Roderick alone. Brookside enters with a pistol.
BROOKSIDE
(grinding his teeth)
Look you now, Mister Roderick James, from this moment on, I will submit to no further chastisement from you! Do you understand that?
RODERICK
Give me that pistol.
BROOKSIDE
Take heed, Mister James. I will shoot you if you lay hands on me now, or ever again. Is that entirely clear to you, sir?
Roderick stares hard at him, then he laughs and sits down.
RODERICK (V.O.)
I decided, at once, to give up that necessary part of his education. In truth, he then became the most violent, daring, disobedient, scapegrace, that ever caused an affectionate parent pain; he was certainly the most incorrigible.
Brookside smashing a chair over the head of his governor, Reverend Hunt.
RODERICK (V.O.)
Twice or thrice, Reverend Hunt attempted to punish my Lord Brookside; but I promise you the rogue was too strong for him, and leveled the Oxford man to the ground with a chair, greatly to the delight of little Patrick, who cried out: "Bravo, Brooksy! Thump him, thump him!"
Brookside and Patrick.
RODERICK (V.O.)
With the child, Brookside was, strange to say, pretty tractable. He took a liking to the little fellow -- I like him the more, he said, because he was "half a Cosgrove."
RODERICK (V.O.)
Another day, it was Patrick's birthday, we were giving a grand ball and gala at Hackton, and it was time for my Patrick to make his appearance among us.
There is a great crowding and tittering as the child comes in, led by his half-brother, who walks into the dancing-room in his stockinged feet, leading little Patrick by the hand, paddling about in the great shoes of the older.
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