Adelaide of Tyrconnel

“ The immediate departure of the Duke and Duchess of Tyrconnel from Brussels, so soon as circumstances would permit, was fully determined upon. No obstacle, therefore, to preclude the union of Sir David Bruce and the Lady Adelaide remained, save the delay of their voyage and journey to Ireland, where, upon the event of their return to Tyrconnel Castle, it was agreed that the marriage was duly to be solemnized. ”

“ The duchess now returned to the unhappy Adelaide, in every respect, from her virtues, talents, and accomplishments, worthy far of a better fate.
The duke, when breakfast was taken away—for the duke eat not—-proposed to the chaplain to proceed to the little room which had been occupied by Sir David Bruce as his library during his stay at Tyrconnel Castle, in order to ascertain if there had been left there any letter or document explanatory of his very sudden and unaccountable departure. ”

“ I have still the power to resign; and albeit I am not devoid certainly of ambition, yet there exists not a man who is more attached to retirement than what I confessedly am;—none, I am sure, more devoted to his country, friends, family, and home!"
The intention of the Duke of Tyrconnel being fixed to pursue his journey onward without unnecessary delay, to assume the reins of his vice-regal government, His Grace and his amiable Duchess descended betimes to the breakfast saloon. The Duke was in uncommon good spirits, spoke sportively to his beloved Adelaide. ”

“ Two years at this point of time had passed over in peaceful serenity, Lady Adelaide daily improving in the expansion of her mental powers, and in gradual increase of personal beauty. The Duke, who had been long absent from Tyrconnel Castle, proposed to pass the ensuing summer and autumn at that lordly residence, and with all due pomp and solemnity there to celebrate Adelaide's birth-day, who would at that time enter into her seventeenth year ”

“ Early on the succeeding day her Grace the Duchess of Tyrconnel, the lovely Lady Adelaide, Ladies Letitia and Lucy, escorted by the polite and facetious Sir Patricius Placebo, arrived safely at Dublin Castle, and were most warmly and affectionately received by the Duke and viceroy. ”

“ This long wished return was joyously and generously hailed by all ranks and descriptions of persons, from the proud peer down to the lowly peasant; bonfires crowned every surrounding mountain height, hill, peninsula, and promontory, while they beamed forth a brilliant welcome to the returned wanderer; the lofty windows of the wealthy, and the lowly lattices of the cottier, in the town of Tyrconnel, bespoke the general joy that burst around, and conjointly the wax taper and rush-light commingled their rays to manifest [17] the heart-yearning welcome that the duke's happy return had inspired. ”

“ The Duchess of Tyrconnel was indeed an extraordinary woman, highly gifted by nature, instructed by education, (in these days, certainly an unusual occurrence) , and still more learned from her own assiduity and perseverance. All this was the more remarkable, when we pause to consider the period in which she lived! The vast powers of her mind were demonstrated by the universality of her knowledge, the various accomplishments which she possessed, her acquaintance, even to a colloquial knowledge, with several different languages, the numerous acquirements, in all of which she excelled. ”

“ When Doctor Dismal Drew had with-drawn from the dinner-room, Lord Glandarah addressed the Duke of Tyrconnel in an under tone: "Gad save me, my Lord Duke, mais cette est un homme austere, outré, et tres singulier; et, par tout, un bête horriblé."
"Adonis, you recollect, my Lord, was killed by a boar!"
"Excellent, O Duke! and I too should be killed by—the Doctor's company!—non, pardonnez moi presence, I should say; he be no company! en verité two entire days would despatch me. ”

“ I feel, most duly and deeply feel, honoured by the duke's proposal; however, I respectfully, yet decidedly decline it."
"Indeed!!—So young, yet so determined too!"
"I would not, my Lord, be the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Tyrconnel were I to waver, or act irresolutely."
"I see most clearly, Adelaide, how matters stand—'All for love, or the world well lost!' In a word, your heart is pre-engaged. The Bruce!"
"I will not, my dearest father, deceive you. I cannot, I shall not deny it. My [Pg 258] heart is truly engaged ”

“ An old prophecy or tradition had immemorially prevailed, that what time a raven should build her nest in the ducal coronet which decorated the summit of the loftiest pavilion-tower of the castle, a male heir, upon this event, should then be wanting to the noble house of Tyrconnel. And this sad occurrence, so deprecated by the dark and credulous terror and tenor of [Pg 34] those superstitious times, actually occurred some months previous to Adelaide's birth: a raven had then built her nest within the ducal coronet ”

“ Now floats before her tortured fancy the obverse of the medal:—The battle of the Boyne is fought and lost—King James is forced to make a precipitate flight—the Duke of Tyrconnel accompanies his deposed sovereign—the duke is outlawed by King William, who passes an act of attainder against him—the duchess is compelled to depart from Ireland—Adelaide accompanies her mother in her voyage. [Pg 181] The dream continues:—The duchess much perturbed—at sea they encounter a violent storm—she and Adelaide are about to perish in a watery grave. ”

“ The stockings were adorned "with quirks and clokes about the ancles" of gold withal, and curiously and richly wrought.
The Duke of Tyrconnel was considered as [Pg 68] the handsomest man of the age, and upon this occasion looked uncommonly well, every inch the nobleman. Lord Glandarrah was attired in the magnificent robes of the order of the Bath. All the guests, of both sexes were splendidly arrayed, and the entertainment passed off with undiminished eclat. ”

“ Adelaide then with quickened step approached a lime-kiln. This fabric had been for a lapse of time deserted and disused; its apex was crested with saxifrage, snap-dragon, and foxglove, which told its desolation; and the ivy too, in curling festoons suspended, overhung the passenger, and undulated in the breeze. The autumnal gale in mournful gusts swept, sighing in its course, over hill, and vale, and stream; while the owl hooted her solitary scream as Adelaide reached this deserted pile, now the lonely asylum of the nocturnal bat and wary field-mouse. ”

“ To the right of the gate, on the city side, was erected a large stage, covered with tapestry, on which were stationed two Irish harpers, in due and proper costume; one of them was no less a person than our old acquaintance, blind Cormac, the sightless harper and minstrel of the Duke of Tyrconnel. Sir Patricius Placebo [Pg 273] albeit was fond of comparing the sightless bard to old Tiresias, of prophetic memory, whose ear and recollection nearly supplied the deficiencies of sight. ”

“ Oh, my Adelaide, imperishable let this happy, too happy hour remain, and ever marked and stamped by a holy communion of heart and mind! Your taste shall be mine, your liking shall be my liking, your joy be my joy, and your sorrows (if ever they come) shall be all mine own!—thy disgrace would become my disgrace, and mine would be attended with yours! But now I only look upon the happy obverse of the medal, when I pause on your beauty, your accomplishments, your virtue, and your religion! for without the latter a woman is a monster, and man little less than a demon. ”

“ Having thus replied, poor Adelaide, with a piteous, heart-rending scream, and to all appearance as if life had fled, sunk down, pale and ghastly as a corse, upon her pillow. It was indeed some time before Sir David could bring her to herself. When the hapless Adelaide recovered from her faint, he said: "My reproaches now are at an end. For you now are the object of my compassion and of my pity, not of my wrath. It is however true, that although infernal agents have given you a husband, yet know they have not the power to cause me to remain with you one hour more!—There I am a free agent. ”

“ As Adelaide was proceeding onward in her return to the castle, the sky suddenly became deeply darkened, and a thunder-storm arose; the thunder loudly re-echoed through the vaulted heavens, and the vivid lightning-flash preceded each awful peal; then descended torrents of rain, which fell with the plenitude and the force of a water-spout. ”

“ Here shouts of "Vive le Roy," and of "God save King James," from the French, English, and Irish troops of the king, rent the air with loud and tumultuous huzzas; which bursting over the heights of Donore, [Pg 322] were re-echoed by the waters of the Boyne below, and wafted to the camp of the Prince of Orange.
Meanwhile, in the camp of King James, the Duke of Tyrconnel was every where to be seen galloping from post to piquét. ”

“ This lordly pile was this day (the 1st of May, one thousand six hundred and——) destined to be the scene of uncommon festivity and grandeur; indeed such pomp and magnificence never before were witnessed within the walls of Tyrconnel castle. All the nobility and gentry in the country for many miles round were invited to assist at the baptismal banquet given for the noble and lovely infant ”

“ A guilty conscience hath unmanned me quite. But oh, my poor Adelaide, time presses onward; the night wears apace, and I must now conclude the few words which I have to say to thee. You must tell the duke and duchess—boldly, as it is true, to account for the rapidity of my departure—that the import of the despatches received, which are from the Elector Palatine of Brandenburgh, in whose service I fought at the battle of the Boyne, bear with them life or death, and I must instantly depart. ”

“ Sir David Bruce, with firm and dignified step and gesture, advanced, leading onward by the hand to the bridal altar the lovely Lady Adelaide, her eye beaming with all the radiance of intelligence and of genius, while the deep glow of health and the blush of modesty mantled her beauteous cheek as she approached the sacred altar, the gaze, delight, and admiration of all, high and low, who beheld her. ”

“ What says my Adelaide to this proposal?"
"Often and often, my dear father, have I heard you, and my mother likewise, say, 'let no young woman ever give her hand in holy wedlock who cannot also give her heart; if she gives her hand unaccompanied with her heart, from that moment let her date the commencement of a wretched life.' Now, dearest father, I cannot give my heart to the duke, and therefore I consider that it would be dishonourable in me to give my hand alone! ”

“ We merely state the fact that her Ladyship duly and legally became Lady Letitia Placebo. Upon the consummation of the marriage Sir Patricius sported a handsome new chariot, with the arms of Placebo quartered agreeably to all the tenor of the rules and laws of arms and blazonry, in the same shield with those of the noble house of Tyrconnel ”

“ Then turning to Lady Adelaide Bruce, he said: "I will sing the loves of Sir Trystan and the beautiful Isoud! they were young and noble; they were likewise comely too, lovely lady: but they were unfortunate in their loves. Grant, O heaven, that such a fate may never betide the Lady Adelaide or Sir David!" ”

“ At once the chaplain saw it all, for the duke was deadly pale; but the cause of this despondence he did not know, nor did he dare to inquire.
But while he was about to ask the duke if he was unwell, the door opened, and the duchess re-entered; and bursting into a flood of tears, she flung herself into a chair. In so doing, a dagger fell from her apron on the ground. She fainted, and it was some time before she came to herself. When she did, she then said: "It is all involved in darkness and mystery; I cannot unravel the clue. Adelaide cannot—will not tell. ”

“ The thrifty pastry-cooks of these happy days were most notable for, and assumed very considerable pride, in raising those superstructures called "pastry fortifications." The display chosen for this festival was the model of Tyrconnel Castle, flanked by bastion, battlement, and tower; armorial flags, heraldically emblazoned in sugar, decorated the summit of each tower and parapet; and the fosse was floated from its parent Eske, which, instead of a mountain-stream, supplied the said fosse with a broad and deep portion of excellent Spanish flummery, upon which was anchored a tiny Armada ”

“ The perilous result and shipwreck of the ill-fated "William Wallace of Ayr," has been already fully detailed in the first chapter of the first volume of this work, which doubtless is still fresh in the reader's recollection.
But it is full time to return to Tyrconnel Castle, and revisit the noble inmates, over [130] come by grief and dismay at the sudden, unexpected, and unaccountable departure of the noble, generous, but unhappy Bruce. To fulfil which intent we proceed onward to the next chapter. ”

“ Most justly do I confess that I am punished as I ought to be, by thy retributive justice, even upon earth—the irreparable loss of her whom no earthly power upon this habitable spot of earth can ever alleviate or redeem!—never, never, never!"
While Sir David Bruce impassionately and woefully said this, he fell prostrate, and cold, and lifeless, upon the floor of the bridal chamber.
To describe the emotions of Adelaide, would be to attempt indeed an impracticable task. It was so truly horrifying and affecting, that it must wholly be left to the imagination of the feeling reader. ”

“ Lady Adelaide was solicited to play and sing, and complied by seating herself at the harpsichord, supported on the one side by the Duke d'Aremberg, and on the other by Sir David Bruce, who was most attentive in turning over the leaves of the music book, and he seemed quite charmed and entranced with Lady Adelaide's singing. Indeed it was not difficult to a bye-stander to discover that this day the Lady Adelaide had achieved a double conquest, and that she held captive the hearts of the duke and the baronet. ”