Page:The fortunes of Perkin Warbeck.djvu/130

122 warrior almost threw himself from the litter, as he cried, "Jesu speed you, my loving cousin! spur on! spur on! remember your badge, Boutez en avant! No enemy ever turned his back on your sword to avoid, so eagerly as my arms will open to receive you! "Were you bound for Mallow?"

"No, my noble coz," replied Lord Barry, "I am for Kilnemullagh; an eaglet I have nursed has winged its way thither, and I fear may suffer injury in my absence; for he is young, and his pinions all untried."

"Leave him to his fate, my lord," said the earl; "if he be a faithful bird he will find his way back to his fosterer; meanwhile the king of eagles, thy cousin Desmond himself, has need of thee."

"One word, dear Maurice, will explain the greater duty that I owe my princely fowl. The White Hose of England, missing him, loses all; you, I, each, and every one of us, are his servants and must become his soldiers."

"Cousin," replied Desmond, "one son of York made my father, whose soul God assoilzie! Lord Deputy; another chopped off his head—so much for the White Rose! Still I allow this new Lancastrian king is a bitterer enemy: he is a friend of the Butlers, whom the fiend confound. We will first subdue the O'Carrolls, humble the Macarthys, take Coollong from Clan Cartie Reagh, and root out the Desies; and then, when we are kings of Munster, in good hour let us march with your duke of York, and set our foot on the necks of the Butlers in Dublin."

The earl spoke with rapidity and energy; all Munster spread before Lord Barry's mind—city, town, stronghold, held by ancestral enemies; and it was wonderful what a change was wrought in his mind by his cousin's eloquence, and the names of all these sons of Erin, with each of whom he had a mortal quarrel. He agreed, therefore, to go with the earl to Mallow that evening, postponing his visit to Buttevant till the following day.

Such were the wise counsels that stayed the mighty power Barry had promised York should rise at his name to vanquish England. It was better thus; so the royal boy thought himself, when, welcomed by Desmond at Mallow, he looked round on kern and gallowglass, hearing a language that was not English, viewing their strange attire and savage countenances. "It is not thus, my England, that I will seize on you. Your own nobles shall place the crown on my head; your people wield the sword that will injure only our common enemy. Shall I