In the Irish Brigade | Page 5

proceed. I
was to go to a certain street in Cork, and knock at a certain door. When

it was opened, I was to say, 'The sea is calm and the sky is bright'.
"'Then', he said, 'you will be taken in hand, and put on board one of the
craft engaged in the work of carrying our recruits across the water. You
will be landed at Saint Malo, where there is an agent of the Brigade,
who gives instructions to the recruits as to how they are to proceed,
supplies them with money enough for the journey, and a man to
accompany each party, and act as interpreter on the way.
"I carried out his instructions, crossed the channel in a lugger with
thirty young peasants, bound also for Paris, and, on landing at Saint
Malo, took my place in the diligence for Paris; having, fortunately, no
need for an interpreter. On my presenting my letter to the Marquis de
Noailles, he received me with great kindness, and treated me as a guest,
until he had obtained me a commission in your regiment.
"Now, when are we likely to go on active service?"
"Soon, I expect," O'Neil said; "but whether we shall be sent to the
Peninsula, or to Flanders, no one knows. In fact, it is likely enough that
we shall, for the present, remain here; until it is seen how matters go,
and where reinforcements will be most required. It is but ten months
since we came into garrison, in Paris, and we may therefore expect to
be one of the last regiments ordered off.
"For my part, I am in no particular hurry to exchange comfortable
quarters, and good living, and such adventures as may fall to the lot of
a humble subaltern, for roughing it in the field; where, as has been the
case ever since the Brigade was formed, we get a good deal more than
our fair share of hard work and fighting."
"I should have thought that you would all have liked that," Desmond
said, in some surprise.
"Enough is as good as a feast," the other said; "and when you have
done a few weeks' work in trenches, before a town you are besieging;
stood knee deep for hours in mud, soaked to the skin with rain, and
with the enemy's shot coming through the parapet every half minute or

so; you will see that it is not all fun and glory.
"Then, too, you see, we have no particular interest in the quarrels
between France and Germany. When we fight, we fight rather for the
honour of the Irish Brigade, than for the glory of France. We have a
grudge against the Dutch, and fight them as interested parties, seeing
that it was by his Dutch troops that William conquered Ireland. As to
the English troops, we have no particular enmity against them.
Cromwell's business is an old story, and I don't suppose that the
English soldier feels any particular love for Queen Anne, or any
animosity against us. And after all, we are nearer in blood to them than
we are to the Germans, Austrians, or Spaniards, for there are few, even
of our oldest families, who have not, many times since the days of
Strongbow, intermarried with the English settlers. At any rate, there are
still plenty of adherents of King James in England and Scotland. We
speak the same language, and form part of the same nation, and I own
that I would rather fight against any foreign foe than against them."
"So would I," Desmond said heartily. "Our only point of difference is
that we don't agree as to who should be king. We want a Catholic king,
and the majority of the English want a Protestant king. We have fought
on the subject, and been beaten. Next time, we hope that we may
succeed. If the king were to land in England again, I would fight heart
and soul in his cause; but whether the French beat the English, in the
present war, or the English beat the French, will not, as far as I can see,
make much difference to King James; who, Father O'Leary tells me, is,
in his opinion, supported here by the French king from no great love for
himself, but because, so long as James has adherents in Ireland,
Scotland, and England, he is able to play him off against the English
Government."
The other young men laughed.
"For heaven's sake, Kennedy, keep such sentiments as these to yourself.
It is a matter of faith, in our brigade, that we are fighting in the cause of
King James, as against the English usurper. Now that William is dead,
and James's daughter on the throne, matters are complicated somewhat;
and if the Parliament