Tales and Novels Volume VI Part 35

"She never was in it," said Lord Colambre. "Only laid siege to it,"

said the count. "Well, I am glad your heart did not surrender at discretion, or rather without discretion. Then I may tell you, without fear or preface, that the Lady Isabel, who talks of 'refinement, delicacy, sense,' is going to stoop at once, and marry--Heathc.o.c.k."

Lord Colambre was not surprised, but concerned and disgusted, as he always felt, even when he did not care for the individual, from hearing any thing which tended to lower the female s.e.x in public estimation.

"As to myself," said he, "I cannot say I have had an escape, for I don't think I ever was in much danger."

"It is difficult to measure danger when it is over--past danger, like past pain, is soon forgotten," said the old general. "At all events, I rejoice in your present safety."

"But is she really going to be married to Heathc.o.c.k?" said Lord Colambre.

"Positively: they all came over in the same packet with me, and they are all in town now, buying jewels, and equipages, and horses.

Heathc.o.c.k, you know, is as good as another man for all those purposes: his father is dead, and has left him a large estate. _Que voulez-vous?_ as the French valet said to me on the occasion, _c'est que monsieur est un homme de bien: il a des biens, a ce qu'on dit._"

Lord Colambre could not help smiling.

"How they got Heathc.o.c.k to fall in love is what puzzles me," said his lords.h.i.+p. "I should as soon have thought of an oyster's falling in love as that being."

"I own I should have sooner thought," replied the count, "of his falling in love with an oyster; and so would you, if you had seen him, as I did, devouring oysters on s.h.i.+pboard.

"'Say, can the lovely _heroine_ hope to vie With a fat turtle or a ven'son pie?'

"But that is not our affair; let the Lady Isabel look to it."

Dinner was announced; and no farther conversation of any consequence pa.s.sed between the count and Lord Colambre till the cloth was removed and the servants had withdrawn. Then our hero opened on the subject which was heavy at his heart.

"My dear count--I have a mind to serve a campaign or two, if I could get a commission in a regiment going to Spain; but I understand so many are eager to go at this moment, that it is very difficult to get a commission in such a regiment."

"It is difficult," said the count. "But," added he, after thinking for a moment, "I have it! I can get the thing done for you, and directly.

Major Benson, who is in danger of being broke, in consequence of that affair, you know, about his mistress, wants to sell out; and that regiment is to be ordered immediately to Spain: I will have the thing done for you, if you request it."

"First, give me your advice, Count O'Halloran: you are well acquainted with the military profession, with military life. Would you advise me--I won't speak of myself, because we judge better by general views than by particular cases--would you advise a young man at present to go into the army?"

The count was silent for a few minutes, and then replied: "Since you seriously ask my opinion, my lord, I must lay aside my own prepossessions, and endeavour to speak with impartiality. To go into the army in these days, my lord, is, in my sober opinion, the most absurd and base, or the wisest and n.o.blest thing a young man can do.

To enter into the army, with the hope of escaping from the application necessary to acquire knowledge, letters, and science--I run no risk, my lord, in saying this to you--to go into the army, with the hope of escaping from knowledge, letters, science, and morality; to wear a red coat and an epaulette; to be called captain; to figure at a ball; to lounge away time in country sports, at country quarters, was never, even in times of peace, creditable; but it is now absurd and base.

Submitting to a certain portion of ennui and contempt, this mode of life for an officer was formerly practicable--but now cannot be submitted to without utter, irremediable disgrace. Officers are now, in general, men of education and information; want of knowledge, sense, manners, must consequently be immediately detected, ridiculed, and despised, in a military man. Of this we have not long since seen lamentable examples in the raw officers who have lately disgraced themselves in my neighbourhood in Ireland--that Major Benson and Captain Williamson. But I will not advert to such insignificant individuals, such are rare exceptions--I leave them out of the question--I reason on general principles. The life of an officer is not now a life of parade, of c.o.xcombical or of profligate idleness--but of active service, of continual hards.h.i.+p and danger. All the descriptions which we see in ancient history of a soldier's life, descriptions which in times of peace appeared like romance, are now realized; military exploits fill every day's newspapers, every day's conversation. A martial spirit is now essential to the liberty and the existence of our own country. In the present state of things, the military must be the most honourable profession, because the most useful. Every movement of an army is followed wherever it goes, by the public hopes and fears. Every officer must now feel, besides this sense of collective importance, a belief that his only dependence must be on his own merit--and thus his ambition, his enthusiasm, are raised; and, when once this n.o.ble ardour is kindled in the breast, it excites to exertion, and supports under endurance. But I forget myself," said the count, checking his enthusiasm; "I promised to speak soberly. If I have said too much, your own good sense, my lord, will correct me, and your good nature will forgive the prolixity of an old man, touched upon his favourite subject--the pa.s.sion of his youth."

Lord Colambre, of course, a.s.sured the count that he was not tired.

Indeed, the enthusiasm with which this old officer spoke of his profession, and the high point of view in which he placed it, increased our hero's desire to serve a campaign abroad. Good sense, politeness, and experience of the world preserved Count O'Halloran from that foible with which old officers are commonly reproached, of talking continually of their own military exploits. Though retired from the world, he had contrived, by reading the best books, and corresponding with persons of good information, to keep up with the current of modern affairs; and he seldom spoke of those in which he had been formerly engaged. He rather too studiously avoided speaking of himself; and this fear of egotism diminished the peculiar interest he might have inspired: it disappointed curiosity, and deprived those with whom he conversed of many entertaining and instructive anecdotes.

However, he sometimes made exceptions to his general rule in favour of persons who peculiarly pleased him, and Lord Colambre was of this number.

He this evening, for the first time, spoke to his lords.h.i.+p of the years he had spent in the Austrian service; told him anecdotes of the emperor; spoke of many distinguished public characters whom he had known abroad; of those officers who had been his friends and companions. Among others he mentioned, with particular regard, a young English officer who had been at the same time with him in the Austrian service, a gentleman of the name of Reynolds.

The name struck Lord Colambre: it was the name of the officer who had been the cause of the disgrace of Miss St. Omar--of--Miss Nugent's mother. "But there are so many Reynoldses."

He eagerly asked the age--the character of this officer.

"He was a gallant youth," said the count, "but too adventurous--too rash. He fell, after distinguis.h.i.+ng himself in a glorious manner, in his twentieth year--died in my arms."

"Married or unmarried?" cried Lord Colambre.

"Married--he had been privately married, less than a year before his death, to a very young English lady, who had been educated at a convent in Vienna. He was heir to a considerable property, I believe, and the young lady had little fortune; and the affair was kept secret, from the fear of offending his friends, or for some other reason--I do not recollect the particulars."

"Did he acknowledge his marriage?" said Lord Colambre.

"Never, till he was dying--then he confided his secret to me."

"Do you recollect the name of the young lady he married?"

"Yes--a Miss St. Omar."

"St. Omar!" repeated Lord Colambre, with an expression of lively joy in his countenance. "But are you certain, my dear count, that she was really married, legally married, to Mr. Reynolds? Her marriage has been denied by all his friends and relations--hers have never been able to establish it--her daughter is--My dear count, were you present at the marriage?"

"No," said the count, "I was not present at the marriage; I never saw the lady; nor do I know any thing of the affair, except that Mr.

Reynolds, when he was dying, a.s.sured me that he was privately married to a Miss St. Omar, who was then boarding at a convent in Vienna. The young man expressed great regret at leaving her totally unprovided for; but said that he trusted his father would acknowledge her, and that her friends would be reconciled to her. He was not of age, he said, to make a will; but I think he told me that his child, who at that time was not born, would, even if it should be a girl, inherit a considerable property. With this I cannot, however, charge my memory positively; but he put a packet into my hands which, he told me, contained a certificate of his marriage, and, I think he said, a letter to his father: this he requested that I would transmit to England by some safe hand. Immediately after his death, I went to the English amba.s.sador, who was then leaving Vienna, and delivered the packet into his hands: he promised to have it safely delivered. I was obliged to go the next day, with the troops, to a distant part of the country. When I returned, I inquired at the convent what had become of Miss St. Omar--I should say Mrs. Reynolds; and I was told that she had removed from the convent to private lodgings in the town, some time previous to the birth of her child. The abbess seemed much scandalized by the whole transaction; and I remember I relieved her mind by a.s.suring her that there had been a regular marriage. For poor young Reynolds' sake, I made farther inquiries about the widow, intending, of course, to act as a friend, if she were in any difficulty or distress. But I found, on inquiry at her lodgings, that her brother had come from England for her, and had carried her and her infant away. The active scenes," continued the count, "in which I was immediately afterwards engaged, drove the whole affair from my mind.

Now that your questions have recalled them, I feel certain of the facts I have mentioned; and I am ready to establish them by my testimony."

Lord Colambre thanked him with an eagerness that showed how much he was interested in the event. It was clear, he said, that either the packet left with the amba.s.sador had not been delivered, or that the father of Mr. Reynolds had suppressed the certificate of the marriage, as it had never been acknowledged by him or by any of the family. Lord Colambre now frankly told the count why he was so anxious about this affair; and Count O'Halloran, with all the warmth of youth, and with all the ardent generosity characteristic of his country, entered into his feelings, declaring that he would never rest till he had established the truth.

"Unfortunately," said the count, "the amba.s.sador who took the packet in charge is dead. I am afraid we shall have difficulty."

"But he must have had some secretary," said Lord Colambre: "who was his secretary?--we can apply to him."

"His secretary is now charge d'affaires in Vienna--we cannot get at him."

"Into whose hands have that amba.s.sador's papers fallen--who is his executor?" said Lord Colambre.

"His executor!--now you have it," cried the count. "His executor is the very man who will do your business--your friend Sir James Brooke is the executor. All papers, of course, are in his hands; or he can have access to any that are in the hands of the family. The family seat is within a few miles of Sir James Brooke's, in Huntingdons.h.i.+re, where, as I told you before, he now is."

"I'll go to him immediately--set out in the mail this night. Just in time!" cried Lord Colambre, pulling out his watch with one hand, and ringing the bell with the other.

"Run and take a place for me in the mail for Huntingdon. Go directly,"

said Lord Colambre to the servant.

"And take two places, if you please, sir," said the count. "My lord, I will accompany you."

But this Lord Colambre would not permit, as it would be unnecessary to fatigue the good old general; and a letter from him to Sir James Brooke would do all that the count could effect by his presence: the search for the papers would be made by Sir James, and if the packet could be recovered, or if any memorandum or mode of ascertaining that it had actually been delivered to old Reynolds could be discovered, Lord Colambre said he would then call upon the count for his a.s.sistance, and trouble him to identify the packet; or to go with him to Mr. Reynolds to make farther inquiries; and to certify, at all events, the young man's dying acknowledgment of his marriage and of his child.

The place in the mail, just in time, was taken. Lord Colambre sent a servant in search of his father, with a note, explaining the necessity of his sudden departure. All the business which remained to be done in town he knew Lord Clonbrony could accomplish without his a.s.sistance.

Then he wrote a few lines to his mother, on the very sheet of paper on which, a few hours before, he had sorrowfully and slowly begun,

"_My dear mother--Miss Nugent._"

He now joyfully and rapidly went on,

"My dear mother and Miss Nugent,

"I hope to be with you on Wednesday se'nnight; but if unforeseen circ.u.mstances should delay me, I will certainly write to you again.

Dear mother, believe me,

"Your obliged and grateful son,