Billy Malowney's Taste of Love and Glory Page #2

"Billy Malowney's Taste of Love and Glory" is a novella by Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu that explores themes of ambition, passion, and the quest for personal fulfillment. The narrative revolves around Billy Malowney, a young man who grapples with his dreams of success and the challenges posed by love and societal expectations. Set against the backdrop of 19th-century Ireland, the story delves into the tensions between personal desires and external pressures, ultimately illuminating the complexities of the human experience. Le Fanu's vivid storytelling and rich character development make this work a compelling exploration of love and ambition.

• Fiction

								

never let you sink, in sunshine or storm; an', begorra, it's stronger
than Death himself, for it is not afeard iv him, bedad, but dares him in
every shape.

But lovers has quarrels sometimes, and, begorra, when they do, you'd
a'most imagine they hated one another like man and wife. An' so, signs
an', Billy Malowney and Molly Donovan fell out one evening at ould Tom
Dundon's wake; an' whatever came betune them, she made no more about
it but just draws her cloak round her, and away wid herself and the
sarvant-girl home again, as if there was not a corpse, or a fiddle, or a
taste of divarsion in it.

Well, Bill Malowney follied her down the boreen, to try could he
deludher her back again; but, if she was bitther before, she gave it
to him in airnest when she got him alone to herself, and to that degree
that he wished her safe home, short and sulky enough, an' walked back
again, as mad as the devil himself, to the wake, to pay a respect to
poor Tom Dundon.

Well, my dear, it was aisy seen there was something wrong avid Billy
Malowney, for he paid no attintion the rest of the evening to any soart
of divarsion but the whisky alone; an' every glass he'd drink it's what
he'd be wishing the divil had the women, an' the worst iv bad luck to
all soarts iv courting, until, at last, wid the goodness iv the sperits,
an' the badness iv his temper, an' the constant flusthration iv cursin',
he grew all as one as you might say almost, saving your presince,
bastely drunk!

Well, who should he fall in wid, in that childish condition, as he was
deploying along the road almost as straight as the letter S, an' cursin'
the girls, an' roarin' for more whisky, but the recruiting-sargent iv
the Welsh Confusileers.

So, cute enough, the sargent begins to convarse him, an' it was not long
until he had him sitting in Murphy's public-house, wid an elegant dandy
iv punch before him, an' the king's money safe an' snug in the lowest
wrinkle of his breeches-pocket.

So away wid him, and the dhrums and fifes playing, an' a dozen more
unforthunate bliggards just listed along with him, an' he shakin' hands
wid the sargent, and swearin' agin the women every minute, until, be the
time he kem to himself, begorra, he was a good ten miles on the road to
Dublin, an' Molly and all behind him.

It id be no good tellin' you iv the letters he wrote to her from the
barracks there, nor how she was breaking her heart to go and see him
just wanst before he'd go; but the father an' mother would not allow iv
it be no manes.

An' so in less time than you'd be thinkin' about it, the colonel had him
polished off into it rale elegant soger, wid his gun exercise, and his
bagnet exercise, and his small sword, and broad sword, and pistol and
dagger, an' all the rest, an' then away wid him on boord a man-a-war to
furrin parts, to fight for King George agin Bonyparty, that was great in
them times.

Well, it was very soon in everyone's mouth how Billy Malowney was batin'
all before him, astonishin' the ginerals, an frightenin' the inimy to
that degree, there was not a Frinchman dare say parley voo outside of
the rounds iv his camp.

You may be sure Molly was proud iv that same, though she never spoke a
word about it; until at last the news kem home that Billy Malowney was
surrounded an' murdered by the Frinch army, under Napoleon Bonyparty
himself. The news was brought by Jack Brynn Dhas, the peddlar, that said
he met the corporal iv the regiment on the quay iv Limerick, an' how he
brought him into a public-house and thrated him to a naggin, and got all
the news about poor Billy Malowney out iv him while they war dhrinkin'
it; an' a sorrowful story it was.

The way it happened, accordin' as the corporal tould him, was jist how
the Jook iv Wellington detarmined to fight a rale tarin' battle wid the
Frinch, and Bonyparty at the same time was aiqually detarmined to fight
the divil's own scrimmidge wid the British foorces.

Well, as soon as the business was pretty near ready at both sides,
Bonyparty and the general next undher himself gets up behind a bush, to
look at their inimies through spyglasses, and thry would they know any
iv them at the distance.

'Bedadad!' says the gineral, afther a divil iv a long spy, 'I'd bet half
a pint,' says he, 'that's Bill Malowney himself,' says he, 'down there,'
says he.

'Och!' says Bonypart, 'do you tell me so?' says he--'I'm fairly
heart-scalded with that same Billy Malowney,' says he; 'an' I think if I
was wanst shut iv him I'd bate the rest iv them aisy,' says he.

'I'm thinking so myself,' says the gineral, says he; 'but he's a tough
bye,' says he.

'Tough!' says Bonypart, 'he's the divil,' says he.

'Begorra, I'd be better plased.' says the gineral, says he, 'to take
himself than the Duke iv Willinton,' says he, 'an' Sir Edward Blakeney
into the bargain,' says he.

'The Duke of Wellinton and Gineral Blakeney,' says Bonypart, 'is great
for planning, no doubt,' says he; 'but Billy Malowney's the boy for
ACTION,' says he--'an' action's everything, just now,' says he.

So wid that Bonypart pushes up his cocked hat, and begins scratching his
head, and thinning and considherin' for the bare life, and at last says
he to the gineral:

'Gineral Commandher iv all the Foorces,' says he, 'I've hot it,' says
he: 'ordher out the forlorn hope,' says he, 'an' give them as much
powdher, both glazed and blasting,' says he, 'an' as much bullets do
ye mind, an' swan-dhrops an' chain-shot,' says he, 'an' all soorts iv
waipons an' combustables as they can carry; an' let them surround Bill
Malowney,' says he, 'an' if they can get any soort iv an advantage,'
says he, 'let them knock him to smithereens,' says he, 'an' then take
him presner,' says he; 'an' tell all the bandmen iv the Frinch army,'
says he, 'to play up "Garryowen," to keep up their sperits,' says he,
'all the time they're advancin'. An' you may promise them anything you
like in my name,' says he; for, by my sowl, I don't think its many iv
them 'ill come back to throuble us,' says he, winkin' at him.

So away with the gineral, an' he ordhers out the forlorn hope, all'
tells the band to play, an' everything else, just as Bonypart desired
him. An' sure enough, whin Billy Malowney heerd the music where he
was standin' taking a blast of the dhudheen to compose his mind for
murdherin' the Frinchmen as usual, being mighty partial to that tune
intirely, he cocks his ear a one side, an' down he stoops to listen to
the music; but, begorra, who should be in his rare all the time but a
Frinch grannideer behind a bush, and seeing him stooped in a convanient
forum, bedad he let flies at him sthraight, and fired him right forward
between the legs an' the small iv the back, glory be to God! with what
they call (saving your presence) a bum-shell.

Well, Bill Malowney let one roar out iv him, an' away he rowled over the
field iv battle like a slitther (as Bonypart and the Duke iv Wellington,
that was watching the manoeuvres from a distance, both consayved) into
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