Chapter XII a

I remember to have heard, in some epilogue ^b to a tragedy, that the tide of pity and of love, whilst it overwhelms, fertilizes the soul ²⁰⁷ That it may deposit the seeds of future fertilization, I believe; but some time must elapse before they germinate: on the first retiring of the tide, the prospect is barren and desolate. I was absolutely inert, and almost imbecile / for a considerable time, after the extraordinary stimulus, by which I had been actuated, was withdrawn. I was in this state of apathy when the rebellion broke out in Ireland; ²⁰⁸ nor was I roused in the least by the first news of the disturbances. The intelligence, however, so much alarmed my English servants, that, with one accord, they left me; nothing could persuade them to remain longer in Ireland. The parting with my English gentleman affected my lethargic selfishness a little. His loss would have been grievous to such a helpless being as I was, had not his place been immediately supplied by that half-witted Irishman, Joe Kelly, who had ingratiated himself with me by a mixture of drollery and simplicity, and by suffering himself to be continually my laugh-ing-stock; for ^c , in imitation of lady Geraldine, I thought it necessary to have a butt. I remember he first caught my notice by a strange answer to a very simple question. I asked, ‘What noise is that I hear?’ My lard,’ said he, ‘it is only the singing in my ears; I have had it these six months.’ Another time, when I reproached him for having told me a lie, he answered, ‘Why, now indeed, and plase your honour, my lard, I tell as few lies as possibly I can.’ ^d This fellow, the son of a bricklayer, had originally been intended for a priest, and he went, as he told me, to the College of Maynooth, to study his humanities; ²⁰⁹ but, unluckily, the charms of some Irish Heloise came between him and the altar. ²¹⁰ He lived in a cabin of love, till he was weary of his smokedried Heloise, / and then thought it convanient to turn sarving man, as he could play on the flute, and brush a coat remarkably well, which he lamed at Maynooth, by brushing the coats of the superiors. Though he was willing to be laughed at, Joe Kelly could in his turn laugh; and he now ridiculed, without mercy, the pusillanimity of the English renegadoes, as he called the servants who had just left my service. He assured me that, to his knowledge, there was no manner of danger, excepted a man pre farred being afraid of his own shadow, which some did, rather than have nothing to talk of, or enter into resolutions about, with some of the spirited men in the chair.