An Adventure of Hardress Fitzgerald, a Royalist Captain Page #4

"An Adventure of Hardress Fitzgerald, a Royalist Captain" is a historical novel by Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu, set during the tumultuous times of the English Civil War. The story follows Hardress Fitzgerald, a valiant Royalist captain, as he navigates a world filled with intrigue, loyalty, and betrayal. The novel explores themes of honor and duty while depicting the struggles between royalists and parliamentarians. Le Fanu weaves a tale rich in atmospheric detail and character development, highlighting the personal and political conflicts of an era defined by its fervent loyalty and passionate disputes.

• Fiction

								

person at the expense of his own.' At the same time I turned aside the
hair which covered the scar which you well know upon my forehead, and
which was then much more remarkable than it is now.

The general on seeing this at once recognised me, and embracing me
cordially, made me sit down, and while I unstrapped my pack, a tedious
job, my fingers being nearly numbed with cold, sent the men forth to
procure me some provision.

The general's horse was stabled in a corner of the chamber where we sat,
and his war-saddle lay upon the floor. At the far end of the room was
a second door, which stood half open; a bogwood fire burned on a hearth
somewhat less rude than the one which I had first seen, but still very
little better appointed with a chimney, for thick wreaths of smoke were
eddying, with every fitful gust, about the room. Close by the fire was
strewed a bed of heath, intended, I supposed, for the stalwart limbs of
the general.

'Hardress Fitzgerald,' said he, fixing his eyes gravely upon me, while
he slowly removed the tobacco-pipe from his mouth, 'I remember you,
strong, bold and cunning in your warlike trade; the more desperate an
enterprise, the more ready for it, you. I would gladly engage you, for
I know you trustworthy, to perform a piece of duty requiring, it may be,
no extraordinary quality to fulfil; and yet perhaps, as accidents may
happen, demanding every attribute of daring and dexterity which belongs
to you.'

Here he paused for some moments.

I own I felt somewhat flattered by the terms in which he spoke of me,
knowing him to be but little given to compliments; and not having any
plan in my head, farther than the rendering what service I might to the
cause of the king, caring very little as to the road in which my duty
might lie, I frankly replied:

'Sir, I hope, if opportunity offers, I shall prove to deserve the
honourable terms in which you are pleased to speak of me. In a righteous
cause I fear not wounds or death; and in discharging my duty to my God
and my king, I am ready for any hazard or any fate. Name the service you
require, and if it lies within the compass of my wit or power, I will
fully and faithfully perform it. Have I said enough?'

'That is well, very well, my friend; you speak well, and manfully,'
replied the general. 'I want you to convey to the hands of General
Boisleau, now in the city of Limerick, a small written packet; there is
some danger, mark me, of your falling in with some outpost or straggling
party of the prince's army. If you are taken unawares by any of the
enemy you must dispose of the packet inside your person, rather than let
it fall into their hands--that is, you must eat it. And if they go to
question you with thumbscrews, or the like, answer nothing; let them
knock your brains out first.' In illustration, I suppose, of the latter
alternative, he knocked the ashes out of his pipe upon the table as he
uttered it.

'The packet,' he continued, 'you shall have to-morrow morning. Meantime
comfort yourself with food, and afterwards with sleep; you will want,
mayhap, all your strength and wits on the morrow.'

I applied myself forthwith to the homely fare which they had provided,
and I confess that I never made a meal so heartily to my satisfaction.

It was a beautiful, clear, autumn morning, and the bright beams of the
early sun were slanting over the brown heath which clothed the sides
of the mountain, and glittering in the thousand bright drops which the
melting hoar-frost had left behind it, and the white mists were lying
like broad lakes in the valleys, when, with my pedlar's pack upon my
back, and General Sarsfield's precious despatch in my bosom, I set
forth, refreshed and courageous.

As I descended the hill, my heart expanded and my spirits rose under
the influences which surrounded me. The keen, clear, bracing air of the
morning, the bright, slanting sunshine, the merry songs of the small
birds, and the distant sounds of awakening labour that floated up from
the plains, all conspired to stir my heart within me, and more like a
mad-cap boy, broken loose from school, than a man of sober years upon
a mission of doubt and danger, I trod lightly on, whistling and singing
alternately for very joy.

As I approached the object of my early march, I fell in with a
countryman, eager, as are most of his kind, for news.

I gave him what little I had collected, and professing great zeal for
the king, which, indeed, I always cherished, I won upon his confidence
so far, that he became much more communicative than the peasantry in
those quarters are generally wont to be to strangers.

From him I learned that there was a company of dragoons in William's
service, quartered at Willaloe; but he could not tell whether the
passage of the bridge was stopped by them or not. With a resolution, at
all events, to make the attempt to cross, I approached the town. When
I came within sight of the river, I quickly perceived that it was so
swollen with the recent rains, as, indeed, the countryman had told me,
that the fords were wholly impassable.

I stopped then, upon a slight eminence overlooking the village, with
a view to reconnoitre and to arrange my plans in case of interruption.
While thus engaged, the wind blowing gently from the west, in which
quarter Limerick lay, I distinctly heard the explosion of the cannon,
which played from and against the city, though at a distance of eleven
miles at the least.

I never yet heard the music that had for me half the attractions of that
sullen sound, and as I noted again and again the distant thunder that
proclaimed the perils, and the valour, and the faithfulness of my
brethren, my heart swelled with pride, and the tears rose to my eyes;
and lifting up my hands to heaven, I prayed to God that I might be
spared to take a part in the righteous quarrel that was there so bravely
maintained.

I felt, indeed, at this moment a longing, more intense than I have the
power to describe, to be at once with my brave companions in arms, and
so inwardly excited and stirred up as if I had been actually within five
minutes' march of the field of battle.

It was now almost noon, and I had walked hard since morning across a
difficult and broken country, so that I was a little fatigued, and in
no small degree hungry. As I approached the hamlet, I was glad to see in
the window of a poor hovel several large cakes of meal displayed, as if
to induce purchasers to enter.

I was right in regarding this exhibition as an intimation that
entertainment might be procured within, for upon entering and inquiring,
I was speedily invited by the poor woman, who, it appeared, kept this
humble house of refreshment, to lay down my pack and seat myself by a
ponderous table, upon which she promised to serve me with a dinner fit
for a king; and indeed, to my mind, she amply fulfilled her engagement,
supplying me abundantly with eggs, bacon, and wheaten cakes, which I
discussed with a zeal which almost surprised myself.

Having disposed of the solid part of my entertainment, I was proceeding
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