Volume I Part 4 (2/2)
All this time, Molly, we were going straight on, without knowing where to; for K. I. said to me in a whisper, ”Let us put a bold face on it, or they 'll ask us for tickets or something of the kind;” and so we went, hoping every moment to see our friend the Count, who would take us under his protection. If it was n't for our own anxieties, the scene would have amused us greatly, for there was all manner of elegant females, and men in fine uniforms, and the greatest display of jewels I ever saw; but for all that, we were getting uneasy, for we saw that they each carried cards in their hands, and that the official came and asked for them as they pa.s.sed on.
”We 'll be in a nice way if Vanderdelft does n't turn up,” says K.
I.; and as he said it, there was the General himself beside us. He was greatly heated, as if he had been running or walking fast, and, although dressed in full uniform, his stock was loose, and his c.o.c.ked-hat was without the feather. ”I was afraid I should have missed you,” said he, in a hurried voice to Mary Anne, ”and I 'm half-killed running about after you. Where's the Queen-Mother?” This was n't very ceremonious, my dear, but I did n't know what he said at the time; indeed, he spoke so fast, it was all Mary Anne could do to follow him! for he talked of everything and everybody in a breath. ”We 've not a minute to lose,”
cried he, drawing Mary Anne's arm inside his own. ”If Leopold once sits down to table, I can't present you. Come along, and I 'll get you a good place.”
How we pierced the crowd the saints alone can tell! but the General went at them in a way of his own, and they fell back as they saw him coming, in a style that made us think we had no common guide to conduct us. At last, by dint of crus.h.i.+ng, driving, and pus.h.i.+ng everybody out of our way, we reached a kind of barrier, where two fine-looking men in blue and gold were taking the tickets. As Mary Anne and the General were in advance of us, I did n't see what happened first; but when we came up, we found Vanderdelft in a flaring pa.s.sion, and crying out, ”These scullions don't know me; this canaille never heard of my name?”
[Ill.u.s.tration: 094]
”We're in a mess, Mrs. D.,” said K. I. to me, in a whisper.
”How can that be?” said I.
”We 're in a mess,” says he, again, ”and a pretty mess, too, or I 'm mistaken;” but he had n't time for more, for just then the General kicked up the bar with his foot, and pa.s.sed in with Mary Anne, flouris.h.i.+ng his drawn sword in the air, and crying out, ”Take them in flank--sabre them, every man--no prisoners!--no quarter!” Oh, Molly, I can't continue, though I 'll never forget the scene that followed. Two big men in gray coats burst through the crowd and laid hands on the General, who, it seems, had made his escape out of a madhouse at Ghent a week before, and was, as they said, the most dangerous lunatic in all Belgium. It appeared that he had gone down to his own country-house near Brussels, and stolen his uniform and his orders, for he was once on a time aide-de-camp to the Prince of Orange, and went mad after the Revolution.
Just think of our situation as we stood there, among all the n.o.bles and grandees, suffocated with laughter; for, as they tore the poor General away, he cried out ”to take care of the Queen-Mother, and to be sure and get something to eat for the Aga of the Janissaries,” meaning K. I.!
The mob at this time began screeching and hooting, and there's no knowing how it might have ended, if it was n't for the little Captain--Morris is his name--that was once quartered at Bruff, and who happened to be there, and knew us, and he came up and explained who we were, and got us away to a coach, more dead than alive, Molly.
And so we got back to Brussels that night, in a state of mind and body I leave you to imagine, K. I. abusing us all the way about the milliner's bill, the expense of the trip, and the exposure! ”It's clear,” says he, ”we may leave this city now, for you 'll never recover what you call your 'position' here, after this day's exploit!” You may conceive how humbled and broken I was when he dared to say that to me, Molly, and I did n't so much as give him a word back!
You 'll see from this that life is n't all roses with us; and indeed, for the last two days I 've done nothing but cry, and Mary Anne the same; for how we're ever to go to court and be presented now, n.o.body can tell! Morris advises K. I. to go into Germany for the summer, and maybe he is right; but, to tell you the truth, Molly, I can't bear that little man,--he has a dry, sneering kind of way with him that is odious to me.
Mary Anne, too, hates him.
So Father Maher won't buy ”Judy,” because she's not in calf. It's just like him,--he must have everything in this life his own way! Send me the price of the wool by Purcell; he can get a post-bill for it; and be sure to dispose of the fruit to the best advantage. Don't make any jam this year, for I 'd rather have the money than be spending it on sugar. You 'd not believe the straits I 'm put to for a pound or two. It was only last week I sold four pair of K. I.'s drab shorts and gaiters, and a brown surtout, to a hawker for a trifle of fifteen francs, and persuaded him they were stolen out of his drawers! and I believe he has spent nearly double the money in handbills, offering a reward for the thief! That's the fruits of his want of confidence, and the secret and mysterious way he behaves to me! Many 's the time I told him that his underhand tricks cost him half his income!
I tell him every day it's ”no use to be here if we don't live in a certain style;” and then he says, ”I'm quite ready to go back, Mrs. D.
It was never my will that we came here at all.” And there he is right, for it's just Ireland he's fit for! Father Maher and Tom Purcell and Sam Davis are exactly the company to suit him; but it's very hard that me and the girls are to suffer for his low tastes!
The ”Evening Mail,” I see, puts Dodsborough down at the bottom of a column, as if it was Holloway's Ointment. That's what we get by having dealings with an Orange newspaper. They could murder us,--that's their feeling. They know in their hearts that they 're heretics, and they hate the True Church. There is nothing I detest so much as bigotry. Go to heaven _your own_ way, and let the Protestants go to the other place _theirs_. Them's my sentiments, Molly, and I believe they're the sentiments of a good Christian!
I 'm sorry for Peter Belton, but what business has he to think of a girl like Mary Anne? If Dr. Cavanagh was dead himself, the whole practice of the country would n't be three hundred a year. Try and get an opportunity to tell him what I think, and say that he ought to look out for one of the Davises; though what a dispensary doctor wants with a wife the Lord only knows! K. I. civilly says he ought to be content making blisters for the neighbors, without wanting one on his own back!
That's the way he talks of women. Father Maher never sent me the lines for Betty Cobb, and maybe I 'll be driven to have her cursed by a foreign priest after all. She and Paddy are the torment of our lives.
I saved up five pounds to send them both back by a sailing-s.h.i.+p, but by good luck I discovered the vessel was going to Cuba instead of Cork, and so here they are still; maybe it would have been better if I had sent them off, though the way was something of a roundabout. There's no use in my speaking to K. I. about Christy, for he can get nothing for James.
We may write to Vickars every week, but he never answers; he knows Parliament won't be dissolved soon, and he does n't mind us. If I 'd my will, there would be a general election every year, at least, and then we'd have a chance of getting something. I don't know which is worst, the Whigs or the Tories, nor is there much difference between them. K.
I. supported each of them in turn, and never got bit nor sup from one or other, yet!
I was sounding K. I. about Christy last night, and _he_ thinks you ought to send him to the gold diggings; he wants nothing but a pickaxe and a tin cullender and a pair of waterproof boots, to make a fortune there; and that's more than we can say of the County Limerick. There's nothing so hard to provide for as a boy in these times, except a girl!
The trunks have not arrived yet: I hope you despatched them.
Your attached and sincere friend,
<script>