The Young Llanero | Page 2

course of time, became my father's wife and my mother.
His friends at home, to whom he at length divulged the place of his
retreat, might probably have obtained a pardon for him on the plea of
his youth, but, though still entertaining a warm affection for his native
land, he had become much attached to the country of his adoption,
which my mother also was unwilling to leave. My uncles, moreover,
had been sent to England for their education, where one of them
continued to reside; and my family thus kept up communication with
the old country.
When I was old enough to go to school, my father determined to send
me also to the care of my Uncle Denis. As we had always spoken
English in our family, I did not feel myself completely a stranger in a
strange land; and brought up among English boys, I imbibed their ideas
and assumed their manners, and was, indeed, more of an Englishman
than an Irishman, and certainly more of either than of a Spaniard.
I need not mention any of the incidents of my school-life. They were
much like those other boys meet with,--nothing extraordinary. I made a

good many friends, and fought two or three battles. One was on the
occasion of Tom Rudge, a big fellow, calling me an Irish rebel, and
saying that my father had been hanged. I gave him the lie direct, and
replied that if he had been shot he would have died the death of a
gentleman, which was more than Rudge himself was; but that he had
neither been shot nor hanged, for he was alive and well, and that I
hoped to see him again before many years were over. I thereon planted
my fist between Rudge's eyes, which drew fire from them, and left
them both swollen and blackened. We then set to, and I was getting the
best of it, driving my antagonist backwards, when one of the ushers
appeared, and seizing hold of me carried me up to the doctor. I pleaded
that I had been grossly insulted. He replied that it was my duty to
forgive insult, and asked what Tom Rudge had said to me. I told him.
"I thought that you were an orphan," he observed, "the son of Mr
Concannan's sister, and that your father was dead."
"Mr Concannan is my uncle, sir," I replied; "but my father is alive and
well, I hope, in South America."
The expression of surprise which passed over the master's countenance
made me fear that I had said something imprudent.
"If your father were dead, that would only have aggravated Rudge's
fault," he said. "I do not excuse him; I will see what he has to say for
himself."
Rudge was sent for, and appeared with his two black eyes. The doctor
looked at him sternly, and reprimanded him for the language he had
made use of. "He has been punished, I see," he observed, "and I will
therefore remit the flogging he deserves, and which you, Master
Desmond, are liable to for fighting. Now, shake hands, and remember
that the next time you take to your fists I shall be compelled to punish
you both."
We shook hands as directed, and were sent back to the playground; and
neither did Rudge nor any one else again make any reflection on my
family. How he had found out that my father had been engaged in the

Irish rebellion I could not discover. He after this, for some time, fought
very shy of me, though from that day forth he gave up bullying, and we
became very good friends. Indeed, by the wise management of the
head-master, our school was really a very happy one, though fights
occasionally took place in spite of the punishment which we knew
would be inflicted were we discovered infringing its laws.
I had been there rather more than four years, and was now nearly
sixteen years of age, when one day the doctor sent for me.
"I am sorry that I am going to lose you, Desmond," he said. "I have just
received a letter from your uncle, desiring me to send you up to town
immediately, as he wishes you to accompany him to South America,
for which country he purposes forthwith setting out. I feel it my duty to
advise you as to your future conduct. The native inhabitants have, I
understand, for some years been engaged in a fearful struggle with the
Spaniards to become independent of the mother-country; and by the
last advices I see that it still continues. You may very probably be
tempted to take part with the insurgents; but I would urge you to
remain neutral. I do not enter into the point as to whether people