It was
not in the Irish Nationalist party--it was not in even his own
colleagues in the small band of Parnell's supporters, that Mr. Redmond's
observation found a responsive echo. A tempest of cheers broke forth
from the Tory Benches--from the backers of the _Times_ and the
supporters of Piggott; and to add to the painful and almost hideous
irony of the situation, Mr. Chamberlain made unctuous profession of
sympathy with the vindication of Parnell's memory. To those who know
that of all the fierce animosities and contempts of Parnell, Mr.
Chamberlain's was perhaps the fiercest--to those who remember that
strange and almost awful scene when Mr. Parnell--in one of those
outbursts of concentrated rage which it was almost appalling to
witness--turned and rent Mr. Chamberlain as first false to his
colleagues and then false to Parnell himself--to those who remembered
that deadly pallor that made even more ghastly the ordinarily pale cheek
of Mr. Chamberlain beneath this withering attack--to those, I say, who
remembered all this, nothing could be more grotesque than Mr.
Chamberlain shedding a pious tear over Parnell's grave.
[Sidenote: Mr. Gladstone and Parnell.
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