Roderick, Captain and Mrs. O'Reilly, their friends. Various cuts.

RODERICK (V.O.)

After breakfast, we drove out to Phoenix Park, where numbers of the young gentry were known to Mrs. O'Reilly, to all of whom she presented me in such a complimentary way that, before half an hour, I had got to be considered as a gentleman of great expectations and large property.

RODERICK (V.O.)

I had little notion then that I had got amongst a set of impostors -­that Captain O'Reilly was only an adventurer, and his lady a person of no credit. The fact was, a young man could hardly have fallen into worse hands than those in which I now found myself.

An evening of gambling.

RODERICK (V.O.)

Their friends were always welcome on payment of a certain moderate sum for their dinner after which, you may be sure, that cards were not wanting, and that the company who played did not play for love merely.

Various cuts of the characters present.

RODERICK (V.O.)

What could happen to a man but misfortune from associating with such company? And in a very, very short time I became their prey.

Roderick loses two hundred guineas to Captain O'Reilly in a single hand.

We see Captain O'Reilly cheat, but Roderick does not.

He pays him the 18 gold guineas, remaining from the sum his mother gave him.

RODERICK

I shall have to write out a note for the rest of it, Captain O'Reilly.

Roderick exits to the street. The sound of the gambling can still be heard in the street. He is soon joined by Councillor Mulligan.

COUNCILLOR MULLIGAN

Master Roderick, you appear a young fellow of birth and fortune; let me whisper in your ear that you have fallen into very bad hands -- it's a regular gang of swindlers; and a gentleman of your rank and quality should never be seen in such company. The captain has been a gentleman's gentleman, and his lady of no higher rank. Go home, pack your valise, pay the little trifle you owe me, mount your mare, and ride back again to your parents -­it's the very best thing you can do.

Roderick does not reply, and walks slowly away from him down the street.

Roderick enters.

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.