I will not speak of the suffering this scene cost me,—a misery, I am free to declare, less proceeding from my dread of his resentment than from the thought that one of the very few with whom I had ever lived on terms approaching friendship had now become a declared and bitter enemy. Oh for the hollowness of such attachments! The bonds which bind men to evil are the deadliest snares that beset us; and thus the very qualities which seem our best and purest, are among the weakest and the worst of our depraved natures.
To add to my discomfiture, Hanchett was obliged to go over to London in some case before the House of Lords, and my cause was intrusted to the second counsel, one with whom I had little intercourse, and few opportunities of knowing. Ysaffich's defection, too, threw a great gloom over all my supporters. His readiness in every difficulty was not less remarkable than his unwearied and untiring energy. He was, in fact, the bond of union between all the parties, stimulating, encouraging, and cheering them on. Even they who were least disposed towards him personally, avowed that his loss was irreparable; and some, taking a still graver view of the matter, owned their fears that he might seek service with the enemy.
I cannot tell the relief I experienced on hearing that he had sailed from Ireland the very night of our quarrel; and, from the observations he had dropped, it was believed with the intention of going abroad.
As the day fixed for the trial drew nigh, public curiosity rose to the very highest degree. The real nature of the claim to be set up was no longer a secret, and the case became the town talk of every club and society of the capital. Curtis had long ceased to be popular with any party. His dissolute life had thrown a disrepute upon those who sided with him; and the newspapers, almost without an exception, inclined towards my side. There is, perhaps, something too that savors of generosity in such cases, and disposes many to favor what they feel to be the weaker party. I am sure I had reason to experience much of this kind of sympathy, nor do I think of it even now without gratitude.
Early as it was when I prepared to leave my hotel, I found a considerable crowd had assembled in the street without, curious to see one whose story had attracted so much popular notice. They were mostly of the lower classes, but I observed that a knot of gentlemen had gathered on the steps of an adjoining door, and were eagerly watching for my appearance. As the window of my room was almost directly over their heads, and lay open, I could hear the conversation which passed between them. Shall I own that the words I overheard set my heart a beating violently?
“You knew Carew intimately, Parsons?” asked one.
“Watty! to be sure I did. We were class-fellows at school and at college.”
“And liked him, I have heard you say?”
“Extremely. There was no better fellow to be found. He had his weaknesses like the rest of us; but he was a true-hearted, generous friend, and a resolute enemy also.”
“Were you acquainted with his wife, Ned?” asked another.