Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 2 , livre ebook

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Here O'Shaughnessy sighed deeply, and even seemed affected by the souvenir. Come, Dan, we did it all for the best. Oh, O'Mealey, he was a cunning fellow; but no matter. We went to the ball, and to be sure, it was a great sight. Two hundred and fifty souls, where there was not good room for the odd fifty; such laughing, such squeezing, such pressing of hands and waists in the staircase, and then such a row and riot at the top, - four fiddles, a key bugle, and a bagpipe, playing 'Haste to the wedding,' amidst the crash of refreshment-trays, the tramp of feet, and the sounds of merriment on all sides! It's only in Ireland, after all, people have fun. Old and young, merry and morose, the gay and cross-grained, are crammed into a lively country-dance; and ill-matched, ill-suited, go jigging away together to the blast of a bad band, till their heads, half turned by the noise, the heat, the novelty, and the hubbub, they all get as tipsy as if they were really deep in liquor. "Then there is that particularly free-and-easy tone in every one about

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	23 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819909620
Langue	English

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CHAPTER I.
T HE DOCTOR'STALE. 1 "It isnow some fifteen years since – if it wasn't for O'Shaughnessy'swrinkles, I could not believe it five – we were quartered inLoughrea. There were, besides our regiment, the Fiftieth and theSeventy-third, and a troop or two of horse artillery, and the wholetown was literally a barrack, and as you may suppose, thepleasantest place imaginable. All the young ladies, and indeed allthose that had got their brevet some years before, came flockinginto the town, not knowing but the Devil might persuade a rawensign or so to marry some of them. "Such dinner parties, suchrouts and balls, never were heard of west of Athlone. The gayetieswere incessant; and if good feeding, plenty of claret, short whist,country dances, and kissing could have done the thing, therewouldn't have been a bachelor with a red coat for six miles around."You know the west, O'Mealey, so I needn't tell you what the Galwaygirls are like: fine, hearty, free-and-easy, talking, laughingdevils, but as deep and 'cute as a Master in Chancery; ready forany fun or merriment, but always keeping a sly look-out for aproposal or a tender acknowledgment, which – what between the heatof a ball-room, whiskey negus, white satin shoes, and a quarrelwith your guardian – it's ten to one you fall into before you're aweek in the same town with them. "As for the men, I don't admirethem so much: pleasant and cheerful enough when they'rehandicapping the coat off your back, and your new tilbury for aspavined pony and a cotton umbrella, but regular devils if you cometo cross them the least in life; nothing but ten paces, three shotsapiece, to begin and end with something like Roger de Coverley,when every one has a pull at his neighbor. I'm not saying they'renot agreeable, well-informed, and mild in their habits; but theylean overmuch to corduroys and coroners' inquests for one's tastefarther south. However, they're a fine people, take them all inall; and if they were not interfered with, and their nationalcustoms invaded with road-making, petty-sessions, grand-jury laws,and a stray commission now and then, they are capable of greatthings, and would astonish the world. "But as I was saying, we wereordered to Loughrea after being fifteen months in detachments aboutBirr, Tullamore, Kilbeggan, and all that country; the change wasindeed a delightful one, and we soon found ourselves the centre ofthe most marked and determined civilities. I told you they werewise people in the west; this was their calculation: the line –ours was the Roscommon militia – are here to-day, there to-morrow;they may be flirting in Tralee this week, and fighting on the Tagusthe next; not that there was any fighting there in those times, butthen there was always Nova Scotia and St. John's, and a hundredother places that a Galway young lady knew nothing about, exceptthat people never came back from them. Now, what good, what use wasthere in falling in love with them? Mere transitory and passingpleasure that was. But as for us: there we were; if not in Kilkennywe were in Cork. Safe out and come again; no getting away underpretence of foreign service; no excuse for not marrying by anycruel pictures of the colonies, where they make spatch-cocks of theofficers' wives and scrape their infant families to death with asmall tooth-comb. In a word, my dear O'Mealey, we were at a highpremium; and even O'Shaughnessy, with his red head and the legs yousee, had his admirers. There now, don't be angry, Dan; the men, atleast, were mighty partial to you. "Loughrea, if it was a pleasant,was a very expensive place. White gloves and car hire, – therewasn't a chaise in the town, – short whist, too (God forgive me ifI wrong them, but I wonder were they honest), cost money; and asour popularity rose, our purses fell; till at length, when the onewas at the flood, the other was something very like low water."Now, the Roscommon was a beautiful corps; no petty jealousies, nolittle squabbling among the officers, no small spleen between themajor's wife and the paymaster's sister, – all was amiable, kind,brotherly, and affectionate. To proceed, I need only mention onefine trait of them, – no man ever refused to indorse a brotherofficer's bill. To think of asking the amount or even the datewould be taken personally; and thus we went on mutually aiding andassisting each other, – the colonel drawing on me, I on the major,the senior captain on the surgeon, and so on, a regular cross-fireof 'promises to pay,' all stamped and regular. "Not but the systemhad its inconveniences; for sometimes an obstinate tailor orbootmaker would make a row for his money, and then we'd be obligedto get up a little quarrel between the drawer and the acceptor ofthe bill; they couldn't speak for some days, and a mutual friend toboth would tell the creditor that the slightest imprudence on hispart would lead to bloodshed; 'and the Lord help him! if there wasa duel, he'd be proved the whole cause of it.' This and twentyother plans were employed; and finally, the matter would be left toarbitration among our brother officers, and I need not say, theybehaved like trumps. But notwithstanding all this, we werefrequently hard pressed for cash; as the colonel said, 'It's amighty expensive corps.' Our dress was costly; not that it had muchlace and gold on it, but that, what between falling on the road atnight, shindies at mess, and other devilment, a coat lasted notime. Wine, too, was heavy on us; for though we often changed ourwine merchant, and rarely paid him, there was an awful consumptionat the mess! "Now, what I have mentioned may prepare you for thefact that before we were eight weeks in garrison, Shaugh andmyself, upon an accurate calculation of our conjoint finances,discovered that except some vague promises of discounting here andthere through the town, and seven and fourpence in specie, we wereinnocent of any pecuniary treasures. This was embarrassing; we hadboth embarked in several small schemes of pleasurable amusement,had a couple of hunters each, a tandem, and a running account – Ithink it galloped – at every shop in the town. "Let me pausefor a moment here, O'Mealey, while I moralize a little in a strainI hope may benefit you. Have you ever considered – of course youhave not, you're too young and unreflecting – how beautifully everyclimate and every soil possesses some one antidote or another toits own noxious influences? The tropics have their succulent andjuicy fruits, cooling and refreshing; the northern latitudes havetheir beasts with fur and warm skin to keep out the frost-bites;and so it is in Ireland. Nowhere on the face of the habitable globedoes a man contract such habits of small debt, and nowhere, I'll besworn, can he so easily get out of any scrape concerning them. Theyhave their tigers in the east, their antelopes in the south, theirwhite bears in Norway, their buffaloes in America; but we have ananimal in Ireland that beats them all hollow, – a country attorney!"Now, let me introduce you to Mr. Matthew Donevan. Mat, as he wasfamiliarly called by his numerous acquaintances, was a short,florid, rosy little gentleman of some four or five-and-forty, witha well-curled wig of the fairest imaginable auburn, the gentle waveof the front locks, which played in infantine loveliness upon hislittle bullet forehead, contrasting strongly enough with a cunningleer of his eye, and a certain nisi prius laugh that howeverit might please a client, rarely brought pleasurable feelings tohis opponent in a cause. "Mat was a character in his way; deep,double, and tricky in everything that concerned his profession, heaffected the gay fellow, – liked a jolly dinner at Brown's Hotel,would go twenty miles to see a steeple-chase and a coursing match,bet with any one when the odds were strong in his favor, with aneasy indifference about money that made him seem, when winning,rather the victim of good luck than anything else. As he kept arather pleasant bachelor's house, and liked the military much, wesoon became acquainted. Upon him, therefore, for reasons I can'texplain, both our hopes reposed; and Shaugh and myself at onceagreed that if Mat could not assist us in our distresses, the casewas a bad one. "A pretty little epistle was accordingly concocted,inviting the worthy attorney to a small dinner at five o'clock thenext day, intimating that we were to be perfectly alone, and had alittle business to discuss. True to the hour, Mat was there; and asif instantly guessing that ours was no regular party of pleasure,his look, dress, and manner were all in keeping with the occasion,– quiet, subdued, and searching. "When the claret had beensuperseded by the whiskey, and the confidential hours wereapproaching, by an adroit allusion to some heavy wager thenpending, we brought our finances upon the tapis . The thingwas done beautifully, – an easy adagio movement, no violenttransition; but hang me if old Mat didn't catch the matter at once."'Oh, it's there ye are, Captain!' said he, with his peculiar grin.'Two-and-sixpence in the pound, and no assets.' "'The last isnearer the mark, my old boy,' said Shaugh, blurting out the wholetruth at once. The wily attorney finished his tumbler slowly, as ifgiving himself time for reflection, and then, smacking his lips ina preparatory manner, took a quick survey of the room with hispiercing green eye. "'A very sweet mare of yours that littlemouse-colored one is, with the dip in the back; and she has atrifling curb – may be it's a spavin, indeed – in the nearhind-leg. You gave five-and-twenty for her, now, I'll be bound?'"'Sixty guineas, as sure as my name's Dan,' said Shaugh, not at allpleased at the value put upon his hackney; 'and as to spavin andcurb, I'll wager double the sum she has neither the slightest traceof one nor the other.' "'I'll not take the bet,' said Mat, dryly.'Money's scarce in these parts.' "This hit silenced us both; andour friend continued, – "'Then there's the bay horse, – a greatstrappin