This being a question of order, a silence was soon established, when, what was my horror to find that Phil O"Grady began the whole narrative of my mother"s letter on the subject of the Rooneys! Not limiting himself, however, to the meagre doc.u.ment in question, but colouring the story with all the force of his imagination, he displayed to the brethren the ludicrous extremes of character personated by the London fine lady and the Dublin attorney"s wife. Shocked as I was at first, he had not proceeded far, when I was forced to join the laughter. The whole table pounced upon the story. The Rooneys were well known to them all; and the idea of poor Paul, who dispensed his hospitalities with a princely hand, having his mansion degraded to the character of a chop-house, almost convulsed them with laughter.
"I am going over to London next week," said Parsons, "with old Lambert; and if I thought I should meet this Lady Charlotte Hinton, I"d certainly contrive to have him presented to her as Mr. Paul Rooney."
This observation created a diversion in favour of my lady-mother, to which I had the satisfaction of listening without the power to check.
"She has," said Dawson, "most admirable and original views about Ireland; and were it only for the fact of calling on the Rooneys for their bill, she deserves our grat.i.tude. I humbly move, therefore, that we drink to the health of our worthy sister, Lady Charlotte Hinton."
The next moment found me hip-hipping, in derision, to my mother"s health, the only consolation being that I was escaping unnoticed and unknown.
"Well, Barrington, the duke was delighted with the corps; nothing could be more soldierlike than their appearance, as they marched past."
"Ah, the attorneys", isn"t it--the Devil"s Own, as Curran calls them?"
"Yes, and remarkably well they looked. I say, Parsons, you heard what poor Rooney said when Sir Charles Asgill read aloud the general order complimenting them: "May I beg, Sir Charles," said he, "to ask if the doc.u.ment in your hand be an attested copy?""
"Capital, "faith! By-the-bye, what"s the reason, can any one tell me, Paul has never invited me to dine for the last two years?"
"Indeed!" said Curran; "then your chance is a bad one, for the statute of limitations is clearly against you."
"Ah, Kellar, the Rooneys have cut all their low acquaintances, and your prospects look very gloomy. You know what took place between Paul and Lord Manners?"
"No, Barrington; let"s hear it, by all means!"
"Paul had met him at Kinnegad, where both had stopped to change horses.
"A gla.s.s of sherry, my lord?" quoth Paul, with a most insinuating look.
""No, sir, thank you," was the distant reply.
""A bowl of gravy, then, my lord?" rejoined he. ""Pray, excuse me," more coldly than before.
""Maybe a chop and a crisped potato would tempt your lordship?"
""Neither, sir, I a.s.sure you."
""Nor a gla.s.s of egg-flip?" repeated Paul, in an accent bordering on despair.
""Nor even the egg-flip," rejoined his lordship, in the most pompous manner.
""Then, my lord," said Paul, drawing himself up to his full height, and looking him firmly in the face, "I"ve only to say, the "onus" is now on you." With which he stalked out of the room, leaving the chancellor to his own reflections."
"Brethren, the saint!" cried out the prior, as he rose from the chair.
"The saint! the saint!"re-echoed from lip to lip; and at the same moment the door opened, and a monk appeared, bearing a silver image of St.
Patrick, about a foot and a half high, which he deposited in the middle of the table with the utmost reverence. All the monks rose, filling their pipkins, while the junior of the order, a fat little monk with spectacles, began the following ditty, in which all the rest joined, with every energy of voice and manner:--
I
"When St. Patrick our order created, And called us the Monks of the Screw, Good rules he revealed to our abbot To guide us in what we should do.
II
"But first he replenished his fountain With liquor the best in the sky, And he swore by the word of his saintship That fountain should never run dry.
III
"My children, be chaste, till you "re tempted; While sober, be wise and discreet; And humble your bodies with fasting Whene"er you "ve nothing to eat.
IV
"Then be not a gla.s.s in the convent, Except on a festival, found; And this rule to enforce, I ordain it A festival all the year round."
A hip, hip, hurrah! that made the very saint totter on his legs, shook the room; and once more the reverend fathers reseated themselves to resume their labours.
Again the conversation flowed cm in its broader channel; and scarcely was the laughter caused by one anecdote at an end when another succeeded, the strangest feature of all this being that he who related the story was, in almost every instance, less the source of amus.e.m.e.nt to the party than they who, listening to the recital, threw a hundred varied lights upon it, making even the tamest imaginable adventure the origin of innumerable ludicrous situations and absurd fancies. Besides all this, there were characteristic differences in the powers of the party, which deprived the display of any trace or appearance of sameness: the epigrammatic terseness and nicety of Curran; the jovial good-humour and mellow raciness of Lawrence Parsons; the happy facility of converting all before him into a pun or a repartee, so eminently possessed by Toler; and, perhaps more striking than all, the caustic irony and piercing sarcasm of Plunket"s wit--relieved and displayed one another, each man"s talent having only so much of rivalry as to excite opposition and give interest to the combat, yet never by any accident originating a particle of animosity, or even eliciting a shade of pa.s.sing irritation.
With what pleasure could I continue to recount the stories, the songs, the sayings, I listened to! With what satisfaction do I yet look back upon that brilliant scene, nearly all the actors in which have since risen to high rank and eminence in the country! How often, too, in their bright career, when I have heard the warm praise of the world bestowed upon their triumphs and their successes, has my memory carried me back to that glorious night, when with hearts untrammelled by care, high in hope, and higher in ambition, these bright spirits sported in all the wanton exuberance of their genius, scattering with profusion the rich ore of their talent, careless of the depths to which the mine should be shafted hereafter! Yes, it is true there were giants in those days.
However much one may be disposed to look upon the eulogist of the past, as one whose fancy is more ardent than his memory is tenacious, yet with respect to this, there is no denial of the fact, that great convivial gifts, great conversational power, no longer exist as they did some thirty or forty years ago. I speak more particularly of the country where I pa.s.sed my youth--of Ireland. And who that remembers those names I have mentioned; who that can recall the fascination, and charm, which almost every dinner-party of the day could boast; who that can bring to mind the brilliancy of Curran, the impetuous power of Plunket, or the elegance of manner and cla.s.sical perfection of wit that made Burke the Cicero of his nation; who, I say, with all these things before his memory, can venture to compare the society of that period with the present? No, no; the grey hairs that mingle with our brown may convict us of being a prejudiced witness, but we would call into court every one whose testimony is available, and confidently await the verdict.
"And so they ran away!" said the prior, turning towards a tall, gaunt-looking monk, who with a hollow voice and solemn manner was recording the singular disappearance of the militia regiment he commanded on the morning they were to embark for England. "The story we heard," resumed the prior, "was, that when drawn up in the Fifteen Acres, one of the light company caught sight of a hare, and flung his musket at it; that the grenadiers followed the example, and that then the whole battalion broke loose, with a loud yell, and set off in pursuit----"
"No, sir," said the gaunt man, waving his hand to suppress the laughter around him. "They were a.s.sembled on the lighthouse wall, as it might be here, and we told them off by tallies as they marched on board, not perceiving, however, that as fast as they entered the packet on one side they left it on the opposite, there being two jolly-boats in waiting to receive them; and as it was dusk at the time, the scheme was undetected, until the corporal of a flank company shouted out to them to wait for him, that being his boat. At this time we had fifty men of our four hundred and eighty."
"Ay, ay, holy father," cried the prior, as he helped himself to a devilled bone, "your fellows were like the grilled bone before me--when they were mustered, they would not wait to be peppered?
This sally produced a roar of laughter, not the less hearty that the grim-visaged hero it was addressed to never relaxed a muscle of his face.
It was now late, and what between the noise, the wine, and the laughter, my faculties were none of the clearest. Without having drunk much, I felt all the intoxication of liquor, and a whirlwind of confusion in my ideas, that almost resembled madness. To this state one part of their proceedings in a great measure contributed; for every now and then, on some signal from the prior, the whole party would take hands and dance round the table to the measure of an Irish jig, wilder and even more eccentric than their own orgies. Indeed, I think this religious exercise finished me; for after the third time of its performance, the whole scene became a confused and disturbed ma.s.s, and amid the crash of voices, the ringing of laughter, the tramping of feet, I sank into something which, if not sleep, was at least unconsciousness; and thus is a wet sponge drawn over the immediately succeeding portion of my history.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 224]
Some faint recollection I have of terrifying old Corny by my costume; but what the circ.u.mstances, or how they happened, I cannot remember.
I can only call to mind one act in vindication of my wisdom--I went to bed.
CHAPTER XVIII. A CONFIDENCE
I slept late on the morning after my introduction to the Monks of the Screw, and probably should have continued to indulge still longer, had not O"Grady awoke me.
"Come, Jack," he cried, "this is the third time I have been here to-day.
I can"t have mercy on you any longer; so rub your eyes, and try if you can"t wake sufficiently to listen to me. I have just received my appointment as captain in the Forty-first, with an order to repair immediately to Chatham to join the regiment, which is under orders for foreign service."
"And when do you go, Phil?"
"To-night at eight o"clock. A private note from a friend at the Horse Guards tells me not to lose a moment; and as I shall have to wait on the duke to thank him for his great kindness to me, I have no time to spare."