“. . . Lady Duncannon stated her intention of going to the meeting at Kilkenny, to my great surprise, and, as I thought, Duncannon would rather she ad not. However, in her quiet way I saw she was resolved; and accordingly she, Mr. Power, Mr. Tighe of Woodstock and myself embarked after breakfast in a decayed old family coach of Mr. Power’s, that is never used for any other purpose than that of conveying him and his brother foxhunters to cover. Duncannon rode, according to his custom. The meeting was in an immense Catholic chapel, which was crowded to excess. A great portion of its interior was covered with a platform for the speakers and the gentlemen interested in the business. It being known that Lady Duncannon was coming, we were met by a manager at the chapel door, who told her a place was reserved for her upon the platform. . . . There were women without end in the galleries. I was my lady’s bottle-holder and held her cloak for her the whole time; not that she wanted my assistance, for I never saw such pretty attentions as were shewn her all the day. . . . We knew, of course, that Duncannon was to be voted into the chair, and as he could not be so without making a speech, she was nervous to the greatest degree—publick speaking being quite out of his line. However, he acquitted himself to admiration and to the satisfaction of all; and upon my saying to her:—‘Come! we are in port now: nothing can be better than this,’—she said—‘How surprised I am how well he is speaking!’ and then, having shed some tears, she was quite comfortable and enjoyed everything extremely, till the meeting adjourned till the next day. . . . It was a prodigious day for Duncannon, for, with the exception of Power and Tighe, not one of
* The Marquess of Anglesey. |
| 1828.] | DAN O’CONNELL. | 183 |
“You can form no notion of the intense attention paid by the audience of all ages and of all degrees to what was going on; it seemed to be purely critical, without a particle of fanaticism. On the floor of the chapel, in front of the platform, the commonest people from the streets of Kilkenny were collected in great numbers; and if a publick speaker in the midst of his speech was at all at a loss for a word, I heard the proper word suggested from 5 or 6 different voices of this beggarly audience. . . . Yet a better behaved and more orderly audience could not possibly have been collected. . . .
“When the dinner was announced . . . there was a
great body of as well-bred gentry as I ever saw collected together. . . . When
I mention that the tickets were £1 155. each, and the company 200, you may
imagine it was not bad company. . . . I never in my life saw a more agreeable,
harmonious meeting—full of life, and yet no drunkenness, tho’ we
sat without a single departure till one. . . . My friend Mr. Power appeared in a new character to me
that night—I mean as a speaker, and a better one
(for his
| 184 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. VII. |
