Nellie Netterville; or, One of the Transplanted, Chapter XV-XVII [pp. 736-752]

Nellie Netterville.
ed in our last chapter, and then at
last a holy calmness settled upon
Nellie's soul-a calmness and a hap piness which was all the more likely
to endure that it was founded upon
past sorrows bravely met and meekly
borne, in a spirit of true and loving
resignation to the will of Him who
had laid them on her shoulders.
From the day of her departure from
Clare Island, the old lord had drooped like a plant deprived of sunshine,
and he died on the very evening of
her return, his hand in hers, smiling
upon her and her brave husband, and
leaving for only vengeance on his foes
the inscription which heads this chap,ter, to be engraved upon his tombstone.
Nellie laid him to rest beside her
mother; for through the kindness of
Ormiston she had been enabled to
carry out Mrs. Netterville's dying
wishes, and to bear her remains to
that western shore which she had so
fondly and so vainly fancied was to
be her daughter's future home. Ormiston had done yet more. He had
obtained a reversal of the sentence
of outlawry against Roger, coupled
with the usual permission to "beat
his drum," as it was called, for recruits to follow his banner into foreign lands, to fight in the armies of
foreign kings. It was the evil policy
of those evil times.,
To rid Ireland of the Irish was the
grand panacea for the woes of Ireland, the only one her rulers ever recognized, and of which, therefore,
they availed themselves most largely,
careless or unconscious of the fatal
element of strength they were thus
flinging to their foes. As a native
chieftain and a well-tried soldier,
Roger had a double claim upon his
people, and short as had been the
time allotted to him for the purpose,
fifty men, of the same breed and mettle as the soldiers who fought at a
later period against an English king
until he cursed, in the bitterness of
his heart, the laws which had depriv ed him of such subjects, had already
obeyed his summons. They assem bled under the temporary command
of Hamish, near the tower, waiting
the moment for embarkation, and
the ship that was to convey them to
their destination was riding at single
anchor in the bay on that very morning when Nellie and her husband
knelt for the last time beside her
mother's grave. It was like a second parting with that mother. But
with Roger at her side she could not
feel altogether friendless or unhappy,
and they prayed for a little time in
silence, with a calm sense of sadness
which had something of heavenly
sweetness in it. At last it was time
to go, and Roger laid a warning finger upon his young wife's shoulder.
She did not say a word, but she bent
down once more and kissed her
mother's name upon the stone; then
she gave her hand to Roger, and
they left the churchyard together.
While she had been lingering there,
Henrietta had landed with Ormiston
at the pier to bid her a last adieu.
The quick eye of the English girl
instantly perceived the goodly company of recruits assembled near the
tower, and with a little smile of malicious triumph she pointed them out
to her companion. Ormiston shook
his head reprovingly. He was too
thoroughly a soldier not to lament
the policy which drafted large bodies
of men into foreign armies, but he
was full at that moment of his own
concerns, and had little inclination
to waste time in discussing the wisdom of his leaders. The truth was,
Henrietta's reception of him on his
arrival from Dublin the night before
had disappointed him. He had
come in obedience to her own written orders, as conveyed to him by
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