Ballyshannon

“ To Hongree, Sub-Lieutenant of Chassoores.
p. 243ETIQUETTE. [243] The Ballyshannon foundered off the coast of Cariboo,
And down in fathoms many went the captain and the crew;
Down went the owners—greedy men whom hope of gain allured:
Oh, dry the starting tear, for they were heavily insured.
Besides the captain and the mate, the owners and the crew,
The passengers were also drowned excepting only two:
Young Peter Gray, who tasted teas for Baker, Croop, and Co.,
And Somers, who from Eastern shores imported indigo. ”

“ So we went back to the car, and our jarvey breathed a sigh of relief when he saw us.
"Sure, I didn't know whether you'd come back alive or not," he said. "The master is away from home the day, and the woman that does work for him wouldn't be above settin' the dog on you. But it's all right, glory be to God," and he climbed up to his box and drove us back to Ballyshannon.
We left our luggage at the station of the Donegal narrow-gauge railway, and then walked down into the town. We found it a quaint place, with the friendliest of people ”

“ Aunt Bridget was the most fashionable member of the family; her real home was in Dublin. She was the one who had worked upon the squire's feelings until he had decided to send Kitty to an English school. Pat was not fond of either of his aunts, but he disliked Aunt Bridget the most. After an hour-and-a-half's brisk walking they reached Ballyshannon, knocked up the postmaster, who had gone to bed, asked him to let them in, and confided to him what they wanted. He was a hearty-looking Irishman, and was soon as much interested in the telegram which Laurie was to send as the boy was himself. ”

“ The little party reached Donegal unmolested, succoured the English settlers there, and at Ballyshannon killed some rogues on the road, and reached Manor Hamilton in safety. Connor O’Rourke, sheriff of Leitrim, visited Hamilton on the 31st, but his professions of loyalty did not last long. The arrival of a few stray Scots soldiers, some from Carlisle direct, increased the garrison to fifty men. By December 4 twenty-four prisoners were taken, and to avenge the deaths of Englishmen at Sligo, eight of them were hanged upon a conspicuous gallows. ”

“ There they lay for four days, from the first to the fifth of September, when, the gale rising, their cables parted, and all three drove on shore on a sandy beach among the rocks. Nowhere in the world does the sea break more violently than on that cruel, shelterless strand," etc. Now, the facts disclosed by Cuellar's narrative, and by other contemporary writers, show that these Spanish ships were not at all near to Ballyshannon ”

“ The old gentleman and the Captain both burst into a laugh at this.
“I’m afraid,” said the former, “that good looks are no guarantee for good behaviour. However, I have made up my mind to send him a small sum of money—not to Shank, Mrs Leather, so you need not begin to thank me. I shall send it to Ritson.”
“Well, thank you all the same,” interposed the lady, taking up her knitting and resuming operations below the table, gazing placidly all the while at her friends like some consummate conjuror, “for Ralph will be sure to look after Shank.” ”

“ He never reflected that he had lived to the extent of, and above his precarious income, as if his house had been paid for; that, instead of passing his existence in hating the Carrick tradesman, he should have used his industry in finding the means to pay him. He sometimes blamed his father, having an indefinite feeling that he ought not to have permitted Flannelly to have anything to do with Ballycloran, after building it; but himself he never blamed; people never do; it is so much easier to blame others,—and so much more comfortable. ”

“ What a squalling I made sure at Ballyporeen.
When I grew up a boy, with a nice shining face,
With a bag at my back, and a snail-crawling pace,
Went to school at old Thwackum's at Ballyporeen.
His wig was so fusty, his birch was my dread,
He learning beat out ’stead of into my head.
Master Macshane, says he, you're a great dirty dolt,
You've got no more brains than a Monaghan colt;
You're not fit for our college at Ballyporeen.
When eighteen years of age, was teas'd and perplext
To know what I should be, so a lover turned next,
And courted sweet Sheelah of Ballyporeen. ”

“ Before he could reply the vessel received a tremendous shock which caused her to quiver from stem to stern.
“She must have been struck by lightning,” cried Glynn, starting up and hurrying towards the door. Ailie’s frightened look returned for a few minutes, but she did not tremble as she had done before.
Just as Glynn reached the top of the ladder the hatch was opened and the captain thrust in his head.
“Glynn, my boy,” said he, in a quick, firm tone, “we are ashore. Perhaps we shall go to pieces in a few minutes. God knows. May He in His mercy spare us. You cannot do much on deck. ”

“ In the spring of 1837 Balzac went to Italy to spend a few weeks. Seeing at Florence a bust of his Predilecta, made by Bartolini, he asked M. de Hanski's permission to have a copy of it, half size, made for himself, to place on his writing desk. This journey aroused Madame Hanska's suspicions again, but he assured her he was not dissipating, but was traveling to rejuvenate his broken-down brain, since, working night and day as he did, a man might easily die of overstrain. ”

“ But Ailie had neither desire nor opportunity to remark on this tremendous change. Every successive billow raised the doomed vessel, and let her fall with heavy violence on the rocks. Her stout frame trembled under each shock, as if she were endued with life, and shrank affrighted from her impending fate; and it was as much as the captain could do to maintain his hold of the weather-bulwarks and of Ailie at the same time. Indeed, he could not have done it at all had not Glynn stood by and assisted him to the best of his ability. ”

“ Sometimes it seemed to me that she must drop into Ballester's net. I raged vainly over the problem, and the more because I knew that Ballester would reap prestige instead of shame if she did. The conventions were heavy on women in Maldivia, but they were not the outward signs of any spiritual grace in the population. On the contrary, they were evidence that the spiritual grace was lacking. If Olivia found her way in the end to the Benandalla farm, Ballester would be thought to have combined pleasure with the business of revenge in a subtle and enviable way. ”

“ I’ve no more idea of where you’ve got me to now than—than—”
“Oh, never mind,” interrupted the captain, “it doesn’t matter, as you are not our guide. But, ho! look! look! down in the hollow there—among the rushes. What’s that?”
“A boar!” said Bladud, in a low whisper, as he unslung his bow. “Come, now, it will take all our united force to slay that brute, for, if I have not lost my power of judging such game, I’m pretty sure that he’s a very big old boar with formidable tusks.”
While the prince was speaking, his comrades had also prepared their weapons, and looked to their guide for directions. ”

“ If we spring a leak, we shan’t spend our first night on a pleasant camping-ground, for the shore just hereabouts does not look inviting.”
“No fear, sir,” replied Massan. “Dick Prince is in the bow, and as long as his mouth’s shut I keep my mind easy.”
“You appear to have unlimited confidence in Prince,” said Stanley, with a smile. “Does he never fail in anything, that you are so sure of him?”
“Fail!” exclaimed the steersman, whose paddle swept constantly in a circle round his head, while he changed it from side to side as the motions of the canoe required—“fail! ay, that does he sometimes. ”

“ Repton had been the witness, and which she related now, invested Ballantyne with horror. Thresk had left the camp at Chitipur with an angry contempt for him. The contempt passed out of his feelings altogether as he sat in Mrs. Repton's drawing-room.
"I am not telling you what Stella has confided to me," said Mrs. Repton. "Stella's loyal even when there's no cause for loyalty; and if loyalty didn't keep her mouth closed, self-respect would. ”

“ Keegan; what is it Mr. Flannelly wishes to do with us?"
"Wishes to do?—oh, he doesn't wish anything, of course; the law is open to him to get his own; in fact, the law would give him much more than he wishes to take: but he proposes to buy Ballycloran himself."
"Buy Ballycloran!" screamed Larry.
"Well, well, father; let's hear what Mr. Keegan has to say.—Well, Mr. Keegan, does he propose giving anything but what he has got himself already?—or does he propose to take the estate for the mortgage, and cry quits; so that father, and Feemy, and I, can walk out just where we plaze?" ”

“ Mulready's, the affair could not rest there. He felt himself to be, in some horrible manner, in the power of Brady and Joe Reynolds—as though he could not escape from them. A general despondency respecting all his prospects weighed him down, and when he reached Ballycloran, he was nearly as unhappy as he had been in leaving it.
CHAPTER XVII. SPORT IN THE WEST.
Carrick-on-Shannon, the assize town of County Leitrim, though an assize town, is a very poor place. ”

“ There was a Durbar held there and the Rajah of Chitipur came to it with his elephants and his soldiers, and naturally Captain Ballantyne and his wife came too. They stayed with us. You are to understand that I knew nothing—absolutely nothing—up to that time. I hadn't a suspicion—until the afternoon of the finals in the Polo Tournament. Stella and I went together alone and we came home about six. Stella went upstairs and I—I walked into the library."
She had found Ballantyne sitting in a high arm-chair, his eyes glittering under his black thick eyebrows and his face livid. ”

“ He did not conceal their mode of gaining a livelihood, but defended it on the ground that “a man must live!”
For a time the letters were cheerful. The young men were “lucky.” Then came a change of luck, and a consequent change in the letters, which came less frequently. At last there arrived one from Shank, both the style and penmanship of which told that he had not forsaken the great curse of his life—strong drink. It told of disaster, and of going off to the “Rockies” with a party of “discoverers,” though what they were to discover was not mentioned. ”

“ As Glynn never threatened without a full and firm resolve to carry out his threats, the captain was compelled to give in.
When the water came to be served out that morning the captain paused, and looking round at the anxious eyes that were riveted upon him, said—
“My lads, it has pleased the Almighty to lay His hand still heavier on us. May He who has said that He will not suffer men to be tempted above what they are able to bear, give us strength to stand it. Our water is almost done. We must be content with a quarter of our usual allowance.” ”

“ An' av it warn't for Feemy then, Father John, bad as I know I've been to her, laving her all alone there at Ballycloran, with her novels and her trash,—av it warn't for her, it's little I'd mind about Ballycloran. There is them still as wouldn't let the ould man want his stirabout, and his tumbler of punch, bad as they all are to us; and for me, I'd sthrike one blow for the counthry, and then, if I war hung or shot, or murthered any way, devil a care. ”

“ Glynn understood it, and in a few seconds was at his commander’s side.
“Glynn,” my boy, said the latter, “you won’t be wanted on deck for some time. There’s little to be done now. Go down and see what Ailie’s about, poor thing. She’ll need a little comfort. Say I sent you.”
Without other reply than a nod of the head, Glynn sprang to the companion-hatch, followed by the captain, who undid the fastenings to let him down and refastened them immediately, for the sea was washing over the stern continually. ”

“ Good! Things are turning out well to-day. We will rout Gadarn, find his daughter and this so-called lad, and then I shall have two wives instead of one.”
The robber chief had just come to this satisfactory conclusion, when another scout arrived.
“How now, varlet? Do you bring good news?”
“That depends on what you consider good,” answered the scout, panting. “I have just learned that a large body of King Hudibras’ men—about two hundred, I believe—is on its way to the Swamp to search for his son Bladud—”
“What! the giant whom we have heard tell of—who gave Gunrig such a drubbing?” ”

“ So much, that I have barely time to tell ’ee. So, listen wi’ both ears. There’s a bunch o’ men an’ troops close to the Trap even now, on their way to visit your cave. If they find you—you know what that means?”
“Death,” said Leather quietly.
“Ay, death; though ye don’t desarve it,” said Ben.
“But I do deserve it,” returned Shank in the same quiet voice.
“Well, may-hap you do,” rejoined the scout coolly, “but not, so far as I know, in connection wi’ your present company. Now, there’s Buck Tom—”
“Ay, what of him?” asked Shank, anxiously. ”

“ There is no fashionable quarter in Ballysheen. If you were to divide it up into quarters you might lose sight of it altogether. My friend Cruikshank lives in a house hidden away in a nest of trees that cluster round the Protestant church. Janemount, on the other hand, belonging to the Miss Fennells, is away on the very brow of the cliff road, just at that point where it tires of magnificence and becomes a little rambling path. ”

“ Mortal man must get on the wrong side o’ luck now and then. I’ve seen Dick Prince fail, but I never saw him make a mistake.”
“Well, I’ve no doubt that he deserves your good opinion. Nevertheless, be more than ordinarily careful. If you had a wife and child in the canoe, Massan, you would understand my anxiety better.” Stanley smiled as he said this, and the worthy steersman replied in a grave tone,—“I have the wife and child of my bourgeois under my care.”
“True, true, Massan,” said Stanley, lying back on his couch and conversing with his wife in an undertone. ”