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 V_
 
 GRACE CASSIDY; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 A NOVEL. 
 BY THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON. 
 
 Some popular chief 
 More noisy than the rest, but cries halloo, 
 And in a trice the bellowing herd come out ; 
 The gates are barr'd, the ways are barricado'd : 
 And one and all 's the word : true cocks o' th' game ! 
 They never ask for what, or whom they fight ; 
 But turn 'em out, and show 'em but a foe ; 
 Cry Liberty ! and that's a cause for quarrel. 
 
 Dryden's Spanish Friar. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. Li. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET 
 
 (successor to henry colburn.) 
 
 1833.
 
 
 6bi^ 
 
 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Hail land whose verdure with the emerald vies, 
 Whose sons are manly, generous — all — but wise ; 
 Where hearts are warm, but heads, alas ! are hot, 
 And prudence, goodly prudence, worshipp'd not. 
 Gem of the West, set in a stormy sea. 
 As if e'en Nature meant thee to be free; 
 The waves like barriers guarding thy green shore, 
 Or ready still to bear thee commerce o'er. 
 Say why has Nature smiled on thee in vain, 
 When still thy reckless sons her gifts profane. 
 
 ^ And give to licence what is Freedom's due, 
 
 i^ Freedom, that hapless Erin never knew, 
 
 y^ And ne'er can know, till reason points the way, 
 
 ■v And passion yields to her benignant sway. 
 5 Unpunished Poem. 
 
 y " OcH ! Jim, is this the way you come home 
 ^^ to me ?'^ said Grace Cassidy, a young and 
 ^ pretty Irishwoman, to her intoxicated husband, 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 who, staggering into the kitchen where she was 
 seated by the fire, became almost sobered by 
 the look of plaintive suffering with which she 
 regarded him. 
 
 " Arrah ! be aisy, Grace, and don't be angry 
 with me ; sure it 's only a little dhrop too much 
 I Ve taken, and the air has got the bhetter of 
 me — faith and troth that 's all ; and it shan't 
 happen again, if it vexes you, my Colleen 
 dhas, for sure I 'd never let the dhrop into my 
 mouth again, rather than see you, with your 
 pale face and watery eyes, rocking yourself 
 on the boss,* and looking as if you had small 
 hopes of my mending. If you scoulded me, or 
 were sulky with me, I would not mind it so 
 much ; but when I do wrong, you have a way 
 of looking at me, Grace, that breaks the heart 
 of me, though somehow or other, and more's 
 the pity, I forget it when I meet them boys, 
 * A tabouret of straw.
 
 THE REPEALERS. S 
 
 and when they coaxes me to go into the Cat 
 and Bagpipes." 
 
 " Och ! Jim, and is this the way you keep 
 the Bible oath you took to Father Cahill last 
 Easther Sunday, that you would not dhrink 
 a dhrop in any shebean-house for a year and a 
 day ? Think of your precious soul, Jim, and 
 think of the dismal thoughts that comes into 
 my head, when I am here all alone by myself, 
 and see your chair empty right forenent me 
 at th*'other side of the fire." 
 
 " Faith and soul, Grace, you make me quite 
 unaisy; but one thing I have to say — I did not 
 dhrink a dhrop in the shebean-house, for I 
 put my head clean out of the window while I 
 was dhrinking, so my oath is safe ; and if it 
 come to the worst, I would not go to purgatory 
 for the oath neither, for I only kissed my 
 thumb when Father Cahill give me the Bible, 
 so you see all is safe, my Colleen." 
 b2
 
 4 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 " Jim dear, will you never barken to raison?" 
 replied poor Grace ; *' and do you know that 
 what you 're now telling me of kissing your 
 thumb, is the worst of all, for it plainly shows 
 me you were deceaving the priest, and me too, 
 when you took the oath ; for sure it is not 
 the kissing the book, or the thumb, that makes 
 the difference, but the intention. And isn't 
 it a sin and a wickedness to go to tie oneself 
 up with a thought of slipping out of the oath 
 all the while? And sure the putting your 
 head out of the window at the shebean-house 
 to dhrink, is just the same wicked deceaving of 
 God and man ; and it 's such false ways, that 
 breaks the heart of me, and dhrives away all 
 the confidence that I wish to keep about be- 
 lieving you. Thruth is thruth, Jim dear, and 
 there is no pace without it ; and I would rather 
 you took the dhrop for months, though God 
 knows the thought of it falls like burning
 
 THE REPEALERS. 5 
 
 lead on my heart, than that you took such 
 mane ways to falsify your oath. How is it, 
 Jim dear, that I, who love you betthv:r than 
 ever I loved myself, and you, who say you 
 love me — that we, who have but one heart, 
 can have two minds ? / scorn a lie to God or 
 man, and you think you 're chating the devil 
 when you Ve kissing thumbs, and dhrinking out 
 of the window at the shebean-house." 
 
 " Well, na bochlish, Grace, what 's done 
 can't be undone ; but you '11 see I '11 be a good 
 boy, and this time I '11 kiss no thumbs, but on 
 my bended knees promise, before God and 
 you, Grace, that a dhrop of spirits, good or 
 bad, shan't enter my lips for a year and a day ; 
 and who knows but once I 'm used to doing 
 without the creathure, I can lave it off al- 
 together ?" 
 
 Jim kept to his resolution so well, that Grace 
 now began to think that all her troubles were
 
 6 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 over, and that her husband had become the 
 same sober, industrious man that he had been 
 while courting her. Everything seemed to 
 prosper around them : their cow was the sleek- 
 est, their pig the fattest, their little patch of 
 garden-ground the best kept, and their cottage 
 the cleanest, in the whole village of Collogan, 
 one of the most romantic spots in the county of 
 Waterford. With pride did Grace rub the 
 windows bright, and place in them a few plants 
 given her by the gardener of Springmount ; 
 and when Jim returned from his work in the 
 evening, he found a cheerful turf-fire, a tidily 
 swept hearth, an ample wicker-basket of laugh- 
 ing potatoes, with wooden piggins, emulating 
 in whiteness the milk with which they were 
 filled, and a plate of butter, or kirkime,* 
 
 * Kirkime, eggs boiled hard, and chopped, and then 
 mix^d with fresh butter, a favourite luxury among the pea- 
 santry in the south of Ireland.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 7 
 
 awaiting him, with the smiling welcome of his 
 now happy wife, who smoothed her shining 
 hair, and arranged her neat mob-cap, that her 
 best looks might greet his arrival. 
 
 Things were in this happy state, when Jim 
 was summoned to attend the election at Dun- 
 garvan, and Grace saw him depart with a heavy 
 heart. He repeatedly promised her that he 
 would not " dhrink a dhrop of anything 
 sthronger than the Blackwather cyder, and 
 little of that same, and that he would vote as 
 the masther tould him."" 
 
 After a week's absence, during which her 
 mind was filled with forebodings, Grace saw her 
 husband return, and was cheered by the assur- 
 ance he gave her, that he had rigidly kept his 
 promise. 
 
 " As for the dhrink, cuishlamachree, the 
 devil a bit did I mind the not taking it, for 
 the fancy for it is gone clean out of my head ;
 
 8 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 but for the vote, och my Colleen, it went hard 
 against my heart and conschience to give it to 
 the Sassenach, when I saw the real old Milesian 
 Repalers in want of it ; but I thought of my 
 promise to you and the masther, and I voted 
 for the Englisher. It 's myself that ""s quite 
 entirely bothered, now that I see and hear how 
 bad things are going on. Sure one knows 
 nothing at all at all here of what 's happening, 
 and how the English has kilt this counthry by 
 taking away the Parliament, and all the good 
 ould Irish laws that was made for us, and 
 giving us English laws that 's only fit for them- 
 selves. Faith, they might as well take away 
 the praties from us, and give us bread in place 
 of 'em, which, to my thinking, would be a bad 
 swop any way. Here was I, working, and 
 eating, and dhrinking, and sleeping, as if no- 
 thing at all was the mather, while the poor 
 counthry is intirely ruint, and I 'd never know
 
 THE REPEALERS. I) 
 
 a word about it, only that the Repalers let the 
 cat out of the bag. Och ! Grace asthore, it's 
 a cruil thing to be living in pace, and never 
 knowing so much as a word of the throubles 
 that 's going on in the world." 
 
 " Well, Jim, that bates every thing I ever 
 heard; why I think it's a blessing to be in 
 pace, especially as it 's no use to be throubling 
 ourselves about what we can't help ; and if 
 there's so much throuble in the world, we 
 ought to thank God we have escaped it." 
 
 " Faith and troth, so I said to myself at 
 first," said Jim; "but the Repalers showed me 
 the difference, and now I feel quite bothered 
 any how, and won't be contint till we 've got 
 our parliament back, and got all the Sasse- 
 nachs out of the counthry. Sure that 'ill be a 
 great day for the Irish! " 
 
 " Whisth ! Jim, honey, what quare notions 
 you 've got in your head ; sure it 's almost as 
 B 5
 
 10 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 bad as the dhrink. It makes me quite unaisy 
 to see you bothering your poor brains after 
 such a fashion. If the counthry is in throuble, 
 sure the great gentlemen that took the parlia- 
 ment over the water to teach it English, knows 
 better what to do for it than a set of poor 
 spalpeens, who only do what the Repalers tell 
 'em, and don^t understand what made the vex- 
 ation, nor what will cure it, any more than you 
 or me." 
 
 " Och ! fie upon you, Grace ; is that the 
 way you M give up liberty ? Sure, the Repalers 
 said as how life is only a curse without liberty, 
 and here we have been ever since we were 
 born, ay, faith, and a long time before, in all 
 this throuble, just bekase we have no liberty. 
 Liberty, Grace a-vourneen, is just like what 
 we imagine of the grand ould times in Ireland ; 
 it 's something ihkt we don't quite rightly un- 
 derstand^ but which, we believe, must be all
 
 THE REPEALERS. 11 
 
 the finer for that. Faith I '11 try to turn it 
 over in my mind, and once I can make it out, 
 I '11 tell you all I can about it, for I think you 
 have more gumption in such matters than I 
 have, bekase you never get in a passion about
 
 12 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 O Liberty ! the purest gift from Heaven, 
 
 That ever was to erring mortals given ; 
 
 The heart and mind that's formed to worship thee 
 
 Must be from every groveling passion free ', 
 
 The Patriot would thy noble precepts use, 
 
 While Demagogues but know thee, to abuse. 
 
 Unpublished Poem. 
 
 "Well, Jim dear,"" asked Grace, " have you 
 yet rightly made out what was perplexing you 
 last night ? I Ve been thinking about it, and 
 it seems to me that we have been as happy and 
 continted as ever two creatures was, and hasn't 
 our people, and all our relations been the same
 
 THE REPEALERS. 13 
 
 before us ? and now you want to persuade me 
 that we haven't been happy together! Jim, Jim, 
 I fear you're a hard-hearted ungrateful man, 
 and no good can come of it, to forget all the 
 blessings we have had from Providence, and the 
 paceful happy days we have spent together." 
 
 " Grace a-vourneen, it is not that at all I 
 mane. I know God is good, and I don't forget 
 that we have had some happy days ; but if we 
 had liberty it would be quite a different thing, 
 and that's what I want." 
 
 " And what 's liberty, Jim dear, for I can't 
 rightly make out what you mane ?" 
 
 " Why, liberty, cuishlamachree, manes to 
 do everything we like ourselves, and hinder 
 every one else from doing it. It also manes to 
 prevent every mother's soul in Ireland from 
 going to church, and making them go to mass, 
 whether they like it or no. Wouldn't this be 
 a great day for the Irish, Grace ? And all this
 
 14 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 will happen, if we only vote for Repalers, pay 
 no tithes, and always keep repating that the 
 English are the cause of all our throubles. I 
 wish you had heard all that the Repalers said, 
 for I'm sure 'twould have quite convinced 
 you, as it did me, and all the others who kept 
 bawling and screeching out all the time, they 
 were so delighted to hear that we were all 
 ruint quite entirely clear and clean, and had 
 only now found friends to tell us so ; but when 
 I thry to think of all they said, I can't make 
 out the half of it, and don't feel at all as I did 
 when all the gorsoons were shouting and bawl- 
 ing round 'em. But one thing I 'm determined 
 on, the divil a tithe I '11 ever pay ; not that I 
 begrudge the durty thrifle to Parson Disnay, 
 but just out of charity, to keep them poor he- 
 reticks from being lost entirely, for if the par- 
 sons don't get any tithe, sure they must turn 
 from being Protestants and come back to the
 
 THE REPEALERS. 15 
 
 thriie faith, the ould religion, which will save 
 their poor sinful souls ; and Parson Disnay and 
 his coadjutor Parson Wells are too good men 
 not to be turned to the right road. In like 
 manner the masther will be saved, for if we 
 pay him no rint, and I 'm sure 'twill come to 
 this point in time, faith he ''11 be obliged to turn 
 Catholic, or else leave the counthry, and that '11 
 be the making of him."*' 
 
 " Och ! Jim, who on earth has been putting 
 all this nonsense into your head.? Sure it's a 
 sin and wickedness for them that turns many 
 a good heart, and an honest mind, from the 
 straight high road of truth to the crooked by- 
 roads of falsehood and cunning ! Isn't it enough 
 for poor ignorant people like us to do our duty, 
 and follow our own religion, without throubling 
 ourselves about the religion of others ? And sure 
 that religion can't be bad that makes the good 
 masther, and Parson Disnay and his coadjutor,
 
 16 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 do US all the good in their power, without ever 
 so much as axing if we go to church or to mass." 
 " Indeed and troth Grace that 's thrue, for 
 you, ma vourneen ; but still if all them heretics 
 as goes to church cannot be saved like us after 
 they die, oughtn't we to thry to turn 'em ? and 
 as the Roman religion is the ould ancient and 
 real religion, we must make it the only one. 
 Och ! Grace honey, it would do your heart 
 good to hear the fine discourse I hard from 
 Tim Fogarty, the schoolmaster at Abbey side, 
 whin he was converting Dick Nowlan. Dick, 
 like a poor ignorant creathure as he is, said that 
 the Protestant religion was the best, for says 
 he, ' IsnH it the reformed religion, and a'n^t ye 
 all crying out for reform from morning till 
 night, and here's a reformed religion ready 
 made to your hand ?' — ' Why then bad luck to 
 you, ye spalpeen,' says Tim, ' sure the Roman 
 is the only old thrue faith ; didn't you see or
 
 THE repeal;ers. 17 
 
 hear of Paul's Epistle (which manes a letther) 
 to the Romans ?"* — ' Yis, I did, sure enough/ 
 says Dick. — 'Well, then," says Tim, 'did 
 ye ever see or hear of Paul, or any other 
 of the Saints, writing a letther to the Protes- 
 tants? Now, Dick, what have you got to 
 say ?"* — Faitli, Grace honey, that foolish fellow, 
 Dick Nowlan, was dumb founded, and could 
 not say bo to a goose; and who, afther that, 
 could doubt the Roman Catholic religion 
 being the only thrue one ; and who could 
 help wishing to convart the good masther and 
 Parson Disnay, and the rest of the good people, 
 to it ?" 
 
 " Well, Jim, sure, allowing that ours is the 
 oldest religion, that does not make it the best. 
 I don't know enough of book-learning to be 
 able to chop Latin with Tim Fogarty, to prove 
 whether the Saints ever wrote to the Protes- 
 tants, as they did to the Romans ; but faith, I
 
 18 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 know well enough that many things are none 
 the better for being ould. Look at the ould 
 castle on the hill, with its little narrow peep- 
 holes for windows, its dark passages, and in- 
 convenient rooms, and tell me, if it is to be 
 compared with the fine elegant house at Spring- 
 mount, where the broad, clear, bright windows, 
 let in the light of heaven — the halls and lobbies 
 so genteel, and the rooms so beautiful, that I 
 never could be tired of looking at them. To 
 be sure, when the ould castle was built, I'm 
 tould that they were forced to make it so sthrong 
 bekase the people were always fighting and 
 attacking one another, so that they were more 
 desirous to keep enemies out than to let the 
 fine cheerful daylight in ; and also the poor 
 people had no glass for their windows, I'm told, 
 in those ould bad times ; sure we ought to be 
 thankful that we have the luck to live in betther 
 days. Now, Fm thinking, Jim agrah, that the
 
 THE REPEALERS. 19 
 
 ould Roman religion, like the ould castle, was 
 only fit for the ould times in which they were 
 made, and that the Reformed religion, like 
 Springmount-house, is the best for the present 
 time : not that I would wish to forsake the 
 creed in which I was brought up, but I would 
 like to let other people follow their own wishes 
 in going whichever road they liked on the same 
 journey we must all go. Sure there 's differ- 
 ent roa.ds from this to Dungarvan — some thinks 
 one road pleasanter, and some thinks another ; 
 wouldn't it be mighty foolish to quarrel for 
 this ? — and sure isn'^t it twice worse to thry to 
 interfere with people for choosing the road they 
 like best to Heaven ?"' 
 
 " Be my soul, Grace, there's some raison in 
 what you say, but if them that knows the 
 rights of the question say that no soul can be 
 saved that passes through any other gate but 
 the Catholic, wouldn't it be a pity to lave 'em 
 in the wrong path ?"
 
 20 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 ** Jim, to my mind it is betther to thry and 
 keep what we believe to be the right path our- 
 selves, and lave the rest to God. He best 
 knows, and we never can be wrong if we be- 
 lieve He will show His mercy to those who 
 may have made a mistake in their journey to 
 Him;' 
 
 " Faith, Grace, you have a way of coming 
 over me, that knocks clean out of my head all 
 the fine speechafying I have been listening to. 
 When I heard the Repalers, I thought there 
 was not a word to be said against 'em ; but now 
 I hear you, I forget what it was they said that 
 made the heart jump in my breast, and the 
 angry thoughts come into my head. When I 
 heard 'em, I felt as if a thrumpet was sounding 
 in my ears, and that I could kill hundreds for 
 the parliament and the ould religion; and when 
 they dhrove us all mad with the burning words 
 they spoke, and then thried to throw could
 
 THE REPEALERS. 21 
 
 water on us, be telling us to be quiet, to dis- 
 perse, and go home decently, be my soul I 
 thought it was like lighting a great fire, and 
 covering it over with ever so much wet slack, 
 and telling it not to burn up, when you know, 
 Grace, it would be sure to blaze out soon after, 
 and difficult would it be for the same hands 
 that lighted it to quench it. Now when you 
 talk to me, asthore, with your own quiet, down- 
 right earnest words, it seems to me as if I was 
 listening to the fife made out of a reed that 
 Thedy Mulvany used to play upon when he was 
 tending the masther's sheep on the hills : and 
 that same fife used to often make a fool of me, 
 bekase somehow or other, when it came on me 
 from the distance, it was so soft and pleasant, 
 that it made me look around me on the beauti- 
 ful heavens, the quiet river, stealing along like 
 time, making small noise, but still always going 
 away from us; the green trees, lookino- so
 
 22 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 proud, and yet returning the salutes of the 
 wind by gentle bows, just as the masther and 
 the family do of a Sunday to the poor people. 
 The bleating of the sheep, and the moans of the 
 cows, all seemed to me more pleasant, though 
 the tears came into my eyes, I couldn't tell 
 for what; and you were in my mind all the 
 while; and now, when I hear your own sweet 
 voice raisoning with me, the fife and all them 
 things comes back to me, and I feel as if I 
 couldn't kill a fly, but would save all the world 
 if I could." 
 
 A mutual embrace followed Jim's confession, 
 and before they retired to their rustic couch, 
 he had promised Grace to leave politics to the 
 Repalers, and to be happy as heretofore.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 *Tis wonderful, what may be wrought out of their discon- 
 tent, now that their souls are topfull of offence. 
 
 King John. 
 
 Notwithstanding Jim''s promises to aban- 
 don political, and to think only of civil econo- 
 my, poor Grace soon found that when he 
 attended the markets on Saturdays, he might 
 be seen not only with open ears, but with open 
 mouth also, devouring the inflated and inflam- 
 matory news poured forth to the ignorant 
 multitude; and which produced much the same 
 effect on their fiery spirits, that their favourite
 
 ^4 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 beverage, whisky, would have done, if thrown 
 on a blazing turf fire. It took her hours, nay 
 days, to neutralise the poison imbibed in a few 
 minutes from the mouthing orators, who al- 
 ways address the imaginations of their hearers, 
 and never their reason. 
 
 All who know Ireland are aware, that in 
 proportion to the exuberance of imagination in 
 her sons, is the deficiency of reason and judg- 
 ment ; and her wily orators fail not to take 
 advantage of this peculiarity. A few spirit- 
 stirring words, echoed by shouts, can at any 
 time drive this excitable people to madness ; 
 and the high courage, which forms one of their 
 most marked characteristics, renders them reck- 
 less of consequences. This same undaunted 
 and undauntable courage, that made the Irish 
 regiments proverbial for their valour, winning 
 for them the rarely-sought distinction of being 
 chosen for forlorn -hope service, becomes the
 
 THE REPEALERS. 25 
 
 instrument of their destruction when mis- 
 directed. 
 
 Well do I remember a discharged soldier of 
 the SSth, who had been as remarkable for 
 bravery and discipline in his regiment, as he 
 had unfortunately become for habits of in- 
 toxication and insubordination in his native 
 village, answering a person who remonstrated 
 with him on this subject, " Och ! Sir, you are 
 right ; what a pity it is we should ever have 
 peace! If the war lasted, this could not hap- 
 pen ; I would have been taking towns, scaling 
 fortresses, dreaming of glory at night and win- 
 ning it by day. Instead of drinking all night 
 and quarrelling all day, as at present, I would 
 be fighting for the honour of that same Old 
 England, of which we used to be so proud 
 that it was our rallying word, and of which we 
 are now so jealous that we are crying out to 
 be separated from her. Och ! Sir, all this 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 26 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 comes from the misfortune of having peace, 
 and having so much idle time on our hands 
 that we don't know what to be at. I often 
 think, if I had only the same work, even with 
 the pipe-clay, that I used to have to do, it 
 would keep the devil out of me ; for when I 
 was with my regiment I never thought of any- 
 thing but glory and plunder, and cared not a 
 pin about all that now bothers my brains from 
 morning till night, since the Repealers have 
 opened my eyes. Faith, Sir, we poor devils 
 always require a commanding officer to keep 
 us in order ; and had we but one of our old 
 officers in every district, to tell us now and 
 then what we ought to think and do, we would 
 not fall into the hands of the Repealers, .who 
 are the only people, God help us ! who take 
 the trouble of directing, or misdirecting us. 
 Sir, they drive vis mad, for with a noggin of 
 whisky in my stomach, and one of their speeches
 
 THE REPEALERS. !^7 
 
 in my head, I feel like a mad bull goaded on 
 by firebrands, and am ready to rush on my 
 own destruction, provided it could destroy 
 those they are always pointing out to our ven- 
 geance. But, when they have maddened us, 
 then to hear them telling us to be quiet and 
 orderly, sure it 's enough to bother and perplex 
 us entirely, and I lose all patience with them. 
 Sir, it's a terrible thing to have a sort of a 
 heart that is ready to jump up and fight on the 
 least occasion, and not to have any natural 
 enemies to fight with ; it makes one quarrel 
 with one's own friends, and then when the 
 anger is gone out of the head, one feels 
 foolish and ashamed, because it 's so hard to 
 remember what the falling out was about. As 
 long as we were at war with the French, every 
 thing went well ; they like fighting as well as 
 we do, and kept us constantly employed. Sir, 
 they were our natural enemies, and when once 
 c2
 
 28 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 we had a good set-to, we bore no ill-blood ; but, 
 Sir, when we quarrel with the English, it''s 
 like quarrelling with our own blood-relations, 
 and we feel more bitter after every fight, be- 
 cause we know we are partly in the wrong, 
 and they know the same, and neither, like re- 
 lations, will allow it. Another thing, Sir, is, 
 that lately the Repealers have been attacking 
 and abusing a man I cannot help liking, ay, 
 by my soul, and loving too, as if he was my 
 brother ; a man. Sir, that is as brave as an 
 Irishman, as honourable as an Englishman, 
 and as chivalrous as a Frenchman. A man. 
 Sir, that I have fought in the same field with, 
 and that left as handsome a leg at Waterloo, 
 as ever won a lady's heart. I cannot hear 
 this noble man run down, knowing his courage 
 and his generosity as I do ; and this has opened 
 my eyes to the blarney, and blow-coal attacks 
 of the Repealers ; and yet, Sir, once I have
 
 THE REPEALERS. 29 
 
 taken a glass too much of that fiery whisky, 
 and heard their still more fiery speeches, I lose 
 all command over myself, and God knows how 
 it will end." 
 
 There was something prophetic in poor 
 M'Murogh's last observation ; for he soon after 
 met a violent death in a fray with the police, 
 into which the excited state of his feelings, 
 worked upon by seditious counsels, had hurried 
 him : and his death was but one of the many to 
 which evil advice and ill-directed courage have 
 led in the unfortunate country where it occurred. 
 
 Each market-day produced an increase of 
 Jim'*s moodiness : his features seldom relaxed 
 into a smile, except when Grace sought to 
 excite one by her playful sallies, and then 
 the smile passed over his lips like a ripple on 
 the surface of the clear and rapid stream in 
 front of his cottage, while the depth below was 
 unbroken.
 
 30 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 Often did Grace say to him, " Och, Jim 
 darlint, I fear it''s the want of the dhrop youVe 
 been used to lately, that makes you seem so 
 down-hearted. Sure it 's myself that ""s sorry I 
 made you take the oath against it, for when 
 I see you looking so gloomy, and taking no 
 pleasure in anything that 's going on, it breaks 
 the heart of me." 
 
 '' Then it 's a sorrowful day to me, Grace 
 a-vourneen, that I should be bringing throuble 
 to your tender heart ; I wish I could forget all 
 the vexing thoughts that have got lodged in 
 my mind, for I 'm sorely perplexed, and feel 
 always as if I was expecting to hear some 
 great news or other, and that things can't 
 go on as they are. This unsettles and makes 
 me feel discouraged for my work. Instead of 
 thinking for the year to come, and laying up 
 our provision for the winter, I am thinking 
 tliat, before that, some great throuble will take
 
 THE REPEALERS. 31 
 
 place, and that it 's no good to lay by for 
 the future. Indeed, the Repalers told me 
 as much, and therefore I have not the heart 
 to work as I used. When I look at the 
 beautiful flowers you have taken so much 
 pains to rear, I think who will be one day 
 pulling 'em, or perhaps thrampling 'em under 
 foot ; and that our cabbages, carrots, and 
 onions will one day be canted for the tithes, 
 as well as the cow and the pig that we have 
 taken such care of. Och ! Grace, isn't this 
 enough to make a man gloomy ? and can you 
 wonder that I am all no how ?'' 
 
 " Why should the cow, or the pig, or the 
 vegetables, be canted for the tithes now, Jim, 
 when they never were before?'' asked Grace: 
 " Haven't we got eight pounds in the bank, 
 before us in the world ? and haven't I got thirty 
 shillings in the chest ; besides what the house- 
 keeper at Springmount owes me for the cream
 
 32 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 cheeses, and all the hanks of fine yarn I have 
 been spinning ? So you see, Jim dear, we have 
 plenty of money to pay the tithes, if they rise 
 ever so much. And don''t we know that good 
 Parson Disnay never raises ""em unjustly ?" 
 
 " Grace, you don't understand my throuble," 
 said Jim ; "it isn't the money I 'm fretting 
 about, as I know we have enough to pay all ; 
 and even if we hadn't. Parson Disnay, or the 
 masther, never would distress us ; but if I pay 
 tithes when all the counthry is up and sworn 
 not to pay, I '11 be ashamed to show my face 
 among the boys : indeed as it is, they laugh and 
 sneer at me, and say I have not the courage of 
 a man, let alone an Irishman, and that I 'm 
 afraid of you, Grace, and this vexes me." 
 
 " Jim honey, what you say goes to my 
 heart — sure I thought you had more raison 
 than to mind what a set of drunken disorderly 
 spalpeens, like them that follows the Repalers,
 
 THE REPEALERS. S3 
 
 would say to you ; and when you know you are 
 doing what is right, how can you listen to their 
 balderdash? Faith, Jim asthore, I thought 
 you had more gumption in you; sure it's a 
 pity for both our sakes that I was mistaken/' 
 
 C 5
 
 34 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons. 
 Which at the first are scarce found to distaste ; 
 But, with a little act upon the blood, 
 Burn like the mines of sulphur." 
 
 A MAN must have either a better head or 
 heart than falls to the lot of most, who can 
 pardon the superiority of a wife, however 
 meekly she may use it. Poor Jim Cassidy's 
 head was like the generality of those of his 
 countrymen of that class, not remarkable for 
 its reasoning powers ; hence he was on equal 
 ground with his companions, while with Grace, 
 he felt he never had tlie best of an argument ;
 
 THE REPEALERS. 35 
 
 nay, he usually found hers so unanswerable, 
 that he speedily arrived at the conclusion that 
 she was terrible cute, which in Irish phraseology 
 means clever. From the moment this discovery 
 forced itself on his mind, he began to respect her 
 more, but to love her less ; a change of senti- 
 ment, that no loving heart like hers could be 
 satisfied with. It was the facility with which 
 Grace refuted the arguments of the Repealers, 
 that conveyed the idea of her superiority to 
 Jim ; it was less mortifying to think her terrible 
 cute, than to acknowledge himself terrible bo- 
 therheaded ; it was therefore a relief to him to 
 find himself listened to with attention by hiis 
 companions, over whom his sobriety gave him 
 a considerable advantage. 
 
 This cemented his increased intimacy with 
 them, and drew him still more frequently from 
 his home. Their enthusiasm, excited by ine- 
 briation and the artful recapitulation of real
 
 36 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 and imaginary wrongs, worked on the morbid 
 feelings of poor Jim, until he believed himself 
 the wretched slave they asserted him to be, 
 and that it had become his duty to burst the 
 chains which enslaved him. 
 
 When he returned from a meeting where sedi- 
 tion and whisky had been doing their demora- 
 lising work, both freely distributed by the 
 emissaries of the agitators, poor Grace has been 
 astonished and grieved by his declamation. 
 " Millions in chains, a starving and oppressed 
 people, Saxon tyrants, no tithes, and repeal of 
 the Union," were become familiar v^^ords in the 
 mouth of poor Jim ; and blood, and bloody, 
 were the terms applied to every demonstration 
 of a power, whose mildness and clemency was by 
 most people considered blameable, in so long 
 permitting its justice to be called in question. 
 
 " Yes, I 'm a slave, a chained slave, you Ve 
 a slave, Grace, and we 're all slaves," used Jim
 
 THE REPEALERS. 37 
 
 to say ; " the nigers ar'^n't half so ill-used as we 
 are ; obliged to pay the teachers of a religion we 
 abominate ; obliged to submit to have our par- 
 liament carried into a land of strangers, where 
 our lamentations and tears, sent over through 
 our reform members, only make the English 
 laugh. They laugh at the brogue, instead of 
 thrying to find out where the shoe pinches. 
 Ar'n't we all starving, and crushed by the 
 plough of oppression.? sure it calls for vin- 
 gince and blood !" 
 
 " Och ! Jim, your poor head is surely turned. 
 How can you say you are a slave, or that them 
 boys you go with are slaves, when they are free 
 to run wild over the counthry, making mis- 
 chief at every side ? How can you say you 're 
 starving, when you know you ate a fine piece of 
 pork with plenty of greens and potatoes for 
 your dinner, and that we have a tub full of salt 
 mate, and four flitches of bacon in the house.
 
 38 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 with the loft full of potatoes ? Sure, only I'm 
 too unhappy to laugh at anything now, I could 
 laugh enough to hear you say you're a slave 
 and starving; and sure this must be what 
 makes the English people, who like the plain 
 truth, laugh whenever them repaling members 
 tells 'em such rhaumeish* Now hear me, Jim : 
 if half what them Repalers tell you, and the 
 boys that goes shouting after them, was thrue, 
 wouldn't it be decenter, and kinder, not to 
 make bad worse, but to give you all good ad- 
 vice, and encourage you to be quiet ? And sure, 
 if we have throubles to bear in Ireland, and 
 every place has its share, vs^ouldn't it be wiser 
 for them Repalers that can blow hot and could 
 with the same breath, to make you all keep 
 quiet, and orderly to your work, and be able to 
 tell the Lord Leftenant, or the King himself — 
 ' You see, my Lord, how quiet the poor Irish- 
 
 * Exaggeration.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 39 
 
 men are in all their throubles, they pay all they 
 can, neither burn houses, nor flog, nor murder ; 
 and ever since you gave 'em mancipation they 
 have been thrying to show how much they feel 
 the compliment. Sure, if they behave so well, 
 and that there's no complaint against 'em when 
 they have cause for complaint, your Lordship 
 will take away their throubles, and put in a good 
 word for 'em to the King.' What could be 
 said against this, Jim ? don't you think it would 
 be better than having murders, floggings, burn- 
 ings, 'and sociations going on at every side, so 
 that if we have throubles in Ireland, and ask 
 the help of the Lord Leftenant, or the King, 
 sure they can stop our mouths, by saying, 
 * Arrah ! be aisy, you ill-behaved spalpeens; sure 
 you don't know how to be grateful. Didn't I 
 give you mancipation, and ar'n't you twice worse 
 ever since ? and now ar'n't you raving mad for 
 repale, which is just one as if you said you were
 
 40 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 determined to do all the mischief you could ?' 
 Sure, Jim honey, for Ireland to thry to do with- 
 out England, is just as if you and I thried to 
 do without the good masther that supports us. 
 No, Jim, I'm afraid there's no honesty in them 
 people that works you all up to madness, and 
 then tells you to be quiet. I think, God forgive 
 me if I 'm wrong, that what they mane is to 
 make you all furious, and then, when all your 
 madness is known at every side, to be able to 
 say to the Lord Leftenant, * Now, my Lord, you 
 see what a state they 're in, and it's only me that 
 can make 'em be quiet. If I say the word, 
 they 'l\ be aisy ; so make me a judge, or a great 
 lord, and then I'll keep them mad Irish under 
 my thumb for evermore ; but if you don't, faith 
 they'll ruin themselves downright to spite you.' " 
 *' Well, Grace, haven't we tried every thing 
 to get our rights, just as we waited so many 
 long years to get mancipation, which the Eng-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 41 
 
 lish never gave us, nor never would give us, as 
 the Repalers say, if we had not kicked up such 
 a row, and frightened 'em into it." 
 
 " No, Jim dear, ye haven't tried every way, 
 for ye never tried to deserve a good chracter, 
 which, to my poor thinking, would be the 
 safest, and the pleasantest way too, to earn good 
 treatment ; for sure if even it does not succeed 
 in getting justice, it laves the comfort, and a 
 great one it is, Jim, of having deserved it. 
 What do the Repalers gain for Ireland, Jim 
 agrah ? Mistrust and dislike, instead of confi- 
 dence and pity ; for sure the warm hearts and 
 generous feelings of our poor misguided coun- 
 trymen, if they were really known, would be 
 valued ; but England hears only of their 
 crimes, and, more 's the pity, can hear nothing 
 of their virtues. Is it a wonder, then, that the 
 English think us savages, when every ship 
 takes over to them fresh and frightful stories
 
 4f2 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 of all the cruel and wicked things the boys are 
 always doing ? Faith, Jim, I think them that 
 calls themselves our friends, are our worst 
 enemies. Is it like friends to be always telling 
 ye that ye 're slaves, that ye 're trampled on, 
 that ye have none of your rights, and that 
 ye 're starving, when the most part of ye have 
 plenty of wholesome food in your stomachs, 
 and more than plenty of the wicked potheen in 
 your heads? No, Jim, a thrue friend would 
 raison with ye, and say, ' Be aisy and decent, 
 boys, and show the English how well ye can 
 behave, even when ye have cause to be discon- 
 tented.' This will be an honour and a credit 
 to Ireland, and England will then be ashamed 
 not to do ye justice. But, no; your pretended 
 friends maddens ye with burning words, that, 
 like the fiery whisky, puts all raison out of 
 your heads, and anger and desperation into 
 your hearts; — and mind my words, and sor-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 43 
 
 rowfully I say them, no good can come of all 
 this." 
 
 " Can you deny, Grace, that we got manci- 
 pation by making such a row in the counthry, 
 that they were afraid to refuse us ?" 
 
 " Faith, Jim, I can't believe it, and I don't 
 wish to believe it. I 'd rather think they gave 
 it to us because they believed it was all we 
 wanted to make us contented ; and so ye were 
 all saying from morning till night ; ye did not 
 speak a word of Repaling then, and them that 
 guides ye said the mancipation would give 
 every blessing. But no sooner did ye get it, 
 than your bad advisers turned round, and in- 
 stead of thanking them that gave it to ye, 
 many of them, as I'm tould, acting against 
 their judgments in so doing, they only say, ' No 
 thanks to ye. We Ve got it by frightening ye, 
 and now we Ve found out the way, we '11 ask 
 for something fresh every year, till we 've
 
 44 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 bothered ye all, and tired ye out, and then we 
 will get what we want for ourselves and our 
 own relations, and desire the fools we have 
 been driving mad so long to be quiet, and do 
 as they are bid.** Faith, Jim, the way as the 
 Repalers uses ye, reminds me of the puppet- 
 show I saw at Dungarvan, when one man 
 pulled the wires, and made all the little pup- 
 pets jump, act, and fight as he liked. All 
 the people looked at the puppets, and were 
 surprised what movements they were making ; 
 but I minded the showman pulling the wires, 
 and think of him every time I see or hear the 
 Repalers working ye up to madness, or order- 
 ing ye to be aisy, just as it serves their conve- 
 nience at the time."
 
 THE REPEALERS. 45 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Erin, thy verdant sea-girt shore 
 Was never made for slaves to tread, 
 
 Though changed are now the days of yore, 
 When monarchs for thee fought and bled. 
 
 Old Song. 
 
 " Tell me, Grace a-vourneen," said Jim, 
 " when you hear the fine songs that describe 
 how grand and great Ireland was before she was 
 thrampled upon by the English, don't you feel 
 your heart rising to your throat, and the tears 
 coming into your eyes ? If you, a woman, 
 feel this for the poor ould counthry, what must 
 men feel ? Och ! the Repalers are right ;
 
 46 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 there's something in our hearts that won''t let 
 us be contint while we are slaves ; for haven't 
 I seen men, able and willing to fight too, cry 
 like girls when they first begin to love, at 
 hearing one of the ould cronauns of the coun- 
 thry sung, with its dismal, but sweet music, 
 and its thrue words about our past glory and 
 present slavery." 
 
 " Jim, you make me angry to hear you talk 
 of slavery. I won't allow you 're a slave, or 
 that I am the wife of a slave. You pay your 
 rint, we owe no one a tenpenny, we have some- 
 thing before us in the bank in case of a rainy 
 day, and no one can molest us while we do our 
 duty. Sure then this proves we are not slaves, 
 though wicked people would thry to persuade 
 us into thinking so. No, Jim, the ould songs 
 have often brought tears into my eyes, and 
 made my heart swell, and, therefore, I don't 
 sing 'em any more, as it 's ungrateful to be re-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 47 
 
 gretting what we never knew, (and which, after 
 all, maybe is not thrue,) when we have so 
 much to be thankful for. When I see a lovely 
 evening, with the beautiful sun entering his 
 rose-coloured palace, and the trees, hills, and 
 rivers all looking so grateful for the warmth 
 he gave 'em before he wished 'em good night, 
 do you think that if any ould song, or discon- 
 tented person tould me that long ago the sun 
 was finer than now, and that all I think so 
 beautiful, was much more so in past time — do 
 you think that ought to make me unhappy? 
 No, Jim, I ought and would think that the 
 beautiful sight before my eyes was quite 
 beautiful enough, and thank the good God 
 that gave it.'' 
 
 " Well, Grace, you have such a quare way 
 of being satisfied with every thing, that it 's no 
 use thrying to put you out of conceit with 
 things."
 
 48 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 " No, Jim dear, you are wrong there, for 
 I *m not easily satisfied with anything I can 
 make better ; it 's only things that I can't alter 
 or mend, that I think it best not to be grum- 
 bling about, bekase a discontented spirit grows 
 faster on one than people imagine." 
 
 " Faith, it 's thrue enough, for you, Grace 
 nla-vourneen, as I know to my cost ; and sorry 
 enough I am that ever the Repalers blew the 
 bad breath into me which keeps me always 
 upon the fret, bemoaning the eligance and 
 grandeur of this poor counthry in ould times, 
 wiien people came flocking from all parts of 
 the world to lam knowledge in Ireland. Then 
 we had kings and queens too, as witness Gra- 
 nawail, but now we have nothing but tyrants 
 and slaves : sure the notion of it is enough to 
 break one''s heart !" 
 
 " Then where are the tyrants, Jim agrah ? 
 for sorrow a bit, much as I 've been hearing
 
 THE REPEALERS. 49 
 
 about "em, if ever I see one yet in all the 
 counthry." 
 
 " What would you say, Grace, if you were 
 tould that Colonel Barron, Sir John Smith, 
 ay, be me troth, and the masther too, were 
 tyrants ?" 
 
 " Say, Jim ? I M say whoever said so, spoke 
 what was not thrue ! Colonel Barron, that is 
 never tired of doing good — a tyrant ! Sir John 
 Smith, who spinds hundreds for the poor, with- 
 out even so much as axing a question, except 
 whether they are in want ; and the masther, 
 the dear fine generous masther ! blessings on his 
 white locks — he a tyrant ! a gentleman that 
 has no more pride than a new-born babe, and 
 whose word is like a bond ! Och, Jim ! if ye 
 have got so far on the road of falseness as to 
 call such as these tyrants, then I have little 
 hopes that ever ye '11 see the straight road." 
 
 " Well now, Grace, don't be angry, and 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 1 11 tell you the truth : sure it was not I, nor 
 the likes of me, that called the gentlemen 
 tyrants ; it was the Repalers as said as how 
 our landlords dhrove us like galley-slaves be- 
 fore 'em, to vhote at the elections for whoever 
 they bid us, and that this showed they were 
 tyrants ; so faith I could say nothing against it." 
 " Now listen to me, Jim, and I '11 tell you 
 what you could have said. You might tell 
 'em the landlords were estated gentlemen, 
 that had laming and knowledge, and that 
 their great properties in the counthry gave 
 them a much greater stake in it than a poor 
 man could have, therefore they must, even if 
 it was only for their own interest, wish to do 
 what was best for the good of all. Their 
 larning gives them the power of knowing what 
 is best to be done ; so in choosing a Member, 
 they like to recommend one to their poor igno- 
 rant tenants who is most likely to do good to
 
 THE REPEALERS. 51 
 
 the counthry, and keep it peaceable. And ar'n't 
 they right, Jim ? And for this, the poor de- 
 luded creathures that's misled by bad advisers 
 would call 'em tyrants." 
 
 «*' Och ! but Grace, they do other things 
 that 's worse : don't they let their lands to who- 
 ever will give 'em the highest rent, over the 
 heads of the ould tenants, whose fathers, and 
 fathers' fathers have been on the soil ? And 
 don't they encourage English settlers to come 
 over and fix themselves over our heads ?" 
 
 " Tell me, Jim dear, if you had a pig to 
 sell at the market, wouldn't you sell it to the 
 one that offered the highest price, and wouldn't 
 you have a right to do so ? And if one of the 
 neighbours was to throw in your teeth, that 
 you preferred selling your pig to a stranger 
 who gave you a larger price, than to a neigh- 
 bour who gave you only half, but who had 
 bought his pigs of you for years, when maybe 
 D 2 
 
 UNIVERSITY 0F ILUNOO 
 LIBRARY
 
 52 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 they were much cheaper, or that you dicln''t 
 want the money so much, wouldn't you think 
 he was a foolish man, and an unreasonable 
 one ? To be sure you would ; and yet ye blame 
 the landlords, and call them tyrants, for getting 
 the best price they can for their land, which 
 is as much theirs as the pig is yours. And 
 as for encouraging strangers to come and fix 
 among us, sure it's a real blessing. The rich 
 English farmer, who takes the land held before 
 by perhaps twenty poor men, employs the 
 twenty as labourers, with good and regular 
 pay ; he advises 'em, gives 'em what 's better 
 than all advice, a good example ; teaches 'em 
 to keep their word and engagements, encourages 
 schools, and helps the poor families in all 
 difficulties, and shows us the comfort and de- 
 cency of cleanliness and good order. He puts 
 the land into fine condition, instead of letting 
 it go to rack and ruin, and, while paying a
 
 THE REPEALERS. 53 
 
 fair rent, makes an honest profit. Often and 
 often do I think, that never would I know 
 what I do, little as it is, if it was not for the 
 pattern set me in Farmer Thomas''s house ; and 
 sure one such family as that does more good 
 than twenty buckeen farmers, like them of 
 our own country, who are neither gentlemen 
 nor farmers, though they pretend to be both." 
 
 " I can't but allow, Grace, that Mr. Thomas 
 and his family have done good, but that 's no 
 raison to encourage so many other English to 
 come over our heads; and though you find 
 words to excuse every one, what can you say 
 for us Catholics to be paying the clergy for the 
 Protestants ? Sure it ""s a sin and a shame. No, 
 Grace, the tithes is against all raison, and you 
 can't defend 'em."" 
 
 " Faith, Jim, I'm a poor hand at defending, 
 but still I think, when you consider that all we 
 pay in tithes is spint among us, and comes
 
 54 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 back to us in twenty ways, it *s money laid out 
 at good interest, and it's better than the saving 
 bank. Look at the employment the clergy 
 gives us, besides plants for our little gardens, 
 medicine if we are sick, a word of comfort if we 
 are sad, and constant encouragement and kind 
 offices if we deserve it ; — sure, Jim, all we give 
 'em comes back to us, one way or another." 
 
 " Faith, it''s yourself, Grace, that bothers me 
 by contradicting all the things the Repalers 
 tells me ; sure you can't like me as ye used to 
 do, that you 're always showing me I 'm in the 
 wrong. It isn't kind of you, Grace, nor what 
 I expected." 
 
 '' Och ! Jim, would it be kind to let you keep 
 false and bad thoughts in your poor head, and 
 see 'em pushing you into wicked actions, that 
 may cause the misery and disgrace of us both, 
 instead of raisoning with you. It's I, Jim, that 
 has cause to be sorrowful, and to think you
 
 THE REPEALERS. 55 
 
 don^t like me as you used to do ; for you 're 
 quite changed, always discontented, and picking 
 flaws in them you once used to like in your 
 heart. They are not changed, nor am I, but you 
 cuishlamachree, (for you '11 always be that, in 
 spite of everything,) you are changed. You 
 call them tyrants that is your truest friends ; 
 yourself, a slave, that has your liberty as all can 
 see, and are bemoaning and bewailing for 
 things that never came into your mind till 
 them wicked Repalers put 'em there." 
 
 " Maybe, Grace, you 'd next be after telling 
 me that the absentees, as they call 'em, have a 
 right to spend all their money in England that 
 is earned by our hard labours." 
 
 '* Why, tell me, Jim, if you liked to spend 
 the little savings we have in the bank, in Youg- 
 hal, instead of Dungarvan, who 'd have a right 
 to blame you .^ But do you consider also, that 
 for the fine lords and ladies who have seen
 
 56 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 foreign parts, and are used to live in England, 
 with everything elegant and comfortable about 
 and around 'em, it is hard to live in poor Ire- 
 land, where everything is at sixes and sevens, 
 with constant throubles and disturbances, and 
 where no one is sure of life a single day. Isn't 
 it hard to drive the grand lords and ladies away 
 by your bad behaviour, and then to blame 'em for 
 going ? Who, that can help themselves, would 
 stay in a throubled country, where one man 
 can set the whole of the people in a brain fever 
 whenever he likes; and sure those that stay 
 are but poorly thanked, as witness the dear 
 good masther, and the other gentlemen. When 
 I see you, my dear Jim, that has a good honest 
 heart, and used to be a pattern for decency 
 and good behaviour, forgetting all the blessings 
 you have, and turning your mind to thoughts 
 that you cannot understand, it falls on my 
 heart like a lump of ice, and makes me see how
 
 THE REPEALERS. 57 
 
 little an Irishman can be depended on. Jim, 
 what makes the English respected, but that 
 they have a fixed notion of what's right, in 
 their heads, and will act up to it ? Do you 
 think one or two mischievous men, who wanted 
 to make a ladder of the poor ignorant creatures 
 below 'em to climb up to power, could succeed 
 with the sober, steady English? No, they 
 would only be followed by the idle and worth- 
 less, who had nothing else to do. But in Ire- 
 land, any man who has what is called the gift 
 of the gab, who can bother the brains of his 
 hearers by making 'em angry, and telling 'em 
 they are slaves, may govern the poor misguided 
 creathures as he likes." 
 
 " Will you tell me, Grace, if you plase, isn't 
 it enough to dhrive a man mad, to see the police 
 going about at every side, and on every occa- 
 sion, like spies, to see what's doing, and like 
 tyrants to punish .^" 
 
 d5
 
 58 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 " Faith, Jim, if people mean to do no harm, 
 they need not be afraid of spies ; and sure it 's a 
 lucky thing for the few that 's sober and steady, 
 to have witnesses to prove that they are so, in a 
 counthry where the bad conduct of so many 
 makes all suspected. And that ""s another wick- 
 edness of them Repalers, that they are always 
 inflaming the people against the police, and 
 encouraging bad blood between 'em, instead of 
 saying, ' Boys, take care, and show the police 
 how little they are wanted in the counthry/ 
 And once the Parliament and the King is sure 
 of this, they won't long be left here : the only 
 way to do this is never to break through the 
 laws, and to be orderly.*" 
 
 " Faith, Grace, you 're grown quite a poli- 
 tician ; I 'm surprised where you got all those 
 quare notions into your head." 
 
 " Now, Jim dear, don't say such a thing, 
 for you 're mocking me. How could the like
 
 THE REPEALERS. 59 
 
 of me be a politician ? and wouldn't it be 
 foolish for a poor ignorant woman to thry to 
 be one ? No, my buckaleen bawn, it 's only 
 the plain sense of one who wishes to live in 
 peace and quietness, and to see those she 
 loves thriving and decent, instead of getting 
 into scrapes. Besides, Jim, I hate ingrati- 
 tude; and when I see, that to do the bid- 
 ding of the Repalers, a man must be un- 
 grateful to his landlord and the clergy, who 
 though of a different persuasion, have been 
 always doing him good; when I see that a 
 man must fly in the face of God by break- 
 ing his commandments, make his parents and 
 their friends unhappy, and och ! Jim, break 
 the heart of his poor wife, sure who can 
 help thrying to open the eyes of those who 
 are led astray from their duty by such bad 
 advisers ?" 
 
 Poor Grace's discourse was closed by tears,
 
 60 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 that fell in torrents on her fair cheek ; and 
 Jim, while wiping them with a corner of her 
 apron, kissed their traces away. But, alas! 
 the, tears still flowed, for he made no pro- 
 mise of abandoning the courses which caused 
 them ; and Grace felt a presentiment that he 
 might cause her to shed still more, so in- 
 fatuated did his weak mind appear. The 
 woman who has to mourn over the weak- 
 ness and bad conduct of him she loves, but 
 cannot respect, is placed in one of the most 
 painful and humiliating situations possible. 
 Poor Grace felt keenly this unhappy convic- 
 tion ; and as the blundering perversity of her 
 husband became more apparent to her, and 
 she saw he could not even defend the opi- 
 nions he had adopted, she began to despair 
 of leading him back to reason, well knowing 
 there is no obstinacy like that which is founded 
 on weakness and ignorance. She shuddered as
 
 THE REPEALERS. 61 
 
 she reflected on the strong hold the Repealers 
 must have established on such a basis ; and 
 saw with dismay that they had entirely pos- 
 sessed themselves of the only tangible points in 
 their unfortunate adherents — imagination, pas- 
 sion, and ignorance.
 
 62 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " In this wide world the fondest and the best 
 Are the most tried, most troubled, and distressed." 
 
 Grace prepared herself with a heavy heart, 
 for her accustomed visit to the housekeeper 
 at Springmount, to whom she was taking her 
 humble offering of new honey, fresh eggs, and 
 cream-cheese. 
 
 Such visits had hitherto been epochs of plea- 
 sure in the simple life of poor Grace. The 
 compliments she received on the excellence of 
 her presents — the kind and gentle words of 
 encouragement spoken by the mistress, and
 
 THE REPEALERS. 63 
 
 the young lady — with the useful gifts be- 
 stowed on her by them, had rendered her 
 visits to Springmount f^te-days to which 
 she looked forward with delight, and, being 
 passed, remembered with gratitude. But now, 
 how differently should she face the great 
 house ! for well she knew that Jim's altered 
 conduct was well known there. How mor- 
 tifying to hear him blamed without being 
 able to defend him ! And what could she 
 say, except what she had already so fre- 
 quently said to herself, without its producing 
 any satisfactory result, even to her partial 
 feelings, " that he was led astray ?'' 
 
 " Och ! Jim," ejaculated poor Grace, " little 
 did I think, that I should live to be ashamed 
 of you ; to hear you blamed, and not be able 
 to clear you ! I was too proud of you ; and 
 pride is sinful ; so I am punished in the ten- 
 derest point. Sure if I tell 'em you are led
 
 64 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 astray by bad advisers, is it not owning at 
 once that you are a fool? and they will look 
 do\>n on you as a poor weak creature; and 
 yet this I must admit, for fear they should 
 think you something worse, which I could 
 not bear. Och ! how lucky are those whose 
 husbands have good heads as well as good 
 hearts, and who are not obliged to make ex- 
 cuses for those they were once proud of. 
 When I look at that hive of honey, as clear 
 and bright as the elegant brooch Miss Des- 
 mond wears in her habit-shirt, and think that 
 last year, when I took one up to the great 
 house, how the mistress herself and the young 
 lady both came into the housekeeper''s-room 
 to look at it, and told me that it was richer 
 and brighter than any they had ever tasted 
 or seen, except some in a foreign country 
 with an outlandish name ; sure it was I that 
 was proud to tell 'em, that if my honey was
 
 THE REPEALERS. 65 
 
 better than all the honey around the country, 
 it was all because Jhn filled the garden with 
 such quantities of sweet flowers, that the bees 
 were feasting all day long without ever having 
 the throuble of flying about the country, to find 
 a wild flower here and there, and then come 
 home only half laden, with their poor wings 
 tired, but had the finest, and sweetest of 
 flowers on the spot. How pleased the young 
 lady used to look, and the good mistress too ! 
 Then when they praised the cream-cheese, I 
 could tell 'em that Jim took pride in having 
 the nicest field of clover in the w^hole country 
 for our cow, and hurdled it off* every week 
 to give the creathure a fresh bite, so that 
 our cream was richer and thicker than any 
 the neighbours'* cows produced. The eggs 
 too, they used to tell me, were whiter and 
 cleaner than any one else''s, and looked like 
 snow-drops in the basket. I was proud then
 
 66 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 of hearing things praised, because Jim came in 
 for the best part of it ; but now, little he 
 throubles himself about the flowers for the 
 bees, or the grass for the cow, since he has 
 taken to be always thinking of Repaling ; and 
 as it's only me that takes care of things, I 
 have no pleasure in hearing praises, because he 
 has no share in them."" 
 
 This was the soliloquy of poor Grace as she 
 pursued her solitary walk to the great house, 
 laden with her rustic dainties. A susceptibi- 
 lity, caused by the consciousness of her hus- 
 band's folly, made Grace unusually observant of 
 her reception by the housekeeper. She thought, 
 but it might be only fancy, that there was an 
 air of commiseration in the look and tone of 
 Mrs. Macnab, when addressing her, that be- 
 trayed she knew that Grace was no longer 
 the enviable being she had hitherto considered 
 herself to be ; and when the presents were
 
 THE REPEALERS. 67 
 
 uncovered, the observation of Mrs. Macnab, 
 " Sure they are as fine as ever, which is more 
 than I expected from what I heard," made 
 Grace feel that all was known. 
 
 " I 'm sorry to see you looking so pale and 
 thin, Mrs. Cassidy," continued the good-na- 
 tured but obtuse housekeeper. " I 'm afraid 
 you have cause for it. Come donH cry ; cry- 
 ing won't help you, as I tells my niece every 
 day, when she is crying and bemoaning her 
 husband who died last year; and yet she 
 tould me that she cried the more because 
 she knew it was no good. I tould her it 
 was better her husband died while he was an 
 honest, sober man, than to have him live to 
 turn out a Repaler ; and says I, ' Look at Jim 
 Cassidy, wasn't he the pattern of a boy last 
 year, and see what he is now ! Sure it would 
 be better for his wife he was dead of a natural 
 death, than to live to see him hanged or shot.'"
 
 68 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 A deadly paleness overspread the face of 
 poor Grace : she made an effort to approach 
 the open window for air ; but, overcome by the 
 dreadful images which the obtuse Mrs. Mac- 
 nab had called up in her mind, she fell fainting 
 into a chair, to the no small discomfiture of 
 the housekeeper, who, while assisting her, mur- 
 mured to herself, " Well, this is the way, 
 whenever I speak sense to people, and think 
 to condole with 'em; they only take it more 
 to heart, which is very ungrateful.*" 
 
 The mistress and the young lady at this mo- 
 ment approached the window, to give some 
 orders to Mrs. Macnab ; when, observing the 
 situation of their humble favourite, Grace, 
 they hurried into the room to assist her. The 
 voluble housekeeeper detailed to them the 
 unaccountable, as she called it, fainting of 
 Mrs. Cassidy, on her just hinting the proba- 
 bility of her husband's being hanged or shot ;
 
 THE REPEALERS. 69 
 
 and the two ladies were obliged to command 
 her to be silent, ere she could refrain from 
 commenting on the grievous effects her reason- 
 ings and consolations never failed to produce 
 on the unhappy, who always took every thing 
 ill that she said for their good. 
 
 On Grace's opening her eyes, the first ob- 
 jects that presented themselves before her, 
 were the dear good mistress herself applying a 
 smelling-bottle to her nostrils, and the darlint 
 young lady, as she always called her, bathing 
 her temples with eau de Cologne. 
 
 This goodness was overpowering to the al- 
 ready deeply-excited feelings of poor Grace ; 
 and as she received their active and kind ser- 
 vices, she thought it was terrible that her hus- 
 band and his misguided friends should have 
 been wrought on to believe that such people 
 could be their enemies — could be aught except 
 pitying friends.
 
 70 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 " Och !'' thought Grace, " could Jim now 
 see 'em, tending and nursing me as if I was a 
 born lady, what would he, what could he 
 think ? And these are hereticks ! people in the 
 wrong road ! Och ! why was I born to see 
 what is right, and to love it, yet be obliged to 
 stick by what is wrong and false, because the 
 one I lo-ve best on earth shuts his eyes against 
 raison ? Och ! Jim, why cannot I lave off lov- 
 ing you when I cannot respect you ? but to 
 have my poor heart torn to pieces between 
 blaming you and pitying you, sure it's too 
 cruel ; and yet didn't I take you for better for 
 worse, for richer for poorer, which, for poor 
 people, must mane being happy or unhappy ? 
 And now, when the raison has left you, and 
 you have most need of me, I 'd be for blam- 
 ing you, or laving you too ! Och ! no, cuish- 
 lamachree, I '11 bear with your weakness ; 
 and never shall it be said that Grace Cassidy
 
 THE REPEALERS. 71 
 
 gave up her husband because he had fallen 
 into throubles, though he brought 'em on him- 
 self.'' 
 
 All these thoughts had produced torrents of 
 tears from the eyes of poor Grace, accompanied 
 by tremulous pressures of the hands of the 
 dear mistress and the darlint young lady. 
 The pressures were understood, and kindly 
 returned, and glances of unutterable love and 
 gratitude disclosed her feelings to her dear 
 good protectresses. 
 
 A glass of wine having restored Grace to 
 something like composure, she begged to be 
 allowed to spake alone with the ladies, and 
 Mrs. Desmond having led the way to her 
 morning-room, insisted on Grace's taking a 
 chair. 
 
 " Och ! my honoured mistress," said Grace, 
 " your goodness overpowers me. Had you re- 
 proached me with the failings of my husband,
 
 72 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 I could have borne it ; but to see your pa- 
 tience, your condescension, sure it 's too much. 
 I see my poor Jim's wakeness ; my heart 
 drops tears of blood more bitter than the tears 
 that fall from my eyes, when I see his folly — his 
 infatuation. Sure, I pass my time in thrying 
 to raison with him, but what can a poor, igno- 
 rant, wake woman, like me, say against all that 
 them wicked, clever Repalers has put into his 
 head ? If they tould him plain sense and com- 
 mon raison, sure one might hope that he could 
 tell what it was that convinced him, and one 
 might thry to argue with him ; but, no ! it 's 
 a parcel of fiery, flashing burning words, 
 enough to raise the anger of a passionate man 
 and the disdain of a raisonable one, that they 
 have poured like melting lead into his ears, 
 and like that same melted lead, the words keep 
 the same fantastic images when cold that they 
 had when they were hot, and the poor foolish
 
 THE REPEALERS. 73 
 
 crathers that keep 'em in their minds, thry to 
 warm *em again when they want to use 'em, 
 but never can. Och ! ladies, don't hate my 
 poor Jim. The head is gone wrong, but the 
 heart is as right and honest as ever it was, and 
 will bring him to the right road once more, or 
 else I must find mine to the chuchyard. Ye '11 
 hear stories of him, och ! dear ladies, but do 
 not believe that he is more than foolish ; wick- 
 ed, I trust, he will never be, — or if he should, 
 then I pray that I may not live to see it ; — 
 And yet what am I saying ? Ought I not to 
 pray that if such a misfortune is to befall him, 
 I may live to comfort him, when nobody else 
 will." 
 
 Mrs. Desmond and her daughter tried to 
 console Grace by kind and soothing expressions 
 of their confidence in her good sense and con- 
 duct, and the salutary effect they hoped it 
 would produce on her husband. 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 74 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 They were interrupted by the arrival of 
 Mr. Desmond, or the masther, as Grace al- 
 ways called him, accompanied by Colonel For- 
 rester, the commanding officer of the cavalry 
 regiment at Waterford, who had come to pass 
 a few days at Springmount. The kind 
 salute by Mr. Desmond of " How d''ye do, my 
 pretty Grace ? I 'm sure you have brought us 
 some of yo\u' fine honey,"' and the guinea 
 slipped into her hand, prevented not Grace's 
 observing, with the intuitive quickness of a 
 woman, and a woman who has loved, that the 
 presence of the handsome Colonel Forrester 
 had suffused the cheeks of Miss Desmond with 
 a brighter red than she had ever seen them 
 wear. And as the Colonel fixed his intelligent 
 eyes, with an expression of pleasure that could 
 not be mistaken, on the countenance of Miss 
 Desmond, Grace could not help offering up a 
 mental prayer, that his head might be able to
 
 THE REPEALERS. 75 
 
 resist bad advisers, and that her darlint young 
 lady might never live, like her, to be ashamed 
 of the object of her love. 
 
 '' But," thought Grace, " am I not an 
 ignorant, foolish creature to be thinking of 
 such a thing ? Sure he 's a gentleman, and 
 what 's more, an Englishman ; and they always 
 listen to raison, and are never for breaking the 
 law." 
 
 Colonel Forrester, seeing the kindness with 
 which Grace was treated b}^ the family at 
 Springmount, and being interested by her 
 pretty face and graceful figure, addressed a 
 few words of compliment to her, not on her 
 personal attractions, — for he had perception to 
 feel she would have little pleasure in listening 
 to this species of homage, but on her honey, 
 which he told her he had tasted on his last 
 visit, and which reminded him of that he had 
 eaten in Greece some years before. 
 E %
 
 76 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 Grace left Springmount with a heart more 
 at ease than when she had entered it. The 
 kind and unaltered manners of the family had 
 reassured her, and she felt that, arrive what 
 might, on them she could reckon as true 
 friends, prepared to put the most favourable 
 interpretation on all her actions, and the least 
 severe one on those of her misguided, but still 
 dearly beloved husband.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER yil. 
 
 " Lightly thou say'st that woman's love is false ; 
 The thought is falser far — 
 For some of them are true as martyrs' legends ; 
 As full of suffering faith, of burning love, 
 Of high devotion — worthier of heaven than earth." 
 
 On her route towards home, Grace met Mr. 
 Disnay, and his wife and daughter, coming to 
 dine at Springmount. Her humble courtsey 
 was returned by the kind greetings of the family, 
 each of whom had something good-natured to 
 say to her. The jaunting-car, on which they 
 were seated, was stopped some time that they 
 might converse with her, and the good rec-
 
 78 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 tor's wife told Grace, she had bought a gown 
 for her from the pedlar a few days before, 
 and hoped she would soon come for it. How 
 did her grateful heart swell with thankfulness 
 towards this excellent family ! yet there was 
 bitterness mingled in the overflowing stream 
 that ran through it, when she reflected, that 
 such were the persons against whom the Re- 
 pealers would arm the hand of her weak- 
 minded husband. 
 
 " To think," said Grace to herself, " how 
 changed Jim is ! how, a few short months 
 ago, he loved the masther and the family 
 quite as well as I do, and Parson Disnay 
 the same, though now — och ! shame on them 
 that turns the poor against their best friends, 
 and breaks down confidence and dependence 
 between them !" 
 
 On returning to her home, she found Jim 
 moodily ruminating over the half-extinguished
 
 THE REPEALERS. 79 
 
 fire, on which was placed the iron pot that 
 contained their evening repast. He hardly 
 noticed her entrance, and this unnatural cold- 
 ness from one who had been accustomed to 
 welcome her with joyful acclamations, brought 
 tears into her eyes. She felt this neglect per- 
 haps the more forcibly, from the contrast it 
 offered to the kindness she had met with 
 abroad ; but resolving not to show that she 
 observed it, lest she should offend Jim, she 
 approached him with a smile, and stooped 
 to kiss his forehead. He submitted in silence 
 to the caress, that he had till lately sought 
 with eagerness, and then said — 
 
 " So, Grace, I find you have been thrying to 
 curry favour, by taking your presents of honey, 
 cream-cheese, and eggs, over to the great 
 house ? Sure it^s very mane of you, to be put- 
 ting your * come hither' on them proud grandees 
 that 's leagued with the English against us.
 
 80 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 Isn\ it very quare to see a wife turning 
 against her own husband, — moreover a wife 
 that is devout? Sure the Repalers are right 
 enough when they say, that the worse we're 
 traited the greater slaves we are." 
 
 " Jim dear,'' said Grace, " you 've let the 
 boodoch* get into your own good heart at this 
 present moment ; you think of our thrue friends 
 not as they are — not as you 've known 'em, and 
 proved 'em to be for years, but as your bad 
 advisers thry to make you believe they are. 
 You well know I would not, I could not 
 turn against you, if the whole world was 
 turned against you ; and sure, Jim, it 's a bad 
 sign of your new friends, when they make 
 you suspect your own wife. Look at me, 
 my own dear Jim, and tell me if I 'm not 
 the same Grace you married two years ago — 
 that you loved — but that, och ! Jim, that I 
 * Anger.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 81 
 
 should live to say it ! you love no longer. If 
 my cheeks are pale, and my eyes heavy, och ! 
 think, Jim, it'*s fretting and grieving that makes 
 'em so ; and could I see you as you used to 
 be, I "'d soon look as gay and as happy as 
 ever I was. You used to make me the hap- 
 piest woman in all Cologan; but now, Jim,"" 
 and here her voice faltered from emotion, " I 
 am the most unhappy, because I can't forget 
 what you were.'' 
 
 " Well, Grace ma-vourneen, I 'm grieved 
 to hear you say this. Faith, I love you better 
 than every thing in the world, barring the poor 
 counthry ; and it 's because I wish to help to 
 get her out of her throubles that I put you 
 into your's. Sure it 's hard for a man to choose 
 between his wife and his counthry anyway, when 
 the good of one is often quite opposed to the 
 good of the other ; just as it 's hard to hate 
 tyrants in a body, and to like 'em separately. 
 £ 5
 
 S2 THE REPEALERS, 
 
 Now I larned to like the masther and the 
 other gentlemen about here, before ever I 
 knew they were tyrants ; and now I am tould 
 they are so, I can't get the ould liking out of 
 my heart, and this keeps me always in a bad 
 humour. You think, a cuishlamachree, that 
 you have all the sorrowful thoughts to your- 
 self, but you 're mistaken. Sure this evening, 
 when I was here, all alone by myself, and 
 looked about me, and saw the stocking you 
 were knitting for me, with my name so beauti- 
 fully knit in it, and the flower-pots in the win- 
 dow, all placed by your own hands, and every 
 thing so tidy and so clean — sure I fell into a 
 sort of a waking dream, and thought over all 
 the past times ; and while I was thinking, the 
 smell of the flowers came in through the open 
 windows; and when the smell of fine flowers 
 comes near me, it always reminds me of you, 
 Grace, and puts soft thoughts into my heart.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 83 
 
 Then the bees came humming about, with 
 such a pleasant sound, and the birds began 
 singing, as if they knew they were among 
 friends ; the cricket chirping in the corner of 
 the hearth, just as if it never minded me. 
 Sure the tears came into my eyes, and I 
 thought what a pleasant, beautiful world this 
 would be if every one was contint ! But then 
 came the remembrance of all that the Repalers 
 tell us, and I grew angry with myself for for- 
 getting, which I am constantly doing, that Fm 
 but a thrampled slave, kissing the hands of the 
 tyrants that have thrown the chains over me; 
 and just as I had got angry with myself, you 
 came in, a-vourneen, and, like a brute, I did 
 not recaive you as I ought/' 
 
 " Och, Jim, one kind word from your own 
 dear mouth can always console me, and what 
 you Ve now been telling me of what passes in 
 your mind, gives me hopes that you 'll soon
 
 84 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 open your eyes to the folly of listening to bad 
 advisers, and open your heart to all the inno- 
 cent pleasures this beautiful, pleasant world can 
 give. Sure they 're ungrateful, agrah, that says 
 this is a bad world, and that we live in bad 
 times ; if the world and the times are bad, it 's 
 our own evil thoughts and evil ways that 
 makes 'em so. Who that has the blessing of a 
 free conscience, can look around in the sum- 
 mer, and see the beautiful skies, earth, and 
 waters, with the trees, herbs, and flowers which 
 God has given us, and hear the happy birds 
 carolling around, without feeling that such a 
 pleasant world was not given for people to be 
 discontented in ? Each season has its plea- 
 sures ; for when the winter comes, and all with- 
 out doors looks so cold and dreary, not a leaf 
 on the poor shivering trees, or a flower to be 
 seen, sure it 's a pleasure to see a fine blazing 
 fire, a nice clean hearth, with a warm, com-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 85 
 
 fortable supper, and every thing around the 
 little kitchen shining by the light of the fire, 
 and the people that love each other sitting by 
 it, and thanking God that gives such pleasant 
 changes to the seasons. Och ! Jim, how much 
 we have to be grateful for, and what a sin it is 
 to be discontented !"
 
 86 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " For his bounty, 
 There was no winter in 't ; an autumn 'twas, 
 That grew the more by reaping." 
 
 Mr. Desmond, the landlord, or masther as 
 he was called by his tenants, was a gentleman 
 of ancient family and large fortune, deservedly 
 popular in his county. He had travelled much 
 in his youth, and had, late in life, married an 
 English lady of high birth, his junior by many 
 years, who made him the happy father of 
 Frances Desmond, the young lady, or the 
 young mistress, as the peasantry loved to call
 
 THE REPEALERS. 87 
 
 her, who has been already presented to our 
 readers. 
 
 Mr. Desmond was in his sixtieth year, and 
 his fair daughter had just entered on her 
 eighteenth, at the period when Colonel For- 
 rester's regiment came into their neighbour- 
 hood. An acquaintance, commenced through 
 that urbane hospitality which distinguishes 
 the Irish gentry, had soon ripened into in- 
 timacy between Mr. Desmond and the Co- 
 lonel, and into a still warmer feeling be- 
 tween him and Miss Desmond. His visits 
 to Springmount were as frequent as his mi- 
 litary duties would permit ; and they were 
 welcomed by the whole family with undis- 
 guised pleasure. Indeed, the personal and 
 mental qualifications of Colonel Forrester were 
 such as must have insured him a cordial re- 
 ception wherever he presented himself; but in 
 the remote quarter where he was at present
 
 88 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 established, he was so superior to the generality 
 of the surrounding young men, that the welcome 
 accorded to him lavishly displayed all the 
 friendship and esteem which his valuable quali- 
 ties so deservedly inspired. 
 
 Mrs. Desmond, accustomed to the good- 
 breeding and reserve that characterizes her 
 countrymen, — which, if less calculated to amuse, 
 is more formed to excite respect than is the 
 gay flippancy of the more mercurial Irish 
 gentlemen, — felt highly gratified by the society 
 of Colonel Forrester ; and perhaps the plea- 
 sure was enhanced by the knowledge that he 
 belonged to a high aristocratic family with 
 whom her own was distantly connected. 
 
 Mr. Desmond had lived so long in England, 
 that he had adopted all its elegances and com- 
 forts in his dwelling and mode of life, and 
 its refinement in manners was grafted on 
 the unceremonious cordiality that always re-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 89 
 
 mains such an agreeable peculiarity in the 
 high-bred Irish. He loved the English, as 
 he often declared, for many reasons, but prin- 
 cipally on account of his wife ; while she on 
 every occasion displayed a partiality to her 
 adopted country, no less indicative of her 
 goodness of heart, than of the strong affec- 
 tion that bound her to him who had trans- 
 planted her to his native soil. While ame- 
 liorating the condition of the tenants and la- 
 bourers of her husband, and giving them a 
 taste for cleanliness, and the power of enjoy- 
 ing it, no mortifying comparisons between 
 them and the more civilized peasantry of 
 happier England ever escaped her. Their self- 
 love was never wounded, though all that could 
 excite emulation in habits of order and de- 
 cency, were put into action. 
 
 The gardener had orders to supply every 
 family around with plants, and to encourage
 
 90 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 the propagation of the different vegetables, to 
 diversify their food. Flower roots, seeds, and 
 slips of geraniums, were liberally supplied to 
 all who wished to decorate their gardens or 
 flower-pots; and the housekeeper had instruc- 
 tions never to refuse assistance to the sick or 
 needy, but to furnish them with broth, food, 
 or wine. Clothing was distributed to those 
 who were too poor to buy it, and useful pre- 
 sents were sent to the more wealthy ; so that it 
 is not to be w^ondered at, that the family of 
 Springmount were loved and respected by the 
 whole country. 
 
 The beneficent influence which they ex- 
 ercised, was visible in the appearance of the 
 whole neighbourhood aroimd them. The 
 clean, and well-built cottages, with glass 
 windows made to open ; the gay patches 
 of gardens in front, where flaunted many a 
 flower from the parent stock at Springmount ;
 
 THE REPEALERS. 91 
 
 the tidy, well-clipped hedges, and the total 
 absence from sight of dunghills, and their 
 animated accompaniments — pigs wallowing in 
 the verdant mire, proclaimed that improve- 
 ment was abroad, and that the lower orders 
 of Irish only want example and assistance to 
 become a civilized peasantry, instead of a 
 lawless set of savages. Whole fields of tur- 
 nips might be seen in the neighbourhood of 
 Springmount, unmolested by any robber, save 
 the birds, because Mr. Desmond had culti- 
 vated them so largely that, with all the dis- 
 respect for meum and tuum attributed to the 
 poor Irish, there was now no temptation to 
 steal what all might have for the asking ; 
 while on a neighbouring property, the few 
 turnip-fields scattered around were obliged to 
 be guarded, and were pillaged whenever op- 
 portunity admitted of depredation. 
 
 Mrs. Desmond encouraged dairies, and her
 
 92 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 dairy-maids taught those who were willing to 
 learn, how to make milk-cheeses, so that the 
 poor labourers went to their work with a pro- 
 vision of home-made bread and cheese, instead 
 of half-cold potatos, their former habitual 
 food ; and seldom did they partake their more 
 comfortable repasts, without thanking the good 
 mistress who had been the means of their 
 enjoying it. 
 
 The country was in this progressive state of 
 improvement, when a contested election dis- 
 turbed its tranquillity, and Repeal (that watch- 
 word of agitation) spread like wildfire over it. 
 Their very prosperity was pointed out to the 
 poor illiterate peasantry, who had hitherto been 
 proud of it, as the badge of their slavery ; 
 their comforts and luxuries were decried as the 
 cunning inventions of their tyrants, to render 
 them dependent and luxurious ; and they were 
 told that their gardens were filled with flowers,
 
 THE REPEALERS. 93 
 
 to prevent their observing the evil weeds that 
 were springing up afresh every day in the rank 
 garden of corruption ; and the words, "Tyrant,'' 
 and " Slave Driver," were now become the 
 synonymes for landlord. 
 
 The Irish heart is not naturally ungrateful, 
 far from it ; but unfortunately, as in the richest 
 soils tares and briars will spring up among 
 the flowers, so in the good hearts of the 
 Irish many virtues are sullied by defects; and 
 the mobility of disposition of this fiery people 
 renders them so incapable of reflection, that, 
 hurried away by their impetuosity, they often 
 appear ungrateful when they are only forget- 
 ful ; the forgetfulness being produced by the 
 temporary predominance of some other feeling ; 
 for rarely does the mind of an Irishman possess 
 the power of entertaining two passions at the 
 same moment. 
 
 The peasants in the neighbourhood of Spring-
 
 94 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 mount now began to view even the acts of 
 kindness shown to them with a suspicious 
 eye, and to consider advice or remonstrance 
 as an unjust and tyrannical interference with 
 their free will. Beholding every thing through 
 the discoloured medium of their over-excited 
 imaginations, the most unimportant occur- 
 rences assumed a grave aspect. Every attempt 
 to control their turbulence was resented as an 
 injury, and the cause of such attempts was for- 
 gotten by the reckless perpetrators, in the 
 resentful fury the effects produced. It is with 
 the Irish people as with sin, — who shall say to 
 either, " Thus far shalt thou go, and no far- 
 ther ?" The first step made, the descent be- 
 comes rapid ; and they who have invoked the 
 storm, are often powerless to save their agents 
 from its fearful devastation. 
 
 Mr. Desmond had too much knowledge of 
 human nature in general, and of Irish nature
 
 THE REPEALERS. 95 
 
 in particular, to be as much surprised as he 
 was pained, by the change operated on the 
 minds of his tenantry by the popular clamour. 
 He felt that, if met with prudence and firmness, 
 the sea of trouble that threatened to overflow 
 might subside ; but that any display of undue 
 warmth in resisting their encroachments, might 
 make that a party feeling which was at pre- 
 sent but a partial infatuation ; and he dreaded 
 to see enlisted beneath the banners of popular 
 excitement, the heated and exaggerated senti- 
 ments of his too easily-excited countrymen. 
 He represented to the gentlemen and magis- 
 trates in the country, the necessity of perfect 
 union and good understanding among them- 
 selves, to oppose the unruly and misguided 
 •peasantry, and to prevent their taking any de- 
 cisive step in their meditated violation of the 
 laws. 
 
 " Better is it," said he, " to prevent crime.
 
 96 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 than to have to punish it ;" and acting on this 
 principle, — a principle hitherto far too little act- 
 ed upon in Ireland, — he determined to await the 
 result, and opposed the proposals of the gentry 
 around him, to demand an increase of military 
 force and civil power from the Government. 
 
 " Let us not show these misled people that 
 we fear them," said Mr. Desmond ; " but let us 
 by our forbearance, as long as forbearance is 
 possible, prove that we prefer convincing their 
 reason to coercing their persons. The laws 
 have never been respected, as they ought to be, 
 in Ireland. Military force is always called in 
 to support them, and it is difficult to impress 
 on an ignorant people, a respect for that which 
 the bayonet alone forces them to endure." 
 
 Mr. Desmond had a large fortune in the 
 funds, and his estates being unentailed, he had 
 the power of bequeathing it to his daughter. 
 This rendered her in point of wealth, one of
 
 THE REPEALERS. 97 
 
 the richest heiresses in the kingdom, and, 
 joined to her personal attractions, had al- 
 ready obtained numerous suitors for her hand. 
 Colonel Forrester was the first who had made 
 a favourable impression on her youthful fancy, 
 and this was strengthened by each succeeding 
 interview. The passion she had excited in him, 
 was the strongest he had ever known ; and its 
 vividness and increasing warmth led him to 
 reflect on their mutual positions. 
 
 " Was it hkely," he asked himself, " that 
 Mr. Desmond would give his fair heiress to 
 a soldier, whose patrimony consisted of an 
 estate of not more than two thousand a-year.^ 
 No ! he surely would wish to see her allied 
 to some nobleman, or at least to some person of 
 suitable fortune to her own. With this con- 
 viction, ought he to continue his visits to 
 Springmount — visits that could only serve to 
 rivet still more closely the chains that bound 
 
 VOL. L F
 
 98 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 him to its fair heiress ? And yet how resign 
 the happiness of seeing her ? 
 
 But when did a man in love do what he 
 ought to do, except in fiction ? The next day 
 saw the handsome Colonel pursuing his route 
 to Springmount, thinking only of the plea- 
 sure of seeing the lovely Frances^ eyes sparkle 
 at his approach, and her cheeks blush a rosier 
 red. 
 
 In compliance with all received notions on 
 such points, Frances Desmond ought to have 
 concealed every external demonstration of the 
 pleasure Colonel Forrester's visits gave her, 
 until he had made her a formal declaration. 
 Her wishes, according to the verse of the 
 most witty and not most delicate-minded 
 woman of her day, ought to have been in 
 her keeping until he had told her what they 
 were to be. But she was an artless child of 
 Nature, and had wished that Colonel Forrester
 
 THE REPEALERS. 99 
 
 might always be at Spririgmount long before 
 she knew that the feeling was reciprocal ; and 
 he found the wish increase on his part by 
 observing the involuntary proofs of satisfac- 
 tion his presence afforded her. He rode by 
 her side, to see all the fine points of view 
 in the neighbourhood ; and, strange to say, 
 neither felt the presence of Mr. Desmond a 
 restraint, nor — as in fashionable phraseology, a 
 third person, and that person a father, under 
 such circumstances would be considered — a 
 bore. 
 
 I would it were possible, consistently with 
 truth and nature, to paint Frances Desmond 
 otherwise than as she is, or was, reader, when 
 we knew her in the year 1832. Then would 
 you see our veritable heroine as heroines are 
 seen on paper, but not as they are found 
 in real life, if, indeed, heroines still exist. 
 With heroic courage, yet timid as the fright- 
 f2
 
 100 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 ened fawn ; possessing all the delicacy of in- 
 disposition, and yet all the bloom of health — 
 two qualifications that it never has been our 
 good fortune to encounter, except on paper, — 
 refined sensibilit}^, " dying of a rose in aro- 
 matic pain,"" united to 
 
 " The will to suffer, and unshrinking bear 
 Ills that the timid fill with trembling fear ;" 
 
 she should unite in her sweet and fragile per- 
 son all the opposing qualities that the step- 
 dame Nature never allows to meet ; and when 
 we had drawn this " faultless monster that the 
 world ne'er saw," we should feel convinced of 
 having merited your suffrages. 
 
 But, alas ! the age of heroines, as well as 
 of chivalry, is past, and we must be content 
 to represent Frances Desmond as Nature made 
 her, not a faultless person, but a very at- 
 tractive and lovely girl. 
 
 The morning after Colonel Forrester's arri-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 101 
 
 val, the letter-bag brought him a letter, for- 
 warded from head-quarters, the perusal of 
 which seemed to afford him little pleasure; 
 and the same conveyance brought Mr. Des- 
 mond an official document, dated " Castle, 
 Dublin," that appeared to give him still less 
 satisfaction. 
 
 We have frequently had opportunities of 
 observing the various emotions exhibited on 
 the arrival of the locked post-bags in country- 
 houses ; and truth compels us to declare, that 
 the predominating feelings on such occasions 
 have been generally gloomy or vexatious. This 
 observation of ours has led us to reflect still 
 farther on the subject ; and the resume of our 
 reflections is this suggestion, — that henceforth 
 the opening of the Sibyl bag be performed in 
 solitude ; and that the letters be placed on the 
 dressing-tables of the addressed, where the 
 reader may contemplate, between each period.
 
 102 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 its effects on his or her countenance reflected in 
 the mirror, and endeavour to profit by the ad- 
 monition thus impressively conveyed, instead 
 of being surrounded by the inquisitive ob- 
 servers who invariably infest the breakfast- 
 tables or desserts, the usual places and hours 
 of receiving letters in country-houses. 
 
 But to return to Springmount, whence we 
 have been withdrawn by this digression. The 
 owner of this mansion and Colonel Forrester 
 exchanged glances on perusing the concluding 
 lines of their respective communications, and 
 retired to the library, where we shall leave 
 them in consultation, while we return to the 
 humble cottage of Jim Cassidy.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 103 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 " Grief is the unhappy charter of our sex ; 
 The gods who gave us readier tears to shed, 
 Gave us more cause to shed them." 
 
 We left Jim with softened feelings, attuned 
 to those of Grace, which were overflowing with 
 the milk of human kindness. 
 
 A peaceful night followed their tranquil 
 evening, in which Jim dreamed that he fought 
 and vanquished the hydra-headed enemy that 
 assailed his poor ould counthry — one face 
 darting forth its forked tongue, filled with 
 venom to destroy, and the other trying to re-
 
 104 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 move the poison with its slaver. Jim imagined 
 that he was placing the crown of Ireland (that 
 crown whose thorns have pierced every head 
 that has worn it) on the white locks of the 
 ould masther, when he was awakened by re- 
 peated knocking at his door, to inform him 
 that the " Sociation would meet at Kilmack- 
 thomas that evening, and that there would be 
 great work there."" 
 
 " Och ! don't go, Jim dear," cried Grace, 
 while her face became blanched with terror. 
 " On my bended knees I pray you not to go, 
 and sure you can't have the heart to refuse 
 your own poor Grace this prayer." 
 
 " Well sure, Grace ma-vourneen, I ^m sorry 
 to refuse you, but it 's quite impossible for me 
 not to go. What would the boys think P" 
 
 " Jim, Jim, what matter what they think ? 
 Does their thoughts make your happiness or 
 unhappiness ? But sure, Jim, your own faith-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 105 
 
 ful wife, your poor Grace, who has no happiness 
 but you — can you leave me, with all this terri- 
 ble foreboding at my heart, as if ice- water was 
 running through my veins ? Och ! Jim, it 's 
 thrue I 'm but a wake woman, but if the 
 notion of what all the world put together 
 might think of any thing I was to do came in 
 comparison with one thought of yours, sure 
 I 'd never balance one minute, but give up all 
 to make you contented. Och ! Jim, this is the 
 way a woman loves ; why don't men, who are 
 stronger, love as well ?"'"' 
 
 This is a problem whose solution may more 
 probably be found in the weakness than in the 
 strength of men. 
 
 Vain were Grace^s arguments, entreaties, and 
 tears, to retain Jim. To the " Sociation" he 
 was determined to go, and the obstinacy of his 
 weak head triumphed over the pleadings of his 
 heart, which urged him to comply with the 
 F 5
 
 106 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 prayers of his wife. Obstinacy is almost al- 
 ways found to exist in proportion to the weak- 
 ness of the intellect where it is lodged, and, 
 strange to say, is often mistaken by its posses- 
 sor for firmness ; he, however, is the only 
 person who can entertain any doubt on this 
 subject, for all who come in contact with him, 
 are soon aware of the difference, — a difference 
 unlike many others, because it has a striking 
 distinction. 
 
 Grace is not the first, and certainly will not 
 be the last, woman whose strength of head 
 offered little consolation for her weakness of 
 heart ; and she mourned the departure of her 
 husband with bitter tears ; partly occasioned 
 by her dread of his compromising his safety or 
 reputation at the " Sociation ;" and partly by 
 the consciousness that he no longer heeded her 
 prayers, though once, and at no distant period, 
 they could stay his most stubborn resolves.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 107 
 
 Tears are never so bitter as when we know that 
 they fall unheeded, and poor Grace felt that 
 her's had lost their power. She tried to occupy 
 herself with her household duties ; sat down by 
 the window to her spinning-wheel, and while 
 her foot sent it revolving, and her taper fin- 
 gers spun the thread, she murmured the fol- 
 lowing ditty : — 
 
 " Och ! once I thought no tear of mine 
 
 Could fall, but soon you 'd wipe it dry • 
 But now I 'm left alone to pine, 
 Och ! woe is me, I can't but cry. 
 
 " For you I left a mother's care, 
 And an adoring father too ; 
 I little thought I 'd have to bear 
 
 Cold looks, and colder words, from you. 
 
 " Och ! where 's the love you swore to me, 
 For which I gave you all my heart ? 
 Ah ! woe is me, too plain I see 
 That happiness and I must part." 
 
 The plaintive voice of Grace, and the senti-
 
 108 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 ment of the simple ditty, which was the lament 
 of the wife of a freebooter, composed some 
 fifty years before, accorded so well with her 
 present feelings, as to renew her tears. She 
 left her wheel, and, drying her eyes, stood at 
 the open door, trusting that the fine day and 
 elegant prospect, as she called it, might divert 
 her. 
 
 It was one of those beautiful, calm, sunshiny 
 days, when the sky is one unbroken sheet of 
 blue, and the clear waters that reflect it seem to 
 give back its azure tint in sparkling brilliancy ; 
 the trees were scarcely agitated by the air, 
 and yet there was a lightness and freshness in 
 the atmosphere, that brought relief to the 
 feverish brow and heated eyes of poor Grace. 
 
 " Sure he ^11 have a beautiful day for his 
 walk across the mountain," thought Grace, 
 reverting with true feminine feeling to him 
 who occupied all her thoughts. " How strange
 
 THE REPEALERS. 109 
 
 it is that I can't see a fine day, a clear blue 
 sky, or the beautiful trees looking down at 
 themselves in the river, but it makes me think 
 of Jim. Sure this is mighty quare ; I won- 
 der if the quality have such notions. I won- 
 der if Miss Desmond thinks of the Curnel 
 when she sees every thing looking so elegant 
 about her ; but I suppose she has too many 
 fine thoughts in her head to have room for all 
 the loving ones that's in mine, for sure the 
 love and liking is the chief comfort of the poor, 
 and the rich have so many other comforts, that 
 they can't enjoy this as we do, and yet for all 
 this, faith, the dear young lady looked as fool- 
 ish at the Curnel as I used to do at Jim before 
 he axed me to marry him.''
 
 110 THE REPEALERS, 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " Oh ! grief hath changed me since you saw rae last, 
 And careful hours, with Time's deformed hand. 
 Have written strange defeatures in my face." 
 
 Grace's soliloquy was interrupted by the 
 arrival of Larry M'Swigger, an old neighbour 
 of her father's, who, happening to be in that 
 part of the country, came to see her. 
 
 " Then how are you, Mistress Cassidy ?" 
 demanded Larry, saluting Grace with a cordial 
 shake of the hand and a kiss on the cheek. 
 " Sure it 's myself that 's glad to see you 
 anyways, for the sight of you is good for sore
 
 THE REPEALERS. Ill 
 
 eyes ; and, faith, mine has a good right to be 
 sore, for sure I 've had salt tears in 'em enough 
 to salt a leg of pork, — ay, faith, a whole side 
 of pork, this last three months." 
 
 *' Indeed, and I 'm sorry for your throuble, 
 Larry," answered Grace. " I heard, sure 
 enough, that you lost your poor woman some 
 time ago, but I thought that as you hadn't 
 seen her for a long while, maybe you had got 
 used to living without her." 
 
 " Och ! then. Mistress Cassidy, how can you, 
 who have a tinder heart, be. after saying such a 
 thing to me? Sure it's the being such a long 
 while without seeing my poor Molly, that 
 makes me in all this throuble. If we had been 
 living dacently and rispectably together, quar- 
 relling every day, like most other married 
 couples, I might soon get over my grief, and 
 think, perhaps, her going before me on the 
 long road was all for the better ; but it 's so
 
 112 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 long since I parted from the creathure, and she 
 had gone so clear and clane out of my head for 
 so many years, that now I know she is dead, 
 faith, she comes back into my mind for all the 
 world as she was whin I first married her, and 
 I can't for the life of me dhrive her away. She 
 is always before me, with her purty coal-black 
 hair, her cheeks like two red apples, and her 
 roguish eyes laughing in her head ; and sure 
 isn't this enough to break the heart of me ? If 
 I saw her as she was latterly, sure I could not 
 have such false r^ tions, for then I 'd know 
 that it was a poor ugly ould woman that was 
 .dead, instead of a sprightly, purty girl ; but 
 it 's all in vain for me to be thrying to remem- 
 ber how she looked before I parted from her, 
 when we used to be fighting and squabbling 
 all day bekase I 'd take the dhrop, and that I 
 used to think she looked like the north side of 
 a crab-tree, so sour and contrairy when I came
 
 THE REPEALERS. 113 
 
 home. No, faith, Mrs. Cassidy, all this is gone 
 clane out of my mind, and I'm just grieving 
 my heart out for the clane, sprightly Colleen 
 dhas I was once so fond of, instead of thinking 
 of the poor ould woman that ""s gone to her long 
 home. Then whin I thry to comfort myself by 
 rimimbering the nicknames and bitter words 
 she used to say to me, I can't bring one of 'em 
 fresh into my thoughts, but all the loving 
 words is always coming into my ears ; and 
 aren't I obliged to go and look at myself in the 
 bit of looking-glass I 've got, to prove I 'm not 
 the buckaleen bawn, and the clane, tidy boy 
 that poor Molly used to call me in ould times ; 
 and whin I see the ould wizen face of me in the 
 glass, and all the wrinkles falling out about my 
 eyes like an ould stocking about the heels of a 
 beggar-man, faith, I don't know whether to 
 laugh or cry, I feel so quare. Och ! Mistress 
 Cassidy, sure it 's a droll thing to have the
 
 114 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 thoughts and loving notions I had forty years 
 ago all coming back young and fresh into my 
 heart, for all the world as if they had been 
 asleep ever since, and to see the ould face and 
 the ould body outside, that is like a cabin 
 falling to ruin, and the inside so fresh. All 
 this comes from poor Molly's dying : sure 
 it has brought grief and throuble on me any 
 way." 
 
 " Indeed, Larry, I feel for you, and am 
 sorry for your poor wife. Won't you break 
 bread in the house, for lucksake .?"" 
 
 " I won't refuse you. Mistress Cassidy, for 
 sure enough the ould saying is thrue, sorrow 
 is dry, and I '11 be glad enough to take a glass 
 of whatever you give me, while I tell you the 
 rest of my throubles." 
 
 While Larry M'Swigger partook of the re- 
 past Grace laid before him, to which he did 
 ample honour, washing it down with repeated
 
 THE REPEALERS. 115 
 
 draughts of cider, he continued his narrative in 
 the following words -: 
 
 " Maybe you'd be thinking, Mistress Cas- 
 sidy, that it was throuble enough for me to 
 lose poor Molly once by death ; but what will 
 you say when I tell you I have lost her three 
 times ?" 
 
 Grace's countenance expressed the astonish- 
 ment to which she was going to give utterance, 
 when Larry emphatically exclaimed, " Whisht /" 
 the Irish word for silence, and thus continued : 
 " Whisht ! don't stop or hinder me till I Ve 
 told you all ; for if you do, the story is so 
 long, that I won't have finished it this blessed 
 night." 
 
 The threat produced the desired effect on 
 Grace, who, though her curiosity was somewhat 
 excited, had no desire that the narrative or the 
 narrator should continue until night. 
 
 " Well, then, to begin at the beginning,
 
 116 THE REPEALERS, 
 
 Mistress Cassidy. Sure when myself heard 
 from Dublin that poor Molly had died in the 
 hospital, and that she begged with her last 
 words that I'd take her home, and bury her 
 dacently among her people, and not lave her 
 to lie among strangers in Dublin, — sure I pro- 
 mised before God and man, that I'd neither 
 stop nor stay till I 'd bring her home ; so I took 
 a car, and put a good feather-bed in it, and 
 put Sallys and kippins about it, and covered it 
 over with a fine stuff quilt, till I made it into 
 as ilegant a chaise-marine as ever you set your 
 eyes on, for I was determined the poor crea- 
 thure should have every thing dacent for her 
 journey home, and that the rain should not 
 come to her. Well, I took old Baucherem, 
 my horse, that drew the car quite aisy and com- 
 fortable, and faith we arrived in Dublin the 
 sixteenth day. 
 
 " I went next morning to the hospital.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 117 
 
 They showed me the grave where poor Molly- 
 was put in, and I took the coffin and all, just 
 as it was, put it in my chaise-marine, and 
 packed up half-a-dozen bottles of parliament 
 whisky with it, just to refresh me on the 
 road, and to keep the throuble out of my heart. 
 When the night was falling, I didn't quite like 
 to be all alone with poor Molly, so I made 
 ould Baucherem gallop while ever I could; and 
 to hear the coffin rattling against the car, faith, 
 it was very awful ! But at last the coffin seemed 
 to be fixed quite steady, for I heard no more 
 noise ; and when I came to the public-house 
 where we were to stop for the night, and tould 
 'em who was in the chaise-marine, sure they 
 wint out to help me to bring Molly into a 
 dacent room, that we might wake her gen- 
 teelly, when the devil a bit of poor Molly 
 was there ; and we found the rungs of the car 
 behind broken clane away, so I guessed the
 
 118 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 coffin must have fallen on the road. This I 
 call the second time of losing poor Molly, and 
 we had eleven miles to go before we found her 
 again. 
 
 " Well, to make a long story short, at last I 
 arrived at her own place, and I had got so 
 used to having the poor creathure with me, 
 that many's the shanahos about ould times I 
 had with her on the road. I tould her every 
 thing that happened ever since she went away, 
 and often I thought, Mistress Cassidy, that 
 poor Molly must be grately altered to let me 
 have all the talk to myself. Sure when I re- 
 flected I had not behaved genteelly to her for 
 so many years, in never sending her anything, 
 not so much as a scratch of a pen, faith, 1 
 thought I 'd make up for it, and I axed her 
 pardon, and said every thing that was dacent 
 and comfortable to her, to make her mind and 
 my own aisy.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 119 
 
 " Well, sure there was Nelly Lynch, an old 
 gossip of Molly's, at Cappoquin ; and when I 
 was waking Molly the night before I was to 
 bury her, sure Nelly and I took a glass too 
 much in dhrinking a happy and a blessed rest 
 to poor Molly, and Nelly takes it into her 
 head that we should open the coffin, and look 
 at poor Molly. No sooner said than done; 
 but just think what I felt when I saw a bald 
 head and an ugly ould face, no more like 
 Molly's than I 'm like what I was. ' Sure,' 
 says I, * this never can be my Molly, — she 
 that was such a purty, clane, sprightly girl !' 
 ' Well,' says Nelly, * that baits everything. 
 Here you are thrying to conceit an ould 
 woman of past sixty into a purty clane girl,' 
 and Nelly was quite affronted like, bekase I 
 wanted to prove that Molly was once too 
 handsome to be like the ugly ould creathure in 
 the coffin.
 
 120 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 " She looked at her again and again, and 
 said she 'd know her amongst a thousand, for 
 that she was not a bit changed. This vexed 
 me, and I went up quite close to the coffin, 
 with the candle in my hand, and looking close 
 to the corpse, I said, ' Well, Mistress Lynch,' 
 for I was too angry to call her Nelly, ' maybe 
 you 'd be for telling me that my poor wife had 
 grey whiskers, and a beard twice as thick and 
 as hard as my own, for here they are.' She 
 was thrying to persuade me that she had, and 
 that this was still Molly, when, in my passion, 
 I lifted up the winding-sheet, and there was 
 — not Molly, sure enough, but a poor ould sol- 
 dier with a wooden-leg, and covered over with 
 the marks of wounds. This was what I call 
 losing Molly a third time, and after all the ex- 
 pinse and throuble I had to bring her down* 
 And to think of my opening my heart and
 
 THE REPEALERS. 121 
 
 telling my secrets to a stranger, and a man too, 
 instead of my poor woman. 
 
 " But great as my grief and disappointment 
 was, still it was a comfort to show Nellv 
 Lynch that my poor wife was not grown an 
 ugly, ould, bald-headed creathure ; and now 
 I 'U always maintain, in spite of her teeth, 
 that Molly died a clane, purty, sprightly girl, 
 the notion of which puts the envious, jea- 
 lous creathure out of her wits. I buried the 
 poor ould soldier dacently, and as I never can 
 have money enough to go to Dublin again to 
 bring down Molly to lie among her people, 
 faith, she must take the will for the deed, and 
 be con tint where she is. And for ray part, Mis- 
 tress Cassidy, now that I have not seen her so 
 long, and never did see her as a corpse, I have 
 the satisfaction, and a grate one it is, if you 
 believe me, of thinking of her only as she was 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 122 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 forty years ago, and that makes me feel quite 
 young myself into the bargain." 
 
 The long narrative of Larry M'Swigger had 
 beguiled the time of poor Grace, and he left 
 her, promising another visit at no distant 
 day.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 12S 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 " Dans les conseils d'un 6tat, il ne faut pas tant regarder 
 ce qu'on doit faire, que ce qu'on peut faire." 
 
 The letter that clouded the brow of Mr. 
 Desmond came from the Secretary for Ireland ; 
 it detailed the exaggerated accounts received 
 at the Castle, and the anxiety of his Excel- 
 lency the Lord Lieutenant to ascertain whether 
 such reports were correct, and what steps the 
 resident gentry considered would be most 
 likely to establish peace and good understand- 
 ing in the country. Mr. Desmond made Co- 
 lonel Forrester acquainted with its contents, 
 g2
 
 124 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 who, in return, laid before him the letter from 
 the General commanding his district, urging 
 the necessity of keeping the troops always on 
 the alert, and the officers at their posts. 
 
 " How, my dear young friend," said Mr. Des- 
 mond, " shall I answer this unanswerable let- 
 ter ? There is so much truth mingled with the 
 misrepresentations that have gone to the Castle, 
 that it is difficult to draw the line between 
 what to believe or disbelieve. Judging by the 
 actions of our poor misguided peasantry, the 
 statements sent to his Excellency may be borne 
 out, for, alas ! we all know that the actions of 
 Irishmen are the avant-couriers of their inten- 
 tions, instead of being, as in sober England, 
 the followers ; and if they are judged by them, 
 then must they be condemned. A prejudiced 
 judge for or against might find sufficient evi- 
 dence to acquit or condemn them ; while I, who 
 am impartial, see much to lament, much to
 
 THE REPEALERS. 125 
 
 blame, and if the country was freed from the 
 hateful influence of agitators, little to fear. 
 But how to suggest the remedy, how cut the 
 Gordian-knot of habitual misrule ; how solve 
 that enigma, more difficult than that of the 
 sphynx, and which has puzzled every statesman 
 for centuries to expound, namely, — what is the 
 best plan to govern Ireland peaceably ? First, 
 get rid of agitators — buy them at any price ; 
 for as well may a physician endeavour to bring 
 back health to the system of a patient dying of 
 fever, without having unseated the disease, as a 
 government attempt to restore peace and good 
 order to this country, until its moral typhus, 
 so much more fatal than all the physical 
 fevers that ever attacked it, is subdued. But 
 while the government is deliberating, the evil 
 gains ground. This very day there is a meet- 
 ing of the association held at Kilmackthomas, 
 where the seeds of discontent and dissension
 
 126 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 will be widely disseminated in the fruitful soil 
 of the inflammable minds of the people, to 
 bring forth an abundant harvest of mischief at 
 no distant day. I hope, my dear Colonel, that 
 I need not impress on your mind the prudence 
 of not placing your brave troops too much at 
 the beck of the alarmists. All collision be- 
 tween the people and the military leads to evil, 
 and should only be had recourse to in cases of 
 absolute necessity ; but here, in this unhappy, 
 and, alas ! wilfully unhappy country, where 
 every district presents opposing factions and 
 interests, and where the good of the many is 
 sacrificed to the advantage of the few, it is 
 most difficult for a military man to know how 
 to steer his course, and impossible to avoid 
 being thought too lenient by the alarmists, and 
 too severe by the disaffected. I shall go to 
 Dublin, and reply in person to the letter from 
 the Castle ; and as 1 am no jobber and have no
 
 THE REPEALERS. 127 
 
 object at heart, except the interest and wel- 
 fare of my poor country, I shall be listened to 
 with attention."" 
 
 Mr. Desmond left the library to prepare for 
 his departure, and Colonel Forrester sought 
 the boudoir of Mrs. Desmond, where he knew 
 he was certain of finding the fair Frances, 
 pursuing her accustomed occupations of read- 
 ing, working, or drawing, by the side of her 
 mother. 
 
 Mr. Desmond ascertained that the meeting 
 at Kilmackthomas passed off more peaceably 
 than he had expected, though, as usual, in- 
 flammatory language had excited the passions 
 of the people, who returned to their homes, 
 bearing in their minds the seeds of discon- 
 tent and sedition, ready to fructify into acts 
 of hostility on the first occasion. He found 
 that nearly the whole of his tenantry had 
 attended the meeting, and were as loud and
 
 128 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 animated in their plaudits of the hyperbo- 
 lical speeches of the popular speaker, as if 
 they had personally experienced all the mi- 
 series arising from the tyranny and oppression 
 Avhich the artful demagogue so glowingly de- 
 picted. 
 
 The good man felt grieved at their ingra- 
 titude, and sighed to think that a long life, 
 passed in a conscientious and zealous dis- 
 charge of the duties of a resident landlord, 
 had made so little impression on their duc- 
 tile feelings, and that the spirit-stirring wo7'ds 
 of the Repealers could efface the deeds of 
 the friend. It is such examples of ingra- 
 titude that wean people, less resolute than 
 Mr. Desmond in virtue and forbearance, from 
 the discharge of their patriotic duties ; and 
 send many a well-intentioned man, an ab- 
 sentee to other countries, where property 
 and life are secured on a more solid basis
 
 THE REPEALERS. 129 
 
 than the impulses of passion, which madden 
 into fury, or melt into regret, at the man- 
 dates of the factious exciter of the day, who- 
 ever he may happen to be. 
 
 " How long have I defended these mis- 
 guided people," said Mr. Desmond, " and 
 maintained that good-treatment was all they 
 required to render them good and happy ! 
 What have I left undone? And yet they 
 now turn from my counsel as if I had been 
 the most negligent of all the absentee land- 
 lords — nay, resent my offering them good ad- 
 vice, as if it was an encroachment on their 
 personal liberty. ' Divide and govern,' may 
 well serve as the motto of the Repealers, 
 for they have broken asunder all the ties of 
 good-will between landlord and tenant; mu- 
 tual confidence is destroyed, and their in- 
 terests, which are and must be inseparable, 
 now only seem as a chain, that holds toge- 
 G 5
 
 130 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 ther natural enemies instead of friends — a 
 state of things that cannot last long, and 
 must end in ruin to both." 
 
 The mob, like the ocean, is very seldom 
 agitated without some cause superior and ex- 
 terior to itself; but, to continue the simile, 
 both are capable of doing the greatest mis- 
 chief, after the cause which Jirst set them in 
 motion has ceased to act. He must be de- 
 termined to shut his eyes and his ears against 
 conviction, who is prepared to deny that Ire- 
 land has not had grievous cause for discon- 
 tent ; but he must be equally blind, who does 
 not see that the time and money frittered 
 away in quelling the tumults, which have 
 been the effects of a long period of misrule, 
 might have done much towards removing the 
 cavise, and that the persons who excite the 
 violence of the people retard the ameliora-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 131 
 
 tion which the justice of England is disposed 
 to grant them. 
 
 How large a portion of every session of 
 Parliament is occupied in debates on mea- 
 sures of severity, and modes of punishment, 
 which might be so much better employed in de- 
 vising means of rendering severity and punish- 
 ment unnecessary ! But violence demands to be 
 checked, and the consequences of the evil that 
 has existed in Ireland for centuries, occupy 
 the time that ought to be filled in removing 
 the original cause, until Ireland and the Irish 
 
 become 
 
 " Words of fear, 
 Unpleasing to each member's ear." 
 
 What has given power to agitators.^ Misrule. 
 And what will most effectually destroy their 
 influence.? — the removal of the just grounds 
 of discontent. Let the people be made to un-
 
 IS2 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 derstand that their tranquillity and orderly con- 
 duct will insure attention to their grievances, 
 and consideration as to the means of redressing 
 them ; and this instruction will do more towards 
 opening their eyes to the folly of their vio- 
 lence, than the most harsh though necessary 
 laws. He would be, indeed, a true friend to 
 Ireland, who would use his influence over her 
 excitable sons, in impressing on their minds 
 a respect for the laws, and a horror for the 
 acts of blood-stained cruelty that have so often 
 sullied them. Such a man might be proud of 
 his empire over them, when he could boast 
 that he found his countrymen savages and left 
 them men.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 133 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 " Qui ne sent rien, parle a merveille ; 
 Doutes d'un amant rerapli d'^sprit; 
 C'est ton cceur, et non ton oieille, 
 Qui doit ecouter ce qu'il dit." 
 
 We left Colonel Forrester entering the bou- 
 doir of Mrs. Desmond. He seated himself 
 by Frances, who was engaged in copying a 
 bouquet, placed in a vase on the table ; the 
 flowers had been gathered that morning by 
 Colonel Forrester, who presented them to 
 Frances, and he felt flattered by observing 
 the interest with which she was perpetuating 
 their lovely hues on the paper before her.
 
 134 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 " What a delightful and enviable talent you 
 possess, Miss Desmond," said the Colonel, ** in 
 thus being able to fix the evanescent beauty of 
 those bright but frail flowers, and to retain 
 the shadow when the substance shall have 
 passed away. When I gathered them this 
 morning, their leaves sparkling with dew, I 
 thought how soon they must fade and wither, 
 and that a few hours would behold them 
 robbed of all their beauty. I did not think 
 that I should see them transfixed on paper, 
 as blooming and fair as when I culled them, 
 and borrowing from your pencil an immor- 
 tality that Nature has denied them. How ad- 
 mirably you have coloured the petals of the 
 rose ! it looks as if the next zephyr's breath 
 might send it floating in the air — how I wish 
 it was mine !"* 
 
 The cheeks of Frances almost rivalled the 
 rose she was copying, at this address, and
 
 THE REPEALERS. 135 
 
 became still more suffused when her mother 
 replied, "I am sure Frances will have great 
 pleasure in giving it to you." 
 
 " Certainly," said Frances, " but it is hardly 
 worth offering. I have some drawings that are 
 better." 
 
 " Oh ! no, let me have this," said Colonel 
 Forrester ; " I prefer it to all others." 
 
 A certain bashful consciousness betrayed that 
 Frances knew why he preferred it. 
 
 " I never," said Frances, " pluck a bouquet 
 without a sort of melancholy feeling of how 
 short must be the duration of the beauties 
 that tempted me to make it mine. I believe 
 this is a sentiment partaken of in common 
 with every one who can feel ; for we find it 
 expressed in all languages, and in all times ; 
 and its generality deducts nothing from its 
 truth. Nay, I rather think that it adds to 
 its intensity, as in experiencing what has been
 
 136 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 thought by so many, the bond of union that 
 binds us to our species is strengthened, and 
 we recognise the universal sympathy." 
 
 " I remember," said Colonel Forrester, 
 " having seen a beautiful Album in France, 
 that was displayed to me as the ne plus 
 ultra of sentimentality. It was entitled ' La 
 Guirlande de Julie,'' and contained copies of 
 the bouquets presented to her each day by 
 her lover during his courtship. The flowers 
 were elaborately painted by the first artists of 
 the day, and the verses that accompanied them 
 were quite as laboured ; those of the lover 
 perhaps less so than the others, but still 
 showing that the imagination had more share 
 in the affair than the heart. Of all dis- 
 plays, that of sentimentality is the one I 
 feel the least disposed to pardon," continued 
 Colonel Forrester, " because it shows a pre- 
 meditation incompatible with real feeling.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 137 
 
 False sentiment affiches, but true sentiment 
 betrays itself; and I am inclined to doubt 
 whether the hymeneal wreath of Julie con- 
 tained as gay flowers as those painted in the 
 exotic garland ; and whether Le Due de Pen- 
 thievre was not more formed for a lover than 
 a husband. I remember an acquaintance of 
 mine, a young Frenchman, who wore the 
 ignoble chains of a Deesse de Theatre, and 
 who, during the grande passion, collected the 
 bouquets and guirlaiides showered on his fa- 
 vourite every night that she acted, and pre- 
 served them in an armoire. He displayed 
 them to me, and seemed disappointed that 
 I showed no sentiment on the occasion. To 
 me they smelt of the lamps, and brought 
 back set phrases, artificial looks, and an ap- 
 plauding audience, whose plaudits stamped as 
 public property that which a lover, to have 
 any illusion, must wish to consider private ;
 
 138 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 and with such souvenirs, the withered flowers 
 looked as meretricious as the goddess to whom 
 they had been dedicated. The ' Guirlande de 
 Julie,'' copied by paid hands, and the verses 
 written by wit instead of passion, excited 
 much the same feeling. Had the loved or the 
 lover copied the flowers, then I would have 
 owned the " soft impeachment ;" as it was, 
 I felt impenetrable. But here am I talk- 
 ing of flowers and sentiments when I ought 
 to be endeavouring to forget both, as what 
 makes me feel the charms of one and the 
 other must be abandoned, for I must leave 
 Springmount." 
 
 " Leave Springmount !" exclaimed Frances, 
 and her cheek lost its rosy hue ; " why, when 
 do you go .^" Then, as if sensible of the feel- 
 ing her abrupt questions betrayed, she added, 
 " I hope you are not obliged to leave us so 
 very soon."
 
 THE REPEALERS. 139 
 
 At this moment a servant entered, to an- 
 nounce that Mr. Desmond wished to speak 
 with Mrs. Desmond in the library. The 
 lovers were left alone, and the heightened 
 colour and agitated breathing of Frances 
 showed how much she felt the delicacy and 
 awkwardness of their position. Colonel For- 
 rester detected all that was passing in her 
 mind, and, with the intuitive tact that belongs 
 to true passion, saw that he must be explicit, 
 or else leave her under the mortifying convic- 
 tion that she had revealed a preference un- 
 sought by him who had excited it. 
 
 To avow the sentiment she had inspired, and 
 the motives that prevented his declaring them 
 to her before, was the business of a few mi- 
 nutes. With the candour and simplicity that 
 marked all her actions and thoughts, Frances 
 Desmond confessed that his avowal had given 
 her pleasure, and that she believed her father
 
 140 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 and mother loved her too well to disapprove 
 her choice. She added that she had never 
 concealed a thought from them, and, therefore, 
 wished that he should make them acquainted 
 with his feelings. 
 
 We will pass over all the lover-like raptures 
 of Colonel Forrester, and the chastened delight 
 with which Frances listened to them, until 
 Mrs. Desmond entered, on which Frances hav- 
 ing hastily retired, the lover opened the state 
 of his heart to the mother of his beloved, and 
 was listened to with nearly as much compla- 
 cency as he had been by the daughter. 
 
 A mother, who feels as a mother ought, 
 hears the first avowal of a passion excited by 
 her child, with much of the same trembling 
 anxiety with which she heard the first declara- 
 tion of love for herself. Her daughter is 
 a dearer self; one in whom she sees her
 
 THE REPEALERS. 141 
 
 youth renewed. She has the same sensitive- 
 ness for her, rendered more acute by expe- 
 rience. The mingled feelings of pleasure at 
 the admiration excited, and the anxiety for 
 the future, with the always painful vista of 
 separation, produce an agitation even more 
 durable than that of the daughter. 
 
 " Speak to my husband," said Mrs. Des- 
 mond, " and if he approves, I can have no 
 objection. I do not ask you to love my child, 
 because I know it is unnecessary ; but I ask 
 you, I implore you, never to forget that she 
 has been an only, an idolized child, accustomed 
 to be watched over, shielded, and cherished, 
 and to whom unkindness is unknown." 
 
 The affectionate warmth with which Colonel 
 Forrester pressed the mother's hand to his lips, 
 as he vowed that the happiness of her daughter 
 should be his first, his most precious care, car-
 
 I4f2 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 ried balm to the heart of Mrs. Desmond, and 
 she felt that in giving her daughter to this 
 excellent young man, she lost not her, but 
 gained a son. 
 
 There is no occasion in human life which 
 furnishes a better criterion for judging a fami- 
 ly, than that of the marriage of a daughter. 
 The mother who sees her child about to leave 
 the home of her childhood, the happy scene of 
 her infancy, without feeling anxiety and dread, 
 and without endeavouring to attach to her by 
 links of love the new found son on whom the 
 future happiness of her child is to depend, 
 must possess little of the sentiments that a 
 mother ought to have ; and the daughter who 
 can leave the home of her happy, careless, 
 infancy, the mother who watched over her, and 
 the sisters who shared her pastimes, without 
 a tender regret, and without endeavouring to
 
 THE REPEALERS. 14S 
 
 excite in the breast of her future husband a 
 portion of the affection she feels for those dear 
 relations, must have a character that promises 
 but little for the discharge of the duties she is 
 about to undertake. In such circumstances 
 the husband has no reason to be proud of the 
 cheerfulness with which he is followed to the 
 nuptial home. 
 
 Colonel Forrester met with nearly as tender 
 a hearing from the father as had been accorded 
 to him by the mother of his beloved ; but Mr. 
 Desmond made his consent conditional on his 
 quitting the army. " A married soldier I 
 never could approve of," said the good old 
 gentleman, " as I am of the old opinion that 
 * Cupid may wear a red coat, but Hymen 
 never."* Under such circumstances, a man 
 must be a bad husband or a bad soldier; 
 the duties of both are incompatible, and I
 
 144 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 will not have my son-in-law either. There- 
 fore, my dear young friend, the army must 
 be given up." 
 
 If such a proposition had been made to 
 Colonel Forrester before he had known Frances 
 Desmond, he would have felt it as an insult ; 
 but, as the condition of being blessed with 
 her hand, he hesitated not a moment in acced- 
 ing to it ; and, accompanied by Mr. Desmond, 
 he sought the boudoir, to announce to Mrs. 
 Desmond the consent of her husband. This 
 time he was not content with simply pressing 
 his lips to the hand of his future mother, but 
 pressed them to the cheek, and a happier group 
 could not be found than the boudoir now 
 contained. Frances was summoned to partake 
 the general joy, and the tears from her eyes 
 that bedewed the cheeks of her parents, had 
 no bitterness in them, as, alternately pressed in 
 their arms, they embraced her again and again.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 145 
 
 It was decided that Mr. Desmond should not 
 set out for Dublin until next day, and Colonel 
 Forrester wanted but little persuasion to post- 
 pone his departure for head-quarters until the 
 same moment. 
 
 My readers must imagine all that persons 
 under such circumstances are likely to feel. 
 Those who have been similarly placed, have 
 only to exercise the powers of memory ; and 
 those who have yet to experience the position, 
 must endeavour to picture it in their minds. 
 Whether the former or the latter are most 
 likely to draw a just notion of the feelings 
 of the lovers, is not for us to decide ; inas- 
 much as the result will be influenced in pro- 
 portion as memory or imagination happens 
 to be most powerful in such as depend on 
 the agency of those faculties. For ourselves, 
 we lean to imagination, and, therefore, have 
 formed in our mind's eye, a brilliant tableau 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 146 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 of this happy day at Springmount ; but, like 
 all days, happy or unhappy, it finished at 
 about the usual hour. 
 
 There are some people whom it is difficult 
 to convince of the even tenour of the march 
 of time. These sceptics are the happy and 
 the unhappy. The first believe that he gal- 
 lops, and the second are convinced that he 
 crawls; and it is only those who are neither 
 exalted nor depressed, that can really judge 
 of his paces. If we gave our opinion on 
 this momentous point, it would furnish a clue 
 to the inquisitive, for guessing to which class 
 we belong ; and as we neither wish to excite 
 envy, by being supposed to belong to the 
 happy sceptics, or pity (because v^^e like not 
 pity) by being considered among the unhappy, 
 we will even leave it to others to decide 
 " who time ambles withal, who time trots 
 withal, who time gallops withal, and who he
 
 THE REPEALERS. 147 
 
 stands still withal ;" merely premising that the 
 venders of curls, rouge, and all the list of 
 et cetera, to supply the place of youthful 
 charms, maintain that he never stands still, 
 whatever else he may do. 
 
 II 2
 
 F 
 
 14<8 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " Here 's a large mouth, indeed, 
 That spits forth death, and mountains, rocks, and seas ; 
 Talks as familiarly of roaring lions 
 As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs." 
 
 " Well, sure, Grace, there never was so 
 fine a speech as Mr. O'Blarney gave us to- 
 day,*" said Jim Cassidy to his wife, on entering 
 the cottage and dropping his wearied person 
 into a chair ; " faith, I wish you 'd been there, 
 for it would have melted the heart out of your 
 body, burnt up the marrow in your bones, 
 and set the blood galloping all through your 
 veins. One thing he said, which I'll never
 
 [ 
 
 THE REPEALERS. 149 
 
 forget, 'twas so moving ; he said that the 
 French had a way, and a cruel way sure 
 enough it is, to put their live geese before 
 the fire, and keep 'em there, giving 'em salt 
 and water to drink, till the heat swelled up 
 their livers so big that they could no longer 
 contain 'em, and the poor creathures were 
 killed to save their lives ; and these same 
 big livers were made into pies, and sent all 
 over France and England to be eaten by the 
 epicures. ' Now,' says Mr. O'Blarney, ' we 
 are served like the poor geese at Perigord 
 (I think he called it). We are put before the 
 fire of bad treatment, and forced to gulp 
 down the salt of hard usage, 'till our hearts 
 become too big for our bodies, and then we 
 are hung, or transported, or imprisoned, to 
 cure our complaints.' Sure, Grace, this was 
 very moving; it dhrew tears from many of 
 the people, though that foolish boy. Bill Mul-
 
 150 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 louny, began to laugh, and said he'd never see 
 a goose without thinking of the Repalers.''"' 
 
 Grace, though little disposed to smile at the 
 moment, could not resist yielding to the im- 
 pulse, and Jim looked at her with a face of 
 seriousness that indicated he thought the 
 smile little short of profanation, so impressed 
 was he with the pathetic imagery in the speech 
 of O'Blarney. 
 
 " Sure, Grace, these are no times for laugh- 
 ing," said Jim, " when the whole counthry is 
 up, and determined to have justice. Sure 
 we're carrying everything before us; all tlie 
 elections are in our favour, and ther'U be more 
 Irishmen and Catholics, ay, be my soul, 
 and Repalers too, in the Parliament in Eng- 
 land, than of our enemies ; and as every rale 
 Irishman can make a speech out of nothing, 
 whereas them English are mighty sparing of 
 their words, and come out with 'em only as
 
 THE REPEALERS. 151 
 
 they do with their guineas, when they think 
 they are really wanted, sure we '11 bother 'em 
 entirely, and dhrive 'em out of the place; 
 they '11 be so tired of hearing all the Repal- 
 ing members speechifying one after another 
 in the rich elegant brogue of the poor ould 
 counthry. And then sure, if the English mem- 
 bers say a word against us, haven't we plenty 
 of our own friends that will tell 'em they '11 
 talk to 'em in another place? which manes 
 they '11 be for offering 'em gunpowder tay, 
 and sugar a lead for their breakfasts, which 
 they '11 not like to take, for the English are 
 not half so fond of fighting as we are, in a 
 sociable way, and think people can raison 
 without pistols, which, after all, every Irish 
 gentleman knows is the argument that hits 
 oftenest. Then they '11 not like to be made 
 cry, when our speechifiers comes over 'em 
 with all the melting mournful descriptions of
 
 152 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 our slavery ; and they ""ll soon be glad to join 
 all together, and ax the King to let us have 
 a parliament of our own in Dublin, for sake 
 of peace and quietness, and to get rid of us. 
 What a blessing it is for me to be able to 
 read the newspaper down at the Cat and Bag- 
 pipes, and so know all they say in the Par- 
 liament ! though I must say Mr. O'Blarney, 
 long may he live to reign over us ! didn't 
 spake half so elegantly in London as he 
 does in the ould counthry ; but I suppose he 
 thought that giving 'em the same fine words 
 he gives us, would be throwing pearls before 
 swine, for they haven't the gumption to un- 
 derstand 'em. 
 
 " That man might do anything with us, 
 Grace," continued Jim, " every word he says 
 makes the heart beat quicker ; sure, I've heard 
 Tom Jeffreys, that was in Portugal with the 
 cavalry, say, that when they were going into
 
 THE REPEALERS. 153 
 
 battle, and that many of 'em felt a little quare, 
 the sound of the trumpets roused up their cou- 
 rage, and the very horses became impatient to 
 rush into action, such a power had that music 
 on man and baist. Now, this is the effect that 
 CBlarney's speeches have on us : we go to 
 hear him, half inclined to go no more, talked 
 over against it by landlords, fathers, mothers, 
 and wives ; but before he has' spoken half an 
 hour, ay ! be my troth ten minutes, it 's all 
 over with us : the heart begins to thump 
 against the side, the chest begins to heave 
 up as if it hadn't half room, one gets hot 
 and could fits by turns, that rush up to the 
 ver}^ roots of the hair, and landlords, fathers, 
 mothers, and wives, are no more thought of 
 than if they never were in the world. He 
 might lead us to death that very minute; we'd 
 face the mouth of a cannon, and glory in every 
 danger, while his words are tingling in our 
 H 5
 
 154 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 ears ; but when we come home, and see the 
 friends we love unhappy, and a wife like your- 
 self, dear Grace, looking pale and sorrowful, 
 all the grand thoughts he put into our 
 heads go clean out of 'em ; and when we thry 
 to remember them, it's all like a throubled 
 dream, and one feels quite tired and low-spi- 
 rited, and cross-like, just as I used to feel the 
 morning after I had taken the wicked whisky, 
 out of humour with myself and all the world. 
 Sure, I wish the King of England would make 
 O'Blarney King of Ireland, for then "'twould 
 be his interest to keep us all quiet and da- 
 cent, and as he can do what he likes with 
 us, 'twould be as aisy for him to make us 
 orderly as to make us what we are, and the 
 families at home would be satisfied, and we 
 wouldn't be argufying as we all now are 
 always doing, more's the pity. 
 
 " Sure, Grace," Jim continued, after a short
 
 THE REPEALERS. 155 
 
 pause, " the power that a man like O'Blarney 
 can gain over hundreds and thousands of his 
 fellow-creatures, is almost like witchcraft, and 
 the more one thinks of it, the more wonderful 
 it appears. His words stir up thoughts and 
 feelings that were sleeping in the mind, and 
 that are as obedient to his call as are the 
 soldiers called out on the parade as I saw at 
 Dungarvan. And then to think that this 
 power, this mighty power, comes not from 
 wealth, from station, or from anything but the 
 strength of master thoughts, and big words, 
 which have greater power than flaming swords, 
 and can madden or melt; it's a quare thing, 
 Grace, and we can no more account for it than 
 we can explain why some music, and some 
 perfumes, work our feelings into joy or sad- 
 ness, bringing back pleasant or bitter thoughts, 
 over which we have no control." 
 
 " I believe, Jim dear," said Grace, " that it
 
 156 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 is because we all have in our hearts some 
 feelings that remain quietly there, until they 
 are touched by some one who knows how to 
 play on 'em. Look at the pipes that Kernes 
 Fitzpatrick can make send out the most sweet 
 and doleful tunes, until the hearts of those that 
 hear them are as soft and dismal as themselves, 
 and seem to sigh back an echo to every note ; 
 and then hear him play the * Foxhunter's 
 Jigg,' the ' Moddhoreen Rhu,' or any of the 
 hundred wild, joyous, frolicksome tunes he 
 gives us ; and one forgets every melancholy 
 thought, and is ready to jump out of one's 
 very skin for gladness. If his notes didn't find 
 some notes in our hearts that answered 'em, 
 'twould be quite another guess thing ; and so 
 it is with Mr. O'Blarney — he awakens up the 
 sleeping thoughts, but, och ! Jim, he only 
 awakens to intoxicate 'em, and uses the gift of 
 God, big and burning words, to scorch those
 
 THE REPEALERS. 157 
 
 he plays Vm off on, I don't like to say I 
 detest him, Jim, because it 's a hard word to 
 come from a woman's lips ; but when I think 
 of the good he might do, and the harm he 
 does, sure I think he 's for all the world like a 
 comet, bright and flaming, that all gaze on, but 
 that all dread to come too near." 
 
 " Who ever lived, Grace a-vourneen, so mane 
 and chicken-hearted, as not to feel his spirit 
 rise at the fine word ' Liberty,' and his cheek 
 grow red with shame at the word ' Slave ?' 
 These are the words with which O'Blarney 
 can madden us, for our hearts understand 'em, 
 though our heads do not ; and often 's the time 
 that my poor head is all in a cumfluster, when 
 I can't tell what I mane or what I wish, except 
 that I would die for liberty, and kill him who 
 would enslave me. There 's two kind of senses 
 — the sense of the head, which is all for money 
 and prudence, and the sense of the heart.
 
 158 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 which is all for liberty and love. They never 
 are good friends together, and troth, I believe 
 few Irishmen have much share of the first, 
 though they have so much of the second. Peo- 
 ple say of a man he has a sensible head, but 
 they never say he has a sensible heart." 
 
 " And how could they, Jim dear ?" said 
 Grace, " seeing as how if the heart was sen- 
 sible, it would not act so as to vex itself, and 
 you must allow that those who follow what 
 they call liberty, generally soon take leave of 
 love. Liberty, according to my notion, Jim, is 
 something so fine, so pure, and holy, that it 
 couldn't burn in a heart without making it 
 better ; and all the sins and crimes that are com- 
 mitted in its name, only prove to me that they 
 who commit 'em are guilty of two great 
 crimes, those of falseness, and throwing a bad 
 repute on what ought to be free from stain. I 
 can fancy dying, or slaying in the field of bat-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 159 
 
 tie, felling, or falling with a thousand wounds, 
 to preserve one's country, one's family, or one's 
 honour; but to commit murders on poor 
 wretches who cannot defend themselves, to 
 burn, to destroy, and say that such base crimes 
 are in the cause of liberty — och ! Jim, it 's a 
 sin and a shame, and he who rouses you with 
 the name, leaves you to worship a blood- 
 stained shadow, instead of teaching you to 
 adore the purest of all feelings, and one that 
 never gan make her dwelling but in noble 
 hearts that turn from cruelty and crime. He 
 leads ye with the name, but leaves ye in 
 ignorance of the substance."
 
 160 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " It is an easy and a vulgar thing to please the mob, 
 and not a very arduous thing to astonish them ; but essen- 
 tially to benefit and to improve them, is a work fraught 
 with difficulty, and teeming with danger." 
 
 V." 
 
 On arriving in Dublin, Mr. Desmond waited 
 on the Secretary, and met the ready attention 
 which his own high character so well deserved. 
 He found Mr. Manly the enlightened and intel- 
 ligent gentleman he had been led to expect, 
 deeply impressed with the alarming state of the 
 country, and truly anxious to tranquillize it by 
 every means in his power. While doing justice 
 to the statesmanlike views of the Secretary, and
 
 THE REPEALERS. 161 
 
 the unbending honesty with which he pursued 
 the line marked out by duty, though thereby 
 exposing himself to the unjust odium of popular 
 clamour, — heaped on him by those who could 
 not, or would not, render justice to the purity 
 of his motives, or the firmness and ability with 
 which he resisted intimidation, — Mr. Desmond 
 was forced to admit that it was peculiarly unfor- 
 tunate, that, at such a crisis, the person placed 
 in so arduous a situation united not a more 
 conciliatory manner to the various solid and 
 excellent qualities that adorned him. 
 
 The coldness and hauteur of Mr. Manly 's 
 manner, lent a sternness and severity to ob- 
 servations which, if made in a more good- 
 natured tone, might have had a less repul- 
 sive effect on his hearers. Cest Fair qui fait 
 le chanson, is an old phrase that one was 
 perpetually reminded of when listening to him, 
 for the matter of his observations on Ireland
 
 162 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 had nothing harsh or unkind ; on the contrary, 
 it was dispassionate and full of forbearance; 
 but the manner was cold and repulsive. 
 
 Mr. Desmond had mixed too much with the 
 world, not to make ample allowance for the 
 Jierie of a naturally proud and noble mind, 
 at finding itself for the first time opposed to 
 elements so jarring and uncongenial as those 
 which constituted the minds of the greater part 
 of the persons with whom Mr. Manly was 
 brought in contact in Ireland. The habits 
 of strict veracity, so indispensable in the cha- 
 racter of a gentleman in England, peculiarly 
 unfit him for looking with a lenient eye on 
 the habitual disregard to truth that candour 
 compels us to own is one of the characteristic 
 and besetting sins of Ireland : hence a consti- 
 tutional coldness and hauteur on the part of 
 the high-born Secretary, had been increased 
 by his continually witnessing the misrepresen-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 163 
 
 tations, wilful or unintentional, of those who 
 approached him ; but it soon wore off when he 
 found himself with persons on whose assertions 
 he could place faith. 
 
 From the Castle, Mr. Desmond proceeded to 
 the Lodge at the Phoenix Park, the summer 
 residence of the Lord Lieutenant, where he re- 
 ceived a most kind and cordial reception from 
 the Viceroy. It would have been difficult, if 
 not impossible, to have found a nobleman in 
 England more calculated to fill with distinc- 
 tion the high situation to which he was ap- 
 pointed in Ireland, than the Marquis of Mona. 
 Brave to a proverb, frank, generous, and un- 
 suspicious, he was the very heau ideal of chi- 
 valry. To the gallant bearing of a soldier he 
 united the Jiertc of aristocracy, softened down 
 by high breeding and grace of manner, as 
 peculiar as it was captivating. Mr. Desmond 
 had long known and learned to estimate his
 
 164 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 noble qualities, and, as was the case with all 
 who approached the Viceroy, the frankness of his 
 demeanour, gained on the confidence of the fine 
 old man, who listened with pleased attention to 
 the animated and feeling representations of the 
 Marquis ; all of which only served to convince 
 him more strongly of that which he had never 
 allowed his mind to doubt — the warm and deep 
 interest the Lord Lieutenant entertained fcr 
 the country he governed. 
 
 A greater proof of the wish of the English 
 Government to conciliate Ireland, could hardly 
 be given than in selecting as her Viceroy a 
 nobleman so calculated to charm the sym- 
 pathies of the people. In this spirit was he 
 received, and wherever he publicly appeared, 
 his presence was hailed with an universal en- 
 thusiasm, until defamation propagated a thou- 
 sand slanders, which every action of his, if 
 properly viewed, must have refuted, but which 
 it was too much the interest of the propagators
 
 THE REPEALERS. 165 
 
 to keep alive ; so that he who was formed to be 
 the idol of the enthusiastic, warm-hearted, and 
 generous nation he was sent to rule, was held 
 up to them as the betrayer of their interests — 
 one whom they were neither to trust nor to love. 
 
 When Mr. Desmond v^^as made acquainted 
 with the multiplied and conflicting reports of 
 the state of the country sent up to the Castle, 
 he no longer marvelled at the impossibility of 
 the Irish Government being able to arrive at 
 just conclusions, and, consequently, to apply 
 remedies. The statements sent from his own 
 county alone were so various and contradictory, 
 that on perusing them, he almost doubted the 
 evidence of his senses. 
 
 Each reporter viewed, or at least repre- 
 sented, the state of affairs through the me- 
 dium of his own political feelings and pre- 
 judices. An ultra Tory Lord wrote that 
 the country was in open rebellion. Anarchy 
 and confusion reigned around ; the Church
 
 166 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 was in danger ; and the Protestant ascen- 
 dancy tottering. All this (as was more than 
 insinuated by the writer) proceeded from the 
 impolitic measure of granting the Catholics 
 emancipation, and not compelling the strong 
 body of the people of Ireland to bow to the 
 supremacy of the weak. Tiie Irish Govern- 
 ment were reproached indirectly with their ill- 
 judged lenity, and an air of triumphant self- 
 complacency at the shrewdness and superior 
 judgment of the writer, pervaded what was 
 meant to be a true and impartial statement of 
 evils, the source of which he was more anxious 
 to attribute to the Government than to remedy. 
 Party feeling, narrow prejudices, and illiberal 
 sentiments, marked every line of the Orange 
 Lord's sapient epistle ; all that he reported seem- 
 ed tinged with the atrabilarious hue of his own 
 politics ; and Mr. Desmond finished its perusal 
 with disgust, to look over the report of a liberal 
 county member.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 167 
 
 Here again disappointment awaited him. 
 Instead of a simple statement of facts, he 
 found a recapitulation of motives, all coloured 
 with the glowing tints of the writer''s imagina- 
 tion, and evidently painted with a view to pro- 
 duce a scenic effect at some future election. 
 The tyranny of Protestants who, forsooth, had 
 the audacity to protect their rights and proper- 
 ties, was dwelt on with unmitigated censure; 
 and Mr. Desmond, on perusing the inflated 
 detail, seriously wished that an attentive study 
 of ^' Crabbers Synonymes" might be recom- 
 mended to the Irish gentlemen to be laid on 
 their tables, with " Burn's Justice's Guide," 
 as some restraint on their powers of hyper- 
 bole. 
 
 The statement of the liberal was laid by, with 
 opinions similar to those which had been ex- 
 cited by the perusal of the ultra Tory's report ; 
 and Mr. Desmond felt a sentiment of increased 
 admiration mingle with the respect due to those
 
 168 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 distinguished members of the English aristo- 
 cracy, who could consent to leave their happy 
 and civilized country, their tranquil homes, 
 and agreeable habits of life and society, to 
 accept the office of viceroy in a semi-barbarous 
 kingdom, torn by factions, where the wisdom 
 of the serpent, the courage of the lion, and the 
 peacefulness of the dove, would be powerless 
 when opposed to people determined to ruin 
 their country for the mere gratification of 
 wreaking a mutual and individual vengeance. 
 
 Mr. Desmond failed not to impress on*the 
 Lord Lieutenant^s mind, that the statements he 
 had read were founded in error, and that the 
 mass of the r-^ople were but as tools in the 
 hands of those who wielded them for their own 
 selfish and interested purposes. " Deprive 
 such hands of power, my Lord," said he, " and 
 their weapons become useless ; but if, as 
 hitherto, the people are punished for the crimes
 
 THE REPEALERS. 169 
 
 of those who lead them into danger, and then 
 evade responsibility, little progress is made in 
 staying the evil that has been undermining- 
 Ireland for years. As well might the combus- 
 tible materials that spread conflagration be 
 considered the cause of the flames, instead of 
 the incendiary who applied the torch to them, 
 as the misguided, impetuous, warm-hearted 
 peasantry be condemned for the excesses to 
 which they have been led by the artful and 
 designing men who make a merchandize of the 
 very qualities that are but the exuberance of a 
 too rich soil, and traffic with the excited pas- 
 sions of those ductile people. The more I 
 love my country, my Lord, and pity its de- 
 luded peasantry, the more I loathe those who 
 lead them like victims to the sacrifice." 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 170 THE REPEALERS, 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 " If those alone who ' sowed the wind did reap the 
 whirlwind/ it would be well. But the mischief is, that 
 the blindness of bigotry, the madness of ambition, and the 
 miscalculations of diplomacy, seek their victims principally 
 amongst the innocent and the unoffending. The cottage is 
 sure to suffer for every error of the court, the cabinet, or 
 the camp." 
 
 Mr. Desmond found the Lord Lieutenant 
 and Secretary so disposed to try every effort of 
 conciliation before they called in the strong 
 arm of power, that he thought it his duty to 
 impress on them the utter hopelessness of such 
 measures.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 171 
 
 " The country is now, my lord, in that 
 state," said he, " that the people must be 
 taught to fear the laws before they can respect 
 them ; and, unhappily, conciliation in the pre- 
 sent moment would be more likely to be viewed 
 as a proof of the weakness than of the kindness 
 of the Government. There is no protection 
 for person or for property. Who can count 
 for twenty-four hours on a people whom an 
 inflated speech from an agitator may send forth 
 to use physically the firebrands he has been 
 morally scattering abroad ? Is it to be borne 
 with, that any man is to be allowed the volcanic 
 power of rocking a whole kingdom to its cen- 
 tre, whenever he chooses to send forth his man- 
 dates ? No, my lord ; were an individual to be 
 found who could use such power wisely and 
 moderately, never wielding it but for the be- 
 nefit of his countrymen, even then, it would be 
 dangerous and unwise to permit his retention 
 I 2
 
 172 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 of it. Such precedents are full of danger ; 
 they offer an opportunity to every political ad- 
 venturer to elevate himself on the ruins of his 
 country. Tranquillize Ireland, what becomes 
 of its agitators ? They know that they must 
 sink into comparative insignificance ; and rather 
 would they make a funeral pile of the kingdom, 
 and consume themselves on it, than willingly 
 abandon '' the fearful and dizzy height" to 
 which they have elevated themselves at the 
 expense of their country. The people are 
 proud of the Colossus they have reared ; they 
 admire their own strength, as displayed in sup- 
 porting this proof of its unhealthy exuberance, 
 but the moment that strength is directed to 
 useful and profitable purposes, they will see 
 their past delusion, and abandon their errors." 
 
 Mr. Desmond was invited to dine at the 
 Phoenix Park, and while partaking the hos- 
 pitality of the Viceroy, was pleased to see
 
 THE REPEALERS. 173 
 
 assembled round his splendid board all the 
 rank and talent that Dublin could boast. The 
 polished urbanity of the noble host, the ami- 
 able politeness of his high-born - and high-bred 
 wife, and the interesting group of young people 
 around them, whose attentions to their father's 
 guests were as delicate as they were judicious, 
 were highly gratifying to a mind like Mr. Des- 
 mond'^s, who felt that all he saw was indica- 
 tive of the cordial good will, and spirit of 
 conciliation, which had marked the conduct of 
 the gallant and generous Viceroy from the mo- 
 ment of his touching Irish ground ; and he 
 mentally execrated the pernicious counsels that 
 would pervert the people, or induce them to 
 wish to dissolve the bond of union that linked 
 them to a country which could send such ex- 
 amples of all that was most excellent amongst 
 them. 
 
 Before leaving the Lodge, Mr. DesmoL J could
 
 174 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 not refrain from expressing the pleasure he 
 should feel, if the Marquis and Marchioness of 
 Mona made a tour through the South of Ire- 
 land, and honoured Springmount with their 
 presence. 
 
 While acknowledging the hospitality and 
 politeness of the invitation, the gallant Mar- 
 quis declined it, and Mr. Desmond felt that 
 delicacy and tact dictated the refusal. Had 
 the Viceroy undertaken a tour, it must have 
 been made with something of '' the pomp and 
 circumstance" of regal splendour. All the 
 great houses passed by without a visit, even 
 though a visit was unsought, would become 
 focuses of discontent, around which the satel- 
 lites of each would rally ; and to prevent this, 
 the Lord Lieutenant declined many an invi- 
 tation where his presence could not have failed 
 to excite affection and good-will. 
 
 Unhappy is the country whose ruler is
 
 THE REPEALERS. 175 
 
 forced to such self-denial, and unhappy the peo- 
 ple who are deprived of ocular demonstration 
 of the qualities of him to whom their desti- 
 nies are confided, and whom they only know 
 through the medium of misrepresentation ! 
 
 Mr. Desmond left Dublin next day, being 
 most anxious to join his family, and feeling 
 that the present was not a time to leave them 
 to the tender mercies of the misguided pea- 
 santry in the country. He travelled rapidly, 
 and observed with inquietude the groups of 
 idle gloomy-looking persons that were loiter- 
 ing around the inns in all the towns where 
 he changed horses, and who examined him with 
 curious eyes, as if they expected some exciting 
 intelligence. 
 
 On drawing nearer home, he was surprised 
 to find that he was no longer welcomed by 
 the animated salutations, and reiterated pro- 
 fessions of affection, with which the people
 
 176 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 had been wont to receive him. His carriage 
 being recognized, a respectful, but cold un- 
 covering of the head, was the only notice given 
 to him. 
 
 *' Poor unhappy people !" thought Mr. Des- 
 mond, " it is thus you always repay those who 
 are your best, your truest friends. When will 
 you learn to distinguish between the egotistical 
 political speculators who use you as their tools, 
 and those who would honestly and honourably 
 serve you ? You murdered a Mountjoy, a 
 kind, a noble, and true friend; and you in- 
 sulted and would have destroyed a Grattan, 
 whose genius, whose patriotism, threw a halo 
 over his country." 
 
 The recollection of the two persons whose 
 memories he had invoked, brought sadness to 
 the heart of Mr. Desmond. The Lord Mount- 
 joy had been the friend of his early youth, and 
 was the model on which he had formed him-
 
 THE REPEALERS, 177 
 
 self. The chivalrous sense of honour, the love 
 of literature and of the fine arts, and above 
 all, the devotion to his country, which distin- 
 guished that amiable and beloved nobleman, 
 had endeared him to all who knew him ; but 
 by Mr. Desmond, — who had been the companion 
 of his travels in Italy, and who, though many 
 years his junior, had learned to appreciate his 
 noble qualities, — he had ever been revered as a 
 bright example of virtue, whose tragic death, 
 met at the hands of those whose interests his 
 life had been spent in upholding, was never 
 remembered but with sorrow and with bit- 
 terness. Grattan, great, good, and glorious 
 Grattan, whose genius was only equalled by 
 his honesty, whose long and honourable life 
 was passed in advocating the cause of freedom, 
 but who, while worshipping the pure flame of 
 liberty, turned with honest disgust from the 
 destroying fire of licence. 
 I 5
 
 178 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 "' And can it be," thought Mr. Desmond, 
 '' that this fickle, this ungrateful people, can 
 forget the pure idol they worshipped, to set 
 up in its stead the man of law, who can cal- 
 culate how far democracy can safely go, and 
 where ends the line of demarcation between 
 ao'itation and treason ?" 
 
 Such thoughts were indeed bitter. Mr. Des- 
 mond dwelt on the hopes of his youth, when 
 he had looked forward to seeing his country 
 emerge from the dark cloud that overshadowed 
 it, and, emulating England, make rapid strides 
 to civilization. How had those hopes been 
 frustrated ! — Whig and Tory Governments had 
 alternately applied themselves to redressing the 
 evils under which she groaned for centuries, 
 but had applied themselves in vain ; and now, 
 
 after yielding emancipation, which had been 
 considered as the panacea that was to heal 
 
 every disease, and all parties concluded that
 
 THE REPEALERS. 179 
 
 tranquillity would be established, a new ignis 
 fatuus sprang up to mislead this reckless peo- 
 ple, and conduct them to the very verge of utter 
 ruin. Thus, in his declining life, Mr. Desmond 
 endured that bitter infliction for a patriotic 
 spirit ; — the misery of witnessing the civiliza- 
 tion and happiness of his unfortunate country 
 retrograding much more rapidly than he had 
 ever seen them advance.
 
 180 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 " Adieu for him 
 The dull engagements of the bustling world ! 
 Adieu the sick impertinence of praise, 
 And hope, and action ! for with her alone, 
 By streams and shades to steal these sighing hours 
 Is all he asks, and all that fate can give !" 
 
 When Colonel Forrester returned to Water- 
 ford, he found that the few days which had 
 elapsed during his absence, had been marked 
 by fresh riots, tumultuous meetings, and resist- 
 ance to the laws. On sending his resignation 
 to the War Office, he regretted the being 
 obliged to withdraw his services at a crisis
 
 THE REPEALERS. 181 
 
 which threatened to require them. But his pro- 
 mise was pledged, and he felt that under the 
 circumstances of his present engagement, his 
 first duty was to attend to the happiness of his 
 future wife and that of her parents, which hap- 
 piness, he was decidedly of opinion, could only 
 be secured by their fixing their residence in 
 England. 
 
 His brother officers heard that they were to 
 lose Colonel Forrester with deep regret, for he 
 was as universally as he was deservedly be- 
 loved and respected in his regiment. The few 
 days that must pass ere he could receive the 
 acceptance of his resignation, he determined to 
 remain at head quarters ; but he daily dispatch- 
 ed a servant with letters to Springmount, and 
 thence, in return, received tidings fraught with 
 affection. 
 
 An authority, whom to doubt would be 
 profanation, has said that " the course of true
 
 182 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 love never did run smooth ;" and, according to 
 all received usage, we have committed an un- 
 usual solecism in allowing our hero and heroine 
 to meet, love, and become affianced lovers, with- 
 out any of the usual obstacles that intervene 
 on such occasions. Yet, they loved not the less 
 ardently because no such obstacles had occur- 
 red ; and had the father of the heroine been a 
 domestic tyrant, who refused to listen to the 
 pleadings of affection, and forbade the lover the 
 sight of his daughter, they could not be more 
 anxious or impatient to meet again. 
 
 '' What !" exclaims one of my female read- 
 ers, " when there was neither risk nor difficulty 
 in the meeting ? no mother to be deceived, and 
 no father to be outwitted ?"" 
 
 It is even so, kind and gentle reader, but 
 then, remember, that Frances Desmond resem- 
 bled in nought, save in beauty, a heroine of 
 romance, according to the received notions
 
 THE REPEALERS. 183 
 
 of such a personage ; and that her lover as 
 little resembled a hero, except in being hand- 
 some, brave, and in love. Nay we must add, 
 that the certainty that Colonel Forrester's pre- 
 sence would be hailed with delight by her pa- 
 rents, increased the pleasure and impatience 
 with which Frances looked forward to his ar- 
 rival ; and after this confession, she must forfeit 
 all claims to the distinction of a heroine. 
 
 The attachment between Frances and her 
 parents seemed to have become more tender 
 since she had been affianced to Colonel Forres- 
 ter. It was as though she was desirous of 
 proving to them that the new sentiment she 
 experienced, a sentiment considered to super- 
 sede and engross all others, had not diminished 
 her affection for them, while they felt all the 
 bonds of love drawn still more closely, as they 
 contemplated the possibility and probability of 
 a separation from their cliild.
 
 184 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 They had always wished to make her resi- 
 dence with them a condition of her marriage ; 
 but delicacy, and a fear of being thought to 
 dictate to a son-in-law whose inferior fortune 
 rendered the marriage in some degree unequal, 
 restrained them from expressing their wishes, 
 and Frances having never for a moment con- 
 templated the possibility of leaving her father 
 and mother, the subject was un-named, though 
 it occupied all the thoughts of the doting pa- 
 rents, and filled their eyes with tears whenever 
 they dwelt on their child, and thought of her 
 being taken from them. 
 
 This was the only alloy to their happiness, 
 the only drop of bitterness in their cup. But 
 so it is ever, even with the happiest — some care 
 or fear will always arise to throw a cloud over 
 what otherwise might be too bright for our im- 
 perfect natures. 
 
 To a practical knowledge of the world, that 
 is in no school more readily acquired than in
 
 THE REPEALERS. 185 
 
 the army. Colonel Forrester united an affec- 
 tionate disposition, and deep tenderness of na- 
 ture, which that school too often tends to 
 blunt. Left an orphan at an early age, the 
 sole protector of a lovely young sister, he had 
 assiduously supplied the place of the parents 
 they had lost, until he had the happiness of be- 
 stowing her hand, where she had already given 
 her heart, on a young nobleman of amiable dis- 
 position, cultivated mind, and large fortune. 
 His attachment to his sister had prepared his 
 heart for the passionate one that now engross- 
 ed it, and fond anticipations of the friendship 
 he hoped to cement between his future wife 
 and that dear sister, were mingled in all his 
 aspirations of the future. 
 
 " Frances is precisely the person formed to 
 be chosen as the friend of my dear sister," said 
 Colonel Forrester often to himself; " and Louisa 
 is sure to be loved, as soon as she is known." 
 
 Every man who has a favourite sister, and
 
 186 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 is in love, has entertained a similar thought; 
 but how few have realized the agreeable visions 
 they have indulged ! Sisters-in-law are apt to 
 view each other, not through the flattering 
 optics of the husband and brother, but through 
 the microscopic ones of female rivalry; and, 
 being thrown more frequently into close con- 
 tact with each other than with other female 
 friends, defects are discovered that might have 
 escaped detection in less near connexions. A 
 sister has been accustomed to be the first per- 
 son in a brother's estimation, and even a good 
 one will feel something more of the woman than 
 of the sister rising in her breast, when she is 
 told by her brother, what brothers are too apt 
 to tell, that her new relative is " the loveliest, 
 wisest, virtuousest, best," of all her sex, with- 
 out the enraptured panegyrist having the fra- 
 ternal grace to make even one solitary exception 
 for the hitherto idolized sister. 
 
 Colonel Forrester, however, knew his sister
 
 THE REPEALERS. 187 
 
 well ; and therefore could without danger of 
 disappointment, reckon on the affection which 
 an acquaintance between her and his future 
 wife could not fail to produce ; and in this 
 conviction, felt the strongest impatience to 
 make them mutually known. 
 
 In writing to acquaint Lady Oriel of his 
 approaching marriage, he gave so graphic a 
 portrait of his betrothed, that she learned 
 to love, even without having seen, her future 
 sister ; and knowing the acute judgment of 
 her brother, which not even love could have 
 blinded, she felt persuaded that the picture 
 was not too flattering. 
 
 In his letters to Lady Oriel he poured forth 
 his whole soul, as she had often done to him, 
 when dwelhng on her wedded happiness, and 
 he wrote, 
 
 " To love thou blam'st me not, for love thou sayes 
 Leads up to heaven, is both the way and guide." 
 
 Family affections are our consolations for the
 
 18S THE REPEALERS. 
 
 coldness and indifference of the world ; and the 
 tie that unites a brother and sister, formed in 
 infanc}^ and strengthened in youth, becomes 
 indissoluble in maturity. No friendship form- 
 ed in after-age can have the same charm. 
 This is identified with our happiest days, has 
 grown with our growth and strengthened with 
 our strength, until it has become a part of our 
 very being. 
 
 " Like twining streams both from one fountain fell, 
 And as they ran still mingled smiles and tears." 
 
 The difference of sex, in this relation, adds 
 to the strength of the affection. As fathers 
 love their daughters better than sons, and 
 mothers love their sons better than daughters, 
 so do sisters feel towards brothers a more con- 
 stant sentiment of attachment than towards each 
 other. None of the little vanities, heart-burn- 
 ings, and jealousies, that, alas for poor human 
 nature ! are but too apt to spring up in female
 
 THE REPEALERS. 189 
 
 hearts, can arise between brother and sister ; 
 each is proud of the success of the other, be- 
 cause it cannot interfere with self — nay, on 
 the contrary, is flattering to self. Hence, if 
 there be a bond of family union more free 
 from all the selfish blots that interrupt all 
 others, it is that which exists between an affec- 
 tionate sister and brother. 
 
 Colonel Forrester almost doubted the reahty 
 of the happiness prepared for him. It seemed 
 too great, too perfect, to last. The letters of 
 Frances breathed affection, pure and spotless as 
 herself; her dear father and mother were con- 
 tinually referred to in them as being as impa- 
 tient as herself for his return, and sentiments of 
 pious gratitude mingled in every expression of 
 chastened, maidenly tenderness, that escaped 
 from her pen. 
 
 " I shall love Springmount more than ever, 
 now that I know you, dearest, are to pass your
 
 190 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 life here with me," wrote Frances Desmond. 
 " My father and mother are planning a thou- 
 sand improvements and embellishments, to be 
 carried on under your inspection. You are up- 
 permost in every project for the future, and 
 occupy us all so continually, that our love for 
 you seems a new bond of union bet\veen us, 
 and we wonder how we were happy before we 
 knew you. But no, we were not happy, we 
 were only content, and a few weeks have 
 proved to us how vast is the distance between 
 happiness and content. How delightful it is 
 to hear my father and mother always talking 
 of you ! but you have no one to speak to 
 you of your Frances."
 
 THE REPEALERS. 191 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 " Nous qui sommes bornees en tout, comment le sommes 
 nous si peu quand 11 s'aglt de souffrir." 
 
 Grace Cassidy was sitting by the expiring 
 embers of her fire on a Sunday night, filled 
 with melancholy reflections, called up by re- 
 collections of the past and dread of the future, 
 excited by her weak-minded husband's per- 
 severance in following the dictates of the 
 agitators, when Larry M'Swigger entered her 
 cottage. 
 
 " I 'm just come to ax you if you can let 
 me have a bed this blessed night, Mistress
 
 192 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 Cassidy ?" said Larry. " Indeed and troth I 
 wouldn't be for throubling you, but that the 
 Cat and Bagpipes, where I had engaged a bed, 
 is no fit place for a quiet man, — such goings 
 on ! such rhaumish and disputing ! such knock- 
 ing the tables with their fists ! such flourishing 
 of shillelahs, singing, crying, and cursing ! — 
 that I wouldn't stay there, and stole away to 
 come and ax you to let me have a place to lie 
 down." 
 
 Grace consented to arrange a bed for Larry, 
 because she felt that she could not, without an 
 appearance of inhospitality unknown amongst 
 the Irish of her class, refuse him ; but the 
 duties of hospitality were never so unwillingly 
 performed by her as at this moment, as Larry 
 would now be made a witness of her husband's 
 late hours, for which she could offer no excuse ; 
 and with the sensitiveness of womanly love 
 she shrank from having his errors exposed.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 193 
 
 " Sure, these are quare times, Mistress Cas- 
 sidy," said Larry, " to see the grand gentle- 
 men of the country hardly so much as men- 
 tioned, and all the tag, rag, and bobtail, set 
 up as laiders. Faith, it reminds me of a pot 
 of broth, where all the scum floats up to the 
 top ; and be my soul, Mistress Cassidy, like the 
 broth, the scum must be taken off*, before it ^s 
 fit for using. Well, there was Jack Donovan 
 came into the Cat and Bagpipes with his arm 
 broke, and one of his legs dislocated, in a fight 
 with one of the policemen, whom he left 
 stretched for dead on the road ; and when he 
 came into the tap-room and showed how kilt 
 he was, didn't your husband, Jim Cassidy, 
 slap him on the back, and say he was glo- 
 riously maimed and illustriously mutilated? 
 upon which all of 'em began screeching and 
 shouting out for Jim and for Jack Donovan. 
 Faith, myself slipped off and came here, to be 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 194 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 out of harm's way ; for if the police goes to 
 take up Jack Donovan, there'll be bad work at 
 the Cat and Bagpipes, for all the boys are 
 determined to stand by him. 
 
 " They had a newspaper there, and were 
 reading all the speeches of the Irish mimbers. 
 Faith, I couldn't make head or tail of 'em, 
 there was such hard words ; only one thing I 
 minded, which was that when any of the 
 Repalers made a speech, the English mimbers 
 began to laugh, which was not mannerly ; 
 though for the matter of that, maybe they 
 couldn't help it, for sure it 's hard not to laugh 
 at a joke, and many 's the joke our mimbers 
 will pass on 'em before they 've done with 'em. 
 
 " Well, then, when they laughed, one of the 
 Repalers up and tould 'em plain enough, — 
 ' Gentlemen,' says he, ' ye may laugh, but the 
 laugh will be echoed by many a weep and wail 
 from Ireland.' Faith, this reminded me of the
 
 THE REPEALERS. 195 
 
 echo, that when you cried out, ' How do you 
 do ?' answered, ' Very well thank you.' Well, 
 Mistress Cassidy, sure we ought to be thankful 
 for such mild weather here anyway, when one 
 sees in the newspapers that the mimbers 
 couldn't be heard for coughing in the parlia- 
 ment. Faith, I never heard the English were 
 so subject to coulds till lately." 
 
 Poor Grace had scarcely heard the observa- 
 tions of Larry M'Swigger, from the moment 
 that he told her of her husband's ill-judged 
 compliments to Jack Donovan. At one instant 
 she was tempted to go to the Cat and Bagpipes 
 in search of him, but the next she felt ashamed 
 to present herself before such an assemblage of 
 riotous and intoxicated men ; she feared also 
 that Jim might be offended at her going, and 
 resent it before his companions. 
 
 She repeatedly got up and went to the door, 
 to see if her husband was approaching, but he 
 K 2
 
 196 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 did not appear ; and she stood leaning on the 
 door-post, dreading to enter the kitchen again, 
 where Larry would be sure to assail her with 
 a never-ending history, to which the present 
 state of her nerves rendered her little disposed 
 to listen. 
 
 It was a clear, moonlight night, and every 
 object was silvered over by the bright lu- 
 minary. The stillness that reigned around, 
 contrasted fearfully with the. disturbed feelings 
 of Grace ; and she turned from a view that had 
 often delighted her, because its very calm was 
 at the present moment a mockery to the agita- 
 tion and fear that filled her breast. 
 
 How often had she stood with Jim on the 
 same spot on such a night, both of them charm- 
 ed with all that now lay spread before her, and 
 wondering if the moon was equally brilliant 
 in other places ! And well did she remember 
 Jim*s saying, " Sure, if it is equally bright in
 
 THE REPEALERS. 197 
 
 other places, where could it find such a clear, 
 beautiful looking-glass, to see its fair face in, as 
 in our own broad river ? or such fine moun- 
 tains to pass over, and such woods to be shin- 
 ing on, as here? And sure, Grace asthore, every 
 fair face likes to see itself. Didn't I catch 
 your own dear self looking on the can of water 
 one day when you first wore the pink ribbon I 
 brought you from the fair of Carrick ?" 
 
 What woman forgets a compliment from the 
 man she loves ? The simple one of Jim, re- 
 called to her recollection by the beautiful 
 scene around, brought before her the fatal 
 change in him. 
 
 *' Ah ! he loved me then," thought Grace, 
 " and saw beauty in my face ! Little he thinks 
 of it now, for tears have withered it, and smiles 
 are strangers to my mouth, that used to be 
 so full of 'em. There is that same bright and 
 beautiful moon, shining on the same moun-
 
 198 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 tains, rivers, and trees — everything is just the 
 same as when I was so happy. Sure, I think 
 I 'd bear the change in him better, if all 
 around me was changed too. But no ; that 
 beautiful moon will shine just as brightly when 
 I 'm in my grave and all my throubles are 
 over; and everything will look just the same, 
 though my eyes, that used to be so fond of 
 looking on them, will see them no more. 
 Well, I hope I may be buried by the side of 
 Jim, in the sunny corner of the churchyard, 
 for I 'd like to have the sun shining on our 
 graves, and the beautiful moon looking down 
 on 'em, even though we couldn't see 'em." 
 
 The thought of death calmed the feelings of 
 Grace. She entered, and found Larry M'Swig- 
 ger asleep, with his head resting on the table. 
 She retired to her room, and on her knees 
 offered up her prayers to the throne of mercy, 
 that her husband might be pardoned and pro-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 199 
 
 tected, and that grace might be accorded her to 
 turn him from the evil course he was pursuing. 
 She arose from her supplications calm and 
 reassured ; and reclined in a chair to wait the 
 return of her husband. 
 
 There is a sublimity in prayer that elevates 
 even the most ordinary minds ; for who ever 
 lifted up his soul to the Divinity without feel- 
 ing emotions to which language is inadequate 
 to give expression ? The lips may breathe 
 prayers, though they only faintly convey what is 
 felt ; but the heart sends forth aspirations more 
 fervent than speech ever framed. It is at such 
 moments that all which is pure and fine in our 
 natures is most developed. Nought is so puri- 
 fying as prayer ; for evil passions must be at 
 rest, ere the soul can raise itself up to the 
 contemplation of the Almighty, and we must 
 have pardoned ere we can pray for pardon. 
 
 Jim returned not to his home until the
 
 200 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 morning had dawned. His flushed cheek and 
 blood-shot eyes betrayed that, though he had 
 abstained from intoxicating draughts, in com- 
 pliance with his oath, he had not refrained 
 from the equally pernicious intoxication of 
 agitation.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 201 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 " Through the shadowy past, 
 Like a tomb-searcher, memory ran, 
 Lifting each shroud that time had cast 
 O'er buried hopes." 
 
 Grace dared not trust herself with a re- 
 monstrance to Jim, until sleep had calmed the 
 feverish excitement under which he evidently 
 laboured. Hitherto, no word of anger or bit- 
 terness had passed between them, because 
 Grace had forborne to urge his impatient 
 temper ; and she dreaded to expose herself to 
 some ebullition of anger, in which recrimina- 
 tion might break down the barriers of for- 
 K 5
 
 202 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 bearance, that still supplied the place of love 
 on the part of her husband. While he 
 dropped into the heavy slumber that follows 
 powerful excitement, she saw the morning sun 
 break into the chamber. 
 
 " This," thought she, " used to be his usual 
 hour of going to his work. How have I stood 
 at the door to look after him, as his feet 
 brushed the dew from the grass, and the birds 
 were singing from every branch ! I thought 
 how many hours must pass before he returned 
 to me again, and I was sorrowful; but when 
 he got to the last bend of the field, and 
 turned round to see if I was looking at him, 
 and waved his hat to me so cheerfully, my 
 spirits came back, and I used to think of pre- 
 paring for his return something nice for his 
 supper. When I rubbed all the furniture, 
 and made it shine so bright, and stuck fresh 
 holly on the dresser, among the pewter plates
 
 THE REPEALERS. 203 
 
 that shone like silver, and looked round and 
 saw everything so nate and tidy that a king 
 might sit down in the kitchen; I used to be 
 so proud and happy, thinking how he would 
 enjoy it all when he came home — and he used 
 to enjoy it, and praise everything I did, and 
 call me his own dear good Grace, but now — '' 
 
 Her eyes fell on the contracted brow of the 
 sleeper — his flushed cheek, and clenched teeth, 
 bore evidence that, though the body reposed, 
 the mind was still active ; and " slaves and 
 tyrants" were indistinctly murmured from his 
 lips, as with a menacing gesture of the hand 
 he muttered the words that had taken such 
 a hold of his heated imagination. Bitter feel- 
 ings arose in the breast of poor Grace, and she 
 thanked God that she had still charity enough 
 left, not to curse the wily agitators who had 
 led her once excellent husband to this altered 
 state, and blighted all her happiness.
 
 g04 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 " It's no use thinking and fretting," said 
 Grace ; '' here is another day lost from his 
 work; sure, I must try and make up for it, 
 by doing as much as I can." 
 
 And with this wise resolution, a resolution 
 we would recommend to every wife in similar 
 circumstances, she made her simple but neat 
 toilette, cleaned her house, and performed all 
 her domestic duties before Larry M'Swigger 
 had risen from the comfortable bed which 
 she had assigned to him. 
 
 " Why then, faith. Mistress Cassidy, it's 
 yourself that's the stirring active woman any 
 way, to be up so early after being up so 
 late, as a body might say. Sure, you're just 
 as nate and tidy as if you were in your bed 
 from nine till six, instead of, as I suspect, not 
 having slept at all ; for I heard you sighing 
 whenever I woke in the night, which I did 
 mighty often, bekase the bed was so elegant
 
 THE REPEALERS. 205 
 
 that I, who haven't been used to such a one for 
 a long while, found that it disturbed me ; be- 
 sides which, I couldn't sleep for dreaming. 
 Faith, I dreamt enough to fill a book, and 
 such quare things ! I hope they won't come 
 thrue, though I 'm afeard they will, for I 
 dreamt 'em chiefly towards the morning, and 
 the morning dreams mostly comes thrue, — worse 
 luck for me this time if they do. I used to 
 hate getting up early when I was young ; 
 faith, for the matther of that, I don't much 
 like it now ; but I always remimbered that if 
 I stayed sleeping in my bed in the morning, and 
 had bad dreams, they 'd come thrue ; so that, 
 made me jump up; and I'm tould by those 
 that know all about it, that the dreams of 
 the night never comes to pass, — I suppose it's 
 chiefly bekase people can't remember 'em so 
 well." 
 
 Grace, " on hospitable thoughts intent,"
 
 206 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 spread a clean white cloth on the deal table, 
 placed a large loaf of home-baked brown bread 
 on it, with a plate of nicely-scooped crock- 
 butter, and two piggins of skimmed milk ; and 
 invited Larry M'Swigger with a hearty wel- 
 come to partake her humble repast : an invi- 
 tation which he thankfully accepted, observ- 
 ing, " that a good hand she was, to give a 
 decent comfortable brekus, (Irish for breakfast,) 
 with lashings of every thing ; and her mother, 
 rest her soul ! was the same before her.*" 
 
 They had only finished their repast, when 
 Peggy Halloran, a neighbour, came in ; and, 
 big with news which she was most anxious 
 to communicate, began, after the usual morn- 
 ing salutation of — " God save ye this fine 
 morning !*" with " Have ye heard the news ?" 
 
 Being answered in the negative, she con- 
 tinued — " Well, then, it's great news, sur- 
 prising news, and terrible news for some
 
 THE REPEALERS. 207 
 
 people I'm thinking;" stealing a look at the 
 blanched cheek of Grace, who latterly had as- 
 sociated news, and trouble to Jim, together in 
 her mind. " Well, sure there was one of them 
 police kilt last night by one of the boys, and 
 sure enough he 's dead downright, and they 've 
 sint to the justices, and sint off for the soldiers, 
 and every mother's soul in Cologan that was 
 out of their houses last night, will be taken up 
 and hung for the murdher. Sure, what 's the 
 matther with you, Mistress Cassidy ? you look 
 as pale as death ; I hope none of your friends 
 had a hand in this job. My honest man never 
 stirred out of the house last night ; — faith, I 
 took care he shouldn't, for I put a jar of 
 potheen that I got from the mountains be- 
 fore him, and says I, * There's better whisky 
 than ever you '11 get at the Cat and Bagpipes, 
 where they 'd make you pay double the money 
 for it ; so smoke your pipe, and take your
 
 208 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 dhrop dacently at home.' He was mighty un- 
 willing at first to stay, but whin once he began 
 to taste the dhrop, he hadn't the heart to lave 
 it, and niver quitted it till he fell off the chair ; 
 and the childer and I pulled him to the bed, 
 and he awoke as fresh as a daisy this morning, 
 only a little bothered in the head; and glad 
 enough he is that he wasn''t at the Cat and 
 Bagpipes, where he surely would have been, 
 only 1 had the dhrop at home for him." 
 
 Grace sat stupified, listening to this ha- 
 rangue, and Peggy Halloran continued — " I 
 hope you '11 excuse my freedom, Mistress Cas- 
 sidy, but I think it's a great pity you made 
 Jim swear against the dhrop; sure, all the 
 neighbours say, he never was the same man 
 since. Had you let him alone, and always kept 
 a jar of potheen in the house, he'd have stayed 
 quietly with you, and been dhrunk in an hour, 
 and then you'd have had a quiet night's rest.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 209 
 
 and an aisy mind, instead of having him out all 
 night with them boys. And sure the worst of 
 it is, that now as he 's known not to take the 
 dhrop, he '11 come off worse bekase people can't 
 say he stayed out all night for the dhrink, or 
 that he was in liquor when he did this, that, or 
 f other, for the liquor is always an excuse for 
 everything." 
 
 The comment on the interpretation that 
 would be put on Jim's sobriety, struck Grace 
 with terror. " What indeed," she thought, 
 " could be said for his staying out all night, 
 when it was proved he did not drink.? And 
 I it was that kept him from drink, and have 
 only saved him from the evils of intoxication, 
 to see him fall into greater, more appalling 
 danger !" 
 
 To reason with Peggy Halloran on their 
 different views of the duty of a wife, Grace 
 felt would be as useless, as it would be
 
 210 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 fatiguing to her present exhausted frame and 
 spirits. She knew that Peggy only spoke 
 the sentiments of the generality of her female 
 neighbours, who, looking on intoxication as a 
 habit as necessary and natural to their hus- 
 bands as their pipes and tobacco, only cal- 
 culated on the means of procuring them this 
 indulgence at the least possible expense. 
 What a state of morals ! and these dissolute 
 beings are the supporters of the Repealers ! 
 
 Larry M'Swigger marked the paleness of 
 Grace's cheek ; he knew the sleepless night 
 she had passed, and he felt irritated against 
 Peggy Halloran for the unfeeling personality 
 of her remarks. " Sure, Mistress Halloran, 
 if Jim Cassidy has been out," said Larry, 
 " wasn't it to give good advice, and, being 
 the only sober man amongst them dhrunken 
 boys, to keep 'em out of harm's v^^ay ? He 
 had no more to say to killing the policeman
 
 THE REPEALERS. 211 
 
 than I had, of which I can make my Bible 
 oath any way, and prove a yellow boy (an 
 alibi) for him, so never be unaisy, Mistress 
 Cassidy my jewel, for you'll see there'll be 
 no danger in life." 
 
 He gave a triumphant look at Peggy Hal- 
 loran, who felt its force, for she replied that, 
 " Sure, she 'd be sorry enough that Jim Cas- 
 sidy got into throuble, though she must say 
 he never was the same man since he left off the 
 dhrink." 
 
 Several other of her neighbours having come 
 in, announced to Grace, that the police were in 
 search of Jack Donovan, who had fled, and that 
 the man he wounded in the scuffle, the night 
 before, was dead. They added the consolatory 
 * intelligence, that as Jack Donovan had confess- 
 ed the crime in the presence of so many wit- 
 nesses at the Cat and Bagpipes, no one else 
 could be suspected of it ; but that most proba-
 
 212 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 bly, all the persons present at his acknowledge- 
 ment of the murder, would be summoned to 
 give evidence of his words. 
 
 This was a great relief to Grace's fears, 
 though she still looked forward with dread to 
 the effect a summons might produce on the ex- 
 cited feelings of Jim, whose imprudence made 
 her apprehensive that, on his examination, he 
 might compromise his own safety, by giving 
 utterance to the seditious language he had 
 lately adopted from the Repealers. 
 
 She awoke him, and communicated the death 
 of the policeman, and its possible results, ex- 
 pecting that some sentiment of pity or regret 
 might escape his lips, which would have given 
 her an opportunity of impressing on his mind 
 the fatal consequences likely to ensue from the 
 conflicts between the peasantry and police, 
 which his inflated language was calculated to 
 encourage; and, as hitherto Jim had been as
 
 THE REPEALERS. 213 
 
 remarkable for humanity as for high courage, 
 two qualities that ought to be inseparable, she 
 fully expected that he would feel shocked at the 
 murder of the unfortunate man, who, 
 
 *' Unhousel'd, disappointed, unaneal'd, 
 No reckoning made, was sent to his account 
 With all his imperfections on his head :" 
 
 but no, Jim's first expression was, " So perish 
 all our enemies ! Jack Donovan has set a grand 
 example by killing the first." 
 
 " Oh ! hold your tongue, Jim, for mercy's 
 sake !" said Grace, " for my sake ! Do you 
 want to be taken up ? to be dragged to a 
 prison ? — Jim, Jim, you'll break my heart." 
 
 " Grace, you are not fit to be the wife of a 
 Pathriot, or a Repaler," said Jim. " Sure 
 what's a few lives, in comparison with getting 
 our Parliament back ? which we '11 be sure to 
 do, if we do all the mischief we can."
 
 214 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 To reason with him at this moment, Grace 
 felt, would be useless. She therefore merely 
 urged him to put on his clothes, and go to his 
 work as usual, as his absence from his ordinary 
 occupation might create suspicions to his dis- 
 advantage. She had some difficulty in per- 
 suading the weak and wilful man even to 
 this prudent measure, and he only yielded to 
 her tears. 
 
 When he was gone, Grace determined on pro- 
 ceeding to Springmount, to entreat the protec- 
 tion of the dear, good master, in case any mis- 
 fortune should happen to Jim. She found ad- 
 mittance to the beloved mistress and Miss Des- 
 mond, and told them the extent of her fears. 
 They entered into her situation with kind in- 
 terest, and promised to say all that could be 
 said to Mr. Desmond, to palliate the infatu- 
 ation of Jim. 
 
 '' Och ! dear ladies," said Grace, " my poor
 
 THE REPEALERS. 215 
 
 unfortunate husband is bewitched ; he sees no- 
 thing as it really is, and is no longer in his 
 right mind. Beg of the masther to have pity on 
 him, and not to let his own foolish words ruin 
 him, for he is so lost to common sense, that he 
 has no enemy who would say as ill of him as 
 he says of himself since this terrible delusion 
 has come over him/'' 
 
 Mrs. Desmond and the amiable Frances 
 sincerely pitied Grace, and dismissed her 
 with promises of continued protection to her 
 misguided husband, in spite of his folly and 
 infatuation. 
 
 On returning to her home, Grace met various 
 bodies of the police on the road, and shrank 
 from encountering them, as if she felt they 
 must be her enemies, from the opposition her 
 husband was disposed to show them. 
 
 " A short time ago," thought she, " and 
 the sight of these men would have given me
 
 2\6 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 confidence, instead of fear. I should have 
 looked on them as the protectors of my hus- 
 band and self; and so they would have been, 
 had he continued to deserve it. But now he 
 is their enemy, and they must be his, and 
 oh ! wo is me, where will all this end?"
 
 THE REPEALERS. 217 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 " Oh ! who art thou who dar'st of love complain ? 
 He is a gentle spirit, and injures none! 
 His foes are ours ; from them the bitter pain, 
 The keen, deep anguish, the heart-rending groan, 
 Which in his milder reign are never known. 
 His tears are softer than the April showers ; 
 White-handed innocence supports his throne ; 
 His sighs are sweet as breath of earliest flowers, 
 Affection guides his steps, and peace protects his 
 bowers." 
 
 The letter from the War Office, accepting 
 Colonel Forrester's resignation, had no sooner 
 arrived at Waterford, than he set out for Spring- 
 mount, where his presence was hailed with joy. 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 218 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 Mr. Desmond had only returned from Dublin a 
 few days before ; and the communications which 
 the two friends had to make to each other on the 
 state of the country, led both to the conclusion 
 that though it would be much more agreeable 
 to leave Ireland, and fix their residence in Eng- 
 land, yet, as their presence and influence in the 
 country might have some weight in subduing 
 the spirit of insubordination which was so pre- 
 valent, they ought to sacrifice pleasure to duty, 
 and they agreed that they would remain at 
 Springmount for the present. 
 
 Mr. Desmond told Forrester that now his 
 military ties were sundered, the sooner he sub- 
 mitted to his conjugal ones the better, and that 
 he had given his lawyer instructions to put all 
 en regie. — " I have but my child and her hap- 
 piness to consider,*" said the affectionate father : 
 " all that I posses? is to be hers some future 
 day ; but, en attendant, it is necessary for the
 
 THE REPEALERS. 219 
 
 happiness of us all, that you and Frances 
 should feel yourselves perfectly independent. 
 Therefore half my fortune shall forthwith be- 
 come yours, and you wiU not, I am sure, be 
 impatient for the possession of the other half." 
 
 Colonel Forrester felt that this was the mo- 
 ment to open his mind to his future father-in- 
 law ; and he told him that, knowing the love 
 Frances felt for her parents, he hoped they 
 could not suspect him of wishing to deprive 
 either them or their child of the happiness of 
 passing their lives together. 
 
 " You have overlooked," continued he, *' the 
 disparity of fortune between your daughter 
 and myself. Can I .do less than declare to you 
 that I will never separate her from you ? All 
 future arrangements I leave entirely in your 
 hands. Where you wish to live, there also will 
 1 live. In short, I trust, that if you have 
 not obtained a wealthy son-in-law, you have 
 L 2
 
 220 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 at least found a grateful and attached one, 
 who, having lost his own parents, will most 
 gladly transfer the affection and duty he owed 
 them, to you and Mrs. Desmond."" 
 
 This frank and affectionate avowal removed 
 the only chagrin the excellent couple had felt at 
 the thoughts of the marriage of their daughter ; 
 and all within the walls of Springmount was 
 gaiety and happiness. 
 
 " How I long to make you acquainted with 
 my dear sister !" said Colonel Forrester to 
 Frances. " You are formed for each other. 
 Lady Oriel is so unsophisticated, so loving, 
 and so loveable, that it is impossible to know 
 her without being attached to her; and yet, 
 though you are her junior, you are more pose^ 
 more wise, than she is ; for she has a morbid 
 susceptibility, or sensibility, call it which you 
 will, which has been fostered by a similar ten- 
 dency in the feelings of her otherwise faultless
 
 THE REPEALERS. 221 
 
 husband, that has sometimes alarmed me for 
 her happiness." 
 
 " Surely," said Frances, " this similarity in 
 their feelings must be conducive to their hap- 
 piness, as it must produce a better understand- 
 ing, and preclude the possibility of disagree- 
 ment.'"" 
 
 " I am not prepared to admit this reason- 
 ing," replied Colonel Forrester. " Though I 
 maintain that a similarity of tastes is highly 
 conducive to happiness, a too great assimila- 
 tion of feelings is apt to mar it. Lord Oriel 
 is too sensitive to speak his wishes, and thinks 
 his wife ought to have an intuitive knowledge 
 of them. Her extreme susceptibility enables 
 her at a glance to perceive when anything has 
 gone wrong, though she cannot always divine 
 precisely its nature. Each is afraid of wound- 
 ing the other ; hence, one half their lives passes 
 in refined and delicate misunderstandings, and
 
 2^2 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 the other half in conceahnents, or eclair cisse- 
 ments of them. Less morbid feelings would 
 avoid the first, and not be compelled to the 
 other two. I see, dearest, that you smile, be- 
 cause, luckily, you have never been exposed to a 
 contact with persons like Lord Oriel, who have 
 a thousand virtues and only one fault. You 
 have lived with those who have all the former 
 without the latter, and I must take care that 
 through me you extend not your knowledge on 
 this point, and not let too much happiness 
 render me too fastidious. You, dear Frances ! 
 must keep me in order, otherwise I shall be 
 spoiled." 
 
 The smile of affection with which the lovely 
 girl extended her hand to her lover, gave little 
 assurance of her compliance with his request 
 of keeping him in order ; and her gentleness 
 afforded evidence that he would be compelled 
 to hold the reins of domestic government, as 
 she was formed to obey more than to dictate.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 2^S 
 
 Every thing being now in progress for the 
 marriage of Colonel Forrester and Miss Des- 
 mond, it became the general topic of conversa- 
 tion in the neighbourhood. The observations 
 it excited, showed how strongly party feelings 
 and prejudices influenced the opinions of all 
 classes on the subject. The gentry expressed 
 their surprise that Mr. Desmond should be 
 compelled to give his heiress to a stranger, — 
 an Englishman, — and of comparatively small 
 fortune, when he might have chosen a more 
 suitable husband for her in his own country. 
 They dwelt on the annoyance of seeing so fine 
 an estate pass into the hands of an utter 
 stranger, and each had some hypercritical 
 observations to make on the ColoneFs reserved 
 air, distant manner, and too dignified demea- 
 nour. In short, they were determined to find 
 fault, and when this determination exists, it is 
 not difficult to furnish it with food. 
 
 Among the lower classes the intended alii-
 
 224f THE REPEALERS. 
 
 ance excited still stronger disapprobation ; and 
 as in no country do the lower orders claim 
 or usurp to themselves a greater right of 
 questioning the conduct and motives of their 
 superiors, so in no country are they less 
 capable of understanding either. The tap- 
 room of the Cat and Bagpipes became the 
 arena where these wordy plebeian gladiators 
 were to attack the right of their excellent 
 landlord to grant the hand of his daughter 
 to him whom he considered the most worthy 
 to possess it. 
 
 " Here ""s a purty business," said Will 
 Gavin, the smith ; " the ould fool of a mas- 
 ther giving his daughter, and, what^s worse, 
 the green acres, to the Sassenach ! Sure, 'tis 
 enough to provoke a saint if there was any 
 saints ; but they left the counthry when Castle- 
 reagh, bad luck to him ! carried away the 
 Union."
 
 THE REPEALERS. 225 
 
 " Arrah, whisht ! hould your tongue. Will," 
 said Tom Flaherty, the cow- doctor ; " don't be 
 tanking of masthers. We've had enough of 
 them any way ; and sure, as the Repalers tell us, 
 we 're not to own to any masther any more but 
 O'Blarney ; he that 's the pattern of boys, and 
 fears nothing, except our letting the ould coun- 
 thry go to sleep ; ' for,' says he, ' if onct you let 
 the kingdom be rocked to sleep in the cradle of 
 quietness, and hushed with a lullaby of sweet 
 promises, there '11 be an end of ye. England 
 never remimbers ye 're alive unless whin ye 're 
 mad. Show her ye 're alive and kicking too,' 
 says he, * and ye '11 frighten her.' " 
 
 " Ay," says Will Gavin, " strike the iron 
 while it's hot, and it will send out sparks to 
 burn 'em ; but, as I was saying, couldn't an 
 Irishman be found in all the counthry for Miss 
 Desmond, that she must be married to one of 
 them English .?" 
 
 l5
 
 226 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 '^ Yes," said another, " and an officer too ; 
 a dragoon ready to ride rough -shod over us at 
 the word of command. Faith, it 's too bad. I 
 wonder what would the Repalers say to it ; for 
 if they tell us to pay no tithes, what would 
 they tell us about paying rint to a foreigner, 
 Avho has no natural right to the soil, and who'll 
 spend every guinea of it in England."" 
 
 " Why, faith," said Will Gavin, with a 
 knowing smile, " if we know well what we Ve 
 about, and mind our hits, I don't see why, 
 when we Ve bringing back our Parliament to 
 the ould counthry, we shouldn't bring Eng- 
 land, or the best of what's in it, at all events, 
 over to keep it company. Sure it would be 
 only fair play, for they 've had the best part of 
 Ireland. Yet no, I won't say the best ; I '11 
 only say the richest part. For many a long 
 day they 've had the potatos, and left us the 
 skins; the cream, and left us the skimmed
 
 THE REPEALERS. 227 
 
 milk. But when our thrue friend said the 
 other day in the Parliament, that there was a 
 hundred thousand Irish in London, which he 
 surely tould 'em to frighten 'em out of their 
 seven senses, this was a plain hint that not only 
 could they bring back the Parliament, but the 
 rich English too. Och ! let him alone ; he 's 
 the boy for bothering 'em ; and when they 
 think they have him quiet, with some bone 
 they \e thrown him to pick, faith it 's himself 
 that turns round on 'em when they laist expect 
 it, and makes a speech clear and clane in their 
 teeth. Talk of the baist in the ould story- 
 book, that when you cut oiFone head, another 
 sprung up in its place, sure it's a joke to 
 O'Blarney ; he has a fresh mouth to screech at 
 'em every time they stop the ould one, and 
 finds a way to slip through every noose they 
 make to catch him. Sure, them English are 
 the biggest fools under the sun, for they 'd
 
 228 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 believe anything ; and whin they make an en- 
 gagement, faith, they 're for keeping it bad or 
 good ; but we know a thrick worth two of that, 
 and that 's what our Repalers will show 'em 
 before they 're done with 'em, or my name is 
 not Will Gavin." 
 
 " That's neither here or there," replied Tom 
 Flaherty ; " the point is how are we to hinder 
 this Sassenach from carrying off Springmount ?" 
 
 '* Faith, it's aisy enough," answered half-a- 
 dozen at a time ; '^ knock the breath out of his 
 body ; put out its light, and that 's the shortest 
 way of settling it." 
 
 " Yes, but when would we be afther doing 
 it ?" asked one who had been a silent auditor. 
 " Look what a hullabaloo they 're making for 
 just only killing a policeman. What would 
 they do if we kilt a gentleman and a Curnel 
 into the bargain ? Sure, they 'd have all them 
 dragoons at our heels, killing one-half of us.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 229 
 
 and frightening the other half out of their 
 lives. It 's betther let the Curnel alone any 
 way ; and sure I know a safer plan to keep him 
 from taking away Springmount. Let us burn 
 it." 
 
 " Well said, my boy,*" screamed half-a- 
 dozen voices at a time. " Right for you. 
 Sure, if it 's burnt, he can only take away the 
 ashes, and we won't begrudge him that.'' 
 
 The party was interrupted by the host of the 
 Cat and Bagpipes, who declared that, " though 
 sorely against his will, he must send 'em quite 
 entirely out of the house, as the police would 
 be coming round to look after them.*" 
 
 This produced some animated reflections and 
 lamentations on the tyranny of forcing them to 
 go home to their beds when only three parts 
 intoxicated, and they agreed that it was a state 
 of things not to be borne with. 
 
 Let not the English reader imagine that this
 
 230 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 picture of the lower order of the Irish is over- 
 charged ; and yet let him not conclude that no 
 goodness is to be found beneath the mass of 
 brutality, sharpness, and cunning, that enve- 
 lopes them. Their virtues are the genuine 
 production of their natures, stunted and per- 
 verted in their youth, and seldom called into 
 action. But their vices are the offspring of 
 circumstances, originating in misrule. They 
 have become demoralized by real or imaginary 
 aggravation, and are hurried against their sup- 
 posed oppressors either to betray or to avenge. 
 In the Irish character all the elements of good 
 are to be found in abundance, but these are 
 turned into instruments of destruction by the 
 demagogues who know how to apply the 
 spark to inflammable and evil passions. What 
 the Irish peasantry now are, the newspapers 
 teeming with the fearful catalogue of their 
 crimes but too well tell us. What they
 
 THE REPEALERS. 231 
 
 may become, will depend on freeing them 
 from the pernicious influence of the moral 
 incubus that now paralyses all their better 
 feelings, and leaves them, like the infuriated 
 bullocks driven on by the rebels in their bat- 
 tles in the rebellion, — that memorable rebel- 
 lion, which ought to be at once the warning 
 and fearful example of the ruinous effects of 
 not checking in time the first symptoms of 
 disaffection, and saving this generous but mis- 
 guided people from the terrible consequences 
 of their own excesses.
 
 232 THE REPEALERS, 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 *' Some demagogues, like Catiline, can raise a storm, 
 who cannot, like Cromwell, rule it; thus, the Gracchi 
 wishing to make the Agrarian law the ladder of their 
 ascent, found it the instrument of their fall ; ' fracta com- 
 page ruebant/ " 
 
 The murder of the policeman seemed the 
 signal for violence on all sides. The pea- 
 santry knew the vengeance it would call down 
 on their heads, and the police felt there was 
 no longer safety for them but in their num- 
 bers. The rubicon was passed, and blood 
 had marked its passage; hence the two pas- 
 sions of fear and revenge but added to the
 
 THE REPEALERS. 233 
 
 bad feelings of both parties, and rendered 
 them reckless of consequences. When parties 
 of the police encountered the peasantry on 
 the roads, angry glances, threatening ges- 
 tures, and mocking taunts were exchanged, 
 and it was easy to foresee that the sup- 
 pressed hatred on both sides would, like pent- 
 in fires, soon burst forth, and make fearful 
 havoc. 
 
 The anxiety and terror of Grace Cassidy 
 having produced visible effects on her health, 
 her husband was induced, by the feelings of 
 love that still lingered in his heart for her, 
 (but which had been quelled by the angry pas- 
 sions that had lately tyrannized over that once 
 calm and happy heart,) to stay in his cottage 
 at night, and to attend to his work by day. 
 This prudence was a sacrifice offered up to 
 affection, and he had not delicacy enough to 
 conceal that it was a sacrifice. . Jim, in this
 
 234 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 respect, resembled but too clearly his sex in 
 general ; even the most refined and polished 
 of them seldom conceal any of the sacrifices 
 they make, or what it costs to make them. 
 This is reserved for women, and is one of the 
 many proofs they give of their superiority in 
 all matters of affection and delicacy. 
 
 Larry M'Swigger had continued at Cologan, 
 to be ready in case his testimony might be 
 necessary in any examination as to the con- 
 fession of Jack Donovan ; and Grace had in- 
 vited him to sojourn at the cottage, thinking 
 that his chat of an evening might amuse Jim, 
 and console him for his absence from the Cat 
 and Bagpipes. 
 
 Larry had been a traveller in his youth, 
 had seen much, and had grafted on a natu- 
 rally shrewd understanding various shreds and 
 patches of knowledge, acquired both from what 
 he had seen and heard, that, joined to his ex- 
 treme ignorance, rendered his conversation very
 
 THE REPEALERS. 235 
 
 amusing to the unfastidious tastes of his au- 
 ditors. 
 
 Grace, her husband, and their guest, were 
 enjoying their simple supper, when Jim burst 
 forth with, " Well, Larry, what do you say 
 now to what they're doing in England, going to 
 send over soldiers to kill us all clear and clane ? 
 Sure the King himself has threatened us, from 
 his very sait of justice in the Parliament of 
 Lords, and bawled out, they say, as loud as if 
 he wished the echo of his voice would reach us 
 over here ; but little we 'd mind it if it did. 
 We 're used to echoes and know they 're made 
 by emptiness; but didn't our friend in the 
 Common Parliament soon tell 'em his mind 
 about it, and say it was a bloody speech ?" 
 
 " Sure he was right," said Larry. " We 
 call the linen that stops a cut or a wound a 
 bloody linen, and to my thinking, the King's 
 speech will stop many a wound being given, 
 therefore our friend was right to call it bloody.
 
 236 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 But you see them English couldn''t under- 
 stand the sense of it ; but I, who know the 
 round-about way our ministers takes to say 
 things, and how they say one thing when they 
 mane another, I'm never at a loss to guess 
 what they're afther." 
 
 " It wouldn't be mannerly for me to be 
 contradicting you, by the side of my own 
 hearth," said Jim, " and you ould enough to 
 be my father ; but I don't think that was what 
 O'Biarney mint." 
 
 " Never mind, Jim dear," interposed Grace, 
 " what he meant. Whatever it was, the word 
 was an ugly word, and a bad word to be tack- 
 ed to a King's discourse, he who is the father 
 of us all." 
 
 " He may be the father of the English," 
 said Jim, " but faith if he's a father to us, 
 sure it's a step-father, for we seldom hear of 
 him, except when he threatens us, and his
 
 THE REPEALERS. 237 
 
 name seldom comes to us except with a 
 Whereas before it. Sure, the Repalers told 
 'em that they were wanting to treat us worse 
 than the Algerines, which manes, to make 
 black slaves of us."' 
 
 " Och, that reminds me," said Larry, " of 
 the terrible sight I saw on my travels, when I 
 crost the salt-sea ocean. I never tould it to you, 
 Mistress Cassidy, nor to you neither, Jim, and 
 faith it will do your heart good to hear it, be- 
 cause it will show you that I had as great a 
 hatred to be made a black slave as any of you, 
 when I was young. Well then, once upon a 
 time, as the ould story-tellers say, when I was 
 tired of working in Ireland, and to tell you the 
 thruth, though more is the shame for me, tired 
 of the poor creathure of a wife too, I determined 
 to go off to one of the West India islands to 
 make my fortune, with two or three other boys 
 that was going. I got together every halfpenny
 
 238 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 I could rap or rend, and engaged to work my 
 passage out, which I did, and hard work it was 
 too, as I found to my cost. 
 
 " Well, the sights I saw on the sea I '11 
 never forget, any way ; porpusses, and gram- 
 pusses, and saels, and other outlandish animals, 
 half fish and half baist ; but one thing, just to 
 show you the difference between sea and land — 
 I saw in the West Indies, what we calls a 
 turtle here, and which is an ilegant dove ; but 
 there, is a great ugly baist that lives in the sea, 
 and that they catches to make soup of: this 
 shows you what terrible changes the climates, 
 as they called it, can bring about. But that's 
 nothing to what I'm going to tell you. 
 
 " Well, if you knew all I suffered at sea, 
 you 'd pity me ; and what was worse than 
 all, I found I had a natural fear of it. 
 Sure, when it used to get angry, and the 
 big green waves used to mount up as if they
 
 THE REPEALERS. 239 
 
 were going to swallow us, with a great white 
 froth on the tops of 'em, which they often 
 threw in our faces, I couldn't help think- 
 ing they were spirits, they had such an 
 awful, threatening look with 'em, and I had a 
 dread of 'em, I never felt before for anything. 
 Sure, I've looked when the ship seemed to be 
 going down between two green mountains of 
 water, and thought to myself who'll ever tell 
 the secrets that's buried in your heart ? What 
 a wonderful sight 'twould be to see the trea- 
 sures that's hid below them great waves, and 
 the poor remains of them, that has been longed 
 aft her and cried afther, through many a long- 
 night by those that loved 'em ; and to think 
 their poor bones can never lie in holy ground, 
 in a dacent grave, in some clane purty church- 
 yard among their own people, where their 
 friends might say in passing by, ' There lies 
 poor Jim, or Jack !' which sure would be some
 
 240 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 comfort ; but them poor crathures that was swal- 
 lowed up by the big cruel waves, and has ships 
 upon ships passing over "em, with perhaps, their 
 own counthrymen in "'em, that can't so much as 
 see one of their bones, och ! troth, it's a sor- 
 rowful thing to think of! When I've been on 
 duty at night, and have seen the great waves 
 coming from a distance with their white manes 
 moving and shining by the moon-light, sure 
 IVe thought they were the throops of death 
 sent afther us; and when they've come quite 
 close, I could not for the life of me help going 
 away from the sight of 'em, and hiding myself, 
 though all the crew laughed at me. 
 
 " But such sights as that, is no laughing mat- 
 ter ! one feels so helpless, there is no account- 
 ing for the danger, and no avoiding it. Och I 
 sure, if there's a place in the world to make 
 a poor crathure feel his own insignificance, it's 
 a-board ship in a storm ; it's then the thought
 
 THE REPEALERS. 241 
 
 of the mighty, the terrible power of God, enters 
 into the heart of man, and he feels he is nothing 
 without the mercy of his Creator. Then to see 
 the sea, when she is in a good humour, the sun 
 playing hide-and-seek with her ; one minute 
 throwing all his golden beams over her smooth, 
 looking-glass bosom, and the next hiding him- 
 self behind some fine purple cloud ; och ! it's a 
 glorious sight. Then again, to look at the 
 way the sea pays court to the moon, keeping 
 so quiet, and so steady, just to reflect all its 
 silvery brightness, and not only her round 
 face, but hundreds of pillars of silver all 
 spread out beneath her, just like an illumina- 
 tion to do her honour. Faith, I've thought 
 to myself, * Och, it's you sea, that can put 
 on a fine pleasant look when you like it, just 
 to flatter the sun and moon ; but you Ve a 
 deceaver, and I don't trust in you, for if only 
 a blast of wind affronts you, 'tis )'ou that can 
 VOL. I. M
 
 24f2 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 show the bad heart, and the black face, and 
 rise up in fearful anger to revenge yourself.' 
 
 " I took good care not to say a word of this 
 out loud, for fear she'd take vengeance on me; 
 but it was passing in my mind all the time she 
 was sending back their own shining smiles to 
 the sun and moon, as if she was always in a 
 good humour, when I knew how bad she could 
 behave when neither of Vm was to the fore. 
 
 " Another terrible thing, too, that I suffered, 
 was the draims I had a-board ship. No sooner 
 did I shut my eyes, but I began draiming that 
 I was on land, living under beautiful green 
 trees, on grass softer than velvet, and birds 
 singing all round. I smelt the very perfume of 
 the flowers, and kept thanking God I was done 
 with that spitfire of a rogue of a sea ; when the 
 ship lurched, and I awoke to find myself, sure 
 enough, in that terrible prison, with the fright- 
 ful waves coming all around, with looks just as
 
 THE REPEALERS. 243 
 
 if they would say, ' Here we are, and we're not 
 done with you yet.' Och ! the bitterness of 
 such awakings. Sure, even now they often 
 come back to my mind, and whatever my 
 throubles may be, I always thank God I'm 
 not in the power of the decaitful sea. 
 
 " Well, sure I Ve bothered ye any way 
 with this shanohos* about the ocean, but now 
 I 'm coming to the end of my story. We arriv- 
 ed at a place, — faith, I forget the name of it, — 
 and a boat comes off to us filled with black 
 nagirs, with hardly a rag on their black, shin- 
 ing bodies. When I saw them, faith, a joke 
 came into my head, and I cried out in Irish to 
 'em, ' How are ye, my white beauties ?' They 
 up and tould me in as good Irish as ever was 
 spoken, ' Sure we 're purty well ; how is your- 
 self.'^' This bothered me; so I made free to 
 ax 'em how long they were there, and they 
 * Irish for a long story. 
 M 2
 
 244 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 tould me in Irish ' two years.'' ' Two years,** 
 says I, ' and black and woolly already ? The 
 devil a step I '11 ever put on this island while I 
 live, for, if I came out here to make my for- 
 tune, I did not come out to turn a rael nagir 
 as my poor countrymen have turned.'' So I 
 stuck to the ship, and wouldnH go on land for 
 all the world. 
 
 " Six weeks the ship stopped there, but 
 never did I go out of her ; I knew betther ; 
 though, would you believe it ? they wanted to 
 persuade me that the crathures that spoke 
 Irish to me were rael blacks that had been 
 taught Irish by the Irish settlers; but I was 
 not so foolish as to believe it, for we Irish are 
 too 'cute. An Englishman would have swal- 
 lowed such a story, but I knew betther; so 
 back I came to Cork, facing all the dangers of 
 the deep, frightened as 1 was ; but any thing 
 was betther than coming home a black with 
 woolly hair.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 345 
 
 " So you see, Mistress Cassidy, and you too, 
 Jim, I suffered enough rather than submit to 
 be made a slave. Faith, there's few has gone 
 through so much for it." 
 
 " I don't think," said Jim, " that it was the 
 slavery you minded so much as the turning 
 black and woolly." 
 
 " Och ! troth," said Larry, " 'twas both ; 
 but I don't believe, Jim, that you yourself 
 would like to see those brown curly locks of 
 yours that's buckling round your head, turned 
 to black wool, nor your dacent red and white 
 face turned to an oily black. I was young- 
 then, and a clane comely boy into the bar- 
 gain ; but ould as I am now, with my 
 withered-up face, that looks like a shrivelled 
 apple, my poor eyes like burnt holes in a 
 blanket, or bottled gooseberries in a burnt- 
 up pie, and my few locks of hair like flakes 
 of snow hanging on an ould blasted tree, I
 
 246 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 wouldn't wish to see myself turned into a 
 nagir any way, bad as I am. If I had stayed 
 to be a black, I might have come home with 
 plinty of money, instead of being poor as I 
 am now, on the shockarane,* here to-day and 
 gone to-morrow. But sure it's no use to 
 fret ; a pound of sorrow they say never paid 
 an ounce of debt, not that I have any debts, 
 God be thanked ! for, faith, no one seemed ever 
 much inclined to trust me." 
 
 " Did you hear what our friend said in the 
 parliament in London about slavery, and the 
 iron entering our souls ?'' interrogated Jim, 
 resuming the train of thought that Larry's 
 narrative had interrupted. 
 
 " I did sure enough," said Larry ; " but I 
 thought it quite rhaumeish. If he said the iron 
 entered our bodies pretty often, there would be 
 some sense in it, for sure the police and the 
 soldiers are great hands at seeing what we 're 
 * Wandering.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 24}1f 
 
 made of with the points of their bayonets ; but 
 as for our souls, no one but God can touch 
 them, which is some comfort ; and this I know, 
 bekase when Bill Tobin swore before the jus- 
 tice that Dan Tooley bait him, and threatened 
 to send his soul to hell in five minutes, (and 
 Bill swore, too, that he believed Dan would 
 have done so, had he not been prevented by 
 the bystanders,) the justice stopped him, and 
 explained, that though any man might bait, or 
 even kill him, no man could have power over 
 his soul, as that was in the hands of God. 
 Therefore, it 's nonsense for the Repalers to be 
 talking of the iron entering the soul, and sinful 
 too, according to my notions." 
 
 " You may say what you like, Larry," re- 
 plied Jim, " but if it wasn't for the Repalers 
 we'd never know anything of all our throubles." 
 
 " That 's what I blame 'em for," said Larry ; 
 they Ve always swelling our throubles, making 
 mole-hills into mountains, as the saying is ;
 
 24fS THE REPEALERS. 
 
 and sure what good does this do us, except to 
 make us more vexed ? If they showed us a 
 way to get out of ""em, I 'd say something ; but 
 to be always ripping up ould sores, and never 
 giving a plaister, sure, it 's not the part of 
 thrue friends. 'T would be kinder to tell us to 
 have patience, and give us good advice." 
 
 " Would you have us continue in ignorance 
 all our born days," said Jim, " as we used to 
 be before the Repalers let us into the rael state 
 of things ? Sure, we used to believe that the 
 Duke of Wellington was the greatest man, the 
 finest soldier, and the bravest general that ever 
 commanded, till our mimbers tould us as he 
 wasn't, and laughed at the notion of it ; and 
 one by one they pull down all the great men 
 that we used to be so proud of, that we'd have 
 gone to the mouth of a cannon for 'em." 
 
 " Well, then," said Larry, " are we happier 
 or more contented, Jim, now that they have pull-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 249 
 
 ed down all that we used to be so proud of, and 
 left us nothing at all to keep up the conceit 
 in us ? Many 's the time, when I Ve been 
 could and hungry, the thoughts that I be- 
 longed to the same counthry as the great 
 Duke, has warmed my heart, and when I con- 
 sidered that he had sent his name as an honour 
 to Ireland to the four quarters of the world, 
 ay, faith, and farther too, to be talked of, 
 I 've felt that I could lose as many lives 
 as a cat, ay, or even as Plutarch himself, 
 if I had 'em, to do him a service. Sure, 
 what 's the pleasure in life, if one hasn't some- 
 thing to be proud of? and what is so natural 
 as to be proud of such a man ? Them tliat 
 would say he isn't the greatest general that 
 ever lived, must have hearts too small to hold 
 anything but their envy, and I 'd deny 'em 
 for countrymen for ever and ever. We are 
 such droll people, that if those that are an 
 M 5
 
 250 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 honour and a credit to us, ain't always prais- 
 ing themselves, we forget 'em. We mind 
 words more than deeds, and this great man 
 I 'm talking of, never praises himself. He 
 laves that to others to do, for, as his brother 
 truly said of him, ' He 's fonder of conquering 
 the enemy than of telling how he did it.' 
 Now our mimbers pass most of their time in 
 paying compliments to themselves, and never 
 can be said to want a trumpeter while their 
 own tongues can wag. Then see how the 
 Great Captain, (but, no, I won't call him a 
 captain, for sure he 's a general, and the 
 head of all generals, and I don't like to 
 take away any of his grandeur,) see how he 
 spaiks ; never with big blustering words, 
 but with a quiet and steady dacency, that 
 shows he 's in earnest. He \s always think- 
 ing of the good of the counthry, and never 
 thrying to make bad worse. Let who will
 
 THE REPEALERS. 251 
 
 be in power, it 's all the same to him : as 
 long as they do what 's right, he never axes 
 what party they belong to. Och ! Jim, what 
 ungrateful baists we must be to let any one 
 talk against such a man, who has spent his life 
 in fighting for us, and now gives up his ease, 
 to think how we can be best served. Think, 
 Jim, of the hundreds of nights he has passed 
 without sleep ; the fatigues, the dangers, the 
 risks, he has endured ; the thousands of lives 
 that depended on his orders, and the years 
 of anxiety he must have had, to bring off 
 without a single spot, a reputation as difficult 
 to be kept bright as it was hard to be gained. 
 Sure, if poor ould Ireland no longer had a sun 
 to shine over her, his fame would throw a light 
 on her. And this is the man the Repalers 
 would thry to persuade us we ought not to be 
 proud of !" 
 
 The enthusiasm of Larry excited the latent
 
 252 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 feelings of habitual admiration that had so long 
 dwelt in the heart of Jim. 
 
 " Faith, Larry, I believe you 're right," said 
 he ; " for when you remind me of what the 
 Duke has done, I can't help feeling as proud of 
 him as ever, and I begin to think that those 
 that want to pull him down, are set on by their 
 jealousy and envy."
 
 THE REPEALERS. 253 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 " Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise, 
 (That last infirmity of noble minds) 
 To scorn delight, and live laborious days ; 
 But the fair guerdon when we hope to find. 
 And think to burst out into sudden blaze, 
 Comes the blind fury with th' abJ«5rred shears. 
 And slits the thin-spun life."" 
 
 " With fame, in just proportion, envy grows ; 
 The man that makes a character, makes foes.'* 
 
 " I WAS looking about me, the whole of this 
 blessed day,*" said Larry M'Swigger to Grace 
 and Jim Cassidy, as they sat at their simple 
 supper, " and I thought to myself, ' What a 
 pity it is that a counthry which God has done
 
 254 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 SO much for, man should do so much against. 
 To see the beautiful mountains, looking so 
 proud and grand, the trees so green and 
 stately, the rivers so clear and rapid, and the 
 skies more blue and laughing than any where 
 else ' " 
 
 " How can you say that ?" said Jim, whose 
 present discontented state of mind led him to 
 cavil with many of Larry ""s observations, " since 
 isn't there twice more rain in Ireland than in 
 England ? and yet you're for saying, the sky is 
 laughing." 
 
 " Faith, Jim, the poor sky is a real Irish 
 sky, and like ourselves, is always either 
 laughing or crying. It never, to my thinking, 
 looks more beautiful than when after a heavy 
 shower it brightens up and smiles on all 
 around. It's for all the world like Mistress 
 Cassidy, begging her pardon for talking of her 
 when she is to the fore, for I've thought of the
 
 THE REPEALERS. ^55 
 
 sky when Fve seen the tears resting on her long 
 black eyelashes, just as the drops of rain hang 
 on the leaves, and a bright glance shine out of 
 them same blue eyes, which looked all the 
 brighter for the tears, as the sky does after the 
 shower. But that's neither here nor there to 
 what I was saying, which was, that God, praise 
 be to His holy name ! has done every thing for 
 Ireland, and man nothing except mischief. Is 
 there a more fruitful soil in the world ? IVe 
 heard people call the earth our mother, but 
 faith, I say it's father, mother, sister, and 
 brother ; ay, be my soul, and wife also ; for 
 it takes us to her- breast when the whole 
 world turns from us, and the sooner I'm sleep- 
 ing there the betther," continued the poor 
 old man, wiping a tear from his cheek, " for I 
 love the poor counthry and many that's in it 
 too well not to be sick at heart at all I see. 
 Every thing that God gives us is turned to
 
 256 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 bad account. We have had the bravest gene- 
 rals, and we're now ungrateful to 'em, though 
 they have brought honour and glory on the 
 counthry. Our eloquence grows wild, for want 
 of pruning ; our mad thoughts govern iiSy in- 
 stead of our governing them ; our courage is 
 shown in acts of brutality ; and all that might 
 make us a grand people, only makes us a wick- 
 ed and a thoughtless one/"* 
 
 " Well, Larry, I never expected to hear 
 you running down the counthry after this 
 fashion," said Jim. 
 
 " 'Tis not the counthry, but the people, I'm 
 running down, Jim," replied Larry ; " because 
 I 'm grieved to see what they are, when I 
 think what they might be. They won't give 
 themselves a fair chance, and only increase 
 their throubles every day, by throwing more 
 obstacles in the way of those who wish to 
 serve and relieve 'em. It's a terrible thing,
 
 THE REPEALERS. 257 
 
 Jim, to love one's country in the very pulses 
 of one's heart, and yet to be obliged to feel 
 ashamed of it ; for who would have the face to 
 stand up and boast himself an Irishman now, a 
 title that I once thought the greatest honour 
 upon earth for a poor man as well as a rich, 
 when the name is stained with blood and 
 crime, and we are looked upon at every side 
 as scarcely better than savages ?" 
 
 " Well, Larry, that baits out every thing. 
 Savages, indeed ! Faith, if you were not a 
 counthryman, and an ould friend into the bar- 
 gain, and what's more than either, an ould 
 man, Pd be for showing you we're not such 
 savages as you think, by breaking every bone 
 in your body, and dhriving your ivories down 
 your throat." 
 
 " Whisht ! Jim dear," said Grace, giving an 
 imploring look at the inflamed countenance of 
 her husband ; " sure Larry didn't mane to
 
 258 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 affront you, and don't be after saying such 
 ugly words.*" 
 
 Jim reached out his hand to Larry, who 
 shook it and said, " Now hear me, Jim, quiet- 
 ly for a minute. I 'm too ould and feeble to 
 resent threatenings, and I know you would not 
 hurt me ; but you prove yourself all that Tve 
 been saying of the people. To show me you 
 are not a savage, you Avould brutally maim me. 
 Would not this prove to me, you were what 
 I said ? So it is with the counthry and the 
 people. Their violence confirms every report 
 made to their disadvantage; and their own 
 actions speak more against them than the re- 
 presentations of their worst enemies. But, Jim, 
 I''m heart-sick, so let us talk of something to 
 comfort me ; let us talk of the Irishmen that 
 console us for being Irish. Think of the 
 honour it is to this poor counthry, that one 
 can't take up an Army List without being
 
 THE REPEALERS. 259 
 
 made as proud as a peacock, by seeing the 
 numbers and numbers of Irish names, betther 
 known all over the world, than in their own 
 ungrateful, ignorant, counthry. Sure, if Wel- 
 lington is like the full moon in the middle of 
 the sky, he has plenty of bright stars around 
 him from his own poor little green island to 
 keep him company. Look at the Beresfords 
 by land and sea ; there's brothers for you, and 
 Irish brothers too ! Who wouldn't be proud of 
 'em ? Look at Londonderry, who never had a 
 fault but being too anxious for fighting, as we 
 all are. Then there 's Cole, Packenham, Pack, 
 and Doyle. But if I was to go through half of 
 'em, when would I have done ? Faith, it warms 
 my heart to think of 'em, when it is chilled by 
 shame at the crimes of the lawless. No, Jim, 
 let us never forget to be proud of such heroes, 
 for if we do, our bravery and courage cannot 
 last ; for, as well may you expect a fire to
 
 260 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 continue burning without putting fuel on it, as 
 to keep up courage and bravery when we are 
 no longer proud of it. Sure the very brats of 
 children running about half naked, has been 
 known to stop when they heard all the people 
 about 'em spaiking of the grand battles Wel- 
 lington fought, and clap their little hands and 
 cry out, ' We too will be soldiers, and be 
 talked about/ 
 
 ''But now, it is not he that has fought 
 the battles of England and Ireland, in many 
 a field of blood, and has for ever w^oven the 
 shamrock with the laurels in his garland, 
 that is to be our adviser, as he has been our 
 protector ; no, it's him that has known no fields 
 of battle except the four courts or the assizes, 
 and has never seen blood drawn except from 
 broken heads of the foolish boys he has set by 
 the ears with his burning words ; it''s him that's 
 to taich us to forget all we loved and respected,
 
 THE REPEALERS. 261 
 
 and get ourselves made the laughing-stock of 
 England, with the blustering speeches of our 
 mimbers, and the mad agitation of ourselves, 
 ready to take a hint for committing crimes 
 whenever we can get it. I 'm an ould man, 
 Jim, and maybe haven't much gumption. I've 
 seen this counthry often upset, and in danger 
 from one cause or another ; but if you believe 
 me, I never knew it so unruly or so ill-disposed 
 as at present; and if you take my advice, and it 
 comes from an honest and loving heart for you 
 and your nice dacent creathure of a wife, you'll 
 keep away from Repalers, and their rabble fol- 
 lowers, and trust to the generosity, the good 
 sense, and the honour and honesty of England, 
 to bring us out of our th roubles."' 
 
 Grace Cassidy listened with grateful atten- 
 tion to the good advice of Larry to her hus- 
 band. She saw that it produced more effect 
 than all her representations had done, and she
 
 262 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 thought to herself, '' Well, how proud men are, 
 and how obstinate when advice comes from a 
 woman, and above all a wife ; Larry has only 
 repeated the same advice that I have so unsuc- 
 cessfully given, and to which Jim paid no at- 
 tention, and now he seems sensible of its value. 
 But no matter, as long as he follows it, who it 
 comes from ; sure it would be too much happi- 
 ness for me to think / had brought him to his 
 right mind, and I'll bless Larry for ever if he 
 does it." 
 
 Grace, in this instance, displayed a supe- 
 riority over the generality of her sex, of which 
 she, perhaps, was little conscious ; for if there 
 is a point on which women are especially sensi- 
 tive, it is in their jealousy of the influence of 
 other persons over the minds of those they 
 love. This jealousy they themselves attribute 
 to wounded affection, while the ill-natured set 
 it down to the effects of wounded vanity.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 263 
 
 Something of both feelings may, perhaps, unite 
 in producing it ; but, we are loth to search too 
 profoundly into causes whose effects are at least 
 flattering to the sterner sex, though they may 
 not always be agreeable. The most painful 
 and humiliating epoch in the life of a woman 
 is, when she has discovered that he on whom 
 she has anchored her hopes of happiness is 
 deficient in intellect, and yet has too much 
 pride or too little love, to supply the deficiency 
 by attending to her counsels. A woman of 
 merely ordinary understanding, actuated by 
 a strong affection, acquires wisdom by suffer- 
 ing ; and, short-sighted as she might be for 
 herself, becomes prescient for him she loves 
 and would save, and whose destruction in- 
 gulphs all her hopes.
 
 264 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 " No jealousy their dawn of love o'ercast, 
 
 Nor blasted were their wedded days with strife ; 
 Each season look'd delightful as it past 
 To the fond husband and the faithful wife." 
 
 The time now approached for the marriage 
 of Miss Desmond and Colonel Forrester. The 
 lawyers had sent the marriage settlement, 
 which had taken a less than ordinary time to 
 arrange, from the unusual circumstance, that 
 no obstacles, objections, or explanations had 
 been started by opposing interests. Colonel 
 Forrester had left all to the superintendence 
 of his future father-in-law, and submitted his
 
 THE REPEALERS. 265 
 
 title-deeds, rent-roll, &c. to the inspection of 
 Mr. Desmond's solicitor, was surprised to ob- 
 serve the confidence or carelessness of the 
 Colonel in the affair, as he naturally expected 
 to have found every covenant debated by the 
 legal adviser of the lover. 
 
 So little of love appears in the customary 
 financial arrangements for marriages, that, on 
 reading a settlement between contracting par- 
 ties, one would be led to imagine that the 
 bandeau which is supposed to envelope the 
 eyes of love, was already removed, and that 
 two enemies, instead of two lovers, were about 
 to enter into a treaty offensive and defensive, 
 the conditions of which required the strictest 
 investigation. Every contingency of mishap 
 and misconduct that can arrive to poor frail 
 human nature is calculated upon ; and, while 
 hearts and inclinations are becoming but as one, 
 separate interests and purses are assured to her, 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 266 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 whose pecuniary interest ought to depend on 
 him on whom her happiness must depend. 
 
 No homily in the EngUsh language could 
 so impressively convey the disenchanting con- 
 viction of the fickleness of affection and the 
 instability of felicity, as the provisions in a 
 modern marriage settlement, which are as little 
 in harmony with religious feeling as they are 
 in unison with love. Were w^omen to peruse 
 such documents, never could they approach 
 the altar with the idea that the engage- 
 ment about to be contracted, was either so 
 awful or so sacred as all pure and elevated 
 minds are prone and desirous to consider it. 
 " Those whom God has put together let no 
 man separate," seems to be forgotten, as more 
 provisions are made for the possibility of a 
 hostile separation, than for that of preserving 
 and cementing the irrevocable, though disso- 
 luble bond of union.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 267 
 
 How far such provisions may influence the 
 future destinies of the contracting parties, we 
 will not stop to enquire ; but we should like to 
 see marriage made a less business-like specu- 
 lation, and that she who resigns her affections 
 and her liberty into the care of him she loves, 
 should not contemplate a possibility of aught 
 save death dividing them. 
 
 Mr. Desmond was not to be surpassed in 
 generosity by Colonel Forrester. He made no 
 distinction or separate interests between his 
 daughter and future son-in-law, and the 
 " What, Sir, will you not tie up this estate, 
 and strictly entail such and such a property ?" 
 was checked by his prompt and explicit in- 
 structions. 
 
 The marriage of the lovers was celebrated in 
 the parish church, the same sacred spot that had 
 witnessed the baptism of Frances, in the pre- 
 sence of a few of the most intimate friends 
 N 2
 
 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 of the family. The happy couple did not, 
 after partaking of an elegant dejeune a lafour- 
 chette at the mansion of the bride's father, (to 
 which a distinguished circle of fashionables 
 were not invited,) set off in a splendid new 
 post chariot and four, with postilions and out- 
 riders, to pass the honeymoon at some distant 
 inn, or elegant villa, where the blushes of the 
 bride are exposed to the gaze of admiring 
 waiters and smiling chambermaids, or to the 
 more respectful, though scarcely less embar- 
 rassing observation of strange servants. There 
 was no rich trousseau displayed, or elegant 
 corbeille exhibited, for the excitation of the 
 envy of friends and the vanity of the pre- 
 senter and presented ; no ; the tasteful and 
 well-chosen wardrobe that had adorned Miss 
 Desmond, or rather that she had adorned, since 
 her departure from London a few months be- 
 fore, was considered sufficiently rich for Mrs.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 269 
 
 Forrester. That apparel which had robed her 
 lovely person when she attracted the admira- 
 tion of the lover, was thought good enough, 
 and likely enough, to retain the affection of the 
 husband ; so that the nuptials of the lovely 
 Frances Desmond and her enamoured bride- 
 groom were as unlike " a marriage in high 
 life,*' as thej/ were dissimilar to the generality 
 of lovers to be found in that circle. 
 
 Their honeymoon was passed in the paternal 
 mansion at Springmount, and their happiness 
 was enhanced by its being partaken by their 
 affectionate and gratified parents, who were 
 not, like most parents under such circum- 
 stances, left in solitude to feel that in acquiring 
 a son-in-law they had lost a daughter. 
 
 " How I wish, dearest Frances,'' said Co- 
 lonel Forrester, " that I could see this fine 
 country in a state of tranquillity, and the good 
 qualities of the people allowed to develope them-
 
 270 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 selves ! I have liked Ireland from my first 
 arrival, but now, can I do otherwise than love 
 the country that has given you birth ?" 
 
 A sweet smile repaid the compliment, and 
 Frances said — " You will not, I'm sure, en- 
 tertain a less affection for me, when I confess 
 that I should never have allowed myself to 
 feel towards you as I do, had you disliked my 
 poor abused country. I must acknowledge, it 
 is not the most happy place to live in ; and 
 when I have returned from dear tranquil Eng- 
 land, and seen the melancholy contrast which 
 ill-fated Ireland offered to the scenes I had 
 left, I have been selfish enough to wish to 
 reside altogether in England. Judge then, 
 how well I can appreciate the hberality of 
 liking this country under all its disadvantages ; 
 and how I must esteem the person who can be 
 content to remain here. I see and lament the 
 faults of the Irish," continued Frances ; " but
 
 THE REPEALERS. 271 
 
 I pity and love the people notwithstanding 
 their faults, and would gladly make any per- 
 sonal sacrifice to ameliorate their condition, or 
 to assist in forwarding their civilization." 
 
 " We will join in the task,'" replied Colonel 
 Forrester ; " with kindness and patience much 
 may be effected. 
 
 " You must make up your mind," observed 
 Frances, " not to be greatly surprised or in- 
 censed, if you find our efforts unavailing or 
 repaid with ingratitude. Look at all my dear 
 father and mother have done, through a sense 
 of duty, giving up for years their friends and 
 society in England, society and friends so con- 
 genial to their tastes, to live on their estate in 
 a sort of honorable exile. Until a short time 
 ago, this truly conscientious and disinterested 
 sacrifice seemed to be felt and valued by their 
 dependants, and they were universally beloved ; 
 but the voice of the agitators silenced that of
 
 272 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 gratitude, and those who were the most at- 
 tached to our family, are now taught to regard 
 us with suspicion, if not with dislike. In no 
 other country must the principle of doing good 
 for its own sake, be so much acted upon as 
 here ; for, one has seldom the pleasure of see- 
 ing one's efforts crowned with success, and still 
 more seldom that of having them acknow- 
 ledged. A landlord who had passed his life 
 as my father has done, in the most consci- 
 entious and kind discharge of the duties which 
 that character imposes, would find his popu- 
 larity fall to the ground before a Repealer**s 
 first burst of hyperbolical eloquence, and the 
 good actions of a long life thrown into the 
 shade by an inflammatory string of tropes, 
 metaphors, and similes, artfully addressed to 
 the passions of their dupes ; and, alas ! those 
 who mislead them, are rich in these tinsel at- 
 tributes, and in these alone. My dear father
 
 THE REPEALERS. 273 
 
 was giving an instance the other day, of how 
 little impression solid acts of service made on 
 the Irish, in comparison with professions ; his 
 illustration of this peculiarity was derived from 
 the career of Sir John Newport, who has passed 
 his life in the most active and judicious exer- 
 tions for Ireland ; and the consequence is, that 
 the lower orders not only neither regard nor 
 revere, but do not even name him, while they 
 applaud to the very skies any one of their 
 mouthing orators with ' Repeal' on his lips, and 
 self-aggrandisement in his heart. All this is 
 very discouraging, but we must have patience, 
 and hope for better times." 
 
 " What appears to me most disadvantageous 
 to Ireland," said Colonel Forrester, " is the 
 want of that respectable middle class that 
 exists in England, and which has such an 
 influence on the lower orders. Here I ob- 
 serve few, if any, of the farmers who have 
 N 5
 
 274 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 such weight, and to whom the labourers refer 
 as guides and examples in England. Men 
 who have stakes in the country are unwilling 
 to risk what they possess; and the most elo- 
 quent agitator who ever Inflamed an Irish 
 rabble, would find his rhetoric fall unheeded 
 on ears accustomed to the chink of money. 
 We English, who have not lived in Ireland 
 some months, conclude that the meetings so 
 numerously attended there, are composed of 
 the middle class, and consequently we attach 
 an importance to them as organs of public 
 opinion. But if it was generally known that 
 they are for the most part composed of the 
 very dregs of the people, the sediment that 
 ought to be at the bottom, but * which rises 
 upwards when the nation boils,"* we should 
 think differently, and cease to wonder that, 
 to a set of ignorant and penniless men who 
 have nothing to lose, and are easily led to
 
 THE REPEALERS. 275 
 
 hope that something may be gained, the 
 harangues of the wordy and inflammatory 
 Repealers are as a law which they blindly 
 adopt to work the will of their crafty leaders, 
 who use them as pioneers to break down all 
 that intercepts their own march in the career 
 of selfish policy and overreaching ambition. 
 
 " One thing we must admit, dearest," conti- 
 nued Colonel Forrester, " namely, that had 
 this country not been dreadfully misgoverned, 
 the agitators who now occupy so much atten- 
 tion, would either have been usefully and 
 honorably filling the situation to which talent 
 seldom fails to elevate men in free countries, 
 or they would have had no opportunities of 
 making a mischievous use of it. Had the 
 distinguished individual who now sits on the 
 woolsack in England been an Irishman, and a 
 Catholic, what might he not have been instead ? 
 Would the powerful talents with which Provi-
 
 276 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 dence has gifted him, remain unemployed ? 
 And if no field of distinction was open to them, 
 who can say that disappointed ambition, led on 
 by the consciousness of innate power, might 
 not have made him who now presides over law 
 an open violater of it ? We are all the crea- 
 tures of chance and circumstance to a certain 
 degree. Great talents are seldom, if ever, 
 unaccompanied by ambition. Under other and 
 happier aspects, he who convulses Ireland 
 might have been the pacificator, for no one 
 can deny that he has talents to be anything he 
 pleases; and did England labour under the 
 misery and disqualifications that have oppress- 
 ed Ireland for centuries, Lord might be 
 
 an agitator instead of a chancellor. 
 
 " The talents of such men as he who governs 
 the lower classes in Ireland, ought to be public 
 property, and should constitute part of the 
 riches of a country Is it not melancholy that
 
 THE REPEALERS. 277 
 
 misrule should have turned them from their 
 natural channel, and that, like some fine stream, 
 meant to fertilise a country, stopped in its 
 course and bursting into violence from being 
 checked, it overflows, and bearing down the 
 riches it might have so much enhanced, is 
 only to be traced by the ruin it has spread ?" 
 
 "Is it possible, dearest, that you are an 
 advocate for agitators ?" said Frances. " You 
 almost persuade me to pity instead of disliking 
 them." 
 
 " I look to cause when I trace effect," said 
 Colonel Forrester ; " and though I shudder at 
 the mischief to which agitation has led and 
 may yet lead, candour obliges me to own, that 
 few men possessed of the talents of the arch- 
 agitator, could, under the untoward circum- 
 stances in which he found himself, have resisted 
 to be what he is. He might have been a great 
 man ; at present he is only a remarkable one.
 
 278 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 " But they do only strive themselves to raise, 
 Through pompous pride and foolish vanity ; 
 In th' eyes of people they put all their praise, 
 And only boast of arms and ancestry ; 
 But virtuous deeds, which did those arms first give 
 To their grandsires, they care not to achieve." 
 
 The letters Colonel Forrester had written to 
 his family in England, announcing his mar- 
 riage, had been answered by cordial and affec- 
 tionate congratulations from all. That from 
 his sister, Lady Oriel, breathed the most tender 
 prayers and wishes for his happiness; but a 
 tone of melancholy, almost amounting to so-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 279 
 
 lemnity, pervaded her letter, and threw a damp 
 over the spirits of her brother. He felt as if 
 the earnestness with which she prayed for a 
 continuance of his happiness, conveyed an in- 
 definable impression that her own was not 
 equally secure; and a vague dread that all 
 was not well with her, hung over his mind. 
 
 The family at Springmount accepted an in- 
 vitation to dine at Lord Abberville's, a no- 
 bleman who resided near them. They found 
 the few fashionables the neighbourhood could 
 muster, assembled to meet them. Even the re- 
 mote district of the county of Waterford could 
 boast its fashionables and exclusives; for where 
 do not folly and pretension penetrate ? 
 
 Lord Abberville owed his title to the Union, 
 and a certain, or rather uncertain, portion of 
 his income to a judicious and persevering sys- 
 tem of jobbing, only known in Ireland. The 
 rents of his overlet property were paid by pre-
 
 280 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 sentments which he had influence with the 
 grand jury of the county to get passed, and 
 which allowed large sums to be expended in 
 making roads over his estates ; the work to be 
 done by his tenants, and the money to find its 
 way into his coffers. Presentments for roads 
 never required, and where a horse-track was 
 all that was necessary, passed at every assizes, 
 until his property was intersected by as many 
 lines as a miniature map of Europe; while the 
 roads really necessary for establishing commu- 
 nications for agricultural or commercial pur- 
 poses were totally neglected. 
 
 Few persons ever theoretically or practically 
 understood the whole arcana of the system of 
 jobbing so perfectly as Lord Abberville, and 
 few had derived more advantages from it. 
 Can it, therefore, be wondered at, that he was 
 strenuously opposed to every attempt to reform 
 the old state of things, and was loud and vehe-
 
 THE REPEALERS. 281 
 
 ment in decrying innovations, or, as he called 
 them, projects for the subversion of the consti- 
 tution. Every change introduced to correct 
 the abuses under which the country had been 
 so long impoverished for the enrichment of a 
 few, was considered by him as a spoliation of 
 his property, and resented as acts of crying 
 and flagrant injustice. He grew pathetic when 
 he expatiated on such hardships, and inwardly 
 cursed the march of intellect which had ren- 
 dered them necessary. 
 
 Lord Abberville was a representative peer, 
 and had supported every government that had 
 ruled the country since he enjoyed a seat in the 
 House of Lords. Indeed, the possibility of 
 opposing ministers, who had anything to give 
 away, had never entered his head ; though it 
 has been asserted on more than one occasion, 
 that he had threatened to vote against them, 
 unless certain sinecures were granted to his
 
 282 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 near relatives, and certain advantages accorded 
 to himself. But this, we are willing to believe, 
 was mere scandal, having too good an opinion 
 of peers in general, and of Irish peers in par- 
 ticular, to believe that any of them would be 
 capable of such conduct. 
 
 Lady Abberville was a woman of fashion in 
 Ireland, and a complaisant follower of women 
 of fashion in England. She was indefatigable 
 in her exertions to be useful to the patronesses 
 of the exclusive circle in which her activity 
 had succeeded in getting her tolerated ; and 
 she would drive, ride, or walk, from one end of 
 the town to the other, to execute their high 
 behests, and perform all the disagreeable parts 
 of the duties that devolved on them. Was 
 a party to be got up on a short notice ? she 
 was dispatched to entreat the attendance of 
 the desired guests. Was some unlucky person 
 to be cut? she was appointed to perform the
 
 THE REPEALERS. 283 
 
 operation ; and far from feeling the humiliating 
 position in which she had placed herself, she 
 gloried in it. She kept up an extensive cor- 
 respondence, knew every thing that was going 
 on everywhere, and could amuse with her gos- 
 sip the tedious hours of les grand dames be- 
 tween the dejeunt and the promenade. She 
 possessed a power of ubiquity as extraordinary 
 as her loquacity, and was as humble and com- 
 plaisant with the magnates of the land and 
 their high-born ladies, as she was brusque and 
 impertinent to those whom she considered to be 
 her inferiors. Tracasserie was as congenial to 
 her, as repose and peace are to others. Her 
 mauvaise langue had become proverbial, and 
 its results were to involve her in constant ex- 
 planations, in which she was accused of show- 
 ing a philosophical disregard to veracity, the 
 dictates of which she seemed to consider too 
 obsolete for her practice.
 
 284 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 The presence of Lord and Lady Abberville 
 in their county was always hailed with dread 
 by their neighbours; they only came to raise 
 the supplies for carrying on the campaign in 
 England, or to get up some political address 
 to convey an impression in England that his 
 lordship had weight in Ireland. The delusion 
 occasioned by these stratagems constituted the 
 only reason for his visits being tolerated at 
 the Treasury; where he was in the habit of 
 intruding them for the purpose of having it 
 announced in the papers, that on such or 
 such a day Lord Abberville had an interview 
 with the First Lord of the Treasury, which an- 
 nouncement, being always copied into the Irish 
 papers, failed not to produce its effect there. 
 Thus, by passing in England as a man who 
 had influence in Ireland, and in Ireland as a 
 nobleman who had considerable weight in Eng- 
 land, he contrived to impose on both nations, im- 
 pressing them with a mutual bad opinion of the
 
 THE REPEALERS. 285 
 
 sagacity of the other ; for, the First Lord of the 
 Treasury of each administration that had held 
 the reins of government has been heard to say, 
 " What a country Ireland must be, and what 
 barbarous people the Irish, when such a man as 
 Lord Abberville can have any influence with 
 them !" And the gentry of Ireland, ever prone 
 to stigmatize England, have been known to 
 dwell with bitter sarcasms on the English mi- 
 nistry being so credulous as to believe that 
 such a talentless and unprincipled jobber as 
 the peer should have power to be of use to 
 them in Ireland. 
 
 Lady Abberville profited by the political 
 profligacy of her husband, which she aided and 
 abetted to the utmost of her power ; but she 
 held his abilities and opinions in perfect scorn, 
 and perhaps the only sentiment common to 
 each was, a contemptuous dislike of the other. 
 
 The guests at Abberville-house consisted of 
 two or three of the neighbouring families, the
 
 2S6 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 General commanding the district, and two field 
 officers of the regiment in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The host and hostess assumed their most 
 bland smiles to welcome Mr. and Mrs. Des- 
 mond, and Colonel and Mrs. Forrester, as 
 Lady Abberville felt they might not only be 
 useful acquaintances in Ireland, where the for- 
 tune and character of Mr. Desmond gave him 
 great influence, but the connexion was a de- 
 sirable one to be kept up in England. The 
 relative importance of each of the guests 
 might be ascertained by the diplomatic at- 
 tentions paid them by the lord and lady of 
 the mansion, which were empresse, coldly polite, 
 or indifferent, according to their supposed ca- 
 pabilities of forwarding the host's plans. The 
 General was fete, because a plot of barren land 
 which Lord Abberville had tried various modes 
 of getting rid of, was now discovered by his lord- 
 ship to be most admirably adapted for building
 
 THE REPEALERS. 287 
 
 a barrack on ; this ground was to be disposed of 
 to Government for not more than six times its 
 value. The opinion of the General as to the 
 eligibility of the situation for a barrack, would 
 probably decide the Government in buying the 
 land ; and the opinion of Mr. Desmond and the 
 other gentlemen invited, as to the necessity of 
 having a large body of troops on the spot, and 
 consequently of erecting a barrack to contain 
 them, would decide its being built. 
 
 It was settled between the host and hostess, 
 that while one harangued the gentlemen in the 
 dining-room on the advantages of having troops 
 and a barrack, the other should impress on 
 the minds of the ladies the improvement such 
 an event must produce to the neighbourhood. 
 Young men of family and fortune, with which 
 the military profession abounded, would be 
 thrown amongst them, balls and private thea- 
 tricals would be the certain result, and what
 
 288 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 such exhilarating amusements and near vicinity 
 might lead to, was implied so clearly as to en- 
 list the mammas and daughters of her circle 
 most warmly in the interest of Lady Abberville. 
 
 The dinner passed off much as all dinners in 
 similar houses pass. The more recherche part 
 of the guests detected various proofs of the in- 
 competence of the artiste to the task he had 
 attempted, and pronounced him not skilled 
 in the arcanum recondite of Monsieur Ude's 
 cuisine; while the less fastidious, who looked 
 more to the quantity than the quality of the 
 repast, averred it to be excellent. 
 
 The interesting investigations of the compa- 
 rative merits of sherry and madeira, of dry and 
 sweet champaigne, and the equally important 
 question whether hock was or was not better 
 when iced, had given place to local topics, 
 when Lady Abberville, anxious to show her 
 importance to some of her less fashionable
 
 THE REPEALERS. S89 
 
 friends, led the conversation to England. She 
 had received letters that day from the Duchess 
 of AVellborough, and the Marchioness of Not- 
 tingham, filled with reproaches for staying so 
 long away from them. Indeed, she had pro- 
 mised ere they allowed her to depart from Lon- 
 don, that she would return in two months, but 
 it was so hard" (bowing to her guests) " to leave 
 her own agreeable neighbourhood, that she al- 
 ways found it difficult to tear herself away." 
 
 This compliment of course elicited a flatter- 
 ing rejoinder from some of the persons who con- 
 cluded themselves to be designated in the cir- 
 cle of agreeable neighbourhood ; and then Lady 
 Abberville resuming the conversation observ- 
 ed, that at this moment her absence from Eng- 
 land was peculiarly unfortunate, as her friends 
 wished to consult her as to the possibility of 
 continuing to receive a lady who had placed 
 herself in a very false position. The elderly 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 290 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 ladies looked grave, and the young ones of the 
 party thought it necessary to fix their eyes on 
 their plates, and to blush, while the hostess, " on 
 scandalous thoughts intent," proceeded to state, 
 that it was indeed a very difficult case to decide 
 on, as though much publicity and scandal had 
 taken place, the husband of the lady in ques- 
 tion had continued to live with her. The 
 Duchess of Wellborough and Lady Notting- 
 ham were disposed to give her their counte- 
 nance, but she must say, she thought it a 
 case in which an example ought to be made, 
 as the lady had been a very prominent per- 
 son in society, and had frequently marred 
 the regulations and exclusions of the Lady 
 Patronesses by an affected good nature, re- 
 peatedly giving admissions to persons of no 
 sort of fashion, to whose solicitations the other 
 patronesses had turned a deaf ear. " Altoge- 
 ther,*" continued Lady Abberville, '* I never
 
 THE REPEALERS. 291 
 
 liked the lady. She had too much pretension 
 for my taste — had the rage for encouraging 
 les beaux arts, and doing a thousand other 
 equally outre things ; and as for getting her to 
 join our clique in the measures we so often 
 find it necessary to adopt, it was out of the 
 question. She opposed herself to cutting or 
 leaving off people, and in fact, always gave us 
 trouble by never being d'*accord with the other 
 Lady Patronesses." 
 
 Mrs. Kennedy, a well-meaning but obtuse 
 country lady, who was present, turned to her 
 daughter and said, " You see, Kate, I told you 
 that Lady Abberville was one of the patronesses 
 at Almack's, though you tried to persuade me 
 she was not."" 
 
 This mal-apropos observation, originating 
 
 in the use of the us, evidently discomposed the 
 
 self-complacency of the hostess, and as evidently 
 
 amused the rest of the guests ; while to avoid 
 
 o 2
 
 292 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 the necessity of giving a definite answer, which 
 she felt the persevering obtusity of Mrs. Ken- 
 nedy would endeavour to elicit, she interrupted 
 her observations by adding, " How very incu- 
 rious you all are ! No one has asked me to 
 name the fair delinquent. Now in England 
 fifty questions would have been asked, and 
 as many guesses made, before I had got half 
 through my statement. Does this difference 
 proceed from your being less curious, or more 
 good-natured than our English neighbours ? 
 or, as I suppose, does it originate in your igno- 
 rance of the parties in question, which makes 
 vou indifferent to what has put all the fashion- 
 able world in England in a fever .f^ Well then, 
 the heroine of this, what shall I call it ? tragedy, 
 comedy, or drama in high life, is — Lady Oriel."" 
 Mrs. Forrester felt almost ready to drop off 
 her chair when the name of Lady Oriel was 
 pronounced, and she stole a glance at her
 
 THE REPEALERS. 293 
 
 husband, whose face became pale as death, 
 and then was suffused with crimson. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Desmond were the only persons at the 
 table aware of the near relationship of Lady 
 Oriel to Colonel Forrester ; and they, pitying 
 his embarrassment, made some remarks to draw 
 the attention of the party to another subject. 
 Mrs. Forrester would have given the world to 
 be alone with her husband that she might speak 
 comfort to him, or, if that was impossible, share 
 his chagrin; and never did a few minutes that 
 the ladies remained in the salle a manger, ap- 
 pear so long to her. 
 
 At length Lady Abberville arose, and led the 
 way to the drawing-room ; but, before quitting 
 the room, Mrs. Forrester exchanged an affec- 
 tionate glance with her husband ; a glance 
 which spoke volumes to them both. Frances 
 had never liked Lady Abberville, but now she 
 felt an antipathy towards her; she detected
 
 294 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 the covert envy, hatred, and malice, that in- 
 stigated this calumny of the young and beau- 
 tiful Lady Oriel ; and turned with disgust from 
 a woman whose reputation had through life 
 been so often pulled to pieces, that, though 
 patched up, the rents were visible, proving the 
 truth of the homely French proverb, " Une re- 
 putation pldtree est comme un has raccommode 
 qui laisse toujours voir oil la dtfaut existait.^'' 
 No one had presumed on, and profited by, 
 the indulgence of the world more largely than 
 had Lady Abberville, and no one shov/ed a 
 greater disposition to deprive others of a 
 similar advantage. Hers had not only been 
 " a youth of folly, and old age of cards," 
 but a youth and maturity of flirting, and 
 an old age of scandal, envy, and defama- 
 tion. Every man and every woman's tongue 
 had been against her, and hers was now 
 turned against all whom she did not fear,
 
 THE REPEALERS. 295 
 
 and they were few, but sacred in her eyes; 
 as, all the advantages and disadvantages to 
 be derived from being on good or bad terms 
 with them having been maturely weighed and 
 the former found to preponderate, amity was 
 proved to be the wiser course, and prudence 
 therefore triumphed over malice. 
 
 Mrs. Forrester seized the first opportunity 
 of approaching her mother, without exciting 
 attention ; a pressure of the hand showed how 
 deeply she sympathized in the feelings of her 
 daughter ; and an air of cold and dignified po- 
 liteness on the part of both ladies towards the 
 intriguing hostess, — which neither all her most 
 amusing anecdotes of fashionable scandal, nor 
 her deferential attentions, could change into a 
 more cordial manner, — made her feel that 
 something, she could not imagine what, had 
 gone wrong. 
 
 Colonel Forrester sat in agony in the salle
 
 296 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 d manger. Now was revealed to him the 
 cause of the melancholy that pervaded his 
 sister's last letter. Why had she not told 
 him all, instead of allowing the dreadful 
 news to break thus unexpectedly upon him? 
 And yet knowing her as he did, feeling con- 
 vinced of her purity, it was impossible to be- 
 lieve that she could have merited the scandal 
 which had fallen on her name. No, his dear 
 sister v^^as innocent ; was the victim of false 
 appearances ; and, with a husband so morbidly 
 susceptible even to the approach of ignominy, 
 what must be her situation ? His mind was 
 in a chaos; and, to the continual references 
 for his opinion, made by his garrulous host, 
 always on subjects immediately or remotely 
 connected with his own personal interest. Co- 
 lonel Forrester only replied by an absent bow 
 or incoherent monosyllables. 
 
 Counting the moments with impatience until
 
 THE REPEALERS. 297 
 
 he could leave a house now become hateful 
 to him, as the scene of the defamation of 
 his dear sister, and of the profanation of her 
 name by the viper tongue of its mistress, he 
 sat in painful reflection on the odious theme. 
 When Lady Oriel had first become the subject 
 of conversation, he could scarcely refrain from 
 denouncing the slanderer, and vindicating the 
 fair fame of his sister ; but a moment's consi- 
 deration had taught him the imprudence of a 
 measure which could only have tended to com- 
 promise still more, not only her dignity but his 
 own. A doubt of his sister'*s purity had never 
 entered his mind, and his heart overflowed with 
 tenderness and pity when he thought of her. 
 He felt that she was exposed to humiliations 
 which her delicate feelings were little calcu- 
 lated to support ; and, above all, exposed to 
 the morbid susceptibility of her husband, who 
 would shrink under every infliction, until he 
 o 5
 
 ^98 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 made her endure the most insupportable of all 
 annoyance, that of having drawn publicity 
 and defamation on another, and that other, 
 not only incapable of despising the unmerit- 
 ed stigma, but even of concealing the suffer- 
 ings which it caused. 
 
 The host's self-compliments, demands for ap- 
 probation, and insinuations of influence with 
 " the powers that be,*" were at last concluded, 
 and the gentlemen joined the ladies in the 
 drawing-room. Colonel Forrester would have 
 unceremoniously sought them an hour before, 
 but that he dreaded to find himself with Lady 
 Abberville, even still more than to be com- 
 pelled to listen to the verbose, oft beginning, 
 never ending, histories of her Lord. Mr. Des- 
 mond entered into all his feelings, and the 
 sympathy of his wife, father, and mother-in- 
 law, if it prevented not the wound offered to 
 his peace, at least carried oil and wine to it.
 
 THE REPEALERS. ^99 
 
 Those are indeed fortunate who find, when 
 sorrow assails them, that friendship admi- 
 nisters an anodyne; and as this good fortune 
 becomes more rare, it is like all rarities, en- 
 joyed still more poignantly. There is no situa- 
 tion into which our own errors can plunge us, 
 wherein we do not call up pride or fortitude 
 to support us, and enable us to forego the 
 commiseration of friends; but when some one 
 dear to us has drawn down the burning coals 
 of scandal on her devoted head, then it is that 
 we most require sympathy to enable us to bear 
 up against the tide of defamation ; and to 
 prove to us that we are sufficiently loved, to 
 gain forbearance for the object of our interest, 
 a belief in her innocence, or pity for her errors. 
 
 Colonel Forrester knew that she whom he had 
 chosen for his wife, would take his affirmation 
 for the honour of his sister ; and so would her 
 parents. But how dreadful to be compelled
 
 800 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 to affirm that which ought never to have been 
 doubted ! and of a sister, too, of whom he was 
 so justly proud ! 
 
 Music, as ill executed as the company were 
 ill assorted, filled up the weary hour-and-a 
 half between the arrival of the gentlemen in 
 the drawing-room and the announcement of 
 the carriages. The listening to bad music was 
 one of the many penances the diplomatic Lady 
 Abberville imposed on herself during her exile 
 in Ireland. Not to ask Miss Kennedy and the 
 other Misses to play and sing, would have 
 deeply mortified the young ladies, and offended 
 their mammas, who failed not to repeat in all 
 circles, how charmed Lady Abberville had been 
 with Kate or Maria's singing and execution on 
 the pianoforte. 
 
 No sooner did the family from Springmount 
 find themselves alone in the coach, than Co- 
 lonel Forrester declared, that what he had
 
 THE REPEALERS. 301 
 
 heard relative to his sister had given him such 
 pain, that he had determined to go to England. 
 Mr. Desmond immediately said, " We will all 
 go, my dear son, for our presence may be use- 
 ful; at all events we will not be separated 
 from you when you have any annoyance to 
 undergo." 
 
 Mrs. Desmond also expressed her kind 
 wishes, and Frances placed her hand in his, 
 as with animation she declared her impa- 
 tience to be with her dear sister, whom she 
 had already learned to love, but now doubly 
 so, because she doubly required the affection of 
 her friends. 
 
 Hasty preparations were made for their de- 
 parture from Ireland, and the journey was 
 performed as expeditiously as was consistent 
 with the comfort of Mr. and Mrs. Desmond. 
 On their arrival in London, Colonel Forrester 
 wrote to his sister, announcing his intention
 
 S02 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 of paying her a visit, accompanied by his wife. 
 He did not touch on the reports that had 
 reached him, as he wished the first notice of 
 them should come from Lady Oriel. Indeed, 
 he only desired to be made acquainted with 
 the real state of affairs, that he might know 
 how best to remedy the evil ; for he felt that 
 the retiring habits and extreme sensitiveness 
 of Lord Oriel peculiarly unfitted him for taking 
 the necessary steps in the painful situation in 
 which his wife was placed. 
 
 The return of the post brought him a warm 
 invitation from Lord Oriel for the whole party 
 to proceed to Oriel Park, and a letter from his 
 sister ; before perusing which, it is necessary for 
 us to make our readers acquainted with Lord 
 and Lady Oriel.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 303 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 " Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose, 
 Quick as her eyes, and as unfix'd as those ; 
 Favours to none, to all she smiles extends, 
 Oft she rejects, but never once offends. 
 Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike. 
 And, like the sun, they shine on all alike !" 
 
 Lady Oriel was a young and lovely wo- 
 man, remarkable for talent, vivacity, and that 
 esprit de socitte, qui met tout en train. Mis- 
 tress of a fine house, hien montte^ and placed 
 by an indulgent husband at the head of a 
 large fortune, she was one of the leaders of 
 haut ton, and bore her blushing honours so 
 good-naturedly, if not meekly, that she might
 
 304 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 almost be pardoned her success. So proverbial 
 had her good-nature become, that she was by 
 the satirical considered and called the " Refuge 
 of the Destitute f* for if the wife of some coun- 
 ty member living at the other side of Oxford- 
 street, and blessed with two daughters, the 
 softened images of their sapient papa or com- 
 mon-place mamma, wished to exhibit herself 
 and progeny at Almack''s, and, to accomplish 
 this desirable project, had assailed, but assail- 
 ed in vain, all the other patronesses, Lady 
 Oriel was la derniere ressource, and a re- 
 source that rarely failed. Did some young 
 and thoughtless woman, whose beauty had 
 excited still more female enemies than male 
 admirers, find herself in that perilous condi- 
 tion of being barely tolerated where she had 
 been sought, and more than one-half of the 
 society standing aloof to observe how she was 
 received by the other. Lady Oriel's frank
 
 THE REPEALERS. 305 
 
 shake-hands, cordial accueil, or apropos invita- 
 tion to a ball or soiree bien choisie, turned the 
 scale in her favour, and re-established her, if 
 not " in decencies for ever,"" at least in fashion- 
 able society. Did a young painter or sculptor, 
 pining in obscurity, wish to exhibit his personi- 
 fication of the beau ideal that haunted his 
 visions and grew beneath his hand. Lady 
 Oriel's elegant salons received his work ; where 
 her bland smile and just commendation found 
 for it admirers and purchasers among those who 
 had hardly deigned to remark it in a less dig- 
 nified asylum. 
 
 Lady Oriel's beauty was so regular, her air 
 so distittgiie^ and her manner so comme il J'aut, 
 and withal so fascinating, that her reputation 
 as a first-rate belle was not merely an affaire 
 de convention. I really do believe, though long 
 experience has rendered me sceptical on such 
 points, that even without her husband's rent-
 
 S06 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 roll of sixty thousand a year (which always 
 throws a heavy balance into the scale in which 
 beauty, talents, and manners, are weighed), 
 she would always have been considered as a 
 most captivating woman ; indeed, an irrefra- 
 gable proof of the correctness of this opinion is, 
 that her husband maintained it after a union 
 of four years — an argument that must silence 
 all sceptics. 
 
 But though the beauty, talents, and accom- 
 plishments of Lady Oriel were such as fell to 
 the lot of few ; her faults, alas ! though they 
 were only those which too generally attend such 
 qualities, threw a shade on them that cast its 
 sombre hue o'er many a future year : — but let 
 me not anticipate. Lady Oriel had married at 
 seventeen, and made what might indeed have 
 been called a most desirable match. Lord Oriel 
 was five-and-twenty, remarkably handsome, 
 good-looking, well-informed, good-tempered, 
 of an ancient family, and enjoying not only
 
 THE REPEALERS. 307 
 
 a very large, but that now rare possession, an 
 unencumbered fortune; and, rarely as it hap- 
 pens, the last-mentioned circumstance had lit- 
 tle if any influence in the choice of his wife, 
 who really married him because she preferred 
 him to all others. Theirs was in truth a union 
 of affection ! 
 
 Lord Oriel to an easiness of disposition that 
 shrank from trouble, conjoined a delicate sus- 
 ceptibility on many points that was often op- 
 posed to it. He wished — nay more, expected 
 — that those he loved should anticipate his feel- 
 ings and guess his sentiments ; and when this, 
 as has too often been the case, did not occur, he 
 retired in silence, the arrow of disappointment 
 rankling in his breast, to brood over his sup- 
 posed wrongs, when a kind and frank exposition 
 might have realized all his wishes. 
 
 Lady Oriers besetting sin was coquetry; 
 commenced in a wish to please (let us call it by 
 no harsher name), it animated all her pursuits.
 
 308 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 and guided all her actions. This desire to 
 fascinate equally influenced her in her bearing 
 and conduct to both the old and the young; 
 in it originated the air of captivated attention 
 with which she listened to the aged and polished 
 raconteur; the piquant smile with which she 
 repaid the young and fashionable homme de 
 bonne compagnie for his sallies; the suavity 
 which characterized her intercourse with her 
 own sex, to each of whom she had something 
 aimable to say ; and even the joyous game 
 of romps, or pretty stories, with which she 
 made captive the hearts and ears of all the 
 children she encountered. 
 
 Yet let me do her the justice to say, there 
 was nothing artificial in all this. Happy and 
 pleased with herself, she wished to please and 
 render happy all who surrounded her ; and this 
 habit, by indulgence, so grew on her, that it 
 soon became incurable, and \he frais made to 
 accomplish it but too evident.
 
 THE REPEALERS. 309 
 
 During the first few months of her marriage, 
 which were passed in the country, paying and 
 receiving the visits of all the relations and 
 neighbours of her husband, he was proud of 
 her success. When the old dwelt on her 
 praises, and the eyes of the young sparkled 
 when she appeared, he shared her triumph, 
 nay, attributed the pains she took to please to 
 her wish of gratifying him by attentions to his 
 friends ; and he repaid her efforts by a thou- 
 sand fond commendations. 
 
 But when, arrived in London, among stran- 
 gers, he saw the ssLvnefrais made day after day 
 and night after night, he began to think it was 
 unnecessary, if not undignified ; and as he 
 stood aloof, — wincing at witnessing the air half 
 nonchalant of some, and trop empresse of others, 
 surrounding his lovely wife, basking beneath 
 the sunshine of her smile and the summer-light- 
 nings of her playful wit somewhat too ani- 
 matedly displayed, — he wished her success had
 
 310 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 been less general, or at least that less pains had 
 been taken to obtain it. He felt hurt that she 
 did not remark that he no longer participated 
 in her triumph ; he daily expected some tender 
 reproach, which would give him a good oppor- 
 tunity of hinting his disapproval ; but his tacit 
 acquiescence passed with her for tacit approba- 
 tion, and she continued to throw her fascina- 
 tions around, unconscious that she was wound- 
 ing the heart most dear to her on earth, and 
 encouraging a host of pretenders, whose atten- 
 tions, and the evident pleasure with which they 
 were received, excited observations injurious to 
 her delicacy, if not to her fame. 
 
 Among the host of admirers (though as yet 
 they had not dared to avow themselves as such) 
 who followed in her train, Lord Delmore was 
 the most dangerous. Handsome, clever, well- 
 educated, and highly polished in his manners — 
 but cold-hearted, calculating, and unimaginative, 
 the success he had met with in London and
 
 THE REPEALERS. 311 
 
 on the Continent had fostered his natural vanity, 
 until it had become almost overweening; and 
 his selfishness, that vice so unpardonable in the 
 young, was proverbial with those who knew 
 him. Lady OriePs position attracted, and her 
 beauty captivated, him ; her animation in his 
 presence he attributed to her wish of fixing 
 him ir her chains ; and, undoubting the success 
 of his final conquest, he played with her as a 
 skilful angler plays with the fish he is about to 
 ensnare : one day coldly polite, replying to 
 all her sallies with an air of pre-occupation, 
 until he had piqued her into something like 
 interest ; and the next all attention, seeming to 
 dwell on each word and movement of hers with 
 that deep impassioned sentiment so flattering 
 to woman's vanity. Lord Delmore had ruined 
 more female reputations than any young man 
 about town; and the good name of many a 
 woman, whose virtue had resisted his arts, 
 fell a sacrifice to his innuendoes and insidious
 
 312 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 attentions — attentions always calculated to im- 
 press the most false conclusions on the minds 
 of the beholders. 
 
 He soon became a daily visitor at Oriel 
 House ; Lord Oriel remarked it with bitterness 
 of feeling, and became gradually more cold and 
 reserved towards his wife, thinking that she 
 must and ought to have guessed his sentiments, 
 and lamenting her total want of sympathy with 
 them. 
 
 Lady Oriel became piqued by the visible 
 coldness and want of attention of her husband ; 
 and, comparing it with the devouement of Lord 
 Delmore, accused the former of negligence and 
 unkindness, of which every day furnished new 
 proofs. She therefore determined to show him, 
 that though he might regard her with indiffer- 
 ence, she could excite the most lively interest in 
 others. 
 
 Alas ! women look more to effect than to cause. 
 They all feel, but how few can reason ! and
 
 THE REPEALERS. 313 
 
 men whose duty, whose interest it is, to reflect 
 on this peculiarity, seldom give themselves the 
 trouble to think on the subject until it is too 
 late. I believe it is Fontenelle who says that 
 women have a fibre more in the heart, and a 
 cell less in the brain, than men ; it is this fibre 
 that responds to " the nerve where agonies are 
 born," so that all that women want in reason- 
 ing powers, they make up for in feeling. 
 Dearly have they paid for this additional fibre ; 
 and it is not until age has unstrung its ener- 
 gies, that it ceases to vibrate notes of woe. 
 
 But to return to our subject. Lady Oriel, 
 like all women in a similar situation, became 
 insensible to the observations to which the mark- 
 ed attentions of Lord Delmore subjected her. 
 They had been so gradual, that her mind had 
 become accustomed to them; and, free from 
 guilt, or even the apprehension of guilt, she 
 was fearless of calumny. 
 
 When, day after day, her morning visitors, 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 314 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 male and female, found her tete-a-tete in her 
 boudoir with Lord Delmore, an album or poem 
 open before them, and he seeming to think (and 
 showing that he so thought) the interruption 
 an ill-timed intrusion, the visitors gradually 
 dropped off, observing, with a shake of the 
 head or malicious smile, that they were de trop 
 at Grosvenor Square. 
 
 When Lady Oriel appeared in public, Lord 
 Delmore was sure to be seen near her. In the 
 Park he was always close to her carriage, and 
 he observed, and discovered with pleasure, 
 though she little suspected it, that their liaisoji 
 was now looked on as established in the coteries 
 in which they moved. 
 
 And now was the time that Lady Oriel felt 
 the want of some female relation or friend, to 
 hint to her the danger of her position, or to 
 take from its danger, by breaking in upon the 
 daily tete-a-tMe with Lord Delmore. Over and 
 over again had Lord Oriel decided on speaking
 
 THE REPEALERS. 315 
 
 or on writing to her, but still delayed his inten- 
 tion, hoping that she would render such a pain- 
 ful step unnecessary, by becoming aware of her 
 own danger. Yet still she went on, and each 
 day added something to the danger, or if not 
 to the danger, to the appearance of impropriety, 
 to which Lord Delmore's attentions exposed her. 
 How many women have been lost by this 
 false, this mistaken delicacy on the part of a 
 husband, when a temperate or kind remon- 
 strance might have saved them from ruin, dis- 
 grace, and endless remorse ! and while a hus- 
 band temporises, even with his own anxiety, by 
 thinking that parliament will soon be up, or 
 that at such or such a time his departure from 
 town must break the intimacy that offends him, 
 vhe liaison becomes established ; or some im- 
 prudence, without actual guilt, commits the 
 reputation of the wife, who, finding herself a 
 subject of public scandal, to avoid encountering 
 the reproaches or cold austerity of an offended
 
 316 THE REPEALERS. 
 
 husband, throws herself for ever outside the 
 pale of forgiveness. 
 
 The train of respectful admirers that used to 
 hover round the steps of Lady Oriel, by de- 
 grees dropped off. They became less restrain- 
 ed in their manner towards her, when they 
 encountered her by chance. And though the 
 high breeding of her tone prevented their pre- 
 suming to treat her with the insulting fami- 
 liarity which marked their conversation with 
 others, there was still sufficient change to prove 
 to the initiated, that they suspected she was no 
 longer entitled to the profound respect she 
 formerly deserved and obtained. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, 
 
 Dorset Street , Fleet Street. ^
 
 
 
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