BROOKSIDE
(very loudly)
Don't you think he fits my shoes very well, Sir Richard Wargrave?
Upon which, the company begins to look at each other and to titter, and his mother comes up to Lord Brookside with great dignity, seizes the child to her breast, and says:
COUNTESS
From the manner in which I love this child, my lord, you ought to know how I would have loved his elder brother, had he proved worthy of any mother's affection.
Brookside is stunned by his mother's words.
BROOKSIDE
Madam, I have borne as long as mortal could endure the ill-treatment of the insolent Irish upstart, whom you have taken into your bed. It is not only the lowness of his birth, and the general brutality of his manners which disgusts me, but the shameful nature of his conduct towards your ladyship, his brutal and ungentlemanlike behavior, his open infidelity, his habits of extravagance, intoxication, his shameless robberies and swindling of my property and yours. It is these insults to you which shock and annoy me more than the ruffian's infamous conduct to myself. I would have stood by your ladyship, as I promised, but you seem to have taken latterly your husband's part; and, as I cannot personally chastise this low-bred ruffian, who, to our shame be it spoken, is the husband of my mother, and as I cannot bear to witness his treatment of you, and loathe his horrible society as if it were the plague, I am determined to quit my native country, at least during his detested life, or during my own.
Bursting into tears, Lady Cosgrove leaves the room. Roderick loses control, and rushes at Brookside, knocking down Lords, Dukes and Generals, left and right, who try to interfere.
The company is scandalizes by the entire incident.
Action as per voice over. Roderick is shunned.
RODERICK (V.O.)
If I had murdered my lord, I could scarcely have been received with more shameful obloquy and slander than now followed me in town and country. My friends fell away from me, and a legend arose of my cruelty to my stepson.
RODERICK (V.O.)
My reception at court was scarcely more cordial. On paying my respects to my sovereign at St. James, His Majesty pointedly asked me when I had news of Lord Brookside. On which I replied, with no ordinary presence of mind:
RODERICK
Sire, my Lord Brookside has set sail to fight the rebels against Your Majesty's crown in America. Does Your Majesty desire that I should send another company to aid him?
The King stares at Roderick, turns on his heel and quickly leaves the presence-chamber.
Roderick is approached by the Duke of Rutland, who takes him aside into an alcove.
DUKE OF RUTLAND
(speaking very quietly)
Let me tell you, sir, that your conduct has been very odiously represented to the King, and has formed the subject of royal comment. The King has said, influenced by these representations, that you are the most disreputable man in the three kingdoms, and a dishonor to your name and country.
Roderick begins to sputter.
DUKE OF RUTLAND
Hear me out, please. It has been intimated to His Majesty that you had raised the American Company for the sole purpose of getting the young Viscount to command it, and so get rid of him. And, further, that you had paid the very man in the company, who was ordered to dispatch him in the first general action.
RODERICK
Thus it is that my loyalty is rewarded, and my sacrifices in favor of my country viewed!
DUKE OF RUTLAND
As for your ambitious hopes regarding the Irish peerages, His Majesty has also let it be known that you have been led astray by that Lord Crabs, who likes to take money, but who has no more influence to get a coronet than to procure a Pope's tiara. And, if you have it in mind to call upon Lord Crabs, you will be disappointed. He left for the continent on Tuesday, and may be away for several months.
Roderick and Lord West.
RODERICK
I insist upon being allowed to appear before His Majesty and clear myself of the imputations against me, to point out my services to the government, and to ask when the reward, that had been promised me, the title held by my ancestors, is again to be revived in my person.
There is a sleepy coolness in the fat Lord West. He hears Roderick with half-shut eyes. When he finishes his violent speech, which he has made striding about the room, Lord West opens one eye, smiles, and says:
LORD WEST
(gently)
Have you done, Mr. Cosgrove?
RODERICK
Yes!
LORD WEST
Well, Mr. Cosgrove, I'll answer you point by point. The King is exceedingly averse to make peers, as you know. Your claim, as you call them, have been laid before him, and His Majesty's gracious reply was, that you were the most impudent man in his dominions, and merited a halter, rather than a coronet. As for withdrawing your support from us, you are perfectly welcome to carry yourself whithersoever you please. And, now, as I have a great deal of occupation, perhaps you will do me the favor to retire, or tell me if there is anything else in the world in which I can oblige you.
So saying, Lord West raises his hand lazily to the bell, and bows Roderick out.
Roderick and his accountant going over the bills which he has heaped on the table.
RODERICK (V.O.)
The news of His Majesty's disregard were not long in getting around, and, in a very short time, all the bills came down upon me together -all the bills I had been contracting for the years of my marriage. I won't cite their amount; it was frightful. I was bound up in an inextricable toil of bills and debts, or mortgages and insurances, and all the horrible evils attendant upon them.
Roderick walking alone.
RODERICK (V.O.)
Was it my own want of style, or my want of a fortune? I know not. Now I was arrived at the height of my ambition, but both my skill and my luck seemed to be deserting me. Everything I touched, crumbled in my hands; every speculation I had, failed; every agent I trusted, deceived me. My income was saddled with hundreds of annuities, and thousands of lawyers' charges, and I felt the net drawing closer and closer around me, and no means to extricate myself from its toils. All my schemes had turned out failures.
Roderick at the gaming table.
RODERICK (V.O.)
My wife's moody despondency made my house and home not over-pleasant; hence, I was driven a good deal abroad, where as play was the fashion in every club, tavern, and assembly, I, of course, was obliged to resume my old habit, and to commence as an amateur those games at which I was once unrivaled in Europe.
Roderick loses a large amount of money.
RODERICK (V.O.)
I had a run of ill-luck at play, and was forced to meet my losses by the most shameful sacrifices to the money-lenders, and was compelled to borrow largely upon my wife's annuities, ensuring her ladyship's life, which was the condition for every loan against her property.