Doubtless, Sir Governor * * * * you have much reason in all you have been pleased to say: and let me promise you, in behalf of all the inhabitants of this island, that they shall serve your will and pleasure with all due diligence, love, and good-will; for the sweet and mild mode of government that hitherto in the beginning you have administered to them, causes them neither to do, nor even to think, aught that may redound disloyal to your government.
Before the Duke had arisen upon the ensuing morning the Duchess thus addressed him, and pronounced, if we may so express it, the curtain-lecture, with which the reader is here made acquainted:--
"My dear and much beloved Lord, you are now about to assume the government of your native island, a land richly abundant in agricultural and commercial resources, possessing a peasantry inured to toil, hardy, industrious, and intelligent; keenly alive to and sensible of wrong and injustice, yet still a passive and a patient people, who, like the Roman ox, stand ready victims, stationed between the ploughshare and the altar, alike prepared for the yoke or for sacrifice!--a soil luxuriant for tillage or for pasture, abounding in quarries, mines, and minerals; blest with a mild and temperate climate, and adorned with scenery picturesque, romantic, and sublime; with mountains high as the lofty spirit of the race who inhabit them, and with harbours (open as their generous hearts) expanding their numerous emporiums to receive the tribute of every coast and every clime.
"Remember, I pray thee, my good Lord, a passage which once we read, and that I never can forget; we found it in the Lives of Plutarch, where we are told the courtiers of Philip of Macedon essayed to mount and master the noble animal Bucephalus, afterwards the war-horse of the great and renowned Alexander. Courtier succeeding courtier attempted to mount the back of Bucephalus, but in vain. They knew, indeed, how to cringe, and fawn, and flatter in a despot's court, but they were wholly ignorant and incompetent how to manage this nobly spirited war-horse; their shadows, as they successively attempted to mount, startled the steed, and they could make nothing of it. It was then that the son of Ammon sprang forth, and said, 'Father, give him into my hands; I see the noble bearing of the proud and generous animal, let me too, therefore, have a trial!' The request was granted. When Alexander, leading him into the shade where the steed neither startled by the shadow of his person nor the flowing of his mantle, Alexander instantly sprung upon his back, and galloped him several times past the presence of Philip, reining him with full command, wheeling him round in full career, and then suddenly halting to address his admiring king and father, and no less astonished courtiers. At length, overcome with joy and admiration, Philip exclaimed to Alexander, 'Go, go, my son, and seek to rule over other realms, for Macedonia is too small for thee!' Yes, my dear Lord, I at once see you forcibly feel the allusion. In the hands of ignorant, or stupid, or bigoted governors, and their underlings, Ireland shall ever prove and remain untractable, as Bucephalus was in the clumsy and untoward hands of the courtiers of Macedon; but rule the inhabitants of this isle with gentleness and moderation, with equal and impartial justice, alike administered to all beneath a mild and conciliatory government, and then mark how submissively they shall obey their ruler. In peace you shall see drawn home the heavy harvest team; and on the day of battle our navies shall ride triumphant, and our armies march victorious!"