Phelim

“ The circumstances attending the outbreak of the rebellion have been, and still are, the subject of fierce recrimination. Sir Phelim himself, besides being held responsible for the outrages that took place in his neighbourhood, was directly charged with the murder of Lord Caulfeild. ”

“ He was barefooted, bareheaded, and only one suspinder was between him and the police. 'Is your mother bad?' asked his riverince. 'Dochtor says she'll die afore mornin',' says the gossoon. 'Will you lind me a horse, Phelim?' asked his riverince. 'You ride a horse, with that leg!' says Phelim. 'No, I'll drive you, in the cart;' and he went off to the stables. In five minutes he came back with the dog-cart and the gray mare. His riverince got up, with the aid of a chair, the little gossoon climbed up behind, and the gravel flew as the gray mare started. ”

“ He read of the Saviour's gracious compassion for the hungering multitude; and his ignorant auditors praised the divine Being who so sympathized with mortal infirmities. Phelim was often interrupted by remarks or approving comments, but these in no way diminished the interest of the sacred story. ”

“ In Phelim's brogues, which bares his naked skin,
Like traitor gap in warlike fort, I deem,
That falsely lets the fierce besieger in,
Nor seeks the pedagogue by other course to win. XVI.
No parent dear he hath to heed his cries;—
Alas! his parent dear is far aloof,
And deep in Seven-Dial cellar lies,
Killed by kind cudgel-play, or gin of proof;
Or climbeth, catwise, on some London roof,
Singing, perchance, a lay of Erin's Isle,
Or, whilst he labours, weaves a fancy-woof,
Dreaming he sees his home,—his Phelim smile;
Ah me! that luckless imp, who weepeth all the while! XVII.
Ah! ”

“ Now mind, once for all; ye're not to know it at all, if Norah brings home the Word o' the Lord to read to her ould ignorant mother (it's a swate voice she has) , and ye shall hear the big Book as well; only mind, Phelim, acushla, ye're to know nothing at all, let who will spake to ye o' the same."
"Yes; but, mother, what if I myself learn to--"
"Hush!--Is it o' me ye are spaking?" asked Biddy, turning to a cluster of people who had drawn near them. "It's no hearty I feel to-night, and poor lame Phelim is kaping me company. Is it room for the dance ye are wanting? ”

“ Meanwhile the siege of Drogheda had not been progressing as favourably as had been expected, and the gentry of the Pale, ‘being no longer able to conceal their engagement with those of the north,’ and perceiving the besiegers ‘to decrease daily, by reason that the soldiers, as soon as they were become masters of any considerable booty, stole from the camp with it, resolved at length to call upon Sir Phelim O'Neill, whose power they thought unresistible.’ Sir Phelim at once obeyed the summons, reaching the camp before Drogheda apparently about 10 Jan. ”

“ As far as her own sensations went, she might have been rowing there the whole live-long night, so benumbing and sleep-like was that torpor. How long she really had been rowing she could not in the least have told, but her thoughts or her dreams were suddenly cut short—cut into as it were—by another wild cry from Phelim. This time it was much more than a cry, it was an actual scream; a shrill, discordant screech, such as some animals give when they are in the intensest throes of terror. Grania on her side started violently, and turned round. ”

“ He cursed and blasphemed so outrageously that all were silent, and only the stern voice of the priest was heard:—
"Be silent Murtagh Murdock! Aren't you afraid that the God overhead will strike you dead? With such a storm as is raging as a sign of His power, you are a foolish man to tempt Him."
The man stopped suddenly, and a stern dogged sullenness took the place of his passion. The priest went on:—
"As for you, Phelim Joyce, you ought to be ashamed of yourself; ye're not one of my people, but I speak as your own clergyman would if he were here. ”

“ The curse of Ireland,' says he, 'is that her women sit up for her men.' 'How is the poor woman?' I says. 'She's dead,' says Phelim; 'Father Flynn is waiting for the neighbors to come.' 'And the little gossoon?' says I. Phelim leaned down from the dog-cart; 'Aunt Molly,' says he, 'we can't afford to keep what we have already, can we?' 'No,' says I. 'Thin,' says Phelim, 'we can just as well afford to keep one more; so I told him to come to us, after the funeral.'"
"I don't quite follow that reasoning," said the earl.
"I am more sure than ever, that I should like Phelim," said the cardinal. ”

“ After several months had been spent in a fruitless attempt to reduce Drogheda, Sir Phelim was compelled in April, by the approach of Ormonde, to raise the siege. In one of the numerous sallies made by the garrison at this time, he narrowly escaped capture by creeping into a fir bush. Retiring to Armagh, he was about the beginning of May forced by Monro to set fire to the place, and to beat a hasty retreat to Charlemont, while the greater part of his troops betook themselves to the fastnesses of the bogs and mountains of Tyrone. ”

“ The Liftennant fired at the word and missed. 'Try your second barrel,' called Phelim, 'I'm still within bounds' (that's pigeon-shootin' talk, your imminence) . The Liftennant laughed and the two went off to the club, arm in arm, and they stayed there two days. There's waiters in the club yet, that remembers it. The next time Phelim was out, 'twas with a little attorney-man from Cork, named Crawford. There was no girl this time; 'twas more serious; 'twas about a horse Phelim had sold, and the little attorney-man had served a writ, and Phelim went down to Cork and pulled the little man's nose. ”

“ Do not fret on his account, Annie."
"It seems to me, mamma," replied Annie, with a thoughtful air, "that his only prospect for the future is to be pushed about here and there in the crowd, until at last he finds a refuge in the grave."
"What foolish fancies!" said Mrs. Lee, rising, as a noise in the yard below attracted her to the window. "We know nothing about the future, and it is not quite right to make ourselves sad about it. It is hardly like your usual trust in God, to be thus imagining trouble. There's a little lame boy in the yard, who, I suppose, is Phelim; he seems happy enough. ”

“ What will become o' us then?"
"What can a wicked ould praste do to help us? It's God alone can strengthen us then. I wouldn't give a penny for the oil. It's a betther way, darlin', that God has provided for us. It's a brave story that Phelim is waiting to read to us. There's thruth and sense in it, too, ye will find.--It's a fine counthree is this, Masther Barry, and a free," added Biddy, turning to a stout man, who, with scarcely a whole article in his apparel, was lounging in the shade of a corner. ”

“ NORA."
The earl went off with the telegram, thinking.
The next afternoon the earl came out of the church—his fifth visit since ten o'clock—and there, near the fountain, were Lady Nora and her aunt. The earl marked them from the church steps. There was no mistaking Miss O'Kelly's green parasol.
This time Lady Nora met him with animation. She even came toward him, her face wreathed in smiles.
"Phelim has come!" she exclaimed.
"Quite happy—I'm sure," said the earl. "He's prompt, isn't he?"
"Yes," said Lady Nora, "he's always prompt. He doesn't lose shirt-studs, and he never dawdles." ”

“ It’s him who spakes well o’ the poor ruined crathers, and praises us all for the natural generous-sowled people we are. He knows us intirely, Norah dear. Shure he’s a wonderful man and a bould, let alone the thrue son o’ ould Ireland, for doing the beautiful thing. Read us one more letther, mavourneen, before ye are off, and lave the book here. Mayhap Phelim will spell out a morsel or so when the Sabbath even is coom.”
“You will not go to confession to-morrow, dear mother?” said Annorah. ”

“ The situation of the kingdom was, however, so desperate that, after a detention of about twenty weeks, he was liberated, and by his own account did good service in revictualling the castle of Maryborough and in prosecuting Phelim MacFeagh O'Byrne and the rebels who invested the Pale. The allusions in his 'Apology' to his service against Tyrone and his relations with Robert, earl of Essex, are obscure, but it would appear that about the time of Sir Conyers Clifford's defeat (August 1599) he consented, at Tyrone's request and with the cognisance of Sir Christopher Blount, to visit Tyrone. ”

“ After all," he added, "mere giving is the lowest form of charity. If all the wealth of the world were divided the world would be debauched. Binding up wounds, pouring in oil and wine, bringing the wronged man to an inn, giving him your companionship, your sympathy, so that he shows his heart to you and lets you heal its bruises—that is your true charity."
"That's what I'm telling Nora," exclaimed Miss O'Kelly; "she's forever drawing checks. There was my nephew, Nora's cousin, Phelim. He gave away all he had. He gave it to the piquet players in the Kildare Club. ”

“ It's a nation o' throuble I'd have with a pair o' ye at once; and ye're no earning money, Phelim, boy, to buy off the praste. Kape a still tongue, lad, an' ye bite it in two; an' don't go for to meddle wi' matters concerning yer sowl. The praste an' yer poor mother will kape a sharp look-out; an' it will go hard, shure, if between us ye are not saved at last."
"But, mother, where is the harm if I look for meself a bit? Who can see Norah, so gentle and loving, so careful o' you and me, so pleasant to every one, and not want to know more o' the way she has taken?" ”

“ His success and energy inspired confidence in him, and at a meeting of the Ulster leaders at Monaghan he was chosen commander-in-chief of the northern forces. At Newry on 4 Nov. he and Rory Maguire published a commission, purporting to come from the king, expressly authorising the Irish to rise in defence of their liberties against the parliament. The commission was a manifest forgery, but it created an immense sensation, and repeated efforts were made by the parliament at the time of Sir Phelim's trial to induce him to admit its genuineness. ”

“ His only thought is to better his own hand. He never discards an ace. The mere size of it dazzles him, and he will keep aces and discard tens, forgetting that you cannot have a sequence of more than four without a ten, and that you can have one of seven without the ace, and that a king is as good as an ace, if the latter is in the discard. I am speakin' now," continued Phelim, "of the beginner. Let us suppose one who has spent one thousand pounds on the game, and is presumed to have learned somethin' for his money. His fault is apt to be that he sacrifices too much that he may count cards. ”

“ The chief city of the Nephelim stood in Thessaly, and is mentioned by [345] Palæphatus: but through the misconception of his countrymen it was expressed Νεφελη, Nephele, a cloud. The Grecians in general were of this race; as will be abundantly shewn. The Scholiast upon Lycophron mentions, that the descendants of Hellen were by a woman named Nephele, whom Athamas was supposed to have married. [346] Αθαμας ὁ Αιολου του Ἑλληνος παις εκ Νεφελης γεννᾳ Ἑλλην, και Φριξον. ”

“ Then said Khelif, ‘If thou wilt hearken to me, I will teach thee the art of fishing: it will be better for thee than trumpeting and thou wilt eat lawfully [earned bread] .’ ‘Teach it me,’ replied Er Reshid, ‘so I may see whether it will suit me or no.’ And Khelif said, ‘Come with me, O trumpeter.’ So the Khalif followed him down to the river and took the net from him, whilst he taught him how to cast it. ”

“ The Khalif was pleased and said, ‘O Kerim, put off thy clothes.’ So he put off a gown of coarse woollen stuff, patched in a hundred places and full of disgusting vermin, and a turban that had not been unwound for three years, but to which he had sewn every rag he came across. ”

“ Philae is the last temple that one visits before he gives himself to the wildness of the solitudes of Nubia. It stands at the very frontier. As one goes up the Nile, it is like a smiling adieu from the Egypt one is leaving. As one comes down, it is like a smiling welcome. In its delicate charm I feel something of the charm of the Egyptian character. There are moments, indeed, when I identify Egypt with Philae. For in Philae one must dream; and on the Nile, too, one must dream. ”

“ Bare feet are not pleasant to the eye nowadays, whatever they may have been in the days of the ancient Greeks; and Felipa's little brown insteps were half the time torn or bruised by the thorns of the chaparral. Besides, there was always the disagreeable idea that she might step upon something cold and squirming when she prowled through the thickets knee-deep in the matted grasses. Snakes abounded, although we never saw them; but Felipa went up to their very doors, as it were, and rang the bell defiantly. ”

“ Ah, here comes Pelham at last—a clean little bay, stepping roundly, and lifting his legs well; you might call it a perfect action, if we had not just seen Lady Suffolk go by—but so wicked about the head and eyes! Behind the little horse sits a big Irishman, in his shirt sleeves; and they are hauling away at each other, pull Pat, pull Pelham, as if the man wanted to jerk the horse's head off, and the horse to draw the man's arms out. You see the driver is holding by little loops fastened to the reins, to prevent his grasp from slipping. ”

“ Jaafer, concluding that it was Kerim the fisherman, was alarmed for him and said, ‘O Kerim, what brings thee hither? Flee for thy life, for the Khalif is in the garden to-night, and if he see thee, thou wilt lose thy head.’ At this the Khalif laughed, and Jaafer knew him and said, ‘Surely thou art our lord the Khalif?’ ‘Yes, O Jaafer,’ replied he. ‘And thou art my Vizier and I came hither with thee; yet thou knewest me not; so how should Gaffer Ibrahim know me, and he drunk? Stay here, till I come back.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ answered Jaafer. ”