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The lady explained. She was the wife of Captain Fitzsimons, and was
hastening to join the Captain at Dublin. Her chair had been stopped
by a highway-man: the great oaf of a servant-man had fallen down on
his knees armed as he was; and though there were thirty people in
the next field working when the ruffian attacked her, not one of
them would help her; but, on the contrary, wished the Captain, as
they called the highwayman, good luck.
'Sure he's the friend of the poor,' said one fellow, 'and good luck
to him!'
'Was it any business of ours?' asked another. And another told,
grinning, that it was the famous Captain Freny, who, having bribed
the jury to acquit him two days back at Kilkenny assizes, had
mounted his horse at the gaol door, and the very next day had robbed
two barristers who were going the circuit.
I told this pack of rascals to be off to their work, or they should
taste of my thong, and proceeded, as well as I could, to comfort
Mrs. Fitzsimons under her misfortunes. 'Had she lost much?'
'Everything: her purse, containing upwards of a hundred guineas; her
jewels, snuff-boxes, watches, and a pair of diamond shoe-buckles of
the Captain's.' These mishaps I sincerely commiserated; and knowing
her by her accent to be an Englishwoman, deplored the difference
that existed between the two countries, and said that in OUR country
(meaning England) such atrocities were unknown.
'You, too, are an Englishman?' said she, with rather a tone of
surprise. On which I said I was proud to be such: as, in fact, I
was; and I never knew a true Tory gentleman of Ireland who did not
wish he could say as much.
I rode by Mrs. Fitzsimon's chair all the way to Naas; and, as she
had been robbed of her purse, asked permission to lend her a couple
of pieces to pay her expenses at the inn: which sum she was
graciously pleased to accept, and was, at the same time, kind enough
to invite me to share her dinner. To the lady's questions regarding
my birth and parentage, I replied that I was a young gentleman of
large fortune (this was not true; but what is the use of crying bad
fish? my dear mother instructed me early in this sort of prudence)
and good family in the county of Waterford; that I was going to
Dublin for my studies, and that my mother allowed me five hundred
per annum. Mrs. Fitzsimons was equally communicative. She was the
daughter of General Granby Somerset of Worcestershire, of whom, of
course, I had heard (and though I had not, of course I was too well-
bred to say so); and had made, as she must confess, a runaway match
with Ensign Fitzgerald Fitzsimons. Had I been in Donegal?--No! That
was a pity. The Captain's father possesses a hundred thousand acres
there, and Fitzsimonsburgh Castle's the finest mansion in Ireland.
Captain Fitzsimons is the eldest son; and, though he has quarrelled
with his father, must inherit the vast property. She went on to tell
me about the balls at Dublin, the banquets at the Castle, the horse-
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