Thus ends a brief tale whose prominent incidents many will recognise as having marked the history of a distinguished family;and though it refers to a somewhat distant date,we shall be found not to have taken,upon that account,any liberties with the facts,but in our statement of all the incidents to have rigorously and faithfully adhered to the truth.
Being an Eleventh Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis Purcell,P.P.of Drumcoolagh.
The following brief narrative contains a faithful account of one of the many strange incidents which chequered the life of Hardress Fitzgerald--one of the now-forgotten heroes who flourished during the most stirring and,though the most disastrous,by no means the least glorious period of our eventful history.
He was a captain of horse in the army of James,and shared the fortunes of his master,enduring privations,encountering dangers,and submitting to vicissitudes the most galling and ruinous,with a fortitude and a heroism which would,if coupled with his other virtues have rendered the unhappy monarch whom he served,the most illustrious among unfortunate princes.
I have always preferred,where I could do so with any approach to accuracy,to give such relations as the one which I am about to submit to you,in the first person,and in the words of the original narrator,believing that such a form of recitation not only gives freshness to the tale,but in this particular instance,by bringing before me and steadily fixing in my mind's eye the veteran royalist who himself related the occurrence which I am about to record,furnishes an additional stimulant to my memory,and a proportionate check upon my imagination.
As nearly as I can recollect then,his statement was as follows:
After the fatal battle of the Boyne,I came up in disguise to Dublin,as did many in a like situation,regarding the capital as furnishing at once a good central position of observation,and as secure a lurking-place as I cared to find.
I would not suffer myself to believe that the cause of my royal master was so desperate as it really was;and while Ilay in my lodgings,which consisted of the garret of a small dark house,standing in the lane which runs close by Audoen's Arch,I busied myself with continual projects for the raising of the country,and the re-collecting of the fragments of the defeated army--plans,you will allow,sufficiently magnificent for a poor devil who dared scarce show his face abroad in the daylight.
I believe,however,that I had not much reason to fear for my personal safety,for men's minds in the city were greatly occupied with public events,and private amusements and debaucheries,which were,about that time,carried to an excess which our country never knew before,by reason of the raking together from all quarters of the empire,and indeed from most parts of Holland,the most dissolute and des-perate adventurers who cared to play at hazard for their lives;and thus there seemed to be but little scrutiny into the characters of those who sought concealment.
I heard much at different times of the intentions of King James and his party,but nothing with certainty.
Some said that the king still lay in Ireland;others,that he had crossed over to Scotland,to encourage the Highlanders,who,with Dundee at their head,had been stirring in his behoof;others,again,said that he had taken ship for France,leaving his followers to shift for themselves,and regarding his kingdom as wholly lost,which last was the true version,as I afterwards learned.
Although I had been very active in the wars in Ireland,and had done many deeds of necessary but dire severity,which have often since troubled me much to think upon,yet I doubted not but that I might easily obtain protection for my person and property from the Prince of Orange,if Isought it by the ordinary submissions;
but besides that my conscience and my affections resisted such time-serving concessions,I was resolved in my own mind that the cause of the royalist party was by no means desperate,and I looked to keep myself unimpeded by any pledge or promise given to the usurping Dutchman,that I might freely and honourably take a share in any struggle which might yet remain to be made for the right.
I therefore lay quiet,going forth from my lodgings but little,and that chiefly under cover of the dusk,and conversing hardly at all,except with those whom Iwell knew.
I had like once to have paid dearly for relaxing this caution;for going into a tavern one evening near the Tholsel,Ihad the confidence to throw off my hat,and sit there with my face quite exposed,when a fellow coming in with some troopers,they fell a-boozing,and being somewhat warmed,they began to drink 'Confusion to popery,'and the like,and to compel the peaceable persons who happened to sit there,to join them in so doing.
Though I was rather hot-blooded,I
was resolved to say nothing to attract notice;but,at the same time,if urged to pledge the toasts which they were compelling others to drink,to resist doing so.
With the intent to withdraw myself quietly from the place,I paid my reckoning,and putting on my hat,was going into the street,when the countryman who had come in with the soldiers called out:
'Stop that popish tom-cat!'
And running across the room,he got to the door before me,and,shutting it,placed his back against it,to prevent my going out.
Though with much difficulty,I kept an appearance of quietness,and turning to the fellow,who,from his accent,I judged to be northern,and whose face I knew--though,to this day,I cannot say where I had seen him before--I observed very calmly:
'Sir,I came in here with no other design than to refresh myself,without offending any man.I have paid my reckoning,and now desire to go forth.If there is anything within reason that I can do to satisfy you,and to prevent trouble and delay to myself,name your terms,and if they be but fair,I will frankly comply with them.'