Father d'Aigrigny

“ Father d’Aigrigny went out to execute this new order. The cardinal approached a little nearer to the scene of the operation, for, in spite of the bad odor of the room, he took delight in seeing the Jesuit half roasted, having long cherished against him the rancor of an Italian and a priest.
“Come, reverend father,” said the doctor to Rodin, “continue to be admirably courageous, and your chest will free itself. ”

“ He says that he did not like to refuse such an offer."
"Well," said Father d'Aigrigny, shrugging his shoulders, "but by distributing his little books, and selling prints and chaplets, as well as by the influence he would certainly exercise over the pious and ignorant people of the South or of Brittany, he might render services, such as he can never perform in Paris."
"He is now below, with a kind of giant, who travels about with him. In his capacity of your reverence's old servant, Morok hoped to have the honor of kissing your hand this evening." ”

“ Between them, this time, there was a mortal duel—the marquis was wounded—General Simon was proscribed, condemned, driven into exile. The renegade, you say, has become a priest. Well! I am now certain, that it is he who has carried off Rose and Blanche, in order to wreak on them his hatred of their father and mother. It is the infamous D’Aigrigny, who holds them in his power. It is no longer the fortune of these children that I have to defend; it is their life—do you hear what I say?—their very life? ”

“ As soon as he was gone Madame de Saint Dizier approached hastily M. d'Aigrigny, whose countenance, usually firm and haughty, was now pale and agitated.
"You see," cried the princess in a hurried voice, "Adrienne knows all.
What shall we do?—what?"
"I cannot tell," said the abbe, with a fixed and absent look. "This disclosure is a terrible blow to us."
"Is all, then, lost?"
"There is only one means of safety," said M. d'Aigrigny;—"the doctor."
"But how?" cried the princess. "So, sudden? this very day?" ”

“ After this, two days before Argyle was broken and taken, he was near Wigtown in Galloway; a considerable number of men were gathered together in arms, to go for his assistance; they pressed him to preach, but he positively refused, laying, he would souls pray with them where he continued long, and spent some part of that time in praying for Ireland, pleading that the Lord would spare a remnant, and not make a full end in the day of his anger; and would put it in the hearts of his own to flee over to this bloody land, where they would find safety for a time. ”

“ The Political Economy of a Weekly Sabbath, as corrective of the secular and cold-blooded system of six days’ pay for seven days’ work, was not generally understood in his day, so that he was betrayed into upbraiding my benevolent and patriotic father, the late Sir Andrew Agnew, as a Pharisee. Neither did my father then (nor myself now) feel any resentment against him in consequence, being only disposed to apply to him a parody of the late Lady Dufferin’s celebrated song, and to say
’Tis a pity when charming scribblers
Write of things that they don’t understand. ”

“ Is it not enough to tell you that the master of this house is one of the most devoted lay members of the Company, and therefore the blind instrument of the Abbe d'Aigrigny?"
"So," said Adrienne, this time without smiling, "Dr. Baleinier"
"Obeyed the Abbe d'Aigrigny, the most formidable chief of that formidable society. He employs his genius for evil; but I must confess he is a man of genius. Therefore, it is upon him that you and yours must fix all your doubts and suspicions; it is against him that you must be upon your guard. ”

“ Oh God, my God, why hast thou so forsaken me? Would I had died before!" And the heavy groan which followed, confirmed the anguish breathed in those broken words.
"Father!" implored the unhappy girl, clasping his knees in an agony of supplication, though she raised not her head—"Oh my father! in mercy do not speak thus! Words of wrath, of reproach, fearful as they are from thee, yet I can bear them, but not such woe! Oh, think what I have borne, what I must still bear. If I have sinned, my sin will bring, nay, it has already brought its own chastisement. ”

“ These words of Adrienne made D'Aigrigny and the princess start, and then rapidly exchange a glance of uneasiness and anxiety. Adrienne did not seem to perceive it, but thus continued: "To have done with your demands, madame, here is my final resolve. I shall live where and how I please. I think that, if I were a man, no one would impose on me, at my age, the harsh and humiliating guardianship you have in view, for living as I have lived till now—honestly, freely, and generously, in the sight of all." ”

“ Subsequently the Earl of Argyle, a personal enemy of the Earl of Airly, was charged with the same commission, and raised an army of five thousand men to carry out his trust. Lord Ogilvie was unable to hold out against such a force, and abandoned his father's stronghold, which, as well as his own residence of Forthar, was plundered and utterly destroyed by Argyle. ”

“ On one occasion, travelling by the mail to Galway, he found himself in company with three Roman Catholic gentlemen going to the assizes. He entertained them at first with general and amusing conversation. His wit soon got them into the most bland and cheerful humour. When their laughter was at the highest, he suddenly interrupted them, saying, ‘I’ll venture to say none of you think I can speak Irish.’ Some doubt was expressed. ‘Wait till you see,’ he replied; and pulling out the Irish Bible from his pocket, he read the Irish version of Psalm cxxx. ”

“ I, Henry de Massue, Earl and Viscount of Gallway, and Baron of Port Arlington, in the Kingdom of Ireland, being weak in body, but of sound and disposing mind, judgment, and memory, do make this my last Will and Testament in writing, in manner following:— First, I bequeath my soul to God’s mercy through Jesus Christ, and my body to the earth, to be privately interred by my executors, hereinafter named, in the Church belonging to the Parish wherein I shall happen to depart this life. ”

“ When the time came, as ordained by our rules, namely, April 22, 1581, the fathers who were now in greater number, and as as we have related, had a [249] greater number of missionaries and convents—assembled. Peacefully and harmoniously they cast their votes for father Fray Andrés de Aguirre—of whom one may not say little, and, if we say much, it will grow wearisome, and we shall never fill the measure of his deserts. ”

“ Most of these corpses were inhumanly left above ground, to be the prey of birds and beasts, by the conquerors, and thus Aughrim is known to the Irish people as the “Field of our Unburied Dead.” It was customary a generation 350ago, and may be so in our day, for the Catholic peasantry passing along the roads that wind around Kilcommodan, to uncover their heads reverently and offer up prayers for the souls of the heroes of their race who died there for faith, land, and liberty. ”

“ But the ignominious and savage treatment which he received at the hands of those whose station and descent should at least have taught them to respect misfortune, has left an indelible stain upon the memory of the Covenanting chiefs, and more especially upon that of Argyle.
The perfect serenity of the man in the hour of trial and death, the courage and magnanimity which he displayed to the last, have been dwelt upon with admiration by writers of every class. ”

“ Then the parents, hearing that that which should have been given to them was Corban,—consecrated to God,—no longer wished to take it from their sons, even though they were in extreme need of the necessaries of life. The elders, then, declared to the people a tradition of this kind, “Whosoever said to his father or mother, that which should be given to any of them is Corban and a gift, that man was no longer a debtor to his father or mother in respect of giving to them the necessaries of life.” ”

“ The son was ordained priest in Monte-Argentaro, and the first news he heard after he had for the first time offered up the Holy Sacrifice, was that his mother had been received in our retreat in Dublin by Father Ignatius. She was induced by another son, who lived in Dublin, to attend benediction, and our Lord gave her the grace of conversion with His blessing. She is now a fervent Catholic, and another son and a daughter have since followed the example of their brother. The mother finds her greatest happiness in what once seemed her greatest affliction. ”

“ Quoth Ajib, "Even so, O nuncle mine; my heart burns for the loss of a beloved one who is none other than my father; and indeed I come forth, I and my grandfather, [FN#459] to circle and search the world for him. Oh, the pity of it, and how I long to meet him!" Then he wept with exceeding weeping, and his father also wept seeing him weep and for his own bereavement, which recalled to him his long separation from dear friends and from his mother; and the Eunuch was moved to pity for him. Then they ate together till they were satisfied; and Ajib and the slave rose and left the shop. ”

“ About this time he wrote a letter to Charles Edward Lefroy, the young head of the family, dated Paramaribo, Surinam, Easter Sunday, April 15, 1827, in which he says:—
“You have now a name of unblemished reputation for four generations to support. . . . In a Protestant kingdom no ancestry can or ought to be more honourable than a Huguenot ancestry. Your grandfather was a model of social excellence, uniting the scrupulous uncompromising integrity and truth of your great-grandfather. ”

“ Unlike not a few families and clans who can boast of a lineage almost if not quite as ancient and noble as their own, their name and fame are not "to hastening ills a prey." The lapse of years has not dimmed the lustre of their achievements, or caused them to lie upon their oars inactive and inglorious. The present head of their clan—the Duke of Argyll—has in his day and generation been as distinguished as any of his more formidable ancestry. ”

“ Where do we get the right to say that the negroes must emigrate?
All such schemes will, in my judgment, prove utterly futile. Perhaps the history of the world does not give an instance of the emigration of six millions of people. Notwithstanding the treatment that Ireland has received from England, which may be designated as a crime of three hundred years, the Irish still love Ireland. All the despotism in the world will never crush out of the Irish heart the love of home—the adoration of the old sod. The negroes of the South have certainly suffered enough to drive them into other countries ”

“ On this day are entered in the records of the Privy Council two complaints which illustrate in a remarkable manner the state of society at that time. First, James Lord Ogilvie of Airly, ancestor of the Earls of Airly, complains that, while he was living quietly in the protection of the law, and dreading harm from no man, the Earl of Argyle, without any provocation from him, hounded out a set of broken Highlandmen to the number of about five hundred, to attack him, and spoil his lands. ”

“ Both father and son had become widowers soon after landing in England: in her book Mrs. Sarah Mytton Maury gives us this reminiscence:— “The father and the son had each borne to the shores of England a daughter of their country — had borne them thither but to die. The emphatic words of that venerable man still ring in my ear as he thus addressed my husband, who had alluded to his wish to carry me his English partner to America, My son, every exotic will thrive in a foreign land, except a woman.” ”

“ And there was anger on Aoibhell when he said that, and she said: "Murchadh will fall, and you yourself will fall, and your proud blood will be on the plain to-morrow." And they went back into the battle, and got their death there.
And it was Aoibhell gave a golden harp to the son of Meardha the time he was getting his learning at the school of the Sidhe in Connacht and that he heard his father had got his death by the King of Lochlann. And whoever heard the playing of that harp would not live long after it. ”

“ His spirited rule had been carried on amidst frequent bodily suffering, as may be inferred from a letter from Lady Russell which he received in Dublin, and from which I quote what follows:—
“The merciful providence of God it is our duty to pray for and trust in; then it shall be well in the end, in this world or a better. I beseech God to give the consolation of His Holy Spirit to enable you to struggle with bodily pains. Your resignation I have no doubt of; but nature will shrink when the weight is heavy, and presses hard. ”

“ On the resignation of his father, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland presented him to the French Protestant Church of Dundalk, or rather to its annual salary of £50. In 1817 he succeeded his father in the French Church of Portarlington, where he took up his residence, and was the last minister who read the liturgy in the French language. (The church has been kept open to the present day as St. Paul’s, Portarlington.) ”

“ He thereafter went to Ireland, having received a parochial benefice. This he resigned in a few years, and in 1703 we find his name on the list of ministers of the French Church of Lucy Lane, Dublin. When he was solicited to transfer his services to St. Mary’s, a conformist French congregation patronised by the Archbishop of Dublin, he promised his attached Huguenot people that he would never leave them. He died, after a brief illness, in the prime of life, at Dublin, on the 14th September 1709 (3d Sept., old style) . His sermon on the last Sabbath of his ministry, was on Acts xx. ”