My Lords of Strogue, Vol. 3 (of 3): A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the UnionWingfield, Lewis
History
My Lords of Strogue, Vol. 3 (of 3): A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union
Wingfield, Lewis
Historical fiction; Ireland -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction
the iron heel had crushed them both in body and soul. The few whose
spirit yet flickered formed themselves into banditti, who for years
continued to infest the mountains and wild tracts. How difficult are
such memories to eradicate; how tenacious and how spreading are their
roots! What a long array of sedatives may be required to blot out the
remembrance of a crime of such portentous magnitude as this which we
are contemplating!
Meanwhile the dreamland of Ennishowen knew nothing of these things.
The fairy islet of Glas-aitch-é seemed defended from outer evil by a
spell, which gave the sleeping knights in the sea-caves no cause for
waking. The seals rolled over on the blue-green waves as though the
world were not full of sorrow; the eagles soared high up in ether,
dazzled by the glory of the sun. As month followed month my lady saw
that her pet project was brought no nearer to realisation than in the
old days of Strogue; that it was further off, indeed; for Shane had
grown as coldly indifferent to his cousin as she was to him. He made
no love to her, did not seem to see her; the intercourse of those whom
my lady longed to see acting as lovers was as calm as that between a
brother and a sister. It was exasperating.
My lady hugged her religion, which taught her that those who follow
the national faith were capable of any crime. She gloated over the
narrative of the horrors on Wexford Bridge; thanked God that she was
not so bad as other people; affected a certain journal recently
printed by a missionary who had preached Christ's doctrine--or what he
took to be such--to the benighted heathen, in which was written: 'Had
much sweet enjoyment to-day in reading a sermon on the justice of God
in the damnation of sinners.' Her letters brought her news which by
degrees changed, so it seemed, the whole tenor of her way of thinking.
At least Doreen thought so as she surveyed her aunt, who appeared now
to act in spasms of contradictory impulse. At one moment the world was
apparently to her so black that there was nothing for it but to sit
down without hope to await the welcome end. At another moment she
became feverishly-restless and energetic, chafing evidently under some
hidden goad which was too bitter to be endured with outward calm.
Doreen watched her with increasing interest; for Time, which was
changing my lady, had changed her too, by removing the apathetic
dreaminess that had, upon arriving in the north, lulled the torn
fibres of her disillusioned nature with the anodyne which follows
disappointment. As events unfolded themselves, the two ladies changed
places. My lady, so imperious and impatient of contradiction, became
apathetic, but with an uncanny resignation which increased her age all
at once by at least ten years. The proud foot, instead of disdaining
the earth as it used to do, lost its elasticity and dragged upon the
ground. The incipient look of terror for which her eyes had always
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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