Macnamara

“ Also Macnamara was an expert with horses, and had taught the waler which Osman Wad Adam had looted from Khartoum a number of admired tricks.
Macnamara wished many a time that he could take to the desert with the waler; but the ride that he must ride to Wady Halfa was not for a horse. None but a camel could do it. Besides, he must have guides, and how was he to pay guides? More than once he had tried to get a word with Slatin, but that was dangerous for them both—most dangerous for Slatin, who was now the servant of the Khalifa Abdullah himself. ”

“ Why art thou gone from us, Soul of all beauty and joy?
Into the twilight the last notes died away, and a lonely heron standing among the rushes at the edge of the tarn moved his head critically to one side as if waiting for another song with which to sympathise. But he was not the only listener. Far up among the purple crags Standish Macnamara was lying looking out to the sunset when he heard the sound of the chant in the glen beneath him. He lay silent while the dirge floated up the mountain-side and died away among the heather of the peak. ”

“ THE Macnamara had been led away from his companionship in that old oak room by the time his son and Miss Gerald returned from the garden, and the consciousness of his own dignity seemed to have increased considerably since they had left him. This emotion was a variable possession with him: any one acquainted with his habits could without difficulty, from knowing the degree of dignity he manifested at any moment, calculate minutely the space of time, he must of necessity have spent in a room furnished similarly to that he had just now left. ”

“ The matrimonial alliances of The Macnamaras are family matters, not individual. The head of the race only is accountable to posterity for the consequences of the acts of them under him. I'm the head of the race.” He removed his hat and looked upward, somewhat jerkily, but still impressively.
Standish Macnamara's eyes flashed and his hands clenched themselves over the rail of the car, but he did not make any attempt to carry out his threat of getting off. ”

“ Macnab checked Geordie, who passed to Jack, who slipped it back to Macnamara. Down came Jumbo like a perfect thunderbolt and fairly hurled himself upon Macnamara. I don't know what happened then, but—”
“Oh, I do!” cried Vic. “When old Jumbo came hurtling down upon Macnamara, this was evidently what Macnamara was waiting for. Indeed, what he had been praying for all through the game. I saw him gather himself, crouch low, lurch forward with shoulder well down, a wrestler's trick—you know Macnamara was the champion wrestler of his division in France—he caught Jumbo low. ”

“ Disinherit me from all this, if you can.”
“Holy Saint Malachi, hare the sonn of The Macnamaras talkin' loike a choild!” cried The Randal.
“I don't care who hears me,” said Standish. “I'm sick of hearing about my forefathers; no one cares about them nowadays. I wanted years ago to go out into the world and work.”
“Work—a Macnamara work!” cried The Randal horror-stricken.
“I told you so,” said The Macnamara, in the tone of one who finds sudden confirmation to the improbable story of some enormity. ”

“ When, therefore, the Khalifa suddenly turned and asked him about Macnamara he chose his words discreetly. The Khalifa, ever suspicious, said that Macnamara had been thrown into prison twice for insubordination. To this Slatin replied:
"Sire, what greater proof could be had of the man's simplicity? His life is in your hands, sire. Would he have risked it, had he not been the most simpleminded of men? But you who read men's hearts, sire, as others read a book, you know if I speak truth." Slatin bent his head in humility. ”

“ Macnamara took from his yelek a bag of gold and offered it to Mahmoud. It was the balance of the payment promised to Ebn Mazar. Mahmoud salaamed and shook his head, then in a thick voice said: “It is my life and thy life. If thou diest, I die. If thou livest, the gold is Ebn Mazar's. At Wady Halfa I will claim it, if it be the will of God.”
The words were thick and broken, but Macnamara understood him, and they turned and faced their pursuers, ready for life or death, intent to kill—Macnamara of the 7th Hussars and Mahommed Mahmoud of the Gilif Mountains. ”

“ Colonel Montgomery and captain Macnamara quarrelled and fought a duel at Primrose-hill, because their dogs quarrelled and fought in Hyde-park. Captain Macnamara received colonel Montgomery’s ball in the hip, and colonel Montgomery received captain Macnamara’s ball in the heart. This exchange of shots being according to the laws of duelling and projectiles, Colonel Montgomery died on the spot. Captain Macnamara was tried at the Old Bailey, and, as a man of honour, was acquitted by a jury of men of honour. The laws of England and the laws of Christianity only bind honourable men ”

“ We are not here to weep over this new sorrow. What would life be worth to us if anything had happened to the pulse of our hearts? Glenmara would be desolate and Slieve Docas would sit in ashes.”
The Macnamara pressed his lips to the girl's forehead as a condescending monarch embraces a favoured subject.
“Bravo, King! you'd make a fortune with that sort of sentiment on the boards; you would, by heavens!” said Mr. Despard with an unmodulated laugh. ”

“ Vincent, 14 Feb. 1797, the Southampton was the repeating frigate of the centre of the line. A few months later she returned to England and was paid off. Macnamara was then appointed to the Cerberus on the coast of Ireland, later on in the Bay of Biscay, and afterwards in the West Indies, everywhere maintaining his character as a gallant and successful cruiser. After the peace of Amiens the Cerberus was for some time employed on the coast of San Domingo, and was paid off in February 1803. On 6 April 1803 Macnamara fought a duel at Chalk Farm with a Colonel Montgomery. ”

“ The Macnamara, Prince of Innishdermot, Chief of the Islands and Lakes, and King of all Munster, was standing with his son in the coffee-room of the hotel, having just come ashore from the steamer that had brought him out to the Cape. The patriot had actually left his land for the first time in his life, and had proceeded to the colony in search of his son, and he found his son waiting for him at the dock gates. ”

“ He must have money. With money Mahommed Nafar, who was now his teacher (Slatin had managed that) would move for him.
Under the spur of his purpose Macnamara rapidly acquired Arabic, and steadfastly tried to make Mahommed Nafar his friend, for he liked the little man, and the little man was the only Arab, save one, from first to last, whom he would not willingly have hung on the point of a bayonet. At first he chafed under the hourly duplicity necessary in his service to the Khalifa, then he took an interest in it, and at last he wept tears of joy over his dangerous proficiency. ”

“ Captain Macnamara was subsequently employed under Commodore Nelson, in taking possession of Porto Ferrajo, evacuating Capreja and Corsica, in the expedition against Piombino, and siege of Castiglione.
Towards the latter end of 1796, the Southampton captured the Spanish brig of war El Corso, of 18 guns, in a hard gale, by boarding, under the batteries of Monaca. The first attempt failed, only one man (the coxswain, Harper,) getting on board ”

“ In a few minutes the car pulled up at the entrance gate to a walled demesne.
“Will yer honours git off here?” asked Eugene, preparing to throw the reins down.
“Never!” cried The Macnamara emphatically. “Never will the head of the race descend to walk up to the door of a foreigner. Drive up to the very hall, Eugene, as the great Brian Macnamara would have done.”
“An' it's hopin' I am that his car-sphrings wouldn't be mindid with hemp,” remarked the boy, as he pulled the horse round and urged his mild career through the great pillars at the entrance. ”

“ Stopped at Sopoor for breakfast, and Macnamara, surgeon of the 60th Rifles, and his wife, arrived soon after me, also bound for Murree. Macnamara was at Peshawur with me, and was one of the committee that sent me away. We passed the morning in conversation, and at mid-day continued our journey to Baramula. He told me that he had heard that I was going home this winter with troops; but I do not know whether his information is reliable. I trust it may prove to be so, but it has not raised my hopes to a certainty. It is a good rule never to reckon confidently upon the achievement of our desires. ”

“ Miss Rachel Swete Macnamara has got together quite a lot of people and situations that other novelists have used before. There is the fine young Irishman soldiering in India, the soulless actress who marries and leaves him, and the splendid Irish girl, his true mate, whom he weds in happy ignorance of his first partner's continued existence. ”

“ The heroine, Iseult Dymphna Macnamara, whose mother was French, lives at the Court of Louis XIV. at the time when James II. held his exiled Court at St. Germain. She loves the son of Sarsfield, but is forced by circumstances into a loveless marriage with a noble and chivalrous Frenchman, St. Amand, whom the king had chosen for her. St. Amand goes off to the wars (Steenkirk and Landen) , and meantime the king pursues Iseult with amorous attentions. To avoid them she flies to Ireland. Here we get a glimpse of the Penal days in Co. Clare. All comes right when Iseult comes to love her husband. ”

“ Egad, I was rather surprised at the appearance of the woman that Dick Macnamara pointed out to us. To do her justice, she was good-lookin’ enough—but, faith, she was no chicken—and nather in dress nor action what ye would expect from a reglar heiress, and, as Oney said, the biggest grocer in the city. I remembered that they said she was a Methodist—and, thinks I, maybe that’s the rason she goes so plain.
Well, I gives the word to Biddy Donovan’s cousins, in a whisper, and in Irish. Divil a handier boys iver assisted in a job of the kind,—they lifts her off the pavement in a twinklin’ ”

“ In his desire to obey her he was still strong, but, this morning, as he walked along to Garradrimna he was possessed by a certain feeling of annoyance which seemed to strain the bond that stretched between them.
In the chapel he knelt beside Charlie Clarke, like the voteens around them, with a lifeless acquiescence in the ceremony. He was here not because his heart was here, but merely because his mother had wished it. When his lips moved, in mechanical mimicry of the priest, he felt that the way of the hypocrite must be hard and lonely. ”

“ Coming in the valley road are Shamesy Golliher and Martin Connell. In the distance they appear as small, shrinking figures, moving in abasement beneath the Gothic arches of the elms. They represent the advance guard of those who leave the sunlit fields on a summer morning to come into the dark, cavernous pubs of Garradrimna.
On the side of the street, distant from that upon which John Brennan is walking, moves the famous figure of Padna Padna, slipping along like some spirit of discontent and immortal longing, doomed forever to wander. ”

“ The Southampton was instantly under weigh, and passed the batteries on the N.E. end of Porquerol island, in view of the British fleet, which, with agonizing suspense witnessed the boldness of an attempt, that scarcely any thing but complete success could have justified. Sir John Jervis, on this occasion, even refused to give a written order for the undertaking; he only said to Captain Macnamara, “bring out the enemy’s ship if you can ”

“ Captain Macnamara afterwards called on the following respectable naval officers, to give evidence as to his character: viz. the Viscounts Hood and Nelson, Lord Hotham, Sir Hyde Parker and Sir Thomas Troubridge; Captains Martin, Towry, Lydiard, Moore, and Waller; also General Churchill and Lord Minto; who all concurred in bearing testimony of his conduct as an officer and a gentleman; and of his being an honorable, good-humoured, pleasant, lively companion, exactly the reverse of a quarrelsome man. The jury withdrew for about ten minutes, and then returned a verdict of, Not Guilty. ”

“ Upon the chance of a successful haul, he had made fervid promises, after the fashion of his race, to the shoemaker Mahommed Nafar. At first the shoemaker would have nothing to do with it: helping prisoners to escape meant torture and decapitation; but then he hated the Khalifa, whose Baggaras had seized his property, and killed his wife and children; and in the end Macnamara prevailed. Mahommed Nafar found some friendly natives from the hills of Gilif, who hated the Khalifa and his tyrannous governments, and at last they agreed to attempt the escape. ”

“ But it seemed to shake enraged at this impotence in its poor foundation over the deserted warren, from which Shamesy Golliher had long since driven the little rabbits towards that dark Chicago of slaughter which was represented to them by Garradrimna.
The same color of desolation was upon the reeds which separated him from the water. The water itself had, beneath its pretense of brightness upon the surface, the appearance of ooze, as if it had come washing over the slime of dead things. ”

“ The young man's features, that had at one time showed great promise of developing into the pure Milesian, had not fulfilled the early hope they had raised in his father's bosom; they had within the past twelve years exhibited a downward tendency that was not in keeping with the traditions of The Macnamaras. If the direction of the caressing hand of Nature over the features of the family should be reversed, what would remain to distinguish The Macnamaras from their Saxon invaders? ”