"On or off the ground, my Lord Loughdooner," interrupted the Knight, warmly; "he may be, now and then, somewhat hasty or rash; but rich as our country is in men of generous natures, Bagenal Daly is second to none."

"I protest, gentlemen," said the bishop, gravely; "I wish I could hear a better reason for the panegyric than his skill as a duellist."

"True for you, my Lord," muttered old Hickman, in a whisper; "he's readier with a pistol-bullet than with the interest on his bond."

"He 'd favor you with a discharge in full, sir, if he heard the observation," said Hamilton, laughing.

"A letter, my Lord," said a servant, presenting a sealed epistle to the Secretary.

"Heffernan's writing, gentlemen, so I shall, with your permission, read it." He broke the seal, and read aloud: "'My dear Lord,--An adventure, which would be laughable if it were not so provoking, prevents my coming to dinner, so I must leave the menagerie--'" Here he dropped his voice, and, crumpling up the letter, laughingly remarked, "Oh, we shall hear it all later on, I 've no doubt."

"By the by, my Lord, there's a House to-night, is there not?"

"No, bishop; we moved an adjournment for to-morrow evening. You 'll come down for the debate, won't you?"

The bishop nodded significantly, and sipped his wine. There was now a pause. This was the great topic of the day, and yet, up to this moment, not even a chance allusion to politics had been dropped, and all recoiled from adventuring, even by a word, on a theme which might lead to disagreement or discordance. Old Hickman, however, dated his origin in life too far back for such scruples, and, leaning across the table, said, with an accent to which wine imparted a tone of peculiar cunning, "I wish you well through it, my Lord; for, by all accounts, it is dirty work."

The roar of laughter that followed the speech actually shook the table, Lord Castlereagh giving way to it with as much zest as the guests themselves. Twice he essayed to speak, but each time a fresh burst of mirth interrupted him, while old Hickman, unable to divine the source of the merriment, stared at each person in turn, and at last muttered his consolatory "Ay," but with a voice that showed he was far from feeling satisfied.

"I wish you'd made that speech in the House, Mr. Hickman," said Lord Drogheda; "I do believe you'd have been the most popular man in Ireland."

"I confess," said Lord Castlereagh, wiping his eyes, "I cannot conceive a more dangerous opponent to the Bill."

"If he held your own bill, with a protest on it," whispered Hamilton, "your opinion would not be easily gainsaid."

"May I ask for a cup of coffee?" said the bishop, rising, for he saw that although as yet no untoward results had followed, at any moment something unpleasant might occur. The party rose with him, and adjourned to the drawing-room.

"Singular old man!" said Lord Castlereagh, in a whisper to the Knight.

"Shrewd and cunning, no doubt, but scarcely calculated, as our friend Drogheda thinks, to distinguish himself in the House of Commons."

"Do you think the Upper House would suit him better, my Lord?" said Darcy, slyly.

"I see, Knight," said Lord Castlereagh, laughing, "you have caught up the popular joke of the day."

"I trust, my Lord, it may be no more than a joke."

"Can you doubt it?"

"At the present moment," said the Knight, gravely, "I see no reason for doubting anything merely on the score of its unlikelihood; your Lordship's colleagues have given us some sharp lessons on the subject of credulity, and we should be more unteachable than the savage if we had not learnt something by this time."

Lord Castlereagh was about to answer, when Lord Drogheda came forward to say "Good night." The others were going too, and in the bustle of leave-taking some moments were pa.s.sed.

"Your carriage has not come yet, sir," replied a servant to the Knight.

"Shall we take you home, Darcy," said Lord Drogheda; "or are you going to the Club?"

"Let me say no to that offer, Knight," interposed Lord Castlereagh, "and give me the pleasure of your company till the carriage arrives."

Darcy acceded to a request, the courteous mode of making which had already secured its acceptance, and the Knight sat down at the fire _tete-a-tete_ with the Secretary.

"I was most anxious for a moment like this," said Lord Castlereagh, with the air of one abandoning himself to the full liberty of sincerity. "It very seldom happens to men placed like myself to have even a few brief minutes' intercourse with any out of the rank of partisans or opponents.

"I will not disguise from you how highly I should value the alliance of yourself to our party; I place the greatest price upon such support, but there is something better and more valuable than even a vote in a strong division, and that is, the candid judgment of a man who has enjoyed your opportunities and your powers of forming an opinion. Tell me now, frankly,--for we are here in all freedom of intercourse,--what do you object to? What do you fear from this contemplated enactment?"

"Let me rather hear," said the Knight, smiling, "what do you hope from it,--how you propose it to become the remedy of our existing evils?

Because I shall thereby see whether your Lordship and myself are like-minded on the score of the disease, before we begin to discuss the remedy."

"Be it so, then," said the Secretary, gayly; and at once, without hesitation, he commenced a short and most explicit statement of the Government intentions. Arguments that formed the staple of long Parliamentary harangues he condensed into a sentence or two; views that, dilated upon, sufficed to fill the columns of a newspaper, he displayed palpably and boldly, exhibiting powers of clear and rapid eloquence for which so few gave him credit in public life. Not an epithet nor an expression could have been retrenched from a detail which denoted faculties of admirable training, a.s.sisted by a memory almost miraculous.

Stating in order the various objections to the measure, he answered each in turn; and wherever the reply was not sufficiently ample and conclusive, he adroitly took occasion to undervalue either the opinion or the source from which it originated, exhibiting, while restraining, considerable powers of sarcasm, and a thorough insight into the character of the public men of the period.

If the Knight was unconvinced by the arguments, he was no less astonished by the abilities of the Secretary. Up to that hour he had been a follower of the popular notion of the Opposition party, which agreed in decrying his talents, and making his displays as a speaker the touchstone of his capacity. Darcy was too clever himself to linger longer in this delusion. He saw the great and varied resources of the youthful statesman tested by a question of no common difficulty, and he could not control the temptation of telling him, as he concluded,--

"You have made me a convert to the union--"

"Have I, indeed?" cried the Secretary, in an ecstasy of pleasure.

"Hear me out, my Lord,--to the union of great political abilities with the most captivating powers of conversation. Yes, my Lord, I am old enough to make such a remark without the hazard of being deemed impertinent or a flatterer,--_your_ success in life is certain."

"But the Bill!" cried Lord Castlereagh, while his handsome face was flushed between delight and eagerness,--"the Bill!"

"Is an admirable Bill for England, my Lord, and were there not two sides to a contract, would be perfect,--indeed, until I heard the lucid statement you have just made, I never saw one-tenth part of the advantages it must render to your country, nor, consequently,--for we move not in parallel lines,--the great danger with which it is fraught to mine. Let me now explain more fully."

With these words the Knight entered upon the question of the Union in all its relations to Ireland; and while never conceding, nor even extenuating, the difficulties attendant upon a double legislature, he proceeded to show the probable train of events that must result on the pa.s.sing of the measure, strengthening his antic.i.p.ations by facts derived from deep knowledge of the country.

Far be it from us to endeavor to recapitulate his arguments: some of them, now forgotten, were difficult enough to answer; others, treasured up, have been fashionable fallacies in our own day. Such as they were, they were the reasons why an Irish gentleman demurred to surrendering privileges that gave his own country rank, place, and preeminence, without the evidence of any certain or adequate compensation.

"Do not tell me, my Lord, that we shall hold our influence and our station in the Imperial Parliament. There are many reasons against such a belief. We shall be in the minority, a great minority; a minority branded with provincialism as our badge, and accused of prejudice and narrow-sightedness, from the very fact of our nationality. No, no; we shall occupy a very different position in your country: and who will take our places here? That's a point your Lordship has not touched upon, but I 'll tell you. The demagogue, the public disturber, the licensed hawker of small grievances, every briefless lawyer of bad fortune and worse language, every mendicant patriot that can minister to the pa.s.sions of a people deserted by their natural protectors,--the day will come, my Lord, when these men will grow ambitious, their aspirings may become troublesome; if you coerce them, they are martyrs,--conciliate them, and they are privileged. What will happen then? You will be asked to repeal the Union, you will be charged with all the venality by which you carried your Bill, every injustice with which it is chargeable, and with a hundred other faults and crimes with which it is unconnected. You will be asked, I say, to repeal the Union, and make of this miserable rabble, these dregs and sweepings of party, a Parliament. You shake your head. No, no, it is by no means impossible,--nay, I don't think it even remote. I speak as an old man, and age, if it have many deficiencies as regards the past, has at least some prophetic foresight for the future.

You will be asked to repeal the Union, to give a Parliament to a country which you have drained of its wealth, from which you have seduced the aristocracy; to restore a deliberative body to a land whose resources for self-legislation you have studiously and industriously ruined.

Think, then, twice of a measure from which, if it fail, there is no retreat, and the opposition to which may come in a worse form than a vote in the House of Commons. I see you deem my antic.i.p.ations have more gloom than truthfulness; I hope it may be so."

"The Knight of Gwynne's carriage," cried a servant, throwing wide the door.

"How opportune!" said Darcy, laughing; "it is so satisfactory to have the last shot at the enemy."

"Pray don't go yet,--a few moments more."

"Not a second, my Lord; I dare not. The fact is, I have strenuously avoided this subject; an old friend of mine, Bagenal Daly, has wearied me of it,--he is an Anti-Unionist, but on grounds I scarcely concur in.

Your Lordship's defence of the measure I also demur to. I am like poor old Murray, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who, when called on for his opinion in a case where Judge Wallace was in favor of a rule, and Judge Mayne against it, he said, 'I agree with my brother Mayne for the cogent reasons laid down by my brother Wallace.'"

"So," said the Secretary, laughing heartily, "I have convinced you against myself."

"Exactly, my Lord. I came here this evening intending not to vote on the Bill,--indeed, I accepted your Lordship's hospitality without a thought upon a party question; I am equally certain you will acquit me of being a spy in the camp. To-morrow I intend to vote against you."

"I wish I could have the same esteem for my friends that I now pledge for my--"

"Don't say 'enemy,' my Lord; we both aspire to the same end,--our country's good. If we take different roads, it is because each thinks his own path the shortest. Good night."

Lord Castlereagh accompanied the Knight to his carriage, and again shook his hand cordially as they parted.