Mary Imlay Taylor’s Novels

ALICE BARBER STEPHENS 1905

My Lady Clancarty

BEING THE TRUE STORY OF THE EARL OF CLANCARTY AND LADY ELIZABETH SPENCER

BY

MARY IMLAY TAYLOR

Author of “On the Red Staircase,” “The Cobbler of Nîmes,” “The Rebellion of the Princess,” etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY ALICE BARBER STEPHENS

BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY

Copyright, 1905, By Little, Brown, and Company. All rights reserved Printers S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A.

TO MY MOST CONSTANT READER, MY MOTHER

CHAPTER I

“ROSEEN DHU”

LADY BETTY shaded her eyes with her hand and looked out on the rose garden of Althorpe.

At her feet the lawn was close clipped and green; beyond was a garland of many colors, roses by hundreds and tens of hundreds, the warmth and glow of the sun upon them; behind them, the long avenue of limes and beeches, and between the trees vistas of level land with the deer moving to and fro.

The butterflies—a little host of them—whirled under the window, and her ladyship smiled.

“Come, Alice,” she said, “’tis too fair a day to linger indoors. Bring your lute, girl, and we’ll sing one of those dear Irish ballads where none may hear it, to carp and scold,—none,[Pg 2] indeed, but the rooks and butterflies, or perchance the roses. What sayst thou, Alice, may not a rose hear sweet sounds when it exhales such sweet perfume?”

“I know not, madam,” replied her handmaid soberly, as she laid aside her needlework and reached for her lute; “but sometimes, truly, I think ’twould be well if ears were fewer in this world.”

“Ay, or tongues more gentle,” assented Lady Betty laughing, as she stepped out of the window to the lawn, followed by her attendant.

Both were young girls, but youth and the rosy comeliness of youth sat more lightly on the handmaid Alice, whose simple face and figure suggested nothing more subtle than the virtue and homely wisdom of a country girl. It was quite different with Lady Betty Clancarty, the daughter of the Earl of Sunderland and the maiden wife of an Irish peer. There was a slight pensiveness to her beauty, for beautiful she was; yet there were times when the gayety of a vivacious spirit broke through all restraints, and she was the light-hearted, witty girl that nature had intended her to be. Her eyes—beautiful eyes they were, too,—were large, clear and sparkling with spirit, and[Pg 3] the soft tints of her complexion and the glossy waves of her dark hair combined to make a charming picture, far more human and bewitching, indeed, than her own portrait from the brush of Lely, hanging in the great gallery at Althorpe. The pensiveness of her expression showed only when her face was in repose; when she smiled the sun shone through the cloud. Her figure was gracefully tall in its

gown of white dimity flowered with pink, the neck dressed open with falls of lace, and the full sleeves loose and flowing at the elbow.

She moved lightly and swiftly across the lawn, one white hand resting on the shoulder of her handmaid, who was shorter and fuller in outline than her mistress. Though their stations were thus widely sundered, a frank girlish friendship existed between them, and Lady Betty had few secrets that were not shared by Alice Lynn. They had grown up in the same household; the one child waiting on the other on all state occasions, but usually her playmate, after the fashion of those days when the feudal tie of lord and vassal still bound old servants and their descendants to their masters. The ancestors of Alice Lynn had borne the banner of the Despencers in many a bloody field; she came of good yeoman[Pg 4] stock, worthy of honor and trust, and she was single-hearted in her devotion to Lady Clancarty. They made a charming picture, walking through winding paths and talking freely, with little reference to their respective stations in the great world beyond Althorpe.

“Ah, the roses,” Lady Betty said, “I know not whether I love them best in their first budding or in their prime, or when the last few pale blossoms struggle to unfold under wintry skies, like our poor hearts, Alice, that need to be warmed by the sunshine of prosperous love. Mine should have shrivelled up long ago—like an old dried leaf. But it has not,” she added, smiling and laying her hand on her bosom; “I feel it—it throbs—it is warm and strong and whole, Alice, and yet—I am a wife and, for aught I know, a widow too!”

“There be many wives who would fain be widows, I trow,” retorted Alice, bluntly, and Lady Betty laughed gayly and lightly, the sun shining in her lustrous eyes.

“Perchance I am happy, then, in not knowing my husband’s face,” she said; and added musingly, “a strange fate is mine, Alice, married at eleven and then separated forever from my husband by a gulf as wide as—as the infinite space; I know no stronger simile.[Pg 5] Here am I, the daughter of a Whig peer, who is a counsellor of King William’s, and the sister of a burning Whig—for Spencer is on fire, I am sure—and yet I am the wife, the wedded wife, of an Irish rebel and Jacobite; an outlaw from his country and a stranger even to me. What a fate!” and she shook her head with a pensive air, though a smile lurked about her lips for, after all, she could not mourn the absence of an unknown spouse.

“’Twas wrong to marry a child of such tender years, my lady,” the handmaid said indignantly; “to tie you up—one of the loveliest women in England—to a—a—” she broke off confused, catching Lady Betty’s eye.

“A what, Alice?” the countess asked dryly; “ay, I know by your blushes and confusion that you have caught the contagion, that you believe with Lord Spencer that my husband is a consummate villain. But look you, my girl, if there is one thing above another that would make me love a man and take up his cause, it is to find him the object of senseless and bitter abuse. What of it if Clancarty has not sought me? how could he? Is he not banished from the kingdom, stripped of his estates, and denied even his most natural and[Pg 6] sacred rights?” Lady Clancarty’s eyes sparkled with indignation. “What of it, if he is a Jacobite and a Papist? Is he the only man who has changed his faith? I trow not!—though I should be the last one to say it,” and she broke off, blushing crimson.

The thought of her own father’s apostasy, of his frequent political somersaults, overwhelmed her, and she recollected her own dignity in time to bridle her impulsive tongue.

Alice was too discreet to take up the argument; she stooped, instead, to gather some violets, and arranged them slowly and in silence. Lady Betty walked ahead of her to a little rustic seat, and sitting down held out her hand with an impatient gesture.

“Give hither the violets, Alice,” she said imperiously, “and sing me a song. I am in as black a mood as ever Saul was, and may do you a mischief if you do not soothe me.”

Alice smiled. “I fear you not, dear Lady Betty,” she said, tuning her lute; “your anger passes over as quickly as a storm-cloud in April weather. What shall I sing you, madam?”

A roguish smile twinkled in Lady Clancarty’s eyes.

“You shall do penance, lass, and sing me either a Papist hymn or an Irish ballad.”

[Pg 7]“Nay, I am no Papist, but a good Protestant,” said Alice, stiffly, “therefore it must be an Irish ballad, which is what you really want, my lady!”

Lady Betty laughed softly.

“’Tis true, my girl,” she said, clasping her hands about her knees, the full sleeves falling away from arms as white as milk. “I love the ballads; whether for his sake or their own, I know not,” and she bent her head listening as the handmaid played the first plaintive notes on her lute.

Alice was no contemptible musician, and she touched the instrument softly with loving fingers, playing the first sweet sad chords of that old Irish air and Jacobite ballad, “Roseen Dhu,” or “Dark Rosaleen.”

The garden and the great park beyond and around it were quiet save for the cawing of the hundreds of rooks that haunted those stately avenues of trees. The warmth and the soft murmuring of the late summer were there; here was the deep shadow of stately groves, yonder the wide sunshine on level lawns, but the place was deserted save for the two young women and the deer that were so tame that they pressed close about them, looking through the trees with soft brown eyes, and seeming to[Pg 8] listen to the wild, plaintive notes of the ballad, as Alice sang in a full, mellow voice:

Midway in the song the girl paused, still playing the air softly.

“My lady,” she said, in an undertone, “there is some one yonder in the shrubbery.”

“’Tis Melissa,” replied Lady Clancarty; “I have seen her. She loves to lurk behind a bush, and to slip along softly as a cat upon nut-shells; ’tis her nature. Faith, I must buy her some bells for her toes. Go on, my girl; I care not,” she added, laughing, “and I do love the tune. Ah, ‘Rosaleen, my own Rosaleen!’” she hummed, keeping time with her slender hand.

Alice sang again:

[Pg 9]

Suddenly Lady Clancarty started and half rose, interrupting the singer; but as Alice looked up in alarm, she sat down again, rosy and defiant.

“Pshaw!” she said; “go on, Alice, there comes Spencer himself, and, forsooth, I would not be frightened out of my pleasure.”

“But, my lady,” protested Alice, in confusion, “he will be dreadfully angry, he always is!”

“To be sure he will,” retorted Lady Betty, with a ripple of laughter, “therefore sing, lass, and I will sing, too.”

Alice still hesitated, her eyes on the figure of a young man who was coming swiftly across the lawn, but her mistress stamped her foot.

[Pg 10]“Sing!” she commanded so sharply that Alice obeyed hastily, and in a moment the countess’ rich contralto joined her voice in singing the last passionate verse of “Roseen Dhu.”

CHAPTER II

BROTHER AND SISTER

LORD CHARLES SPENCER paused in the centre of the triangle.

“A very pretty performance,” he said with a sneer, “a very proper performance—to sing Jacobite ballads here!”

“I trow they are not the first that have been sung here, brother,” retorted Lady Betty pertly.

“You have a saucy tongue, Elizabeth,” replied her brother rudely, turning white rather than red, for in this young man’s disposition anger went white, not red. “’Twould go hard with you if my father heard that.”

“’Twould go hard with you if my father heard that!” mocked Lady Betty incorrigible. “Come, come, Charles, talk of something agreeable. What is the volume under your arm? Noah’s observations on droughts? or Adam’s reflections on mothers-in-law? or Cain’s on brotherly love? Faith, I always expect[Pg 12] something profound from the most erudite ornament of the Whig party.”

“I wish I might look as certainly for discretion in Elizabeth Spencer,” he replied with acrimony.

“In Elizabeth Clancarty,” corrected the countess, flashing an indignant glance at him.

“You are marvellously proud of that beggar’s name,” retorted her brother, with cutting irony.

Lady Clancarty’s face crimsoned with anger.

“You are a hypocrite, Spencer!” she said, stamping her foot.

“Family insults in public are always becoming,” said Lord Spencer, controlling himself with an effort, but white to the lips.

“Forsooth, who began it?” recriminated his high-spirited sister; “you might better indeed talk of other things. Of your fine clothes, for instance; you are truly ‘the glass of fashion,’ my lord, pink satin waistcoat and breeches, gray plush coat, point of Venice ruffles, white silk stockings, clocked, too, with pink, French shoes and buckles,—mercy on us, sir! what splendor for beggarly Lady Clancarty and quiet Althorpe!”

Lord Spencer, who was indeed dressed in the extreme of fashion, bit his lip, scowling[Pg 13] darkly at Lady Betty and Alice, who remained discreetly in the background.

“You do well to boast of your dishonored name, madam,” he said coldly, “but my Lord Sunderland intends that you shall be divorced from that disreputable Irish rebel.”

“And what if I will not, my lord?” asked the countess, her face blazing with defiance.

“You are a fool,” said Spencer sharply; “happy you would be—dragged into exile by a rake and a scapegrace—but, pshaw! what nonsense I talk—”

“You do, sir!” interrupted his sister defiantly.

“Nonsense because Clancarty does not want you.” He continued, with a provoking drawl, “Where is your husband, my lady? Forsooth you do not know—but I do! At Saint Germain and at Paris; a gambler, a rake, a cutpurse, with half a dozen lady-loves to—”

“Silence!” cried Lady Betty furiously, rising in her indignation. “Shame on you, sir, to insult a woman and she your sister, and to blacken a gallant gentleman behind his back. Is that your virtue? Faith, I believe a witty rogue would be a happier companion than a virtuous bore!”

[Pg 14]“Your tongue will cut your throat yet, madam,” said Spencer harshly; “you have worked yourself into this passion; you have never seen your husband since childhood, and you do not know him. It is my duty as your brother, a painful duty, I admit,” he said pompously, “to tell you the truth. Lord Clancarty is a notorious scamp, a dissolute fellow, a murderer and oppressor; and, as for you, what does he care for you? You little fool, he has never sought you—and never will!” and with this taunt my lord turned on his heel and walked decorously but swiftly away, wise enough to fly before his sister could retaliate.

Lady Betty stood as he had left her for a moment, her little hands clenched and her face crimson.

“The mean hypocrite!” she cried, “to fling it in my teeth. I vow I sometimes almost hate Spencer—and yet he is my brother. I’m a beast, Alice, a wretch! but oh!” and suddenly her mood changed; she threw herself on the garden-seat, trembling with emotion, tears on her dark lashes. “Oh, why must I be so cruelly insulted? ’Tis true, Alice, ’tis true; Clancarty has never even cared to claim his wife! Think of it, I—I—Betty Spencer,[Pg 15] scorned by an Irish Jacobite!” and she burst into tears.

“My lady,” purred a smooth voice, as the other attendant suddenly and softly stepped into view, from the friendly shadow of an elm; “be consoled, ’tis even as Lord Spencer—”

“Go!” cried the countess furiously, dashing away her tears and stamping her foot at Melissa. “Go! What do I want of your consolation, you eavesdropper!”

“My lady, I beg pardon,” stammered the confused waiting-woman, “I—”

“Go!” repeated the countess imperiously, with a gesture of disdain. “When I want you, I will summon you.”

With a look of ill-disguised anger on her smooth face, but with an attempted air of humility, the attendant withdrew as softly as she had approached, and Lady Betty recalled her dignity.

“Pshaw!” she said, “what a creature I am, Alice, so to betray myself, and to stoop to quarrel with that worm, Melissa! I did not think, I never think; but, oh, my girl, my lot has many thorns! Alas, and alas!

[Pg 16]and a widow by desertion. Ah, how I hate the taunt!” and she stamped her foot.

“Heed it not, dear Lady Betty,” murmured Alice, “’tis not true.”

“Ah, but it is, girl, it is,” cried Lady Clancarty, with an impatient gesture, “and I despise myself for caring.”

“Are you sure, madam, that Lord Clancarty has made no effort to claim his bride, or to see you?” Alice asked soberly, standing alone in the triangle opposite Lady Betty, the sun shining in a friendly fashion on her comely, honest face.

“Am I sure?” repeated the countess in surprise, and her expression changed swiftly; “do you think he may have tried to communicate with me and failed?”

“Why not, my lady?” replied the handmaid simply; “we know how my Lord Spencer feels; and your father, the earl, madam, is, perhaps, as little inclined toward your husband.”

Lady Betty sat looking down reflectively, tapping her foot on the gravel path.

“It may be so,” she said thoughtfully; “your brain is growing keen, Alice, from crossing swords with mine!” and she laughed, for she was an April creature with swift-changing moods. She rose, throwing out her hands[Pg 17] with a pretty gesture, as though she threw care to the winds.

“O Donough Macarthy, Earl of Clancarty, art worthy all these heart beats of mine?” she cried, and laughed as gayly as a child. “I tell thee, Alice, he has not seen me for years, not since I was eleven, and he pictures me with a turned-up nose and freckles and red hair, and is half frightened to death at the thought of his English bride.”

“Your hair was never red, my lady,” said Alice soberly.

“Pshaw, child, he has forgotten, poor lad!” laughed Lady Betty, herself again; “he may think my nose red, too!”

CHAPTER III

LADY BETTY AND HER FATHER

IT was after sundown and the light was dim in the great gallery of Althorpe. Candles were set in silver sconces at intervals down its whole length of over a hundred feet, but between lay soft shadows, and the pictured faces of many famous men and women, of sovereigns of England, statesmen, soldiers, and court beauties, looked down from the walls on either hand. Holbein and Van Dyke and Lely had wrought upon these canvases. Here was the famous Duchess of Cleveland, painted by Lely, and the Countess of Grammont, and yonder was Lady Portsmouth and Nell Gwynne herself; and in this strange company, the fair, sweet, coquettish face of Betty Clancarty, lovely as any of the court beauties and far more lovable and true.

The floor was polished and strewn with splendid rugs; far-off India, Turkey, Italy, France, and Holland had contributed rugs and[Pg 19] tapestries, paintings, beautiful bric-a-brac and statuary to decorate the famous gallery of the Spencers, where Anne of Denmark, Queen of James the First, and the young Prince Charles, the future royal martyr, saw the Masque of Ben Jonson. Here, too, came doubtless King Charles the First, he who created Henry Spencer Earl of Sunderland; here, also, reigned the daughter of the Sidneys, Dorothy, Countess of Sunderland, the heroine of Waller’s verses and the grandmother of Lady Betty. A gallery full of memories, where royalty and beauty smiled dimly from the great canvases, and every footstep woke an echo of the past.

At that sunset hour the place was quiet save for the cawing of the rooks under the eaves, for they haunted every corner of the house and congregated in the long avenues that enfiladed the park; yet even the sound of bird consultations did not disturb the revery of the man who slowly paced up and down the gallery—a man past middle age with an inscrutable face, his head a little bowed as he walked, his hands behind his back, his dress a long gown of black velvet, ruffles of lace at the throat and over the slender white hands—a strange man, self-possessed, complacent, smooth, infinitely winning of address, and one of the most unscrupulous politicians[Pg 20] and time-servers of that time-serving age when William the Third knew not where to look among his English counsellors for steady faith, when it was no uncommon thing for a man to swear allegiance both at Westminster and Saint Germain, and to be an apostate besides. Even in that age of falsehood and double dealing, Robert, second Earl of Sunderland, excelled his fellows; but if he excelled them in falsehood, so did he also in

discernment, in the power to read men, and to win them by his polished and smooth address, the charm of a personality that had won even upon the cold astuteness of the king himself.