After this clearance, we sat down to a repast rendered delightful by companionship, had it been less intrinsically excellent; but Killarney salmon ought to have a place in my journal, and should be farther noticed here, were it not not to figure on the scene again. After dinner we walked to Lord Kenmare's, and amused ourselves in his demesne, during two or three hours, my aunt having insisted on our leaving her at the inn, as she complained of being fatigued; and those who were best acquainted with all her feelings, suspecting that to be left alone would soothe them, no offer was made to remain with her by any of the group.
On our return to the inn, we were surprised to find an elderly gentleman sitting with her, who proved to be old Bentley, and never did I see more evident annoyance expressed in a countenance, than was depicted in the nephew's at sight of his uncle. They met, however, with cordiality too, but the younger of them, though singularly unexcitable in general, changed colour upon the present occasion, and appeared suddenly cast down by this accession to our party: however, we were sufficiently numerous to prevent any downright awkwardness, whatever might be the existing cause of young Bentley's uneasy sensations; and his uncle explained his sudden appearance by telling us, that having reached his home too late on the preceding evening to disturb the families at Glenalta and Lisfarne, he delayed announcing his return till the following day, when, having learned our elopement, he resolved on not being left behind.
You may fancy us rather closely packed in our dormitories: Russell, Annesley, and I, were crammed into a hole just large enough to hold three small camp-beds, no bigger than births on board a Holyhead packet: we could neither toss nor tumble, for the best possible reason, we had not room for such indications of restlessness; but we lay quietly as sleeplessly we "chewed the cud of sweet and bitter fancy" upon all that we had seen and heard in company with each other since the "English foreigners," as old Lawrence calls them, had been at Glenalta. In the pauses which will occur, even in the best supported colloquy, sundry sighs, which had not quite so far to travel as from "Indus to the Pole," were borne right into my bed by the impetus with which they were sent from Russell's, and a certain melancholy expression, which even a sigh can convey to a finely constructed ear, convinced me that my friend had lost his heart, or at least mislaid it since he came amongst us. While exercising my ingenuity a little farther, to determine the person who had committed grand larceny on his affections, a few notes whistled from time to time, sotto voce, assured me that Charlotte was the thief, and that her Irish melodies lived in the memory of my poor chum. Annesley is such a sensitive fellow, that if his heart is anything the worse for the wear since he came to Ireland, I have it to discover; but from the specimen which I have given above, I flatter myself that you have already decreed my sagacity to be worthy of apotheosis, even amongst the North American Indians.
This Killarney will be a good test, I think, of our amatory tendencies, and a romance a-piece must be the result of such "means and appliances" as a glance from Lord Kenmare's park, across the lower Lake, promise for our coup d'essai on the morrow. Mine is rather a situation of responsibility, for, in addition to my own loves, should these bowers inspire the tender passion, I feel a God-fatherly sort of security called for on my part, that the new guests shall conduct themselves so as to return well pleased, and pleasing, to the last. In short, though, like Mrs. Gilpin we are "on pleasure bent," it must be to resemble her discretion also, "with a prudent mind," and I clearly perceive that I shall have to enact the part of a male duenna.
The appointed hour found all ready, and M'Carty More, that noble savage before-mentioned, who claims to be king of the boatmen, was the first object that we beheld on issuing from our malapardis. This man is quite a character, and so strikingly fine a specimen of rude, but manly beauty, that were he a little less weather-beaten, he might stand for a Hercules to Canova, were he alive again, or to Chauntry. His calling renders him quite familiar with his superiors, and he takes the command of his party as a pilot does of the ship, pro tempore. Mrs. Fitzroy, whose animation is very inspiriting, and whose enthusiasm I told you in a former despatch is glowing for the Irish character, chose him for her Cicerone, and, taking him by the arm, led the van towards the scene of embarkation.
If you wish to know, as that mad-cap Melville used to say, "who and who were together," you may enfilade us as follows. Next to M'Carty More and Mrs. Fitzroy marched my aunt, leaning on the arm of Frederick, who, I believe, in the midst of all the beauty that Circassia could boast, and all the fashion that London and Paris exhibit, would still be found his mother's prop: on her left side Bentley the elder with his hands tight in his breeches pockets, as though he feared that their contents were going to fly away, paddled along, with unequal steps. Mr. Otway took charge of Emily; and I observed that a simultaneous movement of that slow and fearful nature that scarcely indicates design, incited at the same identical moment Bentley the younger and Annesley to wish that the disengaged hand of my cousin were safely lodged under the protective care of a right arm belonging to them, though neither had courage to step forward and offer himself as a candidate for the honour to which both aspired. Moreover I made a second observation; and though these sapient remarks were formed in transitu from the threshhold of the inn to the street, I'll be sworn that I am right. "But what was your second observation?" quoth you. Why, it was, that the mauvaise honte which prevented our rival beaux from interfering with Mr. Otway's exclusive possession of the fair one's attention, arose from different causes, and produced different effects in the minds of the disappointed knights. Annesley's timidity lay in his breast, where, if he has made the confession to himself, he has truly said that Emily's is the character, of all he has ever seen, which comes nearest to his abstract of perfection in woman. On this beau idéal I have heard him dilate, and thus far can decide upon his feelings. He then was moved by an incipient desire to improve acquaintance, and secure a sort of prescriptive right to be Emily's particular in our wanderings by "wood and lake;" but the thought, though proceeding from preference established since the day of his arrival, was an impromptu of the instant in its present shape, and the reality of the sentiment which gave birth to the wish, confounded its ready expression; whereas in Bentley's manner I could trace more of the guardian than the lover; he was less anxious to appropriate Emily's society exclusively to himself, than to prevent its being appropriated by another, and this again was less dictated by a jealous or churlish feeling, than by a strictness of opinion on the subject of a young lady's walking arm-in-arm with a stranger. All this I read at a glance, and perhaps you will tell me that such profound skill in what the French call le metaphysique de l'amour, could only be learnt in Cupid's court; but the fact is, that I am only in love with the entire family, and therefore safe for the present, at least, from the imputation of having been a booby till the blind god had sharpened my penetration.
Charlotte and Fanny were hooked upon my arms; Russell keeping a steady eye upon the former's left side, which he contrived to secure as soon as we had cleared the door; and our brace of shy youths were presently resolved into unattached flankers, who changed sides, fell back, or pushed forward, as pigs, dogs, children, &c. interrupted our progress to the water's edge. At length we were seated in our barge, and Cleopatra on the silver Cydnus could never have swung the oar more gallantly than we did from Ross Castle. I shall not favour you with the history of tenfold reverberations, which you will hear when you visit this scene of enchantment; nor shall I think it necessary to give you such details as if I were going to raise the wind in these book-making days by publishing, "A Companion to the Lakes of Killarney," but hastening to our first stop, land you on the exquisite island of Innisfallen, where we lingered for hours, unable to tear ourselves from its tiny shores, every little pebbled indenture of which might represent that where Ellen is described by the northern bard to have landed from her skiff in Loch Cattrine.
This Killarney is a centre of legendary lore, and the lovely islet on which we first touched terra firma from our boat, was the depository of those annals which bear its name. Domine, who did not appear in our procession from the inn, because he had walked alone to the castle that he might try the echo at his leisure before we came up, told us a thousand interesting particulars of this spot, and entertained us with various stories, rich in fabulous, as well as real events, of the olden time. Why does not that wizard Scott, draw from a source so worthy of his magic pen? He has been here, but passed, I am told, through Ireland gnerally with such rapidity, that his carriage wheels hardly seemed to come in contact with the earth. Positively, unless he can endure it to be thought that with a few lithographic sketches in his hand, he skimmed over the country, contracting for views as per sample, like a corn merchant bargaining to replenish his stores, the author of Waverly must shew signs of having visited this little focus of imagery by dressing one of his matchless casts in the drapery with which Killarney could furnish his splendid powers of tasteful decoration.
Will that genius, who can transform into gems the commonest minerals produced in a desert, and give with African prodigality, the purest gold in return for rusty nails, and beads of glass; will he permit Erin to draw the ungracious inference from his silence, that she could supply no materials for his laboratory? and while so many immortal records of Scotland's fame and England's glory, have been charmed from their dark retreats by his necromantic spells, shall Ireland, the fertile Isle of Emerald glow,—the island of saints,—the land of heroes,—the fane of learning, piety, and music, —be left to rest on the divided property in Fingal for all poetical memorial of her traditional celebrity? Forbid it justice! forbid it gratitude! Let not a people who have so liberally bestowed their praise on those numbers in which their neighbours have been so sweetly harmonized, remain themselves unsung!
Some of our party eloquently urging the claims of Hibernia to a niche in the temple of Apollo, Russell, addressing himself to Mr. Oliphant, said, "I hope that you will not mistake my object in asking you a question which I have often heard triumphantly asked, and never answered, namely, if Ireland was really, at a former peroid distinguished as a seat of learning, virtue, and genius, where are her credentials? What is become of her buildings? Where are her documents of proof to support these fond pretensions? Now I echo this inquiry not in the spirit of a sceptic, but because I can never in future listen to such interrogatories with the phlegm of indifference, and I wish to be provided with an argument to rebut the conclusion which is frequently drawn from silence on this subject."