The Young Duke Part 43

'Well, what am I in your debt? I can pay you here.'

'Five s.h.i.+llings, sir.'

'Here!' said the Duke; 'and tell me when a coach leaves this place to-morrow for Yorks.h.i.+re.'

'Half-past six o'clock in the morning precisely,' said the ostler.

'Well, my good fellow, I depend upon your securing me a place; and that is for yourself,' added his Grace, throwing him a sovereign. 'Now, mind; I depend upon you.'

The man stared as if he had been suddenly taken into partners.h.i.+p with missis; at length he found his tongue.

'Your honour may depend upon me. Where would you like to sit? In or out?

Back to your horses, or the front? Get you the box if you like. Where's your great coat, sir? I'll brush it for you.'

The bath and the breakfast brought our hero round a good deal, and at half-past two he stole to a solitary part of St. James's Park, to stretch his legs and collect his senses. We must now let our readers into a secret, which perhaps they have already unravelled. The Duke had hurried to London with the determination, not only of attending the debate, but of partic.i.p.ating in it. His Grace was no politician; but the question at issue was one simple in its nature and so domestic in its spirit, that few men could have arrived at his period of life without having heard its merits, both too often and too amply discussed. He was master of all the points of interest, and he had sufficient confidence in himself to believe that he could do them justice. He walked up and down, conning over in his mind not only the remarks which he intended to make, but the very language in which he meant to offer them. As he formed sentences, almost for the first time, his courage and his fancy alike warmed: his sanguine spirit sympathised with the n.o.bility of the imaginary scene, and inspirited the intonations of his modulated voice.

About four o'clock he repaired to the House. Walking up one of the pa.s.sages his progress was stopped by the back of an individual bowing with great civility to a patronising peer, and my-lording him with painful repet.i.tion. The n.o.bleman was Lord Fitz-pompey; the bowing gentleman, Mr. Duncan Macmorrogh, the anti-aristocrat, and father of the first man of the day.

'George! is it possible!' exclaimed Lord Fitz-pompey. 'I will speak to you in the House,' said the Duke, pa.s.sing on, and bowing to Mr. Duncan Macmorrogh.

He recalled his proxy from the Duke of Burlington, and accounted for his presence to many astonished friends by being on his way to the Continent; and, pa.s.sing through London, thought he might as well be present, particularly as he was about to reside for some time in Catholic countries. It was the last compliment that he could pay his future host. 'Give me a pinch of snuff.'

The debate began. Don't be alarmed. I shall not describe it. Five or six peers had spoken, and one of the ministers had just sat down when the Duke of St. James rose. He was extremely nervous, but he repeated to himself the name of May Dacre for the hundredth time, and proceeded. He was nearly commencing 'May Dacre' instead of 'My Lords,' but he escaped this blunder. For the first five or ten minutes he spoke in almost as cold and lifeless a style as when he echoed the King's speech; but he was young and seldom troubled them, and was listened to therefore with indulgence. The Duke warmed, and a courteous 'hear, hear,' frequently sounded; the Duke became totally free from embarra.s.sment, and spoke with eloquence and energy. A cheer, a stranger in the House of Lords, rewarded and encouraged him. As an Irish landlord, his sincerity could not be disbelieved when he expressed his conviction of the safety of emanc.i.p.ation; but it was as an English proprietor and British n.o.ble that it was evident that his Grace felt most keenly upon this important measure. He described with power the peculiar injustice of the situation of the English Catholics. He professed to feel keenly upon this subject, because his native county had made him well acquainted with the temper of this cla.s.s; he painted in glowing terms the loyalty, the wealth, the influence, the n.o.ble virtues of his Catholic neighbours; and he closed a speech of an hour's duration, in which he had shown that a worn subject was susceptible of novel treatment, and novel interest, amid loud and general cheers. The Lords gathered round him, and many personally congratulated him upon his distinguished success. The debate took its course. At three o'clock the pro-Catholics found themselves in a minority, but a minority in which the prescient might have well discovered the herald of future justice. The speech of the Duke of St.

James was the speech of the night.

The Duke walked into White's. It was crowded. The first man who welcomed him was Annesley. He congratulated the Duke with a warmth for which the world did not give him credit.

'I a.s.sure you, my dear St. James, that I am one of the few people whom this display has not surprised. I have long observed that you were formed for something better than mere frivolity. And between ourselves I am sick of it. Don't be surprised if you hear that I go to Algiers.

Depend upon it that I am on the point of doing something dreadful.'

'Sup with me, St. James,' said Lord Squib; 'I will ask O'Connell to meet you.'

Lord Fitz-pompey and Lord Darrell were profuse in congratulations; but he broke away from them to welcome the man who now advanced. He was one of whom he never thought without a shudder, but whom, for all that, he greatly liked.

'My dear Duke of St. James,' said Arundel Dacre, 'how ashamed I am that this is the first time I have personally thanked you for all your goodness!'

'My dear Dacre, I have to thank you for proving for the first time to the world that I was not without discrimination.'

'No, no,' said Dacre, gaily and easily; 'all the congratulations and all the compliments to-night shall be for you. Believe me, my dear friend, I share your triumph.'

They shook hands with earnestness.

'May will read your speech with exultation,' said Arundel. 'I think we must thank her for making you an orator.'

The Duke faintly smiled and shook his head.

'And how are all our Yorks.h.i.+re friends?' continued Arundel. 'I am disappointed again in getting down to them; but I hope in the course of the month to pay them a visit.'

'I shall see them in a day or two,' said the Duke. 'I pay Mr. Dacre one more visit before my departure form England.'

'Are you then indeed going?' asked Arundel, in a kind voice.

'For ever.'

'Nay, nay, _ever_ is a strong word.'

'It becomes, then, my feelings. However, we will not talk of this. Can I bear any letter for you?'

'I have just written,' replied Arundel, in a gloomy voice, and with a changing countenance, 'and therefore will not trouble you. And yet----'

'What!'

'And yet the letter is an important letter: to me. The post, to be sure, never does miss; but if it were not troubling your Grace too much, I almost would ask you to be its bearer.'

'It will be there as soon,' said the Duke, 'for I shall be off in an hour.'

'I will take it out of the box then,' said Arundel; and he fetched it.

'Here is the letter,' said he on his return: 'pardon me if I impress upon you its importance. Excuse this emotion, but, indeed, this letter decides my fate. My happiness for life is dependent on its reception!'

He spoke with an air and voice of agitation.

The Duke received the letter in a manner scarcely less disturbed; and with a hope that they might meet before his departure, faintly murmured by one party, and scarcely responded to by the other, they parted.

'Well, now,' said the Duke, 'the farce is complete; and I have come to London to be the bearer of his offered heart! I like this, now. Is there a more contemptible, a more ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous a.s.s than myself? Fear not for its delivery, most religiously shall it be consigned to the hand of its owner. The fellow has paid a compliment to my honour or my simplicity: I fear the last, and really I feel rather proud. But away with these feelings! Have I not seen her in his arms?

Pah! Thank G.o.d! I spoke. At least, I die in a blaze. Even Annesley does not think me quite a fool. O, May Dacre, May Dacre! if you were but mine, I should be the happiest fellow that ever breathed!'

He breakfasted, and then took his way to the Dragon with Two Tails. The morning was bright, and fresh, and beautiful, even in London. Joy came upon his heart, in spite of all his loneliness, and he was glad and sanguine. He arrived just in time. The coach was about to start. The faithful ostler was there with his great-coat, and the Duke found that he had three fellow-pa.s.sengers. They were lawyers, and talked for the first two hours of nothing but the case respecting which they were going down into the country. At Woburn, a despatch arrived with the newspapers. All purchased one, and the Duke among the rest. He was well reported, and could now sympathise with, instead of smile at, the anxiety of Lord Darrell.

'The young Duke of St. James seems to have distinguished himself very much,' said the first lawyer.

'So I observe,' said the second one. 'The leading article calls our attention to his speech as the most brilliant delivered.'

'I am surprised,' said the third. 'I thought he was quite a different sort of person.'

'By no means,' said the first: 'I have always had a high opinion of him.

I am not one of those who think the worse of a young man because he is a little wild.'

'Nor I,' said the second. 'Young blood, you know, is young blood.'

'A very intimate friend of mine, who knows the Duke of St. James well, once told me,' rejoined the first, 'that I was quite mistaken about him; that he was a person of no common talents; well read, quite a man of the world, and a good deal of wit, too; and let me tell you that in these days wit is no common thing.'

'Certainly not,' said the third. 'We have no wit now.'

'And a kind-hearted, generous fellow,' continued the first, 'and _very_ unaffected.'

'I can't bear an affected man,' said the second, without looking off his paper. 'He seems to have made a very fine speech indeed.'

'I should not wonder at his turning out something great,' said the third.

'I have no doubt of it,' said the second.