In the Irish Brigade | Page 4

no objection,
whatever, to my going abroad, and seemed to think it natural that I
should choose the Irish Brigade, here, in preference to the British

service. He said something unpleasant about its not being singular that I
should be a rebel, when I always associated with rebels, to which I
replied that it seemed to me that I could hardly be blamed for that,
seeing that my father had been what he called a rebel, and that I had
little choice in the matter of my associates; and that if I had been
educated at a school in England, instead of by good Father O'Leary, I
might have had other sentiments. He replied that my sentiments were
nothing to him, one way or the other. He was glad to wash his hands of
me altogether; and, at any rate, if I went to France, I could drink the
health of King James every day without his being involved in my
treason."
"It almost looked as if he wished you to grow up a rebel, Kennedy, or
he would hardly have placed you in the charge of a priest. He may have
reckoned that if there was another rising, you might join it, and so be
taken off his hands, altogether."
"Whatever the reason was, I have certainly cause for satisfaction that he
removed me from the care of the farmer's wife, with whom he at first
placed me, and arranged with the priest to take charge of me altogether.
O'Leary himself had been educated at Saint Omer, and was a splendid
fellow. He was very popular on the countryside, and it was owing to
my being with him that I was admitted to the houses of the gentry
around, whereas, had I remained in the farmhouse in which O'Carroll
first placed me, I should only have associated with the sons of other
tenants."
"It looked, at any rate, as if he wished to make a gentleman of you,
Kennedy."
"Yes, I suppose my father had asked him to do so. At any rate, I was
infinitely better off than I should have been if he had taken me in at
Kilkargan, for in that case I should have had no associates, whatever.
As it was, I scarcely ever exchanged a word with him, until that last
meeting. He sent down, by one of his servants, the letter to the Duc de
Noailles, and a bag containing money for my outfit here, and for the
purchase of a horse, together with a line saying that he had done his
duty by me, and had no desire to hear from me in the future. I was

inclined to send the money back to him, but Father O'Leary persuaded
me not to do so, saying that I must be in a position to buy these things,
if I obtained a commission; and that, no doubt, the money had been
given me, not for my own sake, but because he felt that he owed it to
me, for some service rendered to him by my father."
"It was an ungracious way of doing it," O'Sullivan said, "but, in your
circumstances, I should have taken the money had it come from the old
one himself. It is, perhaps, as well that it should have been done in such
a manner that you may well feel you owe no great gratitude towards
such a man."
"And how did you get over here?"
"There was no great difficulty about that. In spite of the activity of the
English cruisers, constant communication is kept up between Ireland
and France, and fortunately I had, a short time before, made the
acquaintance of one of your officers, who was over there, in disguise,
gathering recruits for the Brigade."
"Yes, there are a good many agents in Ireland engaged in that work.
There is no difficulty in obtaining recruits, for there is scarcely a young
Irishman who does not long to be with his countrymen, who have won
such credit out here, and many abstain from joining only because they
do not know how to set about it. The work of the agents, then, is
principally to arrange means for their crossing the channel. It is well
that the supply is steadily kept up, for, I can assure you, every battle
fought makes very heavy gaps in our ranks; but in spite of that, three
fresh regiments have been raised, in the last year, partly by fresh
comers from Ireland, and partly by Irish deserters from Marlborough's
regiments.
"But I am interrupting your story."
"Well, after leaving Mr. O'Carroll, and making my preparations, I paid
a visit to the cottage where the officer was staying, in disguise, and told
him that I wanted to cross. He gave instructions as to how to