The Eve of All-Hallows Volume I Part 8

UMBRAGE--the proud, the great, and mighty, could no where be found; its place was a blank amid the nations!

What conduced to the mistake or blunder was, that a pique had arisen at that time between General Konigsmark and General Geis (subsequent to the pa.s.sage of the river Neckar in Germany,) against the Duc d'Enghien, (by whose valour that pa.s.s was won, and also Wimpfen was taken;) declaring that the two former would quit the army, &c. At this declaration the Field Marshal Viscount Turenne, it was rumoured, had _taken_ UMBRAGE! It was upon this _datum_ that the worthy alderman had built his _el dorado_, his airy citadel, his undiscoverable princ.i.p.ality and victory!

But Turenne soared above the impetuosity of Konigsmark, and the obstinacy of the other two. Turenne was a hero! and one who would scorn to the city achievement of _taking_ UMBRAGE from friend or foe!

For about the s.p.a.ce of an hour the lovely Lady Adelaide was permitted to remain at the drawing-room, the delight of every eye, and the theme of every tongue.

The Duke sat down to play at tredrille with the Countess Dowager of Ossory and Lord Glandarah. This game, as the name implies, was played by three persons at a small triangular table, which in these our degenerate days, are shown only as curiosities in the cabinets of the curious; and the Duke, when they left off play, arose a winner of about twenty pounds; for in their quiet, snug way the good folks of those days often lost or won fourteen or fifteen pounds of the current coin of the realm at a pool of tredrille, which was then considered _most moderate_ play!

About the hour of eleven o'clock the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess, who had been much gratified and amused during the course of the evening, arose, and bowing most gracefully and courteously to their guests, broke up the drawing-room, and retired.

The company soon departed for their homes, highly pleased and gratified with the courteous deportment of the n.o.ble pair; charmed alike by their affable manners and fascinating attentions equally bestowed on all. It would be tedious at this time of day to detail the names, and it might seem invidious to record the particular beauties that graced the brilliant circle, which upon that memorable evening crowded and adorned the splendid suite of rooms at Dublin Castle.

CHAPTER VII.

Young innocent, on whose sweet forehead mild The parted ringlet shone in simplest guise, An inmate in the home of RAYMOND smil'd, Or blest his noonday walk.--She was his only child.

CAMPBELL.

The faculty having strongly recommended sea-bathing as salutary and beneficial to the health of Lady Adelaide, the Duke, in consequence of this advice, purchased a hunting lodge, not remote from the sea-sh.o.r.e, and beautifully situated amid the romantic scenery of the county of Wicklow, which, from its proximity to the metropolis, afforded a convenient retreat, and from whence he could, with little or no delay, receive and despatch the duties attendant upon his high official situation. As soon as the mansion was placed in a state of proper repair, and becomingly furnished to be worthy of the reception of the representative of majesty, the Duke resolved, for the benefit of the health of a beloved and only daughter, as well as for his own repose from the fatigues of office, to retire to his newly-acquired purchase of Laetely Abbey--for thus was this hunting lodge denominated; and this resolve was not long without being carried into execution. The Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Tyrconnel, accompanied by Lady Adelaide, the sisters of the Duke, not forgetting Sir Patricius Placebo, that witty knight; along with a numerous attendant suite, left Dublin Castle for their sojourn at Laetely Abbey, and after a few hours travelling, they safely reached the place of their destination.

Letely (or Laetely) Abbey (_quasi laetus locus_), for by this latter designation antiquarians insisted that it should be called, was indeed a lovely place, surrounded as it was by all the combining beauties of natural scenery: here stood the venerable ruins of a decayed abbey, its walls wreathed and its summits crowned with ivy, while its grand oriel or eastern window, magnificent even in decay, was festooned and enlivened with various creeping plants, the sweet-smelling clematis, the jessamine, and woodbine, trailed around the ruins of the stone cas.e.m.e.nt, through which the sun-beams cheerfully shone, while the foliage gracefully waved in the blast, and the blossoms all sweetly perfumed the surrounding air. To the right of the abbey arose an extensive sheep-walk, whose boundaries were crowned by lofty groves of arbutus, or the strawberry tree; laurel, holly, added their combining greens and shades; and though last, not least, myrtle groves, which in this county grow to an amazing height, verifying the very just description of the great pastoral poet, Virgil, "_amantes littora myrtos_"--myrtles which rejoice in being near to the sh.o.r.es of the sea. While in the fore-ground of the landscape, in all its splendid azure majesty, burst forth upon the delighted spectator's view the mighty ocean, its bosom studded with frequent white sails, which, as they scudded along, brightly glistened in the rays of a refulgent autumnal sun. The sh.o.r.e was indented by high and undulating downs, all richly cultivated, whose green sward, in smoothness and brilliance, vied with, if not rivalled, any carpet from the looms of Bruxelles, Turkey, or Persia. A range of meadows succeeded the downs, which were bordered with hedge-rows of oak, sycamore, and ash. Adjoining this enlivening scene stood a dense grove of forest trees, now glowing in all the rich and diversified tints of autumn. The dark green hue of the American spruce formed a rich and striking contrast with its deep brown cones, which gracefully cl.u.s.tered amid their parent verdure, and undulated upon the waving branches, while they bent to the breeze. The lemon-tinted leaves of the Alpine larch here were also seen, which were finely opposed to the deep copper colour of the umbrageous beech, and alternately blending with the bright green of the Scottish fir, or the deeper shades of the ilex, or ever-green oak.

To the left yawned a rocky, dark, romantic glen, surmounted by stupendous rocks frowning on the abyss beneath, whose sides were studded with every variety of wild herb and plant indigenous to a mountainy region, and, among others, that rare plant, the _adianthum_, fringed the interstices of the frowning cliffs.

Beneath reposed in a secluded dell the cottage of the Duke's steward.

The latticed windows were trellised with the rose, jasmin, and woodbine; the blue smoke which ascended and curled into clouds amid the overhanging foliage, betokened habitation and comfort. To the cottage was annexed an extensive farm-yard, with all the appendices of corn-stacks, turf, and hay likewise, _c.u.m multis aliis_, besides the various addition of live stock, all of which added interest and animation to the scene.

Through the bosom of this glen slowly meandered along a mountain stream, (in winter a torrent,) whose devious course was distinctly outlined by an accompanying range of alder trees, that in double columns densely shaded its winding banks.

In the back ground, veiled in dark neutral tint, arose a craggy mountain, whose base was richly dotted with groves of larch and spruce.

Prominently in the fore-ground was situated the Duke's hunting lodge, which, as we have already said, was denominated Laetely Abbey. This structure was built in the style of architecture of the family mansions of the Elizabethan period. An extensive lake, supplied by a copious mountain stream, presented itself in front of the house, until, winding onward, it was lost amid the adjoining woods. Close by was a deer-park, well enclosed, and numerously stocked with deer, some of whom gregariously reposed, while others were seen trooping through the dense woods, and gazing at the pa.s.sing stranger, which added interest and a picturesque beauty to the scene.

But the pride, grace, and ornament of Laetely Abbey was to be found in the attractive and lovely Adelaide, who had now entered upon her fifteenth year--so rapidly onward does time advance. Indeed it was no flattery to say, that Adelaide was most truly engaging in her manners.

Her statue would have graced the design of Phidias or Praxiteles; her lovely and expressive countenance captivated every beholder; the rose of youth was upon her cheek, and her skin was fair and pure as the unsunned lily; her dark blue eyes sparkled intelligence, beaming beneath her beautifully arched eye-brows. Her look, gesture, and demeanour, communicated joy; and we shall not deny a parental pride to the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess, at the same time, that her looks beamed forth delight upon all who beheld her; while her converse, sustained with a voice sweet, distinct, and melodious, charmed every listening ear. Her manners were unaffected, as they were natural, and all was silence when she spoke.

Her figure was graceful, as we have before noticed, and beautifully and finely proportioned. When animated by discourse her features seemed to be lighted up by almost celestial fire; her brilliant eyes sparkled bright as the native diamond, and her entire countenance became irresistibly charming.

To those of inferior rank her deportment was kind and una.s.suming, and down to the lowest domestic she was beloved, for they felt and knew that her delight was to protect those beneath her power, and not to tyrannise over them.

With an ardent and sanguine admiration of the beauties of nature, Adelaide too possessed an enthusiastic love of literature, conjoined to a correctly formed and delicately refined taste. Every day her mind expanded, from the literary lore which she imbibed, and gradually, but extensively, her brilliant talents developed their powers. Poetry, painting, and music, princ.i.p.ally fascinated, as they are ever wont to do, the feeling and romantic mind of youth. Some of those impressions thus elicited Adelaide was occasionally in the habit of committing to writing. One day, while some workmen of the Duke were employed in breaking up ground upon the confines of an ancient, but neglected cemetery, which surrounded a small dilapidated church, stationed on a green and rising knoll, whose ruinous walls were thickly overspread with ivy, while the alder, holly, and thorn, had stoutly installed them-selves in what had been once the chancel--it happened that, upon digging at the foot of an ancient thorn, they threw up a human skull, which the Duke caused immediately to be reinterred in the same spot; and within no distant s.p.a.ce of time a tombstone was prepared to surmount the grave, upon which was duly chiselled a crucifix, with the usual accompaniments of a death's head, &c., and having called upon his daughter's muse for some lines to be inscribed thereon, the interesting Adelaide wrote the following, which was sculptured upon the tomb:--

INSCRIPTION.

Rest here in peace beneath this ancient thorn!

Perhaps thou once didst rural life adorn, And raised thy hopes to heaven in yonder aisle: Now droops thy relick nigh yon ruin'd pile!

Still peaceful rest beneath thy parent earth, Until awakened to a n.o.bler birth!

The Duke and d.u.c.h.ess having attentively perused this brief inscription, fondly and affectionately embraced their lovely and much beloved child, no less pleased with the religious feeling which had called forth their warm approbation, and which they distinctly expressed, than delighted as they were with the poetic feeling (for thus their partial fondness adjudged) with which it was written; considering it as no unfavourable specimen of the expanding powers of a youthful mind. Adelaide was infinitely far more delighted by this praise of her parents, an incense so grateful to her heart, than any aspirant to fame in these our degenerate days could receive from the partial praise and prejudiced columns of any literary critick.

Time rapidly moved onward, the winter had pa.s.sed over with an uncommon mildness; but the spring, which had now succeeded, proved unusually harsh, tardy, and severe. The cold north-east wind had incessantly blown, and vegetation had consequently been chillingly repelled; while the usual flowers that form the chaplet of spring were chained in their petals, or wholly destroyed by the frost. And when the merry month of June arrived, it was indeed unusual and extraordinary to behold the blossoms of the wild rose, hawthorn, and the laburnum, all mingling their beauties and their perfumes amid the numerous hedge-rows, and presenting a diversified ma.s.s of colours and foliage, like to the bloom of a Russian spring, when, melted by a genial vernal sun, trees, plants, and flowers bud, and immediately burst forth into luxuriant and varied vegetation; the annual resurrection of nature vigorously springing forth in renovated youth from the tomb of winter!

One morning while Lady Adelaide was seated in the library reading some interesting work with that deep attention and wrapt enthusiasm with which she always dwelt upon a book of merit, she was suddenly interrupted in her studies by the approach of that important person, (as in her own estimation she considered herself;) we here speak of the redoubtable Mrs. Judith Braingwain, who, rus.h.i.+ng incontinently into the library, and quite out of breath, exclaimed, "Oh, my Lady, who would have thought it? But however marvellous it is, see, yonder they come; see, there they are, Bishop Rocket along with his tall wife, who, by the bye, is hardy as a seagull; and, moreover, a whole flock, aye, a beautiful bevy of dainty damozels besides! See, my Lady, there--there they are; they are now just entering the porch; aye, there they come, sure enough!"

"How strange!" replied Lady Adelaide, "we left them at Tyrconnel; what unaccountable anomaly brings the bishop and family from his palace to this retired spot?"

Here Mrs. Judith catching at the word _anomaly_, and wholly uncomprehending it, while she thought proper to confound its meaning, thus rejoined:--"Anne O'Mally! Oh yes, my dear young Lady, just as if now before my eyes, I ken that sweet and charming creature, worth a whole fleet and cargo of such like ladies as Dame Rocket. I remember, ay faith do I, she was the finest----Oh no, not the finest--that belongs to another; but as fine a girl as a body might see on a fair May-day in ould Connaught, any how! And beside, and moreover, she was right loyally discended [lineally descended] from the great bould pirate princess, Grace O'Malley, in troth, and sure enough, far and near, and abroad and at home, far better known, mavourneen, by the famous name of Grana Uile, who (it is a storical fact) visited Elizabeth,[18] the grand and conquering queen of all England, in her gallipot [galliot,] afar across the salt water seas. Oh, Lady Adelaide! Anne O'Malley was indeed a promising young lady--the finest----"

[18] Queen Elizabeth received her graciously at court, and offered to create her a Countess.--See _Notes_ v. III.

"Nay, nay, nurse," said Lady Adelaide, "be not so flippant in thy praise, else I shall grow positively jealous. I therefore must stop you just now, for it seems your tongue runs riot quite with your discretion; and has bounced off at a tangent in full gallop, jumping pell-mell, hop and step, from the young and lovely Anne O'Malley to grey-head old Grana Uile, (of neither of whom, by the bye, did I speak,) until in most crab-like motion you pounce upon the majestic Elizabeth; and all this in most manifest and notable contempt of time, place, and circ.u.mstance.

This really is not to be endured. Besides, I pray you to remember, that _once_, however, _there was a time_ when no one was so handsome, so good, and all so angelic and so forth, as _your own Adelaide_! And, in undisguised truth, I was in a very fair and hopeful way of being utterly spoiled, but that happily I turned a deaf and obdurate ear to all your too partial praise, as well I knew that your commendations all sprung from overweening kindness. However, just now I am happy to find that you are converted from your former heresies, and that at length you behold your poor idol in its mortal shape, imbued with all its natural and perverse imperfections; and that you are now free to confess that, in sooth, I am not, as I never was, that angel of excellence, and that paragon of beauty, which your early devotions conceived me to be. You have broken your idol, and it has fallen from the pedestal upon which you had proudly placed it, s.h.i.+vered into atoms on the earth!"

This Lady Adelaide said in a playful way, half pretendedly serious, and the other half wholly comic.

"Ah, my dear young Lady! and so you are still the idol of goodness, and the very dragon of beauty! none who ever saw you, who ever knew you, can think otherwise; this I ever thought you were; and I defy Guy of Warwig, the seven Champions of Chrysostom, and Saint Patrick himself, to boot, to deny it if they durst, but that you are the best, the brightest, and finest young lady in the 'varsal world; and I challenge ould England and ould Ireland to gainsay me!

It now becomes necessary to say a word or two of this said Bishop Rocket, who came a visitor to the Duke. Patronage--all powerful patronage--had placed the mitre upon his brow, as it too often has done upon the head of many an unmeritorious aspirant to the hierarchy. His cla.s.sic acquirements and literary attainments will best be told by the subsequent details:--Three friends who came to dine _en famille_ one day at his house in Dublin, sat down, previously to dinner, to play a snug rubber of whist, thus to pa.s.s the intermediate time. It happened to be of a Friday, during a parliament winter; the printed proceedings of the House of Lords of the preceding day were brought in, and, as is always the case, the day of the week and the date of the month surmounted the top of the page, as the head and front of these transactions. It ran thus:--"_Die jovis_," &c. "What?" inquired the prelate, addressing one whom his Lords.h.i.+p considered as the most cla.s.sic of the trio, "pray, what is the meaning of _Die jovis_?"

And in order that such of our fair readers who are not conversant with the Latin tongue may not burst in ignorance with the hierarchical inquirant, we shall give, _in totidem verbis_, the answer of the learned Theban, the bishop's friend:--"Why, my good Lord," said the facetious gentleman, smiling withal, "'fore Jove, my Lord, the two words conjoined mean nothing more nor less than _Thursday_! upon which day your Lords.h.i.+p gave your _benedicite_ to the House of Peers!"

His Lords.h.i.+p lost the odd trick, looked all quite discomposed; nor did he recover himself again until the sumptuous and savoury dinner smoked upon the board.

Bishop Rocket had enlarged the palace at the See-house of----and had built, or caused to be built, with his usual want of tact and judgment, a grand and heavy portico, which fronted the north! Upon the final completion of this most notable and extraordinary structure the prelate seemed quite pleased; in which it was conceived that he remained solely in the singular number. However, he thought fit most condescendingly to write to a friend, then residing at Rome, a long letter, the burden of which ran to the following tenor:--"Now, dear and Reverend Sir, as you are seated, or I, who am a bishop, may say, enthroned at the fountain head of the fine arts, I have to request that you would have the goodness to purchase for me twelve statues of the heathen G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses to adornate my grand portico, which I have built at an immense expense; and it is allowed by all the curates in my diocese to have been accomplished with no inconsiderable portion of taste! And by so doing you will vastly oblige me."

The Reverend friend thus wrote back a letter, the chief paragraph of which, in reply to Bishop Rocket, ran to this effect:--"Most dear and Right Reverend Lord, as your Lords.h.i.+p requires the statues which you specify, to adorn the portico of a Christian bishop's palace, what would your Lords.h.i.+p think--(and oh, good, my Lord, I pray you not to be offended at the voice of truth, which is seldom heard with patience either within the precincts of courts or the palaces of prelates!)--what, I pray, my Lord, would you think if I should select for you, instead of the heathen G.o.ds of antiquated Greece and Rome, _videlicet_: Jupiter, Vulcan, Mars, Venus, Apollo, Bacchus, and Co., shall I, most dear and Reverend Lord, transmit to you statues of the twelve apostles, which surely, most venerated Prelate, you will find to be, upon mature deliberation, every way far more episcopal, apostolical, more in good taste, and indeed I must add, quite orthodox. And a.s.suredly, my good Lord, I feel, and am most fully confident to say and p.r.o.nounce it, that the Reverend Head of the holy see would most freely and cheerfully acquiesce in yielding his a.s.sent and consent to permit these said apostolical statues to be removed and transported to 'the Island of Saints,' so soon as His Holiness shall be informed that these stone-sculptured saints are destined for a brother bishop!"

But know, gentle reader, that Bishop Rocket, whatever might have been the cause, never even deigned to return any answer to this remonstrative letter of his too candid friend; and here consequently the proposal fell to the ground, and never was again resumed. The portico, however, still stood, presenting its dark _facade_ to the bleak northern blast, unsurmounted by statue either mythological or apostolical.

Mrs. Rocket _had been_--we must speak here historically in the past tense--had once been a fine woman, and still a portion of that beauty, though somewhat clipped by the shears of old Father Chronos, still remained. It was this attracted the bishop when only a curate, and

"Pa.s.sing rich on forty pounds a year."

But all powerful love, whose transcendant sway remains undisputed from the days of the Teian bard down to those of the mighty minstrel of our own time, in whose own words we are told,

"Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below, and saints above, For love is heaven, and heaven is love!"

This potent urchin slily sprung a shaft, which securely settled in the curate's reverend breast, but which was not long permitted by the compa.s.sionate lady hopelessly to rankle in the bosom of her accepted mate; for ere long the "happy, happy pair" were indissolubly united in the bands of holy wedlock. Some folks however, and, by the bye, not few in number, gave it as their opinion, that the lady happening to be the niece and nearest relative to the bishop of----who was unmarried, and besides much attached to his niece, that there appeared to be more of prudent calculation for the future, than ardent love at the present, in the transaction; inasmuch, that a large portion of the uncle's fortune, if not the entire, would ultimately vest in the selected fair one; and perchance, moreover, a rich benefice to boot, which might be expected from his Lords.h.i.+p's great episcopal patronage, that in the developement of time would be bestowed upon Curate Rocket. And all these conjectures, in due and ordinary course, finally and fully occurred. Indeed, in confirmation of these conjectures, there existed an additional cause for n.o.body's doubting the truth of this popular surmise; it was no less a cogent reason than this, that the lady was by some ten years, at least, elder than the man to whom she was affianced. This was indeed an objection not to be overruled by any thesis or syllogism of the schools; there was here

"No quirk left, no quiddit,"

to defeat its truth. It was in contradiction to sense, to propriety, and meet discretion. Upon this subject thus speaks the immortal Shakespeare, the great moral bard, and poet of nature:--

"Too old, by heaven; let still the woman take An elder than herself; so wears she to him, So sways she level in her husband's heart.

For----however we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost or worn, Than women's are!"

We must now attempt to present to the reader's eye a just description of the peripatetic, or walking-dress, of Mrs. Rocket, which no doubt pertained to a strange, peculiar, and extraordinary costume, which was in vogue in the times to which we advert. Upon her head she wore a small cap of Valenciennes lace, which was enveloped in a large and ponderous machine, ycleped a _calash_; which was so denominated from its structure and conformation, bearing a close similitude to the head or leather covering of the French vehicle which is called by a similar name. This structure was formed of various hoops of whalebone, arranged in equidistant, semicircular, parallels, forming _en ma.s.se_ a huge and outlandish head-gear; the outside was covered with black lutestring; and the penultimate circle of this pent-house was adornated and fringed with deep lace; the interior was lined with rose-coloured silk, which artfully threw a bloom upon the wearer's visage, whether wife or widow.