Ireland -- Fiction; Land League (Ireland) -- Fiction; Land tenure -- Fiction; Political fiction
So Mr. O'Mahony took his leave, and as he went to Cecil Street
endeavoured in his own mind to investigate the character of Lord
Castlewell. That he was a fool there could be no doubt, a fool with
whom he would not be forced to live in the constant intercourse of
married life for any money that could be offered to him. He was a man
who, without singing himself, cared for nothing but the second-hand
life of a theatre. But then he, Mr. O'Mahony, was not a young woman,
and was not expected to marry Lord Castlewell. But he had told
himself over and over again that Lord Castlewell had been "caught."
He was a great lord rolling in money, and Rachel had "caught" him.
He had not quite approved of Rachel's conduct, but the lord had been
fair game for a woman. What the deuce was he to think now of the lord
who would not be let off?
"I wonder whether it can be love for her," said he to himself; "such
love as I used to feel."
Then he sighed heavily as he went home.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
CAPTAIN CLAYTON'S FIRST TRIUMPH.
It was now April, and this April was a sad month in Ireland. I do
not know why the deaths of two such men as were then murdered should
touch the heart with a deeper sorrow than is felt for the fate of
others whose lot is lower in life; why the poor widow, who has
lost her husband while doing his duty amidst outrages and unmanly
revenges, is not to be so much thought of as the sweet lady who has
been robbed of her all in the same fashion. But so it is with human
nature. We know how a people will weep for their Sovereign, and it
was with such tears as that, with tears as sincere as those shed for
the best of kings, that Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke were
lamented. In April these two men had fallen, hacked to death in front
of the Viceregal Lodge. By whom they were killed, as I write now, no
one knows, and as regards Lord Frederick one can hardly guess the
reason. He had come over to Ireland on that very day, to take the
place which his luckier predecessor had just vacated, and had as yet
done no service, and excited no vengeance in Ireland. He had only
attended an opening pageant;--because with him had come a new Lord
Lieutenant,--not new indeed to the office, but new in his return. An
accident had brought the two together on the day, but Lord Frederick
was altogether a stranger, and yet he had been selected. Such had
been his fate, and such also the fate of Mr. Burke, who, next to him
in official rank, may possibly have been in truth the doomed one.
They were both dealt with horribly on that April morning,--and all
Ireland was grieving. All Ireland was repudiating the crime, and
saying that this horror had surely been done by American hands. Even
the murderers native to Ireland seemed to be thoroughly ashamed of
this deed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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