But manlike, he yearned for the hook that was not in the water.
I followed Frances and Tyrconnel back to the palace, and when they parted
at the King's Street Gate, he asked me to go with him to the sign of the
King's Head and have a tankard of mulled sack and a breast of Welsh
mutton right off the spit.
Tyrconnel's speech was made up of an amusing lisp grafted on the broadest
Irish brogue ever heard outside of Killarney. It cannot be reproduced in
print; therefore I shall not attempt it. But it was so comical that one
could never rid one's self of a desire to laugh, be his Lordship ever so
earnest. As a result of this amusing manner of speech, his most serious
words never produced a thoughtful impression on his hearers. It is said
that the king once laughed when Tyrconnel, in tears, told him of the
death of his Lordship's mother.
Arriving at the King's Head, Tyrconnel chose a table in a remote alcove
of the dining room. After the maid had brought us the mulled sack and had
gone to fetch the mutton, his Lordship began earnestly, but laughably, to
tell me his troubles, and I did my best to listen seriously, though with
poor result.
"I want to marry your cousin, baron," he said. "Yes, yes, go on. Laugh! I
don't mind it. I know you can't help it. But listen. I want to marry her
because she is beautiful and because I know she is good. But if she is in
love with Hamilton, as report says she is, I should not want to inflict
my suit upon her.
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