The O'Donoghue Part 61

"And this, then, is the price you hinted at--this was to be the compact."

The proud look of scorn she threw upon him evoked no angry feeling in his breast, he seemed overwhelmed by sorrow, and did not dare even to look up.

"You judge me hardly, unfairly too; I never meant my intercession should be purchased--humble as I am, I should he still more unworthy, had I harhoured such a thought; my hope was this, to make my intervention available, I should show myself linked with the fortunes of that house I tried to save--it should be a case, where, personally, my own interest was at stake, and where my fortune, all I possessed in the world was in the scale, if you consented"--here he hesitated, faltered, and finally became silent, then pa.s.sing his hands across his eyes, resumed more rapidly--"but I must not speak of this; alas! that my tongue should have ever betrayed it; you have forced my secret from me, and with it my happiness for ever--forget this, I beseech you forget that, even in a moment so unguarded, I dared to lift my eyes to the shrine my heart has wors.h.i.+pped. I ask no pledge, no compact, I will do my utmost to save this youth; I will spare no exertion or influence I possess with the Government; I will make his pardon the recompense due to myself, but if that be impossible, I will endeavour to obtain connivance at his escape, and all the price I ask for this is, your forgiveness of my presumption."

Kate held out her hand towards him, while a smile of bewitching loveliness played over her features; "this is to be a friend indeed,"

said she.

Hemsworth bent down his head till his lips rested on her fingers, and as he did so, the hot tears trickled on her hand, then suddenly starting up, he said, "I must lose no time; where shall I find your cousin?--in what part of the country has he sought shelter?"

"The shealing at the foot of Hungry mountain, he mentioned to Herbert as the rendezvous for the present."

"Is he alone--has he no companion?"

"None, save, perhaps, the idiot boy who acts as his guide in the mountains."

"Farewell then," said Hemsworth, "you shall soon hear what success attends my efforts; farewell"--and, without waiting for more, he hastened from the spot, and was soon heard descending the causeway at a rapid pace.

Kate stood for a few moments lost in thought, and as the sound of the retreating hoofs aroused her, she looked up, and muttering to herself, "It was n.o.bly done," returned with slow steps to the house.

As Hemsworth spurred his horse, and urged him to his fastest speed, expressions of mingled triumph and vengeance burst from him at intervals--"Mine at last," cried he--"mine in spite of every obstacle,---Fortune is seldom so kind as this--vengeance and ambition both gratified together--me, whom they dispised for my poverty, and my low birth--that it should be my destiny to crush them to the dust!"

These words were scarcely uttered, when his horse, pressed beyond his strength, stumbled over a rut in the road, and fell heavily to the ground, throwing his rider under him.

For a long time no semblance of consciousness returned, and the groom, fearing to leave him, had to wait for hours until a country car should pa.s.s, in which his wounded master might be laid. There came one by at last, and on this Hemsworth was laid, and brought back to "the Lodge."

Before he reached home, however, sense had so far returned, as, that he felt his accident was attended with no serious injury; the shock of the fall was the only circ.u.mstance of any gravity.

The medical man of Macroom was soon with him, and partly confirmed his own first impressions, but strictly enjoining rest and quiet, as in the event of any unusual excitement, the worst consequences might ensue.

Hemsworth bore up under the injunction with all the seeming fort.i.tude he could muster, but in his heart he cursed the misfortune that thus delayed the hour of his long-sought vengeance.

"This may continue a week, then?" cried he, impatiently.

The doctor nodded an a.s.sent.

"Two--three weeks, perhaps?"

"It will be a month, at least, before I can p.r.o.nounce you out of danger," said the physician, gravely.

"A month! Great Heaven!--a month! And what are the dangers you apprehend, in the event of my not submitting?"

"There are several, and very serious ones---inflammation of the brain, fever, derangement even."

"Yes, and are you sure this confinement will not drive me mad?" cried he, pa.s.sionately; "will you engage that my brain will hold out against the agonizing thoughts that will not cease to torture me all this while?--or can you promise that events shall stand still for the moment when I can resume my place once more among men?"

The hurried and excited tone in which he spoke was only a more certain evidence of the truth of the medical fears; and, without venturing on any direct reply, the doctor gave some directions for his treatment, and withdrew.

The physician's apprehensions were well founded. The first few hours after the accident seemed to threaten nothing serious, but as night fell, violent headache and fever set in, and before day-break, he was quite delirious.

No sooner did the news reach Carrig-na-curra, than Kerry was dispatched to bring back tidings of his state; for, however different the estimation in which he was held by each, one universal feeling pervaded all--of sorrow for his disaster, Day after day, Sir Archy or Herbert went over to inquire after him; but some chronic feature of his malady seemed to have succeeded, and he lay in one unvarying condition of lethargic unconsciousness.

In this way, week after week glided over, and the condition of the country seemed like that of the sick man--one of slumbering apathy.

The pursuit of Mark, so eagerly begun, had, as it were, died out. The proclamations of reward, torn down by the country people on their first appearance, were never renewed, and the military party, after an ineffectual search through Killarney, directed their steps northwards towards Tralee, and soon after returned to head-quarters. Still, with all these signs of security, Mark, whose short experience of life, had taught him caution, rarely ventured near Carrig-na-curra, and never pa.s.sed more than a few moments beneath his father's roof.

While each had a foreboding that this calm was but the lull that preludes a storm, their apprehensions took very different and opposing courses, Kate's anxieties increased with each day of Hemsworth's illness; she saw the time gliding past in which escape seemed practicable, and yet knew not how to profit by the opportunity. Sir Archy, coupling the activity with which Mark's pursuit was first undertaken, with the sudden visit of Hemsworth to the country, and the abandonment of all endeavours to capture him, which followed on Hemsworth's accident, felt strong suspicion that the agent was the prime mover in the whole affair, and that his former doubts, were well founded regarding him; while Herbert, less informed than either on the true state of matters, formed opinions, which changed and vacillated with each day's experience.

In this condition of events, Sir Archy had gone over one morning alone, to inquire after Hemsworth, whose case, for some days preceding, was more than usually threatening--symptoms of violent delirium having succeeded to the dead lethargy in which he was sunk. Buried deeply in his conjectures as to the real nature of the part he was acting, and how far his motives tallied with honourable intentions, the old man plodded wearily on, weighing every word he could remember that bore upon events, and carefully endeavouring to divest his mind of every thing like a prejudice. Musing thus, he accidentally diverged from the regular approach, and turned off into a narrow path, which led to the back of "the Lodge;" nor was he aware of his mistake, till he saw, at the end of the walk, the large window of a room he remembered as belonging to the former building.. The sash was open, but the curtains, were drawn closely, so as to intercept any view from within or without. He observed these things, as fatigued by an unaccustomed exertion, he seated himself, for some moments' rest, on a bench beneath the trees.

A continuous, low, moaning sound soon caught his ear; he listened, and could distinctly hear the heavy breathing of a sick man, accompanied as it was by long-drawn sighs. There were voices, also, of persons speaking cautiously together, and the words, "He is asleep at last," were plainly audible, after which the door closed, and all was still.

The solemn awe which great illness inspires was felt in all its force by the old man, as he sat like one spell-bound, and unable to depart. The labouring respiration that seemed to bode the ebb of life, made his own strong heart tremble, for he thought how, in his last hours, he might have wronged him. "Oh! if I have been unjust--if I have followed him to the last with ungenerous doubt--forgive me, Heaven; even now my own heart is half my accuser;" and his lips murmured a deep and fervent prayer, for that merciful benevolence, which, in his frail nature, he denied to another. He arose from his knees with a spirit calmed, and a courage stronger, and was about to retire, when a sudden cry from the sick room arrested his steps. It was followed by another more shrill and piercing still, and then a horrid burst of frantic laughter: dreadful as the anguish-wrung notes of suffering--how little do they seem in comparison, with the sounds of mirth from the lips of madness!

"There--there," cried a voice, he at once knew as Hemsworth's--"that's him, that's your prisoner--make sure of him now; remember your orders, men!--do you hear; if they attempt a rescue, load with ball, and fire low--mind that, fire low. Ah! you are pale enough now;" and again the savage laughter rung out. "Yes, madam," continued he, in a tone of insolent sarcasm, "every respect shall be shown him--a chair in the dock--a carpet on the gallows. You shall wear mourning for him--all the honeymoon, if you fancy it. Yes," screamed he, in a wild and frantic voice, "this is like revenge! You struck me once--you called me coa.r.s.e plebeian, too! We shall be able to see the blood you are proud of--aye, the blood! the blood!"--and then, as if worn out by exhaustion, he heaved a heavy sigh, and fell into deep moaning as before.

Sir Archy, who felt in the scene a direct acknowledgment of his appeal to Heaven, drew closer to the window, and listened. Gradually, and like one awaking from a heavy slumber, the sick man stretched his limbs, and drew a long sigh, whose groaning accent spoke of great debility and then, starting up in his bed, shouted-- "It is, it is the King's warrant--who dares to oppose it. Ride in faster, men--faster; keep together here, the west side of the mountain. There--there, yonder, near the beach. Who was that spoke of pardon? Never; if he resists, cut him down. Ride for it, men, ride;" and in his mad excitement, he arose from his bed, and gained the floor. "There--that's him yonder; he has taken to the mountains; five hundred guineas to the hand that grasps him first," and he tottered to the window, and tearing aside the curtain, looked out.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 404]

"Worn and wasted, with beard unshaven for weeks long, and eyes glistening with the l.u.s.tre of insanity, the expression of his features actually chilled the heart's blood of the old man, as he stood almost at his side, and unable to move away. For a second or two Hemsworth gazed on the other, as if some struggling effort of recognition was labouring in his brain; and then, with a mad struggle he exclaimed--

"They were too late; the Council gave but eight days. I suppressed the proclamation in the south. Eight days--after that, no pardon--in this world at least"--and a fearful grin of malice convulsed his features; then with an altered accent, and a faint smile, from which sickness tore its oft-a.s.sumed dissimulation, he said, "I did every thing to persuade him to surrender--to accept the gracious favour of the crown; but he would not--no, he would not!"--and, with another burst of laughter, he staggered back into the room, and fell helpless on the floor. Sir Archy was in no compa.s.sionate mood at the moment, and without bestowing a thought on the sufferer, he hastened down the path, and with all the speed of which he was capable, returned to Carrig-na-curra.

CHAPTER XLII. THE SHEALING

Sir Archy's manner, so precise and measured in every occasion of life, had undergone a very marked change before he arrived at Carrig-na-curra; exclamations broke from him at every moment, mingled with fervently expressed hopes, that he might not be yet too late to rescue Mark from his peril. The agitation of his mind and the fatigue of his exertions completely overcame him; and when he reached the house, he threw himself down upon a seat, utterly exhausted.

"Are you unwell, my dear uncle?" broke from Kate and Herbert together, as they stood at either side of his chair.

"Tired, wearied, heated, my dear children; nothing more. Send me Kerry here; I want to speak to him."

Kerry soon entered, and Sir Archy, beckoning him to his side, whispered a few words rapidly into his ear. Kerry made no reply, but hastened from the room, and was soon after seen hurrying down the causeway.

"I see, my dear uncle," whispered Kate, with a tremulous accent--"I see you have bad tidings for us this morning--he is worse."

"Waur he canna be," muttered Sir Archy, with a significance that gave the words a very equivocal meaning.

"But there is still hope. They told us yesterday that to-morrow would be the crisis of the malady--the twentieth day since his relapse."

"Yes, yes!" said the old man, who, not noticing her remark, pursued aloud the track of his own reflections. "Entrapped--ensnared--I see it all now. And only eight days given!--and even of these to be kept in ignorance. Poor fellow, how you have been duped."

"But this delirium may pa.s.s away, uncle," said Kate, who, puzzled at his vague expressions, sought to bring him again to the theme of Hemsworth's illness.

"Then comes the penalty, la.s.sie," cried he, energetically. "The Government canna forgie a rebel, as parents do naughty children, by the promise of doing better next time. When a daring scheme--but wait a bit, here's Kerry. Come to the window, man; come over here," and he called him towards him.

Whatever were the tidings Kerry brought, Sir Archy seemed overjoyed by them; and taking Herbert's arm, he hurried from the room, leaving the O'Donoghue and Kate in a state of utter bewilderment.

"I'm afraid, my sweet niece, that Hemsworth's disease is a catching one. Archy has a devilish wild, queer look about him to-day," said the O'Donoghue, laughing.