“What leave have you got, Captain O’Malley?”
“Three months, your Royal Highness.”
“Do you desire an unattached troop; for if so, an opportunity occurs just at this moment.”
“I thank you most sincerely, sir, for your condescension in thinking of me; but my wish is to join my regiment at the expiration of my leave.”
“Why, I thought they told me you wanted to spend some time in Ireland?”
“Only sufficient to see my friends, your Royal Highness. That done, I’d rather join my regiment immediately.”
“Ah, that alters the case! So then, probably, you’d like to leave us at once. I see how it is; you’ve been staying here against your will all this while. Then, don’t say a word. I’ll make your excuses at Carlton House; and the better to cover your retreat, I’ll employ you on service. Here, Gordon, let Captain O’Malley have the despatches for Sir Henry Howard, at Cork.” As he said this, he turned towards me with an air of affected sternness in his manner, and continued: “I expect, Captain O’Malley, that you will deliver the despatches intrusted to your care without a moment’s loss of time. You will leave London within an hour. The instructions for your journey will be sent to your hotel. And now,” said he, again changing his voice to its natural tone of kindliness and courtesy,—“and now, my boy, good-by, and a safe journey to you. These letters will pay your expenses, and the occasion save you all the worry of leave-taking.”
I stood confused and speechless, unable to utter a single word of gratitude for such unexpected kindness. The duke saw at once my difficulty, and as he shook me warmly by the hand, added, in a laughing tone,—
“Don’t wait, now; you mustn’t forget that your despatches are pressing.”
I bowed deeply, attempted a few words of acknowledgment, hesitated, blundered, broke down, and at last got out of the room, Heaven knows how, and found myself running towards Long’s at the top of my speed. Within that same hour I was rattling along towards Bristol as fast as four posters could burn the pavement, thinking with ecstasy over the pleasures of my reception in England; but far more than all, of the kindness evinced towards me by him who, in every feeling of his nature, and in every feature of his deportment was “every inch a prince.”