"He knew," says his admiring biographer, "what the madness of women could do;" but the breeze was getting up astern, and favoring G.o.ds beckoned him on to Italy and fortune; so he sighed twice or thrice--perhaps he wept, for the amiable hero"s tears were always ready on the shortest notice--and then, like the captain of the _Hesperus_, "steered for the open sea."
Did he feel a pang of remorse or shame at that meeting in the twilight of Hades, when he called vainly on Elissa, and the dead queen, from where she stood by the side of Sychaeus, who had forgiven her all, turned on him the disgust and horror of her imperial eyes? Who can tell? The greatest and best of men have their moments of weakness. If so, be sure he was soon comforted as he reviewed the shadowy procession of his posterity of kings. The episode of Byrsa would scarcely trouble his conjugal happiness, or make him more indulgent to the mildest flirtation of Lavinia.
I fancy that poor princess--after listening to a long, intensely proper discourse from her immaculate husband, or when the young Iulus had been unusually disagreeable--gazing wistfully in the direction where, against the sky-line, rose the clump of plane-trees, under which hot-headed, warm-hearted Turnus was resting after his brief life of storms. Then she would think of that unhappy mother who, with every impulse of a willful nature, loved her child so dearly, till she would begin to doubt--it was very wrong of her--if Amata or the match-making G.o.ds were most right after all.
The neighboring peasantry regarded Mohun with mingled dislike and terror--a feeling which was increased tenfold by an event which occurred about three years before my visit, in the height of the agrarian troubles. I can not do better than give it, as near as I can, in the words of one who was an actor in the scene.
CHAPTER XVII.
"Now what wouldst thou do, good my squire, That rides beside my rein, Wert thou Glenallan"s earl to-day, And I were Roland Cheyne?
My horse should ride through their ranks sae rude, As he would through the moorland fern, And ne"er let the gentle Norman bluid Grow cauld for the Highland kerne."
It was in the beginning of December, 184-(said Fred. Carew); we were sitting down to dinner after a capital day"s c.o.c.k-shooting--besides myself there were Lord Clontarf, Mohun, and Kate, my wife--when we were disturbed by a perfect hail of knocks at the hall door. Old Dan Tucker, or the Spectre Horseman, never clamored more loudly for admittance.
Fritz, Mohun"s old Austrian servant, went down to see what was up, and, on opening the door, was instantly borne down by the tumultuous rush of Michael Kelly, gentleman, agent to half a dozen estates, and attorney at law. In the two last capacities be had given, it seems, great umbrage to the neighboring peasantry, and they had caught him that night as he returned home, intending to put him to death with that ingenuity of torture for which the fine, warm-hearted fellows are justly celebrated.
They did not wish to hurry over the entertainment, so confined him in an upper chamber, while they called their friends and neighbors to rejoice with them, carousing meantime jovially below. The victim contrived to let himself down from the window, and ran for his life to the nearest house, which, unluckily, happened to be the Lodge. Two boys, however, saw and recognized him as he entered the demesne, and raised a whoop, to show that they knew where the fox had gone to ground.
This we made out from a string of incoherent interjections; and then he lay panting and contorting himself in an agony of fear.
Mohun sat on the hall table, swinging his foot and regarding the spectacle with the indolent curiosity that one might exhibit toward the gambols of some ugly new importation of the Zoological Society. When the story was told he pointed coolly to the door.
The shriek that the miserable creature set up on seeing that gesture I shall never forget.
"Do you think I shall turn my house into a refuge for dest.i.tute attorneys?" Ralph said, answering my look of inquiry. "If there were no other reason, I would not risk it, with your wife under my roof. A night-attack in the West is no child"s play."
Kate had come out, and was leaning over the gallery. She heard the last words, and spoke, flushing scarlet with anger.
"If I thought that my presence prevented an act of common humanity, I would leave your house this instant, Colonel Mohun."
Ralph smiled slightly as he bent his head in courteous acknowledgment of her interruption.
"Don"t be indignant, Mrs. Carew. If you have a fancy for such an excitement, I shall be too happy to indulge you. It is settled, then? We back the attorney. Don"t lie there, sir, looking so like a whipped hound. You hear? You are safe for the present." He had hardly finished, when there came a rustling of feet outside, then hurried whispers, then a knock, and a summons.
"We"d like to spake wid the curnel, av ye plase."
"I am here; what do ye want?" Mohun growled.
"We want the "torney. We know he"s widin."
"Then I"m afraid you"ll be disappointed. It"s not my fancy to give him up. I wouldn"t turn out a badger to you, let alone a man."
You see, he took the high moral ground now.
"Then we"ll have him out in spite of yez," two or three voices cried out together.
"Try it," Ralph said. "Meantime I am going to dine; good-night."
A voice that had not spoken yet was heard, with a shrill, gibing accent.
"Ah! thin the best of appet.i.tes to ye, curnel, and make haste over yer dinner. It"s Pierce Delaney that"ll give ye yer supper." Then they went off.
"The said Delaney is a huge quarryman," Ralph observed. "He represents the physical element of terror hereabouts, as I believe I do the moral.
We shall have warm work before morning. He does not like me. Fritz, send Connell up; he is below somewhere."
The keeper came, looking very much surprised. He had been in the stables, and had only just heard of the disturbance.
"Get the rifles and guns ready, with bullets and buckshot," his master said. "We are to be attacked, it seems."
The man"s bold face fell blankly.
"By the powers, yer honor, I haven"t the value of an ounce of poudther in the house. I meant to get some the morrow morning, afore ye were up."
Mohun shrugged his shoulders, whistling softly.
"Man proposes," he said. "It"s almost a pity we found so many c.o.c.ks in the lower copse this afternoon. I have fifteen charges or so in my pistol-case. We must make that do, loading the rifles light." Then he went to a window, whence he could see down the road; the moon was shining brightly.
"I thought so; they have got scouts posted already. The barbarians know something of skirmishing, after all. Maddox, come here." (The groom was a strong English boy, very much afraid of his master, but of nothing else on earth.) "Saddle Sunbeam, and go out by the back gates, keeping well under the shadow of the trees. When you clear them, ride straight at the rails at the end of the paddock. You"ll get over with a scramble, I think. Keep fast hold of his head--you _mustn"t_ fall. Then make the best of your way to A----, and tell Colonel Harding, with my compliments, that I shall be glad if he will send over a troop as quickly as possible. They ought to be here in two hours. And, mind, don"t spare the horse going, but bring him back easy. You will be of no use here, and I won"t have him lamed if I can help it. You"ll have to risk a bullet or two as you get into the road; but they can"t shoot.
It"s odds against their hitting you. Now go."
The groom pulled his forelock as if the most ordinary commission had been given him, and vanished.
"Connell," Ralph went on, "go and saw the ladders that are in the yard half through. They will hardly try the barred windows; but it looks more workmanlike to take all precautions. Then come back, and help Fritz to pile chairs and furniture all up the staircase, and about the hall near it. Line the gallery with mattresses, two deep, leaving s.p.a.ces to fire through. Light all the lamps, and get more candles to fix about; we shall not see very clearly after the smoke of the first dozen shots.
When you have finished, come to me. Now, shall we go back to dinner?"
I am not ashamed to own I had little appet.i.te; nevertheless, I sat down.
Kate had gone to her room. If her courage was failing, she did not wish to show it.
Suddenly our host got up and went to the window. His practiced ear had caught the tread of the horse which Maddox was taking out as quietly as possible. We watched him stealing along under the trees till their shelter failed him. Then he put Sunbeam to speed, and rode boldly at the rails. A yell went up from the road, and we saw dark figures running; then came a shot, just as the horse was rising at the fence, he hit it hard, and the splinters flew up white in the moonlight, but he was over.
We held our breath, while several flashes told of dropping shots after the fugitive. They did not stop him, though; and, to our great relief, we heard the wild rush of the frightened horse subside into a long stretching gallop, and the wind brought back a cheery hollo--"Forr"ard, forr"ard away!"
"So far so good," said Ralph Mohun, as he sat down again, and went in steadily at a woodc.o.c.k. "Don"t hurry yourselves, gentlemen. We have three quarters of an hour yet; they will take that time to muster.
Clontarf, some Hock?"
The boy to whom he spoke held out his gla.s.s with a pleasant smile. The coming peril had not altered a tint on his fresh, beardless cheeks--rosy and clear as a page"s in one of Boucher"s pictures.
A good contrast he made with the miserable attorney, who had followed us uninvited (it seemed he only felt safe in our presence), and who was crouching in a corner, his lank hair plastered round his livid convulsed face with the sweat of mortal fear.
It struck Mohun, I think. He laid his hand on Clontarf"s shoulder, and spoke with a kindliness of voice and manner most unusual with him--
"We"ll quell the savage mountaineer, As their Tinch.e.l.l cows the game: They come as fleet as forest deer; We"ll drive them back as tame."
Even at that anxious moment I could not help laughing at the idea of Ralph quoting poetry--of that grim Saul among the prophets.