it may, gentle- men, it was observed that soon after Mr. Norberry began to frequent the house in question, and that these artful, cunning BOB NORBERRY. 75 people set their snares for him, his habits became totally changed, and from leading a life of the most perfect sobriety, he began to indulge in the use of strong drink, and was in the habit of going to bed in a state of the most beastly intoxication, his pot companion being no other than his own servant man, who, I must inform you, has also become deranged, and is now con- fined in Newgate as a dangerous lunatic." Foreman of the Jury " Oh ! the case is quite clear ; the two old fellows set themselves mad drinking. There was Alderman Clinker, with whom I had many a fine dinner, and he died roar- ing mad, from the effects of brandy and claret, which he would swallow off like small beer." The worthy counsel continued : * c There can be no doubt, gentlemen, but a sudden transition from habits of frugality and sobriety to those of intoxication, must have had a considerable effect upon both master and man ; but I fear the malady with regard to both is seated much deeper, for had it arisen from the mere temporary use of strong drink, being deprived of that indulgence, and under the kind and skilful treatment that both have since received at the hands of one of the most able and humane men in his profession, Doctor Deering, would have effectually cured them ; but both cases, although different in character, are perfectly hopeless. You all know, at least you have heard, that Mr. Norberry was deeply affected by the auri sacra James, and it is one of the peculiar characteristics of his complaint, that he is perpetually calling out for bags of gold, and alleging that he had been robbed of a large quantity of that pre- cious metal. The malady of th man so far corresponds with that of the master, that he declares himself ready to swear to any thing he says about the gold and the robbery ; but in every other respect he is perfectly outrageous in his conduct, and has been removed to that portion of Newgate allotted to dangerous luna- tics, where he will remain, I suppose, for life, having no property out of which the expenses of speeding a commission of lunacy could be paid ; but he will have the happiness of being under the care of Doctor Deering, who is owner of the private asylum where his poor master is so kindly treated, he being also physi- cian to the prison. I would here turn away from the direct thread of my narrative to pay that eulogium to the professional and private character of Doctor Deering, which both so richly merit ; but, being personally known to you aU, it would be a work of supererogation to do so ; and tjie feeble praise that I could bestow would only detract from the merits of a name which carries with it its best eulogy. Yes, gentlemen, the name of Doctor Deering will, I predict, be hereafter gratefully remembered by posterity. But, to resume the painful thread of the facts connected with this distressing case, let me at once 76 BOB NOBBERBY. inform you that the first witness who shall be produced to you will be the female servant, who lived for many years with the old gentleman, and whose veracity and integrity are above all suspicion. She will depose to you that for some time before the malady with which her unfortunate master is afflicted had become publicly known, he was in the habit of sitting up all night drinking with the old servant man, and talking about some young woman, with whom he fancied he was in love." A Juryman " I suppose this is the daughter of the tavern keeper, to whom it is alleged that he is married ? I see I see the whole case." " You are right, sir," continued Muggleten ; " and permit me to again express the delight I feel in addressing a jury composed of men of such high moral worth and intelligence. You know my case you anticipate my very thoughts and my address shall be consequently very brief. Well, gentlemen, being, by some means or other unknown to us, reduced to this state of in- sanity, those low, cunning people, the tavern keepers, caused some form of marriage, as they allege, to be gone through between him and their daughter, with the view, no doubt, of possessing themselves of his wealth, to the loss and disgrace of his heir and high family connections. So completely had the tavern keeper and his family got cotrol over the poor old man, that they induced him to hire coaches and blood-horses, and dress himself out in the most grotesque and, at the same time, most expensive manner. They induced him also to write a letter to the recorder of Dublin and certain magistrates, a copy of which will be produced in evidence, and upon a perusal of it, it will be seen that it could only have emanated from a man stark mad. Under these circumstances, however painful it might have been to the friends of the lunatic, nothing remained but to issue this commission ; and Mr. Swingsnap, his nephew, had both the courage and humanity to come forward to rescue his uncle, as far as he could, from the wretched condition in which he was placed, and to save his property from the grasp of a gang of low swindlers, who had got the poor man into their posses- sion. On the whole, such clear and incontrovertible testimony will be submitted to you as will leave not a shadow of doubt of the unfortunate old man's insanity for some time previous to the alleged marriage In finding your verdict accordingly, you will only do an act.of the greatest benevolence and humanity, for you will thereby place the poor man in the hands of his best and kindest friends, who can render him every comfort and conve- nience that the asylum of that genuine philanthropist, Doctor Deering, can afford. I- will not," he added, " say another word, but proceed to call my witnesses, and then leave the case - f>ra~n & ElchtJ fy S jT BOB NOBBEBBY. 77 in your hands, confidently relying that you will do your duty before God and your country." Judith O'Shaughnessey was the first witness called, and when she came into the room she cast her eyes around with a malig- nant scowl, as if in search of her unfortunate master, but he was not within her view. "I want," she muttered, " to see that old villain, to show him that I can be revenged of him ; I swore I would, and I'll be as good as my oath." " Come, my good woman," said Gripe, " calm down your feelings, and just answer this gentleman's" (pointing to Muggle- ten) " questions, in a voice sufficiently loud to be heard by the most distant of those gentlemen whom you see here in court." Then turning to the jury : " This poor woman has been most cruelly treated by the lunatic ; indeed, I might say, both luna- tics, during the paroxysms of their insanity ; the creature feels it most acutely, as she attributed it to cruelty and caprice, and not to the real cause." The witness was then examined at length by Muggleten, and gave satisfactory answers to all the interrogatories put to her, and left the table evidently disappointed at not having the mali- cious satisfaction of seeing her old master in the wretched condi- tion to which he had been reduced, and showing him how com- pletely she was avenged of him for slighting her affections, and breaking a promise which she alleged he had made nearly twenty years previous, to marry her if he should ever marry any woman. Mr. Cecil, one of the magistrates to whom Old Hawk had addressed the letter in favour of Fogarty, was the next witness called. He produced a copy of the document, and deposed that the original was in the hand-writin.g of the lunatic. He added that he had for some time entertained suspicions as to Mr. Nor- berry's sanity, inasmuch as he wanted him to pay a debt twice. Swingsnap, who was anxiously watching the proceedings, said to Muggleten, "Ask him did he get a receipt for the money paid." Muggleten complied with the request, and Cecil said, " No, indeed ; I merely met him one day in the bank, and gave it to him ; he said he would send a receipt, but he did not do so." " That will do," said Swingsnap, in an under tone. Muggleten said, the next witness he would produce would be his inestimable and virtuous friend, Mr. Gripe. He could not undergo the ordeal of examining him ; he would let him tell his own story, and then leave him in the hands of the jury. Gripe then slowly rose from his seat, drew a large cambric handkerchief of exquisite whiteness and highly perfumed, from his pocket, applied the corner of it to his right eye which still bore the marks of Tim's honest indignation and ascended the T8 DOB NOBBERRY. witness box with a solemn air and grave deportment. When he took his place there, he drew the handkerchief from the right eye, rolled it up, rubbed it hastily two or three times across his mouth, then placed his elbow on the moulding of the jury box, his hand to his face, and, having heaved a long sigh, requested that the commissioners and the jury would bear with him for a moment until his feelings would calm down, and the painful emotions which he felt for the misfortunes of his dear friend and client would subside. " Ah!" said Muggleten, " that manifestation of feeling does honour to humanity ; there is a sight worthy of the philosopher and the Christian. Your name will be transmitted to posterity in conjunction with this case." " Most likely," muttered Swingsnap, hi an under tone. When the worthy attorney recovered his self-composure, and was duly sworn, he entered into a long detail of the case of the lunatic, not forgetting to extol his own benevolence and philan- thropy as the main spring of all his actions. The jury seemed to evince the deepest sympathy for the wit- ness, and the foreman said it was quite unnecessary to produce much further evidence after the clear and convincing testimony given by Mr. Gripe ; all they wanted was to see the unfortunate lunatic, if he was in a condition to be brought before them. Muggleten observed that in point of law such a course of pro- ceeding was unnecessary, but the inquiry could not close without examining a medical gentleman, who would explain to them the precise nature of the disease, and the little hope that existed of his ultimate recovery. The foreman remarked that his object in proposing an exami- nation of the lunatic was an adjournment to the following day, but as there was another witness to be examined it would answer his purpose and that of his brother jurors as well ; and he would, with the permission of the commissioners, request a postpone- ment of the proceedings. " I was just going to state that we had gone far enough for one day," said one of the commissioners ; " and as we have some other business on hands to-morrow, we shall not be able to meet uutil an advanced hour in the day." " Well, then," observed several of the jurymen, all at the same moment, " it will be impossible to close the doctor's evi- dence to-morrow, and we must have a further adjournment." " Of course," said one of the commissioners, " I can never sit late, and as we cannot meet till three or four o'clock, we will merely open the court pro forma, and adjourn again." "All right, all right," exclaimed the worthy jurors, in appa- rent delight. " Messrs. Commissioners, and Gentlemen of the Jury," said BOB NOEBEEEY. 79 Muggleten, "your convenience, of course, must be consulted ; but, before we break up, permit me to express the deep obliga- tion I feel for the indulgence and courtesy extended to me in the discharge of the painful professional duty which I have been called upon to perform." The jury and commissioners reciprocated the compliment, and the court adjourned to three o'clock the following day. "This is monstrous," said Swingsnapas the parties left the court. " A great portion of the property will be swallowed by this unnecessary delay and consequent expense." " I thought you were more of a philosopher," replied Gripe ; " you are going to the bar, and depend upon it you will find that the chief profits of your profession shall arise from the delays of the law. If suits were to be terminated within the time that clients think they ought, it would be better be a street knife-grin- der, than a barrister or attorney. My dear young friend, al- though you may suffer 'some trivial loss or inconvenience at present, you should rejoice in the prospect of future gain, which delays similar to this may bring you." On the following day, at the appointed hour, all the parties were punctual in their attendance, and the jury having taken their seats as on the former day, Gripe went through the process of communication with them, as already described, and then desired Doctor Deering to be called. The doctor was not then in attendance ; but after a delay of a few minutes he rushed into court, almost breathless, and appa- rently labouring under great excitement. The cause was soon explained. It appeared from his statement that unfortunate Norberry had died rather suddenly that morning. At this intelligence the countenance of Swingsnap bright- ened up, and he said in an under tone, " The cormorants are disappointed ; yes, d them, they are ; there is an end of the proceedings." The foreman of the jury remarked to one of his brethren, it was very lucky the news did not arrive half an hour sooner. Gripe applied the cambric handkerchief to his eyes, and affected to shed tears copiously. Muggleten exclaimed, " The will of heaven be done ; the ways of Providence are inscrutable." The commissioners looked somewhat amazed, declared that the proceedings had been rendered nugatory by the melancholy event that had occurred, and that the court was adjourned sine die. 80 BOB NORBEKBY. CHAPTER VI. SAD DISASTERS OF THE FOQARTY FAMILY AN HEIR BORN TO THE HOUSE OF NORBERRY DEATH OF KATE A SUIT IN- STITUTED TO ESTABLISH THE RIGHT OF THE HEIR. THE editor of these extraordinary memoirs, which are here transcribed almost without alteration in style or substance, had it suggested to him by literary friends on whose taste and judg- ment he has always set a high value, to pass over the family history of Norberry, come at once to the incidents connected with the present time, and introduce to the reader, in the first or second chapter, the reporter whose sketches and adventures form the great bulk of the work ; but after a careful perusal of the manuscript committed to his care, he resolved to give the whole in one connected narrative, just as he found it, that the reader, upon a comparison of the administration of the law upwards of half a century ago and at the present time, may find, notwithstanding all that is said of modern improvements, the glories of our constitution, and the excellence of our system of jurisprudence, courts of justice have been, and still are, instru- ments of the grossest oppression, and " law" the origin of more tears, sorrows, and emaciating misery, than "war" itself. It may be thought that the foregoing account of the proceedings under the commission of lunacy, and the details of the petty tyranny exercised towards the Fogartys,as related in the present chapter, are overdrawn pictures ; but, if we take the trouble of making minute inquiries with regard to the incidents of everyday life, which are frequently occurring around us, or stop to examine scenes where many of our own acquaintances are actors, true originals will be found for pictures which at first sight may appear too highly coloured. A venerable member of the profession of solicitor, who was serving his time to Gripe when those incidents occurred, and whose honourable and upright conduct through a long life forms a strong contrast to the villainy and deceit of his late master, was, some time since, directed by the court of chancery, in the progress of a celebrated suit, a branch of which is still pending, to give up documents and notes of proceedings, including the confession of Gripe (which will appear in the next chapter), and from them and memoranda made by O'Kelly, the materials for the first part of these memoirs have been taken. But to return to the regular thread of the narrative. The unfortunate Mrs. Norberry was left, by the visit of Gripe and BOB NORBERRY. 81 his party, in a state of insensibility, followed by a nervous attack from which she did not recover for nearly three weeks ; during the greater part of the time she was delirious, and repeatedly called on O'Kelly as her deliverer, and when lucid intervals occurred, she looked back upon the transactions of the last month as a troubled dream. Youth and a natural buoyancy of spirits effected a re- covery, which, under other circumstances, might have been hope- less, and as soon as her removal could be effected with safet} 7 , she was brought to the house of her parents in Dublin, present- ing a melancholy contrast to the condition in which she left it little more than a month previous. The only account with re- gard to her ill-fated husband that reached her was, that his friends believed him to be mad, and had him taken into custody; but where he was, or in what way he left his affairs, she knew nothing, and the state of painful anxiety to which she and her parents, who had built up all their hopes of future aggrandise- ment upon an alliance with the wealthy Norberry, had been reduced, rendered them totally unfit to pursue their usual avo- cations, and their house soon assumed the appearance of a con- cern going to decay. The Cavanaghs, on the other side of the way, who would not on the day of Kate's marriage gratify Mrs. Fogarty by looking at the splendid equipage as it drove from the door of the " Ram," were perpetually at their windows talking so loudly about Kate and her great match, that they could be heard by Mrs. Fogarty whenever she ventured to go as far as the street door of her own house. The poor woman's pride was sadly humbled, by daily beholding the melancholy condition of her beautiful and bloom- ing daughter, who, were it not for the precipitancy with which she had been forced into a marriage with Norberry, might have been allied to the brave O'Kelly, the object of her affections, and have the honour of being the wife of an officer in the Bri- tish army. These reflections were almost too much for Mrs. Fogarty to bear, and she was from day to day in a state bordering on insa- nity. She knew nothing of the nature of the proceedings that had been adopted against Old Hawk, and she fancied, perhaps truly, that law could not give her any redress. She saw her daughter's hopes blighted, her constitution impaired, and a weight of sorrow preying upon her heart, which was increased by the prospect of her becoming a mother. Mrs. Cavanagh, who was one of the Kinshellas of Catherlogh, and possessed a genuine Irish heart, having heard all the parti- culars of the disasters that had befallen the Fogartys, and the condition that Kate was in, was deeply affected. She warned her daughters never to be seen at the windows again, whilst talking over the condition of their unfortunate neighbours, and 82 BOB iVOiiBERKY. asserted it was their duty to commiserate and sympathise with them in their sorrows, and although they had not been on good terms for some time, she determined to pay them a visit, and be good friends with them for the future. Accordingly, on the following morning she fulfilled her promise. Mrs. Fogarty, who, setting aside her vanity and a perpetual penchant to make herself appear superior to others, was of a generous disposition, and ever ready to reciprocate kindness, was almost dumb with surprise when she saw her neighbour, to whom she had not spoken for many years, enter her house. She thought at first that the visit was made by way of exultation over the misfortunes that had befallen her ; butthe supposition was removed when she saw Mrs. Cavanagh burst into tears, and heard her exclaim, " My dear Mrs. Fogarty, my heart would not allow me to be unfriendly with you, when I found that sorrow and trouble had come over you. I felt as if one of my own children was at the point of death when I saw your beautiful daughter the other day so thin and wasted away, that I would not have known her had I met her in a strange place." Mrs. Fogarty was completely overpowered by such a mani- festation of noble sentiment and generous feeling on the part of this good woman, and she embraced her with the warmest affection, and gave vent to her feelings in a copious flood of tears. " I knew," said Mrs. Cavanagh, " that I could never be mis- taken as to your real character, and it is my fault more than your's that there has not been that friendly intercourse between us which ought always subsist between near neighbours." " Arrah, a cushla," said Mrs. Fogarty, "the fault was mine, and now I feel what a bad part I acted, and I am ashamed of myself. I .have got a * scallah chreej and it is great ease to me to have your friendship. Come down, Kate; come down till you welcome our kind friend, Mrs. Cavanagh." Kate presently appeared, and the three ladies retired to a private room to talk over the strange vicissitudes that had occurred within so brief a period. Mrs. Cavanagh, who was a woman infinitely superior to her neighbours in information and a knowledge of the world, hav- ing been educated by a wealthy relation in Dublin, after listen- ing to a minute detail of the particulars of Kate's marriage, and the detention of old Norberry as a lunatic, advised theFogartys to put the case into the hands of able lawyers, who could not fail to bring it to a successful issue. The advice and sympathy thus given to Kate and her mother imparted a degree of comfort to them which they had not felt since the unhappy marriage took place, and the party separated that night with the understanding that an attorney should be sent for, with directions to be there on the following morning, BOB NOBBEBBY. 83 to whom the whole matter would be submitted. It was agreed, too, that Mrs. Cavanagh should be present at the interview with the man of law. Mr. Wormwood, of Peter Street, one of the most expert practitioners in a general -way that Dublin could then boast of, was accordingly apprised on that night that his presence would be required the next morning at the Ram Hotel, where business of great importance was to be submitted to him. Wormwood was a man who paid attention to a suit just pro- portioned to the weight of his client's purse, or the remuneration contingent upon a certainty of success. He had been in early life an attorney's clerk and process-server, and was intimately acquainted with all the low practices of the profession, and thoroughly understood the value of a shilling, so that he had not only contrived to scrape some money together, but had got a reputation amongst the people of being a man of great clever- ness,and very lucky in the prosecution of any suit which he might undertake, and it was this opinion of him that induced his selection as the law agent of the Fogartys upon the present important occasion. When the message requiring his attendance at the " Kam" arrived, he happened to be in consultation with the friends of a merchant's clerk, who was accused of embezzling a large sum of his master's money, and whose trial was to take place on the following day. When he received the note which had been written by Kate, he read it aloud to his clients. " There," said he, " you see the high esteem in which I am held, and the pres- sure of business that is upon me, and still you higgle about a fee. I am wanted to-morrow morning by a wealthy hotel- keeper in the city to take up a case where there are upwards of fifty thousand pounds at stake, but still I would not desert any prior engagement I might have on hands, provided the parties deal fairly with me." " Oh!" said the brother of the accused, " riot another word ; you must have whatever you require, sooner than lose your services." " Be easy for a moment," rejoined Wormwood ; " you know I would scorn to drive a hard bargain, and that I would as soon conduct your case gratis as if I got a hundred guineas, if I thought you had not the means to pay me ; but I know you have the money amongst you that was alleged to have been embezzled, and I am of course entitled to a thumping fee." " 1 said you should get whatever you demanded; I have the money here." * Very well," said Wormwood, eying a bag of guineas which the speaker had in his hand ; and then turning round to the messenger who brought him Mrs. Norberry's note, said, " Tell 84 BOB NOBBEKEY. your mistress I shall be with her the day after to-morrow, although I am to receive a fee of twenty guineas from another party in case I attend to their business ; but I feel interested in the affair about which your mistress has written to me, and I shall attend to it in preference to any other. I would attend to-morrow but that I am in the middle of a criminal prosecution, where the life and liberty of my client are at stake, and once I take up the defence of any one I never relinquish it till I bring the proceedings to a close, even though my clients could not afford to pay me a shilling, and that other parties wanting me might give me a thousand guineaH. Tell your mistress that ; tell Fogarty of the ' Ram,' who often supplied me with post- horses when going to the country, what I have stated to you, and I am sure he will appreciate the purity of my motives. Away with you ; tell all I have stated, and here is a shilling for yourself." The messenger of Mrs. Fogarty brought to her, without the slightest loss in the carriage, a full, true, and particular account of all that Wormwood had said, and added, by way of personal opinion, " Ah ! that's a real gintleman ; any one who would look at him must admit that he was accustomed to gentility a real, real gintleman." Kate and her mother were by no means displeased to hear the favourable account of Wormwood given by the servant, who concealed the fact of having received the gratuity, which no doubt formed the basis upon which the good opinion so freely pronounced had been founded. On the following morning, whilst the Fogarty family were mournfully sitting at breakfast in a little room off the bar, the two watchmen already alluded to, accompanied by a person apparently hi a higher station, entered the tap-room, and demanded, in an imperative tone, that the person who had the license for that house should immediately appear. Fogarty laid down his cup of tea, and went out to meet his new visitors. " Ho ! Mr. Fogarty," said the person who accompanied the watchmen, " you have a license for this house ?" " Yes, your honour, I have." " Well, then, we are come to tell you that your business as an innkeeper is at an end, and that we have a warrant for your arrest, as a suborner of crime, and an accessary after the fact of most of the murders and outrages committed in Tipperary." " God protect me !" said Fogarty, "what have I done P I am as innocent as a child." " None of your palavering," said one of the watchmen ; " you have not your old friend Norberry to bamboozle the magistrates. D me but it was a nice business indeed, to be humbugged by an old madman. The recorder and magistrates will never BOB NORBEBBY. 85 forgive themselves for being so taken in ; but it is all for the better. We have got fresh evidence since we were here before, so that there was ' luck in leisure, and pleasure in waiting for it.' You now see we are here again." " What in the name of mercy is all this about ?" said Mrs. Fogarty ; " are our misfortunes never to end ? What have we done, that we are to be treated this way ; my poor husband arrested, and our house shut up?" " I scorns to hold up any altercation with a faymale," said the speaker, who had been just deploring the simplicity of the ma- gistrates. " Our business is short and sweet, and with your leave, ma'am, we will try a drop of your brandy." So stepping into the bar, he helped himself and his comrade, and two or three others of the fraternity, who had, by this time, arrived upon speculation, or to give their assistance in conveying Fo- garty to Newgate, in case any resistance should be made. There was then an active search made through the whole house on pretence of looking for papers connected with the movement of the Whiteboys in Munster, which at that time assumed a very formidable appearance, but there was nothing found to show that poor Fogarty had any communication with them. Tkis, how- ever, was of no avail ; informations had been sworn against him on the ground that he aided and abetted the escape of a noto- rious criminal from Tipperary, for whose apprehension there was a large reward, but who was supposed to have got off to America disguised in female apparel. The fate of this unhappy family seemed to be sealed. Fogarty was brought off to Newgate by his old friends the watchmen and their assistants, who told him on the way that they were about to make good their promise of hunting him out of Dublin. It might have satisfied them at first to send him back to Tippe- rary amongst the rebels ; but at present they were bound to tell him in a friendly way, that the magistrates would not be satisfied till they sent him over the herring-brook ; but, as he would be sure to meet plenty of his friends in Botany Bay, he would be more at home there than any place else he could be sent to, and that same ought to be a consolation to his mind. Fortunately for poor Kate, she was brought the evening before by the kind-hearted Mrs. Cavanagh to a cottage which she had in the neighbourhood of Rathfarnham, and was thus saved the pain of being present at the fresh misfortune which had befallen the family. After Fogarty was transmitted to Newgate, the Ram Hotel was shut up, and the strange vicissitudes which had so recently occurred, and the mystery that hung over every thing lately connected with the Fogartys, was the perpetual theme of c6u- versation in the neighbourhood. 86 BUB NOKBEKHY. Mrs. Fogarty would have been wholly unable to support those fresh trials, were it not for the advice and sympathy of Mrs. Cavanagh, who arranged that Kate should be kept in the country, in ignorance of what had happened, until measures would be taken to redress the evils which had befallen them, and, above all, obtain her father's release from prison. Mr. Worm wood was punctual in his attendance at the appointed time, but was a good deal surprised to find the " Ram" shut up, Fogarty in Newgate, and his unfortunate wife in a state of dis- traction, bordering on despair. " Ho ! ho !" said he, "this is a bad business ; who is to be my client in the matter? the owner of this house is in Newgate, and most probably may be trans- ported, and if I take up the business at all I must of course be paid beforehand." Mrs. Cavanagh was sent for to be present at the interview between the worthy attorney and Mrs. Fogarty, and when he heard all the facts circumstantially related, and that he found so wealthy a subject in the case as old Norberry, his little eyes began to glisten at the prospect of a long chancery suit, in which there would be ample funds to pay costs as it proceeded. Mrs. Norberry would soon be a mother, and let the lunacy proceed- ings end as they might, the heir would be entitled to the pro- perty ; then all that was wanted was some money in band, to pay the costs out of pocket, it being an invariable rule with him never to undertake any suit without obtaining funds from some quarter to that amount at least. " Well," said he, when he had fully heard the case, " all that's wanted now is some monej 7 , without which I cannot stir a peg ; but from what I hear, there can be no doubt that I will secure the property for your daughter and her child ; and as her unfortunate husband is mad, and that she never had any liking for him, he may as well be left wherever he is." " Oh !" said Mrs. Fogarty, " try in the first place if you could get my unfortunate husband out of gaol ; for until we have him out it will be impossible to get any money for the purposes of the suit." " In that case," replied Wormwood, " we must see what can be done." He accordingly went that day, obtained a copy of his committal, and made some preparations for defending him at the commission of Oyer and Terminer, which was to take place within the following week. In the mean time, Mrs. Fogarty supplied him with the money necessary for that occasion, and Fogarty promised as soon as he got out to raise funds necessary for going on with the suit to establish the rights of his daughter. The commission sat on the appointed day, the lord chief justice of the King's Bench and Mr. Justice Patterson presided, arid, to the joy and astonishment of Fogarty, he was discharged BOB NORBERRY. 87 by proclamation. But then the opening of his house for business was quite another affair. Such permission wholly rested with the recorder and magistrates, and all attempts to procure a restoration of his license were ineffectual. He accordingly came to the resolution to sell his house and furniture to raise money to carry on the suit, and through the agency of Wormwood he was not long effecting his purpose. Funds being thus obtained, the first step taken by the worthy attorney was to call on Gripe, whom he discovered to be the so- licitor in the lunacy proceedings. He was astonished beyond bounds when he heard old Norberry had died in the mad-house a few days previous, and that consequently there was no finding of the jury in the case. Gripe also assured him that no legal marriage, indeed he believed no marriage at all, had taken place between him and Fogarty's daughter, and that the whole was a fabrication a scheme to get possession of the unfortunate mad- man's property. Wormwood was considerably nonplussed by this intelligence, and returned to poor Fogarty to communicate what he had heard, but he consoled himself that he had already obtained money more than sufficient to pay him for any trouble he had been at. TheFogartys heard this new disaster with great surprise, but they were latterly so accustomed to accumulated misfortunes, that their hearts were hardened, and new sorrows could affect them little. When Mrs. Fogarty heard it alleged that her daughter was not married, she could not restrain her indignation, " Not married !" she exclaimed ; " she was not only married in St. Patrick's church, but afterwards married in our own house by the great Father O'Leary, who, I am proud to say, is her own cousin." " Hold your tongue, you stupid woman," said Wormwood ; " if you want to get O'Leary hanged or transported, you will speak about his having married your daughter to old Norberry; but if a marriage took place at Patrick's church all is right, and I will go at once and get a certificate which will set the matter at rest." The news of old Norberry's death was communicated to Kate by the kind and considerate Mrs. Cavanagh. She received the intelligence with composure ; she felt that her health was so much impaired that there was little probability of her surviving the event which was shortly to occur. All her hopes of happi- ness were blighted, and she regarded those new strokes of mis- fortune with perfect resignation and fortitude. Wormwood proceeded to obtain the marriage certificate, but by some unaccountable fatality there was no record of the event to be found ; and when the curate who performed the ceremony 88 BOB NORBERRY. was applied to, he stated most truly that he had not any distinct recollection of the transaction. He remembered that about the time alluded to, he had married some persons between whom a great disparity of years existed, but he could not charge his memory further with the matter: he would not know any one of the parties if they were before him. It was, however, the business of the clerk to enter all marriages, and he, of course, had entered the one in question. A visit to the clerk was attended with as little success. He remembered a very old gentleman and a young lady coming to be married, but after the parties had entered the church, the intended bride began to shy at the matter, when she looked at the old fellow straight in the face. She then fainted, or pre- tended to faint, and was carried out to the carriage, and he never saw her since. That was his recollection of the transaction. Sure if a marriage did take place, he added, it would be down there in black and white, and it would be all for his profit, as he would be paid his fee for the certificate. Wormwood returned to his unfortunate clients wholly at a loss with regard to what course of proceeding he should adopt. He did not wish to relinquish a cause where ultimately there would be ample funds to meet all expenses, and where there could hardly be a doubt that he would establish the right of Mi's. Nor- berry ; for although there was no record of the marriage in the parish books, there were two witnesses who happened to be in St. Patrick's church when the marriage was celebrated, and who were ready to depose to the fact. With regard to the perform- ance of the ceremony by Dr. O'Leary, although there was in- disputable evidence of it, it could not be legally relied on. In this state of perplexity, Wormwood postponed proceeding in the matter until after the confinement of Mrs. Norberry. In the mean time ruin had overtaken the poor Fogartys : their little substance was completely wasted ; their son, a fine young lad, emigrated to America ; Kate's sister, a sweet little girl, was taken into the family of Mrs. Cavanagh, and treated as one of her own children. Mrs. Norberry gave birth to a son, which event she survived but a few hours. This was an additional misfortune to her parents, which they did not long survive. The poor father was attacked with paralysis and general debility, and in three months after the death of his daughter, he was interred in her grave in the Hospital Fields. His wife survived him but a few weeks, and was laid in the same tomb with her husband and child. Mrs. Cavanagh, whose kindness and attention helped to con- sole the last sad hours of the unfortunate Fogartys, had a nurse provided for the child of Kate, and every necessary attention paid to it. BOB NORBEBEY. 89 In the mean time Wormwood called again upon Gripe, to inform him that unless a compromise was entered into, or some arrangement made, he would be obliged to file a bill in the name of the infant child of Mrs. Norberry, to set aside all the pro- ceedings that had taken place with regard to old Norberry, and secure the property for the real heir. The intelligence of an heir being in question, which was new to Gripe, seemed to startle him considerably, and he exclaimed that such a circumstance was an insurmountable bar to any settlement or compromise ; a legal marriage had taken place, or it had not; if it had, it was not in the power of any agent to make any settlement that would bind the minor ; if it had not, which in point of fact was the case, no offer of compromise could be entertained for a moment. Wormwood found there was nothing left but to commence hostilities forthwith, and in order to supply himself with addi- tional funds beyond what he had received from Fogarty whilst living, he took out letters of administration to whatever remnant of property he left after him, and, thus furnished with means, he filed his bill in the name of the infant child of poor Kate. It is unnecessary to say that he was brought by Gripe through the intricate paths and perplexing by-ways that lead to the temple of justice in this happy land, and thathe was met at every turn by all the barriers which some thousands of ponderous volumes all contradictory of each other, could present. There were de- positions on both sides, which ran to one thousand sheets ; then there were answers, replications, demurrers, rejoinders, rebutters, and sub-rebutters, founded either upon some flaw discovered in the pleadings, or fresh evidence, so that it would seem as if all the quibbles, quiddities, and quirks of the law had been com- pletely exhausted before the merits of the case had been touched upon. Thus matters went on for upwards of two years, Gripe still drawing largely upon Swingsnap, who was administrator of the property of Old Hawk, for funds to prosecute the suit, when an event was announced which changed the whole aspect of affairs as regarded all parties concerned. The child of Kate had been sent to nurse in the county Wick- low, and between the affectionate attentions of Mrs. Cavanagh, and those bestowed by Wormwood from motives of a very different character, was well taken care of, and had become a most promising boy. The woman in whose care he was, evinced the greatest fondness for him, and having occasion to go to the county Wexford, she took the child with her, and had been there only a week or two when she wrote to Mrs. Cavanagb, stating that poor little Robert had suddenly died of quinsey, notwith- standing the attention of two of the most eminent doctors in that part of the country. This news was received by Wormwood 90 BOB NORBERRY. with the utmost dismay. When the letter arrived which con- veyed it, he mounted his horse and rode night and day till he reached Wexford. He found the nurse in apparent sorrow for the loss of her dear boy, as she called him, and a conference with the medical men left no doubt whatever on his mind that the child had died from natural causes. What was to be done P The suit was abated after an outlay of several hundred pounds of his own, besides whatever little property poor Fogarty left. He cursed the fates, got into convulsions from rage, not so much for the loss he had sustained as the triumph thus given to Gripe, who had, throughout the whole proceedings, harassed and annoyed him by every means which the dark windings of the law would permit. He put his wits to work, and bethought of buying the nurse over to secresy about the matter, and as it would be very easy to obtain a child of the same age, the suit might still be carried on, until his costs would be secured by a decree. He suggested the matter to the nurse, who, to his astonishment, peremptorily refused to be a party to any such arrangement. She had already communicated the news to her friends in Dublin, she would of course make no secret of it, and such an attempt would only lead to exposure and disgrace. Wormwood felt the force of this reasoning, and returned to Dublin in a state of distraction at his misfortune. On his arrival, he was surprised to find the death of the heir of Norberry inserted in the Hibernian Magazine, Dublin Evening Post, and Freeman's Journal. Who could have been the author of these paragraphs ? The thing was startling and mysterious. Could Gripe have been at work to put the child out of the way, or cause its death ? There was nothing infamous and diabolical that his malice would not suggest, and his skill accomplish. On the whole, Wormwood concluded that ashort cut had been taken to put an end to the suit, and determined that the circumstances attending the death of young Norberry should be further inves- tigated. He proceeded again to Wexford, and had a notice served on the coroner to exhume the deceased child, and hold an inquest, in order to ascertain, without any doubt whatever, the cause of its death. In the mean time he set about procuring witnesses, and every thing was ready for the inquiry, when it was ascertained that the nurse had returned to Dublin on the day that Wormwood arrived in Wexford. She was of course the most material witness, but the coroner decided upon going on without her ; all he wanted was the medical men ; for to swear to the identity of the child in its present state, he thought impossible. The worthy functionary was brother-in-law to one of the doctors, and a relation to the other, and although not displeased for dis- charging a duty which would bring his medical friends a guinea or two each, yet he felt that their honour and integrity were in BOB NGIIBERRV. 91 some degree impeached by doubting for a moment that the death had occurred in the way described by them. Wormwood prayed for an adjournment till the nurse would be brought back from Dublin, and the attendance of some other witnesses procured whose evidence he deemed necessary for a full arid satisfactory investigation. " You are not come here to teach me my business, I presume, Mr. Attorney from Dublin," said the coroner, with an air of dignity. " By no means," replied Wormwood ; "but I am come here to assist in eliciting the truth in a case which appears to me to wear a very suspicious aspect. Your worship cannot go on without witnesses." " To elicit truth is my object always ; and I can tell you, Mr. Attorney, when I go in pursuit of it I shall not call at your office in Dublin. As to witnesses, I see many here waiting to be examined., who were served at your desire with my summons to attend. You have been beating up for testimony since you came to Wexford, and now indeed you call for an adjournment. You ought to know, sir, that this is not an inquiry at your suit ; it is one on the part of our sovereign lord the king, to ascertain when, where, how, and in what manner the deceased barony constable, what is the name of the individual now lying dead then and there ?" Constable " Oh ! it's only a little child, your worship ; I believe no one knows its name." The coroner proceeded " I tell you, sir, that this is an inquiry on the part of our sovereign lord the king, who has empowered me, by my precept, to call together twelve or more loyal subjects good men arid true to ascertain when, where, how, and in what manner, an individual name unknown now lying dead in the parish of Oilgate, barony of Scaravage, town- land of Inchpruck, county of Wexford, and kingdom of Ireland, came by his death. That is my duty, sir, and I am sure after being twenty-one years in the high judicial station I have the honour to till, I know how to discharge it. Take the book, Mr. Juror, and hearken to your oath. Constables, keep silence out- side there, and don't be talking about search warrants for stolen fowl, whilst I am performing the high duty of administering the juror's oath. Come, sir, hearken to your oath. ' You shall well and truly try, and diligently inquire, when, where, how, and in what manner' Of d it, will you stop your noise outside there whilst I am administering the juror's oath ; this is no place to be talking about trespass of goats and pounding of cattle : it is one thing to sit as a magistrate, and another as a coroner : when this inquest is over, you can go on with these cases. But I can tell you, beforehand, that the fowl never was 92 BOB NOBBEBBY. stolen. I dined at Squire Gulliver's yesterday, and eat my share of a fine fat turkey that was one of what Devereux said was stole from him ; his wife made a present of them to the landlord, and was then afraid to tell her husband. That's the upshot of that story. Silence there. Come, sir, hearken to your oath. You shall well and truly try, and diligently inquire ' " A constable here cried out, " There's a young woman, your worship, with a child in her arms, wanting to force into the court." " Come, come, I must exercise my authority, and commit any one who shall for the future attempt to disturb the proceedings." Mr. Wormwood here remarked that as his worship seemed to act in the double, and, he should add, inconsistent, capacity of coroner and magistrate, he might, with the less inconvenience to himself, adjourn the inquest as soon as he had sworn the jury, and attend to his magisterial duties, which seemed to be very pressing. " What's this I hear ?" said his worship, becoming fiercely indignant, " inconsistent in my conduct in acting as magistrate and coroner, eh ! Is that what you say, Mr. Attorney from Dublin ? I was a magistrate when I was appointed coroner, and I have acted as one ever since without being questioned ; the people all came to me, and I settle their disputes without having recourse to such men as you are. I keep them out of law. My father had a good estate ; he was a magistrate also, and he never let a tenant stop a day on it who brought an action against another tenant ; he used to settle all disputes. I copy so far after him, and never let any one go to law that I can pre- vent. What are magistrates for but to decide every thing ? As to your courts in Dublin, I was never in them, and I hope I never will ; I'd as soon go in amongst a den of thieves. Having said so much, sir, I now tell you to keep yourself quiet. Just keep your toe in your pump, or I'll commit you while you'd be saying amen. I know my duty and my power ; the lord lieuten- ant dare not move me from my office. Come, now, be silent, every mother's son of you." " I presume," said Wormwood, " that your office continues dum se bene gesserit." " Continues what ? Should continue dumb, and what else do you say ? Oh ! I see that a friendly caution is of no use to you ; I should commit you at once, but I'll be content to put you out of court. Constables, show that Dublin jackeen the colour of the walls outside." " I have come hereto assist professionally in this investigation, and I claim my right to be present ; if I have said any thing to offesd your worship, I can only say I did not intend it ; but you insulted me grossly/' BOB NORBERRY. 93 " There is nothing ill said but what is ill taken, and you ought to be greatly obliged to me for not sending you to goal ; but I see, after all, you are a bad lawyer ; you have no right to be professionally here ; we don't want your assistance except you wish to be sworn as a witness, and if you do you shall be called in. Constables, put him outside, and put his name on the list of witnesses if he wishes to be examined." The order of the worthy coroner was forthwith obeyed, and as "Wormwood left the house he declared he would report the case to the lord chancellor. " Is it the chancellor he's threatening me with ?" said his worship. " His lordship may go hang himself any day he likes for all I care, and provided he would do so in the county of Wexford, the sooner the better." After two or three other interruptions, this celebrated func- tionary swore the jury, and proceeded to examine the witnesses. The woman at whose house the nurse and child lodged was first examined. She deposed that they came there a few weeks previous ; the nurse told her the child's name was Norberry, and that it was heir to a great fortune, about which a law-suit was going on ; it was ailing when it came there, and seemed to get worse every day, although every care and attention was paid to it ; the nurse had plenty of money, and doctors Leech and Flam were called in to attend it ; they would, of course, be able to tell what ailed it." " Clear and conclusive evidence," said the coroner. " The depositions must be read over to that Dublin prig, just to show him how we do business here." The two doctors, who were men of skill and good practice in that part of the country, were examined. They de- posed that they had been called in to attend a sick child, as described by the last witness, and found it affected by water on the brain ; they deemed the case incurable from the first, but the child would have lived much longer had it not been attacked with quinsey ; it survived but a few days under the double complaint ; they had made a post mortem examination, which fully bore out the truth of their evidence ; the nurse represented the child to be an orphan named Robert Norberry, who would be entitled to a very large fortune, and they had no reason to doubt what she stated. Wormwood was then called in, the depositions read over to him, and being asked if he had any evidence to give, he seemed sadly puzzled what to think, and replied in the negative. " This," said the coroner, " is the great case about which this Dublin attorney has been making so much noise in the country since he came here ; and all I know is, that if we had many like him, who would cause an inquest to be held upon every brat that 9A BOB NORBERUY. died in the country with quinsey, small-pox, or any other com- plaint, it would be good times for me. There is no doubt what- ever, but I approve highly of circumspection and watchfulness with regard to sudden deaths ; and every good subject of the king should be aiding and abetting their discovery, with a view, in the first place, to uphold the dignity of the ancient and high office of coroner, and in the next place to bring guilty parties to justice where deaths take place from lawless violence ; but in the present no such motive actuated this Dublin attorney." Here the foreman of the jury, to whom this extraordinary address was directed, bowed assent, and two or three of his brethren turned to him, and said in a tone loud enough to be heard by all present, " He has, with his usual ability, taken the attorney's measure; he is stating the real facts." Thus encouraged, the worshipful functionary proceeded " Yes, gentlemen, we have been called here by an attorney to hold this inquiry, notwith a view to sustain the laws, buteitherto gra- tify a spirit of revenge against some party not before us now, or probably to possess himself of whatever property the deceased might ultimately become entitled to. We, of course, cannot exactly tell what his motives were, but from his conduct in court to-day you may fairly judge if I be much mistaken." Here the foreman again bowed assent, and was supported by the approving voices of his brother jurors, whilst unfortunate Wormwood was writhing with rage, which was suppressed by the presence of half a dozen yeomen, armed with old Queen Anne muskets, and as many more barony constables, all ready to convey any delinquent to prison who might disturb the court whilst his worship was delivering his charge. There seemed to be that understanding between the coroner, the constables, the doctors, and the jury, which is generally the result of an identity of interests. The constables were the heralds who conveyed the pleasing intelligence of violent or accidental deaths, and were always welcomed with delight, and treated to the best fare the coroner's house could afford. The doctors shared their fees with his worship, and often certified that parties were poisoned who died from the effects of intoxication. (That, however, would be no great violation of truth.) This gave employment to the barony constables, who were then paid whilst on duty, to search for the supposed criminals, and whilst thus engaged they generally stumbled upon another case of sudden death, which put his worship in motion again ; and as it was desirable that he should in all cases be able to obtain juries with the least possible delay, he frequently ordered dinner and potteen for them at the next public house, so that there was some profit as well as honour connected with their office. The union of sentiment that existed between all these parties was therefore admirable, and might BOB NOBBEBBY. 95 serve as a model for a form of government where every man would have an interest in upholding the state, and preserving the institutions of the country from the changes which frequently arise from divisions amongst the people. Such was the popu- larity of the worthy functionary, that if the government attempted to remove him, most probably the yeomen would have thrown down their arms, the barony constables become White- boys, and the independent voters of the county refused to vote for the friends or connections of any one who had any thing to say in the transaction. His worship was therefore perfectly secure in his place, no matter what complaints might me made against him, and he laughed to scorn the idle threat of Worm- wood, who had no one present to bear testimony for him. The jury brought in a verdict that the child died from natural causes, and the attorney returned to Dublin hardly able to bear up against the weight of sorrow, disappointment, and vexation, which preyed upon him. He saw that there was an end of the suit, and that the golden harvest which he had expected to reap had been blighted. On his arrival in town, he found a notice before him, to stay proceedings, as the suit had been abated, and calling upon him to pay a considerable sum in the shape of costs, on account of some laches of which he had been guilty, and which arose from his attention to the inquest in the country, and his efforts to discover that some trick had been played with re- gard to the death of the heir. A complication of troubles and disappointments, at the moment when he fancied he was about to bring the suit to a successful issue, had driven him almost to despair, and he was only consoled by recollecting that he had another suit in hands, where his success, and the total ruin of an old and inveterate enemy were placed beyond the possibility of a doubt. As those salutary reflections crossed his mind, he ex- claimed, " Can any thing be so exquisite as to witness the defeat, the ruin, the prostration, the sorrow, the misery of an envenomed, malignant, and once dangerous foe ? No ; there are better days in store for me, and I will live to enjoy them. If I have been defeated by the villain Gripe, I have defeated a still greater villain, if it be possible that one could be found. I never knew Gripe, except by name, until the present suit was instituted, and, after all, he has done nothing has taken no advantage but that which the law sanctions ; and if he has been able to bribe the nurse to either cause the death of the heir, or put him out of the way, and substitute another in his place without detection, it only proves his skill ; it was what a man of business and of the world ought to have done. It was all fair, exceedingly fair, and I have got a lesson by which I may profit. I admire you, Gripe ; I admire you exceedingly ; and I would be a great fool to feel perpetual discontent because you defeated me, particularly 96 BOB NOBBEEBY. when so much enjoyment awaits me." After thus soliloquising, Wormwood walked down stairs to his office, gaye an order to his clerk to attend to the taxation of the costs which Gripe claimed in the cause of Norberry, a lunatic, and directed that the proceedings in the other cause, where his triumph was cer- tain, should not be delayed a moment. " Issue," said he, " at once an attachment for contempt for not putting in an answer to my supplemental bill, although I know the ruined wretch has not in the world what would pay for the parchment upon which it must be engrossed. No matter, let him be arrested, and a receiver placed over his property ; he shall end his life in a goal." So saying, Wormwood sat down to his business, endeavouring to forget the unfortunate result of the Norberry suit, and the contumelious treatment he received at the hands of the Wexford coroner. It was no doubt a trial sufficient to test the patience of any attorney, and his enduring powers were stretched still further when his clerk brought him back word that Gripe had obtained a taxation behind his back, with an immediate order for the payment of the costs in question Upon this news being conveyed to him, he raved, swore, foamed at the mouth, and exclaimed that he would be well satisfied to suffer eternal punishment if he could have revenge on Gripe. He could, how- ever, get the taxation overhauled, but as he had eventually to pay costs, a few shillings or a few pounds were of no great con- sequence, and if he was to go over the business again it would only remind him of his defeat in the Norberry suit ; so he made up his mind to pay the demand, and have done with Gripe. He, however, vowed vengeance, and he was often heard to declare that he had never determined upon doing harm to any individual that he was not able to accomplish his purpose, or gratify his revenge in someway or other. He sat down, and wrote at con- siderable length in his memorandum-book, a full account of his transactions with Gripe, and the bad treatment he had received from the Wexford functionary, and recorded a vow at the bot- tom of his statement, that he would be revengftd of both, although he believed the latter would be reached with difficulty. At the same time there was no knowing what might turn up, and he would keep him on his list, so that his memory might be refreshed whenever an opportunity to put his intentions into execution should occur. Notwithstanding the result of the ir>- quest, he was by no means satisfied that the heir had not been put out of the way, and his suspicions upon this head were strengthened by the fruitless attempts he had made to discover where the nurse was when he came back to Dublin ; but under the circumstances it was impossible that he could do any thing to extricate himself from the difficulty in which he was involved, so there was nothing left for the present but to sit down and chew the bitter cud of disappointment. BOB NOEBEBBY. 1)T CHAPTER VII. FUNEBAL OF OLD HAWK A DUEL THE BEVENGB OF WOBMWOOD GBATIFIED. AFTER the termination of the proceedings under the commis- sioners of lunacy in the manner already stated, Gripe and his client walked together to the office of the former in St. Andrew Street. " This is a highly satisfactory termination of the pro- ceedings," said Swingsnap, as they went along; " our most san- guine expectations could hardly have anticipated such a result as this ; but do you think that the tongues of scandal can catch hold of any thing ? You know I am tenacious of my fame, as I am about to be called to the bar, and also to a seat in the Irish house." " You need not have the smallest apprehensions about the matter," said Gripe ; " every thing has been done with such care and circumspection, that the tongue of calumny cannot utter a suspicion with regard to our proceedings. The commission was legally issued, commissioners presided, and a jury regularly empannelled ; and then as to the treatment in the asylum, we are not accountable for that. Doctor Deering bears a high character ; he visits at the Castle ; has many of the aristocracy for his patients, and no one can ever imagine that he treated the lunatic in any other way than that which the nature of his com- plaint warranted. Indeed I am quite certain of that fact myself; but now that the old fellow is gone, and has left all his wealth behind him, he must be interred with some pomp and solemnity. A few pounds additional laid out on his funeral may stifle any ill- "natured remarks, even if busy people were inclined to make them." " I agree with you," said the client, " and in this, as well as in legal matters, I will wholly submit to your judgment and discretion. I think we must have a respectable funeral." '* A magnificent funeral," added Gripe. " I will go now and give directions to Mr. Muffle, the undertaker, to do the thing in style ; he is a friend of mine, and has already buried two or three of my richest clients ; and as in the present case, I really know not whether I profited more by their death than if they had lived longer. Muffle is an excellent fellow, and he shall have the funeral of your uncle. You and I shall attend as chief mourners, the doctor shall occupy the second carriage, and it might be well if we were to have Muggleten there too." " Yes," said Swingsnap ; " we shall all then be going home with our work, like the tailors." H 98 BOB NOKBEBRY. " Oh ! my young friend," rejoined Gripe, " you have reason to be facetious ; but there is a time for all things, and reserve your jokes for another occasion ; be guided by your legal adviser and preceptor." " Very well," said the client, with a serious air, " you are my mentor, and I trust I shall prove myself a disciple worthy of such a master ; but tell me seriously how it will be about the money the doctor got for the support of the lunatic ? Surely he is not entitled to keep it, as the death occurred so soon." " I fear," replied Gripe, " that this perpetual penchant you have to be looking after trifles this penny wise and pound fool- ish system will only lead to troubles and difficulties that you do not foresee. The thing could never have been managed without the doctor, and we are very safe if he cries ' quits' as the matter stands." Swingsnap, although far from being satisfied, was silent, and the rebuke which he received prevented him from making any inquiry then about the bags of gold, which had been deposited in the strong box of Gripe a few weeks previously. The gentlemen separated for the evening Gripe to give instructions to Muffle to convey the remains of old Norberry to his last home in splendour, and Swingsnap, who inherited the love of money peculiar to his family, to consider how he could best rescue the property of his deceased relative from the fangs of the avaricious and crafty attorney. Muffle, who owed Gripe a bill of costs, was directed by him to spare no expense, and when the job was finished to send him in his bill with a receipt to it, credit for which would be given in the account for costs. A promise was made at the same time by the worthy attorney that he would soon put other good jobs in the way of the undertaker. The funeral was conducted upon a very respectable scale, and, on the second morning following, the remains of old Norberry were conveyed from the asylum, followed by a long line of car- riages, three- fourths of which were empty, and deposited in the vaults underneath the church of St. Patrick, where a handsome monument was erected inside the building, to mark the spot where they lay. In a few weeks after the funeral, Gripe was directed by his young client to call in the amount of the various bonds, mort- gages, money in the funds, and other securities to which he was entitled as heir to his deceased uncle. But whilst preparations were being made for the performance of this agreeable duty, pro- ceedings were, as already stated, commenced by Wormwood, with the view to. establish the right of Old Hawk's child to the property. Swingsnap, who thought he had the immense wealth of his BOB NORBEBBY. 99 uncle nearly secure in his pocket, heard the intelligence with dismay. Notices were served upon all parties having property in their hands belonging to the late Mr. Norberry, or owing him money, directing that they should not part with or pay away the same until a receiver in the cause would be appointed, or a decree of the court made, commanding them to do so. Amongst others, a notice to this effect was served upon Gripe, which he at once put into the hands of his client, declaring that such was always his respect for the law, that not even in the smallest particular would he violate it, and he should therefore keep whatever money he had belonging to the deceased sealed up until an order with regard to it would be made. Swirigsnap, who had on the morning of the day upon which he received this intelligence been called to the bar, and desig- nated for shortness Counsellor Swing, made his first ex parte motion in his own cause, and was most favourably heard by the court. His application was that a sum of money should be ordered to be placed to the credit of the cause, to be applicable to the payment of costs incurred in resisting a most unfounded claim to the property which had been set up by parties who in- duced a litigious attorney to act for them in the matter. A conditional order was granted, but when Wormwood came to show cause against it, he put in such a terrific string of affidavits, accusing his opponents of false and unjust proceedings under the commission of lunacy, that the court refused to make the order absolute. Swingsnap, or Swing, as the young counsellor was called, made a hard fight upon the occasion, and one of the judges declared that it was with reluctance he was obliged to decide against him. " Well," said Gripe, when the motion was over, " I will seal up whatever money I may have left after paying the costs of the lunacy proceedings, and be prepared to hand it over untouched, if a receiver should be granted, as I have no doubt there will." " Won't you," said Swingsnap, " pay the costs of the present proceedings against us out of what you have on hands, the amount of which I do not know up to this moment ?" " No," replied Gripe ; " that would be disobeying the order of the court for which I have such a profound respect. The most I can do is, to take out of it the costs incurred in the lunacy proceedings, and the amount of the funeral expenses, which will be considerable ; if I touched it after the order of the court, and the refusal of our application, I would be liable to be attached." " Where then," said Swingsnap, half choked with suppressed rage, " shall funds be obtained to carry on the suit ?" " There will, of course," said Gripe, " be a receiver appointed ad litem, and perhaps after we have proceeded for a year or so, 100 BOB NOBBEBBY. an allocation order for costs may be made, but until then I must look to you for funds." " Why," said k Swingsnap, inflating his cheeks and foaming at the mouth, "is thjs the result of our glorious anticipations of gain ? It would have been better that we never had any thing to do with this affair." " It is the law the law, my dear young friend, which should be always not only obeyed but reverenced." "May I ask you," said Swingsnap, still endeavouring to master his feelings, " if you have counted over the gold ? You stated that one of your reasons for not including the amount of it in the deed, was that it might be useful to me in entering on my pro- fession, in case claimants should appear from whom it ought to be kept secret. I don't want it now for my own use, but I think you ought to apply it to sustaining our rights in the present proceedings ; and, by the way, you never told me yet what the amount was ; perhaps you would favour me with that information now ?" " Well done, my lawyerling," said Gripe, with a sarcastic sneer ; " well done, by Jove ; there is a young fellow called to the bar, wanting an old, an experienced, a highly respectable soli- citor, to violate the law, and leave himself subject to be thrust into prison under an attachment. No, no ; I shall not appro- priate funds sealed up by order of the court to any purpose, until that order or injunction be dissolved ; and then as to favour- ing you with information about the amount, it is riot in my power at present. The whole sum is in my safe as I got it, with the exception of the thousand guineas given to the doctor, which, to say the truth, was fairly earned by him. I may add, that as soon as I shall add up my costs, and get the amount of the funeral expenses furnished to me, I will recompense myself out of the sum in hands. I shall then seal up the remainder, and if I should chance to count it, why I may give you the information you require ; but in any case you will have to provide funds for the suit. At the same time, I shall not take a shilling from you but the sums out of pocket. Indeed, I fear, Mr. Swingsnap, that you are infected with the family complaint, inordinate love of money." tt By ) " sa id Swingsnap, " this is intolerable ; it cannot be borne much longer ; I'd sooner be dead and than be obliged to submit to such injustice, coupled as it is, with the grossest insult." " Calm your fury," said Gripe, " you know your man if you don't wish to defend the suit, why let it drop to the ground and let the of a publican's daughter get the Norberry property, which, in my opinion, amounts to upwards of sixty thousand pounds, exclusive of the trifle which fell into my hands, and BOB NOBBEBRY. 101 which will barely pay me the expenses of the lunacy proceedings and the funeral. Let the matter drop, and I shall be well sa- tisfied ; I am part paid as far as matters have gone, and so, if you please, Mr. Swingsnap, let us cry quits." He saw the net that was cast around him, and that if he attempted to break through it he would only multiply the diffi- culties of his case, and with that quick return from rage to self- possession for which he was so remarkable, he said in a subdued tone, " I promised to obey all your commands, and submit my judgment to your's, and I don't know why it is that I have not proper command over myself: proceed in your defence in the suit, and any assistance I can give shall be freely granted." "Ah! my dear young friend," said Gripe, shaking him warmly by the hand, " my expectations of your high promise as a lawyer shall not be disappointed : 1 withdraw any thing harsh that I said of you a moment ago, and I now undertake not to ask money from you but as you can conveniently give it, and if you do not succeed in the end, 1 shall make a present of the amount of my costs, except the money out of pocket." Swingsnap thanked him, and they were apparently friends again, although a deep rooted enmity to each other existed in the breasts of both. Gripe took the most active measures for the defence, and after nearly three years litigation the suit was ter- minated in the manner already described, and during its progress Swingsnap advanced various sums of money to defray the ex- penses out of pocket. Within a few months after the death of the heir and the com- plete triumph over Wormwood, Swingsnap thought it time to have a settlement with his solicitor, and all particulars ascer- tained with regard to the amount of his uncle's property, for he was till then in perfect ignorance upon the subject, except as far as rumour went. In the mean time the best possible under- standing existed between himself and Gripe. Entertainments to celebrate their good fortune were respectively given by them, at which large numbers of the leading men of Dublin were present. However, the day of reckoning should come at last, and as long accounts about money matters are always difficult to settle, and very often lead to ill feelings and animosities between old friends, it was easy to foresee that transactions such as occurred between Gripe and his client would be rather difficult to arrange, and the more delay of course the more difficulty. He repeatedly called for the bill of costs which he knew he would have to pay, and which he suspected would be growing plethoric in proportion to the time it might remain unfurnished ; but Gripe always post- poned the matter under one pretence or another, until his client completely lost his usual patience. Whilst in this state of mind he called one day at his office, and in presence of two or three of 102 BOB NOBBEBRY. his clerks he said, "Mr. Gripe, I cannot brook this delay any longer ; I must have the costs furnished, credit given for the sums paid by me whilst the suit was going on, and an accurate account returned of the money and securities which you got into your possession the day my unfortunate uncle was sent to the asylum." "What money are you talking of?" said Gripe. " I have no recollection of what you allude to, and now, in the absence of documents and vouchers I cannot at this moment tax my memory with having received any money for any particular purpose." He felt almost electrified ; but with that habitual command which he had over himself, he affected a smile, and said, " I see, Mr. Gripe, you are in a joking humour to-day, and I must only call on you when you are more serious arid inclined to speak about business." " Oh, my dear friend," said Gripe, " you dine with me to-day, and perhaps we may talk of business afterwards; but you know it has been a good business for j'ou, and you ought to be well satisfied to let matters rest as they are for some time." "Let it be so," said Swingsnap, "but most undoubtedly the bill of costs must be furnished without any further delay, and per- haps you might as well just now direct one of your clerks to run his eye over the account, and see at a hasty lot, without taking in the shillings or pence, how much money I gave you whilst the suit was going on that is, what credits I am entitled to on foot of your entire claim against me." "Well, bless my soul," said Gripe, "I thought we were to say nothing about accounts at present ; but you have such a penchant for making inquiries about money that I foresee you will die rich. But, before you go further, sign this declaration, and put this yellow boy in your pocket." Here he handed him a guinea. He viewed the coin, turned it two or three times in his hand, and after striking it on the desk beside him, in order to judge of its genuineness by its sound, he relaxed the stern countenance he had assumed, and put it in his pocket. The clerks who had been in the office when the conversation about credits and bills of costs commenced, were called away about business, and the attorney and client were alone together. "My young friend," said Gripe, "let me now take this oppor- tunity to give you a short lesson that may be useful as well to a barrister as to an attorney. It is this : if ever you are questioned before witness with regard to sums of money received by you, never admit any thing. The memory of man is very frail wilh regard to matters of detail or minute facts; but there can be no mistake where nothing is admitted, in fact where every thing is denied. If I happened to say before a man of a weak memory or BOB NOBBEBRY. 103 muddy intellect, that [ got a hundred pounds, he might multiply it by five, and still think he was telling the truth ; but where there is a general and uniform denial at all times, there can be no mistake about it, and no man can ever pick an assumpsit out of you." Here the worthy attorney looked round the room, and having closed the door, continued : " To be sure, I have got several large sums of money from you, all of which you shall get credit for ; the money too which I received on the day that your uncle was sent to the asylum shall be fairly accounted for to the last shilling. You will not then, my dear friend, find fault with me for not deviating from one of the most useful rules ever ob- served by any member of the legal profession, and indeed I might add by all men in their transactions with one another." Gripe, as he finished the sentence, rubbed his hands briskly together, and, affecting a smile, advanced towards Swingsnap, who turned about and flew out of the room, uttering a most ter- rific oath, as he banged the door after him, that he would be no longer the victim of such villainy and deceit. Gripe, who was astounded at the sudden, although not altogether unexpected change which affairs were likely to take, ran to the street after his client, but he had disappeared. A messenger was then de- spatched to his house, with a request that he should return until he might hear one word by way of explanation, but he had not gone home. The attorney had some friends to dine with him that day, and amongst the rest a Connaught gentleman named Kirwin, who was then one of the most celebrated fire-eaters amongst the pug- nacious sons of the "West. The occurrence that took place between himself and Swingsnap put him in a fit of abstraction that made him almost forget the names of the visitors; and when Kirwin, who was one of the first who had arrived, entered the reception room, he mistook him for another gentleman who was to form one of the company, and who was as remarkable for his quiet and peaceable conduct as the other was for his fighting propensities. " Why," said Kirwin, " what is the matter with you ? You look as lachrymose as if you were to be shivering on a daisy to- morrow. I did not look half so minister-like the evening before I fought my ninth duel, although that is an unlucky number, and many friends whom I knew went on gloriously till they came to it, and then they were sure to be hit. However, I passed the rubicon, and I can never be vanquished." "What," said Gripe, in a hurried and excited voice, "put the thought of duelling and shooting into your head at this mo- ment ? Did you hear anything that would lead you to think that I by any possibility could be engaged in such an affair ?" " No, by my honour I did not," replied Kirwin ; " but I see 101 BOB NOKBERRY. that there is ' an affair' either in hands or in petto ;" and then dashing over towards his host and tapping him playfully on the shoulder : " We will have fine fun I promise you, by G we will ; I'll be your man, and it appears to me most fortunate that I came here to-day." The remainder of the guests arrived immediately afterwards, dinner passed over, and the gentlemen having sent the decanters through four or five circulating courses, were mellow and merry when a thundering knock came to the door. " I smell fire in that knock, by G ," said Kirwin ; " the applicant for admission is on fighting business, I'd bet a rump and dozen ; hurrah for fun !" Gripe looked pale, and observed to Kirwin that his merriment was of a very heartless character. " What is it all about P" said one and the other of the guests. " Who is to breakfast on bullets ?" said an old attorney named Irwin, as he placed a glass of " bee's wing" between him and the light ; " it is not my friend Gripe, I am sure, for although he is considered one of the best sharpshooters in his profession, I know he prefers parchment to powder ; and as to you, Kirwin, no man would have anything to do with you except he wished to com- mit suicide in a respectable way. With regard to the rest of the company, I can answer for them that they are not fighting men, and no one would send any of them a message, so that you must be mistaken." " Many a message sent on such a speculation," said Kirwin. " Then you are not the man for whom such an invitation could be intended," replied Irwin. Here the servant came into the room almost breathless. " What is the matter, Robert ?" said Gripe. " Oh .' sir, there is a gentleman in the small back-parlour, who told me he would not leave the house until he saw you. I said first you were not at home, and he told me you were. I then said that you never saw any one after dinner, and he replied that he would not go without seeing you. I am sure, sir, he means nothing good ; he has the very d in his countenance, and I'd advise you, sir, not to see him. I'll call the groom to help me to put him out." " Who is right ?" said Kirwin, exultingly. " Did not I tell you there was fire in the knock ? But take care, let no insult be offered to the gentleman. I would feel myself disgraced for ever if any man coming about * an affair of honour' to the house of a friend where I happened to be, should be treated impro- perly. We must see what he is about ; and I promise you he will have to pull down his colours, or fighting Jack Kirwin is not a living man." BOB NOBBEBBY. 105 Gripe, who was at first inclined to act upon the suggestion of the servant, felt that if he did so he would only raise up another opponent, perhaps still more dangerous, so he thought it better to secure the friendship and assistance of Kirwin in the matter, in the hope that he would become the principal himself. " Kir- win," said he, " I must leave this matter in your hands. I am certain that the gentleman who now wishes to see me is the bearer of a hostile message from a client of mine, who wishes to shoot me to get rid of a bill of costs," " Who is he ?" said Kirwin. " That graceless villain, young Swingsnap the lawyer," re- plied Gripe. " A good shot, by Jupiter," replied Kirwin, " and a fellow who has been often heard to declare that he would fight his way to promotion ; but he has not experience, so we need not be afraid." " Oh ! I won't fight him," said Gripe, " for the reasons I tell you ; he owes me a large bill of costs, and if he took me down by a chance shot he fancies the debt would be paid, and if I should shoot him I will lose my money." " That apology won't avail you," said Kirwin, " unless the dispute out of which the message arose was concerning the debt due by your challenger." " That is exactly what occurred. He called on me relative to those costs, and thought to get admissions from me before my clerks that he paid me large sums of money in liquidation of them, whereas I never got a shilling from him ; it was a perpe- tual outlay on my part, and when I insisted upon getting money even on account, it appears that the reply is an invitation to J I , 1 1> * * *W nght him. " You are safe then," replied Kirwin, " if that be the exact state of the case. You need not fight him till your demand is satisfied." " I know that such is the etiquette," said' Gripe, "and I would thank you if you would see this fire-eating gentleman on my part, and give him his answer." "You must see him yourself first, and then refer him to me as your friend." " Very well," replied Gripe, " but this I am determined on there shall be no duel." " Well, then," rejoined Kirwin, " don't refer him to me, for I am determined that there shall, if there ought ; but as the matter stands at present, it is not likely that there will." Gripe retired from the company, and repaired to meet his new visitor, but he was almost electrified with surprise when he opened the door of the apartment, and beheld his old antagonist and relentless enemy, Wormwood. He supposed at first that 106 BOB NORBEHRY. he had come upon some matter connected with the former liti- gation, but his mistake was soon corrected by the following sa- lutation: " You did not expect to meet me in your own house, Mr. Gripe, and above all you did not expect to have met me upon business unconnected with our profession." "What, then, may your business be?" said Gripe, interrupt- ing him ; " but let me tell you that, whatever it is, you had great effrontery to come into my house. Come, sir, take your- self away in an instant." " No, sir, I shall not take myself away until I discharge the duty I owe to my friend who sent me here. I have come, sir, on the part of Mr. Swingsnap, whom you first defrauded, and then insulted at least he states so to me, and you know it does not require much proof to convince me of the fact; but these are all collateral matters. My friend has been insulted, and I am come to arrange a meeting. Put me at once in communi- cation with your friend ; my instructions are peremptory no apology will be taken." " There is none going to be offered," said Gripe ; " but no message shall be received at your hands. Let any gentleman come here, and I shall refer him to a friend in an instant ; he is here in the house ; but I may as well tell you that Swingsnap shall have no shot at me until he discharges the heavy debt that he owes me. Ruffians are not to get rid of their liabilities by shooting their creditors. Come, sir, leave my house instantly." " Do you refuse to receive a message at my hands ?" said Wormwood. " Mark me, if you do, I shall make it personal with myself, and you must fight me." " I would as soon meet a felon from Newgate," replied Gripe, " but let your new friend send any man of character here, and the matter will be speedily arranged. Come, leave my house, sir, instantly." Wormwood was maddened almost to desperation: words ran high ; abusive epithets were applied by one, and paid back with interest by the other, until the attention of Kirwin and the party in the dining-room was attracted, and they all ran out to the hall, where the belligerent parties had by this time arrived, to see what was the matter. When Wormwood saw this reinforcement, inflated as they were with wine, he began to think it would have been much better for him to have taken the advice even of an enemy, and lo have left the house when directed to do so ; but Kirwin quieted his fears by proposing at once to become an arbitrator of the preliminary matter in dispute, namely, whether his friend Gripe could refuse receiving a message through Wormwood any more than any other person; and, lawyer-like, he insisted that a