Ridgeway: An Historical Romance of the Fenian Invasion of Canada

by Scian Dubh

Racked as she was with those torturing reflections, and while the first wild burst of grief was yet rolling down her cheeks, she determined to begin her lone, young widowhood by instantly writing to him and bidding him hope. In this epistle, all the nobility of her true heart and nature blazed forth so transcendently, and with such fierce, womanly fervor, that the moment it reached the hands of the young soldier the light was re-kindled within him, and he at once set about procuring his discharge, or rather realizing the means of effecting his release from the bonds into which he had allowed his pure ‘though ungovernable passion to betray him. His education, as already observed, was most excellent, and now, when off duty, he turned it to good account, and slowly but surely began to add daily to what trifle he was able to save from his paltry pay, in the hope of yet commanding a sufficient sum to purchase his freedom and enable him, ultimately, to sail for America. In this way, and during the two years he was stationed at Malta, he spent his spare moments, being throughout that whole period particularly fortunate in keeping up what was life to him, an unbroken correspondence with his beloved.

At the expiration of three years, having been quartered, on his return from the Mediterranean, for the last one, in England, at length came the welcome and startling intelligence, that the regiment, now indeed, was to proceed forthwith to Canada, where it would be likely to remain for a considerable period. In a delirium of joy he communicated the happy intelligence to his love, and had just time to receive a hurried epistle in reply, in which the very arms of the true-hearted and beautiful Kate seemed thrown open to receive him. For some months previously, however, she had been informing him, from time to time, of a very disagreeable position in which she had been placed, through the persistent attentions paid her by an Irish gentleman named Lauder, who, by some means or other, had so ingratiated himself with her relatives, as to win them over to urge his suit; and who was reputed to be a person of means. These hints, however disagreeable, were always accompanied by a renewal of the vows they had long since plighted on the banks of the Shannon, and the fervent assurance that no one living or yet to live should ever lead Kate McCarthy a bride to the altar, save her own Nicholas Barry.

When Kate and her relatives arrived at Quebec, they remained in that city but a short period, as they had friends at Toronto, as well as near Fort Erie and at Buffalo, in the State of New York, whom they were desirous of visiting, and near whom they had determined to settle permanently. Unfortunately for Barry, the more intimate guardians or relatives of Kate had become unfriendly to his suit ever since he entered the army; impressed, as they had become, with that Irish idea, that the red coat of a private soldier in the British service was the most disreputable that could be worn. In this light, therefore, they encouraged the advances of Lauder, in the hope that absence would so weaken the first love of Kate, as to induce her to yield ultimately to her new suitor. But they little new the girl with whom they had to deal; for when Lauder, under their sanction, made a formal declaration of his passion to her, she quenched his hopes, as she supposed, forever, by informing him that both her heart and her hand were previously engaged, and that were they even at her disposal, she should be quite unable to bestow them upon any gentleman for whom she did not and could not entertain a single particle of true love, although he might have secured her esteem. This rejection, however, did not, as she supposed it would, preclude the possibility of any further advances from such a quarter, for Lauder, nothing daunted, kept up the siege when and wherever he could, without giving absolute offense; so cunningly and intangibly did he still pursue the object set before him. At last, nevertheless, so constant were his visits at the house, and so permanent a footing was he getting in the estimation of her friends, that, after having resided at Toronto upwards of two years, she left it at the instance of one of the family, who, on their first arrival in America, had settled in Buffalo, to which city she proceeded, and in which she now took up her residence.

While in Toronto the thought struck her that she might be able to turn whatever abilities she had to account, in the hope of being able to accumulate sufficient funds to aid our young hero in purchasing his discharge, fearing, as she did, that his own opportunities, in this relation, would be greatly restricted. So with her needle, and through the instrumentality of a small private school, she ultimately found herself mistress of the required amount, and was about to forward it to Nicholas, at the very period when she received intelligence of his regiment being ordered to America. She therefore thought it better to wait until they met, as she had made up her mind to set out, when apprised of his arrival, for any place in which he might happen to be quartered, and there plan for their future and his freedom.

In due time Barry reached Quebec, and from thence was ordered, with his company, to the town in which we first encountered him. Here he was soon joined by the true-hearted Kate, who remained for a few days with her cousins, Big Tom and his sister. During this period it was decided that Nicholas should purchase his discharge when he found that there was any prospect of the regiment being called home. The reasons for his not at once availing himself of the freedom he knew he could obtain at any moment, need not now be referred to more minutely; and as Kate left him to return to Buffalo, just four months previous to the opening of our story, after having made more than one pilgrimage from the United States to spend a few days with her cousins as she averred, it was settled upon finally, that he should quit the service in the ensuing summer, when they should become man and wife, as well as residents of the great Republic of the United States of America.

The intimacy, then, between Big Tom and Nick, is now accounted for in a satisfactory manner; and thus it was, that whenever the young soldier got leave to spend a night out of the Fort, he invariably took up his quarters at the sign of the Harp, where he not only knew he was welcome on his own account, but was sure to find company that was agreeable to him, and sympathized with all his aspirations in relation to his poor, down-trodden country.

Kate McCarthy, as we have already said, was in her twentieth year at the time we were first introduced to O’Brien and his customers, and certainly, as previously intimated, a more lovely woman could scarcely be found in a day’s walk. Her face and figure were absolute mirages of beauty, while, if there could be such a thing as black sunbeams, her eyes and hair would have illustrated them to intensity. She was above the medium height, with a slightly olive complexion that harmonized superbly with the glorious orbs through which the pure light of her soul poured forth a mellow blaze, and the dark, heavy tresses that fell in shining masses upon her pearly shoulders. Nothing, too, could surpass the intensified loveliness of her soft, rounded arms, and exquisitely shaped hands and feet, while her delicious mouth and beautifully chiseled nose and ears were really mysteries of loveliness so rare, that few could entertain the idea that she who possessed them could have laid her whole heart at the feet of a common soldier, and that, too, when it was in her power to turn such charms to high account in the every day market of society. But she knew Nicholas Barry and the nobility of his nature, and was aware, in addition, that had he not, like herself, been the victim of foul play and of a government that fostered crime in its adherents, he would never have been constrained to swear allegiance to the flag he both hated and despised, or have been obliged to exchange the garb of the son of a true Irish gentleman for that which had so lowered him, in the eyes of her relatives at least. But rich or poor, in scarlet or homespun, he was all the same to her; and now that he was almost at her side, and master, in a measure, of his own fate, she only looked forward to the period when she should have a legal right to his protection, and to call him by that name which, beyond all others is the one that lies nearest a woman’s heart.

The relative and his wife with whom Kate lived in Buffalo, were, in reality, noble and true-hearted people. They had known Nicholas from his childhood, and had always loved him for his manliness and bold struggles to gain some position at home in which he might be able to realize a sufficiency to maintain both himself and the girl of his love, before he led her to the altar. They had witnessed his repeated failures when he applied for any vacant situation where his education could be turned to account, and felt for his dire disappointment upon many an occasion when he was denied even a subordinate office in connection with the management of the large property that had once belonged to his family. With pain and anger they saw his praiseworthy exertions baffled at every turn, and, unlike the rest of their relations, discovered more of his self-sacrificing spirit still, in the desperate step he took for the purpose of joining his betrothed upon a foreign shore—a step which they would have gladly prevented, had their own slender means been sufficient to have transported him with them to their new home. Moved by this spirit of kindness and esteem, these worthy people were the very main-stay of Kate in the hour of her sorest trial, and now that Barry was near her once more, they entered heart and hand into all her projects, and were delighted to know that his discharge should be purchased before his regiment was ordered to leave the colony.

It must not be presumed, however, that Kate, since her arrival in America, had permitted herself to be a burden, in even the slightest degree, upon any of her friends or relations. Far from it; from the moment that they became settled at Toronto, up to the hour of Nicholas’ arrival in the colony, she not only supported herself through her industry and perseverence, but contributed, in a degree, to the maintenance of some of them also. Of course, in view of the all-absorbing object she had before her, regarding her lover, she could not be expected to do much in this latter relation; yet she did what she could, and so satisfied her pride and her conscience. Sometimes the recollection of the long and weary chancery suit would obtrude itself upon her, but only to provoke a hopeless and languid smile, prompted by the conviction that her enemy, whom she had never seen, and who had recently succeeded to the claims of his father—Philip Darcy, now but a few months dead—had too much influence with the government and its legal minions, to permit her to indulge in the slightest hope, that, were the case decided tomorrow, it could be otherwise than against her. Consequently, it mattered but little to her whether she was worsted by Philip the elder or Philip the younger; so, in this way, she now invariably disposed of the unpleasant matter. Yet, she felt, notwithstanding, deeply and bitterly upon the subject: and knew that she was the victim of a most diabolical plot; but she did not permit this to interfere with her daily avocations, or induce her to sit down in apathetic sorrow, and repine over a fate that no effort of hers could influence in any degree whatever.

Still, as may be readily supposed, both from her education and a knowledge of her own personal wrongs, and those which had for centuries been inflicted upon the unhappy land of her birth, she was no friend or admirer of the government or people who had wrought her so much ruin in this connection. On this head she was most inexorable, and felt that it was the duty of every true Irishman and Irishwomen in existence, to conspire, as best they could, against a power which had plunged their race and country into such frightful ruin; and she believed, firmly, that, in so far as her native land was concerned, its children were justified in using any means by which they could rid themselves of a tyrant and usurper, who, in violation of every law, both human and divine, subjected them to sword and flame for ages.