Anne Isabella Robertson

“ Should I put spurs to my horse and follow the fellow to demand what he wanted with Sir Denis or where he was going with firearms? was the question that rose to my mind while I observed him hurrying off in the distance. My first impulse was to do so, my next to let the matter pass unheeded. I never could expect to discover the truth from him, and nothing could be gained by a mere suspicion. Somehow the incident made a curious impression on me, after all I had read and heard of Tipperary morality, and I did not cease to ponder upon it when I reached my quarters at Cashel. ”

“ She was first red, then pale, and again flushed with a feverish glow over her face; but she did not make any remark.
“If I were you, Barnett, I’d see the tenants hanged before I’d speak to one of them,” said Nugent, emphatically. “Take my advice, and leave the matter to Doheny: he knows how to come round those sort of fellows better than you do; and by the time you’re safe on the continent they’ll all be ejected peaceably. They know Doheny must obey your orders, and they’ll not be half so enraged with him as with yourself.” ”

“ We had music during the evening, and while Miss Barnett sang Sir Percy hung over her chair, turning the leaves of her music-book pertinaciously, and evidently desirous of being most agreeable and attentive; yet it seemed to my jealous fancy that she did not receive his advances encouragingly, though perhaps I could judge little from that. Women are so bound by conventional rules that they seldom permit observers to understand their real feelings with regard to an unacknowledged courtship. ”

“ He was a fine specimen of a Tipperary man—frank, good-looking, and of agreeable manners. Both sister and brother had travelled a good deal abroad, and were acquainted with many friends of my own. They were intimate with London and Parisian society, as well as with members of the higher circles of their own metropolis. I had never passed a pleasanter half hour than that of this morning call; and when on my departure Sir Denis expressed an indefinite sort of wish that I would join a party of visitors, whom he expected to remain for a few days at Knockgriffin, my delight was extreme. ”

“ Sir Denis Barnett,—You had best keep at home on to-morrow, Friday, for it is intended to shoot you dead when you appear; and you certainly deserve death, as a reward for what you are about to inflict on innocent, unoffending beings, who will be in wait for you, no matter where you go. ”

“ Like almost all Tipperary landlords who choose to live on their property, he finds it necessary to cast aside all doubts and fears. Unless armed with a never-failing courage, a landowner in this county would, as it were, suffer a hundred deaths in the year. Denis is determined to dread no one or nothing, and never to flinch from any act that ho thinks proper among his tenantry. Were I he I would just do the same; but you see, Captain Stapleton, the misfortune is our lot being cast as it is. We are Tipperary people. We do not wish to abandon our ancestral home ”

“ I got out the map of Ireland, learned the geography of the province of Munster, discovered Cashel almost in the centre of Tipperary, and trusted to the future to enlighten me further. In those days, reader, travelling was not so expeditious and comfortable as now-a-days. Railroads had not penetrated far through Ireland, and many of the principal towns were as unapproachable as they had been fifty years before. ”

“ We have very few downright regular murders about here.”
“And you don’t call it murder to shoot a man from behind a hedge while he is passing over a lonely road unsuspectingly.”
“There isn’t many a one goes unsuspecting over the roads in Tipperary,” said the fellow, with a chuckle. “Every landlord that acts contrary to justice generally knows beforehand what he’s to expect; but we don’t meddle with the soldier officers, except when they come down for ejectments or the like, and then we fight them openly. We’re fond of the regular built military; it’s only the peelers we can’t bear.” ”

“ As to our handsome host, he seemed devoid of all anxiety upon any subject: he talked pleasantly all the way, pointing out every bit of scenery worth looking at with evident pride in his strange wild county.
“Sir Percy is deeply in debt to Barnett as well as to many another, you see,” continued Nugent; “and so he comes over to Knockgriffin now and then to keep friends with him. It’s always there he stays when he comes to Tipperary; though I daresay he won’t fancy the place long, since Barnett is beginning to quarrel with his tenants.” ”

“ With all its drawbacks, and the failings of the people, I have learned to love my Tipperary home, and to deplore very bitterly the late outrages committed in other parts of the county, praying sincerely that civilisation may increase, that true Christianity be established, and that landlord and tenant may learn to live together in peace and unity. ”

“ My good male friend, have you never felt both disgust and pity when you have watched the simperings, the feverish efforts, the paltry, easily-discovered manœuvres of some poor girl who seizes upon yourself as the only probable way she has of escaping from the misery of becoming a governess, or living in dismal obscurity and in want at home? ”

“ I trust sincerely that you will not expose yourself to danger, or gain the ill-will of the peasantry by taking the part of anyone against them. I would by no means wish you to behave in a way unbecoming the character of an officer and a brave man; but, pray, always try to get rid of any duty, such as quelling riots, helping in ejectments, and other matters obnoxious to the barbarians of that unfortunate county; also I hear it is dangerous for persons to be on friendly and familiar terms with anyone who is unpopular with his tenantry, which I hope is not the case with Sir Denis Barnett. ”

“ If I have to leave Cappamoyne I’ll leave Ireland altogether. I’ll never take up with any other spot in Tipperary.”
“You are standing in the way of your own interests, Ryan,” said Barnett. “All those who give up their holdings quietly will preserve my favour; but those who occasion trouble cannot expect the same consideration. Every house on this land must be vacated by the end of July, or else the law will have to interfere.
You know I have been a kind landlord through the last five years. ”

“ There was a long pause of utter stillness; and then she spoke in a low voice, clear, though tremulous.
“Captain Stapleton, I have long determined never to marry.” (How my heart sank.) “To live all my life with Denis has, since I grew up and before it, been my fixed resolution. Surrounded as he is in Tipperary by hourly dangers, I could not bear the idea of being separated from him; and as my fortune, I am thankful to say, is very ample, I have no such incentive as most women unhappily have, to urge me to resign a single life, whether inclined to do so or not. ”

“ Many an evening stroll I have had round this relic of the past, treading upon the soft green grass that grew over innumerable graves, reading the inscriptions on quaint tombstones, or wandering through the ruins of the venerable cathedral, with its nave, transepts, and choir, admiring the beautiful decorations of Cormac’s Chapel; or watching the strange effect of the outward light falling through the apertures at the top of the lofty round tower as I looked upwards through the mysterious pile. ”

“ I replied quickly; “the scenery is charming, and the people excessively pleasant. I am afraid we hear sad untruths about Ireland altogether across the Channel, Miss Barnett.”
She smiled a little sadly, I thought, and uttered a half-suppressed sigh.
“I wish we lived anywhere else,” she said, after a pause.
“Indeed! Then you fear the lawlessness of Tipperary tenants, perhaps.”
“And not without cause,” she added, fixing her eyes full on my face. “Our family have long been obnoxious to the people about here. ”

“ My dear Richard,—If you knew what anxiety I suffer daily about you in that dreadful Tipperary you would write oftener than you do to me. I would like to receive a line, if possible, every day, to be assured that you remain uninjured in the midst of hourly perils among lawless, savage people. ”

“ Very ardently I hoped that some good fortune would come to help me in my misery.
“I am going now to give my last orders respecting the Cappamoyne tenants,” said Sir Denis, one day after breakfast. “I prefer speaking to them myself, to deputing Doheny to go among them: he is too timid in giving my directions; and besides, it is scarcely fair, perhaps, to employ him on such a business. One should not impose too much upon an agent.”
Miss Barnett’s cheek changed colour rapidly as her brother spoke. ”

“ Latterly I had spent more than two months of leave on the Continent, and on my return to England for a short visit home I received the announcement that my regiment had been sent to Tipperary—head-quarters Templemore, detachment at Cashel, where my company was now stationed. I had only a few days to loiter over my preparations for departure to Ireland, and it was with no small degree of curiosity that I contemplated a sojourn in the heart of a proverbially dangerous locale. ”

“ A man has no business in these parts unless he has a good stock of devil-me-carism in his composition; he must be born to it as it were. Poor Sir Percy doesn’t much fancy riding out in Tipperary, especially with Sir Denis, for he’s as good as a marked man now-a-days, all about those Cappamoyne lands that he’s wanting to take in as part of the demesne. ”

“ CHAPTER V. THE CAPPAMOYNE LANDS.
Some pleasant days of fishing and sightseeing served to while away one of the most agreeable weeks I had ever spent. St. John and Morley were obliged to return to Cahir before I was permitted to leave the hospitable house of the Barnetts; and after the week was concluded, our party there consisted of the host and his sister, Sir Percy Stedmole, Mr. Nugent, and myself. I need not say that every day now added to my admiration of Miss Barnett. When once slightly grazed by a love-dart, it is seldom that the wound is not repeated with more forcible and deadly aim. ”

“ It is usual for women to follow their husband’s fortunes, and leave their own homes and countries for those that are strange to them; but I will never abandon Tipperary as a place of residence, and I can ask no man to live there with me. ”

“ Of course, we can’t expect to be at head-quarters long; so must make up our minds for a sojourn at some place as delightful as this regal city, where the dogs and pigs seem to increase and multiply daily. How are you getting on at yonder Tipperary mansion? It is said your host has very little chance of surviving many weeks, as he is booked for the end of most landlords in this locale. You ought to have been making up to the pretty heiress, Miss Barnett, all this time, as report speaks highly of her thousands ”

“ Sometimes people get killed in mistake, you know. Supposing a shot was fired at Sir Denis, it might chance to take a wrong aim. There have been instances of that in Tipperary. Watch Sir Percy now, and you’ll see he’ll keep close to Miss Barnett all day if he can, he won’t meddle with her brother at all. Ha! ha!”
And Nugent laughed heartily. His own uncle, be it known, had been shot some five years previously. He certainly appeared gifted with a happy amount of devil-may-carism. ”

“ But that much of concession will never satisfy a true-born Irish woman; we want more than admiration for ourselves,—we must have sympathy, justice, pity, and allowances made with sincerity for the failings of the whole people. ”

“ I shall quite enjoy being among strange people in a strange land.”
“But such a monstrous county—so barbarous!” said my anxious parent. “Had you been ordered to any other place in the world I would not have murmured at the command, but Tipperary is too bad.”
As well as I could I endeavoured to console my mother under the heavy blow she received in learning that my regiment had been sent to the most lawless part of the fair land of Erin. I had never been in Ireland yet. ”

“ I exclaimed, ardently. “Wherever you wish to reside, there will be my home also. And, oh that I had thousands upon thousands to purchase such an estate in this county as would be worthy of such a mistress!” ”

“ She never seemed setting herself out to gain admiration: but when it was accorded she received it quietly, as a thing of course. We, men, often fancy ourselves very captivating, when alas! all the feeling that we inspire in the fair creatures who seem at our feet, is the desire of sharing our position and our purse. ”

“ Witness, for instance, how hard it is for a penniless fellow, however handsome, to win an heiress, who is at the same time a beauty. The lovely girls with large fortunes, somehow, always contrive to fall in love with men of rank and title. They “esteem” the others, but adore these, even if they be old and ugly. We object to the gentler sex entering our colleges, studying for prizes and undergoing competitive examinations, lest, forsooth, they lose the softness so charming in our eyes. ”