Although Kate had, as we have already stated, encountered Lauder on more than one occasion in Buffalo, without any very uneasy feeling as to his unpleasant proximity, yet she was not totally devoid of suspicion that she was, in some way or other, the cause of his presence in that city. True, she had rejected his heart and hand in the most decided manner; but then there was something about the man so obtrusive and yet so cunning, that at times she could have wished herself totally beyond has reach or hopes, as the wife of the noble young fellow she loved so ardently. When in Toronto, she had been sorely tried by the insidious attacks and insinuations of her persecutor, bearing upon the character and vocation of Nicholas, regarding which he appeared to be exceedingly well informed. He spoke of the uniform faithlessness of soldiers in general—their wretched mode of life and morals, together with the stigma that invariably attached to the wife of any individual who wore a private’s coat in the service. In addition, he seemed to be conversant with the pecuniary embarrassments of Kate, as well as with the circumstances of the chancery suit, and, as he averred, the settled opinion at home, that it would be soon decided, and, without any possible doubt, in favor of the son of Philip Darcy. All this was heart-rending in the extreme to the poor girl; but yet her faith never faltered for a single moment in the truth and fidelity of her lover; and what cared she for aught else in the world, so long as he was left her without spot or blemish. Observing the foothold that Lauder had in the house and estimation of her relatives, she did not feel herself at liberty to treat him with all the contempt and severity that he deserved; so that she was too often, for appearances sake and out of respect for the feelings of those under whose roof she was, constrained not to notice in anger much that had escaped his lips regarding Nicholas, or, rather, the possible character which he had turned out to be under the baneful influence of a soldier’s life. When, however, she accepted the hospitality and kindness of that portion of the family who had taken up their residence in Buffalo, and who were the staunchest friends of young Barry, she, at once, cut the acquaintance of her rejected suitor, and, as already observed, passed him once or twice in the street without deigning to notice him.
This probed Lauder to the quick, and aroused all the fiend within him; and now that Barry had reached Canada, he determined to work in some way the ruin of either the one or the other, in order to make their union impossible, were even the most revolting crime necessary to that end. While dwelling on this subject, every vestige of humanity disappeared from the heart and face of the wretch who would encompass such ruin, and that, too, in the case of two individuals who had never injured him in thought, word or act. He was slighted and rejected by the only woman on earth that he cared to marry, and he would be avenged at even the risk of his life. He would dog her footsteps were she to move to the uttermost ends of the earth, until an opportunity to put his infernal plans in operation arrived; and as he had abundance of means at his command, he would enlist in his service those who would not hesitate to sell their souls for gold. Moved by this diabolical impulse, he followed her to Buffalo, and there made the acquaintance of two unmitigated villains who kept a low gambling house in one of the vilest streets in the city, and who were capable of any atrocity known to the annals of crime. These two vagabonds were already refugees from Canadian justice, having been concerned in one of the bank robberies so frequent in the Provinces, and had an accomplice of their own stamp on the Canadian frontier, not far from their present den, to whom they were in the habit of secretly forwarding goods stolen on the American side, to be kept until the excitement regarding the robbery had subsided, and an opportunity presented itself for disposing of them in some part of the Province where detection would be impossible. Under the cover of night one or the other of these wretches frequently stole across the lines and visited this locality, where he remained concealed until a fitting period occurred for returning to his old haunt.
Of this stamp were the two persons whom Lauder now took into his confidence and employment in relation to the abduction of Kate McCarthy from her friends, and her transportation into Canada to some place of secrecy and of safety, until he should be able to force her into an alliance with him, or failing in this, make such a disposition of her as should, at least, place an eternal barrier between her and Nicholas. Among their friends and acquaintances these two villains were known as “black Jack” and the “Kid,”—the former as forbidding a specimen of the human race as ever breathed the vital air. He was low and thick set, with a neck like a bull, and a frame of prodigious strength.. His nose was broad and flat, his month large, his ears of immense size, his forehead low and retreating, while the breadth between his ears at the back of his head was inconceivable.
His companion in crime, the Kid, in so far as external appearance was concerned, was his intensified antipodes. He was slightly formed and of rather prepossessing appearance; and were it not for a sinister expression of his full watery, grey eyes, remarkable when excited by anger, and some coarse and sensual lines about his mouth, perceptible upon all occasions, he might pass unnoticed among the thousands that crowded daily the locality in which he lived. He was the general, Jack the army—he plotted, Jack executed; and thus it was, that, through his consummate cunning, they had both been enabled to avoid justice so long. They ostensibly kept a sort of drinking saloon, from which they professed to banish all disreputable characters, and which, through the clear-headedness of the one, and the awe in which the great personal strength of the other was held, was unusually free from the disreputable rows and scenes that generally characterize such places.
If the Kid and Black Jack differed from each other in personal appearance, they were nearly if not quite as much opposed to each other in dress. Jack’s attire was of the very coarsest description, and always slovenly in appearance. No matter what the season of the year, he invariably wore a dark blue flannel shirt, a short, heavy over-coat, with huge, deep pockets, thick, iron-shod boots, coarse, loose trousers, and a huge, greasy, slouched, hat, of black felt, invariably pulled over his eyes when out through the city. The only difference as to the disposition of his attire, touching winter and summer, was, that during the former season he always served his customers with his slouched hat and jacket on, while throughout the warmest part of the latter, he was invariably to be found behind his dark, dingy bar, with his shirt sleeves tucked up and his collar unbuttoned and thrown open, displaying a pair of huge, swarthy arms, covered with coarse, black hair, and a broad and massive chest, presenting a similar aspect, and which exhibited all the characteristics, in this connection, of the most savage denizens of the forest. Such, then, were the personal appearance and the character of the two men whom Lauder now visited by stealth from time to time, but always in a disguise which defied detection, and which was made up with the most consummate skill.
Unconscious of all the danger that surrounded her, Kate still kept the even tenor of her way, happy in the prospect of soon becoming the wife of the man she loved; while Barry, on the other hand, felt but little apprehension as to any fears that she had expressed in relation to the proximity of Lander; believing, as he did, that she was totally beyond his reach or power, and that his presence in Buffalo was occasioned by some business not in any degree connected with her. What, he argued, had she to fear from any man whom she despised, and from whose society she had deliberately and pointedly estranged herself? The days of feudal abductions had passed away, and if in this practical age a woman refused to become the wife of any man, she had a perfect right so to do, and there the matter ended. Besides, was she not beneath the roof of her own relatives, who loved her with the sincerest warmth, and who were able to protect her until she could claim the shelter of his own breast, as he stood by her side the husband of her heart. All this went to reassure him, so that when he sat down to reply to the letter which urged him to procure his discharge at once, he wrote in the most cheering and happy manner, bidding her to be of good heart, that she was safe from the importunities and machinations of any individual who sought to gain her affections; but intimating, at the same time, that he should at once, or as soon as practicable, leave the army and as quickly as possible join her on the other side of the great lakes.
In the love that exists between two true Irish hearts that have been pledged to each other, deliberately and solemnly on the threshold of man and womanhood, there is often something so confiding, so unreasoning and so unselfish, as to put one in good humor with humanity. There is no country on earth in which the love of gain intermixes with the affections of the heart to so small an extent as in Ireland. In this relation we, from time to time, witness in the Green Isle such genuine and grateful glimpses of the better phases of human nature, that, no matter to what subsequent inconvenience and embarrassments they may tend, they, for the time being, at least, charm us into a recognition of something that is, after all, beautiful and truthful in our souls. Except where the inexorable tyranny of birth creeps in, our matrimonial alliances are, for the most part, purged of the cool calculation of Scotland, or the bread and beef considerations of the English. This may be censurable in us, and doubtless it is; but, still, the charge lies more against our heads than our hearts. It is a fact the most indisputable, that in England most of the marriages in high or low life are those of convenance, while in Ireland the contrary is the case. Even the poorest Irish girl in the land gives her hand only, where she can bestow her heart; nor, as a general thing, can any amount of wealth induce her to ignore her pride or affections in this connection; while, should her love be given to even the simplest peasant that ever stood by her milking pail, she is totally beyond the reach of temptation. On the part of both there is an out-going of souls in this direction that may be said to be peculiar to Ireland. Completely outside all physical accidents and circumstances, there is a commingling of spirit which ratifies a compact for all time, and lives in the future as well as the present. Stretching beyond the hoar, such souls are not dependent upon mere personal contact or intercourse for the vitality of the passion that animates them, for they are ever en rapport with each other, and clasped breast to breast wherever their individual physical organizations may be. In this manner they bid defiance to fate and all materiality; living on, undivided, and secure in the continuence of the power that binds them to each other. Such individualities become one spiritually—all their aspirations are identical—all their sentiments are the same, and so closely do they become united, that you cannot destroy the one without destroying the other. We know and feel, beyond any shadow of doubt, that there are beings whose loss or total annihilation we should be unable to survive, and if doomed to live, whose place could never be filled in our souls, throughout the endless ages of eternity. Hence the generous and beautiful, provision of the All Wise and All Good. To every human heart, that interprets His Laws aright and conforms to His will, he presents that beautiful counterpart which, although mysteriously foreign, is yet, so delightfully and essentially, a part and parcel of our two-fold nature.
In no country in the world, then, does this divine law of natural affinities prevail more than in Ireland; and in no case had it ever been more clearly illustrated than in the case of Nicholas Barry and Kate McCarthy; as each, if so inclined, could have sacrificed the other in forming a matrimonial alliance respectively, identified with what was believed, to be undoubted wealth. For the hand of Kate, long before she left her native land, there had been more than one suitor of means; while handsome Nick, previous to his entering the army, was an object of the warmest admiration on the part of many a damsel whose prospects were of the most flattering description. But all to no purpose; not one of the wealthy women was Kate McCarthy in the one case, and not a single well-to-do gentleman was Nick Barry, in the other. So this made all the difference; and Nick and Kate, without pausing to cast their horoscope, gave themselves to each other, as already described, by the banks of the Shannon—a river whose bright murmuring waters have reflected more beautiful eyes and manly forms than those of any other in Europe, or perhaps the world. Without a thought for the future at the moment of which we have already spoken, they plighted their faith for all time and eternity; and well they kept their vows; although previous to the arrival of Nicholas in America, they had been upwards of three years separated from each other-the one leading the life of a soldier in a sunny clime, and the other, on a far distant shore, hoping for the hour when they should be once more side by side.
When, however, our hero found himself the plighted lover of the being he adored, and discovered himself simultaneously separated from her toy the most cruel, unexpected and perverse fate, he bent, as previously observed, every energy towards effecting his release from the bonds he had assumed for her sake. He consequently, instead of wasting his hours in sullen and useless repining, set actively to work and kept both his mind and his body in a healthy condition; never losing confidence for a moment, in his own ability to secure freedom or permitting the hope to be shaken, that he should ultimately join the woman of his love in the new world, and there realize an independence for both. And here we may observe, that this feature in the character of Nicholas was one of the noblest and most dignified that could possibly distinguish any member of the race to which we belong. The world has been lost to many a man, from the fact of his not sitting down to look circumstances fairly in the face, with a full determination to grapple with them and give them a tussel for if wherever a good man and true places any reasonable and legitimate object before him, no matter how dark the clouds that surround him, in nine cases out often he achieves it. The grave error in this connection is, that finding our inability to move the great mass of our difficulties out of our road en bloc and at once, ignoring the lesson taught by the constant drop that wears the stone, we sit down overwhelmed, and never set sturdily about trying to remove it piecemeal. The most profusely illustrated lesson that heaven has yet taught to man, is that of industry and perseverence. Whether within the fragrant chambers of the golden hive, or in the kingdoms of the busy ant, or mid the curious nests that swing from forest boughs, we roam in thought, we find what perseverence can accomplish, and that too, by steps almost imperceptible in themselves. It is the individual atoms that build up the mighty and effective aggregate that overawes all opposition, and like an avalanche sweeps all resistance before it. The loftiest pyramid that throws its shadow over the desert to-day, and that dwarfs at its foot the beholder into the most incomparable insignificance, incapable of being removed in fragments not larger than a pea, from its present site to the other side of the globe; and the grandest structure ever erected by human hands, has been built up from almost imperceptible beginnings, into the imposing dimensions which so overshadow the admirer and excite in his bosom feelings of almost superstitious awe. So that look where we may, throughout the whole range of nature, of science or of art, we find tee lesson of industry and perseverence inculcated in the most impressive manner, and in a language that should reach and influence our spirit struggles to the core.
If less distinct than we have here delineated them, such were the sentiments and convictions that influenced the actions and conduct of our hero and heroine when fate had separated them. Moved by the same impulses, they both set about accomplishing the same end, and in the same manner. Barry’s pen and Kate’s needle flew at intervals; and the result, as already intimated, was, that each had accumulated a sum sufficient to effect this release from the army, and that it now was to be brought into requisition for the purpose of accomplishing that end.
Had Nicholas been made of that sort of stuff which, with the greatest possible degree of coolness, lays a friend or relative under contribution, he might have been able, through its instrumentality, to realize a sufficient sum to have taken him to America, at the period that Kate sailed, without having had recourse to the dreadful alternative of enlisting in the English army; but not being built of such questionable material, he bowed beneath the heavy yoke, believing, as he did, that however distasteful and derogatory to his feelings, it was more honorable and independent to be indebted to himself, even at so great a sacrifice, for the means of joining his beloved on the other side of the Atlantic, than to be constrained to traverse its trackless waste, weighed down with the conviction, that, for the purpose of accomplishing an object that could at least be honestly attained otherwise, he had deprived those whom he had left behind of that of which they themselves stood sorely in need. Besides, he felt satisfied from what he knew of himself, and the prospects open to even an industrious soldier on the shores of Canada, he should soon be able to relieve himself of his bondage, and stand erect once more, freed from the humiliation of the uniform he wore. But, as already seen, the fates were against him in the first moments of his military career; and for the time every fibre of his being was almost crushed beneath the most frightful tension to which could have been possibly subjected. How dreadful must have been the appalling intelligence of the countermand of his regiment to the Mediteranean, when it first fell upon his ear; and how sufficient was the awful announcement to crush any ordinary mortal. Yet, with the elasticity which is ever inseparable from a true and noble spirit, when the first crash of the news bore him almost to the earth, he steadily began to brace himself against it, and ultimately, though by slow and painful degrees, straightened himself beneath it, and, although it was not the less heavy, stood erect under it at last, and bore it squarely upon his shoulders.
Poor Kate, although brave, too, had at first almost given up hope, when, a few days after her arrival at Quebec, she learned the fatal intelligence contained in the letter already referred to; but soon perceiving, as he did, that nothing was to be achieved by useless murmuring or hopeless inactivity, she shook herself, as free as her strength would permit, from the dreadful incubus of the sorrow that bowed her to the earth, and turned whatever talents she possessed to good account; working night and day to accomplish the great and only desire of her heart, and trusting to heaven for the rest. In this way her constant and unwearied exertions lightened much of the load that could not have failed under less favorable promptings, to have crushed her completely, and have, in all human probability, consigned her to a premature grave.
And thus, we see, that these two brave young spirits had all but accomplished the wish of their hearts, at the period at which our story opens, and that they were now but simply awaiting the hour when Nicholas should be able to exchange the hated red jacket that he wore, for a dress he so faithfully loved.
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