Volume Ii Part 4 (2/2)
”As how--as how? Mr. Phelim O'Neale! explain.”
”By means of hemlock juice infused by well intentioned friends into my throat and lungs. Oh, but too well I remember that, and but too well they succeeded; for after the means they used for sussicitation I recovered; but the pains which I endured were beyond those upon the fatal tree, the punishment I had endured, and the shame I had borne, for my family were indeed respectable. Upon my restoration to life, my friends disguised me in female attire, and hurried me off in a merchant vessel then in the bay, ready to slip her cables, and bound for Virginia. So away I went in the same vessel. Och, may be it was not without a sad and sorrowing heart that I left my mountain sh.o.r.es; for, sweet Ireland, still, with all thy faults, art thou dear to me; and with all my own too, with filial love yet do I adore thee, _mavourneen_, my early loved, my dear natal isle!”
Phelim O'Neale continued: ”Your Riverence knows the rest of my story. A cannon shot of Marshal Rantzau's squadron soon compelled the vessel in which I was bound for Virginia[19] immediately to strike her flag; and the result of the Marshal's attack upon Ostind you are in full possession of already. Here then my story ends, but not my grat.i.tude to you, of which, before we part, I shall endeavour to convince you of with sincerity, marked by more than mere words.”
[19] Virginia is noticed in ”_The n.o.ble Gentleman_” of Fletcher:--
”CLERIMONT.--Sir, I had rather send her to Virginia, to help to propagate the English nation.”--_Weber's Edition of the Works of Beaumont and Fletcher_, v. VII. p. 442.
Mention is likewise made of it in Ma.s.singer's ”_City Madam_”:--
----------------------”How! Virginia!
High heaven forbid! Remember, Sir, I beseech you, What creatures are s.h.i.+pp'd thither---- --------------Condemned wretches, Forfeited to the law.”
_Gifford's Edit. of Ma.s.singer_, vol. IV. p. 103.
”Why, Mr. Phelim O'Neale, you have really become eloquent, and have astonished me quite by your display of words.”
”No, no, Riverend Sir, they only burst forth from the heart with a full tide of over-flowing grat.i.tude to you, and with deep contrition to myself, for all the past!”
”This my friend, my _honest_ friend, (for such I now must call you, Phelim, for the rest.i.tution which you have made by words as well as in deeds, and I needs now must prize thee,) yes, this promises good; and sooth to say, I am pleased withal right well. There, take my hand, and along with it my best benison on you, your wife, and children.”
Phelim knelt down, kissed his hand, and prayed that heaven might shower down its choicest blessings upon his reverend head.
Three entire days subsequent to this confession soon pa.s.sed over, and were occupied only at intervals, in order to obviate detection, in sawing _per diem_ a bar. Each bar was cut slanting, or diagonally, so as to be readily re-adjusted as if it had not been severed; and then the entire bar, when replaced, was covered over by means of paper, which was neatly pasted thereon, as if no undermining operations had been sapping the grated barriers of their prison-house.--Meanwhile the Reverend Chaplain was on the alert, sc.r.a.ping his old Cremona, and the colonel's servant thundering forth the ba.s.s tones of his clarionet, to serve as masqued batteries to drown the more subtle operations of the saw and file of the son of Mars.
Upon the evening of the third day Phelim O'Neale came into their cell just as the last bar to their enlargement was severed in twain. Suddenly then all filing and fiddling, and piping and papering, at once ceased.
”All is right,” exclaimed he, ”and all is well. Before two days more shall dawn you must away from this. I shall manage matters thus: I have got disguises for yeez three; you, Riverend Sir, are (in the time of travel) to be a midwife, going on a job to the town of Nieuport, three leagues from this, where I have a friend, to whom I will address a letter in behalf of all. In the furtherance of this my deep design, you shall have a silk gown, cap, rich gilt ear-rings, necklace, with a large cross--all, moreover, right tawdry enough; and a Flemish hood thrown over all, to protect Madam Needful from being sun-burnt. And, sir soldier, there shall be a lackey's dress for you; and, to boot, I have likewise got a horse, which your wors.h.i.+p is to bestride, and which is to be mounted withal with saddle and pillion, upon which latter my lady-in-need is to ride.--And as for you, sir lackey, you shall be caparisoned in a blue check frock of true Flanders make and hue; for thou art to be a Flemish peasant riding withal in such brave company.
But mind, my youth, I warn thee, that with all meet, becoming respect, thou shalt demean thyself, and ride in the rere of these gallant personages. Three horses and a guide, when we shall fix the day and hour, shall be found waiting at the _porte de Nieuport_.”
Many hearty thanks were returned for the ingenious stratagem of Mr.
Phelim O'Neale, which met with the cordial concurrence and approbation of the prisoners.
Here Mr. Phelim O'Neale resumed his speech: ”It must appear that yeez all have broken prison at the time that yeez depart, so down with all the bars when yeez go, that it may fully and fidentively appear that it was any how without my will, knowledge, aid, abettance, or a.s.sistance, whatsomdever, any thing at all to the contrairy notwithstanding, that yeez fled from prison, in order that I may not suffer pains, punishments, and penalties, from these Bellawagians, who, after all, to do them justice, are fond of the English nation; and I verily and fidentially believe that the craturs would sooner again fight with Spinola Rantzau, or the d--l, nor with John Bull!”
”Yes,” rejoined Doctor M'Kenzie, ”that I believe to be an undoubted fact, inasmuch that the united states of Flanders ever have wished, if possible, to preserve peace and amity with England, and ever sorely have they rued the day whenever they have been forced into a war against England.”
”That is most true,” added Colonel Davidson, ”for, Reverend Sir, you recollect the favourite saying, or apothegm, of the Emperor Charles V.:--
'_Con todo el mundo guerra, Y puz con Ingalat jerra!_'
'With all the world have war, But with England do not jar!'
And while speaking of Charles, who had the magnanimity to relinquish a throne and to retire into the monastery of Saint Just, it must not be forgotten the memorable declaration which he then made. While in the monastery he employed his leisure time in works of mechanism, such as clock-work, &c.; he then exclaimed, ”_Oh, what a fool I have been!--during my whole reign I have endeavoured to make all my subjects think alike in religious matters_, AND YET I CANNOT CAUSE TWO WATCHES TO KEEP TIME TOGETHER!”
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