[Sidenote:  Crocodile tears.]

There was a painful pause, and then came, however, an antidote.  It was not in the Irish Nationalist party—­it was not in even his own colleagues in the small band of Parnell’s supporters, that Mr. Redmond’s observation found a responsive echo.  A tempest of cheers broke forth from the Tory Benches—­from the backers of the Times and the supporters of Piggott; and to add to the painful and almost hideous irony of the situation, Mr. Chamberlain made unctuous profession of sympathy with the vindication of Parnell’s memory.  To those who know that of all the fierce animosities and contempts of Parnell, Mr. Chamberlain’s was perhaps the fiercest—­to those who remember that strange and almost awful scene when Mr. Parnell—­in one of those outbursts of concentrated rage which it was almost appalling to witness—­turned and rent Mr. Chamberlain as first false to his colleagues and then false to Parnell himself—­to those who remembered that deadly pallor that made even more ghastly the ordinarily pale cheek of Mr. Chamberlain beneath this withering attack—­to those, I say, who remembered all this, nothing could be more grotesque than Mr. Chamberlain shedding a pious tear over Parnell’s grave.

[Sidenote:  Mr. Gladstone and Parnell.]

The situation passed off, but in many breasts it had left its sadness and its sting behind.  And then it was that once more the Old Man brought back the House to the temper from which it had been carried by the malignities of Mr. Chamberlain.  Very pale, very calm, and, at the same time, with evident though sternly repressed emotion—­even in the very height and ecstasy of Parliamentary passion there is a splendid composure and self-command about Mr. Gladstone that conveys an overwhelming sense of the extraordinary masculinity and strength of his nature—­very pale, and very calm, Mr. Gladstone stood up.  Speaking in low and touching tones he asked to make an explanation, because he feared that some observations of his might have given pain to gentlemen who were deeply attached to the memory of Mr. Parnell.  Then he stated that while he had formed an opinion, which might be right or wrong, with regard to Mr. Parnell before his imprisonment in Kilmainham, he had always believed, after his release, that Mr. Parnell was working honestly for the good of Ireland; that he had made a communication to Mr. Parnell to that effect through a friend; and that from that time forward no hard word could be found in his speeches with regard to the Irish leader.  This little speech was uttered with exquisite dignity and kindliness, and Mr. Redmond received it with the handsomest acknowledgment of its gentleness and grace.

[Sidenote:  No manipulating.]