“Not on any account will I give you one single farthing.”

“Very well.  Then I have only to tell you what I must do.  Of course, I shall remain here.  You cannot turn me out of your house, or refuse me a seat at your table.”

“By Heavens, though, I both can and will!”

“You cannot, my lord.  If you think of it, you’ll find you cannot, without much disagreeable trouble.  An eldest son would be a very difficult tenant to eject summarily:  and of my own accord I will not go without the money I ask.”

“By heavens, this exceeds all I ever heard.  Would you rob your own father?”

“I will not rob him, but I’ll remain in his house.  The sheriff’s officers, doubtless, will hang about the doors, and be rather troublesome before the windows; but I shall not be the first Irish gentleman that has remained at home upon his keeping.  And, like other Irish gentlemen, I will do so rather than fall into the hands of these myrmidons.  I have no wish to annoy you; I shall be most sorry to do so; most sorry to subject my mother to the misery which must attend the continual attempts which will be made to arrest me; but I will not put my head into the lion’s jaw.”

“This is the return for what I have done for him!” ejaculated the earl, in his misery.  “Unfortunate reprobate! unfortunate reprobate!—­that I should be driven to wish that he was in gaol!”

“Your wishing so won’t put me there, my lord.  If it would I should not be weak enough to ask you for this money.  Do you mean to comply with my request?”

“I do not, sir:  not a penny shall you have—­not one farthing more shall you get from me.”

“Then good night, my lord.  I grieve that I should have to undergo a siege in your lordship’s house, more especially as it is likely to be a long one.  In a week’s time there will be a ‘ne exeat’ [48] issued against me, and then it will be too late for me to think of France.”  And so saying, the son retired to his own room, and left the father to consider what he had better do in his distress.

[FOOTNOTE 48:  ne exeat—­(Latin) “let him not leave”; a legal
writ forbidding a person to leave the jurisdiction
of the court]

Lord Cashel was dreadfully embarrassed.  What Lord Kilcullen said was perfectly true; an eldest son was a most difficult tenant to eject; and then, the ignominy of having his heir arrested in his own house, or detained there by bailiffs lurking round the premises!  He could not determine whether it would be more painful to keep his son, or to give him up.  If he did the latter, he would be driven to effect it by a most disagreeable process.  He would have to assist the officers of the law in their duty, and to authorise them to force the doors locked by his son.  The prospect, either way, was horrid.  He would willingly give the five hundred pounds to be rid of his heir, were it not for his word’s sake, or rather his pride’s sake.  He had said he would not, and, as he walked up and down the room he buttoned up his breeches pocket, and tried to resolve that, come what come might, he would not expedite his son’s departure by the outlay of one shilling.