The Eve of All-Hallows Volume I Part 11

"And you may recollect, my Lord," said the d.u.c.h.ess, "that George Buchanan, the famed Scottish historian, relates the very remarkable forewarning which James the Fourth of Scotland had in the church of St.

Michael, Linlithgow, from an old man of venerable aspect, and clad in blue habiliments. This person forewarned the king from his proceeding in his expedition against England, fore-telling to him that it would prove his ruin. The queen also remonstrated with him against the project of invasion, by acquainting him with the visions and frightful dreams which she nightly encountered. But no warning could avert his destiny. And he fell with a number of his n.o.bility in the ever memorable field of Flodden Sept. 9, 1513."

"There is," said the Duke, "another case in point; it is that of Walter Devereux, Earl of Ess.e.x, who foretold that his son, Robert Devereux, afterwards Earl of Ess.e.x, should never survive his thirty-sixth year; observing at the same time that his father had died at that period of life, and that he would himself die at that age. The death of his son, Robert Devereux, Earl of Ess.e.x, who was beheaded in the thirty-fourth year of his age, 1567, is a well known and recorded fact."

Here the d.u.c.h.ess rejoined:--"And you may recollect too, my dear Lord, that Mezeray, the historian of France, records, that it had been foretold to Henry the Fourth of France and Navarre, that he should die in a coach; so that upon the least jolt he would cry out, as if he beheld the grave opened ready to swallow him. And it is as well known that this prediction took place, Henry the Fourth having been a.s.sa.s.sinated in his coach as he was proceeding to the a.r.s.enal to consult with the immortal Sully, when he was stabbed by the knife of an a.s.sa.s.sin, 1610."

"Sully too," rejoined Lady Lucy, "in his admirable memoirs, makes mention of those black presages which, it is but too certain, this unfortunate prince had of his cruel destiny; they were indeed dreadful and surprising to the last degree!"

Lady Adelaide next paid a short tribute to this learned and mystical investigation:--"It may not be amiss," she said, "briefly to notice the prediction of the death of the Duke of Buckingham, as related by Lord Clarendon in his history, _and built_, as he emphatically expresses it, _upon better foundations of credit than usually such discourses are founded_.--His account is strikingly remarkable; but to recount the accompanying circ.u.mstances would occupy too much time, and seriously intrude on the pleasantry of the company by entering into the awful and appalling detail; I must beg, therefore, to refer those friends who may be desirous to gratify their curiosity on this subject to consult the pages of the n.o.ble historiographer. The presages of our poet Dryden are deserving of notice, he was extremely addicted to judicial astrology: upon the birth of his son he took his horoscope, and all his calculations respecting him marvellously were accomplished; and which are too recent in the recollection of those present to render it necessary for me to dwell upon; only to observe, that these astrological calculations were fulfilled with an accuracy almost amounting to mathematical correctness."

It came next to Sir Patricius Placebo's turn to contribute to these ghostly recollections, who began with a stately hem. "I rather think I can notify to this n.o.ble company a very remarkable circ.u.mstance, and I flatter myself indeed it is one not generally known. It is recorded in the life of the very erudite and estimable scholar, John H. Hottinger, that when he ascended the pulpit of the academy of Basle to make _a farewell oration_ to that society previous to his departure for the city of Leyden, where he had been appointed Professor of the Oriental Languages at the College of Leyden, he observed a line written upon it, which much disturbed him, and surprised the whole auditory, as being prophetical of his death, which happened soon after. The line was from Ovid:--

'_Carmina jam moriens, canit exequialia cygnus._'

'The dying swan his fun'ral song doth sing.'

Shortly after this the very learned and accomplished scholar was drowned with part of his family in the river Lemit, in the year 1667. The due application of this celebrated line, and the a.n.a.logy of the water-bird fore-telling the time and manner of his death--hem!

DOSS MOI, TANE STIGMEN!

Yes, doubtless, there is much grave matter for deep reflection in this well-authenticated event."

Lord Glandarah prepared to yield his contribution to the strange topic under discussion. His Lords.h.i.+p had resided nearly all his life upon the continent; he was a Roman Catholic, and this, it was believed, was the disposing reason for his living abroad. He spoke broken English so like a foreigner, that he might have been almost mistaken for one, as has been already observed in a previous chapter. "Gad save my soul, my Lady d.u.c.h.ess, I do remember one of a very remarkable occurrence that happened some few years ago when I was travelling through Normandy. My Lord Roscommon, being then a boy of ten years of age, had preternatural intelligence of his father's death. Gad save my soul, it is the very most extraordinary circ.u.mstance to be sure! Your Grace must know that it happened at Caen: one day his Lords.h.i.+p was, as it were, madly extravagant in playing, leaping, getting over the tables, and playing, Gad save my soul! many other wild gambols. He was, _sans doubte_, wont to be sober, staid, lad enough. Those who saw him exclaimed, 'heaven grant this bodes no ill-luck to him!' In the heat of this extravagant fit he suddenly cried out, 'My father is dead!' And _a.s.surement_, Gad save my soul! a fortnight after accounts arrived from Ireland that the Earl of Roscommon was dead! This account was told me, Gad save my soul, by Mr. Knolles, who had been his governor, and at that time with him.

And, Gad save my soul! I have often heard my Lord Roscommon's relations affirm this account to be true. Now, Gad save my soul! could any thing be more extraordinary? _Sans doute c'est impossible!_"

The hour was indeed very late; and the guests arose, and making due obeisance, withdrew. Adelaide, according to the good old fas.h.i.+on, embraced her parents, and retired to her chamber. But she had no sooner lain down to rest than she heartily repented of what she had done. The tempest continued with unabated rage; so much so indeed that the guests departed not from the Castle, but there found a safe retreat from "the pelting of the pitiless storm." The storm still continued to increase; the roaring waves of the Atlantic thundered against the sh.o.r.e, and burst upon the firm foundations of Tyrconnel Castle.

Adelaide's chamber was ever and anon illuminated with brilliant flashes of vivid lightning; and often did she wish the mysterious deed undone!

---- ---- ----"Oh, Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream!"

But what Adelaide saw upon that awful night ever remained untold.--She could never be prevailed upon to divulge the tremendous and frightful circ.u.mstances of that eventful night. The next morning, as it afterwards appeared, she complained of being very unwell, and kept her bed for some days. The blame was very discreetly thrown upon her having eaten too many nuts--having danced too much; and, moreover, supper having disagreed with her; besides a variety of _et cetera_ explanations. It was a long period before Adelaide resumed her usual serenity and gaiety of temper; and whenever her friends or acquaintance would interrogate her upon the adventures of that memorable night, she would a.s.sume much reserve, and seemed displeased: this the only occasion, it was by all remarked, that she had ever been observed to have appeared displeased since they first had the happiness to be acquainted with her.

The unwarrantable practice of inquiring into futurity prevailed very generally at and before the period which we write of; and most strange to say, at times the sacred volume of the Scriptures,[21] and at others the poems of Virgil and Homer, were consulted for oracular purposes. The _sortes Prenestinae_, _sortes Homerianae_, and _sortes Virgilianae_, which were modes of inquiring into the secrets of futurity, are well known to the cla.s.sic reader. A remarkable instance of the trial of this latter sortilege occurred to King Charles I. when at the city of Oxford, during the civil wars. Going one day to inspect the Boedlian Library, His Majesty was shown, along with other volumes, an early copy of Virgil, beautifully printed and exquisitely bound. Lord Falkland, to amuse the King, insisted upon His Majesty's trying his fortune by the _sortes Virgilianae_; whereupon the King, opening the volume, hit upon the fourth aeneid, line 615, which much disconcerted him.

[21] Even so recently as during Wesley's time [See Southey's Life of Wesley] will be perceived the fondness of this celebrated preacher for divination by lot, and by the casual opening of the Bible, expecting thereby the peculiar and immediate guidance of the Almighty!

The pa.s.sage is prophetic of the fortunes of aeneas, and, _mutato nomine_, it was applicable to the royal martyr.[22]

[22] For the gratification of the curious we here subjoin the quotation from Virgil, with which is given a translation of the remarkable lines by Dryden:--

"At bello audacis populi, vexatus et armis Finibus extorris, complexu avulsus Juli, Auxilium imploret; videatque indigna suorum Funera: nec quum se sub leges pacis iniquae Tradiderit, regno aut optata luce fruatur: Sed cadat ante diem, mediaque inhumatus arena."

VIRGIL ae. IV. 1. 615.

"Yet shall a race untamed, and haughty foes, His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose: Oppress'd with numbers in th' unequal field, His men discouraged, and himself expell'd, Let him for succour sue from place to place, Torn from his subjects and his son's embrace.

First let him see his friends in battle slain, And their untimely fate lament in vain: And when at length the cruel war shall cease, On hard conditions may he buy his peace: Nor let him then enjoy supreme command, But fall untimely by some hostile hand, And lie unburied on the barren strand."

Lord Falkland, upon observing that the King was discomposed, resolved to try his own fortune in the same manner, hoping that perchance he might alight on some sentence that would bear no relation to his own, and thereby turn aside the thoughts of the King from any impression the lines might have occasioned. However, the subject of the pa.s.sage upon which he unluckily stumbled was fully as unpropitious and as applicable as that upon which his sovereign had alighted. It was the lamentation of Evander for the untimely death of his son, in the 11th aeneid. It is well known that the eldest son of this n.o.bleman, a young man of amiable character, had been previously slain in the first battle of Newburg.

It is recorded of the famous and excellent sculptor Giovanni Lorenzi Bernini, that upon his beholding a painting by Vand.y.k.e, which presents three portraits of King Charles I. on the same canva.s.s--the one a front face, the other a half side, and the third a profile--the artist observed: "whoever the individual be whose likeness these three portraits represent, I am of opinion that the same will come to an untimely end."

This painting had been expressly taken and forwarded to Rome, in order that Bernini might, from the resemblance, sculpture a marble bust of the King, which accordingly he did; and King Charles, the greatest and best patron of the fine arts that England can boast of, was so much pleased with the performance, that he sent Bernini a ring of very great value; and said to the person who was deputed to bring it: "_Andate a coronar quello mano, che ha fatto si bel lavorno_."[23]

[23] Le Vite de Piu celebri Architecti, &c.--_Pagina 358, Roma 1768._

All attempts to inquire into and penetrate the secrets of futurity are highly to be condemned, as they are nothing less than tempting the Almighty; it is not for frail man to antic.i.p.ate the ways of Providence, and discover these events that heaven always in its wisdom, and often in its mercy, withholds from mortal eyes. But it is indeed full time to close (as we apprehend we have trespa.s.sed too long on our reader's forbearance)

----"The day to superst.i.tion dear,

Hallow'd and reverenc'd in the olden time, Sacred to every saint of every clime."

CHAPTER IX.

----Think ye see The very persons of our n.o.ble story As they were living; think ye see them great, And follow'd with the general throng.

PROLOGUE TO K. HENRY VIII.

The celebration of the birth-day of the Lady Adelaide pa.s.sed over as we have described in the preceding chapter, and our lovely heroine was now quite recovered from whatever cause it might have been which had so disturbed and agitated her upon that eventful and recorded night. The Duke and d.u.c.h.ess, according to their previous determination, towards the close of November set off with their suite on their route for Dublin Castle; for the time was now fast approaching when in great pomp and state the Viceroy-Duke was to open the sessions of the Irish parliament.

Their Graces travelled by short stages on account of the abridgment of the days, and arrived in about four days in perfect health and safety at the vice-royal palace; no incident, occurrence, or even pleasantry, happening, that could possibly amuse the story-loving reader, or important enough to be handed down to posterity in savoury remembrance.

At this epoch of the Irish history the parliament met only once in two years; and a member of the lower house, the House of Commons, then held his seat for life, or at least certainly during the period of the life of the reigning sovereign, upon whose demise alone a new parliament was to be called. What then had a member thus chosen under these circ.u.mstances to apprehend or fear from the resentment of his const.i.tuents? Nothing!--certainly nothing! The member was virtually placed beyond their control, beyond their remonstrance, and above their resentment; while his hopes and expectations of reward from a minister for services done, or to be performed, were reasonably great, and held forth attractive bait to corruption. The representative would, or might, oppose the measures of a good minister, in order that his services might be brought into action, and duly paid for upon the performance thereof; and it would be equally his interest, upon the same corrupt _data_, to sell himself to a bad and profligate minister for prompt payment! But both these alternatives were fraught with evils to the const.i.tuents; and against these evils they had, they could have, no control! The minister too could indeed well afford to bid high and imposing terms, when the purchase was for life. Thus, although a small portion of virtue might resist a small portion of temptation, nevertheless that resistance would become weaker as time advanced, in an increased ratio; and, moreover, as a long duration and manifold opportunities were given for the temptation and the tempter, which could not, by possibility, be the case if parliaments, instead of being for the life of the sovereign,[24] and meeting only once in every two years, were to have met annually, and the conduct of the representative were placed under the eye and the control of their const.i.tuents. And a.s.suredly it must strike the good sense of the reader that the prolongation of the term of parliament weakens the security of the people, for whose benefit parliaments were const.i.tuted; and that nothing can make it safe to repose so great a trust in any body of men, as the const.i.tutive body delegates to its representative, but the shortness of the term for which such delegation is made.

[24] It was not, however, until the year 1768, during the administration of Lord Townsend, that the royal a.s.sent was given to an act for limiting the duration of parliament to eight years.

It appears, from consulting the page of history, that England was one of the first countries in which the representatives of boroughs were admitted into the great council of the nation; for until the year A. D.

1265, it was a privilege unknown and unclaimed.

The cause of calling the burgesses to the great council, or parliament of the nation, (according to Dr. Robertson, in his "View of the State of Europe,") was "in order to add greater popularity to the party of the barons that had armed against Henry the Third, and to strengthen the barrier against the encroachments of regal power."

But, alas! how fatally has the converse of the intention of our wise progenitors been established! From lapse of time, ministerial influence, the pecuniary embarra.s.sments of the n.o.bles and proprietors of boroughs, and the all powerful lever of corruption, the boroughs have changed masters. Those boroughs that were erected as mounds and ramparts against the powerful influence of the crown, have many of them been purchased by the crown, and now powerfully preponderating to the opposite scale, have increased, in a formidable degree, the royal influence and prerogative which they were created to check; and have but too effectually magnified the evils which they were formed to repress!

The day for the a.s.sembling of parliament had now arrived, and the Viceroy-Duke proceeded in great pomp and state to the House of Lords to open the session. The cap of maintenance was borne by Lord Mount-Leinster, and the sword of state by the Lord Glandarah. His Grace was seated in the superb antique state-coach, which was lined with crimson velvet, and trimmed with gold lace; the exterior was richly and magnificently adorned; the pannels had been painted by a celebrated Venetian artist, and the subjects were chosen from the heathen mythology. The state-carriage was drawn by eight beautiful black horses, with long flowing tails, and right n.o.bly caparisoned; they were a present from His gracious Majesty James the Second. The harness and all the _accessoires_ were in unison in their magnificence. Six state-carriages and four preceded that which bore the Duke of Tyrconnel; and the state-carriage was surrounded by the battle-axe guards. The streets were lined with soldiery, and no demonstration of respect was wanting as the n.o.ble Duke proceeded to the House of Peers. We need not tell that his Grace wore the robes of the order of the garter, nor dwell upon the brilliancy of the diamond star which glittered upon his breast, nor upon his fine appearance; for the Duke was justly accounted by far the handsomest man of the age in which he flourished. With great and unaffected dignity he entered the House of Peers, the trumpets, &c. all pealing forth the _now_ national anthem of "G.o.d save the King," which no former monarch or viceroy had ever received, as it was composed expressly for James II. Meanwhile the long and continued peal of cannon told to all that the n.o.ble viceroy was seated upon the throne.[25] We mean not to hara.s.s our kind reader to actual death by giving him, in _totidem verbis_, the speech of his Grace, but we will however venture to record, for historical remembrance, the mode _entre_:--The Duke of Tyrconnel enters the House of Peers, the Earl of Mount-Leinster bearing the cap of maintenance; the Lord Glandarah carrying the sword of state; the train being supported by Sir Richard Talbot. His Grace made his _conges_ to the cloth of state; then taketh his seat on the throne under the canopy, the Secretary of State standing at his right hand. The Lord Chancellor then proceeds to his stall on the Lord Lieutenant's right hand, and acquaints the Lords that it is the Lord Lieutenant's pleasure that their Lords.h.i.+ps should be covered. Next, the Lord Chancellor, kneeling, receiveth a direction from the Lord Lieutenant; and thereupon standing up again wills the Gentleman-Usher of the black-rod to acquaint the House of Commons that it is the Lord Lieutenant's pleasure that they should attend his Grace. When the speech contained the following items:--'Thanks to the House of Peers for their loyal devotion so often manifested for the honour of the crown, and so forth; their unshaken loyalty, &c. to the king's person and government. Thanks followed to the House of Commons for the necessary provisions for the services of the ensuing year so cheerfully made, &c. Then followed a general appeal to both houses, entreating them that when they returned to their respective counties to use their utmost endeavours to inculcate and bring to bear the same loyalty and affection by them so often and efficiently demonstrated.' The Duke concluded his speech in these emphatic terms:--"And I cannot conclude, my lords and gentlemen, without the hope that you will permit no apprehensions of grievances or causeless jealousies to interrupt that tranquillity and social order, and obedience to the laws, which const.i.tute the fountain of all political happiness--the source and the support of industry, agriculture, commerce, and all national amelioration, which has been ever the unvaried pursuit of the best of kings. And I shall not fail to represent to my royal master your dutiful devotion; and the only reward which I look to, is your free and unbia.s.sed approbation!"

[25] At this point of time the Irish House of Lords met at the hour of three o'clock in the afternoon; but when the house was engaged in the hearing of appeals they regularly a.s.sembled at the hour of nine o'clock in the morning.

His Grace upon quitting the throne was dutifully received by the house uncovering, and rising from their seats. An address was then moved as an echo of the speech, by the Earl of Clanrickarde, and was seconded by the Viscount Kilmallock; which pa.s.sed the n.o.ble house, _nemine contradicente_. In the lower house the address was moved by Mr. Murtagh Magennis of Balligorionbeg, and seconded by Mr. James Lally of Tallendaly, and pa.s.sed the house unanimously.

Leave was granted for an act to be brought into the house, ent.i.tled, "The t.i.the Agistment Bill," which was read next day the first time, and after a few days a second time; and a day was appointed for the third reading. When that day had arrived Lord Glandarah, who was in the robing-room, observed a strong muster of bishops; and upon entering the house he whispered a friend--"I clearly perceive, Gad save my soul! that we shall have a very angry political debate to-day, for I left my lords the bishops duly caparisoning them-selves in their celestial armour!"

Some altercation took place in the robing-chamber between Lord Mount-Leinster and Bishop Rocket, between whom there existed a private pique.