Слике страница
PDF
ePub

Even in this remote place the progress of refinement begins to be felt, and, within the last four years, two cases of adultery have occurred-the last of which was attended with circumstances rather peculiar: the lady's name was N—; the gallant's, Colonel Snephew and heir to Lord AThe husband, who was suspicious of an intrigue, forbade his wife to speak to him. Meeting them a few days afterwards conversing on the road, he gave the colonel a blow a duel followed; but after the first shot, the magistrates arrived, and put them under an arrest the colonel was himself married to an amiable woman, who had borne him four children. After a short but severe struggle between duty and inclination, he gave up his commission, and fled, with his gentle Desdemona, to the Isle of Man, the receptacle of runaways, from this country, of every description. The lady, fearful however that when passion subsided, his fondness for his youngest son might cause him to return, contrived to decoy the child from his mother, and carried him along with them. Justice obliges me here to mention that this lady was not a native of Drogheda, nor even of Ireland-she was the daughter of a merchant in London; where, if there are some vicious, there are a much greater number of virtuous women.

In ancient times, parliaments were frequently held in Drogheda, one of which attainted the great Earl of Desmond, who was beheaded, in consequence, the fifteenth of February, 1467. Report makes his crime to have been extorting coyne and livery, which means free quarter for horse and man, and money besides. Tradition, however, tells a different story, and says

that the real cause of his death was not the ostensible one. He despised the king for his marriage with the Lady Elizabeth Grey, and often said she was a tailor's widow. This was an affront it was hardly in female nature to forgive; and though the poor earl was so distant, her Majesty contrived to reach him with her shears. King Edward, it is said, was willing to forgive him, but the queen stole the privy signet, and put it to an order for his execution. The irritability of tailors to insinuations thrown out against their profession seems at all times to have been very great. The fraternity in London, luckily for a respectable performer, had not so much power as this Atropos of a queen. He advertised a farce for his benefit which exposed them to ridicule-they made a riot to prevent its representation: had they held the scissars of fate, they would not unlikely have cut the actor as well as his comedy short.

CHAPTER XIII.

Conduct of the yeomanry of Drogheda during the rebellionIrish and English courage contrasted-Singular encounter with a female-Churchyard and inscriptions-Catholic burying-ground.

Drogheda.

THERE are several pretty walks about this town, which, however, seem to be little frequented. The weather was charming, and the sea-breeze, which breathed on one of them, made it delightful; yet it was silent and solitary as the deserts of Arabia. Walk

[ocr errors]

ing for amusement seems much less common than in England; the females, I suppose, are more domestic : this, doubtless, is a great blessing to their lovers and husbands, but it is inconvenient to the traveller, who soon tires of the most beautiful landscape that is not brightened by the human face divine." The view from the Castle-mount, as it is called, is very fine; it was erected a short time before the late unfortunate rebellion, and a battery planted on it, which commands the whole town. Whether in Whether in consequence of this, or of other prudent precautions, Drogheda remained tolerably quiet, though the number of the disaffected was supposed to be very great: lenient measures, however, were as little had recourse to as in other places. The yeomanry corps of the neighbourhood were assembled in the town, and billeted on the inhabitants: they were all stanch Protestants, and of course outrageously loyal. Loyalty, like charity, covers a multitude of sins: they all drank and caroused, swallowed wine and whiskey in pails-full; and, in their zeal for the good old cause, I fear, committed a number of bad actions. The Catholics of Drogheda were to the Protestants in the proportion of eight to one; and every Catholic was a rebel, of course, who aimed at nothing short of the extirpation of the protestant religion by the destruction of these its pious and learned defenders. Their powers were unlimited, their prejudices were strong, and their fears were great. When present fear was added to former recollection, it was hardly to be expected they would bear their faculties very meekly. Fear has ever been the parent of the most horrid deeds. Nero and Domitian were capricious, brutal,

and malicious, almost from their first accession to the throne; but they were not decidedly cruel until they knew they were hated: fear then saw an assassin in every form, and a dagger in every hand, and the most atrocious deeds were considered only necessary acts of self-preservation. The Catholic hated the Protestant. Alas! that is not wonderful: he had suffered much, and had suffered long; he was beat down and oppressed; he was despised, reviled, and persecuted; a stranger in his native land, he could obtain no honour, and gain no distinction: even the land which gave him birth, which to him was little but a cradle and a grave; the religion to which he so fondly clung, which enabled him to bear his misfortunes upon earth, and pointed out to him happiness hereafter in heaven, were terms of contempt and reproach. The Protestant hated the Catholic. Wherefore? His revenge might have been satiated, he had inflicted misery enough; his vanity might have been gratified, his was the triumph; his avarice might have been appeased, his was the gain. Wherefore, then, did he hate him? Because he feared him; because, though disarmed, he was not helpless; because, though cast down, he was struggling to rise, and, Antæus like, might rise stronger from the touch of his parent earth: he hated him because he had inflicted misery, because his was the triumph, because his was the gain.

66 Forgiveness to the injured does belong,

But he ne'er pardons who has done the wrong."

The conduct of the yeomanry, however, on the following occasion, was highly meritorious. A party

vague

of the Wexford rebels, closely pressed by the army, separated themselves from the main body, and, without any apparent object, except the temporary one of avoiding the force that pursued them, or the expectation of being joined by the country people of the places through which they passed, traversed, in a wild and rapid manner, a distance of upwards of a hundred miles; and at length, by chance rather than design, arrived in the neighbourhood of Drogheda. The intelligence of this, as may be supposed, threw the royalists into considerable confusion their force was inferior to the rebels, who, instructed by the warfare they had carried on for several weeks against the king's troops, were now become veterans in the art of war. The volunteers, however, leaving a small force for the defence of the town, marched out with great courage to meet them: courage was universally displayed by all the yeomanry corps, and would have entitled them to the highest praise, had it been oftener than it was connected with humanity. On their arrival at the spot where the rebels were posted, they immediately attacked and dispersed them in every direction. These unfortunate wretches made, it would appear, but a poor resistance, unworthy of their former reputation. This will not be wondered at by those who understand the character of the lower Irish, who are, beyond all others, governed by wild and unsettled emotion, and are often as helpless in depression as they are bold and enterprizing under less desperate circumstances. An immense distance of country lay between them and their home; their bodies were exhausted by fatigue and want of food,

« ПретходнаНастави »