RODERICK (V.O.)
Into a pretty nest of villains, indeed, was I plunged! When I returned to my bed-chamber, a few hours later, it seemed as if all my misfortunes were to break on me at once.
Valise open, wardrobe lying on the ground, and Roderick's keys in the possession of O'Reilly and his wife.
CAPTAIN O'REILLY
Whom have I been harboring in my house? Who are you, sirrah?
RODERICK
Sirrah! Sirrah, I am as good a gentleman as any in Ireland!
CAPTAIN O'REILLY
You're an impostor, young man, a schemer, a deceiver!
RODERICK
Repeat the words again, and I run you through the body.
CAPTAIN O'REILLY
Tut, tut! I can play at fencing as well as you, Mr. Roderick James. Ah! You change color, do you? Your secret is known, is it? You come like a viper into the bosom of innocent families; you represent yourself as the heir to my friends the O'Higgins of Castle O'Higgins; I introduce you to the nobility and gentry of this methropolis; I take you to my tradesmen, who give you credit. I accept your note for near two hundred pounds, and what do I find? A fraud.
He holds up the name, Roderick James, printed on the linen.
CAPTAIN O'REILLY
Not Master O'Higgins of Watertown, but Roderick James of the devil only knows where...
Captain O'Reilly gathers up the linen clothes, silver toilet articles, and the rest of Roderick's gear.
RODERICK
Hark ye, Mr. O'Reilly, I will tell you why I was obliged to alter my name, which is James and the best name in Ireland. I changed it, sir, because, on the day before I came to Dublin, I killed a man in deadly combat -- an Englishman, sir, and a Captain in His Majesty's service; and if you offer to let or hinder me in the slightest way, the same arm which destroyed him is ready to punish you.
So saying, Roderick draws his sword like lightning, and giving a "ha, ha!" and a stamp with his foot, lunges it within an inch of O'Reilly's heart, who starts back and turns deadly pale, while his wife, with a scream, flings herself between them.
MRS. O'REILLY
Dearest Roderick -- be pacified. O'Reilly, you don't want the poor child's blood. Let him escape -- in Heaven's name, let him go.
CAPTAIN O'REILLY
(sulkily)
He may go hang for me, and he's better be off quickly, for I shall go to the magistrate if I see him again.
O'Reilly exits. His wife sits down on the bed and begins to cry.
Roderick riding down the street, with his valise.
RODERICK (V.O.)
Where was now a home for the descendant of the James? I was expelled from Dublin by a persecution occasioned, I must confess, by my own imprudence. I had no time to wait and choose. No place of refuge to fly to.
RODERICK (V.O.)
There was a score of recruiting parties in the town beating up for men to join our gallant armies in America and Germany.
Roderick approaches a Captain and a Sergeant, who quickly make him welcome.
RODERICK
I will tell you frankly, sir. I am a young gentleman in difficulties; I have killed an officer in a duel, and I am anxious to get out of the country.
RODERICK (V.O.)
But I needn't have troubled myself with any explanations; King George was in too much want of men to heed from whence they came -- and a fellow of my inches was always welcome. Indeed, I could not have chosen my time better. A transport was lying at Dunleary, waiting for a wind.
RODERICK (V.O.)
I never had a taste for any thing but genteel company, and hate all descriptions of low life. Hence my account of the society in which I at present found myself must of necessity be short. The reminiscences of the horrid black-hole of a place in which we soldiers were confined, of the wretched creatures with whom I was now forced to keep company, of the plowmen, poachers, pickpockets, who had taken refuge from poverty, or the law, as, in truth, I had done myself, is enough to make me ashamed even now.
Roderick sits very disconsolately over a platter of rancid bacon and moldy biscuit, which is served to him at mess. When it comes to his turn to be helped to drink, he is served, like the rest, with dirty tin noggin, containing somewhat more than half a pint of rum and water. The beaker is so greasy and filthy that he cannot help turning round to the messman and saying:
RODERICK
Fellow, get me a glass!
At which, all the wretches round him burst into a roar of laughter, the very loudest among them being Mr. Toole, a red-haired monster of a man.
MR. TOOLE
Get the gentleman a towel for his hands, and serve him a basin of turtle-soup.
Roars the monster, who is sitting, or rather squatting, on the deck opposite him, and as he speaks, he suddenly seizes Roderick's beaker of grog and empties it in midst of another burst of applause.
LINK-BOY
(whispers)
If you want to vex him, ask him about his wife, the washerwoman, who bates him.
RODERICK
Is it a towel of your wife's washing, Mr. Toole? I'm told she wiped your face often with one.
LINK-BOY
(whispers)
Ask him why he wouldn't see her yesterday, when she came to the ship.
RODERICK (V.O.)
And so I put to him some other foolish jokes about soapsuds, hen-pecking, and flat-irons, which set the man into a fury, and succeeded in raising a quarrel between us.
Roderick and Toole fight with cudgels. Roderick gives him a thump across his head which lays him lifeless on the floor.
RODERICK (V.O.)
This victory over the cock of the vile dunghill obtained me respect among the wretches among whom I formed part.
RODERICK (V.O.)
Our passage was very favorable, and in two days we landed at Cuxhaven, and before I had been a month in the Electorate, I was transported into a tall and proper young soldier, and, having a natural aptitude for military exercise, was soon as accomplished at the drill as the oldest sergeant in the regiment.
Various cuts.
Roderick learning the soldierly arts, musket drill, manual of arms, bayonet, marching.
The Cuxhaven troops are drawn up to receive a new regiment, arrived from England.
Roderick sees, marching at the head of his company, his old friend, Captain Grogan, who gives him a wink.
RODERICK (V.O.)
Six weeks after we arrived in Cuxhaven, we were reinforced by Gales regiment of foot from England, and I promise you the sight of Grogan's face was most welcome to me, for it assured me that a friend was near me.
Roderick and Grogan.
RODERICK (V.O.)
Grogan gave me a wink of recognition, but offered no public token of acquaintance and it was not until two days afterwards that he called me into his quarters, and then, shaking hands with me cordially, gave me news which I wanted, of my family.