Sir Jasper Carew: His Life and ExperienceLever, Charles
General
Sir Jasper Carew: His Life and Experience
Lever, Charles
Fiction
To this succeeded a long catalogue of gentlemen's names, which were
received by the mob that followed the hawker, with shouts and cries of
derision. Groan followed groan as they were announced, and my father
listened with an agonizing suspense lest he should hear his own amidst
the number; but, to his inexpressible relief, the fellow concluded his
muster-roll without alluding to him. Just, however, as he was about to
close the window, the man again broke out with: “On Saturday next will
be published the account of the five bought in by the Crown; and Mark
Brown, Sam Vesey, William Burton, Ross Mahon, and Walter Carew will be
given in full, on a separate sheet, for one halfpenny!”
A wild outburst of derisive laughter from the crowd followed, and my
father heard no more.
CHAPTER XIII. A MIDNIGHT RENCONTRE
My father had walked several streets of the capital before he could
collect his thoughts, or even remember where he was. He went along, lost
to everything save memory of his vengeance. He tried to call to mind
the names of those on whose zeal and devotedness he could reckon; but so
imbued with suspicion had his mind become, so distrustful of every thing
and every one, that he actually felt as if deserted by all the world,
without one to succor or stand by him.
Thus rambling by chance, he found himself in Stephen's Green, where he
sat down to rest under one of those great trees which in those times
shaded the favorite promenade of Dublin. Directly in front of him was
a large mansion, brilliantly lighted up, and crowded by a numerous
company, many of whom were enjoying the balmy air of a summer's night on
the balcony in front of the windows. As they moved to and fro, passing
back and forwards, my father could recognize several that he was
acquainted with, and some that he knew most intimately.
Filled with one consuming thought, he fancied that he heard his name at
every moment; that every allusion was to him, and each burst of laughter
was uttered in derision at his cost. His rage had worked him up almost
to madness, and he could hardly restrain himself from calling out, and
replying aloud to these fancied insults and aspersions on his character.
At such moments of doubt as these, certainty flashes on the mind with a
power of concentration and resolution that seems to confer strength
for anything, however difficult. So was it to my father as suddenly the
tones of a well-known voice struck on his ear, and he heard the easy
laugh of him that he hated most of all the world. It was Barry Rutledge
himself, who now was leaning over the balcony, in the centre of a group
whom, he was evidently entertaining by his remarks.
The bursts of laughter which at each moment interrupted him, showed how
successfully his powers of entertaining were being exercised, while at
intervals a dead silence around proved the deep attention with which
they listened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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