CHAPTER III.
Story of a crime — The Shanavests and the Caravats — Gluttony — Smuggling bullion — A Tar at the theatre — Deposition of French Colours in Whitehall Chapel — The Duke of York reinstated as Commander-in-Chief — The Regency Fête — Account of the entertainment.
And now, for a while, we will leave Royalty alone, and note anything particular that occurred—not that there ever was much general news recorded—there were no country correspondents to the London Newspapers, which were but of small size, and with very little space to spare for what we call News. As these little scraps of information will be scattered throughout this book, I may at once say that they will, perforce, have no sequence one to another except that of Chronological order.
At the beginning of February, as a dragoon was returning from duty to his quarters, which were at a small public-house called "Barndean Hut," near Petersfield, in the New Forest, his attention was arrested by the cries of some person in distress, which induced him to ride up to the spot from whence they proceeded, where his humanity was shocked on beholding a woman tied to a tree, with the tears, which her situation and suffering had produced, actually frozen to her cheeks, and, horrid to relate, quite naked, having been stripped and robbed of every article of dress, by two villains, who, afterwards, left her in that deplorable condition. The dragoon instantly cut the cords that bound her hands and feet to the tree, and, having in some measure restored her to the use of her limbs by rubbing them, wrapped her up in his cloak, placed her on his horse, and proceeded on to his quarters, where he soon after arrived; and, as he was conducting the shivering object of his care into the house, she looked through a window that commanded a view of the kitchen, and, in a faint voice, exclaimed, "There are the two men that robbed me of my all, and used me so cruelly." The soldier, in consequence, entered the kitchen and secured the men, who were the next day taken before a magistrate, and, after the necessary examination, fully committed to Winchester jail, for trial at the next assizes.
Ireland has always been a sweet boon to England ever since the Union; and faction fights used to abound. Among others were those of the Caravats and Shanavests—the Capulets and Montagues of their time; and the etymon of the names of two formidable factions, which embraced the greater part of the lower order of people in the two counties of Tipperary and Limerick, is thus given:—
It was at a trial of some of these at a Special Commission at Clonmel, and James Slattery was under examination.
Chief Baron. What is the cause of quarrel between these two parties—the Shanavests and the Caravats?
A. I do not know.