or lord." Under pretext of having taken this monstrous oath, Lord

Clancharlie was living out of the kingdom, and, in the face of the

general joy, thought that he had the right to be sad. He had a morose

esteem for that which was no more, and was absurdly attached to things

which had been.

To excuse him was impossible. The kindest-hearted abandoned him; his

friends had long done him the honour to believe that he had entered the

republican ranks only to observe the more closely the flaws in the

republican armour, and to smite it the more surely, when the day should

come, for the sacred cause of the king. These lurkings in ambush for the

convenient hour to strike the enemy a death-blow in the back are

attributes to loyalty. Such a line of conduct had been expected of Lord

Clancharlie, so strong was the wish to judge him favourably; but, in the

face of his strange persistence in republicanism, people were obliged to

lower their estimate. Evidently Lord Clancharlie was confirmed in his

convictions--that is to say, an idiot!

The explanation given by the indulgent, wavered between puerile

stubbornness and senile obstinacy.

The severe and the just went further; they blighted the name of the

renegade. Folly has its rights, but it has also its limits. A man may be

a brute, but he has no right to be a rebel. And, after all, what was

this Lord Clancharlie? A deserter. He had fled his camp, the

aristocracy, for that of the enemy, the people. This faithful man was a

traitor. It is true that he was a traitor to the stronger, and faithful

284

The Man Who Laughs