In the Irish Brigade | Page 7

made. In other countries we are but soldiers of fortune.
In France we may regard ourselves as serving our own king by serving
King Louis."
"Do you speak French well, Kennedy?" O'Neil said, changing the
conversation abruptly.
"Yes. Father O'Leary took care of that, for I always said that I should

take service abroad, as there was clearly nothing else to do for a living,
and, consequently, he generally talked to me in that language, and I
speak it as well as I do English or Irish."
"You have not had much practice with the sword, I suppose?"
"Not so much as I could wish, though I never lost an opportunity of
practising. There were several of the tenants who served in the
regiment James O'Carroll raised. I used to practise with them, but I
shall lose no time in getting the best instruction I can, here."
"You may want it, Kennedy. We are not particularly liked by the
French officers, because we are generally chosen to lead an assault, or
for other desperate service. Duelling is, of course, forbidden, but that in
no way prevents duels from being frequent. As for fighting in action, as
far as I have seen or heard, swordsmanship does not go for a great deal.
If you press on hard enough, and there are men following you, the
enemy give way, generally, before it comes to hand-to-hand fighting. If,
on the other hand, they are the more numerous, and hold their position
in the breach, it is the musketry that settles it. It is only when two
officers happen to meet, in a fierce fight, that swordsmanship becomes
of importance.
"We have a good school in the regiment, and there are several famous
masters of fence in the town, so I should advise you to give a couple of
hours a day, for a time, to making yourself a first-rate swordsman. I
have just left off. Our maitre d'armes tells me I am too hotheaded ever
to make a fine blade; but I should fancy, from the way you have been
arguing, that you are likely to be cooler than most of us in a fencing
bout. It is the fault with us all that we are apt to lose our tempers, and
indeed Maitre Maupert, who is the best teacher here, declines
absolutely to take any of us as pupils, saying that, while we may do
excellently well in battle, he can never hope to make first-class fencers
of men who cannot be relied upon to keep their heads cool, and to fight
with pointed weapons as calmly as they might fence with a friend in a
saloon."
"Well, I shall work hard to become a fair swordsman," Desmond said,

with a laugh. "I suppose there is plenty of time to spare."
"Plenty. We have a couple of hours' drill in the morning, and after that,
except when you are officer of the day, you can spend your time as you
like. The colonel and two of his officers attend at the king's levees,
when he is in Paris, but, as he spends the greater portion of his time at
Versailles, we are seldom called upon for that duty."
A few days after Desmond's arrival, the colonel took him with him to
Saint Germain, where James the 3rd, as his supporters called him, held
a miniature court. The colonel presented Desmond as a loyal subject of
His Majesty, and a newly-joined cornet in his regiment.
The young prince was a lad of eighteen. He was surrounded by a group
of courtiers, who had accompanied or followed his father into exile,
and whose insistence upon treating him with the respect due to a
monarch was in no slight degree galling to him, for, as he often
declared to the few friends he had about his own age, he had all the
disadvantages of being a king, without any of the advantages.
He was at once taken with the appearance of Desmond Kennedy.
"Ah, Monsieur Kennedy," he said, after the ceremony of presentation
had been completed; "I wish that I had all my faithful subjects, of the
Irish Brigade, across the water with me; and that I could put on a
uniform like yours, and fight at their head for my rights."
"I would that you had, Sire. It would be a good day for us all; and
believe me, that either in Ireland or Scotland you would soon find
yourself at the head of an army, many times more numerous than our
brigade."
"They all tell me that I must wait," the young prince said, with a sigh,
"but I have been waiting a long time now, and it seems no nearer than
when I was a child. However, the King of France has promised me