The Rebels of Ireland (81 page)

The dinner was a noble affair. The day before, a cart had arrived from the Fingal estate with every kind of produce from the estate. Vegetables, cheeses, a great side of beef, smoked ham, and fruits, fresh and potted, from which the chef had constructed several desserts, including a fruit jelly of such sumptuous architecture that all the company declared they had never seen anything like it. The meal was served by ten footmen; the dinner service from China, upon which the family's arms and baronial coronet were handsomely featured, added a touch of magnificence to the friendly occasion. The Mountwalshes certainly did things very well, and there was no reason why they shouldn't.

Lord and Lady Mountwalsh liked to sit opposite each other at the centre of the big table, and there being more women than men in the party, Patrick and young William found themselves sitting together at one of the ends. Patrick had no objection to this. Thanks to Hercules's antipathy towards him, he had scarcely ever had the
chance to talk to William, and he was delighted to find him such a pleasant and open young fellow. He seemed to be intelligent, and his likeness to old Fortunatus was striking. He was careful to steer their conversation away from political subjects which might give offence to the boy's father, and he was sorry that, for the same reason, he couldn't invite the boy to visit him at home and meet Brigid and their children. They had just embarked together on the fruit jelly when, taking him by surprise, young William initiated the subject himself.

“Why is it that you and my father are not friends?” he suddenly asked.

Patrick hesitated. He wanted to be honest with the boy, but he had to be careful.

“Your father is a fine man,” he began. It was, he considered, a necessary lie. “And I have a high regard for him.” Another lie. “But I come from the Catholic side of the family, and I support a political cause which he strongly believes is not only wrong but dangerous. He has every reason to dislike me, therefore, and rather than come to blows, he avoids me.”

“Are such differences enough to break apart the bonds of kinship?”

“They always have been. Yes.”

“You don't seem so bad to me.”

“You don't know me.” Patrick smiled. “If a cousin offends you, it may be better to cut him off. Your father's probably right to do what he does.”

It was at this moment that Hercules Walsh appeared in the doorway of the dining room.

From where he was sitting, Patrick could see Georgiana's face display a sudden look of apprehension. From the doorway, Hercules did not notice it. Lord Mountwalsh, however, with half a century of genial politics behind him, remained unfazed. You had to admire him. Collecting himself at once, he positively beamed at his son.

“My dear boy. Did you just arrive? Welcome back. Join us. Bring him a chair,” he called to a footman. “I am most delighted to see you,” the old man splendidly lied.

“I went to my house and learned that my son was here,” Hercules replied evenly.

“He is. Indeed he is. Come here, William,” he cried, “and greet your father.”

But it was too late. Hercules's gaze had already started to travel down the table. His eyes rested, just long enough to register disgust, upon old Doctor Emmet; then, ignoring the clergyman and one of the moderate politicians, they reached young William and Patrick and stopped, fixing them both in a terrible, adamantine stare.

“William, get up,” he said coldly. “You are leaving.”

The table froze.

“You are in my house, Hercules.” His father's voice broke the silence in a growl. Hercules continued to stare at his son, ignoring Lord Mountwalsh entirely. He beckoned to William.

“I said,” his father repeated, somewhat more loudly, “you are in my house, Sir.”

“And I do not care,” Hercules did not deign to look at his father, but continued to gaze at Patrick, “for the company I find here.” Then, as young William, blushing with embarrassment and confusion, began to rise, Hercules suddenly turned to glare accusingly at his father. “Nor do I care for the manner in which you entrap my son into such company when you believe my back is turned.”

“Hercules,” his mother cried out, “that is quite unfair.”

“I consider it,” Hercules's voice rose, as he enunciated the word with venomous fury, “dishonest!”

Patrick saw Georgiana wince, but Lord Mountwalsh was not disposed to be so put upon. His face was puce.

“Do you come here, Sir, to insult your father and your mother in their own house—and in front of their guests? Leave us, Sir, at once.” He rose to his feet. “Leave us, Sir,” he shouted at the top of his voice, “and pray do not come here again!”

Making a contemptuous bow to the company, Hercules turned and stalked out of the door, followed, miserably, by his son.

After that the dinner continued, but not quite so well.

A quarter of an hour after midnight, while still pacing up and down furiously in his dressing room, Lord Mountwalsh suffered a sudden apoplexy and dropped dead on the spot.

When he went to Trinity College that autumn, young William Walsh made one request. “I don't want to live at home like the Emmet boy. I want to live in college like my father did.” This was granted, and William was glad.

On the day of his departure, his father called him into his dressing room for a private word.

The death of old George had meant a change of status for Hercules. He was Lord Mountwalsh now. He would no longer occupy a seat in the Irish House of Commons, where the fact that he had to submit to election—albeit by three family friends and a dozen docile freeholders—had always offended his sense of propriety. Now he would sit in the Irish House of Lords by the ultimate sanction of hereditary right. From the day of his father's funeral, servants and tradesmen had addressed him respectfully as “your lordship” or “my lord.” Even better, perhaps, he had received a letter from a fellow aristocrat, which charmingly began, “my dear lord.” When he walked, his brutal stride had, in some indefinable way, become stately; when he talked, he had the comfort of knowing that his opinions were right—not on account of mere, vulgar reason, but because they proceeded from himself. If he was not a man to practise the soft speech of aristocratic courtesy, it could nonetheless be said that, in the space of only a few short weeks, the ermine mantle of pomposity had descended upon him and fitted, very snugly, around his shoulders.

He looked at his eldest son kindly.

“So William, you are off to Trinity.”

“Yes, Father.”

“I had happy years there myself, and I'm sure that you will, too.” He smiled. “Before you go, William, there are one or two things I want to say to you, as a father.” He motioned to a couch against the wall. “Sit down beside me, my boy.”

William had never had a heart-to-heart with his father before, as Hercules had never been inclined towards intimacy. With a sense that he was about to discover something important, he listened attentively.

“You are going to be a young man soon,” his father said. “Indeed, I think you are a man already. And I know you have a good heart.”

“Thank you, Father.”

“One day, I expect you'll go into Parliament, as I did. And eventually, of course, you'll succeed me.” He rested his hand on William's shoulder for a moment. “These are the privileges of our position, William. But they come with responsibilities. And you and I have to be ready to accept those, too. I'm sure you're ready, aren't you?”

“Yes, Father.”

“Very well. There is no one that I trust more than my own son, and I hope you know that you can always trust me.”

“Thank you, Father.”

“From now on, you and I shall work as a team.” He paused. “There are some things that, for the time being, I cannot tell even you, William. But the latest information, I can promise you, is alarming. There is a body of men, many of them here in Dublin, which plans a course of action that would destroy this island. These men talk of freedom, and some of them may believe that is their object, but if they were ever allowed to succeed, the consequences would be entirely different. I speak of invasion by our enemies, of blood in the streets, and the death not of fighting men, William, but of thousands of innocents. Women and children. It has happened here before. It can happen again. Is that what we want?”

“No, Father.” So far, William was a little disappointed, for he had heard such things before.

“Fortunately,” his father continued, “our information is better than they think. All over Ireland, good men are keeping watch: gentlemen, honest tradesmen, even the poorer sort—men with good hearts. We know much of what is being done, and how, often as not I dare say, simple people are being led astray. And we also know, William, that there is a group of men connected with the university who are eager to entrap any young men they can. They mean to recruit amongst the undergraduates. They will approach with a friendly face, but in the end, their object is to make use of the unfortunate young men and finally to destroy them.”

“I'll be careful, Father.”

“You, of course, would never be taken in by them. But others might. So I want you to be more than careful, William. I want you to be vigilant. If you see anything that you think suspicious—and you never know what may be of significance—I want you to say nothing. But you should quietly tell me. I shall know how to make the right enquiries. Just by doing that, you may perform a great service for your country.” He paused, looked at William earnestly, then put his hand again on his shoulder. “It might seem to you that this is not an honourable action. The person concerned might even be a friend. But we owe a higher duty, you and I. And I can promise you, the best service you could do for any friend is to save him from a course of action he would later bitterly regret.”

“I see.” He waited. “Is there more, Father?”

“No, William, I think that is all.” He nodded and then, probably remembering what his father had once said to him, added: “God bless you, my boy.”

Ten minutes later, his younger brother found William sitting on his bed, staring moodily out of the window.

“What is it, William?”

“Father wanted to talk to me.” William continued to stare out of the window.

“Oh. What did he say?”

“He said that while I'm at Trinity, I am to spy on my friends.”

“Oh, William. You would never do such a thing.”

“I'm to be a government informer. It's my duty, he says.” William was silent for a moment. “That was all he had to say to me, you know. Nothing else.” He turned to his brother. Tears were welling up in his eyes. “That's all there is, I think. That is the love of my father.”

During the months that followed, William enjoyed the life of the college and attended to his studies. These occupied a good deal of his time because, although the young men at Trinity knew how to amuse themselves, the courses at Dublin were often said to be more demanding than those of Oxford and Cambridge.