equal to the effort than now," said Harcourt, "This place doesn't suit you, Glencore.— There are not above two days in the month you can venture to take the air." "A letter from you would do him good, at all events; even the little gossip of your gos- "And where would you have me go, sir?" sipping career would cheer and amuse him. broke he in fiercely. "Would you advise ParHe said, very plaintively, two nights ago, is and the Boulevards, or a palace in the Piaz'They've all forgotten me. When a man re-za di Spagna at Rome? or perhaps the Chiaja tires from the world, he begins to die, and the at Naples would be public enough? Is it that great event, after all, is only the coup-de-grace I may parade disgrace and infamy through to a long agony of torture.' Do write to him, Europe, that I should leave this solitude? then; the address is Glencore Castle, Leenane, Ireland,' where, I suppose, I shall be still a resident for another fortnight to come. "Glencore has just sent for me; but I must close this for the post, or it will be too late. Yours ever truly, GEORGE HARCOURT. "I open this to say that he sent for me to ask for your address-whether through the Foreign Office, or direct to Studtgard. You'll probably not hear for some days, for he writes with extreme difficulty, and I leave it to your wise discretion to write to him or not in the interval. "I want to see you in a better climate, Glencore; somewhere where the sun shines occasionally." "This suits me," said the other, bluntly; "and here I have the security that none can invade-none molest me. But it is not of myself I wish to speak-it is of my boy." Harcourt made no reply, but sat patiently to listen to what was coming. "It is time to think of him," added Glencore, slowly. "The other day-it seems but the other day-and he was a mere child; a few years more-to seem when past like a long dreary night—and he will be a man." Very true," said Harcourt; "and Charley is one of those fellows who only make one plunge from the boy into all the responsibilities of manhood. Throw him into college at Oxford, or the mess of regiment to-morrow, and this day week you'll not know him from the rest." "Poor fellow, he looks very ill to-day. He says that he never slept the whole night, and that the laudanum he took to induce drowsiness, only excited and maddened him. I counselled a hot jorum of mulled porter before getting into bed; but he deemed me a monster for the recommendation, and seemed quite disgusted besides. Couldn't you send him over a deGlencore was silent; if he had heard he spatch? I think such a document from Studt-never noticed Harcourt's remark. gard ought to be an unfailing soporific." CHAPTER VI. QUEER COMPANIONSHIP. WHEN Harcourt repaired to Glencore's bedroom, where he still lay, wearied and feverish after a bad night, he was struck by the signs of suffering in the sick man's face. The cheeks were bloodless and fallen in, the lips pinched, and in the eyes there shone that unnatural brilliancy which results from an overwrought and over-excited brain. "Sit down here, George," said he, pointing to a chair beside the bed; "I want to talk to you. I thought every day that I could muster courage for what I wish to say; but somehow, when the time arrived, I felt like a criminal who entreats for a few hours more of life, even though it be a life of misery." "Has he ever spoken to you about himself, Harcourt?" asked he, after a pause. "Never, except when I led the subject in that direction; and even then reluctantly, as though it were a topic he would avoid." "Have you discovered any strong inclination in him for a particular kind of life, or any career in preference to another?" None; and if I were only to credit what I see of him, I'd say that this dull monotony, and this dreary, uneventful existence, is what he likes best of all the world." "You really think so," cried Glencore, with an eagerness that seemed out of proportion to the remark. "So far as I see," rejoined Harcourt, guardedly, and not wishing to let his observation carry graver consequences than he might suspect. "So that you deem him capable of passing "It strikes me that you were never less a life of a quiet, unambitious tenor-neither seeking for distinctions, nor fretting after honors." "How should he know of their existence, Glencore? What has the boy ever heard of life and its struggles? It's not in Homer, or Sallust, he'd learn the strife of parties and public men." "And why need he ever know them?" broke in Glencore, fiercely. "If he doesn't know them now, he's sure to be taught them hereafter. A young fellow who will succeed to a title and a good for tune" 66 Lord Glencore's attack was more serious than at first it was apprehended, and for three days there was every threat of a relapse of his late fever; but Billy's skill was once more success ful, and on the fourth day he declared that the danger was past. During this period, Harcourt's attention was, for the first time, drawn to the strange creature who officiated as the doctor, and who, in despite of all the detracting influences of his humble garb and mean attire, aspired to be treated with the deference due to a great physician. "If it's the crown and the sceptre makes the "Stop, Harcourt," cried Glencore, passion-king," said he, " 'tis the same with the science ately. Has anything of this kind ever escaped you in intercourse with the boy?" Not a word-not a syllable." "Has he himself ever, by a hint, or by a chance word, implied that he was aware of—" Glencore faltered and hesitated, for the word he sought for did not present itself.Harcourt, however, released him from all embarrassment, by saying "With me, the boy is rarely anything but a listener; he hears me talk away of tiger shooting, and buffalo-hunting, scarcely ever interrupting me with a question. But I can see his manner with the country people, when they salute him, and call him my lord core. But he is not my lord," broke in Glen Of course he is not; that I am perfectly aware of." He never will never shall be," cried Glencore, in a voice to which a long pent-up passion imparted a terrible energy. "How!-what do you mean, Glencore?" said Harcourt, eagerly. "Has he any malady?is there any deadly taint?” That there is, by Heaven!" cried the sick man, grasping the curtain with one hand, while he held the other firmly clenched upon his forehead. "A taint, the deadliest that can stain a human heart! Talk of station, rank, title-what are they, if they are to be coupled with shame, ignominy, and sorrow? The loud voice of the Herald calls his father Sixth Viscount of Glencore; but a still louder one proclaims his mother a that makes the doctor; and no man can be despised when he has a rag of ould Galen's mantle to cover his shoulders." "So you're going to take blood from him?" asked Harcourt, as he met him on the stairs, where he had awaited his coming one night when it was late. "No, sir; 'tis more a disturbance of the great nervous centres than any decayin' of the heart and arteries," said Billy, pompously; that's what shows a real doctor, to distinguish between the effects of excitement and inflammation, which is as different as fireworks is from a bombardment." "Not a bad simile, Master Billy; come in and drink a glass of brandy-and-water with me," said Harcourt, right glad at the prospect of such companionship. Billy Traynor too, was flattered by the invitation, and seated himself at the fire with an air at once proud and submissive. "You've a difficult patient to treat there," said Harcourt, when he had furnished his companion with a pipe, and twice filled his glass; "he's hard to manage, I take it?" "Yer' right,” said Billy;" every touch is a blow, every breath of air is a hurricane with him. There's no such thing as tratin' a man of that timperament; it's the same with many of them ould families as with our race horses, they breed them too fine." "Egad, I think you are right," said Harcourt, pleased with an illustration that suited his own modes of thinking. "Yes, sir," said Billy, gaining confidence by the approval; "a man is a ma-chine, and all the parts ought to be balanced, and as the ancients say, in equilibrio. If you give a preponderance here or there, whether it be brain or spinal marrow, cardiac functions or digestive ones, you disthroy him, and make that dangerous kind of constitution that, like a horse with a hard mouth, or a boat with a weather helm, always runs to one side." him, and he sinks; stimulate him, and he goes ragin mad. 'Tis their physical comformation makes their character; and to know how to cure them in sickness, one ought to have some knowledge of them in health." "How came you to know all this? You are a very remarkable fellow, Billy." "I am, sir; Im a phenumenon in a small way. And many people thinks, when they see and convarse with me, what a pity it is I hav'nt the advantages of edication and instruction, and that's just where they're wrong, complately wrong." 66 there they are in the brutes; but they're in no subjection, except by fear. Now it's out of man's motives his character is moulded, and fear is only one amongst them. D'ye apprehend me?" "Perfectly; fill your pipe." And he pushed the tobacco towards him. "I will; and I'll drink the memory of the great and good man that first intro-duced the weed amongst us.-Here's Sir Walter Raleigh. By the same token, I was in his house, last week." "In his house! where?" Well, I confess I don't perceive that." "Down at Greyhall. You Englishmen, "I'll show you, then. There's a kind of ja- savin' your presence, always forget that many nius natural to men like myself, in Ireland, I of your celebrities lived years in Ireland. For mean, for I never heerd of it elsewhere. That's it was the same long ago as now-a place of just like our Irish emerald or Irish diamond, decent banishment for men of janius-a kind wonderful if one considers where you find it-of straw yard where ye turned out your intelastonishin' if you only think how azy it is to lectual hunters till the sayson came on at get, but a regular disappointment, a downright take-in, if you intend to have it cut, and polished and set. No, sir; with all the care and culture in life, you'll never make a precious stone of it!" "You've not taken the right way to convince me, by using such an illustration, Billy." "Ill try another, then," said Billy. "We are like Willy-the-Whisps, showing plenty of light where there's no road to travel, but of no manner of use on the highway, or in the dark streets of a village where one has busi ness.' "Your own services here are the refutation to your argument, Billy," said Harcourt, filling his glass. "Tis your kindness to say so, sir," said Billy, with gratified pride; "but the sacrat was, he thrusted me-that was the whole of it. All the miracles of physic is confidence, just as all the magic of eloquence is con-viction." "You have reflected profoundly, I see," said Harcourt. "I made a great many observations at one time of my life--the opportunity was favorable." "When and how was that?" "I travelled with a baste caravan for two years, sir; and there's nothing teaches one to know mankind like the study of bastes!" "Not complimentary to humanity, certainly," said Harcourt, laughing. home." "I'm sorry to see, Billy, that, with all your enlightenment, you have the vulgar prejudice against the Saxon." "And that's the rayson I have it, because it is vulgar," said Billy, eagerly. Vulgar means popular, common to many; and what's the best test of truth in anything but universal belief, or whatever comes nearest to it. I wish I was in Parliament-I just wish I was there the first night one of the nobs calls out 'that's vulgar; and I'd just say to him, 'Is there anything as vulgar as men and women? Show me one good thing in life that isn't vulgar? Show me an object a painter copies, or a poet describes, that isn't so?' Ayeh," cried he impatientiy, " when they wanted a hard word to fling at us, why didn't they take the right one?" "But you are unjust, Billy; the ungenerous tone ye speak of is fast disappearing. Gentlemen now-a-days use no disparaging epithets to men poorer or less happily circumstanced than themselves." "Faix," said Billy, "it isn't sitting here, at the same table with yourself, that I ought to gainsay that remark." And Harcourt was so struck by the air of good breeding in which he spoke, that he grasped his hand, and shook it warmly. "And what is more," continued Billy," from this day out I'll never think so." He drank off his glass as he spoke, giving to the libation all the ceremony of a solemn vow. "D'ye hear that?-them's oars; there's a boat coming in." "You have sharp hearing, master," said Harcourt, laughing. Yes, but it is, though; for it is by a consideration of the fere nature that you get at the raal nature of mere animal existence. You see there man in the rough, as a body might say, just as he was turned out of the first workshop, and before he was fettered with the "I got the gift when I was a smuggler," redivinus afflatus, the æthereal essence, that plied he. "I could put my ear to the ground makes him the first of creation. There's all of a still night, and tell you the tramp of a revthe qualities good and bad-love, hate, ven- enue boot as well as if I seen it. And now I'll geance, gratitude, grief, joy, ay and mirth-lay sixpence it's Pat Morissy is at the bow-oar "This is for you, Colonel," said he; "it was marked immediate,' and the post-mistress despatched it by express." The letter was a very brief one; but, in honor to the writer, we shall give it a chapter to itself. CHAPTER VII. A GREAT DIPLOMATIST. there; he rows with a short jerking stroke ally preferring, the society of men beneath there's no timing. That's himself, and it must him. In person he was tall, and with that air be something urgent from the post-office that of distinction in his manner that belongs only brings him over the Lough to-night." to those who unite natural graces with long The words were scarcely spoken when Craggs habits of high society. His features were finely entered with a letter in his hand. formed, and would have been actually handsome, were the expression not spoiled by a look of astuteness-a something that implied a tendency to overreach-which marred their repose and injured their uniformity. Not that his manner ever betrayed this weakness; far from it—his was a most polished courtesy. It was impossible to conceive an address more bland or more conciliating. His very gestures, vis voice, languid by a slight habit of indisposition, seemed as though exerted above their "MY DEAR HARCOURT,-I arrived here strength in the desire to please, and making yesterday, and by good fortune caught your the object of his attentions to feel himself the letter at the F. O., where it was awaiting mark of peculiar honor. There ran through all the departure of the messenger for Germany. his nature, through everything he did, or said, "Your account of poor Glencore is most dis- or thought, a certain haughty humility, which tressing. At the same time, my knowledge of served, while it assigned an humble place to the man and his temper in a measure prepared himself, to mark out one still more humble for me for it. You say that he wished to see me, those about him. There were not many things and intends to write. Now there is a small he could not do; indeed he had actually done business matter between us, which his lawyer most of those which win honor and distinction seems much disposed to push on to a difficulty, in life. He had achieved a very gallant but if not to worse. To prevent this, if possible, at all events to see whether a visit from me might not be serviceable, I shall cross over to Ireland on Tuesday, and be with you by Friday, or at furthest Saturday. Tell him that I am coming, but only for a day. My engagements are such that I must be here again early in the following week. On Thursday I go down to Windsor. brief military career in India, made a most brilliant opening in Parliament, where his abilities at once marked him out for office, was suspected to be the writer of the cleverest political satire, and more than suspected to be the author of the novel of the day. With all this, he had great social success. He was deep enough for a ministerial dinner, and "fast" enough for a party of young Guardsmen at “There is wonderfully little stirring here, Greenwich. With women, too, he was espebut I keep that little for our meeting. You cially a favorite; there was a Machiavellian are aware, my dear friend, what a poor, shat-subtlety which he could throw into small things tered, broken-down fellow I am; so that I -a mode of making the veriest trifles, little need not ask you to give me a comfortable Chinese puzzles of ingenuity that flattered and quarter for one night, and some shell-fish, if easily procurable, for my one dinner. "Yours, ever and faithfully, "H. U." amused them. In a word, he had great adaptiveness, and it was a quality he indulged less for the gratification of others than for the pleasure it afforded himself. He had mixed largely in society, not only We have already told our reader that the of his own, but of every country of Europe. note was a brief one, and yet was it not alto- He knew every chord of that complex instrugether uncharacteristic. Sir Horace Upton-ment which people call the world, like a masit will spare us both some repetition if we pre-ter; and although a certain jaded and wearied sent him at once-was one of a very composite look, a tone of exhaustion and fatigue, seemed order of human architecture; a kind of being, to say that he was tired of it all, that he had in fact, of which many would deny the existence till they met and knew them, so full of contradictions, real and apparent, was his nature. Chivalrous in sentiment and cunning in action, noble in aspiration, and utterly sceptical as to such a thing as principal, one-half of his temperament was the antidote to the other. Fastidious to a painful extent in matters of taste, he was simplicity itself in all the requirements of his life, and with all a courtier's love of great people, not only tolerating, but actuDXCIII. LIVING AGE. VOL. XI. 4 found it barren and worthless, the real truth was, he enjoyed life to the full as much as on the first day in which he entered it; and for this simple reason, that he had started with an humble opinion of mankind, their hopes, fears, and ambitions, and so he continued, not disappointed, to the end. The most governing notion of his whole life was an impression that he had a disease of the chest, some subtle and mysterious affection which had defied the doctors, and would I remember the time, for the roots of my hair were stirr'd By a shuffled step, by a dead weight trail'd by a whisper'd fright, And my pulses closed their gates with a shock on my heart as I heard The shrill-edged shriek of a mother divide the shuddering night. Villany somewhere! whose? One says we are villains all. Not he his honest fame should at least by me be maintain'd: But that old man, now lord of the broad estate and the Hall, proper remedy for adulteration of comestibles, housebreaking, and child-murder : : "And the vitriol madness flushes up in the ruffian's head, Till the filthy by-lane rings to the yell of the trampled wife, White chalk and alum and plaster are sold to the poor for bread, And the spirit of murder works in the very means of life. And Sleep must lie down arm'd, for the villanous centre-bits Dropt off yorged from a scheme that had left us Grind on the wakeful ear in the hush of the moonflaccid and drain'd. less nights, While another is cheating the sick of a few last gasps, as he sits To pestle a poison'd poison behind his crimson lights. burial fee And Timour-Mammon grins on a pile of children's bones, Is it peace or war? better war! loud war by land and by sea, War with a thousand battles, and shaking a hundred thrones. For I trust if an enemy's fleet came yonder round by the hill, And the rushing battle-bolt sang from the threedecker out of the foam, That the smooth-faced snub-nosed rogue would leap from his counter and till, And strike if he could, were it but with his cheating yardwand home." Having thus vented his bile by a wholesale objurgation of the peace-party, which shows, as Baillie Jarvie says, that "the creature has occasional glimmerings," this unhappy victim of paternal speculation suddenly bethinks himself that there are workmen at the Hall, now the property of the "millionnaire" or gray old wolf," by which endearing titles the father of Maud is designated throughout, and that the family are coming home. He remembers the little girl : Is that poetry? Is it even respectable verse? Is it not altogether an ill-conceived and worse-expressed screed of bombast, set to a metre which has the string-halt, without even Do the advantage of regularity in its hobble? not say that we are severe, we are merely speaking the truth, and we are ready to furnish a test. Let any man who can appreciate melody, turn to Locksley Hall, and read aloud eight or ten stanzas of that wonderful poem, but makes up his mind to have nothing to say until he has possessed himself with its music, to her : then let him attempt to sound the passage "Maud with her sweet purse-mouth when my father dangled the grapes," which we have just quoted, and he will imme-"Thanks, for the fiend best knows whether wodiately perceive the woeful difference. The man or man be the worse. may pipe to his own." contrast between the breathings of an Æolian I will bury myself in my books, and the Devil harp and the rasping of a blacksmith's file is scarcely more palpable. Our young misanthrope goes on to describe the ways of the However, on an early day he obtains a world, of which he seems to entertain a very glimpse, in a carriage, of "a cold and clearbad opinion, and finally comes to the conclu-cut-face," which proves to belong to Maud, sion that war upon a large scale is the only and he thus describes her :— |