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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Virginians, by William Makepeace Thackeray
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Virginians
+
+Author: William Makepeace Thackeray
+
+Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8123]
+Posting Date: July 24, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VIRGINIANS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tapio Riikonen
+
+
+
+
+
+THE VIRGINIANS
+
+A TALE OF THE LAST CENTURY
+
+
+By William Makepeace Thackeray
+
+
+
+TO SIR HENRY MADISON, Chief Justice of Madras, this book is inscribed by
+an affectionate old friend.
+
+London, September 7, 1859.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+  CHAPTER
+      I  In which one of the Virginians visits Home
+     II  In which Harry has to pay for his Supper
+    III  The Esmonds in Virginia
+     IV  In which Harry finds a New Relative
+      V  Family Jars
+     VI  The Virginians begin to see the World
+    VII  Preparations for War
+   VIII  In which George suffers from a common Disease
+     IX  Hospitalities
+      X  A Hot Afternoon
+     XI  Wherein the two Georges prepare for Blood
+    XII  News from the Camp
+   XIII  Profitless Quest
+    XIV  Harry in England
+     XV  A Sunday at Castlewood
+    XVI  In which Gumbo shows Skill with the Old English Weapon
+   XVII  On the Scent
+  XVIII  An Old Story
+    XIX  Containing both Love and Luck
+     XX  Facilis Descensus
+    XXI  Samaritans
+   XXII  In Hospital
+  XXIII  Holydays
+   XXIV  From Oakhurst to Tunbridge
+    XXV  New Acquaintances
+   XXVI  In which we are at a very great distance from Oakhurst
+  XXVII  Plenum Opus Aleae
+ XXVIII  The Way of the World
+   XXIX  In which Harry continues to enjoy Otium sine Dignitate
+    XXX  Contains a Letter to Virginia
+   XXXI  The Bear and the Leader
+  XXXII  In which a Family Coach is ordered
+ XXXIII  Contains a Soliloquy by Hester
+  XXXIV  In which Mr. Warrington treats the Company with Tea and a Ball
+   XXXV  Entanglements
+  XXXVI  Which seems to mean Mischief
+ XXXVII  In which various Matches are fought
+XXXVIII Sampson and the Philistines  XXXIX  Harry to the Rescue
+     XL  In which Harry pays off an Old Debt, and incurs some New Ones
+    XLI  Rake's Progress
+   XLII  Fortunatus Nimium
+  XLIII  In which Harry flies high
+   XLIV  Contains what might, perhaps, have been expected
+    XLV  In which Harry finds two Uncles
+   XLVI  Chains and Slavery
+  XLVII  Visitors in Trouble
+ XLVIII  An Apparition
+   XLIX  Friends in Need
+      L  Contains a Great deal of the Finest Morality
+     LI  Conticuere Omnes
+    LII  Intentique Ora tenebant
+   LIII  Where we remain at the Court End of the Town
+    LIV  During which Harry sits smoking his Pipe at Home
+     LV  Between Brothers
+    LVI  Ariadne
+   LVII  In which Harry's Nose continues to be put out of joint
+  LVIII  Where we do what Cats may do
+    LIX  In which we are treated to a Play
+     LX  Which treats of Macbeth, a Supper, and a Pretty Kettle of Fish
+    LXI  In which the Prince marches up the Hill and down again
+   LXII  Arma Virumque
+  LXIII  Melpomene
+   LXIV  In which Harry lives to fight another day
+    LXV  Soldier's Return
+   LXVI  In which we go a-courting
+  LXVII  In which a Tragedy is acted, and two more begun
+ LXVIII  In which Harry goes Westward
+   LXIX  A Little Innocent
+    LXX  In which Cupid plays a considerable part
+   LXXI  With Favours
+  LXXII  (From the Warrington MS.) In which my Lady is on the Top
+           of the Ladder
+ LXXIII  We keep Christmas at Castlewood. 1759
+  LXXIV  News from Canada
+   LXXV  The Course of True Love
+  LXXVI  Informs us how Mr. Warrington jumped into a Landau
+ LXXVII  And how everybody got out again
+LXXVIII Pyramus and Thisbe
+LXXIX  Containing both Comedy and Tragedy
+   LXXX  Pocahontas
+  LXXXI  Res Angusta Domi
+ LXXXII  Mile's Moidore
+LXXXIII Troubles and Consolations
+ LXXXIV  In which Harry submits to the Common Lot
+  LXXXV  Inveni Portum
+ LXXXVI  At Home
+LXXXVII The Last of God Save the King LXXXVIII Yankeee Doodle comes to
+Town LXXXIX  A Colonel without a Regiment
+     XC  In which we both fight and run away
+    XCI  Satis Pugnae
+   XCII  Under Vine and Fig-Tree
+
+
+
+
+
+THE VIRGINIANS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. In which one of the Virginians visits home
+
+
+On the library wall of one of the most famous writers of America, there
+hang two crossed swords, which his relatives wore in the great War of
+Independence. The one sword was gallantly drawn in the service of
+the king, the other was the weapon of a brave and honoured republican
+soldier. The possessor of the harmless trophy has earned for himself a
+name alike honoured in his ancestors' country and his own, where genius
+such as his has always a peaceful welcome.
+
+The ensuing history reminds me of yonder swords in the historian's study
+at Boston. In the Revolutionary War, the subjects of this story, natives
+of America, and children of the Old Dominion, found themselves engaged
+on different sides in the quarrel, coming together peaceably at its
+conclusion, as brethren should, their love ever having materially
+diminished, however angrily the contest divided them. The colonel in
+scarlet, and the general in blue and buff, hang side by side in the
+wainscoted parlour of the Warringtons, in England, where a descendant
+of one of the brothers has shown their portraits to me, with many of
+the letters which they wrote, and the books and papers which belonged
+to them. In the Warrington family, and to distinguish them from other
+personages of that respectable race, these effigies have always gone
+by the name of "The Virginians"; by which name their memoirs are
+christened.
+
+They both of them passed much time in Europe. They lived just on the
+verge of that Old World from which we are drifting away so swiftly. They
+were familiar with many varieties of men and fortune. Their lot brought
+them into contact with personages of whom we read only in books, who
+seem alive, as I read in the Virginians' letters regarding them, whose
+voices I almost fancy I hear, as I read the yellow pages written scores
+of years since, blotted with the boyish tears of disappointed passion,
+dutifully despatched after famous balls and ceremonies of the grand Old
+World, scribbled by camp-fires, or out of prison; nay, there is one that
+has a bullet through it, and of which a greater portion of the text is
+blotted out with the blood of the bearer.
+
+These letters had probably never been preserved, but for the
+affectionate thrift of one person, to whom they never failed in their
+dutiful correspondence. Their mother kept all her sons' letters, from
+the very first, in which Henry, the younger of the twins, sends his
+love to his brother, then ill of a sprain at his grandfather's house of
+Castlewood, in Virginia, and thanks his grandpapa for a horse which he
+rides with his tutor, down to the last, "from my beloved son," which
+reached her but a few hours before her death. The venerable lady never
+visited Europe, save once with her parents in the reign of George the
+Second; took refuge in Richmond when the house of Castlewood was burned
+down during the war; and was called Madam Esmond ever after that event;
+never caring much for the name or family of Warrington, which she held
+in very slight estimation as compared to her own.
+
+The letters of the Virginians, as the reader will presently see, from
+specimens to be shown to him, are by no means full. They are hints
+rather than descriptions--indications and outlines chiefly: it may be,
+that the present writer has mistaken the forms, and filled in the colour
+wrongly: but, poring over the documents, I have tried to imagine the
+situation of the writer, where he was, and by what persons surrounded. I
+have drawn the figures as I fancied they were; set down conversations
+as I think I might have heard them; and so, to the best of my ability,
+endeavoured to revivify the bygone times and people. With what success
+the task has been accomplished, with what profit or amusement to
+himself, the kind reader will please to determine.
+
+One summer morning in the year 1756, and in the reign of his Majesty
+King George the Second, the Young Rachel, Virginian ship, Edward Franks
+master, came up the Avon river on her happy return from her annual
+voyage to the Potomac. She proceeded to Bristol with the tide, and
+moored in the stream as near as possible to Trail's wharf, to which she
+was consigned. Mr. Trail, her part owner, who could survey his ship from
+his counting-house windows, straightway took boat and came up her side.
+The owner of the Young Rachel, a large grave man in his own hair, and of
+a demure aspect, gave the hand of welcome to Captain Franks, who stood
+on his deck, and congratulated the captain upon the speedy and fortunate
+voyage which he had made. And, remarking that we ought to be thankful
+to Heaven for its mercies, he proceeded presently to business by asking
+particulars relative to cargo and passengers.
+
+Franks was a pleasant man, who loved a joke. "We have," says he, "but
+yonder ugly negro boy, who is fetching the trunks, and a passenger who
+has the state cabin to himself."
+
+Mr. Trail looked as if he would have preferred more mercies from Heaven.
+"Confound you, Franks, and your luck! The Duke William, which came in
+last week, brought fourteen, and she is not half of our tonnage."
+
+"And this passenger, who has the whole cabin, don't pay nothin',"
+continued the Captain. "Swear now, it will do you good, Mr. Trail,
+indeed it will. I have tried the medicine."
+
+"A passenger take the whole cabin and not pay? Gracious mercy, are you a
+fool, Captain Franks?"
+
+"Ask the passenger himself, for here he comes." And, as the master
+spoke, a young man of some nineteen years of age came up the hatchway.
+He had a cloak and a sword under his arm, and was dressed in deep
+mourning, and called out, "Gumbo, you idiot, why don't you fetch the
+baggage out of the cabin? Well, shipmate, our journey is ended. You will
+see all the little folks to-night whom you have been talking about. Give
+my love to Polly, and Betty, and Little Tommy; not forgetting my duty to
+Mrs. Franks. I thought, yesterday, the voyage would never be done, and
+now I am almost sorry it is over. That little berth in my cabin looks
+very comfortable now I am going to leave it."
+
+Mr. Trail scowled at the young passenger who had paid no money for
+his passage. He scarcely nodded his head to the stranger, when Captain
+Franks said, "This here gentleman is Mr. Trail, sir, whose name you have
+a-heerd of."
+
+"It's pretty well known in Bristol, sir," says Mr. Trail, majestically.
+
+"And this is Mr. Warrington, Madam Esmond Warrington's son, of
+Castlewood," continued the Captain.
+
+The British merchant's hat was instantly off his head, and the owner of
+the beaver was making a prodigious number of bows as if a crown prince
+were before him.
+
+"Gracious powers, Mr. Warrington! This is a delight, indeed! What a
+crowning mercy that your voyage should have been so prosperous! You must
+have my boat to go on shore. Let me cordially and respectfully welcome
+you to England: let me shake your hand as the son of my benefactress and
+patroness, Mrs. Esmond Warrington, whose name is known and honoured on
+Bristol 'Change, I warrant you. Isn't it, Franks?"
+
+"There's no sweeter tobacco comes from Virginia, and no better brand
+than the Three Castles," says Mr. Franks, drawing a great brass
+tobacco-box from his pocket, and thrusting a quid into his jolly mouth.
+"You don't know what a comfort it is, sir! you'll take to it, bless you,
+as you grow older. Won't he, Mr. Trail? I wish you had ten shiploads of
+it instead of one. You might have ten shiploads: I've told Madam Esmond
+so; I've rode over her plantation; she treats me like a lord when I go
+to the house; she don't grudge me the best of wine, or keep me cooling
+my heels in the counting-room as some folks does" (with a look at Mr.
+Trail). "She is a real born lady, she is; and might have a thousand
+hogsheads as easy as her hundreds, if there were but hands enough."
+
+"I have lately engaged in the Guinea trade, and could supply her
+ladyship with any number of healthy young negroes before next fall,"
+said Mr. Trail, obsequiously.
+
+"We are averse to the purchase of negroes from Africa," said the young
+gentleman, coldly. "My grandfather and my mother have always objected to
+it, and I do not like to think of selling or buying the poor wretches."
+
+"It is for their good, my dear young sir! for their temporal and their
+spiritual good!" cried Mr. Trail. "And we purchase the poor creatures
+only for their benefit; let me talk this matter over with you at my own
+house. I can introduce you to a happy home, a Christian family, and a
+British merchant's honest fare. Can't I, Captain Franks?"
+
+"Can't say," growled the Captain. "Never asked me to take bite or sup at
+your table. Asked me to psalm-singing once, and to hear Mr. Ward preach:
+don't care for them sort of entertainments."
+
+Not choosing to take any notice of this remark, Mr. Trail continued in
+his low tone: "Business is business, my dear young sir, and I know,
+'tis only my duty, the duty of all of us, to cultivate the fruits of the
+earth in their season. As the heir of Lady Esmond's estate--for I speak,
+I believe, to the heir of that great property?--"
+
+The young gentleman made a bow.
+
+"--I would urge upon you, at the very earliest moment, the propriety,
+the duty of increasing the ample means with which Heaven has blessed
+you. As an honest factor, I could not do otherwise; as a prudent man,
+should I scruple to speak of what will tend to your profit and mine? No,
+my dear Mr. George."
+
+"My name is not George; my name is Henry," said the young man as he
+turned his head away, and his eyes filled with tears.
+
+"Gracious powers! what do you mean, sir? Did you not say you were my
+lady's heir? and is not George Esmond Warrington, Esq.----"
+
+"Hold your tongue, you fool!" cried Mr. Franks, striking the merchant a
+tough blow on his sleek sides, as the young lad turned away. "Don't
+you see the young gentleman a-swabbing his eyes, and note his black
+clothes?"
+
+"What do you mean, Captain Franks, by laying your hand on your owners?
+Mr. George is the heir; I know the Colonel's will well enough."
+
+"Mr. George is there," said the Captain, pointing with his thumb to the
+deck.
+
+"Where?" cries the factor.
+
+"Mr. George is there!" reiterated the Captain, again lifting up his
+finger towards the topmast, or the sky beyond. "He is dead a year, sir,
+come next 9th of July. He would go out with General Braddock on that
+dreadful business to the Belle Riviere. He and a thousand more never
+came back again. Every man of them was murdered as he fell. You know
+the Indian way, Mr. Trail?" And here the Captain passed his hand rapidly
+round his head. "Horrible! ain't it, sir? horrible! He was a fine young
+man, the very picture of this one; only his hair was black, which is now
+hanging in a bloody Indian wigwam. He was often and often on board of
+the Young Rachel, and would have his chests of books broke open on deck
+before they was landed. He was a shy and silent young gent: not like
+this one, which was the merriest, wildest young fellow, full of his
+songs and fun. He took on dreadful at the news; went to his bed, had
+that fever which lays so many of 'em by the heels along that swampy
+Potomac, but he's got better on the voyage: the voyage makes every one
+better; and, in course, the young gentleman can't be for ever a-crying
+after a brother who dies and leaves him a great fortune. Ever since we
+sighted Ireland he has been quite gay and happy, only he would go off at
+times, when he was most merry, saying, 'I wish my dearest Georgy
+could enjoy this here sight along with me, and when you mentioned
+the t'other's name, you see, he couldn't stand it.'" And the honest
+Captain's own eyes filled with tears, as he turned and looked towards
+the object of his compassion.
+
+Mr. Trail assumed a lugubrious countenance befitting the tragic
+compliment with which he prepared to greet the young Virginian; but the
+latter answered him very curtly, declined his offers of hospitality, and
+only stayed in Mr. Trail's house long enough to drink a glass of wine
+and to take up a sum of money of which he stood in need. But he and
+Captain Franks parted on the very warmest terms, and all the little crew
+of the Young Rachel cheered from the ship's side as their passenger left
+it.
+
+Again and again Harry Warrington and his brother had pored over the
+English map, and determined upon the course which they should take
+upon arriving at Home. All Americans who love the old country--and what
+gently-nurtured man or woman of Anglo-Saxon race does not?--have ere
+this rehearsed their English travels, and visited in fancy the spots
+with which their hopes, their parents' fond stories, their friends'
+descriptions, have rendered them familiar. There are few things to me
+more affecting in the history of the quarrel which divided the two great
+nations than the recurrence of that word Home, as used by the younger
+towards the elder country. Harry Warrington had his chart laid out.
+Before London, and its glorious temples of St. Paul's and St. Peter's;
+its grim Tower, where the brave and loyal had shed their blood, from
+Wallace down to Balmerino and Kilmarnock, pitied by gentle hearts;
+before the awful window of Whitehall, whence the martyr Charles
+had issued, to kneel once more, and then ascend to Heaven;--before
+Playhouses, Parks, and Palaces, wondrous resorts of wit, pleasure, and
+splendour;--before Shakspeare's Resting-place under the tall spire which
+rises by Avon, amidst the sweet Warwickshire pastures;--before Derby,
+and Falkirk, and Culloden, where the cause of honour and loyalty had
+fallen, it might be to rise no more:--before all these points of their
+pilgrimage there was one which the young Virginian brothers held even
+more sacred, and that was the home of their family,--that old Castlewood
+in Hampshire, about which their parents had talked so fondly. From
+Bristol to Bath, from Bath to Salisbury, to Winchester, to Hexton, to
+Home; they knew the way, and had mapped the journey many and many a
+time.
+
+We must fancy our American traveller to be a handsome young fellow,
+whose suit of sables only made him look the more interesting. The plump
+landlady from her bar, surrounded by her china and punch-bowls, and
+stout gilded bottles of strong waters, and glittering rows of silver
+flagons, looked kindly after the young gentleman as he passed through
+the inn-hall from his post-chaise, and the obsequious chamberlain bowed
+him upstairs to the Rose or the Dolphin. The trim chambermaid dropped
+her best curtsey for his fee, and Gumbo, in the inn-kitchen, where the
+townsfolk drank their mug of ale by the great fire, bragged of his young
+master's splendid house in Virginia, and of the immense wealth to which
+he was heir. The postchaise whirled the traveller through the most
+delightful home-scenery his eyes had ever lighted on. If English
+landscape is pleasant to the American of the present day, who must needs
+contrast the rich woods and glowing pastures, and picturesque ancient
+villages of the old country with the rough aspect of his own, how much
+pleasanter must Harry Warrington's course have been, whose journeys had
+lain through swamps and forest solitudes from one Virginian ordinary
+to another log-house at the end of the day's route, and who now lighted
+suddenly upon the busy, happy, splendid scene of English summer? And the
+highroad, a hundred years ago, was not that grass-grown desert of the
+present time. It was alive with constant travel and traffic: the country
+towns and inns swarmed with life and gaiety. The ponderous waggon, with
+its bells and plodding team; the light post-coach that achieved the
+journey from the White Hart, Salisbury, to the Swan with Two Necks,
+London, in two days; the strings of packhorses that had not yet left the
+road; my lord's gilt postchaise-and-six, with the outriders galloping
+on ahead; the country squire's great coach and heavy Flanders mares; the
+farmers trotting to market, or the parson jolting to the cathedral town
+on Dumpling, his wife behind on the pillion--all these crowding sights
+and brisk people greeted the young traveller on his summer journey.
+Hodge, the farmer's boy, took off his hat, and Polly, the milkmaid,
+bobbed a curtsey, as the chaise whirled over the pleasant village-green,
+and the white-headed children lifted their chubby faces and cheered.
+The church-spires glistened with gold, the cottage-gables glared in
+sunshine, the great elms murmured in summer, or cast purple shadows over
+the grass. Young Warrington never had such a glorious day, or witnessed
+a scene so delightful. To be nineteen years of age, with high health,
+high spirits, and a full purse, to be making your first journey, and
+rolling through the country in a postchaise at nine miles an hour--O
+happy youth! almost it makes one young to think of him! But Harry was
+too eager to give more than a passing glance at the Abbey at Bath,
+or gaze with more than a moment's wonder at the mighty Minster at
+Salisbury. Until he beheld Home it seemed to him he had no eyes for any
+other place.
+
+At last the young gentleman's postchaise drew up at the rustic inn on
+Castlewood Green, of which his grandsire had many a time talked to him,
+and which bears as its ensign, swinging from an elm near the inn porch,
+the Three Castles of the Esmond family. They had a sign, too, over the
+gateway of Castlewood House, bearing the same cognisance. This was the
+hatchment of Francis, Lord Castlewood, who now lay in the chapel hard
+by, his son reigning in his stead.
+
+Harry Warrington had often heard of Francis, Lord Castlewood. It was
+for Frank's sake, and for his great love towards the boy, that Colonel
+Esmond determined to forgo his claim to the English estates and rank of
+his family, and retired to Virginia. The young man had led a wild youth;
+he had fought with distinction under Marlborough; he had married a
+foreign lady, and most lamentably adopted her religion. At one time he
+had been a Jacobite (for loyalty to the sovereign was ever hereditary
+in the Esmond family), but had received some slight or injury from the
+Prince, which had caused him to rally to King George's side. He had,
+on his second marriage, renounced the errors of Popery which he had
+temporarily embraced, and returned to the Established Church again. He
+had, from his constant support of the King and the Minister of the time
+being, been rewarded by his Majesty George II., and died an English
+peer. An earl's coronet now figured on the hatchment which hung over
+Castlewood gate--and there was an end of the jolly gentleman. Between
+Colonel Esmond, who had become his stepfather, and his lordship there
+had ever been a brief but affectionate correspondence--on the Colonel's
+part especially, who loved his stepson, and had a hundred stories to
+tell about him to his grandchildren. Madam Esmond, however, said she
+could see nothing in her half-brother. He was dull, except when he drank
+too much wine, and that, to be sure, was every day at dinner. Then
+he was boisterous, and his conversation not pleasant. He was
+good-looking--yes--a fine tall stout animal; she had rather her boys
+should follow a different model. In spite of the grandfather's encomium
+of the late lord, the boys had no very great respect for their kinsman's
+memory. The lads and their mother were staunch Jacobites, though having
+every respect for his present Majesty; but right was right, and nothing
+could make their hearts swerve from their allegiance to the descendants
+of the martyr Charles.
+
+With a beating heart Harry Warrington walked from the inn towards
+the house where his grandsire's youth had been passed. The little
+village-green of Castlewood slopes down towards the river, which is
+spanned by an old bridge of a single broad arch, and from this the
+ground rises gradually towards the house, grey with many gables and
+buttresses, and backed by a darkling wood. An old man sate at the wicket
+on a stone bench in front of the great arched entrance to the house,
+over which the earl's hatchment was hanging. An old dog was crouched at
+the man's feet. Immediately above the ancient sentry at the gate was an
+open casement with some homely flowers in the window, from behind which
+good-humoured girls' faces were peeping. They were watching the young
+traveller dressed in black as he walked up gazing towards the castle,
+and the ebony attendant who followed the gentleman's steps also
+accoutred in mourning. So was he at the gate in mourning, and the girls
+when they came out had black ribbons.
+
+To Harry's surprise, the old man accosted him by his name. "You have had
+a nice ride to Hexton, Master Harry, and the sorrel carried you well."
+
+"I think you must be Lockwood," said Harry, with rather a tremulous
+voice, holding out his hand to the old man. His grandfather had often
+told him of Lockwood, and how he had accompanied the Colonel and the
+young Viscount in Marlborough's wars forty years ago. The veteran seemed
+puzzled by the mark of affection which Harry extended to him. The old
+dog gazed at the new-comer, and then went and put his head between his
+knees. "I have heard of you often. How did you know my name?"
+
+"They say I forget most things," says the old man, with a smile; "but
+I ain't so bad as that quite. Only this mornin', when you went out, my
+darter says, 'Father, do you know why you have a black coat on?' 'In
+course I know why I have a black coat,' says I. 'My lord is dead. They
+say 'twas a foul blow, and Master Frank is my lord now, and Master
+Harry'--why, what have you done since you've went out this morning? Why,
+you have a-grow'd taller and changed your hair--though I know--I know
+you."
+
+One of the young women had tripped out by this time from the porter's
+lodge, and dropped the stranger a pretty curtsey. "Grandfather sometimes
+does not recollect very well," she said, pointing to her head. "Your
+honour seems to have heard of Lockwood?"
+
+"And you, have you never heard of Colonel Francis Esmond?"
+
+"He was Captain and Major in Webb's Foot, and I was with him in two
+campaigns, sure enough," cries Lockwood. "Wasn't I, Ponto?"
+
+"The Colonel as married Viscountess Rachel, my late lord's mother? and
+went to live amongst the Indians? We have heard of him. Sure we have his
+picture in our gallery, and hisself painted it."
+
+"Went to live in Virginia, and died there seven years ago, and I am his
+grandson."
+
+"Lord, your honour! Why, your honour's skin's as white as mine," cries
+Molly. "Grandfather, do you hear this? His honour is Colonel Esmond's
+grandson that used to send you tobacco, and his honour have come all the
+way from Virginia."
+
+"To see you, Lockwood," says the young man, "and the family. I only set
+foot on English ground yesterday, and my first visit is for home. I may
+see the house, though the family are from home?" Molly dared to say Mrs.
+Barker would let his honour see the house, and Harry Warrington made
+his way across the court, seeming to know the place as well as if he had
+been born there, Miss Molly thought, who followed, accompanied by Mr.
+Gumbo making her a profusion of polite bows and speeches.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. In which Harry has to pay for his Supper
+
+
+Colonel Esmond's grandson rang for a while at his ancestors' house of
+Castlewood, before any one within seemed inclined to notice his summons.
+The servant, who at length issued from the door, seemed to be very
+little affected by the announcement that the visitor was a relation of
+the family. The family was away, and in their absence John cared very
+little for their relatives, but was eager to get back to his game at
+cards with Thomas in the window-seat. The housekeeper was busy getting
+ready for my lord and my lady, who were expected that evening. Only by
+strong entreaties could Harry gain leave to see my lady's sitting-room
+and the picture-room, where, sure enough, was a portrait of his
+grandfather in periwig and breastplate, the counterpart of their picture
+in Virginia, and a likeness of his grandmother, as Lady Castlewood, in a
+yet earlier habit of Charles II.'s time; her neck bare, her fair golden
+hair waving over her shoulders in ringlets which he remembered to have
+seen snowy white. From the contemplation of these sights the sulky
+housekeeper drove him. Her family was about to arrive. There was my lady
+the Countess, and my lord and his brother, and the young ladies, and the
+Baroness, who was to have the state bedroom. Who was the Baroness? The
+Baroness Bernstein, the young ladies' aunt. Harry wrote down his name
+on a paper from his own pocket-book, and laid it on a table in the hall.
+"Henry Esmond Warrington, of Castlewood, in Virginia, arrived in England
+yesterday--staying at the Three Castles in the village." The lackeys
+rose up from their cards to open the door to him, in order to get their
+"wails," and Gumbo quitted the bench at the gate, where he had been
+talking with old Lockwood, the porter, who took Harry's guinea, hardly
+knowing the meaning of the gift. During the visit to the home of his
+fathers, Harry had only seen little Polly's countenance that was
+the least unselfish or kindly: he walked away, not caring to own how
+disappointed he was, and what a damp had been struck upon him by the
+aspect of the place. They ought to have known him. Had any of them
+ridden up to his house in Virginia, whether the master were present or
+absent, the guests would have been made welcome, and, in sight of his
+ancestors' hall, he had to go and ask for a dish of bacon and eggs at a
+country alehouse!
+
+After his dinner, he went to the bridge and sate on it, looking towards
+the old house, behind which the sun was descending as the rooks came
+cawing home to their nests in the elms. His young fancy pictured to
+itself many of the ancestors of whom his mother and grandsire had told
+him. He fancied knights and huntsmen crossing the ford;--cavaliers
+of King Charles's days; my Lord Castlewood, his grandmother's first
+husband, riding out with hawk and hound. The recollection of his dearest
+lost brother came back to him as he indulged in these reveries, and
+smote him with a pang of exceeding tenderness and longing, insomuch that
+the young man hung his head and felt his sorrow renewed for the dear
+friend and companion with whom, until of late, all his pleasures and
+griefs had been shared. As he sate plunged in his own thoughts, which
+were mingled up with the mechanical clinking of the blacksmith's forge
+hard by, the noises of the evening, the talk of the rooks, and the
+calling of the birds round about--a couple of young men on horseback
+dashed over the bridge. One of them, with an oath, called him a fool,
+and told him to keep out of the way--the other, who fancied he might
+have jostled the foot-passenger, and possibly might have sent him over
+the parapet, pushed on more quickly when he reached the other side of
+the water, calling likewise to Tom to come on; and the pair of young
+gentlemen were up the hill on their way to the house before Harry had
+recovered himself from his surprise at their appearance, and wrath at
+their behaviour. In a minute or two, this advanced guard was followed by
+two livery servants on horseback, who scowled at the young traveller
+on the bridge a true British welcome of Curse you, who are you? After
+these, in a minute or two, came a coach-and-six, a ponderous vehicle
+having need of the horses which drew it, and containing three ladies, a
+couple of maids, and an armed man on a seat behind the carriage. Three
+handsome pale faces looked out at Harry Warrington as the carriage
+passed over the bridge, and did not return the salute which, recognising
+the family arms, he gave it. The gentleman behind the carriage glared at
+him haughtily. Harry felt terribly alone. He thought he would go back to
+Captain Franks. The Rachel and her little tossing cabin seemed a cheery
+spot in comparison to that on which he stood. The inn-folks did not know
+his name of Warrington. They told him that was my lady in the coach,
+with her stepdaughter, my Lady Maria, and her daughter, my Lady Fanny;
+and the young gentleman in the grey frock was Mr. William, and he with
+powder on the chestnut was my lord. It was the latter had sworn the
+loudest, and called him a fool; and it was the grey frock which had
+nearly galloped Harry into the ditch.
+
+The landlord of the Three Castles had shown Harry a bedchamber, but
+he had refused to have his portmanteaux unpacked, thinking that, for a
+certainty, the folks of the great house would invite him to theirs. One,
+two, three hours passed, and there came no invitation. Harry was fain
+to have his trunks open at last, and to call for his slippers and
+gown. Just before dark, about two hours after the arrival of the first
+carriage, a second chariot with four horses had passed over the bridge,
+and a stout, high-coloured lady, with a very dark pair of eyes, had
+looked hard at Mr. Warrington. That was the Baroness Bernstein, the
+landlady said, my lord's aunt, and Harry remembered the first Lady
+Castlewood had come of a German family. Earl, and Countess, and
+Baroness, and postillions, and gentlemen, and horses, had all
+disappeared behind the castle gate, and Harry was fain to go to bed at
+last, in the most melancholy mood and with a cruel sense of neglect and
+loneliness in his young heart. He could not sleep, and, besides, ere
+long, heard a prodigious noise, and cursing, and giggling, and screaming
+from my landlady's bar, which would have served to keep him awake.
+
+Then Gumbo's voice was heard without, remonstrating, "You cannot go in,
+sar--my master asleep, sar!" but a shrill voice, with many oaths,
+which Harry Warrington recognised, cursed Gumbo for a stupid, negro
+woolly-pate, and he was pushed aside, giving entrance to a flood of
+oaths into the room, and a young gentleman behind them.
+
+"Beg your pardon, Cousin Warrington," cried the young blasphemer, "are
+you asleep? Beg your pardon for riding you over on the bridge. Didn't
+know you--course shouldn't have done it--thought it was a lawyer with a
+writ--dressed in black, you know. Gad! thought it was Nathan come to nab
+me." And Mr. William laughed incoherently. It was evident that he was
+excited with liquor.
+
+"You did me great honour to mistake me for a sheriff's-officer, cousin,"
+says Harry, with great gravity, sitting up in his tall nightcap.
+
+"Gad! I thought it was Nathan, and was going to send you souse into the
+river. But I ask your pardon. You see I had been drinking at the Bell at
+Hexton, and the punch is good at the Bell at Hexton. Hullo! you, Davis!
+a bowl of punch; d'you hear?"
+
+"I have had my share for to-night, cousin, and I should think you have,"
+Harry continues, always in the dignified style.
+
+"You want me to go, Cousin What's-your-name, I see," Mr. William said,
+with gravity. "You want me to go, and they want me to come, and I didn't
+want to come. I said, I'd see him hanged first,--that's what I said. Why
+should I trouble myself to come down all alone of an evening, and look
+after a fellow I don't care a pin for? Zackly what I said. Zackly what
+Castlewood said. Why the devil should he go down? Castlewood says,
+and so said my lady, but the Baroness would have you. It's all the
+Baroness's doing, and if she says a thing, it must be done; so you must
+just get up and come." Mr. Esmond delivered these words with the most
+amiable rapidity and indistinctness, running them into one another, and
+tacking about the room as he spoke. But the young Virginian was in
+great wrath. "I tell you what, cousin," he cried, "I won't move for the
+Countess, or for the Baroness, or for all the cousins in Castlewood."
+And when the landlord entered the chamber with the bowl of punch, which
+Mr. Esmond had ordered, the young gentleman in bed called out fiercely
+to the host, to turn that sot out of the room.
+
+"Sot, you little tobacconist! Sot, you Cherokee!" screams out Mr.
+William. "Jump out of bed, and I'll drive my sword through your body.
+Why didn't I do it to-day when I took you for a bailiff--a confounded
+pettifogging bum-bailiff!" And he went on screeching more oaths and
+incoherencies, until the landlord, the drawer, the hostler, and all the
+folks of the kitchen were brought to lead him away. After which Harry
+Warrington closed his tent round him in sulky wrath, and, no doubt,
+finally went fast to sleep.
+
+
+My landlord was very much more obsequious on the next morning when he
+met his young guest, having now fully learned his name and quality.
+Other messengers had come from the castle on the previous night to bring
+both the young gentlemen home, and poor Mr. William, it appeared, had
+returned in a wheelbarrow, being not altogether unaccustomed to that
+mode of conveyance. "He never remembers nothin' about it the next day.
+He is of a real kind nature, Mr. William," the landlord vowed, "and
+the men get crowns and half-crowns from him by saying that he beat them
+overnight when he was in liquor. He's the devil when he's tipsy,
+Mr. William, but when he is sober he is the very kindest of young
+gentlemen."
+
+As nothing is unknown to writers of biographies of the present kind, it
+may be as well to state what had occurred within the walls of Castlewood
+House, whilst Harry Warrington was without, awaiting some token of
+recognition from his kinsmen. On their arrival at home the family
+had found the paper on which the lad's name was inscribed, and his
+appearance occasioned a little domestic council. My Lord Castlewood
+supposed that must have been the young gentleman whom they had seen on
+the bridge, and as they had not drowned him they must invite him. Let a
+man go down with the proper messages, let a servant carry a note. Lady
+Fanny thought it would be more civil if one of the brothers would go to
+their kinsman, especially considering the original greeting which
+they had given. Lord Castlewood had not the slightest objection to his
+brother William going--yes, William should go. Upon this Mr. William
+said (with a yet stronger expression) that he would be hanged if he
+would go. Lady Maria thought the young gentleman whom they had remarked
+at the bridge was a pretty fellow enough. Castlewood is dreadfully dull,
+I am sure neither of my brothers do anything to make it amusing. He may
+be vulgar--no doubt, he is vulgar--but let us see the American. Such was
+Lady Maria's opinion. Lady Castlewood was neither for inviting nor for
+refusing him, but for delaying. "Wait till your aunt comes, children;
+perhaps the Baroness won't like to see the young man; at least, let us
+consult her before we ask him." And so the hospitality to be offered by
+his nearest kinsfolk to poor Harry Warrington remained yet in abeyance.
+
+At length the equipage of the Baroness Bernstein made its appearance,
+and whatever doubt there might be as to the reception of the Virginian
+stranger, there was no lack of enthusiasm in this generous family
+regarding their wealthy and powerful kinswoman. The state-chamber had
+already been prepared for her. The cook had arrived the previous day
+with instructions to get ready a supper for her such as her ladyship
+liked. The table sparkled with old plate, and was set in the oak
+dining-room with the pictures of the family round the walls. There was
+the late Viscount, his father, his mother, his sister--these two lovely
+pictures. There was his predecessor by Vandyck, and his Viscountess.
+There was Colonel Esmond, their relative in Virginia, about whose
+grandson the ladies and gentlemen of the Esmond family showed such a
+very moderate degree of sympathy.
+
+The feast set before their aunt, the Baroness, was a very good one,
+and her ladyship enjoyed it. The supper occupied an hour or two, during
+which the whole Castlewood family were most attentive to their guest.
+The Countess pressed all the good dishes upon her, of which she freely
+partook: the butler no sooner saw her glass empty than he filled it with
+champagne: the young folks and their mother kept up the conversation,
+not so much by talking, as by listening appropriately to their friend.
+She was full of spirits and humour. She seemed to know everybody in
+Europe, and about those everybodies the wickedest stories. The Countess
+of Castlewood, ordinarily a very demure, severe woman, and a stickler
+for the proprieties, smiled at the very worst of these anecdotes; the
+girls looked at one another and laughed at the maternal signal; the boys
+giggled and roared with especial delight at their sisters' confusion.
+They also partook freely of the wine which the butler handed round, nor
+did they, or their guest, disdain the bowl of smoking punch, which was
+laid on the table after the supper. Many and many a night, the Baroness
+said, she had drunk at that table by her father's side. "That was his
+place," she pointed to the place where the Countess now sat. She saw
+none of the old plate. That was all melted to pay his gambling debts.
+She hoped, "Young gentlemen, that you don't play."
+
+"Never, on my word," says Castlewood.
+
+"Never, 'pon honour," says Will--winking at his brother.
+
+The Baroness was very glad to hear they were such good boys. Her face
+grew redder with the punch; and she became voluble, might have been
+thought coarse, but that times were different, and those critics were
+inclined to be especially favourable.
+
+She talked to the boys about their father, their grandfather--other men
+and women of the house. "The only man of the family was that," she said,
+pointing (with an arm that was yet beautifully round and white) towards
+the picture of the military gentleman in the red coat and cuirass, and
+great black periwig.
+
+"The Virginian? What is he good for? I always thought he was good for
+nothing but to cultivate tobacco and my grandmother," says my lord,
+laughing.
+
+She struck her hand upon the table with an energy that made the glasses
+dance. "I say he was the best of you all. There never was one of the
+male Esmonds that had more brains than a goose, except him. He was not
+fit for this wicked, selfish old world of ours, and he was right to go
+and live out of it. Where would your father have been, young people, but
+for him?"
+
+"Was he particularly kind to our papa?" says Lady Maria.
+
+"Old stories, my dear Maria!" cries the Countess. "I am sure my dear
+Earl was very kind to him in giving him that great estate in Virginia."
+
+"Since his brother's death, the lad who has been here to-day is heir to
+that. Mr. Draper told me so! Peste! I don't know why my father gave up
+such a property."
+
+"Who has been here to-day?" asked the Baroness, highly excited.
+
+"Harry Esmond Warrington, of Virginia," my lord answered: "a lad whom
+Will nearly pitched into the river, and whom I pressed my lady the
+Countess to invite to stay here."
+
+"You mean that one of the Virginian boys has been to Castlewood, and has
+not been asked to stay here?"
+
+"There is but one of them, my dear creature," interposes the Earl. "The
+other, you know, has just been----"
+
+"For shame, for shame!"
+
+"Oh! it ain't pleasant, I confess, to be se----"
+
+"Do you mean that a grandson of Henry Esmond, the master of this house,
+has been here, and none of you have offered him hospitality?"
+
+"Since we didn't know it, and he is staying at the Castles?" interposes
+Will.
+
+"That he is staying at the Inn, and you are sitting there!" cries the
+old lady. "This is too bad--call somebody to me. Get me my hood--I'll go
+to the boy myself. Come with me this instant, my Lord Castlewood."
+
+The young man rose up, evidently in wrath. "Madame the Baroness of
+Bernstein," he said, "your ladyship is welcome to go; but as for me, I
+don't choose to have such words as 'shameful' applied to my conduct. I
+won't go and fetch the young gentleman from Virginia, and I propose to
+sit here and finish this bowl of punch. Eugene! Don't Eugene me, madam.
+I know her ladyship has a great deal of money, which you are desirous
+should remain in our amiable family. You want it more than I do. Cringe
+for it--I won't." And he sank back in his chair.
+
+The Baroness looked at the family, who held their heads down, and then
+at my lord, but this time without any dislike. She leaned over to him
+and said rapidly in German, "I had unright when I said the Colonel was
+the only man of the family. Thou canst, if thou willest, Eugene." To
+which remark my lord only bowed.
+
+"If you do not wish an old woman to go out at this hour of the night,
+let William, at least, go and fetch his cousin," said the Baroness.
+
+"The very thing I proposed to him."
+
+"And so did we--and so did we!" cried the daughters in a breath.
+
+"I am sure, I only wanted the dear Baroness's consent!" said their
+mother, "and shall be charmed for my part to welcome our young
+relative."
+
+"Will! Put on thy pattens and get a lantern, and go fetch the
+Virginian," said my lord.
+
+"And we will have another bowl of punch when he comes," says William,
+who by this time had already had too much. And he went forth--how we
+have seen; and how he had more punch; and how ill he succeeded in his
+embassy.
+
+The worthy lady of Castlewood, as she caught sight of young Harry
+Warrington by the river-side, must have seen a very handsome and
+interesting youth, and very likely had reasons of her own for not
+desiring his presence in her family. All mothers are not eager to
+encourage the visits of interesting youths of nineteen in families where
+there are virgins of twenty. If Harry's acres had been in Norfolk or
+Devon, in place of Virginia, no doubt the good Countess would have been
+rather more eager in her welcome. Had she wanted him she would have
+given him her hand readily enough. If our people of ton are selfish, at
+any rate they show they are selfish; and, being cold-hearted, at least
+have no hypocrisy of affection.
+
+Why should Lady Castlewood put herself out of the way to welcome the
+young stranger? Because he was friendless? Only a simpleton could ever
+imagine such a reason as that. People of fashion, like her ladyship, are
+friendly to those who have plenty of friends. A poor lad, alone, from a
+distant country, with only very moderate means, and those not as yet in
+his own power, with uncouth manners very likely, and coarse provincial
+habits; was a great lady called upon to put herself out of the way for
+such a youth? Allons donc! He was quite as well at the alehouse as at
+the castle.
+
+This, no doubt, was her ladyship's opinion, which her kinswoman, the
+Baroness Bernstein, who knew her perfectly well, entirely understood.
+The Baroness, too, was a woman of the world, and, possibly, on occasion,
+could be as selfish as any other person of fashion. She fully understood
+the cause of the deference which all the Castlewood family showed to
+her--mother, and daughter, and sons,--and being a woman of great humour,
+played upon the dispositions of the various members of this family,
+amused herself with their greedinesses, their humiliations, their
+artless respect for her money-box, and clinging attachment to her purse.
+They were not very rich; Lady Castlewood's own money was settled on
+her children. The two elder had inherited nothing but flaxen heads from
+their German mother, and a pedigree of prodigious distinction. But
+those who had money, and those who had none, were alike eager for the
+Baroness's; in this matter the rich are surely quite as greedy as the
+poor.
+
+So if Madam Bernstein struck her hand on the table, and caused the
+glasses and the persons round it to tremble at her wrath, it was because
+she was excited with plenty of punch and champagne, which her ladyship
+was in the habit of taking freely, and because she may have had a
+generous impulse when generous wine warmed her blood, and felt indignant
+as she thought of the poor lad yonder, sitting friendless and lonely on
+the outside of his ancestors' door; not because she was specially angry
+with her relatives, who she knew would act precisely as they had done.
+
+The exhibition of their selfishness and humiliation alike amused her,
+as did Castlewood's act of revolt. He was as selfish as the rest of the
+family, but not so mean; and, as he candidly stated, he could afford the
+luxury of a little independence, having tolerable estate to fall back
+upon.
+
+Madam Bernstein was an early woman, restless, resolute, extraordinarily
+active for her age. She was up long before the languid Castlewood
+ladies (just home from their London routs and balls) had quitted their
+feather-beds, or jolly Will had slept off his various potations of
+punch. She was up, and pacing the green terraces that sparkled with the
+sweet morning dew, which lay twinkling, also, on a flowery wilderness
+of trim parterres, and on the crisp walls of the dark box hedges, under
+which marble fauns and dryads were cooling themselves, whilst a thousand
+birds sang, the fountains plashed and glittered in the rosy morning
+sunshine, and the rooks cawed from the great wood.
+
+Had the well-remembered scene (for she had visited it often in
+childhood) a freshness and charm for her? Did it recall days of
+innocence and happiness, and did its calm beauty soothe or please,
+or awaken remorse in her heart? Her manner was more than ordinarily
+affectionate and gentle, when, presently, after pacing the walks for a
+half-hour, the person for whom she was waiting came to her. This was our
+young Virginian, to whom she had despatched an early billet by one of
+the Lockwoods. The note was signed B. Bernstein, and informed Mr. Esmond
+Warrington that his relatives at Castlewood, and among them a dear
+friend of his grandfather, were most anxious that he should come to
+"Colonel Esmond's house in England." And now, accordingly, the lad made
+his appearance, passing under the old Gothic doorway, tripping down the
+steps from one garden terrace to another, hat in hand, his fair hair
+blowing from his flushed cheeks, his slim figure clad in mourning. The
+handsome and modest looks, the comely face and person, of the young lad
+pleased the lady. He made her a low bow which would have done credit
+to Versailles. She held out a little hand to him, and, as his own palm
+closed over it, she laid the other hand softly on his ruffle. She looked
+very kindly and affectionately in the honest blushing face.
+
+"I knew your grandfather very well, Harry," she said. "So you came
+yesterday to see his picture, and they turned you away, though you know
+the house was his of right?"
+
+Harry blushed very red. "The servants did not know me. A young gentleman
+came to me last night," he said, "when I was peevish, and he, I fear,
+was tipsy. I spoke rudely to my cousin, and would ask his pardon.
+Your ladyship knows that in Virginia our manners towards strangers are
+different. I own I had expected another kind of welcome. Was it you,
+madam, who sent my cousin to me last night?"
+
+"I sent him; but you will find your cousins most friendly to you to-day.
+You must stay here. Lord Castlewood would have been with you this
+morning, only I was so eager to see you. There will be breakfast in
+an hour; and meantime you must talk to me. We will send to the Three
+Castles for your servant and your baggage. Give me your arm. Stop, I
+dropped my cane when you came. You shall be my cane."
+
+"My grandfather used to call us his crutches," said Harry.
+
+"You are like him, though you are fair."
+
+"You should have seen--you should have seen George," said the boy, and
+his honest eyes welled with tears. The recollection of his brother,
+the bitter pain of yesterday's humiliation, the affectionateness of the
+present greeting--all, perhaps, contributed to soften the lad's heart.
+He felt very tenderly and gratefully towards the lady who had received
+him so warmly. He was utterly alone and miserable a minute since, and
+here was a home and a kind hand held out to him. No wonder he clung to
+it. In the hour during which they talked together, the young fellow
+had poured out a great deal of his honest heart to the kind new-found
+friend; when the dial told breakfast-time, he wondered to think how much
+he had told her. She took him to the breakfast-room; she presented
+him to his aunt, the Countess, and bade him embrace his cousins. Lord
+Castlewood was frank and gracious enough. Honest Will had a headache,
+but was utterly unconscious of the proceedings of the past night. The
+ladies were very pleasant and polite, as ladies of their fashion know
+how to be. How should Harry Warrington, a simple truth-telling lad
+from a distant colony, who had only yesterday put his foot upon English
+shore, know that my ladies, so smiling and easy in demeanour, were
+furious against him, and aghast at the favour with which Madam Bernstein
+seemed to regard him?
+
+She was folle of him, talked of no one else, scarce noticed the
+Castlewood young people, trotted with him over the house, and told him
+all its story, showed him the little room in the courtyard where his
+grandfather used to sleep, and a cunning cupboard over the fireplace
+which had been made in the time of the Catholic persecutions; drove out
+with him in the neighbouring country, and pointed out to him the most
+remarkable sites and houses, and had in return the whole of the young
+man's story.
+
+This brief biography the kind reader will please to accept, not in
+the precise words in which Mr. Harry Warrington delivered it to Madam
+Bernstein, but in the form in which it has been cast in the Chapters
+next ensuing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. The Esmonds in Virginia
+
+
+Henry Esmond, Esq., an office who had served with the rank of Colonel
+during the wars of Queen Anne's reign, found himself, at its close,
+compromised in certain attempts for the restoration of the Queen's
+family to the throne of these realms. Happily for itself, the nation
+preferred another dynasty; but some of the few opponents of the house
+of Hanover took refuge out of the three kingdoms, and amongst others,
+Colonel Esmond was counselled by his friends to go abroad. As Mr. Esmond
+sincerely regretted the part which he had taken, and as the august
+Prince who came to rule over England was the most pacable of sovereigns,
+in a very little time the Colonel's friends found means to make his
+peace.
+
+Mr. Esmond, it has been said, belonged to the noble English family which
+takes its title from Castlewood, in the county of Hants; and it was
+pretty generally known that King James II. and his son had offered the
+title of Marquis to Colonel Esmond and his father, and that the former
+might have assumed the (Irish) peerage hereditary in his family, but
+for an informality which he did not choose to set right. Tired of the
+political struggles in which he had been engaged, and annoyed by family
+circumstances in Europe, he preferred to establish himself in Virginia,
+where he took possession of a large estate conferred by King Charles I.
+upon his ancestor. Here Mr. Esmond's daughter and grandsons were born,
+and his wife died. This lady, when she married him, was the widow of the
+Colonel's kinsman, the unlucky Viscount Castlewood, killed in a duel by
+Lord Mohun, at the close of King William's reign.
+
+Mr. Esmond called his American house Castlewood, from the patrimonial
+home in the old country. The whole usages of Virginia, indeed, were
+fondly modelled after the English customs. It was a loyal colony. The
+Virginians boasted that King Charles II. had been king in Virginia
+before he had been king in England. English king and English church were
+alike faithfully honoured there. The resident gentry were allied to good
+English families. They held their heads above the Dutch traders of New
+York, and the money-getting Roundheads of Pennsylvania and New England.
+Never were people less republican than those of the great province which
+was soon to be foremost in the memorable revolt against the British
+Crown.
+
+The gentry of Virginia dwelt on their great lands after a fashion almost
+patriarchal. For its rough cultivation, each estate had a multitude
+of hands--of purchased and assigned servants--who were subject to the
+command of the master. The land yielded their food, live stock, and
+game. The great rivers swarmed with fish for the taking. From their
+banks the passage home was clear. Their ships took the tobacco off their
+private wharves on the banks of the Potomac or the James river, and
+carried it to London or Bristol,--bringing back English goods and
+articles of home manufacture in return for the only produce which the
+Virginian gentry chose to cultivate. Their hospitality was boundless.
+No stranger was ever sent away from their gates. The gentry received one
+another, and travelled to each other's houses, in a state almost feudal.
+The question of Slavery was not born at the time of which we write. To
+be the proprietor of black servants shocked the feelings of no Virginian
+gentleman; nor, in truth, was the despotism exercised over the negro
+race generally a savage one. The food was plenty; the poor black people
+lazy and not unhappy. You might have preached negro emancipation to
+Madam Esmond of Castlewood as you might have told her to let the horses
+run loose out of her stables; she had no doubt but that the whip and the
+corn-bag were good for both.
+
+Her father may have thought otherwise, being of a sceptical turn on very
+many points, but his doubts did not break forth in active denial, and
+he was rather disaffected than rebellious. At one period, this gentleman
+had taken a part in active life at home, and possibly might have been
+eager to share its rewards; but in latter days he did not seem to care
+for them. A something had occurred in his life, which had cast a tinge
+of melancholy over all his existence. He was not unhappy--to those about
+him most kind--most affectionate, obsequious even to the women of
+his family, whom be scarce ever contradicted; but there had been some
+bankruptcy of his heart, which his spirit never recovered. He submitted
+to life, rather than enjoyed it, and never was in better spirits than in
+his last hours when he was going to lay it down.
+
+Having lost his wife, his daughter took the management of the Colonel
+and his affairs; and he gave them up to her charge with an entire
+acquiescence. So that he had his books and his quiet, he cared for no
+more. When company came to Castlewood, he entertained them handsomely,
+and was of a very pleasant, sarcastical turn. He was not in the least
+sorry when they went away.
+
+"My love, I shall not be sorry to go myself," he said to his daughter,
+"and you, though the most affectionate of daughters, will console
+yourself after a while. Why should I, who am so old, be romantic? You
+may, who are still a young creature." This he said, not meaning all he
+said, for the lady whom he addressed was a matter-of-fact little person,
+with very little romance in her nature.
+
+After fifteen years' residence upon his great Virginian estate, affairs
+prospered so well with the worthy proprietor, that he acquiesced in his
+daughter's plans for the building of a mansion much grander and more
+durable than the plain wooden edifice in which he had been content to
+live, so that his heirs might have a habitation worthy of their noble
+name. Several of Madam Warrington's neighbours had built handsome houses
+for themselves; perhaps it was her ambition to take rank in the country,
+which inspired this desire for improved quarters. Colonel Esmond, of
+Castlewood, neither cared for quarters nor for quarterings. But his
+daughter had a very high opinion of the merit and antiquity of her
+lineage; and her sire, growing exquisitely calm and good-natured in his
+serene, declining years, humoured his child's peculiarities in an easy,
+bantering way,--nay, helped her with his antiquarian learning, which was
+not inconsiderable, and with his skill in the art of painting, of which
+he was a proficient. A knowledge of heraldry, a hundred years ago,
+formed part of the education of most noble ladies and gentlemen: during
+her visit to Europe, Miss Esmond had eagerly studied the family history
+and pedigrees, and returned thence to Virginia with a store of documents
+relative to her family on which she relied with implicit gravity and
+credence, and with the most edifying volumes then published in France
+and England, respecting the noble science. These works proved, to her
+perfect satisfaction, not only that the Esmonds were descended from
+noble Norman warriors, who came into England along with their victorious
+chief, but from native English of royal dignity: and two magnificent
+heraldic trees, cunningly painted by the hand of the Colonel,
+represented the family springing from the Emperor Charlemagne on the
+one hand, who was drawn in plate-armour, with his imperial mantle and
+diadem, and on the other from Queen Boadicea, whom the Colonel insisted
+upon painting in the light costume of an ancient British queen, with
+a prodigious gilded crown, a trifling mantle of furs, and a lovely
+symmetrical person, tastefully tattooed with figures of a brilliant blue
+tint. From these two illustrious stocks the family-tree rose until
+it united in the thirteenth century somewhere in the person of the
+fortunate Esmond who claimed to spring from both.
+
+Of the Warrington family, into which she married, good Madam Rachel
+thought but little. She wrote herself Esmond Warrington, but was
+universally called Madam Esmond of Castlewood, when after her father's
+decease she came to rule over that domain. It is even to be feared that
+quarrels for precedence in the colonial society occasionally disturbed
+her temper; for though her father had had a marquis's patent from King
+James, which he had burned and disowned, she would frequently act as if
+that document existed and was in full force. She considered the English
+Esmonds of an inferior dignity to her own branch; and as for the
+colonial aristocracy, she made no scruple of asserting her superiority
+over the whole body of them. Hence quarrels and angry words, and even
+a scuffle or two, as we gather from her notes, at the Governor's
+assemblies at Jamestown. Wherefore recall the memory of these squabbles?
+Are not the persons who engaged in them beyond the reach of quarrels
+now, and has not the republic put an end to these social inequalities?
+Ere the establishment of Independence, there was no more aristocratic
+country in the world than Virginia; so the Virginians, whose history
+we have to narrate, were bred to have the fullest respect for the
+institutions of home, and the rightful king had not two more faithful
+little subjects than the young twins of Castlewood.
+
+When the boys' grandfather died, their mother, in great state,
+proclaimed her eldest son George her successor and heir of the estate;
+and Harry, George's younger brother by half an hour, was always enjoined
+to respect his senior. All the household was equally instructed to pay
+him honour; the negroes, of whom there was a large and happy family, and
+the assigned servants from Europe, whose lot was made as bearable as it
+might be under the government of the lady of Castlewood. In the whole
+family there scarcely was a rebel save Mrs. Esmond's faithful friend and
+companion, Madam Mountain, and Harry's foster-mother, a faithful negro
+woman, who never could be made to understand why her child should not be
+first, who was handsomer, and stronger, and cleverer than his brother,
+as she vowed; though, in truth, there was scarcely any difference in the
+beauty, strength, or stature of the twins. In disposition, they were in
+many points exceedingly unlike; but in feature they resembled each other
+so closely, that but for the colour of their hair it had been difficult
+to distinguish them. In their beds, and when their heads were covered
+with those vast ribboned nightcaps which our great and little ancestors
+wore, it was scarcely possible for any but a nurse or mother to tell the
+one from the other child.
+
+Howbeit alike in form, we have said that they differed in temper. The
+elder was peaceful, studious, and silent; the younger was warlike
+and noisy. He was quick at learning when he began, but very slow at
+beginning. No threats of the ferule would provoke Harry to learn in
+an idle fit, or would prevent George from helping his brother in his
+lesson. Harry was of a strong military turn, drilled the little
+negroes on the estate and caned them like a corporal, having many
+good boxing-matches with them, and never bearing malice if he was
+worsted;--whereas George was sparing of blows and gentle with all about
+him. As the custom in all families was, each of the boys had a special
+little servant assigned him; and it was a known fact that George,
+finding his little wretch of a blackamoor asleep on his master's bed,
+sat down beside it and brushed the flies off the child with a feather
+fan, to the horror of old Gumbo, the child's father, who found his young
+master so engaged, and to the indignation of Madam Esmond, who ordered
+the young negro off to the proper officer for a whipping. In vain George
+implored and entreated--burst into passionate tears, and besought a
+remission of the sentence. His mother was inflexible regarding the young
+rebel's punishment, and the little negro went off beseeching his young
+master not to cry.
+
+A fierce quarrel between mother and son ensued out of this event. Her
+son would not be pacified. He said the punishment was a shame--a shame;
+that he was the master of the boy, and no one--no, not his mother,--had
+a right to touch him; that she might order him to be corrected, and that
+he would suffer the punishment, as he and Harry often had, but no
+one should lay a hand on his boy. Trembling with passionate rebellion
+against what he conceived the injustice of procedure, he vowed--actually
+shrieking out an oath, which shocked his fond mother and governor, who
+never before heard such language from the usually gentle child--that on
+the day he came of age he would set young Gumbo free--went to visit the
+child in the slaves' quarters, and gave him one of his own toys.
+
+The young black martyr was an impudent, lazy, saucy little personage,
+who would be none the worse for a whipping, as the Colonel no doubt
+thought; for he acquiesced in the child's punishment when Madam Esmond
+insisted upon it, and only laughed in his good-natured way when his
+indignant grandson called out,
+
+"You let mamma rule you in everything, grandpapa."
+
+"Why, so I do," says grandpapa. "Rachel, my love, the way in which I am
+petticoat-ridden is so evident that even this baby has found it out."
+
+"Then why don't you stand up like a man?" says little Harry', who always
+was ready to abet his brother.
+
+Grandpapa looked queerly.
+
+"Because I like sitting down best, my dear," he said. "I am an old
+gentleman, and standing fatigues me."
+
+On account of a certain apish drollery and humour which exhibited itself
+in the lad, and a liking for some of the old man's pursuits, the first
+of the twins was the grandfather's favourite and companion, and would
+laugh and talk out all his infantine heart to the old gentleman, to whom
+the younger had seldom a word to say. George was a demure studious boy,
+and his senses seemed to brighten up in the library, where his brother
+was so gloomy. He knew the books before he could well-nigh carry them,
+and read in them long before he could understand them. Harry, on the
+other hand, was all alive in the stables or in the wood, eager for all
+parties of hunting and fishing, and promised to be a good sportsman from
+a very early age. Their grandfather's ship was sailing for Europe once
+when the boys were children, and they were asked, what present Captain
+Franks should bring them back? George was divided between books and a
+fiddle; Harry instantly declared for a little gun: and Madam Warrington
+(as she then was called) was hurt that her elder boy should have low
+tastes, and applauded the younger's choice as more worthy of his name
+and lineage. "Books, papa, I can fancy to be a good choice," she replied
+to her father, who tried to convince her that George had a right to his
+opinion, "though I am sure you must have pretty nigh all the books in
+the world already. But I never can desire--I may be wrong, but I never
+can desire--that my son, and the grandson of the Marquis of Esmond,
+should be a fiddler."
+
+"Should be a fiddlestick, my dear," the old Colonel answered.
+
+"Remember that Heaven's ways are not ours, and that each creature born
+has a little kingdom of thought of his own, which it is a sin in us to
+invade. Suppose George loves music? You can no more stop him than you
+can order a rose not to smell sweet, or a bird not to sing."
+
+"A bird! A bird sings from nature; George did not come into the world
+with a fiddle in his hand," says Mrs. Warrington, with a toss of her
+head. "I am sure I hated the harpsichord when a chit at Kensington
+School, and only learned it to please my mamma. Say what you will,
+dear sir, I can not believe that this fiddling is work for persons of
+fashion."
+
+"And King David who played the harp, my dear?"
+
+"I wish my papa would read him more, and not speak about him in that
+way," said Mrs. Warrington.
+
+"Nay, my dear, it was but by way of illustration," the father replied
+gently. It was Colonel Esmond's nature, as he has owned in his own
+biography, always to be led by a woman; and, his wife dead, he coaxed
+and dandled and spoiled his daughter; laughing at her caprices, but
+humouring them; making a joke of her prejudices, but letting them have
+their way; indulging, and perhaps increasing, her natural imperiousness
+of character, though it was his maxim that we can't change dispositions
+by meddling, and only make hypocrites of our children by commanding them
+over-much.
+
+At length the time came when Mr. Esmond was to have done with the
+affairs of this life, and he laid them down as if glad to be rid of
+their burthen. We must not ring in an opening history with tolling
+bells, or preface it with a funeral sermon. All who read and heard
+that discourse, wondered where Parson Broadbent of Jamestown found the
+eloquence and the Latin which adorned it. Perhaps Mr. Dempster knew, the
+boys' Scotch tutor, who corrected the proofs of the oration, which was
+printed, by desire of his Excellency and many persons of honour, at Mr.
+Franklin's press in Philadelphia. No such sumptuous funeral had ever
+been seen in the country as that which Madam Esmond Warrington ordained
+for her father, who would have been the first to smile at that pompous
+grief. The little lads of Castlewood, almost smothered in black trains
+and hatbands, headed the procession, and were followed by my Lord
+Fairfax from Greenway Court, by his Excellency the Governor of Virginia
+(with his coach), by the Randolphs, the Careys, the Harrisons, the
+Washingtons, and many others, for the whole county esteemed the departed
+gentleman, whose goodness, whose high talents, whose benevolence
+and unobtrusive urbanity had earned for him the just respect of his
+neighbours. When informed of the event, the family of Colonel Esmond's
+stepson, the Lord Castlewood of Hampshire in England, asked to be at the
+charges of the marble slab which recorded the names and virtues of his
+lordship's mother and her husband; and after due time of preparation,
+the monument was set up, exhibiting the arms and coronet of the Esmonds,
+supported by a little chubby group of weeping cherubs, and reciting an
+epitaph which for once did not tell any falsehoods.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. In which Harry finds a New Relative
+
+
+Kind friends, neighbours hospitable, cordial, even respectful,--an
+ancient name, a large estate and a sufficient fortune, a comfortable
+home, supplied with all the necessaries and many of the luxuries
+of life, and a troop of servants, black and white, eager to do your
+bidding; good health, affectionate children, and, let us humbly add, a
+good cook, cellar, and library--ought not a person in the possession of
+all these benefits to be considered very decently happy? Madam Esmond
+Warrington possessed all these causes for happiness; she reminded
+herself of them daily in her morning and evening prayers. She was
+scrupulous in her devotions, good to the poor, never knowingly did
+anybody a wrong. Yonder I fancy her enthroned in her principality of
+Castlewood, the country gentlefolks paying her court, the sons dutiful
+to her, the domestics tumbling over each other's black heels to do her
+bidding, the poor whites grateful for her bounty and implicitly taking
+her doses when they were ill, the smaller gentry always acquiescing in
+her remarks, and for ever letting her win at backgammon--well, with all
+these benefits, which are more sure than fate allots to most mortals, I
+don't think the little Princess Pocahontas, as she was called, was to
+be envied in the midst of her dominions. The Princess's husband, who
+was cut off in early life, was as well perhaps out of the way. Had
+he survived his marriage by many years, they would have quarrelled
+fiercely, or, he would infallibly have been a henpecked husband, of
+which sort there were a few specimens still extant a hundred years ago.
+The truth is, little Madam Esmond never came near man or woman, but she
+tried to domineer over them. If people obeyed, she was their very good
+friend; if they resisted, she fought and fought until she or they gave
+in. We are all miserable sinners that's a fact we acknowledge in public
+every Sunday--no one announced it in a more clear resolute voice than
+the little lady. As a mortal, she may have been in the wrong, of course;
+only she very seldom acknowledged the circumstance to herself, and to
+others never. Her father, in his old age, used to watch her freaks of
+despotism, haughtiness, and stubbornness, and amuse himself with them.
+She felt that his eye was upon her; his humour, of which quality she
+possessed little herself, subdued and bewildered her. But, the Colonel
+gone, there was nobody else whom she was disposed to obey,--and so I
+am rather glad for my part that I did not live a hundred years ago at
+Castlewood in Westmorland County in Virginia. I fancy, one would not
+have been too happy there. Happy, who is happy? Was not there a serpent
+in Paradise itself? and if Eve had been perfectly happy beforehand,
+would she have listened to him?
+
+The management of the house of Castlewood had been in the hands of the
+active little lady long before the Colonel slept the sleep of the just.
+She now exercised a rigid supervision over the estate; dismissed
+Colonel Esmond's English factor and employed a new one; built, improved,
+planted, grew tobacco, appointed a new overseer, and imported a new
+tutor. Much as she loved her father, there were some of his maxims by
+which she was not inclined to abide. Had she not obeyed her papa and
+mamma during all their lives, as a dutiful daughter should? So ought
+all children to obey their parents, that their days might be long in
+the land. The little Queen domineered over her little dominion, and the
+Princes her sons were only her first subjects. Ere long she discontinued
+her husband's name of Warrington and went by the name of Madam Esmond
+in the country. Her family pretensions were known there. She had no
+objection to talk of the Marquis's title which King James had given to
+her father and grandfather. Her papa's enormous magnanimity might induce
+him to give up his titles and rank to the younger branch of the family,
+and to her half-brother, my Lord Castlewood and his children; but she
+and her sons were of the elder branch of the Esmonds, and she expected
+that they should be treated accordingly. Lord Fairfax was the only
+gentleman in the colony of Virginia to whom she would allow precedence
+over her. She insisted on the pas before all Lieutenant-Governors' and
+Judges' ladies; before the wife of the Governor of a colony she would,
+of course, yield as to the representative of the Sovereign. Accounts
+are extant, in the family papers and letters, of one or two tremendous
+battles which Madam fought with the wives of colonial dignitaries upon
+these questions of etiquette. As for her husband's family of Warrington,
+they were as naught in her eyes. She married an English baronet's
+younger son out of Norfolk to please her parents, whom she was always
+bound to obey. At the early age at which she married--a chit out of
+a boarding-school--she would have jumped overboard if her papa had
+ordered. "And that is always the way with the Esmonds," she said.
+
+The English Warringtons were not over-much flattered by the little
+American Princess's behaviour to them, and her manner of speaking about
+them. Once a year a solemn letter used to be addressed to the Warrington
+family, and to her noble kinsmen the Hampshire Esmonds; but a Judge's
+lady with whom Madam Esmond had quarrelled returning to England out of
+Virginia chanced to meet Lady Warrington, who was in London with
+Sir Miles attending Parliament, and this person repeated some of the
+speeches which the Princess Pocahontas was in the habit of making
+regarding her own and her husband's English relatives, and my Lady
+Warrington, I suppose, carried the story to my Lady Castlewood; after
+which the letters from Virginia were not answered, to the surprise and
+wrath of Madam Esmond, who speedily left off writing also.
+
+So this good woman fell out with her neighbours, with her relatives,
+and, as it must be owned, with her sons also.
+
+A very early difference which occurred between the Queen and Crown
+Prince arose out of the dismissal of Mr. Dempster, the lad's tutor and
+the late Colonel's secretary. In her father's life Madam Esmond bore him
+with difficulty, or it should be rather said Mr. Dempster could scarce
+put up with her. She was jealous of books somehow, and thought your
+bookworms dangerous folks, insinuating bad principles. She had heard
+that Dempster was a Jesuit in disguise, and the poor fellow was obliged
+to go build himself a cabin in a clearing, and teach school and practise
+medicine where he could find customers among the sparse inhabitants of
+the province. Master George vowed he never would forsake his old tutor,
+and kept his promise. Harry had always loved fishing and sporting better
+than books, and he and the poor Dominie had never been on terms of close
+intimacy. Another cause of dispute presently ensued.
+
+By the death of an aunt, and at his father's demise, the heir of Mr.
+George Warrington became entitled to a sum of six thousand pounds, of
+which their mother was one of the trustees. She never could be made to
+understand that she was not the proprietor, and not merely the trustee
+of this money; and was furious with the London lawyer, the other
+trustee, who refused to send it over at her order. "Is not all I have
+my sons'?" she cried, "and would I not cut myself into little pieces
+to serve them? With the six thousand pounds I would have bought Mr.
+Boulter's estate and negroes, which would have given us a good thousand
+pounds a year, and made a handsome provision for my Harry." Her young
+friend and neighbour, Mr. Washington of Mount Vernon, could not convince
+her that the London agent was right, and must not give up his trust
+except to those for whom he held it. Madam Esmond gave the London lawyer
+a piece of her mind, and, I am sorry to say, informed Mr. Draper that
+he was an insolent pettifogger, and deserved to be punished for
+doubting the honour of a mother and an Esmond. It must be owned that the
+Virginian Princess had a temper of her own.
+
+George Esmond, her firstborn, when this little matter was referred to
+him, and his mother vehemently insisted that he should declare himself,
+was of the opinion of Mr. Washington, and Mr. Draper, the London lawyer.
+The boy said he could not help himself. He did not want the money: he
+would be very glad to think otherwise, and to give the money to his
+mother, if he had the power. But Madam Esmond would not hear any of
+these reasons. Feelings were her reasons. Here was a chance of making
+Harry's fortune--dear Harry, who was left with such a slender younger
+brother's; pittance--and the wretches in London would not help him; his
+own brother, who inherited all her papa's estate, would not help him.
+To think of a child of hers being so mean at fourteen year of age! etc.
+etc. Add tears, scorn, frequent innuendo, long estrangement, bitter
+outbreak, passionate appeals to Heaven, and the like, and we may fancy
+the widow's state of mind. Are there not beloved beings of the gentler
+sex who argue in the same way nowadays? The book of female logic is
+blotted all over with tears, and Justice in their courts is for ever in
+a passion.
+
+This occurrence set the widow resolutely saving for her younger son,
+for whom, as in duty bound, she was eager to make a portion. The fine
+buildings were stopped which the Colonel had commenced at Castlewood,
+who had freighted ships from New York with Dutch bricks, and imported,
+at great charges, mantelpieces, carved cornice-work, sashes and glass,
+carpets and costly upholstery from home. No more books were bought.
+The agent had orders to discontinue sending wine. Madam Esmond deeply
+regretted the expense of a fine carriage which she had had from England,
+and only rode in it to church groaning in spirit, and crying to the sons
+opposite her, "Harry, Harry! I wish I had put by the money for thee, my
+poor portionless child--three hundred and eighty guineas of ready money
+to Messieurs Hatchett!"
+
+"You will give me plenty while you live, and George will give me plenty
+when you die," says Harry, gaily.
+
+"Not unless he changes in spirit, my dear," says the lady, with a
+grim glance at her elder boy. "Not unless Heaven softens his heart and
+teaches him charity, for which I pray day and night; as Mountain knows;
+do you not, Mountain?"
+
+Mrs. Mountain, Ensign Mountain's widow, Madam Esmond's companion and
+manager, who took the fourth seat in the family coach on these Sundays,
+said, "Humph! I know you are always disturbing yourself and crying out
+about this legacy, and I don't see that there is any need."
+
+"Oh no! no need!" cries the widow, rustling in her silks; "of course I
+have no need to be disturbed, because my eldest born is a disobedient
+son and an unkind brother--because he has an estate, and my poor Harry,
+bless him, but a mess of pottage."
+
+George looked despairingly at his mother until he could see her no more
+for eyes welled up with tears. "I wish you would bless me, too, O my
+mother!" he said, and burst into a passionate fit of weeping. Harry's
+arms were in a moment round his brother's neck, and he kissed George a
+score of times.
+
+"Never mind, George. I know whether you are a good brother or not. Don't
+mind what she says. She don't mean it."
+
+"I do mean it, child," cries the mother. Would to Heaven----"
+
+"HOLD YOUR TONGUE, I SAY" roars out Harry. "It's a shame to speak so to
+him, ma'am."
+
+"And so it is, Harry," says Mrs. Mountain, shaking his hand. "You never
+said a truer word in your life."
+
+"Mrs. Mountain, do you dare to set my children against me?" cries the
+widow. "From this very day, madam----"
+
+"Turn me and my child into the street? Do," says Mrs. Mountain. "That
+will be a fine revenge because the English lawyer won't give you the
+boy's money. Find another companion who will tell you black is white,
+and flatter you: it is not my way, madam. When shall I go? I shan't be
+long a-packing. I did not bring much into Castlewood House, and I shall
+not take much out."
+
+"Hush! the bells are ringing for church, Mountain. Let us try, if you
+please, and compose ourselves," said the widow, and she looked with eyes
+of extreme affection, certainly at one--perhap at both--of her children.
+George kept his head down, and Harry, who was near, got quite close to
+him during the sermon, and sat with his arm round his brother's neck.
+
+
+Harry had proceeded in his narrative after his own fashion,
+interspersing it with many youthful ejaculations, and answering a number
+of incidental questions asked by his listener. The old lady seemed never
+tired of hearing him. Her amiable hostess and her daughters came more
+than once, to ask if she would ride, or walk, or take a dish of tea, or
+play a game at cards; but all these amusements Madam Bernstein declined,
+saying that she found infinite amusement in Harry's conversation.
+Especially when any of the Castlewood family were present, she redoubled
+her caresses, insisted upon the lad speaking close to her ear, and would
+call out to the others, "Hush, my dears! I can't hear our cousin speak."
+And they would quit the room, striving still to look pleased.
+
+"Are you my cousin, too?" asked the honest boy. "You see kinder than my
+other cousins."
+
+Their talk took place in the wainscoted parlour, where the family had
+taken their meals in ordinary for at least two centuries past, and
+which, as we have said, was hung with portraits of the race. Over
+Madam Bernstein's great chair was a Kneller, one of the most brilliant
+pictures of the gallery, representing a young lady of three or four
+and twenty, in the easy flowing dress and loose robes of Queen Anne's
+time--a hand on a cushion near her, a quantity of auburn hair parted off
+a fair forehead, and flowing over pearly shoulders and a lovely neck.
+Under this sprightly picture the lady sate with her knitting-needles.
+
+When Harry asked, "Are you my cousin, too?" she said, "That picture is
+by Sir Godfrey, who thought himself the greatest painter in the world.
+But he was not so good as Lely, who painted your grandmother--my--my
+Lady Castlewood, Colonel Esmond's wife; nor he so good as Sir Anthony
+Van Dyck, who painted your great-grandfather, yonder--and who looks,
+Harry, a much finer gentleman than he was. Some of us are painted
+blacker than we are. Did you recognise your grandmother in that picture?
+She had the loveliest fair hair and shape of any woman of her time."
+
+"I fancied I knew the portrait from instinct, perhaps, and a certain
+likeness to my mother."
+
+"Did Mrs. Warrington--I beg her pardon, I think she calls herself Madam
+or my Lady Esmond now----?"
+
+"They call my mother so in our province," said the boy.
+
+"Did she never tell you of another daughter her mother had in England,
+before she married your grandfather?"
+
+"She never spoke of one."
+
+"Nor your grandfather?"
+
+"Never. But in his picture-books, which he constantly made for us
+children, he used to draw a head very like that above your ladyship.
+That, and Viscount Francis, and King James III., he drew a score of
+times, I am sure."
+
+"And the picture over me reminds you of no one, Harry?"
+
+"No, indeed."
+
+"Ah! Here is a sermon!" says the lady, with a sigh. "Harry, that was my
+face once--yes, it was--and then I was called Beatrix Esmond. And your
+mother is my half-sister, child, and she has never even mentioned my
+name!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. Family Jars
+
+
+As Harry Warrington related to his new-found relative the simple story
+of his adventures at home, no doubt Madam Bernstein, who possessed a
+great sense of humour and a remarkable knowledge of the world, formed
+her judgment respecting the persons and events described; and if her
+opinion was not in all respects favourable, what can be said but that
+men and women are imperfect, and human life not entirely pleasant or
+profitable? The court and city-bred lady recoiled at the mere thought of
+her American sister's countrified existence. Such a life would be rather
+wearisome to most city-bred ladies. But little Madam Warrington knew no
+better, and was satisfied with her life, as indeed she was with herself
+in general. Because you and I are epicures or dainty feeders, it does
+not follow that Hodge is miserable with his homely meal of bread and
+bacon. Madam Warrington had a life of duties and employments which might
+be humdrum, but at any rate were pleasant to her. She was a brisk little
+woman of business, and all the affairs of her large estate came under
+her cognisance. No pie was baked at Castlewood but her little finger was
+in it. She set the maids to their spinning, she saw the kitchen wenches
+at their work, she trotted afield on her pony, and oversaw the overseers
+and the negro hands as they worked in the tobacco-and corn-fields. If a
+slave was ill, she would go to his quarters in any weather, and doctor
+him with great resolution. She had a book full of receipts after the old
+fashion, and a closet where she distilled waters and compounded elixirs,
+and a medicine-chest which was the terror of her neighbours. They
+trembled to be ill, lest the little lady should be upon them with her
+decoctions and her pills.
+
+A hundred years back there were scarce any towns in Virginia; the
+establishments of the gentry were little villages in which they
+and their vassals dwelt. Rachel Esmond ruled like a little queen in
+Castlewood; the princes, her neighbours, governed their estates round
+about. Many of these were rather needy potentates, living plentifully
+but in the roughest fashion, having numerous domestics whose liveries
+were often ragged; keeping open houses, and turning away no stranger
+from their gates; proud, idle, fond of all sorts of field sports
+as became gentlemen of good lineage. The widow of Castlewood was as
+hospitable as her neighbours, and a better economist than most of
+them. More than one, no doubt, would have had no objection to share her
+life-interest in the estate, and supply the place of papa to her boys.
+But where was the man good enough for a person of her ladyship's exalted
+birth? There was a talk of making the Duke of Cumberland viceroy, or
+even king, over America. Madam Warrington's gossips laughed, and said
+she was waiting for him. She remarked, with much gravity and dignity,
+that persons of as high birth as his Royal Highness had made offers of
+alliance to the Esmond family.
+
+She had, as lieutenant under her, an officer's widow who has been before
+named, and who had been Madam Esmond's companion at school, as her late
+husband had been the regimental friend of the late Mr. Warrington. When
+the English girls at the Kensington Academy, where Rachel Esmond had her
+education, teased and tortured the little American stranger, and laughed
+at the princified airs which she gave herself from a very early age,
+Fanny Parker defended and befriended her. They both married ensigns
+in Kingsley's. They became tenderly attached to each other. It was "my
+Fanny" and "my Rachel" in the letters of the young ladies. Then, my
+Fanny's husband died in sad out-at-elbowed circumstances, leaving
+no provision for his widow and her infant; and, in one of his annual
+voyages, Captain Franks brought over Mrs. Mountain, in the Young Rachel,
+to Virginia.
+
+There was plenty of room in Castlewood House, and Mrs. Mountain served
+to enliven the place. She played cards with the mistress: she had some
+knowledge of music, and could help the eldest boy in that way: she
+laughed and was pleased with the guests: she saw to the strangers'
+chambers, and presided over the presses and the linen. She was a kind,
+brisk, jolly-looking widow, and more than one unmarried gentleman of the
+colony asked her to change her name for his own. But she chose to keep
+that of Mountain, though, and perhaps because, it had brought her no
+good fortune. One marriage was enough for her, she said. Mr. Mountain
+had amiably spent her little fortune and his own. Her last trinkets went
+to pay his funeral; and, as long as Madam Warrington would keep her at
+Castlewood, she preferred a home without a husband to any which as
+yet had been offered to her in Virginia. The two ladies quarrelled
+plentifully; but they loved each other: they made up their differences:
+they fell out again, to be reconciled presently. When either of the boys
+was ill, each lady vied with the other in maternal tenderness and care.
+In his last days and illness, Mrs. Mountain's cheerfulness and kindness
+had been greatly appreciated by the Colonel, whose memory Madam
+Warrington regarded more than that of any living person. So that, year
+after year, when Captain Franks would ask Mrs. Mountain, in his pleasant
+way, whether she was going back with him that voyage? she would decline,
+and say that she proposed to stay a year more.
+
+And when suitors came to Madam Warrington, as come they would, she would
+receive their compliments and attentions kindly enough, and asked more
+than one of these lovers whether it was Mrs. Mountain he came after? She
+would use her best offices with Mountain. Fanny was the best creature,
+was of a good English family, and would make any gentleman happy. Did
+the Squire declare it was to her and not her dependant that he paid his
+addresses; she would make him her gravest curtsey, say that she really
+had been utterly mistaken as to his views, and let him know that the
+daughter of the Marquis of Esmond lived for her people and her sons,
+and did not propose to change her condition. Have we not read how Queen
+Elizabeth was a perfectly sensible woman of business, and was pleased to
+inspire not only terror and awe, but love in the bosoms of her subjects?
+So the little Virginian princess had her favourites, and accepted their
+flatteries, and grew tired of them, and was cruel or kind to them as
+suited her wayward imperial humour. There was no amount of compliment
+which she would not graciously receive and take as her due. Her little
+foible was so well known that the wags used to practise upon it.
+Rattling Jack Firebrace of Henrico county had free quarters for months
+at Castlewood, and was a prime favourite with the lady there, because
+he addressed verses to her which he stole out of the pocket-books. Tom
+Humbold of Spotsylvania wagered fifty hogsheads against five that he
+would make her institute an order of knighthood, and won his wager.
+
+The elder boy saw these freaks and oddities of his good mother's
+disposition, and chafed and raged at them privately. From very early
+days he revolted when flatteries and compliments were paid to the little
+lady, and strove to expose them with his juvenile satire; so that
+his mother would say gravely, "The Esmonds were always of a jealous
+disposition, and my poor boy takes after my father and mother in this."
+George hated Jack Firebrace and Tom Humbold, and all their like;
+whereas Harry went out sporting with them, and fowling, and fishing, and
+cock-fighting, and enjoyed all the fun of the country.
+
+One winter, after their first tutor had been dismissed, Madam Esmond
+took them to Williamsburg, for such education as the schools and college
+there afforded, and there it was the fortune of the family to listen to
+the preaching of the famous Mr. Whitfield, who had come into Virginia,
+where the habits and preaching of the established clergy were not very
+edifying. Unlike many of the neighbouring provinces, Virginia was a
+Church of England colony: the clergymen were paid by the State and had
+glebes allotted to them; and, there being no Church of England bishop as
+yet in America, the colonists were obliged to import their divines from
+the mother-country. Such as came were not, naturally, of the very best
+or most eloquent kind of pastors. Noblemen's hangers-on, insolvent
+parsons who had quarrelled with justice or the bailiff, brought their
+stained cassocks into the colony in the hopes of finding a living there.
+No wonder that Whitfield's great voice stirred those whom harmless Mr.
+Broadbent, the Williamsburg chaplain, never could awaken. At first the
+boys were as much excited as their mother by Mr. Whitfield: they sang
+hymns, and listened to him with fervour, and, could he have remained
+long enough among them, Harry and George had both worn black coats
+probably instead of epaulettes. The simple boys communicated their
+experiences to one another, and were on the daily and nightly look-out
+for the sacred "call," in the hope or the possession of which such a
+vast multitude of Protestant England was thrilling at the time.
+
+But Mr. Whitfield could not stay always with the little congregation of
+Williamsburg. His mission was to enlighten the whole benighted people of
+the Church, and from the East to the West to trumpet the truth and bid
+slumbering sinners awaken. However, he comforted the widow with precious
+letters, and promised to send her a tutor for her sons who should be
+capable of teaching them not only profane learning, but of strengthening
+and confirming them in science much more precious.
+
+In due course, a chosen vessel arrived from England. Young Mr. Ward had
+a voice as loud as Mr. Whitfield's, and could talk almost as readily
+and for as long a time. Night and evening the hall sounded with his
+exhortations. The domestic negroes crept to the doors to listen to him.
+Other servants darkened the porch windows with their crisp heads to hear
+him discourse. It was over the black sheep of the Castlewood flock that
+Mr. Ward somehow had the most influence. These woolly lamblings were
+immensely affected by his exhortations, and, when he gave out the hymn,
+there was such a negro chorus about the house as might be heard across
+the Potomac--such a chorus as would never have been heard in the
+Colonel's time--for that worthy gentleman had a suspicion of all
+cassocks, and said he would never have any controversy with a clergyman
+but upon backgammon. Where money was wanted for charitable purposes no
+man was more ready, and the good, easy Virginian clergyman, who loved
+backgammon heartily, too, said that the worthy Colonel's charity must
+cover his other shortcomings.
+
+Ward was a handsome young man. His preaching pleased Madam Esmond from
+the first, and, I daresay, satisfied her as much as Mr. Whitfield's. Of
+course it cannot be the case at the present day when they are so finely
+educated, but women, a hundred years ago, were credulous, eager to
+admire and believe, and apt to imagine all sorts of excellences in the
+object of their admiration. For weeks, nay, months, Madam Esmond
+was never tired of hearing Mr. Ward's great glib voice and voluble
+commonplaces: and, according to her wont, she insisted that her
+neighbours should come and listen to him, and ordered them to be
+converted. Her young favourite, Mr. Washington, she was especially
+anxious to influence; and again and again pressed him to come and
+stay at Castlewood and benefit by the spiritual advantages there to
+be obtained. But that young gentleman found he had particular business
+which called him home or away from home, and always ordered his horse
+of evenings when the time was coming for Mr. Ward's exercises. And--what
+boys are just towards their pedagogue?--the twins grew speedily tired
+and even rebellious under their new teacher.
+
+They found him a bad scholar, a dull fellow, and ill-bred to boot.
+George knew much more Latin and Greek than his master, and caught him
+in perpetual blunders and false quantities. Harry, who could take much
+greater liberties than were allowed to his elder brother, mimicked
+Ward's manner of eating and talking, so that Mrs. Mountain and even
+Madam Esmond were forced to laugh, and little Fanny Mountain would crow
+with delight. Madam Esmond would have found the fellow out for a vulgar
+quack but for her sons' opposition, which she, on her part, opposed with
+her own indomitable will. "What matters whether he has more or less of
+profane learning?" she asked; "in that which is most precious, Mr. W.
+is able to be a teacher to all of us. What if his manners are a little
+rough? Heaven does not choose its elect from among the great and
+wealthy. I wish you knew one book, children, as well as Mr. Ward does.
+It is your wicked pride--the pride of all the Esmonds--which prevents
+you from listening to him. Go down on your knees in your chamber and
+pray to be corrected of that dreadful fault." Ward's discourse that
+evening was about Naaman the Syrian, and the pride he had in his native
+rivers of Abana and Pharpar, which he vainly imagined to be superior to
+the healing waters of Jordan--the moral being, that he, Ward, was the
+keeper and guardian of the undoubted waters of Jordan, and that the
+unhappy, conceited boys must go to perdition unless they came to him.
+
+George now began to give way to a wicked sarcastic method, which,
+perhaps, he had inherited from his grandfather, and with which, when a
+quiet, skilful young person chooses to employ it, he can make a whole
+family uncomfortable. He took up Ward's pompous remarks and made jokes
+of them, so that that young divine chafed and almost choked over his
+great meals. He made Madam Esmond angry, and doubly so when he sent
+off Harry into fits of laughter. Her authority was defied, her officer
+scorned and insulted, her youngest child perverted, by the obstinate
+elder brother. She made a desperate and unhappy attempt to maintain her
+power.
+
+The boys were fourteen years of age, Harry being taller and much more
+advanced than his brother, who was delicate, and as yet almost childlike
+in stature and appearance. The baculine method was a quite common mode
+of argument in those days. Sergeants, schoolmasters, slave-overseers,
+used the cane freely. Our little boys had been horsed many a day by Mr.
+Dempster, their Scotch tutor, in their grandfather's time; and Harry,
+especially, had got to be quite accustomed to the practice, and made
+very light of it. But, in the interregnum after Colonel Esmond's death,
+the cane had been laid aside, and the young gentlemen of Castlewood
+had been allowed to have their own way. Her own and her lieutenant's
+authority being now spurned by the youthful rebels, the unfortunate
+mother thought of restoring it by means of coercion. She took counsel
+of Mr. Ward. That athletic young pedagogue could easily find chapter and
+verse to warrant the course which he wished to pursue--in fact, there
+was no doubt about the wholesomeness of the practice in those clays. He
+had begun by flattering the boys, finding a good berth and snug quarters
+at Castlewood, and hoping to remain there.
+
+But they laughed at his flattery, they scorned his bad manners, they
+yawned soon at his sermons; the more their mother favoured him, the more
+they disliked him; and so the tutor and the pupils cordially hated each
+other. Mrs. Mountain, who was the boys' friend, especially George's
+friend, whom she thought unjustly treated by his mother, warned the lads
+to be prudent, and that some conspiracy was hatching against them. "Ward
+is more obsequious than ever to your mamma. It turns my stomach, it
+does, to hear him flatter, and to see him gobble--the odious wretch! You
+must be on your guard, my poor boys--you must learn your lessons, and
+not anger your tutor. A mischief will come, I know it will. Your mamma
+was talking about you to Mr. Washington the other day, when I came into
+the room. I don't like that Major Washington, you know I don't. Don't
+say--O Mounty! Master Harry. You always stand up for your friends, you
+do. The Major is very handsome and tall, and he may be very good, but he
+is much too old a young man for me. Bless you, my dears, the quantity
+of wild oats your father sowed and my own poor Mountain when they were
+ensigns in Kingsley's, would fill sacks full! Show me Mr. Washington's
+wild oats, I say--not a grain! Well, I happened to step in last Tuesday,
+when he was here with your mamma; and I am sure they were talking about
+you, for he said, 'Discipline is discipline, and must be preserved.
+There can be but one command in a house, ma'am, and you must be the
+mistress of yours.'"
+
+"The very words he used to me," cries Harry. "He told me that he did not
+like to meddle with other folks' affairs, but that our mother was very
+angry, dangerously angry, he said, and he begged me to obey Mr. Ward,
+and specially to press George to do so."
+
+"Let him manage his own house, not mine," says George, very haughtily.
+And the caution, far from benefiting him, only rendered the lad more
+supercilious and refractory.
+
+On the next day the storm broke, and vengeance fell on the little
+rebel's head. Words passed between George and Mr. Ward during the
+morning study. The boy was quite insubordinate and unjust: even his
+faithful brother cried out, and owned that he was in the wrong. Mr. Ward
+kept his temper--to compress, bottle up, cork down, and prevent your
+anger from present furious explosion, is called keeping your temper--and
+said he should speak upon this business to Madam Esmond. When the family
+met at dinner, Mr. Ward requested her ladyship to stay, and, temperately
+enough, laid the subject of dispute before her.
+
+He asked Master Harry to confirm what he had said: and poor Harry was
+obliged to admit all the dominie's statements.
+
+George, standing under his grandfather's portrait by the chimney, said
+haughtily that what Mr. Ward had said was perfectly correct.
+
+"To be a tutor to such a pupil is absurd," said Mr. Ward, making a long
+speech, interspersed with many of his usual Scripture phrases, at each
+of which, as they occurred, that wicked young George smiled, and pished
+scornfully, and at length Ward ended by asking her honour's leave to
+retire.
+
+"Not before you have punished this wicked and disobedient child," said
+Madam Esmond, who had been gathering anger during Ward's harangue, and
+especially at her son's behaviour.
+
+"Punish!" says George.
+
+"Yes, sir, punish! If means of love and entreaty fail, as they have with
+your proud heart, other means must be found to bring you to obedience.
+I punish you now, rebellious boy, to guard you from greater punishment
+hereafter. The discipline of this family must be maintained. There can
+be but one command in a house, and I must be the mistress of mine. You
+will punish this refractory boy, Mr. Ward, as we have agreed that you
+should do, and if there is the least resistance on his part, my overseer
+and servants will lend you aid."
+
+In some such words the widow no doubt must have spoken, but with many
+vehement Scriptural allusions, which it does not become this
+chronicler to copy. To be for ever applying to the Sacred Oracles, and
+accommodating their sentences to your purpose--to be for ever taking
+Heaven into your confidence about your private affairs, and
+passionately calling for its interference in your family quarrels and
+difficulties--to be so familiar with its designs and schemes as to be
+able to threaten your neighbour with its thunders, and to know precisely
+its intentions regarding him and others who differ from your infallible
+opinion--this was the schooling which our simple widow had received from
+her impetuous young spiritual guide, and I doubt whether it brought her
+much comfort.
+
+In the midst of his mother's harangue, in spite of it, perhaps, George
+Esmond felt he had been wrong. "There can be but one command in the
+house, and you must be mistress--I know who said those words before
+you," George said, slowly, and looking very white--"and--and I know,
+mother, that I have acted wrongly to Mr. Ward."
+
+"He owns it! He asks pardon!" cries Harry. "That's right, George! That's
+enough: isn't it?"
+
+"No, it is not enough!" cried the little woman. "The disobedient boy
+must pay the penalty of his disobedience. When I was headstrong, as I
+sometimes was as a child before my spirit was changed and humbled, my
+mamma punished me, and I submitted. So must George. I desire you will do
+your duty, Mr. Ward."
+
+"Stop, mother!--you don't quite know what you are doing," George said,
+exceedingly agitated.
+
+"I know that he who spares the rod spoils the child, ungrateful boy!"
+says Madam Esmond, with more references of the same nature, which George
+heard, looking very pale and desperate.
+
+Upon the mantelpiece, under the Colonel's portrait, stood a china
+cup, by which the widow set great store, as her father had always been
+accustomed to drink from it. George suddenly took it, and a strange
+smile passed over his pale face.
+
+"Stay one minute. Don't go away yet," he cried to his mother, who was
+leaving the room. "You--you are very fond of this cup, mother?"--and
+Harry looked at him, wondering. "If I broke it, it could never be
+mended, could it? All the tinkers' rivets would not make it a whole cup
+again. My dear old grandpapa's cup! I have been wrong. Mr. Ward, I ask
+pardon. I will try and amend."
+
+The widow looked at her son indignantly, almost scornfully. "I thought,"
+she said, "I thought an Esmond had been more of a man than to be afraid,
+and--" here she gave a little scream as Harry uttered an exclamation,
+and dashed forward with his hands stretched out towards his brother.
+
+George, after looking at the cup, raised it, opened his hand, and let it
+fall on the marble slab below him. Harry had tried in vain to catch it.
+
+"It is too late, Hal," George said. "You will never mend that
+again--never. Now, mother, I am ready, as it is your wish. Will you come
+and see whether I am afraid? Mr. Ward, I am your servant. Your servant?
+Your slave! And the next time I meet Mr. Washington, madam, I will thank
+him for the advice which he gave you."
+
+"I say, do your duty, sir!" cried Mrs. Esmond, stamping her little foot.
+And George, making a low bow to Mr. Ward, begged him to go first out of
+the room to the study.
+
+"Stop! For God's sake, mother, stop!" cried poor Hal. But passion was
+boiling in the little woman's heart, and she would not hear the boy's
+petition. "You only abet him, sir!" she cried.--"If I had to do it
+myself, it should be done!" And Harry, with sadness and wrath in his
+countenance, left the room by the door through which Mr. Ward and his
+brother had just issued.
+
+The widow sank down on a great chair near it, and sat a while vacantly
+looking at the fragments of the broken cup. Then she inclined her head
+towards the door--one of half a dozen of carved mahogany which the
+Colonel had brought from Europe. For a while there was silence: then a
+loud outcry, which made the poor mother start.
+
+In another minute Mr. Ward came out bleeding, from a great wound on his
+head, and behind him Harry, with flaring eyes, and brandishing a little
+couteau-de-chasse of his grandfather, which hung, with others of the
+Colonel's weapons, on the library wall.
+
+"I don't care. I did it," says Harry. "I couldn't see this fellow strike
+my brother; and, as he lifted his hand, I flung the great ruler at him.
+I couldn't help it. I won't bear it; and, if one lifts a hand to me or
+my brother, I'll have his life," shouts Harry, brandishing the hanger.
+
+The widow gave a great gasp and a sigh as she looked at the young
+champion and his victim. She must have suffered terribly during the few
+minutes of the boys' absence; and the stripes which she imagined had
+been inflicted on the elder had smitten her own heart. She longed
+to take both boys to it. She was not angry now. Very likely she was
+delighted with the thought of the younger's prowess and generosity.
+"You are a very naughty disobedient child," she said, in an exceedingly
+peaceable voice. "My poor Mr. Ward! What a rebel, to strike you! Papa's
+great ebony ruler, was it? Lay down that hanger, child. 'Twas General
+Webb gave it to my papa after the siege of Lille. Let me bathe your
+wound, my good Mr. Ward, and thank Heaven it was no worse. Mountain!
+Go fetch me some court-plaster out of the middle drawer in the japan
+cabinet. Here comes George. Put on your coat and waistcoat, child! You
+were going to take your punishment, sir, and that is sufficient. Ask
+pardon, Harry, of good Mr. Ward, for your wicked rebellious spirit,--I
+do, with all my heart, I am sure. And guard against your passionate
+nature, child--and pray to be forgiven. My son, O my son!" Here, with a
+burst of tears which she could no longer control, the little woman threw
+herself on the neck of her eldest-born; whilst Harry, laying the hanger
+down, went up very feebly to Mr. Ward, and said, "Indeed, I ask your
+pardon, sir. I couldn't help it; on my honour I couldn't; nor bear to
+see my brother struck."
+
+The widow was scared, as after her embrace she looked up at George's
+pale face. In reply to her eager caresses, he coldly kissed her on the
+forehead, and separated from her. "You meant for the best, mother," he
+said, "and I was in the wrong. But the cup is broken; and all the king's
+horses and all the king's men cannot mend it. There--put the fair side
+outwards on the mantelpiece, and the wound will not show."
+
+Again Madam Esmond looked at the lad, as he placed the fragments of the
+poor cup on the ledge where it had always been used to stand. Her power
+over him was gone. He had dominated her. She was not sorry for the
+defeat; for women like not only to conquer, but to be conquered; and
+from that day the young gentleman was master at Castlewood. His mother
+admired him as he went up to Harry, graciously and condescendingly gave
+Hal his hand, and said, "Thank you, brother!" as if he were a prince,
+and Harry a general who had helped him in a great battle.
+
+Then George went up to Mr. Ward, who was still piteously bathing his
+eye and forehead in the water. "I ask pardon for Hal's violence, sir,"
+George said, in great state. "You see, though we are very young, we
+are gentlemen, and cannot brook an insult from strangers. I should
+have submitted, as it was mamma's desire; but I am glad she no longer
+entertains it."
+
+"And pray, sir, who is to compensate me?" says Mr. Ward; "who is to
+repair the insult done to me?"
+
+"We are very young," says George, with another of his old-fashioned
+bows. "We shall be fifteen soon. Any compensation that is usual amongst
+gentlemen"
+
+"This, sir, to a minister of the Word!" bawls out Ward, starting up,
+and who knew perfectly well the lads' skill in fence, having a score of
+times been foiled by the pair of them.
+
+"You are not a clergyman yet. We thought you might like to be considered
+as a gentleman. We did not know."
+
+"A gentleman! I am a Christian, sir!" says Ward, glaring furiously, and
+clenching his great fists.
+
+"Well, well, if you won't fight, why don't you forgive?" says Harry. "If
+you don't forgive, why don't you fight? That's what I call the horns of
+a dilemma;" and he laughed his frank, jolly laugh.
+
+
+But this was nothing to the laugh a few days afterwards, when, the
+quarrel having been patched up, along with poor Mr. Ward's eye, the
+unlucky tutor was holding forth according to his custom. He tried to
+preach the boys into respect for him, to reawaken the enthusiasm which
+the congregation had felt for him; he wrestled with their manifest
+indifference, he implored Heaven to warm their cold hearts again, and to
+lift up those who were falling back. All was in vain. The widow wept no
+more at his harangues, was no longer excited by his loudest tropes and
+similes, nor appeared to be much frightened by the very hottest menaces
+with which he peppered his discourse. Nay, she pleaded headache, and
+would absent herself of an evening, on which occasion the remainder of
+the little congregation was very cold indeed. One day, then, Ward,
+still making desperate efforts to get back his despised authority, was
+preaching on the beauty of subordination, the present lax spirit of the
+age, and the necessity of obeying our spiritual and temporal rulers.
+"For why, my dear friends," he nobly asked (he was in the habit of
+asking immensely dull questions, and straightway answering them with
+corresponding platitudes), "why are governors appointed, but that we
+should be governed? Why are tutors engaged, but that children should be
+taught?" (here a look at the boys). "Why are rulers----" Here he paused,
+looking with a sad, puzzled face at the young gentlemen. He saw in their
+countenances the double meaning of the unlucky word he had uttered,
+and stammered, and thumped the table with his fist. "Why, I say, are
+rulers----"
+
+"Rulers," says George, looking at Harry.
+
+"Rulers!" says Hal, putting his hand to his eye, where the poor tutor
+still bore marks of the late scuffle. Rulers, o-ho! It was too much. The
+boys burst out in an explosion of laughter. Mrs. Mountain, who was full
+of fun, could not help joining in the chorus; and little Fanny, who had
+always behaved very demurely and silently at these ceremonies, crowed
+again, and clapped her little hands at the others laughing, not in the
+least knowing the reason why.
+
+This could not be borne. Ward shut down the book before him; in a few
+angry, but eloquent and manly words, said he would speak no more in that
+place; and left Castlewood not in the least regretted by Madam Esmond,
+who had doted on him three months before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. The Virginians begin to see the World
+
+
+After the departure of her unfortunate spiritual adviser and chaplain,
+Madam Esmond and her son seemed to be quite reconciled: but although
+George never spoke of the quarrel with his mother, it must have weighed
+upon the boy's mind very painfully, for he had a fever soon after the
+last recounted domestic occurrences, during which illness his brain
+once or twice wandered, when he shrieked out, "Broken! Broken! It never,
+never can be mended!" to the silent terror of his mother, who sate
+watching the poor child as he tossed wakeful upon his midnight bed.
+His malady defied her skill, and increased in spite of all the nostrums
+which the good widow kept in her closet and administered so freely to
+her people. She had to undergo another humiliation, and one day little
+Mr. Dempster beheld her at his door on horseback. She had ridden through
+the snow on her pony, to implore him to give his aid to her poor boy. "I
+shall bury my resentment, madam," said he, "as your ladyship buried your
+pride. Please God, I maybe time enough to help my dear young pupil!" So
+he put up his lancet, and his little provision of medicaments; called
+his only negro-boy after him, shut up his lonely hut, and once more
+returned to Castlewood. That night and for some days afterwards it
+seemed very likely that poor Harry would become heir of Castlewood; but
+by Mr. Dempster's skill the fever was got over, the intermittent attacks
+diminished in intensity, and George was restored almost to health again.
+A change of air, a voyage even to England, was recommended, but the
+widow had quarrelled with her children's relatives there, and owned with
+contrition that she had been too hasty. A journey to the north and east
+was determined on, and the two young gentlemen, with Mr. Dempster as
+their tutor, and a couple of servants to attend them, took a voyage to
+New York, and thence up the beautiful Hudson river to Albany, where they
+were received by the first gentry of the province, and thence into the
+French provinces, where they had the best recommendations, and were
+hospitably entertained by the French gentry. Harry camped with the
+Indians, and took furs and shot bears. George, who never cared for
+field-sports, and whose health was still delicate, was a special
+favourite with the French ladies, who were accustomed to see very few
+young English gentlemen speaking the French language so readily as our
+young gentlemen. George especially perfected his accent so as to be able
+to pass for a Frenchman. He had the bel air completely, every person
+allowed. He danced the minuet elegantly. He learned the latest imported
+French catches and songs, and played them beautifully on his violin,
+and would have sung them too but that his voice broke at this time, and
+changed from treble to bass; and, to the envy of poor Harry, who was
+absent on a bear-hunt, he even had an affair of honour with a young
+ensign of the regiment of Auvergne, the Chevalier de la Jabotiere, whom
+he pinked in the shoulder, and with whom he afterwards swore an eternal
+friendship. Madame de Mouchy, the superintendent's lady, said the mother
+was blest who had such a son, and wrote a complimentary letter to Madam
+Esmond upon Mr. George's behaviour. I fear, Mr. Whitfield would not
+have been over-pleased with the widow's elation on hearing of her son's
+prowess.
+
+When the lads returned home at the end of ten delightful months, their
+mother was surprised at their growth and improvement. George especially
+was so grown as to come up to his younger-born brother. The boys could
+hardly be distinguished one from another, especially when their hair was
+powdered; but that ceremony being too cumbrous for country life, each
+of the gentlemen commonly wore his own hair, George his raven black, and
+Harry his light locks tied with a ribbon.
+
+The reader who has been so kind as to look over the first pages of the
+lad's simple biography, must have observed that Mr. George Esmond was
+of a jealous and suspicious disposition, most generous and gentle and
+incapable of an untruth, and though too magnanimous to revenge, almost
+incapable of forgiving any injury. George left home with no goodwill
+towards an honourable gentleman, whose name afterwards became one of the
+most famous in the world; and he returned from his journey not in the
+least altered in his opinion of his mother's and grandfather's friend.
+Mr. Washington, though then but just of age, looked and felt much older.
+He always exhibited an extraordinary simplicity and gravity; he had
+managed his mother's and his family's affairs from a very early age, and
+was trusted by all his friends and the gentry of his county more than
+persons twice his senior.
+
+Mrs. Mountain, Madam Esmond's friend and companion, who dearly loved the
+two boys and her patroness, in spite of many quarrels with the latter,
+and daily threats of parting, was a most amusing, droll letter-writer,
+and used to write to the two boys on their travels. Now, Mrs. Mountain
+was of a jealous turn likewise; especially she had a great turn for
+match-making, and fancied that everybody had a design to marry everybody
+else. There scarce came an unmarried man to Castlewood but Mountain
+imagined the gentleman had an eye towards the mistress of the mansion.
+She was positive that odious Mr. Ward intended to make love to
+the widow, and pretty sure the latter liked him. She knew that Mr.
+Washington wanted to be married, was certain that such a shrewd young
+gentleman would look out for a rich wife, and, as for the differences of
+ages, what matter that the Major (major was his rank in the militia)
+was fifteen years younger than Madam Esmond? They were used to such
+marriages in the family; my lady her mother was how many years older
+than the Colonel when she married him?--When she married him and was so
+jealous that she never would let the poor Colonel out of her sight.
+The poor Colonel! after his wife, he had been henpecked by his little
+daughter. And she would take after her mother, and marry again, be
+sure of that. Madam was a little chit of a woman, not five feet in her
+highest headdress and shoes, and Mr. Washington a great tall man of
+six feet two. Great tall men always married little chits of women:
+therefore, Mr. W. must be looking after the widow. What could be more
+clear than the deduction?
+
+She communicated these sage opinions to her boy, as she called George,
+who begged her, for Heaven's sake, to hold her tongue. This she said she
+could do, but she could not keep her eyes always shut; and she narrated
+a hundred circumstances which had occurred in the young gentleman's
+absence, and which tended, as she thought, to confirm her notions. Had
+Mountain imparted these pretty suspicions to his brother? George asked
+sternly. No. George was her boy; Harry was his mother's boy. "She likes
+him best, and I like you best, George," cries Mountain. "Besides, if I
+were to speak to him, he would tell your mother in a minute. Poor Harry
+can keep nothing quiet, and then there would be a pretty quarrel between
+Madam and me!"
+
+"I beg you to keep this quiet, Mountain," said Mr. George, with great
+dignity, "or you and I shall quarrel too. Neither to me nor to any one
+else in the world must you mention such an absurd suspicion."
+
+Absurd! Why absurd? Mr. Washington was constantly with the widow. His
+name was forever in her mouth. She was never tired of pointing out his
+virtues and examples to her sons. She consulted him on every question
+respecting her estate and its management. She never bought a horse
+or sold a barrel of tobacco without his opinion. There was a room at
+Castlewood regularly called Mr. Washington's room. "He actually leaves
+his clothes here and his portmanteau when he goes away. Ah! George,
+George! One day will come when he won't go away," groaned Mountain, who,
+of course, always returned to the subject of which she was forbidden
+to speak. Meanwhile Mr. George adopted towards his mother's favourite a
+frigid courtesy, at which the honest gentleman chafed but did not care
+to remonstrate, or a stinging sarcasm, which he would break through as
+he would burst through so many brambles on those hunting excursions
+in which he and Harry Warrington rode so constantly together; whilst
+George, retreating to his tents, read mathematics, and French, and
+Latin, and sulked in his book-room more and more lonely.
+
+Harry was away from home with some other sporting friends (it is to be
+feared the young gentleman's acquaintances were not all as eligible as
+Mr. Washington), when the latter came to pay a visit at Castlewood. He
+was so peculiarly tender and kind to the mistress there, and received by
+her with such special cordiality, that George Warrington's jealousy had
+well-nigh broken out in open rupture. But the visit was one of adieu, as
+it appeared.
+
+Major Washington was going on a long and dangerous journey, quite to the
+western Virginia frontier and beyond it. The French had been for some
+time past making inroads into our territory. The government at home,
+as well as those of Virginia and Pennsylvania, were alarmed at this
+aggressive spirit of the Lords of Canada and Louisiana. Some of our
+settlers had already been driven from their holdings by Frenchmen in
+arms, and the governors of the British provinces were desirous to stop
+their incursions, or at any rate to protest against their invasion.
+
+We chose to hold our American colonies by a law that was at least
+convenient for its framers. The maxim was, that whoever possessed the
+coast had a right to all the territory inland as far as the Pacific; so
+that the British charters only laid down the limits of the colonies from
+north to south, leaving them quite free from east to west. The French,
+meanwhile, had their colonies to the north and south, and aimed at
+connecting them by the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence and the great
+intermediate lakes and waters lying to the westward of the British
+possessions. In the year 1748, though peace was signed between the
+two European kingdoms, the colonial question remained unsettled, to be
+opened again when either party should be strong enough to urge it. In
+the year 1753, it came to an issue, on the Ohio river, where the British
+and French settlers met. To be sure, there existed other people besides
+French and British, who thought they had a title to the territory about
+which the children of their White Fathers were battling, namely, the
+native Indians and proprietors of the soil. But the logicians of St.
+James's and Versailles wisely chose to consider the matter in dispute
+as a European and not a Red-man's question, eliminating him from the
+argument, but employing his tomahawk as it might serve the turn of
+either litigant.
+
+A company, called the Ohio Company, having grants from the Virginia
+government of lands along that river, found themselves invaded in their
+settlements by French military detachments, who roughly ejected the
+Britons from their holdings. These latter applied for protection to Mr.
+Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, who determined upon sending
+an ambassador to the French commanding officer on the Ohio, demanding
+that the French should desist from their inroads upon the territories of
+his Majesty King George.
+
+Young Mr. Washington jumped eagerly at the chance of distinction which
+this service afforded him, and volunteered to leave his home and his
+rural and professional pursuits in Virginia, to carry the governor's
+message to the French officer. Taking a guide, an interpreter, and a
+few attendants, and following the Indian tracks, in the fall of the year
+1753, the intrepid young envoy made his way from Williamsburg almost
+to the shores of Lake Erie, and found the French commander at Fort le
+Boeuf. That officer's reply was brief: his orders were to hold the place
+and drive all the English from it. The French avowed their intention of
+taking possession of the Ohio. And with this rough answer the messenger
+from Virginia had to return through danger and difficulty, across lonely
+forest and frozen river, shaping his course by the compass, and camping
+at night in the snow by the forest fires.
+
+Harry Warrington cursed his ill-fortune that he had been absent from
+home on a cock-fight, when he might have had chance of sport so much
+nobler; and on his return from his expedition, which he had conducted
+with an heroic energy and simplicity, Major Washington was a greater
+favourite than ever with the lady of Castlewood. She pointed him out
+as a model to both her sons. "Ah, Harry!" she would say, "think of you,
+with your cock-fighting and your racing-matches, and the Major away
+there in the wilderness, watching the French, and battling with the
+frozen rivers! Ah, George! learning may be a very good thing, but I wish
+my eldest son were doing something in the service of his country!"
+
+"I desire no better than to go home and seek for employment, ma'am,"
+says George. "You surely will not have me serve under Mr. Washington, in
+his new regiment, or ask a commission from Mr. Dinwiddie?"
+
+"An Esmond can only serve with the king's commission," says Madam, "and
+as for asking a favour from Mr. Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie, I would
+rather beg my bread."
+
+Mr. Washington was at this time raising such a regiment as, with the
+scanty pay and patronage of the Virginian government, he could get
+together, and proposed, with the help of these men-of-war, to put a more
+peremptory veto upon the French invaders than the solitary ambassador
+had been enabled to lay. A small force under another officer, Colonel
+Trent, had been already despatched to the west, with orders to fortify
+themselves so as to be able to resist any attack of the enemy. The
+French troops, greatly outnumbering ours, came up with the English
+outposts, who were fortifying themselves at a place on the confines of
+Pennsylvania where the great city of Pittsburg now stands. A Virginian
+officer with but forty men was in no condition to resist twenty times
+that number of Canadians, who appeared before his incomplete works. He
+was suffered to draw back without molestation; and the French, taking
+possession of his fort, strengthened it, and christened it by the name
+of the Canadian governor, Du Quesne. Up to this time no actual blow of
+war had been struck. The troops representing the hostile nations were in
+presence--the guns were loaded, but no one as yet had cried "Fire." It
+was strange, that in a savage forest of Pennsylvania, a young Virginian
+officer should fire a shot, and waken up a war which was to last for
+sixty years, which was to cover his own country and pass into Europe, to
+cost France her American colonies, to sever ours from us, and create the
+great Western republic; to rage over the Old World when extinguished in
+the New; and, of all the myriads engaged in the vast contest, to leave
+the prize of the greatest fame with him who struck the first blow!
+
+He little knew of the fate in store for him. A simple gentleman, anxious
+to serve his king and do his duty, he volunteered for the first service,
+and executed it with admirable fidelity. In the ensuing year he took the
+command of the small body of provincial troops with which he marched to
+repel the Frenchmen. He came up with their advanced guard and fired upon
+them, killing their leader. After this he had himself to fall back
+with his troops, and was compelled to capitulate to the superior French
+force. On the 4th of July, 1754, the Colonel marched out with his troops
+from the little fort where he had hastily entrenched himself (and which
+they called Fort Necessity), gave up the place to the conqueror, and
+took his way home.
+
+His command was over: his regiment disbanded after the fruitless,
+inglorious march and defeat. Saddened and humbled in spirit, the
+young officer presented himself after a while to his old friends at
+Castlewood. He was very young: before he set forth on his first campaign
+he may have indulged in exaggerated hopes of success, and uttered them.
+"I was angry when I parted from you," he said to George Warrington,
+holding out his hand, which the other eagerly took. "You seemed to
+scorn me and my regiment, George. I thought you laughed at us, and your
+ridicule made me angry. I boasted too much of what we would do."
+
+"Nay, you have done your best, George," says the other, who quite forgot
+his previous jealousy in his old comrade's misfortune. "Everybody knows
+that a hundred and fifty starving men, with scarce a round of ammunition
+left, could not face five times their number perfectly armed, and
+everybody who knows Mr. Washington knows that he would do his duty.
+Harry and I saw the French in Canada last year. They obey but one will:
+in our provinces each governor has his own. They were royal troops the
+French sent against you..."
+
+"Oh, but that some of ours were here!" cries Madam Esmond, tossing her
+head up. "I promise you a few good English regiments would make the
+white-coats run."
+
+"You think nothing of the provincials: and I must say nothing now we
+have been so unlucky," said the Colonel, gloomily. "You made much of me
+when I was here before. Don't you remember what victories you prophesied
+for me--how much I boasted myself very likely over your good wine? All
+those fine dreams are over now. 'Tis kind of your ladyship to receive a
+poor beaten fellow as you do:" and the young soldier hung down his head.
+
+George Warrington, with his extreme acute sensibility, was touched at
+the other's emotion and simple testimony of sorrow under defeat. He was
+about to say something friendly to Mr. Washington, had not his mother,
+to whom the Colonel had been speaking, replied herself: "Kind of us to
+receive you, Colonel Washington!" said the widow. "I never heard that
+when men were unhappy, our sex were less their friends."
+
+And she made the Colonel a very fine curtsey, which straightway caused
+her son to be more jealous of him than ever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. Preparations for War
+
+
+Surely no man can have better claims to sympathy than bravery, youth,
+good looks, and misfortune. Madam Esmond might have had twenty sons, and
+yet had a right to admire her young soldier. Mr. Washington's room
+was more than ever Mr. Washington's room now. She raved about him
+and praised him in all companies. She more than ever pointed out his
+excellences to her sons, contrasting his sterling qualities with Harry's
+love of pleasure (the wild boy!) and George's listless musings over his
+books. George was not disposed to like Mr. Washington any better for
+his mother's extravagant praises. He coaxed the jealous demon within him
+until he must have become a perfect pest to himself and all the friends
+round about him. He uttered jokes so deep that his simple mother did not
+know their meaning, but sate bewildered at his sarcasms, and powerless
+what to think of his moody, saturnine humour.
+
+Meanwhile, public events were occurring which were to influence the
+fortunes of all our homely family. The quarrel between the French and
+English North Americans, from being a provincial, had grown to be a
+national, quarrel. Reinforcements from France had already arrived in
+Canada; and English troops were expected in Virginia. "Alas! my dear
+friend!" wrote Madame la Presidente de Mouchy, from Quebec, to her young
+friend George Warrington. "How contrary is the destiny to us! I see you
+quitting the embrace of an adored mother to precipitate yourself in the
+arms of Bellona. I see you pass wounded after combats. I hesitate almost
+to wish victory to our lilies when I behold you ranged under the
+banners of the Leopard. There are enmities which the heart does not
+recognise--ours assuredly are at peace among the tumults. All here love
+and salute you, as well as Monsieur the Bear-hunter, your brother (that
+cold Hippolyte who preferred the chase to the soft conversation of our
+ladies!) Your friend, your enemy, the Chevalier de la Jabotiere, burns
+to meet on the field of Mars his generous rival. M. Du Quesne spoke
+of you last night at supper. M. Du Quesne, my husband, send affectuous
+remembrances to their young friend, with which are ever joined those of
+your sincere Presidente de Mouchy."
+
+"The banner of the Leopard," of which George's fair correspondent wrote,
+was, indeed, flung out to the winds, and a number of the king's soldiers
+were rallied round it. It was resolved to wrest from the French all the
+conquests they had made upon British dominion. A couple of regiments
+were raised and paid by the king in America, and a fleet with a couple
+more was despatched from home under an experienced commander. In
+February, 1755, Commodore Keppel, in the famous ship Centurion, in which
+Anson had made his voyage round the world, anchored in Hampton Roads
+with two ships of war under his command, and having on board General
+Braddock, his staff, and a part of his troops. Mr. Braddock was
+appointed by the Duke. A hundred years ago the Duke of Cumberland was
+called The Duke par excellence in England--as another famous warrior has
+since been called. Not so great a Duke certainly was that first-named
+Prince as his party esteemed him, and surely not so bad a one as his
+enemies have painted him. A fleet of transports speedily followed Prince
+William's general, bringing stores, and men, and money in plenty.
+
+The great man landed his troops at Alexandria on the Potomac river, and
+repaired to Annapolis in Maryland, where he ordered the governors of the
+different colonies to meet him in council, urging them each to call upon
+their respective provinces to help the common cause in this strait.
+
+The arrival of the General and his little army caused a mighty
+excitement all through the provinces, and nowhere greater than at
+Castlewood. Harry was off forthwith to see the troops under canvas at
+Alexandria. The sight of their lines delighted him, and the inspiring
+music of their fifes and drums. He speedily made acquaintance with the
+officers of both regiments; he longed to join in the expedition upon
+which they were bound, and was a welcome guest at their mess.
+
+Madam Esmond was pleased that her sons should have an opportunity of
+enjoying the society of gentlemen of good fashion from England. She had
+no doubt their company was improving, that the English gentlemen were
+very different from the horse-racing, cock-fighting Virginian
+squires, with whom Master Harry would associate, and the lawyers, and
+pettifoggers, and toad-eaters at the lieutenant-governor's table. Madam
+Esmond had a very keen eye for detecting flatterers in other folks'
+houses. Against the little knot of official people at Williamsburg she
+was especially satirical, and had no patience with their etiquettes and
+squabbles for precedence.
+
+As for the company of the king's officers, Mr. Harry and his elder
+brother both smiled at their mamma's compliments to the elegance and
+propriety of the gentlemen of the camp. If the good lady had but known
+all, if she could but have heard their jokes and the songs which they
+sang over their wine and punch, if she could have seen the condition
+of many of them as they were carried away to their lodgings, she would
+scarce have been so ready to recommend their company to her sons. Men
+and officers swaggered the country round, and frightened the peaceful
+farm and village folk with their riot: the General raved and stormed
+against his troops for their disorder; against the provincials for their
+traitorous niggardliness; the soldiers took possession almost as of a
+conquered country, they scorned the provincials, they insulted the wives
+even of their Indian allies, who had come to join the English warriors,
+upon their arrival in America, and to march with them against the
+French. The General was compelled to forbid the Indian women his
+camp. Amazed and outraged their husbands retired, and but a few months
+afterwards their services were lost to him, when their aid would have
+been most precious.
+
+Some stories against the gentlemen of the camp, Madam Esmond might have
+heard, but she would have none of them. Soldiers would be soldiers, that
+everybody knew; those officers who came over to Castlewood on her son's
+invitation were most polite gentlemen, and such indeed was the case. The
+widow received them most graciously, and gave them the best sport the
+country afforded. Presently, the General himself sent polite messages
+to the mistress of Castlewood. His father had served with hers under
+the glorious Marlborough, and Colonel Esmond's name was still known and
+respected in England. With her ladyship's permission, General Braddock
+would have the honour of waiting upon her at Castlewood, and paying his
+respects to the daughter of so meritorious an officer.
+
+If she had known the cause of Mr. Braddock's politeness, perhaps
+his compliments would not have charmed Madam Esmond so much. The
+Commander-in-Chief held levees at Alexandria, and among the gentry of
+the country, who paid him their respects, were our twins of Castlewood,
+who mounted their best nags, took with them their last London suits,
+and, with their two negro-boys, in smart liveries behind them, rode
+in state to wait upon the great man. He was sulky and angry with the
+provincial gentry, and scarce took any notice of the young gentlemen,
+only asking, casually, of his aide-de-camp at dinner, who the young
+Squire Gawkeys were in blue and gold and red waistcoats?
+
+Mr. Dinwiddie, the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, the Agent from
+Pennsylvania, and a few more gentlemen, happened to be dining with
+his Excellency. "Oh!" says Mr. Dinwiddie, "those are the sons of the
+Princess Pocahontas;" on which, with a tremendous oath, the General
+asked, "Who the deuce was she?"
+
+Dinwiddie, who did not love her, having indeed undergone a hundred
+pertnesses from the imperious little lady, now gave a disrespectful and
+ridiculous account of Madam Esmond, made merry with her pomposity and
+immense pretensions, and entertained General Braddock with anecdotes
+regarding her, until his Excellency fell asleep.
+
+When he awoke, Dinwiddie was gone, but the Philadelphia gentleman was
+still at table, deep in conversation with the officers there present.
+The General took up the talk where it had been left when he fell asleep,
+and spoke of Madam Esmond in curt, disrespectful terms, such as soldiers
+were in the habit of using in those days, and asking, again, what was
+the name of the old fool about whom Dinwiddie had been talking? He then
+broke into expressions of contempt and wrath against the gentry, and the
+country in general.
+
+Mr. Franklin of Philadelphia repeated the widow's name, took quite
+a different view of her character from that Mr. Dinwiddie had given,
+seemed to know a good deal about her, her father, and her estate; as,
+indeed, he did about every man or subject which came under discussion;
+explained to the General that Madam Esmond had beeves, and horses, and
+stores in plenty, which might be very useful at the present juncture,
+and recommended him to conciliate her by all means. The General
+had already made up his mind that Mr. Franklin was a very shrewd,
+intelligent person, and graciously ordered an aide-de-camp to invite the
+two young men to the next day's dinner. When they appeared he was very
+pleasant and good-natured; the gentlemen of the General's family made
+much of them. They behaved, as became persons of their name, with
+modesty and good-breeding; they returned home delighted with their
+entertainment, nor was their mother less pleased at the civilities which
+his Excellency had shown to her boys. In reply to Braddock's message,
+Madam Esmond penned a billet in her best style, acknowledging his
+politeness, and begging his Excellency to fix the time when she might
+have the honour to receive him at Castlewood.
+
+We may be sure that the arrival of the army and the approaching campaign
+formed the subject of continued conversation in the Castlewood family.
+To make the campaign was the dearest wish of Harry's life. He
+dreamed only of war and battle; he was for ever with the officers at
+Williamsburg; he scoured and cleaned and polished all the guns and
+swords in the house; he renewed the amusements of his childhood, and had
+the negroes under arms. His mother, who had a gallant spirit, knew that
+the time was come when one of her boys must leave her and serve the
+king. She scarce dared to think on whom the lot should fall. She admired
+and respected the elder, but she felt that she loved the younger boy
+with all the passion of her heart.
+
+Eager as Harry was to be a soldier, and with all his thoughts bent on
+that glorious scheme, he too scarcely dared to touch on the subject
+nearest his heart. Once or twice when he ventured on it with George, the
+latter's countenance wore an ominous look. Harry had a feudal attachment
+for his elder brother, worshipped him with an extravagant regard, and in
+all things gave way to him as the chief. So Harry saw, to his infinite
+terror, how George, too, in his grave way, was occupied with military
+matters. George had the wars of Eugene and Marlborough down from his
+bookshelves, all the military books of his grandfather, and the most
+warlike of Plutarch's lives. He and Dempster were practising with the
+foils again. The old Scotchman was an adept in the military art, though
+somewhat shy of saying where he learned it.
+
+Madam Esmond made her two boys the bearers of the letter in reply to his
+Excellency's message, accompanying her note with such large and handsome
+presents for the General's staff and the officers of the two Royal
+Regiments, as caused the General more than once to thank Mr. Franklin
+for having been the means of bringing this welcome ally into the camp.
+"Would not one of the young gentlemen like to see the campaign?"
+the General asked. "A friend of theirs, who often spoke of them--Mr.
+Washington, who had been unlucky in the affair of last year--had already
+promised to join him as aide-de-camp, and his Excellency would gladly
+take another young Virginian gentleman into his family." Harry's eyes
+brightened and his face flushed at this offer. "He would like with all
+his heart to go!" he cried out. George said, looking hard at his younger
+brother, that one of them would be proud to attend his Excellency,
+whilst it would be the other's duty to take care of their mother
+at home. Harry allowed his senior to speak. His will was even still
+obedient to George's. However much he desired to go, he would not
+pronounce until George had declared himself. He longed so for the
+campaign, that the actual wish made him timid. He dared not speak on the
+matter as he went home with George. They rode for miles in silence, or
+strove to talk upon indifferent subjects; each knowing what was passing
+in the other's mind, and afraid to bring the awful question to an issue.
+
+On their arrival at home the boys told their mother of General
+Braddock's offer. "I knew it must happen," she said; "at such a crisis
+in the country our family must come forward. Have you--have you settled
+yet which of you is to leave me?" and she looked anxiously from one to
+another, dreading to hear either name.
+
+"The youngest ought to go, mother; of course I ought to go!" cries
+Harry, turning very red.
+
+"Of course he ought," said Mrs. Mountain, who was present at their talk.
+
+"There! Mountain says so! I told you so!" again cries Harry, with a
+sidelong look at George.
+
+"The head of the family ought to go, mother," says George, sadly.
+
+"No! no! you are ill, and have never recovered your fever. Ought he to
+go, Mountain?"
+
+"You would make the best soldier, I know that, dearest Hal. You and
+George Washington are great friends, and could travel well together, and
+he does not care for me, nor I for him, however much he is admired in
+the family. But, you see, 'tis the law of Honour, my Harry." (He
+here spoke to his brother with a voice of extraordinary kindness and
+tenderness.) "The grief I have had in this matter has been that I must
+refuse thee. I must go. Had Fate given you the benefit of that extra
+half-hour of life which I have had before you, it would have been your
+lot, and you would have claimed your right to go first, you know you
+would."
+
+"Yes, George," said poor Harry, "I own I should."
+
+"You will stay at home, and take care of Castlewood and our mother. If
+anything happens to me, you are here to fill my place. I would like to
+give way, my dear, as you, I know, would lay down your life to serve me.
+But each of us must do his duty. What would our grandfather say if he
+were here?"
+
+The mother looked proudly at her two sons. "My papa would say that his
+boys were gentlemen," faltered Madam Esmond, and left the young men, not
+choosing, perhaps, to show the emotion which was filling her heart. It
+was speedily known amongst the servants that Mr. George was going on the
+campaign. Dinah, George's foster-mother, was loud in her lamentations
+at losing him; Phillis, Harry's old nurse, was as noisy because Master
+George, as usual, was preferred over Master Harry. Sady, George's
+servant, made preparations to follow his master, bragging incessantly
+of the deeds which he would do, while Gumbo, Harry's boy, pretended to
+whimper at being left behind, though, at home, Gumbo was anything but a
+fire-eater.
+
+But, of all in the house, Mrs. Mountain was the most angry at George's
+determination to go on the campaign. She had no patience with him. He
+did not know what he was doing by leaving home. She begged, implored,
+insisted that he should alter his determination; and vowed that nothing
+but mischief would come from his departure.
+
+George was surprised at the pertinacity of the good lady's opposition.
+"I know, Mountain," said he, "that Harry would be the better soldier;
+but, after all, to go is my duty."
+
+"To stay is your duty!" says Mountain, with a stamp of her foot.
+
+"Why did not my mother own it when we talked of the matter just now?"
+
+"Your mother!" says Mrs. Mountain, with a most gloomy, sardonic laugh;
+"your mother, my poor child!"
+
+"What is the meaning of that mournful countenance, Mountain?"
+
+"It may be that your mother wishes you away, George!" Mrs. Mountain
+continued, wagging her head. "It may be, my poor deluded boy, that you
+will find a father-in-law when you come back."
+
+"What in heaven do you mean?" cried George, the blood rushing into his
+face.
+
+"Do you suppose I have no eyes, and cannot see what is going on? I tell
+you, child, that Colonel Washington wants a rich wife. When you are
+gone, he will ask your mother to marry him, and you will find him master
+here when you come back. That is why you ought not to go away, you poor,
+unhappy, simple boy! Don't you see how fond she is of him? how much
+she makes of him? how she is always holding him up to you, to Harry, to
+everybody who comes here?"
+
+"But he is going on the campaign, too," cried George.
+
+"He is going on the marrying campaign, child!" insisted the widow.
+
+"Nay; General Braddock himself told me that Mr. Washington had accepted
+the appointment of aide-de-camp."
+
+"An artifice! an artifice to blind you, my poor child!" cries Mountain.
+"He will be wounded and come back--you will see if he does not. I have
+proofs of what I say to you--proofs under his own hand--look here!" And
+she took from her pocket a piece of paper in Mr. Washington's well-known
+handwriting.
+
+"How came you by this paper?" asked George, turning ghastly pale.
+
+"I--I found it in the Major's chamber!" says Mrs. Mountain, with a
+shamefaced look.
+
+"You read the private letters of a guest staying in our house?" cried
+George. "For shame! I will not look at the paper!" And he flung it from
+him on to the fire before him.
+
+"I could not help it, George; 'twas by chance, I give you my word, by
+the merest chance. You know Governor Dinwiddie is to have the Major's
+room, and the state-room is got ready for Mr. Braddock, and we are
+expecting ever so much company, and I had to take the things which
+the Major leaves here--he treats the house just as if it was his own
+already--into his new room, and this half-sheet of paper fell out of his
+writing-book, and I just gave one look at it by the merest chance, and
+when I saw what it was it was my duty to read it."
+
+"Oh, you are a martyr to duty, Mountain!" George said grimly. "I dare
+say Mrs. Bluebeard thought it was her duty to look through the keyhole."
+
+"I never did look through the keyhole, George. It's a shame you should
+say so! I, who have watched, and tended, and nursed you, like a mother;
+who have sate up whole weeks with you in fevers, and carried you from
+your bed to the sofa in these arms. There, sir, I don't want you there
+now. My dear Mountain, indeed! Don't tell me! You fly into a passion,
+and, call names, and wound my feelings, who have loved you like your
+mother--like your mother?--I only hope she may love you half as well. I
+say you are all ungrateful. My Mr. Mountain was a wretch, and every one
+of you is as bad."
+
+There was but a smouldering log or two in the fireplace, and no doubt
+Mountain saw that the paper was in no danger as it lay amongst the
+ashes, or she would have seized it at the risk of burning her own
+fingers, and ere she uttered the above passionate defence of her
+conduct. Perhaps George was absorbed in his dismal thoughts; perhaps
+his jealousy overpowered him, for he did not resist any further when she
+stooped down and picked up the paper.
+
+"You should thank your stars, child, that I saved the letter," cried
+she. "See! here are his own words, in his great big handwriting like
+a clerk. It was not my fault that he wrote them, or that I found them.
+Read for yourself, I say, George Warrington, and be thankful that your
+poor dear old Mounty is watching over you!"
+
+Every word and letter upon the unlucky paper was perfectly clear.
+George's eyes could not help taking in the contents of the document
+before him. "Not a word of this, Mountain," he said, giving her a
+frightful look. "I--I will return this paper to Mr. Washington."
+
+Mountain was scared at his face, at the idea of what she had done, and
+what might ensue. When his mother, with alarm in her countenance, asked
+him at dinner what ailed him that he looked so pale? "Do you suppose,
+madam," says he, filling himself a great bumper of wine, "that to leave
+such a tender mother as you does not cause me cruel grief?"
+
+The good lady could not understand his words, his strange, fierce looks,
+and stranger laughter. He bantered all at the table; called to the
+servants and laughed at them, and drank more and more. Each time the
+door was opened, he turned towards it; and so did Mountain, with a
+guilty notion that Mr. Washington would step in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. In which George suffers from a Common Disease
+
+
+On the day appointed for Madam Esmond's entertainment to the General,
+the house of Castlewood was set out with the greatest splendour; and
+Madam Esmond arrayed herself in a much more magnificent dress than she
+was accustomed to wear. Indeed, she wished to do every honour to her
+guest, and to make the entertainment--which, in reality, was a sad
+one to her--as pleasant as might be for her company. The General's new
+aide-de-camp was the first to arrive. The widow received him in the
+covered gallery before the house. He dismounted at the steps, and
+his servants led away his horses to the well-known quarters. No young
+gentleman in the colony was better mounted or a better horseman than Mr.
+Washington.
+
+For a while ere the Major retired to divest himself of his riding-boots,
+he and his hostess paced the gallery in talk. She had much to say to
+him; she had to hear from him a confirmation of his own appointment as
+aide-de-camp to General Braddock, and to speak of her son's approaching
+departure. The negro servants bearing the dishes for the approaching
+feast were passing perpetually as they talked. They descended the steps
+down to the rough lawn in front of the house, and paced a while in the
+shade. Mr. Washington announced his Excellency's speedy approach, with
+Mr. Franklin of Pennsylvania in his coach.
+
+This Mr. Franklin had been a common printer's boy, Mrs. Esmond had
+heard; a pretty pass things were coming to when such persons rode in the
+coach of the Commander-in-Chief! Mr. Washington said, a more shrewd and
+sensible gentleman never rode in coach or walked on foot. Mrs. Esmond
+thought the Major was too liberally disposed towards this gentleman; but
+Mr. Washington stoutly maintained against the widow that the printer was
+a most ingenious, useful, and meritorious man.
+
+"I am glad, at least, that, as my boy is going to make the campaign, he
+will not be with tradesmen, but with gentlemen, with gentlemen of honour
+and fashion," says Madam Esmond, in her most stately manner.
+
+Mr. Washington had seen the gentlemen of honour and fashion over their
+cups, and perhaps thought that all their sayings and doings were not
+precisely such as would tend to instruct or edify a young man on his
+entrance into life; but he wisely chose to tell no tales out of school,
+and said that Harry and George, now they were coming into the world,
+must take their share of good and bad, and hear what both sorts had to
+say.
+
+"To be with a veteran officer of the finest army in the world," faltered
+the widow; "with gentlemen who have been bred in the midst of the Court;
+with friends of his Royal Highness, the Duke----"
+
+The widow's friend only inclined his head. He did not choose to allow
+his countenance to depart from its usual handsome gravity.
+
+"And with you, dear Colonel Washington, by whom my father always set
+such store. You don't know how much he trusted in you. You will take
+care of my boy, sir, will not you? You are but five years older, yet
+I trust to you more than to his seniors; my father always told the
+children, I alway bade them, to look up to Mr. Washington."
+
+"You know I would have done anything to win Colonel Esmond's favour.
+Madam, how much would I not venture to merit his daughter's?"
+
+The gentleman bowed with not too ill a grace. The lady blushed,
+and dropped one of the lowest curtsies. (Madam Esmond's curtsey was
+considered unrivalled over the whole province.) "Mr. Washington," she
+said, "will be always sure of a mother's affection, whilst he gives so
+much of his to her children." And so saying she gave him her hand, which
+he kissed with profound politeness. The little lady presently re-entered
+her mansion, leaning upon the tall young officer's arm. Here they were
+joined by George, who came to them, accurately powdered and richly
+attired, saluting his parent and his friend alike with low and
+respectful bows. Nowadays, a young man walks into his mother's room with
+hobnailed high-lows, and a wideawake on his head; and instead of making
+her a bow, puffs a cigar into her face.
+
+But George, though he made the lowest possible bow to Mr. Washington and
+his mother, was by no means in good-humour with either of them. A
+polite smile played round the lower part of his countenance, whilst
+watchfulness and wrath glared out from the two upper windows. What had
+been said or done? Nothing that might not have been performed or uttered
+before the most decent, polite, or pious company. Why then should Madam
+Esmond continue to blush, and the brave Colonel to look somewhat red, as
+he shook his young friend's hand?
+
+The Colonel asked Mr. George if he had had good sport? "No," says
+George, curtly. "Have you?" And then he looked at the picture of his
+father, which hung in the parlour.
+
+The Colonel, not a talkative man ordinarily, straightway entered into
+a long description of his sport, and described where he had been in the
+morning, and what woods he had hunted with the king's officers; how many
+birds they had shot, and what game they had brought down. Though not
+a jocular man ordinarily, the Colonel made a long description of Mr.
+Braddock's heavy person and great boots, as he floundered through
+the Virginian woods, hunting, as they called it, with a pack of dogs
+gathered from various houses, with a pack of negroes barking as loud as
+the dogs, and actually shooting the deer when they came in sight of him.
+"Great God, sir!" says Mr. Braddock, puffing and blowing, "what
+would Sir Robert have said in Norfolk, to see a man hunting with a
+fowling-piece in his hand, and a pack of dogs actually laid on to a
+turkey!"
+
+"Indeed, Colonel, you are vastly comical this afternoon!" cries Madam
+Esmond, with a neat little laugh, whilst her son listened to the story,
+looking more glum than ever. "What Sir Robert is there at Norfolk? Is he
+one of the newly arrived army-gentlemen?"
+
+"The General meant Norfolk at home, madam, not Norfolk in Virginia,"
+said Colonel Washington. "Mr. Braddock had been talking of a visit to
+Sir Robert Walpole, who lived in that county, and of the great hunts the
+old Minister kept there, and of his grand palace, and his pictures at
+Houghton. I should like to see a good field and a good fox-chase at home
+better than any sight in the world," the honest sportsman added with a
+sigh.
+
+"Nevertheless, there is good sport here, as I was saying," said young
+Esmond, with a sneer.
+
+"What sport?" cries the other, looking at him.
+
+"Why, sure you know, without looking at me so fiercely, and stamping
+your foot, as if you were going to charge me with the foils. Are you not
+the best sportsman of the country-side? Are there not all the fish
+of the field, and the beasts of the trees, and the fowls of the
+sea--no--the fish of the trees, and the beasts of the sea--and the--bah!
+You know what I mean. I mean shad, and salmon, and rock-fish, and
+roe-deer, and hogs, and buffaloes, and bisons, and elephants, for what I
+know. I'm no sportsman."
+
+"No, indeed," said Mr. Washington, with a look of scarcely repressed
+scorn.
+
+"Yes, I understand you. I am a milksop. I have been bred at my mamma's
+knee. Look at these pretty apron-strings, Colonel! Who would not like to
+be tied to them? See of what a charming colour they are! I remember when
+they were black--that was for my grandfather."
+
+"And who would not mourn for such a gentleman?" said the Colonel, as the
+widow, surprised, looked at her son.
+
+"And, indeed, I wish my grandfather were here, and would resurge, as he
+promises to do on his tombstone; and would bring my father, the Ensign,
+with him."
+
+"Ah, Harry!" cries Mrs. Esmond, bursting into tears, as at this juncture
+her second son entered the room--in just such another suit, gold-corded
+frock, braided waistcoat, silver-hilted sword, and solitaire, as that
+which his elder brother wore. "Oh, Harry, Harry!" cries Madam Esmond,
+and flies to her younger son.
+
+"What is it, mother?" asks Harry, taking her in his arms. "What is the
+matter, Colonel?"
+
+"Upon my life, it would puzzle me to say," answered the Colonel, biting
+his lips.
+
+"A mere question, Hal, about pink ribbons, which I think vastly becoming
+to our mother; as, no doubt, the Colonel does."
+
+"Sir, will you please to speak for yourself?" cried the Colonel,
+bustling up, and then sinking his voice again.
+
+"He speaks too much for himself," wept the widow.
+
+"I protest I don't any more know the source of these tears, than the
+source of the Nile," said George, "and if the picture of my father were
+to begin to cry, I should almost as much wonder at the paternal tears.
+What have I uttered? An allusion to ribbons! Is there some poisoned pin
+in them, which has been struck into my mother's heart by a guilty fiend
+of a London mantua-maker? I professed to wish to be led in these lovely
+reins all my life long," and he turned a pirouette on his scarlet heels.
+
+"George Warrington! what devil's dance are you dancing now?" asked
+Harry, who loved his mother, who loved Mr. Washington, but who, of all
+creatures, loved and admired his brother George.
+
+"My dear child, you do not understand dancing--you care not for the
+politer arts--you can get no more music out of a spinet than by pulling
+a dead hog by the ear. By nature you were made for a man--a man of
+war--I do not mean a seventy-four, Colonel George, like that hulk which
+brought the hulking Mr. Braddock into our river. His Excellency, too,
+is a man of warlike turn, a follower of the sports of the field. I am a
+milksop, as I have had the honour to say."
+
+"You never showed it yet. You beat that great Maryland man was twice
+your size," breaks out Harry.
+
+"Under compulsion, Harry. 'Tis tuptu, my lad, or else 'tis tuptomai, as
+thy breech well knew when we followed school. But I am of a quiet turn,
+and would never lift my hand to pull a trigger, no, nor a nose, nor
+anything but a rose," and here he took and handled one of Madam Esmond's
+bright pink apron ribbons. "I hate sporting, which you and the Colonel
+love, and I want to shoot nothing alive, not a turkey, nor a titmouse,
+nor an ox, nor an ass, nor anything that has ears. Those curls of Mr.
+Washington's are prettily powdered."
+
+The militia colonel, who had been offended by the first part of the
+talk, and very much puzzled by the last, had taken a modest draught from
+the great china bowl of apple-toddy which stood to welcome the guests
+in this as in all Virginian houses, and was further cooling himself by
+pacing the balcony in a very stately manner.
+
+Again almost reconciled with the elder, the appeased mother stood giving
+a hand to each of her sons. George put his disengaged hand on Harry's
+shoulder. "I say one thing, George," says he with a flushing face.
+
+"Say twenty things, Don Enrico," cries the other.
+
+"If you are not fond of sporting and that, and don't care for killing
+game and hunting, being cleverer than me, why shouldst thou not stop
+at home and be quiet, and let me go out with Colonel George and Mr.
+Braddock?--that's what I say," says Harry, delivering himself of his
+speech.
+
+The widow looked eagerly from the dark-haired to the fair-haired boy.
+She knew not from which she would like to part.
+
+"One of our family must go because honneur oblige, and my name being
+number one, number one must go first," says George.
+
+"Told you so," said poor Harry.
+
+"One must stay, or who is to look after mother at home? We cannot afford
+to be both scalped by Indians or fricasseed by French."
+
+"Fricasseed by French!" cries Harry; "the best troops of the world!
+Englishmen! I should like to see them fricasseed by the French!--What a
+mortal thrashing you will give them!" and the brave lad sighed to think
+he should not be present at the battue.
+
+George sate down to the harpsichord and played and sang "Malbrouk s'en
+va-t-en guerre, Mironton, mironton, mirontaine," at the sound of which
+music the gentleman from the balcony entered. "I am playing 'God save
+the King,' Colonel, in compliment to the new expedition."
+
+"I never know whether thou art laughing or in earnest," said the simple
+gentleman, "but surely methinks that is not the air."
+
+George performed ever so many trills and quavers upon his harpsichord,
+and their guest watched him, wondering, perhaps, that a gentleman of
+George's condition could set himself to such an effeminate business.
+Then the Colonel took out his watch, saying that his Excellency's coach
+would be here almost immediately, and asking leave to retire to his
+apartment, and put himself in a fit condition to appear before her
+ladyship's company.
+
+"Colonel Washington knows the way to his room pretty well," said George,
+from the harpsichord, looking over his shoulder, but never offering to
+stir."
+
+"Let me show the Colonel to his chamber," cried the widow, in great
+wrath, and sailed out of the apartment, followed by the enraged and
+bewildered Colonel, as George continued crashing among the keys. Her
+high-spirited guest felt himself insulted, he could hardly say how; he
+was outraged and he could not speak; he was almost stifling with anger.
+
+Harry Warrington remarked their friend's condition. "For heaven's sake,
+George, what does this all mean?" he asked his brother. "Why shouldn't
+he kiss her hand?" (George had just before fetched out his brother from
+their library, to watch this harmless salute.) "I tell you it is nothing
+but common kindness."
+
+"Nothing but common kindness!" shrieked out George. "Look at that, Hal!
+Is that common kindness?" and he showed his junior the unlucky paper
+over which he had been brooding for some time. It was but a fragment,
+though the meaning was indeed clear without the preceding text.
+
+The paper commenced: "... is older than myself, but I, again, am older
+than my years; and you know, dear brother, have ever been considered a
+sober person. All children are better for a father's superintendence,
+and her two, I trust, will find in me a tender friend and guardian."
+
+"Friend and guardian! Curse him!" shrieked out George, clenching his
+fists--and his brother read on:
+
+"... The flattering offer which General Braddock hath made me, will, of
+course, oblige me to postpone this matter until after the campaign. When
+we have given the French a sufficient drubbing, I shall return to repose
+under my own vine and fig-tree."
+
+"He means Castlewood. These are his vines," George cries again, shaking
+his fist at the creepers sunning themselves on the wall.
+
+"... Under my own vine and fig-tree; where I hope soon to present my
+dear brother to his new sister-in-law. She has a pretty Scripture name,
+which is..."--and here the document ended.
+
+"Which is Rachel," George went on bitterly. "Rachel is by no means
+weeping for her children, and has every desire to be comforted. Now,
+Harry! Let us upstairs at once, kneel down as becomes us, and say, 'Dear
+papa, welcome to your house of Castlewood.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. Hospitalities
+
+
+His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief set forth to pay his visit to
+Madam Esmond in such a state and splendour as became the first personage
+in all his Majesty's colonies, plantations, and possessions of North
+America. His guard of dragoons preceded him out of Williamsburg in the
+midst of an immense shouting and yelling of a loyal, and principally
+negro, population. The General rode in his own coach. Captain Talmadge,
+his Excellency's Master of the Horse, attended him at the door of the
+ponderous emblazoned vehicle, and riding by the side of the carriage
+during the journey from Williamsburg to Madam Esmond's house. Major
+Danvers, aide-de-camp, sate in the front of the carriage with the little
+postmaster from Philadelphia, Mr. Franklin, who, printer's boy as he had
+been, was a wonderful shrewd person, as his Excellency and the gentlemen
+of his family were fain to acknowledge, having a quantity of the most
+curious information respecting the colony, and regarding England too,
+where Mr. Franklin had been more than once. "'Twas extraordinary how
+a person of such humble origin should have acquired such a variety
+of learning and such a politeness of breeding too, Mr. Franklin!" his
+Excellency was pleased to observe, touching his hat graciously to the
+postmaster.
+
+The postmaster bowed, said it had been his occasional good fortune to
+fall into the company of gentlemen like his Excellency, and that he had
+taken advantage of his opportunity to study their honours' manners, and
+adapt himself to them as far as he might. As for education, he could not
+boast much of that--his father being but in straitened circumstances,
+and the advantages small in his native country of New England: but he
+had done to the utmost of his power, and gathered what he could--he knew
+nothing like what they had in England.
+
+Mr. Braddock burst out laughing, and said, "As for education, there were
+gentlemen of the army, by George, who didn't know whether they should
+spell bull with two b's or one. He had heard the Duke of Marlborough
+was no special good penman. He had not the honour of serving under that
+noble commander--his Grace was before his time--but he thrashed the
+French soundly, although he was no scholar."
+
+Mr. Franklin said he was aware of both those facts.
+
+"Nor is my Duke a scholar," went on Mr. Braddock--"aha, Mr. Postmaster,
+you have heard that, too--I see by the wink in your eye."
+
+Mr. Franklin instantly withdrew the obnoxious or satirical wink in his
+eye, and looked in the General's jolly round face with a pair of orbs as
+innocent as a baby's. "He's no scholar, but he is a match for any French
+general that ever swallowed the English for fricassee de crapaud.
+He saved the crown for the best of kings, his royal father, his Most
+Gracious Majesty King George."
+
+Off went Mr. Franklin's hat, and from his large buckled wig escaped a
+great halo of powder.
+
+"He is the soldier's best friend, and has been the uncompromising enemy
+of all beggarly red-shanked Scotch rebels and intriguing Romish Jesuits
+who would take our liberty from us, and our religion, by George. His
+Royal Highness, my gracious master, is not a scholar neither, but he is
+one of the finest gentlemen in the world."
+
+"I have seen his Royal Highness on horseback, at a review of the Guards,
+in Hyde Park," says Mr. Franklin. "The Duke is indeed a very fine
+gentleman on horseback."
+
+"You shall drink his health to-day, Postmaster. He is the best of
+masters, the best of friends, the best of sons to his royal old father;
+the best of gentlemen that ever wore an epaulet."
+
+"Epaulets are quite out of my way, sir," says Mr. Franklin, laughing.
+"You know I live in a Quaker City."
+
+"Of course they are out of your way, my good friend. Every man to his
+business. You, and gentlemen of your class, to your books, and welcome.
+We don't forbid you; we encourage you. We, to fight the enemy and govern
+the country. Hey, gentlemen? Lord! what roads you have in this colony,
+and how this confounded coach plunges! Who have we here, with the two
+negro boys in livery? He rides a good gelding."
+
+"It is Mr. Washington," says the aide-de-camp.
+
+"I would like him for a corporal of the Horse Grenadiers," said the
+General. "He has a good figure on a horse. He knows the country too, Mr.
+Franklin."
+
+"Yes, indeed."
+
+"And is a monstrous genteel young man, considering the opportunities he
+has had. I should have thought he had the polish of Europe, by George I
+should."
+
+"He does his best," says Mr. Franklin, looking innocently at the stout
+chief, the exemplar of English elegance, who sat swagging from one side
+to the other of the carriage, his face as scarlet as his coat--swearing
+at every other word; ignorant on every point off parade, except the
+merits of a bottle and the looks of a woman; not of high birth, yet
+absurdly proud of his no-ancestry; brave as a bulldog; savage, lustful,
+prodigal, generous; gentle in soft moods; easy of love and laughter;
+dull of wit; utterly unread; believing his country the first in the
+world, and he as good a gentleman as any in it. "Yes, he is mighty well
+for a provincial, upon my word. He was beat at Fort What-d'ye-call-um
+last year, down by the Thingamy river. What's the name on't, Talmadge?"
+
+"The Lord knows, sir," says Talmadge; "and I dare say the Postmaster,
+too, who is laughing at us both."
+
+"Oh, Captain!"
+
+"Was caught in a regular trap. He had only militia and Indians with him.
+Good day, Mr. Washington. A pretty nag, sir. That was your first affair,
+last year?"
+
+"That at Fort Necessity? Yes, sir," said the gentleman, gravely
+saluting, as he rode up, followed by a couple of natty negro grooms,
+in smart livery-coats and velvet hunting-caps. "I began ill, sir, never
+having been in action until that unlucky day."
+
+"You were all raw levies, my good fellow. You should have seen our
+militia run from the Scotch, and be cursed to them. You should have had
+some troops with you."
+
+"Your Excellency knows 'tis my passionate desire to see and serve with
+them," said Mr. Washington.
+
+"By George, we shall try and gratify you, sir," said the General, with
+one of his usual huge oaths; and on the heavy carriage rolled towards
+Castlewood; Mr. Washington asking leave to gallop on ahead, in order to
+announce his Excellency's speedy arrival to the lady there.
+
+The progress of the Commander-in-Chief was so slow, that several
+humbler persons who were invited to meet his Excellency came up with
+his carriage, and, not liking to pass the great man on the road, formed
+quite a procession in the dusty wake of his chariot-wheels. First
+came Mr. Dinwiddie, the Lieutenant-Governor of his Majesty's province,
+attended by his negro servants, and in company of Parson Broadbent, the
+jolly Williamsburg chaplain. These were presently joined by little Mr.
+Dempster, the young gentlemen's schoolmaster, in his great Ramillies
+wig, which he kept for occasions of state. Anon appeared Mr. Laws, the
+judge of the court, with Madam Laws on a pillion behind him, and their
+negro man carrying a box containing her ladyship's cap, and bestriding
+a mule. The procession looked so ludicrous, that Major Danvers and Mr.
+Franklin espying it, laughed outright, though not so loud as to disturb
+his Excellency, who was asleep by this time, bade the whole of this
+queer rearguard move on, and leave the Commander-in-Chief and his
+escort of dragoons to follow at their leisure. There was room for all at
+Castlewood when they came. There was meat, drink, and the best tobacco
+for his Majesty's soldiers; and laughing and jollity for the negroes;
+and a plenteous welcome for their masters.
+
+The honest General required to be helped to most dishes at the table,
+and more than once, and was for ever holding out his glass for drink;
+Nathan's sangaree he pronounced to be excellent, and had drunk largely
+of it on arriving before dinner. There was cider, ale, brandy, and
+plenty of good Bordeaux wine, some which Colonel Esmond himself had
+brought home with him to the colony, and which was fit for ponteeficis
+coenis, said little Mr. Dempster, with a wink to Mr. Broadbent, the
+clergyman of the adjoining parish. Mr. Broadbent returned the wink and
+nod, and drank the wine without caring about the Latin, as why should
+he, never having hitherto troubled himself about the language? Mr.
+Broadbent was a gambling, guzzling, cock-fighting divine, who had passed
+much time in the Fleet Prison, at Newmarket, at Hockley-in-the-Hole; and
+having gone of all sorts of errands for his friend, Lord Cingbars,
+Lord Ringwood's son (my Lady Cingbars's waiting-woman being Mr. B.'s
+mother--I dare say the modern reader had best not be too particular
+regarding Mr. Broadbent's father's pedigree), had been of late sent out
+to a church-living in Virginia. He and young George had fought many
+a match of cocks together, taken many a roe in company, hauled in
+countless quantities of shad and salmon, slain wild geese and wild
+swans, pigeons and plovers, and destroyed myriads of canvas-backed
+ducks. It was said by the envious that Broadbent was the midnight
+poacher on whom Mr. Washington set his dogs, and whom he caned by the
+river-side at Mount Vernon. The fellow got away from his captor's grip,
+and scrambled to his boat in the dark; but Broadbent was laid up for
+two Sundays afterwards, and when he came abroad again had the evident
+remains of a black eye and a new collar to his coat. All the games
+at the cards had George Esmond and Parson Broadbent played together,
+besides hunting all the birds in the air, the beasts in the forest, and
+the fish of the sea. Indeed, when the boys rode together to get their
+reading with Mr. Dempster, I suspect that Harry stayed behind and
+took lessons from the other professor of European learning and
+accomplishments,--George going his own way, reading his own books, and,
+of course, telling no tales of his younger brother.
+
+All the birds of the Virginia air, and all the fish of the sea in season
+were here laid on Madam Esmond's board to feed his Excellency and the
+rest of the English and American gentlemen. The gumbo was declared to be
+perfection (young Mr. George's black servant was named after this
+dish, being discovered behind the door with his head in a bowl of this
+delicious hotch-potch, by the late Colonel, and grimly christened on the
+spot), the shad were rich and fresh, the stewed terrapins were worthy of
+London aldermen (before George, he would like the Duke himself to taste
+them, his Excellency deigned to say), and indeed, stewed terrapins are
+worthy of any duke or even emperor. The negro-women have a genius for
+cookery, and in Castlewood kitchens there were adepts in the art brought
+up under the keen eye of the late and the present Madam Esmond. Certain
+of the dishes, especially the sweets and flan, Madam Esmond prepared
+herself with great neatness and dexterity; carving several of the
+principal pieces, as the kindly cumbrous fashion of the day was, putting
+up the laced lappets of her sleeves, and showing the prettiest round
+arms and small hands and wrists as she performed this ancient rite of
+a hospitality not so languid as ours. The old law of the table was that
+the mistress was to press her guests with a decent eagerness, to watch
+and see whom she could encourage to further enjoyment, to know culinary
+anatomic secrets, and execute carving operations upon fowls, fish, game,
+joints of meat, and so forth; to cheer her guests to fresh efforts, to
+whisper her neighbour, Mr. Braddock "I have kept for your Excellency
+the jowl of this salmon.--I will take no denial! Mr. Franklin, you drink
+only water, sir, though our cellar has wholesome wine which gives no
+headaches.--Mr. Justice, you love woodcock pie?"
+
+"Because I know who makes the pastry," says Mr. Laws, the judge, with
+a profound bow. "I wish, madam, we had such a happy knack of pastry at
+home as you have at Castlewood. I often say to my wife, 'My dear, I wish
+you had Madam Esmond's hand.'"
+
+"It is a very pretty hand; I am sure others would like it too," says Mr.
+Postmaster of Boston, at which remark Mr. Esmond looks but half-pleased
+at the little gentleman.
+
+"Such a hand for a light pie-crust," continues the Judge, "and
+my service to you, madam." And he thinks the widow cannot but be
+propitiated by this compliment. She says simply that she had lessons
+when she was at home in England for her education, and that there were
+certain dishes which her mother taught her to make, and which her father
+and sons both liked. She was very glad if they pleased her company. More
+such remarks follow: more dishes; ten times as much meat as is
+needful for the company. Mr. Washington does not embark in the general
+conversation much, but he and Mr. Talmadge, and Major Danvers, and
+the Postmaster, are deep in talk about roads, rivers, conveyances,
+sumpter-horses and artillery train; and the provincial militia Colonel
+has bits of bread laid at intervals on the table before him, and
+stations marked out, on which he has his finger, and regarding which he
+is talking to his brother aides-de-camp, till a negro servant, changing
+the courses, brushes off the Potomac with a napkin, and sweeps up the
+Ohio in a spoon.
+
+At the end of dinner, Mr. Broadbent leaves his place and walks up behind
+the Lieutenant-Governor's chair, where he says grace, returning to his
+seat and resuming his knife and fork when this work of devotion is over.
+And now the sweets and puddings are come, of which I can give you a
+list, if you like; but what young lady cares for the puddings of to-day,
+much more for those which were eaten a hundred years ago, and which
+Madam Esmond had prepared for her guests with so much neatness and
+skill? Then, the table being cleared, Nathan, her chief manager, lays a
+glass to every person, and fills his mistress's. Bowing to the company,
+she says she drinks but one toast, but knows how heartily all the
+gentlemen present will join her. Then she calls, "His Majesty," bowing
+to Mr. Braddock, who with his aides-de-camp and the colonial gentlemen
+all loyally repeat the name of their beloved and gracious Sovereign. And
+hereupon, having drunk her glass of wine and saluted all the company,
+the widow retires between a row of negro servants, performing one of her
+very handsomest curtsies at the door.
+
+The kind Mistress of Castlewood bore her part in the entertainment with
+admirable spirit, and looked so gay and handsome, and spoke with such
+cheerfulness and courage to all her company, that the few ladies who
+were present at the dinner could not but congratulate Madam Esmond upon
+the elegance of the feast, and especially upon her manner of presiding
+at it. But they were scarcely got to her drawing-room when her
+artificial courage failed her, and she burst into tears on the sofa by
+Mrs. Laws' side, just in the midst of a compliment from that lady. "Ah,
+madam!" she said, "it may be an honour, as you say, to have the
+King's representative in my house, and our family has received greater
+personages than Mr. Braddock. But he comes to take one of my sons away
+from me. Who knows whether my boy will return, or how? I dreamed of him
+last night as wounded, and quite white, with blood streaming from his
+side. I would not be so ill-mannered as to let my grief be visible
+before the gentlemen; but, my good Mrs. Justice, who has parted with
+children, and who has a mother's heart of her own, would like me none
+the better, if mine were very easy this evening."
+
+The ladies administered such consolations as seemed proper or palatable
+to their hostess, who tried not to give way further to her melancholy,
+and remembered that she had other duties to perform, before yielding to
+her own sad mood. "It will be time enough, madam, to be sorry when they
+are gone," she said to the Justice's wife, her good neighbour. "My boy
+must not see me following him with a wistful face, and have our parting
+made more dismal by my weakness. It is good that gentlemen of his rank
+and station should show themselves where their country calls them.
+That has always been the way of the Esmonds, and the same Power which
+graciously preserved my dear father through twenty great battles in the
+Queen's time, I trust and pray, will watch over my son now his turn
+is come to do his duty." And, now, instead of lamenting her fate, or
+further alluding to it, I dare say the resolute lady sate down with
+her female friends to a pool of cards and a dish of coffee, whilst the
+gentlemen remained in the neighbouring parlour, still calling their
+toasts and drinking their wine. When one lady objected that these latter
+were sitting rather long, Madam Esmond said: "It would improve and amuse
+the boys to be with the English gentlemen. Such society was very rarely
+to be had in their distant province, and though their conversation
+sometimes was free, she was sure that gentleman and men of fashion would
+have regard to the youth of her sons, and say nothing before them which
+young people should not hear."
+
+It was evident that the English gentlemen relished the good cheer
+provided for them. Whilst the ladies were yet at their cards, Nathan
+came in and whispered Mrs. Mountain, who at first cried out--"No! she
+would give no more--the common Bordeaux they might have, and welcome,
+if they still wanted more--but she would not give any more of the
+Colonel's." It appeared that the dozen bottles of particular claret had
+been already drunk up by the gentlemen, "besides ale, cider, Burgundy,
+Lisbon, and Madeira," says Mrs. Mountain, enumerating the supplies.
+
+But Madam Esmond was for having no stint in the hospitality of the
+night. Mrs. Mountain was fain to bustle away with her keys to the sacred
+vault where the Colonel's particular Bordeaux lay, surviving its master,
+who, too, had long passed underground. As they went on their journey,
+Mrs. Mountain asked whether any of the gentlemen had had too much?
+Nathan thought Mister Broadbent was tipsy--he always tipsy; be then
+thought the General gentleman was tipsy; and he thought Master George
+was a lilly drunk.
+
+"Master George!" cries Mrs. Mountain: "why, he will sit for days without
+touching a drop."
+
+Nevertheless, Nathan persisted in his notion that Master George was
+a lilly drunk. He was always filling his glass, he had talked, he had
+sung, he had cut jokes, especially against Mr. Washington, which made
+Mr. Washington quite red and angry, Nathan said. "Well, well!" Mrs.
+Mountain cried eagerly; "it was right a gentleman should make himself
+merry in good company, and pass the bottle along with his friends."
+And she trotted to the particular Bordeaux cellar with only the more
+alacrity.
+
+The tone of freedom and almost impertinence which young George Esmond
+had adopted of late days towards Mr. Washington had very deeply vexed
+and annoyed that gentleman. There was scarce half a dozen years'
+difference of age between him and the Castlewood twins;--but Mr.
+Washington had always been remarked for a discretion and sobriety much
+beyond his time of life, whilst the boys of Castlewood seemed younger
+than theirs. They had always been till now under their mother's anxious
+tutelage, and had looked up to their neighbour of Mount Vernon as their
+guide, director, friend--as, indeed, almost everybody seemed to do who
+came in contact with the simple and upright young man. Himself of the
+most scrupulous gravity and good breeding, in his communication with
+other folks he appeared to exact, or, at any rate, to occasion, the same
+behaviour. His nature was above levity and jokes: they seemed out of
+place when addressed to him. He was slow of comprehending them: and they
+slunk as it were abashed out of his society. "He always seemed great to
+me," says Harry Warrington, in one of his letters many years after the
+date of which we are writing; "and I never thought of him otherwise than
+of a hero. When he came over to Castlewood and taught us boys surveying,
+to see him riding to hounds was as if he was charging an army. If he
+fired a shot, I thought the bird must come down, and if be flung a net,
+the largest fish in the river were sure to be in it. His words were
+always few, but they were always wise; they were not idle, as our words
+are, they were grave, sober, and strong, and ready on occasion to do
+their duty. In spite of his antipathy to him, my brother respected and
+admired the General as much as I did--that is to say, more than any
+mortal man."
+
+Mr. Washington was the first to leave the jovial party which were doing
+so much honour to Madam Esmond's hospitality. Young George Esmond, who
+had taken his mother's place when she left it, had been free with the
+glass and with the tongue. He had said a score of things to his guest
+which wounded and chafed the latter, and to which Mr. Washington could
+give no reply. Angry beyond all endurance, he left the table at length,
+and walked away through the open windows into the broad verandah or
+porch which belonged to Castlewood as to all Virginian houses.
+
+Here Madam Esmond caught sight of her friend's tall frame as it strode
+up and down before the windows; and, the evening being warm, or her game
+over, she gave up her cards to one of the other ladies, and joined her
+good neighbour out of doors. He tried to compose his countenance as well
+as he could: it was impossible that he should explain to his hostess why
+and with whom he was angry.
+
+"The gentlemen are long over their wine," she said; "gentlemen of the
+army are always fond of it."
+
+"If drinking makes good soldiers, some yonder are distinguishing
+themselves greatly, madam," said Mr. Washington.
+
+"And I dare say the General is at the head of his troops?"
+
+"No doubt, no doubt," answered the Colonel, who always received this
+lady's remarks, playful or serious, with a peculiar softness and
+kindness. "But the General is the General, and it is not for me to make
+remarks on his Excellency's doings at table or elsewhere. I think very
+likely that military gentlemen born and bred at home are different from
+us of the colonies. We have such a hot sun, that we need not wine to
+fire our blood as they do. And drinking toasts seems a point of honour
+with them. Talmadge hiccupped to me--I should say, whispered to me just
+now, that an officer could no more refuse a toast than a challenge, and
+he said that it was after the greatest difficulty and dislike at first
+that he learned to drink. He has certainly overcome his difficulty with
+uncommon resolution."
+
+"What, I wonder, can you talk of for so many hours?" asked the lady.
+
+"I don't think I can tell you all we talk of, madam, and I must not
+tell tales out of school. We talked about the war, and of the force Mr.
+Contrecoeur has, and how we are to get at him. The General is for making
+the campaign in his coach, and makes light of it and the enemy. That we
+shall beat them, if we meet them, I trust there is no doubt."
+
+"How can there be?" says the lady, whose father had served under
+Marlborough.
+
+"Mr. Franklin, though he is only from New England," continued the
+gentleman, "spoke great good sense, and would have spoken more if the
+English gentlemen would let him; but they reply invariably that we are
+only raw provincials, and don't know what disciplined British troops can
+do. Had they not best hasten forwards and make turnpike roads and
+have comfortable inns ready for his Excellency at the end of the day's
+march?--'There's some sort of inns, I suppose,' says Mr. Danvers, 'not
+so comfortable as we have in England: we can't expect that.'--'No,
+you can't expect that,' says Mr. Franklin, who seems a very shrewd
+and facetious person. He drinks his water, and seems to laugh at the
+Englishmen, though I doubt whether it is fair for a water-drinker to sit
+by and spy out the weaknesses of gentlemen over their wine."
+
+"And my boys? I hope they are prudent?" said the widow, laying her hand
+on her guest's arm. "Harry promised me, and when he gives his word, I
+can trust him for anything. George is always moderate. Why do you look
+so grave?"
+
+"Indeed, to be frank with you, I do not know what has come over George
+in these last days," says Mr. Washington. "He has some grievance against
+me which I do not understand, and of which I don't care to ask the
+reason. He spoke to me before the gentlemen in a way which scarcely
+became him. We are going the campaign together, and 'tis a pity we begin
+such ill friends."
+
+"He has been ill. He is always wild and wayward, and hard to understand.
+But he has the most affectionate heart in the world. You will bear with
+him, you will protect him--promise me you will."
+
+"Dear lady, I will do so with my life," Mr. Washington said with great
+fervour. "You know I would lay it down cheerfully for you or any you
+love."
+
+"And my father's blessing and mine go with you, dear friend!" cried the
+widow, full of thanks and affection.
+
+As they pursued their conversation, they had quitted the porch under
+which they had first began to talk, and where they could hear the
+laughter and toasts of the gentlemen over their wine, and were pacing a
+walk on the rough lawn before the house. Young George Warrington, from
+his place at the head of the table in the dining-room, could see the
+pair as they passed to and fro, and had listened for some time past,
+and replied in a very distracted manner to the remarks of the gentlemen
+round about him, who were too much engaged with their own talk and
+jokes, and drinking, to pay much attention to their young host's
+behaviour. Mr. Braddock loved a song after dinner, and Mr. Danvers, his
+aide-de-camp, who had a fine tenor voice, was delighting his General
+with the latest ditty from Marybone Gardens, when George Warrington,
+jumping up, ran towards the window, and then returned and pulled his
+brother Harry by the sleeve, who sate with his back towards the window.
+
+"What is it?" says Harry, who, for his part, was charmed, too, with the
+song and chorus.
+
+"Come," cried George, with a stamp of his foot, and the younger followed
+obediently.
+
+"What is it?" continued George, with a bitter oath. "Don't you see what
+it is? They were billing and cooing this morning; they are billing and
+cooing now before going to roost. Had we not better both go into the
+garden, and pay our duty to our mamma and papa?" and he pointed to Mr.
+Washington, who was taking the widow's hand very tenderly in his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. A Hot Afternoon
+
+
+General Braddock and the other guests of Castlewood being duly consigned
+to their respective quarters, the boys retired to their own room, and
+there poured out to one another their opinions respecting the great
+event of the day. They would not bear such a marriage--no. Was the
+representative of the Marquises of Esmond to marry the younger son of
+a colonial family, who had been bred up as a land-surveyor? Castlewood,
+and the boys at nineteen years of age, handed over to the tender mercies
+of a stepfather of three-and-twenty! Oh, it was monstrous! Harry was for
+going straightway to his mother in her bedroom--where her black maidens
+were divesting her ladyship of the simple jewels and fineries which she
+had assumed in compliment to the feast--protesting against the odious
+match, and announcing that they would go home, live upon their little
+property there, and leave her for ever, if the unnatural union took
+place.
+
+George advocated another way of stopping it, and explained his plan to
+his admiring brother. "Our mother," he said, "can't marry a man with
+whom one or both of us has been out on the field, and who has wounded us
+or killed us, or whom we have wounded or killed. We must have him out,
+Harry."
+
+Harry saw the profound truth conveyed in George's statement, and admired
+his brother's immense sagacity. "No, George," says he, "you are right.
+Mother can't marry our murderer; she won't be as bad as that. And if we
+pink him he is done for. 'Cadit quaestio,' as Mr. Dempster used to say.
+Shall I send my boy with a challenge to Colonel George now?"
+
+"My dear Harry," the elder replied, thinking with some complacency of
+his affair of honour at Quebec, "you are not accustomed to affairs of
+this sort."
+
+"No," owned Harry, with a sigh, looking with envy and admiration on his
+senior.
+
+"We can't insult a gentleman in our own house," continued George, with
+great majesty; "the laws of honour forbid such inhospitable treatment.
+But, sir, we can ride out with him, and, as soon as the park gates are
+closed, we can tell him our mind."
+
+"That we can, by George!" cries Harry, grasping his brother's hand, "and
+that we will, too. I say, Georgy..." Here the lad's face became very
+red, and his brother asked him what he would say?
+
+"This is my turn, brother," Harry pleaded. "If you go the campaign, I
+ought to have the other affair. Indeed, indeed, I ought." And he prayed
+for this bit of promotion.
+
+"Again the head of the house must take the lead, my dear," George said,
+with a superb air. "If I fall, my Harry will avenge me. But I must fight
+George Washington, Hal: and 'tis best I should; for, indeed, I hate him
+the worst. Was it not he who counselled my mother to order that wretch,
+Ward, to lay hands on me?"
+
+"Ah, George," interposed the more pacable younger brother, "you ought to
+forget and forgive."
+
+"Forgive? Never, sir, as long as I remember. You can't order remembrance
+out of a man's mind; and a wrong that was a wrong yesterday must be a
+wrong to-morrow. I never, of my knowledge, did one to any man, and I
+never will suffer one, if I can help it. I think very ill of Mr. Ward,
+but I don't think so badly of him as to suppose he will ever forgive
+thee that blow with the ruler. Colonel Washington is our enemy, mine
+especially. He has advised one wrong against me, and he meditates a
+greater. I tell you, brother, we must punish him."
+
+The grandsire's old Bordeaux had set George's ordinarily pale
+countenance into a flame. Harry, his brother's fondest worshipper,
+could not but admire George's haughty bearing and rapid declamation, and
+prepared himself, with his usual docility, to follow his chief. So the
+boys went to their beds, the elder conveying special injunctions to his
+junior to be civil to all the guests so long as they remained under the
+maternal roof on the morrow.
+
+Good manners and a repugnance to telling tales out of school, forbid us
+from saying which of Madam Esmond's guests was the first to fall under
+the weight of her hospitality. The respectable descendants of Messrs.
+Talmadge and Danvers, aides-de-camp to his Excellency, might not care to
+hear how their ancestors were intoxicated a hundred years ago; and yet
+the gentlemen themselves took no shame in the fact, and there is little
+doubt they or their comrades were tipsy twice or thrice in the week.
+Let us fancy them reeling to bed, supported by sympathising negroes; and
+their vinous General, too stout a toper to have surrendered himself to
+a half-dozen bottles of Bordeaux, conducted to his chamber by the young
+gentlemen of the house, and speedily sleeping the sleep which friendly
+Bacchus gives. The good lady of Castlewood saw the condition of her
+guests without the least surprise or horror; and was up early in the
+morning, providing cooling drinks for their hot palates, which the
+servants carried to their respective chambers. At breakfast, one of
+the English officers rallied Mr. Franklin, who took no wine at all, and
+therefore refused the morning cool draught of toddy, by showing how the
+Philadelphia gentleman lost two pleasures, the drink and the toddy. The
+young fellow said the disease was pleasant and the remedy delicious, and
+laughingly proposed to continue repeating them both. The General's new
+American aide-de-camp, Colonel Washington, was quite sober and serene.
+The British officers vowed they must take him in hand, and teach him
+what the ways of the English army were; but the Virginian gentleman
+gravely said he did not care to learn that part of the English military
+education.
+
+The widow, occupied as she had been with the cares of a great dinner,
+followed by a great breakfast on the morning ensuing, had scarce leisure
+to remark the behaviour of her sons very closely, but at least saw that
+George was scrupulously polite to her favourite, Colonel Washington, as
+to all the other guests of the house.
+
+Before Mr. Braddock took his leave, he had a private audience of Madam
+Esmond, in which his Excellency formally offered to take her son into
+his family; and when the arrangements for George's departure were
+settled between his mother and future chief, Madam Esmond, though she
+might feel them, did not show any squeamish terrors about the dangers
+of the bottle, which she saw were amongst the severest and most certain
+which her son would have to face. She knew her boy must take his part in
+the world, and encounter his portion of evil and good. "Mr. Braddock
+is a perfect fine gentleman in the morning," she said stoutly to her
+aide-de-camp, Mrs. Mountain; "and though my papa did not drink, 'tis
+certain that many of the best company in England do." The jolly General
+good-naturedly shook hands with George, who presented himself to his
+Excellency after the maternal interview was over, and bade George
+welcome, and to be in attendance at Frederick three days hence; shortly
+after which time the expedition would set forth.
+
+And now the great coach was again called into requisition, the General's
+escort pranced round it, the other guests and their servants went to
+horse. The lady of Castlewood attended his Excellency to the steps of
+the verandah in front of her house, the young gentlemen followed, and
+stood on each side of his coach-door. The guard trumpeter blew a shrill
+blast, the negroes shouted "Huzzay, and God sabe de King," as Mr.
+Braddock most graciously took leave of his hospitable entertainers, and
+rolled away on his road to headquarters.
+
+As the boys went up the steps, there was the Colonel once more taking
+leave of their mother. No doubt she had been once more recommending
+George to his namesake's care; for Colonel Washington said: "With my
+life. You may depend on me," as the lads returned to their mother and
+the few guests still remaining in the porch. The Colonel was booted and
+ready to depart. "Farewell, my dear Harry," he said. "With you, George,
+'tis no adieu. We shall meet in three days at the camp."
+
+Both the young men were going to danger, perhaps to death. Colonel
+Washington was taking leave of her, and she was to see him no more
+before the campaign. No wonder the widow was very much moved.
+
+George Warrington watched his mother's emotion, and interpreted it with
+a pang of malignant scorn. "Stay yet a moment, and console our mamma,"
+he said with a steady countenance, "only the time to get ourselves
+booted, and my brother and I will ride with you a little way, George."
+George Warrington had already ordered his horses. The three young
+men were speedily under way, their negro grooms behind them, and Mrs.
+Mountain, who knew she had made mischief between them and trembled for
+the result, felt a vast relief that Mr. Washington was gone without a
+quarrel with the brothers, without, at any rate, an open declaration of
+love to their mother.
+
+No man could be more courteous in demeanour than George Warrington to
+his neighbour and namesake, the Colonel. The latter was pleased and
+surprised at his young friend's altered behaviour. The community of
+danger, the necessity of future fellowship, the softening influence of
+the long friendship which bound him to the Esmond family, the tender
+adieux which had just passed between him and the mistress of Castlewood,
+inclined the Colonel to forget the unpleasantness of the past days, and
+made him more than usually friendly with his young companion. George
+was quite gay and easy: it was Harry who was melancholy now: he rode
+silently and wistfully by his brother, keeping away from Colonel
+Washington, to whose side he used always to press eagerly before. If
+the honest Colonel remarked his young friend's conduct, no doubt he
+attributed it to Harry's known affection for his brother, and his
+natural anxiety to be with George now the day of their parting was so
+near.
+
+They talked further about the war, and the probable end of the campaign:
+none of the three doubted its successful termination. Two thousand
+veteran British troops with their commander must get the better of any
+force the French could bring against them, if only they moved in decent
+time. The ardent young Virginian soldier had an immense respect for the
+experienced valour and tactics of the regular troops. King George II.
+had no more loyal subject than Mr. Braddock's new aide-de-camp.
+
+So the party rode amicably together, until they reached a certain rude
+log-house, called Benson's, of which the proprietor, according to the
+custom of the day and country, did not disdain to accept money from
+his guests in return for hospitalities provided. There was a recruiting
+station here, and some officers and men of Halkett's regiment assembled,
+and here Colonel Washington supposed that his young friends would take
+leave of him.
+
+Whilst their horses were baited, they entered the public room, and
+found a rough meal prepared for such as were disposed to partake. George
+Warrington entered the place with a particularly gay and lively air,
+whereas poor Harry's face was quite white and woebegone.
+
+"One would think, Squire Harry, 'twas you who was going to leave home
+and fight the French and Indians, and not Mr. George," says Benson.
+
+"I may be alarmed about danger to my brother," said Harry, "though I
+might bear my own share pretty well. 'Tis not my fault that I stay at
+home."
+
+"No, indeed, brother," cries George.
+
+"Harry Warrington's courage does not need any proof!" cries Mr.
+Washington.
+
+"You do the family honour by speaking so well of us, Colonel," says Mr.
+George, with a low bow. "I dare say we can hold our own, if need be."
+
+Whilst his friend was vaunting his courage, Harry looked, to say the
+truth, by no means courageous. As his eyes met his brother's, he read in
+George's look an announcement which alarmed the fond faithful lad. "You
+are not going to do it now?" he whispered his brother.
+
+"Yes, now," says Mr. George, very steadily.
+
+"For God's sake, let me have the turn. You are going on the campaign,
+you ought not to have everything--and there may be an explanation,
+George. We may be all wrong."
+
+"Psha, how can we? It must be done now--don't be alarmed. No names shall
+be mentioned--I shall easily find a subject."
+
+A couple of Halkett's officers, whom our young gentlemen knew, were
+sitting under the porch, with the Virginian toddy-bowl before them.
+
+"What are you conspiring, gentlemen?" cried one of them. "Is it a
+drink?"
+
+By the tone of their voices and their flushed cheeks, it was clear the
+gentlemen had already been engaged in drinking that morning.
+
+"The very thing, sir," George said gaily. "Fresh glasses, Mr. Benson!
+What, no glasses? Then we must have at the bowl."
+
+"Many a good man has drunk from it," says Mr. Benson; and the lads one
+after another, and bowing first to their military acquaintance, touched
+the bowl with their lips. The liquor did not seem to be much diminished
+for the boys' drinking, though George especially gave himself a toper's
+airs, and protested it was delicious after their ride. He called out
+to Colonel Washington, who was at the porch, to join his friends, and
+drink.
+
+The lad's tone was offensive, and resembled the manner lately adopted by
+him, and which had so much chafed Mr. Washington. He bowed, and said he
+was not thirsty.
+
+"Nay, the liquor is paid for," says George; "never fear, Colonel."
+
+"I said I was not thirsty. I did not say the liquor was not paid for,"
+said the young Colonel, drumming with his foot.
+
+"When the King's health is proposed, an officer can hardly say no. I
+drink the health of his Majesty, gentlemen," cried George. "Colonel
+Washington can drink it or leave it. The King!"
+
+This was a point of military honour. The two British officers of
+Halkett's, Captain Grace and Mr. Waring, both drank "The King." Harry
+Warrington drank "The King." Colonel Washington, with glaring eyes,
+gulped, too, a slight draught from the bowl.
+
+Then Captain Grace proposed "The Duke and the Army," which toast there
+was likewise no gainsaying. Colonel Washington had to swallow "The Duke
+and the Army."
+
+"You don't seem to stomach the toast, Colonel," said George.
+
+"I tell you again, I don't want to drink," replied the Colonel. "It
+seems to me the Duke and the Army would be served all the better if
+their healths were not drunk so often."
+
+"You are not up to the ways of regular troops as yet," said Captain
+Grace, with rather a thick voice.
+
+"May be not, sir."
+
+"A British officer," continues Captain Grace, with great energy but
+doubtful articulation, "never neglects a toast of that sort, nor any
+other duty. A man who refuses to drink the health of the Duke--hang me,
+such a man should be tried by a court-martial!"
+
+"What means this language to me? You are drunk, sir!" roared Colonel
+Washington, jumping up, and striking the table with his fist.
+
+"A cursed provincial officer say I'm drunk!" shrieks out Captain Grace.
+"Waring, do you hear that?"
+
+"I heard it, sir!" cried George Warrington. "We all heard it. He
+entered at my invitation--the liquor called for was mine: the table was
+mine--and I am shocked to hear such monstrous language used at it as
+Colonel Washington has just employed towards my esteemed guest, Captain
+Waring."
+
+"Confound your impudence, you infernal young jackanapes!" bellowed out
+Colonel Washington. "You dare to insult me before British officers, and
+find fault with my language? For months past, I have borne with such
+impudence from you, that if I had not loved your mother--yes, sir, and
+your good grandfather and your brother--I would--I would--" Here his
+words failed him, and the irate Colonel, with glaring eyes and purple
+face, and every limb quivering with wrath, stood for a moment speechless
+before his young enemy.
+
+"You would what, sir?" says George, very quietly, "if you did not
+love my grandfather, and my brother, and my mother. You are making her
+petticoat a plea for some conduct of yours--you would do what, sir, may
+I ask again?"
+
+"I would put you across my knee and whip you, you snarling little puppy,
+that's what I would do!" cried the Colonel, who had found breath by this
+time, and vented another explosion of fury.
+
+"Because you have known us all our lives, and made our house your own,
+that is no reason you should insult either of us!" here cried Harry,
+starting up. "What you have said, George Washington, is an insult to me
+and my brother alike. You will ask pardon, sir!"
+
+"Pardon?"
+
+"Or give us the reparation that is due to gentlemen," continues Harry.
+
+The stout Colonel's heart smote him to think that he should be at mortal
+quarrel or called upon to shed the blood of one of the lads he loved.
+As Harry stood facing him, with his fair hair, flushing cheeks, and
+quivering voice, an immense tenderness and kindness filled the bosom of
+the elder man. "I--I am bewildered," he said. "My words, perhaps, were
+very hasty. What has been the meaning of George's behaviour to me for
+months back? Only tell me, and, perhaps----"
+
+The evil spirit was awake and victorious in young George Warrington:
+his black eyes shot out scorn and hatred at the simple and guileless
+gentleman before him. "You are shirking from the question, sir, as you
+did from the toast just now," he said. "I am not a boy to suffer under
+your arrogance. You have publicly insulted me in a public place, and I
+demand a reparation."
+
+"In Heaven's name, be it!" says Mr. Washington, with the deepest grief
+in his face.
+
+"And you have insulted me," continues Captain Grace, reeling towards
+him. "What was it he said? Confound the militia captain--colonel, what
+is he? You've insulted me! Oh, Waring! to think I should be insulted by
+a captain of militia!" And tears bedewed the noble Captain's cheek as
+this harrowing thought crossed his mind.
+
+"I insult you, you hog!" the Colonel again yelled out, for he was little
+affected by humour, and had no disposition to laugh as the others had at
+the scene. And, behold, at this minute a fourth adversary was upon him.
+
+"Great Powers, sir!" said Captain Waring, "are three affairs not enough
+for you, and must I come into the quarrel, too? You have a quarrel with
+these two young gentlemen."
+
+"Hasty words, sir!" cries poor Harry once more.
+
+"Hasty words, sir!" cries Captain Waring. "A gentleman tells another
+gentleman that he will put him across his knees and whip him, and you
+call those hasty words? Let me tell you if any man were to say to me,
+'Charles Waring,' or 'Captain Waring, I'll put you across my knees and
+whip you,' I'd say, 'I'll drive my cheese-toaster through his body,'
+if he were as big as Goliath, I would. That's one affair with young Mr.
+George Warrington. Mr. Harry, of course, as a young man of spirit, will
+stand by his brother. That's two. Between Grace and the Colonel apology
+is impossible. And, now--run me through the body!--you call an officer
+of my regiment--of Halkett's, sir!--a hog before my face! Great heavens,
+sir! Mr. Washington, are you all like this in Virginia? Excuse me, I
+would use no offensive personality, as, by George! I will suffer none
+from any man! but, by Gad, Colonel! give me leave to tell you that you
+are the most quarrelsome man I ever saw in my life. Call a disabled
+officer of my regiment--for he is disabled, ain't you, Grace?--call him
+a hog before me! You withdraw it, sir--you withdraw it?"
+
+"Is this some infernal conspiracy in which you are all leagued against
+me?" shouted the Colonel. "It would seem as if I was drunk, and not you,
+as you all are. I withdraw nothing. I apologise for nothing. By heavens!
+I will meet one or half a dozen of you in your turn, young or old, drunk
+or sober."
+
+"I do not wish to hear myself called more names," cried Mr. George
+Warrington. "This affair can proceed, sir, without any further insult on
+your part. When will it please you to give me the meeting?"
+
+"The sooner the better, sir!" said the Colonel, fuming with rage.
+
+"The sooner the better," hiccupped Captain Grace, with many oaths
+needless to print--(in those days, oaths were the customary garnish of
+all gentlemen's conversation)--and he rose staggering from his seat, and
+reeled towards his sword, which he had laid by the door, and fell as he
+reached the weapon. "The sooner the better!" the poor tipsy wretch again
+cried out from the ground, waving his weapon and knocking his own hat
+over his eyes.
+
+"At any rate, this gentleman's business will keep cool till to-morrow,"
+the militia Colonel said, turning to the other king's officer. "You will
+hardly bring your man out to-day, Captain Waring?"
+
+"I confess that neither his hand nor mine are particularly steady," said
+Waring.
+
+"Mine is!" cried Mr. Warrington, glaring at his enemy.
+
+His comrade of former days was as hot and as savage. "Be it so--with
+what weapon, sir?" Washington said sternly.
+
+"Not with small-swords, Colonel. We can beat you with them. You know
+that from our old bouts. Pistols had better be the word."
+
+"As you please, George Warrington--and God forgive you, George! God
+pardon you, Harry! for bringing me into this quarrel," said the Colonel,
+with a face full of sadness and gloom.
+
+Harry hung his head, but George continued with perfect calmness: "I,
+sir? It was not I who called names, who talked of a cane, who insulted a
+gentleman in a public place before gentlemen of the army. It is not the
+first time you have chosen to take me for a negro, and talked of the
+whip for me."
+
+The Colonel started back, turning very red, and as if struck by a sudden
+remembrance.
+
+"Great heavens, George! is it that boyish quarrel you are still
+recalling?"
+
+"Who made you the overseer of Castlewood?" said the boy, grinding his
+teeth. "I am not your slave, George Washington, and I never will be. I
+hated you then, and I hate you now. And you have insulted me, and I am a
+gentleman, and so are you. Is that not enough?"
+
+"Too much, only too much," said the Colonel, with a genuine grief on
+his face, and at his heart. "Do you bear malice too, Harry? I had not
+thought this of thee!"
+
+"I stand by my brother," said Harry, turning away from the Colonel's
+look, and grasping George's hand. The sadness on their adversary's face
+did not depart. "Heaven be good to us! 'Tis all clear now," he muttered
+to himself. "The time to write a few letters, and I am at your service,
+Mr. Warrington," he said.
+
+"You have your own pistols at your saddle. I did not ride out with
+any; but will send Sady back for mine. That will give you time enough,
+Colonel Washington?"
+
+"Plenty of time, sir." And each gentleman made the other a low bow,
+and, putting his arm in his brother's, George walked away. The Virginian
+officer looked towards the two unlucky captains, who were by this time
+helpless with liquor. Captain Benson, the master of the tavern, was
+propping the hat of one of them over his head.
+
+"It is not altogether their fault, Colonel," said my landlord, with a
+grim look of humour. "Jack Firebrace and Tom Humbold of Spotsylvania was
+here this morning, chanting horses with 'em. And Jack and Tom got 'em to
+play cards; and they didn't win--the British Captains didn't. And Jack
+and Tom challenged them to drink for the honour of Old England, and
+they didn't win at that game, neither, much. They are kind, free-handed
+fellows when they are sober, but they are a pretty pair of fools--they
+are."
+
+"Captain Benson, you are an old frontier man, and an officer of ours,
+before you turned farmer and taverner. You will help me in this matter
+with yonder young gentlemen?" said the Colonel.
+
+"I'll stand by and see fair play, Colonel. I won't have no hand in it,
+beyond seeing fair play. Madam Esmond has helped me many a time, tended
+my poor wife in her lying-in, and doctored our Betty in the fever. You
+ain't a-going to be very hard with them poor boys? Though I seen 'em
+both shoot: the fair one hunts well, as you know, but the old one's a
+wonder at an ace of spades."
+
+"Will you be pleased to send my man with my valise, Captain, into any
+private room which you can spare me? I must write a few letters before
+this business comes on. God grant it were well over!" And the Captain
+led the Colonel into almost the only other room of his house, calling,
+with many oaths, to a pack of negro servants, to disperse thence, who
+were chattering loudly among one another, and no doubt discussing the
+quarrel which had just taken place. Edwin, the Colonel's man, returned
+with his master's portmanteau, and as he looked from the window, he
+saw Sady, George Warrington's negro, galloping away upon his errand,
+doubtless, and in the direction of Castlewood. The Colonel, young and
+naturally hot-headed, but the most courteous and scrupulous of men, and
+ever keeping his strong passions under guard, could not but think with
+amazement of the position in which he found, himself, and of the three,
+perhaps four enemies, who appeared suddenly before him, menacing his
+life. How had this strange series of quarrels been brought about? He
+had ridden away a few hours since from Castlewood, with his young
+companions, and, to all seeming, they were perfect friends. A shower of
+rain sends them into a tavern, where there are a couple of recruiting
+officers, and they are not seated for half an hour at a social table,
+but he has quarrelled with the whole company, called this one names,
+agreed to meet another in combat, and threatened chastisement to a
+third, the son of his most intimate friend!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. Wherein the two Georges prepare for Blood
+
+
+The Virginian Colonel remained in one chamber of the tavern, occupied
+with gloomy preparations for the ensuing meeting; his adversary in the
+other room thought fit to make his testamentary dispositions, too, and
+dictated, by his obedient brother and secretary, a grandiloquent letter
+to his mother, of whom, and by that writing, he took a solemn farewell.
+She would hardly, he supposed, pursue the scheme which she had in view
+(a peculiar satirical emphasis was laid upon the scheme which she had
+in view), after the event of that morning, should he fall, as, probably,
+would be the case.
+
+"My dear, dear George, don't say that!" cried the affrighted secretary.
+
+"'As probably will be the case,'" George persisted with great majesty.
+"You know what a good shot Colonel George is, Harry. I, myself, am
+pretty fair at a mark, and 'tis probable that one or both of us will
+drop.--'I scarcely suppose you will carry out the intentions you have
+at present in view.'" This was uttered in a tone of still greater
+bitterness than George had used even in the previous phrase. Harry wept
+as he took it down.
+
+"You see I say nothing; Madame Esmond's name does not even appear in the
+quarrel. Do you not remember in our grandfather's life of himself, how
+he says that Lord Castlewood fought Lord Mohun on a pretext of a quarrel
+at cards? and never so much as hinted at the lady's name, who was the
+real cause of the duel? I took my hint, I confess, from that, Harry.
+Our mother is not compromised in the--Why, child, what have you been
+writing, and who taught thee to spell?" Harry had written the last
+words "in view," in vew, and a great blot of salt water from his honest,
+boyish eyes may have obliterated some other bad spelling.
+
+"I can't think about the spelling now, Georgy," whimpered George's
+clerk. "I'm too miserable for that. I begin to think, perhaps it's all
+nonsense, perhaps Colonel George never----"
+
+"Never meant to take possession of Castlewood; never gave himself airs,
+and patronised us there; never advised my mother to have me flogged,
+never intended to marry her; never insulted me, and was insulted before
+the king's officers; never wrote to his brother to say we should be the
+better for his parental authority? The paper is there," cried the young
+man, slapping his breast-pocket, "and if anything happens to me, Harry
+Warrington, you will find it on my corse!"
+
+"Write yourself, Georgy, I can't write," says Harry, digging his fists
+into his eyes, and smearing over the whole composition, bad spelling and
+all, with his elbows.
+
+On this, George, taking another sheet of paper, sate down at his
+brother's place, and produced a composition in which he introduced the
+longest words, the grandest Latin quotations, and the most profound
+satire of which the youthful scribe was master. He desired that his
+negro boy, Sady, should be set free; that his Horace, a choice of his
+books, and, if possible, a suitable provision should be made for his
+affectionate tutor, Mr. Dempster; that his silver fruit-knife, his
+music-books, and harpsichord, should be given to little Fanny Mountain;
+and that his brother should take a lock of his hair, and wear it in
+memory of his ever fond and faithfully attached George. And he sealed
+the document with the seal of arms that his grandfather had worn.
+
+"The watch, of course, will be yours," said George, taking out his
+grandfather's gold watch, and looking at it. "Why, two hours and a-half
+are gone! 'Tis time that Sady should be back with the pistols. Take the
+watch, Harry dear."
+
+"It's no good!" cried out Harry, flinging his arms round his brother.
+"If he fights you, I'll fight him, too. If he kills my Georgy, ---- him,
+he shall have a shot at me!" and the poor lad uttered more than one of
+those expressions, which are said peculiarly to affect recording angels,
+who have to take them down at celestial chanceries.
+
+Meanwhile, General Braddock's new aide-de-camp had written five letters
+in his large resolute hand, and sealed them with his seal. One was to
+his mother, at Mount Vernon; one to his brother; one was addressed M. C.
+only; and one to his Excellency, Major-General Braddock. "And one, young
+gentleman, is for your mother, Madam Esmond," said the boys' informant.
+
+Again the recording angel had to fly off with a violent expression,
+which parted from the lips of George Warrington. The chancery previously
+mentioned was crowded with such cases, and the messengers must have been
+for ever on the wing. But I fear for young George and his oath there was
+no excuse; for it was an execration uttered from a heart full of hatred,
+and rage, and jealousy.
+
+It was the landlord of the tavern who communicated these facts to the
+young men. The Captain had put on his old militia uniform to do honour
+to the occasion, and informed the boys that the Colonel was walking up
+and down the garden a-waiting for 'em, and that the Reg'lars was a'most
+sober, too, by this time.
+
+A plot of ground near the Captain's log-house had been enclosed with
+shingles, and cleared for a kitchen-garden; there indeed paced Colonel
+Washington, his hands behind his back, his head bowed down, a grave
+sorrow on his handsome face. The negro servants were crowded at the
+palings, and looking over. The officers under the porch had wakened
+up also, as their host remarked. Captain Waring was walking, almost
+steadily, under the balcony formed by the sloping porch and roof of the
+wooden house; and Captain Grace was lolling over the railing, with eyes
+which stared very much, though perhaps they did not see very clearly.
+Benson's was a famous rendezvous for cock-fights, horse-matches, boxing,
+and wrestling-matches, such as brought the Virginian country-folks
+together. There had been many brawls at Benson's, and men who came
+thither sound and sober, had gone thence with ribs broken and eyes
+gouged out. And squires, and farmers, and negroes, all participated in
+the sport.
+
+There, then, stalked the tall young Colonel, plunged in dismal
+meditation. There was no way out of his scrape, but the usual cruel one,
+which the laws of honour and the practice of the country ordered. Goaded
+into fury by the impertinence of a boy, he had used insulting words. The
+young man had asked for reparation. He was shocked to think that George
+Warrington's jealousy and revenge should have rankled in the young
+fellow so long but the wrong had been the Colonel's, and he was bound to
+pay the forfeit.
+
+A great hallooing and shouting, such as negroes use, who love noise at
+all times, and especially delight to yell and scream when galloping on
+horseback, was now heard at a distance, and all the heads, woolly and
+powdered, were turned in the direction of this outcry. It came from the
+road over which our travellers had themselves passed three hours before,
+and presently the clattering of a horse's hoofs was heard, and now Mr.
+Sady made his appearance on his foaming horse, and actually fired a
+pistol off in the midst of a prodigious uproar from his woolly brethren.
+Then he fired another pistol off, to which noises Sady's horse, which
+had carried Harry Warrington on many a hunt, was perfectly accustomed;
+and now he was in the courtyard, surrounded by a score of his bawling
+comrades, and was descending amidst fluttering fowls and turkeys,
+kicking horses and shrieking frantic pigs; and brother-negroes crowded
+round him, to whom he instantly began to talk and chatter.
+
+"Sady, sir, come here!" roars out Master Harry.
+
+"Sady, come here! Confound you!" shouts Master George. (Again the
+recording angel is in requisition, and has to be off on one of his
+endless errands to the register office.) "Come directly, mas'r," says
+Sady, and resumes his conversation with his woolly brethren. He grins.
+He takes the pistols out of the holster. He snaps the locks. He points
+them at a grunter, which plunges through the farmyard. He points down
+the road, over which he has just galloped, and towards which the woolly
+heads again turn. He says again, "Comin', mas'r. Everybody a-comin'."
+And now, the gallop of other horses is heard. And who is yonder? Little
+Mr. Dempster, spurring and digging into his pony; and that lady in a
+riding-habit on Madam Esmond's little horse, can it be Madam Esmond? No.
+It is too stout. As I live it is Mrs. Mountain on Madam's grey!
+
+"O Lor! O Golly! Hoop! Here dey come! Hurray!" A chorus of negroes rises
+up. "Here dey are!" Dr. Dempster and Mrs. Mountain have clattered
+into the yard, have jumped from their horses, have elbowed through the
+negroes, have rushed into the house, have run through it and across the
+porch, where the British officers are sitting in muzzy astonishment;
+have run down the stairs to the garden where George and Harry are
+walking, their tall enemy stalking opposite to them; and almost ere
+George Warrington has had time sternly to say, "What do you do here,
+madam?" Mrs. Mountain has flung her arms round his neck and cries:
+"Oh, George, my darling! It's a mistake! It's a mistake, and is all my
+fault!"
+
+"What's a mistake?" asks George, majestically separating himself from
+the embrace.
+
+"What is it, Mounty?" cries Harry, all of a tremble.
+
+"That paper I took out of his portfolio, that paper I picked up,
+children; where the Colonel says he is going to marry a widow with two
+children. Who should it be but you, children, and who should it be but
+your mother?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, it's--it's not your mother. It's that little widow Custis whom
+the Colonel is going to marry. He'd always take a rich one; I knew he
+would. It's not Mrs. Rachel Warrington. He told Madam so to-day, just
+before he was going away, and that the marriage was to come off after
+the campaign. And--and your mother is furious, boys. And when Sady came
+for the pistols, and told the whole house how you were going to fight,
+I told him to fire the pistols off; and I galloped after him, and I've
+nearly broken my poor old bones in coming to you."
+
+"I have a mind to break Mr. Sady's," growled George. "I specially
+enjoined the villain not to say a word."
+
+"Thank God he did, brother!" said poor Harry. "Thank God he did!"
+
+"What will Mr. Washington and those gentlemen think of my servant
+telling my mother at home that I was going to fight a duel?" asks Mr.
+George, still in wrath.
+
+"You have shown your proofs before, George," says Harry, respectfully.
+"And, thank Heaven, you are not going to fight our old friend,--our
+grandfather's old friend. For it was a mistake and there is no quarrel
+now, dear, is there? You were unkind to him under a wrong impression."
+
+"I certainly acted under a wrong impression," owns George, "but----"
+
+"George! George Washington!" Harry here cries out, springing over
+the cabbage-garden towards the bowling-green, where the Colonel was
+stalking, and though we cannot hear him, we see him, with both his hands
+out, and with the eagerness of youth, and with a hundred blunders, and
+with love and affection thrilling in his honest voice we imagine the lad
+telling his tale to his friend.
+
+There was a custom in those days which has disappeared from our manners
+now, but which then lingered. When Harry had finished his artless story,
+his friend the Colonel took him fairly to his arms, and held him to
+his heart: and his voice faltered as he said, "Thank God, thank God for
+this!"
+
+"Oh, George," said Harry, who felt now how he loved his friend with all
+his heart, "how I wish I was going with you on the campaign!" The other
+pressed both the boy's hands, in a grasp of friendship, which each knew
+never would slacken.
+
+Then the Colonel advanced, gravely holding out his hand to Harry's elder
+brother. Perhaps Harry wondered that the two did not embrace as he and
+the Colonel had just done. But, though hands were joined, the salutation
+was only formal and stern on both sides.
+
+"I find I have done you a wrong, Colonel Washington," George said, "and
+must apologise, not for the error, but for much of my late behaviour
+which has resulted from it."
+
+"The error was mine! It was I who found that paper in your room, and
+showed it to George, and was jealous of you, Colonel. All women are
+jealous," cried Mrs. Mountain.
+
+"'Tis a pity you could not have kept your eyes off my paper, madam,"
+said Mr. Washington. "You will permit me to say so. A great deal of
+mischief has come because I chose to keep a secret which concerned only
+myself and another person. For a long time George Warrington's heart has
+been black with anger against me, and my feeling towards him has, I own,
+scarce been more friendly. All this pain might have been spared to both
+of us, had my private papers only been read by those for whom they were
+written. I shall say no more now, lest my feelings again should betray
+me into hasty words. Heaven bless thee, Harry! Farewell, George! And
+take a true friend's advice, and try and be less ready to think evil of
+your friends. We shall meet again at the camp, and will keep our weapons
+for the enemy. Gentlemen! if you remember this scene to-morrow, you
+will know where to find me." And with a very stately bow to the English
+officers, the Colonel left the abashed company, and speedily rode away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. News from the Camp
+
+
+We must fancy that the parting between the brothers is over, that George
+has taken his place in Mr. Braddock's family, and Harry has returned
+home to Castlewood and his duty. His heart is with the army, and his
+pursuits at home offer the boy no pleasure. He does not care to own how
+deep his disappointment is, at being obliged to stay under the homely,
+quiet roof, now more melancholy than ever since George is away. Harry
+passes his brother's empty chamber with an averted face; takes George's
+place at the head of the table, and sighs as he drinks from his silver
+tankard. Madam Warrington calls the toast of "The King" stoutly every
+day; and, on Sundays, when Harry reads the service, and prays for all
+travellers by land and by water, she says, "We beseech Thee to hear
+us," with a peculiar solemnity. She insists on talking about George
+constantly, but quite cheerfully, and as if his return was certain. She
+walks into his vacant room, with head upright, and no outward signs of
+emotion. She sees that his books, linen, papers, etc., are arranged
+with care; talking of him with a very special respect, and specially
+appealing to the old servants at meals, and so forth, regarding things
+which are to be done "when Mr. George comes home." Mrs. Mountain is
+constantly on the whimper when George's name is mentioned, and Harry's
+face wears a look of the most ghastly alarm; but his mother's is
+invariably grave and sedate. She makes more blunders at piquet and
+backgammon than you would expect from her; and the servants find her
+awake and dressed, however early they may rise. She has prayed Mr.
+Dempster to come back into residence at Castlewood. She is not severe or
+haughty (as her wont certainly was) with any of the party, but quiet in
+her talk with them, and gentle in assertion and reply. She is for ever
+talking of her father and his campaigns, who came out of them all with
+no very severe wounds to hurt him; and so she hopes and trusts will her
+eldest son.
+
+George writes frequent letters home to his brother, and, now the army
+is on its march, compiles a rough journal, which he forwards as occasion
+serves. This document is perused with great delight and eagerness by
+the youth to whom it is addressed, and more than once read out in family
+council, on the long summer nights, as Madam Esmond sits upright at her
+tea-table--(she never condescends to use the back of a chair)--as
+little Fanny Mountain is busy with her sewing, as Mr. Dempster and Mrs.
+Mountain sit over their cards, as the hushed old servants of the house
+move about silently in the gloaming, and listen to the words of the
+young master. Hearken to Harry Warrington reading out his brother's
+letter! As we look at the slim characters on the yellow page, fondly
+kept and put aside, we can almost fancy him alive who wrote and who read
+it--and yet, lo! they are as if they never had been; their portraits
+faint images in frames of tarnished gold. Were they real once, or are
+they mere phantasms? Did they live and die once? Did they love each
+other as true brothers, and loyal gentlemen? Can we hear their voices
+in the past? Sure I know Harry's, and yonder he sits in the warm summer
+evening, and reads his young brother's simple story:
+
+"It must be owned that the provinces are acting scurvily by his Majesty
+King George II., and his representative here is in a flame of fury.
+Virginia is bad enough, and poor Maryland not much better, but
+Pennsylvania is worst of all. We pray them to send us troops from home
+to fight the French; and we promise to maintain the troops when they
+come. We not only don't keep our promise, and make scarce any provision
+for our defenders, but our people insist upon the most exorbitant prices
+for their cattle and stores, and actually cheat the soldiers who are
+come to fight their battles. No wonder the General swears, and the
+troops are sulky. The delays have been endless. Owing to the failure
+of the several provinces to provide their promised stores and means of
+locomotion, weeks and months have elapsed, during which time, no doubt,
+the French have been strengthening themselves on our frontier and in the
+forts they have turned us out of. Though there never will be any love
+lost between me and Colonel Washington, it must be owned that your
+favourite (I am not jealous, Hal) is a brave man and a good officer.
+The family respect him very much, and the General is always asking his
+opinion. Indeed, he is almost the only man who has seen the Indians in
+their war-paint, and I own I think he was right in firing upon Mons.
+Jumonville last year.
+
+"There is to be no more suite to that other quarrel at Benson's Tavern
+than there was to the proposed battle between Colonel W. and a certain
+young gentleman who shall be nameless. Captain Waring wished to pursue
+it on coming into camp, and brought the message from Captain Grace,
+which your friend, who is as bold as Hector, was for taking up, and
+employed a brother aide-de-camp, Colonel Wingfield, on his side. But
+when Wingfield heard the circumstances of the quarrel, how it had arisen
+from Grace being drunk, and was fomented by Waring being tipsy, and how
+the two 44th gentlemen had chosen to insult a militia officer, he swore
+that Colonel Washington should not meet the 44th men; that he would
+carry the matter straightway to his Excellency, who would bring the
+two captains to a court-martial for brawling with the militia, and
+drunkenness, and indecent behaviour, and the captains were fain to put
+up their toasting-irons, and swallow their wrath. They were good-natured
+enough out of their cups, and ate their humble-pie with very good
+appetites at a reconciliation dinner which Colonel W. had with the 44th,
+and where he was as perfectly stupid and correct as Prince Prettyman
+need be. Hang him! He has no faults, and that's why I dislike him. When
+he marries that widow--ah me! what a dreary life she will have of it."
+
+"I wonder at the taste of some men, and the effrontery of some women,"
+says Madam Esmond, laying her teacup down. "I wonder at any woman who
+has been married once, so forgetting herself as to marry again! Don't
+you, Mountain?"
+
+"Monstrous!" says Mountain, with a queer look.
+
+Dempster keeps his eyes steadily fixed on his glass of punch. Harry
+looks as if he was choking with laughter, or with some other concealed
+emotion, but his mother says, "Go on, Harry! Continue with your
+brother's journal. He writes well: but, ah, will he ever be able to
+write like my papa?"
+
+Harry resumes: "We keep the strictest order here in camp, and the orders
+against drunkenness and ill-behaviour on the part of the men are very
+severe. The roll of each company is called at morning, noon, and night,
+and a return of the absent and disorderly is given in by the officer
+to the commanding officer of the regiment, who has to see that they are
+properly punished. The men are punished, and the drummers are always at
+work. Oh, Harry, but it made one sick to see the first blood drawn from
+a great strong white back, and to hear the piteous yell of the poor
+fellow."
+
+"Oh, horrid!" says Madam Esmond.
+
+"I think I should have murdered Ward if he had flogged me. Thank Heaven
+he got off with only a crack of the ruler! The men, I say, are looked
+after carefully enough. I wish the officers were. The Indians have just
+broken up their camp, and retired in dudgeon, because the young officers
+were for ever drinking with the squaws--and--and--hum--ha." Here Mr.
+Harry pauses, as not caring to proceed with the narrative, in the
+presence of little Fanny, very likely, who sits primly in her chair by
+her mother's side, working her little sampler.
+
+"Pass over that about the odious tipsy creatures," says Madam. And Harry
+commences, in a loud tone, a much more satisfactory statement: "Each
+regiment has Divine Service performed at the head of its colours every
+Sunday. The General does everything in the power of mortal man to
+prevent plundering, and to encourage the people round about to bring in
+provisions. He has declared soldiers shall be shot who dare to interrupt
+or molest the market-people. He has ordered the price of provisions to
+be raised a penny a pound, and has lent money out of his own pocket to
+provide the camp. Altogether, he is a strange compound, this General. He
+flogs his men without mercy, but he gives without stint. He swears most
+tremendous oaths in conversation, and tells stories which Mountain would
+be shocked to hear--"
+
+"Why me?" asks Mountain; "and what have I to do with the General's silly
+stories?"
+
+"Never mind the stories; and go on, Harry," cries the mistress of the
+house.
+
+"--would be shocked to hear after dinner; but he never misses service.
+He adores his Great Duke, and has his name constantly on his lips. Our
+two regiments both served in Scotland, where I dare say Mr. Dempster
+knew the colour of their facings."
+
+"We saw the tails of their coats, as well as their facings," growls the
+little Jacobite tutor.
+
+"Colonel Washington has had the fever very smartly, and has hardly been
+well enough to keep up with the march. Had he not better go home and
+be nursed by his widow? When either of us is ill, we are almost as good
+friends again as ever. But I feel somehow as if I can't forgive him for
+having wronged him. Good Powers! How I have been hating him for these
+months past! Oh, Harry! I was in a fury at the tavern the other day,
+because Mountain came up so soon, and put an end to our difference. We
+ought to have burned a little gunpowder between us, and cleared the air.
+But though I don't love him, as you do, I know he is a good soldier, a
+good officer, and a brave, honest man; and, at any rate, shall love him
+none the worse for not wanting to be our stepfather."
+
+"A stepfather, indeed!" cries Harry's mother. "Why, jealousy and
+prejudice have perfectly maddened the poor child! Do you suppose the
+Marquis of Esmond's daughter and heiress could not have found other
+stepfathers for her sons than a mere provincial surveyor? If there are
+any more such allusions in George's journal, I beg you skip 'em, Harry,
+my dear. About this piece of folly and blundering, there hath been quite
+talk enough already."
+
+"'Tis a pretty sight," Harry continued, reading from his brother's
+journal, "to see a long line of redcoats, threading through the woods
+or taking their ground after the march. The care against surprise is so
+great and constant, that we defy prowling Indians to come unawares upon
+us, and our advanced sentries and savages have on the contrary fallen in
+with the enemy and taken a scalp or two from them. They are such cruel
+villains, these French and their painted allies, that we do not think
+of showing them mercy. Only think, we found but yesterday a little
+boy scalped but yet alive in a lone house, where his parents had been
+attacked and murdered by the savage enemy, of whom--so great is his
+indignation at their cruelty--our General has offered a reward of five
+pounds for all the Indian scalps brought in.
+
+"When our march is over, you should see our camp, and all the care
+bestowed on it. Our baggage and our General's tents and guard are placed
+quite in the centre of the camp. We have outlying sentries by twos, by
+threes, by tens, by whole companies. At the least surprise, they are
+instructed to run in on the main body and rally round the tents
+and baggage, which are so arranged themselves as to be a strong
+fortification. Sady and I, you must know, are marching on foot now, and
+my horses are carrying baggage. The Pennsylvanians sent such rascally
+animals into camp that they speedily gave in. What good horses were
+left, 'twas our duty to give up: and Roxana has a couple of packs upon
+her back instead of her young master. She knows me right well, and
+whinnies when she sees me, and I walk by her side, and we have many a
+talk together on the march.
+
+"July 4. To guard against surprises, we are all warned to pay especial
+attention to the beat of the drum; always halting when they hear the
+long roll beat, and marching at the beat of the long march. We are
+more on the alert regarding the enemy now. We have our advanced pickets
+doubled, and two sentries at every post. The men on the advanced pickets
+are constantly under arms, with fixed bayonets, all through the night,
+and relieved every two hours. The half that are relieved lie down by
+their arms, but are not suffered to leave their pickets. 'Tis evident
+that we are drawing very near to the enemy now. This packet goes out
+with the General's to Colonel Dunbar's camp, who is thirty miles behind
+us; and will be carried thence to Frederick, and thence to my honoured
+mother's house at Castlewood, to whom I send my duty, with kindest
+remembrances, as to all friends there, and bow much love I need not say
+to my dearest brother from his affectionate--GEORGE E. WARRINGTON."
+
+The whole land was now lying parched and scorching in the July heat. For
+ten days no news had come from the column advancing on the Ohio. Their
+march, though it toiled but slowly through the painful forest, must
+bring them ere long up with the enemy; the troops, led by consummate
+captains, were accustomed now to the wilderness, and not afraid of
+surprise. Every precaution had been taken against ambush. It was the
+outlying enemy who were discovered, pursued, destroyed, by the vigilant
+scouts and skirmishers of the British force. The last news heard
+was that the army had advanced considerably beyond the ground of Mr.
+Washington's discomfiture on the previous year, and two days after must
+be within a day's march of the French fort. About taking it no fears
+were entertained; the amount of the French reinforcements from Montreal
+was known. Mr. Braddock, with his two veteran regiments from Britain,
+and their allies of Virginia and Pennsylvania, were more than a match
+for any troops that could be collected under the white flag.
+
+Such continued to be the talk, in the sparse towns of our Virginian
+province, at the gentry's houses, and the rough roadside taverns, where
+people met and canvassed the war. The few messengers who were sent back
+by the General reported well of the main force. 'Twas thought the enemy
+would not stand or defend himself at all. Had he intended to attack, he
+might have seized a dozen occasions for assaulting our troops at passes
+through which they had been allowed to go entirely free. So George had
+given up his favourite mare, like a hero as he was, and was marching
+afoot with the line? Madam Esmond vowed that he should have the best
+horse in Virginia or Carolina in place of Roxana. There were horses
+enough to be had in the provinces, and for money. It was only for the
+King's service that they were not forthcoming.
+
+Although at their family meetings and repasts the inmates of Castlewood
+always talked cheerfully, never anticipating any but a triumphant issue
+to the campaign, or acknowledging any feeling of disquiet, yet, it must
+be owned they were mighty uneasy when at home, quitting it ceaselessly,
+and for ever on the trot from one neighbour's house to another in quest
+of news. It was prodigious how quickly reports ran and spread. When,
+for instance, a certain noted border warrior, called Colonel Jack, had
+offered himself and his huntsmen to the General, who had declined the
+ruffian's terms or his proffered service, the defection of Jack and his
+men was the talk of thousands of tongues immediately. The house negroes,
+in their midnight gallops about the country, in search of junketing or
+sweethearts, brought and spread news over amazingly wide districts. They
+had a curious knowledge of the incidents of the march for a fortnight
+at least after its commencement. They knew and laughed at the cheats
+practised on the army, for horses, provisions, and the like; for a good
+bargain over the foreigner was not an unfrequent or unpleasant practice
+among New Yorkers, Pennsylvanians, or Marylanders; though 'tis known
+that American folks have become perfectly artless and simple in later
+times, and never grasp, and never overreach, and are never selfish
+now. For three weeks after the army's departure, the thousand reports
+regarding it were cheerful; and when our Castlewood friends met at their
+supper, their tone was confident and their news pleasant.
+
+But on the 10th of July a vast and sudden gloom spread over the
+province. A look of terror and doubt seemed to fall upon every face.
+Affrighted negroes wistfully eyed their masters and retired, and hummed
+and whispered with one another. The fiddles ceased in the quarters: the
+song and laugh of those cheery black folk were hushed. Right and left,
+everybody's servants were on the gallop for news. The country taverns
+were thronged with horsemen, who drank and cursed and brawled at the
+bars, each bringing his gloomy story. The army had been surprised. The
+troops had fallen into an ambuscade, and had been cut up almost to a
+man. All the officers were taken down by the French marksmen and the
+savages. The General had been wounded, and carried off the field in his
+sash. Four days afterwards the report was that the General was dead, and
+scalped by a French Indian.
+
+Ah, what a scream poor Mrs. Mountain gave, when Gumbo brought this
+news from across the James River, and little Fanny sprang crying to her
+mother's arms! "Lord God Almighty, watch over us, and defend my boy!"
+said Mrs. Esmond, sinking down on her knees, and lifting her rigid hands
+to Heaven. The gentlemen were not at home when this rumour arrived, but
+they came in an hour or two afterwards, each from his hunt for news.
+The Scots tutor did not dare to look up and meet the widow's agonising
+looks. Harry Warrington was as pale as his mother. It might not be true
+about the manner of the General's death--but he was dead. The army had
+been surprised by Indians, and had fled, and been killed without seeing
+the enemy. An express had arrived from Dunbar's camp. Fugitives were
+pouring in there. Should he go and see? He must go and see. He and stout
+little Dempster armed themselves and mounted, taking a couple of mounted
+servants with them.
+
+They followed the northward track which the expeditionary army had hewed
+out for itself, and at every step which brought them nearer to the scene
+of action, the disaster of the fearful day seemed to magnify. The day
+after the defeat a number of the miserable fugitives from the fatal
+battle of the 9th July had reached Dunbar's camp, fifty miles from the
+field. Thither poor Harry and his companions rode, stopping stragglers,
+asking news, giving money, getting from one and all the same gloomy
+tale--a thousand men were slain--two-thirds of the officers were
+down--all the General's aides-de-camp were hit. Were hit?--but were they
+killed? Those who fell never rose again. The tomahawk did its work upon
+them. O brother, brother! All the fond memories of their youth, all the
+dear remembrances of their childhood, the love and the laughter, the
+tender romantic vows which they had pledged to each other as lads, were
+recalled by Harry with pangs inexpressibly keen. Wounded men looked up
+and were softened by his grief: rough women melted as they saw the woe
+written on the handsome young face: the hardy old tutor could scarcely
+look at him for tears, and grieved for him even more than for his dear
+pupil who lay dead under the savage Indian knife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. Profitless Quest
+
+
+At every step which Harry Warrington took towards Pennsylvania, the
+reports of the British disaster were magnified and confirmed. Those two
+famous regiments which had fought in the Scottish and Continental wars,
+had fled from an enemy almost unseen, and their boasted discipline and
+valour had not enabled them to face a band of savages and a few French
+infantry. The unfortunate commander of the expedition had shown the
+utmost bravery and resolution. Four times his horse had been shot under
+him. Twice he had been wounded, and the last time of the mortal hurt
+which ended his life three days after the battle. More than one of
+Harry's informants described the action to the poor lad,--the passage of
+the river, the long line of advance through the wilderness, the firing
+in front, the vain struggle of the men to advance, and the artillery
+to clear the way of the enemy; then the ambushed fire from behind every
+bush and tree, and the murderous fusillade, by which at least half of
+the expeditionary force had been shot down. But not all the General's
+suite were killed, Harry heard. One of his aides-de-camp, a Virginian
+gentleman, was ill of fever and exhaustion at Dunbar's camp.
+
+One of them--but which? To the camp Harry hurried, and reached it at
+length. It was George Washington Harry found stretched in a tent
+there, and not his brother. A sharper pain than that of the fever Mr.
+Washington declared he felt, when he saw Harry Warrington, and could
+give him no news of George.
+
+Mr. Washington did not dare to tell Harry all. For three days after
+the fight his duty had been to be near the General. On the fatal 9th of
+July, he had seen George go to the front with orders from the chief,
+to whose side he never returned. After Braddock himself died, the
+aide-de-camp had found means to retrace his course to the field. The
+corpses which remained there were stripped and horribly mutilated.
+One body he buried which he thought to be George Warrington's. His
+own illness was increased, perhaps occasioned, by the anguish which he
+underwent in his search for the unhappy young volunteer.
+
+"Ah, George! If you had loved him you would have found him dead or
+alive," Harry cried out. Nothing would satisfy him but that he, too,
+should go to the ground and examine it. With money he procured a guide
+or two. He forded the river at the place where the army had passed
+over: he went from one end to the other of the dreadful field. It was
+no longer haunted by Indians now. The birds of prey were feeding on
+the mangled festering carcases. Save in his own grandfather, lying very
+calm, with a sweet smile on his lip, Harry had never yet seen the face
+of Death. The horrible spectacle of mutilation caused him to turn away
+with shudder and loathing. What news could the vacant woods, or those
+festering corpses lying under the trees, give the lad of his lost
+brother? He was for going, unarmed and with a white flag, to the French
+fort, whither, after their victory, the enemy had returned; but his
+guides refused to advance with him. The French might possibly respect
+them, but the Indians would not. "Keep your hair for your lady mother,
+my young gentleman," said the guide. "'Tis enough that she loses one son
+in this campaign."
+
+When Harry returned to the English encampment at Dunbar's, it was his
+turn to be down with the fever. Delirium set in upon him, and he lay
+some time in the tent and on the bed from which his friend had just
+risen convalescent. For some days he did not know who watched him; and
+poor Dempster, who had tended him in more than one of these maladies,
+thought the widow must lose both her children; but the fever was so
+far subdued that the boy was enabled to rally somewhat, and get to
+horseback. Mr. Washington and Dempster both escorted him home. It was
+with a heavy heart, no doubt, that all three beheld once more the gates
+of Castlewood.
+
+A servant in advance had been sent to announce their coming. First came
+Mrs. Mountain and her little daughter, welcoming Harry with many
+tears and embraces, but she scarce gave a nod of recognition to Mr.
+Washington; and the little girl caused the young officer to start, and
+turn deadly pale, by coming up to him with her hands behind her, and
+asking, "Why have you not brought George back too?" Harry did not hear.
+The sobs and caresses of his good friend and nurse luckily kept him from
+listening to little Fanny.
+
+Dempster was graciously received by the two ladies. "Whatever could be
+done, we know you would do, Mr. Dempster," says Mrs. Mountain, giving
+him her hand. "Make a curtsey to Mr. Dempster, Fanny, and remember,
+child, to be grateful to all who have been friendly to our benefactors.
+Will it please you to take any refreshment before you ride, Colonel
+Washington?"
+
+Mr. Washington had had a sufficient ride already, and counted as
+certainly upon the hospitality of Castlewood, as he would upon the
+shelter of his own house.
+
+"The time to feed my horse, and a glass of water for myself, and I will
+trouble Castlewood hospitality no further," Mr. Washington said.
+
+"Sure, George, you have your room here, and my mother is above-stairs
+getting it ready!" cries Harry. "That poor horse of yours stumbled with
+you, and can't go farther this evening."
+
+"Hush! Your mother won't see him, child," whispered Mrs. Mountain.
+
+"Not see George? Why, he is like a son of the house," cries Harry.
+
+"She had best not see him. I don't meddle any more in family matters,
+child: but when the Colonel's servant rode in, and said you were coming,
+Madam Esmond left this room, my dear, where she was sitting reading
+Drelincourt, and said she felt she could not see Mr. Washington. Will
+you go to her?" Harry took his friend's arm, and excusing himself to the
+Colonel, to whom he said he would return in a few minutes, he left the
+parlour in which they had assembled, and went to the upper rooms, where
+Madam Esmond was.
+
+He was hastening across the corridor, and, with an averted head, passing
+by one especial door, which he did not like to look at, for it was that
+of his brother's room; but as he came to it, Madam Esmond issued from
+it, and folded him to her heart, and led him in. A settee was by the
+bed, and a book of psalms lay on the coverlet. All the rest of the room
+was exactly as George had left it.
+
+"My poor child! How thin thou art grown--how haggard you look! Never
+mind. A mother's care will make thee well again. 'Twas nobly done to go
+and brave sickness and danger in search of your brother. Had others been
+as faithful, he might be here now. Never mind, my Harry; our hero will
+come back to us,--I know he is not dead. One so good, and so brave,
+and so gentle, and so clever as he was, I know is not lost to us
+altogether." (Perhaps Harry thought within himself that his mother had
+not always been accustomed so to speak of her eldest son.) "Dry up thy
+tears, my dear! He will come back to us, I know he will come." And when
+Harry pressed her to give a reason for her belief, she said she had seen
+her father two nights running in a dream, and he had told her that her
+boy was a prisoner among the Indians.
+
+Madam Esmond's grief had not prostrated her as Harry's had when first
+it fell upon him; it had rather stirred and animated her: her eyes were
+eager, her countenance angry and revengeful. The lad wondered almost at
+the condition in which he found his mother.
+
+But when he besought her to go downstairs, and give a hand of welcome
+to George Washington, who had accompanied him, the lady's excitement
+painfully increased. She said she should shudder at touching his hand.
+She declared Mr. Washington had taken her son from her, she could not
+sleep under the same roof with him.
+
+"He gave me his bed when I was ill, mother; and if our George is alive,
+how has George Washington a hand in his death? Ah! please God it be only
+as you say," cried Harry, in bewilderment.
+
+"If your brother returns, as return he will, it will not be through Mr.
+Washington's help," said Madam Esmond. "He neither defended George on
+the field, nor would he bring him out of it."
+
+"But he tended me most kindly in my fever," interposed Harry. "He was
+yet ill when he gave up his bed to me, and was thinking only of his
+friend, when any other man would have thought only of himself."
+
+"A friend! A pretty friend!" sneers the lady. "Of all his Excellency's
+aides-de-camp, my gentleman is the only one who comes back unwounded.
+The brave and noble fall, but he, to be sure, is unhurt. I confide
+my boy to him, the pride of my life, whom he will defend with his,
+forsooth! And he leaves my George in the forest, and brings me back
+himself! Oh, a pretty welcome I must give him!"
+
+"No gentleman," cried Harry, warmly, "was ever refused shelter under my
+grandfather's roof."
+
+"Oh no--no gentleman!" exclaims the little widow; "let us go down, if
+you like, son, and pay our respects to this one. Will you please to give
+me your arm?" And taking an arm which was very little able to give her
+support, she walked down the broad stairs, and into the apartment where
+the Colonel sate.
+
+She made him a ceremonious curtsey, and extended one of the little
+hands, which she allowed for a moment to rest in his. "I wish that our
+meeting had been happier, Colonel Washington," she said.
+
+"You do not grieve more than I do that it is otherwise, madam," said the
+Colonel.
+
+"I might have wished that the meeting had been spared, that I might not
+have kept you from friends whom you are naturally anxious to see,--that
+my boy's indisposition had not detained you. Home and his good nurse
+Mountain, and his mother and our good Doctor Dempster, will soon restore
+him. 'Twas scarce necessary, Colonel, that you, who have so many affairs
+on your hands, military and domestic, should turn doctor too."
+
+"Harry was ill and weak, and I thought it was my duty to ride by him,"
+faltered the Colonel.
+
+"You yourself, sir, have gone through the fatigues and dangers of the
+campaign in the most wonderful manner," said the widow, curtseying
+again, and looking at him with her impenetrable black eyes.
+
+"I wish to Heaven, madam, some one else had come back in my place!"
+
+"Nay, sir, you have ties which must render your life more than ever
+valuable and dear to you, and duties to which, I know, you must be
+anxious to betake yourself. In our present deplorable state of doubt and
+distress, Castlewood can be a welcome place to no stranger, much less
+to you, and so I know, sir, you will be for leaving us ere long. And you
+will pardon me if the state of my own spirits obliges me for the most
+part to keep my chamber. But my friends here will bear you company as
+long as you favour us, whilst I nurse my poor Harry upstairs. Mountain,
+you will have the cedar-room on the ground-floor ready for Mr.
+Washington, and anything in the house is at his command. Farewell, sir.
+Will you be pleased to present my compliments to your mother, who will
+be thankful to have her son safe and sound out of the war,--as also
+to my young friend Martha Custis, to whom and to whose children I
+wish every happiness. Come, my son!" and with these words, and another
+freezing curtsey, the pale little woman retreated, looking steadily at
+the Colonel, who stood dumb on the floor.
+
+Strong as Madam Esmond's belief appeared to be respecting her son's
+safety, the house of Castlewood naturally remained sad and gloomy.
+She might forbid mourning for herself and family; but her heart was
+in black, whatever face the resolute little lady persisted in wearing
+before the world. To look for her son, was hoping against hope. No
+authentic account of his death had indeed arrived, and no one appeared
+who had seen him fall; but hundreds more had been so stricken on that
+fatal day, with no eyes to behold their last pangs, save those of the
+lurking enemy and the comrades dying by their side. A fortnight after
+the defeat, when Harry was absent on his quest, George's servant,
+Sady, reappeared wounded and maimed at Castlewood. But he could give
+no coherent account of the battle, only of his flight from the centre,
+where he was with the baggage. He had no news of his master since the
+morning of the action. For many days Sady lurked in the negro quarters
+away from the sight of Madam Esmond, whose anger he did not dare to
+face. That lady's few neighbours spoke of her as labouring under a
+delusion. So strong was it, that there were times when Harry and the
+other members of the little Castlewood family were almost brought to
+share in it. It seemed nothing strange to her, that her father out of
+another world should promise her her son's life. In this world or the
+next, that family sure must be of consequence, she thought. Nothing
+had ever yet happened to her sons, no accident, no fever, no important
+illness, but she had a prevision of it. She could enumerate half a dozen
+instances, which, indeed, her household was obliged more or less to
+confirm, how, when anything had happened to the boys at ever so great a
+distance, she had known of their mishap and its consequences. No, George
+was not dead; George was a prisoner among the Indians; George would come
+back and rule over Castlewood; as sure, as sure as his Majesty would
+send a great force from home to recover the tarnished glory of the
+British arms, and to drive the French out of the Americas.
+
+As for Mr. Washington, she would never with her own goodwill behold him
+again. He had promised to protect George with his life. Why was her son
+gone and the Colonel alive? How dared he to face her after that promise,
+and appear before a mother without her son? She trusted she knew her
+duty. She bore illwill to no one: but as an Esmond, she had a sense of
+honour, and Mr. Washington had forfeited hers in letting her son out of
+his sight. He had to obey superior orders (some one perhaps objected)?
+Psha! a promise was a promise. He had promised to guard George's life
+with his own, and where was her boy? And was not the Colonel (a pretty
+Colonel, indeed!) sound and safe? Do not tell me that his coat and hat
+had shots through them! (This was her answer to another humble plea in
+Mr. Washington's behalf.) Can't I go into the study this instant and
+fire two shots with my papa's pistols through this paduasoy skirt,--and
+should I be killed? She laughed at the notion of death resulting from
+any such operation; nor was her laugh very pleasant to hear. The satire
+of people who have little natural humour is seldom good sport for
+bystanders. I think dull men's faceticae are mostly cruel.
+
+So, if Harry wanted to meet his friend, he had to do so in secret, at
+court-houses, taverns, or various places of resort; or in their little
+towns, where the provincial gentry assembled. No man of spirit, she
+vowed, could meet Mr. Washington after his base desertion of her family.
+She was exceedingly excited when she heard that the Colonel and her son
+absolutely had met. What a heart must Harry have to give his hand to one
+whom she considered as little better than George's murderer! For shame
+to say so! For shame upon you, ungrateful boy, forgetting the dearest,
+noblest, most perfect of brothers, for that tall, gawky, fox-hunting
+Colonel, with his horrid oaths! How can he be George's murderer, when
+I say my boy is not dead? He is not dead, because my instinct never
+deceived me: because, as sure as I see his picture now before me,--only
+'tis not near so noble or so good as he used to look,--so surely two
+nights running did my papa appear to me in my dreams. You doubt about
+that, very likely? 'Tis because you never loved anybody sufficiently, my
+poor Harry; else you might have leave to see them in dreams, as has been
+vouchsafed to some."
+
+"I think I loved George, mother," cried Harry. "I have often prayed that
+I might dream about him, and I don't."
+
+"How you can talk, sir, of loving George, and then--go and meet your Mr.
+Washington at horse-races, I can't understand! Can you, Mountain?"
+
+"We can't understand many things in our neighbours' characters. I can
+understand that our boy is unhappy, and that he does not get strength,
+and that he is doing no good here, in Castlewood, or moping at the
+taverns and court-houses with horse-coupers and idle company," grumbled
+Mountain in reply to her patroness; and, in truth, the dependant was
+right.
+
+There was not only grief in the Castlewood House, but there was
+disunion. "I cannot tell how it came," said Harry, as he brought the
+story to an end, which we have narrated in the last two numbers,
+and which he confided to his new-found English relative, Madame de
+Bernstein; "but since that fatal day of July, last year, and my return
+home, my mother never has been the same woman. She seemed to love none
+of us as she used. She was for ever praising George, and yet she did
+not seem as if she liked him much when he was with us. She hath plunged,
+more deeply than ever, into her books of devotion, out of which she
+only manages to extract grief and sadness, as I think. Such a gloom has
+fallen over our wretched Virginian house of Castlewood, that we all
+grew ill, and pale as ghosts, who inhabited it. Mountain told me, madam,
+that, for nights, my mother would not close her eyes. I have had her at
+my bedside, looking so ghastly, that I have started from my own sleep,
+fancying a ghost before me. By one means or other she has wrought
+herself into a state of excitement which if not delirium, is akin to
+it. I was again and again struck down by the fever, and all the Jesuits'
+bark in America could not cure me. We have a tobacco-house and some land
+about the new town of Richmond, in our province, and went thither, as
+Williamsburg is no wholesomer than our own place; and there I mended a
+little, but still did not get quite well, and the physicians strongly
+counselled a sea-voyage. My mother, at one time, had thoughts of coming
+with me, but--" (and here the lad blushed and hung his head down)
+"--we did not agree very well, though I know we loved each other very
+heartily, and 'twas determined that I should see the world for myself.
+So I took passage in our ship from the James River, and was landed at
+Bristol. And 'twas only on the 9th of July, this year, at sea, as had
+been agreed between me and Madam Esmond, that I put mourning on for my
+dear brother."
+
+So that little Mistress of the Virginian Castlewood, for whom, I am
+sure, we have all the greatest respect, had the knack of rendering the
+people round about her uncomfortable; quarrelled with those she loved
+best, and exercised over them her wayward jealousies and imperious
+humours, until they were not sorry to leave her. Here was money enough,
+friends enough, a good position, and the respect of the world; a house
+stored with all manner of plenty, and good things, and poor Harry
+Warrington was glad to leave them all behind him. Happy! Who is
+happy? What good in a stalled ox for dinner every day, and no content
+therewith? Is it best to be loved and plagued by those you love, or to
+have an easy, comfortable indifference at home; to follow your fancies,
+live there unmolested, and die without causing any painful regrets or
+tears?
+
+To be sure, when her boy was gone, Madam Esmond forgot all these little
+tiffs and differences. To hear her speak of both her children, you would
+fancy they were perfect characters, and had never caused her a moment's
+worry or annoyance. These gone, Madam fell naturally upon Mrs. Mountain
+and her little daughter, and worried and annoyed them. But women
+bear with hard words more easily than men, are more ready to forgive
+injuries, or, perhaps, to dissemble anger. Let us trust that Madam
+Esmond's dependants found their life tolerable, that they gave her
+ladyship sometimes as good as they got, that if they quarrelled in the
+morning they were reconciled at night, and sate down to a tolerably
+friendly game at cards and an amicable dish of tea.
+
+But, without the boys, the great house of Castlewood was dreary to the
+widow. She left an overseer there to manage her estates, and only paid
+the place an occasional visit. She enlarged and beautified her house
+in the pretty little city of Richmond, which began to grow daily in
+importance. She had company there, and card-assemblies, and preachers in
+plenty; and set up her little throne there, to which the gentlefolks of
+the province were welcome to come and bow. All her domestic negroes,
+who loved society as negroes will do, were delighted to exchange the
+solitude of Castlewood for the gay and merry little town; where, for
+a time, and while we pursue Harry Warrington's progress in Europe, we
+leave the good lady.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. Harry in England
+
+
+When the famous Trojan wanderer narrated his escapes and adventures to
+Queen Dido, her Majesty, as we read, took the very greatest interest
+in the fascinating story-teller who told his perils so eloquently. A
+history ensued, more pathetic than any of the previous occurrences in
+the life of Pius Aeneas, and the poor princess had reason to rue the day
+when she listened to that glib and dangerous orator. Harry Warrington
+had not pious Aeneas's power of speech, and his elderly aunt, we may
+presume, was by no means so soft-hearted as the sentimental Dido;
+but yet the lad's narrative was touching, as he delivered it with his
+artless eloquence and cordial voice; and more than once, in the course
+of his story, Madam Bernstein found herself moved to a softness to which
+she had very seldom before allowed herself to give way. There were not
+many fountains in that desert of a life--not many sweet, refreshing
+resting-places. It had been a long loneliness, for the most part, until
+this friendly voice came and sounded in her ears and caused her heart to
+beat with strange pangs of love and sympathy. She doted on this lad,
+and on this sense of compassion and regard so new to her. Save once,
+faintly, in very very early youth, she had felt no tender sentiment for
+any human being. Such a woman would, no doubt, watch her own sensations
+very keenly, and must have smiled after the appearance of this boy, to
+mark how her pulses rose above their ordinary beat. She longed after
+him. She felt her cheeks flush with happiness when he came near. Her
+eyes greeted him with welcome, and followed him with fond pleasure. "Ah,
+if she could have had a son like that, how she would have loved him!"
+"Wait," says Conscience, the dark scoffer mocking within her, "wait,
+Beatrix Esmond! You know you will weary of this inclination, as you have
+of all. You know, when the passing fancy has subsided, that the boy may
+perish, and you won't have a tear for him; or talk, and you weary of
+his stories; and that your lot in life is to be lonely--lonely." Well?
+suppose life be a desert? There are halting-places and shades, and
+refreshing waters; let us profit by them for to-day. We know that we
+must march when to-morrow comes, and tramp on our destiny onward.
+
+She smiled inwardly, whilst following the lad's narrative, to recognise
+in his simple tales about his mother, traits of family resemblance.
+Madam Esmond was very jealous?--Yes, that Harry owned. She was fond of
+Colonel Washington? She liked him, but only as a friend, Harry declared.
+A hundred times he had heard his mother vow that she had no other
+feeling towards him. He was ashamed to have to own that he himself had
+been once absurdly jealous of the Colonel. "Well, you will see that my
+half-sister will never forgive him," said Madam Beatrix. "And you need
+not be surprised, sir, at women taking a fancy to men younger than
+themselves; for don't I dote upon you; and don't all these Castlewood
+people crevent with jealousy?"
+
+However great might be their jealousy of Madame de Bernstein's new
+favourite, the family of Castlewood allowed no feeling of illwill to
+appear in their language or behaviour to their young guest and
+kinsman. After a couple of days' stay in the ancestral house, Mr.
+Harry Warrington had become Cousin Harry with young and middle-aged.
+Especially in Madame Bernstein's presence, the Countess of Castlewood
+was most gracious to her kinsman, and she took many amiable private
+opportunities of informing the Baroness how charming the young Huron
+was, of vaunting the elegance of his manners and appearance, and
+wondering how, in his distant province, the child should ever have
+learned to be so polite?
+
+These notes of admiration or interrogation, the Baroness took with
+equal complacency (speaking parenthetically, and, for his own part, the
+present chronicler cannot help putting in a little respectful remark
+here, and signifying his admiration of the conduct of ladies towards one
+another, and of the things which they say, which they forbear to say,
+and which they say behind each other's backs. With what smiles and
+curtseys they stab each other! with what compliments they hate each
+other! with what determination of long-suffering they won't be offended!
+with what innocent dexterity they can drop the drop of poison into the
+cup of conversation, hand round the goblet, smiling, to the whole family
+to drink, and make the dear, domestic circle miserable!)--I burst out of
+my parenthesis. I fancy my Baroness and Countess smiling at each other
+a hundred years ago, and giving each other the hand or the cheek, and
+calling each other, My dear, My dear creature, My dear Countess, My dear
+Baroness, My dear sister--even, when they were most ready to fight.
+
+"You wonder, my dear Maria, that the boy should be so polite?" cries
+Madame de Bernstein. "His mother was bred up by two very perfect
+gentlefolks. Colonel Esmond had a certain grave courteousness, and a
+grand manner, which I do not see among the gentlemen nowadays."
+
+"Eh, my dear, we all of us praise our own time! My grandmamma used to
+declare there was nothing like Whitehall and Charles the Second."
+
+"My mother saw King James the Second's court for a short while, and
+though not a court-educated person, as you know,--her father was a
+country clergyman--yet was exquisitely well-bred. The Colonel, her
+second husband, was a person of great travel and experience, as well as
+of learning, and had frequented the finest company of Europe. They could
+not go into their retreat and leave their good manners behind them, and
+our boy has had them as his natural inheritance."
+
+"Nay, excuse me, my dear, for thinking you too partial about your
+mother. She could not have been that perfection which your filial
+fondness imagines. She left off liking her daughter--my dear creature,
+you have owned that she did--and I cannot fancy a complete woman who has
+a cold heart. No, no, my dear sister-in-law! Manners are very requisite,
+no doubt, and, for a country parson's daughter, your mamma was very
+well--I have seen many of the cloth who are very well. Mr. Sampson, our
+chaplain, is very well. Dr. Young is very well. Mr. Dodd is very well;
+but they have not the true air--as how should they? I protest, I beg
+pardon! I forgot my lord bishop, your ladyship's first choice. But, as I
+said before, to be a complete woman, one must have, what you have, what
+I may say and bless Heaven for, I think I have--a good heart. Without
+the affections, all the world is vanity, my love! I protest I only live,
+exist, eat, drink, rest, for my sweet, sweet children!--for my wicked
+Willy, for my self-willed Fanny, dear naughty loves!" (She
+rapturously kisses a bracelet on each arm which contains the miniature
+representations of those two young persons.) "Yes, Mimi! yes, Fanchon!
+you know I do, you dear, dear little things! and if they were to die,
+or you were to die, your poor mistress would die too!" Mimi and Fanchon,
+two quivering Italian greyhounds, jump into their lady's arms, and kiss
+her hands, but respect her cheeks, which are covered with rouge. "No,
+my dear! For nothing do I bless Heaven so much (though it puts me
+to excruciating torture very often) as for having endowed me with
+sensibility and a feeling heart!"
+
+"You are full of feeling, dear Anna," says the Baroness. "You are
+celebrated for your sensibility. You must give a little of it to our
+American nephew--cousin--I scarce know his relationship."
+
+"Nay, I am here but as a guest in Castlewood now. The house is my Lord
+Castlewood's, not mine, or his lordship's whenever he shall choose to
+claim it. What can I do for the young Virginian that has not been done?
+He is charming. Are we even jealous of him for being so, my dear? and
+though we see what a fancy the Baroness de Bernstein has taken for him,
+do your ladyship's nephews and nieces--your real nephews and nieces--cry
+out? My poor children might be mortified, for indeed, in a few hours,
+the charming young man has made as much way as my poor things have been
+able to do in all their lives: but are they angry? Willy hath taken him
+out to ride. This morning, was not Maria playing the harpsichord whilst
+my Fanny taught him the minuet? 'Twas a charming young group, I assure
+you, and it brought tears into my eyes to look at the young creatures.
+Poor lad! we are as fond of him as you are, dear Baroness!"
+
+Now, Madame de Bernstein had happened, through her own ears or her
+maid's, to overhear what really took place in consequence of this
+harmless little scene. Lady Castlewood had come into the room where the
+young people were thus engaged in amusing and instructing themselves,
+accompanied by her son William, who arrived in his boots from the
+kennel.
+
+"Bravi, bravi! Oh, charming!" said the Countess, clapping her hands,
+nodding with one of her best smiles to Harry Warrington, and darting a
+look at his partner, which my Lady Fanny perfectly understood; and
+so, perhaps, did my Lady Maria at her harpsichord, for she played with
+redoubled energy, and nodded her waving curls, over the chords.
+
+"Infernal young Choctaw! Is he teaching Fanny the war-dance? and is Fan
+going to try her tricks upon him now?" asked Mr. William, whose temper
+was not of the best.
+
+And that was what Lady Castlewood's look said to Fanny. "Are you going
+to try your tricks upon him now?"
+
+She made Harry a very low curtsey, and he blushed, and they both stopped
+dancing, somewhat disconcerted. Lady Maria rose from the harpsichord and
+walked away.
+
+"Nay, go on dancing, young people! Don't let me spoil sport, and let me
+play for you," said the Countess; and she sate down to the instrument
+and played.
+
+"I don't know how to dance," says Harry, hanging his head down, with a
+blush that the Countess's finest carmine could not equal.
+
+"And Fanny was teaching you? Go on teaching him, dearest Fanny!"
+
+"Go on, do!" says William, with a sidelong growl.
+
+"I--I had rather not show off my awkwardness in company," adds Harry,
+recovering himself. "When I know how to dance a minuet, be sure I will
+ask my cousin to walk one with me."
+
+"That will be very soon, dear Cousin Warrington, I am certain," remarks
+the Countess, with her most gracious air.
+
+"What game is she hunting now?" thinks Mr. William to himself, who
+cannot penetrate his mother's ways; and that lady, fondly calling her
+daughter to her elbow, leaves the room.
+
+They are no sooner in the tapestried passage leading away to their
+own apartment, but Lady Castlewood's bland tone entirely changes. "You
+booby!" she begins to her adored Fanny. "You double idiot! What are
+you going to do with the Huron? You don't want to marry a creature like
+that, and be a squaw in a wigwam?"
+
+"Don't, mamma!" gasps Lady Fanny. Mamma was pinching her ladyship's arm
+black-and-blue. "I am sure our cousin is very well," Fanny whimpers,
+"and you said so yourself."
+
+"Very well! Yes; and heir to a swamp, a negro, a log-cabin and a barrel
+of tobacco! My Lady Frances Esmond, do you remember what your ladyship's
+rank is, and what your name is, and who was your ladyship's mother,
+when, at three days' acquaintance, you commence dancing--a pretty dance,
+indeed--with this brat out of Virginia?"
+
+"Mr. Warrington is our cousin," pleads Lady Fanny.
+
+"A creature come from nobody knows where is not your cousin! How do we
+know he is your cousin? He may be a valet who has taken his master's
+portmanteau, and run away in his postchaise."
+
+"But Madame de Bernstein says he is our cousin," interposes Fanny; "and
+he is the image of the Esmonds."
+
+"Madame de Bernstein has her likes and dislikes, takes up people and
+forgets people; and she chooses to profess a mighty fancy for this young
+man. Because she likes him to-day, is that any reason why she should
+like him to-morrow? Before company, and in your aunt's presence,
+your ladyship will please to be as civil to him as necessary; but, in
+private, I forbid you to see him or encourage him."
+
+"I don't care, madam, whether your ladyship forbids me or not!" cries
+out Lady Fanny, wrought up to a pitch of revolt.
+
+"Very good, Fanny! then I speak to my lord, and we return to Kensington.
+If I can't bring you to reason, your brother will."
+
+At this juncture the conversation between mother and daughter stopped,
+or Madame de Bernstein's informer had no further means of hearing or
+reporting it.
+
+It was only in after days that she told Harry Warrington a part of what
+she knew. At present he but saw that his kinsfolks received him not
+unkindly. Lady Castlewood was perfectly civil to him; the young ladies
+pleasant and pleased; my Lord Castlewood, a man of cold and haughty
+demeanour, was not more reserved towards Harry than to any of the rest
+of the family; Mr. William was ready to drink with him, to ride with
+him, to go to races with him, and to play cards with him. When he
+proposed to go away, they one and all pressed him to stay. Madame de
+Bernstein did not tell him how it arose that he was the object of
+such eager hospitality. He did not know what schemes he was serving or
+disarranging, whose or what anger he was creating. He fancied he was
+welcome because those around him were his kinsmen, and never thought
+that those could be his enemies out of whose cup he was drinking, and
+whose hand he was pressing every night and morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. A Sunday at Castlewood
+
+
+The second day after Harry's arrival at Castlewood was a Sunday. The
+chapel appertaining to the castle was the village church. A door from
+the house communicated with a great state pew which the family occupied,
+and here after due time they all took their places in order, whilst a
+rather numerous congregation from the village filled the seats below. A
+few ancient dusty banners hung from the church roof; and Harry pleased
+himself in imagining that they had been borne by retainers of his family
+in the Commonwealth wars, in which, as he knew well, his ancestors had
+taken a loyal and distinguished part. Within the altar-rails was the
+effigy of the Esmond of the time of King James the First, the common
+forefather of all the group assembled in the family pew. Madame de
+Bernstein, in her quality of Bishop's widow, never failed in attendance,
+and conducted her devotions with a gravity almost as exemplary as that
+of the ancestor yonder, in his square beard and red gown, for ever
+kneeling on his stone hassock before his great marble desk and
+book, under his emblazoned shield of arms. The clergyman, a tall,
+high-coloured, handsome young man, read the service in a lively,
+agreeable voice, giving almost a dramatic point to the chapters of
+Scripture which he read. The music was good--one of the young ladies
+of the family touching the organ--and would have been better but for an
+interruption and something like a burst of laughter from the servants'
+pew, which was occasioned by Mr. Warrington's lacquey Gumbo, who,
+knowing the air given out for the psalm, began to sing it in a voice so
+exceedingly loud and sweet, that the whole congregation turned towards
+the African warbler; the parson himself put his handkerchief to his
+mouth, and the liveried gentlemen from London were astonished out of all
+propriety. Pleased, perhaps, with the sensation which he had created,
+Mr. Gumbo continued his performance until it became almost a solo, and
+the voice of the clerk himself was silenced. For the truth is, that
+though Gumbo held on to the book, along with pretty Molly, the porter's
+daughter, who had been the first to welcome the strangers to Castlewood,
+he sang and recited by ear and not by note, and could not read a
+syllable of the verses in the book before him.
+
+This choral performance over, a brief sermon in due course followed,
+which, indeed, Harry thought a deal too short. In a lively, familiar,
+striking discourse the clergyman described a scene of which he had
+been witness the previous week--the execution of a horse-stealer after
+Assizes. He described the man and his previous good character, his
+family, the love they bore one another, and his agony at parting from
+them. He depicted the execution in a manner startling, terrible,
+and picturesque. He did not introduce into his sermon the Scripture
+phraseology, such as Harry had been accustomed to hear it from those
+somewhat Calvinistic preachers whom his mother loved to frequent, but
+rather spoke as one man of the world to other sinful people, who might
+be likely to profit by good advice. The unhappy man just gone, had begun
+as a farmer of good prospects; he had taken to drinking, card-playing,
+horse-racing, cock-fighting, the vices of the age; against which the
+young clergyman was generously indignant. Then he had got to poaching
+and to horse-stealing, for which he suffered. The divine rapidly drew
+striking and fearful pictures of these rustic crimes. He startled his
+hearers by showing that the Eye of the Law was watching the poacher
+at midnight, and setting traps to catch the criminal. He galloped the
+stolen horse over highway and common, and from one county into another,
+but showed Retribution ever galloping after, seizing the malefactor in
+the country fair, carrying him before the justice, and never unlocking
+his manacles till he dropped them at the gallows-foot. Heaven be pitiful
+to the sinner! The clergyman acted the scene. He whispered in the
+criminal's ear at the cart. He dropped his handkerchief on the clerk's
+head. Harry started back as that handkerchief dropped. The clergyman had
+been talking for more than twenty minutes. Harry could have heard
+him for an hour more, and thought he had not been five minutes in the
+pulpit. The gentlefolks in the great pew were very much enlivened by the
+discourse. Once or twice, Harry, who could see the pew where the house
+servants sate, remarked these very attentive; and especially Gumbo, his
+own man, in an attitude of intense consternation. But the smockfrocks
+did not seem to heed, and clamped out of church quite unconcerned.
+Gaffer Brown and Gammer Jones took the matter as it came, and the
+rosy-cheeked, red-cloaked village lasses sate under their broad
+hats entirely unmoved. My lord, from his pew, nodded slightly to the
+clergyman in the pulpit, when that divine's head and wig surged up from
+the cushion.
+
+"Sampson has been strong to-day," said his lordship. "He has assaulted
+the Philistines in great force."
+
+"Beautiful, beautiful!" says Harry.
+
+"Bet five to four it was his Assize sermon. He has been over to Winton
+to preach, and to see those dogs," cries William.
+
+The organist had played the little congregation out into the sunshine.
+Only Sir Francis Esmond, temp. Jac. I., still knelt on his marble
+hassock, before his prayer-book of stone. Mr. Sampson came out of his
+vestry in his cassock, and nodded to the gentlemen still lingering in
+the great pew.
+
+"Come up, and tell us about those dogs," says Mr. William, and the
+divine nodded a laughing assent.
+
+The gentlemen passed out of the church into the gallery of their house,
+which connected them with that sacred building. Mr. Sampson made his
+way through the court, and presently joined them. He was presented by my
+lord to the Virginian cousin of the family, Mr. Warrington: the chaplain
+bowed very profoundly, and hoped Mr. Warrington would benefit by the
+virtuous example of his European kinsmen. Was he related to Sir Miles
+Warrington of Norfolk? Sir Miles was Mr. Warrington's father's elder
+brother. What a pity he had a son! 'Twas a pretty estate, and Mr.
+Warrington looked as if he would become a baronetcy, and a fine estate
+in Norfolk.
+
+"Tell me about my uncle," cried Virginian Harry.
+
+"Tell us about those dogs!" said English Will, in a breath.
+
+"Two more jolly dogs, two more drunken dogs, saving your presence, Mr.
+Warrington, than Sir Miles and his son, I never saw. Sir Miles was a
+staunch friend and neighbour of Sir Robert's. He can drink down any man
+in the county, except his son and a few more. The other dogs about which
+Mr. William is anxious, for Heaven hath made him a prey to dogs and all
+kinds of birds, like the Greeks in the Iliad----"
+
+"I know that line in the Iliad," says Harry, blushing. "I only know five
+more, but I know that one." And his head fell. He was thinking, "Ah, my
+dear brother George knew all the Iliad and all the Odyssey, and almost
+every book that was ever written besides!"
+
+"What on earth" (only he mentioned a place under the earth) "are you
+talking about now?" asked Will of his reverence.
+
+The chaplain reverted to the dogs and their performance. He thought Mr.
+William's dogs were more than a match for them. From dogs they went off
+to horses. Mr. William was very eager about the Six Year Old Plate at
+Huntingdon. "Have you brought any news of it, Parson?"
+
+"The odds are five to four on Brilliant against the field," says the
+parson, gravely, "but, mind you, Jason is a good horse."
+
+"Whose horse?" asks my lord.
+
+"Duke of Ancaster's. By Cartouche out of Miss Langley," says the divine.
+"Have you horse-races in Virginia, Mr. Warrington?"
+
+"Haven't we!" cries Harry; "but oh! I long to see a good English race!"
+
+"Do you--do you--bet a little?" continues his reverence.
+
+"I have done such a thing," replies Harry with a smile.
+
+"I'll take Brilliant even against the field, for ponies with you,
+cousin!" shouts out Mr. William.
+
+"I'll give or take three to one against Jason!" says the clergyman.
+
+"I don't bet on horses I don't know," said Harry, wondering to hear the
+chaplain now, and remembering his sermon half an hour before.
+
+"Hadn't you better write home, and ask your mother?" says Mr. William,
+with a sneer.
+
+"Will, Will!" calls out my lord, "our cousin Warrington is free to bet,
+or not, as he likes. Have a care how you venture on either of them,
+Harry Warrington. Will is an old file, in spite of his smooth face, and
+as for Parson Sampson, I defy our ghostly enemy to get the better of
+him."
+
+"Him and all his works, my lord!" said Mr. Sampson, with a bow.
+
+Harry was highly indignant at this allusion to his mother. "I'll tell
+you what, cousin Will," he said, "I am in the habit of managing my own
+affairs in my own way, without asking any lady to arrange them for me.
+And I'm used to make my own bets upon my own judgment, and don't need
+any relations to select them for me, thank you. But as I am your
+guest, and, no doubt, you want to show me hospitality, I'll take your
+bet--there. And so Done and Done."
+
+"Done," says Will, looking askance.
+
+"Of course it is the regular odds that's in the paper which you give me,
+cousin?"
+
+"Well, no, it isn't," growled Will. "The odds are five to four, that's
+the fact, and you may have 'em, if you like."
+
+"Nay, cousin, a bet is a bet; and I take you, too, Mr. Sampson."
+
+"Three to one against Jason. I lay it. Very good," says Mr. Sampson.
+
+"Is it to be ponies too, Mr. Chaplain?" asks Harry with a superb air, as
+if he had Lombard Street in his pocket.
+
+"No, no. Thirty to ten. It is enough for a poor priest to win."
+
+"Here goes a great slice out of my quarter's hundred," thinks Harry.
+"Well, I shan't let these Englishmen fancy that I am afraid of them. I
+didn't begin, but for the honour of Old Virginia I won't go back."
+
+These pecuniary transactions arranged, William Esmond went away scowling
+towards the stables, where he loved to take his pipe with the grooms;
+the brisk parson went off to pay his court to the ladies, and partake of
+the Sunday dinner which would presently be served. Lord Castlewood and
+Harry remained for a while together. Since the Virginian's arrival
+my lord had scarcely spoken with him. In his manners he was perfectly
+friendly, but so silent that he would often sit at the head of his
+table, and leave it without uttering a word.
+
+"I suppose yonder property of yours is a fine one by this time?" said my
+lord to Harry.
+
+"I reckon it's almost as big as an English county," answered Harry, "and
+the land's as good, too, for many things." Harry would not have the Old
+Dominion, nor his share in it, underrated.
+
+"Indeed!" said my lord, with a look of surprise. "When it belonged to my
+father it did not yield much."
+
+"Pardon me, my lord. You know how it belonged to your father," cried the
+youth, with some spirit. "It was because my grandfather did not choose
+to claim his right." [This matter is discussed in the Author's previous
+work, The Memoirs of Colonel Esmond.]
+
+"Of course, of course," says my lord, hastily.
+
+"I mean, cousin, that we of the Virginian house owe you nothing but
+our own," continued Harry Warrington; "but our own, and the hospitality
+which you are now showing me."
+
+"You are heartily welcome to both. You were hurt by the betting just
+now?"
+
+"Well," replied the lad, "I am sort o' hurt. Your welcome, you see, is
+different to our welcome, and that's the fact. At home we are glad to
+see a man, hold out a hand to him, and give him of our best. Here you
+take us in, give us beef and claret enough, to be sure, and don't seem
+to care when we come, or when we go. That's the remark which I have been
+making since I have been in your lordship's house; I can't help telling
+it out, you see, now 'tis on my mind; and I think I am a little easier
+now I have said it." And with this, the excited young fellow knocked
+a billiard-ball across the table, and then laughed, and looked at his
+elder kinsman.
+
+"A la bonne heure! We are cold to the stranger within and without our
+gates. We don't take Mr. Harry Warrington into our arms, and cry when we
+see our cousin. We don't cry when he goes away--but do we pretend?"
+
+"No, you don't. But you try to get the better of him in a bet," says
+Harry, indignantly.
+
+"Is there no such practice in Virginia, and don't sporting men there try
+to overreach one another? What was that story I heard you telling our
+aunt, of the British officers and Tom somebody of Spotsylvania!"
+
+"That's fair!" cries Harry. "That is, it's usual practice, and a
+stranger must look out. I don't mind the parson; if he wins, he may
+have, and welcome. But a relation! To think that my own blood cousin
+wants money out of me!"
+
+"A Newmarket man would get the better of his father. My brother has
+been on the turf since he rode over to it from Cambridge. If you play at
+cards with him--and he will if you will let him--he will beat you if he
+can."
+
+"Well, I'm ready!" cries Harry. "I'll play any game with him that I
+know, or I'll jump with him, or I'll ride with him, or I'll row with
+him, or I'll wrestle with him, or I'll shoot with him--there--now."
+
+The senior was greatly entertained, and held out his hand to the boy.
+"Anything, but don't fight with him," said my lord.
+
+"If I do, I'll whip him! hanged if I don't!" cried the lad. But a look
+of surprise and displeasure on the nobleman's part recalled him to
+better sentiments. "A hundred pardons, my lord!" he said, blushing very
+red, and seizing his cousin's hand. "I talked of ill manners, being
+angry and hurt just now; but 'tis doubly ill-mannered of me to show my
+anger, and boast about my prowess to my own host and kinsman. It's not
+the practice with us Americans to boast, believe me, it's not."
+
+"You are the first I ever met," says my lord, with a smile, "and I take
+you at your word. And I give you fair warning about the cards, and the
+betting, that is all, my boy."
+
+"Leave a Virginian alone! We are a match for most men, we are," resumed
+the boy.
+
+Lord Castlewood did not laugh. His eyebrows only arched for a moment,
+and his grey eyes turned towards the ground. "So you can bet fifty
+guineas, and afford to lose them? So much the better for you, cousin.
+Those great Virginian estates yield a great revenue, do they?"
+
+"More than sufficient for all of us--for ten times as many as we are
+now," replied Harry. ("What, he is pumping me," thought the lad.)
+
+"And your mother makes her son and heir a handsome allowance?"
+
+"As much as ever I choose to draw, my lord!" cried Harry.
+
+"Peste! I wish I had such a mother!" cried my lord. "But I have only the
+advantage of a stepmother, and she draws me. There is the dinner-bell.
+Shall we go into the eating-room?" And taking his young friend's arm, my
+lord led him to the apartment where that meal was waiting.
+
+Parson Sampson formed the delight of the entertainment, and amused the
+ladies with a hundred agreeable stories. Besides being chaplain to his
+lordship, he was a preacher in London, at the new chapel in Mayfair, for
+which my Lady Whittlesea (so well known in the reign of George I.) had
+left an endowment. He had the choicest stories of all the clubs and
+coteries--the very latest news of who had run away with whom--the last
+bon-mot of Mr. Selwyn--the last wild bet of March and Rockingham. He
+knew how the old king had quarrelled with Madame Walmoden, and the Duke
+was suspected of having a new love; who was in favour at Carlton House
+with the Princess of Wales, and who was hung last Monday, and how
+well he behaved in the cart. My lord's chaplain poured out all this
+intelligence to the amused ladies and the delighted young provincial,
+seasoning his conversation with such plain terms and lively jokes as
+made Harry stare, who was newly arrived from the colonies, and unused to
+the elegances of London life. The ladies, old and young, laughed quite
+cheerfully at the lively jokes. Do not be frightened, ye fair readers
+of the present day! We are not going to outrage your sweet modesties,
+or call blushes on your maiden cheeks. But 'tis certain that their
+ladyships at Castlewood never once thought of being shocked, but sate
+listening to the parson's funny tales, until the chapel bell, clinking
+for afternoon service, summoned his reverence away for half an hour.
+There was no sermon. He would be back in the drinking of a bottle of
+Burgundy. Mr. Will called a fresh one, and the chaplain tossed off a
+glass ere he ran out.
+
+Ere the half-hour was over, Mr. Chaplain was back again bawling for
+another bottle. This discussed, they joined the ladies, and a couple
+of card-tables were set out, as, indeed, they were for many hours every
+day, at which the whole of the family party engaged. Madame de Bernstein
+could beat any one of her kinsfolk at piquet, and there was only Mr.
+Chaplain in the whole circle who was at all a match for her ladyship.
+
+In this easy manner the Sabbath-day passed. The evening was beautiful,
+and there was talk of adjourning to a cool tankard and a game of whist
+in a summer-house; but the company voted to sit indoors, the ladies
+declaring they thought the aspect of three honours in their hand,
+and some good court-cards, more beautiful than the loveliest scene of
+nature; and so the sun went behind the elms, and still they were at
+their cards; and the rooks came home cawing their evensong, and they
+never stirred except to change partners; and the chapel clock tolled
+hour after hour unheeded, so delightfully were they spent over the
+pasteboard; and the moon and stars came out; and it was nine o'clock,
+and the groom of the chambers announced that supper was ready.
+
+Whilst they sate at that meal, the postboy's twanging horn was heard,
+as he trotted into the village with his letter-bag. My lord's bag was
+brought in presently from the village, and his letters, which he put
+aside, and his newspaper which he read. He smiled as he came to a
+paragraph, looked at his Virginian cousin, and handed the paper over
+to his brother Will, who by this time was very comfortable, having had
+pretty good luck all the evening, and a great deal of liquor.
+
+"Read that, Will," says my lord.
+
+Mr. William took the paper, and, reading the sentence pointed out by his
+brother, uttered an exclamation which caused all the ladies to cry out.
+
+"Gracious heavens, William! What has happened?" cries one or the other
+fond sister.
+
+"Mercy, child, why do you swear so dreadfully?" asks the young man's
+fond mamma.
+
+"What's the matter?" inquires Madame de Bernstein, who has fallen into a
+doze after her usual modicum of punch and beer.
+
+"Read it, Parson!" says Mr. William, thrusting the paper over to the
+chaplain, and looking as fierce as a Turk.
+
+"Bit, by the Lord!" roars the chaplain, dashing down the paper.
+
+"Cousin Harry, you are in luck," said my lord, taking up the sheet, and
+reading from it. "The Six Year Old Plate at Huntingdon was won by Jason,
+beating Brilliant, Pytho, and Ginger. The odds were five to four on
+Brilliant against the field, three to one against Jason, seven to two
+against Pytho, and twenty to one against Ginger."
+
+"I owe you a half-year's income of my poor living, Mr. Warrington,"
+groaned the parson. "I will pay when my noble patron settles with me."
+
+"A curse upon the luck!" growls Mr. William; "that comes of betting on a
+Sunday,"--and he sought consolation in another great bumper.
+
+"Nay, cousin Will. It was but in jest," cried Harry. "I can't think of
+taking my cousin's money."
+
+"Curse me, sir, do you suppose, if I lose, I can't pay?" asks Mr.
+William; "and that I want to be beholden to any man alive? That is a
+good joke. Isn't it, Parson?"
+
+"I think I have heard better," said the clergyman; to which William
+replied, "Hang it, let us have another bowl."
+
+Let us hope the ladies did not wait for this last replenishment of
+liquor, for it is certain they had had plenty already during the
+evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. In which Gumbo shows Skill with the Old English Weapon
+
+
+Our young Virginian having won these sums of money from his cousin and
+the chaplain, was in duty bound to give them a chance of recovering
+their money, and I am afraid his mamma and other sound moralists would
+scarcely approve of his way of life. He plays at cards a great deal too
+much. Besides the daily whist or quadrille with the ladies, which set in
+soon after dinner at three o'clock, and lasted until supper-time, there
+occurred games involving the gain or loss of very considerable sums of
+money, in which all the gentlemen, my lord included, took part. Since
+their Sunday's conversation, his lordship was more free and confidential
+with his kinsman than he had previously been, betted with him quite
+affably, and engaged him at backgammon and piquet. Mr. William and the
+pious chaplain liked a little hazard; though this diversion was enjoyed
+on the sly, and unknown to the ladies of the house, who had exacted
+repeated promises from cousin Will that he would not lead the Virginian
+into mischief, and that he would himself keep out of it. So Will
+promised as much as his aunt or his mother chose to demand from him,
+gave them his word that he would never play--no, never; and when the
+family retired to rest, Mr. Will would walk over with a dice-box and
+a rum-bottle to cousin Harry's quarters, where he, and Hal, and his
+reverence would sit and play until daylight.
+
+When Harry gave to Lord Castlewood those flourishing descriptions of the
+maternal estate in America, he had not wished to mislead his kinsman,
+or to boast, or to tell falsehoods, for the lad was of a very honest and
+truth-telling nature; but, in his life at home, it must be owned
+that the young fellow had had acquaintance with all sorts of queer
+company,--horse-jockeys, tavern loungers, gambling and sporting men,
+of whom a great number were found in his native colony. A landed
+aristocracy, with a population of negroes to work their fields, and
+cultivate their tobacco and corn, had little other way of amusement
+than in the hunting-field, or over the cards and the punch-bowl. The
+hospitality of the province was unbounded: every man's house was his
+neighbour's; and the idle gentlefolks rode from one mansion to another,
+finding in each pretty much the same sport, welcome, and rough plenty.
+The Virginian squire had often a barefooted valet, and a cobbled saddle;
+but there was plenty of corn for the horses, and abundance of drink and
+venison for the master within the tumble-down fences, and behind the
+cracked windows of the hall. Harry had slept on many a straw mattress,
+and engaged in endless jolly night-bouts over claret and punch in
+cracked bowls till morning came, and it was time to follow the hounds.
+His poor brother was of a much more sober sort, as the lad owned with
+contrition. So it is that Nature makes folks; and some love books and
+tea, and some like Burgundy and a gallop across country. Our young
+fellow's tastes were speedily made visible to his friends in England.
+None of them were partial to the Puritan discipline; nor did they like
+Harry the worse for not being the least of a milksop. Manners, you see,
+were looser a hundred years ago; tongues were vastly more free-and-easy;
+names were named, and things were done, which we should screech now to
+hear mentioned. Yes, madam, we are not as our ancestors were. Ought we
+not to thank the Fates that have improved our morals so prodigiously,
+and made us so eminently virtuous?
+
+So, keeping a shrewd keen eye upon people round about him, and fancying,
+not incorrectly, that his cousins were disposed to pump him, Harry
+Warrington had thought fit to keep his own counsel regarding his own
+affairs, and in all games of chance or matters of sport was quite a
+match for the three gentlemen into whose company he had fallen. Even in
+the noble game of billiards he could hold his own after a few days' play
+with his cousins and their revered pastor. His grandfather loved the
+game, and had over from Europe one of the very few tables which existed
+in his Majesty's province of Virginia. Nor, though Mr. Will could
+beat him at the commencement, could he get undue odds out of the young
+gamester. After their first bet, Harry was on his guard with Mr. Will,
+and cousin William owned, not without respect, that the American was his
+match in most things, and his better in many. But though Harry played so
+well that he could beat the parson, and soon was the equal of Will, who
+of course could beat both the girls, how came it, that in the contests
+with these, especially with one of them, Mr. Warrington frequently
+came off second? He was profoundly courteous to every being who wore a
+petticoat; nor has that traditional politeness yet left his country. All
+the women of the Castlewood establishment loved the young gentleman.
+The grim housekeeper was mollified by him: the fat cook greeted him with
+blowsy smiles; the ladies'-maids, whether of the French or the English
+nation, smirked and giggled in his behalf; the pretty porter's daughter
+at the lodge had always a kind word in reply to his. Madame de Bernstein
+took note of all these things, and, though she said nothing, watched
+carefully the boy's disposition and behaviour.
+
+Who can say how old Lady Maria Esmond was? Books of the Peerage were
+not so many in those days as they are in our blessed times, and I cannot
+tell to a few years, or even a lustre or two. When Will used to say she
+was five-and-thirty, he was abusive, and, besides, was always given
+to exaggeration. Maria was Will's half-sister. She and my lord were
+children of the late Lord Castlewood's first wife, a German lady, whom,
+'tis known, my lord married in the time of Queen Anne's wars. Baron
+Bernstein, who married Maria's Aunt Beatrix, Bishop Tusher's widow, was
+also a German, a Hanoverian nobleman, and relative of the first Lady
+Castlewood. If my Lady Maria was born under George I., and his Majesty
+George II. had been thirty years on the throne, how could she be
+seven-and-twenty, as she told Harry Warrington she was? "I am old,
+child," she used to say. She used to call Harry "child" when they were
+alone. "I am a hundred years old. I am seven-and-twenty. I might be your
+mother almost." To which Harry would reply, "Your ladyship might be the
+mother of all the cupids, I am sure. You don't look twenty, on my word
+you do Dot!"
+
+Lady Maria looked any age you liked. She was a fair beauty with a
+dazzling white and red complexion, an abundance of fair hair which
+flowed over her shoulders, and beautiful round arms which showed to
+uncommon advantage when she played at billiards with cousin Harry. When
+she had to stretch across the table to make a stroke, that youth caught
+glimpses of a little ankle, a little clocked stocking, and a little
+black satin slipper with a little red heel, which filled him with
+unutterable rapture, and made him swear that there never was such a
+foot, ankle, clocked stocking, satin slipper in the world. And yet, oh,
+you foolish Harry! your mother's foot was ever so much more slender, and
+half an inch shorter, than Lady Maria's. But, somehow, boys do not look
+at their mammas' slippers and ankles with rapture.
+
+No doubt Lady Maria was very kind to Harry when they were alone. Before
+her sister, aunt, stepmother, she made light of him, calling him a
+simpleton, a chit, and who knows what trivial names? Behind his back,
+and even before his face, she mimicked his accent, which smacked
+somewhat of his province. Harry blushed and corrected the faulty
+intonation, under his English monitresses. His aunt pronounced that they
+would soon make him a pretty fellow.
+
+Lord Castlewood, we have said, became daily more familiar and friendly
+with his guest and relative. Till the crops were off the ground there
+was no sporting, except an occasional cock-match at Winchester, and a
+bull-baiting at Hexton Fair. Harry and Will rode off to many jolly fairs
+and races round about the young Virginian was presented to some of the
+county families--the Henleys of the Grange, the Crawleys of Queen's
+Crawley, the Redmaynes of Lionsden, and so forth. The neighbours came
+in their great heavy coaches, and passed two or three days in country
+fashion. More of them would have come, but for the fear all the
+Castlewood family had of offending Madame de Bernstein. She did not like
+country company; the rustical society and conversation annoyed her. "We
+shall be merrier when my aunt leaves us," the young folks owned. "We
+have cause, as you may imagine, for being very civil to her. You know
+what a favourite she was with our papa? And with reason. She got him his
+earldom, being very well indeed at Court at that time with the King and
+Queen. She commands here naturally, perhaps a little too much. We are
+all afraid of her: even my elder brother stands in awe of her, and my
+stepmother is much more obedient to her than she ever was to my papa,
+whom she ruled with a rod of iron. But Castlewood is merrier when our
+aunt is not here. At least we have much more company. You will come to
+us in our gay days, Harry, won't you? Of course you will: this is your
+home, sir. I was so pleased--oh, so pleased--when my brother said he
+considered it was your home!"
+
+A soft hand is held out after this pretty speech, a pair of very well
+preserved blue eyes look exceedingly friendly. Harry grasps his cousin's
+hand with ardour. I do not know what privilege of cousinship he would
+not like to claim, only he is so timid. They call the English selfish
+and cold. He at first thought his relatives were so: but how mistaken he
+was! How kind and affectionate they are, especially the Earl,--and
+dear, dear Maria! How he wishes he could recall that letter which he
+had written to Mrs. Mountain and his mother, in which he hinted that his
+welcome had been a cold one! The Earl his cousin was everything that was
+kind, had promised to introduce him to London society, and present him
+at Court, and at White's. He was to consider Castlewood as his English
+home. He had been most hasty in his judgment regarding his relatives
+in Hampshire. All this, with many contrite expressions, he wrote in his
+second despatch to Virginia. And he added, for it hath been hinted
+that the young gentleman did not spell at this early time with especial
+accuracy, "My cousin, the Lady Maria, is a perfect Angle."
+
+"Ille praeter omnes angulus ridet," muttered little Mr. Dempster, at
+home in Virginia.
+
+"The child can't be falling in love with his angle, as he calls her!"
+cries out Mountain.
+
+"Pooh, pooh! my niece Maria is forty!" says Madam Esmond. "I perfectly
+well recollect her when I was at home--a great, gawky, carroty creature,
+with a foot like a pair of bellows." Where is truth, forsooth, and who
+knoweth it? Is Beauty beautiful, or is it only our eyes that make it
+so? Does Venus squint? Has she got a splay-foot, red hair, and a crooked
+back? Anoint my eyes, good Fairy Puck, so that I may ever consider the
+Beloved Object a paragon! Above all, keep on anointing my mistress's
+dainty peepers with the very strongest ointment, so that my noddle may
+ever appear lovely to her, and that she may continue to crown my honest
+ears with fresh roses!
+
+Now, not only was Harry Warrington a favourite with some in the
+drawing-room, and all the ladies of the servants'-hall, but, like master
+like man, his valet Gumbo was very much admired and respected by very
+many of the domestic circle. Gumbo had a hundred accomplishments. He
+was famous as a fisherman, huntsman, blacksmith. He could dress hair
+beautifully, and improved himself in the art under my lord's own Swiss
+gentleman. He was great at cooking many of his Virginian dishes, and
+learned many new culinary secrets from my lord's French man. We have
+heard how exquisitely and melodiously he sang at church; and he sang not
+only sacred but secular music, often inventing airs and composing rude
+words after the habit of his people. He played the fiddle so charmingly,
+that he set all the girls dancing in Castlewood Hall, and was ever
+welcome to a gratis mug of ale at the Three Castles in the village, if
+he would but bring his fiddle with him. He was good-natured and loved
+to play for the village children: so that Mr. Warrington's negro was a
+universal favourite in all the Castlewood domain.
+
+Now it was not difficult for the servants'-hall folks to perceive that
+Mr. Gumbo was a liar, which fact was undoubted in spite of all his good
+qualities. For instance, that day at church, when he pretended to read
+out of Molly's psalm-book, he sang quite other words than those which
+were down in the book, of which he could not decipher a syllable. And
+he pretended to understand music, whereupon the Swiss valet brought him
+some, and Master Gumbo turned the page upside down. These instances of
+long-bow practice daily occurred, and were patent to all the Castlewood
+household. They knew Gumbo was a liar, perhaps not thinking the worse
+of him for this weakness; but they did not know how great a liar he
+was, and believed him much more than they had any reason for doing, and
+because, I suppose, they liked to believe him.
+
+Whatever might be his feelings of wonder and envy on first viewing the
+splendour and comforts of Castlewood, Mr. Gumbo kept his sentiments
+to himself, and examined the place, park, appointments, stables, very
+coolly. The horses, he said, were very well, what there were of them;
+but at Castlewood in Virginia they had six times as many, and let
+me see, fourteen eighteen grooms to look after them. Madam Esmond's
+carriages were much finer than my lord's,--great deal more gold on the
+panels. As for her gardens, they covered acres, and they grew every kind
+of flower and fruit under the sun. Pineapples and peaches? Pineapples
+and peaches were so common, they were given to pigs in his country. They
+had twenty forty gardeners, not white gardeners, all black gentlemen,
+like hisself. In the house were twenty forty gentlemen in
+livery, besides women-servants--never could remember how
+many women-servants,--dere were so many: tink dere were fifty
+women-servants--all Madam Esmond's property, and worth ever so many
+hundred pieces of eight apiece. How much was a piece of eight? Bigger
+than a guinea, a piece of eight was. Tink, Madam Esmond have twenty
+thirty thousand guineas a year,--have whole rooms full of gold and
+plate. Came to England in one of her ships; have ever so many ships,
+Gumbo can't count how many ships; and estates, covered all over with
+tobacco and negroes, and reaching out for a week's journey. Was Master
+Harry heir to all this property? Of course, now Master George was killed
+and scalped by the Indians. Gumbo had killed ever so many Indians, and
+tried to save Master George, but he was Master Harry's boy,--and Master
+Harry was as rich,--oh, as rich as ever he like. He wore black now,
+because Master George was dead; but you should see his chests full of
+gold clothes, and lace, and jewels at Bristol. Of course, Master
+Harry was the richest man in all Virginia, and might have twenty sixty
+servants; only he liked travelling with one best, and that one, it need
+scarcely be said, was Gumbo.
+
+This story was not invented at once, but gradually elicited from Mr.
+Gumbo, who might have uttered some trifling contradictions during the
+progress of the narrative, but by the time he had told his tale twice or
+thrice in the servants'-hall or the butler's private apartment, he
+was pretty perfect and consistent in his part, and knew accurately the
+number of slaves Madam Esmond kept, and the amount of income which she
+enjoyed. The truth is, that as four or five blacks are required to do
+the work of one white man, the domestics in American establishments
+are much more numerous than in ours; and, like the houses of most other
+Virginian landed proprietors, Madam Esmond's mansion and stables swarmed
+with negroes.
+
+Mr. Gumbo's account of his mistress's wealth and splendour was carried
+to my lord by his lordship's man, and to Madame de Bernstein and my
+ladies by their respective waiting-women, and, we may be sure, lost
+nothing in the telling. A young gentleman in England is not the
+less liked because he is reputed to be the heir to vast wealth and
+possessions; when Lady Castlewood came to hear of Harry's prodigious
+expectations, she repented of her first cool reception of him, and of
+having pinched her daughter's arm till it was black-and-blue for having
+been extended towards the youth in too friendly a manner. Was it too
+late to have him back into those fair arms? Lady Fanny was welcome to
+try, and resumed the dancing-lessons. The Countess would play the music
+with all her heart. But, how provoking! that odious, sentimental Maria
+would always insist upon being in the room; and, as sure as Fanny walked
+in the gardens or the park, so sure would her sister come trailing after
+her. As for Madame de Bernstein, she laughed, and was amused at the
+stories of the prodigious fortune of her Virginian relatives. She knew
+her half-sister's man of business in London, and very likely was aware
+of the real state of Madame Esmond's money matters; but she did not
+contradict the rumours which Gumbo and his fellow-servants had set
+afloat; and was not a little diverted by the effect which these reports
+had upon the behaviour of the Castlewood family towards their young
+kinsman.
+
+"Hang him! Is he so rich, Molly?" said my lord to his elder sister.
+"Then good-bye to our chances with your aunt. The Baroness will be sure
+to leave him all her money to spite us, and because he doesn't want
+it. Nevertheless, the lad is a good lad enough, and it is not his fault
+being rich, you know."
+
+"He is very simple and modest in his habits for one so wealthy," remarks
+Maria.
+
+"Rich people often are so," says my lord. "If I were rich, I often think
+I would be the greatest miser, and live in rags and on a crust. Depend
+on it there is no pleasure so enduring as money-getting. It grows on
+you, and increases with old age. But because I am as poor as Lazarus, I
+dress in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day."
+
+Maria went to the book-room and got the History of Virginia, by R. B.
+Gent--and read therein what an admirable climate it was, and how all
+kinds of fruit and corn grew in that province, and what noble rivers
+were those of Potomac and Rappahannoc, abounding in all sorts of fish.
+And she wondered whether the climate would agree with her, and whether
+her aunt would like her? And Harry was sure his mother would adore
+her, so would Mountain. And when he was asked about the number of his
+mother's servants, he said, they certainly had more servants than are
+seen in England--he did not know how many. But the negroes did not do
+near as much work as English servants did hence the necessity of keeping
+so great a number. As for some others of Gumbo's details which were
+brought to him, he laughed and said the boy was wonderful as a romancer,
+and in telling such stories he supposed was trying to speak out for the
+honour of the family.
+
+So Harry was modest as well as rich! His denials only served to confirm
+his relatives' opinion regarding his splendid expectations. More and
+more the Countess and the ladies were friendly and affectionate with
+him. More and more Mr. Will betted with him, and wanted to sell him
+bargains. Harry's simple dress and equipage only served to confirm his
+friends' idea of his wealth. To see a young man of his rank and means
+with but one servant, and without horses or a carriage of his own--what
+modesty! When he went to London he would cut a better figure? Of course
+he would. Castlewood would introduce him to the best society in the
+capital, and he would appear as he ought to appear at St. James's. No
+man could be more pleasant, wicked, lively, obsequious than the worthy
+chaplain, Mr. Sampson. How proud he would be if he could show his young
+friend a little of London life!--if he could warn rogues off him, and
+keep him out of the way of harm! Mr. Sampson was very kind: everybody
+was very kind. Harry liked quite well the respect that was paid to him.
+As Madam Esmond's son he thought perhaps it was his due: and took for
+granted that he was the personage which his family imagined him to be.
+How should he know better, who had never as yet seen any place but his
+own province, and why should he not respect his own condition when other
+people respected it so? So all the little knot of people at Castlewood
+House, and from these the people in Castlewood village, and from thence
+the people in the whole county, chose to imagine that Mr. Harry Esmond
+Warrington was the heir of immense wealth, and a gentleman of very
+great importance, because his negro valet told lies about him in the
+servants'-hall.
+
+Harry's aunt, Madame de Bernstein, after a week or two, began to tire of
+Castlewood and the inhabitants of that mansion, and the neighbours who
+came to visit them. This clever woman tired of most things and people
+sooner or later. So she took to nodding and sleeping over the chaplain's
+stories, and to doze at her whist and over her dinner, and to be very
+snappish and sarcastic in her conversation with her Esmond nephews and
+nieces, hitting out blows at my lord and his brother the jockey, and my
+ladies, widowed and unmarried, who winced under her scornful remarks,
+and bore them as they best might. The cook, whom she had so praised on
+first coming, now gave her no satisfaction; the wine was corked; the
+house was damp, dreary, and full of draughts; the doors would not shut,
+and the chimneys were smoky. She began to think the Tunbridge waters
+were very necessary for her, and ordered the doctor, who came to her
+from the neighbouring town of Hexton, to order those waters for her
+benefit.
+
+"I wish to heaven she would go!" growled my lord, who was the most
+independent member of his family. "She may go to Tunbridge, or she may
+go to Bath, or she may go to Jericho, for me."
+
+"Shall Fanny and I come with you to Tunbridge, dear Baroness?" asked
+Lady Castlewood of her sister-in-law.
+
+"Not for worlds, my dear! The doctor orders me absolute quiet, and if
+you came I should have the knocker going all day, and Fanny's lovers
+would never be out of the house," answered the Baroness, who was quite
+weary of Lady Castlewood's company.
+
+"I wish I could be of any service to my aunt!" said the sentimental Lady
+Maria, demurely.
+
+"My good child, what can you do for me? You cannot play piquet so well
+as my maid, and I have heard all your songs till I am perfectly tired of
+them! One of the gentlemen might go with me: at least make the journey,
+and see me safe from highwaymen."
+
+"I'm sure, ma'am, I shall be glad to ride with you," said Mr. Will.
+
+"Oh, not you! I don't want you, William," cried the young man's
+aunt. "Why do not you offer, and where are your American manners, you
+ungracious Harry Warrington? Don't swear, Will, Harry is much better
+company than you are, and much better ton too, sir."
+
+"Tong, indeed! Confound his tong," growled envious Will to himself.
+
+"I dare say I shall be tired of him, as I am of other folks," continued
+the Baroness. "I have scarcely seen Harry at all in these last days. You
+shall ride with me to Tunbridge, Harry!"
+
+At this direct appeal, and to no one's wonder more than that of his
+aunt, Mr. Harry Warrington blushed, and hemmed and ha'd and at length
+said, "I have promised my cousin Castlewood to go over to Hexton Petty
+Sessions with him to-morrow. He thinks I should see how the Courts here
+are conducted--and--and--the partridge-shooting will soon begin, and
+I have promised to be here for that, ma'am." Saying which words, Harry
+Warrington looked as red as a poppy, whilst Lady Maria held her meek
+face downwards, and nimbly plied her needle.
+
+"You actually refuse to go with me to Tunbridge Wells?" called out
+Madame Bernstein, her eyes lightening, and her face flushing up with
+anger, too.
+
+"Not to ride with you, ma'am; that I will do with all my heart; but to
+stay there--I have promised..."
+
+"Enough, enough, sir! I can go alone, and don't want your escort," cried
+the irate old lady, and rustled out of the room.
+
+The Castlewood family looked at each other with wonder. Will whistled.
+Lady Castlewood glanced at Fanny, as much as to say, His chance is over.
+Lady Maria never lifted up her eyes from her tambour-frame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. On the Scent
+
+
+Young Harry Warrington's act of revolt came so suddenly upon Madame
+de Bernstein, that she had no other way of replying to it, than by the
+prompt outbreak of anger with which we left her in the last chapter. She
+darted two fierce glances at Lady Fanny and her mother as she quitted
+the room. Lady Maria over her tambour-frame escaped without the least
+notice, and scarcely lifted up her head from her embroidery, to watch
+the aunt retreating, or the looks which mamma-in-law and sister threw at
+one another.
+
+"So, in spite of all, you have, madam?" the maternal looks seemed to
+say.
+
+"Have what?" asked Lady Fanny's eyes. But what good in looking innocent?
+She looked puzzled. She did not look one-tenth part as innocent as
+Maria. Had she been guilty, she would have looked not guilty much more
+cleverly; and would have taken care to study and compose a face so as to
+be ready to suit the plea. Whatever was the expression of Fanny's eyes,
+mamma glared on her as if she would have liked to tear them out.
+
+But Lady Castlewood could not operate upon the said eyes then and there,
+like the barbarous monsters in the stage-direction in King Lear. When
+her ladyship was going to tear out her daughter's eyes, she would retire
+smiling, with an arm round her dear child's waist, and then gouge her in
+private.
+
+"So you don't fancy going with the old lady to Tunbridge Wells?" was
+all she said to Cousin Warrington, wearing at the same time a perfectly
+well-bred simper on her face.
+
+"And small blame to our cousin!" interposed my lord. (The face over the
+tambour-frame looked up for one instant.) "A young fellow must not have
+it all idling and holiday. Let him mix up something useful with his
+pleasures, and go to the fiddles and pump-rooms at Tunbridge or the Bath
+later. Mr. Warrington has to conduct a great estate in America: let him
+see how ours in England are carried on. Will hath shown him the kennel
+and the stables; and the games in vogue, which I think, cousin, you
+seem to play as well as your teachers. After harvest we will show him
+a little English fowling and shooting: in winter we will take him
+out a-hunting. Though there has been a coolness between us and our
+aunt-kinswoman in Virginia, yet we are of the same blood. Ere we
+send our cousin back to his mother, let us show him what an English
+gentleman's life at home is. I should like to read with him as well as
+sport with him, and that is why I have been pressing him of late to stay
+and bear me company."
+
+My lord spoke with such perfect frankness that his mother-in-law and
+half-brother and sister could not help wondering what his meaning
+could be. The three last-named persons often held little conspiracies
+together, and caballed or grumbled against the head of the house. When
+he adopted that frank tone, there was no fathoming his meaning: often it
+would not be discovered until months had passed. He did not say, "This
+is true," but, "I mean that this statement should be accepted and
+believed in my family." It was then a thing convenue, that my Lord
+Castlewood had a laudable desire to cultivate the domestic affections,
+and to educate, amuse, and improve his young relative; and that he had
+taken a great fancy to the lad, and wished that Harry should stay for
+some time near his lordship.
+
+"What is Castlewood's game now?" asked William of his mother and sister
+as they disappeared into the corridors. "Stop! By George, I have it!"
+
+"What, William?"
+
+"He intends to get him to play, and to win the Virginia estate back from
+him. That's what it is!"
+
+"But the lad has not got the Virginia estate to pay, if he loses,"
+remarks mamma.
+
+"If my brother has not some scheme in view, may I be----."
+
+"Hush! Of course he has a scheme in view. But what is it?"
+
+"He can't mean Maria--Maria is as old as Harry's mother," muses Mr.
+William.
+
+"Pooh! with her old face and sandy hair and freckled skin! Impossible!"
+cries Lady Fanny, with somewhat of a sigh.
+
+"Of course, your ladyship had a fancy for the Iroquois, too!" cried
+mamma.
+
+"I trust I know my station and duty better, madam! If I had liked him,
+that is no reason why I should marry him. Your ladyship hath taught me
+as much as that."
+
+"My Lady Fanny!"
+
+"I am sure you married our papa without liking him. You have told me so
+a thousand times!"
+
+"And if you did not love our father before marriage, you certainly did
+not fall in love with him afterwards," broke in Mr. William, with a
+laugh. "Fan and I remember how our honoured parents used to fight. Don't
+us, Fan? And our brother Esmond kept the peace."
+
+"Don't recall those dreadful low scenes, William!" cries mamma. "When
+your father took too much drink, he was like a madman; and his conduct
+should be a warning to you, sir, who are fond of the same horrid
+practice."
+
+"I am sure, madam, you were not much the happier for marrying the man
+you did not like, and your ladyship's title hath brought very little
+along with it," whimpered out Lady Fanny. "What is the use of a coronet
+with the jointure of a tradesman's wife?--how many of them are richer
+than we are? There is come lately to live in our Square, at Kensington,
+a grocer's widow from London Bridge, whose daughters have three gowns
+where I have one; and who, though they are waited on but by a man and a
+couple of maids, I know eat and drink a thousand times better than we
+do with our scraps of cold meat on our plate, and our great flaunting,
+trapesing, impudent, lazy lacqueys!"
+
+"He! he! glad I dine at the palace, and not at home!" said Mr. Will.
+(Mr. Will, through his aunt's interest with Count Puffendorff, Groom
+of the Royal {and Serene Electoral} Powder-Closet, had one of the many
+small places at Court, that of Deputy Powder.)
+
+"Why should I not be happy without any title except my own?" continued
+Lady Frances. "Many people are. I dare say they are even happy in
+America."
+
+"Yes!--with a mother-in-law who is a perfect Turk and Tartar, for all I
+hear--with Indian war-whoops howling all around you and with a danger
+of losing your scalp, or of being eat up by a wild beast every time you
+went to church."
+
+"I wouldn't go to church," said Lady Fanny.
+
+"You'd go with anybody who asked you, Fan!" roared out Mr. Will: "and
+so would old Maria, and so would any woman, that's the fact." And Will
+laughed at his own wit.
+
+"Pray, good folks, what is all your merriment about?" here asked Madame
+Bernstein, peeping in on her relatives from the tapestried door which
+led into the gallery where their conversation was held.
+
+Will told her that his mother and sister had been having a fight (which
+was not a novelty, as Madame Bernstein knew), because Fanny wanted to
+marry their cousin, the wild Indian, and my lady Countess would not let
+her. Fanny protested against this statement. Since the very first day
+when her mother had told her not to speak to the young gentleman, she
+had scarcely exchanged two words with him. She knew her station better.
+She did not want to be scalped by wild Indians, or eat up by bears.
+
+Madame de Bernstein looked puzzled. "If he is not staying for you, for
+whom is he staying?" she asked. "At the houses to which he has been
+carried, you have taken care not to show him a woman that is not a
+fright or in the nursery; and I think the boy is too proud to fall in
+love with a dairymaid, Will."
+
+"Humph! That is a matter of taste, ma'am," says Mr. William, with a
+shrug of his shoulders.
+
+"Of Mr. William Esmond's taste, as you say; but not of yonder boy's. The
+Esmonds of his grandfather's nurture, sir, would not go a-courting in
+the kitchen."
+
+"Well, ma'am, every man to his taste, I say again. A fellow might go
+farther and fare worse than my brother's servants'-hall, and besides
+Fan, there's only the maids or old Maria to choose from."
+
+"Maria! Impossible!" And yet, as she spoke the very words, a sudden
+thought crossed Madame Bernstein's mind, that this elderly Calypso might
+have captivated her young Telemachus. She called to mind half a dozen
+instances in her own experience of young men who had been infatuated by
+old women. She remembered how frequent Harry Warrington's absences
+had been of late--absences which she attributed to his love for field
+sports. She remembered how often, when he was absent, Maria Esmond
+was away too. Walks in cool avenues, whisperings in garden temples, or
+behind clipt hedges, casual squeezes of the hand in twilight corridors,
+or sweet glances and ogles in meetings on the stairs,--a lively fancy,
+an intimate knowledge of the world, very likely a considerable personal
+experience in early days, suggested all these possibilities and
+chances to Madame de Bernstein, just as she was saying that they were
+impossible.
+
+"Impossible, ma'am! I don't know," Will continued. "My mother warned Fan
+off him."
+
+"Oh, your mother did warn Fanny off?"
+
+"Certainly, my dear Baroness!"
+
+"Didn't she? Didn't she pinch Fanny's arm black-and-blue? Didn't they
+fight about it?"
+
+"Nonsense, William! For shame, William!" cry both the implicated ladies
+in a breath.
+
+"And now, since we have heard how rich he is, perhaps it is sour grapes,
+that is all. And now, since he is warned off the young bird, perhaps he
+is hunting the old one, that's all. Impossible why impossible? You know
+old Lady Suffolk, ma'am?"
+
+"William, how can you speak about Lady Suffolk to your aunt?"
+
+A grin passed over the countenance of the young gentleman. "Because
+Lady Suffolk was a special favourite at Court? Well, other folks have
+succeeded her."
+
+"Sir!" cries Madame de Bernstein, who may have had her reasons to take
+offence.
+
+"So they have, I say; or who, pray, is my Lady Yarmouth now? And didn't
+old Lady Suffolk go and fall in love with George Berkeley, and marry him
+when she was ever so old? Nay, ma'am, if I remember right--and we hear
+a deal of town-talk at our table--Harry Estridge went mad about your
+ladyship when you were somewhat rising twenty; and would have changed
+your name a third time if you would but have let him."
+
+This allusion to an adventure of her own later days, which was, indeed,
+pretty notorious to all the world, did not anger Madame de Bernstein,
+like Will's former hint about his aunt having been a favourite at George
+the Second's Court; but, on the contrary, set her in good-humour.
+
+"Au fait," she said, musing, as she played a pretty little hand on the
+table, and no doubt thinking about mad young Harry Estridge; 'tis not
+impossible, William, that old folks, and young folks, too, should play
+the fool."
+
+"But I can't understand a young fellow being in love with Maria,"
+continued Mr. William, "however he might be with you, ma'am. That's oter
+shose, as our French tutor used to say. You remember the Count, ma'am;
+he! he!--and so does Maria!"
+
+"William!"
+
+"And I dare say the Count remembers the bastinado Castlewood had given
+to him. A confounded French dancing-master calling himself a count, and
+daring to fall in love in our family! Whenever I want to make myself
+uncommonly agreeable to old Maria, I just say a few words of parly voo
+to her. She knows what I mean."
+
+"Have you abused her to your cousin, Harry Warrington?" asked Madame de
+Bernstein.
+
+"Well--I know she is always abusing me--and I have said my mind about
+her," said Will.
+
+"Oh, you idiot!" cried the old lady. "Who but a gaby ever spoke ill of a
+woman to her sweetheart? He will tell her everything, and they both will
+hate you."
+
+"The very thing, ma'am!" cried Will, bursting into a great laugh. "I
+had a sort of a suspicion, you see, and two days ago, as we were riding
+together, I told Harry Warrington a bit of my mind about Maria;--why
+shouldn't I, I say? She is always abusing me, ain't she, Fan? And your
+favourite turned as red as my plush waistcoat--wondered how a gentleman
+could malign his own flesh and blood, and, trembling all over with rage,
+said I was no true Esmond."
+
+"Why didn't you chastise him, sir, as my lord did the dancing-master?"
+cried Lady Castlewood.
+
+"Well, mother,--you see that at quarter-staff there's two sticks used,"
+replied Mr. William; "and my opinion is, that Harry Warrington can guard
+his own head uncommonly well. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why I
+did not offer to treat my cousin to a caning. And now you say so, ma'am,
+I know he has told Maria. She has been looking battle, murder, and
+sudden death at me ever since. All which shows----" and here he turned
+to his aunt.
+
+"All which shows what?"
+
+"That I think we are on the right scent; and that we've found Maria--the
+old fox!" And the ingenuous youth here clapped his hand to his mouth,
+and gave a loud halloo.
+
+How far had this pretty intrigue gone? now was the question. Mr. Will
+said, that at her age, Maria would be for conducting matters as rapidly
+as possible, not having much time to lose. There was not a great deal of
+love lost between Will and his half-sister.
+
+"Who would sift the matter to the bottom? Scolding one party or the
+other was of no avail. Threats only serve to aggravate people in such
+cases. I never was in danger but once, young people," said Madame de
+Bernstein, "and I think that was because my poor mother contradicted me.
+If this boy is like others of his family, the more we oppose him, the
+more entete he will be; and we shall never get him out of his scrape."
+
+"Faith, ma'am, suppose we leave him in it?" grumbled Will. "Old Maria
+and I don't love each other too much, I grant you; but an English earl's
+daughter is good enough for an American tobacco-planter, when all is
+said and done."
+
+Here his mother and sister broke out. They would not hear of such a
+union. To which Will answered, "You are like the dog in the manger. You
+don't want the man yourself, Fanny"
+
+"I want him, indeed!" cries Lady Fanny, with a toss of her head.
+
+"Then why grudge him to Maria? I think Castlewood wants her to have
+him."
+
+"Why grudge him to Maria, sir?" cried Madame de Bernstein, with great
+energy. "Do you remember who the poor boy is, and what your house owes
+to his family? His grandfather was the best friend your father ever had,
+and gave up this estate, this title, this very castle, in which you
+are conspiring against the friendless Virginian lad, that you and yours
+might profit by it. And the reward for all this kindness is, that you
+all but shut the door on the child when he knocks at it, and talk of
+marrying him to a silly elderly creature who might be his mother! He
+shan't marry her."
+
+"The very thing we were saying and thinking, my dear Baroness!"
+interposes Lady Castlewood. "Our part of the family is not eager about
+the match, though my lord and Maria may be."
+
+"You would like him for yourself, now that you hear he is rich--and may
+be richer, young people, mind you that," cried Madam Beatrix, turning
+upon the other women.
+
+"Mr. Warrington may be ever so rich, madam, but there is no need why
+your ladyship should perpetually remind us that we are poor," broke
+in Lady Castlewood, with some spirit. "At least there is very little
+disparity in Fanny's age and Mr. Harry's; and you surely will be the
+last to say that a lady of our name and family is not good enough for
+any gentleman born in Virginia or elsewhere."
+
+"Let Fanny take an English gentleman, Countess, not an American. With
+such a name and such a mother to help her, and with all her good looks
+and accomplishments, sure, she can't fail of finding a man worthy of
+her. But from what I know about the daughters of this house, and what I
+imagine about our young cousin, I am certain that no happy match could
+be made between them."
+
+"What does my aunt know about me?" asked Lady Fanny, turning very red.
+
+"Only your temper, my dear. You don't suppose that I believe all the
+tittle-tattle and scandal which one cannot help hearing in town? But
+the temper and early education are sufficient. Only fancy one of you
+condemned to leave St. James's and the Mall, and live in a plantation
+surrounded by savages! You would die of ennui, or worry your husband's
+life out with your ill-humour. You are born, ladies, to ornament
+courts--not wigwams. Let this lad go back to his wilderness with a wife
+who is suited to him."
+
+The other two ladies declared in a breath that, for their parts, they
+desired no better, and, after a few more words, went on their way, while
+Madame de Bernstein, lifting up her tapestried door, retired into her
+own chamber. She saw all the scheme now; she admired the ways of women,
+calling a score of little circumstances back to mind. She wondered at
+her own blindness during the last few days, and that she should not have
+perceived the rise and progress of this queer little intrigue. How far
+had it gone? was now the question. Was Harry's passion of the serious
+and tragical sort, or a mere fire of straw which a day or two would burn
+out? How deeply was he committed? She dreaded the strength of Harry's
+passion, and the weakness of Maria's. A woman of her age is so
+desperate, Madame Bernstein may have thought, that she will make any
+efforts to secure a lover. Scandal, bah! She will retire and be a
+princess in Virginia, and leave the folks in England to talk as much
+scandal as they choose.
+
+Is there always, then, one thing which women do not tell to one another,
+and about which they agree to deceive each other? Does the concealment
+arise from deceit or modesty? A man, as soon as he feels an inclination
+for one of the other sex, seeks for a friend of his own to whom he may
+impart the delightful intelligence. A woman (with more or less skill)
+buries her secret away from her kind. For days and weeks past, had not
+this old Maria made fools of the whole house,--Maria, the butt of the
+family?
+
+I forbear to go into too curious inquiries regarding the Lady Maria's
+antecedents. I have my own opinion about Madame Bernstein's. A hundred
+years ago people of the great world were not so straitlaced as they
+are now, when everybody is good, pure, moral, modest; when there is no
+skeleton in anybody's closet; when there is no scheming; no slurring
+over old stories; when no girl tries to sell herself for wealth, and no
+mother abets her. Suppose my Lady Maria tries to make her little game,
+wherein is her ladyship's great eccentricity?
+
+On these points no doubt the Baroness de Bernstein thought, as she
+communed with herself in her private apartment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. An Old Story
+
+
+As my Lady Castlewood and her son and daughter passed through one
+door of the saloon where they had all been seated, my Lord Castlewood
+departed by another issue; and then the demure eyes looked up from the
+tambour-frame on which they had persisted hitherto in examining the
+innocent violets and jonquils. The eyes looked up at Harry Warrington,
+who stood at an ancestral portrait under the great fireplace. He had
+gathered a great heap of blushes (those flowers which bloom so rarely
+after gentlefolks' springtime), and with them ornamented his honest
+countenance, his cheeks, his forehead, nay, his youthful ears.
+
+"Why did you refuse to go with our aunt, cousin?" asked the lady of the
+tambour frame.
+
+"Because your ladyship bade me stay," answered the lad.
+
+"I bid you stay! La! child! What one says in fun, you take in earnest!
+Are all you Virginian gentlemen so obsequious as to fancy every idle
+word a lady says is a command? Virginia must be a pleasant country for
+our sex if it be so!"
+
+"You said--when--when we walked in the terrace two nights since,--O
+heaven!" cried Harry, with a voice trembling with emotion.
+
+"Ah, that sweet night, cousin!" cries the Tambour-frame.
+
+"Whe--whe--when you gave me this rose from your own neck,"--roared
+out Harry, pulling suddenly a crumpled and decayed vegetable from his
+waistcoat--"which I will never part with--with, no, by heavens, whilst
+this heart continues to beat! You said, 'Harry, if your aunt asks you
+to go away, you will go, and if you go, you will forget me.'--Didn't you
+say so?"
+
+"All men forget!" said the Virgin, with a sigh.
+
+"In this cold selfish country they may, cousin, not in ours," continues
+Harry, yet in the same state of exaltation--"I had rather have lost an
+arm almost than refused the old lady. I tell you it went to my heart
+to say no to her, and she so kind to me, and who had been the means of
+introducing me to--to--O heaven!"
+
+(Here a kick to an intervening spaniel, which flies yelping from before
+the fire, and a rapid advance on the tambour-frame.) "Look here, cousin!
+If you were to bid me jump out of yonder window, I should do it; or
+murder, I should do it."
+
+"La! but you need not squeeze one's hand so, you silly child!" remarks
+Maria.
+
+"I can't help it--we are so in the south. Where my heart is, I can't
+help speaking my mind out, cousin--and you know where that heart is!
+Ever since that evening--that--O heaven! I tell you I have hardly slept
+since--I want to do something--to distinguish myself--to be ever so
+great. I wish there was giants, Maria, as I have read of in--in books,
+that I could go and fight 'em. I wish you was in distress, that I might
+help you, somehow. I wish you wanted my blood, that I might spend
+every drop of it for you. And when you told me not to go with Madame
+Bernstein..."
+
+"I tell thee, child? never."
+
+"I thought you told me. You said you knew I preferred my aunt to my
+cousin, and I said then what I say now, 'Incomparable Maria! I prefer
+thee to all the women in the world and all the angels in Paradise--and
+I would go anywhere, were it to dungeons, if you ordered me!' And do you
+think I would not stay anywhere, when you only desired that I should be
+near you?" he added, after a moment's pause.
+
+"Men always talk in that way--that is,--that is, I have heard so," said
+the spinster, correcting herself; "for what should a country-bred woman
+know about you creatures? When you are near us, they say you are all
+raptures and flames and promises and I don't know what; when you are
+away, you forget all about us."
+
+"But I think I never want to go away as long as I live," groaned out
+the young man. "I have tired of many things; not books and that, I never
+cared for study much, but games and sports which I used to be fond
+of when I was a boy. Before I saw you, it was to be a soldier I most
+desired; I tore my hair with rage when my poor dear brother went away
+instead of me on that expedition in which we lost him. But now, I only
+care for one thing in the world, and you know what that is."
+
+"You silly child! don't you know I am almost old enough to be...?"
+
+"I know--I know! but what is that to me? Hasn't your br...--well, never
+mind who, some of 'em-told me stories against you, and didn't they show
+me the Family Bible, where all your names are down, and the dates of
+your birth?"
+
+"The cowards! Who did that?" cried out Lady Maria. "Dear Harry, tell me
+who did that? Was it my mother-in-law, the grasping, odious, abandoned,
+brazen harpy? Do you know all about her? How she married my father in
+his cups--the horrid hussey!--and..."
+
+"Indeed it wasn't Lady Castlewood," interposed the wondering Harry.
+
+"Then it was my aunt," continued the infuriate lady. "A pretty moralist,
+indeed! A bishop's widow, forsooth, and I should like to know whose
+widow before and afterwards. Why, Harry, she intrigue: with the
+Pretender, and with the Court of Hanover, and, I dare say, would with
+the Court of Rome and the Sultan of Turkey if she had had the means. Do
+you know who her second husband was? A creature who..."
+
+"But our aunt never spoke a word against you," broke in Harry, more and
+more amazed at the nymph's vehemence.
+
+She checked her anger. In the inquisitive countenance opposite to
+her she thought she read some alarm as to the temper which she was
+exhibiting.
+
+"Well, well! I am a fool," she said. "I want thee to think well of me,
+Harry!"
+
+A hand is somehow put out and seized and, no doubt, kissed by the
+rapturous youth. "Angel!" he cries, looking into her face with his
+eager, honest eyes.
+
+Two fish-pools irradiated by a pair of stars would not kindle to greater
+warmth than did those elderly orbs into which Harry poured his gaze.
+Nevertheless, he plunged into their blue depths, and fancied he saw
+heaven in their calm brightness. So that silly dog (of whom Aesop or the
+Spelling-book used to tell us in youth) beheld a beef-bone in the pond,
+and snapped at it, and lost the beef-bone he was carrying. O absurd cur!
+He saw the beefbone in his own mouth reflected in the treacherous pool,
+which dimpled, I dare say, with ever so many smiles, coolly sucked up
+the meat, and returned to its usual placidity. Ah! what a heap of wreck
+lie beneath some of those quiet surfaces! What treasures we have dropped
+into them! What chased golden dishes, what precious jewels of love, what
+bones after bones, and sweetest heart's flesh! Do not some very faithful
+and unlucky dogs jump in bodily, when they are swallowed up heads and
+tails entirely? When some women come to be dragged, it is a marvel what
+will be found in the depths of them. Cavete, canes! Have a care how ye
+lap that water. What do they want with us, the mischievous siren sluts?
+A green-eyed Naiad never rests until she has inveigled a fellow under
+the water; she sings after him, she dances after him; she winds round
+him, glittering tortuously; she warbles and whispers dainty secrets at
+his cheek, she kisses his feet, she leers at him from out of her rushes:
+all her beds sigh out, "Come, sweet youth! Hither, hither, rosy Hylas!"
+Pop goes Hylas. (Surely the fable is renewed for ever and ever?) Has his
+captivator any pleasure? Doth she take any account of him? No more than
+a fisherman landing at Brighton does of one out of a hundred thousand
+herrings.... The last time. Ulysses rowed by the Sirens' bank, he and
+his men did not care though a whole shoal of them were singing and
+combing their longest locks. Young Telemachus was for jumping overboard:
+but the tough old crew held the silly, bawling lad. They were deaf, and
+could not hear his bawling nor the sea-nymphs' singing. They were dim
+of sight, and did not see how lovely the witches were. The stale, old,
+leering witches! Away with ye! I dare say you have painted your cheeks
+by this time; your wretched old songs are as out of fashion as Mozart,
+and it is all false hair you are combing!
+
+In the last sentence you see Lector Benevolus and Scriptor Doctissimus
+figure as tough old Ulysses and his tough old Boatswain, who do not care
+a quid of tobacco for any Siren at Sirens' Point; but Harry Warrington
+is green Telemachus, who, be sure, was very unlike the soft youth in the
+good Bishop of Cambray's twaddling story. He does not see that the siren
+paints the lashes from under which she ogles him; will put by into a box
+when she has done the ringlets into which she would inveigle him; and
+if she eats him, as she proposes to do, will crunch his bones with a new
+set of grinders just from the dentist's, and warranted for mastication.
+The song is not stale to Harry Warrington, nor the voice cracked or out
+of tune that sings it. But--but--oh, dear me, Brother Boatswain! Don't
+you remember how pleasant the opera was when we first heard it? Cosi
+fan tutti was its name--Mozart's music. Now, I dare say, they have other
+words, and other music, and other singers and fiddlers, and another
+great crowd in the pit. Well, well, Cosi fan tutti is still upon the
+bills, and they are going on singing it over and over and over.
+
+Any man or woman with a pennyworth of brains, or the like precious
+amount of personal experience, or who has read a novel before, must,
+when Harry pulled out those faded vegetables just now, have gone off
+into a digression of his own, as the writer confesses for himself he was
+diverging whilst he has been writing the last brace of paragraphs. If he
+sees a pair of lovers whispering in a garden alley or the embrasure of
+a window, or a pair of glances shot across the room from Jenny to the
+artless Jessamy, he falls to musing on former days when, etc. etc. These
+things follow each other by a general law, which is not as old as the
+hills, to be sure, but as old as the people who walk up and down them.
+When, I say, a lad pulls a bunch of amputated and now decomposing greens
+from his breast and falls to kissing it, what is the use of saying much
+more? As well tell the market-gardener's name from whom the slip-rose
+was bought--the waterings, clippings, trimmings, manurings, the plant
+has undergone--as tell how Harry Warrington came by it. Rose, elle a
+vecu la vie des roses, has been trimmed, has been watered, has been
+potted, has been sticked, has been cut, worn, given away, transferred
+to yonder boy's pocket-book and bosom, according to the laws and fate
+appertaining to roses.
+
+And how came Maria to give it to Harry? And how did he come to want it
+and to prize it so passionately when he got the bit of rubbish? Is not
+one story as stale as the other? Are not they all alike? What is the
+use, I say, of telling them over and over? Harry values that rose
+because Maria has ogled him in the old way; because she has happened to
+meet him in the garden in the old way; because he has taken her hand in
+the old way; because they have whispered to one another behind the old
+curtain (the gaping old rag, as if everybody could not peep through
+it!); because, in this delicious weather, they have happened to be early
+risers and go into the park; because dear Goody Jenkins in the village
+happened to have a bad knee, and my lady Maria went to read to her, and
+gave her calves'-foot jelly, and because somebody, of course, must carry
+the basket. Whole chapters might have been written to chronicle
+all these circumstances, but A quoi bon? The incidents of life, and
+love-making especially, I believe to resemble each other so much, that
+I am surprised, gentlemen and ladies, you read novels any more. Psha! Of
+course that rose in young Harry's pocket-book had grown, and had budded,
+and had bloomed, and was now rotting, like other roses. I suppose you
+will want me to say that the young fool kissed it next? Of course he
+kissed it. What were lips made for, pray, but for smiling and simpering,
+and (possibly) humbugging, and kissing, and opening to receive
+mutton-chops, cigars, and so forth? I cannot write this part of the
+story of our Virginians, because Harry did not dare to write it himself
+to anybody at home, because, if he wrote any letters to Maria (which,
+of course, he did, as they were in the same house, and might meet each
+other as much as they liked), they were destroyed; because he afterwards
+chose to be very silent about the story, and we can't have it from her
+ladyship, who never told the truth about anything. But cui bono? I say
+again. What is the good of telling the story? My gentle reader, take
+your story: take mine. To-morrow it shall be Miss Fanny's, who is just
+walking away with her doll to the schoolroom and the governess (poor
+victim! she has a version of it in her desk): and next day it shall be
+Baby's, who is bawling out on the stairs for his bottle.
+
+Maria might like to have and exercise power over the young Virginian;
+but she did not want that Harry should quarrel with his aunt for her
+sake, or that Madame de Bernstein should be angry with her. Harry was
+not the Lord of Virginia yet: he was only the Prince, and the Queen
+might marry and have other Princes, and the laws of primogeniture might
+not be established in Virginia, qu'en savait elle? My lord her brother
+and she had exchanged no words at all about the delicate business. But
+they understood each other, and the Earl had a way of understanding
+things without speaking. He knew his Maria perfectly well: in the course
+of a life of which not a little had been spent in her brother's company
+and under his roof, Maria's disposition, ways, tricks, faults, had come
+to be perfectly understood by the head of the family; and she would find
+her little schemes checked or aided by him, as to his lordship seemed
+good, and without need of any words between them. Thus three days
+before, when she happened to be going to see that poor dear old Goody,
+who was ill with the sore knee in the village (and when Harry Warrington
+happened to be walking behind the elms on the green too), my lord with
+his dogs about him, and his gardener walking after him, crossed the
+court, just as Lady Maria was tripping to the gate-house--and his
+lordship called his sister, and said: "Molly, you are going to see Goody
+Jenkins. You are a charitable soul, my dear. Give Gammer Jenkins this
+half-crown for me--unless our cousin, Warrington, has already given her
+money. A pleasant walk to you. Let her want for nothing." And at supper,
+my lord asked Mr. Warrington many questions about the poor in Virginia,
+and the means of maintaining them, to which the young gentleman gave the
+best answers he might. His lordship wished that in the old country there
+were no more poor people than in the new: and recommended Harry to
+visit the poor and people of every degree, indeed, high and low--in the
+country to look at the agriculture, in the city at the manufactures
+and municipal institutions--to which edifying advice Harry acceded with
+becoming modesty and few words, and Madame Bernstein nodded approval
+over her piquet with the chaplain. Next day, Harry was in my lord's
+justice-room: the next day he was out ever so long with my lord on
+the farm--and coming home, what does my lord do, but look in on a
+sick tenant? I think Lady Maria was out on that day, too; she had been
+reading good books to that poor dear Goody Jenkins, though I don't
+suppose Madame Bernstein ever thought of asking about her niece.
+
+
+"CASTLEWOOD, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, August 5, 1757.
+
+"MY DEAR MOUNTAIN--At first, as I wrote, I did not like Castlewood, nor
+my cousins there, very much. Now, I am used to their ways, and we begin
+to understand each other much better. With my duty to my mother, tell
+her, I hope, that considering her ladyship's great kindness to me, Madam
+Esmond will be reconciled to her half-sister, the Baroness de Bernstein.
+The Baroness, you know, was my Grandmamma's daughter by her first
+husband, Lord Castlewood (only Grandpapa really was the real lord);
+however, that was not his, that is, the other Lord Castlewood's fault,
+you know, and he was very kind to Grandpapa, who always spoke most
+kindly of him to us as you know.
+
+"Madame the Baroness Bernstein first married a clergyman, Reverend
+Mr. Tusher, who was so learned and good, and such a favourite of his
+Majesty, as was my aunt too, that he was made a Bishop. When he died,
+Our gracious King continued his friendship to my aunt; who married a
+Hanoverian nobleman, who occupied a post at the Court--and, I believe,
+left the Baroness very rich. My cousin, my Lord Castlewood, told me
+so much about her, and I am sure I have found from her the greatest
+kindness and affection.
+
+"The (Dowiger) Countess Castlewood and my cousins Will and Lady Fanny
+have been described per last, that went by the Falmouth packet on the
+20th ult. The ladies are not changed since then. Me and Cousin Will are
+very good friends. We have rode out a good deal. We have had some famous
+cocking matches at Hampton and Winton. My cousin is a sharp blade, but I
+think I have shown him that we in Virginia know a thing or two. Reverend
+Mr. Sampson, chaplain of the famaly, most excellent preacher, without
+any biggatry.
+
+"The kindness of my cousin the Earl improves every day, and by next
+year's ship I hope my mother will send his lordship some of our best
+roll tobacco (for tennants) and hamms. He is most charatable to the
+poor. His sister, Lady Maria, equally so. She sits for hours reading
+good books to the sick: she is most beloved in the village."
+
+
+"Nonsense!" said a lady to whom Harry submitted his precious manuscript.
+"Why do you flatter me, cousin?"
+
+"You are beloved in the village and out of it," said Harry, with a
+knowing emphasis, "and I have flattered you, as you call it, a little
+more still, farther on."
+
+
+"There is a sick old woman there, whom Madam Esmond would like, a most
+raligious, good, old lady.
+
+"Lady Maria goes very often to read to her; which, she says, gives
+her comfort. But though her Ladyship hath the sweetest voice, both in
+speaking and singeing (she plays the church organ, and singes there most
+beautifully), I cannot think Gammer Jenkins can have any comfort from
+it, being very deaf, by reason of her great age. She has her memory
+perfectly, however, and remembers when my honoured Grandmother Rachel
+Lady Castlewood lived here. She says, my Grandmother was the best woman
+in the whole world, gave her a cow when she was married, and cured her
+husband, Gaffer Jenkins, of the collects, which he used to have very
+bad. I suppose it was with the Pills and Drops which my honoured Mother
+put up in my boxes, when I left dear Virginia. Having never been ill
+since, have had no use for the pills. Gumbo hath, eating and drinking
+a great deal too much in the Servants' Hall. The next angel to my
+Grandmother (N.B. I think I spelt angel wrong per last), Gammer Jenkins
+says, is Lady Maria, who sends her duty to her Aunt in Virginia, and
+remembers her, and my Grandpapa and Grandmamma when they were in Europe,
+and she was a little girl. You know they have Grandpapa's picture here,
+and I live in the very rooms which he had, and which are to be called
+mine, my Lord Castlewood says.
+
+"Having no more to say, at present, I close with best love and duty to
+my honoured Mother, and with respects to Mr. Dempster, and a kiss for
+Fanny, and kind remembrances to Old Gumbo, Nathan, Old and Young Dinah,
+and the pointer dog and Slut, and all friends, from their well-wisher                                               HENRY ESMOND WARRINGTON."
+
+"Have wrote and sent my duty to my Uncle Warrington in Norfolk. No anser
+as yet."
+
+
+"I hope the spelling is right, cousin?" asked the author of the letter,
+from the critic to whom he showed it.
+
+"'Tis quite well enough spelt for any person of fashion," answered
+Lady Maria, who did not choose to be examined too closely regarding the
+orthography.
+
+"One word 'Angel,' I know, I spelt wrong in writing to my mamma, but I
+have learned a way of spelling it right, now."
+
+"And how is that, sir?"
+
+"I think 'tis by looking at you, cousin;" saying which words, Mr. Harry
+made her ladyship a low bow, and accompanied the bow by one of his best
+blushes, as if he were offering her a bow and a bouquet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. Containing both Love and Luck
+
+
+At the next meal, when the family party assembled, there was not a trace
+of displeasure in Madame de Bernstein's countenance, and her behaviour
+to all the company, Harry included, was perfectly kind and cordial. She
+praised the cook this time, declared the fricassee was excellent, and
+that there were no eels anywhere like those in the Castlewood moats;
+would not allow that the wine was corked, or hear of such extravagance
+as opening a fresh bottle for a useless old woman like her; gave Madam
+Esmond Warrington, of Virginia, as her toast, when the new wine was
+brought, and hoped Harry had brought away his mamma's permission to take
+back an English wife with him. He did not remember his grandmother; her,
+Madame de Bernstein's, dear mother? The Baroness amused the company
+with numerous stories of her mother, of her beauty and goodness, of her
+happiness with her second husband, though the wife was so much older
+than Colonel Esmond. To see them together was delightful, she had heard.
+Their attachment was celebrated all through the country. To talk of
+disparity in marriages was vain after that. My Lady Castlewood and her
+two children held their peace whilst Madame Bernstein prattled. Harry
+was enraptured, and Maria surprised. Lord Castlewood was puzzled to know
+what sudden freak or scheme had occasioned this prodigious amiability
+on the part of his aunt; but did not allow the slightest expression of
+solicitude or doubt to appear on his countenance, which wore every mark
+of the most perfect satisfaction.
+
+The Baroness's good-humour infected the whole family; not one person at
+table escaped a gracious word from her. In reply to some compliment to
+Mr. Will, when that artless youth uttered an expression of satisfaction
+and surprise at his aunt's behaviour, she frankly said: "Complimentary,
+my dear! Of course I am. I want to make up with you for having been
+exceedingly rude to everybody this morning. When I was a child, and my
+father and mother were alive, and lived here, I remember I used to adopt
+exactly the same behaviour. If I had been naughty in the morning, I used
+to try and coax my parents at night. I remember in this very room, at
+this very table--oh, ever so many hundred years ago!--so coaxing my
+father, and mother, and your grandfather, Harry Warrington; and there
+were eels for supper, as we have had them to-night, and it was that dish
+of collared eels which brought the circumstance back to my mind. I
+had been just as wayward that day, when I was seven years old, as I
+am to-day, when I am seventy, and so I confess my sins, and ask to be
+forgiven, like a good girl."
+
+"I absolve your ladyship!" cried the chaplain, who made one of the
+party.
+
+"But your reverence does not know how cross and ill-tempered I was. I
+scolded my sister, Castlewood: I scolded her children, I boxed Harry
+Warrington's ears: and all because he would not go with me to Tunbridge
+Wells."
+
+"But I will go, madam; I will ride with you with all the pleasure in
+life," said Mr. Warrington.
+
+"You see, Mr. Chaplain, what good, dutiful children they all are. 'Twas
+I alone who was cross and peevish. Oh, it was cruel of me to treat them
+so! Maria, I ask your pardon, my dear."
+
+"Sure, madam, you have done me no wrong," says Maria to this humble
+suppliant.
+
+"Indeed, I have, a very great wrong, child! Because I was weary of
+myself, I told you that your company would be wearisome to me. You
+offered to come with me to Tunbridge, and I rudely refused you."
+
+"Nay, ma'am, if you were sick, and my presence annoyed you...
+
+"But it will not annoy me! You were most kind to say that you would
+come. I do, of all things, beg, pray, entreat, implore, command that you
+will come."
+
+My lord filled himself a glass, and sipped it. Most utterly unconscious
+did his lordship look. This, then, was the meaning of the previous
+comedy.
+
+"Anything which can give my aunt pleasure, I am sure, will delight me,"
+said Maria, trying to look as happy as possible.
+
+"You must come and stay with me, my dear, and I promise to be good and
+good-humoured. My dear lord, you will spare your sister to me?"
+
+"Lady Maria Esmond is quite of age to judge for herself about such a
+matter," said his lordship, with a bow. "If any of us can be of use
+to you, madam, you sure ought to command us." Which sentence, being
+interpreted, no doubt meant, "Plague take the old woman! She is taking
+Maria away in order to separate her from this young Virginian."
+
+"Oh, Tunbridge will be delightful!" sighed Lady Maria.
+
+"Mr. Sampson will go and see Goody Jones for you," my lord continued.
+
+Harry drew pictures with his finger on the table. What delights had
+he not been speculating on? What walks, what rides, what interminable
+conversations, what delicious shrubberies and sweet sequestered
+summer-houses, what poring over music-books, what moonlight, what
+billing and cooing, had he not imagined! Yes, the day was coming. They
+were all departing--my Lady Castlewood to her friends, Madame
+Bernstein to her waters--and he was to be left alone with his divine
+charmer--alone with her and unutterable rapture! The thought of the
+pleasure was maddening. That these people were all going away. That he
+was to be left to enjoy that heaven--to sit at the feet of that angel
+and kiss the hem of that white robe. O Gods! 'twas too great bliss to
+be real! "I knew it couldn't be," thought poor Harry. "I knew something
+would happen to take her from me."
+
+"But you will ride with us to Tunbridge, nephew Warrington, and keep us
+from the highwaymen?" said Madame de Bernstein.
+
+Harry Warrington hoped the company did not see how red he grew. He tried
+to keep his voice calm and without tremor. Yes, he would ride with their
+ladyships, and he was sure they need fear no danger. Danger! Harry
+felt he would rather like danger than not. He would slay ten thousand
+highwaymen if they approached his mistress's coach. At least, he would
+ride by that coach, and now and again see her eyes at the window. He
+might not speak to her, but he should be near her. He should press the
+blessed hand at the inn at night, and feel it reposing on his as he led
+her to the carriage at morning. They would be two whole days going
+to Tunbridge, and one day or two he might stay there. Is not the poor
+wretch who is left for execution at Newgate thankful for even two or
+three days of respite?
+
+You see, we have only indicated, we have not chosen to describe,
+at length, Mr. Harry Warrington's condition, or that utter depth of
+imbecility into which the poor young wretch was now plunged. Some boys
+have the complaint of love favourably and gently. Others, when they get
+the fever, are sick unto death with it; or, recovering, carry the marks
+of the malady down with them to the grave, or to remotest old age.
+I say, it is not fair to take down a young fellow's words when he is
+raging in that delirium. Suppose he is in love with a woman twice as old
+as himself; have we not all read of the young gentleman who committed
+suicide in consequence of his fatal passion for Mademoiselle Ninon de
+l'Enclos who turned out to be his grandmother? Suppose thou art making
+an ass of thyself, young Harry Warrington, of Virginia! are there not
+people in England who heehaw too? Kick and abuse him, you who have never
+brayed; but bear with him, all honest fellow-cardophagi: long-eared
+messmates, recognise a brother-donkey!
+
+"You will stay with us for a day or two at the Wells," Madame Bernstein
+continued. "You will see us put into our lodgings. Then you can return
+to Castlewood and the partridge-shooting, and all the fine things which
+you and my lord are to study together."
+
+Harry bowed an acquiescence. A whole week of heaven! Life was not
+altogether a blank, then.
+
+"And as there is sure to be plenty of company at the Wells, I shall be
+able to present you," the lady graciously added.
+
+"Company! ah! I shan't need company," sighed out Harry. "I mean that I
+shall be quite contented in the company of you two ladies," he added,
+eagerly; and no doubt Mr. Will wondered at his cousin's taste.
+
+As this was to be the last night of cousin Harry's present visit to
+Castlewood, cousin Will suggested that he, and his reverence, and
+Warrington should meet at the quarters of the latter and make up
+accounts, to which process, Harry, being a considerable winner in his
+play transactions with the two gentlemen, had no objection. Accordingly,
+when the ladies retired for the night, and my lord withdrew--as his
+custom was--to his own apartments, the three gentlemen all found
+themselves assembled in Mr. Harry's little room before the punch-bowl,
+which was Will's usual midnight companion.
+
+But Will's method of settling accounts was by producing a couple of
+fresh packs of cards, and offering to submit Harry's debt to the process
+of being doubled or acquitted. The poor chaplain had no more ready cash
+than Lord Castlewood's younger brother. Harry Warrington wanted to win
+the money of neither. Would he give pain to the brother of his adored
+Maria, or allow any one of her near kinsfolk to tax him with any want of
+generosity or forbearance? He was ready to give them their revenge, as
+the gentlemen proposed. Up to midnight he would play with them for what
+stakes they chose to name. And so they set to work, and the dice-box was
+rattled and the cards shuffled and dealt.
+
+Very likely he did not think about the cards at all. Very likely he was
+thinking;--"At this moment, my beloved one is sitting with her beauteous
+golden locks outspread under the fingers of her maid. Happy maid! Now
+she is on her knees, the sainted creature, addressing prayers to that
+Heaven which is the abode of angels like her. Now she has sunk to rest
+behind her damask curtains. Oh, bless, bless her!" "You double us all
+round? I will take a card upon each of my two. Thank you, that will
+do--a ten--now, upon the other, a queen,--two natural vingt-et-uns, and
+as you doubled us you owe me so-and-so."
+
+I imagine volleys of oaths from Mr. William, and brisk pattering of
+imprecations from his reverence, at the young Virginian's luck. He won
+because he did not want to win. Fortune, that notoriously coquettish
+jade, came to him, because he was thinking of another nymph, who
+possibly was as fickle. Will and the chaplain may have played against
+him, solicitous constantly to increase their stakes, and supposing that
+the wealthy Virginian wished to let them recover all their losings. But
+this was by no means Harry Warrington's notion. When he was at home he
+had taken a part in scores of such games as these (whereby we may be led
+to suppose that he kept many little circumstances of his life mum from
+his lady mother), and had learned to play and pay. And as he practised
+fair play towards his friends he expected it from them in return.
+
+"The luck does seem to be with me, cousin," he said, in reply to some
+more oaths and growls of Will, "and I am sure I do not want to press it;
+but you don't suppose I'm going to be such a fool as to fling it away
+altogether? I have quite a heap of your promises on paper by this time.
+If we are to go on playing, let us have the dollars on the table, if you
+please; or, if not the money, the worth of it."
+
+"Always the way with you rich men," grumbled Will. "Never lend except on
+security--always win because you are rich."
+
+"Faith, cousin, you have been of late for ever flinging my riches into
+my face. I have enough for my wants and for my creditors."
+
+"Oh, that we could all say as much!" groaned the chaplain. "How happy
+we, and how happy the duns would be! What have we got to play against
+our conqueror? There is my new gown, Mr. Warrington. Will you set me
+five pieces against it? I have but to preach in stuff if I lose. Stop! I
+have a Chrysostom, a Foxe's Martyrs, a Baker's Chronicle, and a cow and
+her calf. What shall we set against these?"
+
+"I will bet one of cousin Will's notes for twenty pounds," cried Mr.
+Warrington, producing one of those documents.
+
+"Or I have my brown mare, and will back her red against your honour's
+notes of hand, but against ready money."
+
+"I have my horse. I will back my horse against you for fifty," bawls out
+Will.
+
+Harry took the offers of both gentlemen. In the course of ten minutes
+the horse and the bay mare had both changed owners. Cousin William swore
+more fiercely than ever. The parson dashed his wig to the ground,
+and emulated his pupil in the loudness of his objurgations. Mr. Harry
+Warrington was quite calm, and not the least elated by his triumph.
+They had asked him to play, and he had played. He knew he should win. O
+beloved slumbering angel! he thought, am I not sure of victory when you
+are kind to me? He was looking out from his window towards the casement
+on the opposite side of the court, which he knew to be hers. He had
+forgot about his victims and their groans, and ill-luck, ere they
+crossed the court. Under yonder brilliant flickering star, behind yonder
+casement where the lamp was burning faintly, was his joy, and heart, and
+treasure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. Facilis Descensus
+
+
+Whilst the good old Bishop of Cambray, in his romance lately mentioned,
+described the disconsolate condition of Calypso at the departure of
+Ulysses, I forget whether he mentioned the grief of Calypso's lady's
+maid on taking leave of Odysseus's own gentleman. The menials must have
+wept together in the kitchen precincts whilst the master and mistress
+took a last wild embrace in the drawing-room; they must have hung round
+each other in the fore-cabin, whilst their principals broke their hearts
+in the grand saloon. When the bell rang for the last time, and Ulysses's
+mate bawled, "Now! any one for shore!" Calypso and her female attendant
+must have both walked over the same plank, with beating hearts and
+streaming eyes; both must have waved pocket-handkerchiefs (of far
+different value and texture), as they stood on the quay, to their
+friends on the departing vessel, whilst the people on the land, and the
+crew crowding in the ship's bows, shouted hip, hip, huzzay (or whatever
+may be the equivalent Greek for the salutation) to all engaged on that
+voyage. But the point to be remembered is, that if Calypso ne pouvait
+se consoler, Calypso's maid ne pouvait se consoler non plus. They had to
+walk the same plank of grief, and feel the same pang of separation; on
+their return home, they might not use pocket-handkerchiefs of the same
+texture and value, but the tears, no doubt, were as salt and plentiful
+which one shed in her marble halls, and the other poured forth in the
+servants' ditto.
+
+Not only did Harry Warrington leave Castlewood a victim to love, but
+Gumbo quitted the same premises a prey to the same delightful passion.
+His wit, accomplishments, good-humour, his skill in dancing, cookery,
+and music, had endeared him to the whole female domestic circle. More
+than one of the men might be jealous of him, but the ladies all were
+with him. There was no such objection to the poor black men then in
+England as has obtained since among white-skinned people. Theirs was
+a condition not perhaps of equality, but they had a sufferance and
+a certain grotesque sympathy from all; and from women, no doubt, a
+kindness much more generous. When Ledyard and Parke, in Blackmansland,
+were persecuted by the men, did they not find the black women pitiful
+and kind to them? Women are always kind towards our sex. What (mental)
+negroes do they not cherish? what (moral) hunchbacks do they not adore?
+what lepers, what idiots, what dull drivellers, what misshapen monsters
+(I speak figuratively) do they not fondle and cuddle? Gumbo was treated
+by the women as kindly as many people no better than himself: it was
+only the men in the servants'-hall who rejoiced at the Virginian lad's
+departure. I should like to see him taking leave. I should like to see
+Molly housemaid stealing to the terrace-gardens in the grey dawning to
+cull a wistful posy. I should like to see Betty kitchenmaid cutting off
+a thick lock of her chestnut ringlets which she proposed to exchange for
+a woolly token from young Gumbo's pate. Of course he said he was regum
+progenies, a descendant of Ashantee kings. In Caffraria, Connaught and
+other places now inhabited by hereditary bondsmen, there must have been
+vast numbers of these potent sovereigns in former times, to judge from
+their descendants now extant.
+
+At the morning announced for Madame de Bernstein's departure, all the
+numerous domestics of Castlewood crowded about the doors and passages,
+some to have a last glimpse of her ladyship's men and the fascinating
+Gumbo, some to take leave of her ladyship's maid, all to waylay the
+Baroness and her nephew for parting fees, which it was the custom of
+that day largely to distribute among household servants. One and the
+other gave liberal gratuities to the liveried society, to the gentlemen
+in black and ruffles, and to the swarm of female attendants. Castlewood
+was the home of the Baroness's youth; and as for her honest Harry, who
+had not only lived at free charges in the house, but had won horses and
+money--or promises of money--from his cousin and the unlucky chaplain,
+he was naturally of a generous turn, and felt that at this moment he
+ought not to stint his benevolent disposition. "My mother, I know," he
+thought, "will wish me to be liberal to all the retainers of the Esmond
+family." So he scattered about his gold pieces to right and left, and
+as if he had been as rich as Gumbo announced him to be. There was no one
+who came near him but had a share in his bounty. From the major-domo to
+the shoeblack, Mr. Harry had a peace-offering for them all. To the grim
+housekeeper in her still-room, to the feeble old porter in his lodge,
+he distributed some token of his remembrance. When a man is in love with
+one woman in a family, it is astonishing how fond he becomes of every
+person connected with it. He ingratiates himself with the maids; he is
+bland with the butler; he interests himself about the footman; he runs
+on errands for the daughters; he gives advice and lends money to the
+young son at college; he pats little dogs which he would kick otherwise;
+he smiles at old stories which would make him break out in yawns, were
+they uttered by any one but papa; he drinks sweet port wine for which he
+would curse the steward and the whole committee of a club; he bears even
+with the cantankerous old maiden aunt; he beats time when darling little
+Fanny performs her piece on the piano; and smiles when wicked, lively
+little Bobby upsets the coffee over his shirt.
+
+Harry Warrington, in his way, and according to the customs of that age,
+had for a brief time past (by which I conclude that only for a brief
+time had his love been declared and accepted) given to the Castlewood
+family all these artless testimonies of his affection for one of them.
+Cousin Will should have won back his money and welcome, or have won
+as much of Harry's own as the lad could spare. Nevertheless, the lad,
+though a lover, was shrewd, keen, and fond of sport and fair play, and a
+judge of a good horse when he saw one. Having played for and won all the
+money which Will had, besides a great number of Mr. Esmond's valuable
+autographs, Harry was very well pleased to win Will's brown horse--that
+very quadruped which had nearly pushed him into the water on the
+first evening of his arrival at Castlewood. He had seen the horse's
+performance often, and in the midst of all his passion and romance, was
+not sorry to be possessed of such a sound, swift, well-bred hunter and
+roadster. When he had gazed at the stars sufficiently as they shone over
+his mistress's window, and put her candle to bed, he repaired to his own
+dormitory, and there, no doubt, thought of his Maria and his horse with
+youthful satisfaction, and how sweet it would be to have one pillioned
+on the other, and to make the tour of all the island on such an
+animal with such a pair of white arms round his waist. He fell asleep
+ruminating on these things, and meditating a million of blessings on his
+Maria, in whose company he was to luxuriate at least for a week more.
+
+In the early morning poor Chaplain Sampson sent over his little black
+mare by the hands of his groom, footman, and gardener, who wept and
+bestowed a great number of kisses on the beast's white nose as he
+handed him over to Gumbo. Gumbo and his master were both affected by the
+fellow's sensibility; the negro servant showing his sympathy by weeping,
+and Harry by producing a couple of guineas, with which he astonished and
+speedily comforted the chaplain's boy. Then Gumbo and the late groom led
+the beast away to the stable, having commands to bring him round with
+Mr. William's horse after breakfast, at the hour when Madam Bernstein's
+carriages were ordered.
+
+So courteous was he to his aunt, or so grateful for her departure, that
+the master of the house even made his appearance at the morning meal,
+in order to take leave of his guests. The ladies and the chaplain were
+present--the only member of the family absent was Will: who, however,
+left a note for his cousin, in which Will stated, in exceedingly
+bad spelling, that he was obliged to go away to Salisbury Races that
+morning, but that he had left the horse which his cousin won last night,
+and which Tom, Mr. Will's groom, would hand over to Mr. Warrington's
+servant. Will's absence did not prevent the rest of the party from
+drinking a dish of tea amicably, and in due time the carriages rolled
+into the courtyard, the servants packed them with the Baroness's
+multiplied luggage, and the moment of departure arrived.
+
+A large open landau contained the stout Baroness and her niece; a
+couple of men-servants mounting on the box before them with pistols and
+blunderbusses ready in event of a meeting with highwaymen. In another
+carriage were their ladyships' maids, and another servant in guard
+of the trunks, which, vast and numerous as they were, were as nothing
+compared to the enormous baggage-train accompanying a lady of the
+present time. Mr. Warrington's modest valises were placed in this second
+carriage under the maid's guardianship, and Mr. Gumbo proposed to ride
+by the window for the chief part of the journey.
+
+My lord, with his stepmother and Lady Fanny, accompanied their kinswoman
+to the carriage steps, and bade her farewell with many dutiful embraces.
+Her Lady Maria followed in a riding-dress, which Harry Warrington
+thought the most becoming costume in the world. A host of servants stood
+around, and begged Heaven bless her ladyship. The Baroness's departure
+was known in the village, and scores of the folks there stood waiting
+under the trees outside the gates, and huzzayed and waved their hats as
+the ponderous vehicles rolled away.
+
+Gumbo was gone for Mr. Warrington's horses, as my lord, with his arm
+under his young guest's, paced up and down the court. "I hear you carry
+away some of our horses out of Castlewood?" my lord said.
+
+Harry blushed. "A gentleman cannot refuse a fair game at the cards," he
+said. "I never wanted to play, nor would have played for money had not
+my cousin William forced me. As for the chaplain, it went to my heart to
+win from him, but he was as eager as my cousin."
+
+"I know--I know! There is no blame to you, my boy. At Rome you can't
+help doing as Rome does; and I am very glad that you have been able to
+give Will a lesson. He is mad about play--would gamble his coat off his
+back--and I and the family have had to pay his debts ever so many times.
+May I ask how much you have won of him?"
+
+"Well, some eighteen pieces the first day or two, and his note for a
+hundred and twenty more, and the brown horse, sixty--that makes nigh
+upon two hundred. But, you know, cousin, all was fair, and it was even
+against my will that we played at all. Will ain't a match for me, my
+lord--that is the fact. Indeed he is not."
+
+"He is a match for most people, though," said my lord. "His brown horse,
+I think you said?"
+
+"Yes. His brown horse--Prince William, out of Constitution. You don't
+suppose I would set him sixty against his bay, my lord?"
+
+"Oh, I didn't know. I saw Will riding out this morning; most likely I
+did not remark what horse he was on. And you won the black mare from the
+parson?"
+
+"For fourteen. He will mount Gumbo very well. Why does not the rascal
+come round with the horses?" Harry's mind was away to lovely Maria. He
+longed to be trotting by her side.
+
+"When you get to Tunbridge, cousin Harry, you must be on the look-out
+against sharper players than the chaplain and Will. There is all sorts
+of queer company at the Wells."
+
+"A Virginian learns pretty well to take care of himself, my lord, says
+Harry, with a knowing nod.
+
+"So it seems! I recommend my sister to thee, Harry. Although she is not
+a baby in years, she is as innocent as one. Thou wilt see that she comes
+to no mischief?"
+
+"I will guard her with my life, my lord!" cries Harry.
+
+"Thou art a brave fellow. By the way, cousin, unless you are very fond
+of Castlewood, I would in your case not be in a great hurry to return to
+this lonely, tumble-down old house. I want myself to go to another place
+I have, and shall scarce be back here till the partridge-shooting. Go
+you and take charge of the women, of my sister and the Baroness, will
+you?"
+
+"Indeed I will," said Harry, his heart beating with happiness at the
+thought.
+
+"And I will write thee word when you shall bring my sister back to me.
+Here come the horses. Have you bid adieu to the Countess and Lady Fanny?
+They are kissing their hands to you from the music-room balcony."
+
+Harry ran up to bid these ladies a farewell. He made that ceremony very
+brief, for he was anxious to be off to the charmer of his heart; and
+came downstairs to mount his newly-gotten steed, which Gumbo, himself
+astride on the parson's black mare, held by the rein.
+
+There was Gumbo on the black mare, indeed, and holding another horse.
+But it was a bay horse, not a brown--a bay horse with broken knees--an
+aged, worn-out quadruped.
+
+"What is this?" cries Harry.
+
+"Your honour's new horse," says the groom, touching his cap.
+
+"This brute?" exclaims the young gentleman, with one or more of those
+expressions then in use in England and Virginia. "Go and bring me round
+Prince William, Mr. William's horse, the brown horse."
+
+"Mr. William have rode Prince William this morning away to Salisbury
+Races. His last words was, 'Sam, saddle my bay horse, Cato, for Mr.
+Warrington this morning. He is Mr. Warrington's horse now. I sold him to
+him last night.' And I know your honour is bountiful: you will consider
+the groom."
+
+My lord could not help breaking into a laugh at these words of Sam the
+groom, whilst Harry, for his part, indulged in a number more of those
+remarks which politeness does not admit of our inserting here.
+
+"Mr. William said he never could think of parting with the Prince under
+a hundred and twenty," said the groom, looking at the young man.
+
+Lord Castlewood only laughed the more. "Will has been too much for thee,
+Harry Warrington."
+
+"Too much for me, my lord! So may a fellow with loaded dice throw sixes,
+and be too much for me. I do not call this betting, I call it ch----"
+
+"Mr. Warrington! Spare me bad words about my brother, if you please.
+Depend on it, I will take care that you are righted. Farewell. Ride
+quickly, or your coaches will be at Farnham before you;" and waving him
+an adieu, my lord entered into the house, whilst Harry and his companion
+rode out of the courtyard. The young Virginian was much too eager to
+rejoin the carriages and his charmer, to remark the unutterable love and
+affection which Gumbo shot from his fine eyes towards a young creature
+in the porter's lodge.
+
+When the youth was gone, the chaplain and my lord sate down to finish
+their breakfast in peace and comfort. The two ladies did not return to
+this meal.
+
+"That was one of Will's confounded rascally tricks," says my lord. "If
+our cousin breaks Will's head I should not wonder."
+
+"He is used to the operation, my lord, and yet," adds the chaplain, with
+a grin, "when we were playing last night, the colour of the horse was
+not mentioned. I could not escape, having but one: and the black boy
+has ridden off on him. The young Virginian plays like a man, to do him
+justice."
+
+"He wins because he does not care about losing. I think there can be
+little doubt but that he is very well to do. His mother's law-agents are
+my lawyers, and they write that the property is quite a principality,
+and grows richer every year."
+
+"If it were a kingdom I know whom Mr. Warrington would make queen of
+it," said the obsequious chaplain.
+
+"Who can account for taste, parson?" asks his lordship, with a sneer.
+"All men are so. The first woman I was in love with myself was forty;
+and as jealous as if she had been fifteen. It runs in the family.
+Colonel Esmond (he in scarlet and the breastplate yonder) married my
+grandmother, who was almost old enough to be his. If this lad chooses to
+take out an elderly princess to Virginia, we must not balk him."
+
+"'Twere a consummation devoutly to be wished!" cries the chaplain. "Had
+I not best go to Tunbridge Wells myself, my lord, and be on the spot,
+and ready to exercise my sacred function in behalf of the young couple?"
+
+"You shall have a pair of new nags, parson, if you do," said my lord.
+And with this we leave them peaceable over a pipe of tobacco after
+breakfast.
+
+Harry was in such a haste to join the carriages that he almost forgot
+to take off his hat, and acknowledge the cheers of the Castlewood
+villagers: they all liked the lad, whose frank cordial ways and honest
+face got him a welcome in most places. Legends were still extant in
+Castlewood, of his grandparents, and how his grandfather, Colonel
+Esmond, might have been Lord Castlewood, but would not. Old Lockwood at
+the gate often told of the Colonel's gallantry in Queen Anne's wars.
+His feats were exaggerated, the behaviour of the present family was
+contrasted with that of the old lord and lady: who might not have been
+very popular in their time, but were better folks than those now in
+possession. Lord Castlewood was a hard landlord: perhaps more disliked
+because he was known to be poor and embarrassed than because he was
+severe. As for Mr. Will, nobody was fond of him. The young gentleman had
+had many brawls and quarrels about the village, had received and given
+broken heads, had bills in the neighbouring towns which he could not or
+would not pay; had been arraigned before the magistrates for tampering
+with village girls, and waylaid and cudgelled by injured husbands,
+fathers, sweethearts. A hundred years ago his character and actions
+might have been described at length by the painter of manners; but the
+Comic Muse, nowadays, does not lift up Molly Seagrim's curtain; she only
+indicates the presence of some one behind it, and passes on primly, with
+expressions of horror, and a fan before her eyes. The village had
+heard how the young Virginian squire had beaten Mr. Will at riding, at
+jumping, at shooting, and finally at card-playing, for everything is
+known; and they respected Harry all the more for this superiority. Above
+all, they admired him on account of the reputation of enormous wealth
+which Gumbo had made for his master. This fame had travelled over the
+whole county, and was preceding him at this moment on the boxes of
+Madame Bernstein's carriages, from which the valets, as they descended
+at the inns to bait, spread astounding reports of the young Virginian's
+rank and splendour. He was a prince in his own country. He had gold
+mines, diamond mines, furs, tobaccos, who knew what, or how much?
+No wonder the honest Britons cheered him and respected him for his
+prosperity, as the noble-hearted fellows always do. I am surprised city
+corporations did not address him, and offer gold boxes with the freedom
+of the city--he was so rich. Ah, a proud thing it is to be a Briton, and
+think that there is no country where prosperity is so much respected as
+in ours; and where success receives such constant affecting testimonials
+of loyalty!
+
+So, leaving the villagers bawling, and their hats tossing in the air,
+Harry spurred his sorry beast, and galloped, with Gumbo behind him,
+until he came up with the cloud of dust in the midst of which his
+charmer's chariot was enveloped. Penetrating into this cloud, he found
+himself at the window of the carriage. The Lady Maria had the back seat
+to herself; by keeping a little behind the wheels, he could have the
+delight of seeing her divine eyes and smiles. She held a finger to her
+lip. Madame Bernstein was already dozing on her cushions. Harry did not
+care to disturb the old lady. To look at his cousin was bliss enough for
+him. The landscape around him might be beautiful, but what did he heed
+it? All the skies and trees of summer were as nothing compared to
+yonder face; the hedgerow birds sang no such sweet music as her sweet
+monosyllables.
+
+The Baroness's fat horses were accustomed to short journeys, easy paces,
+and plenty of feeding; so that, ill as Harry Warrington was mounted, he
+could, without much difficulty, keep pace with his elderly kinswoman. At
+two o'clock they baited for a couple of hours for dinner. Mr. Warrington
+paid the landlord generously. What price could be too great for the
+pleasure which he enjoyed in being near his adored Maria, and having the
+blissful chance of a conversation with her, scarce interrupted by the
+soft breathing of Madame de Bernstein, who, after a comfortable meal,
+indulged in an agreeable half-hour's slumber? In voices soft and low,
+Maria and her young gentleman talked over and over again those delicious
+nonsenses which people in Harry's condition never tire of hearing and
+uttering.
+
+They were going to a crowded watering-place, where all sorts of beauty
+and fashion would be assembled; timid Maria was certain that amongst the
+young beauties, Harry would discover some, whose charms were far more
+worthy to occupy his attention, than any her homely face and figure
+could boast of. By all the gods, Harry vowed that Venus herself could
+not tempt him from her side. It was he who for his part had occasion to
+fear. When the young men of fashion beheld his peerless Maria they would
+crowd round her car; they would cause her to forget the rough and humble
+American lad who knew nothing of fashion or wit, who had only a faithful
+heart at her service.
+
+Maria smiles, she casts her eyes to heaven, she vows that Harry knows
+nothing of the truth and fidelity of women; it is his sex, on the
+contrary, which proverbially is faithless, and which delights to play
+with poor female hearts. A scuffle ensues; a clatter is heard among the
+knives and forks of the dessert; a glass tumbles over and breaks. An
+"Oh!" escapes from the innocent lips of Maria, The disturbance has
+been caused by the broad cuff of Mr. Warrington's coat, which has been
+stretched across the table to seize Lady Maria's hand, and has upset the
+wine-glass in so doing. Surely nothing could be more natural, or indeed
+necessary, than that Harry, upon hearing his sex's honour impeached,
+should seize upon his fair accuser's hand, and vow eternal fidelity upon
+those charming fingers?
+
+What a part they play, or used to play, in love-making, those hands! How
+quaintly they are squeezed at that period of life! How they are pushed
+into conversation! what absurd vows and protests are palmed off by their
+aid! What good can there be in pulling and pressing a thumb and four
+fingers? I fancy I see Alexis laugh, who is haply reading this page by
+the side of Araminta. To talk about thumbs indeed!... Maria looks round,
+for her part, to see if Madame Bernstein has been awakened by the crash
+of glass; but the old lady slumbers quite calmly in her arm-chair, so
+her niece thinks there can be no harm in yielding to Harry's gentle
+pressure.
+
+The horses are put to: Paradise is over--at least until the next
+occasion. When my landlord enters with the bill, Harry is standing quite
+at a distance from his cousin, looking from the window at the cavalcade
+gathering below. Madame Bernstein wakes up from her slumber, smiling and
+quite unconscious. With what profound care and reverential politeness
+Mr. Warrington hands his aunt to her carriage! how demure and simple
+looks Lady Maria as she follows! Away go the carriages, in the midst
+of a profoundly bowing landlord and waiters; of country-folks gathered
+round the blazing inn-sign; of shopmen gazing from their homely
+little doors; of boys and market-folks under the colonnade of the
+old town-hall; of loungers along the gabled street. "It is the famous
+Baroness Bernstein. That is she, the old lady in the capuchin. It is
+the rich young American who is just come from Virginia, and is worth
+millions and millions. Well, sure, he might have a better horse." The
+cavalcade disappears, and the little town lapses into its usual quiet.
+The landlord goes back to his friends at the club, to tell how the great
+folks are going to sleep at The Bush, at Farnham, to-night.
+
+The inn dinner had been plentiful, and all the three guests of the inn
+had done justice to the good cheer. Harry had the appetite natural to
+his period of life. Maria and her aunt were also not indifferent to
+a good dinner: Madame Bernstein had had a comfortable nap after hers,
+which had no doubt helped her to bear all the good things of the
+meal--the meat pies, and the fruit pies, and the strong ale, and the
+heady port wine. She reclined at ease on her seat of the landau, and
+looked back affably, and smiled at Harry and exchanged a little talk
+with him as he rode by the carriage side. But what ailed the beloved
+being who sate with her back to the horses? Her complexion, which was
+exceedingly fair, was further ornamented with a pair of red cheeks,
+which Harry took to be natural roses. (You see, madam, that your
+surmises regarding the Lady Maria's conduct with her cousin are
+quite wrong and uncharitable, and that the timid lad had made no such
+experiments as you suppose, in order to ascertain whether the roses were
+real or artificial. A kiss, indeed! I blush to think you should imagine
+that the present writer could indicate anything so shocking!) Maria's
+bright red cheeks, I say still, continued to blush as it seemed with
+a strange metallic bloom: but the rest of her face, which had used to
+rival the lily in whiteness, became of a jonquil colour. Her eyes stared
+round with a ghastly expression. Harry was alarmed at the agony depicted
+in the charmer's countenance; which not only exhibited pain, but was
+exceedingly unbecoming. Madame Bernstein also at length remarked
+her niece's indisposition, and asked her if sitting backwards in the
+carriage made her ill, which poor Maria confessed to be the fact. On
+this, the elder lady was forced to make room for her niece on her own
+side, and, in the course of the drive to Farnham, uttered many gruff,
+disagreeable, sarcastic remarks to her fellow-traveller, indicating her
+great displeasure that Maria should be so impertinent as to be ill on
+the first day of a journey.
+
+When they reached the Bush Inn at Farnham, under which name a famous
+inn has stood in Farnham town for these three hundred years--the dear
+invalid retired with her maid to her bedroom: scarcely glancing a
+piteous look at Harry as she retreated, and leaving the lad's mind in a
+strange confusion of dismay and sympathy. Those yellow, yellow cheeks,
+those livid wrinkled eyelids, that ghastly red--how ill his blessed
+Maria looked! And not only how ill, but how--away, horrible thought,
+unmanly suspicion! He tried to shut the idea out from his mind. He had
+little appetite for supper, though the jolly Baroness partook of that
+repast as if she had had no dinner; and certainly as if she had no
+sympathy with her invalid niece.
+
+She sent her major-domo to see if Lady Maria would have anything from
+the table. The servant brought back word that her ladyship was still
+very unwell, and declined any refreshment.
+
+"I hope she intends to be well to-morrow morning," cried Madame
+Bernstein, rapping her little hand on the table. "I hate people to be
+ill in an inn, or on a journey. Will you play piquet with me, Harry?"
+
+Harry was happy to be able to play piquet with his aunt. "That absurd
+Maria!" says Madame Bernstein, drinking from a great glass of negus,
+"she takes liberties with herself. She never had a good constitution.
+She is forty-one years old. All her upper teeth are false, and she can't
+eat with them. Thank Heaven, I have still got every tooth in my head.
+How clumsily you deal, child!"
+
+Deal clumsily indeed! Had a dentist been extracting Harry's own grinders
+at that moment, would he have been expected to mind his cards and deal
+them neatly? When a man is laid on the rack at the Inquisition, is it
+natural that he should smile and speak politely and coherently to the
+grave, quiet Inquisitor? Beyond that little question regarding the
+cards, Harry's Inquisitor did not show the smallest disturbance. Her
+face indicated neither surprise, nor triumph, nor cruelty. Madame
+Bernstein did not give one more stab to her niece that night: but she
+played at cards, and prattled with Harry, indulging in her favourite
+talk about old times, and parting from him with great cordiality and
+good-humour. Very likely he did not heed her stories. Very likely other
+thoughts occupied his mind. Maria is forty-one years old, Maria has
+false ----. Oh, horrible, horrible! Has she a false eye? Has she false
+hair? Has she a wooden leg? I envy not that boy's dreams that night.
+
+Madame Bernstein, in the morning, said she had slept as sound as a top.
+She had no remorse, that was clear. (Some folks are happy and easy in
+mind when their victim is stabbed and done for.) Lady Maria made her
+appearance at the breakfast-table, too. Her ladyship's indisposition was
+fortunately over: her aunt congratulated her affectionately on her good
+looks. She sate down to her breakfast. She looked appealingly in Harry's
+face. He remarked, with his usual brilliancy and originality, that he
+was very glad her ladyship was better. Why, at the tone of his voice,
+did she start, and again gaze at him with frightened eyes? There sate
+the Chief Inquisitor, smiling, perfectly calm, eating ham and muffins.
+O poor writhing, rack-rent victim! O stony Inquisitor! O Baroness
+Bernstein! It was cruel! cruel!
+
+Round about Farnham the hops were gloriously green in the sunshine, and
+the carriages drove through the richest, most beautiful country. Maria
+insisted upon taking her old seat. She thanked her dear aunt. It
+would not in the least incommode her now. She gazed, as she had done
+yesterday, in the face of the young knight riding by the carriage side.
+She looked for those answering signals which used to be lighted up in
+yonder two windows, and told that love was burning within. She smiled
+gently at him, to which token of regard he tried to answer with a sickly
+grin of recognition. Miserable youth! Those were not false teeth he saw
+when she smiled. He thought they were, and they tore and lacerated him.
+
+And so the day sped on--sunshiny and brilliant overhead, but all over
+clouds for Harry and Maria. He saw nothing: he thought of Virginia: he
+remembered how he had been in love with Parson Broadbent's daughter at
+Jamestown, and how quickly that business had ended. He longed vaguely to
+be at home again. A plague on all these cold-hearted English relations!
+Did they not all mean to trick him? Were they not all scheming against
+him? Had not that confounded Will cheated him about the horse?
+
+At this very juncture, Maria gave a scream so loud and shrill that
+Madame Bernstein woke, that the coachman pulled his horses up, and the
+footman beside him sprang down from his box in a panic.
+
+"Let me out! let me out!" screamed Maria. "Let me go to him! let me go
+to him!"
+
+"What is it?" asked the Baroness.
+
+It was that Will's horse had come down on his knees and nose, had sent
+his rider over his head, and Mr. Harry, who ought to have known better,
+was lying on his own face quite motionless.
+
+Gumbo, who had been dallying with the maids of the second carriage,
+clattered up, and mingled his howls with Lady Maria's lamentations.
+Madame Bernstein descended from her landau, and came slowly up,
+trembling a good deal.
+
+"He is dead--he is dead!" sobbed Maria.
+
+"Don't be a goose, Maria!" her aunt said. "Ring at that gate, some one!"
+
+Will's horse had gathered himself up and stood perfectly quiet after his
+feat: but his late rider gave not the slightest sign of life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. Samaritans
+
+
+Lest any tender-hearted reader should be in alarm for Mr. Harry
+Warrington's safety, and fancy that his broken-kneed horse had carried
+him altogether out of this life and history, let us set her mind easy at
+the beginning of this chapter by assuring her that nothing very serious
+has happened. How can we afford to kill off our heroes, when they are
+scarcely out of their teens, and we have not reached the age of manhood
+of the story? We are in mourning already for one of our Virginians, who
+has come to grief in America; surely we cannot kill off the other in
+England? No, no. Heroes are not despatched with such hurry and violence
+unless there is a cogent reason for making away with them. Were a
+gentleman to perish every time a horse came down with him, not only the
+hero, but the author of this chronicle would have gone under ground,
+whereas the former is but sprawling outside it, and will be brought to
+life again as soon as he has been carried into the house where Madame de
+Bernstein's servants have rung the bell.
+
+And to convince you that at least this youngest of the Virginians is
+still alive, here is an authentic copy of a letter from the lady into
+whose house he was taken after his fall from Mr. Will's brute of a
+broken-kneed horse, and in whom he appears to have found a kind friend:
+
+
+ "TO MRS. ESMOND WARRINGTON, OF CASTLEWOOD
+
+ "At her House at Richmond, in Virginia
+
+"If Mrs. Esmond Warrington of Virginia can call to mind twenty-three
+years ago, when Miss Rachel Esmond was at Kensington Boarding School,
+she may perhaps remember Miss Molly Benson, her class-mate, who has
+forgotten all the little quarrels which they used to have together (in
+which Miss Molly was very often in the wrong), and only remembers
+the generous, high-spirited, sprightly, Miss Esmond, the Princess
+Pocahontas, to whom so many of our school-fellows paid court.
+
+"Dear madam! I cannot forget that you were dear Rachel once upon a time,
+as I was your dearest Molly. Though we parted not very good friends when
+you went home to Virginia, yet you know how fond we once were. I
+still, Rachel, have the gold etui your papa gave me when he came to our
+speech-day at Kensington, and we two performed the quarrel of Brutus
+and Cassius out of Shakspeare; and 'twas only yesterday morning I was
+dreaming that we were both called up to say our lesson before the awful
+Miss Hardwood, and that I did not know it, and that as usual Miss Rachel
+Esmond went above me. How well remembered those old days are! How young
+we grow as we think of them! I remember our walks and our exercises,
+our good King and Queen as they walked in Kensington Gardens, and their
+court following them, whilst we of Miss Hardwood's school curtseyed in
+a row. I can tell still what we had for dinner on each day of the week,
+and point to the place where your garden was, which was always so much
+better kept than mine. So was Miss Esmond's chest of drawers a model of
+neatness, whilst mine were in a sad condition. Do you remember how we
+used to tell stories in the dormitory, and Madame Hibou, the French
+governess, would come out of bed and interrupt us with her hooting? Have
+you forgot the poor dancing-master, who told us he had been waylaid by
+assassins, but who was beaten, it appears, by my lord your brother's
+footmen? My dear, your cousin, the Lady Maria Esmond (her papa was, I
+think, but Viscount Castlewood in those times), has just been on a visit
+to this house, where you may be sure I did not recall those sad times to
+her remembrance, about which I am now chattering to Mrs. Esmond.
+
+"Her ladyship has been staying here, and another relative of yours, the
+Baroness of Bernstein, and the two ladies are both gone on to Tunbridge
+Wells; but another and dearer relative still remains in my house, and
+is sound asleep, I trust, in the very next room, and the name of this
+gentleman is Mr. Henry Esmond Warrington. Now, do you understand how you
+come to hear from an old friend? Do not be alarmed, dear madam! I know
+you are thinking at this moment, 'My boy is ill. That is why Miss Molly
+Benson writes to me.' No, my dear; Mr. Warrington was ill yesterday, but
+to-day he is very comfortable; and our doctor, who is no less a person
+than my dear husband, Colonel Lambert, has blooded him, has set his
+shoulder, which was dislocated, and pronounces that in two days more Mr.
+Warrington will be quite ready to take the road.
+
+"I fear I and my girls are sorry that he is so soon to be well.
+Yesterday evening, as we were at tea, there came a great ringing at our
+gate, which disturbed us all, as the bell very seldom sounds in this
+quiet place, unless a passing beggar pulls it for charity; and the
+servants, running out, returned with the news, that a young gentleman,
+who had a fall from his horse, was lying lifeless on the road,
+surrounded by the friends in whose company he was travelling. At this,
+my Colonel (who is sure the most Samaritan of men!) hastens away, to see
+how he can serve the fallen traveller, and presently, with the aid of
+the servants, and followed by two ladies, brings into the house such
+a pale, lifeless, beautiful, young man! Ah, my dear, how I rejoice to
+think that your child has found shelter and succour under my roof! that
+my husband has saved him from pain and fever, and has been the means of
+restoring him to you and health! We shall be friends again now, shall we
+not? I was very ill last year, and 'twas even thought I should die. Do
+you know, that I often thought of you then, and how you had parted from
+me in anger so many years ago? I began then a foolish note to you, which
+I was too sick to finish, to tell you that if I went the way appointed
+for us all, I should wish to leave the world in charity with every
+single being I had known in it.
+
+"Your cousin, the Right Honourable Lady Maria Esmond, showed a great
+deal of maternal tenderness and concern for her young kinsman after his
+accident. I am sure she hath a kind heart. The Baroness de Bernstein,
+who is of an advanced age, could not be expected to feel so keenly as
+we young people; but was, nevertheless, very much moved and interested
+until Mr. Warrington was restored to consciousness, when she said she
+was anxious to get on towards Tunbridge, whither she was bound, and
+was afraid of all things to lie in a place where there was no doctor at
+hand. My Aesculapius laughingly said, he would not offer to attend upon
+a lady of quality, though he would answer for his young patient.
+Indeed, the Colonel, during his campaigns, has had plenty of practice in
+accidents of this nature, and I am certain, were we to call in all
+the faculty for twenty miles round, Mr. Warrington could get no better
+treatment. So, leaving the young gentleman to the care of me and my
+daughters, the Baroness and her ladyship took their leave of us, the
+latter very loth to go. When he is well enough, my Colonel will ride
+with him as far as Westerham, but on his own horses, where an old
+army-comrade of Mr. Lambert's resides. And, as this letter will not take
+the post for Falmouth until, by God's blessing, your son is well and
+perfectly restored, you need be under no sort of alarm for him whilst
+under the roof of, madam, your affectionate, humble servant, MARY
+LAMBERT.
+
+"P.S. Thursday.
+
+"I am glad to hear (Mr. Warrington's coloured gentleman hath informed
+our people of the gratifying circumstance) that Providence hath blessed
+Mrs. Esmond with such vast wealth, and with an heir so likely to do
+credit to it. Our present means are amply sufficient, but will be small
+when divided amongst our survivors. Ah, dear madam! I have heard of
+your calamity of last year. Though the Colonel and I have reared many
+children (five), we have lost two, and a mother's heart can feel for
+yours! I own to you, mine yearned to your boy to-day, when (in a manner
+inexpressibly affecting to me and Mr. Lambert) he mentioned his dear
+brother. 'Tis impossible to see your son, and not to love and regard
+him. I am thankful that it has been our lot to succour him in his
+trouble, and that in receiving the stranger within our gates we should
+be giving hospitality to the son of an old friend."
+
+
+Nature has written a letter of credit upon some men's faces, which is
+honoured almost wherever presented. Harry Warrington's countenance was
+so stamped in his youth. His eyes were so bright, his cheek so red and
+healthy, his look so frank and open, that almost all who beheld him,
+nay, even those who cheated him, trusted him. Nevertheless, as we have
+hinted, the lad was by no means the artless stripling he seemed to be.
+He was knowing enough with all his blushing cheeks; perhaps more wily
+and wary than he grew to be in after-age. Sure, a shrewd and generous
+man (who has led an honest life and has no secret blushes for his
+conscience) grows simpler as he grows older; arrives at his sum of
+right by more rapid processes of calculation; learns to eliminate false
+arguments more readily, and hits the mark of truth with less previous
+trouble of aiming, and disturbance of mind. Or is it only a senile
+delusion, that some of our vanities are cured with our growing years,
+and that we become more just in our perceptions of our own and our
+neighbour's shortcomings? ... I would humbly suggest that young people,
+though they look prettier, have larger eyes, and not near so many
+wrinkles about their eyelids, are often as artful as some of their
+elders. What little monsters of cunning your frank schoolboys are!
+How they cheat mamma! how they hoodwink papa! how they humbug the
+housekeeper! how they cringe to the big boy for whom they fag at school!
+what a long lie and five years' hypocrisy and flattery is their conduct
+towards Dr. Birch! And the little boys' sisters? Are they any better,
+and is it only after they come out in the world that the little darlings
+learn a trick or two?
+
+You may see, by the above letter of Mrs. Lambert, that she, like all
+good women (and, indeed, almost all bad women), was a sentimental
+person; and, as she looked at Harry Warrington laid in her best bed,
+after the Colonel had bled him and clapped in his shoulder, as holding
+by her husband's hand she beheld the lad in a sweet slumber, murmuring a
+faint inarticulate word or two in his sleep, a faint blush quivering on
+his cheek, she owned he was a pretty lad indeed, and confessed with
+a sort of compunction that neither of her two boys--Jack who was
+at Oxford, and Charles who was just gone back to school after the
+Bartlemytide holidays--was half so handsome as the Virginian. What a
+good figure the boy had! and when papa bled him, his arm was as white as
+any lady's!
+
+"Yes, as you say, Jack might have been as handsome but for the
+small-pox: and as for Charley----" "Always took after his papa, my dear
+Molly," said the Colonel, looking at his own honest face in a little
+looking-glass with a cut border and a japanned frame, by which the chief
+guests of the worthy gentleman and lady had surveyed their patches and
+powder, or shaved their hospitable beards.
+
+"Did I say so, my love?" whispered Mrs. Lambert, looking rather scared.
+
+"No; but you thought so, Mrs. Lambert."
+
+"How can you tell one's thoughts so, Martin?" asks the lady.
+
+"Because I am a conjurer, and because you tell them yourself, my dear,"
+answered her husband. "Don't be frightened: he won't wake after that
+draught I gave him. Because you never see a young fellow but you are
+comparing him with your own. Because you never hear of one but you are
+thinking which of our girls he shall fall in love with and marry."
+
+"Don't be foolish, sir," says the lady, putting a hand up to the
+Colonel's lips. They have softly trodden out of their guest's bedchamber
+by this time, and are in the adjoining dressing-closet, a snug little
+wainscoted room looking over gardens, with India curtains, more Japan
+chests and cabinets, a treasure of china, and a most refreshing odour of
+fresh lavender.
+
+"You can't deny it, Mrs. Lambert," the Colonel resumes; "as you were
+looking at the young gentleman just now, you were thinking to yourself
+which of my girls will he marry? Shall it be Theo, or shall it be
+Hester? And then you thought of Lucy who was at boarding-school."
+
+"There is no keeping anything from you, Martin Lambert," sighs the wife.
+
+"There is no keeping it out of your eyes, my dear. What is this burning
+desire all you women have for selling and marrying your daughters? We
+men don't wish to part with 'em. I am sure, for my part, I should not
+like yonder young fellow half as well if I thought he intended to carry
+one of my darlings away with him."
+
+"Sure, Martin, I have been so happy myself," says the fond wife and
+mother, looking at her husband with her very best eyes, "that I must
+wish my girls to do as I have done, and be happy, too!"
+
+"Then you think good husbands are common, Mrs. Lambert, and that you may
+walk any day into the road before the house and find one shot out at the
+gate like a sack of coals?"
+
+"Wasn't it providential, sir, that this young gentleman should be thrown
+over his horse's head at our very gate, and that he should turn out to
+be the son of my old schoolfellow and friend?" asked the wife. "There
+is something more than accident in such cases, depend upon that, Mr.
+Lambert!"
+
+"And this was the stranger you saw in the candle three nights running, I
+suppose?"
+
+"And in the fire, too, sir; twice a coal jumped out close by Theo. You
+may sneer, sir, but these things are not to be despised. Did I not see
+you distinctly coming back from Minorca, and dream of you at the very
+day and hour when you were wounded in Scotland?"
+
+"How many times have you seen me wounded, when I had not a scratch, my
+dear? How many times have you seen me ill when I had no sort of hurt?
+You are always prophesying, and 'twere very hard on you if you were not
+sometimes right. Come! Let us leave our guest asleep comfortably, and go
+down and give the girls their French lesson."
+
+So saying, the honest gentleman put his wife's arm under his, and they
+descended together the broad oak staircase of the comfortable old
+hall, round which hung the effigies of many foregone Lamberts, worthy
+magistrates, soldiers, country gentlemen, as was the Colonel whose
+acquaintance we have just made. The Colonel was a gentleman of pleasant,
+waggish humour. The French lesson which he and his daughters conned
+together was a scene out of Monsieur Moliere's comedy of "Tartuffe,"
+and papa was pleased to be very facetious with Miss Theo, by calling
+her Madam, and by treating her with a great deal of mock respect and
+ceremony. The girls read together with their father a scene or two of
+his favourite author (nor were they less modest in those days, though
+their tongues were a little more free), and papa was particularly arch
+and funny as he read from Orgon's part in that celebrated play:
+
+
+  "ORGON.
+  Or sus, nous voila bien. J'ai, Mariane, en vous
+  Reconnu de tout temps un esprit assez doux,
+  Et de tout temps aussi vous m'avez ete chere.
+
+  MARIANE.
+  Je suis fort redevable a cet amour de pere.
+
+  ORGON.
+  Fort bien. Que dites-vous de Tartuffe notre hote?
+
+  MARIANE.
+  Qui? Moi?
+
+  ORGON.
+  Vous. Voyez bien comme vous repondrez.
+
+  MARIANE.
+  Helas! J'en dirai, moi, tout ce que vous voudrez!
+
+(Mademoiselle Mariane laughs and blushes in spite of herself, whilst
+reading this line.)
+
+  ORGON.
+  C'est parler sagement. Dites-moi donc, ma fille,
+  Qu'en toute sa personne un haut merite brille,
+  Qu'il touche votre coeur, et qu'il vous seroit doux
+  De le voir par men choix devenir votre epoux!"
+
+
+"Have we not read the scene prettily, Elmire?" says the Colonel,
+laughing, and turning round to his wife.
+
+Elmira prodigiously admired Orgon's reading, and so did his daughters,
+and almost everything besides which Mr. Lambert said or did. Canst thou,
+O friendly reader, count upon the fidelity of an artless and tender
+heart or two, and reckon among the blessings which Heaven hath bestowed
+on thee the love of faithful women! Purify thine own heart, and try to
+make it worthy theirs. On thy knees, on thy knees, give thanks for the
+blessing awarded thee! All the prizes of life are nothing compared to
+that one. All the rewards of ambition, wealth, pleasure, only vanity and
+disappointment--grasped at greedily and fought for fiercely, and, over
+and over again, found worthless by the weary winners. But love seems to
+survive life, and to reach beyond it. I think we take it with us past
+the grave. Do we not still give it to those who have left us? May we not
+hope that they feel it for us, and that we shall leave it here in one or
+two fond bosoms, when we also are gone?
+
+And whence, or how, or why, pray, this sermon? You see I know more about
+this Lambert family than you do to whom I am just presenting them:
+as how should you who never heard of them before! You may not like my
+friends; very few people do like strangers to whom they are presented
+with an outrageous flourish of praises on the part of the introducer.
+You say (quite naturally), What? Is this all? Are these the people he
+is so fond of? Why, the girl's not a beauty--the mother is good-natured,
+and may have been good-looking once, but she has no trace of it
+now--and, as for the father, he is quite an ordinary man. Granted but
+don't you acknowledge that the sight of an honest man, with an honest,
+loving wife by his side, and surrounded by loving and obedient children,
+presents something very sweet and affecting to you? If you are made
+acquainted with such a person, and see the eager kindness of the fond
+faces round about him, and that pleasant confidence and affection
+which beams from his own, do you mean to say you are not touched and
+gratified? If you happen to stay in such a man's house, and at morning
+or evening see him and his children and domestics gathered together in a
+certain name, do you not join humbly in the petitions of those servants,
+and close them with a reverent Amen? That first night of his stay at
+Oakhurst, Harry Warrington, who had had a sleeping potion, and was awake
+sometimes rather feverish, thought he heard the Evening Hymn, and that
+his dearest brother George was singing it at home, in which delusion the
+patient went off again to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. In Hospital
+
+
+Sinking into a sweet slumber, and lulled by those harmonious sounds, our
+young patient passed a night of pleasant unconsciousness, and awoke in
+the morning to find a summer sun streaming in at the window, and his
+kind host and hostess smiling at his bed-curtains. He was ravenously
+hungry, and his doctor permitted him straightway to partake of a mess of
+chicken, which the doctor's wife told him had been prepared by the hands
+of one of her daughters.
+
+One of her daughters? A faint image of a young person--of two young
+persons--with red cheeks and black waving locks, smiling round his
+couch, and suddenly departing thence, soon after he had come to
+himself, arose in the young man's mind. Then, then, there returned the
+remembrance of a female--lovely, it is true, but more elderly--certainly
+considerably older--and with f----. Oh, horror and remorse! He writhed
+with anguish, as a certain recollection crossed him. An immense gulf of
+time gaped between him and the past. How long was it since he had heard
+that those pearls were artificial,--that those golden locks were only
+pinchbeck? A long, long time ago, when he was a boy, an innocent boy.
+Now he was a man,--quite an old man. He had been bled copiously; he had
+a little fever; he had had nothing to eat for very many hours; he had a
+sleeping-draught, and a long, deep slumber after.
+
+"What is it, my dear child?" cries kind Mrs. Lambert, as he started.
+
+"Nothing, madam; a twinge in my shoulder," said the lad. "I speak to my
+host and hostess? Sure you have been very kind to me."
+
+"We are old friends, Mr. Warrington. My husband, Colonel Lambert,
+knew your father, and I and your mamma were schoolgirls together at
+Kensington. You were no stranger to us when your aunt and cousin told us
+who you were."
+
+"Are they here?" asked Harry, looking a little blank.
+
+"They must have lain at Tunbridge Wells last night. They sent a horseman
+from Reigate yesterday for news of you."
+
+"Ah! I remember," says Harry, looking at his bandaged arm.
+
+"I have made a good cure of you, Mr. Warrington. And now Mrs. Lambert
+and the cook must take charge of you."
+
+"Nay; Theo prepared the chicken and rice, Mr. Lambert," said the lady.
+"Will Mr. Warrington get up after he has had his breakfast? We will send
+your valet to you."
+
+"If howling proves fidelity, your man must be a most fond, attached
+creature," says Mr. Lambert.
+
+"He let your baggage travel off after all in your aunt's carriage," said
+Mrs. Lambert. "You must wear my husband's linen, which, I dare say, is
+not so fine as yours."
+
+"Pish, my dear! my shirts are good shirts enough for any Christian,"
+cries the Colonel.
+
+"They are Theo's and Hester's work," says mamma. At which her husband
+arches his eyebrows and looks at her. "And Theo hath ripped and sewed
+your sleeve to make it quite comfortable for your shoulder," the lady
+added.
+
+"What beautiful roses!" cries Harry, looking at a fine China vase full
+of them that stood on the toilet-table, under the japan-framed glass.
+
+"My daughter Theo cut them this morning. Well, Mr. Lambert? She did cut
+them!"
+
+I suppose the Colonel was thinking that his wife introduced Theo too
+much into the conversation, and trod on Mrs. Lambert's slipper, or
+pulled her robe, or otherwise nudged her into a sense of propriety.
+
+"And I fancied I heard some one singing the Evening Hymn very sweetly
+last night--or was it only a dream?" asked the young patient.
+
+"Theo again, Mr. Warrington!" said the Colonel, laughing. "My servants
+said your negro man began to sing it in the kitchen as if he was a
+church organ."
+
+"Our people sing it at home, sir. My grandpapa used to love it very
+much. His wife's father was a great friend of good Bishop Ken, who wrote
+it; and--and my dear brother used to love it too;" said the boy, his
+voice dropping.
+
+It was then, I suppose, that Mrs. Lambert felt inclined to give the boy
+a kiss. His little accident, illness and recovery, the kindness of
+the people round about him, had softened Harry Warrington's heart, and
+opened it to better influences than those which had been brought to bear
+on it for some six weeks past. He was breathing a purer air than that
+tainted atmosphere of selfishness, and worldliness, and corruption, into
+which he had been plunged since his arrival in England. Sometimes the
+young man's fate, or choice, or weakness, leads him into the fellowship
+of the giddy and vain; happy he, whose lot makes him acquainted with
+the wiser company, whose lamps are trimmed, and whose pure hearts keep
+modest watch.
+
+The pleased matron left her young patient devouring Miss Theo's mess of
+rice and chicken, and the Colonel seated by the lad's bedside. Gratitude
+to his hospitable entertainers, and contentment after a comfortable
+meal, caused in Mr. Warrington a very pleasant condition of mind and
+body. He was ready to talk now more freely than usually was his custom;
+for, unless excited by a strong interest or emotion, the young man was
+commonly taciturn and cautious in his converse with his fellows, and was
+by no means of an imaginative turn. Of books our youth had been but a
+very remiss student, nor were his remarks on such simple works as he
+had read, very profound or valuable; but regarding dogs, horses, and
+the ordinary business of life, he was a far better critic; and, with any
+person interested in such subjects, conversed on them freely enough.
+
+Harry's host, who had considerable shrewdness, and experience of books,
+and cattle, and men, was pretty soon able to take the measure of his
+young guest in the talk which they now had together. It was now, for the
+first time, the Virginian learned that Mrs. Lambert had been an early
+friend of his mother's, and that the Colonel's own father had served
+with Harry's grandfather, Colonel Esmond, in the famous wars of Queen
+Anne. He found himself in a friend's country. He was soon at ease with
+his honest host, whose manners were quite simple and cordial, and who
+looked and seemed perfectly a gentleman, though he wore a plain fustian
+coat, and a waistcoat without a particle of lace.
+
+"My boys are both away," said Harry's host, "or they would have shown
+you the country when you got up, Mr. Warrington. Now you can only have
+the company of my wife and her daughters. Mrs. Lambert hath told you
+already about one of them, Theo, our eldest, who made your broth, who
+cut your roses, and who mended your coat. She is not such a wonder
+as her mother imagines her to be: but little Theo is a smart little
+housekeeper, and a very good and cheerful lass, though her father says
+it."
+
+"It is very kind of Miss Lambert to take so much care for me," says the
+young patient.
+
+"She is no kinder to you than to any other mortal, and doth but her
+duty." Here the Colonel smiled. "I laugh at their mother for praising
+our children," he said, "and I think I am as foolish about them myself.
+The truth is, God hath given us very good and dutiful children, and I
+see no reason why I should disguise my thankfulness for such a blessing.
+You have never a sister, I think?"
+
+"No, sir, I am alone now," Mr. Warrington said.
+
+"Ay, truly, I ask your pardon for my thoughtlessness. Your man hath told
+our people what befell last year. I served with Braddock in Scotland;
+and hope he mended before he died. A wild fellow, sir, but there was
+a fund of truth about the man, and no little kindness under his rough
+swaggering manner. Your black fellow talks very freely about his master
+and his affairs. I suppose you permit him these freedoms as he rescued
+you----"
+
+"Rescued me?" cries Mr. Warrington.
+
+"From ever so many Indians on that very expedition. My Molly and I did
+not know we were going to entertain so prodigiously wealthy a gentleman.
+He saith that half Virginia belongs to you; but if the whole of North
+America were yours, we could but give you our best."
+
+"Those negro boys, sir, lie like the father of all lies. They think it
+is for our honour to represent us as ten times as rich as we are. My
+mother has what would be a vast estate in England, and is a very good
+one at home. We are as well off as most of our neighbours, sir, but no
+better; and all our splendour is in Mr. Gumbo's foolish imagination. He
+never rescued me from an Indian in his life, and would run away at the
+sight of one, as my poor brother's boy did on that fatal day when he
+fell."
+
+"The bravest man will do so at unlucky times," said the Colonel. "I
+myself saw the best troops in the world run at Preston, before a ragged
+mob of Highland savages."
+
+"That was because the Highlanders fought for a good cause, sir."
+
+"Do you think," asks Harry's host, "that the French Indians had the good
+cause in the fight of last year?"
+
+"The scoundrels! I would have the scalp of every murderous redskin among
+'em!" cried Harry, clenching his fist. "They were robbing and invading
+the British territories, too. But the Highlanders were fighting for
+their king."
+
+"We, on our side, were fighting for our king; and we ended by winning
+the battle," said the Colonel, laughing.
+
+"Ah!" cried Harry; "if his Royal Highness the Prince had not turned back
+at Derby, your king and mine, now, would be his Majesty King James the
+Third!"
+
+"Who made such a Tory of you, Mr. Warrington?" asked Lambert.
+
+"Nay, sir, the Esmonds were always loyal!" answered the youth. "Had we
+lived at home, and twenty years sooner, brother and I often and often
+agreed that our heads would have been in danger. We certainly would have
+staked them for the king's cause."
+
+"Yours is better on your shoulders than on a pole at Temple Bar. I have
+seen them there, and they don't look very pleasant, Mr. Warrington."
+
+"I shall take off my hat, and salute them, whenever I pass the gate,"
+cried the young man, "if the king and the whole court are standing by!"
+
+"I doubt whether your relative, my Lord Castlewood, is as staunch a
+supporter of the king over the water," said Colonel Lambert, smiling:
+"or your aunt, the Baroness of Bernstein, who left you in our charge.
+Whatever her old partialities may have been, she has repented of them;
+she has rallied to our side, landed her nephews in the Household,
+and looks to find a suitable match for her nieces. If you have Tory
+opinions, Mr. Warrington, take an old soldier's advice, and keep them to
+yourself."
+
+"Why, sir, I do not think that you will betray me!" said the boy.
+
+"Not I, but others might. You did not talk in this way at Castlewood? I
+mean the old Castlewood which you have just come from."
+
+"I might be safe amongst my own kinsmen, surely, sir!" cried Harry.
+
+"Doubtless. I would not say no. But a man's own kinsmen can play him
+slippery tricks at times, and he finds himself none the better for
+trusting them. I mean no offence to you or any of your family; but
+lacqueys have ears as well as their masters, and they carry about all
+sorts of stories. For instance, your black fellow is ready to tell all
+he knows about you, and a great deal more besides, as it would appear."
+
+"Hath he told about the broken-kneed horse?" cried out Harry, turning
+very red.
+
+"To say truth, my groom seemed to know something of the story, and said
+it was a shame a gentleman should sell another such a brute; let alone
+a cousin. I am not here to play the Mentor to you, or to carry about
+servants' tittle-tattle. When you have seen more of your cousins, you
+will form your own opinion of them; meanwhile, take an old soldier's
+advice, I say again, and be cautious with whom you deal, and what you
+say."
+
+Very soon after this little colloquy, Mr. Lambert's guest rose, with the
+assistance of Gumbo, his valet, to whom he, for the hundredth time at
+least, promised a sound caning if ever he should hear that Gumbo had
+ventured to talk about his affairs again in the servants'-hall,--which
+prohibition Gumbo solemnly vowed and declared he would for ever obey;
+but I dare say he was chattering the whole of the Castlewood secrets
+to his new friends of Colonel Lambert's kitchen; for Harry's hostess
+certainly heard a number of stories concerning him which she could
+not prevent her housekeeper from telling; though of course I would not
+accuse that worthy lady, or any of her sex or ours, of undue curiosity
+regarding their neighbours' affairs. But how can you prevent servants
+talking, or listening when the faithful attached creatures talk to you?
+
+Mr. Lambert's house stood on the outskirts of the little town of
+Oakhurst, which, if he but travels in the right direction, the patient
+reader will find on the road between Farnham and Reigate,--and Madame
+Bernstein's servants naturally pulled at the first bell at hand, when
+the young Virginian met with his mishap. A few hundred yards farther,
+was the long street of the little old town, where hospitality might have
+been found under the great swinging ensigns of a couple of tuns, and
+medical relief was to be had, as a blazing gilt pestle and mortar
+indicated. But what surgeon could have ministered more cleverly to
+a patient than Harry's host, who tended him without a fee, or what
+Boniface could make him more comfortably welcome?
+
+Two tall gates, each surmounted by a couple of heraldic monsters, led
+from the highroad up to a neat, broad stone terrace, whereon stood
+Oakhurst House; a square brick building, with windows faced with stone,
+and many high chimneys, and a tall roof surmounted by a fair balustrade.
+Behind the house stretched a large garden, where there was plenty of
+room for cabbages as well as roses to grow; and before the mansion,
+separated from it by the highroad, was a field of many acres, where the
+Colonel's cows and horses were at grass. Over the centre window was a
+carved shield supported by the same monsters who pranced or ramped upon
+the entrance-gates; and a coronet over the shield. The fact is, that the
+house had been originally the jointure-house of Oakhurst Castle, which
+stood hard by,--its chimneys and turrets appearing over the surrounding
+woods, now bronzed with the darkest foliage of summer. Mr. Lambert's
+was the greatest house in Oakhurst town; but the Castle was of
+more importance than all the town put together. The Castle and the
+jointure-house had been friends of many years' date. Their fathers had
+fought side by side in Queen Anne's wars. There were two small pieces
+of ordnance on the terrace of the jointure-house, and six before the
+Castle, which had been taken out of the same privateer, which Mr.
+Lambert and his kinsman and commander, Lord Wrotham, had brought into
+Harwich in one of their voyages home from Flanders with despatches from
+the great Duke.
+
+His toilet completed with Mr. Gumbo's aid, his fair hair neatly dressed
+by that artist, and his open ribboned sleeve and wounded shoulder
+supported by a handkerchief which hung from his neck, Harry Warrington
+made his way out of the sick-chamber, preceded by his kind host, who
+led him first down a broad oak stair, round which hung many pikes and
+muskets of ancient shape, and so into a square marble-paved room, from
+which the living-rooms of the house branched off. There were more arms
+in this hall-pikes and halberts of ancient date, pistols and jack-boots
+of more than a century old, that had done service in Cromwell's wars,
+a tattered French guidon which had been borne by a French gendarme at
+Malplaquet, and a pair of cumbrous Highland broadswords, which, having
+been carried as far as Derby, had been flung away on the fatal field of
+Culloden. Here were breastplates and black morions of Oliver's troopers,
+and portraits of stern warriors in buff jerkins and plain bands and
+short hair. "They fought against your grandfathers and King Charles, Mr.
+Warrington," said Harry's host. "I don't hide that. They rode to join
+the Prince of Orange at Exeter. We were Whigs, young gentleman, and
+something more. John Lambert, the Major-General, was a kinsman of our
+house, and we were all more or less partial to short hair and long
+sermons. You do not seem to like either?" Indeed, Harry's face
+manifested signs of anything but pleasure whilst he examined the
+portraits of the Parliamentary heroes. "Be not alarmed, we are very
+good Churchmen now. My eldest son will be in orders ere long. He is now
+travelling as governor to my Lord Wrotham's son in Italy, and as for our
+women, they are all for the Church, and carry me with 'em. Every woman
+is a Tory at heart. Mr. Pope says a rake, but I think t'other is the
+more charitable word. Come, let us go see them," and, flinging open
+the dark oak door, Colonel Lambert led his young guest into the parlour
+where the ladies were assembled.
+
+"Here is Miss Hester," said the Colonel, "and this is Miss Theo, the
+soup-maker, the tailoress, the harpsichord-player, and the songstress,
+who set you to sleep last night. Make a curtsey to the gentleman, young
+ladies! Oh, I forgot, and Theo is the mistress of the roses which you
+admired a short while since in your bedroom. I think she has kept some
+of them in her cheeks."
+
+In fact, Miss Theo was making a profound curtsey and blushing
+most modestly as her papa spoke. I am not going to describe her
+person,--though we shall see a great deal of her in the course of this
+history. She was not a particular beauty. Harry Warrington was not over
+head and ears in love with her at an instant's warning, and faithless
+to--to that other individual with whom, as we have seen, the youth had
+lately been smitten. Miss Theo had kind eyes and a sweet voice; a ruddy
+freckled cheek and a round white neck, on which, out of a little cap
+such as misses wore in those times, fell rich curling clusters of dark
+brown hair. She was not a delicate or sentimental-looking person. Her
+arms, which were worn bare from the elbow like other ladies' arms in
+those days, were very jolly and red. Her feet were not so miraculously
+small but that you could see them without a telescope. There was nothing
+waspish about her waist. This young person was sixteen years of age, and
+looked older. I don't know what call she had to blush so when she made
+her curtsey to the stranger. It was such a deep ceremonial curtsey as
+you never see at present. She and her sister both made these "cheeses"
+in compliment to the new comer, and with much stately agility.
+
+As Miss Theo rose up out of this salute, her papa tapped her under the
+chin (which was of the double sort of chins), and laughingly hummed out
+the line which he had read the day. "Eh bien! que dites-vous, ma fille,
+de notre hote?"
+
+"Nonsense, Mr. Lambert!" cries mamma.
+
+"Nonsense is sometimes the best kind of sense in the world," said
+Colonel Lambert. His guest looked puzzled.
+
+"Are you fond of nonsense?" the Colonel continued to Harry, seeing by
+the boy's face that the latter had no great love or comprehension of his
+favourite humour. "We consume a vast deal of it in this house.
+Rabelais is my favourite reading. My wife is all for Mr. Fielding and
+Theophrastus. I think Theo prefers Tom Brown, and Mrs. Hetty here loves
+Dean Swift."
+
+"Our papa is talking what he loves," says Miss Hetty.
+
+"And what is that, miss?" asks the father of his second daughter.
+
+"Sure, sir, you said yourself it was nonsense," answers the young lady,
+with a saucy toss of her head.
+
+"Which of them do you like best, Mr. Warrington?" asked the honest
+Colonel.
+
+"Which of whom, sir?"
+
+"The Curate of Meudon, or the Dean of St. Patrick's, or honest Tom, or
+Mr. Fielding?"
+
+"And what were they, sir?"
+
+"They! Why, they wrote books."
+
+"Indeed, sir. I never heard of either one of 'em," said Harry, hanging
+down his head. "I fear my book-learning was neglected at home, sir. My
+brother had read every book that ever was wrote, I think. He could have
+talked to you about 'em for hours together."
+
+With this little speech Mrs. Lambert's eyes turned to her daughter, and
+Miss Theo cast hers down and blushed.
+
+"Never mind, honesty is better than books any day, Mr. Warrington!"
+cried the jolly Colonel. "You may go through the world very honourably
+without reading any of the books I have been talking of, and some of
+them might give you more pleasure than profit."
+
+"I know more about horses and dogs than Greek and Latin, sir. We most of
+us do in Virginia," said Mr. Warrington.
+
+"You are like the Persians; you can ride and speak the truth."
+
+"Are the Prussians very good on horseback, sir? I hope I shall see their
+king and a campaign or two, either with 'em or against 'em," remarked
+Colonel Lambert's guest. Why did Miss Theo look at her mother, and why
+did that good woman's face assume a sad expression?
+
+Why? Because young lasses are bred in humdrum country towns, do you
+suppose they never indulge in romances? Because they are modest and have
+never quitted mother's apron, do you suppose they have no thoughts of
+their own? What happens in spite of all those precautions which the
+King and Queen take for their darling princess, those dragons, and
+that impenetrable forest, and that castle of steel? The fairy prince
+penetrates the impenetrable forest, finds the weak point in the dragon's
+scale armour, and gets the better of all the ogres who guard the castle
+of steel. Away goes the princess to him. She knew him at once. Her
+bandboxes and portmanteaux are filled with her best clothes and all her
+jewels. She has been ready ever so long.
+
+That is in fairy tales, you understand--where the blessed hour and youth
+always arrive, the ivory horn is blown at the castle gate; and far off
+in her beauteous bower the princess hears it, and starts up, and knows
+that there is the right champion. He is always ready. Look! how the
+giants' heads tumble off as, falchion in hand, he gallops over the
+bridge on his white charger! How should that virgin, locked up in that
+inaccessible fortress, where she has never seen any man that was not
+eighty, or humpbacked, or her father, know that there were such beings
+in the world as young men? I suppose there's an instinct. I suppose
+there's a season. I never spoke for my part to a fairy princess, or
+heard as much from any unenchanted or enchanting maiden. Ne'er a one
+of them has ever whispered her pretty little secrets to me, or perhaps
+confessed them to herself, her mamma, or her nearest and dearest
+confidante. But they will fall in love. Their little hearts are
+constantly throbbing at the window of expectancy on the lookout for the
+champion. They are always hearing his horn. They are for ever on the
+tower looking out for the hero. Sister Ann, Sister Ann, do you see him?
+Surely 'tis a knight with curling mustachios, a flashing scimitar, and a
+suit of silver armour. Oh no! it is only a costermonger with his donkey
+and a pannier of cabbage! Sister Ann, Sister Ann, what is that cloud of
+dust? Oh, it is only a farmer's man driving a flock of pigs from market.
+Sister Ann, Sister Ann, who is that splendid warrior advancing in
+scarlet and gold? He nears the castle, he clears the drawbridge, he
+lifts the ponderous hammer at the gate. Ah me, he knocks twice! 'Tis
+only the postman with a double letter from Northamptonshire! So it is we
+make false starts in life. I don't believe there is any such thing known
+as first love--not within man's or woman's memory. No male or female
+remembers his or her first inclination any more than his or her own
+christening. What? You fancy that your sweet mistress, your spotless
+spinster, your blank maiden just out of the schoolroom, never cared
+for any but you? And she tells you so? Oh, you idiot! When she was four
+years old she had a tender feeling towards the Buttons who brought the
+coals up to the nursery, or the little sweep at the crossing, or the
+music-master, or never mind whom. She had a secret longing towards
+her brother's schoolfellow, or the third charity boy at church, and
+if occasion had served, the comedy enacted with you had been performed
+along with another. I do not mean to say that she confessed this amatory
+sentiment, but that she had it. Lay down this page, and think how
+many and many and many a time you were in love before you selected the
+present Mrs. Jones as the partner of your name and affections!
+
+So, from the way in which Theo held her head down, and exchanged looks
+with her mother, when poor unconscious Harry called the Persians the
+Prussians, and talked of serving a campaign with them, I make no doubt
+she was feeling ashamed, and thinking within herself, "Is this the hero
+with whom my mamma and I have been in love for these twenty-four hours,
+and whom we have endowed with every perfection? How beautiful, pale, and
+graceful he looked yesterday as he lay on the ground! How his curls fell
+over his face! How sad it was to see his poor white arm, and the blood
+trickling from it when papa bled him! And now he is well and amongst us,
+he is handsome certainly, but oh, is it possible he is--he is stupid?"
+When she lighted the lamp and looked at him, did Psyche find Cupid out;
+and is that the meaning of the old allegory? The wings of love drop
+off at this discovery. The fancy can no more soar and disport in skyey
+regions, the beloved object ceases at once to be celestial, and remains
+plodding on earth, entirely unromantic and substantial.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. Holidays
+
+
+Mrs. Lambert's little day-dream was over. Miss Theo and her mother were
+obliged to confess in their hearts that their hero was but an ordinary
+mortal. They uttered few words on the subject, but each knew the other's
+thoughts as people who love each other do; and mamma, by an extra
+tenderness and special caressing manner towards her daughter, sought to
+console her for her disappointment. "Never mind, my dear"--the maternal
+kiss whispered on the filial cheek--"our hero has turned out to be but
+an ordinary mortal, and none such is good enough for my Theo. Thou shalt
+have a real husband ere long, if there be one in England. Why, I was
+scarce fifteen when your father saw me at the Bury Assembly, and while I
+was yet at school, I used to vow that I never would have any other
+man. If Heaven gave me such a husband--the best man in the whole
+kingdom--sure it will bless my child equally, who deserves a king if she
+fancies him!" Indeed, I am not sure that Mrs. Lambert--who, of course,
+knew the age of the Prince of Wales, and was aware how handsome and good
+a young prince he was--did not expect that he too would come riding by
+her gate, and perhaps tumble down from his horse there, and be taken
+into the house, and be cured, and cause his royal grandpapa to give
+Martin Lambert a regiment, and fall in love with Theo.
+
+The Colonel for his part, and his second daughter, Miss Hetty, were on
+the laughing, scornful, unbelieving side. Mamma was always match-making.
+Indeed, Mrs. Lambert was much addicted to novels, and cried her eyes out
+over them with great assiduity. No coach ever passed the gate, but she
+expected a husband for her girls would alight from it and ring the bell.
+As for Miss Hetty, she allowed her tongue to wag in a more than
+usually saucy way: she made a hundred sly allusions to their guest. She
+introduced Prussia and Persia into their conversation with abominable
+pertness and frequency. She asked whether the present King of Prussia
+was called the Shaw or the Sophy, and how far it was from Ispahan to
+Saxony, which his Majesty was at present invading, and about which war
+papa was so busy with his maps and his newspapers? She brought down the
+Persian Tales from her mamma's closet, and laid them slily on the table
+in the parlour where the family sate. She would not marry a Persian
+prince for her part; she would prefer a gentleman who might not have
+more than one wife at a time. She called our young Virginian Theo's
+gentleman, Theo's prince. She asked her mamma if she wished her, Hetty,
+to take the other visitor, the black prince, for herself? Indeed, she
+rallied her sister and her mother unceasingly on their sentimentalities,
+and would never stop until she had made them angry, when she would begin
+to cry herself, and kiss them violently one after the other, and coax
+them back into good-humour. Simple Harry Warrington, meanwhile, knew
+nothing of all the jokes, the tears, quarrels, reconciliations, hymeneal
+plans, and so forth, of which he was the innocent occasion. A hundred
+allusions to the Prussians and Persians were shot at him, and those
+Parthian arrows did not penetrate his hide at all. A Shaw? A Sophy?
+Very likely he thought a Sophy was a lady, and would have deemed it the
+height of absurdity that a man with a great black beard should have
+any such name. We fall into the midst of a quiet family: we drop like a
+stone, say, into a pool,--we are perfectly compact and cool, and little
+know the flutter and excitement we make there, disturbing the fish,
+frightening the ducks, and agitating the whole surface of the water.
+How should Harry know the effect which his sudden appearance produced in
+this little, quiet, sentimental family? He thought quite well enough of
+himself on many points, but was diffident as yet regarding women, being
+of that age when young gentlemen require encouragement and to be brought
+forward, and having been brought up at home in very modest and primitive
+relations towards the other sex. So Miss Hetty's jokes played round the
+lad, and he minded them no more than so many summer gnats. It was not
+that he was stupid, as she certainly thought him: he was simple, too
+much occupied with himself and his own honest affairs to think of
+others. Why, what tragedies, comedies, interludes, intrigues, farces,
+are going on under our noses in friends' drawing-rooms where we visit
+every day, and we remain utterly ignorant, self-satisfied, and blind!
+As these sisters sate and combed their flowing ringlets of nights, or
+talked with each other in the great bed where, according to the fashion
+of the day, they lay together, how should Harry know that he had so
+great a share in their thoughts, jokes, conversation? Three days after
+his arrival, his new and hospitable friends were walking with him in my
+Lord Wrotham's fine park, where they were free to wander; and here, on a
+piece of water, they came to some swans, which the young ladies were
+in the habit of feeding with bread. As the birds approached the young
+women, Hetty said, with a queer look at her mother and sister, and
+then a glance at her father, who stood by, honest, happy, in a red
+waistcoat,--Hetty said: "Mamma's swans are something like these, papa."
+
+"What swans, my dear?" says mamma.
+
+"Something like, but not quite. They have shorter necks than these, and
+are, scores of them, on our common," continues Miss Hetty. "I saw Betty
+plucking one in the kitchen this morning. We shall have it for dinner,
+with apple-sauce and----"
+
+"Don't be a little goose!" says Miss Theo.
+
+"And sage and onions. Do you love swan, Mr. Warrington?"
+
+"I shot three last winter on our river," said the Virginian gentleman.
+"Ours are not such white birds as these--they eat very well, though."
+The simple youth had not the slightest idea that he himself was an
+allegory at that very time, and that Miss Hetty was narrating a fable
+regarding him. In some exceedingly recondite Latin work I have read
+that, long before Virginia was discovered, other folks were equally dull
+of comprehension.
+
+So it was a premature sentiment on the part of Miss Theo--that little
+tender flutter of the bosom which we have acknowledged she felt on first
+beholding the Virginian, so handsome, pale, and bleeding. This was not
+the great passion which she knew her heart could feel. Like the birds,
+it had wakened and begun to sing at a false dawn. Hop back to thy perch,
+and cover thy head with thy wing, thou tremulous little fluttering
+creature! It is not yet light, and roosting is as yet better than
+singing. Anon will come morning, and the whole sky will redden, and you
+shall soar up into it and salute the sun with your music.
+
+One little phrase, some three-and-thirty lines back, perhaps the fair
+and suspicious reader has remarked: "Three days after his arrival, Harry
+was walking with," etc. etc. If he could walk--which it appeared he
+could do perfectly well--what business had he to be walking with anybody
+but Lady Maria Esmond on the Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells? His shoulder
+was set: his health was entirely restored: he had not even a change of
+coats, as we have seen, and was obliged to the Colonel for his raiment.
+Surely a young man in such a condition had no right to be lingering
+on at Oakhurst, and was bound by every tie of duty and convenience,
+by love, by relationship, by a gentle heart waiting for him, by the
+washerwoman finally, to go to Tunbridge. Why did he stay behind, unless
+he was in love with either of the young ladies (and we say he wasn't)?
+Could it be that he did not want to go? Hath the gracious reader
+understood the meaning of the mystic S with which the last chapter
+commences, and in which the designer has feebly endeavoured to depict
+the notorious Sinbad the Sailor, surmounted by that odious old man of
+the sea? What if Harry Warrington should be that sailor, and his fate
+that choking, deadening, inevitable old man? What if for two days past
+he has felt those knees throttling him round the neck? if his fell
+aunt's purpose is answered, and if his late love is killed as dead
+by her poisonous communications as fair Rosamond was by her royal and
+legitimate rival? Is Hero then lighting the lamp up, and getting ready
+the supper, whilst Leander is sitting comfortably with some other party,
+and never in the least thinking of taking to the water? Ever since
+that coward's blow was struck in Lady Maria's back by her own relative,
+surely kind hearts must pity her ladyship. I know she has faults--ay,
+and wears false hair and false never mind what. But a woman in distress,
+shall we not pity her--a lady of a certain age, are we going to laugh at
+her because of her years? Between her old aunt and her unhappy delusion,
+be sure my Lady Maria Esmond is having no very pleasant time of it at
+Tunbridge Wells. There is no one to protect her. Madam Beatrix has her
+all to herself. Lady Maria is poor, and hopes for money from her aunt.
+Lady Maria has a secret or two which the old woman knows, and brandishes
+over her. I for one am quite melted and grow soft-hearted as I think
+of her. Imagine her alone, and a victim to that old woman! Paint to
+yourself that antique Andromeda (if you please we will allow that rich
+flowing head of hair to fall over her shoulders) chained to a rock
+on Mount Ephraim, and given up to that dragon of a Baroness! Succour,
+Perseus! Come quickly with thy winged feet and flashing falchion!
+Perseus is not in the least hurry. The dragon has her will of Andromeda
+for day after day.
+
+Harry Warrington, who would not have allowed his dislocated and mended
+shoulder to keep him from going out hunting, remained day after day
+contentedly at Oakhurst, with each day finding the kindly folks who
+welcomed him more to his liking. Perhaps he had never, since his
+grandfather's death, been in such good company. His lot had lain amongst
+fox-hunting Virginian squires, with whose society he had put up very
+contentedly, riding their horses, living their lives, and sharing their
+punch-bowls. The ladies of his own and mother's acquaintance were
+very well bred, and decorous, and pious, no doubt, but somewhat
+narrow-minded. It was but a little place, his home, with its pompous
+ways, small etiquettes and punctilios, small flatteries, small
+conversations and scandals. Until he had left the place, some time
+after, he did not know how narrow and confined his life had been there.
+He was free enough personally. He had dogs and horses, and might shoot
+and hunt for scores of miles round about: but the little lady-mother
+domineered at home, and when there he had to submit to her influence and
+breathe her air.
+
+Here the lad found himself in the midst of a circle where everything
+about him was incomparably gayer, brighter, and more free. He was living
+with a man and woman who had seen the world, though they lived retired
+from it, who had both of them happened to enjoy from their earliest
+times the use not only of good books, but of good company--those live
+books, which are such pleasant and sometimes such profitable reading.
+Society has this good at least: that it lessens our conceit, by teaching
+us our insignificance, and making us acquainted with our betters. If you
+are a young person who read this, depend upon it, sir or madam, there is
+nothing more wholesome for you than to acknowledge and to associate with
+your superiors. If I could, I would not have my son Thomas first Greek
+and Latin prize boy, first oar, and cock of the school. Better for his
+soul's and body's welfare that he should have a good place, not the
+first--a fair set of competitors round about him, and a good thrashing
+now and then, with a hearty shake afterwards of the hand which
+administered the beating. What honest man that can choose his lot would
+be a prince, let us say, and have all society walking backwards before
+him, only obsequious household-gentlemen to talk to, and all mankind mum
+except when your High Mightiness asks a question and gives permission
+to speak? One of the great benefits which Harry Warrington received from
+this family, before whose gate Fate had shot him, was to begin to learn
+that he was a profoundly ignorant young fellow, and that there were many
+people in the world far better than he knew himself to be. Arrogant
+a little with some folks, in the company of his superiors he was
+magnanimously docile. We have seen how faithfully he admired his brother
+at home, and his friend, the gallant young Colonel of Mount Vernon: of
+the gentlemen, his kinsmen at Castlewood, he had felt himself at least
+the equal. In his new acquaintance at Oakhurst he found a man who had
+read far more books than Harry could pretend to judge of, who had seen
+the world and come unwounded out of it, as he had out of the dangers
+and battles which he had confronted, and who had goodness and honesty
+written on his face and breathing from his lips, for which qualities our
+brave lad had always an instinctive sympathy and predilection.
+
+As for the women, they were the kindest, merriest, most agreeable he had
+as yet known. They were pleasanter than Parson Broadbent's black-eyed
+daughter at home, whose laugh carried as far as a gun. They were quite
+as well-bred as the Castlewood ladies, with the exception of Madam
+Beatrix (who, indeed, was as grand as an empress on some occasions).
+But somehow, after a talk with Madam Beatrix, and vast amusement and
+interest in her stories, the lad would come away as with a bitter taste
+in his mouth, and fancy all the world wicked round about him. They were
+not in the least squeamish; and laughed over pages of Mr. Fielding, and
+cried over volumes of Mr. Richardson, containing jokes and incidents
+which would make Mrs. Grundy's hair stand on end, yet their merry
+prattle left no bitterness behind it: their tales about this neighbour
+and that were droll, not malicious; the curtseys and salutations with
+which the folks of the little neighbouring town received them, how
+kindly and cheerful! their bounties how cordial! Of a truth it is good
+to be with good people. How good Harry Warrington did not know at the
+time, perhaps, or until subsequent experience showed him contrasts, or
+caused him to feel remorse. Here was a tranquil, sunshiny day of a life
+that was to be agitated and stormy--a happy hour or two to remember.
+Not much happened during the happy hour or two. It was only sweet sleep,
+pleasant waking, friendly welcome, serene pastime. The gates of the old
+house seemed to shut the wicked world out somehow, and the inhabitants
+within to be better, and purer, and kinder than other people. He was
+not in love; oh no! not the least, either with saucy Hetty or generous
+Theodosia but when the time came for going away, he fastened on both
+their hands, and felt an immense regard for them. He thought he should
+like to know their brothers, and that they must be fine fellows; and as
+for Mrs. Lambert, I believe she was as sentimental at his departure as
+if he had been the last volume of Clarissa Harlowe.
+
+"He is very kind and honest," said Theo, gravely, as, looking from the
+terrace, they saw him and their father and servants riding away on the
+road to Westerham.
+
+"I don't think him stupid at all now," said little Hetty; "and, mamma, I
+think, he is very like a swan indeed."
+
+"It felt just like one of the boys going to school," said mamma.
+
+"Just like it," said Theo, sadly.
+
+"I am glad he has got papa to ride with him to Westerham," resumed Miss
+Hetty, "and that he bought Farmer Briggs's horse. I don't like his going
+to those Castlewood people. I am sure that Madame Bernstein is a wicked
+old woman. I expected to see her ride away on her crooked stick."
+
+"Hush, Hetty!"
+
+"Do you think she would float if they tried her in the pond, as poor old
+mother Hely did at Elmhurst? The other old woman seemed fond of him--I
+mean the one with the fair tour. She looked very melancholy when she
+went away; but Madame Bernstein whisked her off with her crutch, and she
+was obliged to go. I don't care, Theo. I know she is a wicked woman.
+You think everybody good, you do, because you never do anything wrong
+yourself."
+
+"My Theo is a good girl," says the mother, looking fondly at both her
+daughters.
+
+"Then why do we call her a miserable sinner?"
+
+"We are all so, my love," said mamma.
+
+"What, papa too? You know you don't think so," cries Miss Hester. And to
+allow this was almost more than Mrs. Lambert could afford.
+
+"What was that you told John to give to Mr. Warrington's black man?"
+
+Mamma owned, with some shamefacedness, it was a bottle of her cordial
+water and a cake which she had bid Betty make. "I feel quite like a
+mother to him, my dears, I can't help owning it,--and you know both
+our boys still like one of our cakes to take to school or college with
+them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. From Oakhurst to Tunbridge
+
+
+Having her lily handkerchief in token of adieu to the departing
+travellers, Mrs. Lambert and her girls watched them pacing leisurely on
+the first few hundred yards of their journey, and until such time as a
+tree-clumped corner of the road hid them from the ladies' view. Behind
+that clump of limes the good matron had many a time watched those she
+loved best disappear. Husband departing to battle and danger, sons to
+school, each after the other had gone on his way behind yonder green
+trees, returning as it pleased Heaven's will at his good time, and
+bringing pleasure and love back to the happy little family. Besides
+their own instinctive nature (which to be sure aids wonderfully in the
+matter), the leisure and contemplation attendant upon their home life
+serve to foster the tenderness and fidelity of our women. The men gone,
+there is all day to think about them, and to-morrow and to-morrow--when
+there certainly will be a letter--and so on. There is the vacant room
+to go look at, where the boy slept last night, and the impression of his
+carpet bag is still on the bed. There is his whip hung up in the hall,
+and his fishing-rod and basket--mute memorials of the brief bygone
+pleasures. At dinner there comes up that cherry-tart, half of which
+our darling ate at two o'clock in spite of his melancholy, and with a
+choking little sister on each side of him. The evening prayer is said
+without that young scholar's voice to utter the due responses. Midnight
+and silence come, and the good mother lies wakeful, thinking how one of
+the dear accustomed brood is away from the nest. Morn breaks, home and
+holidays have passed away, and toil and labour have begun for him. So
+those rustling limes formed, as it were, a screen between the world and
+our ladies of the house at Oakhurst. Kind-hearted Mrs. Lambert always
+became silent and thoughtful, if by chance she and her girls walked up
+to the trees in the absence of the men of the family. She said she would
+like to carve their names up on the grey silvered trunks, in the midst
+of true-lovers' knots, as was then the kindly fashion; and Miss Theo,
+who had an exceeding elegant turn that way, made some verses regarding
+the trees, which her delighted parent transmitted to a periodical of
+those days.
+
+"Now we are out of sight of the ladies," says Colonel Lambert, giving a
+parting salute with his hat, as the pair of gentlemen trotted past the
+limes in question. "I know my wife always watches at her window until we
+are round this corner. I hope we shall have you seeing the trees and the
+house again, Mr. Warrington; and the boys being at home, mayhap there
+will be better sport for you."
+
+"I never want to be happier, sir, than I have been," replied Mr.
+Warrington; "and I hope you will let me say, that I feel as if I am
+leaving quite old friends behind me."
+
+"The friend at whose house we shall sup to-night hath a son, who is
+an old friend of our family, too; and my wife, who is an inveterate
+marriage-monger, would have made a match between him and one of my
+girls, but that the Colonel hath chosen to fall in love with somebody
+else."
+
+"Ah!" sighed Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Other folks have done the same thing. There were brave fellows before
+Agamemnon."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir. Is the gentleman's name--Aga----? I did not
+quite gather it," meekly inquired the young traveller.
+
+"No, his name is James Wolfe," cried the Colonel, smiling. "He is a
+young fellow still, or what we call so, being scarce thirty years old.
+He is the youngest lieutenant-colonel in the army, unless, to be sure,
+we except a few scores of our nobility, who take rank before us common
+folk."
+
+"Of course of course!" says the Colonel's young companion with true
+colonial notions of aristocratic precedence.
+
+"And I have seen him commanding captains, and very brave captains, who
+were thirty years his seniors, and who had neither his merit nor his
+good fortune. But, lucky as he hath been, no one envies his superiority,
+for, indeed, most of us acknowledge that he is our superior. He is
+beloved by every man of our old regiment and knows every one of them. He
+is a good scholar as well as a consummate soldier, and a master of many
+languages."
+
+"Ah, sir!" said Harry Warrington, with a sigh of great humility; "I feel
+that I have neglected my own youth sadly; and am come to England but an
+ignoramus. Had my dear brother been alive, he would have represented our
+name and our colony, too, better than I can do. George was a scholar;
+George was a musician; George could talk with the most learned people
+in our country, and I make no doubt would have held his own here. Do you
+know, sir, I am glad to have come home, and to you especially, if but to
+learn how ignorant I am."
+
+"If you know that well, 'tis a great gain already," said the Colonel,
+with a smile.
+
+"At home, especially of late, and since we lost my brother, I used to
+think myself a mighty fine fellow, and have no doubt that the folks
+round about flattered me. I am wiser now,--that is, I hope I am,--though
+perhaps I am wrong, and only bragging again. But you see, sir, the
+gentry in our colony don't know very much, except about dogs and horses,
+and betting and games. I wish I knew more about books, and less about
+them."
+
+"Nay. Dogs and horses are very good books, too, in their way, and we may
+read a deal of truth out of 'em. Some men are not made to be scholars,
+and may be very worthy citizens and gentlemen in spite of their
+ignorance. What call have all of us to be especially learned or wise, or
+to take a first place in the world? His Royal Highness is commander, and
+Martin Lambert is colonel, and Jack Hunt, who rides behind yonder, was a
+private soldier, and is now a very honest, worthy groom. So as we all
+do our best in our station, it matters not much whether that be high
+or low. Nay, how do we know what is high and what is low? and whether
+Jack's currycomb, or my epaulets, or his Royal Highness's baton, may
+not turn out to be pretty equal? When I began life, et militavi non
+sine--never mind what--I dreamed of success and honour; now I think of
+duty, and yonder folks, from whom we parted a few hours ago. Let us trot
+on, else we shall not reach Westerham before nightfall."
+
+At Westerham the two friends were welcomed by their hosts, a stately
+matron, an old soldier, whose recollections and services were of
+five-and-forty years back, and the son of this gentleman and lady, the
+Lieutenant-Colonel of Kingsley's regiment, that was then stationed at
+Maidstone, whence the Colonel had come over on a brief visit to his
+parents. Harry looked with some curiosity at this officer, who, young
+as he was, had seen so much service, and obtained a character so high.
+There was little of the beautiful in his face. He was very lean and very
+pale; his hair was red, his nose and cheek-bones were high; but he had
+a fine courtesy towards his elders, a cordial greeting towards his
+friends, and an animation in conversation which caused those who heard
+him to forget, even to admire, his homely looks.
+
+Mr. Warrington was going to Tunbridge? Their James would bear him
+company, the lady of the house said, and whispered something to Colonel
+Lambert at supper, which occasioned smiles and a knowing wink or two
+from that officer. He called for wine, and toasted "Miss Lowther." "With
+all my heart," cried the enthusiastic Colonel James, and drained his
+glass to the very last drop. Mamma whispered her friend how James and
+the lady were going to make a match, and how she came of the famous
+Lowther family of the North.
+
+"If she was the daughter of King Charlemagne," cries Lambert, "she is
+not too good for James Wolfe, or for his mother's son."
+
+"Mr. Lambert would not say so if he knew her," the young Colonel
+declared.
+
+"Oh, of course, she is the priceless pearl, and you are nothing," cries
+mamma. "No. I am of Colonel Lambert's opinion; and, if she brought all
+Cumberland to you for a jointure, I should say it was my James's due.
+That is the way with 'em, Mr. Warrington. We tend our children through
+fevers, and measles, and whooping-cough, and small-pox; we send them to
+the army and can't sleep at night for thinking; we break our hearts at
+parting with 'em, and have them at home only for a week or two in the
+year, or maybe ten years, and, after all our care, there comes a lass
+with a pair of bright eyes, and away goes our boy, and never cares a fig
+for us afterwards."
+
+"And pray, my dear, how did you come to marry James's papa?" said
+the elder Colonel Wolfe. "And why didn't you stay at home with your
+parents?"
+
+"Because James's papa was gouty, and wanted somebody to take care of
+him, I suppose; not because I liked him a bit," answers the lady: and so
+with much easy talk and kindness the evening passed away.
+
+On the morrow, and with many expressions of kindness and friendship for
+his late guest, Colonel Lambert gave over the young Virginian to Mr.
+Wolfe's charge, and turned his horse's head homewards, while the two
+gentlemen sped towards Tunbridge Wells. Wolfe was in a hurry to reach
+the place, Harry Warrington was, perhaps, not quite so eager: nay, when
+Lambert rode towards his own home, Harry's thoughts followed him with
+a great deal of longing desire to the parlour at Oakhurst, where he
+had spent three days in happy calm. Mr. Wolfe agreed in all Harry's
+enthusiastic praises of Mr. Lambert, and of his wife, and of his
+daughters, and of all that excellent family. "To have such a good name,
+and to live such a life as Colonel Lambert's," said Wolfe, "seem to me
+now the height of human ambition."
+
+"And glory and honour?" asked Warrington, "are those nothing? and would
+you give up the winning of them?"
+
+"They were my dreams once," answered the Colonel, who had now different
+ideas of happiness, "and now my desires are much more tranquil. I have
+followed arms ever since I was fourteen years of age. I have seen almost
+every kind of duty connected with my calling. I know all the garrison
+towns in this country, and have had the honour to serve wherever there
+has been work to be done during the last ten years. I have done pretty
+near the whole of a soldier's duty, except, indeed, the command of
+an army, which can hardly be hoped for by one of my years; and now,
+methinks, I would like quiet, books to read, a wife to love me, and some
+children to dandle on my knee. I have imagined some such Elysium for
+myself, Mr. Warrington. True love is better than glory; and a tranquil
+fireside, with the woman of your heart seated by it, the greatest good
+the gods can send to us."
+
+Harry imagined to himself the picture which his comrade called up. He
+said "Yes," in answer to the other's remark; but, no doubt, did not give
+a very cheerful assent, for his companion observed upon the expression
+of his face.
+
+"You say 'Yes' as if a fireside and a sweetheart were not particularly
+to your taste."
+
+"Why, look you, Colonel, there are other things which a young fellow
+might like to enjoy. You have had sixteen years of the world: and I am
+but a few months away from my mother's apron-strings. When I have seen
+a campaign or two, or six, as you have: when I have distinguished myself
+like Mr. Wolfe, and made the world talk of me, I then may think of
+retiring from it."
+
+To these remarks, Mr. Wolfe, whose heart was full of a very different
+matter, replied by breaking out in a further encomium of the joys of
+marriage; and a special rhapsody upon the beauties and merits of his
+mistress--a theme intensely interesting to himself, though not so,
+possibly, to his hearer, whose views regarding a married life, if
+he permitted himself to entertain any, were somewhat melancholy and
+despondent. A pleasant afternoon brought them to the end of their ride;
+nor did any accident or incident accompany it, save, perhaps, a mistake
+which Harry Warrington made at some few miles' distance from Tunbridge
+Wells, where two horsemen stopped them, whom Harry was for charging,
+pistol in hand, supposing them to be highwaymen. Colonel Wolfe,
+laughing, bade Mr. Warrington reserve his fire, for these folks were
+only innkeepers' agents, and not robbers (except in their calling).
+Gumbo, whose horse ran away with him at this particular juncture, was
+brought back after a great deal of bawling on his master's part, and the
+two gentlemen rode into the little town, alighted at their inn, and then
+separated, each in quest of the ladies whom he had come to visit.
+
+Mr. Warrington found his aunt installed in handsome lodgings, with a
+guard of London lacqueys in her anteroom, and to follow her chair when
+she went abroad. She received him with the utmost kindness. His cousin,
+my Lady Maria, was absent when he arrived: I don't know whether the
+young gentleman was unhappy at not seeing her: or whether he disguised
+his feelings, or whether Madame de Bernstein took any note regarding
+them.
+
+A beau in a rich figured suit, the first specimen of the kind Harry had
+seen, and two dowagers with voluminous hoops and plenty of rouge, were
+on a visit to the Baroness when her nephew made his bow to her. She
+introduced the young man to these personages as her nephew, the young
+Croesus out of Virginia, of whom they had heard. She talked about the
+immensity of his estate, which was as large as Kent; and, as she had
+read, infinitely more fruitful. She mentioned how her half-sister, Madam
+Esmond, was called Princess Pocahontas in her own country. She never
+tired in her praises of mother and son, of their riches and their good
+qualities. The beau shook the young man by the hand, and was delighted
+to have the honour to make his acquaintance. The ladies praised him
+to his aunt so loudly that the modest youth was fain to blush at their
+compliments. They went away to inform the Tunbridge society of the news
+of his arrival. The little place was soon buzzing with accounts of the
+wealth, the good breeding, and the good looks of the Virginian.
+
+"You could not have come at a better moment, my dear," the Baroness said
+to her nephew, as her visitors departed with many curtseys and congees.
+"Those three individuals have the most active tongues in the Wells. They
+will trumpet your good qualities in every company where they go. I have
+introduced you to a hundred people already, and, Heaven help me! have
+told all sorts of fibs about the geography of Virginia in order to
+describe your estate. It is a prodigious large one, but I am afraid I
+have magnified it. I have filled it with all sorts of wonderful animals,
+gold mines, spices; I am not sure I have not said diamonds. As for
+your negroes, I have given your mother armies of them, and, in fact,
+represented her as a sovereign princess reigning over a magnificent
+dominion. So she has a magnificent dominion: I cannot tell to a few
+hundred thousand pounds how much her yearly income is, but I have no
+doubt it is a very great one. And you must prepare, sir, to be treated
+here as the heir-apparent of this royal lady. Do not let your head be
+turned. From this day forth you are going to be flattered as you have
+never been flattered in your life."
+
+"And to what end, ma'am?" asked the young gentleman. "I see no reason
+why I should be reputed so rich, or get so much flattery."
+
+"In the first place, sir, you must not contradict your old aunt, who
+has no desire to be made a fool of before her company. And as for your
+reputation, you must know we found it here almost ready-made on our
+arrival. A London newspaper has somehow heard of you, and come out with
+a story of the immense wealth of a young gentleman from Virginia lately
+landed, and a nephew of my Lord Castlewood. Immensely wealthy you are,
+and can't help yourself. All the world is eager to see you. You shall
+go to church to-morrow morning, and see how the whole congregation will
+turn away from its books and prayers, to worship the golden calf in your
+person. You would not have had me undeceive them, would you, and speak
+ill of my own flesh and blood?"
+
+"But how am I bettered by this reputation for money?" asked Harry.
+
+"You are making your entry into the world, and the gold key will open
+most of its doors to you. To be thought rich is as good as to be rich.
+You need not spend much money. People will say that you hoard it, and
+your reputation for avarice will do you good rather than harm. You'll
+see how the mothers will smile upon you, and the daughters will curtsey!
+Don't look surprised! When I was a young woman myself I did as all
+the rest of the world did, and tried to better myself by more than one
+desperate attempt at a good marriage. Your poor grandmother, who was a
+saint upon earth to be sure, bating a little jealousy, used to scold me,
+and called me worldly. Worldly, my dear! So is the world worldly; and
+we must serve it as it serves us; and give it nothing for nothing. Mr.
+Henry Esmond Warrington--I can't help loving the two first names, sir,
+old woman as I am, and that I tell you--on coming here or to London,
+would have been nobody. Our protection would have helped him but little.
+Our family has little credit, and, entre nous, not much reputation. I
+suppose you know that Castlewood was more than suspected in '45, and
+hath since ruined himself by play?"
+
+Harry had never heard about Lord Castlewood or his reputation.
+
+"He never had much to lose, but he has lost that and more: his wretched
+estate is eaten up with mortgages. He has been at all sorts of schemes
+to raise money:--my dear, he has been so desperate at times, that I did
+not think my diamonds were safe with him; and have travelled to and from
+Castlewood without them. Terrible, isn't it, to speak so of one's own
+nephew? But you are my nephew, too, and not spoiled by the world yet,
+and I wish to warn you of its wickedness. I heard of your play-doings
+with Will and the chaplain, but they could do you no harm,--nay, I am
+told you had the better of them. Had you played with Castlewood, you
+would have had no such luck: and you would have played, had not an old
+aunt of yours warned my Lord Castlewood to keep his hands off you."
+
+"What, ma'am, did you interfere to preserve me?"
+
+"I kept his clutches off from you: be thankful that you are come out of
+that ogre's den with any flesh on your bones! My dear, it has been the
+rage and passion of all our family. My poor silly brother played; both
+his wives played, especially the last one, who has little else to live
+upon now but her nightly assemblies in London, and the money for the
+cards. I would not trust her at Castlewood alone with you: the passion
+is too strong for them, and they would fall upon you, and fleece you;
+and then fall upon each other, and fight for the plunder. But for his
+place about the Court my poor nephew hath nothing, and that is Will's
+fortune, too, sir, and Maria's and her sister's."
+
+"And are they, too, fond of the cards?"
+
+"No; to do poor Molly justice, gaming is not her passion: but when she
+is amongst them in London, little Fanny will bet her eyes out of her
+head. I know what the passion is, sir: do not look so astonished; I have
+had it, as I had the measles when I was a child. I am not cured quite.
+For a poor old woman there is nothing left but that. You will see some
+high play at my card-tables to-night. Hush! my dear. It was that I
+wanted, and without which I moped so at Castlewood! I could not win of
+my nieces or their mother. They would not pay if they lost. 'Tis best to
+warn you, my dear, in time, lest you should be shocked by the discovery.
+I can't live without the cards, there's the truth!"
+
+A few days before, and while staying with his Castlewood relatives,
+Harry, who loved cards, and cock-fighting, and betting, and every
+conceivable sport himself, would have laughed very likely at this
+confession. Amongst that family into whose society he had fallen, many
+things were laughed at, over which some folks looked grave. Faith and
+honour were laughed at; pure lives were disbelieved; selfishness was
+proclaimed as common practice; sacred duties were sneeringly spoken of,
+and vice flippantly condoned. These were no Pharisees: they professed no
+hypocrisy of virtue, they flung no stones at discovered sinners:--they
+smiled, shrugged their shoulders, and passed on. The members of this
+family did not pretend to be a whit better than their neighbours, whom
+they despised heartily; they lived quite familiarly with the folks about
+whom and whose wives they told such wicked, funny stories; they took
+their share of what pleasure or plunder came to hand, and lived from day
+to day till their last day came for them. Of course there are no such
+people now; and human nature is very much changed in the last hundred
+years. At any rate, card-playing is greatly out of mode: about that
+there can be no doubt: and very likely there are not six ladies of
+fashion in London who know the difference between Spadille and Manille.
+
+"How dreadfully dull you must have found those humdrum people at that
+village where we left you--but the savages were very kind to you,
+child!" said Madame de Bernstein, patting the young man's cheek with her
+pretty old hand.
+
+"They were very kind; and it was not at all dull, ma'am, and I think
+they are some of the best people in the world," said Harry, with his
+face flushing up. His aunt's tone jarred upon him. He could not bear
+that any one should speak or think lightly of the new friends whom he
+had found. He did not want them in such company.
+
+The old lady, imperious and prompt to anger, was about to resent the
+check she had received, but a second thought made her pause. "Those two
+girls," she thought, "a sick-bed--an interesting stranger--of course
+he has been falling in love with one of them." Madame Bernstein looked
+round with a mischievous glance at Lady Maria, who entered the room at
+this juncture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. New Acquaintances
+
+
+Cousin Maria made her appearance, attended by a couple of gardener's
+boys bearing baskets of flowers, with which it was proposed to decorate
+Madame de Bernstein's drawing-room against the arrival of her ladyship's
+company. Three footmen in livery, gorgeously laced with worsted, set out
+twice as many card-tables. A major-domo in black and a bag, with fine
+laced ruffles; and looking as if he ought to have a sword by his side,
+followed the lacqueys bearing fasces of wax candles, which he placed
+a pair on each card-table, and in the silver sconces on the wainscoted
+wall that was now gilt with the slanting rays of the sun, as was the
+prospect of the green common beyond, with its rocks and clumps of trees
+and houses twinkling in the sunshine. Groups of many-coloured figures in
+hoops and powder and brocade sauntered over the green, and dappled the
+plain with their shadows. On the other side from the Baroness's windows
+you saw the Pantiles, where a perpetual fair was held, and heard the
+clatter and buzzing of the company. A band of music was here performing
+for the benefit of the visitors to the Wells. Madame Bernstein's chief
+sitting-room might not suit a recluse or a student, but for those who
+liked bustle, gaiety, a bright cross light, and a view of all that was
+going on in the cheery busy place, no lodging could be pleasanter. And
+when the windows were lighted up, the passengers walking below were
+aware that her ladyship was at home and holding a card-assembly, to
+which an introduction was easy enough. By the way, in speaking of the
+past, I think the night-life of society a hundred years since was rather
+a dark life. There was not one wax-candle for ten which we now see in a
+lady's drawing-room: let alone gas and the wondrous new illuminations
+of clubs. Horrible guttering tallow smoked and stunk in passages. The
+candle-snuffer was a notorious officer in the theatre. See Hogarth's
+pictures: how dark they are, and how his feasts are, as it were,
+begrimed with tallow! In "Marriage a la Mode," in Lord Viscount
+Squanderfield's grand saloons, where he and his wife are sitting yawning
+before the horror-stricken steward when their party is over--there are
+but eight candles--one on each card-table, and half a dozen in a brass
+chandelier. If Jack Briefless convoked his friends to oysters and beer
+in his chambers, Pump Court, he would have twice as many. Let us comfort
+ourselves by thinking that Louis Quatorze in all his glory held his
+revels in the dark, and bless Mr. Price and other Luciferous benefactors
+of mankind, for banishing the abominable mutton of our youth.
+
+So Maria with her flowers (herself the fairest flower), popped her
+roses, sweet-williams, and so forth, in vases here and there, and
+adorned the apartment to the best of her art. She lingered fondly over
+this bowl and that dragon jar, casting but sly timid glances the while
+at young cousin Harry, whose own blush would have become any young
+woman, and you might have thought that she possibly intended to outstay
+her aunt; but that Baroness, seated in her arm-chair, her crooked
+tortoiseshell stick in her hand, pointed the servants imperiously to
+their duty; rated one and the other soundly: Tom for having a darn in
+his stocking; John for having greased his locks too profusely out of the
+candle-box; and so forth--keeping a stern domination over them. Another
+remark concerning poor Jeames of a hundred years ago: Jeames slept two
+in a bed, four in a room, and that room a cellar very likely, and he
+washed in a trough such as you would hardly see anywhere in London now
+out of the barracks of her Majesty's Foot Guards.
+
+If Maria hoped a present interview, her fond heart was disappointed.
+"Where are you going to dine, Harry?" asks Madame de Bernstein. "My
+niece Maria and I shall have a chicken in the little parlour--I think
+you should go to the best ordinary. There is one at the White Horse
+at three, we shall hear his bell in a minute or two. And you will
+understand, sir, that you ought not to spare expense, but behave like
+Princess Pocahontas's son. Your trunks have been taken over to the
+lodging I have engaged for you. It is not good for a lad to be always
+hanging about the aprons of two old women. Is it, Maria?"
+
+"No," says her ladyship, dropping her meek eyes; whilst the other lady's
+glared in triumph. I think Andromeda had been a good deal exposed to the
+Dragon in the course of the last five or six days: and if Perseus
+had cut the latter's cruel head off he would have committed not
+unjustifiable monstricide. But he did not bare sword or shield; he only
+looked mechanically at the lacqueys in tawny and blue as they creaked
+about the room.
+
+"And there are good mercers and tailors from London always here to wait
+on the company at the Wells. You had better see them, my dear, for your
+suit is not of the very last fashion--a little lace----"
+
+"I can't go out of mourning, ma'am," said the young man, looking down at
+his sables.
+
+"Ho, sir," cried the lady, rustling up from her chair and rising on her
+cane, "wear black for your brother till you are as old as Methuselah,
+if you like. I am sure I don't want to prevent you. I only want you to
+dress, and to do like other people, and make a figure worthy of your
+name."
+
+"Madam," said Mr. Warrington with great state, "I have not done anything
+to disgrace it that I know."
+
+Why did the old Woman stop and give a little start as if she had been
+struck? Let bygones be bygones. She and the boy had a score of little
+passages of this kind in which swords were crossed and thrusts rapidly
+dealt or parried. She liked Harry none the worse for his courage in
+facing her. "Sure a little finer linen than that shirt you wear will not
+be a disgrace to you, sir," she said, with rather a forced laugh.
+
+Harry bowed and blushed. It was one of the homely gifts of his Oakhurst
+friends. He felt pleased somehow to think he wore it; thought of the
+new friends, so good, so pure, so simple, so kindly, with immense
+tenderness, and felt, while invested in this garment, as if evil could
+not touch him. He said he would go to his lodging, and make a point of
+returning arrayed in the best linen he had.
+
+"Come back here, sir," said Madame Bernstein, "and if our company has
+not arrived, Maria and I will find some ruffles for you!" And herewith,
+under a footman's guidance, the young fellow walked off to his new
+lodgings.
+
+Harry found not only handsome and spacious apartments provided for him,
+but a groom in attendance waiting to be engaged by his honour, and a
+second valet, if he was inclined to hire one to wait upon Mr. Gumbo. Ere
+he had been many minutes in his rooms, emissaries from a London tailor
+and bootmaker waited him with the cards and compliments of their
+employers, Messrs. Regnier and Tull; the best articles in his modest
+wardrobe were laid out by Gumbo, and the finest linen with which
+his thrifty Virginian mother had provided him. Visions of the
+snow-surrounded home in his own country, of the crackling logs and the
+trim quiet ladies working by the fire, rose up before him. For the
+first time a little thought that the homely clothes were not quite smart
+enough, the home-worked linen not so fine as it might be, crossed the
+young man's mind. That he should be ashamed of anything belonging to him
+or to Castlewood! That was strange. The simple folks there were only too
+well satisfied with all things that were done, or said, or produced
+at Castlewood; and Madam Esmond, when she sent her son forth on his
+travels, thought no young nobleman need be better provided. The clothes
+might have fitted better and been of a later fashion, to be sure--but
+still the young fellow presented a comely figure enough when he issued
+from his apartments, his toilet over; and Gumbo calling a chair, marched
+beside it, until they reached the ordinary where the young gentleman was
+to dine.
+
+Here he expected to find the beau whose acquaintance he had made a few
+hours before at his aunt's lodging, and who had indicated to Harry that
+the White Horse was the most modish place for dining at the Wells, and
+he mentioned his friend's name to the host: but the landlord and waiters
+leading him into the room with many smiles and bows assured his honour
+that his honour did not need any other introduction than his own, helped
+him to hang up his coat and sword on a peg, asked him whether he would
+drink Burgundy, Pontac, or champagne to his dinner, and led him to a
+table.
+
+Though the most fashionable ordinary in the village, the White Horse did
+not happen to be crowded on this day. Monsieur Barbeau, the landlord,
+informed Harry that there was a great entertainment at Summer Hill,
+which had taken away most of the company; indeed, when Harry entered
+the room, there were but four other gentlemen in it. Two of these guests
+were drinking wine, and had finished their dinner: the other two were
+young men in the midst of their meal, to whom the landlord, as he
+passed, must have whispered the name of the new-comer, for they looked
+at him with some appearance of interest, and made him a slight bow
+across the table as the smiling host bustled away for Harry's dinner.
+
+Mr. Warrington returned the salute of the two gentlemen, who bade him
+welcome to Tunbridge, and hoped he would like the place upon better
+acquaintance. Then they smiled and exchanged waggish looks with each
+other, of which Harry did not understand the meaning, nor why they cast
+knowing glances at the two other guests over their wine.
+
+One of these persons was in a somewhat tarnished velvet coat with a huge
+queue and bag, and voluminous ruffles and embroidery. The other was a
+little beetle-browed, hook-nosed, high-shouldered gentleman, whom his
+opposite companion addressed as milor, or my lord, in a very high voice.
+My lord, who was sipping the wine before him, barely glanced at the
+new-comer, and then addressed himself to his own companion.
+
+"And so you know the nephew of the old woman--the Croesus who comes to
+arrive?"
+
+"You're thrown out there, Jack!" says one young gentleman to the other.
+
+"Never could manage the lingo," said Jack. The two elders had begun to
+speak in the French language.
+
+"But assuredly, my dear lord!" says the gentleman with the long queue.
+
+"You have shown energy, my dear Baron! He has been here but two hours.
+My people told me of him only as I came to dinner."
+
+"I knew him before!--I have met him often in London with the Baroness
+and my lord, his cousin," said the Baron.
+
+A smoking soup for Harry here came in, borne by the smiling host.
+"Behold, sir! Behold a potage of my fashion!" says my landlord, laying
+down the dish and whispering to Harry the celebrated name of the
+nobleman opposite. Harry thanked Monsieur Barbeau in his own language,
+upon which the foreign gentleman, turning round, grinned most graciously
+at Harry, and said, "Fous bossedez notre langue barfaidement, monsieur."
+Mr. Warrington had never heard the French language pronounced in that
+manner in Canada. He bowed in return to the foreign gentleman.
+
+"Tell me more about the Croesus, my good Baron," continued his lordship,
+speaking rather superciliously to his companion, and taking no notice of
+Harry, which perhaps somewhat nettled the young man.
+
+"What will you, that I tell you, my dear lord? Croesus is a youth like
+other youths; he is tall, like other youths; he is awkward, like other
+youths; he has black hair, as they all have who come from the Indies.
+Lodgings have been taken for him at Mrs. Rose's toy-shop."
+
+"I have lodgings there too," thought Mr. Warrington. "Who is Croesus
+they are talking of? How good the soup is!"
+
+"He travels with a large retinue," the Baron continued, "four servants,
+two postchaises, and a pair of outriders. His chief attendant is a black
+man who saved his life from the savages in America, and who will
+not hear, on any account, of being made free. He persists in wearing
+mourning for his elder brother from whom he inherits his principality."
+
+"Could anything console you for the death of yours, Chevalier?" cried
+out the elder gentleman.
+
+"Milor! his property might," said the Chevalier, "which you know is not
+small."
+
+"Your brother lives on his patrimony--which you have told me is
+immense--you by your industry, my dear Chevalier."
+
+"Milor!" cries the individual addressed as Chevalier.
+
+"By your industry or your esprit,--how much more noble! Shall you be
+at the Baroness's to-night? She ought to be a little of your parents,
+Chevalier?"
+
+"Again I fail to comprehend your lordship," said the other gentleman,
+rather sulkily.
+
+"Why, she is a woman of great wit--she is of noble birth--she has
+undergone strange adventures--she has but little principle (there you
+happily have the advantage of her). But what care we men of the world?
+You intend to go and play with the young Creole, no doubt, and get as
+much money from him as you can. By the way, Baron, suppose he should
+be a guet-apens, that young Creole? Suppose our excellent friend has
+invented him up in London, and brings him down with his character for
+wealth to prey upon the innocent folks here?"
+
+"J'y ai souvent pense, milor," says the little Baron, placing his finger
+to his nose very knowingly, "that Baroness is capable of anything."
+
+"A Baron--a Baroness, que voulez-vous, my friend? I mean the late
+lamented husband. Do you know who he was?"
+
+"Intimately. A more notorious villain never dealt a card. At Venice, at
+Brussels, at Spa, at Vienna--the gaols of every one of which places he
+knew. I knew the man, my lord."
+
+"I thought you would. I saw him at the Hague, where I first had the
+honour of meeting you, and a more disreputable rogue never entered my
+doors. A minister must open them to all sorts of people, Baron,--spies,
+sharpers, ruffians of every sort."
+
+"Parbleu, milor, how you treat them!" says my lord's companion.
+
+"A man of my rank, my friend--of the rank I held then--of course, must
+see all sorts of people--entre autres your acquaintance. What his wife
+could want with such a name as his I can't conceive."
+
+"Apparently, it was better than the lady's own."
+
+"Effectively! So I have heard of my friend Paddy changing clothes with
+the scarecrow. I don't know which name is the most distinguished, that
+of the English bishop or the German baron."
+
+"My lord," cried the other gentleman, rising and laying his hand on
+a large star on his coat, "you forget that I, too, am a Baron and a
+Chevalier of the Holy Roman----"
+
+"--Order of the Spur!--not in the least, my dear knight and baron!
+You will have no more wine? We shall meet at Madame de Bernstein's
+to-night." The knight and baron quitted the table, felt in his
+embroidered pockets, as if for money to give the waiter, who brought him
+his great laced hat, and waving that menial off with a hand surrounded
+by large ruffles and blazing rings, he stalked away from the room.
+
+It was only when the person addressed as my lord had begun to speak of
+the bishop's widow and the German baron's wife that Harry Warrington
+was aware how his aunt and himself had been the subject of the two
+gentlemen's conversation. Ere the conviction had settled itself on his
+mind, one of the speakers had quitted the room, and the other, turning
+to a table at which two gentlemen sate, said, "What a little sharper it
+is! Everything I said about Bernstein relates mutato nomine to him. I
+knew the fellow to be a spy and a rogue. He has changed his religion I
+don't know how many times. I had him turned out of the Hague myself when
+I was ambassador, and I know he was caned in Vienna."
+
+"I wonder my Lord Chesterfield associates with such a villain!" called
+out Harry from his table. The other couple of diners looked at him. To
+his surprise the nobleman so addressed went on talking.
+
+"There cannot be a more fieffe coquin than this Poellnitz. Why, Heaven
+be thanked, he has actually left me my snuff-box! You laugh?--the fellow
+is capable of taking it." And my lord thought it was his own satire at
+which the young men were laughing.
+
+"You are quite right, sir," said one of the two diners, turning to Mr.
+Warrington, "though, saving your presence, I don't know what business it
+is of yours. My lord will play with anybody who will set him. Don't be
+alarmed, he is as deaf as a post, and did not hear a word that you said;
+and that's why my lord will play with anybody who will put a pack of
+cards before him, and that is the reason why he consorts with this
+rogue."
+
+"Faith, I know other noblemen who are not particular as to their
+company," says Mr. Jack.
+
+"Do you mean because I associate with you? I know my company, my good
+friend, and I defy most men to have the better of me."
+
+Not having paid the least attention to Mr. Warrington's angry
+interruption, my lord opposite was talking in his favourite French with
+Monsieur Barbeau, the landlord, and graciously complimenting him on
+his dinner. The host bowed again and again; was enchanted that his
+Excellency was satisfied: had not forgotten the art which he had learned
+when he was a young man in his Excellency's kingdom of Ireland. The
+salmi was to my lord's liking? He had just served a dish to the young
+American seigneur who sate opposite, the gentleman from Virginia.
+
+"To whom?" My lord's pale face became red for a moment, as he asked this
+question, and looked towards Harry Warrington, opposite to him.
+
+"To the young gentleman from Virginia who has just arrived, and who
+perfectly possesses our beautiful language!" says Mr. Barbeau, thinking
+to kill two birds, as it were, with this one stone of a compliment.
+
+"And to whom your lordship will be answerable for language reflecting
+upon my family, and uttered in the presence of these gentlemen,"
+cried out Mr. Warrington, at the top of his voice, determined that his
+opponent should hear.
+
+"You must go and call into his ear, and then he may perchance hear you,"
+said one of the younger guests.
+
+"I will take care that his lordship shall understand my meaning, one way
+or other," Mr. Warrington said, with much dignity; "and will not suffer
+calumnies regarding my relatives to be uttered by him or any other man!"
+
+Whilst Harry was speaking, the little nobleman opposite to him did
+not hear him, but had time sufficient to arrange his own reply. He had
+risen, passing his handkerchief once or twice across his mouth, and
+laying his slim fingers on the table. "Sir," said he, "you will believe,
+on the word of a gentleman, that I had no idea before whom I was
+speaking, and it seems that my acquaintance, Monsieur de Poellnitz, knew
+you no better than myself. Had I known you, believe me that I should
+have been the last man in the world to utter a syllable that should give
+you annoyance; and I tender you my regrets and apologies, before my Lord
+March and Mr. Morris here present."
+
+To these words, Mr. Warrington could only make a bow, and mumble out a
+few words of acknowledgment: which speech having made believe to hear,
+my lord made Harry another very profound bow, and saying he should have
+the honour of waiting upon Mr. Warrington at his lodgings, saluted the
+company, and went away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. In which we are at a very Great Distance from Oakhurst
+
+
+Within the precinct of the White Horse Tavern, and coming up to the
+windows of the eating-room, was a bowling-green, with a table or two,
+where guests might sit and partake of punch or tea. The three gentlemen
+having come to an end of their dinner about the same time, Mr. Morris
+proposed that they should adjourn to the Green, and there drink a cool
+bottle. "Jack Morris would adjourn to the Dust Hole, as a pretext for
+a fresh drink," said my lord. On which Jack said he supposed each
+gentleman had his own favourite way of going to the deuce. His weakness,
+he owned, was a bottle.
+
+"My Lord Chesterfield's deuce is deuce-ace," says my Lord March. "His
+lordship can't keep away from the cards or dice."
+
+"My Lord March has not one devil, but several devils. He loves gambling,
+he loves horse-racing, he loves betting, he loves drinking, he loves
+eating, he loves money, he loves women; and you have fallen into bad
+company, Mr. Warrington, when you lighted upon his lordship. He will
+play you for every acre you have in Virginia."
+
+"With the greatest pleasure in life, Mr. Warrington!" interposes my
+lord.
+
+"And for all your tobacco, and for all your spices, and for all your
+slaves, and for all your oxen and asses, and for everything that is
+yours."
+
+"Shall we begin now? Jack, you are never without a dice-box or a
+bottle-screw. I will set Mr. Warrington for what he likes."
+
+"Unfortunately, my lord, the tobacco, and the slaves, and the asses, and
+the oxen, are not mine, as yet. I am just of age, and my mother, scarce
+twenty years older, has quite as good chance of long life as I have."
+
+"I will bet you that you survive her. I will pay you a sum now against
+four times the sum to be paid at her death. I will set you a fair sum
+over this table against the reversion of your estate in Virginia at the
+old lady's departure. What do you call your place?"
+
+"Castlewood."
+
+"A principality, I hear it is. I will bet that its value has been
+exaggerated ten times at least amongst the quidnuncs here. How came
+you by the name of Castlewood?--you are related to my lord? Oh, stay: I
+know,--my lady, your mother, descends from the real head of the house.
+He took the losing side in '15. I have had the story a dozen times from
+my old Duchess. She knew your grandfather. He was friend of Addison and
+Steele, and Pope and Milton, I dare say, and the bigwigs. It is a pity
+he did not stay at home, and transport the other branch of the family to
+the plantations."
+
+"I have just been staying at Castlewood with my cousin there," remarked
+Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Hm! Did you play with him? He's fond of pasteboard and bones."
+
+"Never, but for sixpences and a pool of commerce with the ladies."
+
+"So much the better for both of you. But you played with Will Esmond if
+he was at home? I will lay ten to one you played with Will Esmond."
+
+Harry blushed, and owned that of an evening his cousin and he had had a
+few games at cards.
+
+"And Tom Sampson, the chaplain," cried Jack Morris, "was he of the
+party? I wager that Tom made a third, and the Lord deliver you from Tom
+and Will Esmond together!"
+
+"Nay; the truth is, I won of both of them," said Mr. Warrington.
+
+"And they paid you? Well, miracles will never cease!"
+
+"I did not say anything about miracles," remarked Mr. Harry, smiling
+over his wine.
+
+"And you don't tell tales out of school--the volto sciolto--hey, Mr.
+Warrington?" says my lord.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said downright Harry, "French is the only language
+besides my own of which I know a little."
+
+"My Lord March has learned Italian at the Opera, and a pretty penny
+his lessons have cost him," remarked Jack Morris. "We must show him the
+Opera--mustn't we, March?"
+
+"Must we, Morris?" said my lord, as if he only half liked the other's
+familiarity.
+
+Both of the two gentlemen were dressed alike, in small scratch-wigs
+without powder, in blue frocks with plate buttons, in buckskins and
+riding-boots, in little hats with a narrow cord of lace, and no outward
+mark of fashion.
+
+"I don't care about the Opera much, my lord," says Harry, warming with
+his wine; "but I should like to go to Newmarket, and long to see a good
+English hunting-field."
+
+"We will show you Newmarket and the hunting-field, sir. Can you ride
+pretty well?"
+
+"I think I can," Harry said; "and I can shoot pretty well, and jump
+some."
+
+"What's your weight? I bet you we weigh even, or I weigh most. I bet you
+Jack Morris beats you at birds or a mark, at five-and-twenty paces. I
+bet you I jump farther than you on flat ground, here on this green."
+
+"I don't know Mr. Morris's shooting--I never saw either gentleman
+before--but I take your bets, my lord, at what you please," cries Harry,
+who by this time was more than warm with Burgundy.
+
+"Ponies on each!" cried my lord.
+
+"Done and done!" cried my lord and Harry together. The young man thought
+it was for the honour of his country not to be ashamed of any bet made
+to him.
+
+"We can try the last bet now, if your feet are pretty steady," said my
+lord, springing up, stretching his arms and limbs, and looking at the
+crisp, dry grass. He drew his boots off, then his coat and waistcoat,
+buckling his belt round his waist, and flinging his clothes down to the
+ground.
+
+Harry had more respect for his garments. It was his best suit. He took
+off the velvet coat and waistcoat, folded them up daintily, and, as the
+two or three tables round were slopped with drink, went to place the
+clothes on a table in the eating-room, of which the windows were open.
+
+Here a new guest had entered; and this was no other than Mr. Wolfe,
+who was soberly eating a chicken and salad, with a modest pint of wine.
+Harry was in high spirits. He told the Colonel he had a bet with my Lord
+March--would Colonel Wolfe stand him halves? The Colonel said he was too
+poor to bet. Would he come out and see fair play? That he would with
+all his heart. Colonel Wolfe set down his glass, and stalked through the
+open window after his young friend.
+
+"Who is that tallow-faced Put with the carroty hair?" says Jack Morris,
+on whom the Burgundy had had its due effect.
+
+Mr. Warrington explained that this was Lieutenant-Colonel Wolfe, of the
+20th Regiment.
+
+"Your humble servant, gentlemen!" says the Colonel, making the company a
+rigid military bow.
+
+"Never saw such a figure in my life!" cries Jack Morris. "Did
+you--March?"
+
+"I beg your pardon, I think you said March?" said the Colonel, looking
+very much surprised.
+
+"I am the Earl of March, sir, at Colonel Wolfe's service," said the
+nobleman, bowing. "My friend, Mr. Morris, is so intimate with me, that,
+after dinner, we are quite like brothers."
+
+Why is not all Tunbridge Wells by to hear this? thought Morris. And he
+was so delighted that he shouted out, "Two to one on my lord!"
+
+"Done!" calls out Mr. Warrington; and the enthusiastic Jack was obliged
+to cry "Done!" too.
+
+"Take him, Colonel," Harry whispers to his friend.
+
+But the Colonel said he could not afford to lose, and therefore could
+not hope to win.
+
+"I see you have won one of our bets already, Mr. Warrington," my Lord
+March remarked. "I am taller than you by an inch or two, but you are
+broader round the shoulders."
+
+"Pooh, my dear Will! I bet you you weigh twice as much as he does!"
+cries Jack Morris.
+
+"Done, Jack!" says my lord, laughing. "The bets are all ponies. Will you
+take him, Mr. Warrington?"
+
+"No, my dear fellow--one's enough," says Jack.
+
+"Very good, my dear fellow," says my lord; "and now we will settle the
+other wager."
+
+Having already arrayed himself in his best silk stockings, black
+satin-net breeches, and neatest pumps, Harry did not care to take off
+his shoes as his antagonist had done, whose heavy riding-boots and spurs
+were, to be sure, little calculated for leaping. They had before them
+a fine even green turf of some thirty yards in length, enough for a run
+and enough for a jump. A gravel walk ran around this green, beyond which
+was a wall and gate-sign--a field azure, bearing the Hanoverian White
+Horse rampant between two skittles proper, and for motto the name of the
+landlord and of the animal depicted.
+
+My lord's friend laid a handkerchief on the ground as the mark whence
+the leapers were to take their jump, and Mr. Wolfe stood at the other
+end of the grass-plat to note the spot where each came down. "My lord
+went first," writes Mr. Warrington, in a letter to Mrs. Mountain, at
+Castlewood, Virginia, still extant. "He was for having me take the lead;
+but, remembering the story about the Battel of Fontanoy which my dearest
+George used to tell, I says, 'Monseigneur le Comte, tirez le premier,
+s'il vous play.' So he took his run in his stocken feet, and for the
+honour of Old Virginia, I had the gratafacation of beating his lordship
+by more than two feet--viz., two feet nine inches--me jumping twenty-one
+feet three inches, by the drawer's measured tape, and his lordship only
+eighteen six. I had won from him about my weight before (which I knew
+the moment I set my eye upon him). So he and Mr. Jack paid me these two
+betts. And with my best duty to my mother--she will not be displeased
+with me, for I bett for the honor of the Old Dominion, and my opponent
+was a nobleman of the first quality, himself holding two Erldomes, and
+heir to a Duke. Betting is all the rage here, and the bloods and young
+fellows of fashion are betting away from morning till night.
+
+"I told them--and that was my mischief perhaps--that there was a
+gentleman at home who could beat me by a good foot; and when they asked
+who it was, and I said Col. G. Washington, of Mount Vernon--as you know
+he can, and he's the only man in his county or mine that can do it--Mr.
+Wolfe asked me ever so many questions about Col. G. W., and showed that
+he had heard of him, and talked over last year's unhappy campane as
+if he knew every inch of the ground, and he knew the names of all our
+rivers, only he called the Potowmac Pottamac, at which we had a
+good laugh at him. My Lord of March and Ruglen was not in the least
+ill-humour about losing, and he and his friend handed me notes out of
+their pocket-books, which filled mine that was getting very empty, for
+the vales to the servants at my cousin Castlewood's house and buying
+a horse at Oakhurst have very nearly put me on the necessity of making
+another draft upon my honoured mother or her London or Bristol agent."
+
+These feats of activity over, the four gentlemen now strolled out of the
+tavern garden into the public walk, where, by this time, a great deal of
+company was assembled: upon whom Mr. Jack, who was of a frank and free
+nature, with a loud voice, chose to make remarks that were not always
+agreeable. And here, if my Lord March made a joke, of which his lordship
+was not sparing, Jack roared, "Oh, ho, ho! Oh, good Gad! Oh, my dear
+earl! Oh, my dear lord, you'll be the death of me!" "It seemed as if he
+wished everybody to know," writes Harry sagaciously to Mrs. Mountain,
+"that his friend and companion was an Erl!"
+
+There was, indeed, a great variety of characters who passed. M.
+Poellnitz, no finer dressed than he had been at dinner, grinned, and
+saluted with his great laced hat and tarnished feathers. Then came by
+my Lord Chesterfield, in a pearl-coloured suit, with his blue ribbon and
+star, and saluted the young men in his turn.
+
+"I will back the old boy for taking his hat off against the whole
+kingdom, and France either," says my Lord March. "He has never changed
+the shape of that hat of his for twenty years. Look at it. There it goes
+again! Do you see that great, big, awkward, pock-marked, snuff-coloured
+man, who hardly touches his clumsy beaver in reply. D---- his confounded
+impudence--do you know who that is?"
+
+"No, curse him! Who is it, March?" asks Jack, with an oath.
+
+"It's one Johnson, a Dictionary-maker, about whom my Lord Chesterfield
+wrote some most capital papers, when his dixonary was coming out, to
+patronise the fellow. I know they were capital. I've heard Horry Walpole
+say so, and he knows all about that kind of thing. Confound the impudent
+schoolmaster!"
+
+"Hang him, he ought to stand in the pillory!" roars Jack.
+
+"That fat man he's walking with is another of your writing fellows,--a
+printer,--his name is Richardson; he wrote Clarissa, you know."
+
+"Great heavens! my lord, is that the great Richardson? Is that the man
+who wrote Clarissa?" called out Colonel Wolfe and Mr. Warrington, in a
+breath.
+
+Harry ran forward to look at the old gentleman toddling along the walk
+with a train of admiring ladies surrounding him.
+
+"Indeed, my very dear sir," one was saying, "you are too great and good
+to live in such a world; but sure you were sent to teach it virtue!"
+
+"Ah, my Miss Mulso! Who shall teach the teacher?" said the good, fat old
+man, raising a kind, round face skywards. "Even he has his faults and
+errors! Even his age and experience does not prevent him from stumbl---.
+Heaven bless my soul, Mr. Johnson! I ask your pardon if I have trodden
+on your corn."
+
+"You have done both, sir. You have trodden on the corn, and received the
+pardon," said Mr. Johnson, and went on mumbling some verses, swaying to
+and fro, his eyes turned towards the ground, his hands behind him, and
+occasionally endangering with his great stick the honest, meek eyes of
+his companion-author.
+
+"They do not see very well, my dear Mulso," he says to the young lady,
+"but such as they are, I would keep my lash from Mr. Johnson's cudgel.
+Your servant, sir." Here he made a low bow, and took off his hat to Mr.
+Warrington, who shrank back with many blushes, after saluting the great
+author. The great author was accustomed to be adored. A gentler wind
+never puffed mortal vanity. Enraptured spinsters flung tea-leaves round
+him, and incensed him with the coffee-pot. Matrons kissed the slippers
+they had worked for him. There was a halo of virtue round his nightcap.
+All Europe had thrilled, panted, admired, trembled, wept, over the pages
+of the immortal little, kind, honest man with the round paunch. Harry
+came back quite glowing and proud at having a bow from him. "Ah!" says
+he, "my lord, I am glad to have seen him!"
+
+"Seen him! why, dammy, you may see him any day in his shop, I suppose?"
+says Jack, with a laugh.
+
+"My brother declared that he, and Mr. Fielding, I think, was the name,
+were the greatest geniuses in England; and often used to say, that when
+we came to Europe, his first pilgrimage would be to Mr. Richardson,"
+cried Harry, always impetuous, honest, and tender, when he spoke of the
+dearest friend.
+
+"Your brother spoke like a man," cried Mr. Wolfe, too, his pale face
+likewise flushing up. "I would rather be a man of genius, than a peer of
+the realm."
+
+"Every man to his taste, Colonel," says my lord, much amused. "Your
+enthusiasm--I don't mean anything personal--refreshes me, on my honour
+it does."
+
+"So it does me--by gad--perfectly refreshes me," cries Jack
+
+"So it does Jack--you see--it actually refreshes Jack! I say, Jack,
+which would you rather be?--a fat old printer," who has written a story
+about a confounded girl and a fellow that ruins her,--or a peer of
+Parliament with ten thousand a year?"
+
+"March--my Lord March, do you take me for a fool?" says Jack, with a
+tearful voice. "Have I done anything to deserve this language from you?"
+
+"I would rather win honour than honours: I would rather have genius than
+wealth. I would rather make my name than inherit it, though my father's,
+thank God, is an honest one," said the young Colonel. "But pardon me,
+gentlemen," and here making, them a hasty salutation, he ran across the
+parade towards a young and elderly lady and a gentleman, who were now
+advancing.
+
+"It is the beautiful Miss Lowther. I remember now," says my lord. "See!
+he takes her arm! The report is, he is engaged to her."
+
+"You don't mean to say such a fellow is engaged to any of the Lowthers
+of the North?" cries out Jack. "Curse me, what is the world come to,
+with your printers, and your half-pay ensigns, and your schoolmasters,
+and your infernal nonsense?"
+
+The Dictionary-maker, who had shown so little desire to bow to my Lord
+Chesterfield, when that famous nobleman courteously saluted him, was
+here seen to take off his beaver, and bow almost to the ground, before
+a florid personage in a large round hat, with bands and a gown, who
+made his appearance in the Walk. This was my Lord Bishop of Salisbury,
+wearing complacently the blue riband and badge of the Garter, of which
+Noble Order his lordship was prelate.
+
+Mr. Johnson stood, hat in hand, during the whole time of his
+conversation with Dr. Gilbert; who made many flattering and benedictory
+remarks to Mr. Richardson, declaring that he was the supporter of
+virtue, the preacher of sound morals, the mainstay of religion, of all
+which points the honest printer himself was perfectly convinced.
+
+Do not let any young lady trip to her grandpapa's bookcase in
+consequence of this eulogium, and rashly take down Clarissa from the
+shelf. She would not care to read the volumes, over which her pretty
+ancestresses wept and thrilled a hundred years ago; which were commended
+by divines from pulpits and belauded all Europe over. I wonder, are our
+women more virtuous than their grandmothers, or only more squeamish? If
+the former, then Miss Smith of New York is certainly more modest than
+Miss Smith of London, who still does not scruple to say that tables,
+pianos, and animals have legs. Oh, my faithful, good old Samuel
+Richardson! Hath the news yet reached thee in Hades that thy sublime
+novels are huddled away in corners, and that our daughters may no more
+read Clarissa than Tom Jones? Go up, Samuel, and be reconciled with
+thy brother-scribe, whom in life thou didst hate so. I wonder whether
+a century hence the novels of to-day will be hidden behind locks and
+wires, and make pretty little maidens blush?
+
+"Who is yonder queer person in the high headdress of my grandmother's
+time, who stops and speaks to Mr. Richardson?" asked Harry, as a
+fantastically dressed lady came up, and performed a curtsey and a
+compliment to the bowing printer.
+
+Jack Morris nervously struck Harry a blow in the side with the butt end
+of his whip. Lord March laughed.
+
+"Yonder queer person is my gracious kinswoman, Katharine, Duchess of
+Dover and Queensberry, at your service, Mr. Warrington. She was a beauty
+price! She is changed now, isn't she? What an old Gorgon it is! She is a
+great patroness of your book-men and when that old frump was young, they
+actually made verses about her."
+
+The Earl quitted his friends for a moment to make his bow to the old
+Duchess, Jack Morris explaining to Mr. Warrington how, at the Duke's
+death, my Lord of March and Ruglen would succeed to his cousin's
+dukedoms.
+
+"I suppose," says Harry, simply, "his lordship is here in attendance
+upon the old lady?"
+
+Jack burst into a loud laugh.
+
+"Oh yes! very much! exactly!" says he. "Why, my dear fellow, you don't
+mean to say you haven't heard about the little Opera-dancer?"
+
+"I am but lately arrived in England, Mr. Morris," said Harry, with a
+smile, "and in Virginia, I own, we have not heard much about the little
+Opera-dancer."
+
+Luckily for us, the secret about the little Opera-dancer never was
+revealed, for the young men's conversation was interrupted by a lady in
+a cardinal cape, and a hat by no means unlike those lovely headpieces
+which have returned into vogue a hundred years after the date of our
+present history, who made a profound curtsey to the two gentlemen and
+received their salutation in return. She stopped opposite to Harry; she
+held out her hand, rather to his wonderment:
+
+"Have you so soon forgotten me, Mr. Warrington?" she said.
+
+Off went Harry's hat in an instant. He started, blushed, stammered, and
+called out Good Heavens! as if there had been any celestial wonder in
+the circumstance! It was Lady Maria come out for a walk. He had not been
+thinking about her. She was, to say truth, for the moment so utterly
+out of the young gentleman's mind, that her sudden re-entry there and
+appearance in the body startled Mr. Warrington's faculties, and caused
+those guilty blushes to crowd into his cheeks.
+
+No. He was not even thinking of her! A week ago--a year, a hundred years
+ago it seemed--he would not have been surprised to meet her anywhere.
+Appearing from amidst darkling shrubberies, gliding over green garden
+terraces, loitering on stairs or corridors, hovering even in his dreams,
+all day or all night, bodily or spiritually, he had been accustomed to
+meet her. A week ago his heart used to beat. A week ago, and at the very
+instant when he jumped out of his sleep, there was her idea smiling on
+him. And it was only last Tuesday that his love was stabbed and slain,
+and he not only had left off mourning for her, but had forgotten her!
+
+"You will come and walk with me a little?" she said. "Or would you like
+the music best? I dare say you will like the music best."
+
+"You know," said Harry, "I don't care about any music much, except"--he
+was thinking of the evening hymn--"except of your playing." He turned
+very red again as he spoke, he felt he was perjuring himself horribly.
+
+The poor lady was agitated herself by the flutter and agitation which
+she saw in her young companion. Gracious Heaven! Could that tremor
+and excitement mean that she was mistaken, and that the lad was still
+faithful? "Give me your arm, and let us take a little walk," she said,
+waving round a curtsey to the other two gentlemen: "my aunt is asleep
+after her dinner." Harry could not but offer the arm, and press the hand
+that lay against his heart. Maria made another fine curtsey to Harry's
+bowing companions, and walked off with her prize. In her griefs, in
+her rages, in the pains and anguish of wrong and desertion, how a woman
+remembers to smile, curtsey, caress, dissemble! How resolutely they
+discharge the social proprieties; how they have a word, or a hand, or
+a kind little speech or reply for the passing acquaintance who crosses
+unknowing the path of the tragedy, drops a light airy remark or two
+(happy self-satisfied rogue!) and passes on. He passes on, and thinks
+that woman was rather pleased with what I said. "That joke I made was
+rather neat. I do really think Lady Maria looks rather favourably at me,
+and she's a dev'lish fine woman, begad she is!" O you wiseacre! Such was
+Jack Morris's observation and case as he walked away leaning on the arm
+of his noble friend, and thinking the whole Society of the Wells was
+looking at him. He had made some exquisite remarks about a particular
+run of cards at Lady Flushington's the night before, and Lady Maria had
+replied graciously and neatly, and so away went Jack perfectly happy.
+
+The absurd creature! I declare we know nothing of anybody (but that for
+my part I know better and better every day). You enter smiling to see
+your new acquaintance, Mrs. A. and her charming family. You make your
+bow in the elegant drawing-room of Mr. and Mrs. B.? I tell you that in
+your course through life you are for ever putting your great clumsy foot
+upon the mute invisible wounds of bleeding tragedies. Mrs. B.'s closets
+for what you know are stuffed with skeletons. Look there under the
+sofa-cushion. Is that merely Missy's doll, or is it the limb of
+a stifled Cupid peeping out? What do you suppose are those ashes
+smouldering in the grate?--Very likely a suttee has been offered up
+there just before you came in: a faithful heart has been burned out upon
+a callous corpse, and you are looking on the cineri doloso. You see B.
+and his wife receiving their company before dinner. Gracious powers! Do
+you know that that bouquet which she wears is a signal to Captain C.,
+and that he will find a note under the little bronze Shakespeare on
+the mantelpiece in the study? And with all this you go up and say
+some uncommonly neat thing (as you fancy) to Mrs. B. about the weather
+(clever dog!), or about Lady E.'s last party (fashionable buck!), or
+about the dear children in the nursery (insinuating rogue!). Heaven and
+earth, my good sir, how can you tell that B. is not going to pitch all
+the children out of the nursery window this very night, or that his lady
+has not made an arrangement for leaving them, and running off with
+the Captain? How do you know that those footmen are not disguised
+bailiffs?--that yonder large-looking butler (really a skeleton) is not
+the pawnbroker's man? and that there are not skeleton rotis and entrees
+under every one of the covers? Look at their feet peeping from under the
+tablecloth. Mind how you stretch out your own lovely little slippers,
+madam, lest you knock over a rib or two. Remark the death's-head moths
+fluttering among the flowers. See, the pale winding-sheets gleaming in
+the wax-candles! I know it is an old story, and especially that this
+preacher has yelled vanitas vanitatum five hundred times before. I can't
+help always falling upon it, and cry out with particular loudness and
+wailing, and become especially melancholy, when I see a dead love tied
+to a live love. Ha! I look up from my desk, across the street: and there
+come in Mr. and Mrs. D. from their walk in Kensington Gardens. How she
+hangs on him! how jolly and happy he looks, as the children frisk round!
+My poor dear benighted Mrs. D., there is a Regent's Park as well as
+a Kensington Gardens in the world. Go in, fond wretch! Smilingly lay
+before him what you know he likes for dinner. Show him the children's
+copies and the reports of their masters. Go with Missy to the piano, and
+play your artless duet together; and fancy you are happy!
+
+There go Harry and Maria taking their evening walk on the common, away
+from the village which is waking up from its after-dinner siesta, and
+where the people are beginning to stir and the music to play. With the
+music Maria knows Madame de Bernstein will waken: with the candles
+she must be back to the tea-table and the cards. Never mind. Here is a
+minute. It may be my love is dead, but here is a minute to kneel over
+the grave and pray by it. He certainly was not thinking about her: he
+was startled and did not even know her. He was laughing and talking
+with Jack Morris and my Lord March. He is twenty years younger than she.
+Never mind. To-day is to-day in which we are all equal. This moment is
+ours. Come, let us walk a little way over the heath, Harry. She will go,
+though she feels a deadly assurance that he will tell her all is over
+between them, and that he loves the dark-haired girl at Oakhurst.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. Plenus Opus Aleae
+
+
+"Let me hear about those children, child, whom I saw running about at
+the house where they took you in, poor dear boy, after your dreadful
+fall?" says Maria, as they paced the common. "Oh, that fall, Harry! I
+thought I should have died when I saw it! You needn't squeeze one's arm
+so. You know you don't care for me?"
+
+"The people are the very best, kindest, dearest people I have ever met
+in the world," cries Mr. Warrington. "Mrs. Lambert was a friend of my
+mother when she was in Europe for her education. Colonel Lambert is a
+most accomplished gentleman, and has seen service everywhere. He was in
+Scotland with his Royal Highness, in Flanders, at Minorca. No natural
+parents could be kinder than they were to me. How can I show my
+gratitude to them? I want to make them a present: I must make them
+a present," says Harry, clapping his hand into his pocket, which was
+filled with the crisp spoils of Morris and March.
+
+"We can go to the toy-shop, my dear, and buy a couple of dolls for the
+children," says Lady Maria. "You would offend the parents by offering
+anything like payment for their kindness."
+
+"Dolls for Hester and Theo! Why, do you think a woman is not woman
+till she is forty, Maria?" (The arm under Harry's here gave a wince
+perhaps,--ever so slight a wince.) "I can tell you Miss Hester by no
+means considers herself a child, and Miss Theo is older than her sister.
+They know ever so many languages. They have read books--oh! piles
+and piles of books! They play on the harpsichord and sing together
+admirable; and Theo composes, and sings songs of her own."
+
+"Indeed! I scarcely saw them. I thought they were children. They looked
+quite childish. I had no idea they had all these perfections, and were
+such wonders of the world."
+
+"That's just the way with you women! At home, if me or George praised a
+woman, Mrs. Esmond. and Mountain, too, would be sure to find fault with
+her!" cries Harry.
+
+"I am sure I would find fault with no one who is kind to you, Mr.
+Warrington," sighed Maria, "though you are not angry with me for envying
+them because they had to take care of you when you were wounded and
+ill--whilst I--I had to leave you?"
+
+"You dear good Maria!"
+
+"No, Harry! I am not dear and good. There, sir, you needn't be so
+pressing in your attentions. Look! There is your black man walking with
+a score of other wretches in livery. The horrid creatures are going
+to fuddle at the tea-garden, and get tipsy like their masters. That
+dreadful Mr. Morris was perfectly tipsy when I came to you, and
+frightened you so."
+
+"I had just won great bets from both of them. What shall I buy for
+you, my dear cousin?" And Harry narrated the triumphs which he had just
+achieved. He was in high spirits: he laughed, he bragged a little. "For
+the honour of Virginia I was determined to show them what jumping was,"
+he said. "With a little practice I think I could leap two foot farther."
+
+Maria was pleased with the victories of her young champion. "But you
+must beware about play, child," she said. "You know it hath been the
+ruin of our family. My brother Castlewood, Will, our poor father, our
+aunt, Lady Castlewood herself, they have all been victims to it: as for
+my Lord March, he is the most dreadful gambler and the most successful
+of all the nobility."
+
+"I don't intend to be afraid of him, nor of his friend Mr. Jack Morris
+neither," says Harry, again fingering the delightful notes. "What do you
+play at Aunt Bernstein's? Cribbage, all-fours, brag, whist, commerce,
+piquet, quadrille? I'm ready at any of 'em. What o'clock is that
+striking--sure 'tis seven!"
+
+"And you want to begin now," said the plaintive Maria. "You don't care
+about walking with your poor cousin. Not long ago you did."
+
+"Hey! Youth is youth, cousin!" cried Mr. Harry, tossing up his head,
+"and a young fellow must have his fling!" and he strutted by his
+partner's side, confident, happy, and eager for pleasure. Not long ago
+he did like to walk with her. Only yesterday, he liked to be with Theo
+and Hester, and good Mrs. Lambert; but pleasure, life, gaiety, the
+desire to shine and to conquer, had also their temptations for the lad,
+who seized the cup like other lads, and did not care to calculate on
+the headache in store for the morning. Whilst he and his cousin were
+talking, the fiddles from the open orchestra on the Parade made a great
+tuning and squeaking, preparatory to their usual evening concert. Maria
+knew her aunt was awake again, and that she must go back to her slavery.
+Harry never asked about that slavery, though he must have known it, had
+he taken the trouble to think. He never pitied his cousin. He was not
+thinking about her at all. Yet when his mishap befell him, she had been
+wounded far more cruelly than he was. He had scarce ever been out of her
+thoughts, which of course she had had to bury under smiling hypocrisies,
+as is the way with her sex. I know, my dear Mrs. Grundy, you think she
+was an old fool? Ah! do you suppose fools' caps do not cover grey hair,
+as well as jet or auburn? Bear gently with our elderly fredaines, O you
+Minerva of a woman! Or perhaps you are so good and wise that you don't
+read novels at all. This I know, that there are late crops of wild oats,
+as well as early harvests of them; and (from observation of self and
+neighbour) I have an idea that the avena fatua grows up to the very last
+days of the year.
+
+Like worldly parents anxious to get rid of a troublesome child, and go
+out to their evening party, Madame Bernstein and her attendants had put
+the sun to bed, whilst it was as yet light, and had drawn the curtains
+over it, and were busy about their cards and their candles, and their
+tea and negus, and other refreshments. One chair after another landed
+ladies at the Baroness's door, more or less painted, patched, brocaded.
+To these came gentlemen in gala raiment. Mr. Poellnitz's star was the
+largest, and his coat the most embroidered of all present. My Lord of
+March and Ruglen, when he made his appearance, was quite changed from
+the individual with whom Harry had made acquaintance at the White Horse.
+His tight brown scratch was exchanged for a neatly curled feather
+top, with a bag and grey powder, his jockey-dress and leather breeches
+replaced by a rich and elegant French suit. Mr. Jack Morris had just
+such another wig and a suit of stuff as closely as possible resembling
+his lordship's. Mr. Wolfe came in attendance upon his beautiful
+mistress, Miss Lowther, and her aunt who loved cards, as all the world
+did. When my Lady Maria Esmond made her appearance, 'tis certain that
+her looks belied Madame Bernstein's account of her. Her shape was very
+fine, and her dress showed a great deal of it. Her complexion was by
+nature exceeding fair, and a dark frilled ribbon, clasped by a jewel,
+round her neck, enhanced its. snowy whiteness. Her cheeks were not
+redder than those of other ladies present, and the roses were pretty
+openly purchased by everybody at the perfumery-shops. An artful patch
+or two, it was supposed, added to the lustre of her charms. Her hoop was
+not larger than the iron contrivances which ladies of the present day
+hang round their persons; and we may pronounce that the costume, if
+absurd in some points, was pleasing altogether. Suppose our ladies took
+to wearing of bangles and nose-rings? I dare say we should laugh at the
+ornaments, and not dislike them, and lovers would make no difficulty
+about lifting up the ring to be able to approach the rosy lips
+underneath.
+
+As for the Baroness de Bernstein, when that lady took the pains of
+making a grand toilette, she appeared as an object, handsome still, and
+magnificent, but melancholy, and even somewhat terrifying to behold.
+You read the past in some old faces, while some others lapse into
+mere meekness and content. The fires go quite out of some eyes, as the
+crow's-feet pucker round them; they flash no longer with scorn, or
+with anger, or love; they gaze, and no one is melted by their sapphire
+glances; they look, and no one is dazzled. My fair young reader, if
+you are not so perfect a beauty as the peerless Lindamira, Queen of the
+Ball; if, at the end of it, as you retire to bed, you meekly own that
+you have had but two or three partners, whilst Lindamira has had a crowd
+round her all night--console yourself with thinking that, at fifty, you
+will look as kind and pleasant as you appear now at eighteen. You will
+not have to lay down your coach-and-six of beauty and see another step
+into it, and walk yourself through the rest of life. You will have
+to forgo no long-accustomed homage; you will not witness and own the
+depreciation of your smiles. You will not see fashion forsake your
+quarter; and remain all dust, gloom, cobwebs within your once splendid
+saloons, and placards in your sad windows, gaunt, lonely, and to let!
+You may not have known any grandeur, but you won't feel any desertion.
+You will not have enjoyed millions, but you will have escaped
+bankruptcy. "Our hostess," said my Lord Chesterfield to his friend in a
+confidential whisper, of which the utterer did not in the least know the
+loudness, "puts me in mind of Covent Garden in my youth. Then it was
+the court end of the town, and inhabited by the highest fashion. Now, a
+nobleman's house is a gaming-house, or you may go in with a friend and
+call for a bottle."
+
+"Hey! a bottle and a tavern are good things in their way," says my Lord
+March, with a shrug of his shoulders. "I was not born before the
+Georges came in, though I intend to live to a hundred. I never knew the
+Bernstein but as an old woman; and if she ever had beauty, hang me if I
+know how she spent it."
+
+"No, hang me, how did she spend it?" laughs out Jack Morris.
+
+"Here's a table! Shall we sit down and have a game?--Don't let the
+Frenchman come in. He won't pay. Mr. Warrington, will you take a card?"
+Mr. Warrington and my Lord Chesterfield found themselves partners
+against Mr. Morris and the Earl of March. "You have come too late,
+Baron," says the elder nobleman to the other nobleman who was advancing.
+"We have made our game. What, have you forgotten Mr. Warrington of
+Virginia--the young gentleman whom you met in London?"
+
+"The young gentleman whom I met at Arthur's Chocolate House had black
+hair, a little cocked nose, and was by no means so fortunate in his
+personal appearance as Mr. Warrington," said the Baron, with much
+presence of mind. "Warrington, Dorrington, Harrington? We of the
+continent cannot retain your insular names. I certify that this
+gentleman is not the individual of whom I spoke at dinner." And,
+glancing kindly upon him, the old beau sidled away to a farther end
+of the room, where Mr. Wolfe and Miss Lowther were engaged in deep
+conversation in the embrasure of a window. Here the Baron thought fit to
+engage the Lieutenant-Colonel upon the Prussian manual exercise, which
+had lately been introduced into King George II.'s army--a subject with
+which Mr. Wolfe was thoroughly familiar, and which no doubt would
+have interested him at any other moment but that. Nevertheless the old
+gentleman uttered his criticisms and opinions, and thought he perfectly
+charmed the two persons to whom he communicated them.
+
+At the commencement of the evening the Baroness received her guests
+personally, and as they arrived engaged them in talk and introductory
+courtesies. But as the rooms and tables filled, and the parties were
+made up, Madame de Bernstein became more and more restless, and finally
+retreated with three friends to her own corner, where a table specially
+reserved for her was occupied by her major-domo. And here the old lady
+sate down resolutely, never changing her place or quitting her game till
+cock-crow. The charge of receiving the company devolved now upon my Lady
+Maria, who did not care for cards, but dutifully did the honours of the
+house to her aunt's guests, and often rustled by the table where her
+young cousin was engaged with his three friends.
+
+"Come and cut the cards for us," said my Lord March to her ladyship as
+she passed on one of her wistful visits. "Cut the cards and bring us
+luck, Lady Maria! We have had none to-night, and Mr. Warrington is
+winning everything."
+
+"I hope you are not playing high, Harry?" said the lady, timidly.
+
+"Oh no, only sixpences," cried my lord, dealing.
+
+"Only sixpences," echoed Mr. Morris, who was Lord March's partner. But
+Mr. Morris must have been very keenly alive to the value of sixpence, if
+the loss of a few such coins could make his round face look so dismal.
+My Lord Chesterfield sate opposite Mr. Warrington, sorting his cards. No
+one could say, by inspecting that calm physiognomy, whether good or ill
+fortune was attending his lordship.
+
+Some word, not altogether indicative of delight, slipped out of Mr.
+Morris's lips, on which his partner cried out, "Hang it, Morris, play
+your cards, and hold your tongue!" Considering they were only playing
+for sixpences, his lordship, too, was strangely affected.
+
+Maria, still fondly lingering by Harry's chair, with her hand at the
+back of it, could see his cards, and that a whole covey of trumps was
+ranged in one corner. She had not taken away his luck. She was pleased
+to think she had cut that pack which had dealt him all those pretty
+trumps. As Lord March was dealing, he had said in a quiet voice to Mr.
+Warrington, "The bet as before, Mr. Warrington, or shall we double it?"
+
+"Anything you like, my lord," said Mr. Warrington, very quietly.
+
+"We will say, then,--shillings."
+
+"Yes, shillings," says Mr. Warrington, and the game proceeded.
+
+The end of the day's, and some succeeding days' sport may be gathered
+from the following letter, which was never delivered to the person to
+whom it was addressed, but found its way to America in the papers of Mr.
+Henry Warrington:
+
+
+"TUNBRIDGE WELLS, August 10, 1756.
+
+"DEAR GEORGE--As White's two bottles of Burgundy and a pack of cards
+constitute all the joys of your life, I take for granted that you are in
+London at this moment, preferring smoke and faro to fresh air and fresh
+haystacks. This will be delivered to you by a young gentleman with whom
+I have lately made acquaintance, and whom you will be charmed to know.
+He will play with you at any game for any stake, up to any hour of the
+night, and drink any reasonable number of bottles during the play.
+Mr. Warrington is no other than the Fortunate Youth about whom so many
+stories have been told in the Public Advertiser and other prints. He
+has an estate in Virginia as big as Yorkshire, with the incumbrance of a
+mother, the reigning Sovereign; but, as the country is unwholesome, and
+fevers plentiful, let us hope that Mrs. Esmond will die soon, and
+leave this virtuous lad in undisturbed possession. She is aunt of that
+polisson of a Castlewood, who never pays his play-debts, unless he is
+more honourable in his dealings with you than he has been with me. Mr.
+W. is de bonne race. We must have him of our society, if it be only that
+I may win my money back from him.
+
+"He has had the devil's luck here, and has been winning everything,
+whilst his old card-playing beldam of an aunt has been losing. A few
+nights ago, when I first had the ill-luck to make his acquaintance, he
+beat me in jumping (having practised the art amongst the savages, and
+running away from bears in his native woods); he won bets off me and
+Jack Morris about my weight; and at night, when we sat down to play, at
+old Bernstein's, he won from us all round. If you can settle our last
+Epsom account please hand over to Mr. Warrington 350 pounds, which I
+still owe him, after pretty well emptying my pocket-book. Chesterfield
+has dropped six hundred to him, too; but his lordship does not wish
+to have it known, having sworn to give up play and live cleanly. Jack
+Morris, who has not been hit as hard as either of us, and can afford it
+quite as well, for the fat chuff has no houses nor train to keep up, and
+all his misbegotten father's money in hand, roars like a bull of Bashan
+about his losses. We had a second night's play, en petit comite, and
+Barbeau served us a fair dinner in a private room. Mr. Warrington
+holds his tongue like a gentleman, and none of us have talked about our
+losses; but the whole place does, for us. Yesterday the Cattarina looked
+as sulky as thunder, because I would not give her a diamond necklace,
+and says I refuse her because I have lost five thousand to the
+Virginian. My old Duchess of Q. has the very same story, besides knowing
+to a fraction what Chesterfield and Jack have lost.
+
+"Warrington treated the company to breakfast and music at the rooms; and
+you should have seen how the women tore him to pieces. That fiend of
+a Cattarina ogled him out of my vis-a-vis, and under my very nose,
+yesterday, as we were driving to Penshurst, and I have no doubt has sent
+him a billet-doux ere this. He shot Jack Morris all to pieces at a mark:
+we shall try him with partridges when the season comes.
+
+"He is a fortunate fellow, certainly. He has youth (which is not
+deboshed by evil courses in Virginia, as ours is in England); he has
+good health, good looks, and good luck.
+
+"In a word, Mr. Warrington has won our money in a very gentlemanlike
+manner; and, as I like him, and wish to win some of it back again, I put
+him under your worship's saintly guardianship. Adieu! I am going to the
+North, and shall be back for Doncaster.--Yours ever, dear George,                                                             M. et R."
+
+"To George Augustus Selwyn, Esq., at White's Chocolate House, St.
+James's Street."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. The Way of the World
+
+
+Our young Virginian found himself, after two or three days at Tunbridge
+Wells, by far the most important personage in that merry little
+watering-place. No nobleman in the place inspired so much curiosity. My
+Lord Bishop of Salisbury himself was scarce treated with more respect.
+People turned round to look after Harry as he passed, and country-folks
+stared at him as they came into market. At the rooms, matrons encouraged
+him to come round to them, and found means to leave him alone with their
+daughters, most of whom smiled upon him. Everybody knew, to an acre and
+a shilling, the extent of his Virginian property, and the amount of his
+income. At every tea-table in the Wells, his winnings at play were told
+and calculated. Wonderful is the knowledge which our neighbours have
+of our affairs! So great was the interest and curiosity which Harry
+inspired, that people even smiled upon his servant, and took Gumbo aside
+and treated him with ale and cold meat, in order to get news of the
+young Virginian. Mr. Gumbo fattened under the diet, became a leading
+member of the Society of Valets in the place, and lied more enormously
+than ever. No party was complete unless Mr. Warrington attended it. The
+lad was not a little amused and astonished by this prosperity, and bore
+his new honours pretty well. He had been bred at home to think too well
+of himself, and his present good fortune no doubt tended to confirm his
+self-satisfaction. But he was not too much elated. He did not brag about
+his victories or give himself any particular airs. In engaging in play
+with the gentlemen who challenged him, he had acted up to his queer code
+of honour. He felt as if he was bound to meet them when they summoned
+him, and that if they invited him to a horse-race, or a drinking-bout,
+or a match at cards, for the sake of Old Virginia he must not draw back.
+Mr. Harry found his new acquaintances ready to try him at all these
+sports and contests. He had a strong head, a skilful hand, a firm seat,
+an unflinching nerve. The representative of Old Virginia came off very
+well in his friendly rivalry with the mother-country.
+
+Madame de Bernstein, who got her fill of cards every night, and, no
+doubt, repaired the ill-fortune of which we heard in the last chapter,
+was delighted with her nephew's victories and reputation. He had shot
+with Jack Morris and beat him; he had ridden a match with Mr. Scamper
+and won it. He played tennis with Captain Batts, and, though the boy had
+never tried the game before, in a few days he held his own uncommonly
+well. He had engaged in play with those celebrated gamesters, my Lords
+of Chesterfield and March; and they both bore testimony to his coolness,
+gallantry, and good breeding. At his books Harry was not brilliant
+certainly; but he could write as well as a great number of men of
+fashion; and the naivete of his ignorance amused the old lady. She had
+read books in her time, and could talk very well about them with bookish
+people: she had a relish for humour and delighted in Moliere and Mr.
+Fielding, but she loved the world far better than the library, and was
+never so interested in any novel but that she would leave it for a
+game of cards. She superintended with fond pleasure the improvements of
+Harry's toilette: rummaged out fine laces for his ruffles and shirt,
+and found a pretty diamond-brooch for his frill. He attained the post of
+prime favourite of all her nephews and kinsfolk. I fear Lady Maria was
+only too well pleased at the lad's successes, and did not grudge him his
+superiority over her brothers; but those gentlemen must have quaked with
+fear and envy when they heard of Mr. Warrington's prodigious successes,
+and the advance which he had made in their wealthy aunt's favour.
+
+After a fortnight of Tunbridge, Mr. Harry had become quite a personage.
+He knew all the good company in the place. Was it his fault if he became
+acquainted with the bad likewise? Was he very wrong in taking the world
+as he found it, and drinking from that sweet sparkling pleasure-cup,
+which was filled for him to the brim? The old aunt enjoyed his triumphs,
+and for her part only bade him pursue his enjoyments. She was not a
+rigorous old moralist, nor, perhaps, a very wholesome preceptress for
+youth. If the Cattarina wrote him billets-doux, I fear Aunt Bernstein
+would have bade him accept the invitations: but the lad had brought with
+him from his colonial home a stock of modesty which he still wore
+along with the honest homespun linen. Libertinism was rare in those
+thinly-peopled regions from which he came. The vices of great cities
+were scarce known or practised in the rough towns of the American
+continent. Harry Warrington blushed like a girl at the daring talk of
+his new European associates: even Aunt Bernstein's conversation and
+jokes astounded the young Virginian, so that the worldly old woman would
+call him Joseph, or simpleton.
+
+But, however innocent he was, the world gave him credit for being as
+bad as other folks. How was he to know that he was not to associate with
+that saucy Cattarina? He had seen my Lord March driving her about in his
+lordship's phaeton. Harry thought there was no harm in giving her his
+arm, and parading openly with her in the public walks. She took a fancy
+to a trinket at the toy-shop; and, as his pockets were full of money,
+he was delighted to make her a present of the locket, which she coveted.
+The next day it was a piece of lace: again Harry gratified her. The
+next day it was something else: there was no end to Madame Cattarina's
+fancies: but here the young gentleman stopped, turning off her request
+with a joke and a laugh. He was shrewd enough, and not reckless or
+prodigal, though generous. He had no idea of purchasing diamond drops
+for the petulant little lady's pretty ears.
+
+But who was to give him credit for his Modesty? Old Bernstein insisted
+upon believing that her nephew was playing Don Juan's part, and
+supplanting my Lord March. She insisted the more when poor Maria was
+by; loving to stab the tender heart of that spinster, and enjoying her
+niece's piteous silence and discomfiture.
+
+"Why, my dear," says the Baroness, "boys will be boys, and I don't want
+Harry to be the first milksop in his family!" The bread which Maria
+ate at her aunt's expense choked her sometimes. O me, how hard and
+indigestible some women know how to make it!
+
+Mr. Wolfe was for ever coming over from Westerham to pay court to the
+lady of his love; and, knowing that the Colonel was entirely engaged
+in that pursuit, Mr. Warrington scarcely expected to see much of him,
+however much he liked that officer's conversation and society. It was
+different from the talk of the ribald people round about Harry. Mr.
+Wolfe never spoke of cards, or horses' pedigrees; or bragged of his
+performances in the hunting-field; or boasted of the favours of women;
+or retailed any of the innumerable scandals of the time. It was not a
+good time. That old world was more dissolute than ours. There was an old
+king with mistresses openly in his train, to whom the great folks of
+the land did honour. There was a nobility, many of whom were mad and
+reckless in the pursuit of pleasure; there was a looseness of words
+and acts which we must note, as faithful historians, without going into
+particulars, and needlessly shocking honest readers. Our young gentleman
+had lighted upon some of the wildest of these wild people, and had found
+an old relative who lived in the very midst of the rout.
+
+Harry then did not remark how Colonel Wolfe avoided him, or when they
+casually met, at first, notice the Colonel's cold and altered demeanour.
+He did not know the stories that were told of him. Who does know the
+stories that are told of him? Who makes them? Who are the fathers of
+those wondrous lies? Poor Harry did not know the reputation he was
+getting; and that, whilst he was riding his horse and playing his game
+and taking his frolic, he was passing amongst many respectable persons
+for being the most abandoned and profligate and godless of young men.
+
+Alas, and alas! to think that the lad whom we liked so, and who was so
+gentle and quiet when with us, so simple and so easily pleased, should
+be a hardened profligate, a spendthrift, a confirmed gamester, a
+frequenter of abandoned women! These stories came to honest Colonel
+Lambert at Oakhurst: first one bad story, then another, then crowds of
+them, till the good man's kind heart was quite filled with grief and
+care, so that his family saw that something annoyed him. At first he
+would not speak on the matter at all, and put aside the wife's fond
+queries. Mrs. Lambert thought a great misfortune had happened; that
+her husband had been ruined; that he had been ordered on a dangerous
+service; that one of the boys was ill, disgraced, dead; who can resist
+an anxious woman, or escape the cross-examination of the conjugal
+pillow? Lambert was obliged to tell a part of what he knew about Harry
+Warrington. The wife was as much grieved and amazed as her husband had
+been. From papa's and mamma's bedroom the grief, after being stifled for
+a while under the bed-pillows there, came downstairs. Theo and Hester
+took the complaint after their parents, and had it very bad. O kind,
+little, wounded hearts! At first Hester turned red, flew into a great
+passion, clenched her little fists, and vowed she would not believe a
+word of the wicked stories; but she ended by believing them. Scandal
+almost always does master people; especially good and innocent people.
+Oh, the serpent they had nursed by their fire! Oh, the wretched,
+wretched boy! To think of his walking about with that horrible painted
+Frenchwoman, and giving her diamond necklaces, and parading his shame
+before all the society at the Wells! The three ladies having cried over
+the story, and the father being deeply moved by it, took the parson
+into their confidence. In vain he preached at church next Sunday his
+favourite sermon about scandal, and inveighed against our propensity to
+think evil. We repent we promise to do so no more; but when the next
+bad story comes about our neighbour we believe it. So did those kind,
+wretched Oakhurst folks believe what they heard about poor Harry
+Warrington.
+
+Harry Warrington meanwhile was a great deal too well pleased with
+himself to know how ill his friends were thinking of him, and was
+pursuing a very idle and pleasant, if unprofitable, life, without having
+the least notion of the hubbub he was creating, and the dreadful repute
+in which he was held by many good men. Coming out from a match at tennis
+with Mr. Batts, and pleased with his play and all the world, Harry
+overtook Colonel Wolfe, who had been on one of his visits to the lady
+of his heart. Harry held out his hand, which the Colonel took, but
+the latter's salutation was so cold, that the young man could not help
+remarking it, and especially noting how Mr. Wolfe, in return for a fine
+bow from Mr. Batts's hat, scarcely touched his own with his forefinger.
+The tennis Captain walked away looking somewhat disconcerted, Harry
+remaining behind to talk with his friend of Westerham. Mr. Wolfe walked
+by him for a while, very erect, silent, and cold.
+
+"I have not seen you these many days," says Harry.
+
+"You have had other companions," remarks Mr. Wolfe, curtly.
+
+"But I had rather be with you than any of them," cries the young man.
+
+"Indeed I might be better company for you than some of them," says the
+other.
+
+"Is it Captain Batts you mean?" asked Harry.
+
+"He is no favourite of mine, I own; he bore a rascally reputation when
+he was in the army, and I doubt has not mended it since he was turned
+out. You certainly might find a better friend than Captain Batts. Pardon
+the freedom which I take in saying so," says Mr. Wolfe, grimly.
+
+"Friend! he is no friend: he only teaches me to play tennis: he is
+hand-in-glove with my lord, and all the people of fashion here who
+play."
+
+"I am not a man of fashion," says Mr. Wolfe.
+
+"My dear Colonel, what is the matter? Have I angered you in any way? You
+speak almost as if I had, and I am not conscious of having done anything
+to forfeit your regard," said Mr. Warrington.
+
+"I will be free with you, Mr. Warrington," said the Colonel, gravely,
+"and tell you with frankness that I don't like some of your friends!"
+
+"Why, sure, they are men of the first rank and fashion in England,"
+cries Harry, not choosing to be offended with his companion's bluntness.
+
+"Exactly, they are men of too high rank and too great fashion for a
+hard-working poor soldier like me; and if you continue to live with
+such, believe me, you will find numbers of us humdrum people can't
+afford to keep such company. I am here, Mr. Warrington, paying my
+addresses to an honourable lady. I met you yesterday openly walking with
+a French ballet-dancer, and you took off your hat. I must frankly tell
+you, that I had rather you would not take off your hat when you go out
+in such company."
+
+"Sir," said Mr. Warrington, growing very red, "do you mean that I am to
+forgo the honour of Colonel Wolfe's acquaintance altogether?"
+
+"I certainly shall request you to do so when you are in company with
+that person," said Colonel Wolfe, angrily; but he used a word not to be
+written at present, though Shakespeare puts it in the mouth of Othello.
+
+"Great heavens! what a shame it is to speak so of any woman!" cries
+Mr. Warrington. "How dare any man say that that poor creature is not
+honest?"
+
+"You ought to know best, sir," says the other, looking at Harry with
+some surprise, "or the world belies you very much."
+
+"What ought I to know best? I see a poor little French dancer who is
+come hither with her mother, and is ordered by the doctors to drink the
+waters. I know that a person of my rank in life does not ordinarily
+keep company with people of hers; but really, Colonel Wolfe, are you so
+squeamish? Have I not heard you say that you did not value birth, and
+that all honest people ought to be equal? Why should I not give this
+little unprotected woman my arm? there are scarce half a dozen people
+here who can speak a word of her language. I can talk a little French,
+and she is welcome to it; and if Colonel Wolfe does not choose to touch
+his hat to me, when I am walking with her, by George he may leave it
+alone," cried Harry, flushing up.
+
+"You don't mean to say," says Mr. Wolfe, eyeing him, "that you don't
+know the woman's character?"
+
+"Of course, sir, she is a dancer, and, I suppose, no better or worse
+than her neighbours. But I mean to say that, had she been a duchess, or
+your grandmother, I couldn't have respected her more."
+
+"You don't mean to say that you did not win her at dice, from Lord
+March?"
+
+"At what?"
+
+"At dice, from Lord March. Everybody knows the story. Not a person at
+the Wells is ignorant of it. I heard it but now, in the company of that
+good old Mr. Richardson, and the ladies were saying that you would be a
+character for a colonial Lovelace."
+
+"What on earth else have they said about me?" asked Harry Warrington;
+and such stories as he knew the Colonel told. The most alarming accounts
+of his own wickedness and profligacy were laid before him. He was a
+corrupter of virtue, an habitual drunkard and gamester, a notorious
+blasphemer and freethinker, a fitting companion for my Lord March,
+finally, and the company into whose society he had fallen. "I tell you
+these things," said Mr. Wolfe, "because it is fair that you should know
+what is said of you, and because I do heartily believe, from your manner
+of meeting the last charge brought against you, that you are innocent of
+most of the other counts. I feel, Mr. Warrington, that I, for one, have
+been doing you a wrong; and sincerely ask you to pardon me."
+
+Of course, Harry was eager to accept his friend's apology, and they
+shook hands with sincere cordiality this time. In respect of most of the
+charges brought against him, Harry rebutted them easily enough: as for
+the play, he owned to it. He thought that a gentleman should not refuse
+a fair challenge from other gentlemen, if his means allowed him: and he
+never would play beyond his means. After winning considerably at first,
+he could afford to play large stakes, for he was playing with other
+people's money. Play, he thought, was fair,--it certainly was pleasant.
+Why, did not all England, except the Methodists, play? Had he not seen
+the best company at the Wells over the cards--his aunt amongst them?
+
+Mr. Wolfe made no immediate comment upon Harry's opinion as to the
+persons who formed the best company at the Wells, but he frankly talked
+with the young man, whose own frankness had won him, and warned him that
+the life he was leading might be the pleasantest, but surely was not the
+most profitable of lives. "It can't be, sir," said the Colonel, "that
+a man is to pass his days at horse-racing and tennis, and his nights
+carousing or at cards. Sure, every man was made to do some work: and a
+gentleman, if he has none, must make some. Do you know the laws of your
+country, Mr. Warrington? Being a great proprietor, you will doubtless
+one day be a magistrate at home. Have you travelled over the country,
+and made yourself acquainted with its trades and manufactures? These
+are fit things for a gentleman to study, and may occupy him as well as
+a cock-fight or a cricket-match. Do you know anything of our profession?
+That, at least, you will allow, is a noble one; and, believe me, there
+is plenty in it to learn, and suited, I should think, to you. I speak of
+it rather than of books and the learned professions, because, as far as
+I can judge, your genius does not lie that way. But honour is the aim of
+life," cried Mr. Wolfe, "and every man can serve his country one way or
+the other. Be sure, sir, that idle bread is the most dangerous of all
+that is eaten; that cards and pleasure may be taken by way of pastime
+after work, but not instead of work, and all day. And do you know, Mr.
+Warrington, instead of being the Fortunate Youth, as all the world calls
+you, I think you are rather Warrington the Unlucky, for you are followed
+by daily idleness, daily flattery, daily temptation, and the Lord, I
+say, send you a good, deliverance out of your good fortune."
+
+But Harry did not like to tell his aunt that afternoon why it was he
+looked so grave. He thought he would not drink, but there were some
+jolly fellows at the ordinary who passed the bottle round; and he meant
+not to play in the evening, but a fourth was wanted at his aunt's table,
+and how could he resist? He was the old lady's partner several times
+during the night, and he had Somebody's own luck to be sure; and once
+more he saw the dawn, and feasted on chickens and champagne at sunrise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. In which Harry continues to enjoy Otium sine Dignitate
+
+
+Whilst there were card-players enough to meet her at her lodgings and
+the assembly-rooms, Madame de Bernstein remained pretty contentedly at
+the Wells, scolding her niece, and playing her rubber. At Harry's age
+almost all places are pleasant, where you can have lively company,
+fresh air, and your share of sport and diversion. Even all pleasure is
+pleasant at twenty. We go out to meet it with alacrity, speculate upon
+its coming, and when its visit is announced, count the days until it and
+we shall come together. How very gently and coolly we regard it towards
+the close of Life's long season! Madam, don't you recollect your first
+ball; and does not your memory stray towards that happy past, sometimes,
+as you sit ornamenting the wall whilst your daughters are dancing? I,
+for my part, can remember when I thought it was delightful to walk three
+miles and back in the country to dine with old Captain Jones. Fancy
+liking to walk three miles, now, to dine with Jones and drink his
+half-pay port! No doubt it was bought from the little country-town
+wine-merchant, and cost but a small sum; but 'twas offered with a kindly
+welcome, and youth gave it a flavour which no age of wine or man can
+impart to it nowadays. Viximus nuper. I am not disposed to look so
+severely upon young Harry's conduct and idleness, as his friend the
+stern Colonel of the Twentieth Regiment. O blessed idleness! Divine lazy
+nymph! Reach me a novel as I lie in my dressing-gown at three o'clock in
+the afternoon; compound a sherry-cobbler for me, and bring me a cigar!
+Dear slatternly, smiling Enchantress! They may assail thee with bad
+names--swear thy character away, and call thee the Mother of Evil; but,
+for all that, thou art the best company in the world!
+
+My Lord of March went away to the North; and my Lord Chesterfield,
+finding the Tunbridge waters did no good to his deafness, returned to
+his solitude at Blackheath; but other gentlemen remained to sport and
+take their pleasure, and Mr. Warrington had quite enough of companions
+at his ordinary at the White Horse. He soon learned to order a French
+dinner as well as the best man of fashion out of St. James's; could
+talk to Monsieur Barbeau, in Monsieur B.'s native language, much more
+fluently than most other folks,--discovered a very elegant and decided
+taste in wines, and could distinguish between Clos Vougeot and Romande
+with remarkable skill. He was the young King of the Wells, of which
+the general frequenters were easygoing men of the world, who were by no
+means shocked at that reputation for gallantry and extravagance which
+Harry had got, and which had so frightened Mr. Wolfe.
+
+Though our Virginian lived amongst the revellers, and swam and sported
+in the same waters with the loose fish, the boy had a natural shrewdness
+and honesty which kept him clear of the snares and baits which are
+commonly set for the unwary. He made very few foolish bets with the
+jolly idle fellows round about him, and the oldest hands found it
+difficult to take him in. He engaged in games outdoors and in, because
+he had a natural skill and aptitude for them, and was good to hold
+almost any match with any fair competitor. He was scrupulous to play
+only with those gentlemen whom he knew, and always to settle his own
+debts on the spot. He would have made but a very poor figure at a
+college examination; though he possessed prudence and fidelity, keen,
+shrewd perception, great generosity, and dauntless personal courage.
+
+And he was not without occasions for showing of what stuff he was made.
+For instance, when that unhappy little Cattarina, who had brought him
+into so much trouble, carried her importunities beyond the mark at which
+Harry thought his generosity should stop, he withdrew from the advances
+of the Opera-House Siren with perfect coolness and skill, leaving her
+to exercise her blandishments upon some more easy victim. In vain the
+mermaid's hysterical mother waited upon Harry, and vowed that a cruel
+bailiff had seized all her daughter's goods for debt, and that her
+venerable father was at present languishing in a London gaol. Harry
+declared that between himself and the bailiff there could be no
+dealings, and that because he had had the good fortune to become known
+to Mademoiselle Cattarina, and to gratify her caprices by presenting her
+with various trinkets and knick-knacks for which she had a fancy, he was
+not bound to pay the past debts of her family, and must decline being
+bail for her papa in London, or settling her outstanding accounts at
+Tunbridge. The Cattarina's mother first called him a monster and an
+ingrate, and then asked him, with a veteran smirk, why he did not take
+pay for the services he had rendered to the young person? At first, Mr.
+Warrington could not understand what the nature of the payment might be:
+but when that matter was explained by the old woman, the honest lad
+rose up in horror, to think that a woman should traffic in her child's
+dishonour, told her that he came from a country where the very savages
+would recoil from such a bargain; and, having bowed the old lady
+ceremoniously to the door, ordered Gumbo to mark her well, and never
+admit her to his lodgings again. No doubt she retired breathing
+vengeance against the Iroquois: no Turk or Persian, she declared, would
+treat a lady so: and she and her daughter retreated to London as soon
+as their anxious landlord would let them. Then Harry had his perils of
+gaming, as well as his perils of gallantry. A man who plays at bowls,
+as the phrase is, must expect to meet with rubbers. After dinner at the
+ordinary, having declined to play piquet any further with Captain Batts,
+and being roughly asked his reason for refusing, Harry fairly told the
+Captain that he only played with gentlemen who paid, like himself:
+but expressed himself so ready to satisfy Mr. Batts, as soon as their
+outstanding little account was settled, that the Captain declared
+himself satisfied d'avance, and straightway left the Wells without
+paying Harry or any other creditor. Also he had an occasion to show
+his spirit by beating a chairman who was rude to old Miss Whiffler one
+evening as she was going to the assembly: and finding that the calumny
+regarding himself and that unlucky opera-dancer was repeated by Mr.
+Hector Buckler, one of the fiercest frequenters of the Wells, Mr.
+Warrington stepped up to Mr. Buckler in the pump-room, where the latter
+was regaling a number of water-drinkers with the very calumny, and
+publicly informed Mr. Buckler that the story was a falsehood, and that
+he should hold any person accountable to himself who henceforth uttered
+it. So that though our friend, being at Rome, certainly did as Rome did,
+yet he showed himself to be a valorous and worthy Roman; and, hurlant
+avec les loups, was acknowledged by Mr. Wolfe himself to be as brave as
+the best of the wolves.
+
+If that officer had told Colonel Lambert the stories which had given the
+latter so much pain, we may be sure that when Mr. Wolfe found his young
+friend was innocent, he took the first opportunity to withdraw the
+odious charges against him. And there was joy among the Lamberts,
+in consequence of the lad's acquittal--something, doubtless, of that
+pleasure, which is felt by higher natures than ours, at the recovery of
+sinners. Never had the little family been so happy--no, not even when
+they got the news of Brother Tom winning his scholarship--as when
+Colonel Wolfe rode over with the account of the conversation which he
+had with Harry Warrington. "Hadst thou brought me a regiment, James,
+I think I should not have been better pleased," said Mr. Lambert. Mrs.
+Lambert called to her daughters who were in the garden, and kissed
+them both when they came in, and cried out the good news to them. Hetty
+jumped for joy, and Theo performed some uncommonly brilliant operations
+upon the harpsichord that night; and when Dr. Boyle came in for his
+backgammon, he could not, at first, account for the illumination in all
+their faces, until the three ladies, in a happy chorus, told him how
+right he had been in his sermon, and how dreadfully they had wronged
+that poor dear, good young Mr. Warrington.
+
+"What shall we do, my dear?" says the Colonel to his wife. "The hay is
+in, the corn won't be cut for a fortnight,--the horses have nothing to
+do. Suppose we..." And here he leans over the table and whispers in her
+ear.
+
+"My dearest Martin! The very thing!" cries Mrs. Lambert, taking her
+husband's hand and pressing it.
+
+"What's the very thing, mother?" cries young Charley, who is home for
+his Bartlemytide holidays.
+
+"The very thing is to go to supper. Come, Doctor! We will have a bottle
+of wine to-night, and drink repentance to all who think evil."
+
+"Amen," says the Doctor; "with all my heart!" And with this the worthy
+family went to their supper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX. Contains a Letter to Virginia
+
+
+Having repaired one day to his accustomed dinner at the White Horse
+ordinary, Mr. Warrington was pleased to see amongst the faces round the
+table the jolly, good-looking countenance of Parson Sampson, who was
+regaling the company when Harry entered, with stories and bons-mots,
+which kept them in roars of laughter. Though he had not been in London
+for some months, the parson had the latest London news, or what passed
+for such with the folks at the ordinary: what was doing in the King's
+house at Kensington; and what in the Duke's in Pall Mall: how Mr. Byng
+was behaving in prison, and who came to him: what were the odds at
+Newmarket, and who was the last reigning toast in Covent Garden;--the
+jolly chaplain could give the company news upon all these points,--news
+that might not be very accurate indeed, but was as good as if it
+were for the country gentlemen who heard it. For suppose that my Lord
+Viscount Squanderfield was ruining himself for Mrs. Polly, and Sampson
+called her Mrs. Lucy? that it was Lady Jane who was in love with
+the actor, and not Lady Mary? that it was Harry Hilton, of the Horse
+Grenadiers, who had the quarrel with Chevalier Solingen, at Marybone
+Garden, and not Tommy Ruffler, of the Foot Guards? The names and dates
+did not matter much. Provided the stories were lively and wicked, their
+correctness was of no great importance; and Mr. Sampson laughed and
+chattered away amongst his country gentlemen, charmed them with his
+spirits and talk, and drank his share of one bottle after another, for
+which his delighted auditory persisted in calling. A hundred years ago,
+the Abbe Parson, the clergyman who frequented the theatre, the tavern,
+the racecourse, the world of fashion, was no uncommon character
+in English society: his voice might be heard the loudest in the
+hunting-field; he could sing the jolliest song at the Rose or the
+Bedford Head, after the play was over at Covent Garden, and could call a
+main as well as any at the gaming-table.
+
+It may have been modesty, or it may have been claret, which caused his
+reverence's rosy face to redden deeper, but when he saw Mr. Warrington
+enter, he whispered "Maxima debetur" to the laughing country squire who
+sat next him in his drab coat and gold-laced red waistcoat, and rose up
+from his chair and ran, nay, stumbled forward, in his haste to greet the
+Virginian: "My dear sir, my very dear sir, my conqueror of spades, and
+clubs, and hearts, too, I am delighted to see your honour looking so
+fresh and well," cries the chaplain.
+
+Harry returned the clergyman's greeting with great pleasure: he was glad
+to see Mr. Sampson; he could also justly compliment his reverence upon
+his cheerful looks and rosy gills.
+
+The squire in the drab coat knew Mr. Warrington; he made a place beside
+himself; he called out to the parson to return to his seat on the other
+side, and to continue his story about Lord Ogle and the grocer's wife
+in------. Where he did not say, for his sentence was interrupted by a
+shout and an oath addressed to the parson for treading on his gouty toe.
+
+The chaplain asked pardon, hurriedly turned round to Mr. Warrington,
+and informed him, and the rest of the company indeed, that my Lord
+Castlewood sent his affectionate remembrances to his cousin, and had
+given special orders to him (Mr. Sampson) to come to Tunbridge Wells and
+look after the young gentleman's morals; that my Lady Viscountess and my
+Lady Fanny were gone to Harrogate for the waters; that Mr. Will had won
+his money at Newmarket, and was going on a visit to my Lord Duke;
+that Molly the housemaid was crying her eyes out about Gumbo, Mr.
+Warrington's valet;--in fine, all the news of Castlewood and its
+neighbourhood. Mr. Warrington was beloved by all the country round,
+Mr. Sampson told the company, managing to introduce the names of some
+persons of the very highest rank into his discourse. "All Hampshire had
+heard of his successes at Tunbridge, successes of every kind," says
+Mr. Sampson, looking particularly arch; my lord hoped, their ladyships
+hoped, Harry would not be spoilt for his quiet Hampshire home.
+
+The guests dropped off one by one, leaving the young Virginian to his
+bottle of wine and the chaplain.
+
+"Though I have had plenty," says the jolly chaplain, "that is no reason
+why I should not have plenty more," and he drank toast after toast, and
+bumper after bumper, to the amusement of Harry, who always enjoyed his
+society.
+
+By the time when Sampson had had his "plenty more," Harry, too, was
+become specially generous, warm-hearted, and friendly. A lodging--why
+should Mr. Sampson go to the expense of an inn, when there was a room
+at Harry's quarters? The chaplain's trunk was ordered thither, Gumbo was
+bidden to make Mr. Sampson comfortable--most comfortable; nothing would
+satisfy Mr. Warrington but that Sampson should go down to his stables
+and see his horses; he had several horses now; and when at the stable
+Sampson recognised his own horse which Harry had won from him; and the
+fond beast whinnied with pleasure, and rubbed his nose against his old
+master's coat; Harry rapped out a brisk energetic expression or two, and
+vowed by Jupiter that Sampson should have his old horse back again:
+he would give him to Sampson, that he would; a gift which the chaplain
+accepted by seizing Harry's hand, and blessing him,--by flinging his
+arms round the horse's neck, and weeping for joy there, weeping tears
+of Bordeaux and gratitude. Arm-in-arm the friends walked to Madame
+Bernstein's from the stable, of which they brought the odours into her
+ladyship's apartment. Their flushed cheeks and brightened eyes showed
+what their amusement had been. Many gentlemen's cheeks were in the habit
+of flushing in those days, and from the same cause.
+
+Madame Bernstein received her nephew's chaplain kindly enough. The old
+lady relished Sampson's broad jokes and rattling talk from time to time,
+as she liked a highly-spiced dish or a new entree composed by her cook,
+upon its two or three first appearances. The only amusement of which she
+did not grow tired, she owned, was cards. "The cards don't cheat," she
+used to say. "A bad hand tells you the truth to your face: and there is
+nothing so flattering in the world as a good suite of trumps." And when
+she was in a good humour, and sitting down to her favourite pastime, she
+would laughingly bid her nephew's chaplain say grace before the meal.
+Honest Sampson did not at first care to take a hand at Tunbridge Wells.
+Her ladyship's play was too high for him, he would own, slapping his
+pocket with a comical piteous look, and its contents had already been
+handed over to the fortunate youth at Castlewood. Like most persons of
+her age, and indeed her sex, Madame Bernstein was not prodigal of money.
+I suppose it must have been from Harry Warrington, whose heart was
+overflowing with generosity as his purse with guineas, that the chaplain
+procured a small stock of ready coin, with which he was presently
+enabled to appear at the card-table.
+
+Our young gentleman welcomed Mr. Sampson to his coin, as to all the rest
+of the good things which he had gathered about him. 'Twas surprising how
+quickly the young Virginian adapted himself to the habits of life of
+the folks amongst whom he lived. His suits were still black, but of the
+finest cut and quality. "With a star and ribbon, and his stocking down,
+and his hair over his shoulder, he would make a pretty Hamlet," said the
+gay old Duchess Queensberry. "And I make no doubt he has been the death
+of a dozen Ophelias already, here and amongst the Indians," she added,
+thinking not at all the worse of Harry for his supposed successes among
+the fair. Harry's lace and linen were as fine as his aunt could desire.
+He purchased fine shaving-plate of the toy-shop women, and a couple of
+magnificent brocade bedgowns, in which his worship lolled at ease, and
+sipped his chocolate of a morning. He had swords and walking-canes, and
+French watches with painted backs and diamond settings, and snuff boxes
+enamelled by artists of the same cunning nation. He had a levee of
+grooms, jockeys, tradesmen, daily waiting in his anteroom, and admitted
+one by one to him and Parson Sampson, over his chocolate, by Gumbo, the
+groom of the chambers. We have no account of the number of men whom Mr.
+Gumbo now had under him. Certain it is that no single negro could have
+taken care of all the fine things which Mr. Warrington now possessed,
+let alone the horses and the postchaise which his honour had bought.
+Also Harry instructed himself in the arts which became a gentleman in
+those days. A French fencing-master, and a dancing-master of the same
+nation, resided at Tunbridge during that season when Harry made
+his appearance: these men of science the young Virginian sedulously
+frequented, and acquired considerable skill and grace in the peaceful
+and warlike accomplishments which they taught. Ere many weeks were over
+he could handle the foils against his master or any frequenter of the
+fencing-school,--and, with a sigh, Lady Maria (who danced very elegantly
+herself) owned that there was no gentleman at court who could walk a
+minuet more gracefully than Mr. Warrington. As for riding, though Mr.
+Warrington took a few lessons on the great horse from a riding-master
+who came to Tunbridge, he declared that their own Virginian manner was
+well enough for him, and that he saw no one amongst the fine folks
+and the jockeys who could ride better than his friend Colonel George
+Washington of Mount Vernon.
+
+The obsequious Sampson found himself in better quarters than he had
+enjoyed for ever so long a time. He knew a great deal of the world, and
+told a great deal more, and Harry was delighted with his stories, real
+or fancied. The man of twenty looks up to the man of thirty, admires
+the latter's old jokes, stale puns, and tarnished anecdotes, that are
+slopped with the wine of a hundred dinner-tables. Sampson's town and
+college pleasantries were all new and charming to the young Virginian. A
+hundred years ago,--no doubt there are no such people left in the world
+now,--there used to be grown men in London who loved to consort with
+fashionable youths entering life; to tickle their young fancies with
+merry stories; to act as Covent Garden Mentors and masters of ceremonies
+at the Round-house; to accompany lads to the gaming-table, and perhaps
+have an understanding with the punters; to drink lemonade to Master
+Hopeful's Burgundy, and to stagger into the streets with perfectly
+cool heads when my young lord reeled out to beat the watch. Of this, no
+doubt, extinct race, Mr. Sampson was a specimen: and a great comfort it
+is to think (to those who choose to believe the statement) that in Queen
+Victoria's reign there are no flatterers left, such as existed in the
+reign of her royal great-grandfather, no parasites pandering to the
+follies of young men; in fact, that all the toads have been eaten off
+the face of the island (except one or two that are found in stones,
+where they have lain perdus these hundred years), and the toad-eaters
+have perished for lack of nourishment.
+
+With some sauces, as I read, the above-mentioned animals are said to
+be exceedingly fragrant, wholesome, and savoury eating. Indeed, no man
+could look more rosy and healthy, or flourish more cheerfully, than
+friend Sampson upon the diet. He became our young friend's confidential
+leader, and, from the following letter, which is preserved in the
+Warrington correspondence, it will be seen that Mr. Harry not only
+had dancing and fencing masters, but likewise a tutor, chaplain, and
+secretary:--
+
+
+TO MRS. ESMOND WARRINGTON OF CASTLEWOOD AT HER HOUSE AT RICHMOND,
+VIRGINIA
+
+Mrs. Bligh's Lodgings, Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells,
+
+"August 25th, 1756.
+
+"HONOURED MADAM--Your honoured letter of 20 June, per Mr. Trail of
+Bristol, has been forwarded to me duly, and I have to thank your
+goodness and kindness for the good advice which you are pleased to give
+me, as also for the remembrances of dear home, which I shall love never
+the worse for having been to the home of our ancestors in England.
+
+"I writ you a letter by the last monthly packet, informing my honoured
+mother of the little accident I had on the road hither, and of the
+kind friends who I found and whom took me in. Since then I have been
+profiting of the fine weather and the good company here, and have made
+many friends among our nobility, whose acquaintance I am sure you will
+not be sorry that I should make. Among their lordships I may mention the
+famous Earl of Chesterfield, late Ambassador to Holland, and Viceroy of
+the Kingdom of Ireland; the Earl of March and Ruglen, who will be Duke
+of Queensberry at the death of his Grace; and her Grace the Duchess, a
+celebrated beauty of the Queen's time, when she remembers my grandpapa
+at Court. These and many more persons of the first fashion attend my
+aunt's assemblies, which are the most crowded at this crowded place.
+Also on my way hither I stayed at Westerham, at the house of an officer,
+Lieut.-Gen. Wolfe, who served with my grandfather and General Webb
+in the famous wars of the Duke of Marlborough. Mr. Wolfe has a son,
+Lieut.-Col. James Wolfe, engaged to be married to a beautiful lady now
+in this place, Miss Lowther of the North--and though but 30 years old he
+is looked up to as much as any officer in the whole army, and has served
+with honour under his Royal Highness the Duke wherever our arms have
+been employed.
+
+"I thank my honoured mother for announcing to me that a quarter's
+allowance of 52l. 10s. will be paid me by Mr. Trail. I am in no present
+want of cash, and by practising a rigid economy, which will be necessary
+(as I do not disguise) for the maintenance of horses, Gumbo, and the
+equipage and apparel requisite for a young gentleman of good family,
+hope to be able to maintain my credit without unduly trespassing upon
+yours. The linnen and clothes which I brought with me will with due care
+last for some years--as you say. 'Tis not quite so fine as worn here by
+persons of fashion, and I may have to purchase a few very fine shirts
+for great days: but those I have are excellent for daily wear.
+
+"I am thankful that I have been quite without occasion to use your
+excellent family pills. Gumbo hath taken them with great benefit, who
+grows fat and saucy upon English beef, ale, and air. He sends his humble
+duty to his mistress, and prays Mrs. Mountain to remember him to all
+his fellow-servants, especially Dinah and Lily, for whom he has bought
+posey-rings at Tunbridge Fair.
+
+"Besides partaking of all the pleasures of the place, I hope my honoured
+mother will believe that I have not been unmindful of my education.
+I have had masters in fencing and dancing, and my Lord Castlewood's
+chaplain, the Reverend Mr. Sampson, having come hither to drink the
+waters, has been so good as to take a vacant room at my lodging. Mr. S.
+breakfasts with me, and we read together of a morning--he saying that I
+am not quite such a dunce as I used to appear at home. We have read
+in Mr. Rapin's History, Dr. Barrow's Sermons, and, for amusement,
+Shakspeare, Mr. Pope's Homer, and (in French) the translation of an
+Arabian Work of Tales, very diverting. Several men of learning have been
+staying here besides the persons of fashion; and amongst the former was
+Mr. Richardson, the author of the famous books which you and Mountain
+and my dearest brother used to love so. He was pleased when I told him
+that his works were in your closet in Virginia, and begged me to convey
+his respectful compliments to my lady-mother. Mr. R. is a short fat man,
+with little of the fire of genius visible in his eye or person.
+
+"My aunt and my cousin, the Lady Maria, desire their affectionate
+compliments to you, and with best regards for Mountain, to whom I
+enclose a note, I am,--Honoured madam, your dutiful son, H. ESMOND
+WARRINGTON."
+
+Note in Madam Esmond's Handwriting,
+
+"From my son. Received October 15 at Richmond. Sent 16 jars preserved
+peaches, 224 lbs. best tobacco, 24 finest hams, per Royal William of
+Liverpool, 8 jars peaches, 12 hams for my nephew, the Rt. Honourable
+the Earl of Castlewood. 4 jars, 6 hams for the Baroness Bernstein, ditto
+ditto for Mrs. Lambert of Oakhurst, Surrey, and 1/2 cwt. tobacco.
+Packet of Infallible Family Pills for Gumbo. My Papa's large silver-gilt
+shoe-buckles for H., and red silver-laced saddle-cloth."
+
+
+II. (enclosed in No. I.)
+
+"For Mrs. Mountain.
+
+"What do you mien, you silly old Mountain, by sending an order for your
+poor old divadends dew at Xmas? I'd have you to know I don't want your
+7l. 10, and have toar your order up into 1000 bitts. I've plenty of
+money. But I'm obleaged to you all same. A kiss to Fanny from--Your
+loving HARRY."
+
+Note in Madam Esmond's Handwriting
+
+"This note, which I desired M. to show to me, proves that she hath a
+good heart, and that she wished to show her gratitude to the family, by
+giving up her half-yearly divd. (on L500 3 per ct.) to my boy. Hence
+I reprimanded her very slightly for daring to send money to Mr. E.
+Warrington, unknown to his mother. Note to Mountain not so well spelt as
+letter to me.
+
+"Mem. to write to Revd. Mr. Sampson desire to know what theolog. books
+he reads with H. Recommend Law, Baxter, Drelincourt.--Request H. to say
+his catechism to Mr. S., which he has never quite been able to master.
+By next ship peaches (3), tobacco 1/2 cwt. Hams for Mr. S."
+
+
+The mother of the Virginians and her sons have long long since passed
+away. So how are we to account for the fact, that of a couple of letters
+sent under one enclosure and by one packet, one should be well spelt,
+and the other not entirely orthographical? Had Harry found some
+wonderful instructor, such as exists in the present lucky times, and
+who would improve his writing in six lessons? My view of the case, after
+deliberately examining the two notes, is this: No. 1, in which there
+appears a trifling grammatical slip ("the kind, friends who I found and
+whom took me in"), must have been re-written from a rough copy which
+had probably undergone the supervision of a tutor or friend. The more
+artless composition, No. 2, was not referred to the scholar who prepared
+No. 1 for the maternal eye, and to whose corrections of "who" and "whom"
+Mr. Warrington did not pay very close attention. Who knows how he
+may have been disturbed? A pretty milliner may have attracted Harry's
+attention out of window--a dancing bear with pipe and tabor may have
+passed along the common--a jockey come under his windows to show off a
+horse there? There are some days when any of us may be ungrammatical and
+spell ill. Finally, suppose Harry did not care to spell so elegantly for
+Mrs. Mountain as for his lady-mother, what affair is that of the
+present biographer, century, reader? And as for your objection that Mr.
+Warrington, in the above communication to his mother, showed some little
+hypocrisy and reticence in his dealings with that venerable person, I
+dare say, young folks, you in your time have written more than one prim
+letter to your papas and mammas in which not quite all the transactions
+of your lives were narrated, or if narrated, were exhibited in the most
+favourable light for yourselves--I dare say, old folks! you, in your
+time, were not altogether more candid. There must be a certain distance
+between me and my son Jacky. There must be a respectful, an amiable, a
+virtuous hypocrisy between us. I do not in the least wish that he should
+treat me as his equal, that he should contradict me, take my arm-chair,
+read the newspaper first at breakfast, ask unlimited friends to dine
+when I have a party of my own, and so forth. No; where there is not
+equality there must be hypocrisy. Continue to be blind to my faults; to
+hush still as mice when I fall asleep after dinner; to laugh at my old
+jokes; to admire my sayings; to be astonished at the impudence of those
+unbelieving reviewers; to be dear filial humbugs, O my children! In my
+castle I am king. Let all my royal household back before me. 'Tis not
+their natural way of walking, I know: but a decorous, becoming, and
+modest behaviour highly agreeable to me. Away from me they may do, nay,
+they do do, what they like. They may jump, skip, dance, trot, tumble
+over heads and heels, and kick about freely, when they are out of the
+presence of my majesty. Do not then, my dear young friends, be surprised
+at your mother and aunt when they cry out, "Oh, it was highly immoral
+and improper of Mr. Warrington to be writing home humdrum demure letters
+to his dear mamma, when he was playing all sorts of merry pranks!"--but
+drop a curtsey, and say, "Yes, dear grandmamma (or aunt, as may be),
+it was very wrong of him: and I suppose you never had your fun when you
+were young." Of course, she didn't! And the sun never shone, and the
+blossoms never budded, and the blood never danced, and the fiddles never
+sang, in her spring-time. Eh, Babet! mon lait de poule et mon bonnet
+de nuit! Ho, Betty! my gruel and my slippers! And go, ye frisky, merry
+little souls! and dance, and have your merry little supper of cakes and
+ale!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. The Bear and the Leader
+
+
+Our candid readers know the real state of the case regarding Harry
+Warrington and that luckless Cattarina; but a number of the old ladies
+at Tunbridge Wells supposed the Virginian to be as dissipated as any
+young English nobleman of the highest quality, and Madame de Bernstein
+was especially incredulous about her nephew's innocence. It was the old
+lady's firm belief that Harry was leading not only a merry life, but a
+wicked one, and her wish was father to the thought that the lad might
+be no better than his neighbours. An old Roman herself, she liked her
+nephew to do as Rome did. All the scandal regarding Mr. Warrington's
+Lovelace adventures she eagerly and complacently accepted. We have seen
+how, on one or two occasions, he gave tea and music to the company at
+the Wells; and he was so gallant and amiable to the ladies (to ladies of
+a much better figure and character than the unfortunate Cattarina), that
+Madame Bernstein ceased to be disquieted regarding the silly love affair
+which had had a commencement at Castlewood, and relaxed in her vigilance
+over Lady Maria. Some folks--many old folks--are too selfish to interest
+themselves long about the affairs of their neighbours. The Baroness had
+her trumps to think of, her dinners, her twinges of rheumatism: and her
+suspicions regarding Maria and Harry, lately so lively, now dozed, and
+kept a careless, unobservant watch. She may have thought that the danger
+was over, or she may have ceased to care whether it existed or not, or
+that artful Maria, by her conduct, may have quite cajoled, soothed, and
+misguided the old Dragon, to whose charge she was given over. At Maria's
+age, nay, earlier indeed, maidens have learnt to be very sly, and at
+Madame Bernstein's time of life dragons are not so fierce and alert.
+They cannot turn so readily, some of their old teeth have dropped out,
+and their eyes require more sleep than they needed in days when they
+were more active, venomous, and dangerous. I, for my part, know a few
+female dragons, de par le monde, and, as I watch them and remember what
+they were, admire the softening influence of years upon these whilom
+destroyers of man- and woman-kind. Their scales are so soft that any
+knight with a moderate power of thrust can strike them: their claws,
+once strong enough to tear out a thousand eyes, only fall with a feeble
+pat that scarce raises the skin: their tongues, from their toothless old
+gums, dart a venom which is rather disagreeable than deadly. See them
+trailing their languid tails, and crawling home to their caverns
+at roosting-time! How weak are their powers of doing injury! their
+maleficence how feeble! How changed are they since the brisk days when
+their eyes shot wicked fire; their tongue spat poison; their breath
+blasted reputation; and they gobbled up a daily victim at least!
+
+If the good folks at Oakhurst could not resist the testimony which
+was brought to them regarding Harry's ill-doings, why should Madame
+Bernstein, who in the course of her long days had had more experience of
+evil than all the Oakhurst family put together, be less credulous
+than they? Of course every single old woman of her ladyship's society
+believed every story that was told about Mr. Harry Warrington's
+dissipated habits, and was ready to believe as much more ill of him as
+you please. When the little dancer went back to London, as she did,
+it was because that heartless Harry deserted her. He deserted her for
+somebody else, whose name was confidently given,--whose name?--whose
+half-dozen names the society at Tunbridge Wells would whisper about;
+where there congregated people of all ranks and degrees, women of
+fashion, women of reputation, of demi-reputation, of virtue, of no
+virtue,--all mingling in the same rooms, dancing to the same fiddles,
+drinking out of the same glasses at the Wells, and alike in search of
+health, or society, or pleasure. A century ago, and our ancestors, the
+most free or the most straitlaced, met together at a score of such merry
+places as that where our present scene lies, and danced, and frisked,
+and gamed, and drank at Epsom, Bath, Tunbridge, Harrogate, as they do at
+Homburg and Baden now.
+
+Harry's bad reputation, then, comforted his old aunt exceedingly, and
+eased her mind in respect to the boy's passion for Lady Maria. So easy
+was she in her mind, that when the chaplain said he came to escort
+her ladyship home, Madame Bernstein did not even care to part from her
+niece. She preferred rather to keep her under her eye, to talk to her
+about her wicked young cousin's wild extravagances, to whisper to her
+that boys would be boys, to confide to Maria her intention of getting
+a proper wife for Harry,--some one of a suitable age,--some one with a
+suitable fortune,--all which pleasantries poor Maria had to bear with as
+much fortitude as she could muster.
+
+There lived, during the last century, a certain French duke and marquis,
+who distinguished himself in Europe, and America likewise, and has
+obliged posterity by leaving behind him a choice volume of memoirs,
+which the gentle reader is specially warned not to consult. Having
+performed the part of Don Juan in his own country, in ours, and in
+other parts of Europe, he has kindly noted down the names of many
+court-beauties who fell victims to his powers of fascination; and very
+pleasant reading no doubt it must be for the grandsons and descendants
+of the fashionable persons amongst whom our brilliant nobleman moved,
+to find the names of their ancestresses adorning M. le Duc's sprightly
+pages, and their frailties recorded by the candid writer who caused
+them.
+
+In the course of the peregrinations of this nobleman, he visited North
+America, and, as had been his custom in Europe, proceeded straightway to
+fall in love. And curious it is to contrast the elegant refinements of
+European society, where, according to monseigneur, he had but to lay
+siege to a woman in order to vanquish her, with the simple lives and
+habits of the colonial folks, amongst whom this European enslaver of
+hearts did not, it appears, make a single conquest. Had he done so, he
+would as certainly have narrated his victories in Pennsylvania and New
+England, as he described his successes in this and his own country.
+Travellers in America have cried out quite loudly enough against the
+rudeness and barbarism of transatlantic manners; let the present writer
+give the humble testimony of his experience that the conversation of
+American gentlemen is generally modest, and, to the best of his belief,
+the lives of the women pure.
+
+We have said that Mr. Harry Warrington brought his colonial modesty
+along with him to the old country; and though he could not help hearing
+the free talk of the persons amongst whom he lived, and who were men
+of pleasure and the world, he sat pretty silent himself in the midst of
+their rattle; never indulged in double entendre in his conversation
+with women; had no victories over the sex to boast of; and was shy and
+awkward when he heard such narrated by others.
+
+This youthful modesty Mr. Sampson had remarked during his intercourse
+with the lad at Castlewood, where Mr. Warrington had more than once
+shown himself quite uneasy whilst cousin Will was telling some of his
+choice stories; and my lord had curtly rebuked his brother, bidding
+him keep his jokes for the usher's table at Kensington, and not give
+needless offence to their kinsman. Hence the exclamation of "Reverentia
+pueris," which the chaplain had addressed to his neighbour at the
+ordinary on Harry's first appearance there. Mr. Sampson, if he had not
+strength sufficient to do right himself, at least had grace enough not
+to offend innocent young gentlemen by his cynicism.
+
+The chaplain was touched by Harry's gift of the horse; and felt a
+genuine friendliness towards the lad. "You see, sir," says he, "I am of
+the world, and must do as the rest of the world does. I have led a rough
+life, Mr. Warrington, and can't afford to be more particular than my
+neighbours. Video meliora, deteriora sequor, as we said at college. I
+have got a little sister, who is at boarding-school, not very far from
+here, and, as I keep a decent tongue in my head when I am talking with
+my little Patty, and expect others to do as much, sure I may try and do
+as much by you."
+
+The chaplain was loud in his praises of Harry to his aunt, the old
+Baroness. She liked to hear him praised. She was as fond of him as she
+could be of anything; was pleased in his company, with his good looks,
+his manly courageous bearing, his blushes, which came so readily, his
+bright eyes, his deep youthful voice. His shrewdness and simplicity
+constantly amused her; she would have wearied of him long before, had he
+been clever, or learned, or witty, or other than he was. "We must find
+a good wife for him, Chaplain," she said to Mr. Sampson. "I have one or
+two in my eye, who, I think, will suit him. We must set him up here;
+he never will bear going back to his savages again, or to live with his
+little Methodist of a mother."
+
+Now about this point Mr. Sampson, too, was personally anxious, and
+had also a wife in his eye for Harry. I suppose he must have had some
+conversations with his lord at Castlewood, whom we have heard expressing
+some intention of complimenting his chaplain with a good living or other
+provision, in event of his being able to carry out his lordship's wishes
+regarding a marriage for Lady Maria. If his good offices could help that
+anxious lady to a husband, Sampson was ready to employ them: and he now
+waited to see in what most effectual manner he could bring his influence
+to bear.
+
+Sampson's society was most agreeable, and he and his young friend were
+intimate in the course of a few hours. The parson rejoiced in
+high spirits, good appetite, good humour; pretended to no sort of
+squeamishness, and indulged in no sanctified hypocritical conversation;
+nevertheless, he took care not to shock his young friend by any needless
+outbreaks of levity or immorality of talk, initiating his pupil, perhaps
+from policy, perhaps from compunction, only into the minor mysteries,
+as it were; and not telling him the secrets with which the unlucky adept
+himself was only too familiar. With Harry, Sampson was only a brisk,
+lively, jolly companion, ready for any drinking bout, or any sport, a
+cock-fight, a shooting-match, a game at cards, or a gallop across the
+common; but his conversation was decent, and he tried much more to
+amuse the young man, than to lead him astray. The chaplain was quite
+successful: he had immense animal spirits as well as natural wit, and
+aptitude as well as experience in that business of toad-eater which
+had been his calling and livelihood from his very earliest years,--ever
+since he first entered college as a servitor, and cast about to see by
+whose means he could make his fortune in life. That was but satire just
+now, when we said there were no toad-eaters left in the world. There are
+many men of Sampson's profession now, doubtless; nay, little boys at our
+public schools are sent thither at the earliest age, instructed by their
+parents, and put out apprentices to toad-eating. But the flattery is not
+so manifest as it used to be a hundred years since. Young men and old
+have hangers-on, and led captains, but they assume an appearance of
+equality, borrow money, or swallow their toads in private, and walk
+abroad arm-in-arm with the great man, and call him by his name without
+his title. In those good old times, when Harry Warrington first came
+to Europe, a gentleman's toad-eater pretended to no airs of equality at
+all; openly paid court to his patron, called him by that name to other
+folks, went on his errands for him,--any sort of errands which the
+patron might devise,--called him sir in speaking to him, stood up in
+his presence until bidden to sit down, and flattered him ex officio. Mr.
+Sampson did not take the least shame in speaking of Harry as his young
+patron,--as a young Virginian nobleman recommended to him by his other
+noble patron, the Earl of Castlewood. He was proud of appearing at
+Harry's side, and as his humble retainer, in public talked about him to
+the company, gave orders to Harry's tradesmen, from whom, let us hope,
+he received a percentage in return for his recommendations, performed
+all the functions of aide-de-camp--others, if our young gentleman
+demanded them from the obsequious divine, who had gaily discharged the
+duties of ami du prince to ever so many young men of fashion, since
+his own entrance into the world. It must be confessed that, since his
+arrival in Europe, Mr. Warrington had not been uniformly lucky in the
+friendships which he had made.
+
+"What a reputation, sir, they have made for you in this place!" cries
+Mr. Sampson, coming back from the coffee-house to his patron. "Monsieur
+de Richelieu was nothing to you!"
+
+"How do you mean, Monsieur de Richelieu?--Never was at Minorca in my
+life," says downright Harry, who had not heard of those victories at
+home, which made the French duke famous.
+
+Mr. Sampson explained. The pretty widow Patcham who had just arrived
+was certainly desperate about Mr. Warrington: her way of going on at
+the rooms, the night before, proved that. As for Mrs. Hooper, that was a
+known case, and the Alderman had fetched his wife back to London for no
+other reason. It was the talk of the whole Wells.
+
+"Who says so?" cries out Harry, indignantly. "I should like to meet the
+man who dares say so, and confound the villain!"
+
+"I should not like to show him to you," says Mr. Sampson, laughing. "It
+might be the worse for him."
+
+"It's a shame to speak with such levity about the character of ladies or
+of gentlemen either," continues Mr. Warrington, pacing up and down the
+room in a fume.
+
+"So I told them," says the chaplain, wagging his head and looking very
+much moved and very grave, though, if the truth were known, it had never
+come into his mind at all to be angry at hearing charges of this nature
+against Harry.
+
+"It's a shame, I say, to talk away the reputation of any man or woman as
+people do here. Do you know, in our country, a fellow's ears would not
+be safe; and a little before I left home, three brothers shot down a
+man, for having spoken ill of their sister."
+
+"Serve the villain right!" cries Sampson.
+
+"Already they have had that calumny about me set a-going here,
+Sampson,--about me and the poor little French dancing-girl."
+
+"I have heard," says Mr. Sampson, shaking powder out of his wig.
+
+"Wicked; wasn't it?"
+
+"Abominable."
+
+"They said the very same thing about my Lord March. Isn't it shameful?"
+
+"Indeed it is," says Mr. Sampson, preserving a face of wonderful
+gravity.
+
+"I don't know what I should do if these stories were to come to my
+mother's ears. It would break her heart, I do believe it would. Why,
+only a few days before you came, a military friend of mine, Mr. Wolfe,
+told me how the most horrible lies were circulated about me. Good
+heavens! What do they think a gentleman of my name and country can
+be capable of--I a seducer of women? They might as well say I was a
+horse-stealer or a housebreaker. I vow if I hear any man say so, I'll
+have his ears!"
+
+"I have read, sir, that the Grand Seignior of Turkey has bushels of ears
+sometimes sent in to him," says Mr. Sampson, laughing. "If you took all
+those that had heard scandal against you or others, what basketsful you
+would fill!"
+
+"And so I would, Sampson, as soon as look at 'em:--any fellow's who said
+a word against a lady or a gentleman of honour!" cries the Virginian.
+
+"If you'll go down to the Well, you'll find a harvest of 'em. I just
+came from there. It was the high tide of Scandal. Detraction was at its
+height. And you may see the nymphas discentes and the aures satyrorum
+acutas," cries the chaplain, with a shrug of his shoulders.
+
+"That may be as you say, Sampson," Mr. Warrington replies, "but if ever
+I hear any man speak against my character I'll punish him. Mark that."
+
+"I shall be very sorry for his sake, that I should; for you'll mark him
+in a way he won't like, sir; and I know you are a man of your word."
+
+"You may be sure of that, Sampson. And now shall we go to dinner, and
+afterwards to my Lady Trumpington's tea?"
+
+"You know, sir, I can't resist a card or a bottle," says Mr. Sampson.
+"Let us have the last first and then the first shall come last." And
+with this the two gentlemen went off to their accustomed place of
+refection.
+
+That was an age in which wine-bibbing was more common than in our
+politer time; and, especially since the arrival of General Braddock's
+army in his native country, our young Virginian had acquired rather
+a liking for the filling of bumpers and the calling of toasts; having
+heard that it was a point of honour among the officers never to decline
+a toast or a challenge. So Harry and his chaplain drank their claret in
+peace and plenty, naming, as the simple custom was, some favourite lady
+with each glass.
+
+The chaplain had reasons of his own for desiring to know how far
+the affair between Harry and my Lady Maria had gone; whether it was
+advancing, or whether it was ended; and he and his young friend were
+just warm enough with the claret to be able to talk with that great
+eloquence, that candour, that admirable friendliness, which good wine
+taken in rather injudicious quantity inspires. O kindly harvests of
+the Aquitanian grape! O sunny banks of Garonne! O friendly caves of
+Gledstane and Morol, where the dusky flasks lie recondite! May we not
+say a word of thanks for all the pleasure we owe you? Are the Temperance
+men to be allowed to shout in the public places? are the Vegetarians to
+bellow "Cabbage for ever?" and may we modest Enophilists not sing the
+praises of our favourite plant? After the drinking of good Bordeaux
+wine, there is a point (I do not say a pint) at which men arrive, when
+all the generous faculties of the soul are awakened and in full vigour;
+when the wit brightens and breaks out in sudden flashes; when the
+intellects are keenest; when the pent-up words and confined thoughts get
+a night-rule, and rush abroad and disport themselves; when the kindliest
+affection, come out and shake hands with mankind, and the timid Truth
+jumps up naked out of his well and proclaims himself to all the world.
+How, by the kind influence of the wine-cup, we succour the poor and
+humble! How bravely we rush to the rescue of the oppressed! I say, in
+the face of all the pumps which ever spouted, that there is a moment in
+a bout of good wine at which, if a man could but remain, wit, wisdom,
+courage, generosity, eloquence, happiness were his; but the moment
+passes, and that other glass somehow spoils the state of beatitude.
+There is a headache in the morning; we are not going into Parliament
+for our native town; we are not going to shoot those French officers
+who have been speaking disrespectfully of our country; and poor Jeremy
+Diddler calls about eleven o'clock for another half-sovereign, and we
+are unwell in bed, and can't see him, and send him empty away.
+
+Well, then, as they sate over their generous cups, the company having
+departed, and the bottle of claret being brought in by Monsieur Barbeau,
+the chaplain found himself in an eloquent state, with a strong desire
+for inculcating sublime moral precepts whilst Harry was moved by an
+extreme longing to explain his whole private history, and to impart all
+his present feelings to his new friend. Mark that fact. Why must a
+man say everything that comes uppermost in his noble mind, because,
+forsooth, he has swallowed a half-pint more wine than he ordinarily
+drinks? Suppose I had committed a murder (of course I allow the sherry,
+and champagne at dinner), should I announce that homicide somewhere
+about the third bottle (in a small party of men) of claret at dessert?
+Of course: and hence the fidelity to water-gruel announced a few pages
+back.
+
+"I am glad to hear what your conduct has really been with regard to the
+Cattarina, Mr. Warrington; I am glad from my soul," says the impetuous
+chaplain. "The wine is with you. You have shown that you can bear down
+calumny, and resist temptation. Ah! my dear sir, men are not all so
+fortunate. What famous good wine this is!" and he sucks up a glass with
+"A toast from you, my dear sir, if you please?"
+
+"I give you 'Miss Fanny Mountain, of Virginia,'" says Mr. Warrington,
+filling a bumper as his thoughts fly straightway, ever so many thousand
+miles, to home.
+
+"One of your American conquests, I suppose?" says the chaplain.
+
+"Nay, she is but ten years old, and I have never made any conquests at
+all in Virginia, Mr. Sampson," says the young gentleman.
+
+"You are like a true gentleman, and don't kiss and tell, sir."
+
+"I neither kiss nor tell. It isn't the custom of our country, Sampson,
+to ruin girls, or frequent the society of low women. We Virginian
+gentlemen honour women: we don't wish to bring them to shame," cries the
+young toper, looking very proud and handsome. "The young lady whose
+name I mentioned hath lived in our family since her infancy, and I would
+shoot the man who did her a wrong;--by Heaven, I would!"
+
+"Your sentiments do you honour! Let me shake hands with you! I will
+shake hands with you, Mr. Warrington," cried the enthusiastic Sampson.
+"And let me tell you 'tis the grasp of honest friendship offered you,
+and not merely the poor retainer paying court to the wealthy patron. No!
+with such liquor as this, all men are equal;--faith, all men are rich,
+whilst it lasts! and Tom Sampson is as wealthy with his bottle as your
+honour with all the acres of your principality!"
+
+"Let us have another bottle of riches," says Harry, with a laugh.
+"Encore du cachet jaune, mon bon Monsieur Barbeau!" and exit Monsieur
+Barbeau to the caves below.
+
+"Another bottle of riches! Capital, capital! How beautifully you speak
+French, Mr. Harry!"
+
+"I do speak it well," says Harry. "At least, when I speak, Monsieur
+Barbeau understands me well enough."
+
+"You do everything well, I think. You succeed in whatever you try. That
+is why they have fancied here you have won the hearts of so many women,
+sir."
+
+"There you go again about the women! I tell you I don't like these
+stories about women. Confound me, Sampson, why is a gentleman's
+character to be blackened so?"
+
+"Well, at any rate, there is one, unless my eyes deceive me very much
+indeed, sir!" cries the chaplain.
+
+"Whom do you mean?" asked Harry, flushing very red.
+
+"Nay, I name no names. It isn't for a poor chaplain to meddle with his
+betters' doings, or to know their thoughts," says Mr. Sampson.
+
+"Thoughts! what thoughts, Sampson?"
+
+"I fancied I saw, on the part of a certain lovely and respected lady at
+Castlewood, a preference exhibited. I fancied, on the side of a certain
+distinguished young gentleman, a strong liking manifested itself: but I
+may have been wrong, and ask pardon."
+
+"Oh, Sampson, Sampson!" broke out the young man. "I tell you I am
+miserable. I tell you I have been longing for some one to confide in,
+or ask advice of. You do know, then, that there has been something
+going on--something between me and--help Mr. Sampson, Monsieur
+Barbeau--and--and some one else?"
+
+"I have watched it this month past," says the chaplain.
+
+"Confound me, sir, do you mean you have been a spy on me?" says the
+other hotly.
+
+"A spy! You made little disguise of the matter, Mr. Warrington, and
+her ladyship wasn't a much better hand at deceiving. You were always
+together. In the shrubberies, in the walks, in the village, in the
+galleries of the house,--you always found a pretext for being together,
+and plenty of eyes besides mine watched you."
+
+"Gracious powers! What did you see, Sampson?" cries the lad.
+
+"Nay, sir, 'tis forbidden to kiss and tell. I say so again," says the
+chaplain.
+
+The young man turned very red. "Oh, Sampson!" he cried, "can I--can I
+confide in you?"
+
+"Dearest sir--dear generous youth--you know I would shed my heart's
+blood for you!" exclaimed the chaplain, squeezing his patron's hand, and
+turning a brilliant pair of eyes ceilingwards.
+
+"Oh, Sampson! I tell you I am miserable. With all this play and wine,
+whilst I have been here, I tell you I have been trying to drive away
+care. I own to you that when we were at Castlewood there were things
+passed between a certain lady and me."
+
+The parson gave a slight whistle over his glass of Bordeaux.
+
+"And they've made me wretched, those things have. I mean, you see, that
+if a gentleman has given his word, why, it's his word, and he must stand
+by it, you know. I mean that I thought I loved her,--and so I do very
+much, and she's a most dear, kind, darling, affectionate creature, and
+very handsome, too,--quite beautiful; but then, you know, our ages,
+Sampson! Think of our ages, Sampson! She's as old as my mother!"
+
+"Who would never forgive you."
+
+"I don't intend to let anybody meddle in my affairs, not Madam Esmond
+nor anybody else," cries Harry: "but you see, Sampson, she is old--and,
+oh, hang it! Why did Aunt Bernstein tell me----?"
+
+"Tell you what?"
+
+"Something I can't divulge to anybody, something that tortures me!"
+
+"Not about the--the----" the chaplain paused: he was going to say about
+her ladyship's little affair with the French dancing-master; about other
+little anecdotes affecting her character. But he had not drunk wine
+enough to be quite candid, or too much, and was past the real moment of
+virtue.
+
+"Yes, yes, every one of 'em false--every one of 'em!" shrieks out Harry.
+
+"Great powers, what do you mean?" asks his friend.
+
+"These, sir, these!" says Harry, beating a tattoo on his own white
+teeth. "I didn't know it when I asked her. I swear I didn't know it.
+Oh, it's horrible--it's horrible! and it has caused me nights of agony,
+Sampson. My dear old grandfather had a set a Frenchman at Charleston
+made them for him, and we used to look at 'em grinning in a tumbler, and
+when they were out, his jaws used to fall in--I never thought she had
+'em."
+
+"Had what, sir?" again asked the chaplain.
+
+"Confound it, sir, don't you see I mean teeth?" says Harry, rapping the
+table.
+
+"Nay, only two."
+
+"And how the devil do you know, sir?" asks the young man, fiercely.
+
+"I--I had it from her maid. She had two teeth knocked out by a stone
+which cut her lip a little, and they have been replaced."
+
+"Oh, Sampson, do you mean to say they ain't all sham ones?" cries the
+boy.
+
+"But two, sir, at least so Peggy told me, and she would just as soon
+have blabbed about the whole two-and-thirty--the rest are as sound as
+yours, which are beautiful."
+
+"And her hair, Sampson, is that all right, too?" asks the young
+gentleman.
+
+"'Tis lovely--I have seen that. I can take my oath to that. Her ladyship
+can sit upon it; and her figure is very fine; and her skin is as white
+as snow; and her heart is the kindest that ever was; and I know, that is
+I feel sure, it is very tender about you, Mr. Warrington."
+
+"Oh, Sampson! Heaven, Heaven bless you! What a weight you've taken off
+my mind with those--those--never mind them! Oh, Sam! How happy--that is,
+no, no--ob, how miserable I am! She's as old as Madam Esmond--by George
+she is--she's as old as my mother. You wouldn't have a fellow marry
+a woman as old as his mother? It's too bad: by George it is. It's too
+bad." And here, I am sorry to say, Harry Esmond Warrington, Esquire, of
+Castlewood, in Virginia, began to cry. The delectable point, you see,
+must have been passed several glasses ago.
+
+"You don't want to marry her, then?" asks the chaplain.
+
+"What's that to you, sir? I've promised her, and an Esmond--a Virginia
+Esmond mind that--Mr. What's-your-name--Sampson--has but his word!"
+The sentiment was noble, but delivered by Harry with rather a doubtful
+articulation.
+
+"Mind you, I said a Virginia Esmond," continued poor Harry, lifting up
+his finger. "I don't mean the younger branch here. I don't mean Will,
+who robbed me about the horse, and whose bones I'll break. I give you
+Lady Maria--Heaven bless her, and Heaven bless you, Sampson, and you
+deserve to be a bishop, old boy!"
+
+"There are letters between you, I suppose?" says Sampson.
+
+"Letters! Dammy, she's always writing me letters!--never lets me into a
+window but she sticks one in my cuff. Letters! that is a good idea! Look
+here! Here's letters!" And he threw down a pocket-book containing a heap
+of papers of the poor lady's composition.
+
+"Those are letters, indeed. What a post-bag!" says the chaplain.
+
+"But any man who touches them--dies--dies on the spot!" shrieks Harry,
+starting from his seat, and reeling towards his sword; which he draws,
+and then stamps with his foot, and says, "Ha! ha!" and then lunges at
+M. Barbeau, who skips away from the lunge behind the chaplain, who looks
+rather alarmed. I know we could have had a much more exciting picture
+than either of those we present of Harry this month, and the lad, with
+his hair dishevelled, raging about the room flamberge au vent, and
+pinking the affrighted innkeeper and chaplain, would have afforded a
+good subject for the pencil. But oh, to think of him stumbling over a
+stool, and prostrated by an enemy who has stole away his brains! Come,
+Gumbo! and help your master to bed!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. In which a Family Coach is ordered
+
+
+Our pleasing duty now is to divulge the secret which Mr. Lambert
+whispered in his wife's ear at the close of the antepenultimate chapter,
+and the publication of which caused such great pleasure to the whole of
+the Oakhurst family. As the hay was in, the corn not ready for cutting,
+and by consequence the farm horses disengaged, why, asked Colonel
+Lambert, should they not be put into the coach, and should we not all
+pay a visit to Tunbridge Wells, taking friend Wolfe at Westerham on our
+way?
+
+Mamma embraced this proposal, and I dare say the honest gentleman who
+made it. All the children jumped for joy. The girls went off straightway
+to get together their best calamancoes, paduasoys, falbalas, furbelows,
+capes, cardinals, sacks, negligees, solitaires, caps, ribbons, mantuas,
+clocked stockings, and high-heeled shoes, and I know not what articles
+of toilet. Mamma's best robes were taken from the presses, whence they
+only issued on rare, solemn occasions, retiring immediately afterwards
+to lavender and seclusion; the brave Colonel produced his laced hat and
+waistcoat and silver-hilted hanger; Charley rejoiced in a rasee holiday
+suit of his father's, in which the Colonel had been married, and which
+Mrs. Lambert cut up, not without a pang. Ball and Dumpling had their
+tails and manes tied with ribbon, and Chump, the old white cart-horse,
+went as unicorn leader, to help the carriage-horses up the first hilly
+five miles of the road from Oakhurst to Westerham. The carriage was an
+ancient vehicle, and was believed to have served in the procession which
+had brought George I. from Greenwich to London, on his first arrival to
+assume the sovereignty of these realms. It had belonged to Mr. Lambert's
+father, and the family had been in the habit of regarding it, ever since
+they could remember anything, as one of the most splendid coaches in the
+three kingdoms. Brian, coachman, and--must it also be owned?--ploughman,
+of the Oakhurst family, had a place on the box, with Mr. Charley by his
+side. The precious clothes were packed in imperials on the roof. The
+Colonel's pistols were put in the pockets of the carriage, and the
+blunderbuss hung behind the box, in reach of Brian, who was an old
+soldier. No highwayman, however, molested the convoy; not even an
+innkeeper levied contributions on Colonel Lambert, who, with a slender
+purse and a large family, was not to be plundered by those or any other
+depredators on the king's highway; and a reasonable cheap modest lodging
+had been engaged for them by young Colonel Wolfe, at the house where he
+was in the habit of putting up, and whither he himself accompanied them
+on horseback.
+
+It happened that these lodgings were opposite Madame Bernstein's; and as
+the Oakhurst family reached their quarters on a Saturday evening, they
+could see chair after chair discharging powdered beaux and patched and
+brocaded beauties at the Baroness's door, who was holding one of her
+many card-parties. The sun was not yet down (for our ancestors began
+their dissipations at early hours, and were at meat, drink, or cards,
+any time after three o'clock in the afternoon until any time in the
+night or morning), and the young country ladies and their mother from
+their window could see the various personages as they passed into the
+Bernstein rout. Colonel Wolfe told the ladies who most of the characters
+were. 'Twas almost as delightful as going to the party themselves, Hetty
+and Theo thought, for they not only could see the guests arriving, but
+look into the Baroness's open casements and watch many of them there. Of
+a few of the personages we have before had a glimpse. When the Duchess
+of Queensberry passed, and Mr. Wolfe explained who she was, Martin
+Lambert was ready with a score of lines about "Kitty, beautiful and
+young," from his favourite Mat Prior.
+
+"Think that that old lady was once like you, girls!" cries the Colonel.
+
+"Like us, papa? Well, certainly we never set up for being beauties!"
+says Miss Hetty, tossing up her little head.
+
+"Yes, like you, you little baggage; like you at this moment, who want to
+go to that drum yonder:--
+
+    'Inflamed with rage at sad restraint
+       Which wise mamma ordained,
+     And sorely vexed to play the saint
+       Whilst wit and beauty reigned.'"
+
+"We were never invited, papa; and I am sure if there's no beauty more
+worth seeing than that, the wit can't be much worth the hearing," again
+says the satirist of the family.
+
+"Oh, but he's a rare poet, Mat Prior!" continues the Colonel; "though,
+mind you, girls, you'll skip over all the poems I have marked with a
+cross. A rare poet! and to think you should see one of his heroines!
+'Fondness prevailed, mamma gave way' (she always will, Mrs. Lambert!)--
+
+    'Fondness prevailed, mamma gave way,
+       Kitty at heart's desire
+     Obtained the chariot for a day,
+       And set the world on fire!'"
+
+"I am sure it must have been very inflammable," says mamma.
+
+"So it was, my dear, twenty years ago, much more inflammable than it is
+now," remarks the Colonel.
+
+"Nonsense, Mr. Lambert," is mamma's answer.
+
+"Look, look!" cries Hetty, running forward and pointing to the little
+square, and the covered gallery, where was the door leading to Madame
+Bernstein's apartments, and round which stood a crowd of street urchins,
+idlers, and yokels, watching the company.
+
+"It's Harry Warrington!" exclaims Theo, waving a handkerchief to the
+young Virginian: but Warrington did not see Miss Lambert. The Virginian
+was walking arm-in-arm with a portly clergyman in a crisp rustling silk
+gown, and the two went into Madame de Bernstein's door.
+
+"I heard him preach a most admirable sermon here last Sunday," says Mr.
+Wolfe; "a little theatrical, but most striking and eloquent."
+
+"You seem to be here most Sundays, James," says Mrs. Lambert.
+
+"And Monday, and soon till Saturday," adds the Colonel. "See, Harry has
+beautified himself already, hath his hair in buckle, and I have no doubt
+is going to the drum too."
+
+"I had rather sit quiet generally of a Saturday evening," says sober Mr.
+Wolfe; "at any rate, away from card-playing and scandal; but I own, dear
+Mrs. Lambert, I am under orders. Shall I go across the way and send Mr.
+Warrington to you?"
+
+"No, let him have his sport. We shall see him to-morrow. He won't care
+to be disturbed amidst his fine folks by us country-people," said meek
+Mrs. Lambert.
+
+"I am glad he is with a clergyman who preaches so well," says Theo,
+softly; and her eyes seemed to say, You see, good people, he is not so
+bad as you thought him, and as I, for my part, never believed him to be.
+"The clergyman has a very kind, handsome face."
+
+"Here comes a greater clergyman," cries Mr. Wolfe. "It is my Lord of
+Salisbury, with his blue ribbon, and a chaplain behind him."
+
+"And whom a mercy's name have we here?" breaks in Mrs. Lambert, as a
+sedan-chair, covered with gilding, topped with no less than five earl's
+coronets, carried by bearers in richly laced clothes, and preceded by
+three footmen in the same splendid livery, now came up to Madame de
+Bernstein's door. The Bishop, who had been about to enter, stopped, and
+ran back with the most respectful bows and curtseys to the sedan-chair,
+giving his hand to the lady who stepped thence.
+
+"Who on earth is this?" asks Mrs. Lambert.
+
+"Sprechen sie Deutsch? Ja, meinherr. Nichts verstand," says the waggish
+Colonel.
+
+"Pooh, Martin."
+
+"Well, if you can't understand High Dutch, my love, how can I help it?
+Your education was neglected at school. Can you understand heraldry?--I
+know you can."
+
+"I make." cries Charley, reciting the shield, "three merions on a field
+or, with an earl's coronet."
+
+"A countess's coronet, my son. The Countess of Yarmouth, my son."
+
+"And pray who is she?"
+
+"It hath ever been the custom of our sovereigns to advance persons
+of distinction to honour," continues the Colonel, gravely, "and this
+eminent lady hath been so promoted by our gracious monarch, to the rank
+of Countess of this kingdom."
+
+"But why, papa?" asked the daughters together.
+
+"Never mind, girls!" said mamma.
+
+But that incorrigible Colonel would go on.
+
+"Y, my children, is one of the last and the most awkward letters of the
+whole alphabet. When I tell you stories, you are always saying Why. Why
+should my Lord Bishop be cringing to that lady? Look at him rubbing his
+fat hands together, and smiling into her face! It's not a handsome face
+any longer. It is all painted red and white like Scaramouch's in the
+pantomime. See, there comes another blue-riband, as I live. My Lord
+Bamborough. The descendant of the Hotspurs. The proudest man in England.
+He stops, he bows, he smiles; he is hat in hand, too. See, she taps him
+with her fan. Get away, you crowd of little blackguard boys, and don't
+tread on the robe of the lady whom the King delights to honour."
+
+"But why does the King honour her?" ask the girls once more.
+
+"There goes that odious last letter but one! Did you ever hear of her
+Grace the Duchess of Kendal? No. Of the Duchess of Portsmouth? Non plus.
+Of the Duchess of La Valliore? Of Fair Rosamond, then?"
+
+"Hush, papa! There is no need to bring blushes on the cheeks of my
+dear ones, Martin Lambert!" said the mother, putting her finger to her
+husband's lips.
+
+"'Tis not I; it is their sacred Majesties who are the cause of the
+shame," cries the son of the old republican. "Think of the bishops of
+the Church and the proudest nobility of the world cringing and bowing
+before that painted High Dutch Jezebel. Oh, it's a shame! a shame!"
+
+"Confusion!" here broke out Colonel Wolfe, and making a dash at his hat,
+ran from the room. He had seen the young lady whom he admired and her
+guardian walking across the Pantiles on foot to the Baroness's party,
+and they came up whilst the Countess of Yarmouth-Walmoden was engaged
+in conversation with the two lords spiritual and temporal, and these two
+made the lowest reverences and bows to the Countess, and waited until
+she had passed in at the door on the Bishop's arm.
+
+Theo turned away from the window with a sad, almost awestricken face.
+Hetty still remained there, looking from it with indignation in her
+eyes, and a little red spot on each cheek.
+
+"A penny for little Hetty's thoughts," says mamma, coming to the window
+to lead the child away.
+
+"I am thinking what I should do if I saw papa bowing to that woman,"
+says Hetty.
+
+Tea and a hissing kettle here made their appearance, and the family sate
+down to partake of their evening meal,--leaving, however, Miss Hetty,
+from her place, command of the window, which she begged her brother
+not to close. That young gentleman had been down amongst the crowd to
+inspect the armorial bearings of the Countess's and other sedans, no
+doubt, and also to invest sixpence in a cheese-cake, by mamma's order
+and his own desire, and he returned presently with this delicacy wrapped
+up in a paper.
+
+"Look, mother," he comes back and says, "do you see that big man in
+brown beating all the pillars with a stick? That is the learned Mr.
+Johnson. He comes to the Friars sometimes to see our master. He was
+sitting with some friends just now at the tea-table before Mrs. Brown's
+tart-shop. They have tea there, twopence a cup; I heard Mr. Johnson say
+he had had seventeen cups--that makes two-and-tenpence--what a sight of
+money for tea!"
+
+"What would you have, Charley?" asks Theo.
+
+"I think I would have cheese-cakes," says Charley, sighing, as his teeth
+closed on a large slice, "and the gentleman whom Mr. Johnson was with,"
+continues Charley, with his mouth quite full, "was Mr. Richardson who
+wrote----"
+
+"Clarissa!" cry all the women in a breath, and run to the window to see
+their favourite writer. By this time the sun was sunk, the stars were
+twinkling overhead, and the footman came and lighted the candles in the
+Baroness's room opposite our spies.
+
+Theo and her mother were standing together looking from their place of
+observation. There was a small illumination at Mrs. Brown's tart-
+and tea-shop, by which our friends could see one lady getting Mr.
+Richardson's hat and stick, and another tying a shawl round his neck,
+after which he walked home.
+
+"Oh dear me! he does not look like Grandison!" cries Theo.
+
+"I rather think I wish we had not seen him, my dear," says mamma, who
+has been described as a most sentimental woman and eager novel-reader;
+and here again they were interrupted by Miss Hetty, who cried:
+
+"Never mind that little fat man, but look yonder, mamma."
+
+And they looked yonder. And they saw, in the first place, Mr. Warrington
+undergoing the honour of a presentation to the Countess of Yarmouth, who
+was still followed by the obsequious peer and prelate with blue ribands.
+And now the Countess graciously sate down to a card-table, the Bishop
+and the Earl and a fourth person being her partners. And now Mr.
+Warrington came into the embrasure of the window with a lady whom they
+recognised as the lady whom they had seen for a few minutes at Oakhurst.
+
+"How much finer he is!" remarks mamma.
+
+"How he is improved in his looks! What has he done to himself?" asks
+Theo.
+
+"Look at his grand lace frills and rules! My dear, he has not got on our
+shirts any more," cries the matron.
+
+"What are you talking about, girls?" asks papa, reclining on his sofa,
+where, perhaps, he was dozing after the fashion of honest house-fathers.
+
+The girls said how Harry Warrington was in the window, talking with his
+cousin Lady Maria Esmond.
+
+"Come away!" cries papa. "You have no right to be spying the young
+fellow. Down with the curtains, I say!"
+
+And down the curtains went, so that the girls saw no more of Madame
+Bernstein's guests or doings for that night.
+
+I pray you be not angry at my remarking, if only by way of contrast
+between these two opposite houses, that while Madame Bernstein and her
+guests--bishop, dignitaries, noblemen, and what not--were gambling or
+talking scandal, or devouring champagne and chickens (which I hold to be
+venial sin), or doing honour to her ladyship the king's favourite, the
+Countess of Yarmouth-Walmoden, our country friends in their lodgings
+knelt round their table, whither Mr. Brian the coachman came as silently
+as his creaking shoes would let him, whilst Mr. Lambert, standing up,
+read in a low voice, a prayer that Heaven would lighten their darkness
+and defend them from the perils of that night, and a supplication that
+it would grant the request of those two or three gathered together.
+
+Our young folks were up betimes on Sunday morning, and arrayed
+themselves in those smart new dresses which were to fascinate the
+Tunbridge folks, and, with the escort of brother Charley, paced the
+little town, and the quaint Pantiles, and the pretty common, long ere
+the company was at breakfast, or the bells had rung to church. It
+was Hester who found out where Harry Warrington's lodging must be, by
+remarking Mr. Gumbo in an undress, with his lovely hair in curl-papers,
+drawing a pair of red curtains aside, and opening a window-sash, whence
+he thrust his head and inhaled the sweet morning breeze. Mr. Gumbo did
+not happen to see the young people from Oakhurst, though they beheld him
+clearly enough. He leaned gracefully from the window; he waved a large
+feather brush, with which he condescended to dust the furniture of
+the apartment within; he affably engaged in conversation with a
+cherry-cheeked milkmaid, who was lingering under the casement, and
+kissed his lily hand to her. Gumbo's hand sparkled with rings, and his
+person was decorated with a profusion of jewellery--gifts, no doubt, of
+the fair who appreciated the young African. Once or twice more before
+breakfast-time the girls passed near that window. It remained opened,
+but the room behind it was blank. No face of Harry Warrington appeared
+there. Neither spoke to the other of the subject on which both were
+brooding. Hetty was a little provoked with Charley, who was clamorous
+about breakfast, and told him he was always thinking of eating. In reply
+to her sarcastic inquiry, he artlessly owned he should like another
+cheese-cake, and good-natured Theo, laughing, said she had a sixpence,
+and if the cake-shop were open of a Sunday morning Charley should have
+one. The cake-shop was open: and Theo took out her little purse, netted
+by her dearest friend at school, and containing her pocket-piece, her
+grandmother's guinea, her slender little store of shillings--nay, some
+copper money at one end; and she treated Charley to the meal which he
+loved.
+
+A great deal of fine company was at church. There was that funny old
+Duchess, and old Madame Bernstein, with Lady Maria at her side; and Mr.
+Wolfe, of course, by the side of Miss Lowther, and singing with her out
+of the same psalm-book; and Mr. Richardson with a bevy of ladies. One
+of them is Miss Fielding, papa tells them after church, Harry Fielding's
+sister. "Oh, girls, what good company he was! And his books are worth
+a dozen of your milksop Pamelas and Clarissas, Mrs. Lambert: but what
+woman ever loved true humour? And there was Mr. Johnson sitting amongst
+the charity children. Did you see how he turned round to the altar
+at the Belief, and upset two or three of the scared little urchins in
+leather breeches? And what a famous sermon Harry's parson gave, didn't
+he? A sermon about scandal. How, he touched up some of the old harridans
+who were seated round! Why wasn't Mr. Warrington at church? It was a
+shame he wasn't at church."
+
+"I really did not remark whether he was there or not," says Miss Hetty,
+tossing her head up.
+
+But Theo, who was all truth, said, "Yes, I thought of him, and was sorry
+he was not there; and so did you think of him, Hetty."
+
+"I did no such thing, miss," persists Hetty.
+
+"Then why did you whisper to me it was Harry's clergyman who preached?"
+
+"To think of Mr. Warrington's clergyman is not to think of Mr.
+Warrington. It was a most excellent sermon, certainly, and the children
+sang most dreadfully out of tune. And there is Lady Maria at the window
+opposite, smelling at the roses; and that is Mr. Wolfe's step, I know
+his great military tramp. Right left--right left! How do you do, Colonel
+Wolfe?"
+
+"Why do you look so glum, James?" asks Colonel Lambert, good-naturedly.
+"Has the charmer been scolding thee, or is thy conscience pricked by the
+sermon. Mr. Sampson, isn't the parson's name? A famous preacher, on my
+word!"
+
+"A pretty preacher, and a pretty practitioner!" says Mr. Wolfe, with a
+shrug of his shoulders.
+
+"Why, I thought the discourse did not last ten minutes, and madam did
+not sleep one single wink during the sermon, didst thou, Molly?"
+
+"Did you see when the fellow came into church?" asked the indignant
+Colonel Wolfe. "He came in at the open door of the common, just in time,
+and as the psalm was over."
+
+"Well, he had been reading the service probably to some sick person;
+there are many here," remarks Mrs. Lambert.
+
+"Reading the service! Oh, my good Mrs. Lambert! Do you know where I
+found him? I went to look for your young scapegrace of a Virginian."
+
+"His own name is a very pretty name, I'm sure," cries out Hetty. "It
+isn't Scapegrace! It is Henry Esmond Warrington, Esquire."
+
+"Miss Hester, I found the parson in his cassock, and Henry Esmond
+Warrington, Esquire, in his bedgown, at a quarter before eleven o'clock
+in the morning, when all the Sunday bells were ringing, and they were
+playing over a game of piquet they had had the night before!"
+
+"Well, numbers of good people play at cards of a Sunday. The King plays
+at cards of a Sunday."
+
+"Hush, my dear!"
+
+"I know he does," says Hetty, "with that painted person we saw
+yesterday--that Countess what-d'you-call-her?"
+
+"I think, my dear Miss Hester, a clergyman had best take to God's books
+instead of the Devil's books on that day--and so I took the liberty of
+telling your parson." Hetty looked as if she thought it was a liberty
+which Mr. Wolfe had taken. "And I told our young friend that I thought
+he had better have been on his way to church than there in his bedgown."
+
+"You wouldn't have Harry go to church in a dressing-gown and nightcap,
+Colonel Wolfe? That would be a pretty sight, indeed!" again says Hetty,
+fiercely.
+
+"I would have my little girl's tongue not wag quite so fast," remarks
+papa, patting the girl's flushed little cheek.
+
+"Not speak when a friend is attacked, and nobody says a word in his
+favour? No; nobody!"
+
+Here the two lips of the little mouth closed on each other: the whole
+little frame shook: the child flung a parting look of defiance at Mr.
+Wolfe, and went out of the room, just in time to close the door, and
+burst out crying on the stair.
+
+Mr. Wolfe looked very much discomfited. "I am sure, Aunt Lambert, I did
+not intend to hurt Hester's feelings."
+
+"No, James," she said, very kindly--the young officer used to call her
+Aunt Lambert in quite early days--and she gave him her hand.
+
+Mr. Lambert whistled his favourite tune of "Over the hills and far
+away," with a drum accompaniment performed by his fingers on the window.
+"I say, you mustn't whistle on Sunday, papa!" cries the artless young
+gown-boy from Grey Friars; and then suggested that it was three hours
+from breakfast, and he should like to finish Theo's cheese-cake.
+
+"Oh, you greedy child!" cries Theo. But here, hearing a little
+exclamatory noise outside, she ran out of the room, closing the door
+behind her. And we will not pursue her. The noise was that sob which
+broke from Hester's panting, overloaded heart; and, though we cannot
+see, I am sure the little maid flung herself on her sister's neck, and
+wept upon Theo's kind bosom.
+
+Hetty did not walk out in the afternoon when the family took the air
+on the common, but had a headache and lay on her bed, where her mother
+watched her. Charley had discovered a comrade from Grey Friars: Mr.
+Wolfe of course paired off with Miss Lowther: and Theo and her father,
+taking their sober walk in the Sabbath sunshine, found Madame Bernstein
+basking on a bench under a tree, her niece and nephew in attendance.
+Harry ran up to greet his dear friends: he was radiant with pleasure at
+beholding them--the elder ladies were most gracious to the Colonel and
+his wife, who had so kindly welcomed their Harry.
+
+How noble and handsome he looked! Theo thought: she called him by his
+Christian name, as if he were really her brother. "Why did we not see
+you sooner to-day, Harry?" she asked.
+
+"I never thought you were here, Theo."
+
+"But you might have seen us if you wished."
+
+"Where?" asked Harry.
+
+"There, sir," she said, pointing to the church. And she held her hand
+up as if in reproof; but a sweet kindness beamed in her honest face.
+Ah, friendly young reader, wandering on the world and struggling with
+temptation, may you also have one or two pure hearts to love and pray
+for you!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII. Contains a Soliloquy by Hester
+
+
+Martin Lambert's first feeling, upon learning the little secret which
+his younger daughter's emotion had revealed, was to be angry with the
+lad who had robbed his child's heart away from him and her family. "A
+plague upon all scapegraces, English or Indian!" cried the Colonel to
+his wife. "I wish this one had broke his nose against any doorpost but
+ours."
+
+"Perhaps we are to cure him of being a scapegrace, my dear," says Mrs.
+Lambert, mildly interposing, "and the fall at our door hath something
+providential in it. You laughed at me, Mr. Lambert, when I said so
+before; but if Heaven did not send the young gentleman to us, who did?
+And it may be for the blessing and happiness of us all that he came,
+too."
+
+"It's hard, Molly!" groaned the Colonel. "We cherish and fondle and rear
+'em: we tend them through sickness and health: we toil and we scheme:
+we hoard away money in the stocking, and patch our own old coats: if
+they've a headache we can't sleep for thinking of their ailment; if
+they have a wish or fancy, we work day and night to compass it, and 'tis
+darling daddy and dearest pappy, and whose father is like ours? and so
+forth. On Tuesday morning I am king of my house and family. On Tuesday
+evening Prince Whippersnapper makes his appearance, and my reign is
+over. A whole life is forgotten and forsworn for a pair of blue eyes, a
+pair of lean shanks, and a head of yellow hair."
+
+"'Tis written that we women should leave all to follow our husband. I
+think our courtship was not very long, dear Martin!" said the matron,
+laying her hand on her husband's arm.
+
+"'Tis human nature, and what can you expect of the jade?" sighed the
+Colonel.
+
+"And I think I did my duty to my husband, though I own I left my papa
+for him," added Mrs. Lambert, softly.
+
+"Excellent wench! Perdition catch my soul! but I do love thee, Molly!"
+says the good Colonel; "but, then, mind you, your father never did me;
+and if ever I am to have sons-in-law----"
+
+"Ever, indeed! Of course my girls are to have husbands, Mr. Lambert!"
+cries mamma.
+
+"Well, when they come, I'll hate them, madam, as your father did me; and
+quite right too, for taking his treasure away from him."
+
+"Don't be irreligious and unnatural, Martin Lambert! I say you are
+unnatural, sir!" continues the matron.
+
+"Nay, my dear, I have an old tooth in my left jaw, here; and 'tis
+natural that the tooth should come out. But when the toothdrawer pulls
+it, 'tis natural that I should feel pain. Do you suppose, madam, that
+I don't love Hetty better than any tooth in my head?" asks Mr. Lambert.
+But no woman was ever averse to the idea of her daughter getting a
+husband, however fathers revolt against the invasion of the son-in-law.
+As for mothers and grandmothers, those good folks are married over again
+in the marriage of their young ones; and their souls attire themselves
+in the laces and muslins of twenty-forty years ago; the postillion's
+white ribbons bloom again, and they flutter into the postchaise, and
+drive away. What woman, however old, has not the bridal favours and
+raiment stowed away, and packed in lavender, in the inmost cupboards of
+her heart?
+
+"It will be a sad thing, parting with her," continued Mrs. Lambert, with
+a sigh.
+
+"You have settled that point already, Molly," laughs the Colonel. "Had I
+not best go out and order raisins and corinths for the wedding-cake?"
+
+"And then I shall have to leave the house in their charge when I go to
+her, you know, in Virginia. How many miles is it to Virginia, Martin? I
+should think it must be thousands of miles."
+
+"A hundred and seventy-three thousand three hundred and ninety-one and
+three-quarters, my dear, by the near way," answers Lambert, gravely;
+"that through Prester John's country. By the other route, through
+Persia----"
+
+"Oh, give me the one where there is the least of the sea, and your
+horrid ships, which I can't bear!" cries the Colonel's spouse. "I hope
+Rachel Esmond and I shall be better friends. She had a very high spirit
+when we were girls at school."
+
+"Had we not best go about the baby-linen, Mrs. Martin Lambert?" here
+interposed her wondering husband. Now, Mrs. Lambert, I dare say, thought
+there was no matter for wonderment at all, and had remarked some very
+pretty lace caps and bibs in Mrs. Bobbinit's toy-shop. And on that
+Sunday afternoon, when the discovery was made, and while little Hetty
+was lying upon her pillow with feverish cheeks, closed eyes, and a
+piteous face, her mother looked at the child with the most perfect ease
+of mind, and seemed to be rather pleased than otherwise at Hetty's woe.
+
+The girl was not only unhappy, but enraged with herself for having
+published her secret. Perhaps she had not known it until the sudden
+emotion acquainted her with her own state of mind; and now the little
+maid chose to be as much ashamed as if she had done a wrong, and been
+discovered in it. She was indignant with her own weakness, and broke
+into transports of wrath against herself. She vowed she never would
+forgive herself for submitting to such a humiliation. So the young pard,
+wounded by the hunter's dart, chafes with rage in the forest, is angry
+with the surprise of the rankling steel in her side, and snarls and
+bites at her sister-cubs, and the leopardess, her spotted mother.
+
+Little Hetty tore and gnawed, and growled, so that I should not like to
+have been her fraternal cub, or her spotted dam or sire. "What business
+has any young woman," she cried out, "to indulge in any such nonsense?
+Mamma, I ought to be whipped, and sent to bed. I know perfectly well
+that Mr. Warrington does not care a fig about me. I dare say he likes
+French actresses and the commonest little milliner-girl in the toy-shop
+better than me. And so he ought, and so they are better than me. Why,
+what a fool I am to burst out crying like a ninny about nothing, and
+because Mr. Wolfe said Harry played cards of a Sunday! I know he is not
+clever, like papa. I believe he is stupid--I am certain he is stupid:
+but he is not so stupid as I am. Why, of course, I can't marry him.
+How am I to go to America, and leave you and Theo? Of course, he likes
+somebody else, at America, or at Tunbridge, or at Jericho, or somewhere.
+He is a prince in his own country, and can't think of marrying a poor
+half-pay officer's daughter, with twopence to her fortune. Used not you
+to tell me how, when I was a baby, I cried and wanted the moon? I am
+a baby now, a most absurd, silly, little baby--don't talk to me, Mrs.
+Lambert, I am. Only there is this to be said, he don't know anything
+about it, and I would rather cut my tongue out than tell him."
+
+Dire were the threats with which Hetty menaced Theo, in case her
+sister should betray her. As for the infantile Charley, his mind being
+altogether set on cheese-cakes, he had not remarked or been moved by
+Miss Hester's emotion; and the parents and the kind sister of course all
+promised not to reveal the little maid's secret.
+
+"I begin to think it had been best for us to stay at home," sighed Mrs.
+Lambert to her husband.
+
+"Nay, my dear," replied the other. "Human nature will be human nature;
+surely Hetty's mother told me herself that she had the beginning of a
+liking for a certain young curate before she fell over head and ears in
+love with a certain young officer of Kingsley's. And as for me, my
+heart was wounded in a dozen places ere Miss Molly Benson took entire
+possession of it. Our sons and daughters must follow in the way of their
+parents before them, I suppose. Why, but yesterday, you were scolding me
+for grumbling at Miss Het's precocious fancies. To do the child justice,
+she disguises her feelings entirely, and I defy Mr. Warrington to know
+from her behaviour how she is disposed towards him."
+
+"A daughter of mine and yours, Martin," cries the mother, with great
+dignity, "is not going to fling herself at a gentleman's head!"
+
+"Neither herself nor the teacup, my dear," answers the Colonel. Little
+Miss Het treats Mr. Warrington like a vixen. He never comes to us, but
+she boxes his ears in one fashion or t'other. I protest she is barely
+civil to him; but, knowing what is going on in the young hypocrite's
+mind, I am not going to be angry at her rudeness."
+
+"She hath no need to be rude at all, Martin; and our girl is good
+enough for any gentleman in England or America. Why, if their ages suit,
+shouldn't they marry after all, sir?"
+
+"Why, if he wants her, shouldn't he ask her, my dear? I am sorry we
+came. I am for putting the horses into the carriage, and turning their
+heads towards home again."
+
+But mamma fondly said, "Depend on it, my dear, that these matters are
+wisely ordained for us. Depend upon it, Martin, it was not for nothing
+that Harry Warrington was brought to our gate in that way; and that he
+and our children are thus brought together again. If that marriage has
+been decreed in Heaven, a marriage it will be."
+
+"At what age, Molly, I wonder, do women begin and leave off
+match-making? If our little chit falls in love and falls out again, she
+will not be the first of her sex, Mrs. Lambert. I wish we were on our
+way home again, and, if I had my will, would trot off this very night."
+
+"He has promised to drink his tea here to-night. You would not take away
+our child's pleasure, Martin?" asked the mother, softly.
+
+In his fashion, the father was not less good-natured. "You know, my
+dear," says Lambert, "that if either of 'em had a fancy to our ears, we
+would cut them off and serve them in a fricassee."
+
+Mary Lambert laughed at the idea of her pretty little delicate ears
+being so served. When her husband was most tender-hearted, his habit
+was to be most grotesque. When he pulled the pretty little delicate ear,
+behind which the matron's fine hair was combed back, wherein twinkled
+a shining line or two of silver, I dare say he did not hurt her much. I
+dare say she was thinking of the soft, well-remembered times of her own
+modest youth and sweet courtship. Hallowed remembrances of sacred times!
+If the sight of youthful love is pleasant to behold, how much more
+charming the aspect of the affection that has survived years, sorrows,
+faded beauty perhaps, and life's doubts, differences, trouble!
+
+In regard of her promise to disguise her feelings for Mr. Warrington in
+that gentleman's presence, Miss Hester was better, or worse if you will,
+than her word. Harry not only came to take tea with his friends, but
+invited them for the next day to an entertainment at the Rooms, to be
+given in their special honour.
+
+"A dance, and given for us!" cries Theo. "Oh, Harry, how delightful! I
+wish we could begin this very minute!"
+
+"Why, for a savage Virginian, I declare, Harry Warrington, thou art the
+most civilised young man possible!" says the Colonel. "My dear, shall we
+dance a minuet together?"
+
+"We have done such a thing before, Martin Lambert!" says the soldier's
+fond wife. Her husband hums a minuet tune; whips a plate from the
+tea-table, and makes a preparatory bow and flourish with it as if it
+were a hat, whilst madam performs her best curtsey.
+
+Only Hetty, of the party, persists in looking glum and displeased. "Why,
+child, have you not a word of thanks to throw to Mr. Warrington?" asks
+Theo of her sister.
+
+"I never did care for dancing much," says Hetty. "What is the use of
+standing up opposite a stupid man, and dancing down a room with him?"
+
+"Merci du compliment!" says Mr. Warrington.
+
+"I don't say that you are stupid--that is--that is, I--I only meant
+country dances," says Hetty, biting her lips, as she caught her sister's
+eye. She remembered she had said Harry was stupid, and Theo's droll
+humorous glance was her only reminder.
+
+But with this Miss Hetty chose to be as angry as if it had been quite a
+cruel rebuke. "I hate dancing--there--I own it," she says, with a toss
+of her head.
+
+"Nay, you used to like it well enough, child!!" interposes her mother.
+
+"That was when she was a child: don't you see she is grown up to be an
+old woman?" remarks Hetty's father. "Or perhaps Miss Hester has got the
+gout?"
+
+"Fiddle!" says Hester, snappishly, drubbing with her little feet.
+
+"What's a dance without a fiddle?" says imperturbed papa.
+
+Darkness has come over Harry Warrington's face. "I come to try my best,
+and give them pleasure and a dance," he thinks, "and the little thing
+tells me she hates dancing. We don't practise kindness, or acknowledge
+hospitality so in our country. No--nor speak to our parents so,
+neither." I am afraid, in this particular usages have changed in the
+United States during the last hundred years, and that the young folks
+there are considerably Hettified.
+
+Not content with this, Miss Hester must proceed to make such fun of
+all the company at the Wells, and especially of Harry's own immediate
+pursuits and companions, that the honest lad was still further pained at
+her behaviour; and, when he saw Mrs. Lambert alone, asked how or in
+what he had again offended, that Hester was so angry with him? The kind
+matron felt more than ever well disposed towards the boy, after her
+daughter's conduct to him. She would have liked to tell the secret
+which Hester hid so fiercely. Theo, too, remonstrated with her sister in
+private; but Hester would not listen to the subject, and was as angry in
+her bedroom, when the girls were alone, as she had been in the parlour
+before her mother's company. "Suppose he hates me?" says she. "I expect
+he will. I hate myself, I do, and scorn myself for being such an idiot.
+How ought he to do otherwise than hate me? Didn't I abuse him, call him
+goose, all sorts of names? And know he is not clever all the time. I
+know I have better wits than he has. It is only because he is tall, and
+has blue eyes, and a pretty nose that I like him. What an absurd fool a
+girl must be to like a man merely because he has a blue nose and hooked
+eyes! So I am a fool, and I won't have you say a word to the contrary,
+Theo!"
+
+Now Theo thought that her little sister, far from being a fool, was
+a wonder of wonders, and that if any girl was worthy of any prince in
+Christendom, Hetty was that spinster. "You are silly sometimes, Hetty,"
+says Theo, "that is when you speak unkindly to people who mean you well,
+as you did to Mr. Warrington at tea to-night. When he proposed to us his
+party at the Assembly Rooms, and nothing could be more gallant of him,
+why did you say you didn't care for music, or dancing, or tea? You know
+you love them all!"
+
+"I said it merely to vex myself, Theo, and annoy myself, and whip
+myself, as I deserve, child. And, besides, how can you expect such an
+idiot as I am to say anything but idiotic things? Do you know, it
+quite pleased me to see him angry. I thought, ah! now I have hurt his
+feelings! Now he will say, Hetty Lambert is an odious little set-up,
+sour-tempered vixen. And that will teach him, and you, and mamma, and
+papa, at any rate, that I am not going to set my cap at Mr. Harry. No;
+our papa is ten times as good as he is. I will stay by our papa, and if
+he asked me to go to Virginia with him to-morrow, I wouldn't, Theo. My
+sister is worth all the Virginians that ever were made since the world
+began."
+
+And here, I suppose, follow osculations between the sisters, and
+mother's knock comes to the door, who has overheard their talk through
+the wainscot, and calls out, "Children, 'tis time to go to sleep."
+Theo's eyes close speedily, and she is at rest; but ob, poor little
+Hetty! Think of the hours tolling one after another, and the child's
+eyes wide open, as she lies tossing and wakeful with the anguish of the
+new wound!
+
+"It is a judgment upon me," she says, "for having thought and spoke
+scornfully of him. Only, why should there be a judgment upon me? I was
+only in fun. I knew I liked him very much all the time: but I thought
+Theo liked him too, and I would give up anything for my darling Theo. If
+she had, no tortures should ever have drawn a word from me--I would have
+got a rope-ladder to help her to run away with Harry, that I would,
+or fetched the clergyman to marry them. And then I would have retired
+alone, and alone, and alone, and taken care of papa and mamma, and of
+the poor in the village, and have read sermons, though I hate 'em, and
+would have died without telling a word--not a word--and I shall die
+soon, I know I shall." But when the dawn rises, the little maid is
+asleep, nestling by her sister, the stain of a tear or two upon her
+flushed downy cheek.
+
+Most of us play with edged tools at some period of our lives, and cut
+ourselves accordingly. At first the cut hurts and stings, and down drops
+the knife, and we cry out like wounded little babies as we are. Some
+very very few and unlucky folks at the game cut their heads sheer off,
+or stab themselves mortally, and perish outright, and there is an end
+of them. But,--heaven help us!--many people have fingered those ardentes
+sagittas which Love sharpens on his whetstone, and are stabbed, scarred,
+pricked, perforated, tattooed all over with the wounds, who recovered,
+and live to be quite lively. Wir auch have tasted das irdische Glueck;
+we also have gelebt and--und so weiter. Warble your death-song, sweet
+Thekla! Perish off the face of the earth, poor pulmonary victim, if so
+minded! Had you survived to a later period of life, my dear, you would
+have thought of a sentimental disappointment without any reference to
+the undertaker. Let us trust there is no present need of a sexton for
+Miss Hetty. But meanwhile, the very instant she wakes, there, tearing
+at her little heart, will that Care be, which has given her a few hours'
+respite, melted, no doubt, by her youth and her tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV. In which Mr. Warrington treats the Company with Tea and a
+Ball
+
+
+Generous with his very easily gotten money, hospitable and cordial to
+all, our young Virginian, in his capacity of man of fashion, could
+not do less than treat his country friends to an entertainment at the
+Assembly Rooms, whither, according to the custom of the day, he invited
+almost all the remaining company at the Wells. Card-tables were set in
+one apartment, for all those who could not spend an evening without the
+pastime then common to all European society: a supper with champagne in
+some profusion and bowls of negus was prepared in another chamber: the
+large assembly-room was set apart for the dance, of which enjoyment
+Harry Warrington's guests partook in our ancestors' homely fashion. I
+cannot fancy that the amusement was especially lively. First, minuets
+were called, two or three of which were performed by as many couple. The
+spinsters of the highest rank in the assembly went out for the minuet,
+and my Lady Maria Esmond, being an earl's daughter, and the person of
+the highest rank present (with the exception of Lady Augusta Crutchley,
+who was lame), Mr. Warrington danced the first minuet with his cousin,
+acquitting himself to the satisfaction of the whole room, and performing
+much more elegantly than Mr. Wolfe, who stood up with Miss Lowther.
+Having completed the dance with Lady Maria, Mr. Warrington begged Miss
+Theo to do him the honour of walking the next minuet, and accordingly
+Miss Theo, blushing and looking very happy, went through her exercise to
+the great delight of her parents and the rage of Miss Humpleby, Sir John
+Humpleby's daughter, of Liphook, who expected, at least, to have stood
+up next after my Lady Maria. Then, after the minuets, came country
+dances, the music being performed by a harp, fiddle, and flageolet,
+perched in a little balcony, and thrumming through the evening rather
+feeble and melancholy tunes. Take up an old book of music, and play a
+few of those tunes now, and one wonders how people at any time could
+have found the airs otherwise than melancholy. And yet they loved and
+frisked and laughed and courted to that sad accompaniment. There is
+scarce one of the airs that has not an amari aliquid, a tang of sadness.
+Perhaps it is because they are old and defunct, and their plaintive
+echoes call out to us from the limbo of the past, whither they have been
+consigned for this century. Perhaps they were gay when they were alive;
+and our descendants when they hear--well, never mind names--when they
+hear the works of certain maestri now popular, will say: Bon Dieu, is
+this the music which amused our forefathers?
+
+Mr. Warrington had the honour of a duchess's company at his
+tea-drinking--Colonel Lambert's and Mr. Prior's heroine, the Duchess
+of Queensberry. And though the duchess carefully turned her back upon a
+countess who was present, laughed loudly, glanced at the latter over her
+shoulder, and pointed at her with her fan, yet almost all the company
+pushed, and bowed, and cringed, and smiled, and backed before this
+countess, scarcely taking any notice of her Grace of Queensberry and her
+jokes, and her fan, and her airs. Now this countess was no other than
+the Countess of Yarmouth-Walmoden, the lady whom his Majesty George the
+Second, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the
+Faith, delighted to honour. She had met Harry Warrington in the walks
+that morning, and had been mighty gracious to the young Virginian. She
+had told him they would have a game at cards that night; and purblind
+old Colonel Blinkinsop, who fancied the invitation had been addressed to
+him, had made the profoundest of bows. "Pooh! pooh!" said the Countess
+of England and Hanover, "I don't mean you. I mean the young Firshinian!"
+And everybody congratulated the youth on his good fortune. At night, all
+the world, in order to show their loyalty, doubtless, thronged round
+my Lady Yarmouth; my Lord Bamborough was eager to make her parti at
+quadrille. My Lady Blanche Pendragon, that model of virtue; Sir Lancelot
+Quintain, that pattern of knighthood and valour; Mr. Dean of Ealing,
+that exemplary divine and preacher; numerous gentlemen, noblemen,
+generals, colonels, matrons, and spinsters of the highest rank, were
+on the watch for a smile from her, or eager to jump up and join her
+card-table. Lady Maria waited upon her with meek respect, and Madame
+de Bernstein treated the Hanoverian lady with profound gravity and
+courtesy.
+
+Harry's bow had been no lower than hospitality required; but, such as it
+was, Miss Hester chose to be indignant with it. She scarce spoke a word
+to her partner during their dance together; and when he took her to the
+supper-room for refreshment she was little more communicative. To
+enter that room they had to pass by Madame Walmoden's card-table, who
+good-naturedly called out to her host as he was passing, and asked him
+if his "breddy liddle bardner liked tanzing?"
+
+"I thank your ladyship, I don't like tanzing, and I don't like cards,"
+says Miss Hester, tossing up her head; and, dropping a curtsey like a
+"cheese," she strutted away from the Countess's table.
+
+Mr. Warrington was very much offended. Sarcasm from the young to the old
+pained him: flippant behaviour towards himself hurt him. Courteous in
+his simple way to all persons whom he met, he expected a like politeness
+from them. Hetty perfectly well knew what offence she was giving; could
+mark the displeasure reddening on her partner's honest face, with a
+sidelong glance of her eye; nevertheless she tried to wear her most
+ingenuous smile; and, as she came up to the sideboard where the
+refreshments were set, artlessly said:
+
+"What a horrid, vulgar old woman that is; don't you think so?"
+
+"What woman?" asked the young man.
+
+"That German woman--my Lady Yarmouth--to whom all the men are bowing and
+cringing."
+
+"Her ladyship has been very kind to me," says Harry, grimly. "Won't you
+have some of this custard?"
+
+"And you have been bowing to her, too! You look as if your negus was not
+nice," harmlessly continues Miss Hetty.
+
+"It is not very good negus," says Harry, with a gulp.
+
+"And the custard is bad too! I declare 'tis made with bad eggs!" cries
+Miss Lambert.
+
+"I wish, Hester, that the entertainment and the company had been better
+to your liking," says poor Harry.
+
+"'Tis very unfortunate; but I dare say you could not help it," cries the
+young woman, tossing her little curly head.
+
+Mr. Warrington groaned in spirit, perhaps in body, and clenched his
+fists and his teeth. The little torturer artlessly continued, "You seem
+disturbed: shall we go to my mamma?"
+
+"Yes, let us go to your mamma," cries Mr. Warrington, with glaring eyes
+and a "Curse you, why are you always standing in the way?" to an unlucky
+waiter.
+
+"La! Is that the way you speak in Virginia?" asks Miss Pertness.
+
+"We are rough there sometimes, madam, and can't help being disturbed,"
+he says slowly, and with a quiver in his whole frame, looking down upon
+her with fire flashing out of his eyes. Hetty saw nothing distinctly
+afterwards, and until she came to her mother. Never had she seen Harry
+look so handsome or so noble.
+
+"You look pale, child!" cries mamma, anxious, like all pavidae matres.
+
+"'Tis the cold--no, I mean the heat. Thank you, Mr. Warrington." And
+she makes him a faint curtsey, as Harry bows a tremendous bow, and
+walks elsewhere amongst his guests. He hardly knows what is happening at
+first, so angry is he.
+
+He is aroused by another altercation, between his aunt and the Duchess
+of Queensberry. When the royal favourite passed the Duchess, her Grace
+gave her Ladyship an awful stare out of eyes that were not so bright now
+as they had been in the young days when they "set the world on fire;"
+turned round with an affected laugh to her neighbour, and shot at
+the jolly Hanoverian lady a ceaseless fire of giggles and sneers.
+The Countess pursued her game at cards, not knowing, or not choosing,
+perhaps, to know how her enemy was gibing at her. There had been a feud
+of many years' date between their Graces of Queensberry and the family
+on the throne.
+
+"How you all bow down to the idol! Don't tell me! You are as bad as
+the rest, my good Madame Bernstein!" the Duchess says. "Ah, what a true
+Christian country this is! and how your dear first husband, the Bishop,
+would have liked to see such a sight!"
+
+"Forgive me, if I fail quite to understand your Grace."
+
+"We are both of us growing old, my good Bernstein, or, perhaps, we won't
+understand when we don't choose to understand. That is the way with us
+women, my good young Iroquois."
+
+"Your Grace remarked, that it was a Christian country," said Madame de
+Bernstein, "and I failed to perceive the point of the remark."
+
+"Indeed, my good creature, there is very little point in it! I meant
+we were such good Christians, because we were so forgiving. Don't
+you remember reading, when you were young, or your husband the Bishop
+reading, when he was in the pulpit, how when a woman amongst the Jews
+was caught doing wrong, the Pharisees were for stoning her out of hand?
+Far from stoning such a woman now, look, how fond we are of her! Any man
+in this room would go round it on his knees if yonder woman bade him.
+Yes, Madame Walmoden, you may look up from your cards with your great
+painted face, and frown with your great painted eyebrows at me. You know
+I am talking about you; and intend to go on talking about you, too. I
+say any man here would go round the room on his knees, if you bade him!"
+
+"I think, madam, I know two or three who wouldn't!" says Mr. Warrington,
+with some spirit.
+
+"Quick, let me hug them to my heart of hearts!" cries the old Duchess.
+"Which are they? Bring 'em to me, my dear Iroquois! Let us have a game
+of four--of honest men and women; that is to say, if we can find a
+couple more partners, Mr. Warrington!"
+
+"Here are we three," says the Baroness Bernstein, with a forced laugh;
+"let us play a dummy."
+
+"Pray, madam, where is the third?" asks the old Duchess, looking round.
+
+"Madam!" cries out the other elderly lady, "I leave your Grace to boast
+of your honesty, which I have no doubt is spotless: but I will thank you
+not to doubt mine before my own relatives and children!"
+
+"See how she fires up at a word! I am sure, my dear creature, you are
+quite as honest as most of the company," says the Duchess.
+
+"Which may not be good enough for her Grace the Duchess of Queensberry
+and Dover, who, to be sure, might have stayed away in such a case, but
+it is the best my nephew could get, madam, and his best he has given
+you. You look astonished, Harry, my dear--and well you may. He is not
+used to our ways, madam."
+
+"Madam, he has found an aunt who can teach him our ways, and a great
+deal more!" cries the Duchess, rapping her fan.
+
+"She will teach him to try and make all his guests welcome, old or
+young, rich or poor. That is the Virginian way, isn't it, Harry? She
+will tell him, when Catherine Hyde is angry with his old aunt, that they
+were friends as girls, and ought not to quarrel now they are old women.
+And she will not be wrong, will she, Duchess?" And herewith the
+one dowager made a superb curtsey to the other, and the battle just
+impending between them passed away.
+
+"Egad, it was like Byng and Galissoniere!" cried Chaplain Sampson, as
+Harry talked over the night's transactions with his tutor next morning.
+"No power on earth, I thought, could have prevented those two from going
+into action!"
+
+"Seventy-fours at least--both of 'em!" laughs Harry.
+
+"But the Baroness declined the battle, and sailed out of fire with
+inimitable skill."
+
+"Why should she be afraid? I have heard you say my aunt is as witty as
+any woman alive, and need fear the tongue of no dowager in England."
+
+"Hem! Perhaps she had good reasons for being peaceable!" Sampson knew
+very well what they were, and that poor Bernstein's reputation was so
+hopelessly flawed and cracked, that any sarcasms levelled at Madame
+Walmoden were equally applicable to her.
+
+"Sir," cried Harry, in great amazement, "you don't mean to say there is
+anything against the character of my aunt, the Baroness de Bernstein!"
+
+The chaplain looked at the young Virginian with such an air of utter
+wonderment, that the latter saw there must be some history against his
+aunt, and some charge which Sampson did not choose to reveal. "Good
+heavens!" Harry groaned out, "are there two then in the family, who
+are----?"
+
+"Which two?" asked the chaplain.
+
+But here Harry stopped, blushing very red. He remembered, and we shall
+presently have to state, whence he had got his information regarding the
+other family culprit, and bit his lip, and was silent.
+
+"Bygones are always unpleasant things, Mr. Warrington," said the
+chaplain; "and we had best hold our peace regarding them. No man or
+woman can live long in this wicked world of ours without some scandal
+attaching to them, and I fear our excellent Baroness has been no more
+fortunate than her neighbours. We cannot escape calumny, my dear young
+friend! You have had sad proof enough of that in your brief stay amongst
+us. But we can have clear consciences, and that is the main point!" And
+herewith the chaplain threw his handsome eyes upward, and tried to look
+as if his conscience was as white as the ceiling.
+
+"Has there been anything very wrong, then, about my Aunt Bernstein?"
+continued Harry, remembering how at home his mother had never spoken of
+the Baroness.
+
+"O sancta simplicitas!" the chaplain muttered to himself. "Stories, my
+dear sir, much older than your time or mine. Stories such as were told
+about everybody, de me, de te; you know with what degree of truth in
+your own case."
+
+"Confound the villain! I should like to hear any scoundrel say a word
+against the dear old lady," cries the young gentleman. "Why, this world,
+parson, is full of lies and scandal!"
+
+"And you are just beginning to find it out, my dear sir," cries the
+clergyman, with his most beatified air. "Whose character has not been
+attacked? My lord's, yours, mine,--every one's. We must bear as well as
+we can, and pardon to the utmost of our power."
+
+"You may. It's your cloth, you know; but, by George, I won't!" cries Mr.
+Warrington, and again goes down the fist with a thump on the table. "Let
+any fellow say a word in my hearing against that dear old creature, and
+I'll pull his nose, as sure as my name is Harry Esmond. How do you do,
+Colonel Lambert? You find us late again, sir. Me and his reverence kept
+it up pretty late with some of the young fellows, after the ladies
+went away. I hope the dear ladies are well, sir?" and here Harry rose,
+greeting his friend the Colonel very kindly, who had come to pay him
+a morning visit, and had entered the room followed by Mr. Gumbo (the
+latter preferred walking very leisurely about all the affairs of life),
+just as Harry--suiting the action to the word--was tweaking the nose of
+Calumny.
+
+"The ladies are purely. Whose nose were you pulling when I came in, Mr.
+Warrington?" says the Colonel, laughing.
+
+"Isn't it a shame, sir? The parson, here, was telling me that there
+are villains here who attack the character of my aunt, the Baroness of
+Bernstein!"
+
+"You don't mean to say so!" cries Mr. Lambert.
+
+"I tell Mr. Harry that everybody is calumniated!" says the chaplain,
+with a clerical intonation; but, at the same time, he looks at Colonel
+Lambert and winks, as much as to say, "He knows nothing--keep him in the
+dark."
+
+The Colonel took the hint. "Yes," says he, "the jaws of slander are for
+ever wagging. Witness that story about the dancing-girl, that we all
+believed against you, Harry Warrington."
+
+"What, all, sir?"
+
+"No, not all. One didn't--Hetty didn't. You should have heard her
+standing up for you, Harry, t'other day, when somebody--a little
+bird--brought us another story about you; about a game at cards on
+Sunday morning, when you and a friend of yours might have been better
+employed." And here there was a look of mingled humour and reproof at
+the clergyman.
+
+"Faith, I own it, sir!" says the chaplain. "It was mea culpa, mea
+maxima--no, mea minima culpa, only the rehearsal of an old game at
+piquet, which we had been talking over."
+
+"And did Miss Hester stand up for me?" says Harry.
+
+"Miss Hester did. But why that wondering look?" asks the Colonel.
+
+"She scolded me last night like--like anything," says downright Harry.
+"I never heard a young girl go on so. She made fun of everybody--hit
+about at young and old--so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that
+in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say the Yankees are very
+pert), young people don't speak of their elders so. And, do you know,
+sir, we had a sort of a quarrel, and I'm very glad you've told me she
+spoke kindly of me," says Harry, shaking his friend's hand, a ready
+boyish emotion glowing in his cheeks and in his eyes.
+
+"You won't come to much hurt if you find no worse enemy than Hester, Mr.
+Warrington," said the girl's father, gravely, looking not without a
+deep thrill of interest at the flushed face and moist eyes of his young
+friend. "Is he fond of her?" thought the Colonel. "And how fond? 'Tis
+evident he knows nothing, and Miss Het has been performing some of
+her tricks. He is a fine, honest lad, and God bless him!" And Colonel
+Lambert looked towards Harry with that manly, friendly kindness which
+our lucky young Virginian was not unaccustomed to inspire, for he was
+comely to look at, prone to blush, to kindle, nay, to melt, at a kind
+story. His laughter was cheery to hear: his eyes shone confidently: his
+voice spoke truth.
+
+"And the young lady of the minuet? She distinguished herself to
+perfection: the whole room admired," asked the courtly chaplain. "I
+trust Miss--Miss----"
+
+"Miss Theodosia is perfectly well, and ready to dance at this minute
+with your reverence," says her father. "Or stay, Chaplain, perhaps you
+only dance on Sunday?" The Colonel then turned to Harry again. "You
+paid your court very neatly to the great lady, Mr. Flatterer. My Lady
+Yarmouth has been trumpeting your praises at the Pump Room. She says
+she has got a leedel boy in Hannover dat is wery like you, and you are a
+sharming young mans."
+
+"If her ladyship were a queen, people could scarcely be more respectful
+to her," says the chaplain.
+
+"Let us call her a vice-queen, parson," says the Colonel, with a twinkle
+of his eye.
+
+"Her Majesty pocketed forty of my guineas at quadrille," cries Mr.
+Warrington, with a laugh.
+
+"She will play you on the same terms another day. The Countess is fond
+of play, and she wins from most people," said the Colonel, drily. "Why
+don't you bet her ladyship five thousand on a bishopric, parson? I have
+heard of a clergyman who made such a bet, and who lost it, and who paid
+it, and who got the bishopric.
+
+"Ah! who will lend me the five thousand? Will you, sir? asked the
+chaplain.
+
+"No, sir! I won't give her five thousand to be made Commander-in-Chief
+or Pope of Rome," says the Colonel, stoutly. "I shall fling no stones
+at the woman; but I shall bow no knee to her, as I see a pack of rascals
+do. No offence--I don't mean you. And I don't mean Harry Warrington,
+who was quite right to be civil to her, and to lose his money with
+good-humour. Harry, I am come to bid thee farewell, my boy. We have had
+our pleasuring--my money is run out, and we must jog back to Oakhurst.
+Will you ever come and see the old place again?"
+
+"Now, sir, now! I'll ride back with you!" cries Harry, eagerly.
+
+"Why--no--not now," says the Colonel, in a hurried manner. "We haven't
+got room--that is, we're--we're expecting some friends." ["The Lord
+forgive me for the lie!" he mutters.] "But--but you'll come to us
+when--when Tom's at home--yes, when Tom's at home. That will be
+famous fun--and I'd have you to know, sir, that my wife and I love you
+sincerely, sir--and so do the girls, however much they scold you. And if
+you ever are in a scrape--and such things have happened, Mr. Chaplain!
+you will please to count upon me. Mind that, sir!"
+
+And the Colonel was for taking leave of Harry then and there, on the
+spot, but the young man followed him down the stairs, and insisted upon
+saying good-bye to his dear ladies.
+
+Instead, however, of proceeding immediately to Mr. Lambert's lodging,
+the two gentlemen took the direction of the common, where, looking
+from Harry's windows, Mr. Sampson saw the pair in earnest conversation.
+First, Lambert smiled and looked roguish. Then, presently, at a farther
+stage of the talk, he flung up both his hands and performed other
+gestures indicating surprise and agitation.
+
+"The boy is telling him," thought the chaplain. When Mr. Warrington came
+back in an hour, he found his reverence deep in the composition of a
+sermon. Harry's face was grave and melancholy; he flung down his hat,
+buried himself in a great chair, and then came from his lips something
+like an execration.
+
+"The young ladies are going, and our heart is affected?" said the
+chaplain, looking up from his manuscript.
+
+"Heart!" sneered Harry.
+
+"Which of the young ladies is the conqueror, sir? I thought the
+youngest's eyes followed you about at your ball."
+
+"Confound the little termagant!" broke out Harry. "What does she mean by
+being so pert to me? She treats me as if I was a fool!"
+
+"And no man is, sir, with a woman!" said the scribe of the sermon.
+
+"Ain't they, Chaplain?" And Harry growled out more naughty words
+expressive of inward disquiet.
+
+"By the way, have you heard anything of your lost property?" asked the
+chaplain, presently looking up from his pages.
+
+Harry said "No!" with another word, which I would not print for the
+world.
+
+"I begin to suspect, sir, that there was more money than you like to own
+in that book. I wish I could find some."
+
+"There were notes in it," said Harry, very gloomily, "and--and papers
+that I am very sorry to lose. What the deuce has come of it? I had it
+when we dined together."
+
+"I saw you put it in your pocket," cried the chaplain. "I saw you take
+it out and pay at the toy-shop a bill for a gold thimble and workbox for
+one of your young ladies. Of course you have asked there, sir?"
+
+"Of course I have," says Mr. Warrington, plunged in melancholy.
+
+"Gumbo put you to bed--at least, if I remember right. I was so cut
+myself that I scarce remember anything. Can you trust those black
+fellows, sir?"
+
+"I can trust him with my head. With my head?" groaned out Mr.
+Warrington, bitterly., "I can't trust myself with it."
+
+"'Oh, that a man should put an enemy into his mouth to steal away his
+brains!'"
+
+"You may well call it an enemy, Chaplain. Hang it, I have a great mind
+to make a vow never to drink another drop! A fellow says anything when
+he is in drink."
+
+The chaplain laughed. "You, sir," he said, "are close enough!" And the
+truth was, that, for the last few days, no amount of wine would unseal
+Mr. Warrington's lips, when the artless Sampson by chance touched on the
+subject of his patron's loss.
+
+"And so the little country nymphs are gone, or going, sir?" asked the
+chaplain. "They were nice, fresh little things; but I think the mother
+was the finest woman of the three. I declare, a woman at five-and-thirty
+or so is at her prime. What do you say, sir?"
+
+Mr. Warrington looked, for a moment, askance at the clergyman. "Confound
+all women, I say!" muttered the young misogynist. For which sentiment
+every well-conditioned person will surely rebuke him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV. Entanglements
+
+
+Our good Colonel had, no doubt, taken counsel with his good wife, and
+they had determined to remove their little Hetty as speedily as possible
+out of the reach of the charmer. In complaints such as that under which
+the poor little maiden was supposed to be suffering, the remedy of
+absence and distance often acts effectually with men; but I believe
+women are not so easily cured by the alibi treatment. Some of them will
+go away ever so far, and forever so long, and the obstinate disease
+hangs by them, spite of distance or climate. You may whip, abuse,
+torture, insult them, and still the little deluded creatures will
+persist in their fidelity. Nay, if I may speak, after profound and
+extensive study and observation, there are few better ways of securing
+the faithfulness and admiration of the beautiful partners of our
+existence than a little judicious ill-treatment, a brisk dose of
+occasional violence as an alterative, and, for general and wholesome
+diet, a cooling but pretty constant neglect. At sparing intervals
+administer small quantities of love and kindness; but not every day, or
+too often, as this medicine, much taken, loses its effect. Those dear
+creatures who are the most indifferent to their husbands, are those who
+are cloyed by too much surfeiting of the sugar-plums and lollipops of
+Love. I have known a young being, with every wish gratified, yawn in her
+adoring husband's face, and prefer the conversation and petits soins
+of the merest booby and idiot; whilst, on the other hand, I have seen
+Chloe,--at whom Strephon has flung his bootjack in the morning, or whom
+he has cursed before the servants at dinner,--come creeping and fondling
+to his knee at tea-time, when he is comfortable after his little nap and
+his good wine; and pat his head and play him his favourite tunes; and,
+when old John, the butler, or old Mary, the maid, comes in with the
+bed-candles, look round proudly, as much as to say, Now, John, look how
+good my dearest Henry is! Make your game, gentlemen, then! There is the
+coaxing, fondling, adoring line, when you are henpecked, and Louisa
+is indifferent, and bored out of her existence. There is the manly,
+selfish, effectual system, where she answers to the whistle and comes in
+at "Down Charge;" and knows her master; and frisks and fawns about him;
+and nuzzles at his knees; and "licks the hand that's raised"--that's
+raised to do her good, as (I quote from memory) Mr. Pope finely
+observes. What used the late lamented O'Connell to say, over whom a
+grateful country has raised such a magnificent testimonial? "Hereditary
+bondsmen," he used to remark, "know ye not, who would be free,
+themselves must strike the blow?" Of course you must, in political as in
+domestic circles. So up with your cudgels, my enslaved, injured boys!
+
+Women will be pleased with these remarks, because they have such a taste
+for humour and understand irony; and I should not be surprised if young
+Grubstreet, who corresponds with three penny papers and describes the
+persons and conversation of gentlemen whom he meets at his "clubs,"
+will say, "I told you so! He advocates the thrashing of women! He has
+no nobility of soul! He has no heart!" Nor have I, my eminent young
+Grubstreet! any more than you have ears. Dear ladies! I assure you I am
+only joking in the above remarks,--I do not advocate the thrashing of
+your sex at all,--and, as you can't understand the commonest bit of fun,
+beg leave flatly to tell you, that I consider your sex a hundred times
+more loving and faithful than ours.
+
+So, what is the use of Hetty's parents taking her home, if the little
+maid intends to be just as fond of Harry absent as of Harry present?
+Why not let her see him before Ball and Dobbin are put to, and say,
+"Good-bye, Harry! I was very wilful and fractious last night, and you
+were very kind: but good-bye, Harry!" She will show no special emotion:
+she is so ashamed of her secret, that she will not betray it. Harry is
+too much preoccupied to discover it for himself. He does not know what
+grief is lying behind Hetty's glances, or hidden under the artifice of
+her innocent young smiles. He has, perhaps, a care of his own. He will
+part from her calmly, and fancy she is happy to get back to her music
+and her poultry and her flower-garden.
+
+He did not even ride part of the way homewards by the side of his
+friend's carriage. He had some other party arranged for, that afternoon,
+and when he returned thence, the good Lamberts were gone from Tunbridge
+Wells. There were their windows open, and the card in one of them
+signifying that the apartments were once more to let. A little passing
+sorrow at the blank aspect of the rooms lately enlivened by countenances
+so frank and friendly, may have crossed the young gentleman's mind; but
+he dines at the White Horse at four o'clock, and eats his dinner and
+calls fiercely for his bottle. Poor little Hester will choke over her
+tea about the same hour when the Lamberts arrive to sleep at the house
+of their friends at Westerham. The young roses will be wan in her cheeks
+in the morning, and there will be black circles round her eyes. It was
+the thunder: the night was hot: she could not sleep: she will be better
+when she gets home again the next day. And home they come. There is the
+gate where he fell. There is the bed he lay in, the chair in which he
+used to sit--what ages seem to have passed! What a gulf between to-day
+and yesterday! Who is that little child calling her chickens, or
+watering her roses yonder? Are she and that girl the same Hester
+Lambert? Why, she is ever so much older than Theo now--Theo, who has
+always been so composed, and so clever, and so old for her age. But in
+a night or two Hester has lived--oh, long, long years! So have many
+besides: and poppy and mandragora will never medicine them to the sweet
+sleep they tasted yesterday.
+
+Maria Esmond saw the Lambert cavalcade drive away, and felt a grim
+relief. She looks with hot eyes at Harry when he comes into his aunt's
+card-tables, flushed with Barbeau's good wine. He laughs, rattles in
+reply to his aunt, who asks him which of the girls is his sweetheart? He
+gaily says he loves them both like sisters. He has never seen a better
+gentleman, nor better people, than the Lamberts. Why is Lambert not a
+general? He has been a most distinguished officer: his Royal Highness
+the Duke is very fond of him. Madame Bernstein says that Harry must make
+interest with Lady Yarmouth for his protege.
+
+"Elle ravvole de fous, cher bedid anche!" says Madame Bernstein,
+mimicking the Countess's German accent. The Baroness is delighted with
+her boy's success. "You carry off the hearts of all the old women,
+doesn't he, Maria?" she says, with a sneer at her niece, who quivers
+under the stab.
+
+"You were quite right, my dear, not to perceive that she cheated
+at cards, and you play like a grand seigneur," continues Madame de
+Bernstein.
+
+"Did she cheat?" cries Harry, astonished. "I am sure, ma'am, I saw no
+unfair play."
+
+"No more did I, my dear, but I am sure she cheated. Bah! every woman
+cheats, I and Maria included, when we can get a chance. But when you
+play with the Walmoden, you don't do wrong to lose in moderation; and
+many men cheat in that way. Cultivate her. She has taken a fancy to your
+beaux yeux. Why should your Excellency not be Governor of Virginia,
+sir? You must go and pay your respects to the Duke and his Majesty at
+Kensington. The Countess of Yarmouth will be your best friend at court."
+
+"Why should you not introduce me, aunt?" asked Harry.
+
+The old lady's rouged cheek grew a little redder. "I am not in favour at
+Kensington," she said. "I may have been once; and there are no faces
+so unwelcome to kings as those they wish to forget. All of us want to
+forget something or somebody. I dare say our ingenu here would like to
+wipe a sum or two off the slate. Wouldst thou not, Harry?"
+
+Harry turned red, too, and so did Maria, and his aunt laughed one of
+those wicked laughs which are not altogether pleasant to hear. What
+meant those guilty signals on the cheeks of her nephew and niece? What
+account was scored upon the memory of either, which they were desirous
+to efface? I fear Madame Bernstein was right, and that most folks have
+some ugly reckonings written up on their consciences, which we were glad
+to be quit of.
+
+Had Maria known one of the causes of Harry's disquiet, the middle-aged
+spinster would have been more unquiet still. For some days he had missed
+a pocket-book. He had remembered it in his possession on that day when
+he drank so much claret at the White Horse, and Gumbo carried him to
+bed. He sought for it in the morning, but none of his servants had seen
+it. He had inquired for it at the White Horse, but there were no traces
+of it. He could not cry the book, and could only make very cautious
+inquiries respecting it. He must not have it known that the book was
+lost. A pretty condition of mind Lady Maria Esmond would be in, if she
+knew that the outpourings of her heart were in the hands of the public!
+The letters contained all sorts of disclosures: a hundred family secrets
+were narrated by the artless correspondent: there were ever so much
+satire and abuse of persons with whom she and Mr. Warrington came in
+contact. There were expostulations about his attentions to other ladies.
+There was scorn, scandal, jokes, appeals, protests of eternal fidelity;
+the usual farrago, dear madam, which you may remember you wrote to your
+Edward, when you were engaged to him, and before you became Mrs.
+Jones. Would you like those letters to be read by any one else? Do you
+recollect what you said about the Miss Browns in two or three of those
+letters, and the unfavourable opinion you expressed of Mrs. Thompson's
+character? Do you happen to recall the words which you used regarding
+Jones himself, whom you subsequently married (for in consequence of
+disputes about the settlements your engagement with Edward was broken
+off)? and would you like Mr. J. to see those remarks? You know you
+wouldn't. Then be pleased to withdraw that imputation which you have
+already cast in your mind upon Lady Maria Esmond. No doubt her letters
+were very foolish, as most love-letters are, but it does not follow that
+there was anything wrong in them. They are foolish when written by young
+folks to one another, and how much more foolish when written by an old
+man to a young lass, or by an old lass to a young lad! No wonder
+Lady Maria should not like her letters to be read. Why, the very
+spelling--but that didn't matter so much in her ladyship's days, and
+people are just as foolish now, though they spell better. No, it is not
+the spelling which matters so much; it is the writing at all. I for one,
+and for the future, am determined never to speak or write my mind out
+regarding anything or anybody. I intend to say of every woman that she
+is chaste and handsome; of every man that he is handsome, clever, and
+rich; of every book that it is delightfully interesting; of Snobmore's
+manners that they are gentlemanlike; of Screwby's dinners that they are
+luxurious; of Jawkins's conversation that it is lively and amusing; of
+Xantippe, that she has a sweet temper; of Jezebel, that her colour is
+natural; of Bluebeard, that he really was most indulgent to his wives,
+and that very likely they died of bronchitis. What? a word against the
+spotless Messalina? What an unfavourable view of human nature! What?
+King Cheops was not a perfect monarch? Oh, you railer at royalty and
+slanderer of all that is noble and good! When this book is concluded, I
+shall change the jaundiced livery which my books have worn since I began
+to lisp in numbers, have rose-coloured coats for them with cherubs on
+the cover, and all the characters within shall be perfect angels.
+
+Meanwhile we are in a society of men and women, from whose shoulders
+no sort of wings have sprouted as yet, and who, without any manner of
+doubt, have their little failings. There is Madame Bernstein: she has
+fallen asleep after dinner, and eating and drinking too much,--those are
+her ladyship's little failings. Mr. Harry Warrington has gone to play
+a match at billiards with Count Caramboli: I suspect idleness is his
+failing. That is what Mr. Chaplain Sampson remarks to Lady Maria, as
+they are talking together in a low tone, so as not to interrupt Aunt
+Bernstein's doze in the neighbouring room.
+
+"A gentleman of Mr. Warrington's means can afford to be idle," says Lady
+Maria. "Why, sure you love cards and billiards yourself, my good Mr.
+Sampson?"
+
+"I don't say, madam, my practice is good, only my doctrine is sound,"
+says Mr. Chaplain with a sigh. "This young gentleman should have some
+employment. He should appear at court, and enter the service of his
+country, as befits a man of his station. He should settle down, and
+choose a woman of a suitable rank as his wife." Sampson looks in her
+ladyship's face as he speaks.
+
+"Indeed, my cousin is wasting his time," says Lady Maria, blushing
+slightly.
+
+"Mr. Warrington might see his relatives of his father's family,"
+suggests Mr. Chaplain.
+
+"Suffolk country boobies drinking beer and hallooing after foxes! I
+don't see anything to be gained by his frequenting them, Mr. Sampson!"
+
+"They are of an ancient family, of which the chief has been knight of
+the shire these hundred years," says the chaplain. "I have heard Sir
+Miles hath a daughter of Mr. Harry's age--and beauty, too."
+
+"I know nothing, sir, about Sir Miles Warrington, and his daughters, and
+his beauties!" cries Maria, in a fluster.
+
+"The Baroness stirred--no--her ladyship is in a sweet sleep," says the
+chaplain, in a very soft voice. "I fear, madam, for your ladyship's
+cousin, Mr. Warrington. I fear for his youth; for designing persons who
+may get about him; for extravagances, follies, intrigues even into which
+he will be led, and into which everybody will try to tempt him. His
+lordship, my kind patron, bade me to come and watch over him, and I am
+here accordingly, as your ladyship knoweth. I know the follies of young
+men. Perhaps I have practised them myself. I own it with a blush," adds
+Mr. Sampson with much unction--not, however, bringing the promised blush
+forward to corroborate the asserted repentance.
+
+"Between ourselves, I fear Mr. Warrington is in some trouble now,
+madam," continues the chaplain, steadily looking at Lady Maria.
+
+"What, again?" shrieks the lady.
+
+"Hush! Your ladyship's dear invalid!" whispers the chaplain again
+pointing towards Madame Bernstein. "Do you think your cousin has any
+partiality for any--any member of Mr. Lambert's family? for example,
+Miss Lambert?"
+
+"There is nothing between him and Miss Lambert," says Lady Maria.
+
+"Your ladyship is certain?"
+
+"Women are said to have good eyes in such matters, my good Sampson,"
+says my lady, with an easy air. "I thought the little girl seemed to be
+following him."
+
+"Then I am at fault once more," the frank chaplain said. "Mr. Warrington
+said of the young lady, that she ought to go back to her doll, and
+called her a pert, stuck-up little hussy."
+
+"Ah!" sighed Lady Maria, as if relieved by the news.
+
+"Then, madam, there must be somebody else," said the chaplain. Has he
+confided nothing to your ladyship?"
+
+"To me, Mr. Sampson? What? Where? How?" exclaims Maria.
+
+"Some six days ago, after we had been dining at the White Horse, and
+drinking too freely, Mr. Warrington lost a pocket-book containing
+letters."
+
+"Letters?" gasps Lady Maria.
+
+"And probably more money than he likes to own," continues Mr. Sampson,
+with a grave nod of the head. "He is very much disturbed about the
+book. We have both made cautious inquiries about it. We have----Gracious
+powers, is your ladyship ill?"
+
+Here my Lady Maria gave three remarkably shrill screams, and tumbled off
+her chair.
+
+"I will see the Prince. I have a right to see him. What's this?--Where
+am I?--What's the matter?" cries Madame Bernstein, waking up from her
+sleep. She had been dreaming of old days, no doubt. The old lady shook
+in all her limbs--her face was very much flushed. She stared about
+wildly a moment, and then tottered forward on her tortoiseshell cane.
+"What--what's the matter?" she asked again. "Have you killed her, sir?"
+
+"Some sudden qualm must have come over her ladyship. Shall I cut her
+laces, madam? or send for a doctor?" cries the chaplain, with every look
+of innocence and alarm.
+
+"What has passed between you, sir?" asked the old lady, fiercely.
+
+"I give you my honour, madam, I have done I don't know what. I but
+mentioned that Mr. Warrington had lost a pocket-book containing letters,
+and my lady swooned, as you see."
+
+Madame Bernstein dashed water on her niece's face. A feeble moan told
+presently that the lady was coming to herself.
+
+The Baroness looked sternly after Mr. Sampson, as she sent him away on
+his errand for the doctor. Her aunt's grim countenance was of little
+comfort to poor Maria when she saw it on waking up from her swoon.
+
+"What has happened?" asked the younger lady, bewildered and gasping.
+
+"H'm! You know best what has happened, madam, I suppose. What hath
+happened before in our family?" cried the old Baroness, glaring at her
+niece with savage eyes.
+
+"Ah, yes! the letters have been lost--ach lieber Himmel!" And Maria, as
+she would sometimes do, when much moved, began to speak in the language
+of her mother.
+
+"Yes! the seal has been broken, and the letters have been lost, 'tis the
+old story of the Esmonds," cried the elder, bitterly.
+
+"Seal broken, letters lost? What do you mean,--aunt?" asked Maria,
+faintly.
+
+"I mean that my mother was the only honest woman that ever entered the
+family!" cried the Baroness, stamping her foot. "And she was a parson's
+daughter of no family in particular, or she would have gone wrong, too.
+Good heavens! is it decreed that we are all to be...?"
+
+"To be what, madam?" cried Maria.
+
+"To be what my Lady Queensberry said we were last night. To be what we
+are! You know the word for it!" cried the indignant old woman. "I say,
+what has come to the whole race? Your father's mother was an honest
+woman, Maria. Why did I leave her? Why couldn't you remain so?"
+
+"Madam!" exclaims Maria, "I declare, before Heaven, I am as----"
+
+"Bah! Don't madam me! Don't call heaven to witness--there's nobody by!
+And if you swore to your innocence till the rest of your teeth dropped
+out of your mouth, my Lady Maria Esmond, I would not believe you!"
+
+"Ah! it was you told him!" gasped Maria. She recognised an arrow out of
+her aunt's quiver.
+
+"I saw some folly going on between you and the boy, and I told him that
+you were as old as his mother. Yes, I did! Do you suppose I am going
+to let Henry Esmond's boy fling himself and his wealth away upon such
+a battered old rock as you? The boy shan't be robbed and cheated in our
+family. Not a shilling of mine shall any of you have if he comes to any
+harm amongst you.
+
+"Ah! you told him!" cried Maria, with a sudden burst of rebellion.
+"Well, then! I'd have you to know that I don't care a penny, madam,
+for your paltry money! I have Mr. Harry Warrington's word--yes, and his
+letters--and I know he will die rather than break it."
+
+"He will die if he keeps it!" (Maria shrugged her shoulders.)
+
+"But you don't care for that--you've no more heart----"
+
+"Than my father's sister, madam!" cries Maria again. The younger woman,
+ordinarily submissive, had turned upon here persecutor.
+
+"Ah! Why did not I marry an honest man?" said the of lady, shaking her
+head sadly. "Henry Esmond was noble and good, and perhaps might have
+made me so. But no, no--we have all got the taint in us--all! You don't
+mean to sacrifice this boy, Maria?"
+
+"Madame ma tante, do you take me for a fool at my age?" asks Maria.
+
+"Set him free! I'll give you five thousand pounds--in my--in my will,
+Maria. I will, on my honour!"
+
+"When you were young, and you liked Colonel Esmond, you threw him aside
+for an earl, and the earl for a duke?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Eh! Bon sang ne peut mentir! I have no money, I have no friends.
+My father was a spendthrift, my brother is a beggar. I have Mr.
+Warrington's word, and I know, madam, he will keep it. And that's what I
+tell your ladyship!" cries Lady Maria with a wave of her hand. "Suppose
+my letters are published to all the world to-morrow? Apres? I know they
+contain things I would as lieve not tell. Things not about me alone.
+Comment! Do you suppose there are no stories but mine in the family?
+It is not my letters that I am afraid of, so long as I have his, madam.
+Yes, his and his word, and I trust them both."
+
+"I will send to my merchant, and give you the money now, Maria," pleaded
+the old lady.
+
+"No, I shall have my pretty Harry, and ten times five thousand pounds!"
+cries Maria.
+
+"Not till his mother's death, madam, who is just your age!"
+
+"We can afford to wait, aunt. At my age, as you say, I am not so eager
+as young chits for a husband."
+
+"But to wait my sister's death, at least, is a drawback?"
+
+"Offer me ten thousand pounds, Madam Tusher, and then we will see!"
+cries Maria.
+
+"I have not so much money in the world, Maria," said the old lady.
+
+"Then, madam, let me make what I can for myself!" says Maria.
+
+"Ah, if he heard you?"
+
+"Apres? I have his word. I know he will keep it. I can afford to wait,
+madam," and she flung out of the room, just as the chaplain returned.
+It was Madame Bernstein who wanted cordials now. She was immensely moved
+and shocked by the news which had been thus suddenly brought to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI. Which seems to mean Mischief
+
+
+Though she had clearly had the worst of the battle described in the last
+chapter, the Baroness Bernstein, when she next met her niece showed
+no rancour or anger. "Of course, my Lady Maria," she said, "you can't
+suppose that I, as Harry Warrington's near relative, can be pleased at
+the idea of his marrying a woman who is as old as his mother, and has
+not a penny to her fortune; but if he chooses to do so silly a thing,
+the affair is none of mine; and I doubt whether I should have been
+much inclined to be taken au serieux with regard to that offer of five
+thousand pounds which I made in the heat of our talk. So it was already
+at Castlewood that this pretty affair was arranged? Had I known how far
+it had gone, my dear, I should have spared some needless opposition.
+When a pitcher is broken, what railing can mend it?"
+
+"Madam!" here interposed Maria.
+
+"Pardon me--I mean nothing against your ladyship's honour or character,
+which, no doubt, are quite safe. Harry says so, and you say so--what
+more can one ask?"
+
+"You have talked to Mr. Warrington, madam?"
+
+"And he has owned that he made you a promise at Castlewood: that you
+have it in his writing."
+
+"Certainly I have, madam!" says Lady Maria.
+
+"Ah!" (the elder lady did not wince at this). "And I own, too, that at
+first I put a wrong construction upon the tenor of your letters to him.
+They implicate other members of the family----"
+
+"Who have spoken most wickedly of me, and endeavoured to prejudice me
+in every way in my dear Mr. Warrington's eyes. Yes, madam, I own I have
+written against them, to justify myself."
+
+"But, of course, are pained to think that any wretch should get
+possession of stories to the disadvantage of our family, and make them
+public scandal. Hence your disquiet just now."
+
+"Exactly so," said Lady Maria. "From Mr. Warrington I could have nothing
+concealed henceforth, and spoke freely to him. But that is a very
+different thing from wishing all the world to know the disputes of a
+noble family."
+
+"Upon my word, Maria, I admire you, and have done you injustice.
+These--these twenty years, let us say."
+
+"I am very glad, madam, that you end by doing me justice at all," said
+the niece.
+
+"When I saw you last night, opening the ball with my nephew, can you
+guess what I thought of, my dear?"
+
+"I really have no idea what the Baroness de Bernstein thought of," said
+Lady Maria, haughtily.
+
+"I remembered that you had performed to that very tune with the
+dancing-master at Kensington, my dear!"
+
+"Madam, it was an infamous calumny."
+
+"By which the poor dancing-master got a cudgelling for nothing!"
+
+"It is cruel and unkind, madam, to recall that calumny--and I shall
+beg to decline living any longer with any one who utters it," continued
+Maria, with great spirit.
+
+"You wish to go home? I can fancy you won't like Tunbridge. It will be
+very hot for you if those letters are found."
+
+"There was not a word against you in them, madam: about that I can make
+your mind easy."
+
+"So Harry said, and did your ladyship justice. Well, my dear, we are
+tired of one another, and shall be better apart for a while."
+
+"That is precisely my own opinion," said Lady Maria, dropping a curtsey.
+
+"Mr. Sampson can escort you to Castlewood. You and your maid can take a
+postchaise."
+
+"We can take a postchaise, and Mr. Sampson can escort me," echoed the
+younger lady. "You see, madam, I act like a dutiful niece."
+
+"Do you know, my dear, I have a notion that Sampson has got the
+letters?" said the Baroness, frankly.
+
+"I confess that such a notion has passed through my own mind."
+
+"And you want to go home in the chaise, and coax the letters from him!
+Delilah! Well, they can be no good to me, and I trust you may get them.
+When will you go? The sooner the better, you say? We are women of the
+world, Maria. We only call names when we are in a passion. We don't want
+each other's company; and we part on good terms. Shall we go to my Lady
+Yarmouth's? 'Tis her night. There is nothing like a change of scene
+after one of those little nervous attacks you have had, and cards drive
+away unpleasant thoughts better than any doctor."
+
+Lady Maria agreed to go to Lady Yarmouth's cards, and was dressed and
+ready first, awaiting her aunt in the drawing-room. Madame Bernstein, as
+she came down, remarked Maria's door was left open. "She has the
+letters upon her," thought the old lady. And the pair went off to their
+entertainment in their respective chairs, and exhibited towards each
+other that charming cordiality and respect which women can show after,
+and even during, the bitterest quarrels.
+
+That night, on their return from the Countess's drum, Mrs. Brett, Madame
+Bernstein's maid, presented herself to my Lady Maria's call, when that
+lady rang her hand-bell upon retiring to her room. Betty, Mrs. Brett was
+ashamed to say, was not in a fit state to come before my lady. Betty had
+been a-junketing and merry-making with Mr. Warrington's black gentleman,
+with my Lord Bamborough's valet, and several more ladies and gentlemen
+of that station, and the liquor--Mrs. Brett was shocked to own it--had
+proved too much for Mrs. Betty. Should Mrs. Brett undress my lady? My
+lady said she would undress without a maid, and gave Mrs. Brett leave to
+withdraw. "She has the letters in her stays," thought Madame Bernstein.
+They had bidden each other an amicable good-night on the stairs.
+
+Mrs. Betty had a scolding the next morning, when she came to wait on
+her mistress, from the closet adjoining Lady Maria's apartment, in which
+Betty lay. She owned, with contrition, her partiality for rum-punch,
+which Mr. Gumbo had the knack of brewing most delicate. She took her
+scolding with meekness, and, having performed her usual duties about her
+lady's person, retired.
+
+Now Betty was one of the Castlewood girls who had been so fascinated by
+Gumbo, and was a very good-looking, blue-eyed lass, upon whom Mr.
+Case, Madame Bernstein's confidential man, had also cast the eyes
+of affection. Hence, between Messrs. Gumbo and Case, there had been
+jealousies and even quarrels; which had caused Gumbo, who was of a
+peaceful disposition, to be rather shy of the Baroness's gentlemen, the
+chief of whom vowed he would break the bones, or have the life of Gumbo,
+if he persisted in his attentions to Mrs. Betty.
+
+But on the night of the rum-punch, though Mr. Case found Gumbo and Mrs.
+Betty whispering in the doorway, in the cool breeze, and Gumbo would
+have turned pale with fear had he been able so to do, no one could be
+more gracious than Mr. Case. It was he who proposed the bowl of punch,
+which was brewed and drunk in Mrs. Betty's room, and which Gumbo
+concocted with exquisite skill. He complimented Gumbo on his music.
+Though a sober man ordinarily, he insisted upon more and more drinking,
+until poor Mrs. Betty was reduced to the state which occasioned her
+ladyship's just censure.
+
+As for Mr. Case himself, who lay out of the house, he was so ill with
+the punch, that he kept his bed the whole of the next day, and did
+not get strength to make his appearance, and wait on his ladies, until
+supper-time; when his mistress good-naturedly rebuked him, saying that
+it was not often he sinned in that way.
+
+"Why, Case, I could have made oath it was you I saw on horseback this
+morning galloping on the London road," said Mr. Warrington, who was
+supping with his relatives.
+
+"Me! law bless you, sir! I was a-bed, and I thought my head would come
+off with the aching. I ate a bit at six o'clock, and drunk a deal of
+small beer, and I am almost my own man again now. But that Gumbo, saving
+your honour's presence, I won't taste none of his punch again." And the
+honest major-domo went on with his duties among the bottles and glasses.
+
+As they sate after their meal, Madame Bernstein was friendly enough. She
+prescribed strong fortifying drinks for Maria, against the recurrence of
+her fainting fits. The lady had such attacks not unfrequently. She urged
+her to consult her London physician, and to send up an account of her
+case by Harry. By Harry! asked the lady. Yes. Harry was going for two
+days on an errand for his aunt to London. "I do not care to tell you, my
+dear, that it is on business which will do him good. I wish Mr. Draper
+to put him into my will, and as I am going travelling upon a round
+of visits when you and I part, I think, for security, I shall ask Mr.
+Warrington to take my trinket-box in his postchaise to London with him,
+for there have been robberies of late, and I have no fancy for being
+stopped by highwaymen."
+
+Maria looked blank at the notion of the young gentleman's departure,
+but hoped that she might have his escort back to Castlewood, whither her
+elder brother had now returned. "Nay," says his aunt, "the lad hath been
+tied to our apron-strings long enough. A day in London will do him no
+harm. He can perform my errand for me and be back with you by Saturday."
+
+"I would offer to accompany Mr. Warrington, but I preach on Friday
+before her ladyship," says Mr. Sampson. He was anxious that my Lady
+Yarmouth should judge of his powers as a preacher; and Madame Bernstein
+had exerted her influence with the king's favourite to induce her to
+hear the chaplain.
+
+Harry relished the notion of a rattling journey to London, and a day or
+two of sport there. He promised that his pistols were good, and that
+he would hand the diamonds over in safety to the banker's strong-room.
+Would he occupy his aunt's London house? No, that would be a dreary
+lodging with only a housemaid and a groom in charge of it. He would go
+to the Star and Garter in Pall Mall, or to an inn in Covent Garden.
+"Ah! I have often talked over that journey," said Harry, his countenance
+saddening.
+
+"And with whom, sir?" asked Lady Maria.
+
+"With one who promised to make it with me," said the young man,
+thinking, as he always did, with an extreme tenderness of the lost
+brother.
+
+"He has more heart, my good Maria, than some of us!" says Harry's
+aunt, witnessing his emotion. Uncontrollable gusts of grief would,
+not unfrequently, still pass over our young man. The parting from his
+brother; the scene and circumstances of George's fall last year; the
+recollection of his words, or of some excursion at home which they had
+planned together; would recur to him and overcome him. "I doubt, madam,"
+whispered the chaplain, demurely, to Madame Bernstein, after one of
+these bursts of sorrow, "whether some folks in England would suffer
+quite so much at the death of their elder brother."
+
+But, of course, this sorrow was not to be perpetual; and we can fancy
+Mr. Warrington setting out on his London journey eagerly enough, and
+very gay and happy, if it must be owned, to be rid of his elderly
+attachment. Yes. There was no help for it. At Castlewood, on one unlucky
+evening, he had made an offer of his heart and himself to his mature
+cousin, and she had accepted the foolish lad's offer. But the marriage
+now was out of the question. He must consult his mother. She was the
+mistress for life of the Virginian property. Of course she would refuse
+her consent to such a union. The thought of it was deferred to a late
+period. Meanwhile, it hung like a weight round the young man's neck, and
+caused him no small remorse and disquiet.
+
+No wonder that his spirits rose more gaily as he came near London, and
+that he looked with delight from his postchaise windows upon the city
+as he advanced towards it. No highwayman stopped our traveller on
+Blackheath. Yonder are the gleaming domes of Greenwich, canopied with
+woods. There is the famous Thames, with its countless shipping; there
+actually is the Tower of London. "Look, Gumbo! There is the Tower!"
+"Yes, master," says Gumbo, who has never heard of the Tower; but Harry
+has, and remembers how he has read about it in Howell's Medulla, and how
+he and his brother used to play at the Tower, and he thinks with delight
+now, how he is actually going to see the armour and the jewels and the
+lions. They pass through Southwark and over that famous London Bridge,
+which was all covered with houses like a street two years ago. Now there
+is only a single gate left, and that is coming down. Then the chaise
+rolls through the city; and, "Look, Gumbo, that is Saint Paul's!" "Yes,
+master; Saint Paul's," says Gumbo, obsequiously, but little struck by
+the beauties of the architecture. And so by the well-known course we
+reach the Temple, and Gumbo and his master look up with awe at the rebel
+heads on Temple Bar.
+
+The chaise drives to Mr. Draper's chambers in Middle Temple Lane, where
+Harry handed the precious box over to Mr. Draper, and a letter from
+his aunt, which the gentleman read with some interest seemingly, and
+carefully put away. He then consigned the trinket-box to his strong
+closet, went into the adjoining room, taking his clerk with him, and
+then was at Mr. Warrington's service to take him to an hotel. An hotel
+in Covent Garden was fixed upon as the best place for his residence.
+"I shall have to keep you for two or three days, Mr. Warrington," the
+lawyer said. "I don't think the papers which the Baroness wants can be
+ready until then. Meanwhile, I am at your service to see the town. I
+live out of it myself, and have a little box at Camberwell, where I
+shall be proud to have the honour of entertaining Mr. Warrington; but a
+young man, I suppose, will like his inn and his liberty best, sir?"
+
+Harry said yes, he thought the inn would be best; and the postchaise,
+and a clerk of Mr. Draper's inside, was despatched to the Bedford,
+whither the two gentlemen agreed to walk on foot.
+
+Mr. Draper and Mr. Warrington sat and talked for a while. The Drapers,
+father and son, had been lawyers time out of mind to the Esmond family,
+and the attorney related to the young gentleman numerous stories
+regarding his ancestors of Castlewood. Of the present Earl Mr.
+Draper was no longer the agent: his father and his lordship had had
+differences, and his lordship's business had been taken elsewhere: but
+the Baroness was still their honoured client, and very happy indeed was
+Mr. Draper to think that her ladyship was so well disposed towards her
+nephew.
+
+As they were taking their hats to go out, a young clerk of the house
+stopped his principal in the passage, and said: "If you please, sir,
+them papers of the Baroness was given to her ladyship's man, Mr. Case,
+two days ago."
+
+"Just please to mind your own business, Mr. Brown," said the lawyer,
+rather sharply. "This way, Mr. Warrington. Our Temple stairs are rather
+dark. Allow me to show you the way."
+
+Harry saw Mr. Draper darting a Parthian look of anger at Mr. Brown. "So
+it was Case I saw on the London Road two days ago," he thought. "What
+business brought the old fox to London?" Wherewith, not choosing to be
+inquisitive about other folks' affairs, he dismissed the subject from
+his mind.
+
+Whither should they go first? First, Harry was for going to see the
+place where his grandfather and Lord Castlewood had fought a duel
+fifty-six years ago, in Leicester Field. Mr. Draper knew the place well,
+and all about the story. They might take Covent Garden on their way to
+Leicester Field, and see that Mr. Warrington was comfortably lodged.
+"And order dinner," says Mr. Warrington. No, Mr. Draper could not
+consent to that. Mr. Warrington must be so obliging as to honour him on
+that day. In fact, he had made so bold as to order a collation from the
+Cock. Mr. Warrington could not decline an invitation so pressing, and
+walked away gaily with his friend, passing under that arch where
+the heads were, and taking off his hat to them, much to the lawyer's
+astonishment.
+
+"They were gentlemen who died for their king, sir. My dear brother
+George and I always said we would salute 'em when we saw 'em," Mr.
+Warrington said.
+
+"You'll have a mob at your heels if you do, sir," said the alarmed
+lawyer.
+
+"Confound the mob, sir," said Mr. Harry, loftily, but the passers-by,
+thinking about their own affairs, did not take any notice of Mr.
+Warrington's conduct; and he walked up the thronging Strand, gazing
+with delight upon all he saw, remembering, I dare say, for all his
+life after, the sights and impressions there presented to him, but
+maintaining a discreet reserve; for he did not care to let the lawyer
+know how much he was moved, or the public perceive that he was a
+stranger. He did not hear much of his companion's talk, though the
+latter chattered ceaselessly on the way. Nor was Mr. Draper displeased
+by the young Virginian's silent and haughty demeanour. A hundred years
+ago a gentleman was a gentleman, and his attorney his very humble
+servant.
+
+The chamberlain at the Bedford showed Mr. Warrington to his rooms,
+bowing before him with delightful obsequiousness, for Gumbo had already
+trumpeted his master's greatness, and Mr. Draper's clerk announced that
+the new-comer was a "high fellar." Then, the rooms surveyed, the two
+gentlemen went to Leicester Field, Mr. Gumbo strutting behind his
+master: and, having looked at the scene of his grandsire's wound, and
+poor Lord Castlewood's tragedy, they returned to the Temple to Mr.
+Draper's chambers.
+
+Who was that shabby-looking big man Mr. Warrington bowed to as they went
+out after dinner for a walk in the gardens? That was Mr. Johnson, an
+author, whom he had met at Tunbridge Wells. "Take the advice of a man of
+the world, sir," says Mr. Draper, eyeing the shabby man of letters very
+superciliously; "the less you have to do with that kind of person, the
+better. The business we have into our office about them literary men is
+not very pleasant, I can tell you." "Indeed!" says Mr. Warrington. He
+did not like his new friend the more as the latter grew more familiar.
+The theatres were shut. Should they go to Sadler's Wells? or Marybone
+Gardens? or Ranelagh? or how? "Not Ranelagh," says Mr. Draper, "because
+there's none of the nobility in town;" but, seeing in the newspaper that
+at the entertainment at Sadler's Wells, Islington, there would be the
+most singular kind of diversion on eight hand-bells by Mr. Franklyn, as
+well as the surprising performances of Signora Catherina, Harry wisely
+determined that he would go to Marybone Gardens, where they had a
+concert of music, a choice of tea, coffee, and all sorts of wines,
+and the benefit of Mr. Draper's ceaseless conversation. The lawyer's
+obsequiousness only ended at Harry's bedroom door, where, with haughty
+grandeur, the young gentleman bade his talkative host good night.
+
+The next morning Mr. Warrington, arrayed in his brocade bedgown, took
+his breakfast, read the newspaper, and enjoyed his ease in his inn. He
+read in the paper news from his own country. And when he saw the words,
+Williamsburg, Virginia, June 7th, his eyes grew dim somehow. He had
+just had letters by that packet of June 7th, but his mother did not
+tell how--"A great number of the principal gentry of the colony have
+associated themselves under the command of the Honourable Peyton
+Randolph, Esquire, to march to the relief of their distressed
+fellow-subjects, and revenge the cruelties of the French and their
+barbarous allies. They are in a uniform: viz., a plain blue frock,
+nanquin or brown waistcoats and breeches, and plain hats. They are armed
+each with a light firelock, a brace of pistols, and a cutting sword."
+
+"Ah, why ain't we there, Gumbo?" cried out Harry.
+
+"Why ain't we dar?" shouted Gumbo.
+
+"Why am I here, dangling at women's trains?" continued the Virginian.
+
+"Think dangling at women's trains very pleasant, Master Harry!" says the
+materialistic Gumbo, who was also very little affected by some further
+home news which his master read, viz., that The Lovely Sally, Virginia
+ship, had been taken in sight of port by a French privateer.
+
+And now, reading that the finest mare in England, and a pair of very
+genteel bay geldings, were to be sold at the Bull Inn, the lower end
+of Hatton Garden, Harry determined to go and look at the animals, and
+inquired his way to the place. He then and there bought the genteel bay
+geldings, and paid for them with easy generosity. He never said what
+he did on that day, being shy of appearing like a stranger; but it is
+believed that he took a coach and went to Westminster Abbey, from which
+he bade the coachman drive him to the Tower, then to Mrs. Salmon's
+Waxwork, then to Hyde Park and Kensington Palace; then he had given
+orders to go to the Royal Exchange, but catching a glimpse of Covent
+Garden, on his way to the Exchange, he bade Jehu take him to his
+inn, and cut short his enumeration of places to which he had been, by
+flinging the fellow a guinea.
+
+Mr. Draper had called in his absence, and said he would come again; but
+Mr. Warrington, having dined sumptuously by himself, went off nimbly to
+Marybone Gardens again, in the same noble company.
+
+As he issued forth the next day, the bells of St. Paul's, Covent Garden,
+were ringing for morning prayers, and reminded him that friend Sampson
+was going to preach his sermon. Harry smiled. He had begun to have a
+shrewd and just opinion of the value of Mr. Sampson's sermons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII. In which various Matches are fought
+
+
+Reading in the London Advertiser, which was served to his worship with
+his breakfast, an invitation to all lovers of manly British sport to
+come and witness a trial of skill between the great champions Sutton and
+Figg, Mr. Warrington determined upon attending these performances, and
+accordingly proceeded to the Wooden House, in Marybone Fields, driving
+thither the pair of horses which he had purchased on the previous day.
+The young charioteer did not know the road very well, and veered and
+tacked very much more than was needful upon his journey from Covent
+Garden, losing himself in the green lanes behind Mr. Whitfield's round
+Tabernacle of Tottenham Road, and the fields in the midst of which
+Middlesex Hospital stood. He reached his destination at length,
+however, and found no small company assembled to witness the valorous
+achievements of the two champions.
+
+A crowd of London blackguards was gathered round the doors of this
+temple of British valour; together with the horses and equipages of a
+few persons of fashion, who came, like Mr. Warrington, to patronise
+the sport. A variety of beggars and cripples hustled round the young
+gentleman, and whined to him for charity. Shoeblack-boys tumbled
+over each other for the privilege of blacking his honour's boots;
+nosegay-women and flying fruiterers plied Mr. Gumbo with their wares;
+piemen, pads, tramps, strollers of every variety, hung round the
+battle-ground. A flag was flying upon the building; and, on to the
+stage in front, accompanied by a drummer and a horn-blower, a manager
+repeatedly issued to announce to the crowd that the noble English sports
+were just about to begin.
+
+Mr. Warrington paid his money, and was accommodated with a seat in a
+gallery commanding a perfect view of the platform whereon the sports
+were performed; Mr. Gumbo took his seat in the amphitheatre below; or,
+when tired, issued forth into the outer world to drink a pot of beer,
+or play a game at cards with his brother-lacqueys, and the gentlemen's
+coachmen on the boxes of the carriages waiting without. Lacqueys,
+liveries, footmen--the old society was encumbered with a prodigious
+quantity of these. Gentlemen or women could scarce move without one,
+sometimes two or three, vassals in attendance. Every theatre had its
+footman's gallery: an army of the liveried race hustled around every
+chapel-door: they swarmed in anterooms: they sprawled in halls and on
+landings: they guzzled, devoured, debauched, cheated, played cards,
+bullied visitors for vails:--that noble old race of footmen is well-nigh
+gone. A few thousand of them may still be left among us. Grand, tall,
+beautiful, melancholy, we still behold them on levee days, with their
+nosegays and their buckles, their plush and their powder. So have I seen
+in America specimens, nay camps and villages, of Red Indians. But the
+race is doomed. The fatal decree has gone forth, and Uncas with his
+tomahawk and eagle's plume, and Jeames with his cocked hat and long
+cane, are passing out of the world where they once walked in glory.
+
+Before the principal combatants made their appearance, minor warriors
+and exercises were exhibited. A boxing-match came off, but neither of
+the men were very game or severely punished, so that Mr. Warrington
+and the rest of the spectators had but little pleasure out of that
+encounter. Then ensued some cudgel-playing; but the heads broken were
+of so little note, and the wounds given so trifling and unsatisfactory,
+that no wonder the company began to hiss, grumble, and show other signs
+of discontent. "The masters, the masters!" shouted the people, whereupon
+those famous champions at length thought fit to appear.
+
+The first who walked up the steps to the stage was the intrepid Sutton,
+sword in hand, who saluted the company with his warlike weapon, making
+an especial bow and salute to a private box or gallery in which sate a
+stout gentleman, who was seemingly a person of importance. Sutton was
+speedily followed by the famous Figg, to whom the stout gentleman waved
+a hand of approbation. Both men were in their shirts, their heads were
+shaven clean, but bore the cracks and scars of many former glorious
+battles. On his burly sword-arm, each intrepid champion wore an
+"armiger," or ribbon of his colour. And now the gladiators shook
+hands, and, as a contemporary poet says: "The word it was bilboe."
+[The antiquarian reader knows the pleasant poem in the sixth volume of
+Dodsley's Collection, in which the above combat is described.]
+
+At the commencement of the combat the great Figg dealt a blow so
+tremendous at his opponent, that had it encountered the other's honest
+head, that comely noddle would have been shorn off as clean as the
+carving-knife chops the carrot. But Sutton received his adversary's
+blade on his own sword, whilst Figg's blow was delivered so mightily
+that the weapon brake in his hands, less constant than the heart of
+him who wielded it. Other sword were now delivered to the warriors. The
+first blood drawn spouted from the panting side of Figg amidst a yell
+of delight from Sutton's supporters; but the veteran appealing to his
+audience, and especially, as it seemed, to the stout individual in the
+private gallery, showed that his sword broken in the previous encounter
+had caused the wound.
+
+Whilst the parley occasioned by this incident was going on, Mr.
+Warrington saw a gentleman in a riding-frock and plain scratch-wig enter
+the box devoted to the stout personage, and recognised with pleasure his
+Tunbridge Wells friend, my Lord of March and Ruglen. Lord March, who was
+by no means prodigal of politeness seemed to show singular deference to
+the stout gentleman, and Harry remarked how his lordship received,
+with a profound bow, some bank-bills which the other took out from a
+pocket-book and handed to him. Whilst thus engaged, Lord March spied out
+our Virginian, and, his interview with the stout personage finished, my
+lord came over to Harry's gallery and warmly greeted his young friend.
+They sat and beheld the combat waging with various success, but
+with immense skill and valour on both sides. After the warriors had
+sufficiently fought with swords, they fell to with the quarter-staff,
+and the result of this long and delightful battle was, that victory
+remained with her ancient champion Figg.
+
+Whilst the warriors were at battle, a thunderstorm had broken over the
+building, and Mr. Warrington gladly enough accepted a seat in my Lord
+March's chariot, leaving his own phaeton to be driven home by his groom.
+Harry was in great delectation with the noble sight he had witnessed:
+be pronounced this indeed to be something like sport, and of the best
+he had seen since his arrival in England: and, as usual, associating any
+pleasure which he enjoyed with the desire that the dear companion of
+his boyhood should share the amusement in common with him, he began by
+sighing out, "I wish..." then he stopped. "No, I don't," says he.
+
+"What do you wish and what don't you wish?" asks Lord March.
+
+"I was thinking, my lord, of my elder brother, and wished he had been
+with me. We had promised to have our sport together at home, you see;
+and many's the time we talked of it. But he wouldn't have liked this
+rough sort of sport, and didn't care for fighting, though he was the
+bravest lad alive."
+
+"Oh! he was the bravest lad alive, was he?" asks my lord, lolling on his
+cushion, and eyeing his Virginian friend with some curiosity.
+
+"You should have seen him in a quarrel with a very gallant officer,
+our friend--an absurd affair, but it was hard to keep George off him. I
+never saw a fellow so cool, nor more savage and determined, God help me.
+Ah! I wish for the honour of the country, you know, that he could have
+come here instead of me, and shown you a real Virginian gentleman."
+
+"Nay, sir, you'll do very well. What is this I hear of Lady Yarmouth
+taking you into favour?" said the amused nobleman.
+
+"I will do as well as another. I can ride, and, I think, I can shoot
+better than George; but then my brother had the head, sir, the head!"
+says Harry, tapping his own honest skull. "Why, I give you my word, my
+lord, that he had read almost every book that was ever written; could
+play both on the fiddle and harpsichord, could compose poetry and
+sermons most elegant. What can I do? I am only good to ride and play at
+cards, and drink Burgundy." And the penitent hung down his head. "But
+them I can do as well as most fellows, you see. In fact, my lord, I'll
+back myself," he resumed, to the other's great amusement.
+
+Lord March relished the young man's naivete, as the jaded voluptuary
+still to the end always can relish the juicy wholesome mutton-chop. "By
+Gad, Mr. Warrington," says he, "you ought to be taken to Exeter 'Change,
+and put in a show."
+
+"And for why?"
+
+"A gentleman from Virginia who has lost his elder brother and absolutely
+regrets him. The breed ain't known in this country. Upon my honour and
+conscience, I believe that you would like to have him back again."
+
+"Believe!" cries the Virginian, growing red in the face.
+
+"That is, you believe you believe you would like him back again. But
+depend on it you wouldn't. 'Tis not in human nature, sir; not as I read
+it, at least. Here are some fine houses we are coming to. That at the
+corner is Sir Richard Littleton's, that great one was my Lord Bingley's.
+'Tis a pity they do nothing better with this great empty space of
+Cavendish Square than fence it with these unsightly boards. By George!
+I don't know where the town's running. There's Montagu House made into
+a confounded Don Saltero's museum, with books and stuffed birds and
+rhinoceroses. They have actually run a cursed cut--New Road they call
+it--at the back of Bedford House Gardens, and spoilt the Duke's comfort,
+though, I guess, they will console him in the pocket. I don't know
+where the town will stop. Shall we go down Tyburn Road and the Park, or
+through Swallow Street, and into the habitable quarter of the town? We
+can dine at Pall Mall, or, if you like, with you; and we can spend the
+evening as you like--with the Queen of Spades, or..."
+
+"With the Queen of Spades, if your lordship pleases," says Mr.
+Warrington, blushing. So the equipage drove to his hotel in Covent
+Garden, where the landlord came forward with his usual obsequiousness,
+and recognising my Lord of March and Ruglen, bowed his wig on to my
+lord's shoes in his humble welcomes to his lordship. A rich young
+English peer in the reign of George the Second; a wealthy patrician
+in the reign of Augustus; which would you rather have been? There is a
+question for any young gentlemen's debating-clubs of the present day.
+
+The best English dinner which could be produced, of course, was at the
+service of the young Virginian and his noble friend. After dinner came
+wine in plenty, and of quality good enough even for the epicurean earl.
+Over the wine there was talk of going to see the fireworks at Vauxhall,
+or else of cards. Harry, who had never seen a firework beyond an
+exhibition of a dozen squibs at Williamsburg on the fifth of November
+(which he thought a sublime display), would have liked the Vauxhall, but
+yielded to his guest's preference for piquet; and they were very soon
+absorbed in that game.
+
+Harry began by winning as usual; but, in the course of a half-hour, the
+luck turned and favoured my Lord March, who was at first very surly when
+Mr. Draper, Mr. Warrington's man of business, came bowing into the room,
+where he accepted Harry's invitation to sit and drink. Mr. Warrington
+always asked everybody to sit and drink, and partake of his best. Had he
+a crust, he would divide it; had he a haunch, he would share it; had
+he a jug of water, he would drink about with a kindly spirit; had he a
+bottle of Burgundy, it was gaily drunk with a thirsty friend. And don't
+fancy the virtue is common. You read of it in books, my dear sir, and
+fancy that you have it yourself because you give six dinners of twenty
+people and pay your acquaintance all round; but the welcome, the
+friendly spirit, the kindly heart? Believe me, these are rare qualities
+in our selfish world. We may bring them with us from the country when we
+are young, but they mostly wither after transplantation, and droop and
+perish in the stifling London air.
+
+Draper did not care for wine very much, but it delighted the lawyer to
+be in the company of a great man. He protested that he liked nothing
+better than to see piquet played by two consummate players and men of
+fashion; and, taking a seat, undismayed by the sidelong scowls of his
+lordship, surveyed the game between the gentlemen. Harry was not near
+a match for the experienced player of the London clubs. To-night, too,
+Lord March held better cards to aid his skill.
+
+What their stakes were was no business of Mr. Draper's. The gentlemen
+said they would play for shillings, and afterwards counted up their
+gains and losses, with scarce any talking, and that in an undertone. A
+bow on both sides, a perfectly grave and polite manner on the part of
+each, and the game went on.
+
+But it was destined to a second interruption, which brought an
+execration from Lord March's lips. First was heard a scuffling
+without--then a whispering--then an outcry as of a woman in tears,
+and then, finally, a female rushed into the room, and produced that
+explosion of naughty language from Lord March.
+
+"I wish your women would take some other time for coming, confound 'em,"
+says my lord, laying his cards down in a pet.
+
+"What, Mrs. Betty!" cried Harry.
+
+Indeed it was no other than Mrs. Betty, Lady Maria's maid; and Gumbo
+stood behind her, his fine countenance beslobbered with tears.
+
+"What has happened?" asks Mr. Warrington, in no little perturbation of
+spirit. "The Baroness is well?"
+
+"Help! help! sir, your honour!" ejaculates Mrs. Betty, and proceeds to
+fall on her knees.
+
+"Help whom?"
+
+A howl ensues from Gumbo.
+
+"Gumbo! you scoundrel! has anything happened between Mrs. Betty and
+you?" asks the black's master.
+
+Mr. Gumbo steps back with great dignity, laying his hand on his heart,
+and saying, "No, sir; nothing hab happened 'twix' this lady and me."
+
+"It's my mistress, sir," cries Betty. "Help! help! here's the letter she
+have wrote, sir! They have gone and took her, sir!"
+
+"Is it only that old Molly Esmond? She's known to be over head and heels
+in debt! Dry your eyes in the next room, Mrs. Betty, and let me and Mr.
+Warrington go on with our game," says my lord, taking up his cards.
+
+"Help! help her!" cries Betty again. "Oh, Mr. Harry! you won't be
+a-going on with your cards, when my lady calls out to you to come and
+help her! Your honour used to come quick enough when my lady used to
+send me to fetch you at Castlewood!"
+
+"Confound you! can't you hold your tongue?" says my lord, with more
+choice words and oaths.
+
+But Betty would not cease weeping, and it was decreed that Lord March
+was to cease winning for that night. Mr. Warrington rose from his seat,
+and made for the bell, saying:
+
+"My dear lord, the game must be over for to-night. My relative writes to
+me in great distress, and I am bound to go to her."
+
+"Curse her! Why couldn't she wait till to-morrow?" cries my lord,
+testily.
+
+Mr. Warrington ordered a postchaise instantly. His own horses would take
+him to Bromley.
+
+"Bet you, you don't do it within the hour! bet you, you don't do it
+within five quarters of an hour! bet you four to one--or I'll take your
+bet, which you please--that you're not robbed on Blackheath! Bet you,
+you are not at Tunbridge Wells before midnight!" cries Lord March.
+
+"Done!" says Mr. Warrington. And my lord carefully notes down the terms
+of the four wagers in his pocket-book.
+
+Lady Maria's letter ran as follows:--
+
+
+"MY DEAR COUSIN--I am fell into a trapp, which I perceive the
+machinations of villians. I am a prisner. Betty will tell you all. Ah,
+my Henrico! come to the resque of your MOLLY."
+
+
+In half an hour after the receipt of this missive, Mr. Warrington was
+in his postchaise and galloping over Westminster Bridge on the road to
+succour his kinswoman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII. Sampson and the Philistines
+
+
+My happy chance in early life led me to become intimate with a
+respectable person who was born in a certain island, which is pronounced
+to be the first gem of the ocean by, no doubt, impartial judges of
+maritime jewellery. The stories which that person imparted to me
+regarding his relatives who inhabited the gem above-mentioned, were such
+as used to make my young blood curdle with horror to think there should
+be so much wickedness in the world. Every crime which you can think of;
+the entire Ten Commandments broken in a general smash; such rogueries
+and knaveries as no storyteller could invent; such murders and robberies
+as Thurtell or Turpin scarce ever perpetrated;--were by my informant
+accurately remembered, and freely related, respecting his nearest
+kindred, to any one who chose to hear him. It was a wonder how any of
+the family still lived out of the hulks. Me brother Tim had brought
+his fawther's gree hairs with sorrow to the greeve; me brother Mick had
+robbed the par'sh church repaytedly; me sisther Annamaroia had jilted
+the Captain and run off with the Ensign, forged her grandmother's will,
+and stole the spoons, which Larry the knife-boy was hanged for.
+The family of Atreus was as nothing compared to the race of
+O'What-d'ye-call-'em, from which my friend sprung; but no power on earth
+would, of course, induce me to name the country whence he came.
+
+How great then used to be my naif astonishment to find these murderers,
+rogues, parricides, habitual forgers of bills of exchange, and so forth,
+every now and then writing to each other as "my dearest brother," "my
+dearest sister," and for months at a time living on the most amicable
+terms! With hands reeking with the blood of his murdered parents, Tim
+would mix a screeching tumbler, and give Maria a glass from it. With
+lips black with the perjuries he had sworn in court respecting his
+grandmother's abstracted testament, or the murder of his poor brother
+Thady's helpless orphans, Mick would kiss his sister Julia's bonny
+cheek, and they would have a jolly night, and cry as they talked about
+old times, and the dear old Castle What-d'ye-call-'em, where they were
+born, and the fighting Onetyoneth being quarthered there, and the Major
+proposing for Cyaroloine, and the tomb of their seented mother (who had
+chayted them out of the propertee). Heaven bless her soul! They used to
+weep and kiss so profusely at meeting and parting, that it was touching
+to behold them. At the sight of their embraces one forgot those painful
+little stories, and those repeated previous assurances that, did they
+tell all, they could hang each other all round.
+
+What can there be finer than forgiveness? What more rational than, after
+calling a man by every bad name under the sun, to apologise, regret
+hasty expressions, and so forth, withdraw the decanter (say) which you
+have flung at your enemy's head, and be friends as before? Some folks
+possess this admirable, this angellike gift of forgiveness. It was
+beautiful, for instance, to see our two ladies at Tunbridge Wells
+forgiving one another, smiling, joking, fondling almost in spite of
+the hard words of yesterday--yes, and forgetting bygones, though they
+couldn't help remembering them perfectly well. I wonder, can you and I
+do as much? Let us strive, my friend, to acquire this pacable, Christian
+spirit. My belief is that you may learn to forgive bad language employed
+to you; but, then, you must have a deal of practice, and be accustomed
+to hear and use it. You embrace after a quarrel and mutual bad language.
+Heaven bless us! Bad words are nothing when one is accustomed to them,
+and scarce need ruffle the temper on either side.
+
+So the aunt and niece played cards very amicably together, and drank to
+each other's health, and each took a wing of the chicken, and pulled
+a bone of the merry-thought, and (in conversation) scratched their
+neighbours', not each other's, eyes out. Thus we have read how the
+Peninsular warriors, when the bugles sang truce, fraternised and
+exchanged tobacco-pouches and wine, ready to seize their firelocks and
+knock each other's heads off when the truce was over; and thus our old
+soldiers, skilful in war, but knowing the charms of a quiet life, laid
+their weapons down for the nonce, and hob-and-nobbed gaily together. Of
+course, whilst drinking with Jack Frenchman, you have your piece handy
+to blow his brains out if he makes a hostile move: but, meanwhile, it is
+A votre sante, mon camarade! Here's to you, mounseer! and everything is
+as pleasant as possible. Regarding Aunt Bernstein's threatened gout? The
+twinges had gone off. Maria was so glad! Maria's fainting fits? She had
+no return of them. A slight recurrence last night. The Baroness was so
+sorry! Her niece must see the best doctor, take everything to fortify
+her, continue to take the steel, even after she left Tunbridge. How kind
+of Aunt Bernstein to offer to send some of the bottled waters after her!
+Suppose Madame Bernstein says in confidence to her own woman, "Fainting
+fits!--pooh!--epilepsy! inherited from that horrible scrofulous German
+mother!" What means have we of knowing the private conversation of the
+old lady and her attendant? Suppose Lady Maria orders Mrs. Betty,
+her ladyship's maid, to taste every glass of medicinal water, first
+declaring that her aunt is capable of poisoning her? Very likely such
+conversations take place. These are but precautions--these are the
+firelocks which our old soldiers have at their sides, loaded and cocked,
+but at present lying quiet on the grass.
+
+Having Harry's bond in her pocket, the veteran Maria did not choose to
+press for payment. She knew the world too well for that. He was bound
+to her, but she gave him plenty of day-rule, and leave of absence on
+parole. It was not her object needlessly to chafe and anger her young
+slave. She knew the difference of ages, and that Harry must have his
+pleasures and diversions. "Take your ease and amusement, cousin," says
+Lady Maria. "Frisk about, pretty little mousekin," says grey Grimalkin,
+purring in the corner, and keeping watch with her green eyes. About all
+that Harry was to see and do on his first visit to London, his female
+relatives had of course talked and joked. Both of the ladies knew
+perfectly what were a young gentleman's ordinary amusements in those
+days, and spoke of them with the frankness which characterised those
+easy times.
+
+Our wily Calypso consoled herself, then, perfectly, in the absence of
+her young wanderer, and took any diversion which came to hand. Mr. Jack
+Morris, the gentleman whom we have mentioned as rejoicing in the company
+of Lord March and Mr. Warrington, was one of these diversions. To live
+with titled personages was the delight of Jack Morris's life; and to
+lose money at cards to an earl's daughter was almost a pleasure to him.
+Now, the Lady Maria Esmond was an earl's daughter who was very glad to
+win money. She obtained permission to take Mr. Morris to the Countess
+of Yarmouth's assembly, and played cards with him--and so everybody was
+pleased.
+
+Thus the first eight-and-forty hours after Mr. Warrington's departure
+passed pretty cheerily at Tunbridge Wells, and Friday arrived, when the
+sermon was to be delivered which we have seen Mr. Sampson preparing. The
+company at the Wells were ready enough to listen to it. Sampson had a
+reputation for being a most amusing and eloquent preacher; and if there
+were no breakfast, conjurer, dancing bears, concert going on, the good
+Wells folk would put up with a sermon. He knew Lady Yarmouth was coming,
+and what a power she had in the giving of livings and the dispensing of
+bishoprics, the Defender of the Faith of that day having a remarkable
+confidence in her ladyship's opinion upon these matters;--and so we
+may be sure that Mr. Sampson prepared his very best discourse for her
+hearing. When the Great Man is at home at the Castle, and walks over to
+the little country church, in the park, bringing the Duke, the Marquis,
+and a couple of Cabinet Ministers with him, has it ever been your lot
+to sit among the congregation, and watch Mr. Trotter the curate and his
+sermon? He looks anxiously at the Great Pew; he falters as he gives out
+his text, and thinks, "Ah! perhaps his lordship may give me a living!"
+Mrs. Trotter and the girls look anxiously at the Great Pew too,
+and watch the effects of papa's discourse--the well-known favourite
+discourse--upon the big-wigs assembled. Papa's first nervousness is
+over: his noble voice clears, warms to his sermon: he kindles: he takes
+his pocket-handkerchief out: he is coming to that exquisite passage
+which has made them all cry at the parsonage: he has begun it! Ah! What
+is that humming noise, which fills the edifice, and causes hob-nailed
+Melibaeus to grin at smock-frocked Tityrus? It is the Right Honourable
+Lord Naseby snoring in the pew by the fire! And poor Trotter's visionary
+mitre disappears with the music.
+
+Sampson was the domestic chaplain of Madame Bernstein's nephew. The two
+ladies of the Esmond family patronised the preacher. On the day of the
+sermon, the Baroness had a little breakfast in his honour, at which
+Sampson made his appearance, rosy and handsome, with a fresh-flowered
+wig, and a smart, rustling, new cassock, which he had on credit
+from some church-admiring mercer at the Wells. By the side of his
+patronesses, their ladyships' lacqueys walking behind them with their
+great gilt prayer-books, Mr. Sampson marched from breakfast to church.
+Every one remarked how well the Baroness Bernstein looked; she laughed,
+and was particularly friendly with her niece; she had a bow and a
+stately smile for all, as she moved on, with her tortoiseshell cane. At
+the door there was a dazzling conflux of rank and fashion--all the
+fine company of the Wells trooping in; and her ladyship of Yarmouth,
+conspicuous with vermilion cheeks, and a robe of flame-coloured taffeta.
+There were shabby people present, besides the fine company, though these
+latter were by far the most numerous. What an odd-looking pair, for
+instance, were those in ragged coats, one of them with his carroty hair
+appearing under his scratch-wig, and who entered the church just as
+the organ stopped! Nay, he could not have been a Protestant, for he
+mechanically crossed himself as he entered the place, saying to
+his comrade, "Bedad, Tim, I forgawt!" by which I conclude that
+the individual came from an island which has been mentioned at the
+commencement of this chapter. Wherever they go a rich fragrance of
+whisky spreads itself. A man may be a heretic, but possess genius: these
+Catholic gentlemen have come to pay homage to Mr. Sampson.
+
+Nay, there are not only members of the old religion present, but
+disciples of a creed still older. Who are those two individuals with
+hooked noses and sallow countenances, who worked into the church in
+spite of some little opposition on the part of the beadle? Seeing the
+greasy appearance of these Hebrew strangers, Mr. Beadle was for
+denying them admission. But one whispered into his ear, "We wants to
+be conwerted, gov'nor!" another slips money into his hand,--Mr. Beadle
+lifts up the mace with which he was barring the doorway, and the Hebrew
+gentlemen enter. There goes the organ! the doors have closed. Shall we
+go in, and listen to Mr. Sampson's sermon, or lie on the grass without?
+
+Preceded by that beadle in gold lace, Sampson walked up to the pulpit,
+as rosy and jolly a man as you could wish to see. Presently, when he
+surged up out of his plump pulpit cushion, why did his Reverence turn as
+pale as death? He looked to the western church-door--there, on each
+side of it, were those horrible Hebrew caryatides. He then looked to the
+vestry-door, which was hard by the rector's pew, in which Sampson
+had been sitting during the service, alongside of their ladyships his
+patronesses. Suddenly a couple of perfumed Hibernian gentlemen slipped
+out of an adjacent seat, and placed themselves on a bench close by that
+vestry-door and rector's pew, and so sate till the conclusion of the
+sermon, with eyes meekly cast down to the ground. How can we describe
+that sermon, if the preacher himself never knew how it came to an end?
+
+Nevertheless, it was considered an excellent sermon. When it was over,
+the fine ladies buzzed into one another's ears over their pews, and
+uttered their praise and comments. Madame Walmoden, who was in the next
+pew to our friends, said it was bewdiful, and made her dremble all over.
+Madame Bernstein said it was excellent. Lady Maria was pleased to think
+that the family chaplain should so distinguish himself. She looked up
+at him, and strove to catch his reverence's eye, as he still sate in his
+pulpit; she greeted him with a little wave of the hand and flutter of
+her handkerchief. He scarcely seemed to note the compliment; his face
+was pale, his eyes were looking yonder, towards the font, where those
+Hebrews still remained. The stream of people passed by them--in a rush,
+when they were lost to sight,--in a throng--in a march of twos and
+threes--in a dribble of one at a time. Everybody was gone. The two
+Hebrews were still there by the door.
+
+The Baroness de Bernstein and her niece still lingered in the rector's
+pew, where the old lady was deep in conversation with that gentleman.
+
+"Who are those horrible men at the door? and what a smell of spirits
+there is!" cries Lady Maria, to Mrs. Brett, her aunt's woman, who had
+attended the two ladies.
+
+"Farewell, doctor; you have a darling little boy: is he to be a
+clergyman, too?" asks Madame de Bernstein. "Are you ready, my dear?" And
+the pew is thrown open, and Madame Bernstein, whose father was only
+a viscount, insists that her niece, Lady Maria, who was an earl's
+daughter, should go first out of the pew.
+
+As she steps forward, those individuals whom her ladyship designated as
+two horrible men, advance. One of them pulls a long strip of paper out
+of his pocket, and her ladyship starts and turns pale. She makes for the
+vestry, in a vague hope that she can clear the door and close it behind
+her. The two whiskified gentlemen are up with her, however; one of them
+actually lays his hand on her shoulder, and says:
+
+"At the shuit of Misthress Pincott, of Kinsington, mercer, I have the
+honour of arresting your leedyship. Me neem is Costigan, madam, a poor
+gentleman of Oireland, binding to circumstances and forced to follow a
+disagrayable profession. Will your leedyship walk, or shall me man go
+fetch a cheer?"
+
+For reply Lady Maria Esmond gives three shrieks, and falls swooning to
+the ground. "Keep the door, Mick!" shouts Mr. Costigan. "Best let in no
+one else, madam," he says, very politely, to Madame de Bernstein. "Her
+ladyship has fallen in a feenting fit, and will recover here, at her
+aise."
+
+"Unlace her, Brett!" cries the old lady, whose eyes twinkle oddly; and
+as soon as that operation is performed, Madame Bernstein seizes a little
+bag suspended by a hair chain, which Lady Maria wears round her neck,
+and snips the necklace in twain. "Dash some cold water over her face, it
+always recovers her!" says the Baroness. "You stay with her, Brett. How
+much is your suit gentlemen?"
+
+Mr. Costigan says, "The deem we have against her leedyship for one
+hundred and thirty-two pounds, in which she is indebted to Misthress
+Eliza Pincott"
+
+Meanwhile, where is the Reverend Mr. Sampson? Like the fabled opossum we
+have read of, who, when he spied the unerring gunner from his gum-tree,
+said: "It's no use Major, I will come down," so Sampson gave himself up
+to his pursuers. "At whose suit, Simons?" he sadly asked. Sampson knew
+Simons: they had met many a time before.
+
+"Buckleby Cordwainer," says Mr. Simons.
+
+"Forty-eight pound and charges, I know," says Mr. Sampson, with a sigh.
+"I haven't got the money. What officer is there here?" Mr. Simons's
+companion, Mr. Lyons, here stepped forward, and said his house was most
+convenient, and often used by gentlemen, and he should be most happy and
+proud to accommodate his reverence.
+
+Two chairs happened to be in waiting outside the chapel. In those two
+chairs my Lady Maria Esmond and Mr. Sampson placed themselves, and went
+to Mr. Lyons's residence, escorted by the gentlemen to whom we have just
+been introduced.
+
+Very soon after the capture the Baroness Bernstein sent Mr. Case, her
+confidential servant, with a note to her niece, full of expressions of
+the most ardent affection: but regretting that her heavy losses at cards
+rendered the payment of such a sum as that in which Lady Maria stood
+indebted quite impossible. She had written off to Mrs. Pincott, by that
+very post, however, to entreat her to grant time, and as soon as ever
+she had an answer, would not fail to acquaint her dear unhappy niece.
+
+Mrs. Betty came over to console her mistress: and the two poor women
+cast about for money enough to provide a horse and chaise for Mrs.
+Betty, who had very nearly come to misfortune, too. Both my Lady Maria
+and her maid had been unlucky at cards, and could not muster more than
+eighteen shillings between them: so it was agreed that Betty should sell
+a gold chain belonging to her lady, and with the money travel to London.
+Now, Betty took the chain to the very toy-shop man who had sold it to
+Mr. Warrington, who had given it to his cousin; and the toy-shop man,
+supposing that she had stolen the chain, was for bringing in a constable
+to Betty. Hence, she had to make explanations, and to say how her
+mistress was in durance; and, ere the night closed, all Tunbridge Wells
+knew that my Lady Maria Esmond was in the hands of bailiffs. Meanwhile,
+however, the money was found, and Mrs. Betty whisked up to London in
+search of the champion in whom the poor prisoner confided.
+
+"Don't say anything about that paper being gone! Oh, the wretch, the
+wretch! She shall pay it me!" I presume that Lady Maria meant her aunt
+by the word "wretch." Mr. Sampson read a sermon to her ladyship, and
+they passed the evening over revenge and backgammon; with well-grounded
+hopes that Harry Warrington would rush to their rescue as soon as ever
+he heard of their mishap.
+
+Though, ere the evening was over, every soul at the Wells knew what had
+happened to Lady Maria, and a great deal more; though they knew she was
+taken in execution, the house where she lay, the amount--nay, ten times
+the amount--for which she was captured, and that she was obliged to pawn
+her trinkets to get a little money to keep her in jail; though everybody
+said that old fiend of a Bernstein was at the bottom of the business,
+of course they were all civil and bland in society; and, at my Lady
+Trumpington's cards that night, where Madame Bernstein appeared, and
+as long as she was within hearing, not a word was said regarding the
+morning's transactions. Lady Yarmouth asked the Baroness news of her
+breddy nephew, and heard Mr. Warrington was in London. My Lady Maria
+was not coming to Lady Trumpington's that evening? My Lady Maria was
+indisposed, had fainted at church that morning, and was obliged to keep
+her room. The cards were dealt, the fiddles sang, the wine went round,
+the gentlefolks talked, laughed, yawned, chattered, the footmen waylaid
+the supper, the chairmen drank and swore, the stars climbed the sky,
+just as though no Lady Maria was imprisoned, and no poor Sampson
+arrested. 'Tis certain, dearly beloved brethren, that the little griefs,
+stings, annoyances, which you and I feel acutely in our own persons,
+don't prevent our neighbours from sleeping; and that when we slip out of
+the world the world does not miss us. Is this humiliating to our vanity?
+So much the better. But, on the other hand, is it not a comfortable and
+consoling truth? And mayn't we be thankful for our humble condition? If
+we were not selfish--passez-moi le mot, s.v.p.--and if we had to care
+for other people's griefs as much as our own, how intolerable human life
+would be! If my neighbour's tight boot pinched my corn; if the calumny
+uttered against Jones set Brown into fury; if Mrs. A's death plunged
+Messrs. B, C, D, E, F, into distraction, would there be any bearing of
+the world's burthen? Do not let us be in the least angry or surprised if
+all the company played on, and were happy, although Lady Maria had come
+to grief. Countess, the deal is with you! Are you going to Stubblefield
+to shoot as usual, Sir John? Captain, we shall have you running off to
+the Bath after the widow! So the clatter goes on; the lights burns; the
+beaux and the ladies flirt, laugh, ogle; the prisoner rages in his cell;
+the sick man tosses on his bed.
+
+Perhaps Madame de Bernstein stayed at the assembly until the very last,
+not willing to allow the company the chance of speaking of her as soon
+as her back should be turned. Ah, what a comfort it is, I say again,
+that we have backs, and that our ears don't grow on them! He that has
+ears to hear, let him stuff them with cotton. Madame Bernstein might
+have heard folks say it was heartless of her to come abroad, and play
+at cards, and make merry when her niece was in trouble. As if she could
+help Maria by staying at home, indeed! At her age, it is dangerous to
+disturb an old lady's tranquillity. "Don't tell me!" says Lady Yarmouth.
+"The Bernstein would play at cards over her niece's coffin. Talk about
+her heart! who ever said she had one? That old spy lost it to the
+Chevalier a thousand years ago, and has lived ever since perfectly well
+without one. For how much is the Maria put in prison? If it were only a
+small sum we would pay it, it would vex her aunt so. Find out, Fuchs, in
+the morning, for how much Lady Maria Esmond is put in prison." And the
+faithful Fuchs bowed, and promised to do her Excellency's will.
+
+Meanwhile, about midnight, Madame de Bernstein went home, and presently
+fell into a sound sleep, from which she did not wake up until a late
+hour of the morning, when she summoned her usual attendant, who arrived
+with her ladyship's morning dish of tea. If I told you she took a dram
+with it, you would be shocked. Some of our great-grandmothers used to
+have cordials in their "closets." Have you not read of the fine lady in
+Walpole, who said, "If I drink more, I shall be 'muckibus!'?" As surely
+as Mr. Gough is alive now, our ancestresses were accustomed to partake
+pretty freely of strong waters.
+
+So, having tipped off the cordial, Madame Bernstein rouses and asks Mrs.
+Brett the news.
+
+"He can give it you," says the waiting-woman, sulkily.
+
+"He? Who?"
+
+Mrs. Brett names Harry, and says Mr. Warrington arrived about midnight
+yesterday--and Betty, my Lady Maria's maid, was with him. "And my Lady
+Maria sends your ladyship her love and duty, and hopes you slept well,"
+says Brett.
+
+"Excellently, poor thing! Is Betty gone to her?"
+
+"No; she is here," says Mrs. Brett.
+
+"Let me see her directly," cries the old lady.
+
+"I'll tell her," replies the obsequious Brett, and goes away upon
+her mistress's errand, leaving the old lady placidly reposing on her
+pillows. Presently, two pairs of high-heeled shoes are heard pattering
+over the deal floor of the bedchamber. Carpets were luxuries scarcely
+known in bedrooms of those days.
+
+"So, Mrs. Betty, you were in London yesterday?" calls Bernstein from her
+curtains.
+
+"It is not Betty--it is I! Good morning, dear aunt! I hope you slept
+well?" cries a voice which made old Bernstein start on her pillow. It
+was the voice of Lady Maria, who drew the curtains aside, and dropped
+her aunt a low curtsey. Lady Maria looked very pretty, rosy, and happy.
+And with the little surprise incident at her appearance through Madame
+Bernstein's curtains, I think we may bring this chapter to a close.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX. Harry to the Rescue
+
+
+"My dear Lord March" (wrote Mr. Warrington from Tunbridge Wells, on
+Saturday morning, the 25th August, 1756): "This is to inform you (with
+satisfaction) that I have one all our three betts. I was at Bromley two
+minutes within the hour; my new horses kep a-going at a capital rate. I
+drove them myself, having the postilion by me to show me the way, and
+my black man inside with Mrs. Betty. Hope they found the drive very
+pleasant. We were not stopped on Blackheath, though two fellows on
+horseback rode up to us, but not liking the looks of our countenantses,
+rode off again; and we got into Tunbridge Wells (where I transacted my
+business) at forty-five minutes after eleven. This makes me quitts with
+your lordship after yesterday's piquet, which I shall be very happy to
+give your revenge, and am--Your most obliged, faithful servant,                                                H. ESMOND WARRINGTON."
+
+
+And now, perhaps, the reader will understand by what means Lady Maria
+Esmond was enabled to surprise her dear aunt in her bed on Saturday
+morning, and walk out of the house of captivity. Having despatched Mrs.
+Betty to London, she scarcely expected that her emissary would return
+on the day of her departure; and she and the chaplain were playing their
+cards at midnight, after a small refection which the bailiff's wife
+had provided for them, when the rapid whirling of wheels was heard
+approaching their house, and caused the lady to lay her trumps down,
+and her heart to beat with more than ordinary emotion. Whirr came the
+wheels--the carriage stopped at the very door: there was a parley at the
+gate: then appeared Mrs. Betty, with a face radiant with joy, though her
+eyes were full of tears; and next, who is that tall young gentleman who
+enters? Can any of my readers guess? Will they be very angry if I say
+that the chaplain slapped down his cards with a huzzay, whilst Lady
+Maria, turning as white as a sheet, rose up from her chair, tottered
+forward a step or two, and, with an hysterical shriek, flung herself in
+her cousin's arms? How many kisses did he give her? If they were mille,
+deinde centum, dein mille altera, dein secunda centum, and so on, I am
+not going to cry out. He had come to rescue her. She knew he would; he
+was her champion, her preserver from bondage and ignominy. She wept a
+genuine flood of tears upon his shoulder, and as she reclines there,
+giving way to a hearty emotion, I protest I think she looks handsomer
+than she has looked during the whole course of this history. She did not
+faint this time; she went home, leaning lovingly on her cousin's arm,
+and may have had one or two hysterical outbreaks in the night; but
+Madame Bernstein slept soundly, and did not hear her.
+
+"You are both free to go home," were the first words Harry said. "Get
+my lady's hat and cardinal, Betty, and, Chaplain, we'll smoke a pipe
+together at our lodgings, it will refresh me after my ride." The
+chaplain, who, too, had a great deal of available sensibility, was very
+much overcome; he burst into tears as he seized Harry's hand, and
+kissed it, and prayed God to bless his dear, generous, young patron. Mr.
+Warrington felt a glow of pleasure thrill through his frame. It is good
+to be able to help the suffering and the poor; it is good to be able
+to turn sorrow into joy. Not a little proud and elated was our young
+champion, as, with his hat cocked, he marched by the side of his rescued
+princess. His feelings came out to meet him, as it were, and beautiful
+happinesses with kind eyes and smiles danced before him, and clad him in
+a robe of honour, and scattered flowers on his path, and blew trumpets
+and shawms of sweet gratulation, calling, "Here comes the conqueror!
+Make way for the champion!" And so they led him up to the king's house,
+and seated him in the hall of complacency, upon the cushions of comfort.
+And yet it was not much he had done. Only a kindness. He had but to put
+his hand in his pocket, and with an easy talisman, drive off the dragon
+which kept the gate, and cause the tyrant to lay down his axe, who had
+got Lady Maria in execution. Never mind if his vanity is puffed up; he
+is very good-natured; he has rescued two unfortunate people, and pumped
+tears of goodwill and happiness out of their eyes:--and if he brags a
+little to-night, and swaggers somewhat to the chaplain, and talks about
+London, and Lord March, and White's, and Almack's, with the air of a
+macaroni, I don't think we need like him much the less.
+
+Sampson continued to be prodigiously affected. This man had a nature
+most easily worked upon, and extraordinarily quick to receive pain
+and pleasure, to tears, gratitude, laughter, hatred, liking. In his
+preaching profession he had educated and trained his sensibilities so
+that they were of great use to him; he was for the moment what he acted.
+He wept quite genuine tears, finding that he could produce them freely.
+He loved you whilst he was with you; he had a real pang of grief as he
+mingled his sorrow with the widow or orphan; and, meeting Jack as he
+came out of the door, went to the tavern opposite, and laughed and
+roared over the bottle. He gave money very readily, but never repaid
+when he borrowed. He was on this night in a rapture of gratitude and
+flattery towards Harry Warrington. In all London, perhaps, the unlucky
+Fortunate Youth could not have found a more dangerous companion.
+
+To-night he was in his grateful mood, and full of enthusiasm for the
+benefactor who had released him from durance. With each bumper his
+admiration grew stronger. He exalted Harry as the best and noblest of
+men, and the complacent young simpleton, as we have said, was disposed
+to take these praises as very well deserved. "The younger branch of our
+family," said Mr. Harry, with a superb air, "have treated you scurvily;
+but, by Jove, Sampson my boy, I'll stand by you!" At a certain period of
+Burgundian excitement Mr. Warrington was always very eloquent respecting
+the splendour of his family. "I am very glad I was enabled to help you
+in your strait. Count on me whenever you want me, Sampson. Did you not
+say you had a sister at boarding-school? You will want money for her,
+sir. Here is a little bill which may help to pay her schooling." And the
+liberal young fellow passed a bank-note across to the chaplain.
+
+Again the man was affected to tears. Harry's generosity smote him.
+
+"Mr. Warrington," he said, putting the bank-note a short distance from
+him, "I--I don't deserve your kindness--by George, I don't!" and he
+swore an oath to corroborate his passionate assertion.
+
+"Psha!" says Harry. "I have plenty more of 'em. There was no money in
+that confounded pocket-book which I lost last week."
+
+"No, sir. There was no money!" says Mr. Sampson, dropping his head.
+
+"Hallo! How do you know, Mr. Chaplain?" asks the young gentleman.
+
+"I know because I am a villain, sir. I am not worthy of your kindness.
+I told you so. I found the book, sir, that night, when you had too much
+wine at Barbeau's."
+
+"And read the letters?" asked Mr. Warrington, starting up and turning
+very red.
+
+"They told me nothing I did not know, sir," said the chaplain "You have
+had spies about you whom you little suspect--from whom you are much too
+young and simple to be able to keep your secret."
+
+"Are those stories about Lady Fanny, and my cousin Will and his doings,
+true then?" inquired Harry.
+
+"Yes, they are true," sighed the chaplain. "The house of Castlewood has
+not been fortunate, sir, since your honour's branch, the elder branch,
+left it."
+
+"Sir, you don't dare for to breathe a word against my Lady Maria?" Harry
+cried out.
+
+"Oh, not for worlds!" says Mr. Sampson, with a queer look at his young
+friend. "I may think she is too old for your honour, and that 'tis a
+pity you should not have a wife better suited to your age, though
+I admit she looks very young for hers, and hath every virtue and
+accomplishment."
+
+"She is too old, Sampson, I know she is," says Mr. Warrington, with much
+majesty; "but she has my word, and you see, sir, how fond she is of
+me. Go bring me the letters, sir, which you found, and let me try and
+forgive you for having seized upon them."
+
+"My benefactor, let me try and forgive myself!" cries Mr. Sampson, and
+departed towards his chamber, leaving his young patron alone over his
+wine.
+
+Sampson returned presently, looking very pale. "What has happened, sir?"
+says Harry, with an imperious air.
+
+The chaplain held out a pocket-book. "With your name in it, sir," he
+said.
+
+"My brother's name in it," says Harry; "it was George who gave it to
+me."
+
+"I kept it in a locked chest, sir, in which I left it this morning
+before I was taken by those people. Here is the book, sir, but the
+letters are gone. My trunk and valise have also been tampered with. And
+I am a miserable, guilty man, unable to make you the restitution which
+I owe you." Sampson looked the picture of woe as he uttered these
+sentiments. He clasped his hands together, and almost knelt before Harry
+in an attitude the most pathetic.
+
+Who had been in the rooms in Mr. Sampson's and Mr. Warrington's absence?
+The landlady was ready to go on her knees, and declare that nobody
+had come in: nor, indeed, was Mr. Warrington's chamber in the least
+disturbed, nor anything abstracted from Mr. Sampson's scanty wardrobe
+and possessions, except those papers of which he deplored the absence.
+
+Whose interest was it to seize them? Lady Maria's? The poor woman
+had been a prisoner all day, and during the time when the capture was
+effected.
+
+She certainly was guiltless of the rape of the letters. The sudden
+seizure of the two--Case, the house-steward's secret journey to
+London,--Case, who knew the shoemaker at whose house Sampson lodged in
+London, and all the secret affairs of the Esmond family,--these points,
+considered together and separately, might make Mr. Sampson think that
+the Baroness Bernstein was at the bottom of this mischief. But why
+arrest Lady Maria? The chaplain knew nothing as yet about that letter
+which her ladyship had lost; for poor Maria had not thought it necessary
+to confide her secret to him.
+
+As for the pocket-book and its contents, Mr. Harry was so swollen up
+with self-satisfaction that evening, at winning his three bets, at
+rescuing his two friends, at the capital premature cold supper of
+partridges and ancient Burgundy which obsequious Monsieur Barbeau had
+sent over to the young gentleman's lodgings, that he accepted Sampson's
+vows of contrition, and solemn promises of future fidelity, and reached
+his gracious hand to the chaplain, and condoned his offence. When the
+latter swore his great gods, that henceforth he would be Harry's truest,
+humblest friend and follower, and at any moment would be ready to die
+for Mr. Warrington, Harry said, majestically, "I think, Sampson, you
+would; I hope you would. My family--the Esmond family--has always been
+accustomed to have faithful friends round about 'em--and to reward 'em
+too. The wine's with you, Chaplain. What toast do you call, sir?"
+
+"I call a blessing on the house of Esmond-Warrington!" cries the
+chaplain, with real tears in his eyes.
+
+"We are the elder branch, sir. My grandfather was the Marquis of
+Esmond," says Mr. Harry, in a voice noble but somewhat indistinct.
+"Here's to you, Chaplain--and I forgive you, sir--and God bless you,
+sir--and if you had been took for three times as much, I'd have paid
+it. Why, what's that I see through the shutters? I am blest if the sun
+hasn't risen again! We have no need of candles to go to bed, ha, ha!"
+And once more extending his blessing to his chaplain, the young fellow
+went off to sleep.
+
+About noon Madame de Bernstein sent over a servant to say that she would
+be glad if her nephew would come over and drink a dish of chocolate with
+her, whereupon our young friend rose and walked to his aunt's lodgings.
+She remarked, not without pleasure, some alteration in his toilette: in
+his brief sojourn in London he had visited a tailor or two, and had
+been introduced by my Lord March to some of his lordship's purveyors and
+tradesmen.
+
+Aunt Bernstein called him "my dearest child," and thanked him for his
+noble, his generous behaviour to dear Maria. What a shock that seizure
+in church had been to her! A still greater shock that she had lost three
+hundred only on the Wednesday night to Lady Yarmouth, and was quite a
+sec. "Why," said the Baroness, "I had to send Case to London to my agent
+to get me money to pay--I could not leave Tunbridge in her debt."
+
+"So Case did go to London?" says Mr. Harry.
+
+"Of course he did: the Baroness de Bernstein can't afford to say she is
+court d'argent. Canst thou lend me some, child?"
+
+"I can give your ladyship twenty-two pounds," said Harry, blushing very
+red: "I have but forty-four left till I get my Virginian remittances. I
+have bought horses and clothes, and been very extravagant, aunt."
+
+"And rescued your poor relations in distress, you prodigal good boy.
+No, child, I do not want thy money. I can give thee some. Here is a note
+upon my agent for fifty pounds, vaurien! Go and spend it, and be merry!
+I dare say thy mother will repay me, though she does not love me." And
+she looked quite affectionate, and held out a pretty hand, which the
+youth kissed.
+
+"Your mother did not love me, but your mother's father did once. Mind,
+sir, you always come to me when you have need of me."
+
+When bent on exhibiting them, nothing could exceed Beatrix Bernstein's
+grace or good-humour. "I can't help loving you, child," she continued,
+"and yet I am so angry with you that I have scarce the patience to speak
+to you. So you have actually engaged yourself to poor Maria, who is
+as old as your mother? What will Madam Esmond say? She may live three
+hundred years, and you will not have wherewithal to support yourselves."
+
+"I have ten thousand pounds from my father, of my own, now my poor
+brother is gone," said Harry, "that will go some way."
+
+"Why, the interest will not keep you in card-money."
+
+"We must give up cards," says Harry.
+
+"It is more than Maria is capable of. She will pawn the coat off your
+back to play. The rage for it runs in all my brother's family--in me
+too, I own it. I warned you. I prayed you not to play with them, and
+now a lad of twenty to engage himself to a woman of forty-two!--to write
+letters on his knees and signed with his heart's blood (which he spells
+like hartshorn), and say that he will marry no other woman than his
+adorable cousin, Lady Maria Esmond. Oh! it's cruel--cruel!"
+
+"Great heavens! madam, who showed you my letter?" asked Harry, burning
+with a blush again.
+
+"An accident. She fainted when she was taken by those bailiffs. Brett
+cut her laces for her; and when she was carried off, poor thing, we
+found a little sachet on the floor, which I opened, not knowing in the
+least what it contained. And in it was Mr. Harry Warrington's precious
+letter. And here, sir, is the case."
+
+A pang shot through Harry's heart. "Great heavens! why didn't she
+destroy it?" he thought.
+
+"I--I will give it back to Maria," he said, stretching out his hand for
+the little locket.
+
+"My dear, I have burned the foolish letter," said the old lady.
+
+"If you choose to betray me I must take the consequence. If you choose
+to write another, I cannot help thee. But, in that case, Harry Esmond,
+I had rather never see thee again. Will you keep my secret? Will you
+believe an old woman who loves you and knows the world better than you
+do? I tell you, if you keep that foolish promise, misery and ruin are
+surely in store for you. What is a lad like you in the hands of a wily
+woman of the world, who makes a toy of you? She has entrapped you into a
+promise, and your old aunt has cut the strings and set you free. Go back
+again! Betray me if you will, Harry."
+
+"I am not angry with you, aunt--I wish I were," said Mr. Warrington,
+with very great emotion. "I--I shall not repeat what you told me."
+
+"Maria never will, child--mark my words!" cried the old lady, eagerly.
+"She will never own that she has lost that paper. She will tell you that
+she has it."
+
+"But I am sure she--she is very fond of me; you should have seen her
+last night," faltered Harry.
+
+"Must I tell more stories against my own flesh and blood?" sobs out the
+Baroness. "Child, you do not know her past life!"
+
+"And I must not, and I will not!" cries Harry, starting up. "Written or
+said--it does not matter which! But my word is given; they may play with
+such things in England, but we gentlemen of Virginia don't break 'em.
+If she holds me to my word, she shall have me. If we are miserable, as
+I dare say we shall be, I'll take a firelock, and go join the King of
+Prussia, or let a ball put an end to me."
+
+"I--I have no more to say. Will you be pleased to ring that bell? I--I
+wish you a good morning, Mr. Warrington," and dropping a very stately
+curtsey, the old lady rose on her tortoiseshell stick, and turned
+towards the door. But, as she made her first step, she put her hand
+to her heart, sank on the sofa again, an shed the first tears that had
+dropped for long years from Beatrix Esmond's eyes.
+
+Harry was greatly moved, too. He knelt down by her. He seized her cold
+hand, and kissed it. He told her, in his artless way, how very keenly he
+had felt her love for him, and how, with all his heart, he returned it.
+"Ah, aunt!" said he, "you don't know what a villain I feel myself. When
+you told me, just now how that paper was burned--oh! I was ashamed to
+think how glad I was." He bowed his comely head over her hand. She felt
+hot drops from his eyes raining on it. She had loved this boy. For half
+a century past--never, perhaps, in the course of her whole worldly
+life, had she felt a sensation so tender and so pure. The hard heart was
+wounded now, softened, overcome. She put her two hands on his shoulders,
+and lightly kissed his forehead.
+
+"You will not tell her what I have done, child?" she said.
+
+He declared never! never! And demure Mrs. Brett, entering at her
+mistress's summons, found the nephew and aunt in this sentimental
+attitude.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL. In which Harry pays off an Old Debt, and incurs some New
+Ones
+
+
+Our Tunbridge friends were now weary of the Wells, and eager to take
+their departure. When the autumn should arrive, Bath was Madame de
+Bernstein's mark. There were more cards, company, life, there. She
+would reach it after paying a few visits to her country friends. Harry
+promised, with rather a bad grace, to ride with Lady Maria and the
+chaplain to Castlewood. Again they passed by Oakhurst village, and the
+hospitable house where Harry had been so kindly entertained. Maria
+made so many keen remarks about the young ladies of Oakhurst, and their
+setting their caps at Harry, and the mother's evident desire to catch
+him for one of them, that, somewhat in a pet, Mr. Warrington said he
+would pass his friends' door, as her ladyship disliked and abused
+them; and was very haughty and sulky that evening at the inn where they
+stopped, some few miles farther on the road. At supper, my Lady Maria's
+smiles brought no corresponding good-humour to Harry's face; her tears
+(which her ladyship had at command) did not seem to create the least
+sympathy from Mr. Warrington; to her querulous remarks he growled a
+surly reply; and my lady was obliged to go to bed at length without
+getting a single tete-a-tete with her cousin,--that obstinate chaplain,
+as if by order, persisting in staying in the room. Had Harry given
+Sampson orders to remain? She departed with a sigh. He bowed her to the
+door with an obstinate politeness, and consigned her to the care of the
+landlady and her maid.
+
+What horse was that which galloped out of the inn-yard ten minutes after
+Lady Maria had gone to her chamber? An hour after her departure
+from their supper-room, Mrs. Betty came in for her lady's bottle of
+smelling-salts, and found Parson Sampson smoking a pipe alone.
+Mr. Warrington was gone to bed--was gone to fetch a walk in the
+moonlight--how should he know where Mr. Harry was? Sampson answered,
+in reply to the maid's interrogatories. Mr. Warrington was ready to set
+forward the next morning, and took his place by the side of Lady Maria's
+carriage. But his brow was black--the dark spirit was still on him. He
+hardly spoke to her during the journey. "Great heavens! she must have
+told him that she stole it!" thought Lady Maria within her own mind.
+
+The fact is, that, as they were walking up that steep hill which lies
+about three miles from Oakhurst, on the Westerham road, Lady Maria
+Esmond, leaning on her fond youth's arm, and indeed very much in love
+with him, had warbled into his ear the most sentimental vows, protests,
+and expressions of affection. As she grew fonder, he grew colder. As she
+looked up in his face, the sun shone down upon hers, which, fresh and
+well-preserved as it was, yet showed some of the lines and wrinkles of
+twoscore years; and poor Harry, with that arm leaning on his, felt it
+intolerably weighty, and by no means relished his walk up the hill. To
+think that all his life, that drag was to be upon him! It was a dreary
+look forward and he cursed the moonlight walk, and the hot evening, and
+the hot wine which had made him give that silly pledge by which he was
+fatally bound.
+
+Maria's praises and raptures annoyed Harry beyond measure. The poor
+thing poured out scraps of the few plays which she knew that had
+reference to her case, and strove with her utmost power to charm her
+young companion. She called him, over and over again, her champion, her
+Henrico, her preserver, and vowed that his Molinda would be ever, ever
+faithful to him. She clung to him. "Ah, child! have I not thy precious
+image, thy precious hair, thy precious writing here?" she said, looking
+in his face. "Shall it not go with me to the grave? It would, sir, were
+I to meet with unkindness from my Henrico!" she sighed out.
+
+Here was a strange story! Madame Bernstein had given him the little
+silken case--she had burned the hair and the note which the case
+contained, and Maria had it still on her heart! It was then, at the
+start which Harry gave, as she was leaning on his arm--at the sudden
+movement as if he would drop hers--that Lady Maria felt her first pang
+of remorse that she had told a fib, or rather, that she was found out in
+telling a fib, which is a far more cogent reason for repentance. Heaven
+help us! if some people were to do penance for telling lies, would they
+ever be out of sackcloth and ashes?
+
+Arrived at Castlewood, Mr. Harry's good-humour was not increased. My
+lord was from home; the ladies also were away; the only member of
+the family whom Harry found, was Mr. Will, who returned from
+partridge-shooting just as the chaise and cavalcade reached the gate,
+and who turned very pale when he saw his cousin, and received a sulky
+scowl of recognition from the young Virginian.
+
+Nevertheless, he thought to put a good face on the matter, and they met
+at supper, where, before my Lady Maria, their conversation was at first
+civil, but not lively. Mr. Will had been to some races? To several. He
+had been pretty successful in his bets? Mr. Warrington hopes. Pretty
+well. "And you have brought back my horse sound?" asked Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Your horse! what horse?" asked Mr. Will.
+
+"What horse? my horse!" says Mr. Harry, curtly.
+
+"Protest I don't understand you," says Will.
+
+"The brown horse for which I played you, and which I won of you the
+night before you rode away upon it," says Mr. Warrington, sternly. "You
+remember the horse, Mr. Esmond."
+
+"Mr. Warrington, I perfectly well remember playing you for a horse,
+which my servant handed over to you on the day of your departure."
+
+"The chaplain was present at our play. Mr. Sampson, will you be umpire
+between us?" Mr. Warrington said, with much gentleness.
+
+"I am bound to decide that Mr. Warrington played for the brown horse,"
+says Mr. Sampson.
+
+"Well, he got the other one," said sulky Mr. Will, with a grin.
+
+"And sold it for thirty shillings!" said Mr. Warrington, always
+preserving his calm tone.
+
+Will was waggish. "Thirty shillings? and a devilish good price, too, for
+the broken-kneed old rip. Ha, ha!"
+
+"Not a word more. 'Tis only a question about a bet, my dear Lady Maria.
+Shall I serve you some more chicken?" Nothing could be more studiously
+courteous and gay than Mr. Warrington was, so long as the lady remained
+in the room. When she rose to go, Harry followed her to the door, and
+closed it upon her with the most courtly bow of farewell. He stood at
+the closed door for a moment, and then he bade the servants retire. When
+those menials were gone, Mr. Warrington locked the heavy door before
+them, and pocketed the key.
+
+As it clicked in the lock, Mr. Will, who had been sitting over his
+punch, looking now and then askance at his cousin, asked, with one
+of the oaths which commonly garnished his conversation, what the--Mr.
+Warrington meant by that?
+
+"I guess there's going to be a quarrel," said Mr. Warrington, blandly,
+"and there is no use in having these fellows look on at rows between
+their betters."
+
+"Who is going to quarrel here, I should like to know?" asked Will,
+looking very pale, and grasping a knife.
+
+"Mr. Sampson, you were present when I played Mr. Will fifty guineas
+against his brown horse?"
+
+"Against his horse!" bawls out Mr. Will.
+
+"I am not such a something fool as you take me for," says Mr.
+Warrington, "although I do come from Virginia!" And he repeated his
+question: "Mr. Sampson, you were here when I played the Honourable
+William Esmond, Esquire, fifty guineas against his brown horse?"
+
+"I must own it, sir," says the chaplain, with a deprecatory look towards
+his lord's brother.
+
+"I don't own no such a thing," says Mr. Will, with rather a forced
+laugh.
+
+"No, sir: because it costs you no more pains to lie than to cheat," said
+Mr. Warrington, walking up to his cousin. "Hands off, Mr. Chaplain, and
+see fair play! Because you are no better than a--ha!----"
+
+No better than a what we can't say, and shall never know, for as Harry
+uttered the exclamation, his dear cousin flung a wine bottle at Mr.
+Warrington's head, who bobbed just in time, so that the missile flew
+across the room, and broke against the wainscot opposite, breaking
+the face of a pictured ancestor of the Esmond family, and then itself
+against the wall, whence it spirted a pint of good port wine over the
+chaplain's face and flowered wig. "Great heavens, gentlemen, I pray you
+to be quiet!" cried the parson, dripping with gore.
+
+But gentlemen are not inclined at some moments to remember the commands
+of the Church. The bottle having failed, Mr. Esmond seized the large
+silver-handled knife and drove at his cousin. But Harry caught up
+the other's right hand with his left, as he had seen the boxers do at
+Marybone; and delivered a rapid blow upon Mr. Esmond's nose, which sent
+him reeling up against the oak panels, and I dare say caused him to see
+ten thousand illuminations. He dropped his knife in his retreat against
+the wall, which his rapid antagonist kicked under the table.
+
+Now Will, too, had been at Marybone and Hockley-in-the-Hole, and after
+a gasp for breath and a glare over his bleeding nose at his enemy, he
+dashed forward his head as though it had been a battering-ram, intending
+to project it into Mr. Henry Warrington's stomach.
+
+This manoeuvre Harry had seen, too, on his visit to Marybone, and
+amongst the negroes upon the maternal estate, who would meet in combat
+like two concutient cannon-balls, each harder than the other. But Harry
+had seen and marked the civilised practice of the white man. He skipped
+aside, and, saluting his advancing enemy with a tremendous blow on the
+right ear, felled him, so that he struck his head against the heavy oak
+table and sank lifeless to the ground.
+
+"Chaplain, you will bear witness that it has been a fair fight!" said
+Mr. Warrington, still quivering with the excitement of the combat, but
+striving with all his might to restrain himself and look cool. And he
+drew the key from his pocket and opened the door in the lobby, behind
+which three or four servants were gathered. A crash of broken glass, a
+cry, a shout, an oath or two, had told them that some violent scene was
+occurring within, and they entered, and behold two victims bedabbled
+with red--the chaplain bleeding port wine, and the Honourable William
+Esmond, Esquire, stretched in his own gore.
+
+"Mr. Sampson will bear witness that I struck fair, and that Mr.
+Esmond hit the first blow," said Mr. Warrington. "Undo his neckcloth,
+somebody--he may be dead; and get a fleam, Gumbo, and bleed him. Stop!
+He is coming to himself! Lift him up, you, and tell a maid to wash the
+floor."
+
+Indeed, in a minute, Mr. Will did come to himself. First his eyes rolled
+about, or rather, I am ashamed to say, his eye, one having been closed
+by Mr. Warrington's first blow. First, then, his eye rolled about; then
+he gasped and uttered an inarticulate moan or two, then he began to
+swear and curse very freely and articulately.
+
+"He is getting well," said Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Oh, praise be Mussy!" sighs the sentimental Betty.
+
+"Ask him, Gumbo, whether he would like any more?" said Mr. Warrington,
+with a stern humour.
+
+"Massa Harry say, wool you like any maw?" asked obedient Gumbo, bowing
+over the prostrate gentleman.
+
+"No, curse you, you black devil!" says Mr. Will, hitting up at the black
+object before him. ("So he nearly cut my tongue in to in my mouf!" Gumbo
+explained to the pitying Betty.) "No, that is, yes! You infernal Mohock!
+Why does not somebody kick him out of the place?"
+
+"Because nobody dares, Mr. Esmond," says Mr. Warrington, with great
+state, arranging his ruffles--his ruffled ruffles.
+
+"And nobody won't neither," growled the men. They had all grown to love
+Harry, whereas Mr. Will had nobody's good word.
+
+"We know all's fair, sir. It ain't the first time Master William have
+been served so."
+
+"And I hope it won't be the last," cries shrill Betty. "To go for to
+strike a poor black gentleman so!"
+
+Mr. Will had gathered himself up by this time, had wiped his bleeding
+face with a napkin, and was skulking off to bed.
+
+"Surely it's manners to say good night to the company. Good night, Mr.
+Esmond," says Mr. Warrington, whose jokes, though few, were not very
+brilliant; but the honest lad relished the brilliant sally and laughed
+at it inwardly.
+
+"He's ad his zopper, and he goes to baid!" says Betty, in her native
+dialect, at which everybody laughed outright, except Mr. William, who
+went away leaving a black fume of curses, as it were, rolling out of
+that funnel, his mouth.
+
+It must be owned that Mr. Warrington continued to be witty the next
+morning. He sent a note to Mr. Will begging to know whether he was for
+a ride to town or anywheres else. If he was for London, that he would
+friten the highwaymen on Hounslow Heath, and look a very genteel figar
+at the Chocolate House. Which letter, I fear, Mr. Will received with his
+usual violence, requesting the writer to go to some place--not Hounslow.
+
+And, besides the parley between Will and Harry, there comes a maiden
+simpering to Mr. Warrington's door, and Gumbo advances, holding
+something white and triangular in his ebon fingers.
+
+Harry knew what it was well enough. "Of course it's a letter," groans
+he. Molinda greets her Enrico, etc. etc. etc. No sleep has she known
+that night, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth. Has Enrico slept
+well in the halls of his fathers? und so weiter, und so weiter. He must
+never never quaril and be so cruel again. Kai ta loipa. And I protest I
+shan't quote any more of this letter. Ah, tablets, golden once,--are ye
+now faded leaves? Where is the juggler who transmuted you, and why is
+the glamour over?
+
+After the little scandal with cousin Will, Harry's dignity would not
+allow him to stay longer at Castlewood: he wrote a majestic letter
+to the lord of the mansion, explaining the circumstances which had
+occurred, and, as he called in Parson Sampson to supervise the document,
+no doubt it contained none of those eccentricities in spelling which
+figured in his ordinary correspondence at this period. He represented to
+poor Maria, that after blackening the eye and damaging the nose of a son
+of the house, he should remain in it with a very bad grace; and she was
+forced to acquiesce in the opinion that, for the present, his absence
+would best become him. Of course, she wept plentiful tears at parting
+with him. He would go to London, and see younger beauties: he would find
+none, none who would love him like his fond Maria. I fear Mr. Warrington
+did not exhibit any profound emotion on leaving her: nay, he cheered
+up immediately after he crossed Castlewood Bridge, and made his horses
+whisk over the road at ten miles an hour: he sang to them to go along:
+he nodded to the pretty girls by the roadside: he chucked my landlady
+under the chin: he certainly was not inconsolable. Truth is, he
+longed to be back in London again, to make a figure at St. James's,
+at Newmarket, wherever the men of fashion congregated. All that petty
+Tunbridge society of women and card-playing seemed child's-play to him
+now he had tasted the delight of London life.
+
+By the time he reached London again, almost all the four-and-forty
+pounds which we have seen that he possessed at Tunbridge had slipped out
+of his pocket, and further supplies were necessary. Regarding these he
+made himself presently easy. There were the two sums of 5000 pounds in
+his own and his brother's name, of which he was the master. He would
+take up a little money, and with a run or two of good luck at play he
+could easily replace it. Meantime he must live in a manner becoming his
+station, and it must be explained to Madam Esmond that a gentleman
+of his rank cannot keep fitting company, and appear as becomes him in
+society, upon a miserable pittance of two hundred a year.
+
+Mr. Warrington sojourned at the Bedford Coffee-House as before, but only
+for a short while. He sought out proper lodgings at the Court end of the
+town, and fixed on some apartments in Bond Street, where he and
+Gumbo installed themselves, his horses standing at a neighbouring
+livery-stable. And now tailors, mercers, and shoemakers were put in
+requisition. Not without a pang of remorse, he laid aside his mourning
+and figured in a laced hat and waistcoat. Gumbo was always dexterous in
+the art of dressing hair, and with a little powder flung into his fair
+locks Mr. Warrington's head was as modish as that of any gentleman in
+the Mall. He figured in the Ring in his phaeton. Reports of his great
+wealth had long since preceded him to London, and not a little curiosity
+was excited about the fortunate Virginian.
+
+Until our young friend could be balloted for at the proper season,
+my Lord March had written down his name for the club at White's
+Chocolate-House, as a distinguished gentleman from America. There were
+as yet but few persons of fashion in London, but with a pocket full of
+money at one-and-twenty, a young fellow can make himself happy even out
+of the season; and Mr. Harry was determined to enjoy.
+
+He ordered Mr. Draper, then, to sell five hundred pounds of his stock.
+What would his poor mother have said had she known that the young
+spendthrift was already beginning to dissipate his patrimony? He dined
+at the tavern, he supped at the club, where Jack Morris introduced him,
+with immense eulogiums, to such gentlemen as were in town. Life and
+youth and pleasure were before him, the wine was set a-running, and the
+eager lad was greedy to drink. Do you see, far away in the west yonder,
+the pious widow at her prayers for her son? Behind the trees at Oakhurst
+a tender little heart, too, is beating for him, perhaps. When the
+Prodigal Son was away carousing, were not love and forgiveness still on
+the watch for him?
+
+Amongst the inedited letters of the late Lord Orford, there is one which
+the present learned editor, Mr. Peter Cunningbam, has omitted from his
+collection, doubting possibly the authenticity of the document. Nay,
+I myself have only seen a copy of it in the Warrington papers in Madam
+Esmond's prim handwriting, and noted "Mr. H. Walpole's account of my son
+Henry at London, and of Baroness Tusher,--wrote to General Conway."
+
+
+"ARLINGTON STREET, Friday Night.
+
+"I have come away, child, for a day or two from my devotions to our Lady
+of Strawberry. Have I not been on my knees to her these three weeks,
+and aren't the poor old joints full of rheumatism? A fit took me that
+I would pay London a visit, that I would go to Vauxhall and Ranelagh.
+Quoi! May I not have my rattle as well as other elderly babies? Suppose,
+after being so long virtuous, I take a fancy to cakes and ale, shall
+your reverence say nay to me? George Selwyn and Tony Storer and
+your humble servant took boat at Westminster t'other night. Was it
+Tuesday?--no, Tuesday I was with their Graces of Norfolk, who are just
+from Tunbridge--it was Wednesday. How should I know? Wasn't I dead drunk
+with a whole pint of lemonade I took at White's?
+
+"The Norfolk folk had been entertaining me on Tuesday with the account
+of a young savage Iroquois, Choctaw, or Virginian, who has lately been
+making a little noise in our quarter of the globe. He is an offshoot of
+that disreputable family of Esmond, Castlewood, of whom all the men are
+gamblers and spendthrifts, and all the women--well, I shan't say the
+word, lest Lady Ailesbury should be looking over your shoulder. Both the
+late lords, my father told me, were in his pay, and the last one, a beau
+of Queen Anne's reign, from a viscount advanced to be an earl through
+the merits and intercession of his notorious old sister Bernstein, late
+Tusher, nee Esmond--a great beauty, too, of her day, a favourite of the
+old Pretender. She sold his secrets to my papa, who paid her for them;
+and being nowise particular in her love for the Stuarts, came over to
+the august Hanoverian house at present reigning over us. 'Will Horace
+Walpole's tongue never stop scandal?' says your wife over your shoulder.
+I kiss your ladyship's hand. I am dumb. The Bernstein is a model of
+virtue. She had no good reasons for marrying her father's chaplain.
+Many of the nobility omit the marriage altogether. She wasn't ashamed
+of being Mrs. Tusher, and didn't take a German Baroncino for a second
+husband, whom nobody out of Hanover ever saw. The Yarmouth bears no
+malice. Esther and Vashti are very good friends, and have been cheating
+each other at Tunbridge at cards all the summer.
+
+"'And what has all this to do with the Iroquois?' says your ladyship.
+The Iroquois has been at Tunbridge, too--not cheating, perhaps, but
+winning vastly. They say he has bled Lord March of thousands--Lord
+March, by whom so much blood hath been shed, that he has quarrelled with
+everybody, fought with everybody, rode over everybody, been fallen in
+love with by everybody's wife except Mr. Conway's, and not excepting her
+present Majesty, the Countess of England, Scotland, France and Ireland,
+Queen of Walmoden and Yarmouth, whom Heaven preserve to us.
+
+"You know an offensive little creature, de par le monde, one Jack
+Morris, who skips in and out of all the houses of London. When we were
+at Vauxhall, Mr. Jack gave us a nod under the shoulder of a pretty young
+fellow enough, on whose arm he was leaning, and who appeared hugely
+delighted with the enchantments of the garden. Lord, how he stared
+at the fireworks! Gods, how he huzzayed at the singing of a horrible
+painted wench who shrieked the ears off my head! A twopenny string of
+glass beads and a strip of tawdry cloth are treasures in Iroquois-land,
+and our savage valued them accordingly.
+
+"A buzz went about the place that this was the fortunate youth. He won
+three hundred at White's last night very genteelly from Rockingham and
+my precious nephew, and here he was bellowing and huzzaying over the
+music so as to do you good to hear. I do not love a puppet-show, but I
+love to treat children to one, Miss Conway! I present your ladyship my
+compliments, and hope we shall go and see the dolls together.
+
+"When the singing woman came down from her throne, Jack Morris must
+introduce my Virginian to her. I saw him blush up to the eyes, and make
+her, upon my word, a very fine bow, such as I had no idea was practised
+in wigwams. 'There is a certain jenny squaw about her, and that's why
+the savage likes her,' George said--a joke certainly not as brilliant as
+a firework. After which it seemed to me that the savage and the savages
+retired together.
+
+"Having had a great deal too much to eat and drink three hours before,
+my partners must have chicken and rack-punch at Vauxhall, where George
+fell asleep straightway, and for my sins I must tell Tony Storer what
+I knew about this Virginian's amiable family, especially some of the
+Bernstein's antecedents, and the history of another elderly beauty of
+the family, a certain Lady Maria, who was au mieux with the late Prince
+of Wales. What did I say? I protest not half of what I knew, and of
+course not a tenth part of what I was going to tell, for who should
+start out upon us but my savage, this time quite red in the face; and in
+his war paint. The wretch had been drinking fire-water in the next box!
+
+"He cocked his hat, clapped his hand to his sword, asked which of the
+gentleman was it that was maligning his family? so that I was obliged to
+entreat him not to make such a noise, lest he should wake my friend, Mr.
+George Selwyn. And I added, 'I assure you, sir, I had no idea that you
+were near me, and most sincerely apologise for giving you pain.'
+
+"The Huron took his hand off his tomahawk at this pacific rejoinder,
+made a bow not ungraciously, said he could not, of course, ask more than
+an apology from a gentleman of my age (Merci, monsieur!), and, hearing
+the name of Mr. Selwyn, made another bow to George, and said he had
+a letter to him from Lord March, which he had had the ill-fortune to
+mislay. George has put him up for the club, it appears, in conjunction
+with March, and no doubt these three lambs will fleece each other.
+Meanwhile, my pacified savage sate down with us, and buried the hatchet
+in another bowl of punch, for which these gentlemen must call. Heaven
+help us! 'Tis eleven o'clock, and here comes Bedson with my gruel! H. W.
+
+"To the Honourable. H. S. Conway."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI. Rake's Progress
+
+
+People were still very busy in Harry Warrington's time (not that our
+young gentleman took much heed of the controversy) in determining
+the relative literary merits of the ancients and the moderns; and the
+learned, and the world with them, indeed, pretty generally pronounced in
+favour of the former. The moderns of that day are the ancients of
+ours, and we speculate upon them in the present year of grace, as our
+grandchildren, a hundred years hence, will give their judgment about us.
+As for your book-learning, O respectable ancestors (though, to be sure,
+you have the mighty Gibbon with you), I think you will own that you
+are beaten, and could point to a couple of professors at Cambridge and
+Glasgow who know more Greek than was to be had in your time in all
+the universities of Europe, including that of Athens, if such an one
+existed. As for science, you were scarce more advanced than those
+heathen to whom in literature you owned yourselves inferior. And in
+public and private morality? Which is the better, this actual year 1858,
+or its predecessor a century back? Gentlemen of Mr. Disraeli's House of
+Commons! has every one of you his price, as in Walpole's or Newcastle's
+time,--or (and that is the delicate question) have you almost all of you
+had it? Ladies, I do not say that you are a society of Vestals--but the
+chronicle of a hundred years since contains such an amount of scandal,
+that you may be thankful you did not live in such dangerous times. No:
+on my conscience, I believe that men and women are both better; not only
+that the Susannas are more numerous, but that the Elders are not nearly
+so wicked. Did you ever hear of such books as Clarissa, Tom Jones,
+Roderick Random; paintings by contemporary artists, of the men and
+women, the life and society, of their day? Suppose we were to describe
+the doings of such a person as Mr. Lovelace or my Lady Bellaston, or
+that wonderful "Lady of Quality" who lent her memoirs to the author of
+Peregrine Pickle. How the pure and outraged Nineteenth Century would
+blush, scream, run out of the room, call away the young ladies, and
+order Mr. Mudie never to send one of that odious author's books again!
+You are fifty-eight years old, madam, and it may be that you are too
+squeamish, that you cry out before you are hurt, and when nobody had
+any intention of offending your ladyship. Also, it may be that the
+novelist's art is injured by the restraints put upon him as many an
+honest, harmless statue at St. Peter's and the Vatican is spoiled by the
+tin draperies in which ecclesiastical old women have swaddled the fair
+limbs of the marble. But in your prudery there is reason. So there is in
+the state censorship of the Press. The page may contain matter dangerous
+to bonos mores. Out with your scissors, censor, and clip off the
+prurient paragraph! We have nothing for it but to submit. Society, the
+despot, has given his imperial decree. We may think the statue had been
+seen to greater advantage without the tin drapery; we may plead that the
+moral were better might we recite the whole fable. Away with him--not a
+word! I never saw the pianofortes in the United States with the frilled
+muslin trousers on their legs; but, depend on it, the muslin covered
+some of the notes as well as the mahogany, muffled the music, and
+stopped the player.
+
+To what does this prelude introduce us? I am thinking of Harry
+Warrington, Esquire, in his lodgings in Bond Street, London, and of the
+life which he and many of the young bucks of fashion led in those times,
+and how I can no more take my faire young reader into them, than
+Lady Squeams can take her daughter to Cremorne Gardens on an ordinary
+evening. My dear Miss Diana (psha! I know you are eight-and-thirty,
+although you are so wonderfully shy, and want to make us believe
+you have just left off schoolroom dinners and a pinafore), when your
+grandfather was a young man about town, and a member of one of the clubs
+at White's, and dined at Pontac's off the feasts provided by Braund and
+Lebeck, and rode to Newmarket with March and Rockingham, and toasted
+the best in England with Gilly Williams and George Selwyn (and didn't
+understand George's jokes, of which, indeed, the flavour has very much
+evaporated since the bottling)--the old gentleman led a life of which
+your noble aunt (author of Legends of the Squeams's; or, Fair Fruits of
+a Family Tree) has not given you the slightest idea.
+
+It was before your grandmother adopted those serious views for which
+she was distinguished during her last long residence at Bath, and after
+Colonel Tibbalt married Miss Lye, the rich soap-boiler's heiress, that
+her ladyship's wild oats were sown. When she was young, she was as giddy
+as the rest of the genteel world. At her house in Hill Street, she had
+ten card-tables on Wednesdays and Sunday evenings, except for a short
+time when Ranelagh was open on Sundays. Every night of her life she
+gambled for eight, nine, ten hours. Everybody else in society did the
+like. She lost; she won; she cheated; she pawned her jewels; who knows
+what else she was not ready to pawn, so as to find funds to supply her
+fury for play? What was that after-supper duel at the Shakspeare's Head
+in Covent Garden, between your grandfather and Colonel Tibbalt: where
+they drew swords and engaged only in the presence of Sir John Screwby,
+who was drunk under the table? They were interrupted by Mr. John
+Fielding's people, and your grandfather was carried home to Hill Street
+wounded in a chair. I tell you those gentlemen in powder and ruffles,
+who turned out the toes of their buckled pumps so delicately, were
+terrible fellows. Swords were perpetually being drawn; bottles
+after bottles were drunk; oaths roared unceasingly in conversation;
+tavern-drawers and watchmen were pinked and maimed; chairmen belaboured;
+citizens insulted by reeling pleasure-hunters. You have been to Cremorne
+with proper "vouchers" of course? Do you remember our great theatres
+thirty years ago? You were too good to go to a play. Well, you have
+no idea what the playhouses were, or what the green boxes were, when
+Garrick and Mrs. Pritchard were playing before them! And I, for my
+children's sake, thank that good Actor in his retirement who was
+the first to banish that shame from the theatre. No, madam, you are
+mistaken; I do not plume myself on my superior virtue. I do not say you
+are naturally better than your ancestress in her wild, rouged, gambling,
+flaring tearing days; or even than poor Polly Fogle, who is just taken
+up for shoplifting, and would have been hung for it a hundred years ago.
+Only, I am heartily thankful that my temptations are less, having quite
+enough to do with those of the present century.
+
+So, if Harry Warrington rides down to Newmarket to the October meeting,
+and loses or wins his money there; if he makes one of a party at the
+Shakspeare or Bedford Head; if he dines at White's ordinary, and sits
+down to macco and lansquenet afterwards; if he boxes the watch, and
+makes his appearance at the Roundhouse; if he turns out for a short
+space a wild dissipated, harum-scarum young Harry Warrington; I, knowing
+the weakness of human nature, am not going to be surprised; and, quite
+aware of my own shortcomings, don't intend to be very savage at my
+neighbour's. Mr. Sampson was: in his chapel in Long Acre he whipped Vice
+tremendously; gave Sin no quarter; out-cursed Blasphemy with superior
+Anathemas; knocked Drunkenness down, and trampled on the prostrate brute
+wallowing in the gutter; dragged out conjugal Infidelity, and pounded
+her with endless stones of rhetoric--and, after service, came to dinner
+at the Star and Garter, made a bowl of punch for Harry and his friends
+at the Bedford Head, or took a hand at whist at Mr. Warrington's
+lodgings or my Lord March's, or wherever there was a supper and good
+company for him.
+
+I often think, however, in respect of Mr. Warrington's doings at this
+period of his coming to London, that I may have taken my usual degrading
+and uncharitable views of him--for, you see, I have not uttered a single
+word of virtuous indignation against his conduct, and if it was not
+reprehensible, have certainly judged him most cruelly. O the Truthful,
+O the Beautiful, O Modesty, O Benevolence, O Pudor, O Mores, O Blushing
+Shame, O Namby Pamby--each with your respective capital letters to your
+honoured names! O Niminy, O Piminy! how shall I dare for to go for to
+say that a young man ever was a young man?
+
+No doubt, dear young lady, I am calumniating Mr. Warrington according to
+my heartless custom. As a proof here is a letter out of the Warrington
+collection, from Harry to his mother in which there is not a single word
+that would lead you to suppose he was leading a wild life. And such a
+letter from an only son to a fond and exemplary parent, we know must be
+true:--
+
+
+"BOND STREET, LONDON, October 25, 1756.
+
+"HONORD MADAM--I take up my pen to acknowledge your honored favor of 10
+July per Lively Virginia packet, which has duly come to hand, forwarded
+by our Bristol agent, and rejoice to hear that the prospect of the crops
+is so good. 'Tis Tully who says that agriculture is the noblest pursuit;
+how delightful when that pursuit is also prophetable!
+
+"Since my last, dated from Tunbridge Wells, one or two insadence have
+occurred of which it is nessasery [This word has been much operated
+upon with the penknife, but is left sic, no doubt to the writer's
+satisfaction.] I should advise my honored Mother. Our party there broke
+up end of August: the partridge-shooting commencing. Baroness Bernstein,
+whose kindness to me has been most invariable, has been to Bath, her
+usual winter resort, and has made me a welcome present of a fifty-pound
+bill. I rode back with Rev. Mr. Sampson, whose instruction I find
+most valluble, and my cousin, Lady Maria, to Castlewood. [Could Parson
+Sampson have been dictating the above remarks to Mr. Warrington?] I paid
+a flying visit on the way to my dear kind friends Col. and Mrs. Lambert,
+Oakhurst House, who send my honored mother their most affectionate
+remembrances. The youngest Miss Lambert, I grieve to say, was dellicate;
+and her parents in some anxiety.
+
+"At Castlewood I lament to state my stay was short, owing to a quarrel
+with my cousin William. He is a young man of violent passions, and alas!
+addicted to liquor, when he has no controul over them. In a triffling
+dispute about a horse, high words arose between us, and he aymed a blow
+at me or its equivulent--which my Grandfathers my honored mothers child
+could not brook. I rejoyned, and feld him to the ground, whents he was
+carried almost sencelis to bed. I sent to enquire after his health in
+the morning: but having no further news of him, came away to London
+where I have been ever since with brief intavles of absence.
+
+"Knowing you would wish me to see my dear Grandfathers University of
+Cambridge, I rode thither lately in company with some friends, passing
+through part of Harts, and lying at the famous bed of Ware. The October
+meeting was just begun at Cambridge when I went. I saw the students in
+their gownds and capps, and rode over to the famous Newmarket Heath,
+where there happened to be some races--my friend Lord Marchs horse
+Marrowbones by Cleaver coming off winner of a large steak. It was an
+amusing day--the jockeys, horses, etc., very different to our poor races
+at home--the betting awful--the richest noblemen here mix with the jox,
+and bett all round. Cambridge pleased me: especially King's College
+Chapel, of a rich but elegant Gothick.
+
+"I have been out into the world, and am made member of the Club
+at White's, where I meet gentlemen of the first fashion. My Lords
+Rockingham, Carlisle, Orford, Bolingbroke, Coventry are of my friends,
+introduced to me by my Lord March, of whom I have often wrote before.
+Lady Coventry is a fine woman, but thinn. Every lady paints here, old
+and young; so, if you and Mountain and Fanny wish to be in fashion,
+I must send you out some roogepots: everybody plays--eight, ten,
+card-tables at every house on every receiving-night. I am sorry to say
+all do not play fair, and some do not pay fair. I have been obliged
+to sit down, and do as Rome does, and have actually seen ladies whom I
+could name take my counters from before my face!
+
+"One day, his regiment the 20th being paraded in St. James's Park, a
+friend of mine, Mr. Wolfe, did me the honour to present me to his
+Royal Highness the Captain-General, who was most gracious; a fat, jolly
+Prince, if I may speak so without disrespect, reminding me in his manner
+of that unhappy General Braddock; whom we knew to our sorrow last year.
+When he heard my name, and how dearest George had served and fallen in
+Braddock's unfortunate campaign, he talked a great deal with me; asked
+why a young fellow like me did not serve too; why I did not go to the
+King of Prussia, who was a great General, and see a campaign or two;
+and whether that would not be better than dawdling about at routs and
+card-parties in London? I said, I would like to go with all my heart,
+but was an only son now, on leave from my mother, and belonged to our
+estate in Virginia. His Royal Highness said, Mr. Braddock had wrote home
+accounts of Mrs. Esmond's loyalty, and that he would gladly serve me.
+Mr. Wolfe and I have waited on him since, at his Royal Highness's house
+in Pall Mall. The latter, who is still quite a young man, made the Scots
+campaign with his Highness, whom Mr. Dempster loves so much at home. To
+be sure, he was too severe: if anything can be top severe against rebels
+in arms.
+
+"Mr. Draper has had half the Stock, my late Papa's property, transferred
+to my name. Until there can be no doubt of that painful loss in our
+family which I would give my right hand to replace, the remaining stock
+must remain in the trustees' name in behalf of him who inherited it.
+Ah, dear mother! There is no day, scarce any hour, when I don't think of
+him. I wish he were by me often. I feel like as if I was better when I
+am thinking of him, and would like, for the honour of my family, that he
+was representing of it here instead of--Honored madam, your dutiful and
+affectionate son, HENRY ESMOND WARRINGTON."
+
+"P.S.--I am like your sex, who always, they say, put their chief news in
+a poscrip. I had something to tell you about a person to whom my heart
+is engaged. I shall write more about it, which there is no hurry. Safice
+she is a nobleman's daughter, and her family as good as our own."
+
+
+"CLARGIS STREET, LONDON, October 23, 1756.
+
+"I think, my good sister, we have been all our lives a little more than
+kin and less than kind, to use the words of a poet whom your dear father
+loved dearly. When you were born in our Western Principallitie, my
+mother was not as old as Isaac's; but even then I was much more than old
+enough to be yours. And though she gave you all she could leave or give,
+including the little portion of love that ought to have been my share,
+yet, if we can have good will for one another, we may learn to do
+without affection: and some little kindness you owe me, for your son's
+sake; as well as your father's, whom I loved and admired more than any
+man I think ever I knew in this world: he was greater than almost all,
+though he made no noyse in it. I have seen very many who have, and,
+believe me, have found but few with such good heads and good harts as
+Mr. Esmond.
+
+"Had we been better acquainted, I might have given you some advice
+regarding your young gentleman's introduction to Europe, which you would
+have taken or not, as people do in this world. At least you would have
+sed afterwards, 'What she counselled me was right, and had Harry done as
+Madam Beatrix wisht, it had been better for him.' My good sister, it was
+not for you to know, or for me to whom you never wrote to tell you,
+but your boy in coming to England and Castlewood found but ill friends
+there; except one, an old aunt, of whom all kind of evil hath been
+spoken and sed these fifty years past--and not without cawse too,
+perhaps.
+
+"Now, I must tell Harry's mother what will doubtless scarce astonish
+her, that almost everybody who knows him loves him. He is prudent of
+his tongue, generous of his money, as bold as a lyon, with an imperious
+domineering way that sets well upon him; you know whether he is handsome
+or not: my dear, I like him none the less for not being over witty or
+wise, and never cared for your sett-the-Thames afire gentlemen, who are
+so much more clever than their neighbours. Your father's great friend,
+Mr. Addison, seemed to me but a supercillious prig, and his follower,
+Sir Dick Steele, was not pleasant in his cupps, nor out of 'em. And
+(revenons a luy) your Master Harry will certainly, pot burn the river
+up with his wits. Of book-learning he is as ignorant as any lord in
+England, and for this I hold him none the worse. If Heaven have not
+given him a turn that way, 'tis of no use trying to bend him.
+
+"Considering the place he is to hold in his own colony when he returns,
+and the stock he comes from, let me tell you, that he hath not means
+enough allowed him to support his station, and is likely to make the
+more depence from the narrowness of his income--from sheer despair
+breaking out of all bounds, and becoming extravagant, which is not his
+turn. But he likes to live as well as the rest of his company, and,
+between ourselves, has fell into some of the finist and most rakish in
+England. He thinks 'tis for the honour of the family not to go back, and
+many a time calls for ortolans and champaign when he would as leaf dine
+with a stake and a mugg of beer. And in this kind of spirit I have no
+doubt from what he hath told me in his talk (which is very naif, as the
+French say), that his mamma hath encouraged him in his high opinion of
+himself. We women like our belongings to have it, however little we love
+to pay the cost. Will you have your ladd make a figar in London? Trebble
+his allowance at the very least, and his Aunt Bernstein (with his
+honored mamma's permission) will add a little more on to whatever summ
+you give him. Otherwise he will be spending the little capital I learn
+he has in this country, which, when a ladd once begins to manger, there
+is very soon an end to the loaf. Please God, I shall be able to leave
+Henry Esmond's grandson something at my death; but my savings are small,
+and the pension with which my gracious Sovereign hath endowed me dies
+with me. As for feu M. de Bernstein, he left only debt at his decease:
+the officers of his Majesty's Electoral Court of Hannover are but
+scantily paid.
+
+"A lady who is at present very high in his Majesty's confidence hath
+taken a great phancy to your ladd, and will take an early occasion to
+bring him to the Sovereign's favorable notice. His Royal Highness the
+Duke he hath seen. If live in America he must, why should not Mr. Esmond
+Warrington return as Governor of Virginia, and with a title to his name?
+That is what I hope for him.
+
+"Meanwhile, I must be candid with you, and tell you I fear he hath
+entangled himself here in a very silly engagement. Even to marry an
+old woman for money is scarce pardonable--the game ne valant gueres la
+chandelle--Mr. Bernstein, when alive, more than once assured me of this
+fact, and I believe him, poor gentleman! to engage yourself to an old
+woman without money, and to marry her merely because you have promised
+her, this seems to me a follie which only very young lads fall into,
+and I fear Mr. Warrington is one. How, or for what consideration, I know
+not, but my niece Maria Esmond hath escamote a promise from Harry. He
+knows nothing of her antecedens, which I do. She hath laid herself out
+for twenty husbands these twenty years past. I care not how she hath
+got the promise from him. 'Tis a sin and a shame that a woman more than
+forty years old should surprize the honour of a child like that, and
+hold him to his word. She is not the woman she pretends to be. A horse
+jockey (he saith) cannot take him in--but a woman!
+
+"I write this news to you advisedly, displeasant as it must be. Perhaps
+'twill bring you to England: but I would be very cautious, above all,
+very gentle, for the bitt will instantly make his high spirit restive.
+I fear the property is entailed, so that threats of cutting him off from
+it will not move Maria. Otherwise I know her to be so mercenary that
+(though she really hath a great phancy for this handsome ladd) without
+money she would not hear of him. All I could, and more than I ought, I
+have done to prevent the match. What and more I will not say in writing;
+but that I am, for Henry Esmond's sake, his grandson's sincerest friend,
+and madam,--Your faithful sister and servant, BEATRIX BARONESS DE
+BERNSTEIN.
+
+"To Mrs. Esmond Warrington of Castlewood, in Virginia."
+
+
+On the back of this letter is written, in Madam Esmond's hand, "My
+sister Bernstein's letter, received with Henry's December 24 on receipt
+of which it was determined my son should instantly go home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII. Fortunatus Nimium
+
+
+Though Harry Warrington persisted in his determination to keep that
+dismal promise which his cousin had extracted from him, we trust no
+benevolent reader will think so ill of him as to suppose that the
+engagement was to the young fellow's taste, and that he would not be
+heartily glad to be rid of it. Very likely the beating administered to
+poor Will was to this end; and Harry may have thought, "A boxing-match
+between us is sure to bring on a quarrel with the family; in the quarrel
+with the family, Maria may take her brother's side. I, of course,
+will make no retraction or apology. Will, in that case, may call me to
+account, when I know which is the better man. In the midst of the feud,
+the agreement may come to an end, and I may be a free man once more."
+
+So honest Harry laid his train, and fired it: but, the explosion over,
+no harm was found to be done, except that William Esmond's nose was
+swollen, and his eye black for a week. He did not send a challenge to
+his cousin, Harry Warrington; and, in consequence, neither killed Harry,
+nor was killed by him. Will was knocked down, and he got up again. How
+many men of sense would do the same, could they get their little account
+settled in a private place, with nobody to tell how the score was paid!
+Maria by no means took her family's side in the quarrel, but declared
+for her cousin, as did my lord, when advised of the disturbance. Will
+had struck the first blow, Lord Castlewood said, by the chaplain's
+showing. It was not the first or the tenth time he had been found
+quarrelling in his cups. Mr. Warrington only showed a proper spirit in
+resenting the injury, and it was for Will, not for Harry, to ask pardon.
+
+Harry said he would accept no apology as long as his horse was not
+returned or his bet paid. The chronicler has not been able to find out,
+from any of the papers which have come under his view, how that affair
+of the bet was finally arranged; but 'tis certain the cousins presently
+met in the houses of various friends, and without mauling each other.
+
+Maria's elder brother had been at first quite willing that his sister,
+who had remained unmarried for so many years, and on the train of whose
+robe, in her long course over the path of life, so many briars, so much
+mud, so many rents and stains had naturally gathered, should marry
+with any bridegroom who presented himself, and if with a gentleman from
+Virginia, so much the better. She would retire to his wigwam in the
+forest, and there be disposed of. In the natural course of things, Harry
+would survive his elderly bride, and might console himself or not, as he
+preferred, after her departure.
+
+But, after an interview with Aunt Bernstein, which his lordship had on
+his coming to London, he changed his opinion: and even went so far as
+to try and dissuade Maria from the match; and to profess a pity for the
+young fellow who was made to undergo a life of misery on account of a
+silly promise given at one-and-twenty!
+
+Misery, indeed! Maria was at a loss to know why he was to be miserable.
+Pity, forsooth! My lord at Castlewood had thought it was no pity at all.
+Maria knew what pity meant. Her brother had been with Aunt Bernstein:
+Aunt Bernstein had offered money to break this match off. She understood
+what my lord meant, but Mr. Warrington was a man of honour, and she
+could trust him. Away, upon this, walks my lord to White's, or to
+whatever haunts he frequented. It is probable that his sister had
+guessed too accurately what the nature of his conversation wit Madame
+Bernstein had been.
+
+"And so," thinks he, "the end of my virtue is likely to be that the
+Mohock will fall a prey to others, and that there is no earthly use in
+my sparing him. 'Quem deus vult'--what was that schoolmaster's adage? If
+I don't have him, somebody else will, that is clear. My brother has had
+a slice; my dear sister wants to swallow the whole of him bodily.
+Here have I been at home respecting his youth and innocence forsooth,
+declining to play beyond the value of a sixpence, and acting guardian
+and Mentor to him. Why, I am but a fool to fatten a goose for other
+people to feed off! Not many a good action have I done in this life,
+and here is this one, that serves to benefit whom?--other folks. Talk of
+remorse! By all the fires and furies, the remorse I have is for things I
+haven't done and might have done! Why did I spare Lucretia? She hated me
+ever after, and her husband went the way for which he was predestined.
+Why have I let this lad off?--that March and the rest, who don't want
+him, may pluck him! And I have a bad repute; and I am the man people
+point at, and call the wicked lord, and against whom women warn their
+sons! Pardi, I am not a penny worse, only a great deal more unlucky
+than my neighbours, and 'tis only my cursed weakness that has been my
+greatest enemy!" Here, manifestly, in setting down a speech which a
+gentleman only thought, a chronicler overdraws his account with
+the patient reader, who has a right not to accept this draft on his
+credulity. But have not Livy, and Thucydides, and a score more of
+historians, made speeches for their heroes, which we know the latter
+never thought of delivering? How much more may we then, knowing my Lord
+Castlewood's character so intimately as we do, declare what was passing
+in his mind, and transcribe his thoughts on this paper? What? a whole
+pack of the wolves are on the hunt after this lamb, and will make a meal
+of him presently, and one hungry old hunter is to stand by, and not have
+a single cutlet? Who has not admired that noble speech of my Lord Clive,
+when reproached on his return from India with making rather too free
+with jaghires, lakhs, gold mohurs, diamonds, pearls, and what not? "Upon
+my life," said the hero of Plassy, "when I think of my opportunities, I
+am surprised I took so little!"
+
+To tell disagreeable stories of a gentleman, until one is in a manner
+forced to impart them, is always painful to a feeling mind. Hence,
+though I have known, before the very first page of this history was
+written, what sort of a person my Lord Castlewood was, and in what
+esteem he was held by his contemporaries, I have kept back much that was
+unpleasant about him, only allowing the candid reader to perceive that
+he was a nobleman who ought not to be at all of our liking. It is true
+that my Lord March, and other gentlemen of whom he complained, would
+have thought no more of betting with Mr. Warrington for his last
+shilling, and taking their winnings, than they would scruple to pick the
+bones of a chicken; that they would take any advantage of the game, or
+their superior skill in it, of the race, and their private knowledge
+of the horses engaged; in so far, they followed the practice of all
+gentlemen: but when they played, they played fair; and when they lost,
+they paid.
+
+Now Madame Bernstein was loth to tell her Virginian nephew all she knew
+to his family's discredit; she was even touched by my lord's forbearance
+in regard to Harry on his first arrival in Europe; and pleased with his
+lordship's compliance with her wishes in this particular. But in the
+conversation which she had with her nephew Castlewood regarding Maria's
+designs on Harry, he had spoken his mind out with his usual cynicism,
+voted himself a fool for having spared a lad whom no sparing would
+eventually keep from ruin; pointed out Mr. Harry's undeniable
+extravagances and spendthrift associates, his nights at faro and hazard,
+and his rides to Newmarket, and asked why he alone should keep his hands
+from the young fellow? In vain Madame Bernstein pleaded that Harry was
+poor. Bah! he was heir to a principality which ought to have been his,
+Castlewood's, and might have set up their ruined family. (Indeed Madame
+Bernstein thought Mr. Warrington's Virginian property much greater than
+it was.) Were there not money-lenders in the town who would give him
+money on postobits in plenty? Castlewood knew as much to his cost: he
+had applied to them in his father's lifetime, and the cursed crew
+had eaten up two-thirds of his miserable income. He spoke with such
+desperate candour and ill-humour, that Madame Bernstein began to be
+alarmed for her favourite, and determined to caution him at the first
+opportunity.
+
+That evening she began to pen a billet to Mr. Warrington: but all her
+life long she was slow with her pen, and disliked using it. "I never
+knew any good come of writing more than bon jour or business," she used
+to say. "What is the use of writing ill, when there are so many clever
+people who can do it well? and even then it were best left alone." So
+she sent one of her men to Mr. Harry's lodgings, bidding him come and
+drink a dish of tea with her next day, when she proposed to warn him.
+
+But the next morning she was indisposed, and could not receive Mr. Harry
+when he came: and she kept her chamber for a couple of days, and the
+next day there was a great engagement, and the next day Mr. Harry was
+off on some expedition of his own. In the whirl of London life, what man
+sees his neighbour, what brother his sister, what schoolfellow his old
+friend? Ever so many days passed before Mr. Warrington and his aunt had
+that confidential conversation which the latter desired.
+
+She began by scolding him mildly about his extravagance and madcap
+frolics (though, in truth, she was charmed with him for both)--he
+replied that young men will be young men, and that it was in dutifully
+waiting in attendance on his aunt, he had made the acquaintance with
+whom he mostly lived at present. She then with some prelude, began to
+warn him regarding his cousin, Lord Castlewood; on which he broke into a
+bitter laugh, and said the good-natured world had told him plenty about
+Lord Castlewood already. "To say of a man of his lordship's rank, or
+of any gentleman, 'Don't play with him,' is more than I like to do,"
+continued the lady; "but..."
+
+"Oh, you may say on, aunt!" said Harry, with something like an
+imprecation on his lips.
+
+"And have you played with your cousin already?" asked the young man's
+worldly old monitress.
+
+"And lost and won, madam!" answers Harry, gallantly. "It don't become me
+to say which. If we have a bout with a neighbour in Virginia, a bottle,
+or a pack of cards, or a quarrel, we don't go home and tell our mothers.
+I mean no offence, aunt!" And, blushing, the handsome young fellow went
+up and kissed the old lady. He looked very brave and brilliant, with his
+rich lace, his fair face and hair, his fine new suit of velvet and gold.
+On taking leave of his aunt he gave his usual sumptuous benefaction to
+her servants, who crowded round him. It was a rainy wintry day, and my
+gentleman, to save his fine silk stockings, must come in a chair. "To
+White's!" he called out to the chairmen, and away they carried him to
+the place where he passed a great deal of his time.
+
+Our Virginian's friends might have wished that he had been a less
+sedulous frequenter of that house of entertainment; but so much may be
+said in favour of Mr. Warrington that, having engaged in play, he fought
+his battle like a hero. He was not flustered by good luck, and perfectly
+calm when the chances went against him. If Fortune is proverbially
+fickle to men at play, how many men are fickle to Fortune, run away
+frightened from her advances; and desert her, who, perhaps, had never
+thought of leaving them but for their cowardice. "By George, Mr.
+Warrington," said Mr. Selwyn, waking up in a rare fit of enthusiasm,
+"you deserve to win! You treat your luck as a gentleman should, and
+as long as she remains with you, behave to her with the most perfect
+politeness. Si celeres quatit pennas--you know the rest--no? Well, you
+are not much the worse off--you will call her ladyship's coach, and make
+her a bow at the step. Look at Lord Castlewood yonder, passing the box.
+Did you ever hear a fellow curse and swear so at losing five or six
+pieces? She must be a jade indeed, if she long give her favours to such
+a niggardly canaille as that!"
+
+"We don't consider our family canaille, sir," says Mr. Warrington, "and
+my Lord Castlewood is one of them."
+
+"I forgot. I forgot, and ask your pardon! And I make you my compliment
+upon my lord, and Mr. Will Esmond, his brother," says Harry's neighbour
+at the hazard-table. "The box is with me. Five's the main! Deuce Ace! my
+usual luck. Virtute mea me involvo!" and he sinks back in his chair.
+
+Whether it was upon this occasion of taking the box, that Mr. Harry
+threw the fifteen mains mentioned in one of those other letters of Mr.
+Walpole's, which have not come into his present learned editor's hands,
+I know not; but certain it is, that on his first appearance at White's,
+Harry had five or six evenings of prodigious good luck, and seemed more
+than ever the Fortunate Youth. The five hundred pounds withdrawn from
+his patrimonial inheritance had multiplied into thousands. He bought
+fine clothes, purchased fine horses, gave grand entertainments, made
+handsome presents, lived as if he had been as rich as Sir James Lowther,
+or his Grace of Bedford, and yet the five thousand pounds never seemed
+to diminish. No wonder that he gave where giving was so easy; no wonder
+that he was generous with Fortunatus's purse in his pocket. I say no
+wonder that he gave, for such was his nature. Other Fortunati tie up the
+endless purse, drink small beer, and go to bed with a tallow candle.
+
+During this vein of his luck, what must Mr. Harry do, but find out from
+Lady Maria what her ladyship's debts were, and pay them off to the
+last shilling. Her stepmother and half-sister, who did not love her, he
+treated to all sorts of magnificent presents. "Had you not better get
+yourself arrested, Will?" my lord sardonically said to his brother.
+"Although you bit him in that affair of the horse, the Mohock will
+certainly take you out of pawn." It was then that Mr. William felt a
+true remorse, although not of that humble kind which sent the repentant
+Prodigal to his knees. "Confound it," he groaned, "to think that I have
+let this fellow slip for such a little matter as forty pound! Why, he
+was good for a thousand at least."
+
+As for Maria, that generous creature accepted the good fortune sent
+her with a grateful heart; and was ready to accept as much more as you
+pleased. Having paid off her debts to her various milliners, tradesmen,
+and purveyors, she forthwith proceeded to contract new ones. Mrs. Betty,
+her ladyship's maid, went round informing the tradespeople that her
+mistress was about to contract a matrimonial alliance with a young
+gentleman of immense fortune; so that they might give my lady credit
+to any amount. Having heard the same story twice or thrice before, the
+tradesfolk might not give it entire credit, but their bills were paid:
+even to Mrs. Pincott, of Kensington, my lady showed no rancour, and
+affably ordered fresh supplies from her: and when she drove about from
+the mercer to the toy-shop, and from the toy-shop to the jeweller in
+a coach, with her maid and Mr. Warrington inside, they thought her a
+fortunate woman indeed, to have secured the Fortunate Youth, though they
+might wonder at the taste of this latter in having selected so elderly a
+beauty. Mr. Sparks, of Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, took the liberty
+of waiting upon Mr. Warrington at his lodgings in Bond Street, with the
+pearl necklace and the gold etwee which he had bought in Lady Maria's
+company the day before; and asking whether he, Sparks, should leave them
+at his honour's lodging, or send them to her ladyship with his honour's
+compliments? Harry added a ring out of the stock which the jeweller
+happened to bring with him, to the necklace and the etwee; and
+sumptuously bidding that individual to send him in the bill, took a
+majestic leave of Mr. Sparks, who retired, bowing even to Gumbo, as he
+quitted his honour's presence.
+
+Nor did his bounties end here. Ere many days the pleased young fellow
+drove up in his phaeton to Mr. Sparks' shop, and took a couple of
+trinkets for two young ladies, whose parents had been kind to him, and
+for whom he entertained a sincere regard. "Ah!" thought he, "how I wish
+I had my poor George's wit, and genius for poetry! I would send these
+presents with pretty verses to Hetty and Theo. I am sure, if goodwill
+and real regard could make a poet of me, I should have no difficulty in
+finding rhymes." And so he called in Parson Sampson, and they concocted
+a billet together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII. In which Harry flies High
+
+
+So Mr. Harry Warrington, of Virginia, had his lodgings in Bond Street,
+London, England, and lived upon the fat of the land, and drank bumpers
+of the best wine thereof. His title of Fortunate Youth was pretty
+generally recognised. Being young, wealthy, good-looking, and fortunate,
+the fashionable world took him by the hand and made him welcome.
+And don't, my dear brethren, let us cry out too loudly against the
+selfishness of the world for being kind to the young, handsome, and
+fortunate, and frowning upon you and me, who may be, for argument's
+sake, old, ugly, and the miserablest dogs under the sun. If I have a
+right to choose my acquaintance, and--at the club, let us say prefer the
+company of a lively, handsome, well-dressed, gentleman like young
+man, who amuses me, to that of a slouching, ill-washed, misanthropic
+H-murderer, a ceaselessly prating coxcomb, or what not; has not
+society--the aggregate you and I--a right to the same choice? Harry was
+liked because he was likeable; because he was rich, handsome, jovial,
+well-born, well-bred, brave; because, with jolly topers, he liked a
+jolly song and a bottle; because, with gentlemen sportsmen, he loved
+any game that was a-foot or a-horseback; because, with ladies, he had a
+modest blushing timidity which rendered the lad interesting; because,
+to those humbler than himself in degree he was always magnificently
+liberal, and anxious to spare annoyance. Our Virginian was very
+grand, and high and mighty, to be sure; but, in those times, when the
+distinction of ranks yet obtained, to be high and distant with his
+inferiors, brought no unpopularity to a gentleman. Remember that, in
+those days, the Secretary of State always knelt when he went to the king
+with his despatches of a morning, and the Under-Secretary never dared to
+sit down in his chief's presence. If I were Secretary of State (and such
+there have been amongst men of letters since Addison's days) I should
+not like to kneel when I went in to my audience with my despatch-bog. If
+I were Under-Secretary, I should not like to have to stand, whilst the
+Right Honourable Benjamin or the Right Honourable Sir Edward looked over
+the papers. But there is a modus in rebus: there are certain lines
+which must be drawn: and I am only half pleased for my part, when Bob
+Bowstreet, whose connection with letters is through Policeman X and
+Y, and Tom Garbage, who is an esteemed contributor to the Kennel
+Miscellany, propose to join fellowship as brother literary men, slap me
+on the back, and call me old boy, or by my Christian name.
+
+As much pleasure as the town could give in the winter season of 1756-57,
+Mr. Warrington had for the asking. There were operas for him, in which
+he took but moderate delight. (A prodigious deal of satire was brought
+to bear against these Italian Operas, and they were assailed for being
+foolish, Popish, unmanly, unmeaning; but people went, nevertheless.)
+There were the theatres, with Mr. Garrick and Mrs. Pritchard at one
+house, and Mrs. Clive at another. There were masquerades and ridottos
+frequented by all the fine society; there were their lordships' and
+ladyships' own private drums and assemblies, which began and ended with
+cards, and which Mr. Warrington did not like so well as White's, because
+the play there was neither so high nor so fair as at the club-table.
+
+One day his kinsman, Lord Castlewood, took him to court, and presented
+Harry to his Majesty, who was now come to town from Kensington. But that
+gracious sovereign either did not like Harry's introducer, or had other
+reasons for being sulky. His Majesty only said, "Oh, heard of you from
+Lady Yarmouth. The Earl of Castlewood" (turning to his lordship, and
+speaking in German) "shall tell him that he plays too much!" And so
+saying, the Defender of the Faith turned his royal back.
+
+Lord Castlewood shrank back quite frightened at this cold reception of
+his august master.
+
+"What does he say?" asked Harry.
+
+"His Majesty thinks they play too high at White's, and is displeased,"
+whispered the nobleman.
+
+"If he does not want us, we had better not come again, that is all,"
+said Harry, simply. "I never, somehow, considered that German fellow a
+real King of England."
+
+"Hush! for Heaven's sake, hold your confounded colonial tongue!" cries
+out my lord. "Don't you see the walls here have ears!"
+
+"And what then?" asks Mr. Warrington. "Why, look at the people! Hang me,
+if it is not quite a curiosity! They were all shaking hands with me, and
+bowing to me, and flattering me just now; and at present they avoid me
+as if I were the plague!"
+
+"Shake hands, nephew," said a broad-faced, broad-shouldered gentleman,
+in a scarlet-laced waistcoat, and a great old-fashioned wig. "I heard
+what you said. I have ears like the wall, look you. And, now, if other
+people show you the cold shoulder, I'll give you my hand;" and so
+saying, the gentleman put out a great brown hand, with which he grasped
+Harry's. "Something of my brother about your eyes and face. Though I
+suppose in your island you grow more wiry and thin like. I am thine
+uncle, child. My name is Sir Miles Warrington. My lord knows me well
+enough."
+
+My lord looked very frightened and yellow. "Yes, my dear Harry. This is
+your paternal uncle, Sir Miles Warrington."
+
+"Might as well have come to see us in Norfolk, as dangle about playing
+the fool at Tunbridge Wells, Mr. Warrington, or Mr. Esmond,--which do
+you call yourself?" said the Baronet. "The old lady calls herself Madam
+Esmond, don't she?"
+
+"My mother is not ashamed of her father's name, nor am I, uncle," said
+Mr. Harry, rather proudly.
+
+"Well said, lad! Come home and eat a bit of mutton with Lady Warrington,
+at three, in Hill Street,--that is if you can do without your White's
+kickshaws. You need not look frightened, my Lord Castlewood! I shall
+tell no tales out of school."
+
+"I--I am sure Sir Miles Warrington will act as a gentleman!" says my
+lord, in much perturbation.
+
+"Belike, he will," growled the Baronet, turning on his heel. "And thou
+wilt come, young man, at three; and mind, good roast mutton waits for
+nobody. Thou hast a great look of thy father. Lord bless us, how we used
+to beat each other! He was smaller than me, and in course younger; but
+many a time he had the best of it. Take it he was henpecked when he
+married, and Madam Esmond took the spirit out of him when she got him in
+her island. Virginia is an island. Ain't it an island?"
+
+Harry laughed, and said "No!" And the jolly Baronet, going off, said,
+"Well, island or not, thou must come and tell all about it to my lady.
+She'll know whether 'tis an island or not."
+
+"My dear Mr. Warrington," said my lord, with an appealing look, "I need
+not tell you that, in this great city, every man has enemies, and that
+there is a great, great deal of detraction and scandal. I never spoke
+to you about Sir Miles Warrington, precisely because I did know him,
+and because we have had differences together. Should he permit himself
+remarks to my disparagement, you will receive them cum grano, and
+remember that it is from an enemy they come." And the pair walked out
+of the King's apartments and into Saint James's Street. Harry found the
+news of his cold reception at court had already preceded him to White's.
+The King had turned his back upon him. The King was jealous of Harry's
+favour with the favourite. Harry was au mieux with Lady Yarmouth. A
+score of gentlemen wished him a compliment upon his conquest. Before
+night it was a settled matter that this was amongst the other victories
+of the Fortunate Youth.
+
+Sir Miles told his wife and Harry as much, when the young man appeared
+at the appointed hour at the Baronet's dinner-table, and he rallied
+Harry in his simple rustic fashion. The lady, at first a grand and
+stately personage, told Harry, on their further acquaintance, that the
+reputation which the world had made for him was so bad, that at first
+she had given him but a frigid welcome. With the young ladies, Sir
+Miles's daughters, it was "How d'ye do, cousin?" and "No, thank you,
+cousin," and a number of prim curtseys to the Virginian, as they greeted
+him and took leave of him. The little boy, the heir of the house, dined
+at table, under the care of his governor; and, having his glass of port
+by papa after dinner, gave a loose to his innocent tongue, and asked
+many questions of his cousin. At last the innocent youth said, after
+looking hard in Harry's face, "Are you wicked, cousin Harry? You don't
+look very wicked!"
+
+"My dear Master Miles!" expostulates the tutor, turning very red.
+
+"But you know you said he was wicked!" cried the child.
+
+"We are all miserable sinners, Miley," explains papa. "Haven't you heard
+the clergyman say so every Sunday?"
+
+"Yes, but not so very wicked as cousin Harry. Is it true that you
+gamble, cousin, and drink all night with wicked men, and frequent the
+company of wicked women? You know you said so, Mr. Walker--and mamma
+said so, too, that Lady Yarmouth was a wicked woman."
+
+"And you are a little pitcher," cries papa: "and my wife, nephew Harry,
+is a staunch Jacobite--you won't like her the worse for that. Take Miles
+to his sisters, Mr. Walker, and Topsham shall give thee a ride in the
+park, child, on thy little horse." The idea of the little horse consoled
+Master Miles; for, when his father ordered him away to his sisters, he
+had begun to cry bitterly, bawling out that he would far rather stay
+with his wicked cousin.
+
+"They have made you a sad reputation among 'em, nephew!" says the jolly
+Baronet. "My wife, you must know, of late years, and since the death of
+my poor eldest son, has taken to,--to, hum!--to Tottenham Court Road and
+Mr. Whitfield's preaching: and we have had one Ward about the house, a
+friend of Mr. Walker's yonder, who has recounted sad stories about you
+and your brother at home."
+
+"About me, Sir Miles, as much as he pleases," cries Harry, warm with
+port: "but I'll break any man's bones who dares say a word against my
+brother! Why, sir, that fellow was not fit to buckle my dear George's
+shoe; and if I find him repeating at home what he dared to say in our
+house in Virginia, I promise him a second caning."
+
+"You seem to stand up for your friends, nephew Harry," says the Baronet.
+"Fill thy glass, lad, thou art not as bad as thou hast been painted.
+I always told my lady so. I drink Madam Esmond Warrington's health, of
+Virginia, and will have a full bumper for that toast."
+
+Harry, as in duty bound, emptied his glass, filled again, and drank Lady
+Warrington and Master Miles.
+
+"Thou wouldst be heir to four thousand acres in Norfolk, did he die,
+though," said the Baronet.
+
+"God forbid, sir, and be praised that I have acres enough in Virginia
+of my own!" says Mr. Warrington. He went up presently and took a dish of
+coffee with Lady Warrington: he talked to the young ladies of the house.
+He was quite easy, pleasant, and natural. There was one of them somewhat
+like Fanny Mountain, and this young lady became his special favourite.
+When he went away, they all agreed their wicked cousin was not near so
+wicked as they had imagined him to be: at any rate, my lady had strong
+hopes of rescuing him from the pit. She sent him a good book that
+evening, whilst Mr. Harry was at White's; with a pretty note, praying
+that Law's Call might be of service to him: and, this despatched, she
+and her daughters went off to a rout at the house of a minister's lady.
+But Harry, before he went to White's, had driven to his friend Mr.
+Sparks, in Tavistock Street, and purchased more trinkets for his female
+cousins--"from their aunt in Virginia," he said. You see, he was full of
+kindness: he kindled and warmed with prosperity. There are men on whom
+wealth hath no such fortunate influence. It hardens base hearts: it
+makes those who were mean and servile, mean and proud. If it should
+please the gods to try me with ten thousand a year, I will, of course,
+meekly submit myself to their decrees, but I will pray them to give me
+strength enough to bear the trial. All the girls in Hill Street were
+delighted at getting the presents from Aunt Warrington in Virginia and
+addressed a collective note, which must have astonished that good lady
+when she received it in spring-time, when she and Mountain and Fanny
+were on a visit to grim deserted Castlewood, when the snows had cleared
+away and a thousand peach-trees flushed with blossoms. "Poor boy!" the
+mother thought "This is some present he gave his cousins in my name,
+in the time of his prosperity--nay, of his extravagance and folly. How
+quickly his wealth has passed away! But he ever had a kind heart for the
+poor Mountain; and we must not forget him in his need. It behoves us to
+be more than ever careful of our own expenses, my good people!" And so,
+I dare say, they warmed themselves by one log, and ate of one dish, and
+worked by one candle. And the widow's servants, whom the good soul began
+to pinch more and more I fear, lied, stole, and cheated more and more:
+and what was saved in one way, was stole in another.
+
+One afternoon, Mr. Harry sate in his Bond Street lodgings, arrayed in
+his dressing-gown, sipping his chocolate, surrounded by luxury, encased
+in satin, and yet enveloped in care. A few weeks previously when the
+luck was with him, and he was scattering his benefactions to and fro,
+he had royally told Parson Sampson to get together a list of his debts
+which he, Mr. Warrington, would pay. Accordingly Sampson had gone to
+work, and had got together a list, not of all his debts--no man ever
+does set down all,--but such a catalogue as he thought sufficient to
+bring in to Mr. Warrington, at whose breakfast-table the divine had
+humbly waited until his honour should choose to attend it.
+
+Harry appeared at length, very pale and languid, in curl-papers, and
+scarce any appetite for his breakfast; and the chaplain, fumbling with
+his schedule in his pocket, humbly asked if his patron had had a bad
+night? He had been brought home from White's by two chairmen at five
+o'clock in the morning; had caught a confounded cold, for one of the
+windows of the chair would not shut, and the rain and snow came in,
+finally, was in such a bad humour, that all poor Sampson's quirks and
+jokes could scarcely extort a smile from him.
+
+At last, to be sure, Mr. Warrington burst into a loud laugh. It was when
+the poor chaplain, after a sufficient discussion of muffins, eggs, tea,
+the news, the theatres, and so forth, pulled a paper out of his pocket
+and in a piteous tone said, "Here is that schedule of debts which your
+honour asked for--two hundred and forty-three pounds--every shilling I
+owe in the world, thank Heaven!--that is--ahem!--every shilling of which
+the payment will in the least inconvenience me--and I need not tell my
+dearest patron that I shall consider him my saviour and benefactor!"
+
+It was then that Harry, taking the paper and eyeing the chaplain with
+rather a wicked look, burst into a laugh, which was, however, anything
+but jovial. Wicked execrations, moreover, accompanied this outbreak of
+humour, and the luckless chaplain felt that his petition had come at the
+wrong moment.
+
+"Confound it, why didn't you bring it on Monday?" Harry asked.
+
+"Confound me, why did I not bring it on Monday?" echoed the chaplain's
+timid soul. "It is my luck--my usual luck. Have the cards been against
+you, Mr. Warrington?"
+
+"Yes: a plague on them. Monday night, and last night, have both gone
+against me. Don't be frightened, chaplain, there's money enough in the
+locker yet. But I must go into the City and get some."
+
+"What, sell out, sir?" asks his reverence, with a voice that was
+reassured, though it intended to be alarmed.
+
+"Sell out, sir? Yes! I borrowed a hundred off Mackreth in counters last
+night, and must pay him at dinner-time. I will do your business for you
+nevertheless, and never fear, my good Mr. Sampson. Come to breakfast
+to-morrow, and we will see and deliver your reverence from the
+Philistines." But though he laughed in Sampson's presence, and strove
+to put a good face upon the matter, Harry's head sank down on his chest
+when the parson quitted him, and he sate over the fire, beating the
+coals about with the poker, and giving utterance to many disjointed
+naughty words, which showed, but did not relieve, the agitation of his
+spirit.
+
+In this mood, the young fellow was interrupted by the appearance of a
+friend, who, on any other day--even on that one when his conscience was
+so uneasy--was welcome to Mr. Warrington. This was no other than Mr.
+Lambert, in his military dress, but with a cloak over him, who had come
+from the country, had been to the Captain-General's levee that morning,
+and had come thence to visit his young friend in Bond Street.
+
+Harry may have thought Lambert's greeting rather cold; but being
+occupied with his own affairs, he put away the notion. How were the
+ladies of Oakhurst, and Miss Hetty, who was ailing when he passed
+through in the autumn? Purely? Mr. Warrington was very glad. They were
+come to stay a while in London with their friend, Lord Wrotham? Mr.
+Harry was delighted--though it must be confessed his face did not
+exhibit any peculiar signs of pleasure when he heard the news.
+
+"And so you live at White's, and with the great folks; and you fare
+sumptuously every day, and you pay your court at St. James's, and make
+one at my Lady Yarmouth's routs, and at all the card-parties in the
+Court end of the town?" asks the Colonel.
+
+"My dear Colonel, I do what other folks do," says Harry, with rather a
+high manner.
+
+"Other folks are richer folks than some folks, my dear lad."
+
+"Sir!" says Mr. Warrington, "I would thank you to believe that I owe
+nothing for which I cannot pay!"
+
+"I should never have spoken about your affairs," said the other, not
+noticing the young man's haughty tone, "but that you yourself confided
+them to me. I hear all sorts of stories about the Fortunate Youth. Only
+at his Royal Highness's even today, they were saying how rich you were
+already, and I did not undeceive them----"
+
+"Colonel Lambert, I cannot help the world gossiping about me!" cries Mr.
+Warrington, more and more impatient.
+
+"--And what prodigious sums you had won. Eighteen hundred one night--two
+thousand another--six or eight thousand in all! Oh! there were gentlemen
+from White's at the levee too, I can assure you, and the army can fling
+a main as well as you civilians!"
+
+"I wish they would meddle with their own affairs," says Harry, scowling
+at his old friend.
+
+"And I, too, you look as if you were going to say. Well, my boy, it is
+my affair and you must let Theo's father and Hetty's father, and Harry
+Warrington's father's old friend say how it is my affair." Here the
+Colonel drew a packet out of his pocket, whereof the lappets and the
+coat-tails and the general pocket accommodations were much more ample
+than in the scant military garments of present warriors. "Look you,
+Harry. These trinkets which you sent with the kindest heart in the world
+to people who love you, and would cut off their little hands to spare
+you needless pain, could never be bought by a young fellow with two or
+three hundred a year. Why, a nobleman might buy these things, or a rich
+City banker, and send them to his--to his daughters, let us say."
+
+"Sir, as you say, I meant only kindness," says Harry, blushing
+burning-red.
+
+"But you must not give them to my girls, my boy. Hester and Theodosia
+Lambert must not be dressed up with the winnings off the gaming-table,
+saving your presence. It goes to my heart to bring back the trinkets.
+Mrs. Lambert will keep her present, which is of small value, and sends
+you her love and a God bless you--and so say I, Harry Warrington, with
+all my heart." Here the good Colonel's voice was much moved, and his
+face grew very red, and he passed his hand over his eyes ere he held it
+out.
+
+But the spirit of rebellion was strong in Mr. Warrington. He rose up
+from his seat, never offering to take the hand which his senior held out
+to him. "Give me leave to tell Colonel Lambert," he said, "that I have
+had somewhat too much advice from him. You are for ever volunteering it,
+sir, and when I don't ask it. You make it your business to inquire about
+my gains at play, and about the company I keep. What right have you to
+control my amusements or my companions? I strive to show my sense
+of your former kindness by little presents to your family, and you
+fling--you bring them back."
+
+"I can't do otherwise, Mr. Warrington," says the Colonel, with a very
+sad face.
+
+"Such a slight may mean nothing here, sir, but in our country it means
+war, sir!" cries Mr. Warrington. "God forbid I should talk of drawing a
+sword against the father of ladies who have been as mother and sister
+to me: but you have wounded my heart, Colonel Lambert--you have, I won't
+say insulted, but humiliated me, and this is a treatment I will bear
+from no man alive! My servants will attend you to the door, sir!" Saying
+which, and rustling in his brocade dressing-gown, Mr. Warrington, with
+much state, walked off to his bedroom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV. Contains what might, perhaps, have been expected
+
+
+On the rejection of his peace-offerings, our warlike young American
+chief chose to be in great wrath not only against Colonel Lambert, but
+the whole of that gentleman's family. "He has humiliated me before
+the girls!" thought the young man. "He and Mr. Wolfe, who were forever
+preaching morality to me, and giving themselves airs of superiority and
+protection, have again been holding me up to the family as a scapegrace
+and prodigal. They are so virtuous that they won't shake me by the hand,
+forsooth; and when I want to show them a little common gratitude, they
+fling my presents in my face!"
+
+"Why, sir, the things must be worth a little fortune!" says Parson
+Sampson, casting an eye of covetousness on the two morocco boxes,
+in which, on their white satin cushions, reposed Mr. Sparks's golden
+gewgaws.
+
+"They cost some money, Sampson," says the young man. "Not that I would
+grudge ten times the amount to people who have been kind to me."
+
+"No, faith, sir, not if I know your honour!" interjects Sampson, who
+never lost a chance of praising his young patron to his face.
+
+"The repeater, they told me, was a great bargain, and worth a hundred
+pounds at Paris. Little Miss Hetty I remember saying that she longed to
+have a repeating watch."
+
+"Oh, what a love!" cries the chaplain, "with a little circle of pearls
+on the back, and a diamond knob for the handle! Why, 'twould win any
+woman's heart, Sir!"
+
+"There passes an apple-woman with a basket. I have a mind to fling the
+thing out to her!" cries Mr. Warrington, fiercely.
+
+When Harry went out upon business, which took him to the City and the
+Temple, his parasite did not follow him very far into the Strand;
+but turned away, owning that he had a terror of Chancery Lane, its
+inhabitants, and precincts. Mr. Warrington went then to his broker, and
+they walked to the Bank together, where they did some little business,
+at the end of which, and after the signing of a trifling signature or
+two, Harry departed with a certain number of crisp bank-notes in his
+pocket. The broker took Mr. Warrington to one of the great dining-houses
+for which the City was famous then as now; and afterwards showed Mr.
+Warrington the Virginian walk upon 'Change, through which Harry passed
+rather shamefacedly. What would a certain lady in Virginia say, he
+thought, if she knew that he was carrying off in that bottomless
+gambler's pocket a great portion of his father's patrimony? Those are
+all Virginia merchants, thinks he, and they are all talking to one
+another about me, and all saying, "That is young Esmond, of Castlewood,
+on the Potomac, Madam Esmond's son; and he has been losing his money at
+play, and he has been selling out so much, and so much, and so much."
+
+His spirits did not rise until he had passed under the traitors' heads
+of Temple Bar, and was fairly out of the City. From the Strand Mr. Harry
+walked home, looking in at St. James's Street by the way; but there was
+nobody there as yet, the company not coming to the Chocolate-House till
+a later hour.
+
+Arrived at home, Mr. Harry pulls out his bundle of bank-notes; puts
+three of them into a sheet of paper, which he seals carefully, having
+previously written within the sheet the words, "Much good may they
+do you. H. E. W." And this packet he directs to the Reverend Mr.
+Sampson,--leaving it on the chimney-glass, with directions to his
+servants to give it to that divine when he should come in.
+
+And now his honour's phaeton is brought to the door, and he steps in,
+thinking to drive round the park; but the rain coming on, or the east
+wind blowing, or some other reason arising, his honour turns his horses'
+heads down St. James's Street, and is back at White's at about three
+o'clock. Scarce anybody has come in yet. It is the hour when folks are
+at dinner. There, however, is my cousin Castlewood, lounging over the
+Public Advertiser, having just come off from his duty at Court hard by.
+
+Lord Castlewood is yawning over the Public Advertiser. What shall they
+do? Shall they have a little piquet? Harry has no objections to a little
+piquet. "Just for an hour," says Lord Castlewood. "I dine at Arlington
+Street at four." "Just for an hour," says Mr. Warrington; and they call
+for cards.
+
+"Or shall we have 'em in upstairs?" says my lord. "Out of the noise?"
+
+"Certainly, out of the noise," says Harry.
+
+At five o'clock a half-dozen of gentlemen have come in after their
+dinner, and are at cards, or coffee, or talk. The folks from the
+ordinary have not left the table yet. There the gentlemen of White's
+will often sit till past midnight.
+
+One toothpick points over the coffee-house blinds into the street.
+"Whose phaeton?" asks Toothpick 1 of Toothpick 2.
+
+"The Fortunate Youth's," says No. 2.
+
+"Not so fortunate the last three nights. Luck confoundedly against him.
+Lost, last night, thirteen hundred to the table. Mr. Warrington been
+here to-day, John?"
+
+"Mr. Warrington is in the house now, sir. In the little tea-room with
+Lord Castlewood since three o'clock. They are playing at piquet," says
+John.
+
+"What fun for Castlewood!" says No. 1, with a shrug.
+
+The second gentleman growls out an execration. "Curse the fellow!" he
+says. "He has no right to be in this club at all. He doesn't pay if he
+loses. Gentlemen ought not to play with him. Sir Miles Warrington told
+me at court the other day, that Castlewood has owed him money on a bet
+these three years."
+
+"Castlewood," says No. 1, "don't lose if he plays alone. A large company
+flurries him, you see--that's why he doesn't come to the table." And the
+facetious gentleman grins, and shows all his teeth, polished perfectly
+clean.
+
+"Let's go up and stop 'em," growls No. 2.
+
+"Why?" asks the other. "Much better look out a-window. Lamplighter going
+up the ladder--famous sport. Look at that old putt in the chair: did you
+ever see such an old quiz?"
+
+"Who is that just gone out of the house? As I live, it's Fortunatus! He
+seems to have forgotten that his phaeton has been here, waiting all the
+time. I bet you two to one he has been losing to Castlewood."
+
+"Jack, do you take me to be a fool?" asks the one gentleman of the
+other. "Pretty pair of horses the youth has got. How he is flogging
+'em!" And they see Mr. Warrington galloping up the street, and scared
+coachmen and chairmen clearing before him: presently my Lord Castlewood
+is seen to enter a chair, and go his way.
+
+Harry drives up to his own door. It was but a few yards, and those poor
+horses have been beating the pavement all this while in the rain. Mr.
+Gumbo is engaged at the door in conversation with a countrified-looking
+lass, who trips off with a curtsey. Mr. Gumbo is always engaged with
+some pretty maid or other.
+
+"Gumbo, has Mr. Sampson been here?" asks Gumbo's master from his
+driving-seat.
+
+"No, sar. Mr. Sampson have not been here!" answers Mr. Warrington's
+gentleman. Harry bids him to go upstairs and bring down a letter
+addressed to Mr. Sampson.
+
+"Addressed to Mr. Sampson? Oh yes, sir," says Mr. Gumbo, who can't read.
+
+"A sealed letter, stupid! on the mantelpiece, in the glass!" says Harry;
+and Gumbo leisurely retires to fetch that document. As soon as Harry has
+it, he turns his horses' heads towards St. James's Street, and the
+two gentlemen, still yawning out of the window at White's, behold the
+Fortunate Youth, in an instant, back again.
+
+As they passed out of the little tea-room where he and Lord Castlewood
+had had their piquet together, Mr. Warrington had seen that several
+gentlemen had entered the play-room, and that there was a bank there.
+Some were already steadily at work, and had their gaming jackets on:
+they kept such coats at the club, which they put on when they had a mind
+to sit down to a regular night's play.
+
+Mr. Warrington goes to the clerk's desk, pays his account of the
+previous night, and, sitting down at the table, calls for fresh
+counters. This has been decidedly an unlucky week with the Fortunate
+Youth, and to-night is no more fortunate than previous nights have been.
+He calls for more counters, and more presently. He is a little pale and
+silent, though very easy and polite when talked to. But he cannot win.
+
+At last he gets up. "Hang it! stay and mend your luck!" says Lord March,
+who is sitting by his side with a heap of counters before him, green and
+white. "Take a hundred of mine, and go on!"
+
+"I have had enough for to-night, my lord," says Harry, and rises and
+goes away, and eats a broiled bone in the coffee-room, and walks back to
+his lodgings some time about midnight. A man after a great catastrophe
+commonly sleeps pretty well. It is the waking in the morning which is
+sometimes queer and unpleasant. Last night you proposed to Miss Brown:
+you quarrelled over your cups with Captain Jones, and valorously pulled
+his nose: you played at cards with Colonel Robinson, and gave him--oh,
+how many I O U's! These thoughts, with a fine headache, assail you
+in the morning watches. What a dreary, dreary gulf between to-day and
+yesterday! It seems as if you are years older. Can't you leap back over
+that chasm again, and is it not possible that Yesterday is but a dream?
+There you are, in bed. No daylight in at the windows yet. Pull your
+nightcap over your eyes, the blankets over your nose, and sleep away
+Yesterday. Psha, man, it was but a dream! Oh no, no! The sleep won't
+come. The watchman bawls some hour--what hour? Harry minds him that he
+has got the repeating watch under his pillow which he had bought for
+Hester. Ting, ting, ting! the repeating watch sings out six times in
+the darkness, with a little supplementary performance indicating the
+half-hour. Poor dear little Hester!--so bright, so gay, so innocent! he
+would have liked her to have that watch. What will Maria say? (Oh, that
+old Maria! what a bore she is beginning to be! he thinks.) What will
+Madam Esmond at home say when she hears that he has lost every shilling
+of his ready money--of his patrimony? All his winnings, and five
+thousand pounds besides, in three nights. Castlewood could not have
+played him false? No. My lord knows piquet better than Harry does, but
+he would not deal unfairly with his own flesh and blood. No, no. Harry
+is glad his kinsman, who wanted the money, has got it. And for not one
+more shilling than he possessed, would he play. It was when he counted
+up his losses at the gaming-table, and found they would cover all the
+remainder of his patrimony, that he passed the box and left the table.
+But, O cursed bad company! O extravagance and folly! O humiliation and
+remorse! "Will my mother at home forgive me?" thinks the young prodigal.
+"Oh, that I were there, and had never left it!"
+
+The dreary London dawn peeps at length through shutters and curtains.
+The housemaid enters to light his honour's fire and admit the dun
+morning into his windows. Her Mr. Gumbo presently follows, who warms his
+master's dressing-gown and sets out his shaving-plate and linen. Then
+arrives the hairdresser to curl and powder his honour, whilst he reads
+his morning's letters; and at breakfast-time comes that inevitable
+Parson Sampson, with eager looks and servile smiles, to wait on his
+patron. The parson would have returned yesterday according to mutual
+agreement, but some jolly fellows kept him to dinner at the St. Alban's,
+and, faith, they made a night of it.
+
+"Oh, Parson!" groans Harry, "'twas the worst night you ever made in your
+life! Look here, sir!"
+
+"Here is a broken envelope with the words, 'Much good may it do you,'
+written within," says the chaplain, glancing at the paper.
+
+"Look on the outside, sir!" cries Mr. Warrington. "The paper was
+directed to you." The poor chaplain's countenance exhibited great alarm.
+"Has some one broke it open, sir?" he asks.
+
+"Some one, yes. I broke it open, Sampson. Had you come here as you
+proposed yesterday afternoon, you would have found that envelope full of
+bank-notes. As it is, they were all dropped at the infernal macco-table
+last night."
+
+"What, all?" says Sampson.
+
+"Yes, all, with all the money I brought away from the city, and all the
+ready money I have left in the world. In the afternoon I played piquet
+with my cous--with a gentleman at White's--and he eased me of all the
+money I had about me. Remembering that there was still some money left
+here, unless you had fetched it, I came home and carried it back and
+left it at the macco-table, with every shilling besides that belongs to
+me--and--great heaven, Sampson, what's the matter, man?"
+
+"It's my luck, it's my usual luck," cries out the unfortunate chaplain,
+and fairly burst into tears.
+
+"What! You are not whimpering like a baby at the loss of a loan of a
+couple of hundred pounds?" cries out Mr. Warrington, very fierce and
+angry. "Leave the room, Gumbo! Confound you! why are you always poking
+your woolly head in at that door!"
+
+"Some one below wants to see master with a little bill," says Mr. Gumbo.
+
+"Tell him to go to Jericho!" roars out Mr. Warrington. "Let me see
+nobody! I am not at home, sir, at this hour of the morning!"
+
+A murmur or two, a scuffle is heard on the landing-place, and silence
+finally ensues. Mr. Warrington's scorn and anger are not diminished by
+this altercation. He turns round savagely upon unhappy Sampson, who sits
+with his head buried in his breast.
+
+"Hadn't you better take a bumper of brandy to keep your spirits up, Mr.
+Sampson?" he asks. "Hang it, man! don't be snivelling like a woman!"
+
+"Oh, it's not me!" says Sampson, tossing his head. "I am used to it,
+sir."
+
+"Not you! Who, then? Are you crying because somebody else is hurt,
+pray?" asks Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Yes, sir!" says the chaplain, with some spirit; "because somebody else
+is hurt, and through my fault. I have lodged for many years in London
+with a bootmaker, a very honest man: and, a few days since, having a
+perfect reliance upon--upon a friend who had promised to accommodate me
+with a loan--I borrowed sixty pounds from my landlord which he was about
+to pay to his own. I can't get the money. My poor landlord's goods will
+be seized for rent; his wife and dear young children will be turned into
+the street; and this honest family will be ruined through my fault. But,
+as you say, Mr. Warrington, I ought not to snivel like a woman. I will
+remember that you helped me once, and will bid you farewell, sir."
+
+And, taking his broad-leafed hat, Mr. Chaplain walked out of the room.
+
+An execration and a savage laugh, I am sorry to say, burst out of
+Harry's lips at this sudden movement of the chaplain's. He was in such
+a passion with himself, with circumstances, with all people round about
+him, that he scarce knew where to turn, or what he said. Sampson heard
+the savage laughter, and then the voice of Harry calling from the
+stairs, "Sampson, Sampson! hang you! come back! It's a mistake! I beg
+your pardon!" But the chaplain was cut to the soul, and walked on. Harry
+heard the door of the street as the parson slammed it. It thumped on his
+own breast. He entered his room, and sank back on his luxurious chair
+there. He was Prodigal, amongst the swine--his foul remorses; they had
+tripped him up, and were wallowing over him. Gambling, extravagance,
+debauchery, dissolute life, reckless companions, dangerous women--they
+were all upon him in a herd, and were trampling upon the prostrate young
+sinner.
+
+Prodigal was not, however, yet utterly overcome, and had some fight left
+in him. Dashing the filthy importunate brutes aside, and, as it were,
+kicking his ugly remembrances away from him, Mr. Warrington seized
+a great glass of that fire-water which he had recommended to poor
+humiliated Parson Sampson, and, flinging off his fine damask robe, rang
+for the trembling Gumbo, and ordered his coat. "Not that!" roars he, as
+Gumbo brings him a fine green coat with plated buttons and a gold cord.
+"A plain suit--the plainer the better! The black clothes." And Gumbo
+brings the mourning-coat which his master had discarded for some months
+past.
+
+Mr. Harry then takes:--1, his fine new gold watch; 2, his repeater (that
+which he had bought for Hetty), which he puts into his other fob; 3,
+his necklace, which he had purchased for Theo; 4, his rings, of which
+my gentleman must have half a dozen at least (with the exception of
+his grandfather's old seal ring, which he kisses and lays down on the
+pincushion again); 5, his three gold snuff boxes: and 6, his purse,
+knitted by his mother, and containing three shillings and sixpence and a
+pocket-piece brought from Virginia: and, putting on his hat, issues from
+his door.
+
+At the landing he is met by Mr. Ruff, his landlord, who bows and cringes
+and puts into his honour's hand a strip of paper a yard long. "Much
+obliged if Mr. Warrington will settle. Mrs. Ruff has a large account
+to make up to-day." Mrs. Ruff is a milliner. Mr. Ruff is one of the
+head-waiters and aides-de-camp of Mr. Mackreth, the proprietor of
+White's Club. The sight of the landlord does not add to the lodger's
+good-humour.
+
+"Perhaps his honour will have the kindness to settle the little
+account?" asks Mr. Ruff.
+
+"Of course I will settle the account," says Harry, glumly looking down
+over Mr. Ruffs head from the stair above him.
+
+"Perhaps Mr. Warrington will settle it now?"
+
+"No, Sir, I will not settle it now!" says Mr. Warrington, bullying
+forward.
+
+"I'm very--very much in want of money, sir," pleads the voice under him.
+"Mrs. Ruff is----"
+
+"Hang you, sir, get out of the way!" cries Mr. Warrington, ferociously,
+and driving Mr. Ruff backward to the wall, sending him almost
+topsy-turvy down his own landing, he tramps down the stair, and walks
+forth into Bond Street.
+
+The Guards were at exercise at the King's Mews at Charing Cross, as
+Harry passed, and he heard their drums and fifes, and looked in at the
+gate, and saw them at drill. "I can shoulder a musket at any rate,"
+thought he to himself gloomily, as he strode on. He crossed St. Martin's
+Lane (where he transacted some business), and so made his way into Long
+Acre, and to the bootmaker's house where friend Sampson lodged. The
+woman of the house said Mr. Sampson was not at home, but had promised to
+be at home at one; and, as she knew Mr. Warrington, showed him up to the
+parson's apartments, where he sate down, and, for want of occupation,
+tried to read an unfinished sermon of the chaplain's. The subject was
+the Prodigal Son. Mr. Harry did not take very accurate cognisance of the
+sermon.
+
+Presently he heard the landlady's shrill voice on the stair, pursuing
+somebody who ascended, and Sampson rushed into the room, followed by the
+sobbing woman.
+
+At seeing Harry, Sampson started, and the landlady stopped. Absorbed
+in her own domestic cares, she had doubtless forgot that a visitor was
+awaiting her lodger. "There's only thirteen pound in the house, and he
+will be here at one, I tell you!" she was bawling out, as she pursued
+her victim.
+
+"Hush, hush! my good creature!" cries the gasping chaplain, pointing
+to Harry, who rose from the window-seat. "Don't you see Mr. Warrington?
+I've business with him--most important business. It will be all right, I
+tell you!" And he soothed and coaxed Mrs. Landlady out of the room, with
+the crowd of anxious little ones hanging at her coats.
+
+"Sampson, I have come to ask your pardon again," says Mr. Warrington,
+rising up. "What I said to-day to you was very cruel and unjust, and
+unlike a gentleman."
+
+"Not a word more, sir," says the other, coldly and sadly, bowing and
+scarcely pressing the hand which Harry offered him.
+
+"I see you are still angry with me," Harry continues.
+
+"Nay, sir, an apology is an apology. A man of my station can ask for no
+more from one of yours. No doubt you did not mean to give me pain. And
+what if you did? And you are not the only one of the family who has," he
+said, as he looked piteously round the room. "I wish I had never known
+the name of Esmond or Castlewood," he continues, "or that place yonder
+of which the picture hangs over my fireplace, and where I have buried
+myself these long, long years. My lord, your cousin, took a fancy to me,
+said he would make my fortune, has kept me as his dependant till fortune
+has passed by me, and now refuses me my due."
+
+"How do you mean your due, Mr. Sampson?" asks Harry.
+
+"I mean three years' salary which he owes me as chaplain of Castlewood.
+Seeing you could give me no money, I went to his lordship this morning
+and asked him. I fell on my knees, and asked him, sir. But his lordship
+had none. He gave me civil words, at least (saving your presence, Mr.
+Warrington), but no money--that is, five guineas, which he declared was
+all he had and which I took. But what are five guineas amongst so many
+Oh, those poor little children! those poor little children!"
+
+"Lord Castlewood said he had no money?" cries out Harry. "He won eleven
+hundred pounds, yesterday, of me at piquet--which I paid him out of this
+pocket-book."
+
+"I dare say, sir, I dare say, sir. One can't believe a word his lordship
+says, sir," says Mr. Sampson; "but I am thinking of execution in this
+house, and ruin upon these poor folks to-morrow."
+
+"That need not happen," says Mr. Warrington. "Here are eighty guineas,
+Sampson. As far as they go, God help you! 'Tis all I have to give you.
+I wish to my heart I could give more as I promised; but you did not come
+at the right time, and I am a poor devil now until I get my remittances
+from Virginia."
+
+The chaplain gave a wild look of surprise, and turned quite white. He
+flung himself down on his knees and seized Harry's hand.
+
+"Great powers, sir!" says he, "are you a guardian angel that Heaven hath
+sent me? You quarrelled with my tears this morning, Mr. Warrington. I
+can't help them now. They burst, sir, from a grateful heart. A rock of
+stone would pour them forth, sir, before such goodness as yours! May
+Heaven eternally bless you, and give you prosperity! May my unworthy
+prayers be heard in your behalf, my friend, my best benefactor! May----"
+
+"Nay, nay! get up, friend--get up, Sampson!" says Harry, whom the
+chaplain's adulation and fine phrases rather annoyed.
+
+"I am glad to have been able to do you a service--sincerely glad.
+There--there! Don't be on your knees to me!"
+
+"To Heaven who sent you to me, sir!" cries the chaplain. Mrs. Weston!
+Mrs. Weston!"
+
+"What is it, sir?" says the landlady, instantly, who, indeed, had been
+at the door the whole time. "We are saved, Mrs. Weston! We are saved!"
+cries the chaplain. "Kneel, kneel, woman, and thank our benefactor!
+Raise your innocent voices, children, and bless him!" A universal
+whimper arose round Harry, which the chaplain led off, whilst the
+young Virginian stood, simpering and well pleased, in the midst of this
+congregation. They would worship, do what he might. One of the children,
+not understanding the kneeling order, and standing up, the mother
+fetched her a slap on the ear, crying, "Drat it, Jane, kneel down, and
+bless the gentleman, I tell 'ee!"... We leave them performing this sweet
+benedictory service. Mr. Harry walks off from Long Acre, forgetting
+almost the griefs of the former four or five days, and tingling with the
+consciousness of having done a good action.
+
+
+The young woman with whom Gumbo had been conversing on that evening
+when Harry drove up from White's to his lodging, was Mrs. Molly, from
+Oakhurst, the attendant of the ladies there. Wherever that fascinating
+Gumbo went, he left friends and admirers in the servants'-hall. I think
+we said it was on a Wednesday evening he and Mrs. Molly had fetched a
+walk together, and they were performing the amiable courtesies incident
+upon parting, when Gumbo's master came up, and put an end to their
+twilight whisperings and what not.
+
+For many hours on Wednesday, on Thursday, on Friday, a pale little
+maiden sate at a window in Lord Wrotham's house, in Hill Street, her
+mother and sister wistfully watching her. She would not go out. They
+knew whom she was expecting. He passed the door once, and she might
+have thought he was coming, but he did not. He went into a neighbouring
+house. Papa had never told the girls of the presents which Harry had
+sent, and only whispered a word or two to their mother regarding his
+quarrel with the young Virginian.
+
+On Saturday night there was an opera of Mr. Handel's, and papa brought
+home tickets for the gallery. Hetty went this evening. The change would
+do her good, Theo thought, and--and, perhaps there might be Somebody
+amongst the fine company; but Somebody was not there; and Mr. Handel's
+fine music fell blank upon the poor child. It might have been Signor
+Bononcini's, and she would have scarce known the difference.
+
+As the children are undressing and taking off those smart new satin
+sacks in which they appeared at the Opera, looking so fresh and so
+pretty amongst all the tawdry rouged folks, Theo remarks how very sad
+and woebegone Mrs. Molly their maid appears. Theo is always anxious when
+other people seem in trouble; not so Hetty, now, who is suffering, poor
+thing, one of the most selfish maladies which ever visits mortals. Have
+you ever been amongst insane people, and remarked how they never, never
+think of any but themselves?
+
+"What is the matter, Molly?" asks kind Theo: and indeed, Molly has been
+longing to tell her young ladies. "Oh, Miss Theo! Oh, Miss Hetty!"
+she says. "How ever can I tell you? Mr. Gumbo have been here, Mr.
+Warrington's coloured gentleman, miss; and he says Mr. Warrington have
+been took by two bailiffs this evening, as he comes out of Sir Miles
+Warrington's house three doors off."
+
+"Silence!" cries Theo, quite sternly. Who is it that gives those three
+shrieks? It is Mrs. Molly, who chooses to scream, because Miss Hetty has
+fallen fainting from her chair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV. In which Harry finds two Uncles
+
+
+We have all of us, no doubt, had a fine experience of the world, and a
+vast variety of characters have passed under our eyes; but there is one
+sort of men not an uncommon object of satire in novels and plays--of
+whom I confess to have met with scarce any specimens at all in my
+intercourse with this sinful mankind. I mean, mere religious hypocrites,
+preaching for ever, and not believing a word of their own sermons;
+infidels in broad brims and sables, expounding, exhorting, comminating,
+blessing, without any faith in their own paradise, or fear about their
+pandemonium. Look at those candid troops of hobnails clumping to church
+on a Sunday evening; those rustling maid-servants in their ribbons whom
+the young apprentices follow; those little regiments of schoolboys;
+those trim young maidens and staid matrons, marching with their
+glistening prayer-books, as the chapel bell chinks yonder (passing
+Ebenezer, very likely, where the congregation of umbrellas, great
+bonnets, and pattens, is by this time assembled under the flaring
+gas-lamps). Look at those! How many of them are hypocrites, think you?
+Very likely the maid-servant is thinking of her sweetheart: the grocer
+is casting about how he can buy that parcel of sugar, and whether the
+County Bank will take any more of his paper: the head-schoolboy is
+conning Latin verses for Monday's exercise: the young scapegrace
+remembers that after his service and sermon, there will be papa's
+exposition at home, but that there will be pie for supper: the clerk who
+calls out the psalm has his daughter in trouble, and drones through his
+responses scarcely aware of their meaning: the very moment the parson
+hides his face on his cushion, he may be thinking of that bill which is
+coming due on Monday. These people are not heavenly-minded; they are of
+the world, worldly, and have not yet got their feet off of it; but they
+are not hypocrites, look you. Folks have their religion in some handy
+mental lock-up, as it were--a valuable medicine, to be taken in
+ill health; and a man administers his nostrum to his neighbour, and
+recommends his private cure for the other's complaint. "My dear madam,
+you have spasms? You will find these drops infallible!" "You have been
+taking too much wine, my good sir? By this pill you may defy any evil
+consequences from too much wine, and take your bottle of port daily." Of
+spiritual and bodily physic, who are more fond and eager dispensers than
+women? And we know that, especially a hundred years ago, every lady
+in the country had her still-room, and her medicine chest, her pills,
+powders, potions, for all the village round.
+
+My Lady Warrington took charge of the consciences and the digestions of
+her husband's tenants and family. She had the faith and health of the
+servants'-hall in keeping. Heaven can tell whether she knew how to
+doctor them rightly: but, was it pill or doctrine, she administered one
+or the other with equal belief in her own authority, and her disciples
+swallowed both obediently. She believed herself to be one of the most
+virtuous, self-denying, wise, learned women in the world; and, dinning
+this opinion perpetually into the ears of all round about her, succeeded
+in bringing not few persons to join in her persuasion.
+
+At Sir Miles's dinner there was so fine a sideboard of plate, and such
+a number of men in livery, that it required some presenter: of mind
+to perceive that the beer was of the smallest which the butler brought
+round in the splendid tankard, and that there was but one joint of
+mutton on the grand silver dish. When Sir Miles called the King's
+health, and smacked his jolly lips over his wine, he eyed it and the
+company as if the liquor was ambrosia. He asked Harry Warrington whether
+they had port like that in Virginia? He said that was nothing to the
+wine Harry should taste in Norfolk. He praised the wine so, that Harry
+almost believed that it was good, and winked into his own glass, trying
+to see some of the merits which his uncle perceived in the ruby nectar.
+
+Just as we see in many a well-regulated family of this present century,
+the Warringtons had their two paragons. Of the two grown daughters, the
+one was the greatest beauty, the other the greatest genius and angel of
+any young lady then alive, as Lady Warrington told Harry. The eldest,
+the Beauty, was engaged to dear Tom Claypool, the fond mother informed
+her cousin Harry in confidence. But the second daughter, the Genius and
+Angel, was for ever set upon our young friend to improve his wits and
+morals. She sang to him at the harpsichord--rather out of tune for
+an angel, Harry thought; she was ready with advice, instruction,
+conversation--with almost too much instruction and advice, thought
+Harry, who would have far preferred the society of the little cousin
+who reminded him of Fanny Mountain at home. But the last-mentioned young
+maiden after dinner retired to her nursery commonly. Beauty went off
+on her own avocations; mamma had to attend to her poor or write her
+voluminous letters; papa dozed in his arm-chair; and the Genius remained
+to keep her young cousin company.
+
+The calm of the house somehow pleased the young man, and he liked
+to take refuge there away from the riot and dissipation in which he
+ordinarily lived. Certainly no welcome could be kinder than that which
+he got. The doors were opened to him at all hours. If Flora was not at
+home, Dora was ready to receive him. Ere many days' acquaintance, he and
+his little cousin Miles had been to have a galloping-match in the Park,
+and Harry, who was kind and generous to every man alive who came near
+him, had in view the purchase of a little horse for his cousin, far
+better than that which the boy rode, when the circumstances occurred
+which brought all our poor Harry's coaches and horses to a sudden
+breakdown.
+
+Though Sir Miles Warrington had imagined Virginia to be an island, the
+ladies were much better instructed in geography, and anxious to hear
+from Harry all about his home and his native country. He, on his part,
+was not averse to talk about it. He described to them the length and
+breadth of his estate; the rivers which it coasted; the produce which
+it bore. He had had with a friend a little practice of surveying in
+his boyhood. He made a map of his county, with some fine towns here and
+there, which, in truth, were but log-huts (but, for the honour of his
+country, he was desirous that they should wear as handsome a look as
+possible). Here was Potomac; here was James river; here were the wharves
+whence his mother's ships and tobacco were brought to the sea. In truth,
+the estate was as large as a county. He did not brag about the place
+overmuch. To see the handsome young fellow, in a fine suit of velvet and
+silver lace, making his draught, pointing out this hill and that forest
+or town, you might have imagined him a travelling prince describing the
+realms of the queen his mother. He almost fancied himself to be so at
+times. He had miles where gentlemen in England had acres. Not only Dora
+listened but the beauteous Flora bowed her fair head and heard him with
+attention. Why, what was young Tom Claypool, their brother baronet's son
+in Norfolk with his great boots, his great voice, and his heirdom to
+a poor five thousand acres, compared to this young American prince and
+charming stranger? Angel as she was, Dora began to lose her angelic
+temper, and to twit Flora for a flirt. Claypool in his red waistcoat,
+would sit dumb before the splendid Harry in his ruffles and laces,
+talking of March and Chesterfield, Selwyn and Bolingbroke, and the whole
+company of macaronis. Mamma began to love Harry more and more as a son.
+She was anxious about the spiritual welfare of those poor Indians, of
+those poor negroes in Virginia. What could she do to help dear Madam
+Esmond (a precious woman, she knew!) in the good work? She had a serious
+butler and housekeeper: they were delighted with the spiritual behaviour
+and sweet musical gifts of Gumbo.
+
+"Ah! Harry, Harry! you have been a sad wild boy! Why did you not come
+sooner to us, sir, and not lose your time amongst the spendthrifts and
+the vain world? But 'tis not yet too late. We must reclaim thee, dear
+Harry! Mustn't we, Sir Miles? Mustn't we Dora? Mustn't we, Flora?"
+
+The three ladies all look up to the ceiling. They will reclaim the dear
+prodigal. It is which shall reclaim him most. Dora sits by and watches
+Flora. As for mamma when the girls are away, she talks to him more and
+more seriously, more and more tenderly. She will be a mother to him in
+the absence of his own admirable parent. She gives him a hymn-book.
+She kisses him on the forehead. She is actuated by the purest love,
+tenderness, religious regard, towards her dear, wayward, wild, amiable
+nephew.
+
+Whilst these sentimentalities were going on, it is to be presumed that
+Mr. Warrington kept his own counsel about his affairs out-of-doors,
+which we have seen were in the very worst condition. He who had been
+favoured by fortune for so many weeks was suddenly deserted by her, and
+a few days had served to kick down all his heap of winnings. Do we say
+that my Lord Castlewood, his own kinsman, had dealt unfairly by the
+young Virginian, and in the course of a couple of afternoons' closet
+practice had robbed him? We would insinuate nothing so disrespectful to
+his lordship's character; but he had won from Harry every shilling which
+properly belonged to him, and would have played him for his reversions,
+but that the young man flung up his hands when he saw himself so
+far beaten, and declared that he must continue the battle no more.
+Remembering that there still remained a spar out of the wreck, as
+it were--that portion which he had set aside for poor Sampson--Harry
+ventured it at the gaming-table; but that last resource went down along
+with the rest of Harry's possessions, and Fortune fluttered off in the
+storm, leaving the luckless adventurer almost naked on the shore.
+
+When a man is young and generous and hearty the loss of money scarce
+afflicts him. Harry would sell his horses and carriages, and diminish
+his train of life. If he wanted immediate supplies of money, would not
+his Aunt Bernstein be his banker, or his kinsman who had won so much
+from him, or his kind Uncle Warrington and Lady Warrington who were
+always talking virtue and benevolence, and declaring that they loved
+him as a son? He would call upon these, or any one of them whom he might
+choose to favour, at his leisure; meanwhile, Sampson's story of his
+landlord's distress touched the young gentleman, and, in order to raise
+a hasty supply for the clergyman, he carried off all his trinkets to a
+certain pawnbroker's shop in St. Martin's Lane.
+
+Now this broker was a relative or partner of that very Mr. Sparks
+of Tavistock Street, from whom Harry had purchased--purchased did we
+say?--no; taken the trinkets which he had intended to present to his
+Oakhurst friends; and it chanced that Mr. Sparks came to visit his
+brother-tradesman very soon after Mr. Warrington had disposed of his
+goods. Recognising immediately the little enamelled diamond-handled
+repeater which he had sold to the Fortunate Youth, the jeweller broke
+out into expressions regarding Harry which I will not mention here,
+being already accused of speaking much too plainly. A gentleman who
+is acquainted with a pawnbroker, we may be sure has a bailiff or two
+amongst his acquaintances; and those bailiffs have followers who, at the
+bidding of the impartial Law, will touch with equal hand the fiercest
+captain's epaulet or the finest macaroni's shoulder. The very gentlemen
+who had seized upon Lady Maria at Tunbridge were set upon her cousin in
+London. They easily learned from the garrulous Gumbo that his honour was
+at Sir Miles Warrington's house in Hill Street, and whilst the black was
+courting Mrs. Lambert's maid at the adjoining mansion, Mr. Costigan and
+his assistant lay in wait for poor Harry, who was enjoying the delights
+of intercourse with a virtuous family circle assembled round his
+aunt's table. Never had Uncle Miles been more cordial, never had Aunt
+Warrington been more gracious, gentle, and affectionate; Flora looked
+unusually lovely, Dora had been more than ordinarily amiable. At
+parting, my lady gave him both her hands, and called benedictions from
+the ceiling down upon him. Papa had said in his most jovial manner,
+"Hang it, nephew! when I was thy age I should have kissed two such fine
+girls as Do and Flo ere this, and my own flesh and blood too! Don't tell
+me! I should, my Lady Warrington! Odds-fish! 'tis the boy blushes, and
+not the girls! I think--I suppose they are used to it. He, he!"
+
+"Papa!" cry the virgins.
+
+"Sir Miles!" says the august mother at the same instant.
+
+"There, there!" says papa. "A kiss won't do no harm, and won't tell no
+tales: will it, nephew Harry?" I suppose, during the utterance of the
+above three brief phrases, the harmless little osculatory operation has
+taken place, and blushing cousin Harry has touched the damask cheek of
+cousin Flora and cousin Dora.
+
+As he goes downstairs with his uncle, mamma makes a speech to the
+girls, looking, as usual, up to the ceiling, and saying, "What precious
+qualities your poor dear cousin has! What shrewdness mingled with his
+simplicity, and what a fine genteel manner, though upon mere worldly
+elegance I set little store. What a dreadful pity to think that such a
+vessel should ever be lost! We must rescue him, my loves. We must
+take him away from those wicked companions, and those horrible
+Castlewoods--not that I would speak ill of my neighbours. But I shall
+hope, I shall pray, that he may be rescued from his evil courses!" And
+again Lady Warrington eyes the cornice in a most determined manner, as
+the girls wistfully look towards the door behind which their interesting
+cousin has just vanished.
+
+His uncle will go downstairs with him. He calls "God bless you, my boy!"
+most affectionately: he presses Harry's hand, and repeats his valuable
+benediction at the door. As it closes, the light from the hall within
+having sufficiently illuminated Mr. Warrington's face and figure, two
+gentlemen, who have been standing on the opposite side of the way,
+advance rapidly, and one of them takes a strip of paper out of his
+pocket, and putting his hand upon Mr. Warrington's shoulder, declares
+him his prisoner. A hackney-coach is in attendance, and poor Harry goes
+to sleep in Chancery Lane.
+
+Oh, to think that a Virginian prince's back should be slapped by a
+ragged bailiffs follower!--that Madam Esmond's son should be in a
+spunging-house in Cursitor Street! I do not envy our young prodigal his
+rest on that dismal night. Let us hit him now he is down, my beloved
+young friends. Let us imagine the stings of remorse keeping him wakeful
+on his dingy pillow; the horrid jollifications of other hardened inmates
+of the place ringing in his ears from the room hard by, where they sit
+boozing; the rage and shame and discomfiture. No pity on him, I say,
+my honest young gentlemen, for you, of course, have never indulged in
+extravagance or folly, or paid the reckoning of remorse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI. Chains and Slavery
+
+
+Remorse for past misdeeds and follies Harry sincerely felt, when he
+found himself a prisoner in that dismal lock-up house, and wrath and
+annoyance at the idea of being subjected to the indignity of arrest; but
+the present unpleasantry he felt sure could only be momentary. He had
+twenty friends who would release him from his confinement: to which of
+them should he apply, was the question. Mr. Draper, the man of business,
+who had been so obsequious to him: his kind uncle the Baronet, who had
+offered to make his house Harry's home, who loved him as a son: his
+cousin Castlewood, who had won such large sums from him: his noble
+friends at the Chocolate-House, his good Aunt Bernstein--any one of
+these Harry felt sure would give him a help in his trouble, though some
+of the relatives, perhaps, might administer to him a little scolding for
+his imprudence. The main point was, that the matter should be transacted
+quietly, for Mr. Warrington was anxious that as few as possible of the
+public should know how a gentleman of his prodigious importance had been
+subject to such a vulgar process as an arrest. As if the public does
+not end by knowing everything it cares to know. As if the dinner I shall
+have to-day, and the hole in the stocking which I wear at this present
+writing, can be kept a secret from some enemy or other who has a mind
+to pry it out--though my boots are on, and my door was locked when I
+dressed myself! I mention that hole in the stocking for sake of example
+merely. The world can pry out everything about us which it has a mind to
+know. But then there is this consolation, which men will never accept
+in their own cases, that the world doesn't care. Consider the amount of
+scandal it has been forced to hear in its time, and how weary and blase
+it must be of that kind of intelligence. You are taken to prison,
+and fancy yourself indelibly disgraced? You are bankrupt under odd
+circumstances? You drive a queer bargain with your friends and are found
+out, and imagine the world will punish you? Psha! Your shame is only
+vanity. Go and talk to the world as if nothing had happened, and nothing
+has happened. Tumble down; brush the mud off your clothes; appear with
+a smiling countenance, and nobody cares. Do you suppose Society is going
+to take out its pocket-handkerchief and be inconsolable when you die?
+Why should it care very much, then, whether your worship graces yourself
+or disgraces yourself? Whatever happens it talks, meets, jokes, yawns,
+has its dinner, pretty much as before. Therefore don't be so conceited
+about yourself as to fancy your private affairs of so much importance,
+mi fili. Whereas Mr. Harry Warrington chafed and fumed as though all the
+world was tingling with the touch of that hand which had been laid on
+his sublime shoulder.
+
+"A pretty sensation my arrest must have created at the club!" thought
+Harry. "I suppose that Mr. Selwyn will be cutting all sorts of jokes
+about my misfortune, plague take him! Everybody round the table will
+have heard of it. March will tremble about the bet I have with him;
+and, faith, 'twill be difficult to pay him when I lose. They will all
+be setting up a whoop of congratulation at the Savage, as they call me,
+being taken prisoner. How shall I ever be able to appear in the world
+again? Whom shall I ask to come to my help? No," thought he, with his
+mingled acuteness and simplicity, "I will not send in the first instance
+to any of my relations or my noble friends at White's. I will have
+Sampson's counsel. He has often been in a similar predicament, and
+will know how to advise me." Accordingly, as soon as the light of dawn
+appeared, after an almost intolerable delay--for it seemed to Harry as
+if the sun had forgotten to visit Cursitor Street in his rounds that
+morning--and as soon as the inmates of the house of bondage were
+stirring, Mr. Warrington despatched a messenger to his friend in Long
+Acre, acquainting the chaplain with the calamity just befallen him,
+and beseeching his reverence to give him the benefit of his advice and
+consolation.
+
+Mr. Warrington did not know, to be sure, that to send such a message to
+the parson was as if he said, "I am fallen amongst the lions. Come
+down, my dear friend, into the pit with me." Harry very likely thought
+Sampson's difficulties were over; or, more likely still, was so much
+engrossed with his own affairs and perplexities, as to bestow little
+thought upon his neighbour's. Having sent off his missive, the captive's
+mind was somewhat more at ease, and he condescended to call for
+breakfast, which was brought to him presently. The attendant who served
+him with his morning repast asked him whether he would order dinner, or
+take his meal at Mrs. Bailiff's table with some other gentlemen? No.
+Mr. Warrington would not order dinner. He should quit the place before
+dinner-time, he informed the chamberlain who waited on him in that grim
+tavern. The man went away, thinking no doubt that this was not the first
+young gentleman who had announced that he was going away ere two hours
+were over. "Well, if your honour does stay, there is good beef and
+carrot at two o'clock," says the sceptic, and closes the door on Mr.
+Harry and his solitary meditations.
+
+Harry's messenger to Mr. Sampson brought back a message from that
+gentleman to say that he would be with his patron as soon as might be:
+but ten o'clock came, eleven o'clock, noon, and no Sampson. No Sampson
+arrived, but about twelve Gumbo with a portmanteau of his master's
+clothes, who flung himself, roaring with grief, at Harry's feet: and
+with a thousand vows of fidelity, expressed himself ready to die, to
+sell himself into slavery over again, to do anything to rescue his
+beloved Master Harry from this calamitous position. Harry was touched
+with the lad's expressions of affection, and told him to get up from
+the ground where he was grovelling on his knees, embracing his master's.
+"All you have to do, sir, is to give me my clothes to dress, and to hold
+your tongue about this business. Mind you, not a word, sir, about it to
+anybody!" says Mr. Warrington, severely.
+
+"Oh no, sir, never to nobody!" says Gumbo, looking most solemnly, and
+proceeded to dress his master carefully, who had need of a change and a
+toilette after his yesterday's sudden capture, and night's dismal rest.
+Accordingly Gumbo flung a dash of powder in Harry's hair, and arrayed
+his master carefully and elegantly, so that he made Mr. Warrington look
+as fine and splendid as if he had been stepping into his chair to go to
+St. James's.
+
+Indeed all that love and servility could do Mr. Gumbo faithfully did for
+his master, for whom he had an extreme regard and attachment. But there
+were certain things beyond Gumbo's power. He could not undo things which
+were done already; and he could not help lying and excusing himself when
+pressed upon points disagreeable to himself. The language of slaves is
+lies (I mean black slaves and white). The creature slinks away and hides
+with subterfuges, as a hunted animal runs to his covert at the sight
+of man, the tyrant and pursuer. Strange relics of feudality, and
+consequence of our ever-so-old social life! Our domestics (are they not
+men, too, and brethren?) are all hypocrites before us. They never speak
+naturally to us, or the whole truth. We should be indignant: we should
+say, confound their impudence: we should turn them out of doors if they
+did. But quo me rapis, O my unbridled hobby?
+
+Well, the truth is, that as for swearing not to say a word about his
+master's arrest--such an oath as that was impossible to keep for, with
+a heart full of grief, indeed, but with a tongue that never could cease
+wagging, bragging, joking, and lying, Mr. Gumbo had announced the
+woeful circumstance to a prodigious number of his acquaintances already,
+chiefly gentlemen of the shoulder-knot and worsted lace. We have
+seen how he carried the news to Colonel Lambert's and Lord Wrotham's
+servants: he had proclaimed it at the footman's club to which he
+belonged, and which was frequented by the gentlemen of some of the first
+nobility. He had subsequently condescended to partake of a mug of ale
+in Sir Miles Warrington's butler's room, and there had repeated and
+embellished the story. Then he had gone off to Madame Bernstein's
+people, with some of whom he was on terms of affectionate intercourse,
+and had informed that domestic circle of his grief and, his master being
+captured, and there being no earthly call for his personal services that
+evening, Gumbo had stepped up to Lord Castlewood's, and informed the
+gentry there of the incident which had just come to pass. So when,
+laying his hand on his heart, and with gushing floods of tears, Gumbo
+says, in reply to his master's injunction, "Oh no, master! nebber to
+nobody!" we are in a condition to judge of the degree of credibility
+which ought to be given to the lad's statement.
+
+The black had long completed his master's toilet: the dreary breakfast
+was over: slow as the hours went to the prisoner, still they were
+passing one after another, but no Sampson came in accordance with the
+promise sent in the morning. At length, some time after noon, there
+arrived, not Sampson, but a billet from him, sealed with a moist wafer,
+and with the ink almost yet wet. The unlucky divine's letter ran as
+follows:
+
+
+"Oh, sir, dear sir, I have done all that a man can at the command and
+in the behalf of his patron! You did not know, sir, to what you were
+subjecting me, did you? Else, if I was to go to prison, why did I not
+share yours, and why am I in a lock-up house three doors off?
+
+"Yes. Such is the fact. As I was hastening to you, knowing full well the
+danger to which I was subject:--but what danger will I not affront at
+the call of such a benefactor as Mr. Warrington hath been to me?--I was
+seized by two villains who had a writ against me, and who have lodged me
+at Naboth's, hard by, and so close to your honour, that we could almost
+hear each other across the garden walls of the respective houses where
+we are confined.
+
+"I had much and of importance to say, which I do not care to write down
+on paper regarding your affairs. May they mend! May my cursed fortunes,
+too, better themselves, is the prayer of--
+
+"Your honour's afflicted Chaplain-in-Ordinary, J. S."
+
+
+And now, as Mr. Sampson refuses to speak, it will be our duty to
+acquaint the reader with those matters whereof the poor chaplain did not
+care to discourse on paper.
+
+Gumbo's loquacity had not reached so far as Long Acre, and Mr. Sampson
+was ignorant of the extent of his patron's calamity until he received
+Harry's letter and messenger from Chancery Lane. The divine was still
+ardent with gratitude for the service Mr. Warrington had just conferred
+on him, and eager to find some means to succour his distressed patron.
+He knew what a large sum Lord Castlewood had won from his cousin, had
+dined in company with his lordship on the day before, and now ran to
+Lord Castlewood's house, with a hope of arousing him to some pity for
+Mr. Warrington. Sampson made a very eloquent and touching speech to
+Lord Castlewood about his kinsman's misfortune, and spoke with a real
+kindness and sympathy, which, however, failed to touch the nobleman to
+whom he addressed himself.
+
+My lord peevishly and curtly put a stop to the chaplain's passionate
+pleading. "Did I not tell you, two days since, when you came for money,
+that I was as poor as a beggar, Sampson," said his lordship, "and has
+anybody left me a fortune since? The little sum I won from my cousin was
+swallowed up by others. I not only can't help Mr. Warrington, but, as I
+pledge you my word, not being in the least aware of his calamity, I had
+positively written to him this morning to ask him to help me." And
+a letter to this effect did actually reach Mr. Warrington from his
+lodgings, whither it had been despatched by the penny post.
+
+"I must get him money, my lord. I know he had scarcely anything left in
+his pocket after relieving me. Were I to pawn my cassock and bands, he
+must have money," cried the chaplain.
+
+"Amen. Go and pawn your bands, your cassock, anything you please. Your
+enthusiasm does you credit," said my lord; and resumed the reading of
+his paper, whilst, in the deepest despondency, poor Sampson left him.
+
+My Lady Maria meanwhile had heard that the chaplain was with her
+brother, and conjectured what might be the subject on which they had
+been talking. She seized upon the parson as he issued from out his
+fruitless interview with my lord. She drew him into the dining-room: the
+strongest marks of grief and sympathy were in her countenance. "Tell me,
+what is this has happened to Mr. Warrington?" she asked.
+
+"Your ladyship, then, knows?" asked the chaplain.
+
+"Have I not been in mortal anxiety ever since his servant brought the
+dreadful news last night?" asked my lady. "We had it as we came from the
+opera--from my Lady Yarmouth's box--my lord, my Lady Castlewood, and I."
+
+"His lordship, then, did know?" continued Sampson.
+
+"Benson told the news when we came from the playhouse to our tea,"
+repeats Lady Maria.
+
+The chaplain lost all patience and temper at such duplicity. "This
+is too bad," he said, with an oath; and he told Lady Maria of the
+conversation which he had just had with Lord Castlewood, and of the
+latter's refusal to succour his cousin, after winning great sums of
+money from him, and with much eloquence and feeling, of Mr. Warrington's
+most generous behaviour to himself.
+
+Then my Lady Maria broke out with a series of remarks regarding her own
+family, which were by no means complimentary to her own kith and kin.
+Although not accustomed to tell truth commonly, yet, when certain
+families fall out, it is wonderful what a number of truths they will
+tell about one another. With tears, imprecations, I do not like to
+think how much stronger language, Lady Maria burst into a furious and
+impassioned tirade, in which she touched upon the history of almost all
+her noble family. She complimented the men and the ladies alike; she
+shrieked out interrogatories to Heaven, inquiring why it had made such
+(never mind what names she called her brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts,
+parents); and, emboldened with wrath, she dashed at her brother's
+library door, so shrill in her outcries, so furious in her demeanour,
+that the alarmed chaplain, fearing the scene which might ensue, made for
+the street.
+
+My lord, looking up from the book or other occupation which engaged
+him, regarded the furious woman with some surprise, and selected a good
+strong oath to fling at her, as it were, and check her onset.
+
+But, when roused, we have seen how courageous Maria could be. Afraid
+as she was ordinarily of her brother, she was not in a mood to be
+frightened now by any language of abuse or sarcasm at his command.
+
+"So, my lord!" she called out, "you sit down with him in private to
+cards, and pigeon him! You get the poor boy's last shilling, and you
+won't give him a guinea out of his own winnings now he is penniless!"
+
+"So that infernal chaplain has been telling tales!" says my lord.
+
+"Dismiss him: do! Pay him his wages, and let him go,--he will be glad
+enough!" cries Maria.
+
+"I keep him to marry one of my sisters, in case he is wanted," says
+Castlewood, glaring at her.
+
+"What can the women be in a family where there are such men?" says the
+lady.
+
+"Effectivement!" says my lord, with a shrug of his shoulder.
+
+"What can we be, when our fathers and brothers are what they are? We are
+bad enough, but what are you? I say, you neither have courage--no, nor
+honour, nor common feeling. As your equals won't play with you, my
+Lord Castlewood, you must take this poor lad out of Virginia, your own
+kinsman, and pigeon him! Oh, it's a shame--a shame!"
+
+"We are all playing our own game, I suppose. Haven't you played and won
+one, Maria? Is it you that are squeamish of a sudden about the poor
+lad from Virginia? Has Mr. Harry cried off, or has your ladyship got
+a better offer?" cried my Lord. "If you won't have him, one of the
+Warrington girls will, I promise you; and the old Methodist woman in
+Hill Street will give him the choice of either. Are you a fool, Maria
+Esmond? A greater fool, I mean, than in common?"
+
+"I should be a fool if I thought that either of my brothers could act
+like an honest man, Eugene!" said Maria. "I am a fool to expect that you
+will be other than you are; that if you find any relative in distress
+you will help him; that if you can meet with a victim you won't fleece
+him."
+
+"Fleece him! Psha! What folly are you talking! Have you not seen, from
+the course which the lad has been running for months past, how he would
+end? If I had not won his money, some other would? I never grudged thee
+thy little plans regarding him. Why shouldst thou fly in a passion,
+because I have just put out my hand to take what he was offering to all
+the world? I reason with you, I don't know why, Maria. You should be old
+enough to understand reason, at any rate. You think this money belonged
+of right to Lady Maria Warrington and her children? I tell you that in
+three months more every shilling would have found its way to White's
+macco-table, and that it is much better spent in paying my debts. So
+much for your ladyship's anger, and tears, and menaces, and naughty
+language. See! I am a good brother, and repay them with reason and kind
+words."
+
+"My good brother might have given a little more than kind words to the
+lad from whom he has just taken hundreds," interposed the sister of this
+affectionate brother.
+
+"Great heavens, Maria! Don't you see that even out of this affair,
+unpleasant as it seems, a clever woman may make her advantage," cries my
+lord. Maria said she failed to comprehend.
+
+"As thus. I name no names; I meddle in no person's business, having
+quite enough to do to manage my own cursed affairs. But suppose I happen
+to know of a case in another family which may be applicable to ours. It
+is this. A green young lad of tolerable expectations, comes up from the
+country to his friends in town--never mind from what country: never
+mind to what town. An elderly female relative, who has been dragging her
+spinsterhood about these--how many years shall we say?--extort a promise
+of marriage from my young gentleman, never mind on what conditions."
+
+"My lord, do you want to insult your sister as well as to injure your
+cousin?" asks Maria.
+
+"My good child, did I say a single word about fleecing or cheating, or
+pigeoning, or did I fly into a passion when you insulted me? I know the
+allowance that must be made for your temper, and the natural folly of
+your sex. I say I treated you with soft words--I go on with my story.
+The elderly relative extracts a promise of marriage from the young lad,
+which my gentleman is quite unwilling to keep. No, he won't keep it.
+He is utterly tired of his elderly relative: he will plead his mother's
+refusal: he will do anything to get out of his promise."
+
+"Yes; if he was one of us Esmonds, my Lord Castlewood. But this is a
+man of honour we are speaking of," cried Maria, who, I suppose, admired
+truth in others, however little she saw it in her own family.
+
+"I do not contradict either of my dear sister's remarks. One of us
+would fling the promise to the winds, especially as it does not exist in
+writing."
+
+"My lord!" gasps out Maria.
+
+"Bah! I know all. That little coup of Tunbridge was played by the Aunt
+Bernstein with excellent skill. The old woman is the best man of our
+family. While you were arrested, your boxes were searched for the
+Mohock's letters to you. When you were let loose, the letters had
+disappeared, and you said nothing, like a wise woman, as you are
+sometimes. You still hanker after your Cherokee. Soit. A woman of your
+mature experience knows the value of a husband. What is this little loss
+of two or three hundred pounds?"
+
+"Not more than three hundred, my lord?" interposes Maria.
+
+"Eh! never mind a hundred or two, more or less. What is this loss at
+cards? A mere bagatelle! You are playing for a principality. You want
+your kingdom in Virginia; and if you listen to my opinion, the little
+misfortune which has happened to your swain is a piece of great
+good-fortune to you."
+
+"I don't understand you, my lord."
+
+"C'est possible; but sit down, and I will explain what I mean in a
+manner suited to your capacity." And so Maria Esmond, who had advanced
+to her brother like a raging lion, now sate down at his feet like a
+gentle lamb.
+
+
+Madame de Bernstein was not a little moved at the news of her nephew's
+arrest, which Mr. Gumbo brought to Clarges Street on the night of the
+calamity. She would have cross-examined the black, and had further
+particulars respecting Harry's mishap; but Mr. Gumbo, anxious to carry
+his intelligence to other quarters, had vanished when her ladyship sent
+for him. Her temper was not improved by the news, or by the sleepless
+night which she spent. I do not envy the dame de compagnie who played
+cards with her, or the servant who had to lie in her chamber. An arrest
+was an everyday occurrence, as she knew very well as a woman of the
+world. Into what difficulties had her scapegrace of a nephew fallen? How
+much money should she be called upon to pay to release him? And had
+he run through all his own? Provided he had not committed himself
+very deeply, she was quite disposed to aid him. She liked even his
+extravagances and follies. He was the only being in the world on whom,
+for long, long years, that weary woman had been able to bestow a little
+natural affection. So, on their different beds, she and Harry were lying
+wakeful together; and quite early in the morning the messengers which
+each sent forth on the same business may have crossed each other.
+
+Madame Bernstein's messenger was despatched to the chambers of her man
+of business, Mr. Draper, with an order that Mr. D. should ascertain for
+what sums Mr. Warrington had been arrested, and forthwith repair to the
+Baroness. Draper's emissaries speedily found out that Mr. Warrington was
+locked up close beside them, and the amount of detainers against him
+so far. Were there other creditors, as no doubt there were, they
+would certainly close upon him when they were made acquainted with his
+imprisonment.
+
+To Mr. Sparks, the jeweller, for those unlucky presents, so much; to the
+landlord in Bond Street, for board, fire, lodging, so much: these were
+at present the only claims against Mr. Warrington, Mr. Draper found. He
+was ready, at a signal from her ladyship, to settle them at a moment.
+The jeweller's account ought especially to be paid, for Mr. Harry had
+acted most imprudently in taking goods from Mr. Sparks on credit, and
+pledging them with a pawnbroker. He must have been under some immediate
+pressure for money; intended to redeem the goods immediately, meant
+nothing but what was honourable of course; but the affair would have an
+ugly look, if made public, and had better be settled out of hand. "There
+cannot be the least difficulty regarding a thousand pounds more or less,
+for a gentleman of Mr. Warrington's rank and expectations," said Madame
+de Bernstein. Not the least: her ladyship knew very well that there
+were funds belonging to Mr. Warrington, on which money could be at once
+raised with her ladyship's guarantee.
+
+Should he go that instant and settle the matter with Messrs. Amos? Mr.
+Harry might be back to dine with her at two, and to confound the people
+at the clubs, "who are no doubt rejoicing over his misfortunes," said
+the compassionate Mr. Draper.
+
+But the Baroness had other views. "I think, my good Mr. Draper," she
+said, "that my young gentleman has sown wild oats enough; and when he
+comes out of prison I should like him to come out clear, and without any
+liabilities at all. You are not aware of all his."
+
+"No gentleman ever does tell all his debts, madam," says Mr. Draper; "no
+one I ever had to deal with."
+
+"There is one which the silly boy has contracted, and from which he
+ought to be released, Mr. Draper. You remember a little circumstance
+which occurred at Tunbridge Wells in the autumn? About which I sent up
+my man Case to you?"
+
+"When your ladyship pleases to recall it, I remember it--not otherwise,"
+says Mr. Draper, with a bow. "A lawyer should be like a Popish
+confessor,--what is told him is a secret for ever, and for everybody."
+So we must not whisper Madame Bernstein's secret to Mr. Draper; but the
+reader may perhaps guess it from the lawyer's conduct subsequently.
+
+The lawyer felt pretty certain that ere long he would receive a summons
+from the poor young prisoner in Cursitor Street, and waited for that
+invitation before he visited Mr. Warrington. Six-and-thirty hours passed
+ere the invitation came, during which period Harry passed the dreariest
+two days which he ever remembered to have spent.
+
+There was no want of company in the lock-up house, the bailiff's rooms
+were nearly always full; but Harry preferred the dingy solitude of his
+own room to the society round his landlady's table, and it was only
+on the second day of his arrest, and when his purse was emptied by the
+heavy charges of the place, that he made up his mind to apply to
+Mr. Draper. He despatched a letter then to the lawyer at the Temple,
+informing him of his plight, and desiring him, in an emphatic
+postscript, not to say one word about the matter to his aunt, Madame de
+Bernstein.
+
+He had made up his mind not to apply to the old lady except at the
+very last extremity. She had treated him with so much kindness that he
+revolted from the notion of trespassing on her bounty, and for a while
+tried to please himself with the idea that he might get out of durance
+without her even knowing that any misfortune at all had befallen him.
+There seemed to him something humiliating in petitioning a woman for
+money. No! He would apply first to his male friends, all of whom might
+help him if they would. It had been his intention to send Sampson to one
+or other of them as a negotiator, had not the poor fellow been captured
+on his way to succour his friend.
+
+Sampson gone, Harry was obliged to have recourse to his own negro
+servant, who was kept on the trot all day between Temple Bar and the
+Court end of the town with letters from his unlucky master. Firstly,
+then, Harry sent off a most private and confidential letter to his
+kinsman, the Right Honourable the Earl of Castlewood, saying how he had
+been cast into prison, and begging Castlewood to lend him the amount
+of the debt. "Please to keep my application, and the cause of it, a
+profound secret from the dear ladies," wrote poor Harry.
+
+"Was ever anything so unfortunate?" wrote back Lord Castlewood, in
+reply. "I suppose you have not got my note of yesterday? It must be
+lying at your lodgings, where--I hope in heaven!--you will soon be, too.
+My dear Mr. Warrington, thinking you were as rich as Croesus--otherwise
+I never should have sate down to cards with you--I wrote to you
+yesterday, begging you to lend me some money to appease some hungry duns
+whom I don't know how else to pacify. My poor fellow! every shilling
+of your money went to them, and but for my peer's privilege I might be
+hob-and-nob with you now in your dungeon. May you soon escape from it,
+is the prayer of your sincere CASTLEWOOD."
+
+This was the result of application number one: and we may imagine that
+Mr. Harry read the reply to his petition with rather a blank face. Never
+mind! There was kind, jolly Uncle Warrington. Only last night his aunt
+had kissed him and loved him like a son. His uncle had called down
+blessings on his head, and professed quite a paternal regard for him.
+With a feeling of shyness and modesty in presence of those virtuous
+parents and family. Harry had never said a word about his wild doings,
+or his horse-racings, or his gamblings, or his extravagances. It must
+all out now. He must confess himself a Prodigal and a Sinner, and ask
+for their forgiveness and aid. So Prodigal sate down and composed a
+penitent letter to Uncle Warrington, and exposed his sad case, and
+besought him to come to the rescue. Was not that a bitter nut to crack
+for our haughty young Virginian? Hours of mortification and profound
+thought as to the pathos of the composition did Harry pass over that
+letter; sheet after sheet of Mr. Amos's sixpence-a-sheet letter-paper
+did he tear up before the missive was complete, with which poor
+blubbering Gumbo (much vilified by the bailiff's followers and
+parasites, whom he was robbing, as they conceived, of their perquisites)
+went his way.
+
+At evening the faithful negro brought back a thick letter in his aunt's
+handwriting. Harry opened the letter with a trembling hand. He thought
+it was full of bank-notes. Ah me! it contained a sermon (Daniel in the
+Lions' Den) by Mr. Whitfield, and a letter from Lady Warrington saying
+that, in Sir Miles's absence from London, she was in the habit of
+opening his letters, and hence, perforce, was become acquainted with a
+fact which she deplored from her inmost soul to learn, namely, that her
+nephew Warrington had been extravagant and was in debt. Of course, in
+the absence of Sir Miles, she could not hope to have at command such
+a sum as that for which Mr. Warrington wrote, but she sent him her
+heartfelt prayers, her deepest commiseration, and a discourse by dear
+Mr. Whitfield, which would comfort him in his present (alas! she feared
+not undeserved) calamity. She added profuse references to particular
+Scriptural chapters which would do him good. If she might speak of
+things worldly, she said, at such a moment, she would hint to Mr.
+Warrington that his epistolary orthography was anything but correct. She
+would not fail for her part to comply with his express desire that his
+dear cousins should know nothing of this most painful circumstance,
+and with every wish for his welfare here and elsewhere, she subscribed
+herself his loving aunt, MARGARET WARRINGTON.
+
+Poor Harry hid his face between his hands, and sate for a while with
+elbows on the greasy table blankly staring into the candle before him.
+The bailiff's servant, who was touched by his handsome face, suggested a
+mug of beer for his honour, but Harry could not drink, nor eat the meat
+that was placed before him. Gumbo, however, could, whose grief did not
+deprive him of appetite, and who, blubbering the while, finished all
+the beer, and all the bread and the meat. Meanwhile, Harry had finished
+another letter, with which Gumbo was commissioned to start again, and
+away the faithful creature ran upon his errand.
+
+Gumbo ran as far as White's Club, to which house he was ordered in the
+first instance to carry the letter, and where he found the person
+to whom it was addressed. Even the prisoner, for whom time passed so
+slowly, was surprised at the celerity with which his negro had performed
+his errand.
+
+At least the letter which Harry expected had not taken long to write.
+"My lord wrote it at the hall-porter's desk, while I stood there then
+with Mr Mr. Morris," said Gumbo, and the letter was to this effect:--
+
+
+"DEAR SIR--I am sorry I cannot comply with your wish, I'm short of
+money at present, having paid large sums to you as well as to other
+gentlemen.--Yours obediently, MARCH AND R.
+
+"Henry Warrington, Esq."
+
+
+"Did Lord March say anything?" asked Mr. Warrington looking very pale.
+
+"He say it was the coolest thing he ever knew. So did Mr. Morris. He
+showed him your letter, Master Harry. Yes, Mr. Morris say, 'Dam his
+imperence!'" added Gumbo.
+
+Harry burst into such a yell of laughter that his landlord thought he
+had good news, and ran in in alarm lest he was about to lose his tenant.
+But by this time poor Harry's laughter was over, and he was flung down
+in his chair gazing dismally in the fire.
+
+"I--I should like to smoke a pipe of Virginia" he groaned.
+
+Gumbo burst into tears: he flung himself at Harry's knees. He kissed his
+knees and his hands. "Oh, master, my dear master, what will they say at
+home?" he sobbed out.
+
+The jailor was touched at the sight of the black's grief and fidelity,
+and at Harry's pale face as he sank back in his chair quite overcome and
+beaten by his calamity.
+
+"Your honour ain't eat anything these two days," the man said, in a
+voice of rough pity. "Pluck up a little, sir. You aren't the first
+gentleman who has been in and out of grief before this. Let me go down
+and get you a glass of punch and a little supper."
+
+"My good friend," said Harry, a sickly smile playing over his white
+face, "you pay ready money for everything in this house, don't you? I
+must tell you that I haven't a shilling left to buy a dish of meat. All
+the money I have I want for letter-paper."
+
+"Oh, master, my master!" roared out Gumbo. "Look here, my dear Master
+Harry! Here's plenty of money--here's twenty-three five-guineas. Here's
+gold moidore from Virginia--here--no, not that--that's keepsakes the
+girls gave me. Take everything--everything. I go sell myself to-morrow
+morning; but here's plenty for to-night, master!"
+
+"God bless you, Gumbo!" Harry said, laying his hand on the lad's woolly
+head. "You are free if I am not, and Heaven forbid I should not take the
+offered help of such a friend as you. Bring me some supper: but the pipe
+too, mind--the pipe too!" And Harry ate his supper with a relish: and
+even the turnkeys and bailiff's followers, when Gumbo went out of the
+house that night, shook hands with him, and ever after treated him well.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII. Visitors in Trouble
+
+
+Mr. Gumbo's generous and feeling conduct soothed and softened the angry
+heart of his master, and Harry's second night in the spunging-house was
+passed more pleasantly than the first. Somebody at least there was to
+help and compassionate with him. Still, though softened in that one
+particular spot, Harry's heart was hard and proud towards almost all
+the rest of the world. They were selfish and ungenerous, he thought.
+His pious Aunt Warrington, his lordly friend March, his cynical cousin
+Castlewood,--all had been tried, and were found wanting. Not to avoid
+twenty years of prison would he stoop to ask a favour of one of them
+again. Fool that he had been, to believe in their promises, and confide
+in their friendship! There was no friendship in this cursed, cold,
+selfish country. He would leave it. He would trust no Englishman, great
+or small. He would go to Germany, and make a campaign with the king; or
+he would go home to Virginia, bury himself in the woods there, and
+hunt all day; become his mother's factor and land-steward; marry Polly
+Broadbent, or Fanny Mountain; turn regular tobacco-grower and farmer; do
+anything, rather than remain amongst these English fine gentlemen. So he
+arose with an outwardly cheerful countenance, but an angry spirit; and
+at an early hour in the morning the faithful Gumbo was in attendance
+in his master's chamber, having come from Bond Street, and brought Mr.
+Harry's letters thence. "I wanted to bring some more clothes," honest
+Gumbo said; "but Mr. Ruff, the landlord, he wouldn't let me bring no
+more."
+
+Harry did not care to look at the letters: he opened one, two, three;
+they were all bills. He opened a fourth; it was from the landlord, to
+say that he would allow no more of Mr. Warrington's things to go out of
+the house,--that unless his bill was paid he should sell Mr. W.'s goods
+and pay himself: and that his black man must go and sleep elsewhere. He
+would hardly let Gumbo take his own clothes and portmanteau away. The
+black said he had found refuge elsewhere--with some friends at Lord
+Wrotham's house. "With Colonel Lambert's people," says Mr. Gumbo,
+looking very hard at his master. "And Miss Hetty she fall down in a
+faint, when she hear you taken up; and Mr. Lambert, he very good man,
+and he say to me this morning, he say, 'Gumbo, you tell your master if
+he want me he send to me, and I come to him.'"
+
+Harry was touched when he heard that Hetty had been afflicted by his
+misfortune. He did not believe Gumbo's story about her fainting; he
+was accustomed to translate his black's language and to allow for
+exaggeration. But when Gumbo spoke of the Colonel the young Virginian's
+spirit was darkened again. "I send to Lambert" he thought, grinding his
+teeth, "the man who insulted me, and flung my presents back in my face!
+If I were starving I would not ask him for a crust!" And presently,
+being dressed, Mr. Warrington called for his breakfast, and despatched
+Gumbo with a brief note to Mr. Draper in the Temple, requiring that
+gentleman's attendance.
+
+"The note was as haughty as if he was writing to one of his negroes, and
+not to a freeborn English gentleman," Draper said; whom indeed Harry had
+always treated with insufferable condescension. "It's all very well
+for a fine gentleman to give himself airs; but for a fellow in a
+spunging-house! Hang him!" says Draper, "I've a great mind not to
+go!" Nevertheless, Mr. Draper did go, and found Mr. Warrington in his
+misfortune even more arrogant than he had ever been in the days of his
+utmost prosperity. Mr. W. sat on his bed, like a lord, in a splendid
+gown with his hair dressed. He motioned his black man to fetch him a
+chair.
+
+"Excuse me, madam, but such haughtiness and airs I ain't accustomed to!"
+said the outraged attorney.
+
+"Take a chair and go on with your story, my good Mr. Draper!" said
+Madame de Bernstein, smiling, to whom he went to report proceedings.
+She was amused at the lawyer's anger. She liked her nephew for being
+insolent in adversity.
+
+The course which Draper was to pursue in his interview with Harry
+had been arranged between the Baroness and her man of business on the
+previous day. Draper was an able man, and likely in most cases to do a
+client good service: he failed in the present instance because he was
+piqued and angry, or, more likely still, because he could not understand
+the gentleman with whom he had to deal. I presume that he who casts his
+eye on the present page is the most gentle of readers. Gentleman, as
+you unquestionably are, then, my dear sir, have you not remarked in
+your dealings with people who are no gentlemen, that you offend them not
+knowing the how or the why? So the man who is no gentleman offends you
+in a thousand ways of which the poor creature has no idea himself. He
+does or says something which provokes your scorn. He perceives that
+scorn (being always on the watch, and uneasy about himself, his manners
+and behaviour) and he rages. You speak to him naturally, and he fancies
+still that you are sneering at him. You have indifference towards
+him, but he hates you, and hates you the worse because you don't
+care. "Gumbo, a chair to Mr. Draper!" says Mr. Warrington, folding his
+brocaded dressing-gown round his legs as he sits on the dingy bed. "Sit
+down, if you please, and let us talk my business over. Much obliged to
+you for coming so soon in reply to my message. Had you heard of this
+piece of ill-luck before?"
+
+Mr. Draper had heard of the circumstance. "Bad news travel quick, Mr.
+Warrington," he said; "and I was eager to offer my humble services as
+soon as ever you should require them. Your friends, your family, will be
+much pained that a gentleman of your rank should be in such a position."
+
+"I have been very imprudent, Mr. Draper. I have lived beyond my means."
+(Mr. Draper bowed.) "I played in company with gentlemen who were much
+richer than myself, and a cursed run of ill-luck has carried away all my
+ready money, leaving me with liabilities to the amount of five hundred
+pounds, and more."
+
+"Five hundred now in the office," says Mr. Draper.
+
+"Well, this is such a trifle that I thought by sending to one or two
+friends, yesterday, I could have paid my debt and gone home without
+further to do. I have been mistaken; and will thank you to have the
+kindness to put me in the way of raising the money as soon as may be."
+
+Mr. Draper said "Hm!" and pulled a very grave and long face.
+
+"Why, sir, it can be done!" says Mr. Warrington, staring at the lawyer.
+
+It not only could be done, but Mr. Draper had proposed to Madame
+Bernstein on the day before instantly to pay the money, and release
+Mr. Warrington. That lady had declared she intended to make the young
+gentleman her heir. In common with the rest of the world, Draper
+believed Harry's hereditary property in Virginia to be as great in
+money-value as in extent. He had notes in his pocket, and Madame
+Bernstein's order to pay them under certain conditions: nevertheless,
+when Harry said, "It can be done!" Draper pulled his long face, and
+said, "It can be done in time, sir; but it will require a considerable
+time. To touch the property in England which is yours on Mr. George
+Warrington's death, we must have the event proved, the trustees
+released: and who is to do either? Lady Esmond Warrington in Virginia,
+of course, will not allow her son to remain in prison, but we must wait
+six months before we hear from her. Has your Bristol agent any authority
+to honour your drafts?"
+
+"He is only authorised to pay me two hundred pounds a year," says Mr.
+Warrington. "I suppose I have no resource, then, but to apply to my
+aunt, Madame de Bernstein. She will be my security."
+
+"Her ladyship will do anything for you, sir; she has said so to me,
+often and often," said the lawyer; "and, if she gives the word at that
+moment you can walk out of this place."
+
+"Go to her, then, from me, Mr. Draper. I did not want to have troubled
+my relations: but rather than continue in this horrible needless
+imprisonment, I must speak to her. Say where I am, and what has befallen
+me. Disguise nothing! And tell her, that I confide in her affection
+and kindness for me to release me from this--this disgrace," and Mr.
+Warrington's voice shook a little, and he passed his hand across his
+eyes.
+
+"Sir," says Mr. Draper, eyeing the young man, "I was with her ladyship
+yesterday, when we talked over the whole of this here most unpleasant--I
+won't say as you do, disgraceful business."
+
+"What do you mean, sir? Does Madame de Bernstein know of my misfortune?"
+asked Harry.
+
+"Every circumstance, sir; the pawning the watches, and all."
+
+Harry turned burning red. "It is an unfortunate business, the pawning
+them watches and things which you had never paid for," continued the
+lawyer. The young man started up from the bed, looking so fierce that
+Draper felt a little alarmed.
+
+"It may lead to litigation and unpleasant remarks being made, in court,
+sir. Them barristers respect nothing; and when they get a feller in the
+box----"
+
+"Great Heaven, sir, you don't suppose a gentleman of my rank can't take
+a watch upon credit without intending to cheat the tradesman?" cried
+Harry, in the greatest agitation.
+
+"Of course you meant everything that's honourable; only, you see, the
+law mayn't happen to think so," says Mr. Draper, winking his eye. ("Hang
+the supercilious beast; I touch him there!) Your aunt says it's the most
+imprudent thing ever she heard of--to call it by no worse name."
+
+"You call it by no worse name yourself, Mr. Draper?" says Harry,
+speaking each word very slow, and evidently trying to keep a command of
+himself.
+
+Draper did not like his looks. "Heaven forbid that I should say anything
+as between gentleman and gentleman,--but between me and my client, it's
+my duty to say, 'Sir, you are in a very unpleasant scrape,' just as a
+doctor would have to tell his patient, 'Sir, you are very ill.'"
+
+"And you can't help me to pay this debt off,--and you have come only to
+tell me that I may be accused of roguery?" says Harry.
+
+"Of obtaining goods under false pretences? Most undoubtedly, yes. I
+can't help it, sir. Don't look as if you would knock me down. (Curse
+him, I am making him wince, though.) A young gentleman, who has only two
+hundred a year from his ma', orders diamonds and watches, and takes 'em
+to a pawnbroker. You ask me what people will think of such behaviour,
+and I tell you honestly. Don't be angry with me, Mr. Warrington."
+
+"Go on, sir!" says Harry, with a groan.
+
+The lawyer thought the day was his own. "But you ask if I can't help
+to pay this debt off? And I say Yes--and that here is the money in my
+pocket to do it now, if you like--not mine, sir, my honoured client's,
+your aunt, Lady Bernstein. But she has a right to impose her conditions,
+and I've brought 'em with me."
+
+"Tell them, sir," says Mr. Harry.
+
+"They are not hard. They are only for your own good: and if you say Yes,
+we can call a hackney-coach, and go to Clarges Street together, which
+I have promised to go there, whether you will or no. Mr. Warrington, I
+name no names, but there was a question of marriage between you and a
+certain party."
+
+"Ah!" said Harry; and his countenance looked more cheerful than it had
+yet done.
+
+"To that marriage my noble client, the Baroness, is most averse--having
+other views for you, and thinking it will be your ruin to marry a
+party,--of noble birth and title it is true; but, excuse me, not of
+first-rate character, and so much older than yourself. You had given an
+imprudent promise to that party."
+
+"Yes; and she has it still," says Mr. Warrington.
+
+"It has been recovered. She dropped it by an accident at Tunbridge,"
+says Mr. Draper, "so my client informed me; indeed her ladyship showed
+it me, for the matter of that. It was wrote in bl----"
+
+"Never mind, sir!" cries Harry, turning almost as red as the ink which
+he had used to write his absurd promise, of which the madness and folly
+had smote him with shame a thousand times over.
+
+"At the same time letters, wrote to you, and compromising a noble
+family, were recovered," continues the lawyer. "You had lost 'em. It was
+no fault of yours. You were away when they were found again. You may
+say that that noble family, that you yourself, have a friend such as few
+young men have. Well, sir, there's no earthly promise to bind you--only
+so many idle words said over a bottle, which very likely any gentleman
+may forget. Say you won't go on with this marriage--give me and my noble
+friend your word of honour. Cry off, I say, Mr. W.! Don't be such a
+d----fool, saving your presence, as to marry an old woman who has jilted
+scores of men in her time. Say the word, and I step downstairs, pay
+every shilling against you in the office, and put you down in my coach,
+either at your aunt's or at White's Club, if you like, with a couple of
+hundred in your pocket. Say yes; and give us your hand! There's no use
+in sitting grinning behind these bars all day!"
+
+So far Mr. Draper had had the best of the talk. Harry only longed
+himself to be rid of the engagement from which his aunt wanted to free
+him. His foolish flame for Maria Esmond had died out long since. If she
+would release him, how thankful would he be! "Come! give us your hand,
+and say done!" says the lawyer, with a knowing wink. "Don't stand
+shilly-shallying, sir. Law bless you, Mr. W., if I had married everybody
+I promised, I should be like the Grand Turk, or Captain Macheath in the
+play!"
+
+The lawyer's familiarity disgusted Harry, who shrank from Draper,
+scarcely knowing that he did so. He folded his dressing gown round him,
+and stepped back from the other's proffered hand. "Give me a little time
+to think of the matter, if you please, Mr. Draper," he said, "and have
+the goodness to come to me again in an hour.
+
+"Very good, sir, very good, sir!" says the lawyer, biting his lips, and,
+as he seized up his hat, turning very red. "Most parties would not want
+an hour to consider about such an offer as I make you: but I suppose my
+time must be yours, and I'll come again, and see whether you are to
+go or to stay. Good morning, sir, good morning:" and he went his way,
+growling curses down the stairs. "Won't take my hand, won't he? Will
+tell me in an hour's time! Hang his impudence! I'll show him what an
+hour is!"
+
+Mr. Draper went to his chambers in dudgeon then; bullied his clerks all
+round, sent off a messenger to the Baroness, to say that he had
+waited on the young gentleman, who had demanded a little time for
+consideration, which was for form's sake, as he had no doubt; the lawyer
+then saw clients, transacted business, went out to his dinner in the
+most leisurely manner; and then finally turned his steps towards the
+neighbouring Cursitor Street. "He'll be at home when I call, the haughty
+beast!" says Draper, with a sneer. "The Fortunate Youth in his room?"
+the lawyer asked of the sheriff's officer's aide-de-camp who came to
+open the double doors.
+
+"Mr. Warrington is in his apartment," said the gentleman, "but----" and
+here the gentleman winked at Mr. Draper, and laid his hand on his nose.
+
+"But what, Mr. Paddy from Cork?" said the lawyer.
+
+"My name is Costigan; me familee is noble, and me neetive place is the
+Irish methrawpolis, Mr. Six-and-eightpence!" said the janitor, scowling
+at Draper. A rich odour of spirituous liquors filled the little space
+between the double doors where he held the attorney in conversation.
+
+"Confound you, sir, let me pass!" bawled out Mr. Draper.
+
+"I can hear you perfectly well, Six-and-eightpence, except your h's,
+which you dthrop out of your conversation. I'll thank ye not to call
+neems, me good friend, or me fingers and your nose will have to make an
+intimate hic-quaintance. Walk in, sir! Be polite for the future to your
+shupariors in birth and manners, though they may be your infariors in
+temporary station. Confound the kay! Walk in, sir, I say!--Madam, I have
+the honour of saluting ye most respectfully!"
+
+A lady with her face covered with a capuchin, and further hidden by her
+handkerchief, uttered a little exclamation as of alarm as she came down
+the stairs at this instant and hurried past the lawyer. He was pressing
+forward to look at her--for Mr. Draper was very cavalier in his manners
+to women--but the bailiff's follower thrust his leg between Draper and
+the retreating lady, crying, "Keep your own distance, if you plaise!
+This way, madam! I at once recognised your ladysh----" Here he closed
+the door on Draper's nose, and left that attorney to find his own way to
+his client upstairs.
+
+At six o'clock that evening the old Baroness de Bernstein was pacing up
+and down her drawing-crutch, and for ever running to the window when the
+noise of a coach was heard passing in Clarges Street. She had delayed
+her dinner from hour to hour: she who scolded so fiercely, on ordinary
+occasions, if her cook was five minutes after his time. She had ordered
+two covers to be laid, plate to be set out, and some extra dishes to be
+prepared as if for a little fete. Four--five o'clock passed, and at six
+she looked from the window, and a coach actually stopped at her door.
+
+"Mr. Draper" was announced, and entered bowing profoundly.
+
+The old lady trembled on her stick. "Where is the boy?" she said
+quickly. "I told you to bring him, sir! How dare you come without him?"
+
+"It is not my fault, madam, that Mr. Warrington refuses to come." And
+Draper gave his version of the interview which had just taken place
+between himself and the young Virginian.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII. An Apparition
+
+
+Going off in his wrath from his morning's conversation with Harry,
+Mr. Draper thought he heard the young prisoner speak behind him; and,
+indeed, Harry had risen, and uttered a half-exclamation to call the
+lawyer back. But he was proud, and the other offended: Harry checked
+words, and Draper did not choose to stop. It wound Harry's pride to be
+obliged to humble himself before the lawyer, and to have to yield from
+mere lack and desire of money. "An hour hence will do as well," thought
+Harry, and lapsed sulkily on to the bed again. No, he did not care
+for Maria Esmond! No: he was ashamed of the way in which he had been
+entrapped into that engagement. A wily and experienced woman, she had
+cheated his boyish ardour. She had taken unfair advantage of him, as her
+brother had at play. They were his own flesh and blood, and they ought
+to have spared him. Instead, one and the other had made a prey of
+him, and had used him for their selfish ends. He thought how they had
+betrayed the rights of hospitality: how they had made a victim of the
+young kinsman who came confiding within their gates. His heart was sore
+wounded: his head sank back on his pillow: bitter tears wetted it.
+"Had they come to Virginia," he thought, "I had given them a different
+welcome!"
+
+He was roused from this mood of despondency by Gumbo's grinning face at
+his door, who said a lady was come to see Master Harry, and behind the
+lad came the lady in the capuchin, of whom we have just made mention.
+Harry sat up, pale and haggard, on his bed. The lady, with a sob, and
+almost ere the servant-man withdrew, ran towards the young prisoner,
+put her arms round his neck with real emotion and a maternal tenderness,
+sobbed over his pale cheek and kissed it in the midst of plentiful
+tears, and cried out--
+
+"Oh, my Harry! Did I ever, ever think to see thee here?"
+
+He started back, scared as it seemed at her presence, but she sank down
+at the bedside, and seized his feverish hand, and embraced his knees.
+She had a real regard and tenderness for him. The wretched place in
+which she found him, his wretched look, filled her heart with a sincere
+love and pity.
+
+"I--I thought none of you would come!" said poor Harry, with a groan.
+
+More tears, more kisses of the hot young hand, more clasps and pressure
+with hers, were the lady's reply for a moment or two.
+
+"Oh, my dear! my dear! I cannot bear to think of thee in misery," she
+sobbed out.
+
+Hardened though it might be, that heart was not all marble--that dreary
+life not all desert. Harry's mother could not have been fonder, nor her
+tones more tender than those of his kinswoman now kneeling at his feet.
+
+"Some of the debts, I fear, were owing to my extravagance!" she said
+(and this was true). "You bought trinkets and jewels in order to give me
+pleasure. Oh, how I hate them now! I little thought I ever could! I have
+brought them all with me, and more trinkets--here! and here! and all the
+money I have in the world!"
+
+And she poured brooches, rings, a watch, and a score or so of guineas
+into Harry's lap. The sight of which strangely agitated and immensely
+touched the young man.
+
+"Dearest, kindest cousin!" he sobbed out.
+
+His lips found no more words to utter, but yet, no doubt they served to
+express his gratitude, his affection, his emotion.
+
+He became quite gay presently, and smiled as he put away some of the
+trinkets, his presents to Maria, and told her into what danger he had
+fallen by selling other goods which he had purchased on credit; and how
+a lawyer had insulted him just now upon this very point. He would
+not have his dear Maria's money--he had enough, quite enough for the
+present: but he valued her twenty guineas as much as if they had been
+twenty thousand. He would never forget her love and kindness: no, by
+all that was sacred he would not! His mother should know of all her
+goodness. It had had cheered him when he was just on the point of
+breaking down under his disgrace and misery. Might Heaven bless her for
+it! There is no need to pursue beyond this, the cousins' conversation.
+The dark day seemed brighter to Harry after Maria's visit: the
+imprisonment not so hard to bear. The world was not all selfish and
+cold. Here was a fond creature who really and truly loved him. Even
+Castlewood was not so bad as he had thought. He had expressed the
+deepest grief at not being able to assist his kinsman. He was hopelessly
+in debt. Every shilling he had won from Harry he had lost on the next
+day to others. Anything that lay in his power he would do. He would come
+soon and see Mr. Warrington: he was in waiting to-day, and as much
+a prisoner as Harry himself. So the pair talked on cheerfully and
+affectionately until the darkness began to close in, when Maria, with a
+sigh, bade Harry farewell.
+
+The door scarcely closed upon her, when it opened to admit Draper.
+
+"Your humble servant, sir," says the attorney. His voice jarred upon
+Harry's ear, and his presence offended the young man.
+
+"I had expected you some hours ago, sir," he curtly said.
+
+"A lawyer's time is not always his own, sir," said Mr. Draper, who had
+just been in consultation with a bottle of port at the Grecian. "Never
+mind, I'm at your orders now. Presume it's all right, Mr. Warrington.
+Packed your trunk? Why, now there you are in your bedgown still. Let me
+go down and settle whilst you call in your black man and titivate a bit.
+I've a coach at the door, and we'll be off and dine with the old lady."
+
+"Are you going to dine with the Baroness de Bernstein, pray?"
+
+"Not me--no such honour. Had my dinner already. It's you are a-going to
+dine with your aunt, I suppose?"
+
+"Mr. Draper, you suppose a great deal more than you know," says Mr.
+Warrington, looking very fierce and tall, as he folds his brocade
+dressing-gown round him.
+
+"Great goodness, sir, what do you mean?" asks Draper.
+
+"I mean, sir, that I have considered, and, that having given my word to
+a faithful and honourable lady, it does not become me to withdraw it."
+
+"Confound it, sir!" shrieks the lawyer, "I tell you she has lost the
+paper. There's nothing to bind you--nothing. Why she's old enough to
+be----"
+
+"Enough, sir," says Mr. Warrington, with a stamp of his foot. "You
+seem to think you are talking to some other pettifogger. I take it, Mr.
+Draper, you are not accustomed to have dealings with men of honour."
+
+"Pettifogger, indeed!" cries Draper in a fury. "Men of honour, indeed!
+I'd have you to know, Mr. Warrington, that I'm as good a man of honour
+as you. I don't know so many gamblers and horse-jockeys, perhaps. I
+haven't gambled away my patrimony, and lived as if I was a nobleman
+on two hundred a year. I haven't bought watches on credit, and
+pawned--touch me if you dare, sir," and the lawyer sprang to the door.
+
+"That is the way out, sir. You can't go through the window, because it
+is barred," says Mr. Warrington.
+
+"And the answer I take to my client is No, then!" screamed out Draper.
+
+Harry stepped forward, with his two hands clenched. "If you utter
+another word," he said, "I'll----" The door was shut rapidly--the
+sentence was never finished, and Draper went away furious to Madame de
+Bernstein, from whom, though he gave her the best version of his story,
+he got still fiercer language than he had received from Mr. Warrington
+himself.
+
+"What? Shall she trust me, and I desert her?" says Harry, stalking up
+and down his room in his flowing, rustling brocade. "Dear, faithful,
+generous woman! If I lie in prison for years, I'll be true to her."
+
+
+Her lawyer dismissed after a stormy interview, the desolate old woman
+was fain to sit down to the meal which she had hoped to share with
+her nephew. The chair was before her which he was to have filled, the
+glasses shining by the silver. One dish after another was laid before
+her by the silent major-domo, and tasted and pushed away. The man
+pressed his mistress at last. "It is eight o'clock," he said. "You have
+had nothing all day. It is good for you to eat." She could not eat. She
+would have her coffee. Let Case go get her her coffee. The lacqueys bore
+the dishes off the table, leaving their mistress sitting at it before
+the vacant chair.
+
+Presently the old servant re-entered the room without his lady's coffee
+and with a strange scared face, and said, "Mr. WARRINGTON!"
+
+The old woman uttered an exclamation, got up from her armchair, but sank
+back in it trembling very much. "So you are come, sir, are you?" she
+said, with a fond shaking voice. "Bring back the----Ah!" here she
+screamed, "Gracious God, who is it?" Her eyes stared wildly: her white
+face looked ghastly through her rouge. She clung to the arms of her
+chair for support, as the visitor approached her.
+
+A gentleman whose face and figure exactly resembled Harry Warrington and
+whose voice, when he spoke, had tones strangely similar, had followed
+the servant into the room. He bowed towards the Baroness.
+
+"You expected my brother, madam?" he said "I am but now arrived in
+London. I went to his house. I met his servant at your door, who was
+bearing this letter for you. I thought I would bring it to your ladyship
+before going to him,"--and the stranger laid down a letter before Madam
+Bernstein.
+
+"Are you"--gasped out the Baroness--"are you my nephew, that we supposed
+was----"
+
+"Was killed--and is alive! I am George Warrington, madam and I ask his
+kinsfolk what have you done with my brother?"
+
+"Look, George!" said the bewildered old lady "I expected him here
+to-night--that chair was set for him--I have been waiting for him, sir,
+till now--till I am quite faint--I don't like--I don't like being alone.
+Do stay an sup with me!"
+
+"Pardon me, madam. Please God, my supper will be with Harry tonight!"
+
+"Bring him back. Bring him back here on any conditions! It is but five
+hundred pounds! Here is the money, sir, if you need it!"
+
+"I have no want, madam. I have money with me that can't be better
+employed than in my brother's service."
+
+"And you will bring him to me, sir! Say you will bring him to me!"
+
+Mr. Warrington made a very stately bow for answer, and quitted the room,
+passing by the amazed domestics, and calling with an air of authority to
+Gumbo to follow him.
+
+Had Mr. Harry received no letters from home? Master Harry had not
+opened all his letters the last day or two. Had he received no letter
+announcing his brother's escape from the French settlements and return
+to Virginia? Oh no! No such letter had come, else Master Harry certainly
+tell Gumbo. Quick, horses! Quick by Strand to Temple Bar! Here is the
+house of Captivity and the Deliverer come to the rescue!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX. Friends in Need
+
+
+Quick, hackneycoach steeds, and bear George Warrington through Strand
+and Fleet Street to his imprisoned brother's rescue! Any one who
+remembers Hogarth's picture of a London hackneycoach and a London street
+road at that period, may fancy how weary the quick time was, and how
+long seemed the journey:--scarce any lights, save those carried by
+link-boys; badly hung coaches; bad pavements; great holes in the road,
+and vast quagmires of winter mud. That drive from Piccadilly to Fleet
+Street seemed almost as long to our young man, as the journey from
+Marlborough to London which he had performed in the morning.
+
+He had written to Harry, announcing his arrival at Bristol. He had
+previously written to his brother, giving the great news of his
+existence and his return from captivity. There was war between England
+and France at that time; the French privateers were for ever on the
+look-out for British merchant-ships, and seized them often within sight
+of port. The letter bearing the intelligence of George's restoration
+must have been on board one of the many American ships of which the
+French took possession. The letter telling of George's arrival in
+England was never opened by poor Harry; it was lying at the latter's
+apartments, which it reached on the third morning after Harry's
+captivity, when the angry Mr. Ruff had refused to give up any single
+item more of his lodger's property.
+
+To these apartments George first went on his arrival in London,
+and asked for his brother. Scared at the likeness between them, the
+maid-servant who opened the door screamed, and ran back to her mistress.
+The mistress not liking to tell the truth, or to own that poor Harry was
+actually a prisoner at her husband's suit, said Mr. Warrington had left
+his lodgings; she did not know where Mr. Warrington was. George knew
+that Clarges Street was close to Bond Street. Often and often had he
+looked over the London map. Aunt Bernstein would tell him where Harry
+was. He might be with her at that very moment. George had read in
+Harry's letters to Virginia about Aunt Bernstein's kindness to Harry.
+Even Madam Esmond was softened by it (and especially touched by a letter
+which the Baroness wrote--the letter which caused George to pack off
+post-haste for Europe, indeed). She heartily hoped and trusted that
+Madam Beatrix had found occasion to repent of her former bad ways. It
+was time, indeed, at her age; and Heaven knows that she had plenty
+to repent of! I have known a harmless, good old soul of eighty, still
+bepommelled and stoned by irreproachable ladies of the straitest sect of
+the Pharisees, for a little slip which occurred long before the present
+century was born, or she herself was twenty years old. Rachel Esmond
+never mentioned her eldest daughter: Madam Esmond Warrington never
+mentioned her sister. No. In spite of the order for remission of the
+sentence--in spite of the handwriting on the floor of the Temple--there
+is a crime which some folks never will pardon, and regarding which
+female virtue, especially, is inexorable.
+
+I suppose the Virginians' agent at Bristol had told George fearful
+stories of his brother's doings. Gumbo, whom he met at his aunt's door,
+as soon as the lad recovered from his terror at the sudden reappearance
+of the master whom he supposed dead, had leisure to stammer out a word
+or two respecting his young master's whereabouts, and present pitiable
+condition; and hence Mr. George's sternness of demeanour when he
+presented himself to the old lady. It seemed to him a matter of course
+that his brother in difficulty should be rescued by his relations. Oh,
+George, how little you know about London and London ways! Whenever you
+take your walks abroad how many poor you meet--if a philanthropist were
+for rescuing all of them, not all the wealth of all the provinces of
+America would suffice him!
+
+But the feeling and agitation displayed by the old lady touched her
+nephew's heart when, jolting through the dark streets towards the
+house of his brother's captivity, George came to think of his aunt's
+behaviour. "She does feel my poor Harry's misfortune," he thought to
+himself, "I have been too hasty in judging her." Again and again, in the
+course of his life, Mr. George had to rebuke himself with the same crime
+of being too hasty. How many of us have not? And, alas, the mischief
+done, there's no repentance will mend it. Quick, coachman! We are almost
+as slow as you are in getting from Clarges Street to the Temple. Poor
+Gumbo knows the way to the bailiff's house well enough. Again the bell
+is set ringing. The first door is opened to George and his negro; then
+that first door is locked warily upon them, and they find themselves
+in a little passage with a little Jewish janitor; then a second door is
+unlocked, and they enter into the house. The Jewish janitor stares, as
+by his flaring tallow-torch he sees a second Mr. Warrington before
+him. Come to see that gentleman? Yes. But wait a moment. This is Mr.
+Warrington's brother from America. Gumbo must go and prepare his master
+first. Step into this room. There's a gentleman already there about
+Mr. W.'s business (the porter says), and another upstairs with him now.
+There's no end of people have been about him.
+
+The room into which George was introduced was a small apartment which
+went by the name of Mr. Amos's office, and where, by a guttering candle,
+and talking to the bailiff, sat a stout gentleman in a cloak and a laced
+hat. The young porter carried his candle, too, preceding Mr. George, so
+there was a sufficiency of light in the apartment.
+
+"We are not angry any more, Harry!" says the stout gentleman, in a
+cheery voice, getting up and advancing with an outstretched hand to
+the new-comer. "Thank God, my boy! Mr. Amos here says, there will be
+no difficulty about James and me being your bail, and we will do your
+business by breakfast-time in the morning. Why... Angels and ministers
+of grace! who are you?" And he started back as the other had hold of his
+hand.
+
+But the stranger grasped it only the more strongly. "God bless you,
+sir!" he said, "I know who you are. You must be Colonel Lambert, of
+whose kindness to him my poor Harry wrote. And I am the brother whom you
+have heard of, sir; and who was left for dead in Mr. Braddock's action;
+and came to life again after eighteen months amongst the French;
+and live to thank God and thank you for your kindness to my Harry,"
+continued the lad with a faltering voice.
+
+"James! James! Here is news!" cries Mr. Lambert to a gentleman in red,
+who now entered the room. "Here are the dead come alive! Here is Harry
+Scapegrace's brother come back, and with his scalp on his head, too!"
+(George had taken his hat off, and was standing by the light.) "This is
+my brother-bail, Mr. Warrington! This is Lieutenant-Colonel James
+Wolfe, at your service. You must know there has been a little difference
+between Harry and me, Mr. George. He is pacified, is he, James?"
+
+"He is full of gratitude," says Mr. Wolfe, after making his bow to Mr.
+Warrington.
+
+"Harry wrote home about Mr. Wolfe, too, sir," said the young man, "and I
+hope my brother's friends will be so kind as to be mine."
+
+"I wish he had none other but us, Mr. Warrington. Poor Harry's fine
+folks have been too fine for him, and have ended by landing him here."
+
+"Nay, your honours, I have done my best to make the young gentleman
+comfortable; and, knowing your honour before, when you came to bail
+Captain Watkins, and that your security is perfectly good,--if your
+honour wishes, the young gentleman can go out this very night, and I
+will make it all right with the lawyer in the morning," says Harry's
+landlord, who knew the rank and respectability of the two gentlemen who
+had come to offer bail for his young prisoner.
+
+"The debt is five hundred and odd pounds, I think?" said Mr. Warrington.
+"With a hundred thanks to these gentlemen, I can pay the amount at this
+moment into the officers' hands, taking the usual acknowledgment and
+caution. But I can never forget, gentlemen, that you helped my brother
+at his need, and, for doing so, I say thank you, and God bless you, in
+my mother's name and mine."
+
+Gumbo had, meanwhile, gone upstairs to his master's apartment, where
+Harry would probably have scolded the negro for returning that night,
+but that the young gentleman was very much soothed and touched by the
+conversation he had had with the friend who had just left him. He was
+sitting over his pipe of Virginia in a sad mood (for, somehow, even
+Maria's goodness and affection, as she had just exhibited them, had not
+altogether consoled him; and he had thought, with a little dismay, of
+certain consequences to which that very kindness and fidelity bound
+him), when Mr. Wolfe's homely features and eager outstretched hand came
+to cheer the prisoner, and he heard how Mr. Lambert was below, and
+the errand upon which the two officers had come. In spite of himself,
+Lambert would be kind to him. In spite of Harry's ill-temper, and
+needless suspicion and anger, the good gentleman was determined to help
+him if he might--to help him even against Mr. Wolfe's own advice, as the
+latter frankly told Harry, "For you were wrong, Mr. Warrington," said
+the Colonel, "and you wouldn't be set right; and you, a young man, used
+hard words and unkind behaviour to your senior, and what is more, one of
+the best gentlemen who walks God's earth. You see, sir, what his answer
+hath been to your wayward temper. You will bear with a friend who speaks
+frankly with you? Martin Lambert hath acted in this as he always doth,
+as the best Christian, the best friend, the most kind and generous of
+men. Nay, if you want another proof of his goodness, here it is: He has
+converted me, who, as I don't care to disguise, was angry with you for
+your treatment of him, and has absolutely brought me down here to be
+your bail. Let us both cry Peccavimus! Harry, and shake our friend by
+the hand! He is sitting in the room below. He would not come here till
+he knew how you would receive him."
+
+"I think he is a good man!" groaned out Harry. "I was very angry and
+wild at the time when he and I met last, Colonel Wolfe. Nay, perhaps he
+was right in sending back those trinkets, hurt as I was at his doing so.
+Go down to him, will you be so kind, sir? and tell him I am sorry, and
+ask his pardon, and--and, God bless him for his generous behaviour."
+And here the young gentleman turned his head away, and rubbed his hand
+across his eyes.
+
+"Tell him all this thyself, Harry!" cries the Colonel, taking the young
+fellow's hand. "No deputy will ever say it half so well. Come with me
+now."
+
+"You go first, and I'll--I'll follow,--on my word I will. See! I am in
+my morning-gown! I will but put on a coat and come to him. Give him my
+message first. Just--just prepare him for me!" says poor Harry, who
+knew he must do it, but yet did not much like that process of eating of
+humble-pie.
+
+Wolfe went out smiling--understanding the lad's scruples well enough,
+perhaps. As he opened the door, Mr. Gumbo entered it; almost forgetting
+to bow to the gentleman, profusely courteous as he was on ordinary
+occasions,--his eyes glaring round, his great mouth grinning--himself in
+a state of such high excitement and delight that his master remarked his
+condition.
+
+"What, Gum? What has happened to thee? Hast thou got a new sweetheart?"
+
+No, Gum had not got no new sweetheart, master.
+
+"Give me my coat. What has brought thee back?"
+
+Gum grinned prodigiously. "I have seen a ghost, mas'r!" he said.
+
+"A ghost! and whose, and where?"
+
+"Whar? Saw him at Madame Bernstein's house. Come with him here in
+the coach! He downstairs now with Colonel Lambert!" Whilst Gumbo is
+speaking, as he is putting on his master's coat, his eyes are rolling,
+his head is wagging, his hands are trembling, his lips are grinning.
+
+"Ghost--what ghost?" says Harry, in a strange agitation. Is
+anybody--is--my mother come?"
+
+"No, sir; no, Master Harry!" Gumbo's head rolls nearly off its violent
+convolutions, and his master, looking oddly at him, flings the door
+open, and goes rapidly down the stair.
+
+He is at the foot of it, just as a voice within the little office, of
+which the door is open, is saying, "and for doing so, I say thank you,
+and God bless you, in my mother's name and mine."
+
+"Whose voice is that?" calls out Harry Warrington, with a strange cry in
+his own voice.
+
+"It's the ghost's, mas'r!" says Gumbo, from behind; and Harry runs
+forward to the room,--where, if you please, we will pause a little
+minute before we enter. The two gentlemen who were there, turned their
+heads away. The lost was found again. The dead was alive. The
+prodigal was on his brother's heart,--his own full of love, gratitude,
+repentance.
+
+"Come away, James! I think we are not wanted any more here," says the
+Colonel. "Good-night, boys. Some ladies in Hill Street won't be able to
+sleep for this strange news. Or will you go home and sup with 'em, and
+tell them the story?"
+
+No, with many thanks, the boys would not go and sup to-night. They had
+stories of their own to tell. "Quick, Gumbo, with the trunks! Good-bye,
+Mr. Amos!" Harry felt almost unhappy when he went away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L. Contains a Great deal of the Finest Morality
+
+
+When first we had the honour to be presented to Sir Miles Warrington at
+the King's drawing-room, in St. James's Palace, I confess that I, for
+one--looking at his jolly round face, his broad round waistcoat, his
+hearty country manner,--expected that I had lighted upon a most eligible
+and agreeable acquaintance at last, and was about to become intimate
+with that noblest specimen of the human race, the bepraised of songs and
+men, the good old English country gentleman. In fact, to be a good old
+country gentleman is to hold a position nearest the gods, and at the
+summit of earthly felicity. To have a large unencumbered rent-roll, and
+the rents regularly paid by adoring farmers, who bless their stars at
+having such a landlord as his honour; to have no tenant holding back
+with his money, excepting just one, perhaps, who does so in order to
+give occasion to Good Old Country Gentleman to show his sublime charity
+and universal benevolence of soul; to hunt three days a week, love the
+sport of all things, and have perfect good health and good appetite in
+consequence; to have not only good appetite, but a good dinner; to sit
+down at church in the midst of a chorus of blessings from the villagers,
+the first man in the parish, the benefactor of the parish, with a
+consciousness of consummate desert, saying, "Have mercy upon us,
+miserable sinners," to be sure, but only for form's sake, because the
+words are written in the book, and to give other folks an example--a G.
+O. C. G. a miserable sinner! So healthy, so wealthy, so jolly, so much
+respected by the vicar, so much honoured by the tenants, so much beloved
+and admired by his family, amongst whom his story of grouse in the
+gunroom causes laughter from generation to generation;--this perfect
+being a miserable sinner! Allons donc! Give any man good health and
+temper, five thousand a year, the adoration of his parish, and the love
+and worship of his family, and I'll defy you to make him so heartily
+dissatisfied with his spiritual condition as to set himself down a
+miserable anything. If you were a Royal Highness, and went to church
+in the most perfect health and comfort, the parson waiting to begin the
+service until your R. H. came in, would you believe yourself to be a
+miserable, etc.? You might when racked with gout, in solitude, the fear
+of death before your eyes, the doctor having cut off your bottle of
+claret, and ordered arrowroot and a little sherry,--you might then be
+humiliated, and acknowledge your own shortcomings, and the vanity of
+things in general; but, in high health, sunshine, spirits, that word
+miserable is only a form. You can't think in your heart that you are
+to be pitied much for the present. If you are to be miserable, what is
+Colin Ploughman, with the ague, seven children, two pounds a year rent
+to pay for his cottage, and eight shillings a week? No: a healthy, rich,
+jolly, country gentleman, if miserable, has a very supportable misery:
+if a sinner, has very few people to tell him so.
+
+It may be he becomes somewhat selfish; but at least he is satisfied with
+himself. Except my lord at the castle, there is nobody for miles and
+miles round so good or so great. His admirable wife ministers to him,
+and to the whole parish, indeed: his children bow before him: the vicar
+of the parish reverences him: he is respected at quarter-sessions: he
+causes poachers to tremble: off go all hats before him at market: and
+round about his great coach, in which his spotless daughters and sublime
+lady sit, all the country-town tradesmen cringe, bareheaded, and the
+farmeers' women drop innumerable curtseys. From their cushions in the
+great coach the ladies look down beneficently, and smile on the poorer
+folk. They buy a yard of ribbon with affability; they condescend to
+purchase an ounce of salts, or a packet of flower-seeds: they deign to
+cheapen a goose: their drive is like a royal progress; a happy people
+is supposed to press round them and bless them. Tradesmen bow, farmers'
+wives bob, town-boys, waving their ragged hats, cheer the red-faced
+coachman as he drives the fat bays, and cry, "Sir Miles for ever! Throw
+us a halfpenny, my lady!"
+
+But suppose the market-woman should hide her fat goose when Sir Miles's
+coach comes, out of terror lest my lady, spying the bird, should insist
+on purchasing it a bargain? Suppose no coppers ever were known to come
+out of the royal coach window? Suppose Sir Miles regaled his tenants
+with notoriously small beer, and his poor with especially thin broth?
+This may be our fine old English gentleman's way. There have been not a
+few fine English gentlemen and ladies of this sort; who patronised the
+poor without ever relieving them, who called out "Amen!" at church
+as loud as the clerk; who went through all the forms of piety, and
+discharged all the etiquette of old English gentlemanhood; who bought
+virtue a bargain, as it were, and had no doubt they were honouring
+her by the purchase. Poor Harry in his distress asked help from his
+relations: his aunt sent him a tract and her blessing; his uncle had
+business out of town, and could not, of course, answer the poor boy's
+petition. How much of this behaviour goes on daily in respectable life,
+think you? You can fancy Lord and Lady Macbeth concocting a murder,
+and coming together with some little awkwardness, perhaps, when the
+transaction was done and over; but my Lord and Lady Skinflint, when they
+consult in their bedroom about giving their luckless nephew a helping
+hand, and determine to refuse, and go down to family prayers, and meet
+their children and domestics, and discourse virtuously before them, and
+then remain together, and talk nose to nose,--what can they think of one
+another? and of the poor kinsman fallen among the thieves, and groaning
+for help unheeded? How can they go on with those virtuous airs? How can
+they dare look each other in the face?
+
+Dare? Do you suppose they think they have done wrong? Do you suppose
+Skinflint is tortured with remorse at the idea of the distress which
+called to him in vain, and of the hunger which he sent empty away? Not
+he. He is indignant with Prodigal for being a fool: he is not ashamed
+of himself for being a curmudgeon. What? a young man with such
+opportunities throw them away? A fortune spent amongst gamblers and
+spendthrifts? Horrible, horrible! Take warning, my child, by this
+unfortunate young man's behaviour, and see the consequences of
+extravagance. According to the great and always Established Church of
+the Pharisees, here is an admirable opportunity for a moral discourse,
+and an assertion of virtue. "And to think of his deceiving us so!" cries
+out Lady Warrington.
+
+"Very sad, very sad, my dear!" says Sir Miles, wagging his head.
+
+"To think of so much extravagance in one so young!" cries Lady
+Warrington. "Cards, bets, feasts at taverns of the most wicked
+profusion, carriage and riding horses, the company of the wealthy and
+profligate of his own sex, and, I fear, of the most iniquitous persons
+of ours."
+
+"Hush, my Lady Warrington!" cries her husband, glancing towards the
+spotless Dora and Flora, who held down their blushing heads, at the
+mention of the last naughty persons.
+
+"No wonder my poor children hide their faces!" mamma continues. "My
+dears, I wish even the existence of such creatures could be kept from
+you!"
+
+"They can't go to an opera, or the park, without seeing 'em, to be
+sure," says Sir Miles.
+
+"To think we should have introduced such a young serpent into the
+bosom of our family! and have left him in the company of that guileless
+darling!" and she points to Master Miles.
+
+"Who's a serpent, mamma?" inquires that youth. "First you said cousin
+Harry was bad: then he was good: now he is bad again. Which is he, Sir
+Miles?"
+
+"He has faults, like all of us, Miley, my dear. Your cousin has been
+wild, and you must take warning by him."
+
+"Was not my elder brother, who died--my naughty brother--was not he wild
+too? He was not kind to me when I was quite a little boy. He never gave
+me money, nor toys, nor rode with me, nor--why do you cry, mamma? Sure I
+remember how Hugh and you were always fight----"
+
+"Silence, sir!" cry out papa and the girls in a breath. "Don't you know
+you are never to mention that name?"
+
+"I know I love Harry, and I didn't love Hugh," says the sturdy little
+rebel. "And if cousin Harry is in prison, I'll give him my half-guinea
+that my godpapa gave me, and anything I have--yes, anything,
+except--except my little horse--and my silver waistcoat--and--and
+Snowball and Sweetlips at home--and--and, yes, my custard after dinner."
+This was in reply to a hint of sister Dora. "But I'd give him some of
+it," continues Miles, after a pause.
+
+"Shut thy mouth with it, child, and then go about thy business," says
+papa, amused. Sir Miles Warrington had a considerable fund of easy
+humour.
+
+"Who would have thought he should ever be so wild?" mamma goes on.
+
+"Nay. Youth is the season for wild oats, my dear."
+
+"That we should be so misled in him!" sighed the girls.
+
+"That he should kiss us both!" cries papa.
+
+"Sir Miles Warrington, I have no patience with that sort of vulgarity!"
+says the majestic matron.
+
+"Which of you was the favourite yesterday, girls?" continues the father.
+
+"Favourite, indeed! I told him over and over again of my engagement
+to dear Tom--I did, Dora--why do you sneer, if you please?" says the
+handsome sister.
+
+"Nay, to do her justice, so did Dora too," said papa.
+
+"Because Flora seemed to wish to forget her engagement with dear Tom
+sometimes," remarks the sister.
+
+"I never, never, never wished to break with Tom! It's wicked of you to
+say so, Dora! It is you who were for ever sneering at him: it is you who
+are always envious because I happen--at least, because gentlemen imagine
+that I am not ill-looking, and prefer me to some folks, in spite of
+all their learning and wit!" cries Flora, tossing her head over her
+shoulder, and looking at the glass.
+
+"Why are you always looking there, sister?" says the artless Miles
+junior. "Sure, you must know your face well enough!"
+
+"Some people look at it just as often, child, who haven't near such good
+reason," says papa, gallantly.
+
+"If you mean me, Sir Miles, I thank you," cries Dora. "My face is as
+Heaven made it, and my father and mother gave it me. 'Tis not my fault
+if I resemble my papa's family. If my head is homely, at least I have
+got some brains in it. I envious of Flora, indeed, because she has found
+favour in the sight of poor Tom Claypool! I should as soon be proud of
+captivating a ploughboy!"
+
+"Pray, miss, was your Mr. Harry, of Virginia, much wiser than Tom
+Claypool? You would have had him for the asking!" exclaims Flora.
+
+"And so would you, miss, and have dropped Tom Claypool into the sea!"
+cries Dora.
+
+"I wouldn't."
+
+"You would."
+
+"I wouldn't;"--and da capo goes the conversation--the shuttlecock of
+wrath being briskly battled from one sister to another.
+
+"Oh, my children! Is this the way you dwell together in unity?" exclaims
+their excellent female parent, laying down her embroidery. "What an
+example you set to this Innocent!"
+
+"Like to see 'em fight, my lady!" cries the Innocent, rubbing his hands.
+
+"At her, Flora! Worry her, Dora! To it again, you little rogues!" says
+facetious papa. 'Tis good sport, ain't it, Miley?"
+
+"Oh, Sir Miles! Oh, my children! These disputes are unseemly. They tear
+a fond mother's heart," says mamma, with majestic action, though bearing
+the laceration of her bosom with much seeming equanimity. "What cause
+for thankfulness ought we to have that watchful parents have prevented
+any idle engagements between you and your misguided cousin. If we have
+been mistaken in him, is it not a mercy that we have found out our error
+in time? If either of you had any preference for him, your excellent
+good sense, my loves, will teach you to overcome, to eradicate, the vain
+feeling. That we cherished and were kind to him can never be a source of
+regret. 'Tis a proof of our good-nature. What we have to regret, I fear,
+is, that your cousin should have proved unworthy of our kindness, and,
+coming away from the society of gamblers, play-actors, and the like,
+should have brought contamination--pollution, I had almost said--into
+this pure family!"
+
+"Oh, bother mamma's sermons!" says Flora, as my lady pursues a harangue
+of which we only give the commencement here, but during which papa,
+whistling, gently quits the room on tiptoe, whilst the artless Miles
+junior winds his top and pegs it under the robes of his sisters. It has
+done humming, and staggered and tumbled over, and expired in its usual
+tipsy manner, long ere Lady Warrington has finished her sermon.
+
+"Were you listening to me, my child?" she asks, laying her hand on her
+darling's head.
+
+"Yes, mother," says he, with the whipcord in his mouth, and proceeding
+to wind up his sportive engine. "You was a-saying that Harry was very
+poor now, and that we oughtn't to help him. That's what you was saying;
+wasn't it, madam?"
+
+"My poor child, thou wilt understand me better when thou art older!"
+says mamma, turning towards that ceiling to which her eyes always have
+recourse.
+
+"Get out, you little wretch!" cries one of the sisters. The artless one
+has pegged his top at Dora's toes, and laughs with the glee of merry
+boyhood at his sister's discomfiture.
+
+But what is this? Who comes here? Why does Sir Miles return to the
+drawing-room, and why does Tom Claypool, who strides after the Baronet,
+wear a countenance so disturbed?
+
+"Here's a pretty business, my Lady Warrington!" cries Sir Miles. "Here's
+a wonderful wonder of wonders, girls!"
+
+"For goodness' sake, gentlemen, what is your intelligence?" asks the
+virtuous matron.
+
+"The whole town's talking about it, my lady!" says Tom Claypool puffing
+for breath.
+
+"Tom has seen him," continued Sir Miles.
+
+"Seen both of them, my Lady Warrington. They were at Ranelagh last
+night, with a regular mob after 'em. And so like, that but for their
+different ribbons you would hardly have told one from the other. One was
+in blue, the other in brown; but I'm certain he has worn both the suits
+here."
+
+"What suits?"
+
+"What one,--what other?" call the girls.
+
+"Why, your fortunate youth, to be sure."
+
+"Our precious Virginian, and heir to the principality!" says Sir Miles.
+
+"Is my nephew, then, released from his incarceration?" asks her
+ladyship. "And is he again plunged in the vortex of dissip----"
+
+"Confound him!" roars out the Baronet, with an expression which I fear
+was even stronger. "What should you think, my Lady Warrington, if this
+precious nephew of mine should turn out to be an impostor; by George! no
+better than an adventurer?"
+
+"An inward monitor whispered me as much!" cried the lady; "but I
+dashed from me the unworthy suspicion. Speak, Sir Miles, we burn with
+impatience to listen to your intelligence."
+
+"I'll--speak, my love, when you've done," says Sir Miles. "Well, what do
+you think of my gentleman, who comes into my house, dines at my table,
+is treated as one of this family, kisses my--"
+
+"What?" asks Tom Claypool, firing as red as his waistcoat.
+
+"--Hem! Kisses my wife's hand, and is treated in the fondest manner, by
+George! What do you think of this fellow, who talks of his property and
+his principality, by Jupiter!--turning out to be a beggarly SECOND SON!
+A beggar, my Lady Warrington, by----"
+
+"Sir Miles Warrington, no violence of language before these dear ones!
+I sink to the earth, confounded by this unutterable hypocrisy. And did
+I entrust thee to a pretender, my blessed boy? Did I leave thee with an
+impostor, my innocent one?" the matron cries, fondling her son.
+
+"Who's an impostor, my lady?" asks the child.
+
+"That confounded young scamp of a Harry Warrington!" bawls out papa; on
+which the little Miles, after wearing a puzzled look for a moment, and
+yielding to I know not what hidden emotion, bursts out crying.
+
+His admirable mother proposes to clutch him to her heart, but he rejects
+the pure caress, bawling only the louder, and kicking frantically about
+the maternal gremium, as the butler announces "Mr. George Warrington,
+Mr. Henry Warrington!" Miles is dropped from his mother's lap. Sir
+Miles's face emulates Mr. Claypool's waistcoat. The three ladies rise
+up, and make three most frigid curtseys, as our two young men enter the
+room.
+
+Little Miles runs towards them. He holds out a little hand. "Oh, Harry!
+No! which is Harry? You're my Harry," and he chooses rightly this time.
+"Oh, you dear Harry! I'm so glad you are come! and they've been abusing
+you so!"
+
+"I am come to pay my duty to my uncle," says the dark-haired Mr.
+Warrington; "and to thank him for his hospitalities to my brother
+Henry."
+
+"What, nephew George? My brother's face and eyes! Boys both, I am
+delighted to see you!" cries their uncle, grasping affectionately a hand
+of each, as his honest face radiates with pleasure.
+
+"This indeed hath been a most mysterious and a most providential
+resuscitation," says Lady Warrington. "Only I wonder that my nephew
+Henry concealed the circumstance until now," she adds, with a sidelong
+glance at both young gentlemen.
+
+"He knew it no more than your ladyship," says Mr. Warrington. The young
+ladies looked at each other with downcast eyes.
+
+"Indeed, sir! a most singular circumstance," says mamma, with another
+curtsey. "We had heard of it, sir; and Mr. Claypool, our county
+neighbour, had just brought us the intelligence, and it even now formed
+the subject of my conversation with my daughters."
+
+"Yes," cries out a little voice, "and do you know, Harry, father and
+mother said you was a--a imp----"
+
+"Silence, my child! Screwby, convey Master Warrington to his own
+apartment! These, Mr. Warrington--or, I suppose I should say nephew
+George--are your cousins." Two curtseys--two cheeses are made--two hands
+are held out. Mr. Esmond Warrington makes a profound low bow, which
+embraces (and it is the only embrace which the gentleman offers) all
+three ladies. He lays his hat to his heart. He says, "It is my duty,
+madam, to pay my respects to my uncle and cousins, and to thank your
+ladyship for such hospitality as you have been enabled to show to my
+brother."
+
+"It was not much, nephew, but it was our best. Ods bobs!" cries the
+hearty Sir Miles, "it was our best!"
+
+"And I appreciate it, sir," says Mr. Warrington, looking gravely round
+at the family.
+
+"Give us thy hand. Not a word more," says Sir Miles "What? do you think
+I'm a cannibal, and won't extend the hand of hospitality to my dear
+brother's son? What say you, lads? Will you eat our mutton at three?
+This is my neighbour, Tom Claypool, son to Sir Thomas Claypool, Baronet,
+and my very good friend. Hey, Tom! Thou wilt be of the party, Tom? Thou
+knowest our brew, hey, my boy?"
+
+"Yes, I know it, Sir Miles," replies Tom, with no peculiar expression of
+rapture on his face.
+
+"And thou shalt taste it, my boy," thou shalt taste it! What is
+there for dinner, my Lady Warrington? Our food is plain, but plenty,
+lads--plain, but plenty!"
+
+"We cannot partake of it to-day, sir. We dine with a friend who occupies
+my Lord Wrotham's house, your neighbour. Colonel Lambert--Major-General
+Lambert he has just been made."
+
+"With two daughters, I think--countrified-looking girls--are they not?"
+asks Flora.
+
+"I think I have remarked two little rather dowdy things," says Dora.
+
+"They are as good girls as any in England!" breaks out Harry, to whom no
+one had thought of saying a single word. His reign was over, you see. He
+was nobody. What wonder, then, that he should not be visible?
+
+"Oh, indeed, cousin!" says Dora, with a glance at the young man, who
+sate with burning cheeks, chafing at the humiliation put upon him, but
+not knowing how or whether he should notice it. "Oh, indeed, cousin! You
+are very charitable--or very lucky, I'm sure! You see angels where we
+only see ordinary little persons. I'm sure I could not imagine who were
+those odd-looking people in Lord Wrotham's coach, with his handsome
+liveries. But if they were three angels, I have nothing to say."
+
+"My brother is an enthusiast," interposes George. "He is often mistaken
+about women."
+
+"Oh, really!" says Dora, looking a little uneasy.
+
+"I fear my nephew Henry has indeed met with some unfavourable specimens
+of our sex," the matron remarks, with a groan.
+
+"We are so easily taken in, madam--we are both very young yet--we shall
+grow older and learn better."
+
+"Most sincerely, nephew George, I trust you may. You have my best
+wishes, my prayers, for your brother's welfare and your own. No efforts
+of ours have been wanting. At a painful moment, to which I will not
+further allude--"
+
+"And when my uncle Sir Miles was out of town," says George, looking
+towards the Baronet, who smiles at him with affectionate approval.
+
+"--I sent your brother a work which I thought might comfort him, and I
+know might improve him. Nay, do not thank me; I claim no credit; I did
+but my duty--a humble woman's duty--for what are this world's goods,
+nephew, compared to the welfare of a soul? If I did good, I am thankful;
+if I was useful, I rejoice. If, through my means, you have been brought,
+Harry, to consider----"
+
+"Oh! the sermon, is it?" breaks in downright Harry. "I hadn't time to
+read a single syllable of it, aunt--thank you. You see I don't care much
+about that kind of thing--but thank you all the same."
+
+"The intention is everything," says Mr. Warrington, "and we are both
+grateful. Our dear friend, General Lambert, intended to give bail for
+Harry; but, happily, I had funds of Harry's with me to meet any demands
+upon us. But the kindness is the same, and I am grateful to the friend
+who hastened to my brother's rescue when he had most need of aid, and
+when his own relations happened--so unfortunately--to be out of town."
+
+"Anything I could do, my dear boy, I'm sure--my brother's son--my own
+nephew--ods bobs! you know--that is, anything--anything, you know!"
+cries Sir Miles, bringing his own hand into George's with a generous
+smack. "You can't stay and dine with us? Put off the Colonel--the
+General--do, now! Or name a day. My Lady Warrington, make my nephew name
+a day when he will sit under his grandfather's picture, and drink some
+of his wine!"
+
+"His intellectual faculties seem more developed than those of his
+unlucky younger brother," remarked my lady, when the young gentlemen had
+taken their leave. "The younger must be reckless and extravagant about
+money indeed, for did you remark, Sir Miles, the loss of his
+reversion in Virginia--the amount of which has, no doubt, been grossly
+exaggerated, but, nevertheless, must be something considerable--did
+you, I say, remark that the ruin of Harry's prospects scarcely seemed to
+affect him?"
+
+"I shouldn't be at all surprised that the elder turns out to be as poor
+as the young one," says Dora, tossing her head.
+
+"He! he! Did you see that cousin George had one of cousin Harry's suits
+of clothes on--the brown and gold--that one he wore when he went with
+you to the oratorio, Flora?"
+
+"Did he take Flora to an oratorio?" asks Mr. Claypool, fiercely.
+
+"I was ill and couldn't go, and my cousin went with her," says Dora.
+
+"Far be it from me to object to any innocent amusement, much less to the
+music of Mr. Handel, dear Mr. Claypool," says mamma. "Music refines the
+soul, elevates the understanding, is heard in our churches, and
+'tis well known was practised by King David. Your operas I shun as
+deleterious; your ballets I would forbid to my children as most
+immoral; but music, my dears! May we enjoy it, like everything else in
+reason--may we----"
+
+"There's the music of the dinner-bell," says papa, rubbing his hands.
+"Come, girls. Screwby, go and fetch Master Miley. Tom take down my
+lady."
+
+"Nay, dear Thomas, I walk but slowly. Go you with dearest Flora
+downstairs," says Virtue.
+
+But Dora took care to make the evening pleasant by talking of Handel and
+oratorios constantly during dinner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI. Conticuere Omnes
+
+
+Across the way, if the gracious reader will please to step over with
+us, he will find our young gentlemen at Lord Wrotham's house, which
+his lordship has lent to his friend the General, and that little
+family party assembled, with which we made acquaintance at Oakhurst and
+Tunbridge Wells. James Wolfe has promised to come to dinner; but James
+is dancing attendance upon Miss Lowther, and would rather have a glance
+from her eyes than the finest kickshaws dressed by Lord Wrotham's cook,
+or the dessert which is promised for the entertainment at which you
+are just going to sit down. You will make the sixth. You may take Mr.
+Wolfe's place. You may be sure he won't come. As for me, I will stand at
+the sideboard and report the conversation.
+
+Note first, how happy the women look! When Harry Warrington was taken
+by those bailiffs, I had intended to tell you how the good Mrs. Lambert,
+hearing of the boy's mishap, had flown to her husband, and had begged,
+implored, insisted, that her Martin should help him. "Never mind his
+rebeldom of the other day; never mind about his being angry that his
+presents were returned--of course anybody would be angry, much more such
+a high-spirited lad as Harry! Never mind about our being so poor, and
+wanting all our spare money for the boys at college; there must be some
+way of getting him out of the scrape. Did you not get Charles Watkins
+out of the scrape two years ago; and did he not pay you back every
+halfpenny? Yes; and you made a whole family happy, blessed be God! and
+Mrs. Watkins prays for you and blesses you to this very day, and I think
+everything has prospered with us since. And I have no doubt it has made
+you a major-general--no earthly doubt," says the fond wife.
+
+Now, as Martin Lambert requires very little persuasion to do a kind
+action, he in this instance lets himself be persuaded easily enough, and
+having made up his mind to seek for friend James Wolfe, and give bail
+for Harry, he takes his leave and his hat, and squeezes Theo's hand, who
+seems to divine his errand (or perhaps that silly mamma has blabbed it),
+and kisses little Hetty's flushed cheek, and away he goes out of the
+apartment where the girls and their mother are sitting, though he is
+followed out of the room by the latter.
+
+When she is alone with him, that enthusiastic matron cannot control
+her feelings any longer. She flings her arms round her husband's neck,
+kisses him a hundred and twenty-five times in an instant--calls God to
+bless him--cries plentifully on his shoulder; and in this sentimental
+attitude is discovered by old Mrs. Quiggett, my lord's housekeeper, who
+is bustling about the house, and, I suppose, is quite astounded at the
+conjugal phenomenon.
+
+"We have had a tiff, and we are making it up! Don't tell tales out of
+school, Mrs. Quiggett!" says the gentleman, walking off.
+
+"Well, I never!" says Mrs. Quiggett, with a shrill, strident laugh, like
+a venerable old cockatoo--which white, hook-nosed, long-lived bird Mrs.
+Quiggett strongly resembles. "Well, I never!" says Quiggett, laughing
+and shaking her old sides till all her keys, and, as one may fancy, her
+old ribs clatter and jingle.
+
+"Oh, Quiggett!" sobs out Mrs. Lambert, "what a man that is!"
+
+"You've been a-quarrelling, have you, mum, and making it up? That's
+right."
+
+"Quarrel with him? He never told a greater story. My General is an
+angel, Quiggett. I should like to worship him. I should like to fall
+down at his boots and kiss 'em, I should! There never was a man so good
+as my General. What have I done to have such a man? How dare I have such
+a good husband?"
+
+"My dear, I think there's a pair of you," says the old cockatoo; "and
+what would you like for your supper?"
+
+When Lambert comes back very late to that meal, and tells what has
+happened, how Harry is free, and how his brother has come to life, and
+rescued him, you may fancy what a commotion the whole of those people
+are in! If Mrs. Lambert's General was an angel before, what is he now!
+If she wanted to embrace his boots in the morning, pray what further
+office of wallowing degradation would she prefer in the evening? Little
+Hetty comes and nestles up to her father quite silent, and drinks
+a little drop out of his glass. Theo's and mamma's faces beam with
+happiness, like two moons of brightness.... After supper, those four at
+a certain signal fall down on their knees--glad homage paying in awful
+mirth-rejoicing, and with such pure joy as angels do, we read, for the
+sinner that repents. There comes a great knocking at the door whilst
+they are so gathered together. Who can be there? My lord is in the
+country miles off. It is past midnight now; so late have they been, so
+long have they been talking! I think Mrs. Lambert guesses who is there.
+
+"This is George," says a young gentleman, leading in another. "We have
+been to Aunt Bernstein. We couldn't go to bed, Aunt Lambert, without
+coming to thank you too. You dear, dear, good----" There is no more
+speech audible. Aunt Lambert is kissing Harry, Theo has snatched up
+Hetty who is as pale as death, and is hugging her into life again.
+George Warrington stands with his hat off, and then (when Harry's
+transaction is concluded) goes up and kisses Mrs. Lambert's hand: the
+General passes his across his eyes. I protest they are all in a very
+tender and happy state. Generous hearts sometimes feel it, when Wrong
+is forgiven, when Peace is restored, when Love returns that had been
+thought lost.
+
+"We came from Aunt Bernstein's; we saw lights here, you see; we couldn't
+go to sleep without saying good-night to you all," says Harry. "Could
+we, George?"
+
+"'Tis certainly a famous nightcap you have brought us, boys," says the
+General. "When are you to come and dine with us? To-morrow?" No, they
+must go to Madame Bernstein's to-morrow.
+
+The next day, then? Yes, they would come the next day--and that is the
+very day we are writing about: and this is the very dinner, at which, in
+the room of Lieutenant-Colonel James Wolfe, absent on private affairs,
+my gracious reader has just been invited to sit down.
+
+To sit down, and why, if you please? Not to a mere Barmecide dinner--no,
+no--but to hear MR. GEORGE ESMOND WARRINGTON'S STATEMENT, which of
+course he is going to make. Here they all sit--not in my lord's grand
+dining-room, you know, but in the snug study or parlour in front. The
+cloth has been withdrawn, the General has given the King's health, the
+servants have left the room, the guests sit conticent, and so, after a
+little hemming and blushing, Mr. George proceeds:--
+
+"I remember, at the table of our General, how the little Philadelphia
+agent, whose wit and shrewdness we had remarked at home, made the very
+objections to the conduct of the campaign of which its disastrous issue
+showed the justice. 'Of course,' says he, 'your Excellency's troops once
+before Fort Duquesne, such a weak little place will never be able to
+resist such a general, such an army, such artillery, as will there be
+found attacking it. But do you calculate, sir, on the difficulty of
+reaching the place? Your Excellency's march will be through woods almost
+untrodden, over roads which you will have to make yourself, and your
+line will be some four miles long. This slender line, having to make its
+way through the forest, will be subject to endless attacks in front, in
+rear, in flank, by enemies whom you will never see, and whose constant
+practice in war is the dexterous laying of ambuscades.'--'Psha, sir!'
+says the General, 'the savages may frighten your raw American militia'
+(Thank your Excellency for the compliment, Mr. Washington seems to
+say, who is sitting at the table), 'but the Indians will never make
+any impression on his Majesty's regular troops.'--'I heartily hope not,
+sir,' says Mr. Franklin, with a sigh; and of course the gentlemen of the
+General's family sneered at the postmaster, as at a pert civilian who
+had no call to be giving his opinion on matters entirely beyond his
+comprehension.
+
+"We despised the Indians on our own side, and our commander made light
+of them and their service. Our officers disgusted the chiefs who were
+with us by outrageous behaviour to their women. There were not above
+seven or eight who remained with our force. Had we had a couple of
+hundred in our front on that fatal 9th of July, the event of the day
+must have been very different. They would have flung off the attack of
+the French Indians; they would have prevented the surprise and panic
+which ensued. 'Tis known now that the French had even got ready to give
+up their fort, never dreaming of the possibility of a defence, and
+that the French Indians themselves remonstrated against the audacity of
+attacking such an overwhelming force as ours.
+
+"I was with our General with the main body of the troops when the
+firing began in front of us, and one aide-de-camp after another was sent
+forwards. At first the enemy's attack was answered briskly by our own
+advanced people, and our men huzzaed and cheered with good heart. But
+very soon our fire grew slacker, whilst from behind every tree and bush
+round about us came single shots, which laid man after man low. We were
+marching in orderly line, the skirmishers in front, the colours and two
+of our small guns in the centre, the baggage well guarded bringing up
+the rear, and were moving over a ground which was open and clear for a
+mile or two, and for some half mile in breadth, a thick tangled covert
+of brushwood and trees on either side of us. After the firing had
+continued for some brief time in front, it opened from both sides of the
+environing wood on our advancing column. The men dropped rapidly, the
+officers in greater number than the men. At first, as I said, these
+cheered and answered the enemy's fire, our guns even opening on the
+wood, and seeming to silence the French in ambuscade there. But the
+hidden rifle-firing began again. Our men halted, huddled up together, in
+spite of the shouts and orders of the General and officers to advance,
+and fired wildly into the brushwood--of course making no impression.
+Those in advance came running back on the main body frightened, and many
+of them wounded. They reported there were five thousand Frenchmen and a
+legion of yelling Indian devils in front, who were scalping our people
+as they fell. We could hear their cries from the wood around as our
+men dropped under their rifles. There was no inducing the people to go
+forward now. One aide-de-camp after another was sent forward, and never
+returned. At last it came to be my turn, and I was sent with a message
+to Captain Fraser of Halkett's in front, which he was never to receive
+nor I to deliver.
+
+"I had not gone thirty yards in advance when a rifle-ball struck my
+leg, and I fell straightway to the ground. I recollect a rush forward
+of Indians and Frenchmen after that, the former crying their fiendish
+war-cries, the latter as fierce as their savage allies. I was amazed and
+mortified to see how few of the whitecoats there were. Not above a score
+passed me; indeed there were not fifty in the accursed action in which
+two of the bravest regiments of the British army were put to rout.
+
+"One of them, who was half Indian half Frenchman, with mocassins and
+a white uniform coat and cockade, seeing me prostrate on the ground,
+turned back and ran towards me, his musket clubbed over his head to dash
+my brains out and plunder me as I lay. I had my little fusil which
+my Harry gave me when I went on the campaign; it had fallen by me and
+within my reach, luckily: I seized it, and down fell the Frenchman dead
+at six yards before me. I was saved for that time, but bleeding from my
+wound and very faint. I swooned almost in trying to load my piece,
+and it dropped from my hand, and the hand itself sank lifeless to the
+ground.
+
+"I was scarcely in my senses, the yells and shots ringing dimly in
+my ears, when I saw an Indian before me, busied over the body of the
+Frenchman I had just shot, but glancing towards me as I lay on the
+ground bleeding. He first rifled the Frenchman, tearing open his coat,
+and feeling in his pockets: he then scalped him, and with his bleeding
+knife in his mouth advanced towards me. I saw him coming as through a
+film, as in a dream--I was powerless to move, or to resist him.
+
+"He put his knee upon my chest: with one bloody hand he seized my long
+hair and lifted my head from the ground, and as he lifted it, he enabled
+me to see a French officer rapidly advancing behind him.
+
+"Good God! It was young Florac, who was my second in the duel at Quebec.
+'A moi, Florac!' I cried out. 'C'est Georges! aide moi!'
+
+"He started; ran up to me at the cry, laid his hand on the Indian's
+shoulder, and called him to hold. But the savage did not understand
+French, or choose to understand it. He clutched my hair firmer, and
+waving his dripping knife round it, motioned to the French lad to leave
+him to his prey. I could only cry out again and piteously, 'A moi!'
+
+"'Ah, canaille, tu veux du sang? Prends!' said Florac, with a curse; and
+the next moment, and with an ugh, the Indian fell over my chest dead,
+with Florac's sword through his body.
+
+"My friend looked round him. 'Eh!' says he, 'la belle affaire! Where art
+thou wounded? in the leg?' He bound my leg tight round with his sash.
+'The others will kill thee if they find thee here. Ah, tiens! Put me on
+this coat, and this hat with the white cockade. Call out in French if
+any of our people pass. They will take thee for one of us. Thou art
+Brunet of the Quebec Volunteers. God guard thee, Brunet! I must go
+forward. 'Tis a general debacle, and the whole of your redcoats are on
+the run, my poor boy.' Ah, what a rout it was! What a day of disgrace
+for England!
+
+"Florac's rough application stopped the bleeding of my leg, and the kind
+creature helped me to rest against a tree, and to load my fusil, which
+he placed within reach of me, to protect me in case any other marauder
+should have a mind to attack me. And he gave me the gourd of that
+unlucky French soldier, who had lost his own life in the deadly game
+which he had just played against me, and the drink the gourd contained
+served greatly to refresh and invigorate me. Taking a mark of the tree
+against which I lay, and noting the various bearings of the country, so
+as to be able again to find me, the young lad hastened on to the front.
+'Thou seest how much I love thee, George,' he said, 'that I stay behind
+in a moment like this.' I forget whether I told thee Harry, that Florac
+was under some obligation to me. I had won money of him at cards,
+at Quebec--only playing at his repeated entreaty--and there was a
+difficulty about paying, and I remitted his debt to me, and lighted
+my pipe with his note-of-hand. You see, sir, that you are not the only
+gambler in the family.
+
+"At evening, when the dismal pursuit was over, the faithful fellow came
+back to me, with a couple of Indians, who had each reeking scalps at
+their belts, and whom he informed that I was a Frenchman, his brother,
+who had been wounded early in the day, and must be carried back to the
+fort. They laid me in one of their blankets, and carried me, groaning,
+with the trusty Florac by my side. Had he left me, they would assuredly
+have laid me down, plundered me, and added my hair to that of the
+wretches whose bleeding spoils hung at their girdles. He promised them
+brandy at the fort, if they brought me safely there: I have but a dim
+recollection of the journey: the anguish of my wound was extreme: I
+fainted more than once. We came to the end of our march at last. I was
+taken into the fort, and carried to the officer's log-house, and laid
+upon Florac's own bed.
+
+"Happy for me was my insensibility. I had been brought into the fort
+as a wounded French soldier of the garrison. I heard afterwards, that
+during my delirium the few prisoners who had been made on the day of our
+disaster, had been brought under the walls of Duquesne by their savage
+captors, and there horribly burned, tortured, and butchered by the
+Indians, under the eyes of the garrison."
+
+As George speaks, one may fancy a thrill of horror running through his
+sympathising audience. Theo takes Hetty's hand, and looks at George in
+a very alarmed manner. Harry strikes his fist upon the table, and cries,
+"The bloody, murderous, red-skinned villains! There will never be peace
+for us until they are all hunted down!"
+
+"They were offering a hundred and thirty dollars apiece for Indian
+scalps in Pennsylvania, when I left home," says George, demurely, "and
+fifty for women."
+
+"Fifty for women, my love! Do you hear that, Mrs. Lambert?" cries the
+Colonel, lifting up his wife's hair.
+
+"The murderous villains!" says Harry, again. "Hunt 'em down, sir! Hunt
+'em down!"
+
+"I know not how long I lay in my fever," George resumed. "When I awoke
+to my senses, my dear Florac was gone. He and his company had been
+despatched on an enterprise against an English fort on the Pennsylvanian
+territory, which the French claimed, too. In Duquesne, when I came to
+be able to ask and understand what was said to me, there were not above
+thirty Europeans left. The place might have been taken over and over
+again, had any of our people had the courage to return after their
+disaster.
+
+"My old enemy the ague-fever set in again upon me as I lay here by the
+river-side. 'Tis a wonder how I ever survived. But for the goodness of
+a half-breed woman in the fort, who took pity on me, and tended me, I
+never should have recovered, and my poor Harry would be what he fancied
+himself yesterday, our grandfather's heir, our mother's only son.
+
+"I remembered how, when Florac laid me in his bed, he put under my
+pillow my money, my watch, and a trinket or two which I had. When I
+woke to myself these were all gone; and a surly old sergeant, the only
+officer left in the quarter, told me, with a curse, that I was lucky
+enough to be left with my life at all; that it was only my white cockade
+and coat had saved me from the fate which the other canaille of Rosbifs
+had deservedly met with.
+
+"At the time of my recovery the fort was almost emptied of the garrison.
+The Indians had retired enriched with British plunder, and the chief
+part of the French regulars were gone upon expeditions northward. My
+good Florac had left me upon his service, consigning me to the care of
+an invalided sergeant. Monsieur de Contrecoeur had accompanied one of
+these expeditions, leaving an old lieutenant, Museau by name, in command
+at Duquesne.
+
+"This man had long been out of France, and serving in the colonies. His
+character, doubtless, had been indifferent at home; and he knew that,
+according to the system pursued in France, where almost all promotion is
+given to the noblesse, he never would advance in rank. And he had made
+free with my guineas, I suppose, as he had with my watch, for I saw it
+one day on his chest when I was sitting with him in his quarter.
+
+"Monsieur Museau and I managed to be pretty good friends. If I could be
+exchanged, or sent home, I told him that my mother would pay liberally
+for my ransom; and I suppose this idea excited the cupidity of the
+commandant, for a trapper coming in the winter, whilst I still lay very
+ill with fever, Museau consented that I should write home to my mother,
+but that the letter should be in French, that he should see it, and
+that I should say I was in the hands of the Indians, and should not be
+ransomed under ten thousand livres.
+
+"In vain I said I was a prisoner to the troops of his Most Christian
+Majesty, that I expected the treatment of a gentleman and an officer.
+Museau swore that letter should go, and no other; that if I hesitated,
+he would fling me out of the fort, or hand me over to the tender mercies
+of his ruffian Indian allies. He would not let the trapper communicate
+with me except in his presence. Life and liberty are sweet. I resisted
+for a while, but I was pulled down with weakness, and shuddering with
+fever; I wrote such a letter as the rascal consented to let pass, and
+the trapper went away with my missive, which he promised, in three
+weeks, to deliver to my mother in Virginia.
+
+"Three weeks, six, twelve, passed. The messenger never returned. The
+winter came and went, and all our little plantations round the fort,
+where the French soldiers had cleared corn-ground and planted gardens
+and peach- and apple-trees down to the Monongahela, were in full
+blossom. Heaven knows how I crept through the weary time! When I was
+pretty well, I made drawings of the soldiers of the garrison, and of the
+half-breed and her child (Museau's child), and of Museau himself, whom,
+I am ashamed to say, I flattered outrageously; and there was an old
+guitar left in the fort, and I sang to it, and played on it some French
+airs which I knew, and ingratiated myself as best I could with my
+gaolers; and so the weary months passed, but the messenger never
+returned.
+
+"At last news arrived that he had been shot by some British Indians in
+Maryland: so there was an end of my hope of ransom for some months more.
+This made Museau very savage and surly towards me; the more so as his
+sergeant inflamed his rage by telling him that the Indian woman was
+partial to me--as I believe, poor thing, she was. I was always gentle
+with her, and grateful to her. My small accomplishments seemed wonders
+in her eyes; I was ill and unhappy, too, and these are always claims to
+a woman's affection.
+
+"A captive pulled down by malady, a ferocious gaoler, and a young woman
+touched by the prisoner's misfortunes--sure you expect that, with these
+three prime characters in a piece, some pathetic tragedy is going to be
+enacted? You, Miss Hetty, are about to guess that the woman saved me?"
+
+"Why, of course she did!" cries mamma.
+
+"What else is she good for?" says Hetty.
+
+"You, Miss Theo, have painted her already as a dark beauty--is it not
+so? A swift huntress--"
+
+"Diana with a baby," says the Colonel.
+
+"--Who scours the plain with her nymphs, who brings down the game with
+her unerring bow, who is queen of the forest--and I see by your looks
+that you think I am madly in love with her?"
+
+"Well, I suppose she is an interesting creature, Mr. George?" says Theo,
+with a blush.
+
+"What think you of a dark beauty, the colour of new mahogany with long
+straight black hair, which was usually dressed with a hair-oil or
+pomade by no means pleasant to approach, with little eyes, with high
+cheek-bones, with a flat nose, sometimes ornamented with a ring, with
+rows of glass beads round her tawny throat, her cheeks and forehead
+gracefully tattooed, a great love of finery, and inordinate passion
+for--oh! must I own it?"
+
+"For coquetry. I know you are going to say that!" says Miss Hetty.
+
+"For whisky, my dear Miss Hester--in which appetite my gaoler partook;
+so that I have often sate by, on the nights when I was in favour with
+Monsieur Museau, and seen him and his poor companion hob-and-nobbing
+together until they could scarce hold the noggin out of which they
+drank. In these evening entertainments, they would sing, they would
+dance, they would fondle, they would quarrel, and knock the cans and
+furniture about; and, when I was in favour, I was admitted to share
+their society, for Museau, jealous of his dignity, or not willing that
+his men should witness his behaviour, would allow none of them to be
+familiar with him.
+
+"Whilst the result of the trapper's mission to my home was yet
+uncertain, and Museau and I myself expected the payment of my ransom, I
+was treated kindly enough, allowed to crawl about the fort, and even to
+go into the adjoining fields and gardens, always keeping my parole, and
+duly returning before gun-fire. And I exercised a piece of hypocrisy,
+for which, I hope, you will hold me excused. When my leg was sound (the
+ball came out in the winter, after some pain and inflammation, and the
+wound healed up presently), I yet chose to walk as if I was disabled
+and a cripple; I hobbled on two sticks, and cried Ah! and Oh! at every
+minute, hoping that a day might come when I might treat my limbs to a
+run.
+
+"Museau was very savage when he began to give up all hopes of the first
+messenger. He fancied that the man might have got the ransom-money and
+fled with it himself. Of course he was prepared to disown any part in
+the transaction, should my letter be discovered. His treatment of me
+varied according to his hopes or fears, or even his mood for the time
+being. He would have me consigned to my quarters for several days at a
+time; then invite me to his tipsy supper-table, quarrel with me there,
+and abuse my nation; or again break out into maudlin sentimentalities
+about his native country of Normandy, where he longed to spend his old
+age, to buy a field or two, and to die happy.
+
+"'Eh, Monsieur Museau!' says I, 'ten thousand livres of your money would
+buy a pretty field or two in your native country? You can have it for
+the ransom of me, if you will but let me go. In a few months you must
+be superseded in your command here, and then adieu the crowns and
+the fields in Normandy! You had better trust a gentleman and a man of
+honour. Let me go home, and I give you my word the ten thousand livres
+shall be paid to any agent you may appoint in France or in Quebec.'
+
+"'Ah, young traitor!' roars he, 'do you wish to tamper with my honour?
+Do you believe an officer of France will take a bribe? I have a mind to
+consign thee to my black-hole, and to have thee shot in the morning.'
+
+"'My poor body will never fetch ten thousand livres,' says I; 'and a
+pretty field in Normandy with a cottage...'
+
+"'And an orchard. Ah, sacre bleu!' says Museau, whimpering, 'and a dish
+of tripe a la mode du pays!..."
+
+"This talk happened between us again and again, and Museau would order
+me to my quarters, and then ask me to supper the next night, and return
+to the subject of Normandy, and cider, and trippes a la mode de Caen. My
+friend is dead now--"
+
+"He was hung, I trust?" breaks in Colonel Lambert.
+
+"--And I need keep no secret about him. Ladies, I wish I had to offer
+you the account of a dreadful and tragical escape; how I slew all the
+sentinels of the fort; filed through the prison windows, destroyed a
+score or so of watchful dragons, overcame a million of dangers, and
+finally effected my freedom. But, in regard of that matter, I have no
+heroic deeds to tell of, and own that, by bribery and no other means, I
+am where I am."
+
+"But you would have fought, Georgy, if need were," says Harry; "and you
+couldn't conquer a whole garrison, you know!" And herewith Mr. Harry
+blushed very much.
+
+"See the women, how disappointed they are!" says Lambert. "Mrs. Lambert,
+you bloodthirsty woman, own that you are balked of a battle; and look at
+Hetty, quite angry because Mr. George did not shoot the commandant."
+
+"You wished he was hung yourself, papa!" cries Miss Hetty, "and I am
+sure I wish anything my papa wishes."
+
+"Nay, ladies," says George, turning a little red, "to wink at a
+prisoner's escape was not a very monstrous crime; and to take money?
+Sure other folks besides Frenchmen have condescended to a bribe before
+now. Although Monsieur Museau set me free, I am inclined, for my part,
+to forgive him. Will it please you to hear how that business was done?
+You see, Miss Hetty, I cannot help being alive to tell it."
+
+"Oh, George!--that is, I mean, Mr. Warrington!--that is, I mean, I beg
+your pardon!" cries Hester.
+
+"No pardon, my dear! I never was angry yet or surprised that any one
+should like my Harry better than me. He deserves all the liking that
+any man or woman can give him. See, it is his turn to blush now," says
+George.
+
+"Go on, Georgy, and tell them about the escape out of Duquesne!" cries
+Harry, and he said to Mrs. Lambert afterwards in confidence, "You know
+he is always going on saying that he ought never to have come to life
+again, and declaring that I am better than he is. The idea of my being
+better than George, Mrs. Lambert! a poor, extravagant fellow like me!
+It's absurd!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII. Intentique Ora tenebant
+
+
+"We continued for months our weary life at the fort, and the commandant
+and I had our quarrels and reconciliations, our greasy games at cards,
+our dismal duets with his asthmatic flute and my cracked guitar. The
+poor Fawn took her beatings and her cans of liquor as her lord and
+master chose to administer them; and she nursed her papoose, or her
+master in the gout, or her prisoner in the ague; and so matters went on
+until the beginning of the fall of last year, when we were visited by a
+hunter who had important news to deliver to the commandant, and such as
+set the little garrison in no little excitement. The Marquis de Montcalm
+had sent a considerable detachment to garrison the forts already in the
+French hands, and to take up further positions in the enemy's--that is,
+in the British--possessions. The troops had left Quebec and Montreal,
+and were coming up the St. Lawrence and the lakes in bateaux, with
+artillery and large provisions of warlike and other stores. Museau would
+be superseded in his command by an officer of superior rank, who might
+exchange me, or who might give me up to the Indians in reprisal for
+cruelties practised by our own people on many and many an officer
+and soldier of the enemy. The men of the fort were eager for the
+reinforcements; they would advance into Pennsylvania and New York; they
+would seize upon Albany and Philadelphia; they would drive the Rosbifs
+into the sea, and all America should be theirs from the Mississippi to
+Newfoundland.
+
+"This was all very triumphant: but yet, somehow, the prospect of the
+French conquest did not add to Mr. Museau's satisfaction.
+
+"'Eh, commandant!' says I, ''tis fort bien, but meanwhile your farm in
+Normandy, the pot of cider, and the trippes a la mode de Caen, where are
+they?'
+
+"'Yes; 'tis all very well, my garcon,' says he. 'But where will you
+be when poor old Museau is superseded? Other officers are not good
+companions like me. Very few men in the world have my humanity. When
+there is a great garrison here, will my successors give thee the
+indulgences which honest Museau has granted thee? Thou wilt be kept in
+a sty like a pig ready for killing. As sure as one of our officers falls
+into the hands of your brigands of frontier-men, and evil comes to him,
+so surely wilt thou have to pay with thy skin for his. Thou wilt be
+given up to our red allies--to the brethren of La Biche yonder. Didst
+thou see, last year, what they did to thy countrymen whom we took in
+the action with Braddock? Roasting was the very smallest punishment, ma
+foi--was it not, La Biche?'
+
+"And he entered into a variety of jocular descriptions of tortures
+inflicted, eyes burned out of their sockets, teeth and nails wrenched
+out, limbs and bodies gashed--You turn pale, dear Miss Theo! Well, I
+will have pity, and will spare you the tortures which honest Museau
+recounted in his pleasant way as likely to befall me.
+
+"La Biche was by no means so affected as you seem to be, ladies, by the
+recital of these horrors. She had witnessed them in her time. She came
+from the Senecas, whose villages lie near the great cataract between
+Ontario and Erie; her people made war for the English, and against them:
+they had fought with other tribes; and, in the battles between us
+and them, it is difficult to say whether whiteskin or redskin is most
+savage.
+
+"'They may chop me into cutlets and broil me, 'tis true, commandant,'
+says I, coolly. 'But again, I say, you will never have the farm in
+Normandy.'
+
+"'Go get the whisky-bottle, La Biche,' says Museau.
+
+"'And it is not too late, even now. I will give the guide who takes me
+home a large reward. And again I say, I promise, as a man of honour,
+ten thousand livres to--whom shall I say? to one who shall bring me any
+token--who shall bring me, say, my watch and seal with my grandfather's
+arms--which I have seen in a chest somewhere in this fort.'
+
+"'Ah, scelerat!' roars out the commandant, with a hoarse yell of
+laughter. 'Thou hast eyes, thou! All is good prize in war.'
+
+"'Think of a house in your village, of a fine field hard by with a
+half-dozen of cows--of a fine orchard all covered with fruit.'
+
+"'And Javotte at the door with her wheel, and a rascal of a child,
+or two, with cheeks as red as the apples! O my country! O my mother!"
+whimpers out the commandant. 'Quick, La Biche, the whisky!'
+
+"All that night the commandant was deep in thought, and La Biche, too,
+silent and melancholy. She sate away from us, nursing her child, and
+whenever my eyes turned towards her I saw hers were fixed on me. The
+poor little infant began to cry, and was ordered away by Museau, with
+his usual foul language, to the building which the luckless Biche
+occupied with her child. When she was gone, we both of us spoke our
+minds freely; and I put such reasons before monsieur as his cupidity
+could not resist.
+
+"'How do you know,' he asked, 'that this hunter will serve you?'
+
+"'That is my secret,' says I. But here, if you like, as we are not on
+honour, I may tell it. When they come into the settlements for their
+bargains, the hunters often stop a day or two for rest and drink and
+company, and our new friend loved all these. He played at cards with
+the men: he set his furs against their liquor: he enjoyed himself at
+the fort, singing, dancing, and gambling with them. I think I said they
+liked to listen to my songs, and for want of better things to do, I was
+often singing and guitar-scraping: and we would have many a concert,
+the men joining in chorus, or dancing to my homely music, until it was
+interrupted by the drums and the retraite.
+
+"Our guest the hunter was present at one or two of these concerts, and I
+thought I would try if possibly he understood English. After we had had
+our little stock of French songs, I said, 'My lads, I will give you an
+English song,' and to the tune of 'Over the hills and far away,' which
+my good old grandfather used to hum as a favourite air in Marlborough's
+camp, I made some doggerel words:--'This long, long year, a prisoner
+drear; Ah, me! I'm tired of lingering here: I'll give a hundred guineas
+gay, To be over the hills and far away.'
+
+"'What is it?' says the hunter. 'I don't understand.'
+
+"''Tis a girl to her lover,' I answered; but I saw by the twinkle in the
+man's eye that he understood me.
+
+"The next day, when there were no men within hearing, the trapper showed
+that I was right in my conjecture, for as he passed me he hummed in a
+low tone, but in perfectly good English, 'Over the hills and far away,'
+the burden of my yesterday's doggerel.
+
+"'If you are ready,' says he, 'I am ready. I know who your people are,
+and the way to them. Talk to the Fawn, and she will tell you what to
+do. What! You will not play with me?' Here he pulled out some cards, and
+spoke in French as two soldiers came up. 'Milor est trop grand seigneur?
+Bonjour, my lord!'
+
+"And the man made me a mock bow, and walked away, shrugging up his
+shoulders, to offer to play and drink elsewhere.
+
+"I knew now that the Biche was to be the agent in the affair, and that
+my offer to Museau was accepted. The poor Fawn performed her part very
+faithfully and dexterously. I had not need of a word more with Museau;
+the matter was understood between us. The Fawn had long been allowed
+free communication with me. She had tended me during my wound and in my
+illnesses, helped to do the work of my little chamber, my cooking, and
+so forth. She was free to go out of the fort, as I have said, and to
+the river and the fields whence the corn and garden-stuff of the little
+garrison were brought in.
+
+"Having gambled away most of the money which he received for his
+peltries, the trapper now got together his store of flints, powder, and
+blankets, and took his leave. And, three days after his departure, the
+Fawn gave me the signal that the time was come for me to make my little
+trial for freedom.
+
+"When first wounded, I had been taken by my kind Florac and placed on
+his bed in the officers' room. When the fort was emptied of all officers
+except the old lieutenant left in command, I had been allowed to remain
+in my quarters, sometimes being left pretty free, sometimes being locked
+up and fed on prisoners' rations, sometimes invited to share his mess by
+my tipsy gaoler.
+
+"This officers' house, or room, was of logs like the half-dozen others
+within the fort, which mounted only four guns of small calibre, of which
+one was on the bastion behind my cabin. Looking westward over this gun,
+you could see a small island at the confluence of the two rivers Ohio
+and Monongahela whereon Duquesne is situated. On the shore opposite this
+island were some trees.
+
+"'You see those trees?' my poor Biche said to me the day before, in her
+French jargon. 'He wait for you behind those trees.'
+
+"In the daytime the door of my quarters was open, and the Biche free to
+come and go. On the day before she came in from the fields with a pick
+in her hand and a basketful of vegetables and potherbs for soup. She sat
+down on a bench at my door, the pick resting against it, and the basket
+at her side. I stood talking to her for a while: but I believe I was so
+idiotic that I never should have thought of putting the pick to any use
+had she actually pushed it into my open door, so that it fell into my
+room. 'Hide it' she said; 'want it soon.' And that afternoon it was, she
+pointed out the trees to me.
+
+"On the next day, she comes, pretending to be very angry, and calls out,
+'My lord! my lord! why you not come to commandant's dinner? He very bad!
+Entendez-vows?' And she peeps into the room as she speaks, and flings a
+coil of rope at me.
+
+"'I am coming, La Biche,' says I, and hobbled after her on my crutch.
+As I went in to the commandant's quarters she says, 'Pour ce soir.' And
+then I knew the time was come.
+
+"As for Museau, he knew nothing about the matter. Not he! He growled at
+me, and said the soup was cold. He looked me steadily in the face, and
+talked of this and that; not only whilst his servant was present, but
+afterwards as we smoked our pipes and played our game at piquet; whilst
+according to her wont, the poor Biche sate cowering in a corner.
+
+"My friend's whisky-bottle was empty; and he said, with rather a knowing
+look, he must have another glass--we must both have a glass that night.
+And rising from the table he stumped to the inner room where he kept his
+fire-water under lock and key, and away from the poor Biche, who could
+not resist that temptation.
+
+"As he turned his back the Biche raised herself; and he was no sooner
+gone but she was at my feet, kissing my hand, pressing it to her heart,
+and bursting into tears over my knees. I confess I was so troubled by
+this testimony of the poor creature's silent attachment and fondness,
+the extent of which I scarce had suspected before, that when Museau
+returned, I had not recovered my equanimity, though the poor Fawn was
+back in her corner again and shrouded in her blanket.
+
+"He did not appear to remark anything strange in the behaviour of
+either. We sate down to our game, though my thoughts were so preoccupied
+that I scarcely knew what cards were before me.
+
+"'I gain everything from you to-night, milor,' says he, grimly. 'We play
+upon parole.'
+
+"'And you may count upon mine,' I replied.
+
+"'Eh! 'tis all that you have!' says he.
+
+"'Monsieur,' says I, 'my word is good for ten thousand livres;' and we
+continued our game.
+
+"At last he said he had a headache, and would go to bed, and I
+understood the orders too, that I was to retire. 'I wish you a good
+night, mon petit milor,' says he,--'stay, you will fall without your
+crutch,'--and his eyes twinkled at me, and his face wore a sarcastic
+grin. In the agitation of the moment I had quite forgotten that I was
+lame, and was walking away at a pace as good as a grenadier's.
+
+"'What a vilain night!' says he, looking out. In fact there was a
+tempest abroad, and a great roaring, and wind. 'Bring a lanthorn, La
+Tulipe, and lock my lord comfortably into his quarters!' He stood a
+moment looking at me from his own door, and I saw a glimpse of the poor
+Biche behind him.
+
+"The night was so rainy that the sentries preferred their boxes, and did
+not disturb me in my work. The log-house was built with upright posts,
+deeply fixed in the ground, and horizontal logs laid upon it. I had to
+dig under these, and work a hole sufficient to admit my body to pass. I
+began in the dark, soon after tattoo. It was some while after midnight
+before my work was done, when I lifted my hand up under the log and felt
+the rain from without falling upon it. I had to work very cautiously for
+two hours after that, and then crept through to the parapet and silently
+flung my rope over the gun; not without a little tremor of heart, lest
+the sentry should see me and send a charge of lead into my body.
+
+"The wall was but twelve feet, and my fall into the ditch easy enough. I
+waited a while there, looking steadily under the gun, and trying to see
+the river and the island. I heard the sentry pacing up above and humming
+a tune. The darkness became more clear to me ere long, and the moon
+rose, and I saw the river shining before me, and the dark rocks and
+trees of the island rising in the waters.
+
+"I made for this mark as swiftly as I could, and for the clump of trees
+to which I had been directed. Oh, what a relief I had when I heard a low
+voice humming there, 'Over the hills and far away'!"
+
+When Mr. George came to this part of his narrative, Miss Theo, who was
+seated by a harpsichord, turned round and dashed off the tune on the
+instrument, whilst all the little company broke out into the merry
+chorus.
+
+"Our way," the speaker went on, "lay through a level tract of
+forest with which my guide was familiar, upon the right bank of the
+Monongahela. By daylight we came to a clearer country, and my trapper
+asked me--Silverheels was the name by which he went--had I ever seen
+the spot before? It was the fatal field where Braddock had fallen, and
+whence I had been wonderfully rescued in the summer of the previous
+year. Now, the leaves were beginning to be tinted with the magnificent
+hues of our autumn."
+
+"Ah, brother!" cries Harry, seizing his brother's hand. "I was gambling
+and making a fool of myself at the Wells and in London, when my
+George was flying for his life in the wilderness! Oh, what a miserable
+spendthrift I have been!"
+
+"But I think thou art not unworthy to be called thy mother's son," said
+Mrs. Lambert, very softly, and with moistened eyes. Indeed, if Harry
+had erred, to mark his repentance, his love, his unselfish joy and
+generosity, was to feel that there was hope for the humbled and kind
+young sinner.
+
+"We presently crossed the river" George resumed, "taking our course
+along the base of the western slopes of the Alleghanies; and through a
+grand forest region of oaks and maple, and enormous poplars that grow
+a hundred feet high without a branch. It was the Indians whom we had
+to avoid, besides the outlying parties of French. Always of doubtful
+loyalty, the savages have been specially against us, since our
+ill-treatment of them, and the French triumph over us two years ago.
+
+"I was but weak still, and our journey through the wilderness lasted a
+fortnight or more. As we advanced, the woods became redder and redder.
+The frost nipped sharply of nights. We lighted fires at our feet, and
+slept in our blankets as best we might. At this time of year the hunters
+who live in the mountains get their sugar from the maples. We came upon
+more than one such family, camping near their trees by the mountain
+streams; and they welcomed us at their fires, and gave us of their
+venison. So we passed over the two ranges of the Laurel Hills and the
+Alleghanies. The last day's march of my trusty guide and myself took us
+down that wild, magnificent pass of Will's Creek, a valley lying between
+cliffs near a thousand feet high--bald, white, and broken into towers
+like huge fortifications, with eagles wheeling round the summits of the
+rocks, and watching their nests among the crags.
+
+"And hence we descended to Cumberland, whence we had marched in the year
+before, and where there was now a considerable garrison of our people.
+Oh! you may think it was a welcome day when I saw English colours again
+on the banks of our native Potomac!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII. Where we remain at the Court End of the Town
+
+
+George Warrington had related the same story, which we have just heard,
+to Madame de Bernstein on the previous evening--a portion, that is, of
+the history; for the old lady nodded off to sleep many times during
+the narration, only waking up when George paused, saying it was most
+interesting, and ordering him to continue. The young gentleman hem'd and
+ha'd, and stuttered, and blushed, and went on, much against his will,
+and did not speak half so well as he did to his friendly little auditory
+in Hill Street, where Hetty's eyes of wonder and Theo's sympathising
+looks, and mamma's kind face, and papa's funny looks, were applause
+sufficient to cheer any modest youth who required encouragement for his
+eloquence. As for mamma's behaviour, the General said, 'twas as good as
+Mr. Addison's trunk-maker, and she would make the fortune of any tragedy
+by simply being engaged to cry in the front boxes. That is why we chose
+my Lord Wrotham's house as the theatre where George's first piece should
+be performed, wishing that he should speak to advantage, and not as when
+he was heard by that sleepy, cynical old lady, to whom he had to narrate
+his adventures.
+
+"Very good and most interesting, I am sure, my dear sir," says Madame
+Bernstein, putting up three pretty little fingers covered with a lace
+mitten, to hide a convulsive movement of her mouth. "And your mother
+must have been delighted to see you."
+
+George shrugged his shoulders ever so little, and made a low bow, as his
+aunt looked up at him for a moment with her keen old eyes.
+
+"Have been delighted to see you" she continued drily, "and killed the
+fatted calf, and--and that kind of thing. Though why I say calf, I don't
+know, nephew George, for you never were the prodigal. I may say calf to
+thee, my poor Harry! Thou hast been amongst the swine sure enough. And
+evil companions have robbed the money out of thy pocket and the coat off
+thy back.
+
+"He came to his family in England, madam," says George, with some heat,
+"and his friends were your ladyship's."
+
+"He could not have come to worse advisers, nephew Warrington, and so I
+should have told my sister earlier, had she condescended to write to me
+by him, as she has done by you," said the old lady, tossing up her head.
+"Hey! hey!" she said, at night, as she arranged herself for the rout to
+which she was going, to her waiting-maid: "this young gentleman's mother
+is half sorry that he has come to life again, I could see that in his
+face. She is half sorry, and I am perfectly furious! Why didn't he
+lie still when he dropped there under the tree, and why did that young
+Florac carry him to the fort? I knew those Floracs when I was at Paris,
+in the time of Monsieur le Regent. They were of the Floracs of Ivry. No
+great house before Henri IV. His ancestor was the king's favourite.
+His ancestor--he! he!--his ancestress! Brett! entendez-vous? Give me my
+card-purse. I don't like the grand airs of this Monsieur George; and yet
+he resembles, very much, his grandfather--the same look and sometimes
+the same tones. You have heard of Colonel Esmond when I was young? This
+boy has his eyes. I suppose I liked the Colonel's because he loved me."
+
+Being engaged, then, to a card-party,--an amusement which she never
+missed, week-day or Sabbath, as long as she had strength to hold trumps
+or sit in a chair,--very soon after George had ended his narration the
+old lady dismissed her two nephews, giving to the elder a couple of
+fingers and a very stately curtsey; but to Harry two hands and a kindly
+pat on the cheek.
+
+"My poor child, now thou art disinherited, thou wilt see how differently
+the world will use thee!" she said. "There is only, in all London, a
+wicked, heartless old woman who will treat thee as before. Here is a
+pocket-book for you, child! Do not lose it at Ranelagh to-night. That
+suit of yours does not become your brother half so well as it sat upon
+you! You will present your brother to everybody, and walk up and down
+the room for two hours at least, child. Were I you, I would then go to
+the Chocolate-House, and play as if nothing had happened. Whilst you are
+there, your brother may come back to me and eat a bit of chicken
+with me. My Lady Flint gives wretched suppers, and I want to talk his
+mother's letter over with him. Au revoir, gentlemen!" and she went away
+to her toilette. Her chairmen and flambeaux were already waiting at the
+door.
+
+The gentlemen went to Ranelagh, where but a few of Mr. Harry's
+acquaintances chanced to be present. They paced the round, and met Mr.
+Tom Claypool with some of his country friends; they heard the music;
+they drank tea in a box; Harry was master of ceremonies, and introduced
+his brother to the curiosities of the place; and George was even more
+excited than his brother had been on his first introduction to this
+palace of delight. George loved music much more than Harry ever did;
+he heard a full orchestra for the first time, and a piece of Mr. Handel
+satisfactorily performed; and a not unpleasing instance of Harry's
+humility and regard for his elder brother was, that he could even hold
+George's love of music in respect at a time when fiddling was voted
+effeminate and unmanly in England, and Britons were, every day, called
+upon by the patriotic prints to sneer at the frivolous accomplishments
+of your Squallinis, Monsieurs, and the like. Nobody in Britain is proud
+of his ignorance now. There is no conceit left among us. There is no
+such thing as dulness. Arrogance is entirely unknown... Well, at any
+rate, Art has obtained her letters of naturalisation, and lives here on
+terms of almost equality. If Mrs. Thrale chose to marry a music-master
+now, I don't think her friends would shudder at the mention of her name.
+If she had a good fortune and kept a good cook, people would even go and
+dine with her in spite of the misalliance, and actually treat Mr. Piozzi
+with civility.
+
+After Ranelagh, and pursuant to Madam Bernstein's advice, George
+returned to her ladyship's house, whilst Harry showed himself at the
+club, where gentlemen were accustomed to assemble at night to sup, and
+then to gamble. No one, of course, alluded to Mr. Warrington's little
+temporary absence, and Mr. Ruff, his ex-landlord, waited upon him with
+the utmost gravity and civility, and as if there had never been any
+difference between them. Mr. Warrington had caused his trunks and
+habiliments to be conveyed away from Bond Street in the morning, and he
+and his brother were now established in apartments elsewhere.
+
+But when the supper was done, and the gentlemen, as usual, were about to
+seek the macco-table upstairs, Harry said he was not going to play
+any more. He had burned his fingers already, and could afford no more
+extravagance.
+
+"Why," says Mr. Morris, in a rather flippant manner, "you must have won
+more than you have lost, Mr. Warrington, after all is said and done."
+
+"And of course I don't know my own business as well as you do, Mr.
+Morris," says Harry sternly, who had not forgotten the other's behaviour
+on hearing of his arrest; "but I have another reason. A few months
+or days ago, I was heir to a great estate, and could afford to lose
+a little money. Now, thank God, I am heir to nothing." And he looked
+round, blushing not a little, to the knot of gentlemen, his gaming
+associates, who were lounging at the tables or gathered round the fire.
+
+"How do you mean, Mr. Warrington?" cries my Lord March, "Have you lost
+Virginia, too? Who has won it? I always had a fancy to play you myself
+for that stake."
+
+"And grow an improved breed of slaves in the colony," says another.
+
+"The right owner has won it. You have heard me tell of my twin elder
+brother?"
+
+"Who was killed in that affair of Braddock's two years ago! Yes.
+Gracious goodness, my dear sir, I hope in heaven he has not come to life
+again?"
+
+"He arrived in London two days since. He has been a prisoner in a French
+fort for eighteen months; he only escaped a few months ago, and left our
+house in Virginia very soon after his release."
+
+"You haven't had time to order mourning, I suppose, Mr. Warrington?"
+asks Mr. Selwyn very good-naturedly, and simple Harry hardly knew the
+meaning of his joke until his brother interpreted it to him.
+
+"Hang me, if I don't believe the fellow is absolutely glad of the
+reappearance of his confounded brother!" cries my Lord March, as they
+continued to talk of the matter when the young Virginian had taken his
+leave.
+
+"These savages practise the simple virtues of affection--they are barely
+civilised in America yet," yawns Selwyn.
+
+"They love their kindred, and they scalp their enemies," simpers Mr.
+Walpole. "It's not Christian, but natural. Shouldn't you like to be
+present at a scalping-match, George, and see a fellow skinned alive?"
+
+"A man's elder brother is his natural enemy," says Mr. Selwyn, placidly
+ranging his money and counters before him.
+
+"Torture is like broiled bones and pepper. You wouldn't relish simple
+hanging afterwards, George!" continues Horry.
+
+"I'm hanged if there's any man in England who would like to see his
+elder brother alive," says my lord.
+
+"No, nor his father either, my lord!" cries Jack Morris.
+
+"First time I ever knew you had one, Jack. Give me counters for five
+hundred."
+
+"I say, 'tis all mighty fine about dead brothers coming to life again,"
+continues Jack. "Who is to know that it wasn't a scheme arranged between
+these two fellows? Here comes a young fellow who calls himself the
+Fortunate Youth, who says he is a Virginian Prince and the deuce knows
+what, and who gets into our society----"
+
+A great laugh ensues at Jack's phrase of "our society."
+
+"Who is to know that it wasn't a cross?" Jack continues. "The young one
+is to come first. He is to marry an heiress, and, when he has got her,
+up is to rise the elder brother! When did this elder brother show? Why,
+when the younger's scheme was blown, and all was up with him! Who shall
+tell me that the fellow hasn't been living in Seven Dials, or in a
+cellar dining off tripe and cow-heel until my younger gentleman was
+disposed of? Dammy, as gentlemen, I think we ought to take notice of it:
+and that this Mr. Warrington has been taking a most outrageous liberty
+with the whole club."
+
+"Who put him up? It was March, I think, put him up?" asks a bystander.
+
+"Yes. But my lord thought he was putting up a very different person.
+Didn't you, March?"
+
+"Hold your confounded tongue, and mind your game!" says the nobleman
+addressed: but Jack Morris's opinion found not a few supporters in the
+world. Many persons agreed that it was most indecorous of Mr. Harry
+Warrington to have ever believed in his brother's death: that there
+was something suspicious about the young man's first appearance and
+subsequent actions, and, in fine, that regarding these foreigners,
+adventurers, and the like, we ought to be especially cautious.
+
+Though he was out of prison and difficulty; though he had his aunt's
+liberal donation of money in his pocket; though his dearest brother
+was restored to him, whose return to life Harry never once thought of
+deploring, as his friends at White's supposed he would do; though Maria
+had shown herself in such a favourable light by her behaviour during
+his misfortune: yet Harry, when alone, felt himself not particularly
+cheerful, and smoked his pipe of Virginia with a troubled mind. It was
+not that he was deposed from his principality; the loss of it never once
+vexed him; he knew that his brother would share with him as he would
+have done with his brother; but after all those struggles and doubts
+in his own mind, to find himself poor, and yet irrevocably bound to his
+elderly cousin! Yes, she was elderly, there was no doubt about it. When
+she came to that horrible den in Cursitor Street and the tears washed
+her rouge off, why, she looked as old as his mother! her face was all
+wrinkled and yellow, and as he thought of her he felt just such a qualm
+as he had when she was taken ill that day in the coach on their road
+to Tunbridge. What would his mother say when he brought her home, and,
+Lord, what battles there would be between them! He would go and live on
+one of the plantations--the farther from home the better--and have a
+few negroes, and farm as best he might, and hunt a good deal; but at
+Castlewood or in her own home, such as he could make it for her, what a
+life for poor Maria, who had been used to go to court and to cards and
+balls and assemblies every night! If he could be but the overseer of the
+estates--oh, he would be an honest factor, and try and make up for his
+useless life and extravagance in these past days! Five thousand pounds,
+all his patrimony and the accumulations of his long minority squandered
+in six months! He a beggar, except for dear George's kindness, with
+nothing in life left to him but an old wife,--a pretty beggar, dressed
+out in velvet and silver lace forsooth--the poor lad was arrayed in his
+best clothes--a pretty figure he had made in Europe, and a nice end he
+was come to! With all his fine friends at White's and Newmarket, with
+all his extravagance, had he been happy a single day since he had been
+in Europe? Yes, three days, four days, yesterday evening, when he had
+been with dear dear Mrs. Lambert, and those affectionate kind girls, and
+that brave good Colonel. And the Colonel was right when he rebuked him
+for his spendthrift follies, and he had been a brute to be angry as he
+had been, and God bless them all for their generous exertions in his
+behalf! Such were the thoughts which Harry put into his pipe, and he
+smoked them whilst he waited his brother's return from Madame Bernstein.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV. During which Harry sits smoking his Pipe at Home
+
+
+The maternal grandfather of our Virginians, the Colonel Esmond of whom
+frequent mention has been made, and who had quitted England to reside in
+the New World, had devoted some portion of his long American leisure
+to the composition of the memoirs of his early life. In these volumes,
+Madame de Bernstein (Mrs. Beatrice Esmond was her name as a
+spinster) played a very considerable part; and as George had read his
+grandfather's manuscript many times over, he had learned to know his
+kinswoman long before he saw her,--to know, at least, the lady, young,
+beautiful, and wilful, of half a century since, with whom he now became
+acquainted in the decline of her days. When cheeks are faded and eyes
+are dim, is it sad or pleasant, I wonder, for the woman who is a beauty
+no more, to recall the period of her bloom! When the heart is withered,
+do the old love to remember how it once was fresh and beat with warm
+emotions? When the spirits are languid and weary, do we like to think
+how bright they were in other days, the hope how buoyant, the sympathies
+how ready, the enjoyment of life how keen and eager? So they fall--the
+buds of prime, the roses of beauty, the florid harvests of summer,--fall
+and wither, and the naked branches shiver in the winter.
+
+"And that was a beauty once!" thinks George Warrington, as his aunt,
+in her rouge and diamonds, comes in from her rout, "and that ruin was
+a splendid palace. Crowds of lovers have sighed before those decrepit
+feet, and been bewildered by the brightness of those eyes." He
+remembered a firework at home, at Williamsburg, on the King's birthday,
+and afterwards looking at the skeleton-wheel and the sockets of the
+exploded Roman candles. The dazzle and brilliancy of Aunt Beatrice's
+early career passed before him, as he thought over his grandsire's
+journals. Honest Harry had seen them, too, but Harry was no bookman,
+and had not read the manuscript very carefully: nay, if he had, he would
+probably not have reasoned about it as his brother did, being by no
+means so much inclined to moralising as his melancholy senior.
+
+Mr. Warrington thought that there was no cause why he should tell his
+aunt how intimate he was with her early history, and accordingly held
+his peace upon that point. When their meal was over, she pointed with
+her cane to her escritoire, and bade her attendant bring the letter
+which lay under the inkstand there; and George, recognising the
+superscription, of course knew the letter to be that of which he had
+been the bearer from home.
+
+"It would appear by this letter," said the old lady, looking hard at her
+nephew, "that ever since your return, there have been some differences
+between you and my sister."
+
+"Indeed? I did not know that Madam Esmond had alluded to them," George
+said.
+
+The Baroness puts a great pair of glasses upon eyes which shot fire and
+kindled who knows how many passions in old days, and, after glancing
+over the letter, hands it to George, who reads as follows:--
+
+
+"RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, December 26th, 1756.
+
+"HONOURED MADAM! AND SISTER!--I have received, and thankfully
+acknowledge, your ladyship's favour, per Rose packet, of October 23
+ult.; and straightway answer you at a season which should be one of
+goodwill and peace to all men: but in which Heaven hath nevertheless
+decreed we should still bear our portion of earthly sorrow and trouble.
+My reply will be brought to you by my eldest son, Mr. Esmond Warrington,
+who returned to us so miraculously out of the Valley of the Shadow of
+Death (as our previous letters have informed my poor Henry), and who is
+desirous, not without my consent to his wish, to visit Europe, though he
+has been amongst us so short a while. I grieve to think that my dearest
+Harry should have appeared at home--I mean in England--under false
+colours, as it were; and should have been presented to his Majesty, to
+our family, and his own, as his father's heir, whilst my dear son George
+was still alive, though dead to us. Ah, madam! During the eighteen
+months of his captivity, what anguish have his mother's, his brother's,
+hearts undergone! My Harry's is the tenderest of any man's now alive. In
+the joy of seeing Mr. Esmond Warrington returned to life, he will
+forget the worldly misfortune which befalls him. He will return to
+(comparative) poverty without a pang. The most generous, the most
+obedient of human beings, of sons, he will gladly give up to his elder
+brother that inheritance which had been his own but for the accident of
+birth, and for the providential return of my son George.
+
+"Your beneficent intentions towards dearest Harry will be more than ever
+welcome, now he is reduced to a younger brother's slender portion! Many
+years since, an advantageous opportunity occurred of providing for him
+in this province, and he would by this time have been master of a noble
+estate and negroes, and have been enabled to make a figure with most
+here, could his mother's wishes have been complied with, and his
+father's small portion, now lying at small interest in the British
+funds, have been invested in this most excellent purchase. But the forms
+of the law, and, I grieve to own, my elder son's scruples, prevailed,
+and this admirable opportunity was lost to me! Harry will find the
+savings of his income have been carefully accumulated--long, long may
+he live to enjoy them! May Heaven bless you, dear sister, for what your
+ladyship may add to his little store! As I gather from your letter, that
+the sum which has been allowed to him has not been sufficient for his
+expenses in the fine company which he has kept (and the grandson of the
+Marquis of Esmond--one who had so nearly been his lordship's heir--may
+sure claim equality with any other nobleman in Great Britain), and
+having a sum by me which I had always intended for the poor child's
+establishment, I entrust it to my eldest son, who, to do him justice,
+hath a most sincere regard for his brother, to lay it out for Harry's
+best advantage."
+
+
+"It took him out of prison yesterday, madam. I think that was the best
+use to which we could put it," interposed George, at this stage of his
+mother's letter.
+
+"Nay, sir, I don't know any such thing! Why not have kept it to buy
+a pair of colours for him, or to help towards another estate and some
+negroes, if he has a fancy for home?" cried the old lady. "Besides, I
+had a fancy to pay that debt myself."
+
+"I hope you will let his brother do that. I ask leave to be my brother's
+banker in this matter, and consider I have borrowed so much from my
+mother, to be paid back to my dear Harry."
+
+"Do you say so, sir? Give me a glass of wine! You are an extravagant
+fellow! Read on, and you will see your mother thinks so. I drink to your
+health, nephew George! 'Tis good Burgundy. Your grandfather never loved
+Burgundy. He loved claret, the little he drank."
+
+And George proceeded with the letter:
+
+
+"This remittance will, I trust, amply cover any expenses which, owing to
+the mistake respecting his position, dearest Harry may have incurred.
+I wish I could trust his elder brother's prudence as confidently as
+my Harry's! But I fear that, even in his captivity, Mr. Esmond W. has
+learned little of that humility which becomes all Christians, and which
+I have ever endeavoured to teach to my children. Should you by chance
+show him these lines, when, by the blessing of Heaven on those who go
+down to the sea in ships, the Great Ocean divides us! he will know that
+a fond mother's blessing and prayers follow both her children, and
+that there is no act I have ever done, no desire I have ever expressed
+(however little he may have been inclined to obey it!) but hath been
+dictated by the fondest wishes for my dearest boys' welfare."
+
+
+"There is a scratch with a penknife, and a great blot upon the letter
+there, as if water had fallen on it. Your mother writes well, George. I
+suppose you and she had a difference?" said George's aunt, not unkindly.
+
+"Yes, ma'am, many," answered the young man, sadly. "The last was about
+a question of money--of ransom which I promised to the old lieutenant of
+the fort who aided me to make my escape. I told you he had a mistress, a
+poor Indian woman, who helped me, and was kind to me. Six weeks after my
+arrival at home, the poor thing made her appearance at Richmond, having
+found her way through the wood by pretty much the same track which I had
+followed, and bringing me the token which Museau had promised to send me
+when he connived to my flight. A commanding officer and a considerable
+reinforcement had arrived at Duquesne. Charges, I don't know of what
+peculation (for his messenger could not express herself very clearly),
+had been brought against this Museau. He had been put under arrest, and
+had tried to escape; but, less fortunate than myself, he had been
+shot on the rampart, and he sent the Indian woman to me, with my
+grandfather's watch, and a line scrawled in his prison on his deathbed,
+begging me to send ce que je scavais to a notary at Havre de Grace in
+France to be transmitted to his relatives at Caen in Normandy. My friend
+Silverheels, the hunter, had helped my poor Indian on her way. I don't
+know how she would have escaped scalping else. But at home they received
+the poor thing sternly. They hardly gave her a welcome. I won't say
+what suspicions they had regarding her and me. The poor wretch fell to
+drinking whenever she could find means. I ordered that she should have
+food and shelter, and she became the jest of our negroes, and formed the
+subject of the scandal and tittle-tattle of the old fools in our little
+town. Our Governor was, luckily, a man of sense, and I made interest
+with him, and procured a pass to send her back to her people. Her very
+grief at parting with me only served to confirm the suspicions against
+her. A fellow preached against me from the pulpit, I believe; I had
+to treat another with a cane. And I had a violent dispute with Madam
+Esmond--a difference which is not healed yet--because I insisted upon
+paying to the heirs Museau pointed out the money I had promised for
+my deliverance. You see that scandal flourishes at the borders of the
+wilderness, and in the New World as well as the Old."
+
+"I have suffered from it myself, my dear!" said Madame Bernstein,
+demurely. "Fill thy glass, child! A little tass of cherry-brandy! 'Twill
+do thee all the good in the world."
+
+
+"As for my poor Harry's marriage," Madam Esmond's letter went on,
+"though I know too well, from sad experience, the dangers to which youth
+is subject, and would keep my boy, at any price, from them, though I
+should wish him to marry a person of rank, as becomes his birth, yet my
+Lady Maria Esmond is out of the question. Her age is almost the same as
+mine; and I know my brother Castlewood left his daughters with the very
+smallest portions. My Harry is so obedient that I know a desire from me
+will be sufficient to cause him to give up this imprudent match. Some
+foolish people once supposed that I myself once thought of a second
+union, and with a person of rank very different from ours. No! I knew
+what was due to my children. As succeeding to this estate after me, Mr.
+Esmond W. is amply provided for. Let my task now be to save for his less
+fortunate younger brother: and, as I do not love to live quite alone,
+let him return without delay to his fond and loving mother.
+
+"The report which your ladyship hath given of my Harry fills my heart
+with warmest gratitude. He is all indeed a mother may wish. A year in
+Europe will have given him a polish and refinement which he could
+not acquire in our homely Virginia. Mr. Stack, one of our invaluable
+ministers in Richmond, hath a letter from Mr. Ward--my darlings' tutor
+of early days--who knows my Lady Warrington and her excellent family,
+and saith that my Harry has lived much with his cousins of late. I am
+grateful to think that my boy has the privilege of being with his good
+aunt. May he follow her counsels, and listen to those around him who
+will guide him on the way of his best welfare! Adieu, dear madam and
+sister! For your kindness to my boy accept the grateful thanks of a
+mother's heart. Though we have been divided hitherto, may these kindly
+ties draw us nearer and nearer. I am thankful that you should speak of
+my dearest father so. He was, indeed, one of the best of men! He, too,
+thanks you, I know, for the love you have borne to one of his children;
+and his daughter subscribes herself,--With sincere thanks, your
+ladyship's most dutiful and grateful sister and servant, RACHEL ESMOND
+WN.
+
+"P.S.--I have communicated with my Lady Maria; but there will no need to
+tell her and dear Harry that his mother or your ladyship hope to be able
+to increase his small fortune. The match is altogether unsuitable."
+
+
+"As far as regards myself, madam," George said, laying down the paper,
+"my mother's letter conveys no news to me. I always knew that Harry was
+the favourite son with Madam Esmond, as he deserves indeed to be. He has
+a hundred good qualities which I have not the good fortune to possess.
+He has better looks----"
+
+"Nay, that is not your fault," said the old lady, slily looking at him;
+"and, but that he is fair and you are brown, one might almost pass for
+the other."
+
+Mr. George bowed, and a faint blush tinged his pale cheek.
+
+"His disposition is bright, and mine is dark," he continued; "Harry
+is cheerful, and I am otherwise, perhaps. He knows how to make himself
+beloved by every one, and it has been my lot to find but few friends."
+
+"My sister and you have pretty little quarrels. There were such in old
+days in our family," the Baroness said; "and if Madam Esmond takes after
+our mother----"
+
+"My mother has always described hers as an angel upon earth," interposed
+George.
+
+"Eh! That is a common character for people when they are dead!" cried
+the Baroness; "and Rachel Castlewood was an angel, if you like--at least
+your grandfather thought so. But let me tell you, sir, that angels are
+sometimes not very commodes a vivre. It may be they are too good to live
+with us sinners, and the air down below here don't agree with them. My
+poor mother was so perfect that she never could forgive me for being
+otherwise. Ah, mon Dieu! how she used to oppress me with those angelical
+airs!"
+
+George cast down his eyes, and thought of his own melancholy youth.
+He did not care to submit more of his family secrets to the cynical
+inquisition of this old worldling, who seemed, however, to understand
+him in spite of his reticence.
+
+"I quite comprehend you, sir, though you hold your tongue," the Baroness
+continued. "A sermon in the morning: a sermon at night: and two or three
+of a Sunday. That is what people call being good. Every pleasure cried
+fie upon; all us worldly people excommunicated; a ball an abomination of
+desolation; a play a forbidden pastime; and a game of cards perdition!
+What a life! Mon Dieu, what a life!"
+
+"We played at cards every night, if we were so inclined," said George,
+smiling; "and my grandfather loved Shakspeare so much, that my mother
+had not a word to say against her father's favourite author."
+
+"I remember. He could say whole pages by heart; though, for my part,
+I like Mr. Congreve a great deal better. And then, there was that
+dreadful, dreary Milton, whom he and Mr. Addison pretended to admire!"
+cried the old lady, tapping her fan.
+
+"If your ladyship does not like Shakspeare, you will not quarrel with
+my mother for being indifferent to him, too," said George. "And indeed I
+think, and I am sure, that you don't do her justice. Wherever there are
+any poor she relieves them; wherever there are any sick she----"
+
+"She doses them with her horrible purges and boluses!" cried the
+Baroness. "Of course, just as my mother did!"
+
+"She does her best to cure them! She acts for the best, and performs her
+duty as far as she knows it."
+
+"I don't blame you, sir, for doing yours, and keeping your own counsel
+about Madam Esmond," said the old lady. "But at least there is one
+point upon which we all three agree--that this absurd marriage must be
+prevented. Do you know how old the woman is? I can tell you, though she
+has torn the first leaf out of the family Bible at Castlewood."
+
+"My mother has not forgotten her cousin's age, and is shocked at the
+disparity between her and my poor brother. Indeed, a city-bred lady of
+her time of life, accustomed to London gaiety and luxury, would find but
+a dismal home in our Virginian plantation. Besides, the house, such as
+it is, is not Harry's. He is welcome there, Heaven knows; more welcome,
+perhaps, than I, to whom the property comes in natural reversion; but,
+as I told him, I doubt how his wife would--would like our colony,"
+George said, with a blush, and a hesitation in his sentence.
+
+The old lady laughed shrilly. "He, he! nephew Warrington!" she said,
+"you need not scruple to speak your mind out. I shall tell no tales to
+your mother: though 'tis no news to me that she has a high temper, and
+loves her own way. Harry has held his tongue, too; but it needed no
+conjurer to see who was the mistress at home, and what sort of a life
+my sister led you. I love my niece, my Lady Molly, so well, that I could
+wish her two or three years of Virginia, with your mother reigning over
+her. You may well look alarmed, sir! Harry has said quite enough to show
+me who governs the family."
+
+"Madam," said George, smiling, "I may say as much as this, that I don't
+envy any woman coming into our house against my mother's will: and my
+poor brother knows this perfectly well."
+
+"What? You two have talked the matter over? No doubt you have. And the
+foolish child considers himself bound in honour--of course he does, the
+gaby!"
+
+"He says Lady Maria has behaved most nobly to him. When he was sent to
+prison, she brought him her trinkets and jewels, and every guinea she
+had in the world. This behaviour has touched him so, that he feels more
+deeply than ever bound to her ladyship. But I own my brother seems bound
+by honour rather than love--such at least is his present feeling."
+
+"My good creature," cries Madame Bernstein, "don't you see that Maria
+brings a few twopenny trinkets and a half-dozen guineas to Mr. Esmond,
+the heir of the great estate in Virginia,--not to the second son, who is
+a beggar, and has just squandered away every shilling of his fortune?
+I swear to you, on my credit as a gentlewoman, that, knowing Harry's
+obstinacy, and the misery he had in store for himself, I tried to bribe
+Maria to give up her engagement with him, and only failed because I
+could not bribe high enough! When he was in prison, I sent my lawyer to
+him, with orders to pay his debts immediately, if he would but part from
+her, but Maria had been beforehand with us, and Mr. Harry chose not to
+go back from his stupid word. Let me tell you what has passed in the
+last month!" And here the old lady narrated at length the history which
+we know already, but in that cynical language which was common in her
+times, when the finest folks and the most delicate ladies called things
+and people by names which we never utter in good company nowadays. And
+so much the better on the whole. We mayn't be more virtuous, but it
+is something to be more decent: perhaps we are not more pure, but of a
+surety we are more cleanly.
+
+Madame Bernstein talked so much, so long, and so cleverly, that she was
+quite pleased with herself and her listener; and when she put herself
+into the hands of Mrs. Brett to retire for the night, informed the
+waiting-maid that she had changed her opinion about her eldest nephew,
+and that Mr. George was handsome, that he was certainly much wittier
+than poor Harry (whom Heaven, it must be confessed, had not furnished
+with a very great supply of brains), and that he had quite the bel
+air--a something melancholy--a noble and distinguished je ne scais
+quoy--which reminded her of the Colonel. Had she ever told Brett about
+the Colonel? Scores of times, no doubt. And now she told Brett about the
+Colonel once more. Meanwhile, perhaps, her new favourite was not quite
+so well pleased with her as she was with him. What a strange picture of
+life and manners had the old lady unveiled to her nephew! How she railed
+at all the world round about her! How unconsciously did she paint her
+own family--her own self; how selfish, one and all; pursuing what
+mean ends; grasping and scrambling frantically for what petty prizes;
+ambitious for what shabby recompenses; trampling--from life's beginning
+to its close--through what scenes of stale dissipations and faded
+pleasures! "Are these the inheritors of noble blood?" thought George, as
+he went home quite late from his aunt's house, passing by doors whence
+the last guests of fashion were issuing, and where the chairmen were
+yawning over their expiring torches. "Are these the proud possessors of
+ancestral honours and ancient names, and were their forefathers, when in
+life, no better? We have our pedigree at home with noble coats-of-arms
+emblazoned all over the branches, and titles dating back before the
+Conquest and the Crusaders. When a knight of old found a friend in want,
+did he turn his back upon him, or an unprotected damsel, did he delude
+her and leave her? When a nobleman of the early time received a young
+kinsman, did he get the better of him at dice, and did the ancient
+chivalry cheat in horseflesh? Can it be that this wily woman of the
+world, as my aunt has represented, has inveigled my poor Harry into an
+engagement, that her tears are false, and that as soon as she finds him
+poor she will desert him? Had we not best pack the trunks and take a
+cabin in the next ship bound for home?" George reached his own door
+revolving these thoughts, and Gumbo came up yawning with a candle, and
+Harry was asleep before the extinguished fire, with the ashes of his
+emptied pipe on the table beside him.
+
+He starts up; his eyes, for a moment dulled by sleep, lighten with
+pleasure as he sees his dear George. He puts his arm round his brother
+with a boyish laugh.
+
+"There he is in flesh and blood, thank God!" he says; "I was dreaming of
+thee but now, George, and that Ward was hearing us our lesson! Dost
+thou remember the ruler, Georgy? Why, bless my soul, 'tis three o'clock!
+Where have you been a-gadding, Mr. George? Hast thou supped? I supped at
+White's, but I'm hungry again. I did not play, sir,--no, no; no more of
+that for younger brothers! And my Lord March paid me fifty he lost to
+me. I bet against his horse and on the Duke of Hamilton's! They both
+rode the match at Newmarket this morning, and he lost because he was
+under weight. And he paid me, and he was as sulky as a bear. Let us have
+one pipe, Georgy!--just one."
+
+And after the smoke the young men went to bed, where I, for one, wish
+them a pleasant rest, for sure it is a good and pleasant thing to see
+brethren who love one another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV. Between Brothers
+
+
+Of course our young men had had their private talk about home, and all
+the people and doings there, and each had imparted to the other full
+particulars of his history since their last meeting. How were Harry's
+dogs, and little Dempster, and good old Nathan, and the rest of the
+household? Was Mountain well, and Fanny grown to be a pretty girl? So
+Parson Broadbent's daughter was engaged to marry Tom Barker of Savannah,
+and they were to go and live in Georgia! Harry owns that at one period
+he was very sweet upon Parson Broadbent's daughter, and lost a
+great deal of pocket-money at cards, and drank a great quantity of
+strong-waters with the father, in order to have a pretext for being near
+the girl. But, Heaven help us! Madam Esmond would never have consented
+to his throwing himself away upon Polly Broadbent. So Colonel G.
+Washington's wife was a pretty woman, very good-natured and pleasant,
+and with a good fortune? He had brought her into Richmond, and paid a
+visit of state to Madam Esmond. George described, with much humour, the
+awful ceremonials at the interview between these two personages, and the
+killing politeness of his mother to Mr. Washington's young wife. "Never
+mind, George, my dear!" says Mrs. Mountain. "The Colonel has taken
+another wife, but I feel certain that at one time two young gentlemen I
+know of ran a very near chance of having a tall stepfather six feet two
+in his boots." To be sure, Mountain was for ever match-making in her
+mind. Two people could not play a game at cards together, or sit down
+to a dish of tea, but she fancied their conjunction was for life. It was
+she--the foolish tattler--who had set the report abroad regarding the
+poor Indian woman. As for Madam Esmond, she had repelled the insinuation
+with scorn when Parson Stack brought it to her, and said, "I should as
+soon fancy Mr. Esmond stealing the spoons, or marrying a negro woman
+out of the kitchen." But, though she disdained to find the poor Biche
+guilty, and even thanked her for attending her son in his illness, she
+treated her with such a chilling haughtiness of demeanour, that the
+Indian slunk away into the servants' quarters, and there tried to drown
+her disappointments with drink. It was not a cheerful picture that which
+George gave of his two months at home. "The birthright is mine, Harry,"
+he said, "but thou art the favourite, and God help me! I think my mother
+almost grudges it to me. Why should I have taken the pas, and preceded
+your worship into the world? Had you been the eider, you would have had
+the best cellar, and ridden the best nag, and been the most popular
+man in the country, whereas I have not a word to say for myself, and
+frighten people by my glum face: I should have been second son, and set
+up as lawyer, or come to England and got my degrees, and turned parson,
+and said grace at your honour's table. The time is out of joint, sir. O
+cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!"
+
+"Why, Georgy, you are talking verses, I protest you are!" says Harry.
+
+"I think, my dear, some one else talked those verses before me," says
+George, with a smile.
+
+"It's out of one of your books. You know every book that ever was wrote,
+that I do believe!" cries Harry, and then told his brother how he had
+seen the two authors at Tunbridge, and how he had taken off his hat to
+them. "Not that I cared much about their books, not being clever enough.
+But I remembered how my dear old George used to speak of 'em," says
+Harry, with a choke in his voice, "and that's why I liked to see them. I
+say, dear, it's like a dream seeing you over again. Think of that bloody
+Indian with his knife at my George's head! I should like to give that
+Monsieur de Florac something for saving you--but I haven't got much now,
+only my little gold knee-buckles, and they ain't worth two guineas."
+
+"You have got the half of what I have, child, and we'll divide as soon
+as I have paid the Frenchman," George said.
+
+On which Harry broke out not merely into blessings but actual
+imprecations, indicating his intense love and satisfaction; and he swore
+that there never was such a brother in the world as his brother George.
+Indeed, for some days after his brother's arrival his eyes followed
+George about: he would lay down his knife and fork, or his newspaper,
+when they were sitting together, and begin to laugh to himself. When he
+walked with George on the Mall or in Hyde Park, he would gaze round at
+the company, as much as to say, "Look here, gentlemen! This is he.
+This is my brother, that was dead and is alive again! Can any man in
+Christendom produce such a brother as this?"
+
+Of course he was of opinion that George should pay to Museau's heirs
+the sum which he had promised for his ransom. This question had been the
+cause of no small unhappiness to poor George at home. Museau dead, Madam
+Esmond argued with much eagerness, and not a little rancour, the bargain
+fell to the ground, and her son was free. The man was a rogue in the
+first instance. She would not pay the wages of iniquity. Mr. Esmond had
+a small independence from his father, and might squander his patrimony
+if he chose. He was of age, and the money was in his power; but she
+would be no party to such extravagance, as giving twelve thousand livres
+to a parcel of peasants in Normandy with whom we were at war, and who
+would very likely give it all to the priests and the pope. She would not
+subscribe to any such wickedness. If George wanted to squander away his
+father's money (she must say that formerly he had not been so eager,
+and when Harry's benefit was in question had refused to touch a penny of
+it!)--if he wished to spend it now, why not give it to his own flesh and
+blood, to poor Harry, who was suddenly deprived of his inheritance, and
+not to a set of priest-ridden peasants in France? This dispute had raged
+between mother and son during the whole of the latter's last days
+in Virginia. It had never been settled. On the morning of George's
+departure, Madam Esmond had come to his bedside after a sleepless night,
+and asked him whether he still persisted in his intention to fling away
+his father's property?
+
+He replied in a depth of grief and perplexity, that his word was passed,
+and he must do as his honour bade him. She answered that she would
+continue to pray that Heaven might soften his proud heart, and enable
+her to bear her heavy trials: and the last view George had of his
+mother's face was as she stood yet a moment by his bedside, pale and
+with tearless eyes, before she turned away and slowly left his chamber.
+
+"Where didst thou learn the art of winning over everybody to thy side,
+Harry?" continued George; "and how is it that you and all the world
+begin by being friends? Teach me a few lessons in popularity, nay,
+I don't know that I will have them; and when I find and hear certain
+people hate me, I think I am rather pleased than angry. At first, at
+Richmond, Mr. Esmond Warrington, the only prisoner who had escaped from
+Braddock's field--the victim of so much illness and hardship--was a
+favourite with the town-folks, and received privately and publicly with
+no little kindness. The parson glorified my escape in a sermon; the
+neighbours came to visit the fugitive; the family coach was ordered out,
+and Madam Esmond and I paid our visits in return. I think some pretty
+little caps were set at me. But these our mother routed off, and
+frightened with the prodigious haughtiness of her demeanour; and my
+popularity was already at the decrease before the event occurred which
+put the last finishing stroke to it. I was not jolly enough for the
+officers, and didn't care for their drinking-bouts, dice-boxes, and
+swearing. I was too sarcastic for the ladies, and their tea and tattle
+stupefied me almost as much as the men's blustering and horse-talk. I
+cannot tell thee, Harry, how lonely I felt in that place, amidst the
+scandal and squabbles: I regretted my prison almost, and found myself
+more than once wishing for the freedom of thought, and the silent ease
+of Duquesne. I am very shy, I suppose: I can speak unreservedly to very
+few people. Before most, I sit utterly silent. When we two were at home,
+it was thou who used to talk at table, and get a smile now and then from
+our mother. When she and I were together we had no subject in common,
+and we scarce spoke at all until we began to dispute about law and
+divinity.
+
+"So the gentlemen had determined I was supercilious, and a dull
+companion (and, indeed, I think their opinion was right), and the ladies
+thought I was cold and sarcastic,--could never make out whether I was
+in earnest or no, and, I think, generally voted I was a disagreeable
+fellow, before my character was gone quite away; and that went with the
+appearance of the poor Biche. Oh, a nice character they made for me, my
+dear!" cried George, in a transport of wrath, "and a pretty life they
+led me after Museau's unlucky messenger had appeared amongst us! The
+boys hooted the poor woman if she appeared in the street; the ladies
+dropped me half-curtseys, and walked over to the other side. That
+precious clergyman went from one tea-table to another preaching on the
+horrors of seduction, and the lax principles which young men learned in
+popish countries and brought back thence. The poor Fawn's appearance
+at home a few weeks after my return home, was declared to be a scheme
+between her and me; and the best informed agreed that she had waited on
+the other side of the river until I gave her the signal to come and
+join me in Richmond. The officers bantered me at the coffee-house, and
+cracked their clumsy jokes about the woman I had selected. Oh, the world
+is a nice charitable world! I was so enraged that I thought of going to
+Castlewood and living alone there,--for our mother finds the place dull,
+and the greatest consolation in precious Mr. Stack's ministry,--when
+the news arrived of your female perplexity, and I think we were all glad
+that I should have a pretext for coming to Europe."
+
+"I should like to see any of the infernal scoundrels who said word
+against you, and break their rascally bones," roars out Harry, striding
+up and down the room.
+
+"I had to do something like it for Bob Clubber."
+
+"What! that little sneaking, backbiting, toad-eating wretch, who is
+always hanging about my lord at Greenway Court, and spunging on every
+gentleman in the country? If you whipped him, I hope you whipped him
+well, George?"
+
+"We were bound over to keep the peace; and I offered to go into Maryland
+with him and settle our difference there, and of course the good folk
+said, that having made free with the seventh commandment I was inclined
+to break the sixth. So, by this and by that--and being as innocent of
+the crime imputed to me as you are--I left home, my dear Harry, with as
+awful a reputation as ever a young gentleman earned."
+
+Ah, what an opportunity is there here to moralise! If the esteemed
+reader and his humble servant could but know--could but write down in
+a book--could but publish, with illustrations, a collection of the
+lies which have been told regarding each of us since we came to man's
+estate,--what a harrowing and thrilling work of fiction that romance
+would be! Not only is the world informed of everything about you, but
+of a great deal more. Not long since the kind postman brought a paper
+containing a valuable piece of criticism, which stated--"This author
+states he was born in such and such a year. It is a lie. He was born in
+the year so and so." The critic knew better: of course he did. Another
+(and both came from the country which gave MULLIGAN birth) warned some
+friend, saying, "Don't speak of New South Wales to him. He has a brother
+there, and the family never mention his name." But this subject is too
+vast and noble for a mere paragraph. I shall prepare a memoir, or let
+us have rather, par une societe de gens de lettres, a series of
+biographies, of lives of gentlemen, as told by their dear friends whom
+they don't know.
+
+George having related his exploits as champion and martyr, of course
+Harry had to unbosom himself to his brother, and lay before his elder
+an account of his private affairs. He gave up all the family of
+Castlewood--my lord, not for getting the better of him at play; for
+Harry was a sporting man, and expected to pay when he lost, and receive
+when he won; but for refusing to aid the chaplain in his necessity, and
+dismissing him with such false and heartless pretexts. About Mr. Will he
+had made up his mind, after the horse-dealing matter, and freely
+marked his sense of the latter's conduct upon Mr. Will's eyes and nose.
+Respecting the Countess and Lady Fanny, Harry spoke in a manner more
+guarded, but not very favourable. He had heard all sorts of stories
+about them. The Countess was a card-playing old cat; Lady Fanny was a
+desperate flirt. Who told him? Well, he had heard the stories from a
+person who knew them both very well indeed. In fact, in those days
+of confidence, of which we made mention in the last volume, Maria had
+freely imparted to her cousin a number of anecdotes respecting her
+stepmother and her half-sister, which were by no means in favour of
+those ladies.
+
+But in respect to Lady Maria herself, the young man was staunch and
+hearty. "It may be imprudent: I don't say no, George. I may be a fool:
+I think I am. I know there will be a dreadful piece of work at home, and
+that Madam and she will fight. Well! we must live apart. Our estate is
+big enough to live on without quarrelling, and I can go elsewhere than
+to Richmond or Castlewood. When you come to the property, you'll give me
+a bit--at any rate, Madam will let me off at an easy rent--or I'll make
+a famous farmer or factor. I can't and won't part from Maria. She has
+acted so nobly by me, that I should be a rascal to turn my back on her.
+Think of her bringing me every jewel she had in the world, dear
+brave creature! and flinging them into my lap with her last
+guineas,--and--and--God bless her!" Here Harry dashed his sleeve across
+his eyes, with a stamp of his foot, and said, "No, brother, I won't part
+with her--not to be made Governor of Virginia tomorrow; and my dearest
+old George would never advise me to do so, I know that."
+
+"I am sent here to advise you," George replied. "I am sent to break the
+marriage off, if I can: and a more unhappy one I can't imagine. But I
+can't counsel you to break your word, my boy."
+
+"I knew you couldn't! What's said is said, George. I have made my bed,
+and must lie on it," says Mr. Harry, gloomily.
+
+Such had been the settlement between our two young worthies, when
+they first talked over Mr. Harry's love affair. But after George's
+conversation with his aunt, and the further knowledge of his family,
+which he acquired through the information of that keen old woman of the
+world, Mr. Warrington, who was naturally of a sceptical turn, began to
+doubt about Lady Maria, as well as regarding her brothers and sister,
+and looked at Harry's engagement with increased distrust and alarm. Was
+it for his wealth that Maria wanted Harry? Was it his handsome young
+person that she longed after? Were those stories true which Aunt
+Bernstein had told of her? Certainly he could not advise Harry to
+break his word; but he might cast about in his mind for some scheme for
+putting Maria's affection to the trial; and his ensuing conduct, which
+appeared not very amiable, I suppose resulted from this deliberation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI. Ariadne
+
+
+My Lord Castlewood had a house in Kensington Square spacious enough to
+accommodate the several members of his noble family, and convenient for
+their service at the palace hard by, when his Majesty dwelt there. Her
+ladyship had her evenings, and gave her card-parties here for such as
+would come; but Kensington was a long way from London a hundred years
+since, and George Selwyn said he for one was afraid to go, for fear
+of being robbed of a night,--whether by footpads with crape over their
+faces, or by ladies in rouge at the quadrille-table, we have no means of
+saying. About noon on the day after Harry had made his reappearance at
+White's, it chanced that all his virtuous kinsfolks partook of breakfast
+together, even Mr. Will being present, who was to go into waiting in the
+afternoon.
+
+The ladies came first to their chocolate: them Mr. Will joined in his
+court suit; finally, my lord appeared, languid, in his bedgown and
+nightcap, having not yet assumed his wig for the day. Here was news
+which Will had brought home from the Star and Garter last night, when he
+supped in company with some men who had heard it at White's and seen it
+at Ranelagh!
+
+"Heard what? seen what?" asked the head of the house, taking up his
+Daily Advertiser.
+
+"Ask Maria!" says Lady Fanny. My lord turns to his elder sister, who
+wears a face of portentous sadness, and looks as pale as a tablecloth.
+
+"'Tis one of Will's usual elegant and polite inventions," says Maria.
+
+"No," swore Will, with several of his oaths; "it was no invention of
+his. Tom Claypool of Norfolk saw 'em both at Ranelagh; and Jack Morris
+came out of White's, where he heard the story from Harry Warrington's
+own lips. Curse him, I'm glad of it!" roars Will, slapping the table.
+"What do you think of your Fortunate Youth, your Virginian, whom your
+lordship made so much of, turning out to be a second son?"
+
+"The elder brother not dead?" says my lord.
+
+"No more dead than you are. Never was. It's my belief that it was a
+cross between the two."
+
+"Mr. Warrington is incapable of such duplicity!" cries Maria.
+
+"I never encouraged the fellow, I am sure you will do me justice there,"
+says my lady. "Nor did Fanny: not we, indeed!"
+
+"Not we, indeed!" echoes my Lady Fanny.
+
+"The fellow is only a beggar, and, I dare say, has not paid for the
+clothes on his back," continues Will. "I'm glad of it, for, hang him, I
+hate him!"
+
+"You don't regard him with favourable eyes; especially since he blacked
+yours, Will!" grins my lord. "So the poor fellow has found his brother,
+and lost his estate!" And here he turned towards his sister Maria, who,
+although she looked the picture of woe, must have suggested something
+ludicrous to the humourist near whom she sate; for his lordship, having
+gazed at her for a minute, burst into a shrill laugh, which caused the
+poor lady's face to flush, and presently her eyes to pour over with
+tears. "It's a shame! it's a shame!" she sobbed out, and hid her face
+in her handkerchief. Maria's stepmother and sister looked at each other.
+"We never quite understand your lordship's humour," the former lady
+remarked, gravely.
+
+"I don't see there is the least reason why you should," said my lord,
+coolly. "Maria, my dear, pray excuse me if I have said--that is, done
+anything, to hurt your feelings."
+
+"Done anything! You pillaged the poor lad in his prosperity, and laugh
+at him in his ruin!" says Maria, rising from table, and glaring round at
+all her family.
+
+"Excuse me, my dear sister, I was not laughing at him," said my lord,
+gently.
+
+"Oh, never mind at what or whom else, my lord! You have taken from him
+all he had to lose. All the world points at you as the man who feeds on
+his own flesh and blood. And now you have his all, you make merry over
+his misfortune!" And away she rustled from the room, flinging looks of
+defiance at all the party there assembled.
+
+"Tell us what has happened, or what you have heard, Will, and my
+sister's grief will not interrupt us." And Will told, at great length,
+and with immense exultation at Harry's discomfiture, the story now
+buzzed through all London, of George Warrington's sudden apparition.
+Lord Castlewood was sorry for Harry: Harry was a good, brave lad, and
+his kinsman liked him, as much as certain worldly folks like each other.
+To be sure he played Harry at cards, and took the advantage of the
+market upon him; but why not? The peach which other men would certainly
+pluck, he might as well devour. Eh! if that were all my conscience had
+to reproach me with, I need not be very uneasy! my lord thought. "Where
+does Mr. Warrington live?"
+
+Will expressed himself ready to enter upon a state of reprobation if he
+knew or cared.
+
+"He shall be invited here, and treated with every respect," said my
+lord.
+
+"Including piquet, I suppose!" growls Will.
+
+"Or will you take him to the stables, and sell him one of your bargains
+of horseflesh, Will?" asks Lord Castlewood. "You would have won of Harry
+Warrington fast enough, if you could; but you cheat so clumsily at your
+game that you got paid with a cudgel. I desire, once more, that every
+attention may be paid to our cousin Warrington."
+
+"And that you are not to be disturbed, when you sit down to play, of
+course, my lord!" cries Lady Castlewood.
+
+"Madam, I desire fair play, for Mr. Warrington, and for myself, and
+for every member of this amiable family," retorted Lord Castlewood,
+fiercely.
+
+"Heaven help the poor gentleman if your lordship is going to be kind to
+him," said the stepmother, with a curtsey; and there is no knowing
+how far this family dispute might have been carried, had not, at this
+moment, a phaeton driven up to the house, in which were seated the two
+young Virginians.
+
+It was the carriage which our young Prodigal had purchased in the days
+of his prosperity. He drove it still: George sate in it by his side;
+their negroes were behind them. Harry had been for meekly giving the
+whip and reins to his brother, and ceding the whole property to him.
+"What business has a poor devil like me with horses and carriages,
+Georgy?" Harry had humbly said. "Beyond the coat on my back, and
+the purse my aunt gave me, I have nothing in the world. You take
+the driving-seat, brother; it will ease my mind if you will take the
+driving-seat." George laughingly said he did not know the way, and Harry
+did; and that, as for the carriage, he would claim only a half of it,
+as he had already done with his brother's wardrobe. "But a bargain is
+a bargain; if I share thy coats, thou must divide my breeches' pocket,
+Harry; that is but fair dealing!" Again and again Harry swore there
+never was such a brother on earth. How he rattled his horses over the
+road! How pleased and proud he was to drive such a brother! They came
+to Kensington in famous high spirits; and Gumbo's thunder upon Lord
+Castlewood's door was worthy of the biggest footman in all St. James's.
+
+Only my Lady Castlewood and her daughter Lady Fanny were in the room
+into which our young gentlemen were ushered. Will had no particular
+fancy to face Harry, my lord was not dressed, Maria had her reasons
+for being away, at least till her eyes were dried. When we drive up to
+friends' houses nowadays in our coaches-and-six, when John carries up
+our noble names, when, finally, we enter the drawing-room with our
+best hat and best Sunday smile foremost, does it ever happen that we
+interrupt a family row! that we come simpering and smiling in, and
+stepping over the delusive ashes of a still burning domestic heat? that
+in the interval between the hall-door and the drawing-room, Mrs., Mr.,
+and the Misses Jones have grouped themselves in a family tableau;
+this girl artlessly arranging flowers in a vase, let us say; that one
+reclining over an illuminated work of devotion; mamma on the sofa, with
+the butcher's and grocer's book pushed under the cushion, some elegant
+work in her hand, and a pretty little foot pushed out advantageously;
+while honest Jones, far from saying, "Curse that Brown, he is always
+calling here!" holds out a kindly hand, shows a pleased face, and
+exclaims, "What, Brown my boy, delighted to see you! Hope you've come
+to lunch!" I say, does it ever happen to us to be made the victims of
+domestic artifices, the spectators of domestic comedies got up for our
+special amusement? Oh, let us be thankful, not only for faces, but
+for masks! not only for honest welcome, but for hypocrisy, which hides
+unwelcome things from us! Whilst I am talking, for instance, in this
+easy, chatty way, what right have you, my good sir, to know what is
+really passing in my mind? It may be that I am racked with gout, or
+that my eldest son has just sent me in a thousand pounds' worth of
+college-bills, or that I am writhing under an attack of the Stoke Pogis
+Sentinel, which has just been sent me under cover, or that there is a
+dreadfully scrappy dinner, the evident remains of a party to which I
+didn't invite you, and yet I conceal my agony, I wear a merry smile; I
+say, "What! come to take pot-luck with us, Brown my boy! Betsy! put a
+knife and fork for Mr. Brown. Eat! Welcome! Fall to! It's my best!" I
+say that humbug which I am performing is beautiful self-denial--that
+hypocrisy is true virtue. Oh, if every man spoke his mind what an
+intolerable society ours would be to live in!
+
+As the young gentlemen are announced, Lady Castlewood advances towards
+them with perfect ease and good-humour. "We have heard, Harry," she
+says, looking at the latter with a special friendliness, "of this most
+extraordinary circumstance. My Lord Castlewood said at breakfast that he
+should wait on you this very day, Mr. Warrington, and, cousin Harry, we
+intend not to love you any the less because you are poor."
+
+"We shall be able to show now that it is not for your acres that we like
+you, Harry!" says Lady Fanny, following her mamma's lead.
+
+"And I to whom the acres have fallen?" says Mr. George, with a smile and
+a bow.
+
+"Oh, cousin, we shall like you for being like Harry!" replies the arch
+Lady Fanny.
+
+Ah! who that has seen the world, has not admired that astonishing ease
+with which fine ladies drop you and pick you up again? Both the ladies
+now addressed themselves almost exclusively to the younger brother. They
+were quite civil to Mr. George: but with Mr. Harry they were fond, they
+were softly familiar, they were gently kind, they were affectionately
+reproachful. Why had Harry not been for days and days to see them?
+
+"Better to have had a dish of tea and a game at piquet with them than
+with some other folks," says Lady Castlewood. "If we had won enough
+to buy a paper of pins from you we should have been content; but young
+gentlemen don't know what is for their own good," says mamma.
+
+"Now you have no more money to play with, you can come and play with
+us, cousin!" cries fond Lady Fanny, lifting up a finger, "and so your
+misfortune will be good fortune to us."
+
+George was puzzled. This welcome of his brother was very different from
+that to which he had looked. All these compliments and attentions paid
+to the younger brother, though he was without a guinea! Perhaps the
+people were not so bad as they were painted? The Blackest of all Blacks
+is said not to be of quite so dark a complexion as some folks describe
+him.
+
+This affectionate conversation continued for some twenty minutes, at the
+end of which period my Lord Castlewood made his appearance, wig on head,
+and sword by side. He greeted both the young men with much politeness:
+one not more than the other. "If you were to come to us--and I, for one,
+cordially rejoice to see you--what a pity it is you did not come a few
+months earlier! A certain evening at piquet would then most likely never
+have taken place. A younger son would have been more prudent."
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Harry.
+
+"Or a kinsman more compassionate. But I fear that love of play runs in
+the blood of all of us. I have it from my father, and it has made me the
+poorest peer in England. Those fair ladies whom you see before you are
+not exempt. My poor brother Will is a martyr to it; and what I, for my
+part, win on one day, I lose on the next. 'Tis shocking, positively, the
+rage for play in England. All my poor cousin's bank-notes parted company
+from me within twenty-four hours after I got them."
+
+"I have played, like other gentlemen, but never to hurt myself, and
+never indeed caring much for the sport," remarked Mr. Warrington.
+
+"When we heard that my lord had played with Harry, we did so scold him,"
+cried the ladies.
+
+"But if it had not been I, thou knowest, cousin Warrington, some other
+person would have had thy money. 'Tis a poor consolation, but as such
+Harry must please to take it, and be glad that friends won his money,
+who wish him well, not strangers, who cared nothing for him, and fleeced
+him."
+
+"Eh! a tooth out is a tooth out, though it be your brother who pulls it,
+my lord!" said Mr. George, laughing. "Harry must bear the penalty of his
+faults, and pay his debts, like other men."
+
+"I am sure I have never said or thought otherwise. 'Tis not like an
+Englishman to be sulky because he is beaten," says Harry.
+
+"Your hand, cousin! You speak like a man!" cries my lord, with delight.
+The ladies smiled to each other.
+
+"My sister, in Virginia, has known how to bring up her sons as
+gentlemen!" exclaims Lady Castlewood, enthusiastically.
+
+"I protest you must not be growing so amiable now you are poor, cousin
+Harry!" cries cousin Fanny. "Why, mamma, we did not know half his good
+qualities when he was only Fortunate Youth and Prince of Virginia! You
+are exactly like him, cousin George, but I vow you can't be as amiable
+as your brother!"
+
+"I am the Prince of Virginia, but I fear I am not the Fortunate Youth,"
+said George, gravely.
+
+Harry was beginning, "By Jove, he is the best----" when the noise of a
+harpsichord was heard from the upper room. The lad blushed: the ladies
+smiled.
+
+"'Tis Maria, above," said Lady Castlewood. "Let some of us go up to
+her."
+
+The ladies rose, and made way towards the door; and Harry followed
+them, blushing very much. George was about to join the party, but Lord
+Castlewood checked him. "Nay, if all the ladies follow your brother"
+his lordship said, "let me at least have the benefit of your company and
+conversation. I long to hear the account of your captivity and rescue,
+cousin George!"
+
+"Oh, we must hear that too!" cried one of the ladies, lingering.
+
+"I am greedy, and should like it all by myself," said Lord Castlewood,
+looking at her very sternly; and followed the women to the door, and
+closed it upon them with a low bow.
+
+"Your brother has no doubt acquainted you with the history of all
+that has happened to him in this house, cousin George?" asked George's
+kinsman.
+
+"Yes, including the quarrel with Mr. Will and the engagement to my Lady
+Maria," replies George, with a bow. "I may be pardoned for saying that
+he hath met with but ill fortune here, my lord."
+
+"Which no one can deplore more cordially than myself. My brother lives
+with horse jockeys and trainers, and the wildest bloods of the town,
+and between us there is very little sympathy. We should not all live
+together, were we not so poor. This is the house which our grandmother
+occupied before she went to America and married Colonel Esmond. Much
+of the furniture belonged to her." George looked round the wainscoted
+parlour with some interest. "Our house has not flourished in the last
+twenty years; though we had a promotion of rank a score of years since,
+owing to some interest we had at court, then. But the malady of play has
+been the ruin of us all. I am a miserable victim to it: only too
+proud to sell myself and title to a roturiere, as many noblemen, less
+scrupulous, have done. Pride is my fault, my dear cousin. I remember how
+I was born!" And his lordship laid his hand on his shirt-frill, turned
+out his toe, and looked his cousin nobly in the face.
+
+Young George Warrington's natural disposition was to believe everything
+which everybody said to him. When once deceived, however, or undeceived
+about the character of a person, he became utterly incredulous, and
+he saluted this fine speech of my lord's with a sardonical, inward
+laughter, preserving his gravity, however, and scarce allowing any of
+his scorn to appear in his words.
+
+"We have all our faults, my lord. That of play hath been condoned over
+and over again in gentlemen of our rank. Having heartily forgiven my
+brother, surely I cannot presume to be your lordship's judge in the
+matter; and instead of playing and losing, I wish sincerely that you had
+both played and won!"
+
+"So do I, with all my heart!" says my lord with a sigh. "I augur
+well for your goodness when you can speak in this way, and for your
+experience and knowledge of the world, too, cousin, of which you seem to
+possess a greater share than most young men of your age. Your poor Harry
+hath the best heart in the world; but I doubt whether his head be very
+strong."
+
+"Not very strong, indeed. But he hath the art to make friends wherever
+he goes, and in spite of all his imprudences most people love him."
+
+"I do--we all do, I'm sure! as if he were our brother!" cries my lord.
+
+"He has often described in his letters his welcome at your lordship's
+house. My mother keeps them all, you may be sure. Harry's style is not
+very learned, but his heart is so good, that to read him is better than
+wit."
+
+"I may be mistaken, but I fancy his brother possesses a good heart and a
+good wit, too!" says my lord, obstinately gracious.
+
+"I am as Heaven made me, cousin; and perhaps some more experience and
+sorrow than has fallen to the lot of most young men."
+
+"This misfortune of your poor brother--I mean this piece of good
+fortune, your sudden reappearance--has not quite left Harry without
+resources?" continued Lord Castlewood, very gently.
+
+"With nothing but what his mother can leave him, or I, at her death,
+can spare him. What is the usual portion here of a younger brother, my
+lord?"
+
+"Eh! a younger brother here is--you know--in fine, everybody knows what
+a younger brother is," said my lord, and shrugged his shoulders and
+looked his guest in the face.
+
+The other went on: "We are the best of friends, but we are flesh and
+blood: and I don't pretend to do more for him than is usually done for
+younger brothers. Why give him money? That he should squander it at
+cards or horse-racing? My lord, we have cards and jockeys in Virginia,
+too; and my poor Harry hath distinguished himself in his own country
+already, before he came to yours. He inherits the family failing for
+dissipation."
+
+"Poor fellow, poor fellow, I pity him!"
+
+"Our estate, you see, is great, but our income is small. We have little
+more money than that which we get from England for our tobacco--and very
+little of that too--for our tobacco comes back to us in the shape of
+goods, clothes, leather, groceries, ironmongery, nay, wine and beer for
+our people and ourselves. Harry may come back and share all these:
+there is a nag in the stable for him, a piece of venison on the table,
+a little ready money to keep his pocket warm, and a coat or two every
+year. This will go on whilst my mother lives, unless, which is far from
+improbable, he gets into some quarrel with Madam Esmond. Then, whilst I
+live he will have the run of the house and all it contains: then, if I
+die leaving children, he will be less and less welcome. His future,
+my lord, is a dismal one, unless some strange piece of luck turn up on
+which we were fools to speculate. Henceforth he is doomed to dependence,
+and I know no worse lot than to be dependent on a self-willed woman like
+our mother. The means he had to make himself respected at home he
+hath squandered away here. He has flung his patrimony to the dogs,
+and poverty and subserviency are now his only portion." Mr. Warrington
+delivered this speech with considerable spirit and volubility, and his
+cousin heard him respectfully.
+
+"You speak well, Mr. Warrington. Have you ever thought of public life?"
+said my lord.
+
+"Of course I have thought of public life like every man of my
+station--every man, that is, who cares for something beyond a dice-box
+or a stable," replies George. "I hope, my lord, to be able to take my
+own place, and my unlucky brother must content himself with his. This I
+say advisedly, having heard from him of certain engagements which he has
+formed, and which it would be misery to all parties were he to attempt
+to execute now."
+
+"Your logic is very strong," said my lord. "Shall we go up and see the
+ladies? There is a picture above-stairs which your grandfather is said
+to have executed. Before you go, my dear cousin, you will please to fix
+a day when our family may have the honour of receiving you. Castlewood,
+you know, is always your home when we are there. It is something like
+your Virginian Castlewood, cousin, from your account. We have beef,
+and mutton, and ale, and wood, in plenty; but money is woefully scarce
+amongst us."
+
+They ascended to the drawing-room, where, however, they found only one
+of the ladies of the family. This was my Lady Maria, who came out of the
+embrasure of a window, where she and Harry Warrington had been engaged
+in talk.
+
+George made his best bow, Maria her lowest curtsey. "You are indeed
+wonderfully like your brother," she said, giving him her hand. "And from
+what he says, cousin George, I think you are as good as he is."
+
+At the sight of her swollen eyes and tearful face George felt a pang
+of remorse. "Poor thing!" he thought. "Harry has been vaunting my
+generosity and virtue to her, and I have beer, playing the selfish elder
+brother downstairs! How old she looks! How could he ever have a passion
+for such a woman as that?" How? Because he did not see with your eyes,
+Mr. George. He saw rightly too now with his own, perhaps. I never know
+whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.
+
+After the introduction a little talk took place, which for a while Lady
+Maria managed to carry on in an easy manner: but though ladies in this
+matter of social hypocrisy are, I think, far more consummate performers
+than men, after a sentence or two the poor lady broke out into a sob,
+and, motioning Harry away with her hand, fairly fled from the room.
+
+Harry was rushing forward, but stopped--checked by that sign. My lord
+said his poor sister was subject to these fits of nerves, and had
+already been ill that morning. After this event our young gentlemen
+thought it was needless to prolong their visit. Lord Castlewood followed
+them downstairs, accompanied them to the door, admired their nags in the
+phaeton, and waved them a friendly farewell.
+
+"And so we have been coaxing and cuddling in the window, and we part
+good friends, Harry? Is it not so?" says George to his charioteer.
+
+"Oh, she is a good woman!" cries Harry, lashing the horses. "I know
+you'll think so when you come to know her."
+
+"When you take her home to Virginia? A pretty welcome our mother will
+give her. She will never forgive me for not breaking the match off, nor
+you for making it."
+
+"I can't help it, George! Don't you be popping your ugly head so close
+to my ears, Gumbo! After what has passed between us, I am bound in
+honour to stand by her. If she sees no objection, I must find none. I
+told her all. I told her that Madam would be very rusty at first; but
+that she was very fond of me, and must end by relenting. And when you
+come to the property, I told her that I knew my dearest George so well,
+that I might count upon sharing with him."
+
+"The deuce you did! Let me tell you, my dear, that I have been telling
+my Lord Castlewood quite a different story. That as an elder brother I
+intend to have all my rights--there, don't flog that near horse so--and
+that you can but look forward to poverty and dependence."
+
+"What! You won't help me?" cries Harry, turning quite pale.
+
+"George, I don't believe it, though I hear it out of your own mouth!
+There was a minute's pause after this outbreak, during which Harry did
+not even look at his brother, but sate, gazing blindly before him, the
+picture of grief and gloom. He was driving so near to a road-post that
+the carriage might have been upset but for George's pulling the rein.
+
+"You had better take the reins, sir," said Harry. "I told you you had
+better take them."
+
+"Did you ever know me fail you, Harry?" George asked.
+
+"No," said the other, "not till now"--the tears were rolling down his
+cheeks as he spoke.
+
+"My dear, I think one day you will say I have done my duty."
+
+"What have you done? asked Harry.
+
+"I have said you were a younger brother--that you have spent all your
+patrimony, and that your portion at home must be very slender. Is it not
+true?"
+
+"Yes, but I would not have believed it, if ten thousand men had told
+me," said Harry. "Whatever happened to me, I thought I could trust you,
+George Warrington." And in this frame of mind Harry remained during the
+rest of the drive.
+
+Their dinner was served soon after their return to their lodgings, of
+which Harry scarce ate any, though he drank freely of the wine before
+him.
+
+"That wine is a bad consoler in trouble, Harry," his brother remarked.
+
+"I have no other, sir," said Harry, grimly; and having drunk glass after
+glass in silence, he presently seized his hat, and left the room.
+
+He did not return for three hours. George, in much anxiety about his
+brother, had not left home meanwhile, but read his book, and smoked the
+pipe of patience. "It was shabby to say I would not aid him, and,
+God help me, it was not true. I won't leave him, though he marries a
+blackamoor," thought George "have I not done him harm enough already, by
+coming to life again? Where has he gone; has he gone to play?"
+
+"Good God! what has happened to thee?" cried George Warrington,
+presently, when his brother came in, looking ghastly pale.
+
+He came up and took his brother's hand. "I can take it now, Georgy,"
+he said. "Perhaps what you did was right, though. I for one will never
+believe that you would throw your brother off in distress. I'll tell you
+what. At dinner, I thought suddenly, I'll go back to her and speak to
+her. I'll say to her, 'Maria, poor as I am, your conduct to me has been
+so noble, that, by heaven! I am yours to take or to leave. If you will
+have me, here I am: I will enlist: I will work: I will try and make a
+livelihood for myself somehow, and my bro----my relations will relent,
+and give us enough to live on.' That's what I determined to tell her;
+and I did, George. I ran all the way to Kensington in the rain--look, I
+am splashed from head to foot,--and found them all at dinner, all except
+Will, that is. I spoke out that very moment to them all, sitting round
+the table, over their wine. 'Maria,' says I, 'a poor fellow wants to
+redeem his promise which he made when he fancied he was rich. Will you
+take him?' I found I had plenty of words, and didn't hem and stutter as
+I'm doing now. I spoke ever so long, and I ended by saying I would do my
+best and my duty by her, so help me God!
+
+"When I had done, she came up to me quite kind. She took my hand, and
+kissed it before the rest. 'My dearest, best Harry!' she said (those
+were her words, I don't want otherwise to be praising myself), 'you are
+a noble heart, and I thank you with all mine. But, my dear, I have long
+seen it was only duty, and a foolish promise made by a young man to an
+old woman, that has held you to your engagement. To keep it would make
+you miserable, my dear. I absolve you from it, thanking you with all my
+heart for your fidelity, and blessing and loving my dear cousin always.'
+And she came up and kissed me before them all, and went out of the
+room quite stately, and without a single tear. They were all crying,
+especially my lord, who was sobbing quite loud. I didn't think he had so
+much feeling. And she, George? Oh, isn't she a noble creature?"
+
+"Here's her health!" cries George, filling one of the glasses that still
+stood before him.
+
+"Hip, hip, huzzay!" says Harry. He was wild with delight at being free.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII. In which Mr. Harry's Nose continues to be put out of joint
+
+
+Madame de Bernstein was scarcely less pleased than her Virginian
+nephews at the result of Harry's final interview with Lady Maria. George
+informed the Baroness of what had passed, in a billet which he sent
+to her the same evening; and shortly afterwards her nephew Castlewood,
+whose visits to his aunt were very rare, came to pay his respects to
+her, and frankly spoke about the circumstances which had taken place;
+for no man knew better than my Lord Castlewood how to be frank upon
+occasion, and now that the business between Maria and Harry was ended
+what need was there of reticence or hypocrisy? The game had been played,
+and was over: he had no objection now to speak of its various
+moves, stratagems, finesses. "She is my own sister," said my lord,
+affectionately; "she won't have many more chances--many more such
+chances of marrying and establishing herself. I might not approve of the
+match in all respects, and I might pity your ladyship's young Virginian
+favourite: but of course such a piece of good fortune was not to be
+thrown away, and I was bound to stand by my own flesh and blood."
+
+"Your candour does your lordship honour," says Madame de Bernstein, "and
+your love for your sister is quite edifying!"
+
+"Nay, we have lost the game, and I am speaking sans rancune. It is not
+for you, who have won, to bear malice," says my lord, with a bow.
+
+Madame de Bernstein protested she was never in her life in better
+humour. "Confess, now, Eugene, that visit of Maria to Harry at the
+spunging-house--that touching giving up of all his presents to her, was
+a stroke of thy invention?"
+
+"Pity for the young man, and a sense of what was due from Maria to her
+friend--her affianced lover--in misfortune, sure these were motives
+sufficient to make her act as she did," replies Lord Castlewood,
+demurely.
+
+"But 'twas you advised her, my good nephew?"
+
+Castlewood, with a shrug of his shoulders, owned that he did advise his
+sister to see Mr. Henry Warrington. "But we should have won, in spite
+of your ladyship," he continued, "had not the elder brother made his
+appearance. And I have been trying to console my poor Maria by showing
+her what a piece of good fortune it is after all, that we lost."
+
+"Suppose she had married Harry, and then cousin George had made his
+appearance?" remarks the Baroness.
+
+"Effectivement," cries Eugene, taking snuff. "As the grave was to give
+up its dead, let us be thankful to the grave for disgorging in time! I
+am bound to say, that Mr. George Warrington seems to be a man of sense,
+and not more selfish than other elder sons and men of the world. My poor
+Molly fancied that he might be a--what shall I say?--a greenhorn perhaps
+is the term--like his younger brother. She fondly hoped that he might be
+inclined to go share and share alike with Twin junior; in which case, so
+infatuated was she about the young fellow, that I believe she would have
+taken him. 'Harry Warrington, with half a loaf, might do very well,'
+says I, 'but Harry Warrington with no bread, my dear!'"
+
+"How no bread?" asks the Baroness.
+
+"Well, no bread except at his brother's side-table. The elder said as
+much."
+
+"What a hard-hearted wretch!" cries Madame de Bernstein.
+
+"Ah, bah! I play with you, aunt, cartes sur table! Mr. George only did
+what everybody else would do; and we have no right to be angry with him,
+really we haven't. Molly herself acknowledged as much, after her first
+burst of grief was over, and I brought her to listen to reason. The
+silly old creature! to be so wild about a young lad at her time of
+life!"
+
+"'Twas a real passion, I almost do believe," said Madame de Bernstein.
+
+"You should have heard her take leave of him. C'etait touchant, ma
+parole d'honneur! I cried. Before George, I could not help myself. The
+young fellow with muddy stockings, and his hair about his eyes, flings
+himself amongst us when we were at dinner; makes his offer to Molly in a
+very frank and noble manner, and in good language too; and she replies.
+Begad, it put me in mind of Mrs. Woffington in the new Scotch play, that
+Lord Bute's man has wrote--Douglas--what d'ye call it? She clings round
+the lad: she bids him adieu in heartrending accents. She steps out of
+the room in a stately despair--no more chocolate, thank you. If she had
+made a mauvais pas no one could retire from it with more dignity. 'Twas
+a masterly retreat after a defeat. We were starved out of our position,
+but we retired with all the honours of war."
+
+"Molly won't die of the disappointment!" said my lord's aunt, sipping
+her cup.
+
+My lord snarled a grin, and showed his yellow teeth. "He, he!" he
+said, "she hath once or twice before had the malady very severely, and
+recovered perfectly. It don't kill, as your ladyship knows, at Molly's
+age."
+
+How should her ladyship know? She did not marry Doctor Tusher until she
+was advanced in life. She did not become Madame de Bernstein until still
+later. Old Dido, a poet remarks, was not ignorant of misfortune, and
+hence learned to have compassion on the wretched.
+
+People in the little world, as I have been told, quarrel and fight, and
+go on abusing each other, and are not reconciled for ever so long. But
+people in the great world are surely wiser in their generation. They
+have differences; they cease seeing each other. They make it up and come
+together again, and no questions are asked. A stray prodigal, or a stray
+puppy-dog, is thus brought in under the benefit of an amnesty, though
+you know he has been away in ugly company. For six months past, ever
+since the Castlewoods and Madame de Bernstein had been battling for
+possession of poor Harry Warrington, these two branches of the Esmond
+family had remained apart. Now, the question being settled, they were
+free to meet again, as though no difference ever had separated them: and
+Madame de Bernstein drove in her great coach to Lady Castlewood's rout,
+and the Esmond ladies appeared smiling at Madame de Bernstein's drums,
+and loved each other just as much as they previously had done.
+
+"So, sir, I hear you have acted like a hard-hearted monster about your
+poor brother Harry!" says the Baroness, delighted, and menacing George
+with her stick.
+
+"I acted but upon your ladyship's hint, and desired to see whether it
+was for himself or his reputed money that his kinsfolk wanted to have
+him," replies George, turning rather red.
+
+"Nay, Maria could not marry a poor fellow who was utterly penniless, and
+whose elder brother said he would give him nothing!"
+
+"I did it for the best, madam," says George, still blushing.
+
+"And so thou didst, O thou hypocrite!" cries the old lady.
+
+"Hypocrite, madam! and why?" asks Mr. Warrington, drawing himself up in
+much state.
+
+"I know all, my infant!" says the Baroness in French. "Thou art very
+like thy grandfather. Come, that I embrace thee! Harry has told me all,
+and that thou hast divided thy little patrimony with him!"
+
+"It was but natural, madam. We have had common hearts and purses since
+we were born. I but feigned hard-heartedness in order to try those
+people yonder," says George, with filling eyes.
+
+"And thou wilt divide Virginia with him too?" asks the Bernstein.
+
+"I don't say so. It were not just," replied Mr. Warrington. "The land
+must go to the eldest born, and Harry would not have it otherwise: and
+it may be I shall die, or my mother outlive the pair of us. But half of
+what is mine is his: and he, it must be remembered, only was extravagant
+because he was mistaken as to his position."
+
+"But it is a knight of old, it is a Bayard, it is the grandfather
+come to life!" cried Madame de Bernstein to her attendant, as she was
+retiring for the night. And that evening, when the lads left her, it was
+to poor Harry she gave the two fingers, and to George the rouged cheek,
+who blushed, for his part, almost as deep as that often-dyed rose, at
+such a mark of his old kinswoman's favour.
+
+Although Harry Warrington was the least envious of men, and did honour
+to his brother as in all respects his chief, guide, and superior, yet no
+wonder a certain feeling of humiliation and disappointment oppressed the
+young man after his deposition from his eminence as Fortunate Youth and
+heir to boundless Virginian territories. Our friends at Kensington might
+promise and vow that they would love him all the better after his fall;
+Harry made a low bow and professed himself very thankful; but he
+could not help perceiving, when he went with his brother to the state
+entertainment with which my Lord Castlewood regaled his new-found
+kinsman, that George was all in all to his cousins: had all the talk,
+compliments, and petits soins for himself, whilst of Harry no one took
+any notice save poor Maria, who followed him with wistful looks, pursued
+him with eyes conveying dismal reproaches, and, as it were, blamed him
+because she had left him. "Ah!" the eyes seemed to say, "'tis mighty
+well of you, Harry, to have accepted the freedom which I gave you; but I
+had no intention, sir, that you should be so pleased at being let off."
+She gave him up, but yet she did not quite forgive him for taking her
+at her word. She would not have him, and yet she would. Oh, my young
+friends, how delightful is the beginning of a love-business, and how
+undignified, sometimes, the end! What a romantic vista is before young
+Damon and young Phillis (or middle-aged ditto ditto) when, their artless
+loves made known to each other, they twine their arms round each other's
+waists and survey that charming pays du tendre which lies at their feet!
+Into that country, so linked together, they will wander from now until
+extreme old age. There may be rocks and roaring rivers, but will not
+Damon's strong true love enable him to carry Sweetheart over them? There
+may be dragons and dangers in the path, but shall not his courageous
+sword cut them down? Then at eve, how they will rest cuddled together,
+like two pretty babes in the wood, the moss their couch, the stars their
+canopy, their arms their mutual pillows! This is the wise plan young
+folks make when they set out on the love journey; and--O me!--they have
+not got a mile when they come to a great wall and find they must walk
+back again. They are squabbling with the post-boy at Barnet (the first
+stage on the Gretna Road, I mean), and, behold, perhaps Strephon has not
+got any money, or here is papa with a whacking horsewhip, who takes Miss
+back again, and locks her up crying in the schoolroom. The parting
+is heart-breaking; but, when she has married the banker and had eight
+children, and he has become, it may be, a prosperous barrister,--it may
+be, a seedy raff who has gone twice or thrice into the Gazette; when,
+I say, in after years Strephon and Delia meet again, is not the meeting
+ridiculous? Nevertheless, I hope no young man will fall in love, having
+any doubt in his mind as to the eternity of his passion. 'Tis when a
+man has had a second or third amorous attack that he begins to grow
+doubtful; but some women are romantic to the end, and from eighteen to
+eight-and-fifty (for what I know) are always expecting their hearts to
+break. In fine, when you have been in love and are so no more, when the
+King of France, with twenty thousand men, with colours flying, music
+playing, and all the pomp of war, having marched up the hill, then
+proceeds to march down again, he and you are in an absurd position.
+
+This is what Harry Warrington, no doubt, felt when he went to Kensington
+and encountered the melancholy, reproachful eyes of his cousin. Yes! it
+is a foolish position to be in; but it is also melancholy to look into
+a house you have once lived in, and see black casements and emptiness
+where once shone the fires of welcome. Melancholy? Yes; but, ha! how
+bitter, how melancholy, how absurd to look up as you pass sentimentally
+by No. 13, and see somebody else grinning out of window, and evidently
+on the best terms with the landlady. I always feel hurt, even at an inn
+which I frequent, if I see other folks' trunks and boots at the doors
+of the rooms which were once mine. Have those boots lolled on the sofa
+which once I reclined on? I kick you from before me, you muddy, vulgar
+highlows!
+
+So considering that his period of occupation was over, and Maria's
+rooms, if not given up to a new tenant, were, at any rate, to let, Harry
+did not feel very easy in his cousin's company, nor she possibly in his.
+He found either that he had nothing to say to her, or that what she had
+to say to him was rather dull and commonplace, and that the red lip of
+a white-necked pipe of Virginia was decidedly more agreeable to him now
+than Maria's softest accents and most melancholy moue. When George went
+to Kensington, then, Harry did not care much about going, and pleaded
+other engagements.
+
+At his uncle's house in Hill Street the poor lad was no better amused,
+and, indeed, was treated by the virtuous people there with scarce any
+attention at all. The ladies did not scruple to deny themselves when
+he came; he could scarce have believed in such insincerity after their
+caresses, their welcome, their repeated vows of affection; but happening
+to sit with the Lamberts for an hour after he had called upon his aunt,
+he saw her ladyship's chairmen arrive with an empty chair, and his aunt
+step out and enter the vehicle, and not even blush when he made her a
+bow from the opposite window. To be denied by his own relations--to have
+that door which had opened to him so kindly, slammed in his face! He
+would not have believed such a thing possible, poor simple Harry said.
+Perhaps he thought the door-knocker had a tender heart, and was not made
+of brass; not more changed than the head of that knocker was my Lady
+Warrington's virtuous face when she passed her nephew.
+
+"My father's own brother's wife! What have I done to offend her? Oh,
+Aunt Lambert, Aunt Lambert, did you ever see such cold-heartedness?"
+cries out Harry, with his usual impetuosity.
+
+"Do we make any difference to you, my dear Harry?" says Aunt Lambert,
+with a side look at her youngest daughter. "The world may look coldly at
+you, but we don't belong to it: so you may come to us in safety."
+
+"In this house you are different from other people," replies Harry. "I
+don't know how, but I always feel quiet and happy somehow when I come to
+you."
+
+    "Quis me uno vivit felicior? aut magis hac est
+     Optandum vita dicere quis potuit?"
+
+calls out General Lambert. "Do you know where I got these verses, Mr.
+Gownsman?" and he addresses his son from college, who is come to pass
+an Easter holiday with his parents. "You got them out of Catullus, sir,"
+says the scholar.
+
+"I got them out of no such thing, sir. I got them out of my favourite
+Democritus Junior--out of old Burton, who has provided many indifferent
+scholars with learning;" and who and Montaigne, were favourite authors
+with the good General.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII. Where we do what Cats may do
+
+
+We have said how our Virginians, with a wisdom not uncommon in
+youth, had chosen to adopt strong Jacobite opinions, and to profess a
+prodigious affection for the exiled royal family. The banished prince
+had recognised Madam Esmond's father as Marquis of Esmond, and she did
+not choose to be very angry with an unfortunate race, that, after all,
+was so willing to acknowledge the merits of her family. As for any
+little scandal about her sister, Madame de Bernstein, and the Old
+Chevalier, she tossed away from her with scorn the recollection of that
+odious circumstance, asserting, with perfect truth, that the two first
+monarchs of the House of Hanover were quite as bad as any Stuarts in
+regard to their domestic morality. But the king de facto was the king,
+as well as his Majesty de jure. De Facto had been solemnly crowned and
+anointed at church, and had likewise utterly discomfited De Jure, when
+they came to battle for the kingdom together. Madam's clear opinion was,
+then, that her sons owed it to themselves as well as the sovereign to
+appear at his royal court. And if his Majesty should have been minded
+to confer a lucrative post, or a blue or red ribbon upon either of them,
+she, for her part, would not have been in the least surprised. She made
+no doubt but that the King knew the Virginian Esmonds as well as any
+other members of his nobility. The lads were specially commanded, then,
+to present themselves at court, and, I dare say, their mother would have
+been very angry had she known that George took Harry's laced coat on the
+day when he went to make his bow at Kensington.
+
+A hundred years ago the King's drawing-room was open almost every day
+to his nobility and gentry; and loyalty--especially since the war had
+begun--could gratify itself a score of times in a month with the august
+sight of the sovereign. A wise avoidance of the enemy's ships of war, a
+gracious acknowledgment of the inestimable loss the British Isles would
+suffer by the seizure of the royal person at sea, caused the monarch to
+forgo those visits to his native Hanover which were so dear to his
+royal heart, and compelled him to remain, it must be owned, unwillingly
+amongst his loving Britons. A Hanoverian lady, however, whose virtues
+had endeared her to the prince, strove to console him for his enforced
+absence from Herrenhausen. And from the lips of the Countess of Walmoden
+(on whom the imperial beneficence had gracefully conferred a high title
+of British honour) the revered Defender of the Faith could hear the
+accents of his native home.
+
+To this beloved Sovereign, Mr. Warrington requested his uncle, an
+assiduous courtier, to present him; and as Mr. Lambert had to go
+to court likewise, and thank his Majesty for his promotion, the
+two gentlemen made the journey to Kensington together, engaging a
+hackney-coach for the purpose, as my Lord Wrotham's carriage was now
+wanted by its rightful owner, who had returned to his house in town.
+They alighted at Kensington Palace Gate, where the sentries on duty knew
+and saluted the good General, and hence modestly made their way on foot
+to the summer residence of the sovereign. Walking under the portico
+of the Palace, they entered the gallery which leads to the great black
+marble staircase (which hath been so richly decorated and painted by Mr.
+Kent), and then passed through several rooms, richly hung with tapestry
+and adorned with pictures and bustos, until they came to the King's
+great drawing-room, where that famous "Venus" by Titian is, and, amongst
+other masterpieces, the picture of "St. Francis adoring the infant
+Saviour," performed by Sir Peter Paul Rubens; and here, with the rest of
+the visitors to the court, the gentlemen waited until his Majesty issued
+from his private apartments, where he was in conference with certain
+personages who were called in the newspaper language of that day his
+M-j-ty's M-n-st-rs.
+
+George Warrington, who had never been in a palace before, had leisure to
+admire the place, and regard the people round him. He saw fine pictures
+for the first time too, and I dare say delighted in that charming piece
+of Sir Athony Vandyck, representing King Charles the First, his Queen
+and Family, and the noble picture of "Esther before Ahasuerus," painted
+by Tintoret, and in which all the figures are dressed in the magnificent
+Venetian habit. With the contemplation of these works he was so
+enraptured, that he scarce heard all the remarks of his good friend the
+General, who was whispering into his young companion's almost heedless
+ear the names of some of the personages round about them.
+
+"Yonder," says Mr. Lambert, "are two of my Lords of the Admiralty, Mr.
+Gilbert Elliot and Admiral Boscawen: your Boscawen, whose fleet fired
+the first gun in your waters two years ago. That stout gentleman all
+belated with gold is Mr. Fox, that was Minister, and is now content to
+be Paymaster with a great salary.
+
+"He carries the auri fames on his person. Why, his waistcoat is a
+perfect Potosi!" says George.
+
+"Aliena appetens--how goes the text? He loves to get money and to spend
+it," continues General Lambert. "Yon is my Lord Chief Justice Willes,
+talking to my Lord of Salisbury, Doctor Headley, who, if he serve
+his God as he serves his King, will be translated to some very high
+promotion in Heaven. He belongs to your grandfather's time, and was
+loved by Dick Steele and hated by the Dean. With them is my Lord of
+London, the learned Doctor Sherlock. My lords of the lawn sleeves have
+lost half their honours now. I remember when I was a boy in my mother's
+hand, she made me go down on my knees to the Bishop of Rochester; him
+who went over the water, and became Minister to somebody who shall be
+nameless--Perkin's Bishop. That handsome fair man is Admiral Smith. He
+was president of poor Byng's court-martial, and strove in vain to get
+him off his penalty; Tom of Ten Thousand they call him in the fleet. The
+French Ambassador had him broke, when he was a lieutenant, for making a
+French man-of-war lower topsails to him, and the King made Tom a
+captain the next day. That tall, haughty-looking man is my Lord George
+Sackville, who, now I am a Major-General myself, will treat me somewhat
+better than a footman. I wish my stout old Blakeney were here; he is the
+soldier's darling, and as kind and brave as yonder poker of a nobleman
+is brave and--I am your lordship's very humble servant. This is a young
+gentleman who is just from America, and was in Braddock's sad business
+two years ago."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" says the poker of a nobleman. "I have the honour of
+speaking to Mr.----?"
+
+"To Major-General Lambert, at your lordship's service, and who was in
+his Majesty's some time before you entered it. That, Mr. Warrington, is
+the first commoner in England, Mr. Speaker Onslow. Where is your uncle?
+I shall have to present you myself to his Majesty if Sir Miles delays
+much longer." As he spoke, the worthy General addressed himself entirely
+to his young friend, making no sort of account of his colleague, who
+stalked away with a scared look as if amazed at the other's audacity. A
+hundred years ago, a nobleman was a nobleman, and expected to be admired
+as such.
+
+Sir Miles's red waistcoat appeared in sight presently, and many cordial
+greetings passed between him, his nephew, and General Lambert: for we
+have described how Sir Miles was the most affectionate of men. So
+the General had quitted my Lord Wrotham's house? It was time, as his
+lordship himself wished to occupy it? Very good; but consider what a
+loss for the neighbours!
+
+"We miss you, we positively miss you, my dear General," cries Sir Miles.
+"My daughters were in love with those lovely young ladies--upon my word,
+they were; and my Lady Warrington and my girls were debating over
+and over again how they should find an opportunity of making the
+acquaintance of your charming family. We feel as if we were old friends
+already; indeed we do, General, if you will permit me the liberty of
+saying so; and we love you, if I may be allowed to speak frankly, on
+account of your friendship and kindness to our dear nephews: though we
+were a little jealous, I own a little jealous of them, because they went
+so often to see you. Often and often have I said to my Lady Warrington,
+'My dear, why don't we make acquaintance with the General? Why don't we
+ask him and his ladies to come over in a family way and dine with some
+other plain country gentlefolks?' Carry my most sincere respects to
+Mrs. Lambert, I pray, sir; and thank her for her goodness to these young
+gentlemen. My own flesh and blood, sir; my dear, dear brother's boys!"
+He passed his hand across his manly eyes: he was choking almost with
+generous and affectionate emotion.
+
+Whilst they were discoursing--George Warrington the while restraining
+his laughter with admirable gravity--the door of the King's apartments
+opened, and the pages entered, preceding his Majesty. He was followed
+by his burly son, his Royal Highness the Duke, a very corpulent Prince,
+with a coat and face of blazing scarlet: behind them came various
+gentlemen and officers of state; among whom George at once recognised
+the famous Mr. Secretary Pitt, by his tall stature, his eagle eye and
+beak, his grave and majestic presence. As I see that solemn figure
+passing, even a hundred years off, I protest I feel a present awe, and a
+desire to take my hat off. I am not frightened at George the Second; nor
+are my eyes dazzled by the portentous appearance of his Royal Highness
+the Duke of Culloden and Fontenoy; but the Great Commoner, the terrible
+Cornet of Horse! His figure bestrides our narrow isle of a century
+back like a Colossus; and I hush as he passes in his gouty shoes, his
+thunderbolt hand wrapped in flannel. Perhaps as we see him now, issuing
+with dark looks from the royal closet, angry scenes have been passing
+between him and his august master. He has been boring that old monarch
+for hours with prodigious long speeches, full of eloquence, voluble
+with the noblest phrases upon the commonest topics; but, it must be
+confessed, utterly repulsive to the little shrewd old gentleman, "at
+whose feet he lays himself," as the phrase is, and who has the most
+thorough dislike for fine boedry and for fine brose too! The sublime
+Minister passes solemnly through the crowd; the company ranges itself
+respectfully round the wall; and his Majesty walks round the circle, his
+royal son lagging a little behind, and engaging select individuals in
+conversation for his own part.
+
+The monarch is a little, keen, fresh-coloured old man, with very
+protruding eyes, attired in plain, old-fashioned, snuff-coloured clothes
+and brown stockings, his only ornament the blue ribbon of his Order of
+the Garter. He speaks in a German accent, but with ease, shrewdness, and
+simplicity, addressing those individuals whom he has a mind to notice,
+or passing on with a bow. He knew Mr. Lambert well, who had served under
+his Majesty at Dettingen, and with his royal son in Scotland, and he
+congratulated him good-humouredly on his promotion.
+
+"It is not always," his Majesty was pleased to say, "that we can do
+as we like; but I was glad when, for once, I could give myself that
+pleasure in your case, General; for my army contains no better officer
+as you."
+
+The veteran blushed and bowed, deeply gratified at this speech.
+Meanwhile, the Best of Monarchs was looking at Sir Miles Warrington
+(whom his Majesty knew perfectly, as the eager recipient of all favours
+from all Ministers), and at the young gentleman by his side.
+
+"Who is this?" the Defender of the Faith condescended to ask, pointing
+towards George Warrington, who stood before his sovereign in a
+respectful attitude, clad in poor Harry's best embroidered suit.
+
+With the deepest reverence Sir Miles informed his King, that the young
+gentleman was his nephew, Mr. George Warrington, of Virginia, who asked
+leave to pay his humble duty.
+
+"This, then, is the other brother?" the Venerated Prince deigned to
+observe. "He came in time, else the other brother would have spent all
+the money. My Lord Bishop of Salisbury, why do you come out in this
+bitter weather? You had much better stay at home!" and with this, the
+revered wielder of Britannia's sceptre passed on to other lords and
+gentlemen of his court. Sir Miles Warrington was deeply affected at the
+royal condescension. He clapped his nephew's hands. "God bless you, my
+boy," he cried; "I told you that you would see the greatest monarch and
+the finest gentleman in the world. Is he not so, my Lord Bishop?"
+
+"That, that he is!" cried his lordship, clasping his ruffled hands, and
+turning his fine eyes up to the sky, "the best of princes and of men."
+
+"That is Master Louis, my Lady Yarmouth's favourite nephew," says
+Lambert, pointing to a young gentleman who stood with a crowd round him;
+and presently the stout Duke of Cumberland came up to our little group.
+
+His Royal Highness held out his hand to his old companion-in-arms.
+"Congratulate you on your promotion, Lambert," he said good-naturedly.
+Sir Miles Warrington's eyes were ready to burst out of his head with
+rapture.
+
+"I owe it, sir, to your Royal Highness's good offices," said the
+grateful General.
+
+"Not at all; not at all: ought to have had it a long time before. Always
+been a good officer; perhaps there'll be some employment for you soon.
+This is the gentleman whom James Wolfe introduced to me?"
+
+"His brother, sir."
+
+"Oh, the real Fortunate Youth! You were with poor Ned Braddock in
+America--a prisoner, and lucky enough to escape. Come and see me, sir,
+in Pall Mall. Bring him to my levee, Lambert." And the broad back of the
+Royal Prince was turned to our friends.
+
+"It is raining! You came on foot, General Lambert? You and George must
+come home in my coach. You must and shall come home with me, I say. By
+George, you must! I'll have no denial," cried the enthusiastic Baronet;
+and he drove George and the General back to Hill Street, and presented
+the latter to my Lady Warrington and his darlings, Flora and Dora, and
+insisted upon their partaking of a collation, as they must be hungry
+after their ride. "What, there is only cold mutton? Well, an old soldier
+can eat cold mutton. And a good glass of my Lady Warrington's own
+cordial, prepared with her own hands, will keep the cold wind out.
+Delicious cordial! Capital mutton! Our own, my dear General," says the
+hospitable Baronet, "our own from the country, six years old if a day.
+We keep a plain table; but all the Warringtons since the Conqueror have
+been remarkable for their love of mutton; and our meal may look a little
+scanty, and is, for we are plain people, and I am obliged to keep my
+rascals of servants on board-wages. Can't give them seven-year-old
+mutton, you know."
+
+Sir Miles, in his nephew's presence and hearing, described to his wife
+and daughters George's reception at court in such flattering terms that
+George hardly knew himself, or the scene at which he had been present,
+or how to look his uncle in the face, or how to contradict him before
+his family in the midst of the astonishing narrative he was relating.
+Lambert sat by for a while with open eyes. He, too, had been at
+Kensington. He had seen none of the wonders which Sir Miles described.
+
+"We are proud of you, dear George. We love you, my dear nephew--we all
+love you, we are all proud of you--"
+
+"Yes; but I like Harry best," says a little voice.
+
+"--not because you are wealthy! Screwby, take Master Miles to his
+governor. Go, dear child. Not because you are blest with great estates
+and an ancient name; but because, George, you have put to good use the
+talents with which Heaven has adorned you; because you have fought and
+bled in your country's cause, in your monarch's cause, and as such are
+indeed worthy of the favour of the best of sovereigns. General Lambert,
+you have kindly condescended to look in on a country family, and partake
+of our unpretending meal. I hope we may see you some day when our
+hospitality is a little less homely. Yes, by George, General, you must
+and shall name a day when you and Mrs. Lambert, and your dear girls,
+will dine with us. I'll take no refusal now, by George I won't," bawls
+the knight.
+
+"You will accompany us, I trust, to my drawing-room?" says my lady,
+rising.
+
+Mr. Lambert pleaded to be excused; but the ladies on no account would
+let dear George go away. No, positively, he should not go. They wanted
+to make acquaintance with their cousin. They must hear about that
+dreadful battle and escape from the Indians. Tom Claypool came in and
+heard some of the story. Flora was listening to it with her handkerchief
+to her eyes, and little Miles had just said--
+
+"Why do you take your handkerchief, Flora? You're not crying a bit."
+
+Being a man of great humour, Martin Lambert, when he went home, could
+not help entertaining his wife with an account of the new family with
+which he had made acquaintance. A certain cant word called humbug had
+lately come into vogue. Will it be believed that the General used it to
+designate the family of this virtuous country gentleman? He described
+the eager hospitalities of the father, the pompous flatteries of the
+mother, and the daughters' looks of admiration; the toughness and
+security of the mutton, and the abominable taste and odour of the
+cordial; and we may be sure Mrs. Lambert contrasted Lady Warrington's
+recent behaviour to poor Harry with her present conduct to George.
+
+"Is this Miss Warrington really handsome?" asks Mrs Lambent.
+
+"Yes; she is very handsome indeed, and the most astounding flirt I have
+ever set eyes on," replies the General.
+
+"The hypocrite! I have no patience with such people!" cries the lady.
+
+To which the General, strange to say, only replied by the monosyllable
+"Bo!"
+
+"Why do you say 'Bo!' Martin?" asks the lady.
+
+"I say 'Bo!' to a goose, my dear," answers the General.
+
+And his wife vows she does not know what he means, or of what he is
+thinking, and the General says--
+
+"Of course not."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIX. In which we are treated to a Play
+
+
+The real business of life, I fancy, can form but little portion of the
+novelist's budget. When he is speaking of the profession of arms, in
+which men can show courage or the reverse, and in treating of which the
+writer naturally has to deal with interesting circumstances, actions,
+and characters, introducing recitals of danger, devotedness, heroic
+deaths, and the like, the novelist may perhaps venture to deal with
+actual affairs of life: but otherwise, they scarcely can enter into our
+stories. The main part of Ficulnus's life, for instance, is spent in
+selling sugar, spices and cheese; of Causidicus's in poring over musty
+volumes of black-letter law; of Sartorius's in sitting, cross-legged,
+on a board after measuring gentlemen for coats and breeches. What can a
+story-teller say about the professional existence of these men? Would a
+real rustical history of hobnails and eighteenpence a day be endurable?
+In the days whereof we are writing, the poets of the time chose to
+represent a shepherd in pink breeches and a chintz waistcoat, dancing
+before his flocks, and playing a flageolet tied up with a blue satin
+ribbon. I say, in reply to some objections which have been urged by
+potent and friendly critics, that of the actual affairs of life the
+novelist cannot be expected to treat--with the almost single exception
+of war before named. But law, stockbroking, polemical theology,
+linen-drapery, apothecary-business, and the like, how can writers manage
+fully to develop these in their stories? All authors can do, is to
+depict men out of their business--in their passions, loves, laughters,
+amusements, hatreds, and what not--and describe these as well as they
+can, taking the business part for granted, and leaving it as it were for
+subaudition.
+
+Thus, in talking of the present or the past world, I know I am
+only dangling about the theatre-lobbies, coffee-houses, ridottos,
+pleasure-haunts, fair-booths, and feasting- and fiddling-rooms of life;
+that, meanwhile, the great serious past or present world is plodding in
+its chambers, toiling at its humdrum looms, or jogging on its accustomed
+labours, and we are only seeing our characters away from their work.
+Corydon has to cart the litter and thresh the barley, as well as to make
+love to Phillis; Ancillula has to dress and wash the nursery, to wait at
+breakfast and on her misses, to take the children out, etc., before
+she can have her brief sweet interview through the area-railings with
+Boopis, the policeman. All day long have his heels to beat the stale
+pavement before he has the opportunity to snatch the hasty kiss or the
+furtive cold pie. It is only at moments, and away from these labours,
+that we can light upon one character or the other; and hence, though
+most of the persons of whom we are writing have doubtless their grave
+employments and avocations, it is only when they are disengaged and
+away from their work, that we can bring them and the equally disengaged
+reader together.
+
+The macaronis and fine gentlemen at White's and Arthur's continued to
+show poor Harry Warrington such a very cold shoulder, that he sought
+their society less and less, and the Ring and the Mall and the
+gaming-table knew him no more. Madame de Bernstein was for her nephew's
+braving the indifference of the world, and vowed that it would be
+conquered, if he would but have courage to face it; but the young man
+was too honest to wear a smiling face when he was discontented; to
+disguise mortification or anger; to parry slights by adroit flatteries
+or cunning impudence; as many gentlemen and gentlewomen must and do who
+wish to succeed in society.
+
+"You pull a long face, Harry, and complain of the world's treatment of
+you," the old lady said. "Fiddlededee, sir! Everybody has to put up with
+impertinences: and if you get a box on the ear now you are poor and cast
+down, you must say nothing about it, bear it with a smile, and if
+you can, revenge it ten years after. Moi qui vous parle, sir!--do you
+suppose I have had no humble-pie to eat? All of us in our turn are
+called upon to swallow it: and, now you are no longer the Fortunate
+Youth, be the Clever Youth, and win back the place you have lost by your
+ill luck. Go about more than ever. Go to all the routs and parties to
+which you are asked, and to more still. Be civil to everybody--to all
+women especially. Only of course take care to show your spirit, of
+which you have plenty. With economy, and by your brother's, I must say,
+admirable generosity, you can still make a genteel figure. With your
+handsome person, sir, you can't fail to get a rich heiress. Tenez! You
+should go amongst the merchants in the City, and look out there. They
+won't know that you are out of fashion at the Court end of the town.
+With a little management, there is not the least reason, sir, why you
+should not make a good position for yourself still. When did you go to
+see my Lady Yarmouth, pray? Why did you not improve that connexion?
+She took a great fancy to you. I desire you will be constant at her
+ladyship's evenings, and lose no opportunity of paying court to her."
+
+Thus the old woman who had loved Harry so on his first appearance in
+England, who had been so eager for his company, and pleased with his
+artless conversation, was taking the side of the world, and turning
+against him. Instead of the smiles and kisses with which the fickle old
+creature used once to greet him, she received him with coldness; she
+became peevish and patronising; she cast gibes and scorn at him before
+her guests, making his honest face flush with humiliation, and awaking
+the keenest pangs of grief and amazement in his gentle, manly heart.
+Madame de Bernstein's servants, who used to treat him with such
+eager respect, scarcely paid him now any attention. My lady was often
+indisposed or engaged when he called on her; her people did not press
+him to wait; did not volunteer to ask whether he would stay and dine, as
+they used in the days when he was the Fortunate Youth and companion
+of the wealthy and great. Harry carried his woes to Mrs. Lambert. In a
+passion of sorrow he told her of his aunt's cruel behaviour to him. He
+was stricken down and dismayed by the fickleness and heartlessness of
+the world in its treatment of him. While the good lady and her daughters
+would move to and fro, and busy themselves with the cares of the house,
+our poor lad would sit glum in a window-seat, heart-sick and silent.
+
+"I know you are the best people alive," he would say to the ladies, "and
+the kindest, and that I must be the dullest company in the world--yes,
+that I am."
+
+"Well, you are not very lively, Harry," says Miss Hetty, who began to
+command him, and perhaps to ask herself, "What? Is this the gentleman
+whom I took to be such a hero?"
+
+"If he is unhappy, why should he be lively?" asks Theo, gently. "He has
+a good heart, and is pained at his friends' desertion of him. Sure there
+is no harm in that?"
+
+"I would have too much spirit to show I was hurt, though," cries Hetty,
+clenching her little fists. "And I would smile, though that horrible
+old painted woman boxed my ears. She is horrible, mamma. You think so
+yourself, Theo! Own, now, you think so yourself! You said so last
+night, and acted her coming in on her crutch, and grinning round to the
+company."
+
+"I mayn't like her," said Theo, turning very red. "But there is no
+reason why I should call Harry's aunt names before Harry's face."
+
+"You provoking thing; you are always right!" cries Hetty, "and that's
+what makes me so angry. Indeed, Harry, it was very wrong of me to make
+rude remarks about any of your relations."
+
+"I don't care about the others, Hetty; but it seems hard that this one
+should turn upon me. I had got to be very fond of her; and you see, it
+makes me mad, somehow, when people I'm very fond of turn away from me,
+or act unkind to me."
+
+"Suppose George were to do so?" asks Hetty. You see, it was George and
+Hetty, and Theo and Harry, amongst them now.
+
+"You are very clever and very lively, and you may suppose a number of
+things; but not that, Hetty, if you please," cried Harry, standing up
+and looking very resolute and angry. "You don't know my brother as
+I know him--or you wouldn't take--such a--liberty as to suppose--my
+brother George could do anything unkind or unworthy!" Mr. Harry was
+quite in a flush as he spoke.
+
+Hetty turned very white. Then she looked up at Harry, and then she did
+not say a single word.
+
+Then Harry said, in his simple way, before taking leave, "I'm very
+sorry, and I beg your pardon, Hetty, if I said anything rough, or that
+seemed unkind; but I always fight up if anybody says anything against
+George."
+
+Hetty did not answer a word out of her pale lips, but gave him her hand,
+and dropped a prim little curtsey.
+
+When she and Theo were together at night, making curl-paper confidences,
+"Oh!" said Hetty, "I thought it would be so happy to see him every day,
+and was so glad when papa said we were to stay in London! And now I do
+see him, you see, I go on offending him. I can't help offending him;
+and I know he is not clever, Theo. But oh! isn't he good, and kind, and
+brave? Didn't he look handsome when he was angry?"
+
+"You silly little thing, you are always trying to make him look
+handsome," Theo replied.
+
+It was Theo and Hetty, and Harry and George, among these young people,
+then; and I dare say the reason why General Lambert chose to apply the
+monosyllable "Bo" to the mother of his daughters, was as a rebuke to
+that good woman for the inveterate love of sentiment and propensity to
+match-making which belonged to her (and every other woman in the world
+whose heart is worth a fig); and as a hint that Madam Lambert was a
+goose if she fancied the two Virginian lads were going to fall in love
+with the young women of the Lambert house. Little Het might have her
+fancy; little girls will; but they get it over: "and you know, Molly"
+(which dear, soft-hearted Mrs. Lambert could not deny), "you fancied
+somebody else before you fancied me," says the General; but Harry had
+evidently not been smitten by Hetty; and now he was superseded, as it
+were, by having an elder brother over him, and could not even call the
+coat upon his back his own, Master Harry was no great catch.
+
+"Oh yes: now he is poor we will show him the door, as all the rest of
+the world does, I suppose," says Mrs. Lambert.
+
+"That is what I always do, isn't it, Molly? turn my back on my friends
+in distress?" asks the General.
+
+"No, my dear! I am a goose, now, and that I own, Martin!" says the wife,
+having recourse to the usual pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"Let the poor boy come to us and welcome: ours is almost the only house
+in this selfish place where so much can be said for him. He is unhappy,
+and to be with us puts him at ease; in God's name let him be with us!"
+says the kind-hearted officer. Accordingly, whenever poor crestfallen
+Hal wanted a dinner, or an evening's entertainment, Mr. Lambert's table
+had a corner for him. So was George welcome, too. He went among the
+Lamberts, not at first with the cordiality which Harry felt for these
+people, and inspired among them: for George was colder in his manner,
+and more mistrustful of himself and others than his twin-brother: but
+there was a goodness and friendliness about the family which touched
+almost all people who came into frequent contact with them; and George
+soon learned to love them for their own sake, as well as for their
+constant regard and kindness to his brother. He could not but see
+and own how sad Harry was, and pity his brother's depression. In his
+sarcastic way, George would often take himself to task before his
+brother for coming to life again, and say, "Dear Harry, I am George the
+Unlucky, though you have ceased to be Harry the Fortunate. Florac would
+have done much better not to pass his sword through that Indian's body,
+and to have left my scalp as an ornament for the fellow's belt. I say he
+would, sir! At White's the people would have respected you. Our mother
+would have wept over me, as a defunct angel, instead of being angry
+with me for again supplanting her favourite--you are her favourite, you
+deserve to be her favourite: everybody's favourite: only, if I had not
+come back, your favourite, Maria, would have insisted on marrying you;
+and that is how the gods would have revenged themselves upon you for
+your prosperity."
+
+"I never know whether you are laughing at me or yourself, George" says
+the brother. I never know whether you are serious or jesting.
+
+"Precisely my own case, Harry, my dear!" says George.
+
+"But this I know, that there never was a better brother in the world;
+and never better people than the Lamberts."
+
+"Never was truer word said!" cries George, taking his brother's hand.
+
+"And if I'm unhappy, 'tis not your fault--nor their fault--nor perhaps
+mine, George," continues the younger. 'Tis fate, you see, 'tis the
+having nothing to do. I must work; and how, George? that is the
+question."
+
+"We will see what our mother says. We must wait till we hear from her,"
+says George.
+
+"I say, George! Do you know, I don't think I should much like going back
+to Virginia?" says Harry, in a low, alarmed voice.
+
+"What! in love with one of the lasses here?"
+
+"Love 'em like sisters--with all my heart, of course, dearest, best
+girls! but, having come out of that business, thanks to you, I don't
+want to go back, you know. No! no! It is not for that I fancy staying
+in Europe better than going home. But, you see, I don't fancy hunting,
+duck-shooting, tobacco-planting, whist-playing, and going to sermon,
+over and over and over again, for all my life, George. And what else is
+there to do at home? What on earth is there for me to do at all, I say?
+That's what makes me miserable. It would not matter for you to be a
+younger son you are so clever you would make your way anywhere; but,
+for a poor fellow like me, what chance is there? Until I do something,
+George, I shall be miserable, that's what I shall!"
+
+"Have I not always said so? Art thou not coming round to my opinion?"
+
+"What opinion, George? You know pretty much whatever you think, I think,
+George!" says the dutiful junior.
+
+"That Florac had best have left the Indian to take my scalp, my dear!"
+
+At which Harry bursts away with an angry exclamation; and they continue
+to puff their pipes in friendly union.
+
+They lived together, each going his own gait; and not much intercourse,
+save that of affection, was carried on between them. Harry never would
+venture to meddle with George's books, and would sit as dumb as a mouse
+at the lodgings whilst his brother was studying. They removed presently
+from the Court end of the town, Madame de Bernstein pishing and
+pshaing at their change of residence. But George took a great fancy to
+frequenting Sir Hans Sloane's new reading-room and museum, just set
+up in Montagu House, and he took cheerful lodgings in Southampton Row,
+Bloomsbury, looking over the delightful fields towards Hampstead, at the
+back of the Duke of Bedford's gardens. And Lord Wrotham's family coming
+to Mayfair, and Mr. Lambert having business which detained him in
+London, had to change his house, too, and engaged furnished apartments
+in Soho, not very far off from the dwelling of our young men; and it
+was, as we have said, with the Lamberts that Harry, night after night,
+took refuge.
+
+George was with them often, too; and, as the acquaintance ripened, he
+frequented their house with increasing assiduity, finding their company
+more to his taste than that of Aunt Bernstein's polite circle of
+gamblers, than Sir Miles Warrington's port and mutton, or the daily
+noise and clatter of the coffee-houses. And as he and the Lambert ladies
+were alike strangers in London, they partook of its pleasures together,
+and, no doubt, went to Vauxhall and Ranelagh, to Marybone Gardens, and
+the play, and the Tower, and wherever else there was honest amusement to
+be had in those days. Martin Lambert loved that his children should
+have all the innocent pleasure which he could procure for them, and Mr.
+George, who was of a most generous, open-handed disposition, liked to
+treat his friends likewise, especially those who had been so admirably
+kind to his brother.
+
+With all the passion of his heart Mr. Warrington loved a play. He had
+never enjoyed this amusement in Virginia, and only once or twice at
+Quebec, when he visited Canada; and when he came to London, where the
+two houses were in their full glory, I believe he thought he never could
+have enough of the delightful entertainment. Anything he liked himself,
+he naturally wished to share amongst his companions. No wonder that he
+was eager to take his friends to the theatre, and we may be sure our
+young countryfolks were not unwilling. Shall it be Drury Lane or Covent
+Garden, ladies? There was Garrick and Shakspeare at Drury Lane. Well,
+will it be believed, the ladies wanted to hear the famous new author
+whose piece was being played at Covent Garden?
+
+At this time a star of genius had arisen, and was blazing with quite a
+dazzling brilliancy. The great Mr. John Home, of Scotland, had produced
+a tragedy, than which, since the days of the ancients, there had been
+nothing more classic and elegant. What had Mr. Garrick meant by refusing
+such a masterpiece for his theatre? Say what you will about Shakspeare;
+in the works of that undoubted great poet (who had begun to grow vastly
+more popular in England since Monsieur Voltaire attacked him) there were
+many barbarisms that could not but shock a polite auditory; whereas,
+Mr. Home, the modern author, knew how to be refined in the very midst of
+grief and passion; to represent death, not merely as awful, but graceful
+and pathetic; and never condescended to degrade the majesty of the
+Tragic Muse by the ludicrous apposition of buffoonery and familiar
+punning, such as the elder playwright certainly had resort to. Besides,
+Mr. Home's performance had been admired in quarters so high, and by
+personages whose taste was known to be as elevated as their rank, that
+all Britons could not but join in the plaudits for which august hands
+had given the signal. Such, it was said, was the opinion of the very
+best company, in the coffee-houses, and amongst the wits about town.
+Why, the famous Mr. Gray, of Cambridge, said there had not been for a
+hundred years any dramatic dialogue of such a true style; and as for the
+poet's native capital of Edinburgh, where the piece was first brought
+out, it was even said that the triumphant Scots called out from the pit
+(in their dialect), "Where's Wully Shakspeare noo?"
+
+"I should like to see the man who could beat Willy Shakspeare?" says the
+General, laughing.
+
+"Mere national prejudice," says Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Beat Shakspeare, indeed!" cries Mrs. Lambert.
+
+"Pooh, pooh! you have cried more over Mr. Sam Richardson than ever you
+did over Mr. Shakspeare, Molly!" remarks the General. "I think few women
+love to read Shakspeare: they say they love it, but they don't."
+
+"Oh, papa!" cry three ladies, throwing up three pair of hands.
+
+"Well, then, why do you all three prefer Douglas? And you, boys, who are
+such Tories, will you go see a play which is wrote by a Whig Scotchman,
+who was actually made prisoner at Falkirk?"
+
+"Relicta non bene parmula," says Mr. Jack the scholar.
+
+"Nay; it was relicta bene parmula," cried the General. "It was the
+Highlanders who flung their targes down, and made fierce work among us
+redcoats. If they had fought all their fields as well as that, and young
+Perkin had not turned back from Derby----"
+
+"I know which side would be rebels, and who would be called the Young
+Pretender," interposed George.
+
+"Hush! you must please to remember my cloth, Mr. Warrington," said the
+General, with some gravity; "and that the cockade I wear is a black, not
+a white one! Well, if you will not love Mr. Home for his politics, there
+is, I think, another reason, George, why you should like him."
+
+"I may have Tory fancies, Mr. Lambert, but I think I know how to love
+and honour a good Whig," said George, with a bow to the General: "but
+why should I like this Mr. Home, sir?"
+
+"Because, being a Presbyterian clergyman, he has committed the heinous
+crime of writing a play, and his brother-parsons have barked out an
+excommunication at him. They took the poor fellow's means of livelihood
+away from him for his performance; and he would have starved, but that
+the young Pretender on our side of the water has given him a pension."
+
+"If he has been persecuted by the parsons, there is hope for him," said
+George, smiling. "And henceforth I declare myself ready to hear his
+sermons."
+
+"Mrs. Woffington is divine in it, though not generally famous in
+tragedy. Barry is drawing tears from all eyes; and Garrick is wild
+at having refused the piece. Girls, you must bring each half a dozen
+handkerchiefs! As for mamma, I cannot trust her; and she positively must
+be left at home."
+
+But mamma persisted she would go; and, if need were to weep, she would
+sit and cry her eyes out in a corner. They all went to Covent Garden,
+then; the most of the party duly prepared to see one of the masterpieces
+of the age and drama. Could they not all speak long pages of Congreve;
+had they not wept and kindled over Otway and Rowe? O ye past literary
+glories, that were to be eternal, how long have you been dead? Who knows
+much more now than where your graves are? Poor, neglected Muse of the
+bygone theatre! She pipes for us, and we will not dance; she tears her
+hair, and we will not weep. And the Immortals of our time, how soon
+shall they be dead and buried, think you? How many will survive? How
+long shall it be ere Nox et Domus Plutonia shall overtake them?
+
+So away went the pleased party to Covent Garden to see the tragedy of
+the immortal John Home. The ladies and the General were conveyed in a
+glass coach, and found the young men in waiting to receive them at
+the theatre door. Hence they elbowed their way through a crowd of
+torch-boys, and a whole regiment of footmen. Little Hetty fell to
+Harry's arm in this expedition, and the blushing Miss Theo was handed
+to the box by Mr. George. Gumbo had kept the places until his masters
+arrived, when he retired, with many bows, to take his own seat in the
+footman's gallery. They had good places in a front box, and there was
+luckily a pillar behind which mamma could weep in comfort. And opposite
+them they had the honour to see the august hope of the empire, his Royal
+Highness George Prince of Wales, with the Princess Dowager his mother,
+whom the people greeted with loyal, but not very enthusiastic, plaudits.
+That handsome man standing behind his Royal Highness was my Lord
+Bute, the Prince's Groom of the Stole, the patron of the poet whose
+performance they had come to see, and over whose work the Royal party
+had already wept more than once.
+
+How can we help it, if during the course of the performance, Mr. Lambert
+would make his jokes and mar the solemnity of the scene? At first, as
+the reader of the tragedy well knows, the characters are occupied in
+making a number of explanations. Lady Randolph explains how it is that
+she is so melancholy. Married to Lord Randolph somewhat late in life,
+she owns, and his lordship perceives, that a dead lover yet occupies
+all her heart; and her husband is fain to put up with this dismal,
+second-hand regard, which is all that my lady can bestow. Hence, an
+invasion of Scotland by the Danes is rather a cause of excitement
+than disgust to my lord, who rushes to meet the foe, and forgets the
+dreariness of his domestic circumstances. Welcome, Vikings and Norsemen!
+Blow, northern blasts, the invaders' keels to Scotland's shore! Randolph
+and other heroes will be on the beach to give the foemen a welcome! His
+lordship has no sooner disappeared behind the trees of the forest, but
+Lady Randolph begins to explain to her confidante the circumstances of
+her early life. The fact was, she had made a private marriage, and what
+would the confidante say, if, in early youth, she, Lady Randolph, had
+lost a husband? In the cold bosom of the earth was lodged the husband of
+her youth, and in some cavern of the ocean lies her child and his!
+
+Up to this the General behaved with as great gravity as any of his young
+companions to the play; but when Lady Randolph proceeded to say, "Alas!
+Hereditary evil was the cause of my misfortunes," he nudged George
+Warrington, and looked so droll, that the young man burst out laughing.
+
+The magic of the scene was destroyed after that. These two gentlemen
+went on cracking jokes during the whole of the subsequent performance,
+to their own amusement, but the indignation of their company, and
+perhaps of the people in the adjacent boxes. Young Douglas, in those
+days, used to wear a white satin "shape" slashed at the legs and body,
+and when Mr. Barry appeared in this droll costume, the General vowed it
+was the exact dress of the Highlanders in the late war. The Chevalier's
+Guard, he declared, had all white satin slashed breeches, and red
+boots--"only they left them at home, my dear," adds this wag. Not one
+pennyworth of sublimity would he or George allow henceforth to Mr.
+Home's performance. As for Harry, he sate in very deep meditation over
+the scene; and when Mrs. Lambert offered him a penny for his thoughts,
+he said, "That he thought, Young Norval, Douglas, What-d'ye-call-'em,
+the fellow in white satin--who looked as old as his mother--was very
+lucky to be able to distinguish himself so soon. I wish I could get
+a chance, Aunt Lambert," says he, drumming on his hat; on which mamma
+sighed, and Theo, smiling, said, "We must wait, and perhaps the Danes
+will land."
+
+"How do you mean?" asks simple Harry.
+
+"Oh, the Danes always land, pour qui scait attendre!" says kind Theo,
+who had hold of her sister's little hand, and, I dare say, felt its
+pressure.
+
+She did not behave unkindly--that was not in Miss Theo's nature--but
+somewhat coldly to Mr. George, on whom she turned her back, addressing
+remarks, from time to time, to Harry. In spite of the gentlemen's scorn,
+the women chose to be affected. A mother and son, meeting in love and
+parting in tears, will always awaken emotion in female hearts.
+
+"Look, papa! there is an answer to all your jokes!" says Theo, pointing
+towards the stage.
+
+At a part of the dialogue between Lady Randolph and her son, one of the
+grenadiers on guard on each side of the stage, as the custom of those
+days was, could not restrain his tears, and was visibly weeping before
+the side-box.
+
+"You are right, my dear," says papa.
+
+"Didn't I tell you she always is?" interposes Hetty.
+
+"Yonder sentry is a better critic than we are, and a touch of nature
+masters us all."
+
+"Tamen usque recurrit!" cries the young student from college.
+
+George felt abashed somehow, and interested too. He had been sneering,
+and Theo sympathising. Her kindness was better--nay, wiser--than his
+scepticism, perhaps. Nevertheless, when, at the beginning of the fifth
+act of the play, young Douglas, drawing his sword and looking up at the
+gallery, bawled out--
+
+    "Ye glorious stars! high heaven's resplendent host!
+     To whom I oft have of my lot complained,
+     Hear and record my soul's unaltered wish
+     Living or dead, let me but be renowned!
+     May Heaven inspire some fierce gigantic Dane
+     To give a bold defiance to our host!
+     Before he speaks it out, I will accept,
+     Like Douglas conquer, or like Douglas die!"--
+
+The gods, to whom Mr. Barry appealed, saluted this heroic wish with
+immense applause, and the General clapped his hands prodigiously. His
+daughter was rather disconcerted.
+
+"This Douglas is not only brave, but he is modest!" says papa.
+
+"I own I think he need not have asked for a gigantic Dane," says Theo,
+smiling, as Lady Randolph entered in the midst of the gallery thunder.
+
+When the applause had subsided, Lady Randolph is made to say--
+
+    "My son, I heard a voice!"
+
+"I think she did hear a voice!" cries papa. "Why, the fellow was
+bellowing like a bull of Bashan." And the General would scarcely behave
+himself from thenceforth to the end of the performance. He said he
+was heartily glad that the young gentleman was put to death behind
+the scenes. When Lady Randolph's friend described how her mistress had
+"flown like lightning up the hill, and plunged herself into the empty
+air," Mr. Lambert said he was delighted to be rid of her. "And as for
+that story of her early marriage," says he, "I have my very strongest
+doubts about it."
+
+"Nonsense, Martin! Look, children! their Royal Highnesses are moving."
+
+The tragedy over, the Princess Dowager and the Prince were, in fact,
+retiring; though, I dare say, the latter, who was always fond of a
+farce, would have been far better pleased with that which followed than
+he had been with Mr. Home's dreary tragic masterpiece.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LX. Which treats of Macbeth, a Supper, and a Pretty Kettle of
+Fish
+
+
+When the performances were concluded, our friends took coach for Mr.
+Warrington's lodging, where the Virginians had provided an elegant
+supper. Mr. Warrington was eager to treat them in the handsomest
+manner, and the General and his wife accepted the invitation of the two
+bachelors, pleased to think that they could give their young friends
+pleasure. General and Mrs. Lambert, their son from college, their two
+blooming daughters, and Mr. Spencer of the Temple, a new friend whom
+George had met at the coffee-house, formed the party, and partook with
+cheerfulness of the landlady's fare. The order of their sitting I have
+not been able exactly to ascertain; but, somehow, Miss Theo had a place
+next to the chickens and Mr. George Warrington, whilst Miss Hetty and a
+ham divided the attentions of Mr. Harry. Mrs. Lambert must have been on
+George's right hand, so that we have but to settle the three places of
+the General, his son, and the Templar.
+
+Mr. Spencer had been at the other theatre, where, on a former day, he
+had actually introduced George to the greenroom. The conversation about
+the play was resumed, and some of the party persisted in being delighted
+with it.
+
+"As for what our gentlemen say, sir," cries Mrs. Lambert to Mr. Spencer,
+"you must not believe a word of it. 'Tis a delightful piece, and my
+husband and Mr. George behaved as ill as possible."
+
+"We laughed in the wrong place, and when we ought to have cried," the
+General owned, "that's the truth."
+
+"You caused all the people in the boxes about us to look round and cry
+'Hush!' You made the pit folks say, 'Silence in the boxes, yonder!' Such
+behaviour I never knew, and quite blushed for you, Mr. Lambert!"
+
+"Mamma thought it was a tragedy, and we thought it was a piece of fun,"
+says the General. "George and I behaved perfectly well, didn't we,
+Theo?"
+
+"Not when I was looking your way, papa!" Theo replies. At which the
+General asks, "Was there ever such a saucy baggage seen?"
+
+"You know, sir, I didn't speak till I was bid," Theo continues,
+modestly. "I own I was very much moved by the play, and the beauty and
+acting of Mrs. Woffington. I was sorry that the poor mother should find
+her child, and lose him. I am sorry, too, papa, if I oughtn't to have
+been sorry!" adds the young lady, with a smile.
+
+"Women are not so clever as men, you know, Theo," cries Hetty from her
+end of the table, with a sly look at Harry. "The next time we go to the
+play, please, brother Jack, pinch us when we ought to cry, or give us a
+nudge when it is right to laugh."
+
+"I wish we could have had the fight," said General Lambert, "the fight
+between little Norval and the gigantic Norwegian--that would have been
+rare sport: and you should write, Jack, and suggest it to Mr. Rich, the
+manager."
+
+"I have not seen that: but I saw Slack and Broughton at Marybone
+Gardens!" says Harry, gravely; and wondered if he had said something
+witty, as all the company laughed so? "It would require no giant," he
+added, "to knock over yonder little fellow in the red boots. I, for one,
+could throw him over my shoulder."
+
+"Mr. Garrick is a little man. But there are times when he looks a
+giant," says Mr. Spencer. "How grand he was in Macbeth, Mr. Warrington!
+How awful that dagger-scene was! You should have seen our host, ladies!
+I presented Mr. Warrington, in the greenroom, to Mr. Garrick and Mrs.
+Pritchard, and Lady Macbeth did him the honour to take a pinch out of
+his box."
+
+"Did the wife of the Thane of Cawdor sneeze?" asked the General, in an
+awful voice.
+
+"She thanked Mr. Warrington, in tones so hollow and tragic, that he
+started back, and must have upset some of his rappee, for Macbeth
+sneezed thrice."
+
+"Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth!" cries the General.
+
+"And the great philosopher who was standing by Mr. Johnson, says, 'You
+must mind, Davy, lest thy sneeze should awaken Duncan!' who, by the way,
+was talking with the three witches as they sat against the wall."
+
+"What! Have you been behind the scenes at the play? Oh, I would give
+worlds to go behind the scenes!" cries Theo.
+
+"And see the ropes pulled, and smell the tallow-candles, and look at the
+pasteboard gold, and the tinsel jewels, and the painted old women, Theo?
+No. Do not look too close," says the sceptical young host, demurely
+drinking a glass of hock. "You were angry with your papa and me."
+
+"Nay, George!" cries the girl.
+
+"Nay? I say, yes! You were angry with us because we laughed when you
+were disposed to be crying. If I may speak for you, sir, as well as
+myself," says George (with a bow to his guest, General Lambert), "I
+think we were not inclined to weep, like the ladies, because we stood
+behind the author's scenes of the play, as it were. Looking close up to
+the young hero, we saw how much of him was rant and tinsel; and as for
+the pale, tragical mother, that her pallor was white chalk, and her
+grief her pocket-handkerchief. Own now, Theo, you thought me very
+unfeeling?"
+
+"If you find it out, sir, without my owning it,--what is the good of my
+confessing?" says Theo.
+
+"Suppose I were to die?" goes on George, "and you saw Harry in grief,
+you would be seeing a genuine affliction, a real tragedy; you would
+grieve too. But you wouldn't be affected if you saw the undertaker in
+weepers and a black cloak!"
+
+"Indeed, but I should, sir!" says Mrs. Lambert; "and so, I promise you,
+would any daughter of mine."
+
+"Perhaps we might find weepers of our own, Mr. Warrington," says Theo,
+"in such a case."
+
+"Would you?" cries George, and his cheeks and Theo's simultaneously
+flushed up with red; I suppose because they both saw Hetty's bright
+young eyes watching them.
+
+"The elder writers understood but little of the pathetic," remarked Mr.
+Spencer, the Temple wit.
+
+"What do you think of Sophocles and Antigone?" calls out Mr. John
+Lambert.
+
+"Faith, our wits trouble themselves little about him, unless an Oxford
+gentleman comes to remind us of him! I did not mean to go back farther
+than Mr. Shakspeare, who, as you will all agree, does not understand
+the elegant and pathetic as well as the moderns. Has he ever approached
+Belvidera, or Monimia, or Jane Shore; or can you find in his comic
+female characters the elegance of Congreve?" and the Templar offered
+snuff to the right and left.
+
+"I think Mr. Spencer himself must have tried his hand?" asks some one.
+
+"Many gentlemen of leisure have. Mr. Garrick, I own, has had a piece of
+mine and returned it."
+
+"And I confess that I have four acts of a play in one of my boxes," says
+George.
+
+"I'll be bound to say it's as good as any of 'em," whispers Harry to his
+neighbour.
+
+"Is it a tragedy or a comedy?" asks Mrs. Lambert.
+
+"Oh, a tragedy, and two or three dreadful murders at least!" George
+replies.
+
+"Let us play it, and let the audience look to their eyes! Yet my chief
+humour is for a tyrant," says the General.
+
+"The tragedy, the tragedy! Go and fetch the tragedy this moment,
+Gumbo!" calls Mrs. Lambert to the black. Gumbo makes a low bow and says,
+"Tragedy? yes, madam."
+
+"In the great cowskin trunk, Gumbo," George says, gravely.
+
+Gumbo bows and says, "Yes, sir," with still superior gravity.
+
+"But my tragedy is at the bottom of I don't know how much linen,
+packages, books, and boots, Hetty."
+
+"Never mind, let us have it, and fling the linen out of window!" cries
+Miss Hetty.
+
+"And the great cowskin trunk is at our agent's at Bristol: so Gumbo must
+get post-horses, and we can keep it up till he returns the day after
+to-morrow," says George.
+
+The ladies groaned a comical "Oh!" and papa, perhaps more seriously,
+said, "Let us be thankful for the escape. Let us be thinking of going
+home too. Our young gentlemen have treated us nobly, and we will all
+drink a parting bumper to Madam Esmond Warrington of Castlewood, in
+Virginia. Suppose, boys, you were to find a tall, handsome stepfather
+when you got home? Ladies as old as she have been known to marry before
+now."
+
+"To Madam Esmond Warrington, my old schoolfellow!" cries Mrs. Lambert.
+"I shall write and tell her what a pretty supper her sons have given us:
+and, Mr. George, I won't say how ill you behaved at the play!" And,
+with this last toast, the company took leave; the General's coach and
+servant, with a flambeau, being in waiting to carry his family home.
+
+After such an entertainment as that which Mr. Warrington had given, what
+could be more natural or proper than a visit from him to his guests,
+to inquire how they had reached home and rested? Why, their coach might
+have taken the open country behind Montague House, in the direction
+of Oxford Road, and been waylaid by footpads in the fields. The ladies
+might have caught cold or slept ill after the excitement of the tragedy.
+In a word, there was no reason why he should make any excuse at all to
+himself or them for visiting his kind friends; and he shut his books
+early at the Sloane Museum, and perhaps thought, as he walked away
+thence, that he remembered very little about what he had been reading.
+
+Pray what is the meaning of this eagerness, this hesitation, this
+pshaing and shilly-shallying, these doubts, this tremor as he knocks
+at the door of Mr. Lambert's lodgings in Dean Street, and survey the
+footman who comes to his summons? Does any young man read? does any
+old one remember? does any wearied, worn, disappointed pulseless heart
+recall the time of its full beat and early throbbing? It is ever so many
+hundred years since some of us were young; and we forget, but do not all
+forget. No, madam, we remember with advantages, as Shakspeare's Harry
+promised his soldiers they should do if they survived Agincourt and
+that day of St. Crispin. Worn old chargers turned out to grass, if the
+trumpet sounds over the hedge, may we not kick up our old heels, and
+gallop a minute or so about the paddock, till we are brought up roaring?
+I do not care for clown and pantaloon now, and think the fairy ugly, and
+her verses insufferable: but I like to see children at a pantomime. I
+do not dance, or eat supper any more; but I like to watch Eugenio and
+Flirtilla twirling round in a pretty waltz, or Lucinda and Ardentio
+pulling a cracker. Burn your little fingers, children! Blaze out little
+kindly flames from each other's eyes! And then draw close together and
+read the motto (that old namby-pamby motto, so stale and so new!)--I
+say, let her lips read it, and his construe it; and so divide the
+sweetmeat, young people, and crunch it between you. I have no teeth.
+Bitter almonds and sugar disagree with me, I tell you; but, for all
+that, shall not bonbons melt in the mouth?
+
+We follow John upstairs to the General's apartments, and enter with Mr.
+George Esmond Warrington, who makes a prodigious fine bow. There is
+only one lady in the room, seated near a window: there is not often much
+sunshine in Dean Street: the young lady in the window is no especial
+beauty: but it is spring-time, and she is blooming vernally. A bunch
+of fresh roses is flushing in her honest cheek. I suppose her eyes are
+violets. If we lived a hundred years ago, and wrote in the Gentleman's
+or the London Magazine, we should tell Mr. Sylvanus Urban that her neck
+was the lily, and her shape the nymph's: we should write an acrostic
+about her, and celebrate our Lambertella in an elegant poem, still to be
+read between a neat new engraved plan of the city of Prague and the King
+of Prussia's camp, and a map of Maryland and the Delaware counties.
+
+Here is Miss Theo blushing like a rose. What could mamma have meant an
+hour since by insisting that she was very pale and tired, and had best
+not come out to-day with the rest of the party? They were gone to pay
+their compliments to my Lord Wrotham's ladies, and thank them for the
+house in their absence; and papa was at the Horse Guards. He is in great
+spirits. I believe he expects some command, though mamma is in a sad
+tremor lest he should again be ordered abroad.
+
+"Your brother and mine are gone to see our little brother at his school
+at the Chartreux. My brothers are both to be clergymen, I think," Miss
+Theo continues. She is assiduously hemming at some article of boyish
+wearing apparel as she talks. A hundred years ago, young ladies were not
+afraid either to make shirts, or to name them. Mind, I don't say they
+were the worse or the better for that plain stitching or plain speaking:
+and have not the least desire, my dear young lady, that you should make
+puddings or I should black boots.
+
+So Harry has been with them? "He often comes, almost every day," Theo
+says, looking up in George's face. "Poor fellow! He likes us better than
+the fine folks, who don't care for him now--now he is no longer a fine
+folk himself," adds the girl, smiling. "Why have you not set up for the
+fashion, and frequented the chocolate-houses and the racecourses, Mr.
+Warrington?"
+
+"Has my brother got so much good out of his gay haunts or his grand
+friends, that I should imitate him?"
+
+"You might at least go to Sir Miles Warrington; sure his arms are open
+to receive you. Her ladyship was here this morning in her chair, and
+to hear her praises of you! She declares you are in a certain way to
+preferment. She says his Royal Highness the Duke made much of you at
+court. When you are a great man will you forget us, Mr. Warrington?"
+
+"Yes, when I am a great man I will, Miss Lambert."
+
+"Well! Mr. George, then----"
+
+"--Mr. George!"
+
+"When papa and mamma are here, I suppose there need be no mistering,"
+says Theo, looking out of the window, ever so little frightened. "And
+what have you been doing, sir? Reading books, or writing more of your
+tragedy? Is it going to be a tragedy to make us cry, as we like them, or
+only to frighten us, as you like them?"
+
+"There is plenty of killing, but, I fear, not much crying. I have not
+met many women. I have not been very intimate with those. I daresay what
+I have written is only taken out of books or parodied from poems which
+I have read and imitated like other young men. Women do not speak to me,
+generally; I am said to have a sarcastic way which displeases them."
+
+"Perhaps you never cared to please them?" inquires Miss Theo, with a
+blush.
+
+"I displeased you last night; you know I did?"
+
+"Yes; only it can't be called displeasure, and afterwards thought I was
+wrong."
+
+"Did you think about me at all when I was away, Theo?"
+
+"Yes, George--that is, Mr.--well, George! I thought you and papa were
+right about the play; and, as you said, that it was no real sorrow, only
+affectation, which was moving us. I wonder whether it is good or ill
+fortune to see so clearly? Hetty and I agreed that we would be very
+careful, for the future, how we allowed ourselves to enjoy a tragedy.
+So, be careful when yours comes! What is the name of it?"
+
+"He is not christened. Will you be the godmother? The name of the chief
+character is----" But at this very moment mamma and Miss Hetty arrived
+from their walk; and mamma straightway began protesting that she never
+expected to see Mr. Warrington at all that day--that is, she thought he
+might come--that is, it was very good of him to come, and the play and
+the supper of yesterday were all charming, except that Theo had a little
+headache this morning.
+
+"I dare say it is better now, mamma," says Miss Hetty.
+
+"Indeed, my dear, it never was of any consequence; and I told mamma so,"
+says Miss Theo, with a toss of her head.
+
+Then they fell to talking about Harry. He was very low. He must have
+something to do. He was always going to the Military Coffee-House, and
+perpetually poring over the King of Prussia's campaigns. It was not fair
+upon him, to bid him remain in London, after his deposition, as it were.
+He said nothing, but you could see how he regretted his previous useless
+life, and felt his present dependence, by the manner in which he avoided
+his former haunts and associates. Passing by the guard at St. James's,
+with John Lambert, he had said to brother Jack, "Why mayn't I be
+a soldier too? I am as tall as yonder fellow, and can kill with a
+fowling-piece as well as any man I know. But I can't earn so much as
+sixpence a day. I have squandered my own bread, and now I am eating half
+my brother's. He is the best of brothers, but so much the more shame
+that I should live upon him. Don't tell my brother, Jack Lambert." "And
+my boy promised he wouldn't tell," says Mrs. Lambert. No doubt. The
+girls were both out of the room when their mother made this speech to
+George Warrington. He, for his part, said he had written home to his
+mother--that half his little patrimony, the other half likewise, if
+wanted, were at Harry's disposal, for purchasing a commission, or for
+any other project which might bring him occupation or advancement.
+
+"He has got a good brother, that is sure. Let us hope for good times for
+him," sighs the lady.
+
+"The Danes always come pour qui scait attendre," George said, in a low
+voice.
+
+"What, you heard that? Ah, George! my Theo is an----Ah! never mind what
+she is, George Warrington," cried the pleased mother, with brimful eyes.
+"Bah! I am going to make a gaby of myself, as I did at the tragedy."
+
+Now Mr. George had been revolving a fine private scheme, which
+he thought might turn to his brother's advantage. After George's
+presentation to his Royal Highness at Kensington, more persons than
+one, his friend General Lambert included, had told him that the Duke had
+inquired regarding him, and had asked why the young man did not come to
+his levee. Importunity so august could not but be satisfied. A day was
+appointed between Mr. Lambert and his young friend, and they went to pay
+their duty to his Royal Highness at his house in Pall Mall.
+
+When it came to George's turn to make a bow, the Prince was especially
+gracious; he spoke to Mr. Warrington at some length about Braddock and
+the war, and was apparently pleased with the modesty and intelligence
+of the young gentleman's answers. George ascribed the failure of the
+expedition to the panic and surprise certainly, but more especially to
+the delays occasioned by the rapacity, selfishness, and unfair dealing
+of the people of the colonies towards the King's troops who were come
+to defend them. "Could we have moved, sir, a month sooner, the fort
+was certainly ours, and the little army had never been defeated,"
+Mr. Warrington said; in which observation his Royal Highness entirely
+concurred.
+
+"I am told you saved yourself, sir, mainly by your knowledge of the
+French language," the Royal Duke then affably observed. Mr. Warrington
+modestly mentioned how he had been in the French colonies in his youth,
+and had opportunities of acquiring that tongue.
+
+The Prince (who had a great urbanity when well pleased, and the finest
+sense of humour) condescended to ask who had taught Mr. Warrington the
+language; and to express his opinion, that, for the pronunciation, the
+French ladies were by far the best teachers.
+
+The young Virginian gentleman made a low bow, and said it was not for
+him to gainsay his Royal Highness; upon which the Duke was good enough
+to say (in a jocose manner) that Mr. Warrington was a sly dog.
+
+Mr. W. remaining respectfully silent, the Prince continued, most kindly:
+"I take the field immediately against the French, who, as you know, are
+threatening his Majesty's Electoral dominions, If you have a mind to
+make the campaign with me, your skill in the language may be useful,
+and I hope we shall be more fortunate than poor Braddock!" Every eye
+was fixed on a young man to whom so great a Prince offered so signal a
+favour.
+
+And now it was that Mr. George thought he would make his very cleverest
+speech. "Sir," he said, "your Royal Highness's most kind proposal does
+me infinite honour, but----"
+
+"But what, sir?" says the Prince, staring at him.
+
+"But I have entered myself of the Temple, to study our laws, and to fit
+myself for my duties at home. If my having been wounded in the service
+of my country be any claim on your kindness, I would humbly ask that my
+brother, who knows the French language as well as myself, and has far
+more strength, courage, and military genius, might be allowed to serve
+your Royal Highness; in the place of----"
+
+"Enough, enough, sir!" cried out the justly irritated son of the
+monarch. "What? I offer you a favour, and you hand it over to your
+brother? Wait, sir, till I offer you another!" And with this the Prince
+turned his back upon Mr. Warrington, just as abruptly as he turned it on
+the French a few months afterwards.
+
+"Oh, George! oh, George! Here's a pretty kettle of fish!" groaned
+General Lambert, as he and his young friend walked home together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXI. In which the Prince marches up the Hill and down again
+
+
+We understand the respectful indignation of all loyal Britons when they
+come to read of Mr. George Warrington's conduct towards a gallant
+and gracious Prince, the beloved son of the best of monarchs, and the
+Captain-General of the British army. What an inestimable favour has not
+the young man slighted! What a chance of promotion had he not thrown
+away! Will Esmond, whose language was always rich in blasphemies,
+employed his very strongest curses in speaking of his cousin's
+behaviour, and expressed his delight that the confounded young Mohock
+was cutting his own throat. Cousin Castlewood said that a savage
+gentleman had a right to scalp himself if he liked; or perhaps, he added
+charitably, our cousin Mr. Warrington heard enough of the war-whoop
+in Braddock's affair, and has no more stomach for fighting. Mr. Will
+rejoiced that the younger brother had gone to the deuce, and he rejoiced
+to think that the elder was following him. The first time he met the
+fellow, Will said, he should take care to let Mr. George know what he
+thought of him.
+
+"If you intend to insult George, at least you had best take care that
+his brother Harry is out of hearing!" cried Lady Maria--on which we may
+fancy more curses uttered by Mr. Will, with regard to his twin kinsfolk.
+
+"Ta, ta, ta!" says my lord. "No more of this squabbling! We can't be all
+warriors in the family!"
+
+"I never heard your lordship laid claim to be one!" says Maria.
+
+"Never, my dear; quite the contrary! Will is our champion, and one is
+quite enough in the house. So I dare say with the two Mohocks;--George
+is the student, and Harry is the fighting man. When you intended
+to quarrel, Will, what a pity it was you had not George, instead of
+t'other, to your hand!"
+
+"Your lordship's hand is famous--at piquet," says Will's mother.
+
+"It is a pretty one," says my lord, surveying his fingers, with a
+simper. "My Lord Hervey's glove and mine were of a size. Yes, my hand,
+as you say, is more fitted for cards than for war. Yours, my Lady
+Castlewood, is pretty dexterous, too. How I bless the day when you
+bestowed it on my lamented father!" In this play of sarcasm, as in some
+other games of skill, his lordship was not sorry to engage, having a
+cool head, and being able to beat his family all round.
+
+Madame de Bernstein, when she heard of Mr. Warrington's bevue, was
+exceedingly angry, stormed, and scolded her immediate household; and
+would have scolded George but she was growing old, and had not the
+courage of her early days. Moreover, she was a little afraid of her
+nephew, and respectful in her behaviour to him. "You will never make
+your fortune at court, nephew!" she groaned, when, soon after his
+discomfiture, the young gentleman went to wait upon her.
+
+"It was never my wish, madam," said Mr. George, in a very stately
+manner.
+
+"Your wish was to help Harry? You might hereafter have been of service
+to your brother, had you accepted the Duke's offer. Princes do not
+love to have their favours refused, and I don't wonder that his Royal
+Highness was offended."
+
+"General Lambert said the same thing," George confessed, turning rather
+red; "and I see now that I was wrong. But you must please remember that
+I had never seen a court before, and I suppose I am scarce likely to
+shine in one."
+
+"I think possibly not, my good nephew," says the aunt, taking snuff.
+
+"And what then?" asked George. "I never had ambition for that kind
+of glory, and can make myself quite easy without it. When his Royal
+Highness spoke to me--most kindly, as I own--my thought was, I shall
+make a very bad soldier, and my brother would be a very good one. He has
+a hundred good qualities for the profession, in which I am deficient;
+and would have served a Commanding Officer far better than I ever could.
+Say the Duke is in battle, and his horse is shot, as my poor chief's
+was at home, would he not be better for a beast that had courage and
+strength to bear him anywhere, than with one that could not carry his
+weight?"
+
+"Au fait. His Royal Highness's charger must be a strong one, my dear!"
+says the old lady.
+
+"Expende Hannibalem," mutters George, with a shrug. "Our Hannibal weighs
+no trifle."
+
+"I don't quite follow you, sir, and your Hannibal," the Baroness
+remarks.
+
+"When Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Lambert remonstrated with me as you have done,
+madam," George rejoins, with a laugh, "I made this same defence which I
+am making to you. I said I offered to the Prince the best soldier in the
+family, and the two gentlemen allowed that my blunder at least had
+some excuse. Who knows but that they may set me right with his Royal
+Highness? The taste I have had of battles has shown me how little my
+genius inclines that way. We saw the Scotch play which everybody is
+talking about t'other night. And when the hero, young Norval, said how
+he longed to follow to the field some warlike lord, I thought to myself,
+'how like my Harry is to him, except that he doth not brag.' Harry is
+pining now for a red coat, and if we don't mind, will take the shilling.
+He has the map of Germany for ever under his eyes, and follows the King
+of Prussia everywhere. He is not afraid of men or gods. As for me, I
+love my books and quiet best, and to read about battles in Homer or
+Lucan."
+
+"Then what made a soldier of you at all, my dear? And why did you not
+send Harry with Mr. Braddock, instead of going yourself?" asked Madame
+de Bernstein.
+
+"My mother loved her younger son the best," said George, darkly.
+"Besides, with the enemy invading our country, it was my duty, as the
+head of our family, to go on the campaign. Had I been a Scotchman twelve
+years ago, I should have been a----"
+
+"Hush, sir! or I shall be more angry than ever!" said the old lady, with
+a perfectly pleased face.
+
+George's explanation might thus appease Madame de Bernstein, an old
+woman whose principles we fear were but loose: but to the loyal heart of
+Sir Miles Warrington and his lady, the young man's conduct gave a severe
+blow indeed! "I should have thought," her ladyship said, "from my sister
+Esmond Warrington's letter, that my brother's widow was a woman of good
+sense and judgment, and that she had educated her sons in a becoming
+manner. But what, Sir Miles, what, my dear Thomas Claypool, can we think
+of an education which has resulted so lamentably for both these young
+men?"
+
+"The elder seems to know a power of Latin, though, and speaks the
+French and the German too. I heard him with the Hanover Envoy, at the
+Baroness's rout," says Mr. Claypool. "The French he jabbered quite easy:
+and when he was at a loss for the High Dutch, he and the Envoy began in
+Latin, and talked away till all the room stared."
+
+"It is not language, but principles, Thomas Claypool!" exclaims the
+virtuous matron. "What must Mr. Warrington's principles be, when he
+could reject an offer made him by his Prince? Can he speak the High
+Dutch? So much the more ought he to have accepted his Royal Highness's
+condescension, and made himself useful in the campaign! Look at our son,
+look at Miles!"
+
+"Hold up thy head, Miley, my boy!" says papa.
+
+"I trust, Sir Miles, that, as a member of the House of Commons, as an
+English gentleman, you will attend his Royal Highness's levee to-morrow,
+and say, if such an offer had been made to us for that child, we would
+have taken it, though our boy is but ten years of age."
+
+"Faith, Miley, thou wouldst make a good little drummer or fifer!" says
+papa. "Shouldst like to be a little soldier, Miley?"
+
+"Anything, sir, anything! a Warrington ought to be ready at any moment
+to have himself cut in pieces for his sovereign!" cries the matron,
+pointing to the boy; who, as soon as he comprehended his mother's
+proposal, protested against it by a loud roar, in the midst of which he
+was removed by Screwby. In obedience to the conjugal orders, Sir Miles
+went to his Royal Highness's levee the next day, and made a protest of
+his love and duty, which the Prince deigned to accept, saying:
+
+"Nobody ever supposed that Sir Miles Warrington would ever refuse any
+place offered to him."
+
+A compliment gracious indeed, and repeated everywhere by Lady
+Warrington, as showing how implicitly the august family on the throne
+could rely on the loyalty of the Warringtons.
+
+Accordingly, when this worthy couple saw George, they received him with
+a ghastly commiseration, such as our dear relatives or friends will
+sometimes extend to us when we have done something fatal or clumsy in
+life; when we have come badly out of our lawsuit; when we enter the room
+just as the company has been abusing us; when our banker has broke; or
+we for our sad part have had to figure in the commercial columns of the
+London Gazette;--when, in a word, we are guilty of some notorious fault,
+or blunder, or misfortune. Who does not know that face of pity? Whose
+dear relations have not so deplored him, not dead, but living? Not
+yours? Then, sir, if you have never been in scrapes; if you have never
+sowed a handful of wild oats or two; if you have always been fortunate,
+and good, and careful, and butter has never melted in your mouth, and
+an imprudent word has never come out of it; if you have never sinned and
+repented, and been a fool and been sorry--then, sir, you are a wiseacre
+who won't waste your time over an idle novel, and it is not de te that
+the fable is narrated at all.
+
+Not that it was just on Sir Miles's part to turn upon George, and be
+angry with his nephew for refusing the offer of promotion made by his
+Royal Highness, for Sir Miles himself had agreed in George's view of
+pursuing quite other than a military career, and it was in respect to
+this plan of her son's that Madam Esmond had written from Virginia
+to Sir Miles Warrington. George had announced to her his intention of
+entering at the Temple, and qualifying himself for the magisterial
+and civil duties which, in the course of nature, he would be called to
+fulfil; nor could any one applaud his resolution more cordially than his
+uncle Sir Miles, who introduced George to a lawyer of reputation, under
+whose guidance we may fancy the young gentleman reading leisurely.
+Madam Esmond from home signified her approval of her son's course, fully
+agreeing with Sir Miles (to whom and his lady she begged to send her
+grateful remembrances) that the British Constitution was the envy of
+the world, and the proper object of every English gentleman's admiring
+study. The chief point to which George's mother objected was the notion
+that Mr. Warrington should have to sit down in the Temple dinner-ball,
+and cut at a shoulder of mutton, and drink small-beer out of tin
+pannikins, by the side of rough students who wore gowns like the
+parish-clerk. George's loyal younger brother shared too this repugnance.
+Anything was good enough for him, Harry said; he was a younger son, and
+prepared to rough it; but George, in a gown, and dining in a mess with
+three nobody's sons off dirty pewter platters! Harry never could relish
+this condescension on his brother's part, or fancy George in his proper
+place at any except the high table; and was sorry that a plan Madam
+Esmond hinted at in her letters was not feasible--viz., that an
+application should be made to the Master of the Temple, who should be
+informed that Mr. George Warrington was a gentleman of most noble birth,
+and of great property in America, and ought only to sit with the very
+best company in the Hall. Rather to Harry's discomfiture, when he
+communicated his own and his mother's ideas to the gentlemen's new
+coffee-house friend, Mr. Spencer, Mr. Spencer received the proposal with
+roars of laughter; and I cannot learn, from the Warrington papers, that
+any application was made to the Master of the Temple on this subject.
+Besides his literary and historical pursuits, which were those he
+most especially loved, Mr. Warrington studied the laws of his country,
+attended the courts at Westminster, where he heard a Henley, a Pratt,
+a Murray, and those other great famous schools of eloquence and
+patriotism, the two houses of parliament.
+
+Gradually Mr. Warrington made acquaintance with some of the members of
+the House and the Bar; who, when they came to know him, spoke of him
+as a young gentleman of good parts and good breeding, and in terms so
+generally complimentary, that his good uncle's heart relented towards
+him, and Dora and Flora began once more to smile upon him. This
+reconciliation dated from the time when his Royal Highness the Duke,
+after having been defeated by the French, in the affair of Hastenbeck,
+concluded the famous capitulation with the French, which his Majesty
+George II. refused to ratify. His Royal Highness, as 'tis well known,
+flung up his commissions after this disgrace, laid down his commander's
+baton--which, it must be confessed, he had not wielded with much luck or
+dexterity--and never again appeared at the head of armies or in public
+life. The stout warrior would not allow a word of complaint against his
+father and sovereign to escape his lips; but, as he retired with his
+wounded honour, and as he would have no interest or authority more, nor
+any places to give, it may be supposed that Sir Miles Warrington's anger
+against his nephew diminished as his respect for his Royal Highness
+diminished.
+
+As our two gentlemen were walking in St. James's Park, one day, with
+their friend Mr. Lambert, they met his Royal Highness in plain clothes
+and without a star, and made profound bows to the Prince, who was
+pleased to stop and speak to them.
+
+He asked Mr. Lambert how he liked my Lord Ligonier, his new chief at
+the Horse Guards, and the new duties there in which he was engaged? And,
+recognising the young men, with that fidelity of memory for which his
+Royal race hath ever been remarkable, he said to Mr. Warrington:
+
+"You did well, sir, not to come with me when I asked you in the spring."
+
+"I was sorry, then, sir," Mr. Warrington said, making a very low
+reverence, "but I am more sorry now."
+
+On which the Prince said, "Thank you, sir," and, touching his hat,
+walked away. And the circumstances of this interview, and the discourse
+which passed at it, being related to Mrs. Esmond Warrington in a letter
+from her younger son, created so deep an impression in that lady's mind,
+that she narrated the anecdote many hundreds of times until all her
+friends and acquaintances knew and, perhaps, were tired of it.
+
+Our gentlemen went through the Park, and so towards the Strand, where
+they had business. And Mr. Lambert, pointing to the lion on the top of
+the Earl of Northumberland's house at Charing Cross, says:
+
+"Harry Warrington! your brother is like yonder lion."
+
+"Because he is as brave as one," says Harry.
+
+"Because I respect virgins!" says George, laughing.
+
+"Because you are a stupid lion. Because you turn your back on the East,
+and absolutely salute the setting sun. Why, child, what earthly good can
+you get by being civil to a man in hopeless dudgeon and disgrace? Your
+uncle will be more angry with you than ever--and so am I, sir." But Mr.
+Lambert was always laughing in his waggish way, and, indeed, he did not
+look the least angry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXII. Arma Virumque
+
+
+Indeed, if Harry Warrington had a passion for military pursuits and
+studies, there was enough of war stirring in Europe, and enough talk in
+all societies which he frequented in London, to excite and inflame him.
+Though our own gracious Prince of the house of Hanover had been beaten,
+the Protestant Hero, the King of Prussia, was filling the world with
+his glory, and winning those astonishing victories in which I deem it
+fortunate on my own account that my poor Harry took no part; for
+then his veracious biographer would have had to narrate battles the
+description whereof has been undertaken by another pen. I am glad, I
+say, that Harry Warrington was not at Rossbach on that famous Gunpowder
+Fete-day, on the 5th of November, in the year 1757; nor at that
+tremendous slaughtering-match of Leuthen, which the Prussian king played
+a month afterwards; for these prodigious actions will presently be
+narrated in other volumes, which I and all the world are eager to
+behold. Would you have this history compete with yonder book? Could
+my jaunty, yellow park-phaeton run counter to that grim chariot of
+thundering war? Could my meek little jog-trot Pegasus meet the shock of
+yon steed of foaming bit and flaming nostril? Dear, kind reader (with
+whom I love to talk from time to time, stepping down from the stage
+where our figures are performing, attired in the habits and using the
+parlance of past ages),--my kind, patient reader! it is a mercy for both
+of us that Harry Warrington did not follow the King of the Borussians,
+as he was minded to do, for then I should have had to describe battles
+which Carlyle is going to paint; and I don't wish you should make odious
+comparisons between me and that master.
+
+Harry Warrington not only did not join the King of the Borussians, but
+he pined and chafed at not going. He led a sulky useless life, that is
+the fact. He dangled about the military coffee-houses. He did not care
+for reading anything save a newspaper. His turn was not literary. He
+even thought novels were stupid; and, as for the ladies crying their
+eyes out over Mr. Richardson, he could not imagine how they could be
+moved by any such nonsense. He used to laugh in a very hearty jolly
+way, but a little late, and some time after the joke was over. Pray, why
+should all gentlemen have a literary turn? And do we like some of our
+friends the worse because they never turned a couplet in their lives?
+Ruined, perforce idle, dependent on his brother for supplies, if he read
+a book falling asleep over it, with no fitting work for his great strong
+hands to do--how lucky it is that he did not get into more trouble! Why,
+in the case of Achilles himself, when he was sent by his mamma to the
+court of King What-d'ye-call-'em in order to be put out of harm's reach,
+what happened to him amongst a parcel of women with whom he was made to
+idle his life away? And how did Pyrrhus come into the world? A powerful
+mettlesome young Achilles ought not to be leading-stringed by women too
+much; is out of his place dawdling by distaffs or handing coffee-cups;
+and when he is not fighting, depend on it, is likely to fall into much
+worse mischief.
+
+Those soft-hearted women, the two elder ladies of the Lambert family,
+with whom he mainly consorted, had an untiring pity and kindness for
+Harry, such as women only--and only a few of those--can give. If a man
+is in grief, who cheers him; in trouble, who consoles him; in wrath,
+who soothes him; in joy, who makes him doubly happy; in prosperity, who
+rejoices; in disgrace, who backs him against the world, and dresses
+with gentle unguents and warm poultices the rankling wounds made by the
+slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune? Who but woman, if you please?
+You who are ill and sore from the buffets of Fate, have you one or two
+of these sweet physicians? Return thanks to the gods that they have
+left you so much of consolation. What gentleman is not more or less a
+Prometheus? Who has not his rock (ai, ai), his chain (ea, ea), and his
+liver in a deuce of a condition? But the sea-nymphs come--the gentle,
+the sympathising; they kiss our writhing feet; they moisten our parched
+lips with their tears; they do their blessed best to console us Titans;
+they don't turn their backs upon us after our overthrow.
+
+Now Theo and her mother were full of pity for Harry; but Hetty's heart
+was rather hard and seemingly savage towards him. She chafed that
+his position was not more glorious; she was angry that he was still
+dependent and idle. The whole world was in arms, and could he not carry
+a musket? It was harvest-time, and hundreds of thousands of reapers were
+out with their flashing sickles; could he not use his, and cut down his
+sheaf or two of glory?
+
+"Why, how savage the little thing is with him!" says papa, after a scene
+in which, according to her wont, Miss Hetty had been firing little
+shots into that quivering target which came and set itself up in Mrs.
+Lambert's drawing-room every day.
+
+"Her conduct is perfectly abominable!" cries mamma; "she deserves to be
+whipped, and sent to bed."
+
+"Perhaps, mother, it is because she likes him better than any of us do,"
+says Theo, "and it is for his sake that Hetty is angry. If I were fond
+of--of some one, I should like to be able to admire and respect him
+always--to think everything he did right--and my gentleman better than
+all the gentlemen in the world."
+
+"The truth is, my dear," answers Mrs. Lambert, "that your father is so
+much better than all the world, he has spoiled us. Did you ever see any
+one to compare with him?"
+
+"Very few, indeed," owns Theo, with a blush.
+
+"Very few. Who is so good-tempered?"
+
+"I think nobody, mamma," Theo acknowledges.
+
+"Or so brave?"
+
+"Why, I dare say Mr. Wolfe, or Harry, or Mr. George, are very brave."
+
+"Or so learned and witty?"
+
+"I am sure Mr. George seems very learned, and witty too, in his way,"
+says Theo; "and his manners are very fine--you own they are. Madame de
+Bernstein says they are, and she hath seen the world. Indeed, Mr. George
+has a lofty way with him, which I don't see in other people; and, in
+reading books, I find he chooses the fine noble things always, and loves
+them in spite of all his satire. He certainly is of a satirical turn,
+but then he is only bitter against mean things and people. No gentleman
+hath a more tender heart I am sure; and but yesterday, after he had been
+talking so bitterly as you said, I happened to look out of window, and
+saw him stop and treat a whole crowd of little children to apples at the
+stall at the corner. And the day before yesterday, when he was coming
+and brought me the Moliere, he stopped and gave money to a beggar, and
+how charmingly, sure, he reads the French! I agree with him though about
+Tartuffe, though 'tis so wonderfully clever and lively, that a mere
+villain and hypocrite is a figure too mean to be made the chief of a
+great piece. Iago, Mr. George said, is near as great a villain; but then
+he is not the first character of the tragedy, which is Othello, with
+his noble weakness. But what fine ladies and gentlemen Moliere
+represents--so Mr. George thinks--and--but oh, I don't dare to repeat
+the verses after him."
+
+"But you know them by heart, my dear?" asks Mrs. Lambert.
+
+And Theo replies, "Oh yes, mamma! I know them by... Nonsense!"
+
+I here fancy osculations, palpitations, and exit Miss Theo, blushing
+like a rose. Why had she stopped in her sentence? Because mamma was
+looking at her so oddly. And why was mamma looking at her so oddly? And
+why had she looked after Mr. George when he was going away, and looked
+for him when he was coming? Ah, and why do cheeks blush, and why do
+roses bloom? Old Time is still a-flying. Old spring and bud time; old
+summer and bloom time; old autumn and seed time; old winter time, when
+the cracking, shivering old tree-tops are bald or covered with snow.
+
+A few minutes after George arrived, Theo would come downstairs with
+a fluttering heart, may be, and a sweet nosegay in her cheeks, just
+culled, as it were, fresh in his honour; and I suppose she must have
+been constantly at that window which commanded the street, and whence
+she could espy his generosity to the sweep, or his purchases from the
+apple-woman. But if it was Harry who knocked, she remained in her own
+apartment with her work or her books, sending her sister to receive
+the young gentleman, or her brothers when the elder was at home from
+college, or Doctor Crusius from the Chartreux gave the younger leave
+to go home. And what good eyes Theo must have had--and often in the
+evening, too--to note the difference between Harry's yellow hair and
+George's dark locks--and between their figures, though they were so like
+that people continually were mistaking one for the other brother. Now it
+is certain that Theo never mistook one or t'other; and that Hetty, for
+her part, was not in the least excited, or rude, or pert, when she found
+the black-haired gentleman in her mother's drawing-room.
+
+Our friends could come when they liked to Mr. Lambert's house, and stay
+as long as they chose; and, one day, he of the golden locks was sitting
+on a couch there, in an attitude of more than ordinary idleness and
+despondency, when who should come down to him but Miss Hetty? I say it
+was a most curious thing (though the girls would have gone to the rack
+rather than own any collusion), that when Harry called, Hetty appeared;
+when George arrived, Theo somehow came; and so, according to the usual
+dispensation, it was Miss Lambert, junior, who now arrived to entertain
+the younger Virginian.
+
+After usual ceremonies and compliments we may imagine that the lady says
+to the gentleman:
+
+"And pray, sir, what makes your honour look so glum this morning?"
+
+"Ah, Hetty!" says he, "I have nothing else to do but to look glum. I
+remember when we were boys--and I a rare idle one, you may be sure--I
+would always be asking my tutor for a holiday, which I would pass very
+likely swinging on a gate, or making ducks and drakes over the pond, and
+those do-nothing days were always the most melancholy. What have I got
+to do now from morning till night?"
+
+"Breakfast, walk--dinner, walk--tea, supper, I suppose; and a pipe of
+your Virginia," says Miss Hetty, tossing her head.
+
+"I tell you what, when I went back with Charley to the Chartreux,
+t'other night, I had a mind to say to the master, 'Teach me, sir. Here's
+a boy knows a deal more Latin and Greek, at thirteen, than I do, who
+am ten years older. I have nothing to do from morning till night, and I
+might as well go to my books again, and see if I can repair my idleness
+as a boy.' Why do you laugh, Hetty?"
+
+"I laugh to fancy you at the head of a class, and called up by the
+master!" cries Hetty.
+
+"I shouldn't be at the head of the class," Harry says, humbly. "George
+might be at the head of any class, but I am not a bookman, you see; and
+when I was young neglected myself, and was very idle. We would not let
+our tutors cane us much at home, but, if we had, it might have done me
+good."
+
+Hetty drubbed with her little foot, and looked at the young man sitting
+before her--strong, idle, melancholy.
+
+"Upon my word, it might do you good now!" she was minded to say. "What
+does Tom say about the caning at school? Does his account of it set you
+longing for it, pray?" she asked.
+
+"His account of his school," Harry answered simply, "makes me see that I
+have been idle when I ought to have worked, and that I have not a genius
+for books, and for what am I good? Only to spend my patrimony when I
+come abroad, or to lounge at coffee-houses or racecourses, or to gallop
+behind dogs when I am at home. I am good for nothing, I am."
+
+"What, such a great, brave, strong fellow as you good for nothing?"
+cries Het. "I would not confess as much to any woman, if I were twice as
+good for nothing!"
+
+"What am I to do? I ask for leave to go into the army, and Madam Esmond
+does not answer me. 'Tis the only thing I am fit for. I have no money to
+buy. Having spent all my own, and so much of my brother's, I cannot and
+won't ask for more. If my mother would but send me to the army, you know
+I would jump to go."
+
+"Eh! A gentleman of spirit does not want a woman to buckle his sword on
+for him or to clean his firelock! What was that our papa told us of the
+young gentleman at court yesterday?--Sir John Armytage----"
+
+"Sir John Armytage? I used to know him when I frequented White's and
+the club-houses--a fine, noble young gentleman, of a great estate in the
+North."
+
+"And engaged to be married to a famous beauty, too--Miss Howe, my Lord
+Howe's sister--but that, I suppose, is not an obstacle to gentlemen?"
+
+"An obstacle to what?" asks the gentleman.
+
+"An obstacle to glory!" says Miss Hetty. "I think no woman of spirit
+would say 'Stay!' though she adored her lover ever so much, when his
+country said 'Go!' Sir John had volunteered for the expedition which is
+preparing, and being at court yesterday his Majesty asked him when he
+would be ready to go? 'Tomorrow, please your Majesty,' replies Sir John,
+and the king said, that was a soldier's answer. My father himself is
+longing to go, though he has mamma and all us brats at home. Oh dear,
+oh dear! Why wasn't I a man myself? Both my brothers are for the Church;
+but, as for me, I know I should have made a famous little soldier!" And,
+so speaking, this young person strode about the room, wearing a most
+courageous military aspect, and looking as bold as Joan of Arc.
+
+Harry beheld her with a tender admiration. "I think," says he, "I would
+hardly like to see a musket on that little shoulder, nor a wound on that
+pretty face, Hetty."
+
+"Wounds! who fears wounds?" cries the little maid. "Muskets? If I could
+carry one, I would use it. You men fancy that we women are good for
+nothing but to make puddings or stitch samplers. Why wasn't I a man, I
+say? George was reading to us yesterday out of Tasso--look, here it is,
+and I thought the verses applied to me. See! Here is the book, with the
+mark in it where we left off."
+
+"With the mark in it?" says Harry dutifully.
+
+"Yes! it is about a woman who is disappointed because--because her
+brother does not go to war, and she says of herself--
+
+    "'Alas! why did not Heaven these members frail
+      With lively force and vigour strengthen, so
+      That I this silken gown...'"
+
+"Silken gown?" says downright Harry, with a look of inquiry.
+
+"Well, sir, I know 'tis but Calimanco;--but so it is in the book--
+
+       "'... this silken gown and slender veil
+     Might for a breastplate and a helm forgo;
+     Then should not heat, nor cold, nor rain, nor hail,
+     Nor storms that fall, nor blust'ring winds that blow,
+        Withhold me; but I would, both day and night,
+        In pitched field or private combat, fight--'
+
+"Fight? Yes, that I would! Why are both my brothers to be parsons, I
+say? One of my papa's children ought to be a soldier!"
+
+Harry laughed, a very gentle, kind laugh, as he looked at her. He felt
+that he would not like much to hit such a tender little warrior as that.
+
+"Why," says he, holding a finger out, "I think here is a finger nigh as
+big as your arm. How would you stand up before a great, strong man? I
+should like to see a man try and injure you, though; I should just like
+to see him! You little, delicate, tender creature! Do you suppose any
+scoundrel would dare to do anything unkind to you?" And, excited by this
+flight of his imagination, Harry fell to walking up and down the room,
+too, chafing at the idea of any rogue of a Frenchman daring to be rude
+to Miss Hester Lambert.
+
+It was a belief in this silent courage of his which subjugated Hetty,
+and this quality which she supposed him to possess, which caused her
+specially to admire him. Miss Hetty was no more bold, in reality, than
+Madam Erminia, whose speech she had been reading out of the book, and
+about whom Mr. Harry Warrington never heard one single word. He may have
+been in the room when brother George was reading his poetry out to the
+ladies, but his thoughts were busy with his own affairs, and he was
+entirely bewildered with your Clotildas and Erminias, and giants, and
+enchanters, and nonsense. No, Miss Hetty, I say and believe, had nothing
+of the virago in her composition; else, no doubt, she would have taken
+a fancy to a soft young fellow with a literary turn, or a genius for
+playing the flute, according to the laws of contrast and nature provided
+in those cases; and who has not heard how great, strong men have an
+affinity for frail, tender little women; how tender little women are
+attracted by great, honest, strong men; and how your burly heroes and
+champions of war are constantly henpecked? If Mr. Harry Warrington falls
+in love with a woman who is like Miss Lambert in disposition, and if he
+marries her--without being conjurers, I think we may all see what the
+end will be.
+
+So, whilst Hetty was firing her little sarcasms into Harry, he for a
+while scarcely felt that they were stinging him, and let her shoot on
+without so much as taking the trouble to shake the little arrows out of
+his hide. Did she mean by her sneers and innuendoes to rouse him into
+action? He was too magnanimous to understand such small hints. Did she
+mean to shame him by saying that she, a weak woman, would don the casque
+and breastplate? The simple fellow either melted at the idea of her
+being in danger, or at the notion of her fighting fell a-laughing.
+
+"Pray what is the use of having a strong hand if you only use it to hold
+a skein of silk for my mother?" cries Miss Hester; "and what is the good
+of being ever so strong in a drawing-room? Nobody wants you to throw
+anybody out of window, Harry! A strong man, indeed! I suppose there's a
+stronger at Bartholomew Fair. James Wolfe is not a strong man. He seems
+quite weakly and ill. When he was here last he was coughing the whole
+time, and as pale as if he had seen a ghost."
+
+"I never could understand why a man should be frightened at a ghost,"
+says Harry.
+
+"Pray, have you seen one, sir?" asks the pert young lady.
+
+"No. I thought I did once at home--when we were boys; but it was only
+Nathan in his night-shirt; but I wasn't frightened when I thought he
+was a ghost. I believe there's no such things. Our nurses tell a pack of
+lies about 'em," says Harry, gravely. "George was a little frightened;
+but then he's----" Here he paused.
+
+"Then George is what?" asked Hetty.
+
+"George is different from me, that's all. Our mother's a bold woman as
+ever you saw, but she screams at seeing a mouse--always does--can't help
+it. It's her nature. So, you see, perhaps my brother can't bear ghosts.
+I don't mind 'em."
+
+"George always says you would have made a better soldier than he."
+
+"So I think I should, if I had been allowed to try. But he can do a
+thousand things better than me, or anybody else in the world. Why didn't
+he let me volunteer on Braddock's expedition? I might have got knocked
+on the head, and then I should have been pretty much as useful as I
+am now, and then I shouldn't have ruined myself, and brought people to
+point at me and say that I had disgraced the name of Warrington. Why
+mayn't I go on this expedition, and volunteer like Sir John Armytage?
+Oh, Hetty! I'm a miserable fellow--that's what I am," and the miserable
+fellow paced the room at double quick time. "I wish I had never come to
+Europe," he groaned out.
+
+"What a compliment to us! Thank you, Harry!" But presently, on an
+appealing look from the gentleman, she added, "Are you--are you thinking
+of going home?"
+
+"And have all Virginia jeering at me! There's not a gentleman there
+that wouldn't, except one, and him my mother doesn't like. I should
+be ashamed to go home now, I think. You don't know my mother, Hetty. I
+ain't afraid of most things; but, somehow, I am of her. What shall I say
+to her, when she says, 'Harry, where's your patrimony?' 'Spent, mother,'
+I shall have to say. 'What have you done with it?' 'Wasted it, mother,
+and went to prison after.' 'Who took you out of prison?' 'Brother
+George, ma'am, he took me out of prison; and now I'm come back,
+having done no good for myself, with no profession, no prospects, no
+nothing--only to look after negroes, and be scolded at home; or to go to
+sleep at sermons; or to play at cards, and drink, and fight cocks at the
+taverns about.' How can I look the gentlemen of the country in the face?
+I'm ashamed to go home in this way, I say. I must and will do something!
+What shall I do, Hetty? Ah! what shall I do?"
+
+"Do? What did Mr. Wolfe do at Louisbourg? Ill as he was, and in love as
+we knew him to be, he didn't stop to be nursed by his mother, Harry, or
+to dawdle with his sweetheart. He went on the King's service, and hath
+come back covered with honour. If there is to be another great campaign
+in America, papa says he is sure of a great command."
+
+"I wish he would take me with him, and that a ball would knock me on the
+head and finish me," groaned Harry. "You speak to me, Hetty, as though
+it were my fault that I am not in the army, when you know I would
+give--give, forsooth, what have I to give?--yes! my life to go on
+service!"
+
+"Life indeed!" says Miss Hetty, with a shrug of her shoulders.
+
+"You don't seem to think that of much value, Hetty," remarked Harry,
+sadly. "No more it is--to anybody. I'm a poor useless fellow. I'm not
+even free to throw it away as I would like, being under orders here and
+at home."
+
+"Orders indeed! Why under orders?" cries Miss Hetty. "Aren't you tall
+enough, and old enough, to act for yourself, and must you have George
+for a master here, and your mother for a schoolmistress at home? If
+I were a man, I would do something famous before I was two-and-twenty
+years old, that I would! I would have the world speak of me. I wouldn't
+dawdle at apron-strings. I wouldn't curse my fortune--I'd make it. I vow
+and declare I would!"
+
+Now, for the first time, Harry began to wince at the words of his young
+lecturer.
+
+"No negro on our estate is more a slave than I am, Hetty," he said,
+turning very red as he addressed her; "but then, Miss Lambert, we don't
+reproach the poor fellow for not being free. That isn't generous. At
+least, that isn't the way I understand honour. Perhaps with women it's
+different, or I may be wrong, and have no right to be hurt at a young
+girl telling me what my faults are. Perhaps my faults are not my
+faults--only my cursed luck. You have been talking ever so long about
+this gentleman volunteering, and that man winning glory, and cracking up
+their courage as if I had none of my own. I suppose, for the matter of
+that, I'm as well provided as other gentlemen. I don't brag but I'm not
+afraid of Mr. Wolfe, nor of Sir John Armytage, nor of anybody else that
+ever I saw. How can I buy a commission when I've spent my last shilling,
+or ask my brother for more who has already halved with me? A gentleman
+of my rank can't go a common soldier--else, by Jupiter, I would! And if
+a ball finished me, I suppose Miss Hetty Lambert wouldn't be very sorry.
+It isn't kind, Hetty--I didn't think it of you."
+
+"What is it I have said?" asks the young lady. "I have only said Sir
+John Armytage has volunteered, and Mr. Wolfe has covered himself with
+honour, and you begin to scold me! How can I help it if Mr. Wolfe is
+brave and famous? Is that any reason you should be angry, pray?"
+
+"I didn't say angry," said Harry, gravely. "I said I was hurt."
+
+"Oh, indeed! I thought such a little creature as I am couldn't hurt
+anybody! I'm sure 'tis mighty complimentary to me to say that a young
+lady whose arm is no bigger than your little finger can hurt such a
+great strong man as you!"
+
+"I scarce thought you would try, Hetty," the young man said. You see,
+I'm not used to this kind of welcome in this house."
+
+"What is it, my poor boy?" asks kind Mrs. Lambert, looking in at
+the door at this juncture, and finding the youth with a very woeworn
+countenance.
+
+"Oh, we have heard the story before, mamma!" says Hetty, hurriedly.
+"Harry is making his old complaint of having nothing to do. And he is
+quite unhappy; and he is telling us so over and over again, that's all."
+
+"So are you hungry over and over again, my dear! Is that a reason why
+your papa and I should leave off giving you dinner?" cries mamma, with
+some emotion. "Will you stay and have ours, Harry? 'Tis just three
+o'clock!" Harry agreed to stay, after a few faint negations. "My husband
+dines abroad. We are but three women, so you will have a dull dinner,"
+remarks Mrs. Lambert.
+
+"We shall have a gentleman to enliven us, mamma, I dare say!" says Madam
+Pert, and then looked in mamma's face with that admirable gaze of
+blank innocence which Madam Pert knows how to assume when she has been
+specially and successfully wicked.
+
+When the dinner appeared. Miss Hetty came downstairs, and was
+exceedingly chatty, lively, and entertaining. Theo did not know that any
+little difference had occurred (such, alas, my Christian friends,
+will happen in the most charming families), did not know, I say, that
+anything had happened until Hetty's uncommon sprightliness and
+gaiety roused her suspicions. Hetty would start a dozen subjects of
+conversation--the King of Prussia, and the news from America; the last
+masquerade, and the highwayman shot near Barnet; and when her sister,
+admiring this volubility, inquired the reason of it, with her eyes,--
+
+"Oh, my dear, you need not nod and wink at me!" cries Hetty. "Mamma
+asked Harry on purpose to enliven us, and I am talking until he begins,
+just like the fiddles at the playhouse, you know, Theo! First the
+fiddles. Then the play. Pray begin, Harry!"
+
+"Hester!" cries mamma.
+
+"I merely asked Harry to entertain us. You said yourself, mother, that
+we were only three women, and the dinner would be dull for a gentleman;
+unless, indeed, he chose to be very lively."
+
+"I'm not that on most days--and, Heaven knows, on this day less than
+most," says poor Harry.
+
+"Why on this day less than another? Tuesday is as good a day to be
+lively as Wednesday. The only day when we mustn't be lively is Sunday.
+Well, you know it is, ma'am! We mustn't sing, nor dance, nor do anything
+on Sunday."
+
+And in this naughty way the young woman went on for the rest of the
+evening, and was complimented by her mother and sister when poor Harry
+took his leave. He was not ready of wit, and could not fling back the
+taunts which Hetty cast against him. Nay, had he been able to retort, he
+would have been silent. He was too generous to engage in that small war,
+and chose to take all Hester's sarcasms without an attempt to parry
+or evade them. Very likely the young lady watched and admired that
+magnanimity, while she tried it so cruelly. And after one of her fits of
+ill-behaviour, her parents and friends had not the least need to scold
+her, as she candidly told them, because she suffered a great deal more
+than they would ever have had her, and her conscience punished her a
+great deal more severely than her kind elders would have thought of
+doing. I suppose she lies awake all that night, and tosses and tumbles
+in her bed. I suppose she wets her pillow with tears, and should not
+mind about her sobbing: unless it kept her sister awake; unless she was
+unwell the next day, and the doctor had to be fetched; unless the whole
+family is to be put to discomfort; mother to choke over her dinner in
+flurry and indignation; father to eat his roast-beef in silence and with
+bitter sauce; everybody to look at the door each time it opens, with a
+vague hope that Harry is coming in. If Harry does not come, why at least
+does not George come? thinks Miss Theo.
+
+Some time in the course of the evening comes a billet from George
+Warrington, with a large nosegay of lilacs, per Mr. Gumbo. "'I send my
+best duty and regards to Mrs. Lambert and the ladies,'" George says,
+"'and humbly beg to present to Miss Theo this nosegay of lilacs, which
+she says she loves in the early spring. You must not thank me for them,
+please, but the gardener of Bedford House, with whom I have made great
+friends by presenting him with some dried specimens of a Virginian plant
+which some ladies don't think as fragrant as lilacs.
+
+"'I have been in the garden almost all the day. It is alive with
+sunshine and spring; and I have been composing two scenes of you know
+what, and polishing the verses which the Page sings in the fourth act,
+under Sybilla's window, which she cannot hear, poor thing, because she
+has just had her head off.'"
+
+"Provoking! I wish he would not always sneer and laugh! The verses are
+beautiful," says Theo.
+
+"You really think so, my dear? How very odd!" remarks papa.
+
+Little Het looks up from her dismal corner with a faint smile of humour.
+Theo's secret is a secret for nobody in the house, it seems. Can any
+young people guess what it is? Our young lady continues to read:
+
+"'Spencer has asked the famous Mr. Johnson to breakfast to-morrow,
+who condescends to hear the play, and who won't, I hope, be too angry
+because my heroine undergoes the fate of his in Irene. I have heard he
+came up to London himself as a young man with only his tragedy in his
+wallet. Shall I ever be able to get mine played? Can you fancy the
+catcall music beginning, and the pit hissing at that perilous part of
+the fourth act, where my executioner comes out from the closet with his
+great sword, at the awful moment when he is called upon to amputate?
+They say Mr. Fielding, when the pit hissed at a part of one of his
+pieces, about which Mr. Garrick had warned him, said, 'Hang them, they
+have found it out, have they?' and finished his punch in tranquillity.
+I suppose his wife was not in the boxes. There are some women to whom I
+would be very unwilling to give pain, and there are some to whom I would
+give the best I have.'"
+
+"Whom can he mean? The letter is to you, my dear. I protest he is making
+love to your mother before my face!" cries papa to Hetty, who only gives
+a little sigh, puts her hand in her father's hand, and then withdraws
+it.
+
+"'To whom I would give the best I have. To-day it is only a bunch of
+lilacs. To-morrow it may be what?--a branch of rue--a sprig of bays,
+perhaps--anything, so it be my best and my all.
+
+"'I have had a fine long day, and all to myself. What do you think of
+Harry playing truant?'" (Here we may imagine, what they call in France,
+or what they used to call, when men dared to speak or citizens to hear,
+sensation dans l'auditoire.)
+
+"'I suppose Carpezan wearied the poor fellow's existence out. Certain it
+is he has been miserable for weeks past; and a change of air and scene
+may do him good. This morning, quite early, he came to my room, and told
+me he had taken a seat in the Portsmouth machine, and proposed to go to
+the Isle of Wight, to the army there.'"
+
+The army! Hetty looks very pale at this announcement, and her mother
+continues:
+
+"'And a little portion of it, namely, the thirty-second regiment, is
+commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Richmond Webb--the nephew of the famous
+old General under whom my grandfather Esmond served in the great wars of
+Marlborough. Mr. Webb met us at our uncle's, accosting us very politely,
+and giving us an invitation to visit him at his regiment. Let my poor
+brother go and listen to his darling music of fife and drum! He bade me
+tell the ladies that they should hear from him. I kiss their hands, and
+go to dress for dinner, at the Star and Garter, in Pall Mall. We are to
+have Mr. Soame Jenyns, Mr. Cambridge, Mr. Walpole, possibly, if he is
+not too fine to dine in a tavern; a young Irishman, a Mr. Bourke, who
+they say is a wonder of eloquence and learning--in fine, all the wits of
+Mr. Dodsley's shop. Quick, Gumbo, a coach, and my French grey suit! And
+if gentlemen ask me, 'Who gave you that sprig of lilac you wear on your
+heart-side?' I shall call a bumper, and give Lilac for a toast.'"
+
+I fear there is no more rest for Hetty on this night than on the
+previous one, when she had behaved so mutinously to poor Harry
+Warrington. Some secret resolution must have inspired that gentleman,
+for, after leaving Mr. Lambert's table, he paced the streets for
+a while, and appeared at a late hour in the evening at Madame de
+Bernstein's house in Clarges Street. Her ladyship's health had been
+somewhat ailing of late, so that even her favourite routs were denied
+her, and she was sitting over a quiet game of ecarte, with a divine of
+whom our last news were from a lock-up house hard by that in which Harry
+Warrington had been himself confined. George, at Harry's request, had
+paid the little debt under which Mr. Sampson had suffered temporarily.
+He had been at his living for a year. He may have paid and contracted
+ever so many debts, have been in and out of jail many times since we saw
+him. For some time past he had been back in London stout and hearty
+as usual, and ready for any invitation to cards or claret. Madame de
+Bernstein did not care to have her game interrupted by her nephew, whose
+conversation had little interest now for the fickle old woman. Next to
+the very young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish. Alas, the
+heart hardens as the blood ceases to run. The cold snow strikes down
+from the head, and checks the glow of feeling. Who wants to survive
+into old age after abdicating all his faculties one by one, and be sans
+teeth, sans eyes, sans memory, sans hope, sans sympathy? How fared it
+with those patriarchs of old who lived for their nine centuries, and
+when were life's conditions so changed that, after threescore years and
+ten, it became but a vexation and a burden?
+
+Getting no reply but Yes and No to his brief speeches, poor Harry sat a
+while on a couch opposite his aunt, who shrugged her shoulders, had her
+back to her nephew, and continued her game with the chaplain. Sampson
+sat opposite Mr. Warrington, and could see that something disturbed him.
+His face was very pale, and his countenance disturbed and full of gloom.
+"Something has happened to him, ma'am," he whispered to the Baroness.
+
+"Bah!" She shrugged her shoulders again, and continued to deal her
+cards. "What is the matter with you, sir," she at last said, at a pause
+in the game, "that you have such a dismal countenance? Chaplain, that
+last game makes us even, I think!"
+
+Harry got up from his place. "I am going on a journey: I am come to bid
+you good-bye, aunt," he said, in a very tragical voice.
+
+"On a journey! Are you going home to America? I mark the king, Chaplain,
+and play him."
+
+No, Harry said: he was not going to America yet going to the Isle of
+Wight for the present.
+
+"Indeed!--a lovely spot!" says the Baroness. "Bon jour, mon ami, et bon
+voyage!" And she kissed a hand to her nephew.
+
+"I mayn't come back for some time, aunt," he groaned out.
+
+"Indeed! We shall be inconsolable without you! Unless you have a spade,
+Mr. Sampson, the game is mine. Good-bye, my child! No more about your
+journey at present: tell us about it when you come back!" And she gaily
+bade him farewell. He looked for a moment piteously at her, and was
+gone.
+
+"Something grave has happened, madam," says the chaplain.
+
+"Oh! The boy is always getting into scrapes! I suppose he has been
+falling in love with one of those country girls--what are their names,
+Lamberts?--with whom he is ever dawdling about. He has been doing no
+good here for some time. I am disappointed in him, really quite grieved
+about him--I will take two cards, if you please--again?--quite grieved.
+What do you think they say of his cousin--the Miss Warrington who made
+eyes at him when she thought he was a prize--they say the King has
+remarked her, and the Yarmouth is creving with rage. He, be!--those
+methodistical Warringtons! They are not a bit less worldly than
+their neighbours; and, old as he is, if the Grand Seignior throws his
+pocket-handkerchief, they will jump to catch it!"
+
+"Ah, madam; how your ladyship knows the world!" sighs the chaplain. "I
+propose, if you please!"
+
+"I have lived long enough in it, Mr. Sampson, to know something of
+it. 'Tis sadly selfish, my dear sir, sadly selfish; and everybody is
+struggling to pass his neighbour! No, I can't give you any more cards.
+You haven't the king? I play queen, knave, and a ten,--a sadly selfish
+world, indeed. And here comes my chocolate!"
+
+The more immediate interest of the cards entirely absorbs the old woman.
+The door shuts out her nephew and his cares. Under his hat, he bears
+them into the street, and paces the dark town for a while.
+
+"Good God!" he thinks, "what a miserable fellow I am, and what a
+spendthrift of my life I have been! I sit silent with George and his
+friends. I am not clever and witty as he is. I am only a burthen to
+him; and, if I would help him ever so much, don't know how. My dear Aunt
+Lambert's kindness never tires, but I begin to be ashamed of trying it.
+Why, even Hetty can't help turning on me; and when she tells me I am
+idle and should be doing something, ought I to be angry? The rest have
+left me. There's my cousins and uncle and my lady my aunt, they have
+shown me the cold shoulder this long time. They didn't even ask me to
+Norfolk when they went down to the country, and offer me so much as
+a day's partridge-shooting. I can't go to Castlewood--after what has
+happened; I should break that scoundrel William's bones; and, faith, am
+well out of the place altogether."
+
+He laughs a fierce laugh as he recalls his adventures since he has been
+in Europe. Money, friends, pleasure, all have passed away, and he feels
+the past like a dream. He strolls into White's Chocolate-House, where
+the waiters have scarce seen him for a year. The parliament is up.
+Gentlemen are away; there is not even any play going on:--not that he
+would join it, if there were.
+
+He has but a few pieces in his pocket; George's drawer is open, and he
+may take what money he likes thence; but very, very sparingly will he
+avail himself of his brother's repeated invitation. He sits and drinks
+his glass in moody silence. Two or three officers of the Guards enter
+from St. James's. He knew them in former days, and the young men, who
+have been already dining and drinking on guard, insist on more drink at
+the club. The other battalion of their regiment is at Winchester: it is
+going on this great expedition, no one knows whither, which everybody
+is talking about. Cursed fate that they do not belong to the other
+battalion; and must stay and do duty in London and at Kensington! There
+is Webb, who was of their regiment: he did well to exchange his company
+in the Coldstreams for the lieutenant-colonelcy of the thirty-second.
+He will be of the expedition. Why, everybody is going; and the young
+gentlemen mention a score of names of men of the first birth and fashion
+who have volunteered. "It ain't Hanoverians this time, commanded by the
+big Prince," says one young gentleman (whose relatives may have been
+Tories forty years ago)--"it's Englishmen, with the Guards at the head
+of 'em, and a Marlborough for a leader! Will the Frenchmen ever stand
+against them? No, by George, they are irresistible." And a fresh bowl is
+called, and loud toasts are drunk to the success of the expedition.
+
+Mr. Warrington, who is a cup too low, the young Guardsmen say, walks
+away when they are not steady enough to be able to follow him, thinks
+over the matter on his way to his lodgings, and lies thinking of it all
+through the night.
+
+"What is it, my boy?" asks George Warrington of his brother, when the
+latter enters his chamber very early on a blushing May morning.
+
+"I want a little money out of the drawer," says Harry, looking at his
+brother. "I am sick and tired of London."
+
+"Good heavens! Can anybody be tired of London?" George asks, who has
+reasons for thinking it the most delightful place in the world.
+
+"I am for one. I am sick and ill," says Harry.
+
+"You and Hetty have been quarrelling?"
+
+"She don't care a penny-piece about me, nor I for her neither," says
+Harry, nodding his head. "But I am ill, and a little country air will
+do me good," and he mentions how he thinks of going to visit Mr. Webb in
+the Isle of Wight, and how a Portsmouth coach starts from Holborn.
+
+"There's the till, Harry," says George, pointing from his bed. "Put your
+hand in, and take what you will. What a lovely morning, and how fresh
+the Bedford House garden looks!"
+
+"God bless you, brother!" Harry says.
+
+"Have a good time, Harry!" and down goes George's head on the pillow
+again, and he takes his pencil and notebook from under his bolster,
+and falls to polishing his verses, as Harry, with his cloak over his
+shoulder and a little valise in his hand, walks to the inn in Holborn
+whence the Portsmouth machine starts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIII. Melpomene
+
+
+George Warrington by no means allowed his legal studies to obstruct
+his comfort and pleasures, or interfere with his precious health. Madam
+Esmond had pointed out to him in her letters that though he wore
+a student's gown, and sate down with a crowd of nameless people to
+hall-commons, he had himself a name, and a very ancient one, to support,
+and could take rank with the first persons at home or in his own
+country; and desired that he would study as a gentleman, not a mere
+professional drudge. With this injunction the young man complied
+obediently enough: so that he may be said not to have belonged to the
+rank and file of the law, but may be considered to have been a volunteer
+in her service, like some young gentlemen of whom we have just heard.
+Though not so exacting as she since has become--though she allowed her
+disciples much more leisure, much more pleasure, much more punch, much
+more frequenting of coffee-houses and holiday-making, than she admits
+nowadays, when she scarce gives her votaries time for amusement,
+recreation, instruction, sleep, or dinner--the law a hundred years ago
+was still a jealous mistress, and demanded a pretty exclusive attention.
+Murray, we are told, might have been an Ovid, but he preferred to be
+Lord Chief Justice, and to wear ermine instead of bays. Perhaps Mr.
+Warrington might have risen to a peerage and the woolsack, had he
+studied very long and assiduously,--had he been a dexterous courtier,
+and a favourite of attorneys: had he been other than he was, in a word.
+He behaved to Themis with a very decent respect and attention; but he
+loved letters more than law always; and the black-letter of Chaucer was
+infinitely more agreeable to him than the Gothic pages of Hale and Coke.
+
+Letters were loved indeed in those quaint times, and authors were
+actually authorities. Gentlemen appealed to Virgil or Lucan in the
+Courts or the House of Commons. What said Statius, Juvenal--let alone
+Tully or Tacitus--on such and such a point? Their reign is over now, the
+good old Heathens: the worship of Jupiter and Juno is not more out
+of mode than the cultivation of Pagan poetry or ethics. The age of
+economists and calculators has succeeded, and Tooke's Pantheon is
+deserted and ridiculous. Now and then, perhaps, a Stanley kills a kid,
+a Gladstone bangs up a wreath, a Lytton burns incense, in honour of
+the Olympians. But what do they care at Lambeth, Birmingham, the Tower
+Hamlets, for the ancient rites, divinities, worship? Who the plague are
+the Muses, and what is the use of all that Greek and Latin rubbish? What
+is Elicon, and who cares? Who was Thalia, pray, and what is the length
+of her i? Is Melpomene's name in three syllables or four? And do you
+know from whose design I stole that figure of Tragedy which adorns the
+initial G of this chapter?
+
+Now, it has been said how Mr. George in his youth, and in the long
+leisure which he enjoyed at home, and during his imprisonment in the
+French fort on the banks of Monongahela, had whiled away his idleness by
+paying court to Melpomene; and the result of their union was a tragedy,
+which has been omitted in Bell's Theatre, though I dare say it is no
+worse than some of the pieces printed there. Most young men pay their
+respects to the Tragic Muse first, as they fall in love with women who
+are a great deal older than themselves. Let the candid reader own, if
+ever he had a literary turn, that his ambition was of the very
+highest, and that however, in his riper age, he might come down in his
+pretensions, and think that to translate an ode of Horace, or to turn a
+song of Waller or Prior into decent alcaics or sapphics, was about the
+utmost of his capability, tragedy and epic only did his green unknowing
+youth engage, and no prize but the highest was fit for him.
+
+George Warrington, then, on coming to London, attended the theatrical
+performances at both houses, frequented the theatrical coffee-houses,
+and heard the opinions of the critics, and might be seen at the Bedford
+between the plays, or supping at the Cecil along with the wits and
+actors when the performances were over. Here he gradually became
+acquainted with the players and such of the writers and poets as were
+known to the public. The tough old Macklin, the frolicsome Foote,
+the vivacious Hippisley, the sprightly Mr. Garrick himself, might
+occasionally be seen at these houses of entertainment; and our
+gentleman, by his wit and modesty, as well, perhaps, as for the high
+character for wealth which he possessed, came to be very much liked in
+the coffee-house circles, and found that the actors would drink a
+bowl of punch with him, and the critics sup at his expense with great
+affability. To be on terms of intimacy with an author or an actor has
+been an object of delight to many a young man; actually to hob and nob
+with Bobadil or Henry the Fifth or Alexander the Great, to accept a
+pinch out of Aristarchus's own box, to put Juliet into her coach, or
+hand Monimia to her chair, are privileges which would delight most young
+men of a poetic turn; and no wonder George Warrington loved the theatre.
+Then he had the satisfaction of thinking that his mother only half
+approved of plays and playhouses, and of feasting on fruit forbidden at
+home. He gave more than one elegant entertainment to the players, and it
+was even said that one or two distinguished geniuses had condescended to
+borrow money of him.
+
+And as he polished and added new beauties to his masterpiece, we may be
+sure that he took advice of certain friends of his, and that they gave
+him applause and counsel. Mr. Spencer, his new acquaintance, of the
+Temple, gave a breakfast at his chambers in Fig Tree Court, when Mr.
+Warrington read part of his play, and the gentlemen present pronounced
+that it had uncommon merit. Even the learned Mr. Johnson, who was
+invited, was good enough to say that the piece had showed talent. It
+warred against the unities, to be sure; but these had been violated
+by other authors, and Mr. Warrington might sacrifice them as well as
+another. There was in Mr. W.'s tragedy a something which reminded him
+both of Coriolanus and Othello. "And two very good things too, sir!" the
+author pleaded. "Well, well, there was no doubt on that point; and 'tis
+certain your catastrophe is terrible, just, and being in part true, is
+not the less awful," remarks Mr. Spencer.
+
+Now the plot of Mr. Warrington's tragedy was quite full indeed of battle
+and murder. A favourite book of his grandfather had been the life of old
+George Frundsberg of Mindelheim, a colonel of foot-folk in the Imperial
+service at Pavia fight, and during the wars of the Constable Bourbon:
+and one of Frundsberg's military companions was a certain Carpzow, or
+Carpezan, whom our friend selected as his tragedy hero. His first
+act, as it at present stands in Sir George Warrington's manuscript,
+is supposed to take place before a convent on the Rhine, which the
+Lutherans, under Carpezan, are besieging. A godless gang these Lutherans
+are. They have pulled the beards of Roman friars, and torn the veils of
+hundreds of religious women. A score of these are trembling within the
+walls of the convent yonder, of which the garrison, unless the expected
+succours arrive before midday, has promised to surrender. Meanwhile
+there is armistice, and the sentries within look on with hungry eyes, as
+the soldiers and camp people gamble on the grass before the gate. Twelve
+o'clock, ding, ding, dong! it sounds upon the convent bell. No succours
+have arrived. Open gates, warder! and give admission to the famous
+Protestant hero, the terror of Turks on the Danube, and Papists in the
+Lombard plains--Colonel Carpezan! See, here he comes, clad in complete
+steel, his hammer of battle over his shoulder, with which he has
+battered so many infidel sconces, his flags displayed, his trumpets
+blowing. "No rudeness, my men," says Carpezan; "the wine is yours,
+and the convent larder and cellar are good: the church plate shall
+be melted: any of the garrison who choose to take service with Gaspar
+Carpezan are welcome, and shall have good pay. No insult to the
+religious ladies! I have promised them a safe-conduct, and he who lays a
+finger on them, hangs! Mind that Provost Marshal!" The Provost Marshal,
+a huge fellow in a red doublet, nods his head.
+
+"We shall see more of that Provost Marshal, or executioner," Mr. Spencer
+explains to his guests.
+
+"A very agreeable acquaintance, I am sure,--shall be delighted to meet
+the gentleman again!" says Mr. Johnson, wagging his head over his tea.
+"This scene of the mercenaries, the camp followers, and their wild
+sports, is novel and stirring, Mr. Warrington, and I make you my
+compliments on it. The Colonel has gone into the convent, I think? Now
+let us hear what he is going to do there."
+
+The Abbess, and one or two of her oldest ladies, make their appearance
+before the conqueror. Conqueror as he is, they heard him in their
+sacred halls. They have heard of his violent behaviour in conventual
+establishments before. That hammer, which he always carries in action,
+has smashed many sacred images in religious houses. Pounds and pounds of
+convent plate is he known to have melted, the sacrilegious plunderer! No
+wonder the Abbess-Princess of St. Mary's, a lady of violent prejudices,
+free language, and noble birth, has a dislike to the lowborn heretic who
+lords it in her convent, and tells Carpezan a bit of her mind, as the
+phrase is. This scene, in which the lady gets somewhat better of the
+Colonel, was liked not a little by Mr. Warrington's audience at the
+Temple. Terrible as he might be in war, Carpezan was shaken at first by
+the Abbess's brisk opening charge of words; and, conqueror as he was,
+seemed at first to be conquered by his actual prisoner. But such an old
+soldier was not to be beaten ultimately by any woman. "Pray, madam,"
+says he, "how many ladies are there in your convent, for whom my people
+shall provide conveyance?" The Abbess, with a look of much trouble and
+anger, says that, "besides herself, the noble sisters of Saint Mary's
+House are twenty--twenty-three." She was going to say twenty-four, and
+now says twenty-three? "Ha! why this hesitation?" asks Captain Ulric,
+one of Carpezan's gayest officers.
+
+The dark chief pulls a letter from his pocket. "I require from you,
+madam," he says sternly to the Lady Abbess, "the body of the noble lady
+Sybilla of Hoya. Her brother was my favourite captain, slain by my side,
+in the Milanese. By his death, she becomes heiress of his lands. 'Tis
+said a greedy uncle brought her hither; and fast immured the lady
+against her will. The damsel shall herself pronounce her fate--to stay a
+cloistered sister of Saint Mary's, or to return to home and liberty, as
+Lady Sybil, Baroness of ------." Ha! The Abbess was greatly disturbed
+by this question. She says, haughtily: "There is no Lady Sybil in this
+house: of which every inmate is under your protection, and sworn to go
+free. The Sister Agnes was a nun professed, and what was her land and
+wealth revert to this Order."
+
+"Give me straightway the body of the Lady Sybil of Hoya!" roars
+Carpezan, in great wrath. "If not, I make a signal to my Reiters, and
+give you and your convent up to war."
+
+"Faith, if I lead the storm, and have my right, 'tis not my Lady Abbess
+that I'll choose," says Captain Ulric, "but rather some plump, smiling,
+red-lipped maid like--like----" Here, as he, the sly fellow, is looking
+under the veils of the two attendant nuns, the stern Abbess cries,
+"Silence, fellow, with thy ribald talk! The lady, warrior, whom you ask
+of me is passed away from sin, temptation, vanity, and three days since
+our Sister Agnes--died."
+
+At this announcement Carpezan is immensely agitated. The Abbess calls
+upon the chaplain to confirm her statement. Ghastly and pale, the old
+man has to own that three days since the wretched Sister Agnes was
+buried.
+
+This is too much! In the pocket of his coat of mail Carpezan has a
+letter from Sister Agnes herself, in which she announces that she is
+going to be buried indeed, but in an oubliette of the convent, where
+she may either be kept on water and bread, or die starved outright. He
+seizes the unflinching Abbess by the arm, whilst Captain Ulric lays hold
+of the chaplain by the throat. The Colonel blows a blast upon his horn:
+in rush his furious Lanzknechts from without. Crash, bang! They knock
+the convent walls about. And in the midst of flames, screams, and
+slaughter, who is presently brought in by Carpezan himself, and fainting
+on his shoulder, but Sybilla herself? A little sister nun (that gay one
+with the red lips) had pointed out to the Colonel and Ulric the way to
+Sister Agnes's dungeon, and, indeed, had been the means of making her
+situation known to the Lutheran chief.
+
+"The convent is suppressed with a vengeance," says Mr. Warrington. "We
+end our first act with the burning of the place, the roars of triumph
+of the soldiery, and the outcries of the nuns. They had best go change
+their dresses immediately, for they will have to be court ladies in the
+next act--as you will see." Here the gentlemen talked the matter over.
+If the piece were to be done at Drury Lane, Mrs. Pritchard would hardly
+like to be Lady Abbess, as she doth but appear in the first act. Miss
+Pritchard might make a pretty Sybilla, and Miss Gates the attendant
+nun. Mr. Garrick was scarce tall enough for Carpezan--though, when he
+is excited, nobody ever thinks of him but as big as a grenadier. Mr.
+Johnson owns Woodward will be a good Ulric, as he plays the Mercutio
+parts very gaily; and so, by one and t'other, the audience fancies the
+play already on the boards, and casts the characters.
+
+In act the second, Carpezan has married Sybilla. He has enriched himself
+in the wars, has been ennobled by the Emperor, and lives at his castle
+on the Danube in state and splendour.
+
+But, truth to say, though married, rich, and ennobled, the Lord Carpezan
+was not happy. It may be that in his wild life, as leader of condottieri
+on both sides, he had committed crimes which agitated his mind with
+remorse. It may be that his rough soldier-manners consorted ill with his
+imperious highborn bride. She led him such a life--I am narrating as
+it were the Warrington manuscript, which is too long to print in
+entire--taunting him with his low birth, his vulgar companions, whom the
+old soldier loved to see about him, and so forth--that there were
+times when he rather wished that he had never rescued this lovely,
+quarrelsome, wayward vixen from the oubliette out of which he fished
+her. After the bustle of the first act this is a quiet one, and passed
+chiefly in quarrelling between the Baron and Baroness Carpezan, until
+horns blow, and it is announced that the young King of Bohemia and
+Hungary is coming bunting that way.
+
+Act III. is passed at Prague, whither his Majesty has invited Lord
+Carpezan and his wife, with noble offers of preferment to the latter.
+From Baron he shall be promoted to be Count, from Colonel he shall be
+General-in-Chief. His wife is the most brilliant and fascinating of all
+the ladies of the court--and as for Carpzoff----
+
+"Oh, stay--I have it--I know your story, sir, now," says Mr. Johnson.
+"'Tis in 'Meteranus,' in the Theatrum Universum. I read it in Oxford as
+a boy--Carpezanus or Carpzoff----"
+
+"That is the fourth act," says Mr. Warrington. In the fourth act the
+young King's attentions towards Sybilla grow more and more marked; but
+her husband, battling against his jealousy, long refuses to yield to it,
+until his wife's criminality is put beyond a doubt--and here he read
+the act, which closes with the terrible tragedy which actually happened.
+Being convinced of his wife's guilt, Carpezan caused the executioner who
+followed his regiment to slay her in her own palace. And the curtain of
+the act falls just after the dreadful deed is done, in a side-chamber
+illuminated by the moon shining through a great oriel window, under
+which the King comes with his lute, and plays the song which was to be
+the signal between him and his guilty victim.
+
+This song (writ in the ancient style, and repeated in the piece, being
+sung in the third act previously at a great festival given by the King
+and Queen) was pronounced by Mr. Johnson to be a happy imitation of Mr.
+Waller's manner, and its gay repetition at the moment of guilt, murder,
+and horror, very much deepened the tragic gloom of the scene.
+
+"But whatever came afterwards?" he asked. "I remember in the Theatrum,
+Carpezan is said to have been taken into favour again by Count
+Mansfield, and doubtless to have murdered other folks on the reformed
+side."
+
+Here our poet has departed from historic truth. In the fifth act
+of Carpezan King Louis of Hungary and Bohemia (sufficiently
+terror-stricken, no doubt, by the sanguinary termination of his
+intrigue) has received word that the Emperor Solyman is invading his
+Hungarian dominions. Enter two noblemen who relate how, in the
+council which the King held upon the news, the injured Carpezan rushed
+infuriated into the royal presence, broke his sword, and flung it at the
+King's feet--along with a glove which he dared him to wear, and which he
+swore he would one day claim. After that wild challenge the rebel fled
+from Prague, and had not since been heard of; but it was reported that
+he had joined the Turkish invader, assumed the turban, and was now
+in the camp of the Sultan, whose white tents glance across the river
+yonder, and against whom the King was now on his march. Then the King
+comes to his tent with his generals, prepares his order of battle; and
+dismisses them to their posts, keeping by his side an aged and faithful
+knight, his master of the horse, to whom he expresses his repentance
+for his past crimes, his esteem for his good and injured Queen, and his
+determination to meet the day's battle like a man.
+
+"What is this field called?"
+
+"Mohacz, my liege!" says the old warrior, adding the remark that "Ere
+set of sun, Mohacz will see a battle bravely won."
+
+Trumpets and alarms now sound; they are the cymbals and barbaric music
+of the Janissaries: we are in the Turkish camp, and yonder, surrounded
+by turbaned chiefs, walks the Sultan Solyman's friend, the conqueror of
+Rhodes, the redoubted Grand Vizier.
+
+Who is that warrior in an Eastern habit, but with a glove in his cap?
+'Tis Carpezan. Even Solyman knew his courage and ferocity as a soldier.
+He knows; the ordnance of the Hungarian host; in what arms King Louis
+is weakest: how his cavalry, of which the shock is tremendous, should
+be received, and inveigled into yonder morass, where certain death may
+await them--he prays for a command in the front, and as near as possible
+to the place where the traitor King Louis will engage. "'Tis well," says
+the grim Vizier, "our invincible Emperor surveys the battle from yonder
+tower. At the end of the day, he will know how to reward your valour."
+The signal-guns fire--the trumpets blow--the Turkish captains retire,
+vowing death to the infidel, and eternal fidelity to the Sultan.
+
+And now the battle begins in earnest, and with those various incidents
+which the lover of the theatre knoweth. Christian knights and Turkish
+warriors clash and skirmish over the stage. Continued alarms are
+sounded. Troops on both sides advance and retreat. Carpezan, with his
+glove in his cap, and his dreadful hammer smashing all before him, rages
+about the field, calling for King Louis. The renegade is about to slay
+a warrior who faces him, but recognising young Ulric, his ex-captain, he
+drops the uplifted hammer, and bids him fly, and think of Carpezan. He
+is softened at seeing his young friend, and thinking of former times
+when they fought and conquered together in the cause of Protestantism.
+Ulric bids him to return, but of course that is now out of the question.
+They fight. Ulric will have it, and down he goes under the hammer. The
+renegade melts in sight of his wounded comrade, when who appears but
+King Louis, his plumes torn, his sword hacked, his shield dented with
+a thousand blows which he has received and delivered during the day's
+battle. Ha! who is this? The guilty monarch would turn away (perhaps
+Macbeth may have done so before), but Carpezan is on him. All his
+softness is gone. He rages like a fury. "An equal fight!" he roars. "A
+traitor against a traitor! Stand, King Louis! False King, false knight,
+false friend--by this glove in my helmet, I challenge you!" And he tears
+the guilty token out of his cap, and flings it at the King.
+
+Of course they set to, and the monarch falls under the terrible arm of
+the man whom he has injured. He dies, uttering a few incoherent words
+of repentance, and Carpezan, leaning upon his murderous mace, utters a
+heartbroken soliloquy over the royal corpse. The Turkish warriors have
+gathered meanwhile: the dreadful day is their own. Yonder stands the
+dark Vizier, surrounded by his Janissaries, whose bows and swords are
+tired of drinking death. He surveys the renegade standing over the
+corpse of the King.
+
+"Christian renegade!" he says, "Allah has given us a great victory. The
+arms of the Sublime Emperor are everywhere triumphant. The Christian
+King is slain by you."
+
+"Peace to his soul! He died like a good knight," gasps Ulric, himself
+dying on the field.
+
+"In this day's battle," the grim Vizier continues, "no man hath
+comported himself more bravely than you. You are made Bassa of
+Transylvania! Advance bowmen--Fire!"
+
+An arrow quivers in the breast of Carpezan.
+
+"Bassa of Transylvania, you were a traitor to your King, who lies
+murdered by your hand!" continues grim Vizier. "You contributed more
+than any soldier to this day's great victory. 'Tis thus my sublime
+Emperor meetly rewards you. Sound trumpets! We march for Vienna
+to-night!"
+
+And the curtain drops as Carpezan, crawling towards his dying comrade,
+kisses his hands, and gasps--
+
+"Forgive me, Ulric!"
+
+
+When Mr. Warrington has finished reading his tragedy, he turns round to
+Mr. Johnson, modestly, and asks,--
+
+"What say you, sir? Is there any chance for me?"
+
+But the opinion of this most eminent critic is scarce to be given, for
+Mr. Johnson had been asleep for some time, and frankly owned that he had
+lost the latter part of the play.
+
+The little auditory begins to hum and stir as the noise of the speaker
+ceased. George may have been very nervous when he first commenced to
+read; but everybody allows that he read the last two acts uncommonly
+well, and makes him a compliment upon his matter and manner. Perhaps
+everybody is in good-humour because the piece has come to an end. Mr.
+Spencer's servant hands about refreshing drinks. The Templars speak out
+their various opinions whilst they sip the negus. They are a choice band
+of critics, familiar with the pit of the theatre, and they treat Mr.
+Warrington's play with the gravity which such a subject demands.
+
+Mr. Fountain suggests that the Vizier should not say "Fire!" when he
+bids the archers kill Carpezan, as you certainly don't fire with a bow
+and arrows. A note is taken of the objection.
+
+Mr. Figtree, who is of a sentimental turn, regrets that Ulric could not
+be saved, and married to the comic heroine.
+
+"Nay, sir, there was an utter annihilation of the Hungarian army at
+Mohacz," says Mr. Johnson, "and Ulric must take his knock on the head
+with the rest. He could only be saved by flight, and you wouldn't have
+a hero run away! Pronounce sentence of death against Captain Ulric, but
+kill him with honours of war."
+
+Messrs. Essex and Tanfield wonder to one another who is this
+queer-looking pert whom Spencer has invited, and who contradicts
+everybody; and suggest a boat up the river and a little fresh air after
+the fatigues of the tragedy.
+
+The general opinion is decidedly favourable to Mr. Warrington's
+performance; and Mr. Johnson's opinion, on which he sets a special
+value, is the most favourable of all. Perhaps Mr. Johnson is not sorry
+to compliment a young gentleman of fashion and figure like Mr. W. "Up to
+the death of the heroine," he says, "I am frankly with you, sir. And I
+may speak, as a playwright who have killed my own heroine, and had my
+share of the plausus in the atro. To hear your own lines nobly delivered
+to an applauding house, is indeed a noble excitement. I like to see a
+young man of good name and lineage who condescends to think that the
+Tragic Muse is not below his advances. It was to a sordid roof that
+I invited her, and I asked her to rescue me from poverty and squalor.
+Happy you, sir, who can meet her upon equal terms, and can afford to
+marry her without a portion!"
+
+"I doubt whether the greatest genius is not debased who has to make a
+bargain with Poetry," remarks Mr. Spencer.
+
+"Nay, sir," Mr. Johnson answered, "I doubt if many a great genius would
+work at all without bribes and necessities; and so a man had better
+marry a poor Muse for good and all, for better or worse, than dally with
+a rich one. I make you my compliment to your play, Mr. Warrington, and
+if you want an introduction to the stage, shall be very happy if I can
+induce my friend Mr. Garrick to present you."
+
+"Mr. Garrick shall be his sponsor," cried the florid Mr. Figtree.
+"Melpomene shall be his godmother, and he shall have the witches'
+caldron in Macbeth for a christening font."
+
+"Sir, I neither said font nor godmother!"--remarks the man of letters.
+"I would have no play contrary to morals or religion nor, as I conceive,
+is Mr. Warrington's piece otherwise than friendly to them. Vice is
+chastised, as it should be, even in kings, though perhaps we judge of
+their temptations too lightly. Revenge is punished--as not to be lightly
+exercised by our limited notion of justice. It may have been Carpezan's
+wife who perverted the King, and not the King who led the woman astray.
+At any rate, Louis is rightly humiliated for his crime, and the Renegade
+most justly executed for his. I wish you a good afternoon, gentlemen!"
+And with these remarks, the great author took his leave of the company.
+
+Towards the close of the reading, General Lambert had made his
+appearance at Mr. Spencer's chambers, and had listened to the latter
+part of the tragedy. The performance over, he and George took their way
+to the latter's lodgings in the first place, and subsequently to the
+General's own house, where the young author was expected, in order to
+recount the reception which his play had met from his Temple critics.
+
+At Mr. Warrington's apartments in Southampton Row, they found a letter
+awaiting George, which the latter placed in his pocket unread, so that
+he might proceed immediately with his companion to Soho. We may be sure
+the ladies there were eager to know about the Carpezan's fate in the
+morning's small rehearsal.
+
+Hetty said George was so shy, that perhaps it would be better for all
+parties if some other person had read the play. Theo, on the contrary,
+cried out:
+
+"Read it, indeed! Who can read a poem better than the author who feels
+it in his heart? And George had his whole heart in the piece!"
+
+Mr. Lambert very likely thought that somebody else's whole heart was in
+the piece too, but did not utter this opinion to Miss Theo.
+
+"I think Harry would look very well in your figure of a Prince,"
+says the General. "That scene where he takes leave of his wife before
+departing for the wars reminds me of your brother's manner not a
+little."
+
+"Oh, papa! surely Mr. Warrington himself would act the Prince's part
+best!" cries Miss Theo.
+
+"And be deservedly slain in battle at the end?" asks the father of the
+house.
+
+"I did not say that,--only that Mr. George would make a very good
+Prince, papa!" cries Miss Theo.
+
+"In which case he would find a suitable Princess, I have no doubt. What
+news of your brother Harry?"
+
+George, who had been thinking about theatrical triumphs; about
+monumentum aere perennius; about lilacs; about love whispered and
+tenderly accepted, remembers that he has a letter from Harry in his
+pocket, and gaily produces it.
+
+"Let us hear what Mr. Truant says for himself, Aunt Lambert!" cries
+George, breaking the seal.
+
+Why is he so disturbed, as he reads the contents of his letter? Why do
+the women look at him with alarmed eyes? And why, above all, is Hetty so
+pale?
+
+"Here is the letter," says George, and begins to read it:
+
+
+"RYDE, June 1, 1758.
+
+"I did not tell my dearest George what I hoped and intended, when I left
+home on Wednesday. 'Twas to see Mr. Webb at Portsmouth or the Isle of
+Wight, wherever his Regiment was, and if need was to go down on my
+knees to him to take me as volunteer on the Expedition. I took boat from
+Portsmouth, where I learned that he was with our regiment incampt at
+the village of Ryde. Was received by him most kindly, and my petition
+granted out of hand. That is why I say our regiment. We are eight
+gentlemen volunteers with Mr. Webb, all men of birth, and good fortunes
+except poor me, who don't deserve one. We are to mess with the officers;
+we take the right of the collumn, and have always the right to be
+in front, and in an hour we embark on board his Majesty's Ship the
+Rochester of 60 guns, while our Commodore's, Mr. Howe's, is the Essex,
+70. His squadron is about 20 ships, and I should think 100 transports at
+least. Though 'tis a secret expedition, we make no doubt France is our
+destination--where I hope to see my friends the Monsieurs once more,
+and win my colours, a la point de mon epee, as we used to say in Canada.
+Perhaps my service as interpreter may be useful; I speaking the language
+not so well as some one I know, but better than most here.
+
+"I scarce venture to write to our mother to tell her of this step. Will
+you, who have a coxing tongue will wheadle any one, write to her as soon
+as you have finisht the famous tradgedy? Will you give my affectionate
+respects to dear General Lambert and ladies? and if any accident should
+happen, I know you will take care of poor Gumbo as belonging to my
+dearest best George's most affectionate brother, HENRY E. WARRINGTON.
+
+"P.S.--Love to all at home when you write, including Dempster, Mountain,
+and Fanny M. and all the people, and duty to my honoured mother, wishing
+I had pleased her better. And if I said anything unkind to dear Miss
+Hester Lambert, I know she will forgive me, and pray God bless all.--H.
+E. W."
+
+"To G. Esmond Warrington, Esq., at Mr. Scrace's House in Southampton
+Row, Opposite Bedford House Gardens, London."
+
+
+He has not read the last words with a very steady voice. Mr. Lambert
+sits silent, though not a little moved. Theo and her mother look at one
+another; but Hetty remains with a cold face and a stricken heart. She
+thinks, "He is gone to danger, perhaps to death, and it was I sent him!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIV. In which Harry lives to fight another Day
+
+
+The trusty Gumbo could not console himself for the departure of his
+beloved master: at least, to judge from his tears and howls on first
+hearing the news of Mr. Harry's enlistment, you would have thought
+the negro's heart must break at the separation. No wonder he went for
+sympathy to the maid-servants at Mr. Lambert's lodgings. Wherever that
+dusky youth was, he sought comfort in the society of females. Their fair
+and tender bosoms knew how to feel pity for the poor African, and
+the darkness of Gumbo's complexion was no more repulsive to them than
+Othello's to Desdemona. I believe Europe has never been so squeamish
+in regard to Africa, as a certain other respected Quarter. Nay, some
+Africans--witness the Chevalier de St. Georges, for instance--have been
+notorious favourites with the fair sex.
+
+So, in his humbler walk, was Mr. Gumbo. The Lambert servants wept freely
+in his company; the maids kindly considered him not only as Mr. Harry's
+man, but their brother. Hetty could not help laughing when she found
+Gumbo roaring because his master had gone a volumteer, as he called it,
+and had not taken him. He was ready to save Master Harry's life any day,
+and would have done it and had himself cut in twenty thousand hundred
+pieces for Master Harry, that he would! Meanwhile, Nature must be
+supported, and he condescended to fortify her by large supplies of beer
+and cold meat in the kitchen. That he was greedy, idle, and told lies,
+is certain; but yet Hetty gave him half a crown, and was especially kind
+to him. Her tongue, that was wont to wag so pertly, was so gentle now,
+that you might fancy it had never made a joke. She moved about the house
+mum and meek. She was humble to mamma; thankful to John and Betty when
+they waited at dinner; patient to Polly when the latter pulled her hair
+in combing it; long-suffering when Charley from school trod on her
+toes, or deranged her workbox; silent in papa's company,--oh, such a
+transmogrified little Hetty! If papa had ordered her to roast the leg of
+mutton, or walk to church arm-in-arm with Gumbo, she would have made a
+curtsey, and said, "Yes, if you please, dear papa!" Leg of mutton! What
+sort of meal were some poor volunteers having, with the cannon-balls
+flying about their heads? Church! When it comes to the prayer in time of
+war, oh, how her knees smite together as she kneels, and hides her head
+in the pew! She holds down her head when the parson reads out, "Thou
+shalt do no murder," from the communion-rail, and fancies he must be
+looking at her. How she thinks of all travellers by land or by water!
+How she sickens as she runs to the paper to read if there is news of the
+Expedition! How she watches papa when he comes home from his Ordnance
+Office, and looks in his face to see if there is good news or bad! Is
+he well? Is he made a General yet? Is he wounded and made a prisoner?
+ah me! or, perhaps, are both his legs taken off by one shot, like that
+pensioner they saw in Chelsea Garden t'other day? She would go on wooden
+legs all her life, if his can but bring him safe home; at least, she
+ought never to get up off her knees until he is returned. "Haven't you
+heard of people, Theo," says she, "whose hair has grown grey in a single
+night? I shouldn't wonder if mine did,--shouldn't wonder in the least."
+And she looks in the glass to ascertain that phenomenon.
+
+"Hetty dear, you used not to be so nervous when papa was away in
+Minorca," remarks Theo.
+
+"Ah, Theo! one may very well see that George is not with the army, but
+safe at home," rejoins Hetty; whereat the elder sister blushes, and
+looks very pensive. Au fait, if Mr. George had been in the army, that,
+you see, would have been another pair of boots. Meanwhile, we don't
+intend to harrow anybody's kind feelings any longer, but may as well
+state that Harry is, for the present, as safe as any officer of the Life
+Guards at Regent's Park Barracks.
+
+The first expedition in which our gallant volunteer was engaged may be
+called successful, but certainly was not glorious. The British Lion,
+or any other lion, cannot always have a worthy enemy to combat, or a
+battle-royal to deliver. Suppose he goes forth in quest of a tiger who
+won't come, and lays his paws on a goose, and gobbles him up? Lions, we
+know, must live like any other animals. But suppose, advancing into the
+forest in search of the tiger aforesaid, and bellowing his challenge
+of war, he espies not one but six tigers coming towards him? This
+manifestly is not his game at all. He puts his tail between his royal
+legs, and retreats into his own snug den as quickly as he may. Were he
+to attempt to go and fight six tigers, you might write that Lion down an
+Ass.
+
+Now, Harry Warrington's first feat of war was in this wise. He and about
+13,000 other fighting men embarked in various ships and transports on
+the 1st of June, from the Isle of Wight, and at daybreak on the 5th the
+fleet stood in to the Bay of Cancale in Brittany. For a while he and the
+gentlemen volunteers had the pleasure of examining the French coast
+from their ships, whilst the Commander-in-Chief and the Commodore
+reconnoitred the bay in a cutter. Cattle were seen, and some dragoons,
+who trotted off into the distance; and a little fort with a couple
+of guns had the audacity to fire at his Grace of Marlborough and the
+Commodore in the cutter. By two o'clock the whole British fleet was at
+anchor, and signal was made for all the grenadier companies of eleven
+regiments to embark on board flat-bottomed boats and assemble round the
+Commodore's ship, the Essex. Meanwhile, Mr. Howe, hoisting his broad
+pennant on board the Success frigate, went in as near as possible to
+shore, followed by the other frigates, to protect the landing of
+the troops; and, now, with Lord George Sackville and General Dury in
+command, the gentlemen volunteers, the grenadier companies, and three
+battalions of guards pulled to shore.
+
+The gentlemen volunteers could not do any heroic deed upon this
+occasion, because the French, who should have stayed to fight them, ran
+away, and the frigates having silenced the fire of the little fort which
+had disturbed the reconnaissance of the Commander-in-Chief, the army
+presently assaulted it, taking the whole garrison prisoner, and shooting
+him in the leg. Indeed, he was but one old gentleman, who gallantly had
+fired his two guns, and who told his conquerors, "If every Frenchman had
+acted like me, you would not have landed at Cancale at all."
+
+The advanced detachment of invaders took possession of the village of
+Cancale, where they lay upon their arms all night; and our volunteer was
+joked by his comrades about his eagerness to go out upon the war-path,
+and bring in two or three scalps of Frenchmen. None such, however,
+fell under his tomahawk; the only person slain on the whole day being a
+French gentleman, who was riding with his servant, and was surprised
+by volunteer Lord Downe, marching in the front with a company of
+Kingsley's. My Lord Downe offered the gentleman quarter, which he
+foolishly refused, whereupon he, his servant, and the two horses, were
+straightway shot.
+
+Next day the whole force was landed, and advanced from Cancale to St.
+Malo. All the villages were emptied through which the troops passed, and
+the roads were so narrow in many places that the men had to march single
+file, and might have been shot down from behind the tall leafy hedges
+had there been any enemy to disturb them.
+
+At nightfall the army arrived before St. Malo, and were saluted by
+a fire of artillery from that town, which did little damage in the
+darkness. Under cover of this, the British set fire to the ships, wooden
+buildings, pitch and tar magazines in the harbour, and made a prodigious
+conflagration that lasted the whole night.
+
+This feat was achieved without any attempt on the part of the French to
+molest the British force: but, as it was confidently asserted that there
+was a considerable French force in the town of St. Malo, though they
+wouldn't come out, his Grace the Duke of Marlborough and my Lord George
+Sackville determined not to disturb the garrison, marched back to
+Cancale again, and--and so got on board their ships.
+
+If this were not a veracious history, don't you see that it would have
+been easy to send our Virginian on a more glorious campaign? Exactly
+four weeks after his departure from England, Mr. Warrington found
+himself at Portsmouth again, and addressed a letter to his brother
+George, with which the latter ran off to Dean Street so soon as ever he
+received it.
+
+"Glorious news, ladies!" cries he, finding the Lambert family all at
+breakfast. "Our champion has come back. He has undergone all sorts of
+dangers, but has survived them all. He has seen dragons--upon my word,
+he says so."
+
+"Dragons! What do you mean, Mr. Warrington?"
+
+"But not killed any--he says so, as you shall hear. He writes:
+
+"'DEAREST BROTHER--I think you will be glad to hear that I am returned,
+without any commission as yet; without any wounds or glory; but,--at any
+rate, alive and harty. On board our ship, we were almost as crowded as
+poor Mr. Holwell and his friends in their Black Hole at Calicutta. We
+had rough weather, and some of the gentlemen volunteers, who prefer
+smooth water, grumbled not a little. My gentlemen's stomachs are dainty;
+and after Braund's cookery and White's kick-shaws, they don't like plain
+sailor's rum and bisket. But I, who have been at sea before, took my
+rations and can of flip very contentedly: being determined to put a good
+face on everything before our fine English macaronis, and show that a
+Virginia gentleman is as good as the best of 'em. I wish, for the honour
+of old Virginia, that I had more to brag about. But all I can say in
+truth is, that we have been to France and come back again. Why, I don't
+think even your tragick pen could make anything of such a campaign as
+ours has been. We landed on the 6 at Cancalle Bay, we saw a few dragons
+on a hill...'
+
+"There! Did I not tell you there were dragons?" asks George, laughing.
+
+"Mercy! What can he mean by dragons?" cries Hetty.
+
+"Immense, long-tailed monsters, with steel scales on their backs, who
+vomit fire, and gobble up a virgin a day. Haven't you read about them in
+The Seven Champions?" says papa. "Seeing St. George's flag, I suppose,
+they slunk off."
+
+"I have read of 'em," says the little boy from Chartreux, solemnly.
+"They like to eat women. One was going to eat Andromeda, you know, papa;
+and Jason killed another, who was guarding the apple-tree."
+
+"... A few dragons on a hill," George resumes, "who rode away from us
+without engaging. We slept under canvass. We marched to St. Malo, and
+burned ever so many privateers there. And we went on board shipp again,
+without ever crossing swords with an enemy or meeting any except a
+few poor devils whom the troops plundered. Better luck next time! This
+hasn't been very much nor particular glorious: but I have liked it for
+my part. I have smelt powder, besides a good deal of rosn and pitch we
+burned. I've seen the enemy; have sleppt under canvass, and been dredful
+crowdid and sick at sea. I like it. My best compliments to dear Aunt
+Lambert, and tell Miss Hetty I wasn't very much fritened when I saw the
+French horse.--Your most affectionate brother, H. E. WARRINGTON."
+
+We hope Miss Hetty's qualms of conscience were allayed by Harry's
+announcement that his expedition was over, and that he had so far taken
+no hurt. Far otherwise. Mr. Lambert, in the course of his official
+duties, had occasion to visit the troops at Portsmouth and the Isle of
+Wight, and George Warrington bore him company. They found Harry vastly
+improved in spirits and health from the excitement produced by the
+little campaign, quite eager and pleased to learn his new military
+duties, active, cheerful, and healthy, and altogether a different person
+from the listless moping lad who had dawdled in London coffee-houses and
+Mrs. Lambert's drawing-room. The troops were under canvas; the weather
+was glorious, and George found his brother a ready pupil in a fine
+brisk open-air school of war. Not a little amused, the elder brother,
+arm-in-arm with the young volunteer, paced the streets of the warlike
+city, recalled his own brief military experiences of two years back,
+and saw here a much greater army than that ill-fated one of which he
+had shared the disasters. The expedition, such as we have seen it, was
+certainly not glorious, and yet the troops and the nation were in high
+spirits with it. We were said to have humiliated the proud Gaul. We
+should have vanquished as well as humbled him had he dared to appear.
+What valour, after all, is like British valour? I dare say some such
+expressions have been heard in later times. Not that I would hint that
+our people brag much more than any other, or more now than formerly.
+Have not these eyes beheld the battle-grounds of Leipzig, Jena, Dresden,
+Waterloo, Blenheim, Bunker's Hill, New Orleans? What heroic nation has
+not fought, has not conquered, has not run away, has not bragged in its
+turn? Well, the British nation was much excited by the glorious victory
+of St. Malo. Captured treasures were sent home and exhibited in London.
+The people were so excited, that more laurels and more victories were
+demanded, and the enthusiastic army went forth to seek some.
+
+With this new expedition went a volunteer so distinguished, that we must
+give him precedence of all other amateur soldiers or sailors. This was
+our sailor Prince, H.R.H. Prince Edward, who was conveyed on board the
+Essex in the ship's twelve-oared barge, the standard of England flying
+in the bow of the boat, the Admiral with his flag and boat following the
+Prince's, and all the captains following in seniority.
+
+Away sails the fleet, Harry, in high health and spirits, waving his hat
+to his friends as they cheer from the shore. He must and will have his
+commission before long. There can be no difficulty about that, George
+thinks. There is plenty of money in his little store to buy his
+brother's ensigncy; but if he can win it without purchase by gallantry
+and good conduct, that were best. The colonel of the regiment reports
+highly of his recruit; men and officers like him. It is easy to see that
+he is a young fellow of good promise and spirit.
+
+Hip, hip, huzzay! What famous news are these which arrive ten days after
+the expedition has sailed? On the 7th and 8th of August his Majesty's
+troops had effected a landing in the Bay des Marais, two leagues
+westward of Cherbourg, in the face of a large body of the enemy. Awed
+by the appearance of British valour, that large body of the enemy has
+disappeared. Cherbourg has surrendered at discretion; and the English
+colours are hoisted on the three outlying forts. Seven-and-twenty ships
+have been burned in the harbours, and a prodigious number of fine brass
+cannon taken. As for your common iron guns, we have destroyed 'em,
+likewise the basin (about which the mounseers bragged so), and the two
+piers at the entrance to the harbour.
+
+There is no end of jubilation in London; just as Mr. Howe's guns arrive
+from Cherbourg, come Mr. Wolfe's colours captured at Louisbourg. The
+colours are taken from Kensington to St Paul's, escorted by fourscore
+life-guards and fourscore horse-grenadiers with officers in proportion,
+their standards, kettle-drums, and trumpets. At St. Paul's they
+are received by the Dean and Chapter at the West Gate, and at that
+minute--bang, bong, bung--the Tower and Park guns salute them! Next day
+is the turn of the Cherbourg cannon and mortars. These are the guns
+we took. Look at them with their carving and flaunting emblems--their
+lilies, and crowns, and mottoes! Here they are, the Teneraire, the
+Malfaisant, the Vainqueur (the Vainqueur, indeed! a pretty vainqueur of
+Britons!), and ever so many more. How the people shout as the pieces
+are trailed through the streets in procession! As for Hetty and Mrs.
+Lambert, I believe they are of opinion that Harry took every one of the
+guns himself, dragging them out of the batteries, and destroying the
+artillerymen. He has immensely risen in the general estimation in the
+last few days. Madame de Bernstein has asked about him. Lady Maria has
+begged her dear cousin George to see her, and, if possible, give her
+news of his brother. George, who was quite the head of the family
+a couple of months since, finds himself deposed, and of scarce any
+account, in Miss Hetty's eyes at least. Your wit, and your learning, and
+your tragedies, may be all very well; but what are these in comparison
+to victories and brass cannon? George takes his deposition very meekly.
+They are fifteen thousand Britons. Why should they not march and take
+Paris itself? Nothing more probable, think some of the ladies. They
+embrace; they congratulate each other; they are in a high state of
+excitement. For once, they long that Sir Miles and Lady Warrington were
+in town, so that they might pay her ladyship a visit, and ask, "What
+do you say to your nephew now, pray? Has he not taken twenty-one finest
+brass cannon; flung a hundred and twenty iron guns into the water,
+seized twenty-seven ships in the harbour, and destroyed the basin
+and the two piers at the entrance?" As the whole town rejoices and
+illuminates, so these worthy folks display brilliant red hangings in
+their cheeks, and light up candles of joy in their eyes, in honour of
+their champion and conqueror.
+
+But now, I grieve to say, comes a cloudy day after the fair weather. The
+appetite of our commanders, growing by what it fed on, led them to think
+they had not feasted enough on the plunder of St. Malo; and thither,
+after staying a brief time at Portsmouth and the Wight, the conquerors
+of Cherbourg returned. They were landed in the Bay of St. Lunar, at
+a distance of a few miles from the place, and marched towards it,
+intending to destroy it this time. Meanwhile the harbour of St. Lunar
+was found insecure, and the fleet moved up to St. Cas, keeping up its
+communication with the invading army.
+
+Now the British Lion found that the town of St. Malo--which he had
+proposed to swallow at a single mouthful--was guarded by an army of
+French, which the Governor of Brittany had brought to the succour of
+his good town, and the meditated coup-de-main being thus impossible,
+our leaders marched for their ships again, which lay duly awaiting our
+warriors in the Bay of St. Cas.
+
+Hide, blushing glory, hide St. Cas's day! As our troops were marching
+down to their ships they became aware of an army following them, which
+the French governor of the province had sent from Brest. Two-thirds
+of the troops, and all the artillery, were already embarked, when the
+Frenchmen came down upon the remainder. Four companies of the first
+regiment of guards and the grenadier companies of the army, faced
+about on the beach to await the enemy, whilst the remaining troops were
+carried off in the boats. As the French descended from the heights round
+the bay, these guards and grenadiers marched out to attack them, leaving
+an excellent position which they had occupied--a great dyke raised on
+the shore, and behind which they might have resisted to advantage. And
+now, eleven hundred men were engaged with six--nay, ten times their
+number; and, after a while, broke and made for the boats with a sauve
+qui peut! Seven hundred out of the eleven were killed, drowned, or
+taken prisoners--the General himself was killed--and, ah! where were the
+volunteers?
+
+A man of peace myself, and little intelligent of the practice or the
+details of war, I own I think less of the engaged troops than of the
+people they leave behind. Jack the Guardsman and La Tulipe of the Royal
+Bretagne are face to face, and striving to knock each other's brains
+out. Bon! It is their nature to--like the bears and lions--and we will
+not say Heaven, but some power or other has made them so to do. But the
+girl of Tower Hill, who hung on Jack's neck before he departed; and the
+lass at Quimper, who gave the Frenchman his brule-gueule and tobacco-box
+before he departed on the noir trajet? What have you done, poor little
+tender hearts, that you should grieve so? My business is not with the
+army, but with the people left behind. What a fine state Miss Hetty
+Lambert must be in, when she hears of the disaster to the troops and the
+slaughter of the grenadier companies! What grief and doubt are in George
+Warrington's breast; what commiseration in Martin Lambert's, as he looks
+into his little girl's face and reads her piteous story there! Howe, the
+brave Commodore, rowing in his barge under the enemy's fire, has rescued
+with his boats scores and scores of our flying people. More are drowned;
+hundreds are prisoners, or shot on the beach. Among these, where is our
+Virginian?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXV. Soldier's Return
+
+
+Great Powers! will the vainglory of men, especially of Frenchmen, never
+cease? Will it be believed, that after the action of St. Cas--a mere
+affair of cutting off a rearguard, as you are aware--they were so
+unfeeling as to fire away I don't know how much powder at the Invalides
+at Paris, and brag and bluster over our misfortune? Is there any
+magnanimity in hallooing and huzzaying because five or six hundred brave
+fellows have been caught by ten thousand on a seashore, and that fate
+has overtaken them which is said to befall the hindmost? I had a mind
+to design an authentic picture of the rejoicings at London upon our
+glorious success at St. Malo. I fancied the polished guns dragged in
+procession by our gallant tars; the stout horse-grenadiers prancing by;
+the mob waving hats, roaring cheers, picking pockets, and our friends in
+a balcony in Fleet Street looking on and blessing this scene of British
+triumph. But now that the French Invalides have been so vulgar as to
+imitate the Tower, and set up their St. Cas against our St. Malo, I
+scorn to allude to the stale subject. I say Nolo, not Malo: content, for
+my part, if Harry has returned from one expedition and t'other with a
+whole skin. And have I ever said he was so much as bruised? Have I not,
+for fear of exciting my fair young reader, said that he was as well as
+ever he had been in his life? The sea air had browned his cheek, and
+the ball whistling by his side-curl had spared it. The ocean had wet his
+gaiters and other garments, without swallowing up his body. He had, it
+is true, shown the lapels of his coat to the enemy; but for as short a
+time as possible, withdrawing out of their sight as quick as might be.
+And what, pray, are lapels but reverses? Coats have them, as well as
+men; and our duty is to wear them with courage and good-humour.
+
+"I can tell you," said Harry, "we all had to run for it; and when our
+line broke, it was he who could get to the boats who was most lucky. The
+French horse and foot pursued us down to the sea, and were mingled
+among us, cutting our men down, and bayoneting them on the ground. Poor
+Armytage was shot in advance of me, and fell; and I took him up and
+staggered through the surf to a boat. It was lucky that the sailors in
+our boat weren't afraid; for the shot were whistling about their ears,
+breaking the blades of their oars, and riddling their flag with shot;
+but the officer in command was as cool as if he had been drinking a bowl
+of punch at Portsmouth, which we had one on landing, I can promise you.
+Poor Sir John was less lucky than me. He never lived to reach the ship,
+and the service has lost a fine soldier, and Miss Howe a true gentleman
+to her husband. There must be these casualties, you see; and his brother
+gets the promotion--the baronetcy."
+
+"It is of the poor lady I am thinking," says Miss Hetty (to whom haply
+our volunteer is telling his story); "and the King. Why did the King
+encourage Sir John Armytage to go? A gentleman could not refuse a
+command from such a quarter. And now the poor gentleman is dead! Oh,
+what a state his Majesty must be in!"
+
+"I have no doubt his Majesty will be in a deep state of grief," says
+papa, wagging his head.
+
+"Now you are laughing! Do you mean, sir, that when a gentleman dies
+in his service, almost at his feet, the King of England won't feel
+for him?" Hetty asks. "If I thought that, I vow I would be for the
+Pretender!"
+
+"The sauce-box would make a pretty little head for Temple Bar," says the
+General, who could see Miss Hetty's meaning behind her words, and was
+aware in what a tumult of remorse, of consternation, of gratitude that
+the danger was over, the little heart was beating. "No," says he, "my
+dear. Were kings to weep for every soldier, what a life you would make
+for them! I think better of his Majesty than to suppose him so weak;
+and, if Miss Hester Lambert got her Pretender, I doubt whether she would
+be any the happier. That family was never famous for too much feeling."
+
+"But if the King sent Harry--I mean Sir John Armytage--actually to
+the war in which he lost his life, oughtn't his Majesty to repent very
+much?" asks the young lady.
+
+"If Harry had fallen, no doubt the court would have gone into mourning:
+as it is, gentlemen and ladies were in coloured clothes yesterday,"
+remarks the General.
+
+"Why should we not make bonfires for a defeat, and put on sackcloth and
+ashes after a victory?" asks George. "I protest I don't want to thank
+Heaven for helping us to burn the ships at Cherbourg."
+
+"Yes you do, George! Not that I have a right to speak, and you ain't
+ever so much cleverer. But when your country wins you're glad--I know
+I am. When I run away before Frenchmen I'm ashamed--I can't help it,
+though I done it," says Harry. "It don't seem to me right somehow that
+Englishmen should have to do it," he added, gravely. And George smiled;
+but did not choose to ask his brother what, on the other hand, was the
+Frenchman's opinion.
+
+"'Tis a bad business," continued Harry, gravely; "but 'tis lucky 'twas
+no worse. The story about the French is, that their Governor, the Duke
+of Aiguillon, was rather what you call a moistened chicken. Our whole
+retreat might have been cut off, only, to be sure, we ourselves were in
+a mighty hurry to move. The French local militia behaved famous, I am
+happy to say; and there was ever so many gentlemen volunteers with 'em,
+who showed, as they ought to do, in the front. They say the Chevalier
+of Tour d'Auvergne engaged in spite of the Duke of Aiguillon's orders.
+Officers told us, who came off with a list of our prisoners and wounded
+to General Bligh and Lord Howe. He is a lord now, since the news came of
+his brother's death to home, George. He is a brave fellow, whether lord
+or commoner."
+
+"And his sister, who was to have married poor Sir John Armytage, think
+what her state must be!" sighs Miss Hetty, who has grown of late so
+sentimental.
+
+"And his mother!" cries Mrs. Lambert. "Have you seen her ladyship's
+address in the papers to the electors of Nottingham? 'Lord Howe being
+now absent upon the publick service, and Lieutenant-Colonel Howe with
+his regiment at Louisbourg, it rests upon me to beg the favour of your
+votes and interests that Lieutenant-Colonel Howe may supply the place
+of his late brother as your representative in Parliament.' Isn't this a
+gallant woman?"
+
+"A Laconic woman," says George.
+
+"How can sons help being brave who have been nursed by such a mother as
+that?" asks the General.
+
+Our two young men looked at each other.
+
+"If one of us were to fall in defence of his country, we have a mother
+in Sparta who would think and write so too," says George.
+
+"If Sparta is anywhere Virginia way, I reckon we have," remarks Mr.
+Harry. "And to think that we should both of us have met the enemy, and
+both of us been whipped by him, brother!" he adds pensively.
+
+Hetty looks at him, and thinks of him only as he was the other day,
+tottering through the water towards the boats, his comrade bleeding on
+his shoulder, the enemy in pursuit, the shot flying round. And it was
+she who drove him into the danger! Her words provoked him. He never
+rebukes her now he is returned. Except when asked, he scarcely speaks
+about his adventures at all. He is very grave and courteous with Hetty;
+with the rest of the family especially frank and tender. But those
+taunts of hers wounded him. "Little hand!" his looks and demeanour seem
+to say, "thou shouldst not have been lifted against me! It is ill to
+scorn any one, much more one who has been so devoted to you and all
+yours. I may not be over quick of wit, but in as far as the heart goes,
+I am the equal of the best, and the best of my heart your family has
+had."
+
+Harry's wrong, and his magnanimous endurance of it, served him to regain
+in Miss Hetty's esteem that place which he had lost during the previous
+months' inglorious idleness. The respect which the fair pay to the brave
+she gave him. She was no longer pert in her answers, or sarcastic in her
+observations regarding his conduct. In a word, she was a humiliated, an
+altered, an improved Miss Hetty.
+
+And all the world seemed to change towards Harry, as he towards the
+world. He was no longer sulky and indolent: he no more desponded about
+himself, or defied his neighbours. The colonel of his regiment
+reported his behaviour as exemplary, and recommended him for one of the
+commissions vacated by the casualties during the expedition. Unlucky
+as its termination was, it at least was fortunate to him. His
+brother-volunteers, when they came back to St. James's Street, reported
+highly of his behaviour. These volunteers and their actions were the
+theme of everybody's praise. Had he been a general commanding, and slain
+in the moment of victory, Sir John Armytage could scarce have had more
+sympathy than that which the nation showed him. The papers teemed with
+letters about him, and men of wit and sensibility vied with each other
+in composing epitaphs in his honour. The fate of his affianced bride was
+bewailed. She was, as we have said, the sister of the brave Commodore
+who had just returned from this unfortunate expedition, and succeeded
+to the title of his elder brother, an officer as gallant as himself, who
+had just fallen in America.
+
+My Lord Howe was heard to speak in special praise of Mr. Warrington, and
+so he had a handsome share of the fashion and favour which the town
+now bestowed on the volunteers. Doubtless there were thousands of
+men employed who were as good as they but the English ever love their
+gentlemen, and love that they should distinguish themselves; and these
+volunteers were voted Paladins and heroes by common accord. As our young
+noblemen will, they accepted their popularity very affably. White's and
+Almack's illuminated when they returned, and St. James's embraced its
+young knights. Harry was restored to full favour amongst them.
+Their hands were held out eagerly to him again. Even his relations
+congratulated him; and there came a letter from Castlewood, whither Aunt
+Bernstein had by this time betaken herself, containing praises of his
+valour, and a pretty little bank-bill, as a token of his affectionate
+aunt's approbation. This was under my Lord Castlewood's frank, who sent
+his regards to both his kinsmen, and an offer of the hospitality of his
+country-house, if they were minded to come to him. And besides this,
+there came to him a private letter through the post--not very well
+spelt, but in a handwriting which Harry smiled to see again, in which
+his affeetionate cousin, Maria Esmond, told him she always loved to hear
+his praises (which were in everybody's mouth now), and sympathised in
+his good or evil fortune; and that, whatever occurred to him, she begged
+to keep a little place in his heart. Parson Sampson, she wrote, had
+preached a beautiful sermon about the horrors of war, and the noble
+actions of men who volunteered to face battle and danger in the service
+of their country. Indeed, the chaplain wrote himself, presently, a
+letter full of enthusiasm, in which he saluted Mr. Harry as his friend,
+his benefactor, his glorious hero. Even Sir Miles Warrington despatched
+a basket of game from Norfolk: and one bird (shot sitting), with love
+to my cousin, had a string and paper round the leg, and was sent as the
+first victim of young Miles's fowling-piece.
+
+And presently, with joy beaming in his countenance, Mr. Lambert came
+to visit his young friends at their lodgings in Southampton Row, and
+announced to them that Mr. Henry Warrington was forthwith to be gazetted
+as Ensign in the Second Battalion of Kingsley's, the 20th Regiment,
+which had been engaged in the campaign, and which now at this time was
+formed into a separate regiment, the 67th. Its colonel was not with his
+regiment during its expedition to Brittany. He was away at Cape Breton,
+and was engaged in capturing those guns at Louisbourg, of which the
+arrival in England had caused such exultation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVI. In which we go a-courting
+
+
+Some of my amiable readers no doubt are in the custom of visiting that
+famous garden in the Regent's Park, in which so many of our finned,
+feathered, four-footed fellow-creatures are accommodated with board and
+lodging, in return for which they exhibit themselves for our instruction
+and amusement: and there, as a man's business and private thoughts
+follow him everywhere, and mix themselves with all life and nature round
+about him, I found myself, whilst looking at some fish in the aquarium,
+still actually thinking of our friends the Virginians.
+
+One of the most beautiful motion-masters I ever beheld, sweeping through
+his green bath in harmonious curves, now turning his black glistening
+back to me, now exhibiting his fair white chest, in every movement
+active and graceful, turned out to be our old homely friend the
+flounder, whom we have all gobbled up out of his bath of water souchy at
+Greenwich, without having the slightest idea that he was a beauty.
+
+As is the race of man, so is the race of flounders. If you can but see
+the latter in his right element, you may view him agile, healthy, and
+comely: put him out of his place, and behold his beauty is gone, his
+motions are disgraceful: he flaps the unfeeling ground ridiculously
+with his tail, and will presently gasp his feeble life out. Take him
+up tenderly, ere it be too late, and cast him into his native Thames
+again----But stop: I believe there is a certain proverb about fish out
+of water, and that other profound naturalists have remarked on them
+before me. Now Harry Warrington had been floundering for ever so long
+a time past, and out of his proper element. As soon as he found it,
+health, strength, spirits, energy, returned to him, and with the tap of
+the epaulet on his shoulder he sprang up an altered being. He delighted
+in his new profession; he engaged in all its details, and mastered them
+with eager quickness. Had I the skill of my friend Lorrequer, I would
+follow the other Harry into camp, and see him on the march, at the
+mess, on the parade-ground; I would have many a carouse with him and his
+companions; I would cheerfully live with him under the tents; I would
+knowingly explain all the manoeuvres of war, and all the details of the
+life military. As it is, the reader must please, out of his experience
+and imagination, to fill in the colours of the picture of which I can
+give but meagre hints and outlines, and, above all, fancy Mr. Harry
+Warrington in his new red coat and yellow facings, very happy to bear
+the King's colours, and pleased to learn and perform all the duties of
+his new profession.
+
+As each young man delighted in the excellence of the other, and
+cordially recognised his brother's superior qualities, George, we may be
+sure, was proud of Harry's success, and rejoiced in his returning good
+fortune. He wrote an affectionate letter to his mother in Virginia,
+recounting all the praises which he had heard of Harry, and which his
+brother's modesty, George knew, would never allow him to repeat. He
+described how Harry had won his own first step in the army, and how
+he, George, would ask his mother leave to share with her the expense of
+purchasing a higher rank for him.
+
+Nothing, said George, would give him a greater delight, than to be able
+to help his brother, and the more so, as, by his sudden return into
+life, as it were, he had deprived Harry of an inheritance which he had
+legitimately considered as his own. Labouring under that misconception,
+Harry had indulged in greater expenses than he ever would have thought
+of incurring as a younger brother; and George thought it was but fair,
+and as it were, as a thank-offering for his own deliverance, that he
+should contribute liberally to any scheme for his brother's advantage.
+
+And now, having concluded his statement respecting Harry's affairs,
+George took occasion to speak of his own, and addressed his honoured
+mother on a point which very deeply concerned himself. She was aware
+that the best friends he and his brother had found in England were the
+good Mr. and Mrs. Lambert, the latter Madam Esmond's schoolfellow of
+earlier years. Where their own blood relations had been worldly and
+unfeeling, these true friends had ever been generous and kind. The
+General was respected by the whole army, and beloved by all who knew
+him. No mother's affection could have been more touching than Mrs.
+Lambert's for both Madam Esmond's children; and now, wrote Mr. George,
+he himself had formed an attachment for the elder Miss Lambert, on which
+he thought the happiness of his life depended, and which he besought his
+honoured mother to approve. He had made no precise offers to the young
+lady or her parents; but he was bound to say that he had made little
+disguise of his sentiments, and that the young lady, as well as her
+parents, seemed favourable to him. She had been so admirable and
+exemplary a daughter to her own mother, that he felt sure she would do
+her duty by his. In a word, Mr. Warrington described the young lady as a
+model of perfection, and expressed his firm belief that the happiness
+or misery of his own future life depended upon possessing or losing her.
+Why do you not produce this letter? haply asks some sentimental reader,
+of the present Editor, who has said how he has the whole Warrington
+correspondence in his hands. Why not? Because 'tis cruel to babble the
+secrets of a young man's love; to overhear his incoherent vows and
+wild raptures, and to note, in cold blood, the secrets--it may be,
+the follies--of his passion. Shall we play eavesdropper at twilight
+embrasures, count sighs and hand-shakes, bottle hot tears: lay our
+stethoscope on delicate young breasts, and feel their heart-throbs? I
+protest, for one, love is sacred. Wherever I see it (as one sometimes
+may in this world) shooting suddenly out of two pair of eyes; or
+glancing sadly even from one pair; or looking down from the mother to
+the baby in her lap; or from papa at his girl's happiness as she is
+whirling round the room with the captain; or from John Anderson, as his
+old wife comes into the room--the bonne vieille, the ever peerless among
+women; wherever we see that signal, I say, let us salute it. It is not
+only wrong to kiss and tell, but to tell about kisses. Everybody who
+has been admitted to the mystery,--hush about it. Down with him qui Deae
+sacrum vulgarit arcanae. Beware how you dine with him, he will print
+your private talk: as sure as you sail with him, he will throw you over.
+
+Whilst Harry's love of battle has led him to smell powder--to rush upon
+reluctantes dracones, and to carry wounded comrades out of fire, George
+has been pursuing an amusement much more peaceful and delightful to
+him; penning sonnets to his mistress's eyebrow, mayhap; pacing in the
+darkness under her window, and watching the little lamp which shone upon
+her in her chamber; finding all sorts of pretexts for sending little
+notes which don't seem to require little answers, but get them; culling
+bits out of his favourite poets, and flowers out of Covent Garden
+for somebody's special adornment and pleasure; walking to St. James's
+Church, singing very likely out of the same Prayer-book, and never
+hearing one word of the sermon, so much do other thoughts engross him;
+being prodigiously affectionate to all Miss Theo's relations--to her
+little brother and sister at school; to the elder at college; to Miss
+Hetty, with whom he engages in gay passages of wit; and to mamma, who is
+half in love with him herself, Martin Lambert says; for if fathers are
+sometimes sulky at the appearance of the destined son-in-law, is it not
+a fact that mothers become sentimental and, as it were, love their own
+loves over again?
+
+Gumbo and Sady are for ever on the trot between Southampton Row and
+Dean Street. In the summer months all sorts of junketings and
+pleasure-parties are devised; and there are countless proposals to go
+to Ranelagh, to Hampstead, to Vauxhall, to Marylebone Gardens, and what
+not. George wants the famous tragedy copied out fair for the stage, and
+who can write such a beautiful Italian hand as Miss Theo? As the sheets
+pass to and fro they are accompanied by little notes of thanks, of
+interrogation, of admiration, always. See, here is the packet, marked
+in Warrington's neat hand, "T's letters, 1758-9." Shall we open them and
+reveal their tender secrets to the public gaze? Those virgin words were
+whispered for one ear alone. Years after they were written, the
+husband read, no doubt, with sweet pangs of remembrance, the fond lines
+addressed to the lover. It were a sacrilege to show the pair to public
+eyes: only let kind readers be pleased to take our word that the young
+lady's letters are modest and pure, the gentleman's most respectful and
+tender. In fine, you see, we have said very little about it; but, in
+these few last months, Mr. George Warrington has made up his mind that
+he has found the woman of women. She mayn't be the most beautiful. Why,
+there is Cousin Flora, there is Coelia, and Ardelia, and a hundred
+more, who are ever so much more handsome: but her sweet face pleases him
+better than any other in the world. She mayn't be the most clever, but
+her voice is the dearest and pleasantest to hear; and in her company he
+is so clever himself; he has such fine thoughts; he uses such eloquent
+words; he is so generous, noble, witty, that no wonder he delights in
+it. And, in regard to the young lady,--as thank Heaven I never thought
+so ill of women as to suppose them to be just, we may be sure that there
+is no amount of wit, of wisdom, of beauty, of valour, of virtue with
+which she does not endow her young hero.
+
+When George's letter reached home, we may fancy that it created no small
+excitement in the little circle round Madam Esmond's fireside. So he was
+in love, and wished to marry! It was but natural, and would keep him
+out of harm's way. If he proposed to unite himself with a well-bred
+Christian young woman, Madam saw no harm.
+
+"I knew they would be setting their caps at him," says Mountain. "They
+fancy that his wealth is as great as his estate. He does not say whether
+the young lady has money. I fear otherwise."
+
+"People would set their caps at him here, I dare say," says Madam
+Esmond, grimly looking at her dependant, "and try and catch Mr. Esmond
+Warrington for their own daughters, who are no richer than Miss Lambert
+may be."
+
+"I suppose your ladyship means me!" says Mountain. "My Fanny is poor, as
+you say; and 'tis kind of you to remind me of her poverty!"
+
+"I said people would set their caps at him. If the cap fits you, tant
+pis! as my papa used to say."
+
+"You think, madam, I am scheming to keep George for my daughter? I thank
+you, on my word! A good opinion you seem to have of us after the years
+we have lived together!"
+
+"My dear Mountain, I know you much better than to suppose you could ever
+fancy your daughter would be a suitable match for a gentleman of Mr.
+Esmond's rank and station," says Madam, with much dignity.
+
+"Fanny Parker was as good as Molly Benson at school, and Mr. Mountain's
+daughter is as good as Mr. Lambert's!" Mrs. Mountain cries out.
+
+"Then you did think of marrying her to my son! I shall write to
+Mr. Esmond Warrington, and say how sorry I am that you should be
+disappointed!" says the mistress of Castlewood. And we, for our parts,
+may suppose that Mrs. Mountain was disappointed, and had some ambitious
+views respecting her daughter--else, why should she have been so angry
+at the notion of Mr. Warrington's marriage?
+
+In reply to her son, Madam Esmond wrote back that she was pleased with
+the fraternal love George exhibited; that it was indeed but right in
+some measure to compensate Harry, whose expectations had led him to
+adopt a more costly mode of life than he would have entered on had he
+known he was only a younger son. And with respect to purchasing his
+promotion, she would gladly halve the expense with Harry's elder
+brother, being thankful to think his own gallantry had won him his first
+step. This bestowal of George's money, Madam Esmond added, was at least
+much more satisfactory than some other extravagances to which she would
+not advert.
+
+The other extravagance to which Madam alluded was the payment of the
+ransom to the French captain's family, to which tax George's mother
+never would choose to submit. She had a determined spirit of her own,
+which her son inherited. His persistence she called pride and obstinacy.
+What she thought of her own pertinacity, her biographer, who lives so
+far from her time, does not pretend to say. Only I dare say people
+a hundred years ago pretty much resembled their grandchildren of the
+present date, and loved to have their own way, and to make others follow
+it.
+
+Now, after paying his own ransom, his brother's debts, and half the
+price for his promotion, George calculated that no inconsiderable
+portion of his private patrimony would be swallowed up: nevertheless
+he made the sacrifice with a perfect good heart. His good mother always
+enjoined him in her letters to remember who his grandfather was, and
+to support the dignity of his family accordingly. She gave him various
+commissions to purchase goods in England, and though she as yet had sent
+him very trifling remittances, she alluded so constantly to the exalted
+rank of the Esmonds, to her desire that he should do nothing unworthy of
+that illustrious family; she advised him so peremptorily and frequently
+to appear in the first society of the country, to frequent the court
+where his ancestors had been accustomed to move, and to appear always in
+the world in a manner worthy of his name, that George made no doubt
+his mother's money would be forthcoming when his own ran short, and
+generously obeyed her injunctions as to his style of life. I find in the
+Esmond papers of this period, bills for genteel entertainments, tailors'
+bills for court suits supplied, and liveries for his honour's negro
+servants and chairmen, horse-dealers' receipts, and so forth; and am
+thus led to believe that the elder of our Virginians was also after a
+while living at a considerable expense.
+
+He was not wild or extravagant like his brother. There was no talk of
+gambling or racehorses against Mr. George; his table was liberal, his
+equipages handsome, his purse always full, the estate to which he was
+heir was known to be immense. I mention these circumstances because they
+may probably have influenced the conduct both of George and his friends
+in that very matter concerning which, as I have said, he and his mother
+had been just corresponding. The young heir of Virginia was travelling
+for his pleasure and improvement in foreign kingdoms. The queen, his
+mother, was in daily correspondence with his Highness, and constantly
+enjoined him to act as became his lofty station. There could be no
+doubt from her letters that she desired he should live liberally and
+magnificently. He was perpetually making purchases at his parent's
+order. She had not settled as yet; on the contrary, she had wrote out by
+the last mail for twelve new sets of waggon harness, and an organ
+that should play fourteen specified psalm-tunes: which articles George
+dutifully ordered. She had not paid as yet, and might not to-day or
+to-morrow, but eventually, of course, she would: and Mr. Warrington
+never thought of troubling his friends about these calculations, or
+discussing with them his mother's domestic affairs. They, on their side,
+took for granted that he was in a state of competence and ease, and,
+without being mercenary folks, Mr. and Mrs. Lambert were no doubt
+pleased to see an attachment growing up between their daughter and
+a young gentleman of such good principles, talents, family, and
+expectations. There was honesty in all Mr. Esmond Warrington's words
+and actions, and in his behaviour to the world a certain grandeur and
+simplicity, which showed him to be a true gentleman. Somewhat cold and
+haughty in his demeanour to strangers, especially towards the great, he
+was not in the least supercilious: he was perfectly courteous towards
+women, and with those people whom he loved, especially kind, amiable,
+lively, and tender.
+
+No wonder that one young woman we know of got to think him the best man
+in all the world--alas! not even excepting papa. A great love felt by
+a man towards a woman makes him better, as regards her, than all other
+men. We have said that George used to wonder himself when he found how
+witty, how eloquent, how wise he was, when he talked with the fair young
+creature whose heart had become all his.... I say we will not again
+listen to their love whispers. Those soft words do not bear being
+written down. If you please--good sir, or madam, who are sentimentally
+inclined--lay down the book and think over certain things for yourself.
+You may be ever so old now; but you remember. It may be all dead and
+buried; but in a moment, up it springs out of its grave, and looks, and
+smiles, and whispers as of yore when it clung to your arm, and dropped
+fresh tears on your heart. It is here, and alive, did I say? O far, far
+away! O lonely hearth and cold ashes! Here is the vase, but the roses
+are gone; here is the shore, and yonder the ship was moored; but the
+anchors are up, and it has sailed away for ever.
+
+Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. This, however, is mere sentimentality;
+and as regards George and Theo, is neither here nor there. What I mean
+to say is, that the young lady's family were perfectly satisfied with
+the state of affairs between her and Mr. Warrington; and though he had
+not as yet asked the decisive question, everybody else knew what the
+answer would be when it came.
+
+Mamma perhaps thought the question was a long time coming.
+
+"Psha! my dear!" says the General. "There is time enough in all
+conscience. Theo is not much more than seventeen; George, if I mistake
+not, is under forty; and, besides, he must have time to write to
+Virginia, and ask mamma."
+
+"But suppose she refuses?"
+
+"That will be a bad day for old and young," says the General, "Let us
+rather say, suppose she consents, my love?--I can't fancy anybody in the
+world refusing Theo anything she has set her heart on," adds the father:
+"and I am sure 'tis bent upon this match."
+
+So they all waited with the utmost anxiety until an answer from Madam
+Esmond should arrive; and trembled lest the French privateers should
+take the packet-ship by which the precious letter was conveyed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVII. In which a Tragedy is acted, and two more are begun
+
+
+James Wolfe, Harry's new Colonel, came back from America a few weeks
+after our Virginian had joined his regiment. Wolfe had previously been
+Lieutenant-Colonel of Kingsley's, and a second battalion of the regiment
+had been formed and given to him in reward for his distinguished
+gallantry and services at Cape Breton. Harry went with quite unfeigned
+respect and cordiality to pay his duty to his new commander, on whom the
+eyes of the world began to be turned now,--the common opinion being that
+he was likely to become a great general. In the late affairs in France,
+several officers of great previous repute had been tried and found
+lamentably wanting. The Duke of Marlborough had shown himself no worthy
+descendant of his great ancestor. About my Lord George Sackville's
+military genius there were doubts, even before his unhappy behaviour at
+Minden prevented a great victory. The nation was longing for military
+glory, and the Minister was anxious to find a general who might gratify
+the eager desire of the people. Mr. Wolfe's and Mr. Lambert's business
+keeping them both in London, the friendly intercourse between those
+officers was renewed, no one being more delighted than Lambert at his
+younger friend's good fortune.
+
+Harry, when he was away from his duty, was never tired of hearing Mr.
+Wolfe's details of the military operations of the last year, about which
+Wolfe talked very freely and openly. Whatever thought was in his
+mind, he appears to have spoken it out generously. He had that heroic
+simplicity which distinguished Nelson afterwards: he talked frankly of
+his actions. Some of the fine gentlemen at St. James's might wonder and
+sneer at him; but amongst our little circle of friends we may be sure he
+found admiring listeners. The young General had the romance of a boy on
+many matters. He delighted in music and poetry. On the last day of his
+life he said he would rather have written Gray's Elegy than have won a
+battle. We may be sure that with a gentleman of such literary tastes our
+friend George would become familiar; and as they were both in love, and
+both accepted lovers, and both eager for happiness, no doubt they must
+have had many sentimental conversations together which would be very
+interesting to report could we only have accurate accounts of them. In
+one of his later letters, Warrington writes:
+
+"I had the honour of knowing the famous General Wolfe, and seeing much
+of him during his last stay in London. We had a subject of conversation
+then which was of unfailing interest to both of us, and I could not but
+admire Mr. Wolfe's simplicity, his frankness, and a sort of glorious
+bravery which characterised him. He was much in love, and he wanted
+heaps and heaps of laurels to take to his mistress. 'If it be a sin to
+covet honour,' he used to say with Harry the Fifth (he was passionately
+fond of plays and poetry), 'I am the most offending soul alive.' Surely
+on his last day he had a feast which was enough to satisfy the greediest
+appetite for glory. He hungered after it. He seemed to me not merely
+like a soldier going resolutely to do his duty, but rather like a knight
+in quest of dragons and giants. My own country has furnished of late a
+chief of a very different order, and quite an opposite genius. I scarce
+know which to admire most. The Briton's chivalrous ardour, or the more
+than Roman constancy of our great Virginian."
+
+As Mr. Lambert's official duties detained him in London, his family
+remained contentedly with him, and I suppose Mr. Warrington was so
+satisfied with the rural quiet of Southampton Row and the beautiful
+flowers and trees of Bedford Gardens, that he did not care to quit
+London for any long period. He made his pilgrimage to Castlewood, and
+passed a few days there, occupying the chamber of which he had often
+heard his grandfather talk, and which Colonel Esmond had occupied as a
+boy and he was received kindly enough by such members of the family as
+happened to be at home. But no doubt he loved better to be in London by
+the side of a young person in whose society he found greater pleasure
+than any which my Lord Castlewood's circle could afford him, though all
+the ladies were civil, and Lady Maria especially gracious, and enchanted
+with the tragedy which George and Parson Sampson read out to the ladies.
+The chaplain was enthusiastic in its praises, and indeed it was
+through his interest and not through Mr. Johnson's after all, that Mr.
+Warrington's piece ever came on the stage. Mr. Johnson, it is true,
+pressed the play on his friend Mr. Garrick for Drury Lane, but Garrick
+had just made an arrangement with the famous Mr. Home for a tragedy from
+the pen of the author of Douglas. Accordingly, Carpezan was carried to
+Mr. Rich at Covent Garden, and accepted by that manager.
+
+On the night of the production of the piece, Mr. Warrington gave an
+elegant entertainment to his friends at the Bedford Head, in Covent
+Garden, whence they adjourned in a body to the theatre; leaving only one
+or two with our young author, who remained at the coffee-house,
+where friends from time to time came to him with an account of the
+performance. The part of Carpezan was filled by Barry, Shuter was the
+old nobleman, Reddish, I need scarcely say, made an excellent Ulric, and
+the King of Bohemia was by a young actor from Dublin, Mr. Geoghegan, or
+Hagan as he was called on the stage, and who looked and performed the
+part to admiration. Mrs. Woffington looked too old in the first act as
+the heroine, but her murder in the fourth act, about which great doubts
+were expressed, went off to the terror and delight of the audience. Miss
+Wayn sang the ballad which is supposed to be sung by the king's page,
+just at the moment of the unhappy wife's execution, and all agreed that
+Barry was very terrible and pathetic as Carpezan, especially in the
+execution scene. The grace and elegance of the young actor, Hagan, won
+general applause. The piece was put very elegantly on the stage by Mr.
+Rich, though there was some doubt whether, in the march of Janissaries
+in the last, the manager was correct in introducing a favourite
+elephant, which had figured in various pantomimes, and by which one of
+Mr. Warrington's black servants marched in a Turkish habit. The other
+sate in the footman's gallery, and uproariously wept and applauded at
+the proper intervals.
+
+The execution of Sybilla was the turning-point of the piece. Her head
+off, George's friends breathed freely, and one messenger after another
+came to him at the coffee-house, to announce the complete success of
+the tragedy. Mr. Barry, amidst general applause, announced the play for
+repetition, and that it was the work of a young gentleman of Virginia,
+his first attempt in the dramatic style.
+
+We should like to have been in the box where all our friends were seated
+during the performance, to have watched Theo's flutter and anxiety
+whilst the success of the play seemed dubious, and have beheld the
+blushes and the sparkles in her eyes, when the victory was assured.
+Harry, during the little trouble in the fourth act, was deadly
+pale--whiter, Mrs. Lambert said, than Barry, with all his chalk. But
+if Briareus could have clapped hands, he could scarcely have made more
+noise than Harry at the end of the piece. Mr. Wolfe and General Lambert
+huzzayed enthusiastically. Mrs. Lambert, of course, cried: and though
+Hetty said, "Why do you cry, mamma? I you don't want any of them alive
+again; you know it serves them all right"--the girl was really as much
+delighted as any person present, including little Charley from the
+Chartreux, who had leave from Dr. Crusius for that evening, and Miss
+Lucy, who had been brought from boarding-school on purpose to be present
+on the great occasion. My Lord Castlewood and his sister, Lady Maria,
+were present; and his lordship went from his box and complimented
+Mr. Barry and the other actors on the stage; and Parson Sampson was
+invaluable in the pit, where he led the applause, having, I believe,
+given previous instructions to Gumbo to keep an eye upon him from the
+gallery, and do as he did.
+
+Be sure there was a very jolly supper of Mr. Warrington's friends that
+night--much more jolly than Mr. Garrick's, for example, who made but a
+very poor success with his Agis and its dreary choruses, and who must
+have again felt that he had missed a good chance, in preferring Mr.
+Home's tragedy to our young author's. A jolly supper, did we say?--Many
+jolly suppers. Mr. Gumbo gave an entertainment to several gentlemen
+of the shoulder-knot, who had concurred in supporting his master's
+masterpiece: Mr. Henry Warrington gave a supper at the Star and Garter,
+in Pall Mall, to ten officers of his new regiment, who had come up for
+the express purpose of backing Carpezan; and finally, Mr. Warrington
+received the three principal actors of the tragedy, our family party
+from the side box, Mr. Johnson and his ingenious friend, Mr. Reynolds
+the painter, my Lord Castlewood and his sister, and one or two more. My
+Lady Maria happened to sit next to the young actor who had performed the
+part of the King. Mr. Warrington somehow had Miss Theo for a neighbour,
+and no doubt passed a pleasant evening beside her. The greatest
+animation and cordiality prevailed, and when toasts were called, Lady
+Maria gaily gave "The King of Hungary" for hers. That gentleman, who had
+plenty of eloquence and fire, and excellent manners, on as well as off
+the stage, protested that he had already suffered death in the course of
+the evening, hoped that he should die a hundred times more on the same
+field; but, dead or living, vowed he knew whose humble servant he ever
+should be. Ah, if he had but a real crown in place of his diadem of
+pasteboard and tinsel, with what joy would he lay it at her ladyship's
+feet! Neither my lord nor Mr. Esmond were over well pleased with the
+gentleman's exceeding gallantry--a part of which they attributed, no
+doubt justly, to the wine and punch, of which he had been partaking very
+freely. Theo and her sister, who were quite new to the world, were a
+little frightened by the exceeding energy of Mr. Hagan's manner--but
+Lady Maria, much more experienced, took it in perfectly good part. At
+a late hour coaches were called, to which the gentlemen attended the
+ladies, after whose departure some of them returned to the supper-room,
+and the end was that Carpezan had to be carried away in a chair, and
+that the King of Hungary had a severe headache; and that the Poet,
+though he remembered making a great number of speeches, was quite
+astounded when half a dozen of his guests appeared at his house the next
+day, whom he had invited overnight to come and sup with him once more.
+
+As he put Mrs. Lambert and her daughters into their coach on the night
+previous, all the ladies were flurried, delighted, excited; and you may
+be sure our gentleman was with them the next day, to talk of the play
+and the audience, and the actors, and the beauties of the piece, over
+and over again. Mrs. Lambert had heard that the ladies of the theatre
+were dangerous company for young men. She hoped George would have a
+care, and not frequent the greenroom too much.
+
+George smiled, and said he had a preventive against all greenroom
+temptations, of which he was not in the least afraid; and as he spoke he
+looked in Theo's face, as if in those eyes lay the amulet which was to
+preserve him from all danger.
+
+"Why should he be afraid, mamma?" asks the maiden simply. She had no
+idea of danger or of guile.
+
+"No, my darling, I don't think he need be afraid," says the mother,
+kissing her.
+
+"You don't suppose Mr. George would fall in love with that painted old
+creature who performed the chief part?" asks Miss Hetty, with a toss of
+her head. "She must be old enough to be his mother."
+
+"Pray, do you suppose that at our age nobody can care for us, or that we
+have no hearts left?" asks mamma, very tartly. "I believe, or I may
+say, I hope and trust, your father thinks otherwise. He is, I imagine,
+perfectly satisfied, miss. He does not sneer at age, whatever little
+girls out of the schoolroom may do. And they had much better be back
+there, and they had much better remember what the fifth commandment
+is--that they had, Hetty!"
+
+"I didn't think I was breaking it by saying that an actress was as old
+as George's mother," pleaded Hetty.
+
+"George's mother is as old as I am, miss!--at least she was when we were
+at school. And Fanny Parker--Mrs. Mountain who now is--was seven months
+older, and we were in the French class together; and I have no idea
+that our age is to be made the subject of remarks and ridicule by
+our children, and I will thank you to spare it, if you please! Do you
+consider your mother too old, George?"
+
+"I am glad my mother is of your age, Aunt Lambert," says George, in the
+most sentimental manner.
+
+Strange infatuation of passion--singular perversity of reason! At some
+period before his marriage, it not unfrequently happens that a man
+actually is fond of his mother-in-law! At this time our good General
+vowed, and with some reason, that he was jealous. Mrs. Lambert made much
+more of George than of any other person in the family. She dressed up
+Theo to the utmost advantage in order to meet him; she was for ever
+caressing her, and appealing to her when he spoke. It was, "Don't
+you think he looks well?"--"Don't you think he looks pale, Theo,
+to-day?"--"Don't you think he has been sitting up over his books too
+much at night?" and so forth. If he had a cold, she would have liked to
+make gruel for him and see his feet in hot water. She sent him recipes
+of her own for his health. When he was away, she never ceased talking
+about him to her daughter. I dare say Miss Theo liked the subject well
+enough. When he came, she was sure to be wanted in some other part of
+the house, and would bid Theo take care of him till she returned. Why,
+before she returned to the room, could you hear her talking outside the
+door to her youngest innocent children, to her servants in the upper
+regions, and so forth? When she reappeared, was not Mr. George always
+standing or sitting at a considerable distance from Miss Theo--except,
+to be sure, on that one day when she had just happened to drop her
+scissors, and he had naturally stooped down to pick them up? Why was she
+blushing? Were not youthful cheeks made to blush, and roses to bloom in
+the spring? Not that mamma ever noted the blushes, but began quite an
+artless conversation about this or that, as she sate down brimful of
+happiness to her worktable.
+
+And at last there came a letter from Virginia in Madam Esmond's neat,
+well-known hand, and over which George trembled and blushed before he
+broke the seal. It was in answer to the letter which he had sent home,
+respecting his brother's commission and his own attachment to Miss
+Lambert. Of his intentions respecting Harry, Madam Esmond fully
+approved. As for his marriage, she was not against early marriages. She
+would take his picture of Miss Lambert with the allowance that was to be
+made for lovers' portraits, and hope, for his sake, that the young lady
+was all he described her to be. With money, as Madam Esmond gathered
+from her son's letter, she did not appear to be provided at all, which
+was a pity, as, though wealthy in land, their family had but little
+ready-money. However, by Heaven's blessing, there was plenty at home for
+children and children's children, and the wives of her sons should share
+all she had. When she heard more at length from Mr. and Mrs. Lambert,
+she would reply for her part more fully. She did not pretend to say that
+she had not greater hopes for her son, as a gentleman of his name and
+prospects might pretend to the hand of the first lady of the land; but
+as Heaven had willed that her son's choice should fall upon her old
+friend's daughter, she acquiesced, and would welcome George's wife as
+her own child. This letter was brought by Mr. Van den Bosch of Albany,
+who had lately bought a very large estate in Virginia, and who was bound
+for England to put his granddaughter to a boarding-school. She, Madam
+Esmond, was not mercenary, nor was it because this young lady was
+heiress of a very great fortune that she desired her sons to pay Mr. Van
+d. B. every attention. Their properties lay close together, and could
+Harry find in the young lady those qualities of person and mind suitable
+for a companion for life, at least she would have the satisfaction of
+seeing both her children near her in her declining years. Madam Esmond
+concluded by sending her affectionate compliments to Mrs. Lambert, from
+whom she begged to hear further, and her blessing to the young lady who
+was to be her daughter-in-law.
+
+The letter was not cordial, and the writer evidently but half satisfied;
+but, such as it was, her consent was here formally announced. How
+eagerly George ran away to Soho with the long-desired news in his
+pocket! I suppose our worthy friends there must have read his news in
+his countenance--else why should Mrs. Lambert take her daughter's hand
+and kiss her with such uncommon warmth, when George announced that
+he had received letters from home? Then, with a break in his voice, a
+pallid face, and a considerable tremor, turning to Mr. Lambert, he said:
+"Madam Esmond's letter, sir, is in reply to one of mine, in which I
+acquainted her that I had formed an attachment in England, for which I
+asked my mother's approval. She gives her consent, I am grateful to say,
+and I have to pray my dear friends to be equally kind to me."
+
+"God bless thee, my dear boy!" says the good General, laying a hand on
+the young man's head. "I am glad to have thee for a son, George. There,
+there, don't go down on your knees, young folks! George may, to be sure,
+and thank God for giving him the best little wife in all England. Yes,
+my dear, except when you were ill, you never caused me a heartache--and
+happy is the man, I say, who wins thee!"
+
+I have no doubt the young people knelt before their parents, as was the
+fashion in those days; and am perfectly certain that Mrs. Lambert kissed
+both of them, and likewise bedewed her pocket-handkerchief in the most
+plentiful manner. Hetty was not present at this sentimental scene, and
+when she heard of it, spoke with considerable asperity, and a laugh that
+was by no means pleasant, saying: "Is this all the news you have to give
+me? Why, I have known it these months past. Do you think I have no eyes
+to see, and no ears to hear, indeed?" But in private she was much
+more gentle. She flung herself on her sister's neck, embracing her
+passionately, and vowing that never, never would Theo find any one to
+love her like her sister. With Theo she became entirely mild and humble.
+She could not abstain from her jokes and satire with George, but he was
+too happy to heed her much, and too generous not to see the cause of her
+jealousy.
+
+When all parties concerned came to read Madam Esmond's letter, that
+document, it is true, appeared rather vague. It contained only a promise
+that she would receive the young people at her house, and no sort
+of proposal for a settlement. The General shook his head over the
+letter--he did not think of examining it until some days after the
+engagement had been made between George and his daughter: but now he
+read Madam Esmond's words, they gave him but small encouragement.
+
+"Bah!" says George. "I shall have three hundred pounds for my tragedy. I
+can easily write a play a year; and if the worst comes to the worst, we
+can live on that."
+
+"On that and your patrimony," says Theo's father.
+
+George now had to explain, with some hesitation, that what with paying
+bills for his mother, and Harry's commission and debts, and his own
+ransom--George's patrimony proper was well-nigh spent.
+
+Mr. Lambert's countenance looked graver still at this announcement, but
+he saw his girl's eyes turned towards him with an alarm so tender, that
+he took her in his arms and vowed that, let the worst come to the worst,
+his darling should not be balked of her wish.
+
+About the going back to Virginia, George frankly owned that he little
+liked the notion of returning to be entirely dependent on his mother.
+He gave General Lambert an idea of his life at home, and explained how
+little to his taste that slavery was. No. Why should he not stay in
+England, write more tragedies, study for the bar, get a place, perhaps?
+Why, indeed? He straightway began to form a plan for another tragedy.
+He brought portions of his work, from time to time, to Miss Theo and her
+sister: Hetty yawned over the work, but Theo pronounced it to be still
+more beautiful and admirable than the last, which was perfect.
+
+The engagement of our young friends was made known to the members of
+their respective families, and announced to Sir Miles Warrington, in
+a ceremonious letter from his nephew. For a while Sir Miles saw no
+particular objection to the marriage; though, to be sure, considering
+his name and prospects, Mr. Warrington might have looked higher. The
+truth was, that Sir Miles imagined that Madam Esmond had made some
+considerable settlement on her son, and that his circumstances were more
+than easy. But when he heard that George was entirely dependent on his
+mother, and that his own small patrimony was dissipated, as Harry's had
+been before, Sir Miles's indignation at his nephew's imprudence knew no
+bounds; he could not find words to express his horror and anger at the
+want of principle exhibited by both these unhappy young men: he thought
+it his duty to speak his mind about them, and wrote his opinion to his
+sister Esmond in Virginia. As for General and Mrs. Lambert, who passed
+for respectable persons, was it to be borne that such people should
+inveigle a penniless young man into a marriage with their penniless
+daughter? Regarding them, and George's behaviour, Sir Miles fully
+explained his views to Madam Esmond, gave half a finger to George
+whenever his nephew called on him in town, and did not even invite him
+to partake of the famous family small-beer. Towards Harry his uncle
+somewhat unbent; Harry had done his duty in the campaign, and was
+mentioned with praise in high quarters. He had sown his wild oats,--he
+at least was endeavouring to amend; but George was a young prodigal,
+fast careering to ruin, and his name was only mentioned in the family
+with a groan. Are there any poor fellows nowadays, I wonder, whose
+polite families fall on them and persecute them; groan over them
+and stone them, and hand stones to their neighbours that they may do
+likewise? All the patrimony spent! Gracious heavens! Sir Miles turned
+pale when he saw his nephew coming. Lady Warrington prayed for him as a
+dangerous reprobate; and, in the meantime, George was walking the town,
+quite unconscious that he was occasioning so much wrath and so much
+devotion. He took little Miley to the play and brought him back again.
+He sent tickets to his aunt and cousins which they could not refuse, you
+know; it would look too marked were they to break altogether. So they
+not only took the tickets, but whenever country constituents came to
+town they asked for more, taking care to give the very worst motives
+to George's intimacy with the theatre, and to suppose that he and the
+actresses were on terms of the most disgraceful intimacy. An august
+personage having been to the theatre, and expressed his approbation
+of Mr. Warrington's drama to Sir Miles, when he attended his R-y-l
+H-ghn-ss's levee at Saville House, Sir Miles, to be sure, modified his
+opinion regarding the piece, and spoke henceforth more respectfully of
+it. Meanwhile, as we have said, George was passing his life entirely
+careless of the opinion of all the uncles, aunts, and cousins in the
+world.
+
+Most of the Esmond cousins were at least more polite and cordial than
+George's kinsfolk of the Warrington side. In spite of his behaviour over
+the cards, Lord Castlewood, George always maintained, had a liking for
+our Virginians, and George was pleased enough to be in his company. He
+was a far abler man than many who succeeded in life. He had a good name,
+and somehow only stained it; a considerable wit, and nobody trusted it;
+and a very shrewd experience and knowledge of mankind, which made him
+mistrust them, and himself most of all, and which perhaps was the bar
+to his own advancement. My Lady Castlewood, a woman of the world, wore
+always a bland mask, and received Mr. George with perfect civility,
+and welcomed him to lose as many guineas as he liked at her ladyship's
+card-tables. Between Mr. William and the Virginian brothers there never
+was any love lost; but, as for Lady Maria, though her love affair was
+over, she had no rancour; she professed for her cousins a very
+great regard and affection, a part of which the young gentlemen very
+gratefully returned. She was charmed to hear of Harry's valour in the
+campaign; she was delighted with George's success at the theatre; she
+was for ever going to the play, and had all the favourite passages of
+Carpezan by heart. One day, as Mr. George and Miss Theo were taking a
+sentimental walk in Kensington Gardens, whom should they light upon
+but their cousin Maria in company with a gentleman in a smart suit and
+handsome laced hat, and who should the gentleman be but his Majesty
+King Louis of Hungary, Mr. Hagan? He saluted the party, and left them
+presently. Lady Maria had only just happened to meet him. Mr. Hagan came
+sometimes, he said, for quiet, to study his parts in Kensington Gardens,
+and George and the two ladies walked together to Lord Castlewood's door
+in Kensington Square, Lady Maria uttering a thousand compliments to Theo
+upon her good looks, upon her virtue, upon her future happiness, upon
+her papa and mamma, upon her destined husband, upon her paduasoy cloak
+and dear little feet and shoe-buckles.
+
+Harry happened to come to London that evening, and slept at his
+accustomed quarters. When George appeared at breakfast, the Captain
+was already in the room (the custom of that day was to call all army
+gentlemen Captains), and looking at the letters on the breakfast-table.
+
+"Why, George," he cries, "there is a letter from Maria!"
+
+"Little boy bring it from Common Garden last night--Master George
+asleep," says Gumbo.
+
+"What can it be about?" asks Harry, as George peruses his letter with a
+queer expression of face.
+
+"About my play, to be sure," George answers, tearing up the paper, and
+still wearing his queer look.
+
+"What, she is not writing love-letters to you, is she, Georgy?"
+
+"No, certainly not to me," replies the other. But he spoke no word more
+about the letter; and when at dinner in Dean Street Mrs. Lambert said,
+"So you met somebody walking with the King of Hungary yesterday in
+Kensington Gardens?"
+
+"What little tell-tale told you? A mere casual rencontre--the King goes
+there to study his parts, and Lady Maria happened to be crossing the
+garden to visit some of the other King's servants at Kensington Palace."
+And so there was an end to that matter for the time being.
+
+Other events were at hand fraught with interest to our Virginians. One
+evening after Christmas, the two gentlemen, with a few more friends,
+were met round General Lambert's supper-table; and among the company was
+Harry's new Colonel of the 67th, Major-General Wolfe. The young General
+was more than ordinarily grave. The conversation all related to the war.
+Events of great importance were pending. The great minister now in power
+was determined to carry on the war on a much more extended scale than
+had been attempted hitherto: an army was ordered to Germany to help
+Prince Ferdinand, another great expedition was preparing for America,
+and here, says Mr. Lambert, "I will give you the health of the
+Commander--a glorious campaign, and a happy return to him!"
+
+"Why do you not drink the toast, General James!" asked the hostess of
+her guest.
+
+"He must not drink his own toast," says General Lambert; "it is we must
+do that!"
+
+What? was James appointed?--All the ladies must drink such a toast as
+that, and they mingled their kind voices with the applause of the rest
+of the company.
+
+Why did he look so melancholy? the ladies asked of one another when they
+withdrew. In after days they remembered his pale face.
+
+"Perhaps he has been parting from his sweetheart," suggests
+tender-hearted Mrs. Lambert. And at this sentimental notion, no doubt
+all the ladies looked sad.
+
+The gentlemen, meanwhile, continued their talk about the war and its
+chances. Mr. Wolfe did not contradict the speakers when they said that
+the expedition was to be directed against Canada.
+
+"Ah, sir," says Harry, "I wish your regiment was going with you, and
+that I might pay another visit to my old friends at Quebec."
+
+What, had Harry been there? Yes. He described his visit to the place
+five years before, and knew the city, and the neighbourhood, well. He
+lays a number of bits of biscuit on the table before him, and makes
+a couple of rivulets of punch on each side. "This fork is the Isle
+d'Orleans," says he, "with the north and south branches of St. Lawrence
+on each side. Here's the Low Town, with a battery--how many guns was
+mounted there in our time, brother?--but at long shots from the St.
+Joseph shore you might play the same game. Here's what they call the
+little river, the St. Charles, and a bridge of boats with a tete du pont
+over to the place of arms. Here's the citadel, and here's convents--ever
+so many convents--and the cathedral; and here, outside the lines to the
+west and south, is what they call the Plains of Abraham--where a certain
+little affair took place, do you remember, brother? He and a young
+officer of the Rousillon regiment ca ca'd at each other for twenty
+minutes, and George pinked him, and then they jure'd each other an
+amitie eternelle. Well it was for George: for his second saved his life
+on that awful day of Braddock's defeat. He was a fine little fellow, and
+I give his toast: Je bois a la sante du Chevalier de Florac!"
+
+"What, can you speak French, too, Harry?" asks Mr. Wolfe. The young man
+looked at the General with eager eyes.
+
+"Yes," says he, "I can speak, but not so well as George."
+
+"But he remembers the city, and can place the batteries, you see, and
+knows the ground a thousand times better than I do!" cries the elder
+brother.
+
+The two elder officers exchanged looks with one another; Mr. Lambert
+smiled and nodded, as if in reply to the mute queries of his comrade: on
+which the other spoke. "Mr. Harry," he said, "if you have had enough of
+fine folks, and White's, and horse-racing----"
+
+"Oh, sir!" says the young man, turning very red.
+
+"And if you have a mind to a sea voyage at a short notice, come and see
+me at my lodgings to-morrow."
+
+What was that sudden uproar of cheers which the ladies heard in their
+drawing-room? It was the hurrah which Harry Warrington gave when he
+leaped up at hearing the General's invitation.
+
+The women saw no more of the gentlemen that night. General Lambert had
+to be away upon his business early next morning, before seeing any
+of his family; nor had he mentioned a word of Harry's outbreak on the
+previous evening. But when he rejoined his folks at dinner, a look at
+Miss Hetty's face informed the worthy gentleman that she knew what had
+passed on the night previous, and what was about to happen to the young
+Virginian. After dinner Mrs. Lambert sat demurely at her work, Miss
+Theo took her book of Italian Poetry. Neither of the General's customary
+guests happened to be present that evening.
+
+He took little Hetty's hand in his, and began to talk with her. He
+did not allude to the subject which he knew was uppermost in her mind,
+except that by a more than ordinary gentleness and kindness he perhaps
+caused her to understand that her thoughts were known to him.
+
+"I have breakfasted," says he, "with James Wolfe this morning, and our
+friend Harry was of the party. When he and the other guests were gone, I
+remained and talked with James about the great expedition on which he is
+going to sail. Would that his brave father had lived a few months longer
+to see him come back covered with honours from Louisbourg, and knowing
+that all England was looking to him to achieve still greater glory!
+James is dreadfully ill in body--so ill that I am frightened for
+him--and not a little depressed in mind at having to part from the young
+lady whom he has loved so long. A little rest, he thinks, might have set
+his shattered frame up; and to call her his has been the object of his
+life. But, great as his love is (and he is as romantic as one of you
+young folks of seventeen), honour and duty are greater, and he leaves
+home, and wife, and ease, and health, at their bidding. Every man of
+honour would do the like; every woman who loves him truly would buckle
+on his armour for him. James goes to take leave of his mother to-night;
+and though she loves him devotedly, and is one of the tenderest women
+in the world, I am sure she will show no sign of weakness at his going
+away."
+
+"When does he sail, papa?" the girl asked.
+
+"He will be on board in five days." And Hetty knew quite well who sailed
+with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVIII. In which Harry goes westward
+
+
+Our tender hearts are averse to all ideas and descriptions of parting;
+and I shall therefore say nothing of Harry Warrington's feelings at
+taking leave of his brother and friends. Were not thousands of men in
+the same plight? Had not Mr. Wolfe his mother to kiss (his brave father
+had quitted life during his son's absence on the glorious Louisbourg
+campaign), and his sweetheart to clasp in a farewell embrace? Had not
+stout Admiral Holmes, before sailing westward with his squadron, The
+Somerset, The Terrible, The Northumberland, The Royal William, The
+Trident, The Diana, The Seahorse--his own flag being hoisted on board
+The Dublin--to take leave of Mrs. and the Misses Holmes? Was Admiral
+Saunders, who sailed the day after him, exempt from human feeling?
+Away go William and his crew of jovial sailors, ploughing through the
+tumbling waves, and poor Black-eyed Susan on shore watches the ship as
+it dwindles in the sunset.
+
+It dwindles in the West. The night falls darkling over the ocean. They
+are gone: but their hearts are at home yet a while. In silence, with a
+heart inexpressibly soft and tender, how each man thinks of those he has
+left! What a chorus of pitiful prayer rises up to the Father, at sea and
+on shore, on that parting night at home by the vacant bedside, where
+the wife kneels in tears; round the fire, where the mother and children
+together pour out their supplications: or on deck, where the seafarer
+looks up to the stars of heaven, as the ship cleaves through the roaring
+midnight waters! To-morrow the sun rises upon our common life again, and
+we commence our daily task of toil and duty.
+
+George accompanies his brother, and stays a while with him at Portsmouth
+whilst they are waiting for a wind. He shakes Mr. Wolfe's hand, looks
+at his pale face for the last time, and sees the vessels depart amid the
+clangour of bells, and the thunder of cannon from the shore. Next day he
+is back at his home, and at that business which is sure one of the most
+selfish and absorbing of the world's occupations, to which almost every
+man who is thirty years old has served ere this his apprenticeship. He
+has a pang of sadness, as he looks in at the lodgings to the little room
+which Harry used to occupy, and sees his half-burned papers still in
+the grate. In a few minutes he is on his way to Dean Street again,
+and whispering by the fitful firelight in the ear of the clinging
+sweetheart. She is very happy--oh, so happy! at his return. She is
+ashamed of being so. Is it not heartless to be so, when poor Hetty is so
+melancholy? Poor little Hetty! Indeed, it is selfish to be glad when she
+is in such a sad way. It makes one quite wretched to see her. "Don't,
+sir! Well, I ought to be wretched, and it's very, very wicked of me if
+I'm not," says Theo; and one can understand her soft-hearted repentance.
+What she means by "Don't" who can tell? I have said the room was dark,
+and the fire burned fitfully--and "Don't" is no doubt uttered in one
+of the dark fits. Enter servants with supper and lights. The family
+arrives; the conversation becomes general. The destination of the fleet
+is known everywhere now. The force on board is sufficient to beat all
+the French in Canada; and, under such an officer as Wolfe, to repair the
+blunders and disasters of previous campaigns. He looked dreadfully ill,
+indeed. But he has a great soul in a feeble body. The ministers, the
+country hope the utmost from him. After supper, according to custom, Mr.
+Lambert assembles his modest household, of whom George Warrington may
+be said quite to form a part; and as he prays for all travellers by land
+and water, Theo and her sister are kneeling together. And so, as the
+ship speeds farther and farther into the West, the fond thoughts pursue
+it; and the night passes, and the sun rises.
+
+A day or two more, and everybody is at his books or his usual work. As
+for George Warrington, that celebrated dramatist is busy about another
+composition. When the tragedy of Carpezan had run some thirty or
+twoscore nights, other persons of genius took possession of the theatre.
+
+There may have been persons who wondered how the town could be so fickle
+as ever to tire of such a masterpiece as the Tragedy--who could not bear
+to see the actors dressed in other habits, reciting other men's verses;
+but George, of a sceptical turn of mind, took the fate of his Tragedy
+very philosophically, and pocketed the proceeds with much quiet
+satisfaction. From Mr. Dodsley, the bookseller, he had the usual
+complement of a hundred pounds; from the manager of the theatre two
+hundred or more; and such praises from the critics and his friends, that
+he set to work to prepare another piece, with which he hoped to achieve
+even greater successes than by his first performance.
+
+Over these studies, and the other charming business which occupies him,
+months pass away. Happy business! Happiest time of youth and life,
+when love is first spoken and returned; when the dearest eyes are daily
+shining welcome, and the fondest lips never tire of whispering their
+sweet secrets; when the parting look that accompanies "Good night!"
+gives delightful warning of to-morrow; when the heart is so overflowing
+with love and happiness, that it has to spare for all the world; when
+the day closes with glad prayers, and opens with joyful hopes; when
+doubt seems cowardice, misfortune impossible, poverty only a sweet trial
+of constancy! Theo's elders, thankfully remembering their own prime,
+sit softly by and witness this pretty comedy performed by their young
+people. And in one of his later letters, dutifully written to his wife
+during a temporary absence from home, George Warrington records how he
+had been to look up at the windows of the dear old house in Dean Street,
+and wondered who was sitting in the chamber where he and Theo had been
+so happy.
+
+Meanwhile we can learn how the time passes, and our friends are engaged,
+by some extracts from George's letters to his brother.
+
+
+"From the old window opposite Bedford Gardens, this 20th August 1759.
+
+"Why are you gone back to rugged rocks, bleak shores, burning summers,
+nipping winters, at home, when you might have been cropping ever so many
+laurels in Germany? Kingsley's are coming back as covered with 'em as
+Jack-a-Green on May-day. Our six regiments did wonders; and our horse
+would have done if my Lord George Sackville only had let them. But when
+Prince Ferdinand said 'Charge!' his lordship could not hear, or could
+not translate the German word for 'Forward;' and so we only beat the
+French, without utterly annihilating them, as we might, had Lord Granby
+or Mr. Warrington had the command. My lord is come back to town, and
+is shouting for a Court-Martial. He held his head high enough in
+prosperity: in misfortune he shows such a constancy of arrogance that
+one almost admires him. He looks as if he rather envied poor Mr. Byng,
+and the not shooting him were a manque d'egards towards him.
+
+"The Duke has had notice to get himself in readiness for departing
+from this world of grandeurs and victories, and downfalls and
+disappointments. An attack of palsy has visited his Royal Highness; and
+pallida mors has just peeped in at his door, as it were, and said,
+'I will call again.' Tyrant as he was, this prince has been noble in
+disgrace; and no king has ever had a truer servant than ours has found
+in his son. Why do I like the losing side always, and am I disposed to
+revolt against the winners? Your famous Mr. P----, your chief's patron
+and discoverer, I have been to hear in the House of Commons twice or
+thrice. I revolt against his magniloquence. I wish some little David
+would topple over that swelling giant. His thoughts and his language are
+always attitudinising. I like Barry's manner best, though the other is
+the more awful actor.
+
+"Pocahontas gets on apace. Barry likes his part of Captain Smith; and,
+though he will have him wear a red coat and blue facings and an epaulet,
+I have a fancy to dress him exactly like one of the pictures of Queen
+Elizabeth's gentlemen at Hampton Court: with a ruff and a square beard
+and square shoes. 'And Pocahontas--would you like her to be tattooed?'
+asks Uncle Lambert. Hagan's part as the warrior who is in love with
+her, and, seeing her partiality for the captain, nobly rescues him from
+death, I trust will prove a hit. A strange fish is this Hagan: his mouth
+full of stage-plays and rant, but good, honest, and brave, if I don't
+err. He is angry at having been cast lately for Sir O'Brallaghan, in Mr.
+Macklin's new farce of Love A-la-mode. He says that he does not keer to
+disgreece his tongue with imiteetions of that rascal brogue. As if there
+was any call for imiteetions, when he has such an admirable twang of his
+own!
+
+"Shall I tell you? Shall I hide the circumstance? Shall I hurt your
+feelings? Shall I set you in a rage of jealousy, and cause you to ask
+for leave to return to Europe? Know, then, that though Carpezan is
+long since dead, cousin Maria is for ever coming to the playhouse. Tom
+Spencer has spied her out night after night in the gallery, and
+she comes on the nights when Hagan performs. Quick, Burroughs, Mr.
+Warrington's boots and portmanteau! Order a chaise and four for
+Portsmouth immediately! The letter which I burned one morning when we
+were at breakfast (I may let the cat out of the bag, now puss has such a
+prodigious way to run) was from cousin M., hinting that she wished me
+to tell no tales about her: but I can't help just whispering to you
+that Maria at this moment is busy consoling herself as fast as possible.
+Shall I spoil sport? Shall I tell her brother? Is the affair any
+business of mine? What have the Esmonds done for you and me but win
+our money at cards? Yet I like our noble cousin. It seems to me that he
+would be good if he could--or rather, he would have been once. He has
+been set on a wrong way of life, from which 'tis now probably too late
+to rescue him. O beati agricolae! Our Virginia was dull, but let us
+thank Heaven we were bred there. We were made little slaves, but not
+slaves to wickedness, gambling, bad male and female company. It was not
+until my poor Harry left home that he fell among thieves. I mean thieves
+en grand, such as waylaid him and stripped him on English highroads. I
+consider you none the worse because you were the unlucky one, and had
+to deliver your purse up. And now you are going to retrieve, and make
+a good name for yourself; and kill more 'French dragons,' and become a
+great commander. And our mother will talk of her son the Captain, the
+Colonel, the General, and have his picture painted with all his stars
+and epaulets, when poor I shall be but a dawdling poetaster, or, if we
+may hope for the best, a snug placeman, with a little box at Richmond
+or Kew, and a half-score of little picaninnies, that will come and bob
+curtseys at the garden-gate when their uncle the General rides up on his
+great charger, with his aide-de-camp's pockets filled with gingerbread
+for the nephews and nieces. 'Tis for you to brandish the sword of Mars.
+As for me, I look forward to a quiet life: a quiet little home, a quiet
+little library full of books, and a little Some one dulce ridentem,
+dulce loquentem, on t'other side of the fire, as I scribble away at my
+papers. I am so pleased with this prospect, so utterly contented and
+happy, that I feel afraid as I think of it, lest it should escape me;
+and, even to my dearest Hal, am shy of speaking of my happiness. What is
+ambition to me, with this certainty? What do I care for wars, with this
+beatific peace smiling near?
+
+"Our mother's friend, Mynheer Van den Bosch, has been away on a tour to
+discover his family in Holland, and, strange to say, has found one. Miss
+(who was intended by maternal solicitude to be a wife for your worship)
+has had six months at Kensington School, and is coming out with a
+hundred pretty accomplishments, which are to complete her a perfect
+fine lady. Her papa brought her to make a curtsey in Dean Street, and
+a mighty elegant curtsey she made. Though she is scarce seventeen,
+no dowager of sixty can be more at her ease. She conversed with Aunt
+Lambert on an equal footing; she treated the girls as chits--to Hetty's
+wrath and Theo's amusement. She talked politics with the General, and
+the last routs, dresses, operas, fashions, scandal, with such perfect
+ease that, but for a blunder or two, you might have fancied Miss Lydia
+was born in Mayfair. At the Court end of the town she will live, she
+says; and has no patience with her father, who has a lodging in Monument
+Yard. For those who love a brown beauty, a prettier little mignonne
+creature cannot be seen. But my taste, you know, dearest brother,
+and..."
+
+
+Here follows a page of raptures and quotations of verse, which, out of
+a regard for the reader, and the writer's memory, the editor of the
+present pages declines to reprint. Gentlemen and ladies of a certain age
+may remember the time when they indulged in these rapturous follies
+on their own accounts; when the praises of the charmer were for ever
+warbling from their lips or trickling from their pens; when the flowers
+of life were in full bloom, and all the birds of spring were singing.
+The twigs are now bare, perhaps, and the leaves have fallen; but, for
+all that, shall we not,--remember the vernal time? As for you, young
+people, whose May (or April, is it?) has not commenced yet, you need not
+be detained over other folks' love-rhapsodies; depend on it, when your
+spring-season arrives, kindly Nature will warm all your flowers into
+bloom, and rouse your glad bosoms to pour out their full song.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIX. A Little Innocent
+
+
+George Warrington has mentioned in the letter just quoted, that in spite
+of my Lord Castlewood's previous play transactions with Harry, my lord
+and George remained friends, and met on terms of good kinsmanship. Did
+George want franks, or an introduction at court, or a place in the House
+of Lords to hear a debate, his cousin was always ready to serve him,
+was a pleasant and witty companion, and would do anything which might
+promote his relative's interests, provided his own were not prejudiced.
+
+Now he even went so far as to promise that he would do his best with the
+people in power to provide a place for Mr. George Warrington, who daily
+showed a greater disinclination to return to his native country, and
+place himself once more under the maternal servitude. George had not
+merely a sentimental motive for remaining in England: the pursuits and
+society of London pleased him infinitely better than any which he could
+have at home. A planter's life of idleness might have suited him, could
+he have enjoyed independence with it. But in Virginia he was only the
+first, and, as he thought, the worst treated, of his mother's subjects.
+He dreaded to think of returning with his young bride to his home, and
+of the life which she would be destined to lead there. Better freedom
+and poverty in England, with congenial society, and a hope perchance of
+future distinction, than the wearisome routine of home life, the tedious
+subordination, the frequent bickerings, the certain jealousies and
+differences of opinion, to which he must subject his wife so soon as
+they turned their faces homeward.
+
+So Lord Castlewood's promise to provide for George was very eagerly
+accepted by the Virginian. My lord had not provided very well for
+his own brother to be sure, and his own position, peer as he was, was
+anything but enviable; but we believe what we wish to believe, and
+George Warrington chose to put great stress upon his kinsman's offer
+of patronage. Unlike the Warrington family, Lord Castlewood was quite
+gracious when he was made acquainted with George's engagement to Miss
+Lambert; came to wait upon her parents; praised George to them and the
+young lady to George, and made himself so prodigiously agreeable in
+their company that these charitable folk forgot his bad reputation, and
+thought it must be a very wicked and scandalous world which maligned
+him. He said, indeed, that he was improved in their society, as every
+man must be who came into it. Among them he was witty, lively, good for
+the time being. He left his wickedness and worldliness with his cloak
+in the hall, and only put them on again when he stepped into his chair.
+What worldling on life's voyage does not know of some such harbour of
+rest and calm, some haven where he puts in out of the storm? Very likely
+Lord Castlewood was actually better whilst he stayed with those good
+people, and for the time being at least no hypocrite.
+
+And, I dare say, the Lambert elders thought no worse of his lordship for
+openly proclaiming his admiration for Miss Theo. It was quite genuine,
+and he did not profess it was very deep.
+
+"It don't affect my sleep, and I am not going to break my heart because
+Miss Lambert prefers somebody else," he remarked. Only I wish when I was
+a young man, madam, I had had the good fortune to meet with somebody so
+innocent and good as your daughter. I might have been kept out of a deal
+of harm's way: but innocent and good young women did not fall into mine,
+or they would have made me better than I am."
+
+"Sure, my lord, it is not too late!" says Mrs. Lambert, very softly.
+
+Castlewood started back, misunderstanding her.
+
+"Not too late, madam?" he inquired.
+
+She blushed. "It is too late to court my dear daughter, my lord, but not
+too late to repent. We read, 'tis never too late to do that. If others
+have been received at the eleventh hour, is there any reason why you
+should give up hope?"
+
+"Perhaps I know my own heart better than you," he says in a plaintive
+tone. "I can speak French and German very well, and why? because I was
+taught both in the nursery. A man who learns them late can never get the
+practice of them on his tongue. And so 'tis the case with goodness, I
+can't learn it at my age. I can only see others practise it, and admire
+them. When I am on--on the side opposite to Lazarus, will Miss Theo give
+me a drop of water? Don't frown! I know I shall be there, Mrs. Lambert.
+Some folks are doomed so; and I think some of our family are amongst
+these. Some people are vacillating, and one hardly knows which way
+the scale will turn. Whereas some are predestined angels, and fly
+Heavenwards naturally, and do what they will."
+
+"Oh, my lord, and why should you not be of the predestined? Whilst there
+is a day left--whilst there is an hour--there is hope!" says the fond
+matron.
+
+"I know what is passing in your mind, my dear madam--nay, I read your
+prayers in your looks; but how can they avail?" Lord Castlewood asked
+sadly. "You don't know all, my good lady. You don't know what a life
+ours is of the world; how early it began; how selfish Nature, and then
+necessity and education, have made us. It is Fate holds the reins of
+the chariot, and we can't escape our doom. I know better: I see better
+people: I go my own way. My own? No, not mine--Fate's: and it is not
+altogether without pity for us, since it allows us, from time to time,
+to see such people as you." And he took her hand and looked her full
+in the face, and bowed with a melancholy grace. Every word he said
+was true. No greater error than to suppose that weak and bad men are
+strangers to good feelings, or deficient of sensibility. Only the
+good feeling does not last--nay, the tears are a kind of debauch of
+sentiment, as old libertines are said to find that the tears and grief
+of their victims add a zest to their pleasure. But Mrs. Lambert knew
+little of what was passing in this man's mind (how should she?), and
+so prayed for him with the fond persistence of woman. He was much
+better--yes, much better than he was supposed to be. He was a most
+interesting man. There were hopes, why should there not be the most
+precious hopes for him still?
+
+It remains to be seen which of the two speakers formed the correct
+estimate of my lord's character. Meanwhile, if the gentleman was
+right, the lady was mollified, and her kind wishes and prayers for
+this experienced sinner's repentance, if they were of no avail for his
+amendment, at least could do him no harm. Kind-souled doctors (and what
+good woman is not of the faculty?) look after a reprobate as physicians
+after a perilous case. When the patient is converted to health their
+interest ceases in him, and they drive to feel pulses and prescribe
+medicines elsewhere.
+
+But, while the malady was under treatment, our kind lady could not see
+too much of her sick man. Quite an intimacy sprung up between my Lord
+Castlewood and the Lamberts. I am not sure that some worldly views might
+not suit even with good Mrs. Lambert's spiritual plans (for who
+knows into what pure Eden, though guarded by flaming-sworded angels,
+worldliness will not creep?). Her son was about to take orders. My Lord
+Castlewood feared very much that his present chaplain's, Mr. Sampson's,
+careless life and heterodox conversations might lead him to give up his
+chaplaincy: in which case, my lord hinted the little modest cure would
+be vacant, and at the service of some young divine of good principles
+and good manners, who would be content with a small stipend, and a small
+but friendly congregation.
+
+Thus an acquaintance was established between the two families, and the
+ladies of Castlewood, always on their good behaviour, came more than
+once to make their curtseys in Mrs. Lambert's drawing-room. They were
+civil to the parents and the young ladies. My Lady Castlewood's card
+assemblies were open to Mrs. Lambert and her family. There was play,
+certainly--all the world played--his Majesty, the Bishops, every Peer
+and Peeress in the land. But nobody need play who did not like; and
+surely nobody need have scruples regarding the practice, when such
+august and venerable personages were daily found to abet it. More than
+once Mrs. Lambert made her appearance at her ladyship's routs, and
+was grateful for the welcome which she received, and pleased with the
+admiration which her daughters excited.
+
+Mention has been made, in a foregoing page and letter, of an American
+family of Dutch extraction, who had come to England very strongly
+recommended by Madam Esmond, their Virginian neighbour, to her sons in
+Europe. The views expressed in Madam Esmond's letter were so clear, that
+that arch match-maker, Mrs. Lambert, could not but understand them. As
+for George, he was engaged already; as for poor Hetty's flame, Harry, he
+was gone on service, for which circumstance Hetty's mother was not very
+sorry perhaps. She laughingly told George that he ought to obey his
+mamma's injunctions, break off his engagement with Theo, and make up to
+Miss Lydia, who was ten times--ten times! a hundred times as rich as
+her poor girl, and certainly much handsomer. "Yes, indeed," says George,
+"that I own: she is handsomer, and she is richer, and perhaps even
+cleverer." (All which praises Mrs. Lambert but half liked.) "But say
+she is all these? So is Mr. Johnson much cleverer than I am: so is, whom
+shall we say?--so is Mr. Hagan the actor much taller and handsomer: so
+is Sir James Lowther much richer: yet pray, ma'am, do you suppose I am
+going to be jealous of any one of these three, or think my Theo would
+jilt me for their sakes? Why should I not allow that Miss Lydia is
+handsomer, then? and richer, and clever, too, and lively, and well bred,
+if you insist on it, and an angel if you will have it so? Theo is not
+afraid: art thou, child?"
+
+"No, George," says Theo, with such an honest look of the eyes as would
+convince any scepticism, or shame any jealousy. And if, after this pair
+of speeches, mamma takes occasion to leave the room for a minute to
+fetch her scissors, or her thimble, or a bootjack and slippers, or the
+cross and ball on the top of St. Paul's, or her pocket-handkerchief
+which she has forgotten in the parlour--if, I say, Mrs. Lambert quits
+the room on any errand or pretext, natural or preposterous, I shall not
+be in the least surprised, if, at her return in a couple of minutes, she
+finds George in near proximity to Theo, who has a heightened colour, and
+whose hand George is just dropping--I shall not have the least idea of
+what they have been doing. Have you, madam? Have you any remembrance of
+what used to happen when Mr. Grundy came a-courting? Are you, who, after
+all, were not in the room with our young people, going to cry out fie
+and for shame? Then fie and for shame upon you, Mrs. Grundy!
+
+Well, Harry being away, and Theo and George irrevocably engaged, so
+that there was no possibility of bringing Madam Esmond's little plans to
+bear, why should not Mrs. Lambert have plans of her own; and if a rich,
+handsome, beautiful little wife should fall in his way, why should
+not Jack Lambert from Oxford have her? So thinks mamma, who was always
+thinking of marrying and giving in marriage, and so she prattles to
+General Lambert, who, as usual, calls her a goose for her pains. At any
+rate, Mrs. Lambert says beauty and riches are no objection; at any rate,
+Madam Esmond desired that this family should be hospitably entertained,
+and it was not her fault that Harry was gone away to Canada. Would
+the General wish him to come back; leave the army and his reputation,
+perhaps; yes, and come to England and marry this American, and break
+poor Hetty's heart--would her father wish that? Let us spare further
+arguments, and not be so rude as to hint that Mr. Lambert was in the
+right in calling a fond wife by the name of that absurd splay-footed
+bird, annually sacrificed at the Feast of St. Michael.
+
+In those early days, there were vast distinctions of rank drawn between
+the court and city people: and Mr. Van den Bosch, when he first came
+to London, scarcely associated with any but the latter sort. He had a
+lodging near his agent's in the city. When his pretty girl came from
+school for a holiday, he took her an airing to Islington or Highgate, or
+an occasional promenade in the Artillery Ground in Bunhill Fields. They
+went to that Baptist meeting-house in Finsbury Fields, and on the sly
+to see Mr. Garrick once or twice, or that funny rogue Mr. Foote, at
+the Little Theatre. To go to a Lord Mayor's feast was a treat to the
+gentleman of the highest order: and to dance with a young mercer at
+Hampstead Assembly. gave the utmost delight to the young lady. When
+George first went to wait upon his mother's friends, he found our old
+acquaintance, Mr. Draper, of the Temple, sedulous in his attentions to
+her; and the lawyer, who was married, told Mr. Warrington to look out,
+as the young lady had a plumb to her fortune. Mr. Drabshaw, a young
+Quaker gentleman, and nephew of Mr. Trail, Madam Esmond's Bristol agent,
+was also in constant attendance upon the young lady, and in dreadful
+alarm and suspicion when Mr. Warrington first made his appearance.
+Wishing to do honour to his mother's neighbours, Mr. Warrington invited
+them to an entertainment at his own apartments; and who should so
+naturally meet them as his friends from Soho? Not one of them but was
+forced to own little Miss Lydia's beauty. She had the foot of a fairy:
+the arms, neck, flashing eyes of a little brown huntress of Diana. She
+had brought a little plaintive accent from home with her--of which I,
+moi qui vous parle, have heard a hundred gross Cockney imitations, and
+watched as many absurd disguises, and which I say (in moderation)
+is charming in the mouth of a charming woman. Who sets up to say No,
+forsooth? You dear Miss Whittington, with whose h's fate has dealt so
+unkindly?--you lovely Miss Nicol Jarvie, with your northern burr?--you
+beautiful Miss Molony, with your Dame Street warble? All accents are
+pretty from pretty lips, and who shall set the standard up? Shall it be
+a rose, or a thistle, or a shamrock, or a star and stripe? As for Miss
+Lydia's accent, I have no doubt it was not odious even from the first
+day when she set foot on these polite shores, otherwise Mr. Warrington,
+as a man of taste, had certainly disapproved of her manner of talking,
+and her schoolmistress at Kensington had not done her duty by her pupil.
+
+After the six months were over, during which, according to her father's
+calculation, she was to learn all the accomplishments procurable at the
+Kensington Academy, Miss Lydia returned nothing loth to her grandfather,
+and took her place in the world. A narrow world at first it was to her;
+but she was a resolute little person, and resolved to enlarge her
+sphere in society; and whither she chose to lead the way, the obedient
+grandfather followed her. He had been thwarted himself in early life, he
+said, and little good came of the severity he underwent. He had thwarted
+his own son, who had turned out but ill. As for little Lyddy, he was
+determined she should have as pleasant a life as was possible. Did not
+Mr. George think he was right? 'Twas said in Virginia--he did not
+know with what reason--that the young gentlemen of Castlewood had been
+happier if Madam Esmond had allowed them a little of their own way.
+George could not gainsay this public rumour, or think of inducing
+the benevolent old gentleman to alter his plans respecting his
+granddaughter. As for the Lambert family, how could they do otherwise
+than welcome the kind old man, the parent so tender and liberal, Madam
+Esmond's good friend?
+
+When Miss came from school, grandpapa removed from Monument Yard to
+an elegant house in Bloomsbury; whither they were followed at first by
+their city friends. There were merchants from Virginia Walk; there were
+worthy tradesmen, with whom the worthy old merchant had dealings; there
+were their ladies and daughters and sons, who were all highly gracious
+to Miss Lyddy. It would be a long task to describe how these disappeared
+one by one--how there were no more junketings at Belsize, or trips
+to Highgate, or Saturday jaunts to Deputy Higgs' villa, Highbury, or
+country-dances at honest Mr. Lutestring's house at Hackney. Even the
+Sunday practice was changed; and, oh, abomination of abominations! Mr.
+Van den Bosch left Bethesda Chapel in Bunhill Row, and actually took a
+pew in Queen Square Church!
+
+Queen Square Church, and Mr. George Warrington lived hard by in
+Southampton Row! 'Twas easy to see at whom Miss Lyddy was setting her
+cap, and Mr. Draper, who had been full of her and her grandfather's
+praises before, now took occasion to warn Mr. George, and gave him very
+different reports regarding Mr. Van den Bosch to those which had
+first been current. Mr. Van d. B., for all he bragged so of his Dutch
+parentage, came from Albany, and was nobody's son at all. He had made
+his money by land speculation, or by privateering (which was uncommonly
+like piracy), and by the Guinea trade. His son had married--if marriage
+it could be called, which was very doubtful--an assigned servant, and
+had been cut off by his father, and had taken to bad courses, and had
+died, luckily for himself, in his own bed.
+
+"Mr. Draper has told you bad tales about me," said the placid old
+gentleman to George. "Very likely we are all sinners, and some evil may
+be truly said of all of us, with a great deal more that is untrue. Did
+he tell you that my son was unhappy with me? I told you so too. Did he
+bring you wicked stories about my family? He liked it so well that he
+wanted to marry my Lyddy to his brother. Heaven bless her! I have had a
+many offers for her. And you are the young gentleman I should have chose
+for her, and I like you none the worse because you prefer somebody else;
+though what you can see in your Miss, as compared to my Lyddy, begging
+your honour's pardon, I am at a loss to understand."
+
+"There is no accounting for tastes, my good sir," said Mr. George, with
+his most superb air.
+
+"No, sir; 'tis a wonder of nature, and daily happens. When I kept store
+to Albany, there was one of your tiptop gentry there that might have
+married my dear daughter that was alive then, and with a pretty piece
+of money, whereby--for her father and I had quarrelled--Miss Lyddy would
+have been a pauper, you see: and in place of my beautiful Bella, my
+gentleman chooses a little homely creature, no prettier than your Miss,
+and without a dollar to her fortune. The more fool he, saving your
+presence, Mr. George."
+
+"Pray don't save my presence, my good sir," says George, laughing. "I
+suppose the gentleman's word was given to the other lady, and he had
+seen her first, and hence was indifferent to your charming daughter."
+
+"I suppose when a young fellow gives his word to perform a cursed piece
+of folly, he always sticks to it, my dear sir, begging your pardon. But
+Lord, Lord, what am I speaking of? I am aspeaking of twenty year ago. I
+was well-to-do then, but I may say Heaven has blessed my store, and I am
+three times as well off now. Ask my agents how much they will give for
+Joseph Van den Bosch's bill at six months on New York--or at sight may
+be for forty thousand pound? I warrant they will discount the paper."
+
+"Happy he who has the bill, sir!" says George, with a bow, not a little
+amused with the candour of the old gentleman.
+
+"Lord, Lord, how mercenary you young men are!" cries the elder, simply.
+"Always thinking about money nowadays! Happy he who has the girl, I
+should say--the money ain't the question, my dear sir, when it goes
+along with such a lovely young thing as that--though I humbly say it,
+who oughtn't, and who am her fond silly old grandfather. We were talking
+about you, Lyddy darling--come, give me a kiss, my blessing! We were
+talking about you, and Mr. George said he wouldn't take you with all the
+money your poor old grandfather can give you."
+
+"Nay, sir," says George.
+
+"Well, you are right to say nay, for I didn't say all, that's the truth.
+My Blessing will have a deal more than that trifle I spoke of, when it
+shall please Heaven to remove me out of this world to a better--when
+poor old Gappy is gone, Lyddy will be a rich little Lyddy, that she
+will. But she don't wish me to go yet, does she?"
+
+"Oh, you darling dear grandpapa!" says Lyddy.
+
+"This young gentleman won't have you." (Lyddy looks an arch "Thank you,
+sir," from her brown eyes.) "But at any rate he is honest, and that
+is more than we can say of some folks in this wicked London. Oh, Lord,
+Lord, how mercenary they are! Do you know that yonder, in Monument Yard,
+they were all at my poor little Blessing for her money? There was
+Tom Lutestring; there was Mr. Draper, your precious lawyer; there was
+actually Mr. Tubbs, of Bethesda Chapel; and they must all come buzzing
+like flies round the honey-pot. That is why we came out of the quarter
+where my brother-tradesmen live."
+
+"To avoid the flies,--to be sure!" says Miss Lydia, tossing up her
+little head.
+
+"Where my brother-tradesmen live," continues the old gentleman. "Else
+who am I to think of consorting with your grandees and fine folk? I
+don't care for the fashions, Mr. George; I don't care for plays and
+poetry, begging your honour's pardon; I never went to a play in my life,
+but to please this little minx."
+
+"Oh, sir, 'twas lovely! and I cried so, didn't I, grandpapa?" says the
+child.
+
+"At what, my dear?"
+
+"At--at Mr. Warrington's play, grandpapa."
+
+"Did you, my dear? I dare say; I dare say! It was mail day: and my
+letters had come in: and my ship the Lovely Lyddy had just come into
+Falmouth; and Captain Joyce reported how he had mercifully escaped a
+French privateer; and my head was so full of thanks for that escape,
+which saved me a deal of money, Mr. George--for the rate at which ships
+is underwrote this war-time is so scandalous that I often prefer to
+venture than to insure--that I confess I didn't listen much to the play,
+sir, and only went to please this little Lyddy."
+
+"And you did please me, dearest Gappy!" cries the young lady.
+
+"Bless you! then it's all I want. What does a man want more here below
+than to please his children, Mr. George? especially me, who knew what
+was to be unhappy when I was young, and to repent of having treated this
+darling's father too hard."
+
+"Oh, grandpapa!" cries the child, with more caresses.
+
+"Yes, I was too hard with him, dear; and that's why I spoil my little
+Lydkin so!"
+
+More kisses ensue between Lyddy and Gappy. The little creature flings
+the pretty polished arms round the old man's neck, presses the dark red
+lips on his withered cheek, surrounds the venerable head with a halo of
+powder beaten out of his wig by her caresses; and eyes Mr. George the
+while, as much as to say, There, sir! should you not like me to do as
+much for you?
+
+We confess;--but do we confess all? George certainly told the story of
+his interview with Lyddy and Gappy, and the old man's news regarding his
+granddaughter's wealth; but I don't think he told everything; else Theo
+would scarce have been so much interested, or so entirely amused and
+good-humoured with Lyddy when next the two young ladies met.
+
+They met now pretty frequently, especially after the old American
+gentleman took up his residence in Bloomsbury. Mr. Van den Bosch was
+in the city for the most part of the day, attending to his affairs, and
+appearing at his place upon 'Change. During his absence Lyddy had the
+command of the house, and received her guests there like a lady, or rode
+abroad in a fine coach, which she ordered her grandpapa to keep for her,
+and into which he could very seldom be induced to set his foot. Before
+long Miss Lyddy was as easy in the coach as if she had ridden in one
+all her life. She ordered the domestics here and there; she drove to the
+mercer's and the jeweller's, and she called upon her friends with the
+utmost stateliness, or rode abroad with them to take the air. Theo and
+Hetty were both greatly diverted with her: but would the elder have been
+quite as well pleased had she known all Miss Lyddy's doings? Not that
+Theo was of a jealous disposition,--far otherwise; but there are cases
+when a lady has a right to a little jealousy, as I maintain, whatever my
+fair readers may say to the contrary.
+
+It was because she knew he was engaged, very likely, that Miss Lyddy
+permitted herself to speak so frankly in Mr. George's praise. When they
+were alone--and this blessed chance occurred pretty often at Mr. Van den
+Bosch's house, for we have said he was constantly absent on one errand
+or the other--it was wonderful how artlessly the little creature would
+show her enthusiasm, asking him all sorts of simple questions about
+himself, his genius, his way of life at home and in London, his projects
+of marriage, and so forth.
+
+"I am glad you are going to be married, oh, so glad!" she would say,
+heaving the most piteous sigh the while; "for I can talk to you frankly,
+quite frankly as a brother, and not be afraid of that odious politeness
+about which they were always scolding me at boarding-school. I may speak
+to you frankly; and if I like you, I may say so, mayn't I, Mr. George?"
+
+"Pray, say so," says George, with a bow and a smile. "That is a kind of
+talk which most men delight to hear, especially from such pretty lips as
+Miss Lydia's."
+
+"What do you know about my lips?" says the girl, with a pout and an
+innocent look into his face.
+
+"What, indeed?" asks George. "Perhaps I should like to know a great deal
+more."
+
+"They don't tell nothin' but truth, anyhow!" says the girl; "that's why
+some people don't like them! If I have anything on my mind, it must
+come out. I am a country-bred girl, I am--with my heart in my mouth--all
+honesty and simplicity; not like your English girls, who have learned I
+don't know what at their boarding-schools, and from the men afterwards."
+
+"Our girls are monstrous little hypocrites, indeed!" cries George.
+
+"You are thinking of Miss Lamberts? and I might have thought of them;
+but I declare I did not then. They have been at boarding-school; they
+have been in the world a great deal--so much the greater pity for them,
+for be certain they learned no good there. And now I have said so, of
+course you will go and tell Miss Theo, won't you, sir?"
+
+"That she has learned no good in the world? She has scarce spoken to men
+at all, except her father, her brother, and me. Which of us would teach
+her any wrong, think you?"
+
+"Oh, not you! Though I can understand its being very dangerous to be
+with you!" says the girl, with a sigh.
+
+"Indeed there is no danger, and I don't bite!" says George, laughing.
+
+"I didn't say bite," says the girl, softly. "There's other things
+dangerous besides biting, I should think. Aren't you very witty? Yes,
+and sarcastic, and clever, and always laughing at people? Haven't you
+a coaxing tongue? If you was to look at me in that kind of way, I don't
+know what would come to me. Was your brother like you, as I was to have
+married? Was he as clever and witty as you? I have heard he was like
+you: but he hadn't your coaxing tongue. Heigho! 'Tis well you are
+engaged, Master George, that is all. Do you think if you had seen me
+first, you would have liked Miss Theo best?"
+
+"They say marriages were made in Heaven, my dear, and let us trust that
+mine has been arranged there," says George.
+
+"I suppose there was no such thing never known, as a man having two
+sweethearts?" asks the artless little maiden. "Guess it's a pity. O me!
+What nonsense I'm a-talking; there now! I'm like the little girl who
+cried for the moon; and I can't have it. 'Tis too high for me--too
+high and splendid and shining: can't reach up to it nohow. Well, what
+a foolish, wayward, little spoilt thing I am now! But one thing you
+promise.-on your word and your honour, now, Mr. George?"
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"That you won't tell Miss Theo, else she'll hate me."
+
+"Why should she hate you?"
+
+"Because I hate her, and wish she was dead!" breaks out the young lady.
+And the eyes that were looking so gentle and lachrymose but now, flame
+with sudden wrath, and her cheeks flush up. "For shame!" she adds, after
+a pause. "I'm a little fool to speak! But whatever is in my heart must
+come out. I am a girl of the woods, I am. I was bred where the sun is
+hotter than in this foggy climate. And I am not like your cold English
+girls; who, before they speak, or think, or feel, must wait for mamma to
+give leave. There, there! I may be a little fool for saying what I have.
+I know you'll go and tell Miss Lambert. Well, do!"
+
+But, as we have said, George didn't tell Miss Lambert. Even from the
+beloved person there must be some things kept secret; even to himself,
+perhaps, he did not quite acknowledge what was the meaning of the little
+girl's confession; or, if he acknowledged it, did not act on it; except
+in so far as this, perhaps, that my gentleman, in Miss Lydia's presence,
+was particularly courteous and tender; and in her absence thought of her
+very kindly, and always with a certain pleasure. It were hard, indeed,
+if a man might not repay by a little kindness and gratitude the artless
+affection of such a warm young heart.
+
+What was that story meanwhile which came round to our friends, of young
+Mr. Lutestring and young Mr. Drabshaw the Quaker having a boxing-match
+at a tavern in the city, and all about this young lady? They fell
+out over their cups, and fought probably. Why did Mr. Draper, who had
+praised her so at first, tell such stories now against her grandfather?
+"I suspect," says Madame de Bernstein, "that he wants the girl for some
+client or relation of his own; and that he tells these tales in order to
+frighten all suitors from her. When she and her grandfather came to me,
+she behaved perfectly well; and I confess, sir, I thought it was a great
+pity that you should prefer yonder red-cheeked countrified little chit,
+without a halfpenny, to this pretty, wild, artless girl, with such a
+fortune as I hear she has."
+
+"Oh, she has been with you, has she, aunt?" asks George of his relative.
+
+"Of course she has been with me," the other replies, curtly. "Unless
+your brother has been so silly as to fall in love with that other little
+Lambert girl----"
+
+"Indeed, ma'am, I think I can say he has not," George remarks.
+
+"Why, then, when he comes back with Mr. Wolfe, should he not take
+a fancy to this little person, as his mamma wishes--only, to do us
+justice, we Esmonds care very little for what our mammas wish--and marry
+her, and set up beside you in Virginia? She is to have a great fortune,
+which you won't touch. Pray, why should it go out of the family?"
+
+George now learned that Mr. Van den Bosch and his granddaughter had been
+often at Madame de Bernstein's house. Taking his favourite walk with his
+favourite companion to Kensington Gardens, he saw Mr. Van den Bosch's
+chariot turning into Kensington Square. The Americans were going to
+visit Lady Castlewood, then? He found, on some little inquiry, that they
+had been more than once with her ladyship. It was, perhaps, strange
+that they should have said nothing of their visits to George; but, being
+little curious of other people's affairs, and having no intrigues or
+mysteries of his own, George was quite slow to imagine them in
+other people. What mattered to him how often Kensington entertained
+Bloomsbury, or Bloomsbury made its bow at Kensington?
+
+A number of things were happening at both places, of which our Virginian
+had not the slightest idea. Indeed, do not things happen under our eyes,
+and we not see them? Are not comedies and tragedies daily performed
+before us of which we understand neither the fun nor the pathos? Very
+likely George goes home thinking to himself, "I have made an impression
+on the heart of this young creature. She has almost confessed as much.
+Poor artless little maiden! I wonder what there is in me that she should
+like me?" Can he be angry with her for this unlucky preference? Was ever
+a man angry at such a reason? He would not have been so well pleased,
+perhaps, had he known all; and that he was only one of the performers
+in the comedy, not the principal character by any means; Rosencrantz and
+Guildenstern in the Tragedy, the part of Hamlet by a gentleman unknown.
+How often are our little vanities shocked in this way, and subjected to
+wholesome humiliation! Have you not fancied that Lucinda's eyes beamed
+on you with a special tenderness, and presently become aware that she
+ogles your neighbour with the very same killing glances? Have you not
+exchanged exquisite whispers with Lalage at the dinner-table (sweet
+murmurs heard through the hum of the guests, and clatter of the
+banquet!) and then overheard her whispering the very same delicious
+phrases to old Surdus in the drawing-room? The sun shines for everybody;
+the flowers smell sweet for all noses; and the nightingale and Lalage
+warble for all ears--not your long ones only, good Brother!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXX. In which Cupid plays a Considerable Part
+
+
+We must now, however, and before we proceed with the history of Miss
+Lydia and her doings, perform the duty of explaining that sentence
+in Mr. Warrington's letter to his brother which refers to Lady Maria
+Esmond, and which, to some simple readers, may be still mysterious.
+For how, indeed, could well-regulated persons divine such a secret?
+How could innocent and respectable young people suppose that a woman of
+noble birth, of ancient family, of mature experience,--a woman whom we
+have seen exceedingly in love only a score of months ago,--should so
+far forget herself as (oh, my very finger-tips blush as I write the
+sentence!)--as not only to fall in love with a person of low origin, and
+very many years her junior, but actually to marry him in the face of
+the world? That is, not exactly in the face, but behind the back of the
+world, so to speak; for Parson Sampson privily tied the indissoluble
+knot for the pair at his chapel in Mayfair.
+
+Now stop before you condemn her utterly. Because Lady Maria had had, and
+overcome, a foolish partiality for her young cousin, was that any reason
+why she should never fall in love with anybody else? Are men to have
+the sole privilege of change, and are women to be rebuked for availing
+themselves now and again of their little chance of consolation? No
+invectives can be more rude, gross, and unphilosophical than, for
+instance, Hamlet's to his mother about her second marriage. The truth,
+very likely, is, that that tender, parasitic creature wanted a something
+to cling to, and, Hamlet senior out of the way, twined herself round
+Claudius. Nay, we have known females so bent on attaching themselves,
+that they can twine round two gentlemen at once. Why, forsooth, shall
+there not be marriage-tables after funeral baked-meats? If you said
+grace for your feast yesterday, is that any reason why you shall not be
+hungry to-day? Your natural fine appetite and relish for this evening's
+feast, shows that to-morrow evening at eight o'clock you will most
+probably be in want of your dinner. I, for my part, when Flirtilla or
+Jiltissa were partial to me (the kind reader will please to fancy that
+I am alluding here to persons of the most ravishing beauty and lofty
+rank), always used to bear in mind that a time would come when they
+would be fond of somebody else. We are served a la Russe, and gobbled up
+a dish at a time, like the folks in Polyphemus's cave. 'Tis hodie mihi,
+cras tibi: there are some Anthropophagi who devour dozens of us, the
+old, the young, the tender, the tough, the plump, the lean, the ugly,
+the beautiful: there's no escape, and one after another, as our fate is,
+we disappear down their omnivorous maws. Look at Lady Ogresham! We all
+remember, last year, how she served poor Tom Kydd: seized upon him,
+devoured him, picked his bones, and flung them away. Now it is Ned
+Suckling she has got into her den. He lies under her great eyes,
+quivering and fascinated. Look at the poor little trepid creature,
+panting and helpless under the great eyes! She trails towards him nearer
+and nearer; he draws to her, closer and closer. Presently there will
+be one or two feeble squeaks for pity, and--hobblegobble--he will
+disappear! Ah me! it is pity, too. I knew, for instance, that Maria
+Esmond had lost her heart ever so many times before Harry Warrington
+found it; but I like to fancy that he was going to keep it; that,
+bewailing mischance and times out of joint, she would yet have preserved
+her love, and fondled it in decorous celibacy. If, in some paroxysm of
+senile folly, I should fall in love to-morrow, I shall still try and
+think I have acquired the fee-simple of my charmer's heart;--not that
+I am only a tenant, on a short lease, of an old battered furnished
+apartment, where the dingy old wine-glasses have been clouded by scores
+of pairs of lips, and the tumbled old sofas are muddy with the last
+lodger's boots. Dear, dear nymph! Being beloved and beautiful! Suppose I
+had a little passing passion for Glycera (and her complexion really
+was as pure as splendent Parian marble); suppose you had a fancy for
+Telephus, and his low collars and absurd neck;--those follies are all
+over now, aren't they? We love each other for good now, don't we? Yes,
+for ever; and Glycera may go to Bath, and Telephus take his cervicem
+roseam to Jack Ketch, n'est-ce pas?
+
+No. We never think of changing, my dear. However winds blow, or time
+flies, or spoons stir, our potage, which is now so piping hot, will
+never get cold. Passing fancies we may have allowed ourselves in former
+days; and really your infatuation for Telephus (don't frown so, my
+darling creature! and make the wrinkles in your forehead worse)--I
+say, really it was the talk of the whole town; and as for Glycera, she
+behaved confoundedly ill to me. Well, well, now that we understand each
+other, it is for ever that our hearts are united, and we can look at Sir
+Cresswell Cresswell, and snap our fingers at his wig. But this Maria of
+the last century was a woman of an ill-regulated mind. You, my love, who
+know the world, know that in the course of this lady's career a great
+deal must have passed that would not bear the light, or edify in the
+telling. You know (not, my dear creature, that I mean you have any
+experience; but you have heard people say--you have heard your mother
+say) that an old flirt, when she has done playing the fool with
+one passion, will play the fool with another; that flirting is like
+drinking; and the brandy being drunk up, you--no, not you--Glycera--the
+brandy being drunk up, Glycera, who has taken to drinking, will fall
+upon the gin. So, if Maria Esmond has found a successor for Harry
+Warrington, and set up a new sultan in the precious empire of her heart,
+what, after all, could you expect from her? That territory was like
+the Low Countries, accustomed to being conquered, and for ever open to
+invasion.
+
+And Maria's present enslaver was no other than Mr. Geoghegan or Hagan,
+the young actor who had performed in George's tragedy. His tones were so
+thrilling, his eye so bright, his mien so noble, he looked so beautiful
+in his gilt leather armour and large buckled periwig, giving utterance
+to the poet's glowing verses, that the lady's heart was yielded up to
+him, even as Ariadne's to Bacchus when her affair with Theseus was over.
+The young Irishman was not a little touched and elated by the highborn
+damsel's partiality for him. He might have preferred a Lady Maria
+Hagan more tender in years, but one more tender in disposition it were
+difficult to discover. She clung to him closely, indeed. She retired to
+his humble lodgings in Westminster with him, when it became necessary to
+disclose their marriage, and when her furious relatives disowned her.
+
+General Lambert brought the news home from his office in Whitehall one
+day, and made merry over it with his family. In those homely times a
+joke was none the worse for being a little broad; and a fine lady would
+laugh at a jolly page of Fielding, and weep over a letter of Clarissa,
+which would make your present ladyship's eyes start out of your head
+with horror. He uttered all sorts of waggeries, did the merry General,
+upon the subject of this marriage; upon George's share in bringing it
+about; upon Barry's jealousy when he should hear of it, He vowed it was
+cruel that cousin Hagan had not selected George as groomsman; that the
+first child should be called Carpezan or Sybilla, after the tragedy, and
+so forth. They would not quite be able to keep a coach, but they might
+get a chariot and pasteboard dragons from Mr. Rich's theatre. The baby
+might be christened in Macbeth's caldron; and Harry and harlequin ought
+certainly to be godfathers.
+
+"Why shouldn't she marry him if she likes him?" asked little Hetty. "Why
+should he not love her because she is a little old? Mamma is a little
+old, and you love her none the worse. When you married my mamma, sir, I
+have heard you say you were very poor; and yet you were very happy, and
+nobody laughed at you!" Thus this impudent little person spoke by reason
+of her tender age, not being aware of Lady Maria Esmond's previous
+follies.
+
+So her family has deserted her? George described what wrath they were
+in; how Lady Castlewood had gone into mourning; how Mr. Will swore he
+would have the rascal's ears; how furious Madame de Bernstein was, the
+most angry of all. "It is an insult to the family," says haughty little
+Miss Hett; "and I can fancy how ladies of that rank must be indignant at
+their relative's marriage with a person of Mr. Hagan's condition; but to
+desert her is a very different matter."
+
+"Indeed, my dear child," cries mamma, "you are talking of what you don't
+understand. After my Lady Maria's conduct, no respectable person can go
+to see her."
+
+"What conduct, mamma?"
+
+"Never mind," cries mamma. "Little girls can't be expected to know, and
+ought not to be too curious to inquire, what Lady Maria's conduct has
+been! Suffice it, miss, that I am shocked her ladyship should ever have
+been here; and I say again, no honest person should associate with her!"
+
+"Then, Aunt Lambert, I must be whipped and sent to bed," says George,
+with mock gravity. "I own to you (though I did not confess sooner,
+seeing that the affair was not mine) that I have been to see my cousin
+the player, and her ladyship his wife. I found them in very dirty
+lodgings in Westminster, where the wretch has the shabbiness to keep not
+only his wife, but his old mother, and a little brother, whom he puts
+to school. I found Mr. Hagan, and came away with a liking, and almost a
+respect for him, although I own he has made a very improvident marriage.
+But how improvident some folks are about marriage, aren't they, Theo?"
+
+"Improvident, if they marry such spendthrifts as you," says the General.
+"Master George found his relations, and I'll be bound to say he left his
+purse behind him."
+
+"No, not the purse, sir," says George, smiling very tenderly. "Theo made
+that. But I am bound to own it came empty away. Mr. Rich is in great
+dudgeon. He says he hardly dares have Hagan on his stage, and is afraid
+of a riot, such as Mr. Garrick had about the foreign dancers. This is to
+be a fine gentleman's riot. The macaronis are furious, and vow they will
+pelt Mr. Hagan, and have him cudgelled afterwards. My cousin Will, at
+Arthur's, has taken his oath he will have the actor's ears. Meanwhile,
+as the poor man does not play, they have cut off his salary; and without
+his salary, this luckless pair of lovers have no means to buy bread and
+cheese."
+
+"And you took it to them, sir? It was like you, George!" says Theo,
+worshipping him with her eyes.
+
+"It was your purse took it, dear Theo!" replies George.
+
+"Mamma, I hope you will go and see them to-morrow!" prays Theo.
+
+"If she doesn't, I shall get a divorce, my dear!" cries papa. "Come and
+kiss me, you little wench--that is, avec la bonne permission de monsieur
+mon beau-fils."
+
+"Monsieur mon beau fiddlestick, papa!" says Miss Lambert, and I have
+no doubt complies with the paternal orders. And this was the first time
+George Esmond Warrington, Esquire, was ever called a fiddlestick.
+
+Any man, even in our time, who makes an imprudent marriage, knows how he
+has to run the gauntlet of the family, and undergo the abuse, the scorn,
+the wrath, the pity of his relations. If your respectable family cry out
+because you marry the curate's daughter, one in ten, let us say, of his
+charming children; or because you engage yourself to the young barrister
+whose only present pecuniary resources come from the court which he
+reports, and who will have to pay his Oxford bills out of your slender
+little fortune;--if your friends cry out for making such engagements as
+these, fancy the feelings of Lady Maria Hagan's friends, and even those
+of Mr. Hagan's, on the announcement of this marriage.
+
+There is old Mrs. Hagan, in the first instance. Her son has kept her
+dutifully and in tolerable comfort, ever since he left Trinity College
+at his father's death, and appeared as Romeo at Crow Street Theatre. His
+salary has sufficed of late years to keep the brother at school, to help
+the sister who has gone out as companion, and to provide fire, clothing,
+tea, dinner, and comfort for the old clergyman's widow. And now,
+forsooth, a fine lady, with all sorts of extravagant habits, must come
+and take possession of the humble home, and share the scanty loaf and
+mutton! Were Hagan not a high-spirited fellow, and the old mother very
+much afraid of him, I doubt whether my lady's life at the Westminster
+lodgings would be very comfortable. It was very selfish perhaps to take
+a place at that small table, and in poor Hagan's narrow bed. But Love in
+some passionate and romantic dispositions never regards consequences, or
+measures accommodation. Who has not experienced that frame of mind; what
+thrifty wife has not seen and lamented her husband in that condition;
+when, with rather a heightened colour and a deuce-may-care smile on his
+face, he comes home and announces that he has asked twenty people to
+dinner next Saturday? He doesn't know whom exactly; and he does know
+the dining-room will only hold sixteen. Never mind! Two of the prettiest
+girls can sit upon young gentlemen's knees: others won't come: there's
+sure to be plenty! In the intoxication of love people venture upon this
+dangerous sort of housekeeping; they don't calculate the resources of
+their dining-table, or those inevitable butchers' and fishmongers' bills
+which will be brought to the ghastly housekeeper at the beginning of the
+month.
+
+Yes: it was rather selfish of my Lady Maria to seat herself at Hagan's
+table and take the cream off the milk, and the wings of the chickens,
+and the best half of everything where there was only enough before; and
+no wonder the poor old mamma-in-law was disposed to grumble. But what
+was her outcry compared to the clamour at Kensington among Lady Maria's
+noble family? Think of the talk and scandal all over the town! Think of
+the titters and whispers of the ladies in attendance at the Princess's
+court, where Lady Fanny had a place; of the jokes of Mr. Will's
+brother-officers at the usher's table; of the waggeries in the daily
+prints and magazines; of the comments of outraged prudes; of the
+laughter of the clubs and the sneers of the ungodly! At the receipt of
+the news Madame Bernstein had fits and ran off to the solitude of her
+dear rocks at Tunbridge Wells, where she did not see above forty people
+of a night at cards. My lord refused to see his sister; and the Countess
+in mourning, as we have said, waited upon one of her patronesses, a
+gracious Princess, who was pleased to condole with her upon the disgrace
+and calamity which had befallen her house. For one, two, three whole
+days the town was excited and amused by the scandal; then there came
+other news--a victory in Germany; doubtful accounts from America; a
+general officer coming home to take his trial; an exquisite new soprano
+singer from Italy; and the public forgot Lady Maria in her garret,
+eating the hard-earned meal of the actor's family.
+
+This is an extract from Mr. George Warrington's letter to his brother,
+in which he describes other personal matters, as well as a visit he had
+paid to the newly married pair:--
+
+
+"My dearest little Theo," he writes, "was eager to accompany her mamma
+upon this errand of charity; but I thought Aunt Lambert's visit would be
+best under the circumstances, and without the attendance of her little
+spinster aide-de-camp. Cousin Hagan was out when we called; we found
+her ladyship in a loose undress, and with her hair in not the neatest
+papers, playing at cribbage with a neighbour from the second floor,
+while good Mrs. Hagan sate on the other side of the fire with a glass of
+punch, and the Whole Duty of Man.
+
+"Maria, your Maria once, cried a little when she saw us; and Aunt
+Lambert, you may be sure, was ready with her sympathy. While she
+bestowed it on Lady Maria, I paid the best compliments I could invent to
+the old lady. When the conversation between Aunt L. and the bride began
+to flag, I turned to the latter, and between us we did our best to make
+a dreary interview pleasant. Our talk was about you, about Wolfe, about
+war; you must be engaged face to face with the Frenchmen by this time,
+and God send my dearest brother safe and victorious out of the battle!
+Be sure we follow your steps anxiously--we fancy you at Cape Breton.
+We have plans of Quebec, and charts of the St. Lawrence. Shall I ever
+forget your face of joy that day when you saw me return safe and sound
+from the little combat with the little Frenchman? So will my Harry, I
+know, return from his battle. I feel quite assured of it; elated somehow
+with the prospect of your certain success and safety. And I have made
+all here share my cheerfulness. We talk of the campaign as over, and
+Captain Warrington's promotion as secure. Pray Heaven, all our hopes may
+be fulfilled one day ere long.
+
+"How strange it is that you who are the mettlesome fellow (you know you
+are) should escape quarrels hitherto, and I, who am a peaceful youth,
+wishing no harm to anybody, should have battles thrust upon me! What do
+you think actually of my having had another affair upon my wicked hands,
+and with whom, think you? With no less a personage than your old enemy,
+our kinsman, Mr. Will.
+
+"What or who set him to quarrel with me, I cannot think. Spencer
+(who acted as second for me, for matters actually have gone this
+length;--don't be frightened; it is all over, and nobody is a scratch
+the worse) thinks some one set Will on me, but who, I say? His conduct
+has been most singular; his behaviour quite unbearable. We have met
+pretty frequently lately at the house of good Mr. Van den Bosch, whose
+pretty granddaughter was consigned to both of us by our good mother. Oh,
+dear mother! did you know that the little thing was to be such a
+causa belli, and to cause swords to be drawn, and precious lives to
+be menaced? But so it has been. To show his own spirit, I suppose, or
+having some reasonable doubt about mine, whenever Will and I have met
+at Mynheer's house--and he is for ever going there--he has shown such
+downright rudeness to me, that I have required more than ordinary
+patience to keep my temper. He has contradicted me once, twice, thrice
+in the presence of the family, and out of sheer spite and rage, as
+it appeared to me. Is he paying his addresses to Miss Lydia, and her
+father's ships, negroes, and forty thousand pounds? I should guess so.
+The old gentleman is for ever talking about his money, and adores his
+granddaughter, and as she is a beautiful little creature, numbers of
+folk here are ready to adore her too. Was Will rascal enough to fancy
+that I would give up my Theo for a million of guineas, and negroes, and
+Venus to boot? Could the thought of such baseness enter into the man's
+mind? I don't know that he has accused me of stealing Van den Bosch's
+spoons and tankards when we dine there, or of robbing on the highway.
+But for one reason or the other he has chosen to be jealous of me,
+and as I have parried his impertinences with little sarcastic speeches
+(though perfectly civil before company), perhaps I have once or twice
+made him angry. Our little Miss Lydia has unwittingly added fuel to the
+fire on more than one occasion, especially yesterday, when there was
+talk about your worship.
+
+"'Ah!' says the heedless little thing, as we sat over our dessert, ''tis
+lucky for you, Mr. Esmond, that Captain Harry is not here.'
+
+"'Why, miss?' asks he, with one of his usual conversational ornaments.
+He must have offended some fairy in his youth, who has caused him to
+drop curses for ever out of his mouth, as she did the girl to spit out
+toads and serpents. (I know some one from whose gentle lips there only
+fall pure pearls and diamonds.) 'Why?' says Will, with a cannonade of
+oaths.
+
+"'O fie!' says she, putting up the prettiest little fingers to the
+prettiest little rosy ears in the world. 'O fie, sir! to use such
+naughty words. 'Tis lucky the Captain is not here, because he might
+quarrel with you; and Mr. George is so peaceable and quiet, that he
+won't. Have you heard from the Captain, Mr. George?'
+
+"'From Cape Breton,' says I. 'He is very well, thank you; that is----'
+I couldn't finish the sentence, for I was in such a rage that I scarce
+could contain myself.
+
+"'From the Captain, as you call him, Miss Lyddy,' says Will. 'He'll
+distinguish himself as he did at Saint Cas! Ho, ho!'
+
+"'So I apprehend he did, sir,' says Will's brother.
+
+"'Did he?' says our dear cousin; 'always thought he ran away; took to
+his legs; got a ducking, and ran away as if a bailiff was after him.'
+
+"'La!' says Miss, 'did the Captain ever have a bailiff after him?'
+
+"'Didn't he? Ho, ho!' laughs Mr. Will.
+
+"I suppose I must have looked very savage, for Spencer, who was dining
+with us, trod on my foot under the table. 'Don't laugh so loud, cousin,'
+I said, very gently; 'you may wake good old Mr. Van den Bosch.' The good
+old gentleman was asleep in his arm-chair, to which he commonly retires
+for a nap after dinner.
+
+"'Oh, indeed, cousin,' says Will, and he turns and winks at a friend of
+his, Captain Deuceace, whose own and whose wife's reputation I dare say
+you heard of when you frequented the clubs, and whom Will has introduced
+into this simple family as a man of the highest fashion. 'Don't be
+afraid, miss,' says Mr. Will, 'nor my cousin needn't be.'
+
+"'Oh, what a comfort!' cries Miss Lyddy. 'Keep quite quiet, gentlemen,
+and don't quarrel, and come up to me when I send to say the tea is
+ready.' And with this she makes a sweet little curtsey, and disappears.
+
+"'Hang it, Jack, pass the bottle, and don't wake the old gentleman!'
+continues Mr. Will. 'Won't you help yourself, cousin?' he continues;
+being particularly facetious in the tone of that word cousin.
+
+"'I am going to help myself,' I said; 'but I am not going to drink the
+glass; and I'll tell you what I am going to do with it, if you will be
+quite quiet, cousin.' (Desperate kicks from Spencer all this time.)
+
+"'And what the deuce do I care what you are going to do with it?' asks
+Will, looking rather white.
+
+"'I am going to fling it into your face, cousin,' says I, very rapidly
+performing that feat.
+
+"'By Jove, and no mistake!' cries Mr. Deuceace; and as he and William
+roared out an oath together, good old Van den Bosch woke up, and, taking
+the pocket-handkerchief off his face, asked what was the matter.
+
+"I remarked it was only a glass of wine gone the wrong way and the
+old man said; 'Well, well, there is more where that came from! Let the
+butler bring you what you please, young gentlemen!' and he sank back in
+his great chair, and began to sleep again.
+
+"'From the back of Montagu House Gardens there is a beautiful view of
+Hampstead at six o'clock in the morning; and the statue of the King on
+St. George's Church is reckoned elegant, cousin!' says I, resuming the
+conversation.
+
+"'D---- the statue!' begins Will; but I said, 'Don't, cousin! or you
+will wake up the old gentleman. Had we not best go upstairs to Miss
+Lyddy's tea-table?'
+
+"We arranged a little meeting for the next morning; and a coroner
+might have been sitting upon one or other, or both, of our bodies this
+afternoon; but, would you believe it? just as our engagement was about
+to take place, we were interrupted by three of Sir John Fielding's men,
+and carried to Bow Street, and ignominiously bound over to keep the
+peace.
+
+"Who gave the information? Not I, or Spencer, I can vow. Though I own
+I was pleased when the constables came running to us; bludgeon in hand:
+for I had no wish to take Will's blood, or sacrifice my own to such a
+rascal. Now, sir, have you such a battle as this to describe to me?--a
+battle of powder and no shot?--a battle of swords as bloody as any on
+the stage? I have filled my paper, without finishing the story of Maria
+and her Hagan. You must have it by the next ship. You see, the quarrel
+with Will took place yesterday, very soon after I had written the first
+sentence or two of my letter. I had been dawdling till dinner-time (I
+looked at the paper last night, when I was grimly making certain little
+accounts up, and wondered shall I ever finish this letter?), and now
+the quarrel has been so much more interesting to me than poor Molly's
+love-adventures, that behold my paper is full to the brim! Wherever my
+dearest Harry reads it, I know that there will be a heart full of love
+for--His loving brother,                                                         G. E. W."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXI. White Favours
+
+
+The little quarrel between George and his cousin caused the former to
+discontinue his visits to Bloomsbury in a great measure; for Mr. Will
+was more than ever assiduous in his attentions; and, now that both were
+bound over to peace, so outrageous in his behaviour, that George found
+the greatest difficulty in keeping his hands from his cousin. The
+artless little Lydia had certainly a queer way of receiving her friends.
+But six weeks before madly jealous of George's preference for another,
+she now took occasion repeatedly to compliment Theo in her conversation.
+Miss Theo was such a quiet, gentle creature, Lyddy was sure George was
+just the husband for her. How fortunate that horrible quarrel had been
+prevented! The constables had come up just in time; and it was quite
+ridiculous to hear Mr. Esmond cursing and swearing, and the rage he was
+in at being disappointed of his duel! "But the arrival of the constables
+saved your valuable life, dear Mr. George, and I am sure Miss Theo ought
+to bless them forever," says Lyddy, with a soft smile. "You won't
+stop and meet Mr. Esmond at dinner to-day? You don't like being in his
+company? He can't do you any harm; and I am sure you will do him none."
+Kind speeches like these addressed by a little girl to a gentleman, and
+spoken by a strange inadvertency in company, and when other gentlemen
+and ladies were present, were not likely to render Mr. Warrington very
+eager for the society of the young American lady.
+
+George's meeting with Mr. Will was not known for some days in Dean
+Street, for he did not wish to disturb those kind folks with his
+quarrel; but when the ladies were made aware of it, you may be sure
+there was a great flurry and to-do. "You were actually going to take a
+fellow-creature's life, and you came to see us, and said not a word! Oh,
+George, it was shocking!" said Theo.
+
+"My dear, he had insulted me and my brother," pleaded George. "Could I
+let him call us both cowards, and sit by and say, Thank you?"
+
+The General sate by and looked very grave.
+
+"You know you think, papa, it is a wicked and un-Christian practice; and
+have often said you wished gentlemen would have the courage to refuse!"
+
+"To refuse? Yes," says Mr. Lambert, still very glum.
+
+"It must require a prodigious strength of mind to refuse," says Jack
+Lambert, looking as gloomy as his father; "and I think if any man were
+to call me a coward, I should be apt to forget my orders."
+
+"You see brother Jack is with me!" cries George.
+
+"I must not be against you, Mr. Warrington," says Jack Lambert.
+
+"Mr. Warrington!" cries George, turning very red.
+
+"Would you, a clergyman, have George break the Commandments, and commit
+murder, John?" asks Theo, aghast.
+
+"I am a soldier's son, sister," says the young divine, drily. "Besides,
+Mr. Warrington has committed no murder at all. We must soon be hearing
+from Canada, father. The great question of the supremacy of the two
+races must be tried there ere long!" He turned his back on George as he
+spoke, and the latter eyed him with wonder.
+
+Hetty, looking rather pale at this original remark of brother Jack,
+is called out of the room by some artful pretext of her sister. George
+started up and followed the retreating girls to the door.
+
+"Great powers, gentlemen!" says he, coming back, "I believe, on my
+honour, you are giving me the credit of shirking this affair with Mr.
+Esmond!" The clergyman and his father looked at one another.
+
+"A man's nearest and dearest are always the first to insult him," says
+George, flashing out.
+
+"You mean to say, 'Not guilty?' God bless thee, my boy!" cries the
+General. "I told thee so, Jack." And he rubbed his hand across his eyes,
+and blushed, and wrung George's hand with all his might.
+
+"Not guilty of what, in heaven's name?" asks Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Nay," said the General, "Mr. Jack, here, brought the story. Let him
+tell it. I believe 'tis a ------ lie, with all my heart." And uttering
+this wicked expression, the General fairly walked out of the room.
+
+The Rev. J. Lambert looked uncommonly foolish.
+
+"And what is this--this d----d lie, sir, that somebody has been telling
+of me?" asked George, grinning at the young clergyman.
+
+"To question the courage of any man is always an offence to him," says
+Mr. Lambert, "and I rejoice that yours has been belied."
+
+"Who told the falsehood, sir, which you repeated?" bawls out Mr.
+Warrington. "I insist on the man's name!"
+
+"You forget you are bound over to keep the peace," says Jack.
+
+"Curse the peace, sir! We can go and fight in Holland. Tell me the man's
+name, I say!"
+
+"Fair and softly, Mr. Warrington!" cries the young parson; "my hearing
+is perfectly good. It was not a man who told me the story which, I
+confess, I imparted to my father."
+
+"What?" asks George, the truth suddenly occurring. "Was it that artful,
+wicked little vixen in Bloomsbury Square?"
+
+"Vixen is not the word to apply to any young lady, George Warrington!"
+exclaims Lambert, "much less to the charming Miss Lydia. She artful--the
+most innocent of Heaven's creatures! She wicked--that angel! With
+unfeigned delight that the quarrel should be over--with devout gratitude
+to think that blood consanguineous should not be shed--she spoke in
+terms of the highest praise of you for declining this quarrel, and of
+the deepest sympathy with you for taking the painful but only method of
+averting it."
+
+"What method?" demands George, stamping his foot.
+
+"Why, of laying an information, to be sure!" says Mr. Jack; on which
+George burst forth into language much too violent for us to repeat here,
+and highly uncomplimentary to Miss Lydia.
+
+"Don't utter such words, sir!" cried the parson, who, as it seemed,
+now took his turn to be angry. "Do not insult, in my hearing, the most
+charming, the most innocent of her sex! If she has been mistaken in her
+information regarding you, and doubted your willingness to commit what,
+after all, is a crime--for a crime homicide is, and of the most awful
+description--you, sir, have no right to blacken that angel's character
+with foul words: and, innocent yourself, should respect the most
+innocent as she is the most lovely of women! Oh, George, are you to be
+my brother?"
+
+"I hope to have that honour," answered George, smiling. He began to
+perceive the other's drift.
+
+"What, then, what--though 'tis too much bliss to be hoped for by sinful
+man--what, if she should one day be your sister? Who could see her
+charms without being subjugated by them? I own that I am a slave. I own
+that those Latin Sapphics in the September number of the Gentleman's
+Magazine, beginning Lydicae quondam cecinit venustae (with an English
+version by my friend Hickson of Corpus), were mine. I have told my
+mother what hath passed between us, and Mrs. Lambert also thinks that
+the most lovely of her sex has deigned to look favourably on me. I have
+composed a letter--she another. She proposes to wait on Miss Lydia's
+grandpapa this very day, and to bring me the answer, which shall make
+me the happiest or the most wretched of men! It was in the unrestrained
+intercourse of family conversation that I chanced to impart to my
+father the sentiments which my dear girl had uttered. Perhaps I spoke
+slightingly of your courage, which I don't doubt--by Heaven, I don't
+doubt: it may be, she has erred, too, regarding you. It may be that
+the fiend jealousy has been gnawing at my bosom, and--horrible
+suspicion!--that I thought my sister's lover found too much favour with
+her I would have all my own. Ah, dear George, who knows his faults? I am
+as one distracted with passion. Confound it, sir! What right have you to
+laugh at me? I would have you to know that risu inepto"
+
+"What, have you two boys made it up?" cries the General, entering at
+this moment, in the midst of a roar of laughter from George.
+
+"I was giving my opinion to Mr. Warrington upon laughter, and upon his
+laughter in particular," says Jack Lambert, in a fume.
+
+"George is bound over to keep the peace, Jack! Thou canst not fight him
+for two years; and between now and then, let us trust you will have made
+up your quarrel. Here is dinner, boys! We will drink absent friends, and
+an end to the war, and no fighting out of the profession!"
+
+George pleaded an engagement, as a reason for running away early from
+his dinner; and Jack must have speedily followed him, for when the
+former, after transacting some brief business at his own lodgings, came
+to Mr. Van den Bosch's door, in Bloomsbury Square, he found the young
+parson already in parley with a servant there. "His master and mistress
+had left town yesterday," the servant said.
+
+"Poor Jack! And you had the decisive letter in your pocket?" George
+asked of his future brother-in-law.
+
+"Well, yes,"--Jack owned he had the document--"and my mother has ordered
+a chair, and was coming to wait on Miss Lyddy," he whispered piteously,
+as the young men lingered on the steps.
+
+George had a note, too, in his pocket for the young lady, which he had
+not cared to mention to Jack. In truth, his business at home had been to
+write a smart note to Miss Lyddy, with a message for the gentleman who
+had brought her that funny story of his giving information regarding the
+duel! The family being absent, George, too, did not choose to leave his
+note. "If cousin Will has been the slander-bearer, I will go and make
+him recant," thought George. "Will the family soon be back?" he blandly
+asked.
+
+"They are gone to visit the quality," the servant replied. "Here is the
+address on this paper;" and George read, in Miss Lydia's hand, "The box
+from Madam Hocquet's to be sent by the Farnham Flying Coach; addressed
+to Miss Van den Bosch, at the Right Honourable the Earl of Castlewood's,
+Castlewood, Hants."
+
+"Where?" cried poor Jack, aghast.
+
+"His lordship and their ladyships have been here often," the servant
+said, with much importance. "The families is quite intimate."
+
+This was very strange; for, in the course of their conversation, Lyddy
+had owned but to one single visit from Lady Castlewood.
+
+"And they must be a-going to stay there some time, for Miss have took
+a power of boxes and gowns with her!" the man added. And the young men
+walked away, each crumpling his letter in his pocket.
+
+"What was that remark you made?" asks George of Jack, at some
+exclamation of the latter. "I think you said----"
+
+"Distraction! I am beside myself, George! I--I scarce know what I am
+saying," groans the clergyman. "She is gone to Hampshire, and Mr. Esmond
+is gone with her!"
+
+"Othello could not have spoken better! and she has a pretty scoundrel
+in her company!" says Mr. George. "Ha! here is your mother's chair!"
+Indeed, at this moment poor Aunt Lambert came swinging down Great
+Russell Street, preceded by her footman. "'Tis no use going farther,
+Aunt Lambert!" cries George. "Our little bird has flown."
+
+"What little bird?"
+
+"The bird Jack wished to pair with:--the Lyddy bird, aunt. Why, Jack, I
+protest you are swearing again! This morning 'twas the Sixth Commandment
+you wanted to break; and now----"
+
+"Confound it! leave me alone, Mr. Warrington, do you hear?" growls Jack,
+looking very savage; and away he strides far out of the reach of his
+mother's bearers.
+
+"What is the matter, George?" asks the lady.
+
+George, who has not been very well pleased with brother Jack's behaviour
+all day, says: "Brother Jack has not a fine temper, Aunt Lambert. He
+informs you all that I am a coward, and remonstrates with me for being
+angry. He finds his mistress gone to the country, and he bawls, and
+stamps, and swears. O fie! Oh, Aunt Lambert, beware of jealousy! Did the
+General ever make you jealous?"
+
+"You will make me very angry if you speak to me in this way," says poor
+Aunt Lambert from her chair.
+
+"I am respectfully dumb. I make my bow. I withdraw," says George, with
+a low bow, and turns towards Holborn. His soul was wrath within him.
+He was bent on quarrelling with somebody. Had he met cousin Will that
+night, it had gone ill with his sureties.
+
+He sought Will at all his haunts, at Arthur's, at his own house. There
+Lady Castlewood's servants informed him that they believed Mr. Esmond
+had gone to join the family in Hants. He wrote a letter to his cousin:
+
+"My dear, kind cousin William," he said, "you know I am bound over, and
+would not quarrel with any one, much less with a dear, truth-telling,
+affectionate kinsman, whom my brother insulted by caning. But if you can
+find any one who says that I prevented a meeting the other day by giving
+information, will you tell your informant that I think it is not I but
+somebody else is the coward? And I write to Mr. Van den Bosch by the
+same post, to inform him and Miss Lyddy that I find some rascal has been
+telling them lies to my discredit, and to beg them to have a care of
+such persons." And, these neat letters being despatched, Mr. Warrington
+dressed himself, showed himself at the play, and took supper cheerfully
+at the Bedford.
+
+In a few days George found a letter on his breakfast-table franked
+"Castlewood," and, indeed, written by that nobleman.
+
+"Dear Cousin," my lord wrote, "there has been so much annoyance in our
+family of late, that I am sure 'tis time our quarrels should cease. Two
+days since my brother William brought me a very angry letter, signed G.
+Warrington, and at the same time, to my great grief and pain, acquainted
+me with a quarrel that had taken place between you, in which, to say
+the least, your conduct was violent. 'Tis an ill use to put good wine
+to--that to which you applied good Mr. Van den Bosch's. Sure, before an
+old man, young ones should be more respectful. I do not deny that Wm.'s
+language and behaviour are often irritating. I know he has often tried
+my temper, and that within the 24 hours.
+
+"Ah! why should we not all live happily together? You know, cousin,
+I have ever professed a sincere regard for you--that I am a sincere
+admirer of the admirable young lady to whom you are engaged, and to whom
+I offer my most cordial compliments and remembrances. I would live in
+harmony with all my family where 'tis possible--the more because I hope
+to introduce to it a Countess of Castlewood.
+
+"At my mature age, 'tis not uncommon for a man to choose a young wife.
+My Lydia (you will divine that I am happy in being able to call mine the
+elegant Miss Van den Bosch) will naturally survive me. After soothing
+my declining years, I shall not be jealous if at their close she
+should select some happy man to succeed me; though I shall envy him the
+possession of so much perfection and beauty. Though of a noble Dutch
+family, her rank, the dear girl declares, is not equal to mine, which
+she confesses that she is pleased to share. I, on the other hand, shall
+not be sorry to see descendants to my house, and to have it, through my
+Lady Castlewood's means, restored to something of the splendour which it
+knew before two or three improvident predecessors impaired it. My Lydia,
+who is by my side, sends you and the charming Lambert family her warmest
+remembrances.
+
+"The marriage will take place very speedily here. May I hope to see you
+at church? My brother will not be present to quarrel with you. When
+I and dear Lydia announced the match to him yesterday, he took the
+intelligence in bad part, uttered language that I know he will one day
+regret, and is at present on a visit to some neighbours. The Dowager
+Lady Castlewood retains the house at Kensington; we having our own
+establishment, where you will ever be welcomed, dear cousin, by your
+affectionate humble servant, CASTLEWOOD."
+
+
+From the London Magazine of November 1759:
+
+"Saturday, October 13th, married, at his seat, Castlewood, Hants, the
+Right Honourable Eugene, Earl of Castlewood, to the beautiful Miss Van
+den Bosch, of Virginia. 70,000 pounds."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXII. (From the Warrington MS.) In which My Lady is on the Top
+of the Ladder
+
+
+Looking across the fire, towards her accustomed chair, who has been the
+beloved partner of my hearth during the last half of my life, I often
+ask (for middle aged gentlemen have the privilege of repeating their
+jokes, their questions, their stories) whether two young people ever
+were more foolish and imprudent than we were when we married, as we
+did, in the year of the old King's death? My son, who has taken some
+prodigious leaps in the heat of his fox-hunting, says he surveys the
+gaps and rivers which he crossed so safely over with terror afterwards,
+and astonishment at his own foolhardiness in making such desperate
+ventures; and yet there is no more eager sportsman in the two counties
+than Miles. He loves his amusement so much that he cares for no other.
+He has broken his collar-bone, and had a hundred tumbles (to his
+mother's terror); but so has his father (thinking, perhaps, of a copy
+of verse, or his speech at Quarter Sessions) been thrown over his old
+mare's head, who has slipped on a stone as they were both dreaming along
+a park road at four miles an hour; and Miles's reckless sport has been
+the delight of his life, as my marriage has been the blessing of mine;
+and I never think of it but to thank Heaven. Mind, I don't set up my
+worship as an example. I don't say to all young folks, "Go and marry
+upon twopence a year;" or people would look very black at me at our
+vestry-meetings; but my wife is known to be a desperate match-maker; and
+when Hodge and Susan appear in my justice-room with a talk of allowance,
+we urge them to spend their half-crown a week at home, add a little
+contribution of our own, and send for the vicar.
+
+Now, when I ask a question of my dear oracle, I know what the answer
+will be; and hence, no doubt, the reason why I so often consult her. I
+have but to wear a particular expression of face and my Diana takes her
+reflection from it. Suppose I say, "My dear, don't you think the moon
+was made of cream cheese to-night?" She will say, "Well, papa, it did
+look very like cream cheese, indeed--there's nobody like you for droll
+similes." Or, suppose I say, "My love, Mr. Pitt's speech was very fine,
+but I don't think he is equal to what I remember his father." "Nobody
+was equal to my Lord Chatham," says my wife. And then one of the
+girls cries, "Why, I have often heard our papa say Lord Chatham was a
+charlatan!" On which mamma says, "How like she is to her Aunt Hetty!"
+
+As for Miles, Tros Tyriusve is all one to him. He only reads the
+sporting announcements in the Norwich paper. So long as there is good
+scent, he does not care about the state of the country. I believe the
+rascal has never read my poems, much more my tragedies (for I mentioned
+Pocahontas to him the other day, and the dunce thought she was a river
+in Virginia); and with respect to my Latin verses, how can he understand
+them when I know he can't construe Corderius? Why, this notebook lies
+publicly on the little table at my corner of the fireside, and any one
+may read in it who will take the trouble of lifting my spectacles off
+the cover: but Miles never hath. I insert in the loose pages caricatures
+of Miles: jokes against him: but he never knows nor heeds them. Only
+once, in place of a neat drawing of mine, in China-ink, representing
+Miles asleep after dinner, and which my friend Bunbury would not disown,
+I found a rude picture of myself going over my mare Sultana's head, and
+entitled "The Squire on Horseback, or Fish out of Water." And the fellow
+to roar with laughter, and all the girls to titter, when I came upon the
+page! My wife said she never was in such a fright as when I went to my
+book: but I can bear a joke against myself, and have heard many, though
+(strange to say, for one who has lived among some of the chief wits of
+the age) I never heard a good one in my life. Never mind, Miles, though
+thou art not a wit, I love thee none the worse (there never was any love
+lost between two wits in a family); though thou hast no great beauty,
+thy mother thinks thee as handsome as Apollo, or his Royal Highness the
+Prince of Wales, who was born in the very same year with thee. Indeed,
+she always think Coates's picture of the Prince is very like her eldest
+boy, and has the print in her dressing-room to this very day.
+
+
+[Note, in a female hand: "My son is not a spendthrift, nor a breaker of
+women's hearts, as some gentlemen are; but that he was exceeding like
+H.R.H. when they were both babies, is most certain, the Duchess of
+Aneaster having herself remarked him in St. James's Park, where Gumbo
+and my poor Molly used often to take him for an airing. Th. W."]
+
+
+In that same year, with what different prospects! my Lord Esmond, Lord
+Castlewood's son, likewise appeared to adorn the world. My Lord C. and
+his humble servant had already come to a coolness at that time, and,
+heaven knows! my honest Miles's godmother, at his entrance into life,
+brought no gold pap-boats to his christening! Matters have mended since,
+laus Deo--laus Deo, indeed! for I suspect neither Miles nor his father
+would ever have been able to do much for themselves, and by their own
+wits.
+
+Castlewood House has quite a different face now from that venerable
+one which it wore in the days of my youth, when it was covered with the
+wrinkles of time, the scars of old wars, the cracks and blemishes which
+years had marked on its hoary features. I love best to remember it in
+its old shape, as I saw it when young Mr. George Warrington went down
+at the owner's invitation, to be present at his lordship's marriage with
+Miss Lydia Van den Bosch--"an American lady of noble family of Holland,"
+as the county paper announced her ladyship to be. Then the towers stood
+as Warrington's grandfather the Colonel (the Marquis, as Madam Esmond
+would like to call her father) had seen them. The woods (thinned not
+a little to be sure) stood, nay, some of the self-same rooks may have
+cawed over them, which the Colonel had seen threescore years back. His
+picture hung in the hall which might have been his, had he not preferred
+love and gratitude to wealth and worldly honour; and Mr. George Esmond
+Warrington (that is, Egomet Ipse who write this page down), as he
+walked the old place, pacing the long corridors, the smooth dew-spangled
+terraces and cool darkling avenues, felt a while as if he was one of Mr.
+Walpole's cavaliers with ruff, rapier, buff-coat, and gorget, and as if
+an Old Pretender, or a Jesuit emissary in disguise, might appear from
+behind any tall tree-trunk round about the mansion, or antique carved
+cupboard within it. I had the strangest, saddest, pleasantest, old-world
+fancies as I walked the place; I imagined tragedies, intrigues,
+serenades, escaladoes, Oliver's Roundheads battering the towers, or
+bluff Hal's Beefeaters pricking over the plain before the castle. I was
+then courting a certain young lady (madam, your ladyship's eyes had no
+need of spectacles then, and on the brow above them there was never a
+wrinkle or a silver hair), and I remember I wrote a ream of romantic
+description, under my Lord Castlewood's franks, to the lady who never
+tired of reading my letters then. She says I only send her three lines
+now, when I am away in London or elsewhere. 'Tis that I may not fatigue
+your old eyes, my dear!
+
+Mr. Warrington thought himself authorised to order a genteel new suit of
+clothes for my lord's marriage, and with Mons. Gumbo in attendance,
+made his appearance at Castlewood a few days before the ceremony. I may
+mention that it had been found expedient to send my faithful Sady home
+on board a Virginia ship. A great inflammation attacking the throat and
+lungs, and proving fatal in very many cases, in that year of Wolfe's
+expedition, had seized and well-nigh killed my poor lad, for whom
+his native air was pronounced to be the best cure. We parted with an
+abundance of tears, and Gumbo shed as many when his master went to
+Quebec: but he had attractions in this country and none for the military
+life, so he remained attached to my service. We found Castlewood House
+full of friends, relations, and visitors. Lady Fanny was there upon
+compulsion, a sulky bridesmaid. Some of the virgins of the neighbourhood
+also attended the young Countess. A bishop's widow herself, the Baroness
+Beatrix brought a holy brother-in-law of the bench from London to tie
+the holy knot of matrimony between Eugene Earl of Castlewood and Lydia
+Van den Bosch, spinster; and for some time before and after the nuptials
+the old house in Hampshire wore an appearance of gaiety to which it had
+long been unaccustomed. The country families came gladly to pay their
+compliments to the newly married couple. The lady's wealth was the
+subject of everybody's talk, and no doubt did not decrease in the
+telling. Those naughty stories which were rife in town, and spread by
+her disappointed suitors there, took some little time to travel into
+Hampshire; and when they reached the country found it disposed to treat
+Lord Castlewood's wife with civility, and not inclined to be too curious
+about her behaviour in town. Suppose she had jilted this man, and
+laughed at the other? It was her money they were anxious about, and she
+was no more mercenary than they. The Hampshire folks were determined
+that it was a great benefit to the country to have Castlewood House once
+more open, with beer in the cellars, horses in the stables, and spits
+turning before the kitchen fires. The new lady took her place with great
+dignity, and 'twas certain she had uncommon accomplishments and wit.
+Was it not written, in the marriage advertisements, that her ladyship
+brought her noble husband seventy thousand pounds? On a beaucoup
+d'esprit with seventy thousand pounds. The Hampshire people said this
+was only a small portion of her wealth. When the grandfather should
+fall, ever so many plums would be found on that old tree.
+
+That quiet old man, and keen reckoner, began quickly to put the
+dilapidated Castlewood accounts in order, of which long neglect,
+poverty, and improvidence had hastened the ruin. The business of the
+old gentleman's life now, and for some time henceforth, was to
+advance, improve, mend my lord's finances; to screw the rents up where
+practicable, to pare the expenses of the establishment down. He could,
+somehow, look to every yard of worsted lace on the footmen's coats, and
+every pound of beef that went to their dinner. A watchful old eye noted
+every flagon of beer which was fetched from the buttery, and marked
+that no waste occurred in the larder. The people were fewer, but more
+regularly paid; the liveries were not so ragged, and yet the tailor had
+no need to dun for his money; the gardeners and grooms grumbled, though
+their wages were no longer overdue: but the horses fattened on less
+corn, and the fruit and vegetables were ever so much more plentiful--so
+keenly did my lady's old grandfather keep a watch over the household
+affairs, from his lonely little chamber in the turret.
+
+These improvements, though here told in a paragraph or two, were the
+affairs of months and years at Castlewood; where, with thrift, order,
+and judicious outlay of money (however, upon some pressing occasions,
+my lord might say he had none), the estate and household increased in
+prosperity. That it was a flourishing and economical household no one
+could deny: not even the dowager lady and her two children, who now
+seldom entered within Castlewood gates, my lady considering them in the
+light of enemies--for who, indeed, would like a stepmother-in-law? The
+little reigning Countess gave the dowager battle, and routed her utterly
+and speedily. Though educated in the colonies, and ignorant of polite
+life during her early years, the Countess Lydia had a power of language
+and a strength of will that all had to acknowledge who quarrelled with
+her. The dowager and my Lady Fanny were no match for the young American:
+they fled from before her to their jointure house in Kensington, and no
+wonder their absence was not regretted by my lord, who was in the habit
+of regretting no one whose back was turned. Could cousin Warrington,
+whose hand his lordship pressed so affectionately on coming and parting,
+with whom cousin Eugene was so gay and frank and pleasant when they
+were together, expect or hope that his lordship would grieve at his
+departure, at his death, at any misfortune which could happen to him,
+or any souls alive? Cousin Warrington knew better. Always of a sceptical
+turn, Mr. W. took a grim delight in watching the peculiarities of his
+neighbours, and could like this one even though he had no courage and no
+heart. Courage? Heart? What are these to you and me in the world? A man
+may have private virtues as he may have half a million in the funds.
+What we du monde expect is, that he should be lively, agreeable, keep a
+decent figure, and pay his way. Colonel Esmond Warrington's grandfather
+(in whose history and dwelling-place Mr. W. took an extraordinary
+interest), might once have been owner of this house of Castlewood,
+and of the titles which belonged to its possessor. The gentleman often
+looked at the Colonel's grave picture as it still hung in the saloon,
+a copy or replica of which piece Mr. Warrington fondly remembered in
+Virginia.
+
+"He must have been a little touched here," my lord said, tapping his own
+tall, placid forehead.
+
+There are certain actions, simple and common with some men, which others
+cannot understand, and deny as utter lies, or deride as acts of madness.
+
+"I do you the justice to think, cousin," says Mr. Warrington to his
+lordship, "that you would not give up any advantage for any friend in
+the world."
+
+"Eh! I am selfish: but am I more selfish than the rest of the world?"
+asks my lord, with a French shrug of his shoulders, and a pinch out of
+his box. Once, in their walks in the fields, his lordship happening
+to wear a fine scarlet coat, a cow ran towards him; and the ordinarily
+languid nobleman sprang over a stile with the agility of a schoolboy. He
+did not conceal his tremor, or his natural want of courage. "I dare say
+you respect me no more than I respect myself, George," he would say, in
+his candid way, and begin a very pleasant sardonical discourse upon the
+fall of man, and his faults, and shortcomings; and wonder why Heaven
+had not made us all brave and tall, and handsome and rich? As for Mr.
+Warrington, who very likely loved to be king of his company (as some
+people do), he could not help liking this kinsman of his, so witty,
+graceful, polished, high-placed in the world--so utterly his inferior.
+Like the animal in Mr. Sterne's famous book, "Do not beat me," his
+lordship's look seemed to say, "but, if you will, you may." No man, save
+a bully and coward himself, deals hardly with a creature so spiritless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIII. We keep Christmas at Castlewood. 1759
+
+
+We know, my dear children, from our favourite fairy story-books, how at
+all christenings and marriages some one is invariably disappointed,
+and vows vengeance; and so need not wonder that good cousin Will should
+curse and rage energetically at the news of his brother's engagement
+with the colonial heiress. At first, Will fled the house, in his wrath,
+swearing he would never return. But nobody, including the swearer,
+believed much in Master Will's oaths; and this unrepentant prodigal,
+after a day or two, came back to the paternal house. The fumes of the
+marriage-feast allured him: he could not afford to resign his knife and
+fork at Castlewood table. He returned, and drank and ate there in token
+of revenge. He pledged the young bride in a bumper, and drank perdition
+to her under his breath. He made responses of smothered maledictions
+as her father gave her away in the chapel, and my lord vowed to love,
+honour and cherish her. He was not the only grumbler respecting that
+marriage, as Mr. Warrington knew: he heard, then and afterwards, no
+end of abuse of my lady and her grandfather. The old gentleman's City
+friends, his legal adviser, the Dissenting clergyman at whose chapel
+they attended on their first arrival in England, and poor Jack Lambert,
+the orthodox young divine, whose eloquence he had fondly hoped had
+been exerted over her in private, were bitter against the little lady's
+treachery, and each had a story to tell of his having been enslaved,
+encouraged, jilted, by the young American. The lawyer, who had had such
+an accurate list of all her properties, estates, moneys, slaves, ships,
+expectations, was ready to vow and swear that he believed the whole
+account was false; that there was no such place as New York or Virginia;
+or at any rate, that Mr. Van den Bosch had no land there; that there was
+no such thing as a Guinea trade, and that the negroes were so many
+black falsehoods invented by the wily old planter. The Dissenting pastor
+moaned over his stray lambling--if such a little, wily, mischievous
+monster could be called a lamb at all. Poor Jack Lambert ruefully
+acknowledged to his mamma the possession of a lock of black hair, which
+he bedewed with tears and apostrophised in quite unclerical language:
+and, as for Mr. William Esmond, he, with the shrieks and curses in which
+he always freely indulged, even at Castlewood, under his sister-in-law's
+own pretty little nose, when under any strong emotion, called Acheron
+to witness, that out of that region there did not exist such an artful
+young devil as Miss Lydia. He swore that she was an infernal female
+Cerberus, and called down all the wrath of this world and the next upon
+his swindling rascal of a brother, who had cajoled him with fair words,
+and filched his prize from him.
+
+"Why," says Mr. Warrington (when Will expatiated on these matters with
+him), "if the girl is such a she-devil as you describe her, you are all
+the better for losing her. If she intends to deceive her husband, and
+to give him a dose of poison, as you say, how lucky for you, you are not
+the man! You ought to thank the gods, Will, instead of cursing them, for
+robbing you of such a fury, and can't be better revenged on Castlewood
+than by allowing him her sole possession."
+
+"All this was very well," Will Esmond said; but--not unjustly,
+perhaps,--remarked that his brother was not the less a scoundrel for
+having cheated him out of the fortune which he expected to get, and
+which he had risked his life to win, too.
+
+George Warrington was at a loss to know how his cousin had been made
+so to risk his precious existence (for which, perhaps, a rope's end
+had been a fitting termination), on which Will Esmond, with the utmost
+candour, told his kinsman how the little Cerbera had actually caused
+the meeting between them, which was interrupted somehow by Sir John
+Fielding's men; how she was always saying that George Warrington was a
+coward for ever sneering at Mr. Will, and the latter doubly a poltroon
+for not taking notice of his kinsman's taunts; how George had run away
+and nearly died of fright in Braddock's expedition; and "Deuce take me,"
+says Will, "I never was more surprised, cousin, than when you stood to
+your ground so coolly in Tottenham Court Fields yonder, for me and my
+second offered to wager that you would never come!"
+
+Mr. Warrington laughed, and thanked Mr. Will for this opinion of him.
+
+"Though," says he, "cousin, 'twas lucky for me the constables came up,
+or you would have whipped your sword through my body in another minute.
+Didn't you see how clumsy I was as I stood before you? And you actually
+turned white and shook with anger!"
+
+"Yes, curse me," says Mr. Will (who turned very red this time), "that's
+my way of showing my rage; and I was confoundedly angry with you,
+cousin! But now 'tis my brother I hate, and that little devil of a
+Countess--a countess! a pretty countess, indeed!" And with another
+rumbling cannonade of oaths, Will saluted the reigning member of his
+family.
+
+"Well, cousin," says George, looking him queerly in the face, "you let
+me off easily, and I dare say I owe my life to you, or at any rate a
+whole waistcoat, and I admire your forbearance and spirit. What a pity
+that a courage like yours should be wasted as a mere court usher! You
+are a loss to his Majesty's army. You positively are!"
+
+"I never know whether you are joking or serious, Mr. Warrington," growls
+Will.
+
+"I should think very few gentlemen would dare to joke with you, cousin,
+if they had a regard for their own lives or ears! cries Mr. Warrington,
+who loved this grave way of dealing with his noble kinsman, and used to
+watch, with a droll interest, the other choking his curses, grinding his
+teeth because afraid to bite, and smothering his cowardly anger.
+
+"And you should moderate your expressions, cousin, regarding the dear
+Countess and my lord your brother," Mr. Warrington resumed. "Of you they
+always speak most tenderly. Her ladyship has told me everything."
+
+"What everything?" cries Will, aghast.
+
+"As much as women ever do tell, cousin. She owned that she thought you
+had been a little epris with her. What woman can help liking a man who
+has admired her?"
+
+"Why, she hates you, and says you were wild about her, Mr. Warrington!"
+says Mr. Esmond.
+
+"Spretae injuria formae, cousin!"
+
+"For me--what's for me?" asks the other.
+
+"I never did care for her, and hence, perhaps, she does not love me.
+Don't you remember that case of the wife of the Captain of the Guard?"
+
+"Which Guard?" asks Will.
+
+"My Lord Potiphar," says Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Lord Who? My Lord Falmouth is Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard,
+and my Lord Berkeley of the Pensioners. My Lord Hobart had 'em before.
+Suppose you haven't been long enough in England to know who's who,
+cousin!" remarks Mr. William.
+
+But Mr. Warrington explained that he was speaking of a Captain of the
+Guard of the King of Egypt, whose wife had persecuted one Joseph for not
+returning her affection for him. On which Will said that, as for
+Egypt, he believed it was a confounded long way off; and that if Lord
+What-d'ye-call's wife told lies about him, it was like her sex, who he
+supposed were the same everywhere.
+
+Now the truth is, that when he paid his marriage-visit to Castlewood,
+Mr. Warrington had heard from the little Countess her version of the
+story of differences between Will Esmond and herself. And this tale
+differed, in some respects, though he is far from saying it is more
+authentic than the ingenuous narrative of Mr. Will. The lady was grieved
+to think how she had been deceived in her brother-in-law. She feared
+that his life about the court and town had injured those high principles
+which all the Esmonds are known to be born with; that Mr. Will's words
+were not altogether to be trusted; that a loose life and pecuniary
+difficulties had made him mercenary, blunted his honour, perhaps even
+impaired the high chivalrous courage "which we Esmonds, cousin," the
+little lady said, tossing her head, "which we Esmonds must always
+possess--leastways, you and me, and my lord, and my cousin Harry have
+it, I know!" says the Countess. "Oh, cousin George! and must I confess
+that I was led to doubt of yours, without which a man of ancient and
+noble family like ours isn't worthy to be called a man! I shall try,
+George, as a Christian lady, and the head of one of the first families
+in this kingdom and the whole world, to forgive my brother William for
+having spoke ill of a member of our family, though a younger branch and
+by the female side, and made me for a moment doubt of you. He did so.
+Perhaps he told me ever so many bad things you had said of me."
+
+"I, my dear lady!" cries Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Which he said you said of me, cousin, and I hope you didn't, and
+heartily pray you didn't; and I can afford to despise 'em. And he paid
+me his court, that's a fact; and so have others, and that I'm used to;
+and he might have prospered better than he did perhaps (for I did not
+know my dear lord, nor come to vally his great and eminent qualities, as
+I do out of the fulness of this grateful heart now!), but, oh! I found
+William was deficient in courage, and no man as wants that can ever have
+the esteem of Lydia, Countess of Castlewood, no more he can! He said
+'twas you that wanted for spirit, cousin, and angered me by telling me
+that you was always abusing of me. But I forgive you, George, that I
+do! And when I tell you that it was he was afraid--the mean skunk!--and
+actually sent for them constables to prevent the match between you and
+he, you won't wonder I wouldn't vally a feller like that--no, not that
+much!" and her ladyship snapped her little fingers. "I say, noblesse
+oblige, and a man of our family who hasn't got courage, I don't care not
+this pinch of snuff for him--there, now, I don't! Look at our ancestors,
+George, round these walls! Haven't the Esmonds always fought for their
+country and king? Is there one of us that, when the moment arrives,
+ain't ready to show that he's an Esmond and a nobleman? If my eldest son
+was to show the white feather, 'My Lord Esmond!' I would say to him (for
+that's the second title in our family), 'I disown your lordship!'" And
+so saying, the intrepid little woman looked round at her ancestors,
+whose effigies, depicted by Lely and Kneller, figured round the walls of
+her drawing-room at Castlewood.
+
+Over that apartment, and the whole house, domain, and village, the
+new Countess speedily began to rule with an unlimited sway. It was
+surprising how quickly she learned the ways of command; and, if she
+did not adopt those methods of precedence usual in England among great
+ladies, invented regulations for herself, and promulgated them, and made
+others submit. Having been bred a Dissenter, and not being over-familiar
+with the Established Church service, Mr. Warrington remarked that she
+made a blunder or two during the office (not knowing, for example,
+when she was to turn her face towards the east, a custom not adopted, I
+believe, in other Reforming churches besides the English); but between
+Warrington's first bridal visit to Castlewood and his second, my lady
+had got to be quite perfect in that part of her duty, and sailed into
+chapel on her cousin's arm, her two footmen bearing her ladyship's great
+Prayer-book behind her, as demurely as that delightful old devotee with
+her lackey, in Mr. Hogarth's famous picture of "Morning," and as if
+my Lady Lydia had been accustomed to have a chaplain all her life. She
+seemed to patronise not only the new chaplain, but the service and the
+church itself, as if she had never in her own country heard a Ranter in
+a barn. She made the oldest established families in the country--grave
+baronets and their wives--worthy squires of twenty descents, who rode
+over to Castlewood to pay the bride and bridegroom honour--know their
+distance, as the phrase is, and give her the pas. She got an old
+heraldry book; and a surprising old maiden lady from Winton, learned in
+politeness and genealogies, from whom she learned the court etiquette
+(as the old Winton lady had known it in Queen Anne's time); and ere long
+she jabbered gules and sables, bends and saltires, not with correctness
+always, but with a wonderful volubility and perseverance. She made
+little progresses to the neighbouring towns in her gilt coach-and-six,
+or to the village in her chair, and asserted a quasi-regal right of
+homage from her tenants and other clodpoles. She lectured the parson
+on his divinity; the bailiff on his farming; instructed the astonished
+housekeeper how to preserve and pickle; would have taught the great
+London footmen to jump behind the carriage, only it was too high for her
+little ladyship to mount; gave the village gossips instructions how to
+nurse and take care of their children long before she had one herself;
+and as for physic, Madam Esmond in Virginia was not more resolute about
+her pills and draughts than Miss Lydia, the earl's new bride. Do you
+remember the story of the Fisherman and the Genie, in the Arabian
+Nights? So one wondered with regard to this lady, how such a prodigious
+genius could have been corked down into such a little bottle as her
+body. When Mr. Warrington returned to London after his first nuptial
+visit, she brought him a little present for her young friends in Dean
+Street, as she called them (Theo being older, and Hetty scarce younger
+than herself), and sent a trinket to one and a book to the other--G.
+Warrington always vowing that Theo's present was a doll, while Hetty's
+share was a nursery-book with words of one syllable. As for Mr. Will,
+her younger brother-in-law, she treated him with a maternal gravity
+and tenderness, and was in the habit of speaking of and to him with a
+protecting air, which was infinitely diverting to Warrington, although
+Will's usual curses and blasphemies were sorely increased by her
+behaviour.
+
+As for old age, my Lady Lydia had little respect for that accident in
+the life of some gentlemen and gentlewomen; and, once the settlements
+were made in her behalf, treated the ancient Van den Bosch and his large
+periwig with no more ceremony than Dinah her black attendant, whose
+great ears she would pinch, and whose woolly pate she would pull without
+scruple, upon offence given--so at least Dinah told Gumbo, who told
+his master. All the household trembled before my lady the Countess: the
+housekeeper, of whom even my lord and the dowager had been in awe; the
+pampered London footmen, who used to quarrel if they were disturbed at
+their cards, and grumbled as they swilled the endless beer, now stepped
+nimbly about their business when they heard her ladyship's call; even
+old Lockwood, who had been gate-porter for half a century or more, tried
+to rally his poor old wandering wits when she came into his lodge to
+open his window, inspect his wood-closet, and turn his old dogs out of
+doors. Lockwood bared his old bald head before his new mistress, turned
+an appealing look towards his niece, and vaguely trembled before her
+little ladyship's authority. Gumbo, dressing his master for dinner,
+talked about Elisha (of whom he had heard the chaplain read in the
+morning), "and his bald head and de boys who call um names, and de bars
+eat em up, and serve um right," says Gumbo. But as for my lady, when
+discoursing with her cousin about the old porter, "Pooh, pooh! Stupid
+old man!" says she; "past his work, he and his dirty old dogs! They are
+as old and ugly as those old fish in the pond!" (Here she pointed to two
+old monsters of carp that had been in a pond in Castlewood gardens for
+centuries, according to tradition, and had their backs all covered with
+a hideous grey mould.) "Lockwood must pack off; the workhouse is the
+place for him; and I shall have a smart, good-looking, tall fellow in
+the lodge that will do credit to our livery."
+
+"He was my grandfather's man, and served him in the wars of Queen Anne,"
+interposed Mr. Warrington. On which my lady cried, petulantly, "O Lord!
+Queen Anne's dead, I suppose, and we ain't a-going into mourning for
+her."
+
+This matter of Lockwood was discussed at the family dinner, when her
+ladyship announced her intention of getting rid of the old man.
+
+"I am told," demurely remarks Mr. Van den Bosch, "that, by the laws,
+poor servants and poor folks of all kinds are admirably provided in
+their old age here in England. I am sure I wish we had such an asylum
+for our folks at home, and that we were eased of the expense of keeping
+our old hands."
+
+"If a man can't work he ought to go!" cries her ladyship.
+
+"Yes, indeed, and that's a fact!" says grandpapa.
+
+"What! an old servant?" asks my lord.
+
+"Mr. Van den Bosch possibly was independent of servants when he was
+young," remarks Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Greased my own boots, opened my own shutters, sanded and watered my
+own----"
+
+"Sugar, sir?" says my lord.
+
+"No; floor, son-in-law!" says the old man, with a laugh; "though there
+is such tricks, in grocery stores, saving your ladyship's presence."
+
+"La, pa! what should I know about stores and groceries?" cries her
+ladyship.
+
+"He! Remember stealing the sugar, and what came on it, my dear
+ladyship?" says grandpapa.
+
+"At any rate, a handsome, well-grown man in our livery will look better
+than that shrivelled old porter creature!" cries my lady.
+
+"No livery is so becoming as old age, madam, and no lace as handsome
+as silver hairs," says Mr. Warrington. "What will the county say if you
+banish old Lockwood?"
+
+"Oh! if you plead for him, sir, I suppose he must stay. Hadn't I better
+order a couch for him out of my drawing-room, and send him some of the
+best wine from the cellar?"
+
+"Indeed your ladyship couldn't do better," Mr. Warrington remarked, very
+gravely.
+
+And my lord said, yawning, "Cousin George is perfectly right, my dear.
+To turn away such an old servant as Lockwood would have an ill look."
+
+"You see those mouldy old carps are, after all, a curiosity, and attract
+visitors," continues Mr. Warrington, gravely. "Your ladyship must allow
+this old wretch to remain. It won't be for long. And you may then engage
+the tall porter. It is very hard on us, Mr. Van den Bosch, that we are
+obliged to keep our old negroes when they are past work. I shall sell
+that rascal Gumbo in eight or ten years."
+
+"Don't tink you will, master!" says Gumbo, grinning.
+
+"Hold your tongue, sir! He doesn't know English ways, you see, and
+perhaps thinks an old servant has a claim on his master's kindness,"
+says Mr. Warrington.
+
+The next day, to Warrington's surprise, my lady absolutely did send a
+basket of good wine to Lockwood, and a cushion for his armchair.
+
+"I thought of what you said, yesterday, at night when I went to bed; and
+guess you know the world better than I do, cousin; and that it's best to
+keep the old man, as you say."
+
+And so this affair of the porter's lodge ended, Mr. Warrington wondering
+within himself at this strange little character out of the West, with
+her naivete and simplicities, and a heartlessness would have done credit
+to the most battered old dowager who ever turned trumps in St. James's.
+
+"You tell me to respect old people. Why? I don't see nothin' to respect
+in the old people, I know," she said to Warrington. "They ain't so
+funny, and I'm sure they ain't so handsome. Look at grandfather; look
+at Aunt Bernstein. They say she was a beauty once! That picture painted
+from her! I don't believe it, nohow. No one shall tell me that I shall
+ever be as bad as that! When they come to that, people oughtn't to live.
+No, that they oughtn't."
+
+Now, at Christmas, Aunt Bernstein came to pay her nephew and niece a
+visit, in company with Mr. Warrington. They travelled at their leisure
+in the Baroness's own landau; the old lady being in particular good
+health and spirits, the weather delightfully fresh and not too cold;
+and, as they approached her paternal home, Aunt Beatrice told her
+companion a hundred stories regarding it and old days. Though often
+lethargic, and not seldom, it must be confessed, out of temper, the old
+lady would light up at times, when her conversation became wonderfully
+lively, her wit and malice were brilliant, and her memory supplied her
+with a hundred anecdotes of a bygone age and society. Sure, 'tis hard
+with respect to Beauty, that its possessor should not have even a
+life-enjoyment of it, but be compelled to resign it after, at the most,
+some forty years' lease. As the old woman prattled of her former lovers
+and admirers (her auditor having much more information regarding her
+past career than her ladyship knew of), I would look in her face, and,
+out of the ruins, try to build up in my fancy a notion of her beauty in
+its prime. What a homily I read there! How the courts were grown
+with grass, the towers broken, the doors ajar, the fine gilt saloons
+tarnished, and the tapestries cobwebbed and torn! Yonder dilapidated
+palace was all alive once with splendour and music, and those dim
+windows were dazzling and blazing with light! What balls and feasts were
+once here, what splendour and laughter! I could see lovers in waiting,
+crowds in admiration, rivals furious. I could imagine twilight
+assignations, and detect intrigues, though the curtains were close and
+drawn. I was often minded to say to the old woman as she talked, "Madam,
+I know the story was not as you tell it, but so and so"--(I had read at
+home the history of her life, as my dear old grandfather had wrote it):
+and my fancy wandered about in her, amused and solitary, as I had walked
+about our father's house at Castlewood, meditating on departed glories,
+and imagining ancient times.
+
+When Aunt Bernstein came to Castlewood, her relatives there, more, I
+think, on account of her own force of character, imperiousness, and
+sarcastic wit, than from their desire to possess her money, were
+accustomed to pay her a great deal of respect and deference, which
+she accepted as her due. She expected the same treatment from the new
+Countess, whom she was prepared to greet with special good-humour. The
+match had been of her making. "As you, you silly creature, would not
+have the heiress," she said, "I was determined she should not go out of
+the family," and she laughingly told of many little schemes for bringing
+the marriage about. She had given the girl a coronet and her nephew
+a hundred thousand pounds. Of course she should be welcome to both of
+them. She was delighted with the little Countess's courage and spirit
+in routing the Dowager and Lady Fanny. Almost always pleased with pretty
+people on her first introduction to them, Madame Bernstein raffled of
+her niece Lydia's bright eyes and lovely little figure. The marriage was
+altogether desirable. The old man was an obstacle, to be sure, and his
+talk and appearance somewhat too homely. But he will be got rid of.
+He is old and in delicate health. "He will want to go to America, or
+perhaps farther," says the Baroness, with a shrug. "As for the child,
+she had great fire and liveliness, and a Cherokee manner which is not
+without its charm," said the pleased old Baroness. "Your brother had
+it--so have you, Master George! Nous la formerons, cette petite. Eugene
+wants character and vigour, but he is a finished gentleman, and between
+us we shall make the little savage perfectly presentable." In this
+way we discoursed on the second afternoon as we journeyed towards
+Castlewood. We lay at the King's Arms at Bagshot the first night, where
+the Baroness was always received with profound respect, and thence
+drove post to Hexton, where she had written to have my lord's horses in
+waiting for her; but these were not forthcoming at the inn, and after
+a couple of hours we were obliged to proceed with our Bagshot horses to
+Castlewood.
+
+During this last stage of the journey, I am bound to say the old aunt's
+testy humour returned, and she scarce spoke a single word for three
+hours. As for her companion; being prodigiously in love at the time,
+no doubt he did not press his aunt for conversation, but thought
+unceasingly about his Dulcinea, until the coach actually reached
+Castlewood Common, and rolled over the bridge before the house.
+
+The housekeeper was ready to conduct her ladyship to her apartments. My
+lord and lady were both absent. She did not know what had kept them, the
+housekeeper said, heading the way.
+
+"Not that door, my lady!" cries the woman, as Madame de Bernstein
+put her hand upon the door of the room which she had always occupied.
+"That's her ladyship's room now. This way," and our aunt followed, by
+no means in increased good-humour. I do not envy her maids when their
+mistress was displeased. But she had cleared her brow before she joined
+the family, and appeared in the drawing-room before supper-time with a
+countenance of tolerable serenity.
+
+"How d'ye do, aunt?" was the Countess's salutation. "I declare now, I
+was taking a nap when your ladyship arrived! Hope you found your room
+fixed to your liking!"
+
+Having addressed three brief sentences to the astonished old lady, the
+Countess now turned to her other guests, and directed her conversation
+to them. Mr. Warrington was not a little diverted by her behaviour,
+and by the appearance of surprise and wrath which began to gather over
+Madame Bernstein's face. "La petite," whom the Baroness proposed to
+"form," was rather a rebellious subject, apparently, and proposed to
+take a form of her own. Looking once or twice rather anxiously towards
+his wife, my lord tried to atone for her pertness towards his aunt by
+profuse civility on his own part; indeed, when he so wished, no man
+could be more courteous or pleasing. He found a score of agreeable
+things to say to Madame Bernstein. He warmly congratulated Mr.
+Warrington on the glorious news which had come from America, and on his
+brother's safety. He drank a toast at supper to Captain Warrington. "Our
+family is distinguishing itself, cousin," he said; and added, looking
+with fond significance towards his Countess, "I hope the happiest days
+are in store for us all."
+
+"Yes, George!" says the little lady. "You'll write and tell Harry that
+we are all very much pleased with him. This action at Quebec is a most
+glorious action; and now we have turned the French king out of the
+country, shouldn't be at all surprised if we set up for ourselves in
+America."
+
+"My love, you are talking treason!" cries Lord Castlewood.
+
+"I am talking reason, anyhow, my lord. I've no notion of folks being
+kept down, and treated as children for ever!"
+
+George! Harry! I protest I was almost as much astonished as amused.
+"When my brother hears that your ladyship is satisfied with his conduct,
+his happiness will be complete," I said gravely.
+
+Next day, when talking beside her sofa, where she chose to lie in state,
+the little Countess no longer called her cousin "George," but "Mr.
+George," as before; on which Mr. George laughingly said she had changed
+her language since the previous day.
+
+"Guess I did it to tease old Madam Buzwig," says her ladyship. She wants
+to treat me as a child, and do the grandmother over me. I don't want no
+grandmothers, I don't. I'm the head of this house, and I intend to let
+her know it. And I've brought her all the way from London in order to
+tell it her, too! La! how she did look when I called you George! I might
+have called you George--only you had seen that little Theo first, and
+liked her best, I suppose."
+
+"Yes, I suppose I like her best," says Mr. George.
+
+"Well, I like you because you tell the truth. Because you was the only
+one of 'em in London who didn't seem to care for my money, though I was
+downright mad and angry with you once, and with myself too, and with
+that little sweetheart of yours, who ain't to be compared to me, I know
+she ain't."
+
+"Don't let us make the comparison, then!" I said, laughing.
+
+"I suppose people must lie on their beds as they make 'em," says she,
+with a little sigh. "Dare say Miss Theo is very good, and you'll marry
+her and go to Virginia, and be as dull as we are here. We were talking
+of Miss Lambert, my lord, and I was wishing my cousin joy. How is old
+Goody to-day? What a supper she did eat last night, and drink!--drink
+like a dragoon! No wonder she has got a headache, and keeps her room.
+Guess it takes her ever so long to dress herself."
+
+"You, too, may be feeble when you are old, and require rest and wine to
+warm you!" says Mr. Warrington.
+
+"Hope I shan't be like her when I'm old, anyhow!" says the lady. "Can't
+see why I am to respect an old woman, because she hobbles on a stick,
+and has shaky hands, and false teeth!" And the little heathen sank back
+on her couch, and showed twenty-four pearls of her own.
+
+"Law!" she adds, after gazing at both her hearers through the curled
+lashes of her brilliant dark eyes. "How frightened you both look! My
+lord has already given me ever so many sermons about old Goody. You are
+both afraid of her: and I ain't, that's all. Don't look so scared at one
+another! I ain't a-going to bite her head off. We shall have a battle,
+and I intend to win. How did I serve the Dowager, if you please, and my
+Lady Fanny, with their high and mighty airs, when they tried to put
+down the Countess of Castlewood in her own house, and laugh at the poor
+American girl? We had a fight, and which got the best of it, pray? Me
+and Goody will have another, and when it is over, you will see that we
+shall both be perfect friends!"
+
+When at this point of our conversation the door opened, and Madame
+Beatrix, elaborately dressed according to her wont, actually made her
+appearance, I, for my part, am not ashamed to own that I felt as great a
+panic as ever coward experienced. My lord, with his profoundest bows and
+blandest courtesies, greeted his aunt and led her to the fire, by which
+my lady (who was already hoping for an heir to Castlewood) lay reclining
+on her sofa. She did not attempt to rise, but smiled a greeting to her
+venerable guest. And then, after a brief talk, in which she showed a
+perfect self-possession, while the two gentlemen blundered and hesitated
+with the most dastardly tremor, my lord said:
+
+"If we are to look for those pheasants, cousin, we had better go now."
+
+"And I and aunt will have a cosy afternoon. And you will tell me about
+Castlewood in the old times, won't you, Baroness?" says the new mistress
+of the mansion.
+
+O les laches que les hommes! I was so frightened, that I scarce saw
+anything, but vaguely felt that Lady Castlewood's dark eyes were
+following me. My lord gripped my arm in the corridor, we quickened our
+paces till our retreat became a disgraceful run. We did not breathe
+freely till we were in the open air in the courtyard, where the keepers
+and the dogs were waiting.
+
+And what happened? I protest, children, I don't know. But this is
+certain: if your mother had been a woman of the least spirit, or had
+known how to scold for five minutes during as many consecutive days of
+her early married life, there would have been no more humble, henpecked
+wretch in Christendom than your father. When Parson Blake comes to
+dinner, don't you see how at a glance from his little wife he puts his
+glass down and says, "No, thank you, Mr. Gumbo," when old Gum brings
+him wine? Blake wore a red coat before he took to black, and walked up
+Breeds Hill with a thousand bullets whistling round his ears, before
+ever he saw our Bunker Hill in Suffolk. And the fire-eater of the 43rd
+now dare not face a glass of old port wine! 'Tis his wife has subdued
+his courage. The women can master us, and did they know their own
+strength, were invincible.
+
+Well, then, what happened I know not on that disgraceful day of panic
+when your father fled the field, nor dared to see the heroines engage;
+but when we returned from our shooting, the battle was over. America had
+revolted, and conquered the mother country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIV. News from Canada
+
+
+Our Castlewood relatives kept us with them till the commencement of the
+new year, and after a fortnight's absence (which seemed like an age
+to the absurd and infatuated young man) he returned to the side of his
+charmer. Madame de Bernstein was not sorry to leave the home of her
+father. She began to talk more freely as we got away from the place.
+What passed during that interview in which the battle-royal between her
+and her niece occurred, she never revealed. But the old lady talked
+no more of forming cette petite, and, indeed, when she alluded to her,
+spoke in a nervous, laughing way, but without any hostility towards the
+young Countess. Her nephew Eugene, she said, was doomed to be henpecked
+for the rest of his days that she saw clearly. A little order brought
+into the house would do it all the good possible. The little old
+vulgar American gentleman seemed to be a shrewd person, and would act
+advantageously as a steward. The Countess's mother was a convict, she
+had heard, sent out from England, where no doubt she had beaten hemp in
+most of the gaols; but this news need not be carried to the town-crier;
+and, after all, in respect to certain kind of people, what mattered what
+their birth was? The young woman would be honest for her own sake now:
+was shrewd enough, and would learn English presently; and the name to
+which she had a right was great enough to get her into any society. A
+grocer, a smuggler, a slave-dealer, what mattered Mr. Van den Bosch's
+pursuit or previous profession? The Countess of Castlewood could afford
+to be anybody's daughter, and as soon as my nephew produced her, says
+the old lady, it is our duty to stand by her.
+
+The ties of relationship binding Madame de Bernstein strongly to her
+nephew, Mr. Warrington hoped that she would be disposed to be equally
+affectionate to her niece; and spoke of his visit to Mr. Hagan and his
+wife, for whom he entreated her aunt's favour. But the old lady was
+obdurate regarding Lady Maria; begged that her name might never be
+mentioned, and immediately went on for two hours talking about no one
+else. She related a series of anecdotes regarding her niece, which, as
+this book lies open virginibus puerisque, to all the young people of the
+family, I shall not choose to record. But this I will say of the kind
+creature, that if she sinned, she was not the only sinner of the family,
+and if she repented, that others will do well to follow her example.
+Hagan, 'tis known, after he left the stage, led an exemplary life,
+and was remarkable for elegance and eloquence in the pulpit. His lady
+adopted extreme views, but was greatly respected in the sect which she
+joined; and when I saw her last, talked to me of possessing a peculiar
+spiritual illumination, which I strongly suspected at the time to be
+occasioned by the too free use of liquor: but I remember when she and
+her husband were good to me and mine, at a period when sympathy was
+needful, and many a Pharisee turned away.
+
+I have told how easy it was to rise and fall in my fickle aunt's favour,
+and how each of us brothers, by turns, was embraced and neglected. My
+turn of glory had been after the success of my play. I was introduced
+to the town-wits; held my place in their company tolerably well;
+was pronounced to be pretty well bred by the macaronis and people of
+fashion, and might have run a career amongst them had my purse been long
+enough; had I chose to follow that life; had I not loved at that time
+a pair of kind eyes better than the brightest orbs of the Gunnings or
+Chudleighs, or all the painted beauties of the Ranelagh ring. Because I
+was fond of your mother, will it be believed, children, that my tastes
+were said to be low, and deplored by my genteel family? So it was, and I
+know that my godly Lady Warrington and my worldly Madame Bernstein both
+laid their elderly heads together and lamented my way of life. "Why,
+with his name, he might marry anybody," says meek Religion, who had ever
+one eye on Heaven and one on the main chance. "I meddle with no man's
+affairs, and admire genius," says uncle, "but it is a pity you consort
+with those poets and authors, and that sort of people, and that, when
+you might have had a lovely creature, with a hundred thousand pounds,
+you let her slip and make up to a country girl without a penny-piece."
+
+"But if I had promised her, uncle?" says I.
+
+"Promise, promise! these things are matters of arrangement and prudence,
+and demand a careful look-out. When you first committed yourself with
+little Miss Lambert, you had not seen the lovely American lady whom your
+mother wished you to marry, as a good mother naturally would. And your
+duty to your mother, nephew,--your duty to the Fifth Commandment, would
+have warranted your breaking with Miss L., and fulfilling your excellent
+mother's intentions regarding Miss--What was the Countess's Dutch name?
+Never mind. A name is nothing; but a plumb, Master George, is something
+to look at! Why, I have my dear little Miley at a dancing-school with
+Miss Barwell, Nabob Barwell's daughter, and I don't disguise my wish
+that the children may contract an attachment which may endure through
+their lives! I tell the Nabob so. We went from the House of Commons
+one dancing-day and saw them. 'Twas beautiful to see the young things
+walking a minuet together! It brought tears into my eyes, for I have a
+feeling heart, George, and I love my boy!"
+
+"But if I prefer Miss Lambert, uncle, with twopence to her fortune, to
+the Countess, with her hundred thousand pounds?"
+
+"Why then, sir, you have a singular taste, that's all," says the old
+gentleman, turning on his heel and leaving me. And I could perfectly
+understand his vexation at my not being able to see the world as he
+viewed it.
+
+Nor did my Aunt Bernstein much like the engagement which I had made,
+or the family with which I passed so much of my time. Their simple ways
+wearied, and perhaps annoyed, the old woman of the world, and she no
+more relished their company than a certain person (who is not so black
+as he is painted) likes holy water. The old lady chafed at my for ever
+dangling at my sweetheart's lap. Having risen mightily in her favour,
+I began to fall again: and once more Harry was the favourite, and his
+brother, Heaven knows, not jealous.
+
+He was now our family hero. He wrote us brief letters from the seat of
+war where he was engaged; Madame Bernstein caring little at first
+about the letters or the writer, for they were simple, and the facts he
+narrated not over interesting. We had early learned in London the news
+of the action on the glorious first of August at Minden, where Wolfe's
+old regiment was one of the British six which helped to achieve the
+victory on that famous day. At the same hour, the young General lay in
+his bed, in sight of Quebec, stricken down by fever, and perhaps rage
+and disappointment at the check which his troops had just received.
+
+Arriving in the St. Lawrence in June, the fleet which brought Wolfe and
+his army had landed them on the last day of the month on the Island of
+Orleans, opposite which rises the great cliff of Quebec. After the great
+action in which his General fell, the dear brother who accompanied the
+chief, wrote home to me one of his simple letters, describing his modest
+share in that glorious day, but added nothing to the many descriptions
+already wrote of the action of the 13th of September, save only I
+remember he wrote, from the testimony of a brother aide-de-camp who was
+by his side, that the General never spoke at all after receiving his
+death-wound, so that the phrase which has been put into the mouth of
+the dying hero may be considered as no more authentic than an oration of
+Livy or Thucydides.
+
+From his position on the island, which lies in the great channel of the
+river to the north of the town, the General was ever hungrily on the
+look-out for a chance to meet and attack his enemy. Above the city and
+below it he landed,--now here and now there; he was bent upon attacking
+wherever he saw an opening. 'Twas surely a prodigious fault on the
+part of the Marquis of Montcalm, to accept a battle from Wolfe on equal
+terms, for the British General had no artillery, and when we had made
+our famous scalade of the heights, and were on the Plains of Abraham,
+we were a little nearer the city, certainly, but as far off as ever from
+being within it.
+
+The game that was played between the brave chiefs of those two gallant
+little armies, and which lasted from July until Mr. Wolfe won the
+crowning hazard in September, must have been as interesting a match as
+ever eager players engaged in. On the very first night after the landing
+(as my brother has narrated it) the sport began. At midnight the French
+sent a flaming squadron of fireships down upon the British ships which
+were discharging their stores at Orleans. Our seamen thought it was good
+sport to tow the fireships clear of the fleet, and ground them on the
+shore, where they burned out.
+
+As soon as the French commander heard that our ships had entered the
+river, he marched to Beauport in advance of the city and there took up
+a strong position. When our stores and hospitals were established, our
+General crossed over from his island to the left shore, and drew nearer
+to his enemy. He had the ships in the river behind him, but the whole
+country in face of him was in arms. The Indians in the forest seized
+our advanced parties as they strove to clear it, and murdered them with
+horrible tortures. The French were as savage as their Indian friends.
+The Montmorenci River rushed between Wolfe and the enemy. He could
+neither attack these nor the city behind them.
+
+Bent on seeing whether there was no other point at which his foe might
+be assailable, the General passed round the town of Quebec and skirted
+the left shore beyond. Everywhere it was guarded, as well as in his
+immediate front, and having run the gauntlet of the batteries up and
+down the river, he returned to his post at Montmorenci. On the right of
+the French position, across the Montmorenci River, which was fordable
+at low tide, was a redoubt of the enemy. He would have that. Perhaps,
+to defend it the French chief would be forced out from his lines, and
+a battle be brought on. Wolfe determined to play these odds. He would
+fetch over the body of his army from the Island of Orleans, and attack
+from the St. Lawrence. He would time his attack, so that, at
+shallow water, his lieutenants, Murray and Townsend, might cross the
+Montmorenci, and, at the last day of July, he played this desperate
+game.
+
+He first, and General Monckton, his second in command (setting out from
+Point Levi, which he occupied), crossed over the St. Lawrence from their
+respective stations, being received with a storm of shot and artillery
+as they rowed to the shore. No sooner were the troops landed than they
+rushed at the French redoubt without order, were shot down before it in
+great numbers, and were obliged to fall back. At the preconcerted signal
+the troops on the other side of the Montmorenci avanced across the river
+in perfect order. The enemy even evacuated the redoubt and fell back to
+their lines; but from these the assailants were received with so severe
+a fire that an impression on them was hopeless, and the General had to
+retreat.
+
+The battle of Montmorenci (which my brother Harry and I have fought
+again many a time over our wine) formed the dismal burthen of the first
+despatch from Mr. Wolfe which reached England and plunged us all in
+gloom. What more might one expect of a commander so rash? What disasters
+might one not foretell? Was ever scheme so wild as to bring three great
+bodies of men, across broad rivers, in the face of murderous batteries,
+merely on the chance of inducing an enemy, strongly entrenched and
+guarded, to leave his position and come out and engage us? 'Twas
+the talk of the town. No wonder grave people shook their heads, and
+prophesied fresh disaster. The General, who took to his bed after this
+failure, shuddering with fever, was to live barely six weeks longer,
+and die immortal! How is it, and by what, and whom, that Greatness is
+achieved? Is Merit--is Madness the patron? Is it Frolic or Fortune? Is
+it Fate that awards successes and defeats? Is it the Just Cause that
+ever wins? How did the French gain Canada from the savage, and we from
+the French, and after which of the conquests was the right time to
+sing Te Deum? We are always for implicating Heaven in our quarrels, and
+causing the gods to intervene whatever the nodus may be. Does Broughton,
+after pummelling and beating Slack, lift up a black eye to Jove and
+thank him for the victory? And if ten thousand boxers are to be so
+heard, why not one? And if Broughton is to be grateful, what is Slack to
+be?
+
+
+"By the list of disabled officers (many of whom are of rank) you may
+perceive, sir, that the army is much weakened. By the nature of this
+river the most formidable part of the armament is deprived of the power
+of acting, yet we have almost the whole force of Canada to oppose. In
+this situation there is such a choice of difficulties, that I own
+myself at a loss how to determine. The affairs of Great Britain, I know,
+require the most vigorous measures; but then the courage of a handful
+of brave men should be exerted only where there is some hope of a
+favourable event. The admiral and I have examined the town with a view
+to a general assault: and he would readily join in this or any
+other measure for the public service; but I cannot propose to him
+an undertaking of so dangerous a nature, and promising so little
+success.... I found myself so ill, and am still so weak, that I begged
+the general officers to consult together for the public utility. They
+are of opinion that they should try by conveying up a corps of 4000
+or 5000 men (which is nearly the whole strength of the army, after the
+points of Levi and Orleans are put in a proper state of defence) to draw
+the enemy from their present position, and bring them to an action. I
+have acquiesced in their proposal, and we are preparing to put it into
+execution."
+
+
+So wrote the General (of whose noble letters it is clear our dear scribe
+was not the author or secretary) from his headquarters at Montmorenci
+Falls on 2nd day of September; and on the 14th of October following,
+the Rodney cutter arrived with the sad news in England. The attack had
+failed, the chief was sick, the army dwindling, the menaced city so
+strong that assault was almost impossible; "the only chance was to fight
+the Marquis of Montcalm upon terms of less disadvantage than attacking
+his entrenchments, and, if possible, to draw him from his present
+position." Would the French chief, whose great military genius was known
+in Europe, fall into such a snare? No wonder there were pale looks in
+the City at the news, and doubt and gloom wheresoever it was known.
+
+Three days after this first melancholy intelligence, came the famous
+letters announcing that wonderful consummation of fortune with which Mr.
+Wolfe's wonderful career ended. If no man is to be styled happy till his
+death, what shall we say of this one? His end was so glorious, that I
+protest not even his mother nor his mistress ought to have deplored it,
+or at any rate have wished him alive again. I know it is a hero we speak
+of; and yet I vow I scarce know whether in the last act of his life I
+admire the result of genius, invention, and daring, or the boldness of
+a gambler winning surprising odds. Suppose his ascent discovered a
+half-hour sooner, and his people, as they would have been assuredly,
+beaten back? Suppose the Marquis of Montcalm not to quit his entrenched
+lines to accept that strange challenge? Suppose these points--and none
+of them depend upon Mr. Wolfe at all--and what becomes of the glory
+of the young hero, of the great minister who discovered him, of the
+intoxicated nation which rose up frantic with self-gratulation at
+the victory? I say, what fate is it that shapes our ends, or those of
+nations? In the many hazardous games which my Lord Chatham played,
+he won this prodigious one. And as the greedy British hand seized the
+Canadas, it let fall the United States out of its grasp.
+
+To be sure this wisdom d'apres coup is easy. We wonder at this man's
+rashness now the deed is done, and marvel at the other's fault. What
+generals some of us are upon paper! what repartees come to our mind when
+the talk is finished! and, the game over, how well we see how it should
+have been played! Writing of an event at a distance of thirty years,
+'tis not difficult now to criticise and find fault. But at the time when
+we first heard of Wolfe's glorious deeds upon the Plains of Abraham--of
+that army marshalled in darkness and carried silently up the midnight
+river--of those rocks scaled by the intrepid leader and his troops--of
+that miraculous security of the enemy, of his present acceptance of our
+challenge to battle, and of his defeat on the open plain by the sheer
+valour of his conqueror--we were all intoxicated in England by the
+news. The whole nation rose up and felt itself the stronger for Wolfe's
+victory. Not merely all men engaged in the battle, but those at home who
+had condemned its rashness, felt themselves heroes. Our spirit rose as
+that of our enemy faltered. Friends embraced each other when they met.
+Coffee-houses and public places were thronged with people eager to talk
+the news. Courtiers rushed to the King and the great Minister by whose
+wisdom the campaign had been decreed. When he showed himself, the people
+followed him with shouts and blessings. People did not deplore the dead
+warrior, but admired his euthanasia. Should James Wolfe's friends weep
+and wear mourning, because a chariot had come from the skies to fetch
+him away? Let them watch with wonder, and see him departing, radiant;
+rising above us superior. To have a friend who had been near or about
+him was to be distinguished. Every soldier who fought with him was a
+hero. In our fond little circle I know 'twas a distinction to be
+Harry's brother. We should not in the least wonder but that he, from his
+previous knowledge of the place, had found the way up the heights which
+the British army took, and pointed it out to his General. His promotion
+would follow as a matter of course. Why, even our Uncle Warrington wrote
+letters to bless Heaven and congratulate me and himself upon the share
+Harry had had in the glorious achievement. Our Aunt Beatrix opened her
+house and received company upon the strength of the victory. I became a
+hero from my likeness to my brother. As for Parson Sampson, he preached
+such a sermon that his auditors (some of whom had been warned by his
+reverence of the coming discourse) were with difficulty restrained from
+huzzaing the orator, and were mobbed as they left the chapel. "Don't
+talk to me, madam, about grief," says General Lambert to his wife,
+who, dear soul, was for allowing herself some small indulgence of her
+favourite sorrow on the day when Wolfe's remains were gloriously buried
+at Greenwich. "If our boys could come by such deaths as James's, you
+know you wouldn't prevent them from being shot, but would scale the
+Abraham heights to see the thing done! Wouldst thou mind dying in
+the arms of victory, Charley?" he asks of the little hero from the
+Chartreux. "That I wouldn't," says the little man; "and the doctor gave
+us a holiday, too."
+
+Our Harry's promotion was insured after his share in the famous battle,
+and our aunt announced her intention of purchasing a company for him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXV. The Course of True Love
+
+
+Had your father, young folks, possessed the commonest share of prudence,
+not only would this chapter of his history never have been written, but
+you yourselves would never have appeared in the world to plague him in
+a hundred ways to shout and laugh in the passages when he wants to be
+quiet at his books; to wake him when he is dozing after dinner, as a
+healthy country gentleman should: to mislay his spectacles for him,
+and steal away his newspaper when he wants to read it; to ruin him with
+tailors' bills, mantua-makers' bills, tutors' bills, as you all of you
+do: to break his rest of nights when you have the impudence to fall
+ill, and when he would sleep undisturbed but that your silly mother will
+never be quiet for half an hour; and when Joan can't sleep, what use,
+pray, is there in Darby putting on his nightcap? Every trifling ailment
+that any one of you has had, has scared her so that I protest I have
+never been tranquil; and, were I not the most long-suffering creature in
+the world, would have liked to be rid of the whole pack of you. And
+now, forsooth, that you have grown out of childhood, long petticoats,
+chicken-pox, small-pox, whooping-cough, scarlet fever, and the other
+delectable accidents of puerile life, what must that unconscionable
+woman propose but to arrange the south rooms as a nursery for possible
+grandchildren, and set up the Captain with a wife, and make him marry
+early because we did! He is too fond, she says, of Brookes's and
+Goosetree's when he is in London. She has the perversity to hint that,
+though an entree to Carlton House may be very pleasant, 'tis very
+dangerous for a young gentleman: and she would have Miles live away from
+temptation, and sow his wild oats, and marry, as we did. Marry! my dear
+creature, we had no business to marry at all! By the laws of common
+prudence and duty, I ought to have backed out of my little engagement
+with Miss Theo (who would have married somebody else), and taken a rich
+wife. Your Uncle John was a parson and couldn't fight, poor Charley was
+a boy at school, and your grandfather was too old a man to call me to
+account with sword and pistol. I repeat there never was a more foolish
+match in the world than ours, and our relations were perfectly right
+in being angry with us. What are relations made for, indeed, but to be
+angry and find fault? When Hester marries, do you mind, Master George,
+to quarrel with her if she does not take a husband of your selecting.
+When George has got his living, after being senior wrangler and fellow
+of his college, Miss Hester, do you toss up your little nose at the
+young lady he shall fancy. As for you, my little Theo, I can't part with
+your. You must not quit your old father; for he likes you to play Haydn
+to him, and peel his walnuts after dinner.
+
+
+[On the blank leaf opposite this paragraph is written, in a large,
+girlish hand:
+
+"I never intend to go.--THEODOSIA."
+
+"Nor I.--HESTER."
+
+They both married, as I see by the note in the family Bible--Miss
+Theodosia Warrington to Joseph Clinton, son of the Rev. Joseph Blake,
+and himself subsequently Master of Rodwell Regis Grammar School; and
+Miss Hester Mary, in 1804, to Captain F. Handyman, R.N.--ED.]
+
+
+Whilst they had the blessing (forsooth!) of meeting, and billing and
+cooing every day, the two young people, your parents, went on in a
+fool's paradise, little heeding the world round about them, and all its
+tattling and meddling. Rinaldo was as brave a warrior as ever slew Turk,
+but you know he loved dangling in Armida's garden. Pray, my Lady Armida,
+what did you mean by flinging your spells over me in youth, so that not
+glory, not fashion, not gaming-tables, not the society of men of wit in
+whose way I fell, could keep me long from your apron-strings, or out of
+reach of your dear simple prattle? Pray, my dear, what used we to say to
+each other during those endless hours of meeting? I never went to sleep
+after dinner then. Which of us was so witty? Was it I or you? And how
+came it our conversations were so delightful? I remember that year I did
+not even care to go and see my Lord Ferrers tried and hung, when all the
+world was running after his lordship. The King of Prussia's capital
+was taken; had the Austrians and Russians been encamped round the Tower
+there could scarce have been more stir in London: yet Miss Theo and her
+young gentleman felt no inordinate emotion of pity or indignation. What
+to us was the fate of Leipzig or Berlin? The truth is, that dear old
+house in Dean Street was an enchanted garden of delights. I have been as
+idle since, but never as happy. Shall we order the postchaise, my dear,
+leave the children to keep house; and drive up to London and see if the
+old lodgings are still to be let? And you shall sit at your old place in
+the window, and wave a little handkerchief as I walk up the street. Say
+what we did was imprudent. Would we not do it over again? My good folks,
+if Venus had walked into the room and challenged the apple, I was so
+infatuated, I would have given it your mother. And had she had the
+choice, she would have preferred her humble servant in a threadbare coat
+to my Lord Clive with all his diamonds.
+
+Once, to be sure, and for a brief time in that year, I had a notion of
+going on the highway in order to be caught and hung as my Lord Ferrers:
+or of joining the King of Prussia, and requesting some of his Majesty's
+enemies to knock my brains out; or of enlisting for the India service,
+and performing some desperate exploit which should end in my bodily
+destruction. Ah me! that was indeed a dreadful time! Your mother scarce
+dares speak of it now, save in a whisper of terror; or think of it--it
+was such cruel pain. She was unhappy years after on the anniversary of
+the day, until one of you was born on it. Suppose we had been parted:
+what had come to us? What had my lot been without her? As I think of
+that possibility, the whole world is a blank. I do not say were we
+parted now. It has pleased God to give us thirty years of union. We have
+reached the autumn season. Our successors are appointed and ready; and
+that one of us who is first called away, knows the survivor will follow
+ere long. But we were actually parted in our youth; and I tremble
+to think what might have been, had not a dearest friend brought us
+together.
+
+Unknown to myself, and very likely meaning only my advantage, my
+relatives in England had chosen to write to Madam Esmond in Virginia,
+and represent what they were pleased to call the folly of the engagement
+I had contracted. Every one of them sang the same song: and I saw the
+letters, and burned the whole cursed pack of them years afterwards when
+my mother showed them to me at home in Virginia. Aunt Bernstein was
+forward with her advice. A young person, with no wonderful good looks,
+of no family, with no money;--was ever such an imprudent connexion, and
+ought it not for dear George's sake to be broken off? She had several
+eligible matches in view for me. With my name and prospects, 'twas a
+shame I should throw myself away on this young lady; her sister ought to
+interpose--and so forth.
+
+My Lady Warrington must write, too, and in her peculiar manner. Her
+ladyship's letter was garnished with scripture texts.
+
+She dressed her worldliness out in phylacteries. She pointed out how I
+was living in an unworthy society of player-folks, and the like people,
+who she could not say were absolutely without religion (Heaven forbid!),
+but who were deplorably worldly. She would not say an artful woman had
+inveigled me for her daughter, having in vain tried to captivate my
+younger brother. She was far from saying any harm of the young woman I
+had selected; but at least this was certain, Miss L. had no fortune or
+expectations, and her parents might naturally be anxious to compromise
+me. She had taken counsel, etc. etc. She had sought for guidance where
+it was, etc. Feeling what her duty was, she had determined to speak. Sir
+Miles, a man of excellent judgment in the affairs of this world (though
+he knew and sought a better), fully agreed with her in opinion, nay,
+desired her to write, and entreat her sister to interfere, that the
+ill-advised match should not take place.
+
+And who besides must put a little finger into the pie but the new
+Countess of Castlewood? She wrote a majestic letter to Madam Esmond, and
+stated, that having been placed by Providence at the head of the Esmond
+family, it was her duty to communicate with her kinswoman and warn her
+to break off this marriage. I believe the three women laid their heads
+together previously; and, packet after packet, sent off their warnings
+to the Virginian lady.
+
+One raw April morning, as Corydon goes to pay his usual duty to Phillis,
+he finds, not his charmer with her dear smile as usual ready to welcome
+him, but Mrs. Lambert, with very red eyes, and the General as pale as
+death. "Read this, George Warrington!" says he, as his wife's head drops
+between her hands; and he puts a letter before me, of which I recognised
+the handwriting. I can hear now the sobs of the good Aunt Lambert, and
+to this day the noise of fire-irons stirring a fire in a room overhead
+gives me a tremor. I heard such a noise that day in the girls' room
+where the sisters were together. Poor, gentle child! Poor Theo!
+
+"What can I do after this, George, my poor boy?" asks the General,
+pacing the room with desperation in his face.
+
+I did not quite read the whole of Madam Esmond's letter, for a kind of
+sickness and faintness came over me; but I fear I could say some of it
+now by heart. Its style was good, and its actual words temperate enough,
+though they only implied that Mr. and Mrs. Lambert had inveigled me into
+the marriage; that they knew such an union was unworthy of me; that (as
+Madam E. understood) they had desired a similar union for her younger
+son, which project, not unluckily for him, perhaps, was given up when
+it was found that Mr. Henry Warrington was not the inheritor of the
+Virginian property. If Mr. Lambert was a man of spirit and honour, as
+he was represented to be, Madam Esmond scarcely supposed that, after her
+representations, he would persist in desiring this match. She would not
+lay commands upon her son, whose temper she knew; but for the sake
+of Miss Lambert's own reputation and comfort, she urged that the
+dissolution of the engagement should come from her family, and not from
+the just unwillingness of Rachel Esmond Warrington of Virginia.
+
+"God help us, George!" the General said, "and give us all strength to
+bear this grief, and these charges which it has pleased your mother
+to bring! They are hard, but they don't matter now. What is of most
+importance, is to spare as much sorrow as we can to my poor girl. I know
+you love her so well, that you will help me and her mother to make the
+blow as tolerable as we may to that poor gentle heart. Since she was
+born she has never given pain to a soul alive, and 'tis cruel that she
+should be made to suffer." And as he spoke he passed his hand across his
+dry eyes.
+
+"It was my fault, Martin! It was my fault!" weeps the poor mother.
+
+"Your mother spoke us fair, and gave her promise," said the father.
+
+"And do you think I will withdraw mine?" cried I; and protested, with
+a thousand frantic vows, what they knew full well, that I was bound to
+Theo before Heaven, and that nothing should part me from her."
+
+"She herself will demand the parting. She is a good girl, God help me!
+and a dutiful. She will not have her father and mother called schemers,
+and treated with scorn. Your mother knew not, very likely, what she was
+doing, but 'tis done. You may see the child, and she will tell you as
+much. Is Theo dressed, Molly? I brought the letter home from my office
+last evening after you were gone. The women have had a bad night. She
+knew at once by my face that there was bad news from America. She read
+the letter quite firmly. She said she would like to see you and say
+good-bye. Of course, George, you will give me your word of honour not to
+try and see her afterwards. As soon as my business will let me we will
+get away from this, but mother and I think we are best all together.
+'Tis you, perhaps, had best go. But give me your word, at any rate, that
+you will not try and see her. We must spare her pain, sir! We must spare
+her pain!" And the good man sate down in such deep anguish himself that
+I, who was not yet under the full pressure of my own grief, actually
+felt his, and pitied it. It could not be that the dear lips I had kissed
+yesterday were to speak to me only once more. We were all here together;
+loving each other, sitting in the room where we met every day; my
+drawing on the table by her little workbox; she was in the chamber
+upstairs; she must come down presently.
+
+Who is this opens the door? I see her sweet face. It was like our little
+Mary's when we thought she would die of the fever. There was even
+a smile upon her lips. She comes up and kisses me. "Good-bye, dear
+George!" she says. Great Heaven! An old man sitting in this room,--with
+my wife's workbox opposite, and she but five minutes away, my eyes
+grow so dim and full that I can't see the book before me. I am
+three-and-twenty years old again. I go through every stage of that
+agony. I once had it sitting in my own postchaise, with my wife actually
+by my side. Who dared to sully her sweet love with suspicion? Who had a
+right to stab such a soft bosom? Don't you see my ladies getting their
+knives ready, and the poor child baring it? My wife comes in. She has
+been serving out tea or tobacco to some of her pensioners. "What is it
+makes you look so angry, papa?" she says. "My love!" I say, "it is the
+thirteenth of April." A pang of pain shoots across her face, followed by
+a tender smile. She has undergone the martyrdom, and in the midst of the
+pang comes a halo of forgiveness. I can't forgive; not until my days
+of dotage come, and I cease remembering anything. "Hal will be home
+for Easter; he will bring two or three of his friends with him from
+Cambridge," she says. And straightway she falls to devising schemes for
+amusing the boys. When is she ever occupied, but with plans for making
+others happy?
+
+A gentleman sitting in spectacles before an old ledger, and writing down
+pitiful remembrances of his own condition, is a quaint and ridiculous
+object. My corns hurt me, I know, but I suspect my neighbour's shoes
+pinch him too. I am not going to howl much over my own grief, or enlarge
+at any great length on this one. Many another man, I dare say, has had
+the light of his day suddenly put out, the joy of his life extinguished,
+and has been left to darkness and vague torture. I have a book I tried
+to read at this time of grief--Howel's Letters--and when I come to the
+part about Prince Charles in Spain, up starts the whole tragedy alive
+again. I went to Brighthelmstone, and there, at the inn, had a room
+facing the east, and saw the sun get up ever so many mornings, after
+blank nights of wakefulness, and smoked my pipe of Virginia in his face.
+When I am in that place by chance, and see the sun rising now, I shake
+my fist at him, thinking, O orient Phoebus, what horrible grief and
+savage wrath have you not seen me suffer! Though my wife is mine ever so
+long, I say I am angry just the same. Who dared, I want to know, to
+make us suffer so? I was forbidden to see her. I kept my promise, and
+remained away from the house: that is, after that horrible meeting and
+parting. But at night I would go and look at her window, and watch the
+lamp burning there; I would go to the Chartreux (where I knew
+another boy), and call for her brother, and gorge him with cakes and
+half-crowns. I would meanly have her elder brother to dine, and almost
+kiss him when he went away. I used to breakfast at a coffee-house in
+Whitehall, in order to see Lambert go to his office; and we would salute
+each other sadly, and pass on without speaking. Why did not the women
+come out? They never did. They were practising on her, and persuading
+her to try and forget me. Oh, the weary, weary days! Oh, the maddening
+time! At last a doctor's chariot used to draw up before the General's
+house every day. Was she ill? I fear I was rather glad she was ill. My
+own suffering was so infernal, that I greedily wanted her to share
+my pain. And would she not? What grief of mine has it not felt, that
+gentlest and most compassionate of hearts? What pain would it not suffer
+to spare mine a pang?
+
+I sought that doctor out. I had an interview with him. I told my story,
+and laid bare my heart to him, with an outburst of passionate sincerity,
+which won his sympathy. My confession enabled him to understand his
+young patient's malady; for which his drugs had no remedy or anodyne. I
+had promised not to see her, or to go to her: I had kept my promise. I
+had promised to leave London: I had gone away. Twice, thrice I went back
+and told my sufferings to him. He would take my fee now and again, and
+always receive me kindly, and let me speak. Ah, how I clung to him! I
+suspect he must have been unhappy once in his own life, he knew so well
+and gently how to succour the miserable.
+
+He did not tell me how dangerously, though he did not disguise from
+me how gravely and seriously, my dearest girl had been ill. I told him
+everything--that I would marry her and brave every chance and danger;
+that, without her, I was a man utterly wrecked and ruined, and cared not
+what became of me. My mother had once consented, and had now chosen to
+withdraw her consent, when the tie between us had been, as I held, drawn
+so closely together, as to be paramount to all filial duty.
+
+"I think, sir, if your mother heard you, and saw Miss Lambert, she would
+relent," said the doctor. Who was my mother to hold me in bondage; to
+claim a right of misery over me; and to take this angel out of my arms?
+
+"He could not," he said, "be a message-carrier between young ladies who
+were pining and young lovers on whom the sweethearts' gates were shut:
+but so much he would venture to say, that he had seen me, and was
+prescribing for me, too." Yes, he must have been unhappy once, himself.
+I saw him, you may be sure, on the very day when he had kept his promise
+to me. He said she seemed to be comforted by hearing news of me.
+
+"She bears her suffering with an angelical sweetness. I prescribe
+Jesuit's bark, which she takes; but I am not sure the hearing of you has
+not done more good than the medicine." The women owned afterwards that
+they had never told the General of the doctor's new patient.
+
+I know not what wild expressions of gratitude I poured out to the good
+doctor for the comfort he brought me. His treatment was curing two
+unhappy sick persons. 'Twas but a drop of water, to be sure; but then
+a drop of water to a man raging in torment. I loved the ground he trod
+upon, blessed the hand that took mine, and had felt her pulse. I had a
+ring with a pretty cameo head of a Hercules on it. 'Twas too small for
+his finger, nor did the good old man wear such ornaments. I made
+him hang it to his watch-chain, in hopes that she might see it, and
+recognise that the token came from me. How I fastened upon Spencer
+at this time (my friend of the Temple who also had an unfortunate
+love-match), and walked with him from my apartments to the Temple, and
+he back with me to Bedford Gardens, and our talk was for ever about our
+women! I dare say I told everybody my grief. My good landlady and Betty
+the housemaid pitied me. My son Miles, who, for a wonder, has been
+reading in my MS., says, "By Jove, sir, I didn't know you and my mother
+were took in this kind of way. The year I joined, I was hit very bad
+myself. An infernal little jilt that threw me over for Sir Craven Oaks
+of our regiment. I thought I should have gone crazy." And he gives a
+melancholy whistle, and walks away.
+
+The General had to leave London presently on one of his military
+inspections, as the doctor casually told me; but, having given my
+word that I would not seek to present myself at his house, I kept it,
+availing myself, however, as you may be sure, of the good physician's
+leave to visit him, and have news of his dear patient. His accounts of
+her were, far from encouraging. "She does not rally," he said. "We must
+get her back to Kent again, or to the sea." I did not know then that the
+poor child had begged and prayed so piteously not to be moved, that
+her parents, divining, perhaps, the reason of her desire to linger in
+London, and feeling that it might be dangerous not to humour her, had
+yielded to her entreaty, and consented to remain in town.
+
+At last one morning I came, pretty much as usual, and took my place in
+my doctor's front parlour, whence his patients were called in their turn
+to his consulting-room. Here I remained, looking heedlessly over the
+books on the table and taking no notice of any person in the room, which
+speedily emptied itself of all, save me and one lady who sate with her
+veil down. I used to stay till the last, for Osborn, the doctor's man,
+knew my business, and that it was not my own illness I came for.
+
+When the room was empty of all save me and the lady, she puts out two
+little hands, cries in a voice which made me start "Don't you know me,
+George?" And the next minute I have my arms round her, and kissed her
+as heartily as ever I kissed in my life, and gave way to a passionate
+outgush of emotion the most refreshing, for my parched soul had been in
+rage and torture for six weeks past, and this was a glimpse of Heaven.
+
+Who was it, children? You think it was your mother whom the doctor had
+brought to me? No. It was Hetty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVI. Informs us how Mr. Warrington jumped into a Landau
+
+
+The emotion at the first surprise and greeting over, the little maiden
+began at once.
+
+"So you are come at last to ask after Theo, and you feel sorry that your
+neglect has made her so ill? For six weeks she has been unwell, and you
+have never asked a word about her! Very kind of you, Mr. George, I'm
+sure!"
+
+"Kind!" gasps out Mr. Warrington.
+
+"I suppose you call it kind to be with her every day and all day for a
+year, and then to leave her without a word?"
+
+"My dear, you know my promise to your father?" I reply.
+
+"Promise!" says Miss Hetty, shrugging her shoulders. "A very fine
+promise, indeed, to make my darling ill, and then suddenly, one fine
+day, to say, 'Good-bye, Theo,' and walk away for ever. I suppose
+gentlemen make these promises, because they wish to keep 'em. I wouldn't
+trifle with a poor child's heart, and leave her afterwards, if I were a
+man. What has she ever done to you, but be a fool and too fond of you?
+Pray, sir, by what right do you take her away from all of us, and then
+desert her, because an old woman in America don't approve of her? She
+was happy with us before you came. She loved her sister--there never was
+such a sister--until she saw you. And now, because your mamma thinks her
+young gentleman might do better, you must leave her forsooth!"
+
+"Great powers, child!" I cried, exasperated at this wrongheadedness.
+"Was it I that drew back? Is it not I that am forbidden your house? and
+did not your father require, on my honour, that I should not see her?"
+
+"Honour! And you are the men who pretend to be our superiors; and it is
+we who are to respect you and admire you! I declare, George Warrington,
+you ought to go back to your schoolroom in Virginia again; have your
+black nurse to tuck you up in bed, and ask leave from your mamma when
+you might walk out. Oh, George! I little thought that my sister was
+giving her heart away to a man who hadn't the spirit to stand by her;
+but, at the first difficulty, left her! When Doctor Heberden said he was
+attending you, I determined to come and see you, and you do look very
+ill, that I am glad to see; and I suppose it's your mother you are
+frightened of. But I shan't tell Theo that you are unwell. She hasn't
+left off caring for you. She can't walk out of a room, break her solemn
+engagements, and go into the world the next day as if nothing had
+happened! That is left for men, our superiors in courage and wisdom; and
+to desert an angel--yes, an angel ten thousand times too good for you;
+an angel who used to love me till she saw you, and who was the blessing
+of life and of all of us--is what you call honour? Don't tell me, sir!
+I despise you all! You are our betters, are you? We are to worship and
+wait on you, I suppose? I don't care about your wit, and your tragedies,
+and your verses; and I think they are often very stupid. I won't set
+up of nights copying your manuscripts, nor watch hour after hour at a
+window wasting my time and neglecting everybody because I want to see
+your worship walk down the street with your hat cocked! If you are
+going away, and welcome, give me back my sister, I say! Give me back my
+darling of old days, who loved every one of us, till she saw you. And
+you leave her because your mamma thinks she can find somebody richer
+for you! Oh, you brave gentleman! Go and marry the person your mother
+chooses, and let my dear die here deserted!"
+
+"Great heavens, Hetty!" I cry, amazed at the logic of the little woman.
+"Is it I who wish to leave your sister? Did I not offer to keep my
+promise, and was it not your father who refused me, and made me promise
+never to try and see her again? What have I but my word, and my honour?"
+
+"Honour, indeed! You keep your word to him, and you break it to her!
+Pretty honour! If I were a man, I would soon let you know what I thought
+of your honour! Only I forgot--you are bound to keep the peace and
+mustn't... Oh, George, George! Don't you see the grief I am in? I am
+distracted, and scarce know what I say. You must not leave my darling.
+They don't know it at home. They don't think so but I know her best of
+all, and she will die if you leave her. Say you won't! Have pity upon
+me, Mr. Warrington, and give me my dearest back!" Thus the warm-hearted,
+distracted creature ran from anger to entreaty, from scorn to tears. Was
+my little doctor right in thus speaking of the case of her dear patient?
+Was there no other remedy than that which Hetty cried for? Have not
+others felt the same cruel pain of amputation, undergone the same
+exhaustion and fever afterwards, lain hopeless of anything save death,
+and yet recovered after all, and limped through life subsequently? Why,
+but that love is selfish, and does not heed other people's griefs and
+passions, or that ours was so intense and special that we deemed no
+other lovers could suffer like ourselves;--here in the passionate young
+pleader for her sister, we might have shown an instance that a fond
+heart could be stricken with the love malady and silently suffer it,
+live under it, recover from it. What had happened in Hetty's own case?
+Her sister and I, in our easy triumph and fond confidential prattle, had
+many a time talked over that matter, and, egotists as we were, perhaps
+drawn a secret zest and security out of her less fortunate attachment.
+'Twas like sitting by the fireside and hearing the winter howling
+without; 'twas like walking by the maxi magno, and seeing the ship
+tossing at sea. We clung to each other only the more closely, and,
+wrapped in our own happiness, viewed others' misfortunes with complacent
+pity. Be the truth as it may. Grant that we might have been sundered,
+and after a while survived the separation, so much my sceptical old age
+may be disposed to admit. Yet, at that time, I was eager enough to share
+my ardent little Hetty's terrors and apprehensions, and willingly chose
+to believe that the life dearest to me in the world would be sacrificed
+if separated from mine. Was I wrong? I would not say as much now. I may
+doubt about myself (or not doubt, I know), but of her, never; and Hetty
+found in her quite a willing sharer in her alarms and terrors. I was for
+imparting some of these to our doctor; but the good gentleman shut my
+mouth. "Hush," says he, with a comical look of fright. "I must hear none
+of this. If two people who happen to know each other chance to meet and
+talk in my patients' room, I cannot help myself; but as for match-making
+and love-making, I am your humble servant! What will the General do when
+he comes back to town? He will have me behind Montagu House as sure as I
+am a live doctor, and alive I wish to remain, my good sir!" and he skips
+into his carriage, and leaves me there meditating. "And you and Miss
+Hetty must have no meetings here again, mind you that," he had said
+previously.
+
+Oh no! Of course we would have none! We are gentlemen of honour, and so
+forth, and our word is our word. Besides, to have seen Hetty, was not
+that an inestimable boon, and would we not be for ever grateful? I am
+so refreshed with that drop of water I have had, that I think I can hold
+out for ever so long a time now. I walk away with Hetty to Soho, and
+never once thought of arranging a new meeting with her. But the little
+emissary was more thoughtful, and she asks me whether I go to the
+Museum now to read? And I say, "Oh yes, sometimes, my dear; but I am too
+wretched for reading now; I cannot see what is on the paper. I do not
+care about my books. Even Pocahontas is wearisome to me. I..." I
+might have continued ever so much further, when, "Nonsense!" she says,
+stamping her little foot. "Why, I declare, George, you are more stupid
+than Harry!"
+
+"How do you mean, my dear child?" I asked.
+
+"When do you go? You go away at three o'clock. You strike across on the
+road to Tottenham Court. You walk through the village, and return by the
+Green Lane that leads back towards the new hospital. You know you do! If
+you walk for a week there, it can't do you any harm. Good morning, sir!
+You'll please not follow me any farther." And she drops me a curtsey,
+and walks away with a veil over her face.
+
+That Green Lane, which lay to the north of the new hospital, is built
+all over with houses now. In my time, when good old George II. was yet
+king, 'twas a shabby rural outlet of London; so dangerous, that the City
+folks who went to their villas and junketing houses at Hampstead and the
+outlying villages, would return in parties of nights, and escorted by
+waiters with lanthorns, to defend them from the footpads who prowled
+about the town outskirts. Hampstead and Highgate churches, each crowning
+its hill, filled up the background of the view which you saw as
+you turned your back to London; and one, two, three days Mr. George
+Warrington had the pleasure of looking upon this landscape, and walking
+back in the direction of the new hospital.
+
+Along the lane were sundry small houses of entertainment; and I remember
+at one place, where they sold cakes and beer, at the sign of the
+Protestant Hero, a decent woman smiling at me on the third or fourth
+day, and curtseying in her clean apron, as she says, "It appears the
+lady don't come, sir! Your honour had best step in, and take a can of my
+cool beer."
+
+At length, as I am coming back through Tottenham Road, on the 25th of
+May--O day to be marked with the whitest stone!--a little way beyond Mr.
+Whitefield's Tabernacle, I see a landau before me, and on the box-seat
+by the driver is my young friend Charley, who waves his hat to me and
+calls out, "George! George!" I ran up to the carriage, my knees knocking
+together so that I thought I should fall by the wheel; and inside I see
+Hetty, and by her my dearest Theo, propped with a pillow. How thin the
+little hand had become since last it was laid in mine! The cheeks were
+flushed and wasted, the eyes strangely bright, and the thrill of the
+voice when she spoke a word or two, smote me with a pang, I know not of
+grief or joy was it, so intimately were they blended.
+
+"I am taking her an airing to Hampstead," says Hetty, demurely. "The
+doctor says the air will do her good."
+
+"I have been ill, but I am better now, George," says Theo. There came a
+great burst of music from the people in the chapel hard by, as she was
+speaking. I held her hand in mine. Her eyes were looking into mine once
+more. It seemed as if we had never been parted.
+
+I can never forget the tune of that psalm. I have heard it all through
+my life. My wife has touched it on her harpsichord, and her little ones
+have warbled it. Now, do you understand, young people, why I love it so?
+Because 'twas the music played at our amoris redintegratio. Because it
+sang hope to me, at the period of my existence the most miserable. Yes,
+the most miserable: for that dreary confinement of Duquesne had its
+tendernesses and kindly associations connected with it; and many a time
+in after days I have thought with fondness of the poor Biche and my
+tipsy jailor, and the reveille of the forest birds and the military
+music of my prison.
+
+Master Charley looks down from his box-seat upon his sister and me
+engaged in beatific contemplation, and Hetty listening too, to the
+music. "I think I should like to go and hear it. And that famous Mr.
+Whitfield, perhaps he is going to preach this very day! Come in with me,
+Charley--and George can drive for half an hour with dear Theo towards
+Hampstead and back."
+
+Charley did not seem to have any very strong desire for witnessing the
+devotional exercises of good Mr. Whitfield and his congregation, and
+proposed that George Warrington should take Hetty in; but Het was not
+to be denied. "I will never help you in another exercise as long as you
+live, sir," cries Miss Hetty, "if you don't come on,"--while the youth
+clambered down from his box-seat, and they entered the temple together.
+
+Can any moralist, bearing my previous promises in mind, excuse me for
+jumping into the carriage and sitting down once more by my dearest Theo?
+Suppose I did break 'em? Will he blame me much? Reverend sir, you are
+welcome. I broke my promise; and if you would not do as much, good
+friend, you are welcome to your virtue. Not that I for a moment suspect
+my own children will ever be so bold as to think of having hearts of
+their own, and bestowing them according to their liking. No, my young
+people, you will let papa choose for you; be hungry when he tells
+you; be thirsty when he orders; and settle your children's marriages
+afterwards.
+
+And now of course you are anxious to hear what took place when papa
+jumped into the landau by the side of poor little mamma, propped up by
+her pillows. "I am come to your part of the story, my dear," says I,
+looking over to my wife as she is plying her needles.
+
+"To what, pray?" says my lady. "You should skip all that part, and come
+to the grand battles, and your heroic defence of----"
+
+"Of Fort Fiddlededee in the year 1778, when I pulled off Mr.
+Washington's epaulet, gouged General Gates's eye, cut off Charles Lee's
+head, and pasted it on again!"
+
+"Let us hear all about the fighting," say the boys. Even the Captain
+condescends to own he will listen to any military details, though only
+from a militia officer.
+
+"Fair and softly, young people! Everything in its turn. I am not yet
+arrived at the war. I am only a young gentleman, just stepping into
+a landau, by the side of a young lady whom I promised to avoid. I am
+taking her hand, which, after a little ado, she leaves in mine. Do you
+remember how hot it was, the little thing, how it trembled, and how it
+throbbed and jumped a hundred and twenty in a minute? And as we trot on
+towards Hampstead, I address Miss Lambert in the following terms----"
+
+"Ah, ah, ah!" say the girls in a chorus with mademoiselle, their French
+governess, who cries, "Nous ecoutons maintenant. La parole est a vous,
+Monsieur le Chevalier!"
+
+Here we have them all in a circle: mamma is at her side of the fire,
+papa at his; Mademoiselle Eleonore, at whom the Captain looks rather
+sweetly (eyes off, Captain!); the two girls, listening like--like
+nymphas discentes to Apollo, let us say; and John and Tummas (with
+obtuse ears), who are bringing in the tea-trays and urns.
+
+"Very good," says the Squire, pulling out the MS., and waving it before
+him. "We are going to tell your mother's secrets and mine."
+
+"I am sure you may, papa," cries the house matron. "There's nothing to
+be ashamed of." And a blush rises over her kind face.
+
+"But before I begin, young folks, permit me two or three questions."
+
+"Allons, toujours des questions!" says mademoiselle, with a shrug of her
+pretty shoulders. (Florac has recommended her to us, and I suspect the
+little Chevalier has himself an eye upon this pretty Mademoiselle de
+Blois.)
+
+To the questions, then.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVII. And how everybody got out again
+
+
+You, Captain Miles Warrington, have the honour of winning the good
+graces of a lady--of ever so many ladies--of the Duchess of Devonshire,
+let us say, of Mrs. Crew, of Mrs. Fitzherbert, of the Queen of Prussia,
+of the Goddess Venus, of Mademoiselle Hillisberg of the Opera--never
+mind of whom, in fine. If you win a lady's good graces, do you always go
+to the mess and tell what happened?"
+
+"Not such a fool, Squire!" says the Captain, surveying his side curl in
+the glass.
+
+"Have you, Miss Theo, told your mother every word you said to Mr. Joe
+Blake, junior, in the shrubbery this morning?"
+
+"Joe Blake, indeed!" cries Theo junior.
+
+"And you, mademoiselle? That scented billet which came to you under Sir
+Thomas's frank, have you told us all the letter contains? Look how she
+blushes! As red as the curtain, on my word! No, mademoiselle, we all
+have our secrets" (says the Squire, here making his best French bow).
+"No, Theo, there was nothing in the shrubbery--only nuts, my child!
+No, Miles, my son, we don't tell all, even to the most indulgent of
+fathers--and if I tell what happened in a landau on the Hampstead Road,
+on the 25th of May, 1760, may the Chevalier Ruspini pull out every tooth
+in my head!"
+
+"Pray tell, papa!" cries mamma: "or, as Jobson, who drove us, is in your
+service now, perhaps you will have him in from the stables! I insist
+upon your telling!"
+
+"What is, then, this mystery?" asks mademoiselle, in her pretty French
+accent, of my wife.
+
+"Eh, ma fille!" whispers the lady. "Thou wouldst ask me what I said? I
+said 'Yes!'--behold all I said." And so 'tis my wife has peached, and
+not I; and this was the sum of our conversation, as the carriage, all
+too swiftly as I thought, galloped towards Hampstead, and flew
+back again. Theo had not agreed to fly in the face of her honoured
+parents--no such thing. But we would marry no other person; no, not if
+we lived to be as old as Methuselah; no, not the Prince of Wales
+himself would she take. Her heart she had given away with her papa's
+consent--nay, order--it was not hers to resume. So kind a father must
+relent one of these days; and, if George would keep his promise--were it
+now, or were it in twenty years, or were it in another world, she knew
+she should never break hers.
+
+Hetty's face beamed with delight when, my little interview over, she
+saw Theo's countenance wearing a sweet tranquillity. All the doctor's
+medicine has not done her so much good, the fond sister said. The girls
+went home after their act of disobedience. I gave up the place which I
+had held during a brief period of happiness by my dear invalid's side.
+Hetty skipped back into her seat, and Charley on to his box. He told me
+in after days, that it was a very dull, stupid sermon he had heard. The
+little chap was too orthodox to love dissenting preachers' sermons.
+
+Hetty was not the only one of the family who remarked her sister's
+altered countenance and improved spirits. I am told that on the girls'
+return home their mother embraced both of them, especially the invalid,
+with more than common ardour of affection. "There was nothing like a
+country ride," Aunt Lambert said, "for doing her dear Theo good. She
+had been on the road to Hampstead, had she? She must have another ride
+to-morrow. Heaven be blessed, my Lord Wrotham's horses were at their
+orders three or four times a week, and the sweet child might have the
+advantage of them!" As for the idea that Mr. Warrington might have
+happened to meet the children on their drive, Aunt Lambert never once
+entertained it,--at least spoke of it. I leave anybody who is interested
+in the matter to guess whether Mrs. Lambert could by any possibility
+have supposed that her daughter and her sweetheart could ever have come
+together again. Do women help each other in love perplexities? Do women
+scheme, intrigue, make little plans, tell little fibs, provide little
+amorous opportunities, hang up the rope-ladder, coax, wheedle, mystify
+the guardian or Abigail, and turn their attention away while Strephon
+and Chloe are billing and cooing in the twilight, or whisking off in the
+postchaise to Gretna Green? My dear young folks, some people there are
+of this nature; and some kind souls who have loved tenderly and truly in
+their own time, continue ever after to be kindly and tenderly disposed
+towards their young successors, when they begin to play the same pretty
+game.
+
+Miss Prim doesn't. If she hears of two young persons attached to each
+other, it is to snarl at them for fools, or to imagine of them all
+conceivable evil. Because she has a hump-back herself, she is for biting
+everybody else's. I believe if she saw a pair of turtles cooing in a
+wood, she would turn her eyes down, or fling a stone to frighten them;
+but I am speaking, you see, young ladies, of your grandmother, Aunt
+Lambert, who was one great syllabub of human kindness; and, besides,
+about the affair at present under discussion, how am I ever to tell
+whether she knew anything regarding it or not?
+
+So, all she says to Theo on her return home is, "My child, the country
+air has done you all the good in the world, and I hope you will take
+another drive to-morrow, and another, and another, and so on."
+
+"Don't you think, papa, the ride has done the child most wonderful good,
+and must not she be made to go out in the air?" Aunt Lambert asks of the
+General, when he comes in for supper.
+
+"Yes, sure, if a coach-and-six will do his little Theo good, she shall
+have it," Lambert says, "or he will drag the landau up Hampstead Hill
+himself, if there are no horses;" and so the good man would have spent,
+freely, his guineas, or his breath, or his blood, to give his child
+pleasure. He was charmed at his girl's altered countenance; she picked
+a bit of chicken with appetite: she drank a little negus, which he made
+for her: indeed it did seem to be better than the kind doctor's best
+medicine, which hitherto, God wot, had been of little benefit. Mamma was
+gracious and happy. Hetty was radiant and rident. It was quite like an
+evening at home at Oakhurst. Never for months past, never since that
+fatal, cruel day, that no one spoke of, had they spent an evening so
+delightful.
+
+But, if the other women chose to coax and cajole the good, simple
+father, Theo herself was too honest to continue for long even that sweet
+and fond delusion. When, for the third or fourth time, he comes back to
+the delightful theme of his daughter's improved health, and asks, "What
+has done it? Is it the country air? is it the Jesuit's bark? is it the
+new medicine?"
+
+"Can't you think, dear, what it is?" she says, laying a hand upon her
+father's, with a tremor in her voice, perhaps, but eyes that are quite
+open and bright.
+
+"And what is it, my child?" asks the General.
+
+"It is because I have seen him again, papa!" she says.
+
+The other two women turned pale, and Theo's heart too begins to
+palpitate, and her cheek to whiten, as she continues to look in her
+father's scared face.
+
+"It was not wrong to see him," she continues, more quickly; "it would
+have been wrong not to tell you."
+
+"Great God!" groans the father, drawing his hand back, and with such
+a dreadful grief in his countenance, that Hetty runs to her almost
+swooning sister, clasps her to her heart, and cries out, rapidly, "Theo
+knew nothing of it, sir! It was my doing--it was all my doing!"
+
+Theo lies on her sister's neck, and kisses it twenty, fifty times.
+
+"Women, women! are you playing with my honour?" cries the father,
+bursting out with a fierce exclamation.
+
+Aunt Lambert sobs, wildly, "Martin! Martin! Don't say a word to her!"
+again calls out Hetty, and falls back herself staggering towards the
+wall, for Theo has fainted on her shoulder.
+
+I was taking my breakfast next morning, with what appetite I might, when
+my door opens, and my faithful black announces, "General Lambert." At
+once I saw, by the General's face, that the yesterday's transaction was
+known to him. "Your accomplices did not confess," the General said,
+as soon as my servant had left us, "but sided with you against their
+father--a proof how desirable clandestine meetings are. It was from Theo
+herself I heard that she had seen you."
+
+"Accomplices, sir!" I said (perhaps not unwilling to turn the
+conversation from the real point at issue). "You know how fondly and
+dutifully your young people regard their father. If they side against
+you in this instance, it must be because justice is against you. A man
+like you is not going to set up sic volo sic jubeo as the sole law in
+his family!"
+
+"Psha, George!" cries the General. "For though we are parted, God forbid
+I should desire that we should cease to love each other. I had your
+promise that you would not seek to see her."
+
+"Nor did I go to her, sir," I said, turning red, no doubt; for though
+this was truth, I own it was untrue.
+
+"You mean she was brought to you?" says Theo's father, in great
+agitation. "Is it behind Hester's petticoat that you will shelter
+yourself? What a fine defence for a gentleman!"
+
+"Well, I won't screen myself behind the poor child," I replied.
+"To speak as I did was to make an attempt at evasion, and I am
+ill-accustomed to dissemble. I did not infringe the letter of my
+agreement, but I acted against the spirit of it. From this moment I
+annul it altogether."
+
+"You break your word given to me!" cries Mr. Lambert.
+
+"I recall a hasty promise made on a sudden at a moment of extreme
+excitement and perturbation. No man can be for ever bound by words
+uttered at such a time; and, what is more, no man of honour or humanity,
+Mr. Lambert, would try to bind him."
+
+"Dishonour to me! sir," exclaims the General.
+
+"Yes, if the phrase is to be shuttlecocked between us!" I answered,
+hotly. "There can be no question about love, or mutual regard,
+or difference of age, when that word is used: and were you my own
+father--and I love you better than a father, Uncle Lambert,--I would not
+bear it! What have I done? I have seen the woman whom I consider my wife
+before God and man, and if she calls me I will see her again. If she
+comes to me, here is my home for her, and the half of the little I have.
+'Tis you, who have no right, having made me the gift, to resume it.
+Because my mother taunts you unjustly, are you to visit Mrs. Esmond's
+wrong upon this tender, innocent creature? You profess to love your
+daughter, and you can't bear a little wounded pride for her sake. Better
+she should perish away in misery, than an old woman in Virginia should
+say that Mr. Lambert had schemed to marry one of his daughters. Say
+that to satisfy what you call honour and I call selfishness, we part,
+we break our hearts well nigh, we rally, we try to forget each other, we
+marry elsewhere? Can any man be to my dear as I have been? God forbid!
+Can any woman be to me what she is? You shall marry her to the Prince of
+Wales to-morrow, and it is a cowardice and treason. How can we, how can
+you, undo the promises we have made to each other before Heaven? You may
+part us: and she will die as surely as if she were Jephthah's daughter.
+Have you made any vow to Heaven to compass her murder? Kill her if you
+conceive your promise so binds you: but this I swear, that I am glad
+you have come, so that I may here formally recall a hasty pledge which I
+gave, and that, call me when she will, I will come to her!"
+
+No doubt this speech was made with the flurry and agitation belonging
+to Mr. Warrington's youth, and with the firm conviction that death would
+infallibly carry off one or both of the parties, in case their worldly
+separation was inevitably decreed. Who does not believe his first
+passion eternal? Having watched the world since, and seen the rise,
+progress, and--alas, that I must say it!--decay of other amours, I may
+smile now as I think of my own youthful errors and ardours; but, if it
+be a superstition, I had rather hold it; I had rather think that
+neither of us could have lived with any other mate, and that, of all its
+innumerable creatures, Heaven decreed these special two should be joined
+together.
+
+"We must come, then, to what I had fain have spared myself," says the
+General, in reply to my outbreak; "to an unfriendly separation. When
+I meet you, Mr. Warrington, I must know you no more. I must order--and
+they will not do other than obey me--my family and children not to
+recognise you when they see you, since you will not recognise in
+your intercourse with me the respect due to my age, the courtesy of
+gentlemen. I had hoped so far from your sense of honour, and the idea
+I had formed of you, that, in my present great grief and perplexity,
+I should have found you willing to soothe and help me as far as you
+might--for, God knows, I have need of everybody's sympathy. But, instead
+of help, you fling obstacles in my way. Instead of a friend--a gracious
+Heaven pardon me!--I find in you an enemy! An enemy to the peace of my
+home and the honour of my children, sir! And as such I shall treat you,
+and know how to deal with you, when you molest me!"
+
+And, waving his hand to me, and putting on his hat, Mr. Lambert hastily
+quitted my apartment.
+
+I was confounded, and believed, indeed, there was war between us. The
+brief happiness of yesterday was clouded over and gone, and I thought
+that never since the day of the first separation had I felt so
+exquisitely unhappy as now, when the bitterness of quarrel was added to
+the pangs of parting, and I stood not only alone but friendless. In the
+course of one year's constant intimacy I had come to regard Lambert with
+a reverence and affection which I had never before felt for any mortal
+man except my dearest Harry. That his face should be turned from me
+in anger was as if the sun had gone out of my sphere, and all was dark
+around me. And yet I felt sure that in withdrawing the hasty promise I
+had made not to see Theo, I was acting rightly--that my fidelity to her,
+as hers now to me, was paramount to all other ties of duty or obedience,
+and that, ceremony or none, I was hers, first and before all. Promises
+were passed between us, from which no parent could absolve either; and
+all the priests in Christendom could no more than attest and confirm the
+sacred contract which had tacitly been ratified between us.
+
+I saw Jack Lambert by chance that day, as I went mechanically to my not
+unusual haunt, the library of the new Museum; and with the impetuousness
+of youth, and eager to impart my sorrow to some one, I took him out of
+the room and led him about the gardens, and poured out my grief to him.
+I did not much care for Jack (who in truth was somewhat of a prig, and
+not a little pompous and wearisome with his Latin quotations) except in
+the time of my own sorrow, when I would fasten upon him or any one; and
+having suffered himself in his affair with the little American,
+being haud ignarus mali (as I knew he would say), I found the college
+gentleman ready to compassionate another's misery. I told him, what has
+here been represented at greater length, of my yesterday's meeting
+with his sister; of my interview with his father in the morning; of my
+determination at all hazards never to part with Theo. When I found from
+the various quotations from the Greek and Latin authors which he uttered
+that he leaned to my side in the dispute, I thought him a man of great
+sense, clung eagerly to his elbow, and bestowed upon him much more
+affection than he was accustomed at other times to have from me. I
+walked with him up to his father's lodgings in Dean Street; saw him
+enter at the dear door; surveyed the house from without with a sickening
+desire to know from its exterior appearance how my beloved fared within;
+and called for a bottle at the coffee-house where I waited Jack's
+return. I called him Brother when I sent him away. I fondled him as the
+condemned wretch at Newgate hangs about the jailor or the parson, or any
+one who is kind to him in his misery. I drank a whole bottle of wine at
+the coffee-house--by the way, Jack's Coffee-House was its name--called
+another. I thought Jack would never come back.
+
+He appeared at length with rather a scared face; and, coming to my box,
+poured out for himself two or three bumpers from my second bottle,
+and then fell to his story, which, to me at least, was not a little
+interesting. My poor Theo was keeping her room, it appeared, being much
+agitated by the occurrences of yesterday; and Jack had come home in time
+to find dinner on table; after which his good father held forth upon the
+occurrences of the morning, being anxious and able to speak more freely,
+he said, because his eldest son was present and Theodosia was not in the
+room. The General stated what had happened at my lodgings between me and
+him. He bade Hester be silent, who indeed was as dumb as a mouse, poor
+thing! he told Aunt Lambert (who was indulging in that madefaction of
+pocket-handkerchiefs which I have before described), and with something
+like an imprecation, that the women were all against him, and pimps (he
+called them) for one another; and frantically turning round to Jack,
+asked what was his view in the matter?
+
+To his father's surprise and his mother's and sister's delight,
+Jack made a speech on my side. He ruled with me (citing what ancient
+authorities I don't know), that the matter had gone out of the hands of
+the parents on either side; that having given their consent, some months
+previously, the elders had put themselves out of court. Though he did
+not hold with a great, a respectable, he might say a host of divines,
+those sacramental views of the marriage-ceremony--for which there was a
+great deal to be said--yet he held it, if possible, even more sacredly
+than they; conceiving that though marriages were made before the civil
+magistrate, and without the priest, yet they were, before Heaven,
+binding and indissoluble.
+
+"It is not merely, sir," says Jack, turning to his father, "those whom
+I, John Lambert, Priest, have joined, let no man put asunder; it is
+those whom God has joined let no man separate." (Here he took off his
+hat, as he told the story to me.) "My views are clear upon the point,
+and surely these young people were joined, or permitted to plight
+themselves to each other by the consent of you, the priest of your own
+family. My views, I say, are clear, and I will lay them down at length
+in a series of two or three discourses which, no doubt, will satisfy
+you. Upon which," says Jack, "my father said, 'I am satisfied already,
+my dear boy,' and my lively little Het (who has much archness) whispers
+to me, 'Jack, mother and I will make you a dozen shirts, as sure as eggs
+is eggs.'"
+
+"Whilst we were talking," Mr. Lambert resumed, "my sister Theodosia
+made her appearance, I must say very much agitated and pale, kissed our
+father, and sate down at his side, and took a sippet of toast--(my dear
+George, this port is excellent, and I drink your health)--and took a
+sippet of toast and dipped it in his negus.
+
+"'You should have been here to hear Jack's sermon!' says Hester. 'He has
+been preaching most beautifully.'
+
+"'Has he?' asks Theodosia, who is too languid and weak, poor thing, much
+to care for the exercises of eloquence, or the display of authorities,
+such as I must own," says Jack, "it was given to me this afternoon to
+bring forward.
+
+"'He has talked for three quarters of an hour by Shrewsbury clock,' says
+my father, though I certainly had not talked so long or half so long
+by my own watch. 'And his discourse has been you, my dear,' says papa,
+playing with Theodosia's hand.
+
+"'Me, papa?'
+
+"'You and--and Mr. Warrington--and--and George, my love,' says papa.
+Upon which" (says Mr. Jack). "my sister came closer to the General, and
+laid her head upon him, and wept upon his shoulder.
+
+"'This is different, sir,' says I, 'to a passage I remember in
+Pausanias.'
+
+"'In Pausanias? Indeed!' said the General. 'And pray who was he?'
+
+"I smiled at my father's simplicity in exposing his ignorance before his
+children. 'When Ulysses was taking away Penelope from her father,
+the king hastened after his daughter and bridegroom, and besought his
+darling to return. Whereupon, it is related, Ulysses offered her her
+choice,--whether she would return, or go on with him? Upon which the
+daughter of Icarius covered her face with her veil. For want of a veil
+my sister has taken refuge in your waistcoat, sir,' I said, and we all
+laughed; though my mother vowed that if such a proposal had been made
+to her, or Penelope had been a girl of spirit, she would have gone home
+with her father that instant.
+
+"'But I am not a girl of any spirit, dear mother!' says Theodosia, still
+in gremio patris. I do not remember that this habit of caressing
+was frequent in my own youth," continues Jack. "But after some more
+discourse, Brother Warrington! bethought me of you, and left my parents
+insisting upon Theodosia returning to bed. The late transactions have,
+it appears, weakened and agitated her much. I myself have experienced,
+in my own case, how full of solliciti timoris is a certain passion; how
+it racks the spirits; and I make no doubt, if carried far enough, or
+indulged to the extent to which women who have little philosophy will
+permit it to go--I make no doubt, I say, is ultimately injurious to the
+health. My service to you, brother!"
+
+From grief to hope, how rapid the change was! What a flood of happiness
+poured into my soul, and glowed in my whole being! Landlord, more port!
+Would honest Jack have drunk a binful I would have treated him; and,
+to say truth, Jack's sympathy was large in this case, and it had been
+generous all day. I decline to score the bottles of port: and place
+to the fabulous computations of interested waiters, the amount scored
+against me in the reckoning. Jack was my dearest, best of brothers.
+My friendship for him I swore should be eternal. If I could do him any
+service, were it a bishopric, by George! he should have it. He says I
+was interrupted by the watchman rhapsodising verses beneath the loved
+one's window. I know not. I know I awoke joyfully and rapturously, in
+spite of a racking headache the next morning.
+
+Nor did I know the extent of my happiness quite, or the entire
+conversion of my dear noble enemy of the previous morning. It must
+have been galling to the pride of an elder man to have to yield to
+representations and objections couched in language so little dutiful as
+that I had used towards Mr. Lambert. But the true Christian gentleman,
+retiring from his talk with me, mortified and wounded by my asperity of
+remonstrance, as well as by the pain which he saw his beloved daughter
+suffer, went thoughtfully and sadly to his business, as he subsequently
+told me, and in the afternoon (as his custom not unfrequently was) into
+a church which was open for prayers. And it was here, on his knees,
+submitting his case in the quarter whither he frequently, though
+privately, came for guidance and comfort, that it seemed to him that his
+child was right in her persistent fidelity to me, and himself wrong in
+demanding her utter submission. Hence Jack's cause was won almost before
+he began to plead it; and the brave, gentle heart, which could bear no
+rancour, which bled at inflicting pain on those it loved, which even
+shrank from asserting authority or demanding submission, was only too
+glad to return to its natural pulses of love and affection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVIII. Pyramus and Thisbe
+
+
+In examining the old papers at home, years afterwards, I found, docketed
+and labelled with my mother's well-known neat handwriting, "From London,
+April, 1760. My son's dreadful letter." When it came to be mine I
+burnt the document, not choosing that that story of domestic grief and
+disunion should remain amongst our family annals for future Warringtons
+to gaze on, mayhap, and disobedient sons to hold up as examples of
+foregone domestic rebellions. For similar reasons, I have destroyed the
+paper which my mother despatched to me at this time of tyranny, revolt,
+annoyance, and irritation.
+
+Maddened by the pangs of separation from my mistress, and not unrightly
+considering that Mrs. Esmond was the prime cause of the greatest grief
+and misery which had ever befallen me in the world, I wrote home to
+Virginia a letter, which might have been more temperate, it is true, but
+in which I endeavoured to maintain the extremest respect and reticence.
+I said I did not know by what motives she had been influenced, but that
+I held her answerable for the misery of my future life, which she
+had chosen wilfully to mar and render wretched. She had occasioned a
+separation between me and a virtuous and innocent young creature,
+whose own hopes, health, and happiness were cast down for ever by Mrs.
+Esmond's interference. The deed was done, as I feared, and I would offer
+no comment upon the conduct of the perpetrator, who was answerable to
+God alone; but I did not disguise from my mother that the injury which
+she had done me was so dreadful and mortal, that her life or mine could
+never repair it; that the tie of my allegiance was broken towards her,
+and that I never could be, as heretofore, her dutiful and respectful
+son.
+
+Madam Esmond replied to me in a letter of very great dignity (her style
+and correspondence were extraordinarily elegant and fine). She uttered
+not a single reproach or hard word, but coldly gave me to understand
+that it was before that awful tribunal of God she had referred the case
+between us, and asked for counsel; that, in respect of her own conduct,
+as a mother, she was ready, in all humility, to face it. Might I, as a
+son, be equally able to answer for myself, and to show, when the Great
+Judge demanded the question of me, whether I had done my own duty, and
+honoured my father and mother! O popoi! My grandfather has quoted in his
+memoir a line of Homer, showing how in our troubles and griefs the
+gods are always called in question. When our pride, our avarice, our
+interest, our desire to domineer, are worked upon, are we not for
+ever pestering Heaven to decide in their favour? In our great American
+quarrel, did we not on both sides appeal to the skies as to the
+justice of our causes, sing Te Deum for victory, and boldly express our
+confidence that the right should prevail? Was America right because
+she was victorious? Then I suppose Poland was wrong because she was
+defeated?--How am I wandering into this digression about Poland,
+America, and what not, and all the while thinking of a little woman now
+no more, who appealed to Heaven and confronted it with a thousand texts
+out of its own book, because her son wanted to make a marriage not of
+her liking? We appeal, we imprecate, we go down on our knees, we demand
+blessings, we shriek out for sentence according to law; the great course
+of the great world moves on; we pant, and strive, and struggle; we hate;
+we rage; we weep passionate tears; we reconcile; we race and win; we
+race and lose; we pass away, and other little strugglers succeed; our
+days are spent; our night comes, and another morning rises, which shines
+on us no more.
+
+My letter to Madam Esmond, announcing my revolt and disobedience
+(perhaps I myself was a little proud of the composition of that
+document), I showed in duplicate to Mr. Lambert, because I wished him
+to understand what my relations to my mother were, and how I was
+determined, whatever of threats or quarrels the future might bring,
+never for my own part to consider my separation from Theo as other than
+a forced one. Whenever I could see her again I would. My word given
+to her was in secula seculorum, or binding at least as long as my life
+should endure. I implied that the girl was similarly bound to me, and
+her poor father knew indeed as much. He might separate us; as he might
+give her a dose of poison, and the gentle, obedient creature would take
+it and die; but the death or separation would be his doing: let him
+answer them. Now he was tender about his children to weakness, and could
+not have the heart to submit any one of them--this one especially--to
+torture. We had tried to part: we could not. He had endeavoured to
+separate us: it was more than was in his power. The bars were up, but
+the young couple--the maid within and the knight without--were loving
+each other all the same. The wall was built, but Pyramus and Thisbe were
+whispering on either side. In the midst of all his grief and perplexity,
+Uncle Lambert had plenty of humour, and could not but see that his role
+was rather a sorry one. Light was beginning to show through that lime
+and rough plaster of the wall: the lovers were getting their hands
+through, then their heads through--indeed, it was wall's best business
+to retire.
+
+I forget what happened stage by stage and day by day; nor, for the
+instruction of future ages, does it much matter. When my descendants
+have love scrapes of their own, they will find their own means of
+getting out of them. I believe I did not go back to Dean Street, but
+that practice of driving in the open air was considered most healthful
+for Miss Lambert. I got a fine horse, and rode by the side of her
+carriage. The old woman at Tottenham Court came to know both of us quite
+well, and nod and wink in the most friendly manner when we passed by.
+I fancy the old goody was not unaccustomed to interest herself in young
+couples, and has dispensed the hospitality of her roadside cottage to
+more than one pair.
+
+The doctor and the country air effected a prodigious cure upon Miss
+Lambert. Hetty always attended as duenna, and sometimes of his holiday,
+Master Charley rode my horse when I got into the carriage. What a deal
+of love-making Miss Hetty heard!--with what exemplary patience she
+listened to it! I do not say she went to hear the Methodist sermons any
+more, but 'tis certain that when we had a closed carriage she would very
+kindly and considerately look out of the window. Then, what heaps of
+letters there were!--what running to and fro! Gumbo's bandy legs were
+for ever on the trot from my quarters to Dean Street; and, on my account
+or her own, Mrs. Molly, the girl's maid, was for ever bringing back
+answers to Bloomsbury. By the time when the autumn leaves began to turn
+pale, Miss Theo's roses were in full bloom again, and my good Doctor
+Heberden's cure was pronounced to be complete. What else happened during
+this blessed period? Mr. Warrington completed his great tragedy of
+Pocahontas, which was not only accepted by Mr. Garrick this time (his
+friend Dr. Johnson having spoken not unfavourably of the work), but my
+friend and cousin, Hagan, was engaged by the manager to perform the part
+of the hero, Captain Smith. Hagan's engagement was not made before it
+was wanted. I had helped him and his family with means disproportioned,
+perhaps, to my power, especially considering my feud with Madam Esmond,
+whose answer to my angry missive of April came to me towards autumn,
+and who wrote back from Virginia with war for war, controlment for
+controlment. These menaces, however, frightened me little: my poor
+mother's thunder could not reach me; and my conscience, or casuistry,
+supplied me with other interpretations for her texts of Scripture, so
+that her oracles had not the least weight with me in frightening me from
+my purpose. How my new loves speeded I neither informed her, nor any
+other members of my maternal or paternal family, who, on both sides, had
+been bitter against my marriage. Of what use wrangling with them? It was
+better to carpere diem and its sweet loves and pleasures, and to leave
+the railers to grumble, or the seniors to advise, at their ease.
+
+Besides Madam Esmond I had, it must be owned, in the frantic rage of my
+temporary separation, addressed notes of wondrous sarcasm to my Uncle
+Warrington, to my Aunt Madame de Bernstein, and to my Lord or Lady
+of Castlewood (I forget to which individually), thanking them for the
+trouble which they had taken in preventing the dearest happiness of my
+life, and promising them a corresponding gratitude from their obliged
+relative. Business brought the jovial Baronet and his family to London
+somewhat earlier than usual, and Madame de Bernstein was never sorry
+to get back to Clarges Street and her cards. I saw them. They found me
+perfectly well. They concluded the match was broken off, and I did not
+choose to undeceive them. The Baroness took heart at seeing how cheerful
+I was, and made many sly jokes about my philosophy, and my prudent
+behaviour as a man of the world. She was, as ever, bent upon finding a
+rich match for me: and I fear I paid many compliments at her house to
+a rich young soap-boiler's daughter from Mile End, whom the worthy
+Baroness wished to place in my arms.
+
+"You court her with infinite wit and esprit, my dear," says my pleased
+kinswoman, "but she does not understand half you say, and the other
+half, I think, frightens her. This ton de persiflage is very well in our
+society, but you must be sparing of it, my dear nephew, amongst these
+roturiers."
+
+Miss Badge married a young gentleman of royal dignity, though shattered
+fortunes, from a neighbouring island; and I trust Mrs. Mackshane has
+ere this pardoned my levity. There was another person besides Miss at my
+aunt's house, who did not understand my persiflage much better than Miss
+herself; and that was a lady who had seen James the Second's reign, and
+who was alive and as worldly as ever in King George's. I loved to be
+with her: but that my little folks have access to this volume, I could
+put down a hundred stories of the great old folks whom she had known in
+the great old days--of George the First and his ladies, of St. John and
+Marlborough, of his reigning Majesty and the late Prince of Wales, and
+the causes of the quarrel between them--but my modest muse pipes for
+boys and virgins. Son Miles does not care about court stories, or if he
+doth, has a fresh budget from Carlton House, quite as bad as the worst
+of our old Baroness. No, my dear wife, thou hast no need to shake thy
+powdered locks at me! Papa is not going to scandalise his nursery with
+old-world gossip, nor bring a blush over our chaste bread-and-butter.
+
+But this piece of scandal I cannot help. My aunt used to tell it with
+infinite gusto; for, to do her justice, she hated your would-be good
+people, and sniggered over the faults of the self-styled righteous with
+uncommon satisfaction. In her later days she had no hypocrisy, at least;
+and in so far was better than some whitewashed... Well, to the story.
+My Lady Warrington, one of the tallest and the most virtuous of her sex,
+who had goodness for ever on her lips and "Heaven in her eye," like the
+woman in Mr. Addison's tedious tragedy (which has kept the stage, from
+which some others, which shall be nameless, have disappeared), had the
+world in her other eye, and an exceedingly shrewd desire of pushing
+herself in it. What does she do, when my marriage with your ladyship
+yonder was supposed to be broken off, but attempt to play off on me
+those arts which she had tried on my poor Harry with such signal ill
+success, and which failed with me likewise! It was not the Beauty--Miss
+Flora was for my master--(and what a master! I protest I take off my hat
+at the idea of such an illustrious connexion!)--it was Dora, the Muse,
+was set upon me to languish at me and to pity me, and to read even my
+godless tragedy, and applaud me and console me. Meanwhile, how was the
+Beauty occupied? Will it be believed that my severe aunt gave a great
+entertainment to my Lady Yarmouth, presented her boy to her, and placed
+poor little Miles under her ladyship's august protection? That, so
+far, is certain; but can it be that she sent her daughter to stay at my
+lady's house, which our gracious lord and master daily visited, and with
+the views which old Aunt Bernstein attributed to her? "But for that
+fit of apoplexy, my dear," Bernstein said, "that aunt of yours intended
+there should have been a Countess in her own right in the Warrington
+family!" [Compare Walpole's letters in Mr. Cunningham's excellent new
+edition. See the story of the supper at N. House, to show what great
+noblemen would do for a king's mistress, and the pleasant account of
+the waiting for the Prince of Wales before Holland House.-EDITOR.] My
+neighbour and kinswoman, my Lady Claypole, is dead and buried. Grow
+white, ye daisies, upon Flora's tomb! I can see my pretty Miles, in a
+gay little uniform of the Norfolk Militia, led up by his parent to the
+lady whom the King delighted to honour, and the good-natured old Jezebel
+laying her hand upon the boy's curly pate. I am accused of being but a
+lukewarm royalist; but sure I can contrast those times with ours, and
+acknowledge the difference between the late sovereign and the present,
+who, born a Briton, has given to every family in the empire an example
+of decorum and virtuous life. [The Warrington MS. is dated 1793.-ED.]
+
+Thus my life sped in the pleasantest of all occupation; and, being so
+happy myself, I could afford to be reconciled to those who, after all,
+had done me no injury, but rather added to the zest of my happiness by
+the brief obstacle which they had placed in my way. No specific plans
+were formed, but Theo and I knew that a day would come when we need
+say Farewell no more. Should the day befall a year hence--ten years
+hence--we were ready to wait. Day after day we discussed our little
+plans, with Hetty for our confidante. On our drives we spied out pretty
+cottages that we thought might suit young people of small means; we
+devised all sorts of delightful schemes and childish economies. We were
+Strephon and Chloe to be sure. A cot and a brown loaf should content us!
+Gumbo and Molly should wait upon us (as indeed they have done from that
+day until this). At twenty, who is afraid of being poor? Our trials
+would only confirm our attachment. The "sweet sorrow" of every day's
+parting but made the morrow's meeting more delightful; and when we
+separated we ran home and wrote each other those precious letters which
+we and other young gentlemen and ladies write under such circumstances;
+but though my wife has them all in a great tin sugar-box in the closet
+in her bedroom, and, I own, I myself have looked at them once, and even
+thought some of them pretty,--I hereby desire my heirs and executors
+to burn them all, unread, at our demise; specially desiring my son the
+Captain (to whom I know the perusal of MSS. is not pleasant) to perform
+this duty. Those secrets whispered to the penny-post, or delivered
+between Molly and Gumbo, were intended for us alone, and no ears of our
+descendants shall overhear them.
+
+We heard in successive brief letters how our dear Harry continued with
+the army, as Mr. General Amherst's aide-de-camp, after the death of his
+own glorious general. By the middle of October there came news of the
+Capitulation of Montreal and the whole of Canada, and a brief postscript
+in which Hal said he would ask for leave now, and must go and see the
+old lady at home, who wrote as sulky as a bare, Captain Warrington
+remarked. I could guess why, though the claws could not reach me. I had
+written pretty fully to my brother how affairs were standing with me in
+England.
+
+Then, on the 25th October, comes the news that his Majesty has fallen
+down dead at Kensington, and that George III. reigned over us. I fear we
+grieved but little. What do those care for the Atridae whose hearts are
+strung only to erota mounon? A modest, handsome, brave new Prince, we
+gladly accept the common report that he is endowed with every virtue;
+and we cry huzzay with the loyal crowd that hails his accession:
+it could make little difference to us, as we thought, simple young
+sweethearts, whispering our little love-stories in our corner.
+
+But who can say how great events affect him? Did not our little Charley,
+at the Chartreux, wish impiously for a new king immediately, because on
+his gracious Majesty's accession Doctor Crusius gave his boys a holiday?
+He and I, and Hetty, and Theo (Miss Theo was strong enough to walk
+many a delightful mile now), heard the Heralds proclaim his new Majesty
+before Savile House in Leicester Fields, and a pickpocket got the watch
+and chain of a gentleman hard by us, and was caught and carried to
+Bridewell, all on account of his Majesty's accession. Had the king not
+died, the gentleman would not have been in the crowd; the chain would
+not have been seized; the thief would not have been caught and soundly
+whipped: in this way many of us, more or less remotely, were implicated
+in the great change which ensued, and even we humble folks were affected
+by it presently.
+
+As thus. My Lord Wrotham was a great friend of the august family of
+Savile House, who knew and esteemed his many virtues. Now, of all
+living men, my Lord Wrotham knew and loved best his neighbour and old
+fellow-soldier, Martin Lambert, declaring that the world contained few
+better gentlemen. And my Lord Bute, being all potent, at first, with his
+Majesty, and a nobleman, as I believe, very eager at the commencement of
+his brief and luckless tenure of power, to patronise merit wherever he
+could find it, was strongly prejudiced in Mr. Lambert's favour by the
+latter's old and constant friend.
+
+My (and Harry's) old friend Parson Sampson, who had been in and out
+of gaol I don't know how many times of late years, and retained an
+ever-enduring hatred for the Esmonds of Castlewood, and as lasting a
+regard for me and my brother, was occupying poor Hal's vacant bed at
+my lodgings at this time (being, in truth, hunted out of his own by
+the bailiffs). I liked to have Sampson near me, for a more amusing
+Jack-friar never walked in cassock; and, besides, he entered into all my
+rhapsodies about Miss Theo; was never tired (so he vowed) of hearing
+me talk of her; admired Pocahontas and Carpezan with, I do believe, an
+honest enthusiasm; and could repeat whole passages of those tragedies
+with an emphasis and effect that Barry or cousin Hagan himself could not
+surpass. Sampson was the go-between between Lady Maria and such of her
+relations as had not disowned her; and, always in debt himself, was
+never more happy than in drinking a pot, or mingling his tears with his
+friends in similar poverty. His acquaintance with pawnbrokers' shops was
+prodigious. He could procure more money, he boasted, on an article than
+any gentleman of his cloth. He never paid his own debts, to be sure,
+but he was ready to forgive his debtors. Poor as he was, he always found
+means to love and help his needy little sister, and a more prodigal,
+kindly, amiable rogue never probably grinned behind bars. They say that
+I love to have parasites about me. I own to have had a great liking for
+Sampson, and to have esteemed him much better than probably much better
+men.
+
+When he heard how my Lord Bute was admitted into the cabinet, Sampson
+vowed and declared that his lordship--a great lover of the drama, who
+had been to see Carpezan, who had admired it, and who would act the part
+of the king very finely in it--he vowed, by George! that my lord must
+give me a place worthy of my birth and merits. He insisted upon it that
+I should attend his lordship's levee. I wouldn't? The Esmonds were all
+as proud as Lucifer; and, to be sure, my birth was as good as that of
+any man in Europe. Demmy! Where was my lord himself when the Esmonds
+were lords of great counties, warriors, and Crusaders? Where were they?
+Beggarly Scotchmen, without a rag to their backs--by George! tearing
+raw fish in their islands. But now the times were changed. The Scotchmen
+were in luck. Mum's the word! "I don't envy him," says Sampson, "but he
+shall provide for you and my dearest, noblest, heroic captain! He SHALL,
+by George!" would my worthy parson roar out. And when, in the month
+after his accession, his Majesty ordered the play of Richard III. at
+Drury Lane, my chaplain cursed, vowed, swore, but he would have him to
+Covent Garden to see Carpezan too. And now, one morning, he bursts into
+my apartment, where I happened to lie rather late, waving the newspaper
+in his hand, and singing "Huzza!" with all his might.
+
+"What is it, Sampson?" says I. "Has my brother got his promotion?"
+
+"No, in truth: but some one else has. Huzzay! huzzay! His Majesty
+has appointed Major-General Martin Lambert to be Governor and
+Commander-in-Chief of the Island of Jamaica."
+
+I started up. Here was news, indeed! Mr. Lambert would go to his
+government: and who would go with him? I had been supping with some
+genteel young fellows at the Cocoa-Tree. The rascal Gumbo had a note for
+me from my dear mistress on the night previous, conveying the same news
+to me, and had delayed to deliver it. Theo begged me to see her at the
+old place at midday the next day without fail. [In the Warrington
+MS. there is not a word to say what the "old place" was. Perhaps some
+obliging reader of Notes and Queries will be able to inform me, and who
+Mrs. Goodison was.-ED.]
+
+There was no little trepidation in our little council when we reached
+our place of meeting. Papa had announced his acceptance of the
+appointment, and his speedy departure. He would have a frigate given
+him, and take his family with him. Merciful powers! and were we to be
+parted? My Theo's old deathly paleness returned to her. Aunt Lambert
+thought she would have swooned; one of Mrs. Goodison's girls had a
+bottle of salts, and ran up with it from the workroom. "Going away?
+Going away in a frigate, Aunt Lambert? Going to tear her away from me?
+Great God! Aunt Lambert, I shall die!" She was better when mamma came
+up from the workroom with the young lady's bottle of salts. You see the
+women used to meet me: knowing dear Theo's delicate state, how could
+they refrain from compassionating her! But the General was so busy
+with his levees and his waiting on Ministers, and his outfit, and the
+settlement of his affairs at home, that they never happened to tell him
+about our little walks and meetings; and even when orders for the outfit
+of the ladies were given, Mrs. Goodison, who had known and worked
+for Miss Molly Benson as a schoolgirl (she remembered Miss Esmond of
+Virginia perfectly, the worthy lady told me, and a dress she made for
+the young lady to be presented at her Majesty's Ball)--"even when the
+outfit was ordered for the three ladies," says Mrs. Goodison, demurely,
+"why, I thought I could do no harm in completing the order."
+
+Now I need not say in what perturbation of mind Mr. Warrington went home
+in the evening to his lodgings, after the discussion with the ladies of
+the above news. No, or at least a very few, more walks; no more rides to
+dear, dear Hampstead or beloved Islington; no more fetching and carrying
+of letters for Gumbo and Molly! The former blubbered so, that Mr.
+Warrington was quite touched by his fidelity, and gave him a crown-piece
+to go to supper with the poor girl, who turned out to be his sweetheart.
+What, you too unhappy, Gumbo, and torn from the maid you love? I was
+ready to mingle with him tear for tear.
+
+What a solemn conference I had with Sampson that evening! He knew my
+affairs, my expectations, my mother's anger. Psha! that was far off, and
+he knew some excellent liberal people (of the order of Melchizedek)
+who would discount the other. The General would not give his consent?
+Sampson shrugged his broad shoulders and swore a great roaring oath. My
+mother would not relent? What then? A man was a man, and to make his
+own way in the world? he supposed. He is only a churl who won't play for
+such a stake as that, and lose or win, by George! shouts the chaplain,
+over a bottle of Burgundy at the Bedford Head, where he dined. I need
+not put down our conversation. We were two of us, and I think there was
+only one mind between us. Our talk was of a Saturday night....
+
+I did not tell Theo, nor any relative of hers, what was being done.
+But when the dear child faltered and talked, trembling, of the
+coming departure, I bade her bear up, and vowed all would be well, so
+confidently, that she, who ever has taken her alarms and joys from my
+face (I wish, my dear, it were sometimes not so gloomy), could not but
+feel confidence; and placed (with many fond words that need not here be
+repeated) her entire trust in me--murmuring those sweet words of Ruth
+that must have comforted myriads of tender hearts in my dearest maiden's
+plight; that whither I would go she would go, and that my people should
+be hers. At last, one day, the General's preparations being made, the
+trunks encumbering the passages of the dear old Dean Street lodging,
+which I shall love as long as I shall remember at all--one day, almost
+the last of his stay, when the good man (his Excellency we called him
+now) came home to his dinner--a comfortless meal enough it was in the
+present condition of the family--he looked round the table at the place
+where I had used to sit in happy old days, and sighed out: "I wish,
+Molly, George was here."
+
+"Do you, Martin?" says Aunt Lambert, flinging into his arms.
+
+"Yes, I do; but I don't wish you to choke me, Molly," he says. "I love
+him dearly. I may go away and never see him again, and take his foolish
+little sweetheart along with me. I suppose you will write to each other,
+children? I can't prevent that, you know; and until he changes his mind,
+I suppose Miss Theo won't obey papa's orders, and get him out of her
+foolish little head. Wilt thou, Theo?"
+
+"No, dearest, dearest, best papa!"
+
+"What! more embraces and kisses! What does all this mean?"
+
+"It means that--that George is in the drawing-room," says mamma.
+
+"Is he! My dearest boy!" cries the General. "Come to me--come in!" And
+when I entered he held me to his heart, and kissed me.
+
+I confess at this I was so overcome that I fell down on my knees before
+the dear, good man, and sobbed on his own.
+
+"God bless you, my dearest boy!" he mutters hurriedly. "Always loved you
+as a son--haven't I, Molly? Broke my heart nearly when I quarrelled with
+you about this little--What!--odds marrowbones!--all down on your knees!
+Mrs. Lambert, pray what is the meaning of all this?"
+
+"Dearest, dearest papa! I will go with you all the same!" whimpers one
+of the kneeling party. "And I will wait--oh!--as long as ever my dearest
+father wants me!"
+
+"In Heaven's name!" roars the General, "tell me what has happened?"
+
+What had happened was, that George Esmond Warrington and Theodosia
+Lambert had been married in Southwark that morning, their banns having
+been duly called in the church of a certain friend of the Reverend Mr.
+Sampson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIX. Containing both Comedy and Tragedy
+
+
+We, who had been active in the guilty scene of the morning, felt trebly
+guilty when we saw the effect which our conduct had produced upon him,
+who, of all others, we loved and respected. The shock to the good man
+was strange, and pitiful to us to witness who had administered it. The
+child of his heart had deceived and disobeyed him--I declare I think, my
+dear, now, we would not or could not do it over again; his whole family
+had entered into a league against him. Dear, kind friend and father!
+We know thou hast pardoned our wrong--in the Heaven where thou dwellest
+amongst purified spirits who learned on earth how to love and pardon! To
+love and forgive were easy duties with that man. Beneficence was natural
+to him, and a sweet, smiling humility; and to wound either was to be
+savage and brutal, as to torture a child, or strike blows at a nursing
+woman. The deed done, all we guilty ones grovelled in the earth, before
+the man we had injured. I pass over the scenes of forgiveness, of
+reconciliation, of common worship together, of final separation when the
+good man departed to his government, and the ship sailed away before us,
+leaving me and Theo on the shore. We stood there hand in hand, horribly
+abashed, silent, and guilty. My wife did not come to me till her father
+went: in the interval between the ceremony of our marriage and his
+departure, she had remained at home, occupying her old place by her
+father, and bed by her sister's side: he as kind as ever, but the women
+almost speechless among themselves; Aunt Lambert, for once, unkind
+and fretful in her temper; and little Hetty feverish and strange, and
+saying, "I wish we were gone. I wish we were gone." Though admitted to
+the house, and forgiven, I slunk away during those last days, and only
+saw my wife for a minute or two in the street, or with her family. She
+was not mine till they were gone. We went to Winchester and Hampton
+for what may be called our wedding. It was but a dismal business. For a
+while we felt utterly lonely: and of our dear father as if we had buried
+him, or drove him to the grave by our undutifulness.
+
+I made Sampson announce our marriage in the papers. (My wife used to
+hang down her head before the poor fellow afterwards.) I took Mrs.
+Warrington back to my old lodgings in Bloomsbury, where there was plenty
+of room for us, and our modest married life began. I wrote home a letter
+to my mother in Virginia, informing her of no particulars, but only
+that Mr. Lambert being about to depart for his government, I considered
+myself bound in honour to fulfil my promise towards his dearest
+daughter; and stated that I intended to carry out my intention of
+completing my studies for the Bar, and qualifying myself for employment
+at home, or in our own or any other colony. My good Mrs. Mountain
+answered this letter, by desire of Madam Esmond, she said, who thought
+that for the sake of peace my communications had best be conducted
+that way. I found my relatives in a fury which was perfectly amusing
+to witness. The butler's face, as he said, "Not at home," at my uncle's
+house in Hill Street, was a blank tragedy that might have been studied
+by Garrick when he sees Banque. My poor little wife was on my arm, and
+we were tripping away, laughing at the fellow's accueil, when we came
+upon my lady in a street stoppage in her chair. I took off my hat and
+made her the lowest possible bow. I affectionately asked after my dear
+cousins. "I--I wonder you dare look me in the face!" Lady Warrington
+gasped out. "Nay, don't deprive me of that precious privilege!" says I.
+"Move on, Peter," she screams to her chairman. "Your ladyship would not
+impale your own husband's flesh and blood!" says I. She rattles up
+the glass of her chair in a fury. I kiss my hand, take off my hat, and
+perform another of my very finest bows.
+
+Walking shortly afterwards in Hyde Park with my dearest companion, I
+met my little cousin exercising on horseback with a groom behind him. As
+soon as he sees us, he gallops up to us, the groom powdering afterwards
+and bawling out, "Stop, Master Miles, stop!"
+
+"I am not to speak to my cousin," says Miles, "but telling you to send
+my love to Harry is not speaking to you, is it? Is that my new
+cousin? I'm not told not to speak to her. I'm Miles, cousin, Sir Miles
+Warrington Baronet's son, and you are very pretty!" "Now, duee now,
+Master Miles," says the groom, touching his hat to us; and the boy
+trots away laughing and looking at us over his shoulder. "You see how
+my relations have determined to treat me," I say to my partner. "As if
+I married you for your relations!" says Theo, her eyes beaming joy
+and love into mine. Ah, how happy we were! how brisk and pleasant the
+winter! How snug the kettle by the fire (where the abashed Sampson
+sometimes came and made the punch); how delightful the night at the
+theatre, for which our friends brought us tickets of admission, and
+where we daily expected our new play of Pocahontas would rival the
+successes of all former tragedies.
+
+The fickle old aunt of Clarges Street, who received me, on my first
+coming to London with my wife, with a burst of scorn, mollified
+presently, and as soon as she came to know Theo (who she had pronounced
+to be an insignificant little country-faced chit), fell utterly in love
+with her, and would have her to tea and supper every day when there was
+no other company. "As for company, my dears," she would say, "I don't
+ask you. You are no longer du monde. Your marriage has put that entirely
+out of the question." So she would have had us come to amuse her, and go
+in and out by the back-stairs. My wife was fine lady enough to feel only
+amused at this reception; and, I must do the Baroness's domestics the
+justice to say that, had we been duke and duchess, we could not have
+been received with more respect. Madame de Bernstein was very much
+tickled and amused with my story of Lady Warrington and the chair. I
+acted it for her, and gave her anecdotes of the pious Baronet's lady and
+her daughters, which pleased the mischievous, lively old woman.
+
+The Dowager Countess of Castlewood, now established in her house at
+Kensington, gave us that kind of welcome which genteel ladies extend to
+their poorer relatives. We went once or twice to her ladyship's drums at
+Kensington; but, losing more money at cards, and spending more money
+in coach-hire than I liked to afford, we speedily gave up those
+entertainments, and, I dare say, were no more missed or regretted than
+other people in the fashionable world, who are carried by death, debt,
+or other accident out of the polite sphere. My Theo did not in the
+least regret this exclusion. She had made her appearance at one of these
+drums, attired in some little ornaments which her mother left behind
+her, and by which the good lady set some store; but I thought her own
+white neck was a great deal prettier than these poor twinkling stones;
+and there were dowagers, whose wrinkled old bones blazed with rubies
+and diamonds, which, I am sure, they would gladly have exchanged for her
+modest parure of beauty and freshness. Not a soul spoke to her--except,
+to be sure, Beau Lothair, a friend of Mr. Will's, who prowled about
+Bloomsbury afterwards, and even sent my wife a billet. I met him in
+Covent Garden shortly after, and promised to break his ugly face if
+ever I saw it in the neighbourhood of my lodgings, and Madam Theo was
+molested no further.
+
+The only one of our relatives who came to see us (Madame de Bernstein
+never came; she sent her coach for us sometimes, or made inquiries
+regarding us by her woman or her major-domo) was our poor Maria, who,
+with her husband, Mr. Hagan, often took a share of our homely dinner.
+Then we had friend Spencer from the Temple, who admired our Arcadian
+felicity, and gently asked our sympathy for his less fortunate loves;
+and twice or thrice the famous Doctor Johnson came in for a dish of
+Theo's tea. A dish? a pailful! "And a pail the best thing to feed him,
+sar!" says Mr. Gumbo, indignantly: for the Doctor's appearance was not
+pleasant, nor his linen particularly white. He snorted, he grew red,
+and sputtered in feeding; he flung his meat about, and bawled out in
+contradicting people: and annoyed my Theo, whom he professed to admire
+greatly, by saying, every time he saw her, "Madam, you do not love me;
+I see by your manner you do not love me; though I admire you, and come
+here for your sake. Here is my friend Mr. Reynolds that shall paint
+you: he has no ceruse in his paint-box that is as brilliant as
+your complexion." And so Mr. Reynolds, a most perfect and agreeable
+gentleman, would have painted my wife; but I knew what his price was,
+and did not choose to incur that expense. I wish I had now, for the
+sake of the children, that they might see what yonder face was like some
+five-and-thirty years ago. To me, madam, 'tis the same now as ever; and
+your ladyship is always young!
+
+What annoyed Mrs. Warrington with Dr. Johnson more than his
+contradictions, his sputterings, and his dirty nails, was, I think,
+an unfavourable opinion which he formed of my new tragedy. Hagan once
+proposed that he should read some scenes from it after tea.
+
+"Nay, sir, conversation is better," says the Doctor. "I can read for
+myself, or hear you at the theatre. I had rather hear Mrs. Warrington's
+artless prattle than your declamation of Mr. Warrington's decasyllables.
+Tell us about your household affairs, madam, and whether his Excellency
+your father is well, and whether you made the pudden and the butter
+sauce. The butter sauce was delicious!" (He loved it so well that he had
+kept a large quantity in the bosom of a very dingy shirt.) "You made it
+as though you loved me. You helped me as though you loved me, though you
+don't."
+
+"Faith, sir, you are taking some of the present away with you in your
+waistcoat," says Hagan, with much spirit.
+
+"Sir, you are rude!" bawls the Doctor. "You are unacquainted with the
+first principles of politeness, which is courtesy before ladies. Having
+received an university education, I am surprised that you have not
+learned the rudiments of politeness. I respect Mrs. Warrington. I should
+never think of making personal remarks about her guests before her!"
+
+"Then, sir," says Hagan, fiercely, "why did you speak of my theatre?"
+
+"Sir, you are saucy!" roars the Doctor.
+
+"De te fabula," says the actor. "I think it is your waistcoat that is
+saucy. Madam, shall I make some punch in the way we make it in Ireland?"
+
+The Doctor, puffing, and purple in the face, was wiping the dingy shirt
+with a still more dubious pocket-handkerchief, which he then applied to
+his forehead. After this exercise, he blew a hyperborean whistle, as
+if to blow his wrath away. "It is de me, sir--though, as a young man,
+perhaps you need not have told me so."
+
+"I drop my point, sir! If you have been wrong, I am sure I am bound to
+ask your pardon for setting you so!" says Mr. Hagan, with a fine bow.
+
+"Doesn't he look like a god?" says Maria, clutching my wife's hand: and
+indeed Mr. Hagan did look like a handsome young gentleman. His colour
+had risen; he had put his hand to his breast with a noble air: Chamont
+or Castalio could not present himself better.
+
+"Let me make you some lemonade, sir; my papa has sent us a box of fresh
+limes. May we send you some to the Temple?"
+
+"Madam, if they stay in your house, they will lose their quality and
+turn sweet," says the Doctor. "Mr. Hagan, you are a young sauce-box,
+that's what you are! Ho! ho! It is I have been wrong."
+
+"Oh, my lord, my Polidore!" bleats Lady Maria, when she was alone in my
+wife's drawing-room:
+
+    "'Oh, I could hear thee talk for ever thus,
+      Eternally admiring,--fix and gaze
+      On those dear eyes, for every glance they send
+      Darts through my soul, and fills my heart with rapture!'
+
+"Thou knowest not, my Theo, what a pearl and paragon of a man my
+Castalio is; my Chamont, my--oh, dear me, child, what a pity it is that
+in your husband's tragedy he should have to take the horrid name of
+Captain Smith!"
+
+Upon this tragedy not only my literary hopes, but much of my financial
+prospects were founded. My brother's debts discharged, my mother's
+drafts from home duly honoured, my own expenses paid, which, though
+moderate, were not inconsiderable,--pretty nearly the whole of my
+patrimony had been spent, and this auspicious moment I must choose
+for my marriage! I could raise money on my inheritance: that was not
+impossible, though certainly costly. My mother could not leave her
+eldest son without a maintenance, whatever our quarrels might be. I had
+health, strength, good wits, some friends, and reputation--above all, my
+famous tragedy, which the manager had promised to perform, and upon the
+proceeds of this I counted for my present support. What becomes of the
+arithmetic of youth? How do we then calculate that a hundred pounds is
+a maintenance, and a thousand a fortune? How did I dare play against
+Fortune with such odds? I succeeded, I remember, in convincing my dear
+General, and he left home convinced that his son-in-law had for the
+present necessity at least a score of hundred pounds at his command. He
+and his dear Molly had begun life with less, and the ravens had somehow
+always fed them. As for the women, the question of poverty was one of
+pleasure to those sentimental souls, and Aunt Lambert, for her part,
+declared it would be wicked and irreligious to doubt of a provision
+being made for her children. Was the righteous ever forsaken? Did the
+just man ever have to beg his bread? She knew better than that! "No, no,
+my dears! I am not going to be afraid on that account, I warrant you!
+Look at me and my General!"
+
+Theo believed all I said and wished to believe myself. So we actually
+began life upon a capital of Five Acts, and about three hundred pounds
+of ready money in hand!
+
+Well, the time of the appearance of the famous tragedy drew near, and my
+friends canvassed the town to get a body of supporters for the opening
+night. I am ill at asking favours from the great; but when my Lord
+Wrotham came to London, I went, with Theo in my hand, to wait on his
+lordship, who received us kindly, out of regard for his old friend,
+her father--though he good-naturedly shook a finger at me (at which my
+little wife hung down her head), for having stole a march on the good
+General. However, he would do his best for her father's daughter; hoped
+for a success; said he had heard great things of the piece; and engaged
+a number of places for himself and his friends. But this patron secured,
+I had no other. "Mon cher, at my age," says the Baroness, "I should
+bore myself to death at a tragedy: but I will do my best; and I will
+certainly send my people to the boxes. Yes! Case in his best black looks
+like a nobleman; and Brett in one of my gowns has a faux air de moi
+which is quite distinguished. Put down my name for two in the front
+boxes. Good-bye, my dear. Bonne chance!" The Dowager Countess presented
+compliments (on the back of the nine of clubs), had a card-party that
+night, and was quite sorry she and Fanny could not go to my tragedy. As
+for my uncle and Lady Warrington, they were out of the question. After
+the affair of the sedan-chair I might as well have asked Queen
+Elizabeth to go to Drury Lane. These were all my friends--that host of
+aristocratic connexions about whom poor Sampson had bragged; and on
+the strength of whom, the manager, as he said, had given Mr. Hagan his
+engagement! "Where was my Lord Bute? Had I not promised his lordship
+should come?" he asks, snappishly, taking snuff (how different from
+the brisk, and engaging, and obsequious little manager of six months
+ago!)--"I promised Lord Bute should come?"
+
+"Yes," says Mr. Garrick, "and her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales,
+and his Majesty too."
+
+Poor Sampson owned that he, buoyed up by vain hopes, had promised the
+appearance of these august personages.
+
+The next day, at rehearsal, matters were worse still, and the manager in
+a fury.
+
+"Great heavens, sir!" says he, "into what a pretty guet-a-pens have you
+led me! Look at that letter, sir!--read that letter!" And he hands me
+one:
+
+
+"MY DEAR SIR" (said the letter)--"I have seen his lordship, and conveyed
+to him Mr. Warrington's request that he would honour the tragedy of
+Pocahontas by his presence. His lordship is a patron of the drama, and
+a magnificent friend of all the liberal arts; but he desires me to
+say that he cannot think of attending himself, much less of asking his
+Gracious Master to witness the performance of a play, a principal part
+in which is given to an actor who has made a clandestine marriage with
+a daughter of one of his Majesty's nobility.--Your well-wisher, SAUNDERS
+MCDUFF."
+
+"Mr. D. Garrick, at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane."
+
+
+My poor Theo had a nice dinner waiting for me after the rehearsal. I
+pleaded fatigue as the reason for looking so pale: I did not dare to
+convey to her this dreadful news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXX. Pocahontas
+
+
+The English public not being so well acquainted with the history of
+Pocahontas as we of Virginia, who still love the memory of that simple
+and kindly creature, Mr. Warrington, at the suggestion of his friends,
+made a little ballad about this Indian princess, which was printed in
+the magazines a few days before the appearance of the tragedy. This
+proceeding Sampson and I considered to be very artful and ingenious. "It
+is like ground-bait, sir," says the enthusiastic parson, "and you will
+see the fish rise in multitudes, on the great day!" He and Spencer
+declared that the poem was discussed and admired at several
+coffee-houses in their hearing, and that it had been attributed to Mr.
+Mason, Mr. Cowper of the Temple, and even to the famous Mr. Gray.
+I believe poor Sam had himself set abroad these reports; and, if
+Shakspeare had been named as the author of the tragedy, would have
+declared Pocahontas to be one of the poet's best performances. I made
+acquaintance with brave Captain Smith, as a boy in my grandfather's
+library at home, where I remember how I would sit at the good old man's
+knees, with my favourite volume on my own, spelling out the exploits
+of our Virginian hero. I loved to read of Smith's travels, sufferings,
+captivities, escapes, not only in America but Europe. I become a child
+again almost as I take from the shelf before me in England the familiar
+volume, and all sorts of recollections of my early home come crowding
+over my mind. The old grandfather would make pictures for me of Smith
+doing battle with the Turks on the Danube, or led out by our Indian
+savages to death. Ah, what a terrific fight was that in which he was
+engaged with the three Turkish champions, and how I used to delight over
+the story of his combat with Bonny Molgro, the last and most dreadful
+of the three! What a name Bonny Molgro was, and with what a prodigious
+turban, scimitar, and whiskers we represented him! Having slain and
+taken off the heads of his first two enemies, Smith and Bonny Molgro
+met, falling to (says my favourite old book) "with their battle-axes,
+whose piercing bills made sometimes the one, sometimes the other,
+to have scarce sense to keep their saddles: especially the Christian
+received such a wound that he lost his battle-axe, whereat the supposed
+conquering Turke had a great shout from the rampires. Yet, by the
+readinesse of his horse, and his great judgment and dexteritie, he
+not only avoided the Turke's blows, but, having drawn his falchion, so
+pierced the Turke under the cutlets, through back and body, that though
+hee alighted from his horse, he stood not long ere hee lost his head as
+the rest had done. In reward for which deed, Duke Segismundus gave him
+3 Turke's head in a shield for armes and 300 Duckats yeerely for a
+pension." Disdaining time and place (with that daring which is the
+privilege of poets) in my tragedy, Smith is made to perform
+similar exploits on the banks of our Potomac and James's river. Our
+"ground-bait" verses, ran thus:--
+
+             "POCAHONTAS
+
+    "Wearied arm and broken sword
+       Wage in vain the desperate fight
+     Round him press the countless horde,
+       He is but a single knight.
+     Hark! a cry of triumph shrill
+       Through the wilderness resounds,
+       As, with twenty bleeding wounds,
+     Sinks the warrior, fighting still.
+
+    "Now they heap the fatal pyre,
+       And the torch of death they light
+     Ah! 'tis hard to die of fire!
+       Who will shield the captive knight?
+     Round the stake with fiendish cry
+       Wheel and dance the savage crowd,
+       Cold the victim's mien and proud,
+     And his breast is bared to die.
+
+    "Who will shield the fearless heart?
+       Who avert the murderous blade?
+     From the throng, with sudden start,
+       See, there springs an Indian maid.
+     Quick she stands before the knight,
+      'Loose the chain, unbind the ring,
+       I am daughter of the king,
+     And I claim the Indian right!'
+
+    "Dauntlessly aside she flings
+       Lifted axe and thirsty knife;
+     Fondly to his heart she clings,
+       And her bosom guards his life!
+     In the woods of Powhattan,
+       Still 'tis told, by Indian fires,
+       How a daughter of their sires
+     Saved the captive Englishman."
+
+I need not describe at length the plot of my tragedy, as my children can
+take it down from the shelves any day and peruse it for themselves. Nor
+shall I, let me add, be in a hurry to offer to read it again to my young
+folks, since Captain Miles and the parson both chose to fall asleep last
+Christmas, when, at mamma's request, I read aloud a couple of acts.
+But any person having a moderate acquaintance with plays and novels
+can soon, out of the above sketch, fill out a picture to his liking.
+An Indian king; a loving princess, and her attendant, in love with the
+British captain's servant; a traitor in the English fort; a brave Indian
+warrior, himself entertaining an unhappy passion for Pocahontas; a
+medicine-man and priest of the Indians (very well played by Palmer),
+capable of every treason, stratagem, and crime, and bent upon the
+torture and death of the English prisoner;--these, with the accidents
+of the wilderness, the war-dances and cries (which Gumbo had learned to
+mimic very accurately from the red people at home), and the arrival
+of the English fleet, with allusions to the late glorious victories in
+Canada, and the determination of Britons ever to rule and conquer in
+America, some of us not unnaturally thought might contribute to the
+success of our tragedy.
+
+But I have mentioned the ill omens which preceded the day: the
+difficulties which a peevish, and jealous, and timid management threw in
+the way of the piece, and the violent prejudice which was felt against
+it in certain high quarters. What wonder then, I ask, that Pocahontas
+should have turned out not to be a victory? I laugh to scorn the
+malignity of the critics who found fault with the performance. Pretty
+critics, forsooth, who said that Carpezan was a masterpiece, whilst
+a far superior and more elaborate work received only their sneers! I
+insist on it that Hagan acted his part so admirably that a certain actor
+and manager of the theatre might well be jealous of him; and that, but
+for the cabal made outside, the piece would have succeeded. The order
+had been given that the play should not succeed; so at least Sampson
+declared to me. "The house swarmed with Macs, by George, and they should
+have the galleries washed with brimstone," the honest fellow swore,
+and always vowed that Mr. Garrick himself would not have had the piece
+succeed for the world; and was never in such a rage as during that grand
+scene in the second act, where Smith (poor Hagan) being bound to the
+stake, Pocahontas comes and saves him, and when the whole house was
+thrilling with applause and sympathy.
+
+Anybody who has curiosity sufficient, may refer to the published tragedy
+(in the octavo form, or in the subsequent splendid quarto edition of my
+Collected Works, and Poems Original and Translated), and say whether the
+scene is without merit, whether the verses are not elegant, the language
+rich and noble? One of the causes of the failure was my actual fidelity
+to history. I had copied myself at the Museum, and tinted neatly, a
+figure of Sir Walter Raleigh in a frill and beard; and (my dear Theo
+giving some of her mother's best lace for the ruff) we dressed Hagan
+accurately after this drawing, and no man could look better. Miss
+Pritchard as Pocahontas, I dressed too as a Red Indian, having seen
+enough of that costume in my own experience at home. Will it be believed
+the house tittered when she first appeared? They got used to her,
+however, but just at the moment when she rushes into the prisoner's
+arms, and a number of people were actually in tears, a fellow in the pit
+bawls out, "Bedad! here's the Belle Savage kissing the Saracen's Head;"
+on which an impertinent roar of laughter sprang up in the pit, breaking
+out with fitful explosions during the remainder of the performance.
+As the wag in Mr. Sheridan's amusing Critic admirably says about the
+morning guns, the playwrights were not content with one of them, but
+must fire two or three; so with this wretched pothouse joke of the Belle
+Savage (the ignorant people not knowing that Pocahontas herself was the
+very Belle Sauvage from whom the tavern took its name!). My friend of
+the pit repeated it ad nauseam during the performance, and as each
+new character appeared, saluted him by the name of some tavern--for
+instance, the English governor (with a long beard) he called the Goat
+and Boots; his lieutenant (Barker), whose face certainly was broad, the
+Bull and Mouth, and so on! And the curtain descended amidst a shrill
+storm of whistles and hisses, which especially assailed poor Hagan every
+time he opened his lips. Sampson saw Master Will in the green boxes,
+with some pretty acquaintances of his, and has no doubt that the
+treacherous scoundrel was one of the ringleaders in the conspiracy. "I
+would have flung him over into the pit," the faithful fellow said (and
+Sampson was man enough to execute his threat), "but I saw a couple of
+Mr. Nadab's followers prowling about the lobby, and was obliged to sheer
+off." And so the eggs we had counted on selling at market were broken,
+and our poor hopes lay shattered before us!
+
+I looked in at the house from the stage before the curtain was lifted,
+and saw it pretty well filled, especially remarking Mr. Johnson in the
+front boxes, in a laced waistcoat, having his friend Mr. Reynolds by his
+side; the latter could not hear, and the former could not see, and so
+they came good-naturedly A deux to form an opinion of my poor tragedy.
+I could see Lady Maria (I knew the hood she wore) in the lower gallery,
+where she once more had the opportunity of sitting and looking at her
+beloved actor performing a principal character in a piece. As for Theo,
+she fairly owned that, unless I ordered her, she had rather not be
+present, nor had I any such command to give, for, if things went wrong,
+I knew that to see her suffer would be intolerable pain to myself, and
+so acquiesced in her desire to keep away.
+
+Being of a pretty equanimous disposition, and, as I flatter myself, able
+to bear good or evil fortune without disturbance, I myself, after taking
+a light dinner at the Bedford, went to the theatre a short while before
+the commencement of the play, and proposed to remain there, until the
+defeat or victory was decided. I own now, I could not help seeing which
+way the fate of the day was likely to turn. There was something
+gloomy and disastrous in the general aspect of all things around. Miss
+Pritchard had the headache: the barber who brought home Hagan's wig
+had powdered it like a wretch: amongst the gentlemen and ladies in
+the greenroom, I saw none but doubtful faces: and the manager (a very
+flippant, not to say impertinent gentleman, in my opinion, and who
+himself on that night looked as dismal as a mute at a funeral) had the
+insolence to say to me, "For Heaven's sake, Mr. Warrington, go and get
+a glass of punch at the Bedford, and don't frighten us all here by your
+dismal countenance!"
+
+"Sir," says I, "I have a right, for five shillings, to comment upon your
+face, but I never gave you any authority to make remarks upon mine."
+"Sir," says he in a pet, "I most heartily wish I had never seen your
+face at all!" "Yours, sir!" said I, "has often amused me greatly; and
+when painted for Abel Drugger is exceedingly comic"--and indeed I
+have always done Mr. G. the justice to think that in low comedy he was
+unrivalled. I made him a bow, and walked off to the coffee-house,
+and for five years after never spoke a word to the gentleman, when he
+apologised to me, at a nobleman's house where we chanced to meet. I said
+I had utterly forgotten the circumstance to which he alluded, and that,
+on the first night of a play, no doubt author and manager were flurried
+alike. And added, "After all, there is no shame in not being made for
+the theatre. Mr. Garrick--you were." A compliment with which he appeared
+to be as well pleased as I intended he should.
+
+Fidus Achates ran over to me at the end of the first act to say that all
+things were going pretty well; though he confessed to the titter in the
+house upon Miss Pritchard's first appearance, dressed exactly like an
+Indian princess.
+
+"I cannot help it, Sampson," said I (filling him a bumper of good
+punch), "if Indians are dressed so."
+
+"Why," says he, "would you have had Caractacus painted blue like an
+ancient Briton, or Bonduca with nothing but a cow-skin?" And indeed it
+may be that the fidelity to history was the cause of the ridicule cast
+on my tragedy, in which case I, for one, am not ashamed of its defeat.
+
+After the second act, my aide-de-camp came from the field with dismal
+news indeed. I don't know how it is that, nervous before action,
+in disaster I become pretty cool and cheerful. [The writer seems to
+contradict himself here, having just boasted of possessing a pretty
+equanimous disposition. He was probably mistaken in his own estimate of
+himself, as other folks have been besides.-ED.] "Are things going ill?"
+says I. I call for my reckoning, put on my hat, and march to the theatre
+as calmly as if I was going to dine at the Temple; fidus Achates walking
+by my side, pressing my elbow, kicking the link-boys out of the way, and
+crying, "By George, Mr. Warrington, you are a man of spirit--a Trojan,
+sir!" So, there were men of spirit in Troy; but alas! fate was too
+strong for them.
+
+At any rate, no man can say that I did not bear my misfortune with
+calmness: I could no more help the clamour and noise of the audience
+than a captain can help the howling and hissing of the storm in which
+his ship goes down. But I was determined that the rushing waves and
+broken masts should impavidum ferient, and flatter myself that I bore my
+calamity without flinching. "Not Regulus, my dear madam, could step into
+his barrel more coolly," Sampson said to my wife. 'Tis unjust to say
+of men of the parasitic nature that they are unfaithful in misfortune.
+Whether I was prosperous or poor, the wild parson was equally true and
+friendly, and shared our crust as eagerly as ever he had partaken of our
+better fortune.
+
+I took my place on the stage, whence I could see the actors of my poor
+piece, and a portion of the audience who condemned me. I suppose the
+performers gave me a wide berth out of pity for me. I must say that I
+think I was as little moved as any spectator; and that no one would have
+judged from my mien that I was the unlucky hero of the night.
+
+But my dearest Theo, when I went home, looked so pale and white, that
+I saw from the dear creature's countenance that the knowledge of my
+disaster had preceded my return. Spencer, Sampson, cousin Hagan, and
+Lady Maria were to come after the play, and congratulate the author, God
+wot! (Poor Miss Pritchard was engaged to us likewise, but sent word
+that I must understand that she was a great deal too unwell to sup that
+night.) My friend the gardener of Bedford House had given my wife his
+best flowers to decorate her little table. There they were; the poor
+little painted standards--and the battle lost! I had borne the defeat
+well enough, but as I looked at the sweet pale face of the wife across
+the table, and those artless trophies of welcome which she had set up
+for her hero, I confess my courage gave way, and my heart felt a pang
+almost as keen as any that ever has smitten it.
+
+Our meal, it may be imagined, was dismal enough, nor was it rendered
+much gayer by the talk we strove to carry on. Old Mrs. Hagan was,
+luckily, very ill at this time; and her disease, and the incidents
+connected with it, a great blessing to us. Then we had his Majesty's
+approaching marriage, about which there was a talk. (How well I remember
+the most futile incidents of the day down to a tune which a carpenter
+was whistling by my side at the playhouse, just before the dreary
+curtain fell!) Then we talked about the death of good Mr. Richardson,
+the author of Pamela and Clarissa, whose works we all admired
+exceedingly. And as we talked about Clarissa, my wife took on herself to
+wipe her eyes once or twice, and say, faintly, "You know, my love,
+mamma and I could never help crying over that dear book. Oh, my dearest,
+dearest mother" (she adds), "how I wish she could be with me now!" This
+was an occasion for more open tears, for of course a young lady may
+naturally weep for her absent mother. And then we mixed a gloomy bowl
+with Jamaica limes, and drank to the health of his Excellency the
+Governor: and then, for a second toast, I filled a bumper, and, with a
+smiling face, drank to "our better fortune!"
+
+This was too much. The two women flung themselves into each other's
+arms, and irrigated each other's neck-handkerchiefs with tears. "Oh,
+Maria! Is not--is not my George good and kind?" sobs Theo. "Look at my
+Hagan--how great, how godlike he was in his part!" gasps Maria. "It was
+a beastly cabal which threw him over--and I could plunge this knife into
+Mr. Garrick's black heart--the odious little wretch!" and she grasps
+a weapon at her side. But throwing it presently down, the enthusiastic
+creature rushes up to her lord and master, flings her arms round him,
+and embraces him in the presence of the little company.
+
+I am not sure whether some one else did not do likewise. We were all
+in a state of extreme excitement and enthusiasm. In the midst of grief,
+Love the consoler appears amongst us, and soothes us with such fond
+blandishments and tender caresses, that one scarce wishes the calamity
+away. Two or three days afterwards, on our birthday, a letter was
+brought me in my study, which contained the following lines:--
+
+
+          "FROM POCAHONTAS
+
+    "Returning from the cruel fight
+     How pale and faint appears my knight!
+     He sees me anxious at his side;
+     'Why seek, my love, your wounds to hide?
+     Or deem your English girl afraid
+     To emulate the Indian maid?'
+
+    "Be mine my husband's grief to cheer,
+     In peril to be ever near;
+     Whate'er of ill or woe betide,
+     To bear it clinging at his side;
+     The poisoned stroke of fate to ward,
+     His bosom with my own to guard;
+     Ah! could it spare a pang to his,
+     It could not know a purer bliss!
+     'Twould gladden as it felt the smart,
+     And thank the hand that flung the dart!"
+
+I do not say the verses are very good, but that I like them as well as
+if they were--and that the face of the writer (whose sweet young voice I
+fancy I can hear as I hum the lines), when I went into her drawing-room
+after getting the letter, and when I saw her blushing and blessing
+me--seemed to me more beautiful than any I can fancy out of Heaven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXI. Res Angusta Domi
+
+
+I have already described my present feelings as an elderly gentleman,
+regarding that rash jump into matrimony, which I persuaded my dear
+partner to take with me when we were both scarce out of our teens. As a
+man and a father--with a due sense of the necessity of mutton chops, and
+the importance of paying the baker--with a pack of rash children round
+about us who might be running off to Scotland to-morrow, and pleading
+papa's and mamma's example for their impertinence,--I know that I ought
+to be very cautious in narrating this early part of the married life
+of George Warrington, Esquire, and Theodosia his wife--to call out
+mea culpa, and put on a demure air, and, sitting in my comfortable
+easy-chair here, profess to be in a white sheet and on the stool of
+repentance, offering myself up as a warning to imprudent and hot-headed
+youth.
+
+But, truth to say, that married life, regarding which my dear relatives
+prophesied so gloomily, has disappointed all those prudent and
+respectable people. It has had its trials; but I can remember them
+without bitterness--its passionate griefs, of which time, by God's kind
+ordinance, has been the benign consoler--its days of poverty, which
+we bore, who endured it, to the wonder of our sympathising relatives
+looking on--its precious rewards and blessings, so great that I scarce
+dare to whisper them to this page; to speak of them, save with awful
+respect and to One Ear, to which are offered up the prayers and thanks
+of all men. To marry without a competence is wrong and dangerous,
+no doubt, and a crime against our social codes; but do not scores of
+thousands of our fellow-beings commit the crime every year with no
+other trust but in, Heaven, health, and their labour? Are young people
+entering into the married life not to take hope into account, nor dare
+to begin their housekeeping until the cottage is completely furnished,
+the cellar and larder stocked, the cupboard full of plate, and the
+strong-box of money? The increase and multiplication of the world would
+stop, were the laws which regulate the genteel part of it to be made
+universal. Our gentlefolks tremble at the brink in their silk stockings
+and pumps, and wait for whole years, until they find a bridge or a gilt
+barge to carry them across; our poor do not fear to wet their bare feet,
+plant them in the brook, and trust to fate and strength to bear them
+over. Who would like to consign his daughter to poverty? Who would
+counsel his son to undergo the countless risks of poor married life, to
+remove the beloved girl from comfort and competence, and subject her
+to debt, misery, privation, friendlessness, sickness, and the hundred
+gloomy consequences of the res angusta domi? I look at my own wife and
+ask her pardon for having imposed a task so fraught with pain and danger
+upon one so gentle. I think of the trials she endured, and am thankful
+for them and for that unfailing love and constancy with which God
+blessed her and strengthened her to bear them all. On this question of
+marriage, I am not a fair judge: my own was so imprudent--and has been
+so happy, that I must not dare to give young people counsel. I have
+endured poverty, but scarcely ever found it otherwise than tolerable:
+had I not undergone it, I never could have known the kindness of
+friends, the delight of gratitude, the surprising joys and consolations
+which sometimes accompany the scanty meal and narrow fire, and cheer the
+long day's labour. This at least is certain, in respect of the lot of
+the decent poor, that a great deal of superfluous pity is often thrown
+away upon it. Good-natured fine folks, who sometimes stepped out of the
+sunshine of their riches into a narrow obscurity, were blinded as it
+were, whilst we could see quite cheerfully and clearly: they stumbled
+over obstacles which were none to us: they were surprised at the
+resignation with which we drank small beer, and that we could heartily
+say grace over such very cold mutton.
+
+The good General, my father-in-law, had married his Molly, when he was a
+subaltern of a foot regiment, and had a purse scarce better filled than
+my own. They had had their ups and downs of fortune. I think (though my
+wife will never confess to this point) they had married, as people could
+do in their young time, without previously asking papa's and mamma's
+leave. [The Editor has looked through Burn's Registers of Fleet
+Marriages without finding the names of Martin Lambert and Mary Benson.]
+At all events, they were so well pleased with their own good luck in
+matrimony, that they did not grudge their children's, and were by no
+means frightened at the idea of any little hardships which we in the
+course of our married life might be called upon to undergo. And I
+suppose when I made my own pecuniary statements to Mr. Lambert, I was
+anxious to deceive both of us. Believing me to be master of a couple
+of thousand pounds, he went to Jamaica quite easy in his mind as to his
+darling daughter's comfort and maintenance, at least for some years to
+come. After paying the expenses of his family's outfit, the worthy man
+went away not much richer than his son-in-law; and a few trinkets, and
+some lace of Aunt Lambert's, with twenty new guineas in a purse which
+her mother and sisters made for her, were my Theo's marriage portion.
+But in valuing my stock, I chose to count as a good debt a sum which my
+honoured mother never could be got to acknowledge up to the day when the
+resolute old lady was called to pay the last debt of all. The sums I
+had disbursed for her, she argued, were spent for the improvement and
+maintenance of the estate which was to be mine at her decease. What
+money she could spare was to be for my poor brother, who had nothing,
+who would never have spent his own means had he not imagined himself to
+be sole heir of the Virginian property, as he would have been--the good
+lady took care to emphasise this point in many of her letters--but for a
+half-hour's accident of birth. He was now distinguishing himself in
+the service of his king and country. To purchase his promotion was his
+mother's, she should suppose his brother's duty! When I had finished my
+bar-studies and my dramatic amusements, Madam Esmond informed me that I
+was welcome to return home and take that place in our colony to which my
+birth entitled me. This statement she communicated to me more than once
+through Mountain, and before the news of my marriage had reached her.
+
+There is no need to recall her expressions of maternal indignation when
+she was informed of the step I had taken. On the pacification of Canada,
+my dear Harry asked for leave of absence, and dutifully paid a visit to
+Virginia. He wrote, describing his reception at home, and the splendid
+entertainments which my mother made in honour of her son. Castlewood,
+which she had not inhabited since our departure for Europe, was thrown
+open again to our friends of the colony; and the friend of Wolfe, and
+the soldier of Quebec, was received by all our acquaintance with every
+becoming honour. Some dismal quarrels, to be sure, ensued, because my
+brother persisted in maintaining his friendship with Colonel Washington,
+of Mount Vernon, whose praises Harry never was tired of singing.
+Indeed I allow the gentleman every virtue; and in the struggles which
+terminated so fatally for England a few years since, I can admire as
+well as his warmest friends, General Washington's glorious constancy and
+success.
+
+If these battles between Harry and our mother were frequent, as, in his
+letters, he described them to be, I wondered, for my part, why he should
+continue at home? One reason naturally suggested itself to my mind,
+which I scarcely liked to communicate to Mrs. Warrington; for we had
+both talked over our dear little Hetty's romantic attachment for my
+brother, and wondered that he had never discovered it. I need not say, I
+suppose, that my gentleman had found some young lady at home more to his
+taste than our dear Hester, and hence accounted for his prolonged stay
+in Virginia.
+
+Presently there came, in a letter from him, not a full confession but an
+admission of this interesting fact. A person was described, not named--a
+Being all beauty and perfection, like other young ladies under similar
+circumstances. My wife asked to see the letter: I could not help showing
+it, and handed it to her, with a very sad face. To my surprise she read
+it, without exhibiting any corresponding sorrow of her own.
+
+"I have thought of this before, my love," I said. "I feel with you for
+your disappointment regarding poor Hetty."
+
+"Ah! poor Hetty," says Theo, looking down at the carpet.
+
+"It would never have done," says I.
+
+"No--they would not have been happy," sighs Theo.
+
+"How strange he never should have found out her secret!" I continued.
+
+She looked me full in the face with an odd expression. "Pray, what does
+that look mean?" I asked.
+
+"Nothing, my dear--nothing! only I am not surprised!" says Theo,
+blushing.
+
+"What," I ask, "can there be another?"
+
+"I am sure I never said so, George," says the lady, hurriedly. "But if
+Hetty has overcome her childish folly, ought we not all to be glad? Do
+you gentlemen suppose that you only are to fall in love and grow tired,
+indeed?"
+
+"What!" I say, with a strange commotion of my mind. "Do you mean to tell
+me, Theo, that you ever cared for any one but me?"
+
+"Oh, George," she whimpers, "when I was at school, there was--there was
+one of the boys of Doctor Backhouse's school, who sate in the loft next
+to us; and I thought he had lovely eyes, and I was so shocked when I
+recognised him behind the counter at Mr. Grigg's the mercer's, when I
+went to buy a cloak for baby, and I wanted to tell you, my dear, and I
+didn't know how!"
+
+I went to see this creature with the lovely eyes, having made my wife
+describe the fellow's dress to me, and I saw a little bandy-legged
+wretch in a blue camlet coat, with his red hair tied with a dirty
+ribbon, about whom I forbore generously even to reproach my wife; nor
+will she ever know that I have looked at the fellow, until she reads the
+confession in this page. If our wives saw us as we are, I thought, would
+they love us as they do? Are we as much mistaken in them, as they in us?
+I look into one candid face at least, and think it never has deceived
+me.
+
+Lest I should encourage my young people to an imitation of my own
+imprudence, I will not tell them with how small a capital Mrs. Theo and
+I commenced life. The unfortunate tragedy brought us nothing; though the
+reviewers, since its publication of late, have spoken not unfavourably
+as to its merits, and Mr. Kemble himself has done me the honour to
+commend it. Our kind friend Lord Wrotham was for having the piece
+published by subscription, and sent me a bank-note, with a request that
+I would let him have a hundred copies for his friends; but I was always
+averse to that method of levying money, and, preferring my poverty sine
+dote, locked up my manuscript, with my poor girl's verses inserted at
+the first page. I know not why the piece should have given such offence
+at court, except for the fact that an actor who had run off with an
+earl's daughter, performed a principal part in the play; but I was told
+that sentiments which I had put into the mouths of some of the Indian
+characters (who were made to declaim against ambition, the British
+desire of rule, and so forth), were pronounced dangerous and
+unconstitutional; so that the little hope of royal favour, which I might
+have had, was quite taken away from me.
+
+What was to be done? A few months after the failure of the tragedy, as
+I counted up the remains of my fortune (the calculation was not long or
+difficult), I came to the conclusion that I must beat a retreat out
+of my pretty apartments in Bloomsbury, and so gave warning to our good
+landlady, informing her that my wife's health required that we should
+have lodgings in the country. But we went no farther than Lambeth, our
+faithful Gumbo and Molly following us; and here, though as poor as might
+be, we were waited on by a maid and a lackey in livery, like any folks
+of condition. You may be sure kind relatives cried out against our
+extravagance; indeed, are they not the people who find our faults out
+for us, and proclaim them to the rest of the world?
+
+Returning home from London one day, whither I had been on a visit to
+some booksellers, I recognised the family arms and livery on a grand
+gilt chariot which stood before a public-house near to our lodgings. A
+few loitering inhabitants were gathered round the splendid vehicle, and
+looking with awe at the footmen, resplendent in the sun, and quaffing
+blazing pots of beer. I found my Lady Castlewood seated opposite to
+my wife in our little apartment (whence we had a very bright, pleasant
+prospect of the river, covered with barges and wherries, and the ancient
+towers and trees of the Archbishop's palace and gardens), and Mrs. Theo,
+who has a very droll way of describing persons and scenes, narrated to
+me all the particulars of her ladyship's conversation, when she took her
+leave.
+
+"I have been here this ever-so-long," says the Countess, "gossiping with
+cousin Theo, while you have been away at the coffee-house, I dare say,
+making merry with your friends, and drinking your punch and coffee.
+Guess she must find it rather lonely here, with nothing to do but work
+them little caps and hem them frocks. Never mind, dear; reckon you'll
+soon have a companion who will amuse you when cousin George is away at
+his coffee-house! What a nice lodging you have got here, I do declare!
+Our new house which we have took is twenty times as big, and covered
+with gold from top to bottom; but I like this quite as well. Bless you
+being rich is no better than being poor. When we lived to Albany, and
+I did most all the work myself, scoured the rooms, biled the kettle,
+helped the wash, and all, I was just as happy as I am now. We only
+had one old negro to keep the store. Why don't you sell Gumbo, cousin
+George? He ain't no use here idling and dawdling about, and making love
+to the servant-girl. Fogh! guess they ain't particular, these English
+people!" So she talked, rattling on with perfect good-humour, until her
+hour for departure came; when she produced a fine repeating watch, and
+said it was time for her to pay a call upon her Majesty at Buckingham
+House. "And mind you come to us, George," says her ladyship, waving a
+little parting hand out of the gilt coach. "Theo and I have settled all
+about it."
+
+"Here, at least," said I, when the laced footmen had clambered up behind
+the carriage, and our magnificent little patroness had left us;--"here
+is one who is not afraid of our poverty, nor ashamed to remember her
+own."
+
+"Ashamed!" said Theo, resuming her lilliputian needlework. "To do her
+justice, she would make herself at home in any kitchen or palace in the
+world. She has given me and Molly twenty lessons in housekeeping. She
+says, when she was at home to Albany, she roasted, baked, swept the
+house, and milked the cow." (Madam Theo pronounced the word cow
+archly in our American way, and imitated her ladyship's accent very
+divertingly.)
+
+"And she has no pride," I added. "It was good-natured of her to ask us
+to dine with her and my lord. When will Uncle Warrington ever think of
+offering us a crust again, or a glass of his famous beer?"
+
+"Yes, it was not ill-natured to invite us," says Theo, slily. "But,
+my dear, you don't know all the conditions!" And then my wife, still
+imitating the Countess's manner, laughingly informed me what these
+conditions were. "She took out her pocket-book, and told me," says Theo,
+"what days she was engaged abroad and at home. On Monday she received a
+Duke and a Duchess, with several other members of my lord's house,
+and their ladies. On Tuesday came more earls, two bishops, and an
+ambassador. 'Of course you won't come on them days?' says the Countess.
+'Now you are so poor, you know, that fine company ain't no good for you.
+Lord bless you! father never dines on our company days! he don't
+like it; he takes a bit of cold meat anyways.' On which," says Theo,
+laughing, "I told her that Mr. Warrington did not care for any but the
+best of company, and proposed that she should ask us on some day when
+the Archbishop of Canterbury dined with her, and his Grace must give
+us a lift home in his coach to Lambeth. And she is an economical little
+person, too," continues Theo. "'I thought of bringing with me some of
+my baby's caps and things, which his lordship has outgrown 'em, but they
+may be wanted again, you know, my dear.' And so we lose that addition
+to our wardrobe," says Theo, smiling, "and Molly and I must do our best
+without her ladyship's charity. 'When people are poor, they are poor,'
+the Countess said, with her usual outspokenness, 'and must get on the
+best they can. What we shall do for that poor Maria, goodness only
+knows! we can't ask her to see us as we can you, though you are so
+poor: but an earl's daughter to marry a play-actor! La, my dear, it's
+dreadful: his Majesty and the Princess have both spoken of it! Every
+other noble family in this kingdom as has ever heard of it pities us;
+though I have a plan for helping those poor unhappy people, and have
+sent down Simons, my groom of the chambers, to tell them on it.' This
+plan was, that Hagan, who had kept almost all his terms at Dublin
+College, should return thither and take his degree, and enter into holy
+orders, 'when we will provide him with a chaplaincy at home, you know,'
+Lady Castlewood added." And I may mention here, that this benevolent
+plan was executed a score of months later; when I was enabled myself to
+be of service to Mr. Hagan, who was one of the kindest and best of
+our friends during our own time of want and distress. Castlewood
+then executed his promise loyally enough, got orders and a colonial
+appointment for Hagan, who distinguished himself both as soldier and
+preacher, as we shall presently hear; but not a guinea did his lordship
+spare to aid either his sister or his kinsman in their trouble. I never
+asked him, thank Heaven, to assist me in my own; though, to do him
+justice, no man could express himself more amiably, and with a joy which
+I believe was quite genuine, when my days of poverty were ended.
+
+As for my Uncle Warrington, and his virtuous wife and daughters, let
+me do them justice likewise, and declare that throughout my period of
+trial, their sorrow at my poverty was consistent and unvarying. I still
+had a few acquaintances who saw them, and of course (as friends will)
+brought me a report of their opinions and conversation; and I never
+could hear that my relatives had uttered one single good word about me
+or my wife. They spoke even of my tragedy as a crime--I was accustomed
+to hear that sufficiently maligned--of the author as a miserable
+reprobate, for ever reeling about Grub Street, in rags and squalor. They
+held me out no hand of help. My poor wife might cry in her pain,
+but they had no twopence to bestow upon her. They went to church a
+half-dozen times in the week. They subscribed to many public charities.
+Their tribe was known eighteen hundred years ago, and will flourish as
+long as men endure. They will still thank Heaven that they are not as
+other folks are; and leave the wounded and miserable to other succour.
+
+I don't care to recall the dreadful doubts and anxieties which began to
+beset me; the plan after plan which I tried, and in which I failed, for
+procuring work and adding to our dwindling stock of money. I bethought
+me of my friend Mr. Johnson, and when I think of the eager kindness with
+which he received me, am ashamed of some pert speeches which I own
+to have made regarding his manners and behaviour. I told my story and
+difficulties to him, the circumstance of my marriage, and the prospects
+before me. He would not for a moment admit they were gloomy, or, si male
+nunc, that they would continue to be so. I had before me the chances,
+certainly very slender, of a place in England; the inheritance which
+must be mine in the course of nature, or at any rate would fall to the
+heir I was expecting. I had a small stock of money for present actual
+necessity--a possibility, "though, to be free with you, sir" (says
+he), "after the performance of your tragedy, I doubt whether nature
+has endowed you with those peculiar qualities which are necessary for
+achieving a remarkable literary success"--and finally a submission to
+the maternal rule, and a return to Virginia, where plenty and a home
+were always ready for me. "Why, sir!" he cried, "such a sum as you
+mention would have been a fortune to me when I began the world, and my
+friend Mr. Goldsmith would set up a coach-and-six on it. With youth,
+hope, to-day, and a couple of hundred pounds in cash--no young fellow
+need despair. Think, sir, you have a year at least before you, and who
+knows what may chance between now and then. Why, sir, your relatives
+here may provide for you, or you may succeed to your Virginian property,
+or you may come into a fortune!" I did not in the course of that year,
+but he did. My Lord Bute gave Mr. Johnson a pension, which set all Grub
+Street in a fury against the recipient, who, to be sure, had published
+his own not very flattering opinion upon pensions and pensioners.
+
+Nevertheless, he did not altogether discourage my literary projects,
+promised to procure me work from the booksellers, and faithfully
+performed that kind promise. "But," says he, "sir, you must not appear
+amongst them in forma pauperis.--Have you never a friend's coach, in
+which we can ride to see them? You must put on your best laced hat and
+waistcoat; and we must appear, sir, as if we were doing them a favour."
+This stratagem answered, and procured me respect enough at the first
+visit or two; but when the booksellers knew that I wanted to be paid for
+my work, their backs refused to bend any more, and they treated me with
+a familiarity which I could ill stomach. I overheard one of them, who
+had been a footman, say, "Oh, it's Pocahontas, is it? let him wait." And
+he told his boy to say as much to me. "Wait, sir?" says I, fuming
+with rage and putting my head into his parlour, "I'm not accustomed to
+waiting, but I have heard you are." And I strode out of the shop into
+Pall Mall in a mighty fluster.
+
+And yet Mr. D. was in the right. I came to him, if not to ask a favour,
+at any rate to propose a bargain, and surely it was my business to wait
+his time and convenience. In more fortunate days I asked the gentleman's
+pardon, and the kind author of the Muse in Livery was instantly
+appeased.
+
+I was more prudent, or Mr. Johnson more fortunate, in an application
+elsewhere, and Mr. Johnson procured me a little work from the
+booksellers in translating from foreign languages, of which I happen to
+know two or three. By a hard day's labour I could earn a few shillings;
+so few that a week's work would hardly bring me a guinea: and that was
+flung to me with insolent patronage by the low hucksters who employed
+me. I can put my finger upon two or three magazine articles written at
+this period, and paid for with a few wretched shillings, which papers as
+I read them awaken in me the keenest pangs of bitter remembrance.
+[Mr. George Warrington, of the Upper Temple, says he remembers a book,
+containing his grandfather's book-plate, in which were pasted various
+extracts from reviews and newspapers in an old type, and lettered
+outside Les Chains de l'Esclavage. These were no doubt the contributions
+above mentioned; but the volume has not been found, either in the
+town-house or in the library at Warrington Manor. The Editor, by
+the way, is not answerable for a certain inconsistency, which may be
+remarked in the narrative. The writer says earlier, that he speaks
+without bitterness of past times, and presently falls into a fury with
+them. The same manner of forgiving our enemies is not uncommon in the
+present century.] I recall the doubts and fears which agitated me,
+see the dear wife nursing her infant and looking up into my face with
+hypocritical smiles that vainly try to mask her alarm: the struggles of
+pride are fought over again: the wounds under which I smarted re-open.
+There are some acts of injustice committed against me which I don't know
+how to forgive; and which, whenever I think of them, awaken in me the
+same feelings of revolt and indignation. The gloom and darkness gather
+over me--till they are relieved by a reminiscence of that love and
+tenderness which through all gloom and darkness have been my light and
+consolation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXII. Miles's Moidore
+
+
+Little Miles made his appearance in this world within a few days of the
+gracious Prince who commands his regiment. Illuminations and cannonading
+saluted the Royal George's birth, multitudes were admitted to see him
+as he lay behind a gilt railing at the Palace with noble nurses watching
+over him. Few nurses guarded the cradle of our little Prince; no
+courtiers, no faithful retainers saluted it, except our trusty Gumbo
+and kind Molly, who to be sure loved and admired the little heir of my
+poverty as loyally as our hearts could desire. Why was our boy not named
+George like the other paragon just mentioned, and like his father? I
+gave him the name of a little scapegrace of my family, a name which
+many generations of Warringtons had borne likewise; but my poor little
+Miles's love and kindness touched me at a time when kindness and love
+were rare from those of my own blood, and Theo and I agreed that our
+child should be called after that single little friend of my paternal
+race.
+
+We wrote to acquaint our royal parents with the auspicious event, and
+bravely inserted the child's birth in the Daily Advertiser, and the
+place, Church Street, Lambeth, where he was born. "My dear," says Aunt
+Bernstein, writing to me in reply to my announcement, "how could you
+point out to all the world that you live in such a trou as that in
+which you have buried yourself? I kiss the little mamma, and send a
+remembrance for the child." This remembrance was a fine silk coverlid,
+with a lace edging fit for a prince. It was not very useful: the price
+of the lace would have served us much better, but Theo and Molly were
+delighted with the present, and my eldest son's cradle had a cover as
+fine as any nobleman's.
+
+Good Dr. Heberden came over several times to visit my wife, and see that
+all things went well. He knew and recommended to us a surgeon in the
+vicinage, who took charge of her; luckily, my dear patient needed little
+care, beyond that which our landlady and her own trusty attendant could
+readily afford her. Again our humble precinct was adorned with the
+gilded apparition of Lady Castlewood's chariot wheels; she brought a pot
+of jelly, which she thought Theo might like, and which, no doubt, had
+been served at one of her ladyship's banquets on a previous day. And
+she told us of all the ceremonies at court, and of the splendour and
+festivities attending the birth of the august heir to the crown; Our
+good Mr. Johnson happened to pay me a visit on one of those days when
+my lady countess's carriage flamed up to our little gate. He was not a
+little struck by her magnificence, and made her some bows, which were
+more respectful than graceful. She called me cousin very affably, and
+helped to transfer the present of jelly from her silver dish into our
+crockery pan with much benignity. The Doctor tasted the sweetmeat, and
+pronounced it to be excellent. "The great, sir," says he, "are fortunate
+in every way. They can engage the most skilful practitioners of the
+culinary art, as they can assemble the most amiable wits round their
+table. If, as you think, sir, and, from the appearance of the dish,
+your suggestion at least is plausible, this sweetmeat may have appeared
+already at his lordship's table, it has been there in good company. It
+has quivered under the eyes of celebrated beauties, it has been tasted
+by ruby lips, it has divided the attention of the distinguished company,
+with fruits, tarts, and creams, which I make no doubt were like itself
+delicious." And so saying, the good Doctor absorbed a considerable
+portion of Lady Castlewood's benefaction; though as regards the epithet
+delicious I am bound to say, that my poor wife, after tasting the jelly,
+put it away from her as not to her liking; and Molly, flinging up her
+head, declared it was mouldy.
+
+My boy enjoyed at least the privilege of having an earl's daughter for
+his godmother; for this office was performed by his cousin, our poor
+Lady Maria, whose kindness and attention to the mother and the infant
+were beyond all praise; and who, having lost her own solitary chance
+for maternal happiness, yearned over our child in a manner not a little
+touching to behold. Captain Miles is a mighty fine gentleman, and his
+uniforms of the Prince's Hussars as splendid as any that ever bedizened
+a soldier of fashion; but he hath too good a heart, and is too true a
+gentleman, let us trust, not to be thankful when he remembers that his
+own infant limbs were dressed in some of the little garments which had
+been prepared for the poor player's child. Sampson christened him in
+that very chapel in Southwark, where our marriage ceremony had been
+performed. Never were the words of the Prayer-book more beautifully and
+impressively read than by the celebrant of the service; except at
+its end, when his voice failed him, and he and the rest of the little
+congregation were fain to wipe their eyes. "Mr. Garrick himself, sir,"
+says Hagan, "could not have read those words so nobly. I am sure little
+innocent never entered the world accompanied by wishes and benedictions
+more tender and sincere."
+
+And now I have not told how it chanced that the Captain came by his name
+of Miles. A couple of days before his christening, when as yet I believe
+it was intended that our firstborn should bear his father's name, a
+little patter of horse's hoofs comes galloping up to our gate; and
+who should pull at the bell but young Miles, our cousin? I fear he had
+disobeyed his parents when he galloped away on that undutiful journey.
+
+"You know," says he, "cousin Harry gave me my little horse; and I can't
+help liking you, because you are so like Harry, and because they're
+always saying things of you at home, and it's a shame; and I have
+brought my whistle and coral that my godmamma Lady Suckling gave me, for
+your little boy; and if you're so poor, cousin George, here's my gold
+moidore, and it's worth ever so much, and it's no use to me, because I
+mayn't spend it, you know."
+
+We took the boy up to Theo in her room (he mounted the stair in his
+little tramping boots, of which he was very proud); and Theo kissed him,
+and thanked him; and his moidore has been in her purse from that day.
+
+My mother, writing through her ambassador as usual, informed me of
+her royal surprise and displeasure on learning that my son had been
+christened Miles--a name not known, at least in the Esmond family. I
+did not care to tell the reason at the time; but when, in after years,
+I told Madam Esmond how my boy came by his name, I saw a tear roll down
+her wrinkled cheek, and I heard afterwards that she had asked Gumbo
+many questions about the boy who gave his name to our Miles--our Miles
+Gloriosus of Pall Mall, Valenciennes, Almack's, Brighton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIII. Troubles and Consolations
+
+
+In our early days at home, when Harry and I used to be so undutiful to
+our tutor, who would have thought that Mr. Esmond Warrington of Virginia
+would turn Bearleader himself? My mother (when we came together again)
+never could be got to speak directly of this period of my life; but
+would allude to it as "that terrible time, my love, which I can't bear
+to think of," "those dreadful years when there was difference between
+us," and so forth; and though my pupil, a worthy and grateful man, sent
+me out to Jamestown several barrels of that liquor by which his great
+fortune was made, Madam Esmond spoke of him as "your friend in England,"
+"your wealthy Lambeth friend," etc., but never by his name; nor did she
+ever taste a drop of his beer. We brew our own too at Warrington Manor,
+but our good Mr. Foker never fails to ship to Ipswich every year a
+couple of butts of his entire. His son is a young sprig of fashion, and
+has married an earl's daughter; the father is a very worthy and kind
+gentleman, and it is to the luck of making his acquaintance that I owe
+the receipt of some of the most welcome guineas that ever I received in
+my life.
+
+It was not so much the sum, as the occupation and hope given me by the
+office of Governor, which I took on myself, which were then so precious
+to me. Mr. F.'s Brewery (the site has since been changed) then stood
+near to Pedlar's Acre in Lambeth and the surgeon who attended my wife in
+her confinement, likewise took care of the wealthy brewer's family.
+He was a Bavarian, originally named Voelker. Mr. Lance, the surgeon, I
+suppose, made him acquainted with my name and history. The worthy doctor
+would smoke many a pipe of Virginia in my garden, and had conceived an
+attachment for me and my family. He brought his patron to my house; and
+when Mr. F. found that I had a smattering of his language, and could
+sing "Prinz Eugen the noble Ritter" (a song that my grandfather had
+brought home from the Marlborough wars), the German conceived a great
+friendship for me: his lady put her chair and her chariot at Mrs.
+Warrington's service: his little daughter took a prodigious fancy to our
+baby (and to do him justice, the Captain, who is as ugly a fellow now
+as ever wore a queue, was beautiful as an infant) [The very image of the
+Squire at 30, everybody says so. M. W. (Note in the MS.)]: and his son
+and heir, Master Foker, being much maltreated at Westminster School
+because of his father's profession of brewer, the parents asked if
+I would take charge of him; and paid me a not insufficient sum for
+superintending his education.
+
+Mr. F. was a shrewd man of business, and as he and his family really
+interested themselves in me and mine, I laid all my pecuniary affairs
+pretty unreservedly before him; and my statement, he was pleased to say,
+augmented the respect and regard which he felt for me. He laughed at
+our stories of the aid which my noble relatives had given me--my
+aunt's coverlid, my Lady Castlewood's mouldy jelly, Lady Warrington's
+contemptuous treatment of us. But he wept many tears over the story of
+little Miles's moidore; and as for Sampson and Hagan, "I wow," says he,
+"dey shall have so much beer als ever dey can drink." He sent his wife
+to call upon Lady Maria, and treated her with the utmost respect and
+obsequiousness, whenever she came to visit him. It was with Mr. Foker
+that Lady Maria stayed when Hagan went to Dublin to complete his college
+terms; and the good brewer's purse also ministered to our friend's wants
+and supplied his outfit.
+
+When Mr. Foker came fully to know my own affairs and position, he was
+pleased to speak of me with terms of enthusiasm, and as if my conduct
+showed some extraordinary virtue. I have said how my mother saved money
+for Harry, and how the two were in my debt. But when Harry spent money,
+he spent it fancying it to be his; Madam Esmond never could be made to
+understand she was dealing hardly with me--the money was paid and gone,
+and there was an end of it. Now, at the end of '62, I remember Harry
+sent over a considerable remittance for the purchase of his promotion,
+begging me at the same time to remember that he was in my debt, and to
+draw on his agents if I had any need. He did not know how great the need
+was, or how my little capital had been swallowed.
+
+Well, to take my brother's money would delay his promotion, and I
+naturally did not draw on him, though I own I was tempted; nor, knowing
+my dear General Lambert's small means, did I care to impoverish him by
+asking for supplies. These simple acts of forbearance my worthy brewer
+must choose to consider as instances of exalted virtue. And what does
+my gentleman do but write privately to my brother in America, lauding me
+and my wife as the most admirable of human beings, and call upon
+Madame de Bernstein, who never told me of his visit indeed, but who,
+I perceived, about this time treated us with singular respect and
+gentleness, that surprised me in one whom I could not but consider as
+selfish and worldly. In after days I remember asking him how he had
+gained admission to the Baroness? He laughed: "De Baroness!" says he.
+"I knew de Baron when he was a walet at Munich, and I was a
+brewer-apprentice." I think our family had best not be too curious about
+our uncle the Baron.
+
+Thus, the part of my life which ought to have been most melancholy was
+in truth made pleasant by many friends, happy circumstances, and strokes
+of lucky fortune. The bear I led was a docile little cub, and danced
+to my piping very readily. Better to lead him about, than to hang round
+booksellers' doors, or wait the pleasure or caprice of managers! My wife
+and I, during our exile, as we may call it, spent very many pleasant
+evenings with these kind friends and benefactors. Nor were we without
+intellectual enjoyments; Mrs. Foker and Mrs. Warrington sang finely
+together; and sometimes when I was in the mood, I read my own play of
+Pocahontas, to this friendly audience, in a manner better than Hagan's
+own, Mr. Foker was pleased to say.
+
+After that little escapade of Miles Warrington, junior, I saw nothing
+of him, and heard of my paternal relatives but rarely. Sir Miles was
+assiduous at court (as I believe he would have been at Nero's), and
+I laughed one day when Mr. Foker told me that he had heard on 'Change
+"that they were going to make my uncle a Beer."--"A Beer?" says I in
+wonder. "Can't you understand de vort, ven I say it?" says the testy
+old gentleman. "Vell, veil, a Lort!" Sir, Miles indeed was the obedient
+humble servant of the Minister, whoever he might be. I am surprised he
+did not speak English with a Scotch accent during the first favourite's
+brief reign. I saw him and his wife coming from court, when Mrs.
+Claypool was presented to her Majesty on her marriage. I had my little
+boy on my shoulder. My uncle and aunt stared resolutely at me from their
+gilt coach window. The footmen looked blank over their nosegays. Had I
+worn the Fairy's cap and been invisible, my father's brother could not
+have passed me with less notice.
+
+We did not avail ourselves much, or often, of that queer invitation
+of Lady Castlewood, to go and drink tea and sup with her ladyship
+when there was no other company. Old Van den Bosch, however shrewd his
+intellect, and great his skill in making a fortune, was not amusing
+in conversation, except to his daughter, who talked household and City
+matters, bulling and bearing, raising and selling farming-stock, and
+so forth, quite as keenly and shrewdly as her father. Nor was my Lord
+Castlewood often at home, or much missed by his wife when absent, or
+very much at ease in the old father's company. The Countess told all
+this to my wife in her simple way. "Guess," says she, "my lord and
+father don't pull well together nohow. Guess my lord is always wanting
+money, and father keeps the key of the box and quite right, too. If he
+could have the fingering of all our money, my lord would soon make
+away with it, and then what's to become of our noble family? We pay
+everything, my dear (except play-debts, and them we won't have nohow).
+We pay cooks, horses, wine-merchants, tailors, and everybody--and lucky
+for them too--reckon my lord wouldn't pay 'em! And we always take care
+that he has a guinea in his pocket, and goes out like a real nobleman.
+What that man do owe to us: what he did before we come--gracious
+goodness only knows! Me and father does our best to make him
+respectable: but it's no easy job, my dear. Law! he'd melt the plate,
+only father keeps the key of the strong-room; and when we go to
+Castlewood, my father travels with me, and papa is armed too, as well as
+the people."
+
+"Gracious heavens!" cries my wife, "your ladyship does not mean to say
+you suspect your own husband of a desire to----"
+
+"To what?--Oh no, nothing, of course! And I would trust our brother Will
+with untold money, wouldn't I? As much as I'd trust the cat with the
+cream-pan! I tell you, my dear, it's not all pleasure being a woman of
+rank and fashion: and if I have bought a countess's coronet, I have paid
+a good price for it--that I have!"
+
+And so had my Lord Castlewood paid a large price for having his estate
+freed from incumbrances, his houses and stables furnished, and his
+debts discharged. He was the slave of the little wife and her father.
+No wonder the old man's society was not pleasant to the poor victim, and
+that he gladly slunk away from his own fine house, to feast at the club
+when he had money, or at least to any society save that which he found
+at home. To lead a bear, as I did, was no very pleasant business, to
+be sure: to wait in a bookseller's anteroom until it should please his
+honour to finish his dinner and give me audience, was sometimes a hard
+task for a man of my name and with my pride; but would I have exchanged
+my poverty against Castlewood's ignominy, or preferred his miserable
+dependence to my own? At least I earned my wage, such as it was; and no
+man can say that I ever flattered my patrons, or was servile to them; or
+indeed, in my dealings with them, was otherwise than sulky, overbearing,
+and, in a word, intolerable.
+
+Now there was a certain person with whom Fate had thrown me into a
+life-partnership, who bore her poverty with such a smiling sweetness
+and easy grace, that niggard Fortune relented before her, and, like
+some savage Ogre in the fairy tales, melted at the constant goodness and
+cheerfulness of that uncomplaining, artless, innocent creature. However
+poor she was, all who knew her saw that here was a fine lady; and the
+little tradesmen and humble folks round about us treated her with as
+much respect as the richest of our neighbours. "I think, my dear," says
+good-natured Mrs. Foker, when they rode out in the latter's chariot,
+"you look like the mistress of the carriage, and I only as your maid."
+Our landladies adored her; the tradesfolk executed her little orders
+as eagerly as if a duchess gave them, or they were to make a fortune
+by waiting on her. I have thought often of the lady in Comus, and how,
+through all the rout and rabble, she moves, entirely serene and pure.
+
+Several times, as often as we chose indeed, the good-natured parents of
+my young bear lent us their chariot to drive abroad or to call on the
+few friends we had. If I must tell the truth, we drove once to the
+Protestant Hero and had a syllabub in the garden there: and the
+hostess would insist upon calling my wife her ladyship during the whole
+afternoon. We also visited Mr. Johnson, and took tea with him (the
+ingenious Mr. Goldsmith was of the company); the Doctor waited upon my
+wife to her coach. But our most frequent visits were to Aunt Bernstein,
+and I promise you I was not at all jealous because my aunt presently
+professed to have a wonderful liking for Theo.
+
+This liking grew so that she would have her most days in the week, or to
+stay altogether with her, and thought that Theo's child and husband
+were only plagues to be sure, and hated us in the most amusing way
+for keeping her favourite from her. Not that my wife was unworthy
+of anybody's favour; but her many forced absences, and the constant
+difficulty of intercourse with her, raised my aunt's liking for a while
+to a sort of passion. She poured in notes like love-letters; and her
+people were ever about our kitchen. If my wife did not go to her, she
+wrote heartrending appeals, and scolded me severely when I saw her; and,
+the child being ill once (it hath pleased Fate to spare our Captain to
+be a prodigious trouble to us, and a wholesome trial for our tempers),
+Madame Bernstein came three days running to Lambeth; vowed there was
+nothing the matter with the baby;--nothing at all;--and that we only
+pretended his illness, in order to vex her.
+
+The reigning Countess of Castlewood was just as easy and affable with
+her old aunt, as with other folks great and small. "What air you all
+about, scraping and bowing to that old woman, I can't tell, noways!" her
+ladyship would say. "She a fine lady! Nonsense! She ain't no more fine
+than any other lady: and I guess I'm as good as any of 'em with their
+high heels and their grand airs! She a beauty once! Take away her wig,
+and her rouge, and her teeth; and what becomes of your beauty, I'd like
+to know? Guess you'd put it all in a bandbox, and there would be nothing
+left but a shrivelled old woman!" And indeed the little homilist only
+spoke too truly. All beauty must at last come to this complexion; and
+decay, either underground or on the tree. Here was old age, I fear,
+without reverence. Here were grey hairs, that were hidden or painted.
+The world was still here, and she tottering on it, and clinging to it
+with her crutch. For fourscore years she had moved on it, and eaten
+of the tree, forbidden and permitted. She had had beauty, pleasure,
+flattery: but what secret rages, disappointments, defeats, humiliations!
+what thorns under the roses! what stinging bees in the fruit! "You are
+not a beauty, my dear," she would say to my wife: "and may thank your
+stars that you are not." (If she contradicted herself in her talk, I
+suppose the rest of us occasionally do the like.) "Don't tell me that
+your husband is pleased with your face, and you want no one else's
+admiration! We all do. Every woman would rather be beautiful than be
+anything else in the world--ever so rich, or ever so good, or have all
+the gifts of the fairies! Look at that picture, though I know 'tis but a
+bad one, and that stupid vapouring Kneller could not paint my eyes, nor
+my hair, nor my complexion. What a shape I had then--and look at me now,
+and this wrinkled old neck! Why have we such a short time of our beauty?
+I remember Mademoiselle de l'Enclos at a much greater age than mine,
+quite fresh and well-conserved. We can't hide our ages. They are wrote
+in Mr. Collins's books for us. I was born in the last year of King
+James's reign. I am not old yet. I am but seventy-six. But what a wreck,
+my dear: and isn't it cruel that our time should be so short?"
+
+Here my wife has to state the incontrovertible proposition, that the
+time of all of us is short here below.
+
+"Ha!" cries the Baroness. "Did not Adam live near a thousand years, and
+was not Eve beautiful all the time? I used to perplex Mr. Tusher with
+that--poor creature! What have we done since, that our lives are so much
+lessened, I say?"
+
+"Has your life been so happy that you would prolong it ever so much
+more?" asks the Baroness's auditor. "Have you, who love wit, never read
+Dean Swift's famous description of the deathless people in Gulliver? My
+papa and my husband say 'tis one of the finest and most awful sermons
+ever wrote. It were better not to live at all, than to live without
+love; and I'm sure," says my wife, putting her handkerchief to her eyes,
+"should anything happen to my dearest George, I would wish to go to
+Heaven that moment."
+
+"Who loves me in Heaven? I am quite alone, child--that is why I had
+rather stay here," says the Baroness, in a frightened and rather piteous
+tone. "You are kind to me, God bless your sweet face! Though I scold,
+and have a frightful temper, my servants will do anything to make me
+comfortable, and get up at any hour of the night, and never say a cross
+word in answer. I like my cards still. Indeed, life would be a blank
+without 'em. Almost everything is gone except that. I can't eat my
+dinner now, since I lost those last two teeth. Everything goes away from
+us in old age. But I still have my cards--thank Heaven, I still have my
+cards!" And here she would begin to doze: waking up, however, if my wife
+stirred or rose, and imagining that Theo was about to leave her. "Don't
+go away, I can't bear to be alone. I don't want you to talk. But I like
+to see your face, my dear! It is much pleasanter than that horrid old
+Brett's, that I have had scowling about my bedroom these ever so long
+years."
+
+"Well, Baroness! still at your cribbage?" (We may fancy a noble Countess
+interrupting a game at cards between Theo and Aunt Bernstein.) "Me and
+my Lord Esmond have come to see you! Go and shake hands with grandaunt,
+Esmond! and tell her ladyship that your lordship's a good boy!"
+
+"My lordship's a good boy," says the child. (Madam Theo used to act
+these scenes for me in a very lively way.)
+
+"And if he is, I guess he don't take after his father," shrieks out Lady
+Castlewood. She chose to fancy that Aunt Bernstein was deaf, and always
+bawled at the old lady.
+
+"Your ladyship chose my nephew for better or for worse," says Aunt
+Bernstein, who was now always very much flurried in the presence of the
+young Countess.
+
+"But he is a precious deal worse than ever I thought he was. I am
+speaking of your Pa, Ezzy. If it wasn't for your mother, my son, Lord
+knows what would become of you! We are a-going to see his little Royal
+Highness. Sorry to see your ladyship not looking quite so well to-day.
+We can't always remain young and law! how we do change as we grow old!
+Go up and kiss that lady, Ezzy. She has got a little boy, too. Why,
+bless us! have you got the child downstairs?" Indeed, Master Miles was
+down below, for special reasons accompanying his mother on her visits to
+Aunt Bernstein sometimes; and our aunt desired the mother's company so
+much, that she was actually fain to put up with the child. "So you have
+got the child here? Oh, you slyboots!" says the Countess. "Guess
+you come after the old lady's money! Law bless you! Don't look so
+frightened. She can't hear a single word I say. Come, Ezzy. Good-bye,
+aunt!" And my lady Countess rustles out of the room.
+
+Did Aunt Bernstein hear her or not? Where was the wit for which the old
+lady had been long famous? and was that fire put out, as well as the
+brilliancy of her eyes? With other people--she was still ready enough,
+and unsparing of her sarcasms. When the Dowager of Castlewood and Lady
+Fanny visited her (these exalted ladies treated my wife with perfect
+indifference and charming good breeding),--the Baroness, in their
+society, was stately, easy, and even commanding. She would mischievously
+caress Mrs. Warrington before them; in her absence, vaunt my wife's good
+breeding; say that her nephew had made a foolish match, perhaps, but
+that I certainly had taken a charming wife. "In a word, I praise you so
+to them, my dear," says she, "that I think they would like to tear your
+eyes out." But, before the little American, 'tis certain that she was
+uneasy and trembled. She was so afraid, that she actually did not dare
+to deny her door; and, the Countess's back turned, did not even abuse
+her. However much they might dislike her, my ladies did not tear out
+Theo's eyes. Once--they drove to our cottage at Lambeth, where my wife
+happened to be sitting at the open window, holding her child on her
+knee, and in full view of her visitors. A gigantic footman strutted
+through our little garden, and delivered their ladyships' visiting
+tickets at our door. Their hatred hurt us no more than their visit
+pleased us. When next we had the loan of our friend the Brewer's
+carriage Mrs. Warrington drove to Kensington, and Gumbo handed over to
+the giant our cards in return for those which his noble mistresses had
+bestowed on us.
+
+The Baroness had a coach, but seldom thought of giving it to us: and
+would let Theo and her maid and baby start from Clarges Street in the
+rain, with a faint excuse that she was afraid to ask her coachman
+to take his horses out. But, twice on her return home, my wife was
+frightened by rude fellows on the other side of Westminster Bridge; and
+I fairly told my aunt that I should forbid Mrs. Warrington to go to her,
+unless she could be brought home in safety; so grumbling Jehu had to
+drive his horses through the darkness. He grumbled at my shillings: he
+did not know how few I had. Our poverty wore a pretty decent face. My
+relatives never thought of relieving it, nor I of complaining before
+them. I don't know how Sampson got a windfall of guineas; but, I
+remember, he brought me six once; and they were more welcome than any
+money I ever had in my life. He had been looking into Mr. Miles's crib,
+as the child lay asleep; and, when the parson went away, I found the
+money in the baby's little rosy hand. Yes, Love is best of all. I
+have many such benefactions registered in my heart--precious welcome
+fountains springing up in desert places, kind, friendly lights cheering
+our despondency and gloom.
+
+This worthy divine was willing enough to give as much of his company as
+she chose to Madame de Bernstein, whether for cards or theology. Having
+known her ladyship for many years now, Sampson could see, and averred
+to us, that she was breaking fast; and as he spoke of her evidently
+increasing infirmities, and of the probability of their fatal
+termination, Mr. S. would discourse to us in a very feeling manner of
+the necessity for preparing for a future world; of the vanities of
+this, and of the hope that in another there might be happiness for all
+repentant sinners.
+
+"I have been a sinner for one," says the chaplain, bowing his head. "God
+knoweth, and I pray Him to pardon me. I fear, sir, your aunt, the Lady
+Baroness, is not in such a state of mind as will fit her very well
+for the change which is imminent. I am but a poor weak wretch, and no
+prisoner in Newgate could confess that more humbly and heartily. Once or
+twice of late, I have sought to speak on this matter with her ladyship,
+but she has received me very roughly. 'Parson,' says she, 'if you come
+for cards, 'tis mighty well, but I will thank you to spare me your
+sermons.' What can I do, sir? I have called more than once of late, and
+Mr. Case hath told me his lady was unable to see me." In fact Madame
+Bernstein told my wife, whom she never refused, as I said, that the poor
+chaplain's ton was unendurable, and as for his theology, "Haven't I been
+a Bishop's wife?" says she, "and do I want this creature to teach me?"
+
+The old lady was as impatient of doctors as of divines; pretending that
+my wife was ailing, and that it was more convenient for our good Doctor
+Heberden to visit her in Clarges Street than to travel all the way to
+our Lambeth lodgings, we got Dr. H. to see Theo at our aunt's house, and
+prayed him if possible to offer his advice to the Baroness: we made Mrs.
+Brett, her woman, describe her ailments, and the doctor confirmed our
+opinion that they were most serious, and might speedily end. She would
+rally briskly enough of some evenings, and entertain a little company;
+but of late she scarcely went abroad at all. A somnolence, which we had
+remarked in her, was attributable in part to opiates which she was in
+the habit of taking; and she used these narcotics to smother habitual
+pain. One night, as we two sat with her (Mr. Miles was weaned by this
+time, and his mother could leave him to the charge of our faithful
+Molly), she fell asleep over her cards. We hushed the servants who came
+to lay out the supper-table (she would always have this luxurious, nor
+could any injunction of ours or the Doctor's teach her abstinence), and
+we sat a while as we had often done before, waiting in silence till she
+should arouse from her doze.
+
+When she awoke, she looked fixedly at me for a while, fumbled with the
+cards, and dropt them again in her lap, and said, "Henry, have I been
+long asleep?" I thought at first that it was for my brother she mistook
+me; but she went on quickly, and with eyes fixed as upon some very far
+distant object, and said, "My dear, 'tis of no use, I am not good enough
+for you. I love cards, and play, and court; and oh, Harry, you don't
+know all!" Here her voice changed, and she flung her head up. "His
+father married Anne Hyde, and sure the Esmond blood is as good as any
+that's not royal. Mamma, you must please to treat me with more respect.
+Vos sermons me fatiguent; entendez-vous?--faites place a mon Altesse
+royale: mesdames, me connaissez-vous? je suis la----" Here she broke out
+into frightful hysterical shrieks and laughter, and as we ran up to her,
+alarmed, "Oui, Henri," she says, "il a jure de m'epouser et les princes
+tiennent parole--n'est-ce pas? O oui! ils tiennent parole; si non, tu le
+tueras, cousin; tu le--ah! que je suis folle!" And the pitiful shrieks
+and laughter recommenced. Ere her frightened people had come up to her
+summons, the poor thing had passed out of this mood into another; but
+always labouring under the same delusion--that I was the Henry of past
+times, who had loved her and had been forsaken by her, whose bones were
+lying far away by the banks of the Potomac.
+
+My wife and the women put the poor lady to bed as I ran myself for
+medical aid. She rambled, still talking wildly, through the night, with
+her nurses and the surgeon sitting by her. Then she fell into a sleep,
+brought on by more opiate. When she awoke, her mind did not actually
+wander; but her speech was changed, and one arm and side were paralysed.
+
+'Tis needless to relate the progress and termination of her malady, or
+watch that expiring flame of life as it gasps and flickers. Her senses
+would remain with her for a while (and then she was never satisfied
+unless Theo was by her bedside), or again her mind would wander, and the
+poor decrepit creature, lying upon her bed, would imagine herself young
+again, and speak incoherently of the scenes and incidents of her early
+days. Then she would address me as Henry again, and call upon me to
+revenge some insult or slight, of which (whatever my suspicions might
+be) the only record lay in her insane memory. "They have always been
+so," she would murmur: "they never loved man or woman but they forsook
+them. Je me vengerai, O oui, je me vengerai! I know them all: I know
+them all: and I will go to my Lord Stair with the list. Don't tell
+me! His religion can't be the right one. I will go back to my mother's
+though she does not love me. She never did. Why don't you, mother? Is
+it because I am too wicked? Ah! Pitie, pitie. O mon pere! I will make
+my confession"--and here the unhappy paralysed lady made as if she would
+move in her bed.
+
+Let us draw the curtain round it. I think with awe still, of those rapid
+words, uttered in the shadow of the canopy, as my pallid wife sits by
+her, her Prayer-book on her knee; as the attendants move to and fro
+noiselessly; as the clock ticks without, and strikes the fleeting hours;
+as the sun falls upon the Kneller picture of Beatrix in her beauty, with
+the blushing cheeks, the smiling lips, the waving auburn tresses, and
+the eyes which seem to look towards the dim figure moaning in the bed.
+I could not for a while understand why our aunt's attendants were so
+anxious that we should quit it. But towards evening, a servant stole
+in, and whispered her woman; and then Brett, looking rather disturbed,
+begged us to go downstairs, as the--as the Doctor was come to visit the
+Baroness. I did not tell my wife, at the time, who "the Doctor" was; but
+as the gentleman slid by us, and passed upstairs, I saw at once that he
+was a Catholic ecclesiastic. When Theo next saw our poor lady, she
+was speechless; she never recognised any one about her, and so passed
+unconsciously out of life. During her illness her relatives had called
+assiduously enough, though she would see none of them save us. But when
+she was gone, and we descended to the lower rooms after all was over, we
+found Castlewood with his white face, and my lady from Kensington, and
+Mr. Will already assembled in the parlour. They looked greedily at us as
+we appeared. They were hungry for the prey.
+
+When our aunt's will was opened, we found it dated five years back, and
+everything she had was left to her dear nephew, Henry Esmond Warrington,
+of Castlewood, in Virginia, "in affectionate love and remembrance of the
+name which he bore." The property was not great. Her revenue had been
+derived from pensions from the Crown as it appeared (for what services
+I cannot say), but the pension of course died with her, and there were
+only a few hundred pounds, besides jewels, trinkets, and the furniture
+of the house in Clarges Street, of which all London came to the sale.
+Mr. Walpole bid for her portrait, but I made free with Harry's money so
+far as to buy the picture in: and it now hangs over the mantelpiece of
+the chamber in which I write. What with jewels, laces, trinkets, and old
+china which she had gathered--Harry became possessed of more than four
+thousand pounds by his aunt's legacy. I made so free as to lay my hand
+upon a hundred, which came, just as my stock was reduced to twenty
+pounds; and I procured bills for the remainder, which I forwarded to
+Captain Henry Esmond in Virginia. Nor should I have scrupled to take
+more (for my brother was indebted to me in a much greater sum), but he
+wrote me there was another wonderful opportunity for buying an estate
+and negroes in our neighbourhood at home; and Theo and I were only
+too glad to forgo our little claim, so as to establish our brother's
+fortune. As to mine, poor Harry at this time did not know the state of
+it. My mother had never informed him that she had ceased remitting to
+me. She helped him with a considerable sum, the result of her savings,
+for the purchase of his new estate; and Theo and I were most heartily
+thankful at his prosperity.
+
+And how strange ours was! By what curious good fortune, as our purse
+was emptied, was it filled again! I had actually come to the end of our
+stock, when poor Sampson brought me his six pieces--and with these I was
+enabled to carry on, until my half-year's salary, as young Mr. Foker's
+Governor, was due: then Harry's hundred, on which I laid main basse,
+helped us over three months (we were behindhand with our rent, or the
+money would have lasted six good weeks longer): and when this was pretty
+near expended, what should arrive but a bill of exchange for a couple of
+hundred pounds from Jamaica, with ten thousand blessings, from the dear
+friends there, and fond scolding from the General that we had not
+sooner told him of our necessity--of which he had only heard through our
+friend, Mr. Foker, who spoke in such terms of Theo and myself as to make
+our parents more than ever proud of their children. Was my quarrel with
+my mother irreparable? Let me go to Jamaica. There was plenty there for
+all, and employment which his Excellency as Governor would immediately
+procure for me. "Come to us!" writes Hetty. "Come to us!" writes Aunt
+Lambert. "Have my children been suffering poverty, and we rolling in
+our Excellency's coach, with guards to turn out whenever we pass? Has
+Charley been home to you for ever so many holidays, from the Chartreux,
+and had ever so many of my poor George's half-crowns in his pocket,
+I dare say?" (this was indeed the truth, for where was he to go for
+holidays but to his sister? and was there any use in telling the child
+how scarce half-crowns were with us?). "And you always treating him with
+such goodness, as his letters tell me, which are brimful of love for
+George and little Miles! Oh, how we long to see Miles!" wrote Hetty and
+her mother; "and as for his godfather" (writes Het), "who has been good
+to my dearest and her child, I promise him a kiss whenever I see him!"
+
+Our young benefactor was never to hear of our family's love and
+gratitude to him. That glimpse of his bright face over the railings
+before our house at Lambeth, as he rode away on his little horse, was
+the last we ever were to have of him. At Christmas a basket comes to us,
+containing a great turkey, and three brace of partridges, with a
+card, and "shot by M. W." wrote on one of them. And on receipt of this
+present, we wrote to thank the child and gave him our sister's message.
+
+To this letter, there came a reply from Lady Warrington, who said she
+was bound to inform me, that in visiting me her child had been guilty
+of disobedience, and that she learned his visit to me now for the
+first time. Knowing my views regarding duty to my parents (which I had
+exemplified in my marriage), she could not wish her son to adopt them.
+And fervently hoping that I might be brought to see the errors of
+my present course, she took leave of this most unpleasant subject,
+subscribing herself, etc. etc. And we got this pretty missive as sauce
+for poor Miles's turkey, which was our family feast for New Year's Day.
+My Lady Warrington's letter choked our meal, though Sampson and Charley
+rejoiced over it.
+
+Ah me! Ere the month was over, our little friend was gone from amongst
+us. Going out shooting, and dragging his gun through a hedge after him,
+the trigger caught in a bush, and the poor little man was brought home
+to his father's house, only to live a few days and expire in pain and
+torture. Under the yew-trees yonder, I can see the vault which covers
+him, and where my bones one day no doubt will be laid. And over our pew
+at church, my children have often wistfully spelt the touching epitaph
+in which Miles's heartbroken father has inscribed his grief and love for
+his only son.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIV. In which Harry submits to the Common Lot
+
+
+Hard times were now over with me, and I had to battle with poverty no
+more. My little kinsman's death made a vast difference in my worldly
+prospects. I became next heir to a good estate. My uncle and his
+wife were not likely to have more children. "The woman is capable of
+committing any crime to disappoint you," Sampson vowed; but, in truth,
+my Lady Warrington was guilty of no such treachery. Cruelly smitten
+by the stroke which fell upon them, Lady Warrington was taught by her
+religious advisers to consider it as a chastisement of Heaven, and
+submit to the Divine Will. "Whilst your son lived, your heart was turned
+away from the better world" (her clergyman told her), "and your ladyship
+thought too much of this. For your son's advantage you desired rank and
+title. You asked and might have obtained an earthly coronet. Of what
+avail is it now, to one who has but a few years to pass upon earth--of
+what importance compared to the heavenly crown, for which you are an
+assured candidate?" The accident caused no little sensation. In the
+chapels of that enthusiastic sect, towards which, after her son's death,
+she now more than ever inclined, many sermons were preached bearing
+reference to the event. Far be it from me to question the course which
+the bereaved mother pursued, or to regard with other than respect and
+sympathy any unhappy soul seeking that refuge whither sin and grief
+and disappointment fly for consolation. Lady Warrington even tried a
+reconciliation with myself. A year after her loss, being in London, she
+signified that she would see me, and I waited on her; and she gave me,
+in her usual didactic way, a homily upon my position and her own.
+She marvelled at the decree of Heaven, which had permitted, and
+how dreadfully punished! her poor child's disobedience to her--a
+disobedience by which I was to profit. (It appeared my poor little man
+had disobeyed orders, and gone out with his gun, unknown to his mother.)
+She hoped that, should I ever succeed to the property, though the
+Warringtons were, thank Heaven, a long-lived family, except in my own
+father's case, whose life had been curtailed by the excesses of a very
+ill-regulated youth,--but should I ever succeed to the family estate and
+honours, she hoped, she prayed, that my present course of life might be
+altered; that I should part from my unworthy associates; that I should
+discontinue all connexion with the horrid theatre and its licentious
+frequenters; that I should turn to that quarter where only peace was
+to be had; and to those sacred duties which she feared--she very much
+feared that I had neglected. She filled her exhortation with Scripture
+language, which I do not care to imitate. When I took my leave she gave
+me a packet of sermons for Mrs. Warrington, and a little book of hymns
+by Miss Dora, who has been eminent in that society of which she and
+her mother became avowed professors subsequently, and who, after the
+dowager's death, at Bath, three years since, married young Mr. Juffles,
+a celebrated preacher. The poor lady forgave me then, but she could not
+bear the sight of our boy. We lost our second child, and then my aunt
+and her daughter came eagerly enough to the poor suffering mother, and
+even invited us hither. But my uncle was now almost every day in our
+house. He would sit for hours looking at our boy. He brought him endless
+toys and sweetmeats. He begged that the child might call him Godpapa.
+When we felt our own grief (which at times still, and after the lapse of
+five-and-twenty years, strikes me as keenly as on the day when we
+first lost our little one)--when I felt my own grief, I knew how to
+commiserate his. But my wife could pity him before she knew what it
+was to lose a child of her own. The mother's anxious heart had already
+divined the pang which was felt by the sorrow-stricken father;
+mine, more selfish, has only learned pity from experience, and I was
+reconciled to my uncle by my little baby's coffin.
+
+The poor man sent his coach to follow the humble funeral, and afterwards
+took out little Miles, who prattled to him unceasingly, and forgot any
+grief he might have felt in the delights of his new black clothes, and
+the pleasures of the airing. How the innocent talk of the child stabbed
+the mother's heart! Would we ever wish that it should heal of that
+wound? I know her face so well that, to this day, I can tell when,
+sometimes, she is thinking of the loss of that little one. It is not a
+grief for a parting so long ago; it is a communion with a soul we love
+in Heaven.
+
+We came back to our bright lodgings in Bloomsbury soon afterwards,
+and my young bear, whom I could no longer lead, and who had taken a
+prodigious friendship for Charley, went to the Chartreux School, where
+his friend took care that he had no more beating than was good for him,
+and where (in consequence of the excellence of his private tutor, no
+doubt) he took and kept a good place. And he liked the school so much,
+that he says, if ever he has a son, he shall be sent to that seminary.
+
+Now, I could no longer lead my bear, for this reason, that I had other
+business to follow. Being fully reconciled to us, I do believe, for
+Mr. Miles's sake, my uncle (who was such an obsequious supporter of
+Government, that I wonder the Minister ever gave him anything, being
+perfectly sure of his vote) used his influence in behalf of his nephew
+and heir; and I had the honour to be gazetted as one of his Majesty's
+Commissioners for licensing hackney-coaches, a post I filled, I trust,
+with credit, until a quarrel with the Minister (to be mentioned in its
+proper place) deprived me of that one. I took my degree also at the
+Temple, and appeared in Westminster Hall in my gown and wig. And, this
+year, my good friend, Mr. Foker, having business at Paris, I had the
+pleasure of accompanying him thither, where I was received a bras
+ouverts by my dear American preserver, Monsieur de Florac, who
+introduced me to his noble family, and to even more of the polite
+society of the capital than I had leisure to frequent; for I had too
+much spirit to desert my kind patron Foker, whose acquaintance lay
+chiefly amongst the bourgeoisie, especially with Monsieur Santerre, a
+great brewer of Paris, a scoundrel who hath since distinguished himself
+in blood and not beer. Mr. F. had need of my services as interpreter,
+and I was too glad that he should command them, and to be able to pay
+back some of the kindness which he had rendered to me. Our ladies,
+meanwhile, were residing at Mr. Foker's new villa at Wimbledon, and were
+pleased to say that they were amused with the "Parisian letters" which
+I sent to them, through my distinguished friend Mr. Hume, then of the
+Embassy, and which subsequently have been published in a neat volume.
+
+Whilst I was tranquilly discharging my small official duties in London,
+those troubles were commencing which were to end in the great separation
+between our colonies and the mother country. When Mr. Grenville proposed
+his stamp-duties, I said to my wife that the bill would create a mighty
+discontent at home, for we were ever anxious to get as much as we could
+from England, and pay back as little; but assuredly I never anticipated
+the prodigious anger which the scheme created. It was with us as with
+families or individuals. A pretext is given for a quarrel: the real
+cause lies in long bickerings and previous animosities. Many foolish
+exactions and petty tyrannies, the habitual insolence of Englishmen
+towards all foreigners, all colonists, all folk who dare to think their
+rivers as good as our Abana and Pharpar, the natural spirit of men
+outraged by our imperious domineering spirit, set Britain and her
+colonies to quarrel; and the astonishing blunders of the system adopted
+in England brought the quarrel to an issue, which I, for one, am not
+going to deplore. Had I been in Virginia instead of London, 'tis
+very possible I should have taken the provincial side, if out of mere
+opposition to that resolute mistress of Castlewood, who might have
+driven me into revolt, as England did the colonies. Was the Stamp Act
+the cause of the revolution?--a tax no greater than that cheerfully
+paid in England. Ten years earlier, when the French were within our
+territory, and we were imploring succour from home, would the colonies
+have rebelled at the payment of this tax? Do not most people consider
+the tax-gatherer the natural enemy? Against the British in America there
+were arrayed thousands and thousands of the high-spirited and brave, but
+there were thousands more who found their profit in the quarrel, or had
+their private reasons for engaging in it. I protest I don't know now
+whether mine were selfish or patriotic, or which side was in the right,
+or whether both were not. I am sure we in England had nothing to do but
+to fight the battle out; and, having lost the game, I do vow and believe
+that, after the first natural soreness, the loser felt no rancour.
+
+What made brother Hal write home from Virginia, which he seemed
+exceedingly loth to quit, such flaming patriotic letters? My kind, best
+brother was always led by somebody; by me when we were together (he had
+such an idea of my wit and wisdom, that if I said the day was fine, he
+would ponder over the observation as though it was one of the sayings of
+the Seven Sages), by some other wiseacre when I was away. Who inspired
+these flaming letters, this boisterous patriotism, which he sent to us
+in London? "He is rebelling against Madam Esmond," said I. "He is led by
+some colonial person--by that lady, perhaps," hinted my wife. Who "that
+lady" was Hal never had told us; and, indeed, besought me never to
+allude to the delicate subject in my letters to him; "for Madam wishes
+to see 'em all, and I wish to say nothing about you know what until the
+proper moment," he wrote. No affection could be greater than that
+which his letters showed. When he heard (from the informant whom I have
+mentioned) that in the midst of my own extreme straits I had retained
+no more than a hundred pounds out of his aunt's legacy, he was for
+mortgaging the estate which he had just bought; and had more than one
+quarrel with his mother in my behalf, and spoke his mind with a great
+deal more frankness than I should ever have ventured to show. Until
+her angry recriminations (when she charged him with ingratitude, after
+having toiled and saved so much and so long for him), the poor fellow
+did not know that our mother had cut off my supplies to advance his
+interests; and by the time this news came to him his bargains were made,
+and I was fortunately quite out of want.
+
+Every scrap of paper which we ever wrote, our thrifty parent at
+Castlewood taped and docketed and put away. We boys were more careless
+about our letters to one another: I especially, who perhaps chose rather
+to look down upon my younger brother's literary performances; but my
+wife is not so supercilious, and hath kept no small number of Harry's
+letters, as well as those of the angelic being whom we were presently to
+call sister.
+
+"To think whom he has chosen, and whom he might have had! Oh, 'tis
+cruel!" cries my wife, when we got that notable letter in which Harry
+first made us acquainted with the name of his charmer.
+
+"She was a very pretty little maid when I left home, she may be a
+perfect beauty now," I remarked, as I read over the longest letter Harry
+ever wrote on private affairs.
+
+"But is she to compare to my Hetty?" says Mrs. Warrington.
+
+"We agreed that Hetty and Harry were not to be happy together, my love,"
+say I.
+
+Theo gives her husband a kiss. "My dear, I wish they had tried," she
+says with a sigh. "I was afraid lest--lest Hetty should have led him,
+you see; and I think she hath the better head. But, from reading this,
+it appears that the new lady has taken command of poor Harry," and she
+hands me the letter:--
+
+
+"My dearest George hath been prepared by previous letters to understand
+how a certain lady has made a conquest of my heart, which I have given
+away in exchange for something infinitely more valuable, namely, her
+own. She is at my side as I write this letter, and if there is no bad
+spelling, such as you often used to laugh at, 'tis because I have my
+pretty dictionary at hand, which makes no faults in the longest word,
+nor in anything else I know of: being of opinion that she is perfection.
+
+"As Madam Esmond saw all your letters, I writ you not to give any hint
+of a certain delicate matter--but now 'tis no secret, and is known to
+all the country. Mr. George is not the only one of our family who has
+made a secret marriage, and been scolded by his mother. As a dutiful
+younger brother I have followed his example; and now I may tell you how
+this mighty event came about.
+
+"I had not been at home long before I saw my fate was accomplisht. I
+will not tell you how beautiful Miss Fanny Mountain had grown since I
+had been away in Europe. She saith, 'You never will think so,' and I
+am glad, as she is the only thing in life I would grudge to my dearest
+brother.
+
+"That neither Madam Esmond nor my other mother (as Mountain is now)
+should have seen our mutual attachment, is a wonder--only to be
+accounted for by supposing that love makes other folks blind. Mine for
+my Fanny was increased by seeing what the treatment was she had from
+Madam Esmond, who indeed was very rough and haughty with her, which my
+love bore with a sweetness perfectly angelic (this I will say, though
+she will order me not to write any such nonsense). She was scarce better
+treated than a servant of the house--indeed our negroes can talk much
+more free before Madam Esmond than ever my Fanny could.
+
+"And yet my Fanny says she doth not regret Madam's unkindness, as
+without it I possibly never should have been what I am to her. Oh, dear
+brother! when I remember how great your goodness hath been, how, in my
+own want, you paid my debts, and rescued me out of prison; how you have
+been living in poverty which never need have occurred but for my fault;
+how you might have paid yourself back my just debt to you and would not,
+preferring my advantage to your own comfort, indeed I am lost at the
+thought of such goodness; and ought I not to be thankful to Heaven that
+hath given me such a wife and such a brother?
+
+"When I writ to you requesting you to send me my aunt's legacy money,
+for which indeed I had the most profitable and urgent occasion, I had no
+idea that you were yourself suffering poverty. That you, the head of our
+family, should condescend to be governor to a brewer's son!--that you
+should have to write for booksellers (except in so far as your own
+genius might prompt you), never once entered my mind, until Mr. Foker's
+letter came to us, and this would never have been shown--for Madam kept
+it secret--had it not been for the difference which sprang up between
+us.
+
+"Poor Tom Diggle's estate and negroes being for sale, owing to
+Tom's losses and extravagance at play, and his father's debts before
+him--Madam Esmond saw here was a great opportunity of making a provision
+for me, and that with six thousand pounds for the farm and stock, I
+should be put in possession of as pretty a property as falls to most
+younger sons in this country. It lies handy enough to Richmond, between
+Kent and Hanover Court House--the mansion nothing for elegance
+compared to ours at Castlewood, but the land excellent and the people
+extraordinary healthy.
+
+"Here was a second opportunity, Madam Esmond said, such as never might
+again befall. By the sale of my commissions and her own savings I might
+pay more than half of the price of the property, and get the rest of
+the money on mortgage; though here, where money is scarce to procure,
+it would have been difficult and dear. At this juncture, with our new
+relative, Mr. Van den Bosch, bidding against us (his agent is wild that
+we should have bought the property over him), my aunt's legacy most
+opportunely fell in. And now I am owner of a good house and negroes in
+my native country, shall be called, no doubt, to our House of Burgesses,
+and hope to see my dearest brother and family under my own roof-tree.
+To sit at my own fireside, to ride my own horses to my own hounds,
+is better than going a-soldiering, now war is over, and there are no
+French. to fight. Indeed, Madam Esmond made a condition that I should
+leave the army, and live at home, when she brought me her 1750 pounds of
+savings. She had lost one son, she said, who chose to write play-books,
+and live in England--let the other stay with her at home.
+
+"But, after the purchase of the estate was made, and my papers for
+selling out were sent home, my mother would have had me marry a person
+of her choosing, but by no means of mine. You remember Miss Betsy Pitts
+at Williamsburgh? She is in no wise improved by having had her face
+dreadfully scarred with small-pock, and though Madam Esmond saith the
+young lady hath every virtue, I own her virtues did not suit me. Her
+eyes do not look straight; she hath one leg shorter than another; and
+oh, brother! didst thou never remark Fanny's ankles when we were boys?
+Neater I never saw at the Opera.
+
+"Now, when 'twas agreed that I should leave the army, a certain dear
+girl (canst thou guess her name?) one day, when we were private, burst
+into tears of such happiness, that I could not but feel immensely
+touched by her sympathy.
+
+"'Ah!' says she, 'do you think, sir, that the idea of the son of my
+revered benefactress going to battle doth not inspire me with terror?
+Ah, Mr. Henry! do you imagine I have no heart? When Mr. George was with
+Braddock, do you fancy we did not pray for him? And when you were with
+Mr. Wolfe--oh!'
+
+"Here the dear creature hid her eyes in her handkerchief, and had hard
+work to prevent her mama, who came in, from seeing that she was crying.
+But my dear Mountain declares that, though she might have fancied, might
+have prayed in secret for such a thing (she owns to that now), she
+never imagined it for one moment. Nor, indeed, did my good mother, who
+supposed that Sam Lintot, the apothecary's lad at Richmond, was Fanny's
+flame--an absurd fellow that I near kicked into James River.
+
+"But when the commission was sold, and the estate bought, what does
+Fanny do but fall into a deep melancholy? I found her crying one day, in
+her mother's room, where the two ladies had been at work trimming hats
+for my negroes.
+
+"'What! crying, miss?' says I. 'Has my mother been scolding you?'
+
+"'No,' says the dear creature. 'Madam Esmond has been kind to-day.'
+
+"And her tears drop down on a cockade which she is sewing on to a hat
+for Sady, who is to be head-groom.
+
+"'Then, why, miss, are those dear eyes so red?' say I.
+
+"'Because I have the toothache,' she says, 'or because--because I am a
+fool.' Here she fairly bursts out. 'Oh, Mr. Harry! oh, Mr. Warrington!
+You are going to leave us, and 'tis as well. You will take your place
+in your country, as becomes you. You will leave us poor women in our
+solitude and dependence. You will come to visit us from time to time.
+And when you are happy and honoured, and among your gay companions, you
+will remember your----'
+
+"Here she could say no more, and hid her face with one hand as I, I
+confess, seized the other.
+
+"'Dearest, sweetest Miss Mountain!' says I. 'Oh, could I think that the
+parting from me has brought tears to those lovely eyes! Indeed, I fear,
+I should be almost happy! Let them look upon your----'
+
+"'Oh, sir!' cries my charmer. 'Oh, Mr. Warrington! consider who I am,
+sir, and who you are! Remember the difference between us! Release my
+hand, sir! What would Madam Esmond say if--if----'
+
+"If what, I don't know, for here our mother was in the room.
+
+"'What would Madam Esmond say?' she cries out. 'She would say that you
+are an ungrateful, artful, false, little----'
+
+"'Madam!' says I.
+
+"'Yes, an ungrateful, artful, false, little wretch!' cries out my
+mother. 'For shame, miss! What would Mr. Lintot say if he saw you making
+eyes at the Captain? And for you, Harry, I will have you bring none of
+your garrison manners hither. This is a Christian family, sir, and you
+will please to know that my house is not intended for captains and their
+misses!'
+
+"'Misses, mother!' says I. 'Gracious powers, do you ever venture for
+to call Miss Mountain by such a name? Miss Mountain, the purest of her
+sex!'
+
+"'The purest of her sex! Can I trust my own ears?' asks Madam, turning
+very pale.
+
+"'I mean that if a man would question her honour, I would fling him out
+of window,' says I.
+
+"'You mean that you--your mother's son--are actually paying honourable
+attention to this young person?'
+
+"'He would never dare to offer any other,' cries my Fanny; 'nor any
+woman but you, madam, to think so!'
+
+"'Oh, I didn't know, miss!' says mother, dropping her a fine curtsey, 'I
+didn't know the honour you were doing our family! You propose to marry
+with us, do you? Do I understand Captain Warrington aright, that he
+intends to offer me Miss Mountain as a daughter-in-law?'
+
+"''Tis to be seen, madam, that I have no protector, or you would not
+insult me so!' cries my poor victim.
+
+"'I should think the apothecary protection sufficient!' says our mother.
+
+"'I don't, mother!' I bawl out, for I was very angry; 'and if Lintot
+offers her any liberty, I'll brain him with his own pestle!'
+
+"'Oh! if Lintot has withdrawn, sir, I suppose I must be silent. But I
+did not know of the circumstance. He came hither, as I supposed, to pay
+court to Miss: and we all thought the match equal, and I encouraged it.'
+
+"'He came because I had the toothache!' cries my darling (and indeed she
+had a dreadful bad tooth. And he took it out for her, and there is no
+end to the suspicions and calumnies of women).
+
+"'What more natural than that he should marry my housekeeper's
+daughter--'twas a very suitable match!' continues Madam, taking snuff.
+'But I confess,' she adds, going on, 'I was not aware that you intended
+to jilt the apothecary for my son!'
+
+"'Peace, for Heaven's sake, peace, Mr. Warrington!' cries my angel.
+
+"'Pray, sir, before you fully make up your mind, had you not better look
+round the rest of my family?' says Madam. 'Dinah is a fine tall girl,
+and not very black; Cleopatra is promised to Ajax the blacksmith, to
+be sure; but then we could break the marriage, you know. If with an
+apothecary, why not with a blacksmith? Martha's husband has run away,
+and----'
+
+"Here, dear brother, I own I broke out a-swearing. I can't help it; but
+at times, when a man is angry, it do relieve him immensely. I'm blest,
+but I should have gone wild, if it hadn't been for them oaths.
+
+"'Curses, blasphemy, ingratitude, disobedience,' says mother, leaning
+now on her tortoiseshell stick, and then waving it--something like a
+queen in a play. 'These are my rewards!' says she. 'O Heaven, what have
+I done, that I should merit this awful punishment? and does it please
+you to visit the sins of my fathers upon me? Where do my children
+inherit their pride? When I was young, had I any? When my papa bade me
+marry, did I refuse? Did I ever think of disobeying? No, sir. My fault
+hath been, and I own it, that my love was centred upon you, perhaps to
+the neglect of your elder brother.' (Indeed, brother, there was some
+truth in what Madam said.) 'I turned from Esau, and I clung to Jacob.
+And now I have my reward, I have my reward! I fixed my vain thoughts on
+this world, and its distinctions. To see my son advanced in worldly rank
+was my ambition. I toiled, and spared, that I might bring him worldly
+wealth. I took unjustly from my eldest son's portion, that my younger
+might profit. And oh! that I should see him seducing the daughter of my
+own housekeeper under my own roof, and replying to my just anger with
+oaths and blasphemies!'
+
+"'I try to seduce no one, madam,' I cried out. 'If I utter oaths and
+blasphemies, I beg your pardon; but you are enough to provoke a saint to
+speak 'em. I won't have this young lady's character assailed--no, not by
+own mother nor any mortal alive. No, dear Miss Mountain! If Madam Esmond
+chooses to say that my designs on you are dishonourable,--let this
+undeceive her!' And, as I spoke, I went down on my knees, seizing my
+adorable Fanny's hand. 'And if you will accept this heart and hand,
+miss,' says I, 'they are yours for ever.'
+
+"'You, at least, I knew, sir,' says Fanny, with a noble curtsey, 'never
+said a word that was disrespectful to me, or entertained any doubt of my
+honour. And I trust it is only Madam Esmond, in the world, who can have
+such an opinion of me. After what your ladyship hath said of me, of
+course I can stay no longer in your house.'
+
+"'Of course, madam, I never intended you should; and the sooner you
+leave it the better,' cries our mother.
+
+"'If you are driven from my mother's house, mine, miss, is at your
+service,' says I, making her a low bow. 'It is nearly ready now. If you
+will take it and stay in it for ever, it is yours! And as Madam Esmond
+insulted your honour, at least let me do all in my power to make a
+reparation!' I don't know what more I exactly said, for you may fancy I
+was not a little flustered and excited by the scene. But here Mountain
+came in, and my dearest Fanny, flinging herself into her mother's arms,
+wept upon her shoulder; whilst Madam Esmond, sitting down in her chair,
+looked at us as pale as a stone. Whilst I was telling my story to
+Mountain (who, poor thing, had not the least idea, not she, that Miss
+Fanny and I had the slightest inclination for one another), I could hear
+our mother once or twice still saying, 'I am punished for my crime!'
+
+"Now, what our mother meant by her crime I did not know at first, or
+indeed take much heed of what she said; for you know her way, and
+how, when she is angry, she always talks sermons. But Mountain told me
+afterwards, when we had some talk together, as we did at the tavern,
+whither the ladies presently removed with their bag and baggage--for not
+only would they not stay at Madam's house after the language she used,
+but my mother determined to go away likewise. She called her servants
+together, and announced her intention of going home instantly to
+Castlewood; and I own to you 'twas with a horrible pain I saw the family
+coach roll by, with six horses, and ever so many of the servants on
+mules and on horseback, as I and Fanny looked through the blinds of the
+Tavern.
+
+"After the words Madam used to my spotless Fanny, 'twas impossible that
+the poor child or her mother should remain in our house: and indeed
+M. said that she would go back to her relations in England: and a ship
+bound homewards lying in James River, she went and bargained with the
+captain about a passage, so bent was she upon quitting the country, and
+so little did she think of making a match between me and my angel. But
+the cabin was mercifully engaged by a North Carolina gentleman and his
+family, and before the next ship sailed (which bears this letter to my
+dearest George) they have agreed to stop with me. Almost all the ladies
+in this neighbourhood have waited on them. When the marriage takes
+place, I hope Madam Esmond will be reconciled. My Fanny's father was a
+British officer; and sure, ours was no more. Some day, please Heaven,
+we shall visit Europe, and the places where my wild oats were sown,
+and where I committed so many extravagances from which my dear brother
+rescued me.
+
+"The ladies send you their affection and duty, and to my sister. We hear
+his Excellency General Lambert is much beloved in Jamaica: and I shall
+write to our dear friends there announcing my happiness. My dearest
+brother will participate in it, and I am ever his grateful and
+affectionate H. E. W.
+
+"P.S.--Till Mountain told me, I had no more notion than the ded that
+Madam E. had actially stopt your allowances; besides making you pay
+for ever so much--near upon 1000 pounds Mountain says--for goods, etc.,
+provided for the Virginian proparty. Then there was all the charges of
+me out of prison, which I. O. U. with all my hart. Draw upon me, please,
+dearest brother--to any amount--adressing me to care of Messrs. Horn and
+Sandon, Williamsburg, privit; who remitt by present occasion a bill
+for 225 pounds, payable by their London agents on demand. Please don't
+acknolledge this in answering; as there's no good in bothering women
+with accounts--and with the extra 5 pounds by a capp or what she likes
+for my dear sister, and a toy for my nephew from Uncle Hal."
+
+
+The conclusion to which we came on the perusal of this document was,
+that the ladies had superintended the style and spelling of my poor
+Hal's letter, but that the postscript was added without their knowledge.
+And I am afraid we argued that the Virginian Squire was under female
+domination--as Hercules, Samson, and fortes multi had been before him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXV. Inveni Portum
+
+
+When my mother heard of my acceptance of a place at home, I think she
+was scarcely well pleased. She may have withdrawn her supplies, in order
+to starve me into a surrender, and force me to return with my family to
+Virginia, and to dependence under her. We never, up to her dying day,
+had any explanation on the pecuniary dispute between us. She cut off my
+allowances: I uttered not a word; but managed to live without her aid.
+I never heard that she repented of her injustice, or acknowledged it,
+except from Harry's private communication to me. In after days, when we
+met, by a great gentleness in her behaviour, and an uncommon respect
+and affection shown to my wife, Madam Esmond may have intended I should
+understand her tacit admission that she had been wrong; but she made no
+apology, nor did I ask one. Harry being provided for (whose welfare I
+could not grudge), all my mother's savings and economical schemes went
+to my advantage, who was her heir. Time was when a few guineas would
+have been more useful to me than hundreds which might come to me when
+I had no need; but when Madam Esmond and I met, the period of necessity
+was long passed away; I had no need to scheme ignoble savings, or to
+grudge the doctor his fee: I had plenty, and she could but bring me
+more. No doubt she suffered in her own mind to think that my children
+had been hungry, and she had offered them no food; and that strangers
+had relieved the necessity from which her proud heart had caused her to
+turn aside. Proud? Was she prouder than I? A soft word of explanation
+between us might have brought about a reconciliation years before it
+came but I would never speak, nor did she. When I commit a wrong, and
+know it subsequently, I love to ask pardon; but 'tis as a satisfaction
+to my own pride, and to myself I am apologising for having been wanting
+to myself. And hence, I think (out of regard to that personage of ego),
+I scarce ever could degrade myself to do a meanness. How do men feel
+whose whole lives (and many men's lives are) are lies, schemes, and
+subterfuges? What sort of company do they keep when they are alone?
+Daily in life I watch men whose every smile is an artifice, and every
+wink is an hypocrisy. Doth such a fellow wear a mask in his own privacy,
+and to his own conscience? If I choose to pass over an injury, I fear
+'tis not from a Christian and forgiving spirit: 'tis because I can
+afford to remit the debt, and disdain to ask a settlement of it. One
+or two sweet souls I have known in my life (and perhaps tried) to whom
+forgiveness is no trouble--a plant that grows naturally, as it were, in
+the soil. I know how to remit, I say, not forgive. I wonder are we proud
+men proud of being proud?
+
+So I showed not the least sign of submission towards my parent in
+Virginia yonder, and we continued for years to live in estrangement,
+with occasionally a brief word or two (such as the announcement of the
+birth of a child, or what not) passing between my wife and her. After
+our first troubles in America about the Stamp Act, troubles fell on me
+in London likewise. Though I have been on the Tory side in our quarrel
+(as indeed upon the losing side in most controversies), having no doubt
+that the Imperial Government had a full right to levy taxes in the
+colonies, yet at the time of the dispute I must publish a pert letter to
+a member of the House of Burgesses in Virginia, in which the question
+of the habitual insolence of the mother country to the colonies was so
+freely handled, and sentiments were uttered so disagreeable to persons
+in power, that I was deprived of my place as hackney-coach licenser, to
+the terror and horror of my uncle, who never could be brought to love
+people in disgrace. He had grown to have an extreme affection for
+my wife as well as my little boy; but towards myself, personally,
+entertained a kind of pitying contempt which always infinitely amused
+me. He had a natural scorn and dislike for poverty, and a corresponding
+love for success and good fortune. Any opinion departing at all from the
+regular track shocked and frightened him, and all truth-telling made him
+turn pale. He must have had originally some warmth of heart and genuine
+love of kindred: for, spite of the dreadful shocks I gave him, he
+continued to see Theo and the child (and me too, giving me a
+mournful recognition when we met); and though broken-hearted by my
+free-spokenness, he did not refuse to speak to me as he had done at the
+time of our first differences, but looked upon me as a melancholy lost
+creature, who was past all worldly help or hope. Never mind, I must cast
+about for some new scheme of life; and the repayment of Harry's debt to
+me at this juncture enabled me to live at least for some months even, or
+years to come. O strange fatuity of youth! I often say. How was it that
+we dared to be so poor and so little cast down?
+
+At this time his Majesty's royal uncle of Cumberland fell down
+and perished in a fit; and, strange to say, his death occasioned a
+remarkable change in my fortune. My poor Sir Miles Warrington never
+missed any court ceremony to which he could introduce himself. He was
+at all the drawing-rooms, christenings, balls, funerals of the court.
+If ever a prince or princess was ailing, his coach was at their door:
+Leicester Fields, Carlton House, Gunnersbury, were all the same to him,
+and nothing must satisfy him now but going to the stout duke's funeral.
+He caught a great cold and an inflammation of the throat from standing
+bareheaded at this funeral in the rain; and one morning, before almost
+I had heard of his illness, a lawyer waits upon me at my lodgings in
+Bloomsbury, and salutes me by the name of Sir George Warrington.
+
+Party and fear of the future were over now. We laid the poor gentleman
+by the side of his little son, in the family churchyard where so many
+of his race repose. Little Miles and I were the chief mourners. An
+obsequious tenantry bowed and curtseyed before us, and did their utmost
+to conciliate my honour and my worship. The dowager and her daughter
+withdrew to Bath presently; and I and my family took possession of the
+house, of which I have been master for thirty years. Be not too eager,
+O my son! Have but a little patience, and I too shall sleep under yonder
+yew-trees, and the people will be tossing up their caps for Sir Miles.
+
+The records of a prosperous country life are easily and briefly told.
+The steward's books show what rents were paid and forgiven, what crops
+were raised, and in what rotation. What visitors came to us, and
+how long they stayed: what pensioners my wife had, and how they were
+doctored and relieved, and how they died: what year I was sheriff, and
+how often the hounds met near us; all these are narrated in our house
+journals, which any of my heirs may read who choose to take the
+trouble. We could not afford the fine mansion in Hill Street, which
+my predecessor had occupied; but we took a smaller house, in which,
+however, we spent more money. We made not half the show (with liveries,
+equipages, and plate) for which my uncle had been famous; but our beer
+was stronger, and my wife's charities were perhaps more costly than
+those of the Dowager Lady Warrington. No doubt she thought there was no
+harm in spoiling the Philistines; for she made us pay unconscionably for
+the goods she left behind her in our country-house, and I submitted to
+most of her extortions with unutterable good-humour. What a value she
+imagined the potted plants in her greenhouses bore! What a price she
+set upon that horrible old spinet she left in her drawing-room! and the
+framed pieces of worsted-work, performed by the accomplished Dora and
+the lovely Flora, had they been masterpieces of Titian or Vandyck, to
+be sure my lady dowager could hardly have valued them at a higher price.
+But though we paid so generously, though we were, I may say without
+boast, far kinder to our poor than ever she had been, for a while we had
+the very worst reputation in the county, where all sorts of stories
+had been told to my discredit. I thought I might perhaps succeed to my
+uncle's seat in Parliament, as well as to his landed property; but I
+found, I knew not how, that I was voted to be a person of very dangerous
+opinions. I would not bribe: I would not coerce my own tenants to vote
+for me in the election of '68. A gentleman came down from Whitehall
+with a pocket-book full of bank-notes; and I found that I had no chance
+against my competitor.
+
+Bon Dieu! Now that we were at ease in respect of worldly means,--now
+that obedient tenants bowed and curtseyed as we went to church; that we
+drove to visit our friends, or to the neighbouring towns, in the great
+family coach with the four fat horses; did we not often regret poverty,
+and the dear little cottage at Lambeth, where Want was ever prowling
+at the door? Did I not long to be bear-leading again, and vow that
+translating for booksellers was not such very hard drudgery? When we
+went to London, we made sentimental pilgrimages to all our old haunts.
+I dare say my wife embraced all her landladies. You may be sure we asked
+all the friends of those old times to share the comforts of our new home
+with us. The Reverend Mr. Hagan and his lady visited us more than once.
+His appearance in the pulpit at B------(where he preached very finely,
+as we thought) caused an awful scandal there. Sampson came too, another
+unlucky Levite, and was welcome as long as he would stay among us. Mr.
+Johnson talked of coming, but he put us off once or twice. I suppose our
+house was dull. I know that I myself would be silent for days, and fear
+that my moodiness must often have tried the sweetest-tempered woman
+in the world who lived with me. I did not care for field sports. The
+killing one partridge was so like killing another, that I wondered how
+men could pass days after days in the pursuit of that kind of slaughter.
+Their fox-hunting stories would begin at four o'clock, when the
+tablecloth was removed, and last till supper-time. I sate silent, and
+listened: day after day I fell asleep: no wonder I was not popular with
+my company.
+
+What admission is this I am making? Here was the storm over, the rocks
+avoided, the ship in port and the sailor not overcontented? Was Susan
+I had been sighing for during the voyage, not the beauty I expected to
+find her? In the first place, Susan and all the family can look in her
+William's logbook, and so, madam, I am not going to put my secrets
+down there. No, Susan, I never had secrets from thee. I never cared for
+another woman. I have seen more beautiful, but none that suited me as
+well as your ladyship. I have met Mrs. Carter and Miss Mulso, and Mrs.
+Thrale and Madam Kaufmann, and the angelical Gunnings, and her Grace of
+Devonshire, and a host of beauties who were not angelic, by any means:
+and I was not dazzled by them. Nay, young folks, I may have led your
+mother a weary life, and been a very Bluebeard over her, but then I
+had no other heads in the closet. Only, the first pleasure of taking
+possession of our kingdom over, I own I began to be quickly tired of the
+crown. When the captain wears it his Majesty will be a very different
+Prince. He can ride a-hunting five days in the week, and find the sport
+amusing. I believe he would hear the same sermon at church fifty times,
+and not yawn more than I do at the first delivery. But sweet Joan,
+beloved Baucis! being thy faithful husband and true lover always,
+thy Darby is rather ashamed of having been testy so often! and, being
+arrived at the consummation of happiness, Philemon asks pardon for
+falling asleep so frequently after dinner. There came a period of my
+life, when having reached the summit of felicity I was quite tired of
+the prospect I had there: I yawned in Eden, and said, "Is this all?
+What, no lions to bite? no rain to fall? no thorns to prick you in the
+rose-bush when you sit down?--only Eve, for ever sweet and tender, and
+figs for breakfast, dinner, supper, from week's end to week's end!"
+Shall I make my confessions? Hearken! Well, then, if I must make a clean
+breast of it.
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+Here three pages are torn out of Sir George Warrington's MS. book, for
+which the editor is sincerely sorry.
+
+
+I know the theory and practice of the Roman Church; but, being bred of
+another persuasion (and sceptical and heterodox regarding that), I can't
+help doubting the other, too, and wondering whether Catholics, in
+their confessions, confess all? Do we Protestants ever do so; and has
+education rendered those other fellow-men so different from us? At
+least, amongst us, we are not accustomed to suppose Catholic priests or
+laymen more frank and open than ourselves. Which brings me back to my
+question,--does any man confess all? Does yonder dear creature know all
+my life, who has been the partner of it for thirty years; who, whenever
+I have told her a sorrow, has been ready with the best of her gentle
+power to soothe it; who has watched when I did not speak, and when I was
+silent has been silent herself, or with the charming hypocrisy of woman
+has worn smiles and an easy appearance so as to make me imagine she
+felt no care, or would not even ask to disturb her lord's secret when he
+seemed to indicate a desire to keep it private? Oh, the dear hypocrite!
+Have I not watched her hiding the boys' peccadilloes from papa's anger?
+Have I not known her cheat out of her housekeeping to pay off their
+little extravagances; and talk to me with an artless face, as if she did
+not know that our revered captain had had dealings with the gentlemen
+of Duke's Place, and our learned collegian, at the end of his terms, had
+very pressing reasons for sporting his oak (as the phrase is) against
+some of the University tradesmen? Why, from the very earliest days, thou
+wise woman, thou wert for ever concealing something from me,--this
+one stealing jam from the cupboard; that one getting into disgrace at
+school; that naughty rebel (put on the caps, young folks, according to
+the fit) flinging an inkstand at mamma in a rage, whilst I was told
+the gown and the carpet were spoiled by accident. We all hide from one
+another. We have all secrets. We are all alone. We sin by ourselves,
+and, let us trust, repent too. Yonder dear woman would give her foot to
+spare mine a twinge of the gout; but, when I have the fit, the pain is
+in my slipper. At the end of the novel or the play, the hero and heroine
+marry or die, and so there is an end of them as far as the poet is
+concerned, who huzzas for his young couple till the postchaise turns the
+corner; or fetches the hearse and plumes, and shovels them underground.
+But when Mr. Random and Mr. Thomas Jones are married, is all over? Are
+there no quarrels at home? Are there no Lady Bellastons abroad? are
+there no constables to be outrun? no temptations to conquer us, or be
+conquered by us? The Sirens sang after Ulysses long after his marriage,
+and the suitors whispered in Penelope's ear, and he and she had many a
+weary day of doubt and care, and so have we all. As regards money I was
+put out of trouble by the inheritance I made: but does not Atra Cura
+sit behind baronets as well as equites? My friends in London used to
+congratulate me on my happiness. Who would not like to be master of a
+good house and a good estate? But can Gumbo shut the hall-door upon blue
+devils, or lay them always in a red sea of claret? Does a man sleep
+the better who has four-and-twenty hours to doze in? Do his intellects
+brighten after a sermon from the dull old vicar; a ten minutes' cackle
+and flattery from the village apothecary; or the conversation of Sir
+John and Sir Thomas with their ladies, who come ten moonlight muddy
+miles to eat a haunch, and play a rubber? 'Tis all very well to
+have tradesmen bowing to your carriage-door, room made for you at
+quarter-sessions, and my lady wife taken down the second or the third to
+dinner: but these pleasures fade--nay, have their inconveniences. In our
+part of the country, for seven years after we came to Warrington Manor,
+our two what they called best neighbours were my Lord Tutbury and Sir
+John Mudbrook. We are of an older date than the Mudbrooks; consequently,
+my Lady Tutbury always fell to my lot, when we dined together, who
+was deaf and fell asleep after dinner; or if I had Lady Mudbrook, she
+chattered with a folly so incessant and intense, that even my wife could
+hardly keep her complacency (consummate hypocrite as her ladyship is),
+knowing the rage with which I was fuming at the other's clatter. I come
+to London. I show my tongue to Dr. Heberden. I pour out my catalogue of
+complaints. "Psha, my dear Sir George!" says the unfeeling physician.
+"Headaches, languor, bad sleep, bad temper--" ("Not bad temper: Sir
+George has the sweetest temper in the world, only he is sometimes a
+little melancholy," says my wife.) "--Bad sleep, bad temper," continues
+the implacable doctor. "My dear lady, his inheritance has been his ruin,
+and a little poverty and a great deal of occupation would do him all the
+good in life."
+
+No, my brother Harry ought to have been the squire, with remainder to
+my son Miles, of course. Harry's letters were full of gaiety and good
+spirits. His estate prospered: his negroes multiplied; his crops were
+large; he was a member of our House of Burgesses; he adored his wife;
+could he but have a child his happiness would be complete. Had Hal
+been master of Warrington Manor-house, in my place, he would have been
+beloved through the whole country; he would have been steward at all the
+races, the gayest of all the jolly huntsmen, the bien venu at all the
+mansions round about, where people scarce cared to perform the ceremony
+of welcome at sight of my glum face. As for my wife, all the world liked
+her, and agreed in pitying her. I don't know how the report got abroad,
+but 'twas generally agreed that I treated her with awful cruelty, and
+that for jealousy I was a perfect Bluebeard. Ah me! And so it is true
+that I have had many dark hours; that I pass days in long silence; that
+the conversation of fools and whipper-snappers makes me rebellious and
+peevish, and that, when I feel contempt, I sometimes don't know how to
+conceal it, or I should say did not. I hope as I grow older I grow more
+charitable. Because I do not love bawling and galloping after a fox,
+like the captain yonder, I am not his superior; but, in this respect,
+humbly own that he is mine. He has perceptions which are denied me;
+enjoyments which I cannot understand. Because I am blind the world is
+not dark. I try now and listen with respect when Squire Codgers talks
+of the day's run. I do my best to laugh when Captain Rattleton tells his
+garrison stories. I step up to the harpsichord with old Miss Humby (our
+neighbour from Beccles) and try and listen as she warbles her ancient
+ditties. I play whist laboriously. Am I not trying to do the duties of
+life? and I have a right to be garrulous and egotistical, because I have
+been reading Montaigne all the morning.
+
+I was not surprised, knowing by what influences my brother was led, to
+find his name in the list of Virginia burgesses who declared that the
+sole right of imposing taxes on the inhabitants of this colony is now,
+and ever hath been, legally and constitutionally vested in the House
+of Burgesses, and called upon the other colonies to pray for the Royal
+interposition in favour of the violated rights of America. And it was
+now, after we had been some three years settled in our English home,
+that a correspondence between us and Madam Esmond began to take place.
+It was my wife who (upon some pretext such as women always know how to
+find) re-established the relations between us. Mr. Miles must need have
+the small-pox, from which he miraculously recovered without losing
+any portion of his beauty; and on his recovery the mother writes her
+prettiest little wheedling letter to the grandmother of the fortunate
+babe. She coaxes her with all sorts of modest phrases and humble
+offerings of respect and goodwill. She narrates anecdotes of the
+precocious genius of the lad (what hath subsequently happened, I wonder,
+to stop the growth of that gallant young officer's brains?), and she
+must have sent over to his grandmother a lock of the darling boy's hair,
+for the old lady, in her reply, acknowledged the receipt of some such
+present. I wonder, as it came from England, they allowed it to pass our
+custom-house at Williamsburg. In return for these peace-offerings and
+smuggled tokens of submission, comes a tolerably gracious letter from my
+Lady of Castlewood. She inveighs against the dangerous spirit pervading
+the colony: she laments to think that her unhappy son is consorting with
+people who, she fears, will be no better than rebels and traitors. She
+does not wonder, considering who his friends and advisers are. How can
+a wife taken from an almost menial situation be expected to sympathise
+with persons of rank and dignity who have the honour of the Crown at
+heart? If evil times were coming for the monarchy (for the folks in
+America appeared to be disinclined to pay taxes, and required that
+everything should be done for them without cost), she remembered how
+to monarchs in misfortune, the Esmonds--her father the Marquis
+especially--had ever been faithful. She knew not what opinions (though
+she might judge from my newfangled Lord Chatham) were in fashion in
+England. She prayed, at least, she might hear that one of her sons was
+not on the side of rebellion. When we came, in after days, to look over
+old family papers in Virginia, we found "Letters from my daughter Lady
+Warrington," neatly tied up with a ribbon. My Lady Theo insisted I
+should not open them; and the truth, I believe, is, that they were so
+full of praises of her husband that she thought my vanity would suffer
+from reading them.
+
+When Madam began to write, she gave us brief notices of Harry and his
+wife. "The two women," she wrote, "still govern everything with my poor
+boy at Fannystown (as he chooses to call his house). They must save
+money there, for I hear but a shabby account of their manner of
+entertaining. The Mount Vernon gentleman continues to be his great
+friend, and he votes in the House of Burgesses very much as his
+guide advises him. Why he should be so sparing of his money I cannot
+understand: I heard, of five negroes who went with his equipages to my
+Lord Bottetourt's, only two had shoes to their feet. I had reasons to
+save, having sons for whom I wished to provide, but he hath no children,
+wherein he certainly is spared from much grief, though, no doubt, Heaven
+in its wisdom means our good by the trials which, through our children,
+it causes us to endure. His mother-in-law," she added in one of her
+letters, "has been ailing. Ever since his marriage, my poor Henry has
+been the creature of these two artful women, and they rule him entirely.
+Nothing, my dear daughter, is more contrary to common sense and to
+Holy Scripture than this. Are we not told, Wives, be obedient to your
+husbands? Had Mr. Warrington lived, I should have endeavoured to follow
+up that sacred precept, holding that nothing so becomes a woman as
+humility and obedience."
+
+Presently we had a letter sealed with black, and announcing the death
+of our dear good Mountain, for whom I had a hearty regret and affection,
+remembering her sincere love for us as children. Harry deplored the
+event in his honest way, and with tears which actually blotted his
+paper. And Madam Esmond, alluding to the circumstance, said: "My late
+housekeeper, Mrs. Mountain, as soon as she found her illness was fatal,
+sent to me requesting a last interview on her deathbed, intending,
+doubtless, to pray my forgiveness for her treachery towards me. I sent
+her word that I could forgive her as a Christian, and heartily hope
+(though I confess I doubt it) that she had a due sense of her crime
+towards me. But our meeting, I considered, was of no use, and could
+only occasion unpleasantness between us. If she repented, though at the
+eleventh hour, it was not too late, and I sincerely trusted that she
+was now doing so. And, would you believe her lamentable and hardened
+condition? she sent me word through Dinah, my woman, whom I dispatched
+to her with medicines for her soul's and her body's health, that she
+had nothing to repent of as far as regarded her conduct to me, and
+she wanted to be left alone! Poor Dinah distributed the medicine to my
+negroes, and our people took it eagerly--whilst Mrs. Mountain, left to
+herself, succumbed to the fever. Oh, the perversity of human kind! This
+poor creature was too proud to take my remedies, and is now beyond the
+reach of cure and physicians. You tell me your little Miles is subject
+to fits of cholic. My remedy, and I will beg you to let me know if
+effectual, is," etc. etc.--and here followed the prescription, which
+thou didst not take, O my son, my heir, and my pride! because thy fond
+mother had her mother's favourite powder, on which in his infantine
+troubles our firstborn was dutifully nurtured. Did words not exactly
+consonant with truth pass between the ladies in their correspondence? I
+fear my Lady Theo was not altogether candid: else how to account for a
+phrase in one of Madam Esmond's letters, who said: "I am glad to hear
+the powders have done the dear child good. They are, if not on a first,
+on a second or third application, almost infallible, and have been
+the blessed means of relieving many persons round me, both infants and
+adults, white and coloured. I send my grandson an Indian bow and arrows.
+Shall these old eyes never behold him at Castlewood, I wonder, and is
+Sir George so busy with his books and his politics that he can't afford
+a few months to his mother in Virginia? I am much alone now. My son's
+chamber is just as he left it: the same books are in the presses: his
+little hanger and fowling-piece over the bed, and my father's picture
+over the mantelpiece. I never allow anything to be altered in his room
+or his brother's. I fancy the children playing near me sometimes, and
+that I can see my dear father's head as he dozes in his chair. Mine is
+growing almost as white as my father's. Am I never to behold my children
+ere I go hence? The Lord's will be done."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVI. At Home
+
+
+Such an appeal as this of our mother would have softened hearts much
+less obdurate than ours; and we talked of a speedy visit to Virginia,
+and of hiring all the Young Rachel's cabin accommodation. But our child
+must fall ill, for whom the voyage would be dangerous, and from whom the
+mother of course could not part; and the Young Rachel made her voyage
+without us that year. Another year there was another difficulty, in my
+worship's first attack of the gout (which occupied me a good deal, and
+afterwards certainly cleared my wits and enlivened my spirits); and now
+came another much sadder cause for delay in the sad news we received
+from Jamaica. Some two years after our establishment at the Manor,
+our dear General returned from his government, a little richer in the
+world's goods than when he went away, but having undergone a loss for
+which no wealth could console him, and after which, indeed, he did
+not care to remain in the West Indies. My Theo's poor mother--the most
+tender and affectionate friend (save one) I have ever had--died abroad
+of the fever. Her last regret was that she should not be allowed to live
+to see our children and ourselves in prosperity.
+
+"She sees us, though we do not see her; and she thanks you, George, for
+having been good to her children," her husband said.
+
+He, we thought, would not be long ere he joined her. His love for her
+had been the happiness and business of his whole life. To be away from
+her seemed living no more. It was pitiable to watch the good man as
+he sate with us. My wife, in her air and in many tones and gestures,
+constantly recalled her mother to the bereaved widower's heart. What
+cheer we could give him in his calamity we offered; but, especially,
+little Hetty was now, under Heaven, his chief support and consolation.
+She had refused more than one advantageous match in the Island, the
+General told us; and on her return to England, my Lord Wrotham's heir
+laid himself at her feet. But she loved best to stay with her father,
+Hetty said. As long as he was not tired of her she cared for no husband.
+
+"Nay," said we, when this last great match was proposed, "let the
+General stay six months with us at the Manor here, and you can have him
+at Oakhurst for the other six."
+
+But Hetty declared her father never could bear Oakhurst again now that
+her mother was gone; and she would marry no man for his coronet and
+money--not she! The General, when we talked this matter over, said
+gravely that the child had no desire for marrying, owing possibly to
+some disappointment in early life, of which she never spoke; and we,
+respecting her feelings, were for our parts equally silent. My brother
+Lambert had by this time a college living near to Winchester, and a wife
+of course to adorn his parsonage. We professed but a moderate degree of
+liking for this lady, though we made her welcome when she came to us.
+Her idea regarding our poor Hetty's determined celibacy was different
+to that which I had. This Mrs. Jack was a chatterbox of a woman, in
+the habit of speaking her mind very freely, and of priding herself
+excessively on her skill in giving pain to her friends.
+
+"My dear Sir George," she was pleased to say, "I have often and often
+told our dear Theo that I wouldn't have a pretty sister in my house to
+make tea for Jack when I was upstairs, and always to be at hand when I
+was wanted in the kitchen or nursery, and always to be dressed neat and
+in her best when I was very likely making pies or puddings or looking to
+the children. I have every confidence in Jack, of course. I should like
+to see him look at another woman, indeed! And so I have in Jemima but
+they don't come together in my house when I'm upstairs--that I promise
+you! And so I told my sister Warrington."
+
+"Am I to understand," says the General, "that you have done my Lady
+Warrington the favour to warn her against her sister, my daughter Miss
+Hester?"
+
+"Yes, pa, of course I have. A duty is a duty, and a woman is a woman,
+and a man's a man, as I know very well. Don't tell me! He is a man.
+Every man is a man, with all his sanctified airs!"
+
+"You yourself have a married sister, with whom you were staying when my
+son Jack first had the happiness of making your acquaintance?" remarks
+the General.
+
+"Yes, of course I have a married sister; every one knows that and I have
+been as good as a mother to her children, that I have!"
+
+"And am I to gather from your conversation that your attractions proved
+a powerful temptation for your sister's husband?"
+
+"Law, General! I don't know how you can go for to say I ever said any
+such a thing!" cries Mrs. Jack, red and voluble.
+
+"Don't you perceive, my dear madam, that it is you who have insinuated
+as much, not only regarding yourself, but regarding my own two
+daughters?"
+
+"Never, never, never, as I'm a Christian woman! And it's most cruel of
+you to say so, sir. And I do say a sister is best out of the house, that
+I do! And as Theo's time is coming, I warn her, that's all."
+
+"Have you discovered, my good madam, whether my poor Hetty has stolen
+any of the spoons? When I came to breakfast this morning, my daughter
+was alone, and there must have been a score of pieces of silver on the
+table."
+
+"Law, sir! who ever said a word about spoons? Did I ever accuse the poor
+dear? If I did, may I drop down dead at this moment on this hearth-rug!
+And I ain't used to be spoke to in this way. And me and Jack have both
+remarked it; and I've done my duty, that I have." And here Mrs. Jack
+flounces out of the room, in tears.
+
+"And has the woman had the impudence to tell you this, my child?"
+asks the General, when Theo (who is a little delicate) comes to the
+tea-table.
+
+"She has told me every day since she has been here. She comes into my
+dressing-room to tell me. She comes to my nursery, and says, 'Ah, I
+wouldn't have a sister prowling about my nursery, that I wouldn't.' Ah,
+how pleasant it is to have amiable and well-bred relatives, say I."
+
+"Thy poor mother has been spared this woman," groans the General.
+
+"Our mother would have made her better, papa," says Theo, kissing him.
+
+"Yes, dear." And I see that both of them are at their prayers.
+
+But this must be owned, that to love one's relatives is not always an
+easy task; to live with one's neighbours is sometimes not amusing. From
+Jack Lambert's demeanour next day, I could see that his wife had given
+him her version of the conversation. Jack was sulky, but not dignified.
+He was angry, but his anger did not prevent his appetite. He preached a
+sermon for us which was entirely stupid. And little Miles, once more in
+sables, sate at his grandfather's side, his little hand placed in that
+of the kind old man.
+
+Would he stay and keep house for us during our Virginian trip? The
+housekeeper should be put under the full domination of Hetty. The
+butler's keys should be handed over to him; for Gumbo, not I thought
+with an over good grace, was to come with us to Virginia: having,
+it must be premised, united himself with Mrs. Molly in the bonds of
+matrimony, and peopled a cottage in my park with sundry tawny Gumbos.
+Under the care of our good General and his daughter we left our house,
+then; we travelled to London, and thence to Bristol, and our obsequious
+agent there had the opportunity of declaring that he should offer up
+prayers for our prosperity, and of vowing that children so beautiful as
+ours (we had an infant by this time to accompany Miles) were never seen
+on any ship before. We made a voyage without accident. How strange the
+feeling was as we landed from our boat at Richmond! A coach and a host
+of negroes were there in waiting to receive us; and hard by a gentleman
+on horseback, with negroes in our livery, too, who sprang from his horse
+and rushed up to embrace us. Not a little charmed were both of us to see
+our dearest Hal. He rode with us to our mother's door. Yonder she stood
+on the steps to welcome us; and Theo knelt down to ask her blessing.
+
+Harry rode in the coach with us as far as our mother's house; but would
+not, as he said, spoil sport by entering with us. "She sees me," he
+owned, "and we are pretty good friends; but Fanny and she are best
+apart; and there is no love lost between 'em, I can promise you. Come
+over to me at the Tavern, George, when thou art free. And to-morrow I
+shall have the honour to present her sister to Theo. 'Twas only from
+happening to be in town yesterday that I heard the ship was signalled,
+and waited to see you. I have sent a negro boy home to my wife, and
+she'll be here to pay her respects to my Lady Warrington." And Harry,
+after this brief greeting, jumped out of the carriage, and left us to
+meet our mother alone.
+
+Since I parted from her I had seen a great deal of fine company, and
+Theo and I had paid our respects to the King and Queen at St. James's;
+but we had seen no more stately person than this who welcomed us, and
+raising my wife from her knee, embraced her and led her into the house.
+'Twas a plain, wood-built place, with a gallery round, as our Virginian
+houses are; but if it had been a palace, with a little empress inside,
+our reception could not have been more courteous. There was old Nathan,
+still the major-domo, a score of kind black faces of blacks, grinning
+welcome. Some whose names I remembered as children were grown out of
+remembrance, to be sure, to be buxom lads and lasses; and some I had
+left with black pates were grizzling now with snowy polls: and some who
+were born since my time were peering at doorways with their great eyes
+and little naked feet. It was, "I'm little Sip, Master George!" and "I'm
+Dinah, Sir George!" and "I'm Master Miles's boy!" says a little chap in
+a new livery and boots of nature's blacking. Ere the day was over the
+whole household had found a pretext for passing before us, and grinning
+and bowing and making us welcome. I don't know how many repasts were
+served to us. In the evening my Lady Warrington had to receive all
+the gentry of the little town, which she did with perfect grace and
+good-humour, and I had to shake hands with a few old acquaintances--old
+enemies I was going to say; but I had come into a fortune and was no
+longer a naughty prodigal. Why, a drove of fatted calves was killed
+in my honour! My poor Hal was of the entertainment, but gloomy and
+crestfallen. His mother spoke to him, but it was as a queen to a
+rebellious prince, her son who was not yet forgiven. We two slipped away
+from the company, and went up to the rooms assigned to me: but there, as
+we began a free conversation, our mother, taper in hand, appeared with
+her pale face. Did I want anything? Was everything quite as I wished
+it? She had peeped in at the dearest children, who were sleeping like
+cherubs. How she did caress them, and delight over them! How she was
+charmed with Miles's dominating airs, and the little Theo's smiles and
+dimples! "Supper is just coming on the table, Sir George. If you like
+our cookery better than the tavern, Henry, I beg you to stay." What a
+different welcome there was in the words and tone addressed to each of
+us! Hal hung down his head, and followed to the lower room. A clergyman
+begged a blessing on the meal. He touched with not a little art and
+eloquence upon our arrival at home, upon our safe passage across the
+stormy waters, upon the love and forgiveness which awaited us in the
+mansions of the Heavenly Parent when the storms of life were over.
+
+Here was a new clergyman, quite unlike some whom I remembered about us
+in earlier days, and I praised him, but Madam Esmond shook her head. She
+was afraid his principles were very dangerous: she was afraid others had
+adopted those dangerous principles. Had I not seen the paper signed by
+the burgesses and merchants at Williamsburg the year before--the Lees,
+Randolphs, Bassets, Washingtons, and the like, and oh, my dear, that
+I should have to say it, our name, that is, your brother's (by what
+influence I do not like to say), and this unhappy Mr. Belman's who
+begged a blessing last night?
+
+If there had been quarrels in our little colonial society when I left
+home, what were these to the feuds I found raging on my return? We had
+sent the Stamp Act to America, and been forced to repeal it. Then we
+must try a new set of duties on glass, paper, and what not, and repeal
+that Act too, with the exception of a duty on tea. From Boston to
+Charleston the tea was confiscated. Even my mother, loyal as she was,
+gave up her favourite drink; and my poor wife would have had to forgo
+hers, but we had brought a quantity for our private drinking on board
+ship, which had paid four times as much duty at home. Not that I for my
+part would have hesitated about paying duty. The home Government must
+have some means of revenue, or its pretensions to authority were idle.
+They say the colonies were tried and tyrannised over; I say the home
+Government was tried and tyrannised over. ('Tis but an affair of
+argument and history, now; we tried the question, and were beat; and
+the matter is settled as completely as the conquest of Britain by the
+Normans.) And all along, from conviction I trust, I own to have
+taken the British side of the quarrel. In that brief and unfortunate
+experience of war which I had had in my early life, the universal cry of
+the army and well-affected persons was, that Mr. Braddock's expedition
+had failed, and defeat and disaster had fallen upon us in consequence
+of the remissness, the selfishness, and the rapacity of many of the very
+people for whose defence against the French arms had been taken up. The
+colonists were for having all done for them, and for doing nothing, They
+made extortionate bargains with the champions who came to defend them;
+they failed in contracts; they furnished niggardly supplies; they
+multiplied delays until the hour for beneficial action was past, and
+until the catastrophe came which never need have occurred but for their
+ill-will. What shouts of joy were there, and what ovations for the great
+British Minister who had devised and effected the conquest of Canada!
+Monsieur de Vaudreuil said justly that that conquest was the signal for
+the defection of the North American colonies from their allegiance to
+Great Britain; and my Lord Chatham, having done his best to achieve
+the first part of the scheme, contributed more than any man in England
+towards the completion of it. The colonies were insurgent, and he
+applauded their rebellion. What scores of thousands of waverers must he
+have encouraged into resistance! It was a general who says to an army
+in revolt, "God save the king! My men, you have a right to mutiny!" No
+wonder they set up his statue in this town, and his picture in t'other;
+whilst here and there they hanged Ministers and Governors in effigy.
+To our Virginian town of Williamsburg, some wiseacres must subscribe
+to bring over a portrait of my lord, in the habit of a Roman orator
+speaking in the Forum, to be sure, and pointing to the palace of
+Whitehall, and the special window out of which Charles I. was beheaded!
+Here was a neat allegory, and a pretty compliment to a British
+statesman! I hear, however, that my lord's head was painted from a bust,
+and so was taken off without his knowledge.
+
+Now my country is England, not America or Virginia; and I take, or
+rather took, the English side of the dispute. My sympathies had always
+been with home, where I was now a squire and a citizen: but had my lot
+been to plant tobacco, and live on the banks of James River or Potomac,
+no doubt my opinions had been altered. When, for instance, I visited
+my brother at his new house and plantation, I found him and his wife as
+staunch Americans as we were British. We had some words upon the matter
+in dispute,--who had not in those troublesome times?--but our argument
+was carried on without rancour; even my new sister could not bring us to
+that, though she did her best when we were together, and in the curtain
+lectures which I have no doubt she inflicted on her spouse, like a
+notable housewife as she was. But we trusted in each other so entirely
+that even Harry's duty towards his wife would not make him quarrel with
+his brother. He loved me from old times, when my word was law with him;
+he still protested that he and every Virginian gentleman of his side
+was loyal to the Crown. War was not declared as yet, and gentlemen of
+different opinions were courteous enough to one another. Nay, at
+our public dinners and festivals, the health of the King was still
+ostentatiously drunk; and the assembly of every colony, though preparing
+for Congress, though resisting all attempts at taxation on the part of
+the home authorities, was loud in its expressions of regard for the King
+our Father, and pathetic in its appeals to that paternal sovereign
+to put away evil counsellors from him, and listen to the voice of
+moderation and reason. Up to the last, our Virginian gentry were a
+grave, orderly, aristocratic folk, with the strongest sense of their own
+dignity and station. In later days, and nearer home, we have heard of
+fraternisation and equality. Amongst the great folks of our Old World I
+have never seen a gentleman standing more on his dignity and maintaining
+it better than Mr. Washington: no--not the King against whom he took
+arms. In the eyes of all the gentry of the French court, who gaily
+joined in the crusade against us, and so took their revenge for Canada,
+the great American chief always appeared as anax andron, and they
+allowed that his better could not be seen in Versailles itself. Though
+they were quarrelling with the Governor, the gentlemen of the House of
+Burgesses still maintained amicable relations with him, and exchanged
+dignified courtesies. When my Lord Bottetourt arrived, and held his
+court at Williamsburg in no small splendour and state, all the gentry
+waited upon him, Madam Esmond included. And at his death, Lord Dunmore,
+who succeeded him, and brought a fine family with him, was treated with
+the utmost respect by our gentry privately, though publicly the House of
+Assembly and the Governor were at war.
+
+Their quarrels are a matter of history, and concern me personally only
+so far as this, that our burgesses being convened for the 1st of March
+in the year after my arrival in Virginia, it was agreed that we should
+all pay a visit to our capital, and our duty to the Governor. Since
+Harry's unfortunate marriage Madam Esmond had not performed this duty,
+though always previously accustomed to pay it; but now that her eldest
+son was arrived in the colony, my mother opined that we must certainly
+wait upon his Excellency the Governor, nor were we sorry, perhaps,
+to get away from our little Richmond to enjoy the gaieties of the
+provincial capital. Madam engaged, and at a great price, the best house
+to be had at Richmond for herself and her family. Now I was rich, her
+generosity was curious. I had more than once to interpose (her old
+servants likewise wondering at her new way of life), and beg her not to
+be so lavish. But she gently said, in former days she had occasion to
+save, which now existed no more. Harry had enough, sure, with such a
+wife as he had taken out of the housekeeper's room. If she chose to be a
+little extravagant now, why should she hesitate? She had not her dearest
+daughter and grandchildren with her every day (she fell in love with all
+three of them, and spoiled them as much as they were capable of being
+spoiled). Besides, in former days I could not accuse her of too much
+extravagance, and this I think was almost the only allusion she made to
+the pecuniary differences between us. So she had her people dressed in
+their best, and her best wines, plate, and furniture from Castlewood by
+sea at no small charge, and her dress in which she had been married in
+George II.'s reign, and we all flattered ourselves that our coach made
+the greatest figure of any except his Excellency's, and we engaged
+Signor Formicalo, his Excellency's major-domo, to superintend the series
+of feasts that were given in my honour; and more fleshpots were set
+a-stewing in our kitchens in one month, our servants said, than had been
+known in the family since the young gentlemen went away. So great was
+Theo's influence over my mother, that she actually persuaded her, that
+year, to receive our sister Fanny, Hal's wife, who would have stayed
+upon the plantation rather than face Madam Esmond. But, trusting to
+Theo's promise of amnesty, Fanny (to whose house we had paid more than
+one visit) came up to town, and made her curtsey to Madam Esmond, and
+was forgiven. And rather than be forgiven in that way, I own, for my
+part, that I would prefer perdition or utter persecution.
+
+"You know these, my dear?" says Madam Esmond, pointing to her fine
+silver sconces. "Fanny hath often cleaned them when she was with me
+at Castlewood. And this dress, too, Fanny knows, I dare say? Her poor
+mother had the care of it. I always had the greatest confidence in her."
+
+Here there is wrath flashing from Fanny's eyes, which our mother, who
+has forgiven her, does not perceive--not she!
+
+"Oh, she was a treasure to me!" Madam resumes. "I never should have
+nursed my boys through their illnesses but for your mother's admirable
+care of them. Colonel Lee, permit me to present you to my daughter,
+my Lady Warrington. Her ladyship is a neighbour of your relatives the
+Bunburys at home. Here comes his Excellency. Welcome, my lord!"
+
+And our princess performs before his lordship one of those curtseys of
+which she was not a little proud; and I fancy I see some of the company
+venturing to smile.
+
+"By George! madam," says Mr. Lee, "since Count Borulawski, I have not
+seen a bow so elegant as your ladyship's."
+
+"And pray, sir, who was Count Borulawski?" asks Madam.
+
+"He was a nobleman high in favour with his Polish Majesty," replies Mr.
+Lee. "May I ask you, madam, to present me to your distinguished son?"
+
+"This is Sir George Warrington," says my mother, pointing to me.
+
+"Pardon me, madam. I meant Captain Warrington, who was by Mr. Wolfe's
+side when he died. I had been contented to share his fate, so I had been
+near him."
+
+And the ardent Lee swaggers up to Harry, and takes his hand with
+respect, and pays him a compliment or two, which makes me, at least,
+pardon him for his late impertinence; for my dearest Hal walks gloomily
+through his mother's rooms in his old uniform of the famous corps which
+he has quitted.
+
+We had had many meetings, which the stern mother could not interrupt,
+and in which that instinctive love which bound us to one another, and
+which nothing could destroy, had opportunity to speak. Entirely unlike
+each other in our pursuits, our tastes, our opinions--his life being one
+of eager exercise, active sport, and all the amusements of the field,
+while mine is to dawdle over books and spend my time in languid
+self-contemplation--we have, nevertheless, had such a sympathy as almost
+passes the love of women. My poor Hal confessed as much to me, for
+his part, in his artless manner, when we went away without wives or
+womankind, except a few negroes left in the place, and passed a week at
+Castlewood together.
+
+The ladies did not love each other. I know enough of my Lady Theo,
+to see after a very few glances whether or not she takes a liking to
+another of her amiable sex. All my powers of persuasion or command fail
+to change the stubborn creature's opinion. Had she ever said a word
+against Mrs. This or Miss That? Not she! Has she been otherwise than
+civil? No, assuredly! My Lady Theo is polite to a beggar-woman, treats
+her kitchenmaids like duchesses, and murmurs a compliment to the dentist
+for his elegant manner of pulling her tooth out. She would black my
+boots, or clean the grate, if I ordained it (always looking like a
+duchess the while); but as soon as I say to her, "My dear creature, be
+fond of this lady, or t'other!" all obedience ceases; she executes the
+most refined curtseys; smiles and kisses even to order; but performs
+that mysterious undefinable freemasonic signal, which passes between
+women, by which each knows that the other hates her. So, with regard
+to Fanny, we had met at her house, and at others. I remembered her
+affectionately from old days, I fully credited poor Hal's violent
+protests and tearful oaths, that, by George, it was our mother's
+persecution which made him marry her. He couldn't stand by and see a
+poor thing tortured as she was, without coming to her rescue; no,
+by heavens, he couldn't! I say I believed all this; and had for my
+sister-in-law a genuine compassion, as well as an early regard; and yet
+I had no love to give her; and, in reply to Hal's passionate outbreaks
+in praise of her beauty and worth, and eager queries to me whether I
+did not think her a perfect paragon? I could only answer with faint
+compliments or vague approval, feeling all the while that I was
+disappointing my poor ardent fellow, and cursing inwardly that revolt
+against flattery and falsehood into which I sometimes frantically rush.
+Why should I not say, "Yes dear Hal, thy wife is a paragon; her singing
+is delightful, her hair and shape are beautiful;" as I might have said
+by a little common stretch of politeness? Why could I not cajole this
+or that stupid neighbour or relative, as I have heard Theo do a thousand
+times, finding all sorts of lively prattle to amuse them, whilst I sit
+before them dumb and gloomy? I say it was a sin not to have more words
+to say in praise of Fanny. We ought to have praised her, we ought to
+have liked her. My Lady Warrington certainly ought to have liked her,
+for she can play the hypocrite, and I cannot. And there was this young
+creature--pretty, graceful, shaped like a nymph, with beautiful black
+eyes--and we cared for them no more than for two gooseberries!
+At Warrington my wife and I, when we pretended to compare notes,
+elaborately complimented each other on our new sister's beauty. What
+lovely eyes!--Oh yes! What a sweet little dimple on her chin!--Ah oui!
+What wonderful little feet!--Perfectly Chinese! where should we in
+London get slippers small enough for her? And, these compliments
+exhausted, we knew that we did not like Fanny the value of one
+penny-piece; we knew that we disliked her; we knew that we ha... Well,
+what hypocrites women are! We heard from many quarters how eagerly my
+brother had taken up the new anti-English opinion, and what a champion
+he was of so-called American rights and freedom. "It is her doing, my
+dear," says I to my wife. "If I had said so much, I am sure you
+would have scolded me," says my Lady Warrington, laughing: and I did
+straightway begin to scold her, and say it was most cruel of her to
+suspect our new sister; and what earthly right had we to do so? But
+I say again, I know Madam Theo so well, that when once she has got a
+prejudice against a person in her little head, not all the king's horses
+nor all the king's men will get it out again. I vow nothing would induce
+her to believe that Harry was not henpecked--nothing.
+
+Well, we went to Castlewood together without the women, and stayed at
+the dreary, dear old place, where we had been so happy, and I, at least,
+so gloomy. It was winter, and duck-time, and Harry went away to the
+river, and shot dozens and scores and bushels of canvasbacks, whilst I
+remained in my grandfather's library amongst the old mouldering books
+which I loved in my childhood--which I see in a dim vision still resting
+on a little boy's lap, as he sits by an old white-headed gentleman's
+knee. I read my books; I slept in my own bed and room--religiously kept,
+as my mother told me, and left as on the day when I went to Europe.
+Hal's cheery voice would wake me, as of old. Like all men who love to
+go a-field, he was an early riser: he would come and wake me, and sit
+on the foot of the bed and perfume the air with his morning pipe, as
+the house negroes laid great logs on the fire. It was a happy time! Old
+Nathan had told me of cunning crypts where ancestral rum and claret
+were deposited. We had had cares, struggles, battles, bitter griefs, and
+disappointments; we were boys again as we sat there together. I am a boy
+now even as I think of the time.
+
+That unlucky tea-tax, which alone of the taxes lately imposed upon the
+colonies, the home Government was determined to retain, was met with
+defiance throughout America. 'Tis true we paid a shilling in the pound
+at home, and asked only threepence from Boston or Charleston; but as a
+question of principle, the impost was refused by the provinces, which
+indeed ever showed a most spirited determination to pay as little as
+they could help. In Charleston the tea-ships were unloaded, and the
+cargoes stored in cellars. From New York and Philadelphia, the vessels
+were turned back to London. In Boston (where there was an armed force,
+whom the inhabitants were perpetually mobbing), certain patriots,
+painted and disguised as Indians, boarded the ships, and flung the
+obnoxious cargoes into the water. The wrath of our white Father was
+kindled against this city of Mohocks in masquerade. The notable Boston
+Port Bill was brought forward in the British House of Commons; the port
+was closed, and the Custom House removed to Salem. The Massachusetts
+Charter was annulled; and,--in just apprehension that riots might ensue,
+in dealing with the perpetrators of which the colonial courts might be
+led to act partially,--Parliament decreed that persons indicted for
+acts of violence and armed resistance, might be sent home, or to
+another colony, for trial. If such acts set all America in a flame, they
+certainly drove all wellwisbers of our country into a fury. I might have
+sentenced Master Miles Warrington, at five years old, to a whipping, and
+he would have cried, taken down his little small-clothes and submitted:
+but suppose I offered (and he richly deserving it) to chastise Captain
+Miles of the Prince's Dragoons? He would whirl my paternal cane out of
+my hand, box my hair-powder out of my ears. Lord a-mercy! I tremble at
+the very idea of the controversy? He would assert his independence in
+a word; and if, I say, I think the home Parliament had a right to levy
+taxes in the colonies, I own that we took means most captious, most
+insolent, most irritating, and, above all, most impotent, to assert our
+claim.
+
+My Lord Dunmore, our Governor of Virginia, upon Lord Bottetourt's death,
+received me into some intimacy soon after my arrival in the colony,
+being willing to live on good terms with all our gentry. My mother's
+severe loyalty was no secret to him; indeed, she waved the king's banner
+in all companies, and talked so loudly and resolutely, that Randolph and
+Patrick Henry himself were struck dumb before her. It was Madam Esmond's
+celebrated reputation for loyalty (his Excellency laughingly told me)
+which induced him to receive her eldest son to grace.
+
+"I have had the worst character of you from home," his lordship said.
+"Little birds whisper to me, Sir George, that you are a man of the
+most dangerous principles. You are a friend of Mr. Wilkes and Alderman
+Beckford. I am not sure you have not been at Medmenham Abbey. You have
+lived with players, poets, and all sorts of wild people. I have been
+warned against you, sir, and I find you----"
+
+"Not so black as I have been painted," I interrupted his lordship, with
+a smile.
+
+"Faith," says my lord, "if I tell Sir George Warrington that he seems to
+me a very harmless, quiet gentleman, and that 'tis a great relief to me
+to talk to him amidst these loud politicians; these lawyers with their
+perpetual noise about Greece and Rome; these Virginian squires who are
+for ever professing their loyalty and respect, whilst they are shaking
+their fists in my face--I hope nobody overhears us," says my lord, with
+an arch smile, "and nobody will carry my opinions home."
+
+His lordship's ill opinion having been removed by a better knowledge of
+me, our acquaintance daily grew more intimate; and, especially between
+the ladies of his family and my own, a close friendship arose--between
+them and my wife at least. Hal's wife, received kindly at the little
+provincial court, as all ladies were, made herself by no means popular
+there by the hot and eager political tone which she adopted. She
+assailed all the Government measures with indiscriminating acrimony.
+Were they lenient? She said the perfidious British Government was only
+preparing a snare, and biding its time until it could forge heavier
+chains for unhappy America. Were they angry? Why did not every American
+citizen rise, assert his rights as a freeman, and serve every British
+governor, officer, soldier, as they had treated the East India Company's
+tea? My mother, on the other hand, was pleased to express her opinions
+with equal frankness, and, indeed, to press her advice upon his
+Excellency with a volubility which may have fatigued that representative
+of the Sovereign. Call out the militia; send for fresh troops from New
+York, from home, from anywhere; lock up the Capitol! (this advice
+was followed, it must be owned) and send every one of the ringleaders
+amongst those wicked burgesses to prison! was Madam Esmond's daily
+counsel to the Governor by word and letter. And if not only the
+burgesses, but the burgesses' wives could have been led off to
+punishment and captivity, I think this Brutus of a woman would scarce
+have appealed against the sentence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVII. The Last of God Save the King
+
+
+What perverse law of Fate is it that ever places me in a minority?
+Should a law be proposed to hand over this realm to the Pretender of
+Rome, or the Grand Turk, and submit it to the new sovereign's religion,
+it might pass, as I should certainly be voting against it. At home in
+Virginia, I found myself disagreeing with everybody as usual. By the
+Patriots I was voted (as indeed I professed myself to be) a Tory; by the
+Tories I was presently declared to be a dangerous Republican. The time
+was utterly out of joint. O cursed spite! Ere I had been a year in
+Virginia, how I wished myself back by the banks of the Waveney! But the
+aspect of affairs was so troublous, that I could not leave my mother,
+a lone lady, to face possible war and disaster, nor would she quit the
+country at such a juncture, nor should a man of spirit leave it. At his
+Excellency's table, and over his Excellency's plentiful claret, that
+point was agreed on by numbers of the well-affected, that vow was vowed
+over countless brimming bumpers. No: it was statue signum, signifer!
+We Cavaliers would all rally round it; and at these times, our Governor
+talked like the bravest of the brave.
+
+Now, I will say, of all my Virginian acquaintance, Madam Esmond was the
+most consistent. Our gentlefolks had come in numbers to Williamsburg;
+and a great number of them proposed to treat her Excellency, the
+Governor's lady, to a ball, when the news reached us of the Boston Port
+Bill. Straightway the House of Burgesses adopts an indignant protest
+against this measure of the British Parliament, and decrees a solemn day
+of fast and humiliation throughout the country, and of solemn prayer to
+Heaven to avert the calamity of Civil War. Meanwhile, the invitation to
+my Lady Dunmore having been already given and accepted, the gentlemen
+agreed that their ball should take place on the appointed evening, and
+then sackcloth and ashes should be assumed some days afterwards.
+
+"A ball!" says Madam Esmond. "I go to a ball which is given by a set of
+rebels who are going publicly to insult his Majesty a week afterwards!
+I will die sooner!" And she wrote to the gentlemen who were stewards for
+the occasion to say, that viewing the dangerous state of the country,
+she, for her part, could not think of attending a ball.
+
+What was her surprise then, the next time she went abroad in her chair,
+to be cheered by a hundred persons, white and black, and shouts of
+"Huzzah, Madam!" "Heaven bless your ladyship!" They evidently thought
+her patriotism had caused her determination not to go to the ball.
+
+Madam, that there should be no mistake, puts her head out of the chair,
+and cries out "God save the King" as loud as she can. The people cried
+"God save the King," too. Everybody cried "God save the King" in those
+days. On the night of that entertainment, my poor Harry, as a Burgess
+of the House, and one of the givers of the feast, donned his uniform red
+coat of Wolfe's (which he so soon was to exchange for another colour),
+and went off with Madam Fanny to the ball. My Lady Warrington and her
+humble servant, as being strangers in the country, and English people as
+it were, were permitted by Madam to attend the assembly from which she
+of course absented herself. I had the honour to dance a country-dance
+with the lady of Mount Vernon, whom I found a most lively, pretty, and
+amiable partner; but am bound to say that my wife's praises of her were
+received with a very grim acceptance by my mother, when Lady Warrington
+came to recount the events of the evening. Could not Sir George
+Warrington have danced with my Lady Dunmore or her daughters, or with
+anybody but Mrs. Washington; to be sure the Colonel thought so well of
+himself and his wife, that no doubt he considered her the grandest lady
+in the room; and she who remembered him a road-surveyor at a guinea a
+day! Well, indeed! there was no measuring the pride of these provincial
+upstarts, and as for this gentleman, my Lord Dunmore's partiality for
+him had evidently turned his head. I do not know about Mr. Washington's
+pride, I know that my good mother never could be got to love him or
+anything that was his.
+
+She was no better pleased with him for going to the ball, than with his
+conduct three days afterwards, when the day of fast and humiliation
+was appointed, and when he attended the service which our new clergyman
+performed. She invited Mr. Belman to dinner that day, and sundry
+colonial authorities. The clergyman excused himself. Madam Esmond tossed
+up her head, and said he might do as he liked. She made a parade of a
+dinner; she lighted her house up at night, when all the rest of the city
+was in darkness and gloom; she begged Mr. Hardy, one of his Excellency's
+aides-de-camp, to sing "God save the King," to which the people in
+the street outside listened, thinking that it might be a part of some
+religious service which Madam was celebrating; but then she called
+for "Britons, strike home!" which the simple young gentleman just from
+Europe began to perform, when a great yell arose in the street, and
+a large stone, flung from some rebellious hand, plumped into the
+punch-bowl before me, and scattered it and its contents about our
+dining-room.
+
+My mother went to the window nothing daunted. I can see her rigid little
+figure now, as she stands with a tossed-up head, outstretched frilled
+arms, and the twinkling stars for a background, and sings in chorus,
+"Britons, strike home! strike home!" The crowd in front of the palings
+shout and roar, "Silence! for shame! go back!" but she will not go back,
+not she. "Fling more stones, if you dare!" says the brave little lady;
+and more might have come, but some gentlemen issuing out of the Raley
+Tavern interpose with the crowd. "You mustn't insult a lady," says a
+voice I think I know. "Huzza, Colonel! Hurrah, Captain! God bless
+your honour!" say the people in the street. And thus the enemies are
+pacified.
+
+My mother, protesting that the whole disturbance was over, would have
+had Mr. Hardy sing another song, but he gave a sickly grin, and said,
+"he really did not like to sing to such accompaniments," and the
+concert for that evening was ended; though I am bound to say that some
+scoundrels returned at night, frightened my poor wife almost out of
+wits, and broke every single window in the front of our tenement.
+"Britons, strike home!" was a little too much; Madam should have
+contented herself with "God save the King." Militia was drilled,
+bullets were cast, supplies of ammunition got ready, cunning plans for
+disappointing the royal ordinances devised and carried out; but, to be
+sure, "God save the King" was the cry everywhere, and in reply to my
+objections to the gentlemen-patriots, "Why, you are scheming for a
+separation; you are bringing down upon you the inevitable wrath of the
+greatest power in the world!"--the answer to me always was, "We mean no
+separation at all; we yield to no men in loyalty; we glory in the name
+of Britons," and so forth, and so forth. The powder-barrels were heaped
+in the cellar, the train was laid, but Mr. Fawkes was persistent in his
+dutiful petitions to King and Parliament and meant no harm, not he!
+'Tis true when I spoke of the power of our country, I imagined she
+would exert it; that she would not expect to overcome three millions
+of fellow-Britons on their own soil with a few battalions, a half-dozen
+generals from Bond Street, and a few thousand bravos hired out of
+Germany. As if we wanted to insult the thirteen colonies as well as to
+subdue them, we must set upon them these hordes of Hessians, and the
+murderers out of the Indian wigwams. Was our great quarrel not to be
+fought without tali auxilio and istis defensoribus? Ah! 'tis easy, now
+we are worsted, to look over the map of the great empire wrested from
+us, and show how we ought not to have lost it. Long Island ought to
+have exterminated Washington's army; he ought never to have come out of
+Valley Forge except as a prisoner. The South was ours after the battle
+of Camden, but for the inconceivable meddling of the Commander-in-Chief
+at New York, who paralysed the exertions of the only capable British
+General who appeared during the war, and sent him into that miserable
+cul-de-sac at York Town, whence he could only issue defeated and a
+prisoner. Oh, for a week more! a day more, an hour more of darkness
+or light! In reading over our American campaigns from their unhappy
+commencement to their inglorious end, now that we are able to see the
+enemy's movements and conditions as well as our own, I fancy we can see
+how an advance, a march, might have put enemies into our power who had
+no means to withstand it, and changed the entire issue of the struggle.
+But it was ordained by Heaven, and for the good, as we can now have no
+doubt, of both empires, that the great Western Republic should separate
+from us: and the gallant soldiers who fought on her side, their
+indomitable and heroic Chief above all, had the glory of facing and
+overcoming, not only veteran soldiers amply provided and inured to war,
+but wretchedness, cold, hunger, dissensions, treason within their own
+camp, where all must have gone to rack, but for the pure unquenchable
+flame of patriotism that was for ever burning in the bosom of the
+heroic leader. What a constancy, what a magnanimity, what a surprising
+persistence against fortune! Washington before the enemy was no better
+nor braver than hundreds that fought with him or against him (who has
+not heard the repeated sneers against "Fabius" in which his factious
+captains were accustomed to indulge?), but Washington the Chief of a
+nation in arms, doing battle with distracted parties; calm in the midst
+of conspiracy; serene against the open foe before him and the darker
+enemies at his back; Washington inspiring order and spirit into troops
+hungry and in rags; stung by ingratitude, but betraying no anger, and
+ever ready to forgive; in defeat invincible, magnanimous in conquest,
+and never so sublime as on that day when he laid down his victorious
+sword and sought his noble retirement:--here indeed is a character to
+admire and revere; a life without a stain, a fame without a flaw. Quando
+invenies parem? In that more extensive work, which I have planned and
+partly written on the subject of this great war, I hope I have done
+justice to the character of its greatest leader. [And I trust that in
+the opinions I have recorded regarding him, I have shown that I also
+can be just and magnanimous towards those who view me personally with
+no favour. For my brother Hal being at Mount Vernon, and always eager to
+bring me and his beloved Chief on good terms, showed his Excellency some
+of the early sheets of my History. General Washington (who read but
+few books, and had not the slightest pretensions to literary taste)
+remarked, "If you will have my opinion, my dear General, I think Sir
+George's projected work, from the specimen I have of it, is certain
+to offend both parties."--G. E. W.]. And this from the sheer force
+of respect which his eminent virtues extorted. With the young Mr.
+Washington of my own early days I had not the honour to enjoy much
+sympathy: though my brother, whose character is much more frank and
+affectionate than mine, was always his fast friend in early times, when
+they were equals, as in latter days when the General, as I do own and
+think, was all mankind's superior.
+
+I have mentioned that contrariety in my disposition, and, perhaps, in my
+brother's, which somehow placed us on wrong sides in the quarrel which
+ensued, and which from this time forth raged for five years, until the
+mother country was fain to acknowledge her defeat. Harry should have
+been the Tory, and I the Whig. Theoretically my opinions were very
+much more liberal than those of my brother, who, especially after
+his marriage, became what our Indian nabobs call a Bahadoor--a person
+ceremonious, stately, and exacting respect. When my Lord Dunmore, for
+instance, talked about liberating the negroes, so as to induce them to
+join the King's standard, Hal was for hanging the Governor and the Black
+Guards (as he called them) whom his Excellency had crimped. "If you,
+gentlemen are fighting for freedom," says I, "sure the negroes may
+fight, too." On which Harry roars out, shaking his fist, "Infernal
+villains, if I meet any of 'em, they shall die by this hand!" And
+my mother agreed that this idea of a negro insurrection was the most
+abominable and parricidal notion which had ever sprung up in her unhappy
+country. She at least was more consistent than brother Hal. She would
+have black and white obedient to the powers that be: whereas Hal only
+could admit that freedom was the right of the latter colour.
+
+As a proof of her argument, Madam Esmond and Harry too would point to
+an instance in our own family in the person of Mr. Gumbo. Having got his
+freedom from me, as a reward for his admirable love and fidelity to me
+when times were hard, Gumbo, on his return to Virginia, was scarce a
+welcome guest in his old quarters, amongst my mother's servants. He was
+free, and they were not: he was, as it were, a centre of insurrection.
+He gave himself no small airs of protection and consequence amongst
+them; bragging of his friends in Europe ("at home," as he called it),
+and his doings there; and for a while bringing the household round about
+him to listen to him and admire him, like the monkey who had seen the
+world. Now, Sady, Hal's boy, who went to America of his own desire,
+was not free. Hence jealousies between him and Mr. Gum; and battles,
+in which they both practised the noble art of boxing and butting, which
+they had learned at Marybone Gardens and Hockley-in-the-Hole. Nor was
+Sady the only jealous person: almost all my mother's servants hated
+Signor Gumbo for the airs which he gave himself; and I am sorry to
+say, that our faithful Molly, his wife, was as jealous as his old
+fellow-servants. The blacks could not pardon her for having demeaned
+herself so far as to marry one of their kind. She met with no respect,
+could exercise no authority, came to her mistress with ceaseless
+complaints of the idleness, knavery, lies, stealing of the black people;
+and finally with a story of jealousy against a certain Dinah, or Diana,
+who, I heartily trust, was as innocent as her namesake the moonlight
+visitant of Endymion. Now, on the article of morality Madam Esmond was
+a very Draconess; and a person accused was a person guilty. She made
+charges against Mr. Gumbo to which he replied with asperity. Forgetting
+that he was a free gentleman, my mother now ordered Gumbo to be whipped,
+on which Molly flew at her ladyship, all her wrath at her husband's
+infidelity vanishing at the idea of the indignity put upon him; there
+was a rebellion in our house at Castlewood. A quarrel took place between
+me and my mother, as I took my man's side. Hal and Fanny sided with her,
+on the contrary; and in so far the difference did good, as it brought
+about some little intimacy between Madam and her younger children.
+This little difference was speedily healed; but it was clear that
+the Standard of Insurrection must be removed out of our house; and we
+determined that Mr. Gumbo and his lady should return to Europe.
+
+My wife and I would willingly have gone with them, God wot, for our
+boy sickened and lost his strength, and caught the fever in our swampy
+country; but at this time she was expecting to lie in (of our son
+Henry), and she knew, too, that I had promised to stay in Virginia. It
+was agreed that we should send the two back; but when I offered Theo to
+go, she said her place was with her husband;--her father and Hetty at
+home would take care of our children; and she scarce would allow me to
+see a tear in her eyes whilst she was making her preparations for the
+departure of her little ones. Dost thou remember the time, madam, and
+the silence round the worktables, as the piles of little shirts are made
+ready for the voyage? and the stealthy visits to the children's chambers
+whilst they are asleep and yet with you? and the terrible time of
+parting, as our barge with the servants and children rows to the ship,
+and you stand on the shore? Had the Prince of Wales been going on that
+voyage, he could not have been better provided. Where, sirrah, is the
+Tompion watch your grandmother gave you? and how did you survive the
+boxes of cakes which the good lady stowed away in your cabin?
+
+The ship which took out my poor Theo's children, returned with the
+Reverend Mr. Hagan and my Lady Maria on board, who meekly chose to
+resign her rank, and was known in the colony (which was not to be a
+colony very long) only as Mrs. Hagan. At the time when I was in favour
+with my Lord Dunmore, a living falling vacant in Westmoreland county, he
+gave it to our kinsman, who arrived in Virginia time enough to christen
+our boy Henry, and to preach some sermons on the then gloomy state of
+affairs, which Madam Esmond pronounced to be prodigious fine. I think my
+Lady Maria won Madam's heart by insisting on going out of the room after
+her. "My father, your brother, was an earl, 'tis true," says she, "but
+you know your ladyship is a marquis's daughter, and I never can think of
+taking precedence of you!" So fond did Madam become of her niece, that
+she even allowed Hagan to read plays--my own humble compositions amongst
+others--and was fairly forced to own that there was merit in the tragedy
+of Pocahontas, which our parson delivered with uncommon energy and fire.
+
+Hal and his wife came but rarely to Castlewood and Richmond when the
+chaplain and his lady were with us. Fanny was very curt and rude with
+Maria, used to giggle and laugh strangely in her company, and repeatedly
+remind her of her age, to our mother's astonishment, who would
+often ask, was there any cause of quarrel between her niece and her
+daughter-in-law? I kept my own counsel on these occasions, and was often
+not a little touched by the meekness with which the elder lady bore her
+persecutions. Fanny loved to torture her in her husband's presence
+(who, poor fellow, was also in happy ignorance about his wife's early
+history), and the other bore her agony, wincing as little as might be. I
+sometimes would remonstrate with Madam Harry, and ask her was she a Red
+Indian, that she tortured her victims so? "Have not I had torture
+enough in my time?" says the young lady, and looked as though she was
+determined to pay back the injuries inflicted on her.
+
+"Nay," says I, "you were bred in our wigwam, and I don't remember
+anything but kindness!"
+
+"Kindness!" cries she. "No slave was ever treated as I was. The blows
+which wound most, often are those which never are aimed. The people who
+hate us are not those we have injured."
+
+I thought of little Fanny in our early days, silent, smiling, willing to
+run and do all our biddings for us, and I grieved for my poor brother,
+who had taken this sly creature into his bosom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVIII. Yankee Doodle comes to Town
+
+
+One of the uses to which we put America in the days of our British
+dominion was to make it a refuge for our sinners. Besides convicts and
+assigned servants whom we transported to our colonies, we discharged
+on their shores scapegraces and younger sons, for whom dissipation,
+despair, and bailiffs made the old country uninhabitable. And as Mr.
+Cook, in his voyages, made his newly discovered islanders presents of
+English animals (and other specimens of European civilisation), we used
+to take care to send samples of our black sheep over to the colonies,
+there to browse as best they might, and propagate their precious breed.
+I myself was perhaps a little guilty in this matter, in busying
+myself to find a living in America for the worthy Hagan, husband of my
+kinswoman,--at least was guilty in so far as this, that as we could get
+him no employment in England, we were glad to ship him to Virginia, and
+give him a colonial pulpit-cushion to thump. He demeaned himself there
+as a brave honest gentleman, to be sure; he did his duty thoroughly by
+his congregation, and his king too; and in so far did credit to my
+small patronage. Madam Theo used to urge this when I confided to her my
+scruples of conscience on this subject, and show, as her custom was and
+is, that my conduct in this, as in all other matters, was dictated by
+the highest principle of morality and honour. But would I have given
+Hagan our living at home, and selected him and his wife to minister
+to our parish? I fear not. I never had a doubt of our cousin's sincere
+repentance; but I think I was secretly glad when she went to work it out
+in the wilderness. And I say this, acknowledging my pride and my error.
+Twice, when I wanted them most, this kind Maria aided me with her
+sympathy and friendship. She bore her own distresses courageously, and
+soothed those of others with admirable affection and devotion. And yet
+I, and some of mine (not Theo), would look down upon her. Oh, for shame,
+for shame on our pride!
+
+My poor Lady Maria was not the only one of our family who was to be
+sent out of the way to American wildernesses. Having borrowed, stolen,
+cheated at home, until he could cheat, borrow, and steal no more, the
+Honourable William Esmond, Esquire, was accommodated with a place at New
+York; and his noble brother and royal master heartily desired that they
+might see him no more. When the troubles began, we heard of the fellow
+and his doings in his new habitation. Lies and mischief were his
+avant-couriers wherever he travelled. My Lord Dunmore informed me that
+Mr. Will declared publicly, that our estate of Castlewood was only ours
+during his brother's pleasure; that his father, out of consideration for
+Madam Esmond, his lordship's half-sister, had given her the place for
+life, and that he, William, was in negotiation with his brother, the
+present Lord Castlewood, for the purchase of the reversion of the
+estate! We had the deed of gift in our strongroom at Castlewood, and it
+was furthermore registered in due form at Williamsburg; so that we were
+easy on that score. But the intention was everything; and Hal and
+I promised, as soon as ever we met Mr. William, to get from him a
+confirmation of this pretty story. What Madam Esmond's feelings and
+expressions were when she heard it, I need scarcely here particularise.
+"What! my father, the Marquis of Esmond, was a liar, and I am a cheat,
+am I?" cries my mother. "He will take my son's property at my death,
+will he?" And she was for writing, not only to Lord Castlewood in
+England, but to his Majesty himself at St. James's, and was only
+prevented by my assurance that Mr. Will's lies were notorious amongst
+all his acquaintance, and that we could not expect, in our own case,
+that he should be so inconsistent as to tell the truth. We heard of him
+presently as one of the loudest amongst the Loyalists in New York, as
+Captain, and presently Major of a corps of volunteers who were sending
+their addresses to the well-disposed in all the other colonies, and
+announcing their perfect readiness to die for the mother country.
+
+We could not lie in a house without a whole window, and closing the
+shutters of that unlucky mansion we had hired at Williamsburg, Madam
+Esmond left our little capital, and my family returned to Richmond,
+which also was deserted by the members of the (dissolved) Assembly.
+Captain Hal and his wife returned pretty early to their plantation; and
+I, not a little annoyed at the course which events were taking, divided
+my time pretty much between my own family and that of our Governor, who
+professed himself very eager to have my advice and company. There were
+the strongest political differences, but as yet no actual personal
+quarrel. Even after the dissolution of our House of Assembly (the
+members of which adjourned to a tavern, and there held that famous
+meeting where, I believe, the idea of a congress of all the colonies was
+first proposed), the gentlemen who were strongest in opposition remained
+good friends with his Excellency, partook of his hospitality, and joined
+him in excursions of pleasure. The session over, the gentry went home
+and had meetings in their respective counties; and the Assemblies in
+most of the other provinces having been also abruptly dissolved, it was
+agreed everywhere that a general congress should be held. Philadelphia,
+as the largest and most important city on our continent, was selected as
+the place of meeting; and those celebrated conferences began, which were
+but the angry preface of war. We were still at God save the King; we
+were still presenting our humble petitions to the throne; but when I
+went to visit my brother Harry at Fanny's Mount (his new plantation
+lay not far from ours, but with Rappahannock between us, and towards
+Mattaponey River), he rode out on business one morning, and I in the
+afternoon happened to ride too, and was told by one of the grooms that
+master was gone towards Willis's Ordinary; in which direction, thinking
+no harm, I followed. And upon a clear place not far from Willis's, as I
+advance out of the wood, I come on Captain Hal on horseback, with three-
+or four-and-thirty countrymen round about him, armed with every sort of
+weapon, pike, scythe, fowling-piece, and musket; and the Captain, with
+two or three likely young fellows as officers under him, putting the men
+through their exercise. As I rode up a queer expression comes over Hal's
+face. "Present arms!" says he (and the army tries to perform the salute
+as well they could). "Captain Cade, this is my brother, Sir George
+Warrington."
+
+"As a relation of yours, Colonel," says the individual addressed
+as captain, "the gentleman is welcome," and he holds out a hand
+accordingly.
+
+"And--and a true friend to Virginia," says Hal, with a reddening face.
+
+"Yes, please God! gentlemen," say I, on which the regiment gives a
+hearty huzzay for the Colonel and his brother. The drill over, the
+officers, and the men too, were for adjourning to Willis's and taking
+some refreshment, but Colonel Hal said he could not drink with them that
+afternoon, and we trotted homewards together.
+
+"So, Hal, the cat's out of the bag!" I said.
+
+He gave me a hard look. "I guess there's wilder cats in it. It must come
+to this, George. I say, you mustn't tell Madam," he adds.
+
+"Good God!" I cried, "do you mean that with fellows such as those I
+saw yonder, you and your friends are going to make fight against the
+greatest nation and the best army in the world?"
+
+"I guess we shall get an awful whipping," says Hal, "and that's the
+fact. But then, George," he added, with his sweet kind smile, "we are
+young, and a whipping or two may do us good. Won't it do us good, Dolly,
+you old slut?" and he gives a playful touch with his whip to an old dog
+of all trades, that was running by him.
+
+I did not try to urge upon him (I had done so in vain many times
+previously) our British side of the question, the side which appears to
+me to be the best. He was accustomed to put off my reasons by saying,
+"All mighty well, brother, you speak as an Englishman, and have cast in
+your lot with your country, as I have with mine." To this argument I own
+there is no answer, and all that remains for the disputants is to fight
+the matter out, when the strongest is in the right. Which had the right
+in the wars of the last century? The king or the parliament? The side
+that was uppermost was the right, and on the whole much more humane
+in their victory than the Cavaliers would have been had they won. Nay,
+suppose we Tories had won the day in America; how frightful and bloody
+that triumph would have been! What ropes and scaffolds one imagines,
+what noble heads laid low! A strange feeling this, I own; I was on the
+Loyalist side, and yet wanted the Whigs to win. My brother Hal, on the
+other hand, who distinguished himself greatly with his regiment, never
+allowed a word of disrespect against the enemy whom he opposed. "The
+officers of the British army," he used to say, "are gentlemen: at least,
+I have not heard that they are very much changed since my time. There
+may be scoundrels and ruffians amongst the enemy's troops; I dare say
+we could find some such amongst our own. Our business is to beat his
+Majesty's forces, not call them names;--any rascal can do that."
+And from a name which Mr. Lee gave my brother, and many of his rough
+horsemen did not understand, Harry was often called "Chevaleer Baird" in
+the Continental army. He was a knight, indeed, without fear and without
+reproach.
+
+As for the argument, "What could such people as those you were drilling
+do against the British army?" Hal had as confident answer.
+
+"They can beat them," says he, "Mr. George, that's what they can do."
+
+"Great heavens!" I cry, "do you mean with your company of Wolfe's you
+would hesitate to attack five hundred such?"
+
+"With my company of the 67th, I would go anywhere. And, agreed with you,
+that at this present moment I know more of soldiering than they;--but
+place me on that open ground where you found us, armed as you please,
+and half a dozen of my friends, with rifles, in the woods round
+about me; which would get the better? You know best, Mr. Braddock's
+aide-de-camp!"
+
+There was no arguing with such a determination as this. "Thou knowest my
+way of thinking, Hal," I said; "and having surprised you at your work, I
+must tell my lord what I have seen."
+
+"Tell him, of course. You have seen our county militia exercising. You
+will see as much in every colony from here to the Saint Lawrence or
+Georgia. As I am an old soldier, they have elected me colonel. What more
+natural? Come, brother, let us trot on; dinner will be ready, and Mrs.
+Fan does not like me to keep it waiting." And so we made for his house,
+which was open like all the houses of our Virginian gentlemen, and where
+not only every friend and neighbour, but every stranger and traveller,
+was sure to find a welcome.
+
+"So, Mrs. Fan," I said, "I have found out what game my brother has been
+playing."
+
+"I trust the Colonel will have plenty of sport ere long," says she, with
+a toss of her head.
+
+My wife thought Harry had been hunting, and I did not care to undeceive
+her, though what I had seen and he had told me, made me naturally very
+anxious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIX. A Colonel without a Regiment
+
+
+When my visit to my brother was concluded, and my wife and young child
+had returned to our maternal house at Richmond, I made it my business to
+go over to our Governor, then at his country house, near Williamsburg,
+and confer with him regarding these open preparations for war, which
+were being made not only in our own province, but in every one of the
+colonies as far as we could learn. Gentlemen, with whose names history
+has since made all the world familiar, were appointed from Virginia as
+Delegates to the General Congress about to be held in Philadelphia. In
+Massachusetts the people and the Royal troops were facing each other
+almost in open hostility: in Maryland and Pennsylvania we flattered
+ourselves that a much more loyal spirit was prevalent: in the Carolinas
+and Georgia the mother country could reckon upon staunch adherents, and
+a great majority of the inhabitants: and it never was to be supposed
+that our own Virginia would forgo its ancient loyalty. We had but few
+troops in the province, but its gentry were proud of their descent from
+the Cavaliers of the old times: and round about our Governor were swarms
+of loud and confident Loyalists who were only eager for the moment when
+they might draw the sword, and scatter the rascally rebels before them.
+Of course, in these meetings I was forced to hear many a hard word
+against my poor Harry. His wife, all agreed (and not without good
+reason, perhaps), had led him to adopt these extreme anti-British
+opinions which he had of late declared; and he was infatuated by his
+attachment to the gentleman of Mount Vernon, it was farther said, whose
+opinions my brother always followed, and who, day by day, was committing
+himself farther in the dreadful and desperate course of resistance.
+"This is your friend," the people about his Excellency said, "this is
+the man you favoured, who has had your special confidence, and who has
+repeatedly shared your hospitality!" It could not but be owned much of
+this was true: though what some of our eager Loyalists called treachery
+was indeed rather a proof of the longing desire Mr. Washington and other
+gentlemen had, not to withdraw from their allegiance to the Crown, but
+to remain faithful, and exhaust the very last chance of reconciliation,
+before they risked the other terrible alternative of revolt and
+separation. Let traitors arm, and villains draw the parricidal sword! We
+at least would remain faithful; the unconquerable power of England would
+be exerted, and the misguided and ungrateful provinces punished and
+brought back to their obedience. With what cheers we drank his Majesty's
+health after our banquets! We would die in defence of his rights; we
+would have a Prince of his Royal house to come and govern his ancient
+dominions! In consideration of my own and my excellent mother's loyalty,
+my brother's benighted conduct should be forgiven. Was it yet too late
+to secure him by offering him a good command? Would I not intercede
+with him, who, it was known, had a great influence over him? In our
+Williamsburg councils we were alternately in every state of exaltation
+and triumph, of hope, of fury against the rebels, of anxious expectancy
+of home succour, of doubt, distrust, and gloom.
+
+I promised to intercede with my brother; and wrote to him, I own, with
+but little hope of success, repeating, and trying to strengthen the
+arguments which I had many a time used in our conversations. My mother,
+too, used her authority; but from this, I own, I expected little
+advantage. She assailed him, as her habit was, with such texts of
+Scripture as she thought bore out her own opinion, and threatened
+punishment to him. She menaced him with the penalties which must fall
+upon those who were disobedient to the powers that be. She pointed to
+his elder brother's example; and hinted, I fear, at his subjection to
+his wife, the very worst argument she could use in such a controversy.
+She did not show me her own letter to him; possibly she knew I might
+find fault with the energy of some of the expressions she thought proper
+to employ; but she showed me his answer, from which I gathered what the
+style and tenor of her argument had been. And if Madam Esmond brought
+Scripture to her aid, Mr. Hal, to my surprise, brought scores of texts
+to bear upon her in reply, and addressed her in a very neat, temperate,
+and even elegant composition, which I thought his wife herself was
+scarcely capable of penning. Indeed, I found he had enlisted the
+services of Mr. Belman, the New Richmond clergyman, who had taken up
+strong opinions on the Whig side, and who preached and printed sermons
+against Hagan (who, as I have said, was of our faction), in which I fear
+Belman had the best of the dispute.
+
+My exhortations to Hal had no more success than our mother's. He did
+not answer my letters. Being still farther pressed by the friends of the
+Government, I wrote over most imprudently to say I would visit him at
+the end of the week at Fanny's Mount; but on arriving, I only found my
+sister, who received me with perfect cordiality, but informed me that
+Hal was gone into the country, ever so far towards the Blue Mountains
+to look at some horses, and was to be away--she did not know how long he
+was to be away!
+
+I knew then there was no hope. "My dear," I said, "as far as I can judge
+from the signs of the times, the train that has been laid these years
+must have a match put to it before long. Harry is riding away. God knows
+to what end."
+
+"The Lord prosper the righteous cause, Sir George," says she.
+
+"Amen, with all my heart. You and he speak as Americans; I as an
+Englishman. Tell him from me, that when anything in the course of nature
+shall happen to our mother, I have enough for me and mine in England,
+and shall resign all our land here in Virginia to him."
+
+"You don't mean that, George?" she cries, with brightening eyes. "Well,
+to be sure, it is but right and fair," she presently added. "Why should
+you, who are the eldest but by an hour, have everything? a palace and
+lands in England--the plantation here--the title--and children--and
+my poor Harry none? But 'tis generous of you all the same--leastways
+handsome and proper, and I didn't expect it of you; and you don't take
+after your mother in this, Sir George, that you don't, nohow. Give my
+love to sister Theo!" And she offers me a cheek to kiss, ere I ride away
+from her door. With such a woman as Fanny to guide him, how could I hope
+to make a convert of my brother?
+
+Having met with this poor success in my enterprise, I rode back to our
+Governor, with whom I agreed that it was time to arm in earnest, and
+prepare ourselves against the shock that certainly was at hand. He and
+his whole Court of Officials were not a little agitated and excited;
+needlessly savage, I thought, in their abuse of the wicked Whigs, and
+loud in their shouts of Old England for ever; but they were all eager
+for the day when the contending parties could meet hand to hand, and
+they could have an opportunity of riding those wicked Whigs down. And I
+left my lord, having received the thanks of his Excellency in Council,
+and engaged to do my best endeavours to raise a body of men in defence
+of the Crown. Hence the corps, called afterwards the Westmoreland
+Defenders, had its rise, of which I had the honour to be appointed
+Colonel, and which I was to command when it appeared in the field. And
+that fortunate event must straightway take place, so soon as the county
+knew that a gentleman of my station and name would take the command of
+the force. The announcement was duly made in the Government Gazette, and
+we filled in our officers readily enough; but the recruits, it must
+be owned, were slow to come in, and quick to disappear. Nevertheless,
+friend Hagan eagerly came forward to offer himself as chaplain. Madam
+Esmond gave us our colours, and progressed about the country engaging
+volunteers; but the most eager recruiter of all was my good old tutor,
+little Mr. Dempster, who had been out as a boy on the Jacobite side in
+Scotland, and who went specially into the Carolinas, among the children
+of his banished old comrades, who had worn the white cockade of Prince
+Charles, and who most of all showed themselves in this contest still
+loyal to the Crown.
+
+Hal's expedition in search of horses led him not only so far as the Blue
+Mountains in our colony, but thence on a long journey to Annapolis
+and Baltimore; and from Baltimore to Philadelphia, to be sure; where
+a second General Congress was now sitting, attended by our Virginian
+gentlemen of the last year. Meanwhile, all the almanacs tell what had
+happened. Lexington had happened, and the first shots were fired in the
+war which was to end in the independence of our native country. We still
+protested of our loyalty to his Majesty; but we stated our determination
+to die or be free; and some twenty thousand of our loyal petitioners
+assembled round about Boston with arms in their hands and cannon, to
+which they had helped themselves out of the Government stores. Mr.
+Arnold had begun that career which was to end so brilliantly, by the
+daring and burglarious capture of two forts, of which he forced the
+doors. Three generals from Bond Street, with a large reinforcement,
+were on their way to help Mr. Gage out of his ugly position at Boston.
+Presently the armies were actually engaged; and our British generals
+commenced their career of conquest and pacification in the colonies by
+the glorious blunder of Breed's Hill. Here they fortified themselves,
+feeling themselves not strong enough for the moment to win any more
+glorious victories over the rebels; and the two armies lay watching
+each other whilst Congress was deliberating at Philadelphia who should
+command the forces of the confederated colonies.
+
+We all know on whom the most fortunate choice of the nation fell. Of the
+Virginian regiment which marched to join the new General-in-Chief, one
+was commanded by Henry Esmond Warrington, Esq., late a Captain in
+his Majesty's service; and by his side rode his little wife, of whose
+bravery we often subsequently heard. I was glad, for one, that she had
+quitted Virginia; for, had she remained after her husband's departure,
+our mother would infallibly have gone over to give her battle; and I was
+thankful, at least, that that terrific incident of civil war was spared
+to our family and history.
+
+The rush of our farmers and country-folk was almost all directed towards
+the new northern army; and our people were not a little flattered at
+the selection of a Virginian gentleman for the principal command. With
+a thrill of wrath and fury the provinces heard of the blood drawn
+at Lexington; and men yelled denunciations against the cruelty and
+wantonness of the bloody British invader. The invader was but doing his
+duty, and was met and resisted by men in arms, who wished to prevent him
+from helping himself to his own; but people do not stay to weigh their
+words when they mean to be angry; the colonists had taken their side;
+and, with what I own to be a natural spirit and ardour, were determined
+to have a trial of strength with the braggart domineering mother
+country. Breed's Hill became a mountain, as it were, which all men of
+the American Continent might behold, with Liberty, Victory, Glory, on
+its flaming summit. These dreaded troops could be withstood, then, by
+farmers and ploughmen. These famous officers could be outgeneralled by
+doctors, lawyers, and civilians! Granted that Britons could conquer
+all the world;--here were their children who could match and conquer
+Britons! Indeed, I don't know which of the two deserves the palm, either
+for bravery or vainglory. We are in the habit of laughing at our French
+neighbours for boasting, gasconading, and so forth; but for a steady
+self-esteem and indomitable confidence in our own courage, greatness,
+magnanimity;--who can compare with Britons, except their children across
+the Atlantic?
+
+The people round about us took the people's side for the most part
+in the struggle, and, truth to say, Sir George Warrington found his
+regiment of Westmoreland Defenders but very thinly manned at the
+commencement, and woefully diminished in numbers presently, not only
+after the news of battle from the north, but in consequence of the
+behaviour of my Lord our Governor, whose conduct enraged no one more
+than his own immediate partisans, and the loyal adherents of the Crown
+throughout the colony. That he would plant the King's standard, and
+summon all loyal gentlemen to rally round it, had been a measure agreed
+in countless meetings, and applauded over thousands of bumpers. I have a
+pretty good memory, and could mention the name of many a gentleman, now
+a smug officer of the United States Government, whom I have heard hiccup
+out a prayer that he might be allowed to perish under the folds of his
+country's flag; or roar a challenge to the bloody traitors absent with
+the rebel army. But let bygones be bygones. This, however, is matter of
+public history, that his lordship, our Governor, a peer of Scotland, the
+Sovereign's representative in his Old Dominion, who so loudly invited
+all the lieges to join the King's standard, was the first to put it in
+his pocket, and fly to his ships out of reach of danger. He would not
+leave them, save as a pirate at midnight to burn and destroy. Meanwhile,
+we loyal gentry remained on shore, committed to our cause, and only
+subject to greater danger in consequence of the weakness and cruelty of
+him who ought to have been our leader. It was the beginning of June, our
+orchards and gardens were all blooming with plenty and summer; a week
+before I had been over at Williamsburg, exchanging compliments with his
+Excellency, devising plans for future movements by which we should be
+able to make good head against rebellion, shaking hands heartily at
+parting, and vincere aut mori the very last words upon all our lips. Our
+little family was gathered at Richmond, talking over, as we did daily,
+the prospect of affairs in the north, the quarrels between our own
+Assembly and his Excellency, by whom they had been afresh convened, when
+our ghostly Hagan rushes into our parlour, and asks, "Have we heard the
+news of the Governor?"
+
+"Has he dissolved the Assembly again, and put that scoundrel Patrick
+Henry in irons?" asks Madam Esmond.
+
+"No such thing! His lordship with his lady and family have left their
+palace privately at night. They are on board a man-of-war off York,
+whence my lord has sent a despatch to the Assembly, begging them to
+continue their sitting, and announcing that he himself had only quitted
+his Government House out of fear of the fury of the people."
+
+What was to become of the sheep, now the shepherd had run away? No
+entreaties could be more pathetic than those of the gentlemen of the
+House of Assembly, who guaranteed their Governor security if he would
+but land, and implored him to appear amongst them, if but to pass bills
+and transact the necessary business. No: the man-of-war was his seat of
+government, and my lord desired his House of Commons to wait upon him
+there. This was erecting the King's standard with a vengeance. Our
+Governor had left us; our Assembly perforce ruled in his stead; a rabble
+of people followed the fugitive Viceroy on board his ships. A mob of
+negroes deserted out of the plantations to join this other deserter. He
+and his black allies landed here and there in darkness, and emulated the
+most lawless of our opponents in their alacrity at seizing and burning.
+He not only invited runaway negroes, but he sent an ambassador to
+Indians with entreaties to join his standard. When he came on shore it
+was to burn and destroy: when the people resisted, as at Norfolk and
+Hampton, he retreated and betook himself to his ships again.
+
+Even my mother, after that miserable flight of our chief, was scared
+at the aspect of affairs, and doubted of the speedy putting down of
+the rebellion. The arming of the negroes was, in her opinion, the most
+cowardly blow of all. The loyal gentry were ruined, and robbed, many of
+them, of their only property. A score of our worst hands deserted from
+Richmond and Castlewood, and fled to our courageous Governor's fleet;
+not all of them, though some of them, were slain, and a couple hung by
+the enemy for plunder and robbery perpetrated whilst with his lordship's
+precious army. Because her property was wantonly injured, and his
+Majesty's chief officer an imbecile, would Madam Esmond desert the
+cause of Royalty and Honour? My good mother was never so prodigiously
+dignified, and loudly and enthusiastically loyal, as after she heard of
+our Governor's lamentable defection. The people round about her, though
+most of them of quite a different way of thinking, listened to her
+speeches without unkindness. Her oddities were known far and wide
+through our province; where, I am afraid, many of the wags amongst our
+young men were accustomed to smoke her, as the phrase then was, and draw
+out her stories about the Marquis her father, about the splendour of
+her family, and so forth. But along with her oddities, her charities and
+kindness were remembered, and many a rebel, as she called them, had a
+sneaking regard for the pompous little Tory lady.
+
+As for the Colonel of the Westmoreland Defenders, though that
+gentleman's command dwindled utterly away after the outrageous conduct
+of his chief, yet I escaped from some very serious danger which might
+have befallen me and mine in consequence of some disputes which I was
+known to have had with my Lord Dunmore. Going on board his ship after
+he had burned the stores at Hampton, and issued the proclamation calling
+the negroes to his standard, I made so free as to remonstrate with him
+in regard to both measures; I implored him to return to Williamsburg,
+where hundreds of us, thousands, I hoped, would be ready to defend him
+to the last extremity; and in my remonstrance used terms so free, or
+rather, as I suspect, indicated my contempt for his conduct so clearly
+by my behaviour, that his lordship flew into a rage, said I was a rebel
+like all the rest of them, and ordered me under arrest there on board
+his own ship. In my quality of militia officer (since the breaking out
+of the troubles I commonly used a red coat, to show that I wore the
+King's colour) I begged for a court-martial immediately; and turning
+round to two officers who had been present during our altercation,
+desired them to remember all that had passed between his lordship
+and me. These gentlemen were no doubt of my way of thinking as to
+the chief's behaviour, and our interview ended in my going ashore
+unaccompanied by a guard. The story got wind amongst the Whig gentry,
+and was improved in the telling. I had spoken out my mind manfully to
+the Governor; no Whig could have uttered sentiments more liberal. When
+riots took place in Richmond, and of the Loyalists remaining there, many
+were in peril of life and betook themselves to the ships, my mother's
+property and house were never endangered, nor her family insulted.
+We were still at the stage when a reconciliation was fondly thought
+possible. "Ah! if all the Tories were like you," a distinguished Whig
+has said to me, "we and the people at home should soon come together
+again." This, of course, was before the famous Fourth of July, and that
+Declaration which rendered reconcilement impossible. Afterwards, when
+parties grew more rancorous, motives much less creditable were assigned
+for my conduct, and it was said I chose to be a Liberal Tory because
+I was a cunning fox, and wished to keep my estate whatever way things
+went. And this, I am bound to say, is the opinion regarding my humble
+self which has obtained in very high quarters at home, where a profound
+regard for my own interest has been supposed not uncommonly to have
+occasioned my conduct during the late unhappy troubles.
+
+There were two or three persons in the world (for I had not told my
+mother how I was resolved to cede to my brother all my life-interest
+in our American property) who knew that I had no mercenary motives in
+regard to the conduct I pursued. It was not worth while to undeceive
+others; what were life worth, if a man were forced to feel himself a la
+piste of all the calumnies uttered against him? And I do not quite know
+to this present day, how it happened that my mother, that notorious
+Loyalist, was left for several years quite undisturbed in her house at
+Castlewood, a stray troop or company of Continentals being occasionally
+quartered upon her. I do not know for certain, I say, how this piece of
+good fortune happened, though I can give a pretty shrewd guess as to the
+cause of it. Madam Fanny, after a campaign before Boston, came back to
+Fanny's Mount, leaving her Colonel. My modest Hal, until the conclusion
+of the war, would accept no higher rank, believing that in command of
+a regiment he could be more useful than in charge of a division. Madam
+Fanny, I say, came back, and it was remarkable after her return how
+her old asperity towards my mother seemed to be removed, and what an
+affection she showed for her and all the property. She was great friends
+with the Governor and some of the most influential gentlemen of the new
+Assembly:--Madam Esmond was harmless, and for her son's sake, who
+was bravely battling for his country, her errors should be lightly
+visited:--I know not how it was, but for years she remained unharmed,
+except in respect of heavy Government requisitions, which of course she
+had to pay, and it was not until the redcoats appeared about our house,
+that much serious evil came to it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XC
+
+In which we both fight and run away
+
+
+What was the use of a Colonel without a regiment? The Governor and
+Council who had made such a parade of thanks in endowing me with mine,
+were away out of sight, skulking on board ships, with an occasional
+piracy and arson on shore. My Lord Dunmore's black allies frightened
+away those of his own blood; and besides these negroes whom he had
+summoned round him in arms, we heard that he had sent an envoy among
+the Indians of the South, and that they were to come down in numbers
+and tomahawk our people into good behaviour. "And these are to be our
+allies!" I say to my mother, exchanging ominous looks with her, and
+remembering, with a ghastly distinctness, that savage whose face glared
+over mine, and whose knife was at my throat when Florac struck him down
+on Braddock's Field. We put our house of Castlewood into as good a state
+of defence as we could devise; but, in truth, it was more of the red men
+and the blacks than of the rebels we were afraid. I never saw my mother
+lose courage but once, and then when she was recounting to us the
+particulars of our father's death in a foray of Indians more than forty
+years ago. Seeing some figures one night moving in front of our house,
+nothing could persuade the good lady but that they were savages, and
+she sank on her knees crying out, "The Lord have mercy upon us! The
+Indians--the Indians!"
+
+My lord's negro allies vanished on board his ships, or where they could
+find pay and plunder; but the painted heroes from the South never made
+their appearance, though I own to have looked at my mother's grey head,
+my wife's brown hair, and our little one's golden ringlets, with a
+horrible pang of doubt lest these should fall the victims of ruffian
+war. And it was we who fought with such weapons, and enlisted these
+allies! But that I dare not (so to speak) be setting myself up as
+interpreter of Providence, and pointing out the special finger of Heaven
+(as many people are wont to do), I would say our employment of these
+Indians, and of the German mercenaries, brought their own retribution
+with them in this war. In the field, where the mercenaries were attacked
+by the Provincials, they yielded, and it was triumphing over them that
+so raised the spirit of the Continental army; and the murder of one
+woman (Miss McCrea) by a half-dozen drunken Indians, did more harm
+to the Royal cause than the loss of a battle or the destruction of
+regiments.
+
+Now, the Indian panic over, Madam Esmond's courage returned: and she
+began to be seriously and not unjustly uneasy at the danger which I ran
+myself, and which I brought upon others, by remaining in Virginia.
+
+"What harm can they do me," says she, "a poor woman? If I have one son
+a colonel without a regiment, I have another with a couple of hundred
+Continentals behind him in Mr. Washington's camp. If the Royalists come,
+they will let me off for your sake; if the rebels appear, I shall have
+Harry's passport. I don't wish, sir, I don't like that your delicate
+wife and this dear little baby should be here, and only increase the
+risk of all of us! We must have them away to Boston or New York. Don't
+talk about defending me! Who will think of hurting a poor, harmless,
+old woman? If the rebels come, I shall shelter behind Mrs. Fanny's
+petticoats, and shall be much safer without you in the house than in
+it." This she said in part, perhaps, because 'twas reasonable; more so
+because she would have me and my family out of the danger; and danger
+or not, for her part felt that she was determined to remain in the land
+where her father was buried, and she was born. She was living backwards,
+so to speak. She had seen the new generation, and blessed them, and bade
+them farewell. She belonged to the past, and old days and memories.
+
+While we were debating about the Boston scheme, comes the news that
+the British have evacuated that luckless city altogether, never having
+ventured to attack Mr. Washington in his camp at Cambridge (though he
+lay there for many months without powder at our mercy); but waiting
+until he procured ammunition, and seized and fortified Dorchester
+heights, which commanded the town, out of which the whole British army
+and colony was obliged to beat a retreat. That the King's troops won the
+battle at Bunker's Hill, there is no more doubt than that they beat the
+French at Blenheim; but through the war their chiefs seem constantly to
+have been afraid of assaulting entrenched Continentals afterwards; else
+why, from July to March, hesitate to strike an almost defenceless enemy?
+Why the hesitation at Long Island, when the Continental army was in our
+hand? Why that astonishing timorousness--of Howe before Valley Forge,
+where the relics of a force starving, sickening, and in rags, could
+scarcely man the lines, which they held before a great, victorious, and
+perfectly appointed army?
+
+As the hopes and fears of the contending parties rose and fell, it was
+curious to mark the altered tone of the partisans of either. When the
+news came to us in the country of the evacuation of Boston, every little
+Whig in the neighbourhood made his bow to Madam, and advised her to
+a speedy submission. She did not carry her loyalty quite so openly as
+heretofore, and flaunt her flag in the faces of the public, but she
+never swerved. Every night and morning in private poor Hagan prayed for
+the Royal Family in our own household, and on Sundays any neighbours
+were welcome to attend the service, where my mother acted as a very
+emphatic clerk, and the prayer for the High Court of Parliament under
+our most religious and gracious King was very stoutly delivered. The
+brave Hagan was a parson without a living, as I was a Militia Colonel
+without a regiment. Hagan had continued to pray stoutly for King George
+in Williamsburg, long after his Excellency our Governor had run away:
+but on coming to church one Sunday to perform his duty, he found a
+corporal's guard at the church-door, who told him that the Committee of
+Safety had put another divine in his place, and he was requested to keep
+a quiet tongue in his head. He told the men to "lead him before
+their chiefs" (our honest friend always loved tall words and tragic
+attitudes); and accordingly was marched through the streets to the
+Capitol, with a chorus of white and coloured blackguards at the skirts
+of his gown; and had an interview with Messrs. Henry and the new State
+officers, and confronted the robbers, as he said, in their den. Of
+course he was for making an heroic speech before these gentlemen (and
+was one of many men who perhaps would have no objection to be made
+martyrs, so that they might be roasted coram populo, or tortured in a
+full house), but Mr. Henry was determined to give him no such chance.
+After keeping Hagan three or four hours waiting in an anteroom in
+the company of negroes, when the worthy divine entered the new chief
+magistrate's room with an undaunted mien, and began a prepared speech
+with--"Sir, by what authority am I, a minister of the----" "Mr. Hagan,"
+says the other, interrupting him, "I am too busy to listen to speeches.
+And as for King George, he has henceforth no more authority in this
+country than King Nebuchadnezzar. Mind you that, and hold your tongue,
+if you please! Stick to King John, sir, and King Macbeth; and if you
+will send round your benefit-tickets, all the Assembly shall come and
+hear you. Did you ever see Mr. Hagan on the boards, when you was
+in London, General?" And, so saying, Henry turns round upon Mr.
+Washington's second in command, General Lee, who was now come into
+Virginia upon State affairs, and our shamefaced good Hagan was bustled
+out of the room, reddening, and almost crying with shame. After this
+event we thought that Hagan's ministrations were best confined to us in
+the country, and removed the worthy pastor from his restive lambs in the
+city.
+
+The selection of Virginians to the very highest civil and military
+appointments of the new government bribed and flattered many of our
+leading people, who, otherwise, and but for the outrageous conduct of
+our government, might have remained faithful to the Crown, and made
+good head against the rising rebellion. But, although we Loyalists were
+gagged and muzzled, though the Capitol was in the hands of the Whigs,
+and our vaunted levies of loyal recruits so many Falstaff's regiments
+for the most part, the faithful still kept intelligences with one
+another in the colony, and with our neighbours; and though we did
+not rise, and though we ran away, and though, in examination before
+committees, justices, and so forth, some of our frightened people gave
+themselves Republican airs, and vowed perdition to kings and nobles; yet
+we knew each other pretty well, and--according as the chances were more
+or less favourable to us, the master more or less hard--we concealed
+our colours, showed our colours, half showed our colours, or downright
+apostatised for the nonce, and cried, "Down with King George!" Our
+negroes bore about, from house to house, all sorts of messages and
+tokens. Endless underhand plots and schemes were engaged in by those who
+could not afford the light. The battle over, the neutrals come and join
+the winning side, and shout as loudly as the patriots. The runaways
+are not counted. Will any man tell me that the signers and ardent
+well-wishers of the Declaration of Independence were not in a minority
+of the nation, and that the minority did not win? We knew that apart
+of the defeated army of Massachusetts was about to make an important
+expedition southward, upon the success of which the very greatest hopes
+were founded; and I, for one, being anxious to make a movement as soon
+as there was any chance of activity, had put myself in communication
+with the ex-Governor Martin, of North Carolina, whom I proposed to join,
+with three or four of our Virginian gentlemen, officers of that notable
+corps of which we only wanted privates. We made no particular mystery
+about our departure from Castlewood; the affairs of Congress were
+not going so well yet that the new government could afford to lay any
+particular stress or tyranny upon persons of a doubtful way of thinking.
+Gentlemen's houses were still open; and in our southern fashion we would
+visit our friends for months at a time. My wife and I, with our infant
+and a fitting suite of servants, took leave of Madam Esmond on a visit
+to a neighbouring plantation. We went thence to another friend's house,
+and then to another, till finally we reached Wilmington, in North
+Carolina, which was the point at which we expected to stretch a hand to
+the succours which were coming to meet us.
+
+Ere our arrival, our brother Carolinian Royalists had shown themselves
+in some force. Their encounters with the Whigs had been unlucky. The
+poor Highlanders had been no more fortunate in their present contest in
+favour of King George, than when they had drawn their swords against him
+in their own country. We did not reach Wilmington until the end of May,
+by which time we found Admiral Parker's squadron there, with General
+Clinton and five British regiments on board, whose object was a descent
+upon Charleston.
+
+The General, to whom I immediately made myself known, seeing that my
+regiment consisted of Lady Warrington, our infant, whom she was nursing,
+and three negro servants, received us at first with a very grim welcome.
+But Captain Horner of the Sphinx frigate, who had been on the Jamaica
+station, and received, like all the rest of the world, many kindnesses
+from our dear Governor there, when he heard that my wife was General
+Lambert's daughter, eagerly received her on board, and gave up his
+best cabin to our service; and so we were refugees, too, like my Lord
+Dunmore, having waved our flag, to be sure, and pocketed it, and
+slipped out at the back door. From Wilmington we bore away quickly to
+Charleston, and in the course of the voyage and our delay in the river,
+previous to our assault on the place, I made some acquaintance with
+Mr. Clinton, which increased to a further intimacy. It was the King's
+birthday when we appeared in the river: we determined it was a glorious
+day for the commencement of the expedition.
+
+It did not take place for some days after, and I leave out, purposely,
+all descriptions of my Penelope parting from her Hector, going forth on
+this expedition. In the first place, Hector is perfectly well (though
+a little gouty), nor has any rascal of a Pyrrhus made a prize of his
+widow: and in times of war and commotion, are not such scenes of woe and
+terror, and parting, occurring every hour? I can see the gentle face yet
+over the bulwark, as we descend the ship's side into the boats, and the
+smile of the infant on her arm. What old stories, to be sure! Captain
+Miles, having no natural taste for poetry, you have forgot the verses,
+no doubt, in Mr. Pope's Homer, in which you are described as parting
+with your heroic father; but your mother often read them to you as
+a boy, and keeps the gorget I wore on that day somewhere amongst her
+dressing-boxes now.
+
+My second venture at fighting was no more lucky than my first. We came
+back to our ships that evening thoroughly beaten. The madcap Lee, whom
+Clinton had faced at Boston, now met him at Charleston. Lee, and the
+gallant garrison there, made a brilliant and most successful resistance.
+The fort on Sullivan's Island, which we attacked, was a nut we could not
+crack. The fire of all our frigates was not strong enough to pound its
+shell; the passage by which we moved up to the assault of the place was
+not fordable, as those officers found--Sir Henry at the head of them,
+who was always the first to charge--who attempted to wade it. Death by
+shot, by drowning, by catching my death of cold, I had braved before I
+returned to my wife; and our frigate being aground for a time and got
+off with difficulty, was agreeably cannonaded by the enemy until she got
+off her bank.
+
+A small incident in the midst of this unlucky struggle was the occasion
+of a subsequent intimacy which arose between me and Sir Harry Clinton,
+and bound me to that most gallant officer during the Period in which
+it was my fortune to follow the war. Of his qualifications as a leader
+there may be many opinions: I fear to say, regarding a man I heartily
+respect and admire, there ought only to be one. Of his personal bearing
+and his courage there can be no doubt; he was always eager to show it;
+and whether at the final charge on Breed's Hill, when at the head of
+the rallied troops he carried the Continental lines, or here before
+Sullivan's Fort, or a year later at Fort Washington, when, standard in
+hand, he swept up the height, and entered the fort at the head of the
+storming column, Clinton was always foremost in the race of battle, and
+the King's service knew no more admirable soldier.
+
+We were taking to the water from our boats, with the intention of
+forcing a column to the fort, through a way which our own guns had
+rendered practicable, when a shot struck a boat alongside of us, so
+well aimed, as actually to put three-fourths of the boat's crew hors de
+combat, and knock down the officer steering, and the flag behind him.
+I could not help crying out, "Bravo! well aimed!" for no ninepins ever
+went down more helplessly than these poor fellows before the round shot.
+Then the General, turning round to me, says, rather grimly, "Sir, the
+behaviour of the enemy seems to please you!" "I am pleased, sir," says
+I, "that my countrymen, yonder, should fight as becomes our nation."
+We floundered on towards the fort in the midst of the same amiable
+attentions from small arms and great, until we found the water was up
+to our breasts and deepening at every step, when we were fain to take
+to our boats again and pull out of harm's way. Sir Henry waited upon my
+Lady Warrington on board the Sphinx after this, and was very gracious to
+her, and mighty facetious regarding the character of the humble writer
+of the present memoir, whom his Excellency always described as a rebel
+at heart. I pray my children may live to see or engage in no great
+revolutions,--such as that, for instance, raging in the country of our
+miserable French neighbours. Save a very, very few indeed, the actors in
+those great tragedies do not bear to be scanned too closely; the chiefs
+are often no better than ranting quacks; the heroes ignoble puppets; the
+heroines anything but pure. The prize is not always to the brave. In our
+revolution it certainly did fall, for once and for a wonder, to the
+most deserving: but who knows his enemies now? His great and surprising
+triumphs were not in those rare engagements with the enemy where he
+obtained a trifling mastery; but over Congress; over hunger and disease;
+over lukewarm friends, or smiling foes in his own camp, whom his great
+spirit had to meet and master. When the struggle was over, and our
+important chiefs who had conducted it began to squabble and accuse
+each other in their own defence before the nation--what charges and
+counter-charges were brought; what pretexts of delay were urged; what
+piteous excuses were put forward that this fleet arrived too late; that
+that regiment mistook its orders; that these cannon-balls would not fit
+those guns; and so to the end of the chapter! Here was a general who
+beat us with no shot at times, and no powder, and no money; and he never
+thought of a convention; his courage never capitulated! Through all the
+doubt and darkness, the danger and long tempest of the war, I think it
+was only the American leader's indomitable soul that remained entirely
+steady.
+
+Of course our Charleston expedition was made the most of, and pronounced
+a prodigious victory by the enemy, who had learnt (from their parents,
+perhaps) to cry victory if a corporal's guard were surprised, as loud
+as if we had won a pitched battle. Mr. Lee rushed back to New York, the
+conqueror of conquerors, trumpeting his glory, and by no man received
+with more eager delight than by the Commander-in-Chief of the American
+Army. It was my dear Lee and my dear General between them, then; and it
+hath always touched me in the history of our early Revolution to note
+that simple confidence and admiration with which the General-in-Chief
+was wont to regard officers under him, who had happened previously to
+serve with the King's army. So the Mexicans of old looked and wondered
+when they first saw an armed Spanish horseman! And this mad, flashy
+braggart (and another Continental general, whose name and whose luck
+afterwards were sufficiently notorious) you may be sure took advantage
+of the modesty of the Commander-in-Chief, and advised, and blustered,
+and sneered, and disobeyed orders; daily presenting fresh obstacles
+(as if he had not enough otherwise!) in the path over which only Mr.
+Washington's astonishing endurance could have enabled him to march.
+
+Whilst we were away on our South Carolina expedition, the famous Fourth
+of July had taken place, and we and the thirteen United States were
+parted for ever. My own native state of Virginia had also distinguished
+itself by announcing that all men are equally free; that all power is
+vested in the people, who have an inalienable right to alter, reform,
+or abolish their form of government at pleasure, and that the idea of
+an hereditary first magistrate is unnatural and absurd! Our General
+presented me with this document fresh from Williamsburg, as we were
+sailing northward by the Virginia capes, and, amidst not a little
+amusement and laughter, pointed out to me the faith to which, from the
+Fourth inst. inclusive, I was bound. There was no help for it; I was a
+Virginian--my godfathers had promised and vowed, in my name, that all
+men were equally free (including, of course, the race of poor Gumbo),
+that the idea of a monarchy is absurd, and that I had the right to alter
+my form of government at pleasure. I thought of Madam Esmond at home,
+and how she would look when these articles of faith were brought her to
+subscribe; how would Hagan receive them? He demolished them in a sermon,
+in which all the logic was on his side, but the U.S. Government has not,
+somehow, been affected by the discourse; and when he came to touch upon
+the point that all men being free, therefore Gumbo and Sady, and Nathan,
+had assuredly a right to go to Congress: "Tut, tut! my good Mr. Hagan,"
+says my mother, "let us hear no more of this nonsense; but leave such
+wickedness and folly to the rebels!"
+
+By the middle of August we were before New York, whither Mr. Howe had
+brought his army that had betaken itself to Halifax after its inglorious
+expulsion from Boston. The American Commander-in-Chief was at New
+York, and a great battle inevitable; and I looked forward to it with
+an inexpressible feeling of doubt and anxiety, knowing that my dearest
+brother and his regiment formed part of the troops whom we must attack,
+and could not but overpower. Almost the whole of the American army came
+over to fight on a small island, where every officer on both sides knew
+that they were to be beaten, and whence they had not a chance of escape.
+Two frigates, out of a hundred we had placed so as to command the
+enemy's entrenched camp and point of retreat across East River to New
+York, would have destroyed every bark in which he sought to fly, and
+compelled him to lay down his arms on shore. He fought: his hasty levies
+were utterly overthrown; some of his generals, his best troops, his
+artillery taken; the remnant huddled into their entrenched camp after
+their rout, the pursuers entering it with them. The victors were called
+back; the enemy was then pent up in a corner of the island, and could
+not escape. "They are at our mercy, and are ours to-morrow," says the
+gentle General. Not a ship was set to watch the American force; not
+a sentinel of ours could see a movement in their camp. A whole army
+crossed under our eyes in one single night to the mainland without the
+loss of a single man; and General Howe was suffered to remain in command
+after this feat, and to complete his glories of Long Island and Breed's
+Hill, at Philadelphia! A friend, to be sure, crossed in the night to say
+the enemy's army was being ferried over, but he fell upon a picket of
+Germans: they could not understand him: their commander was boozing or
+asleep. In the morning, when the spy was brought to some one who could
+comprehend the American language, the whole Continental force had
+crossed the East River, and the empire over thirteen colonies had
+slipped away.
+
+The opinions I had about our chief were by no means uncommon in the
+army; though, perhaps, wisely kept secret by gentlemen under Mr. Howe's
+immediate command. Am I more unlucky than other folks, I wonder? or why
+are my imprudent sayings carried about more than my neighbours'? My rage
+that such a use was made of such a victory was no greater than that of
+scores of gentlemen with the army. Why must my name forsooth be given up
+to the Commander-in-Chief as that of the most guilty of the
+grumblers? Personally, General Howe was perfectly brave, amiable, and
+good-humoured.
+
+"So, Sir George," says he, "you find fault with me, as a military
+man, because there was a fog after the battle on Long Island, and your
+friends, the Continentals, gave me the slip! Surely we took and killed
+enough of them; but there is no satisfying you gentlemen amateurs!" and
+he turned his back on me, and shrugged his shoulders, and talked to some
+one else. Amateur I might be, and he the most amiable of men; but if
+King George had said to him, "Never more be officer of mine," yonder
+agreeable and pleasant Cassio would most certainly have had his desert.
+
+I soon found how our Chief had come in possession of his information
+regarding myself. My admirable cousin, Mr. William Esmond--who of course
+had forsaken New York and his post, when all the Royal authorities fled
+out of the place, and Washington occupied it,--returned along with our
+troops and fleets; and, being a gentleman of good birth and name, and
+well acquainted with the city, made himself agreeable to the newcomers
+of the Royal army, the young bloods, merry fellows, and macaronis, by
+introducing them to play-tables, taverns, and yet worse places, with
+which the worthy gentleman continued to be familiar in the New World
+as in the Old. Coelum non animum. However Will had changed his air, or
+whithersoever he transported his carcase, he carried a rascal in his
+skin.
+
+I had heard a dozen stories of his sayings regarding my family, and was
+determined neither to avoid him nor seek him; but to call him to account
+whensoever we met; and, chancing one day to be at a coffee-house in a
+friend's company, my worthy kinsman swaggered in with a couple of young
+lads of the army, whom he found it was his pleasure and profit now
+to lead into every kind of dissipation. I happened to know one of Mr.
+Will's young companions, an aide-de-camp of General Clinton's, who had
+been in my close company both at Charleston, before Sullivan's Island,
+and in the action of Brooklyn, where our General gloriously led the
+right wing of the English army. They took a box without noticing us
+at first, though I heard my name three or four times mentioned by
+my brawling kinsman, who ended some drunken speech he was making by
+slapping his fist on the table, and swearing, "By----, I will do for
+him, and the bloody rebel, his brother!"
+
+"Ah! Mr. Esmond," says I, coming forward with my hat on. (He looked a
+little pale behind his punch-bowl.) "I have long wanted to see you, to
+set some little matters right about which there has been a difference
+between us."
+
+"And what may those be, sir?" says he, with a volley of oaths.
+
+"You have chosen to cast a doubt upon my courage, and say that I shirked
+a meeting with you when we were young men. Our relationship and our age
+ought to prevent us from having recourse to such murderous follies" (Mr.
+Will started up, looking fierce and relieved), "but I give you notice,
+that though I can afford to overlook lies against myself, if I hear from
+you a word in disparagement of my brother, Colonel Warrington, of the
+Continental Army, I will hold you accountable."
+
+"Indeed, gentlemen! Mighty fine, indeed! You take notice of Sir George
+Warrington's words!" cries Mr. Will over his punch-bowl.
+
+"You have been pleased to say," I continued, growing angry as I spoke,
+and being a fool therefore for my pains, "that the very estates we hold
+in this country are not ours, but of right revert to your family!"
+
+"So they are ours! By George, they're ours! I've heard my brother
+Castlewood say so a score of times!" swears Mr. Will.
+
+"In that case, sir," says I, hotly, "your brother, my Lord Castlewood,
+tells no more truth than yourself. We have the titles at hone in
+Virginia. They are registered in the courts there; and if ever I hear
+one word more of this impertinence, I shall call you to account where no
+constables will be at hand to interfere!"
+
+"I wonder," cries Will, in a choking voice, "that I don't cut him into
+twenty thousand pieces as he stands there before me with his confounded
+yellow face. It was my brother Castlewood won his money--no, it was his
+brother; d---- you, which are you, the rebel or the other? I hate the
+ugly faces of both of you, and, hic!--if you are for the King, show you
+are for the King, and drink his health!" and he sank down into his box
+with a hiccup and a wild laugh, which he repeated a dozen times, with
+a hundred more oaths and vociferous outcries that I should drink the
+King's health.
+
+To reason with a creature in this condition, or ask explanations or
+apologies from him, was absurd. I left Mr. Will to reel to his lodgings
+under the care of his young friends--who were surprised to find an old
+toper so suddenly affected and so utterly prostrated by liquor--and
+limped home to my wife, whom I found happy in possession of a brief
+letter from Hal, which a countryman had brought in; and who said not a
+word about the affairs of the Continentals with whom he was engaged,
+but wrote a couple of pages of rapturous eulogiums upon his brother's
+behaviour in the field, which my dear Hal was pleased to admire, as he
+admired everything I said and did.
+
+I rather looked for a messenger from my amiable kinsman in consequence
+of the speeches which had passed between us the night before, and did
+not know but that I might be called by Will to make my words good; and
+when accordingly Mr. Lacy (our companion of the previous evening) made
+his appearance at an early hour of the forenoon, I was beckoning my Lady
+Warrington to leave us, when, with a laugh and a cry of "Oh dear, no!"
+Mr. Lacy begged her ladyship not to disturb herself.
+
+"I have seen," says he, "a gentleman who begs to send you his apologies
+if he uttered a word last night which could offend you."
+
+"What apologies? what words?" asks the anxious wife.
+
+I explained that roaring Will Esmond had met me in a coffee-house on the
+previous evening, and quarrelled with me, as he had done with hundreds
+before. "It appears the fellow is constantly abusive, and invariably
+pleads drunkenness, and apologises the next morning, unless he is caned
+over-night," remarked Captain Lacy. And my lady, I dare say, makes a
+little sermon, and asks why we gentlemen will go to idle coffee-houses
+and run the risk of meeting roaring, roystering Will Esmonds?
+
+Our sojourn in New York was enlivened by a project for burning the city
+which some ardent patriots entertained and partially executed. Several
+such schemes were laid in the course of the war, and each one of the
+principal cities was doomed to fire; though, in the interests of peace
+and goodwill, I hope it will be remembered that these plans never
+originated with the cruel government of a tyrant king, but were always
+proposed by gentlemen on the Continental side, who vowed that, rather
+than remain under the ignominious despotism of the ruffian of Brunswick,
+the fairest towns of America should burn. I presume that the sages who
+were for burning down Boston were not actual proprietors in that
+place, and the New York burners might come from other parts of the
+country--from Philadelphia, or what not. Howbeit, the British spared
+you, gentlemen, and we pray you give us credit for this act of
+moderation.
+
+I had not the fortune to be present in the action on the White Plains,
+being detained by the hurt which I had received at Long Island, and
+which broke out again and again, and took some time in the healing. The
+tenderest of nurses watched me through my tedious malady, and was eager
+for the day when I should doff my militia coat and return to the quiet
+English home where Hetty and our good General were tending our children.
+Indeed I don't know that I have yet forgiven myself for the pains and
+terrors that I must have caused my poor wife, by keeping her separate
+from her young ones, and away from her home, because, forsooth, I wished
+to see a little more of the war then going on. Our grand tour in Europe
+had been all very well. We had beheld St. Peter's at Rome, and the
+Bishop thereof; the Dauphiness of France (alas, to think that glorious
+head should ever have been brought so low!) at Paris; and the rightful
+King of England at Florence. I had dipped my gout in a half-dozen baths
+and spas, and played cards in a hundred courts, as my Travels in Europe
+(which I propose to publish after my completion of the History of the
+American War) will testify. [Neither of these two projected works of Sir
+George Warrington were brought, as it appears, to a completion.] And,
+during our peregrinations, my hypochondria diminished (which plagued me
+woefully at home); and my health and spirits visibly improved. Perhaps
+it was because she saw the evident benefit I had from excitement and
+change, that my wife was reconciled to my continuing to enjoy them; and
+though secretly suffering pangs at being away from her nursery and her
+eldest boy (for whom she ever has had an absurd infatuation), the
+dear hypocrite scarce allowed a look of anxiety to appear on her face;
+encouraged me with smiles; professed herself eager to follow me; asked
+why it should be a sin in me to covet honour? and, in a word, was ready
+to stay, to go, to smile, to be sad; to scale mountains, or to go down
+to the sea in ships; to say that cold was pleasant, heat tolerable,
+hunger good sport, dirty lodgings delightful; though she is wretched
+sailor, very delicate about the little she eats, and an extreme sufferer
+both of cold and heat. Hence, as I willed to stay on yet a while on my
+native continent, she was certain nothing was so good for me; and when
+I was minded to return home--oh, how she brightened, and kissed her
+infant, and told him how he should see the beautiful gardens at home,
+and Aunt Theo, and grandpapa, and his sister, and Miles. "Miles!" cries
+the little parrot, mocking its mother--and crowing; as if there was any
+mighty privilege in seeing Mr. Miles, forsooth, who was under Doctor
+Sumner's care at Harrow-on-the-Hill, where, to do the gentleman justice,
+he showed that he could eat more tarts than any boy in the school, and
+took most creditable prizes at football and hare-and-hounds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCI. Satis Pugnae
+
+
+It has always seemed to me (I speak under the correction of military
+gentlemen) that the entrenchments of Breed's Hill served the Continental
+army throughout the whole of our American war. The slaughter inflicted
+upon us from behind those lines was so severe, and the behaviour of the
+enemy so resolute, that the British chiefs respected the barricades
+of the Americans hereafter; and were they firing from behind a row of
+blankets, certain of our generals rather hesitated to force them. In the
+affair of the White Plains, when, for a second time, Mr. Washington's
+army was quite at the mercy of the victors, we subsequently heard
+that our conquering troops were held back before a barricade actually
+composed of cornstalks and straw. Another opportunity was given us, and
+lasted during a whole winter, during which the dwindling and dismayed
+troops of Congress lay starving and unarmed under our grasp, and the
+magnanimous Mr. Howe left the famous camp of Valley Forge untouched,
+whilst his great, brave, and perfectly appointed army fiddled and
+gambled and feasted in Philadelphia. And, by Byng's countrymen,
+triumphal arches were erected, tournaments were held in pleasant mockery
+of the middle ages, and wreaths and garlands offered by beautiful ladies
+to this clement chief, with fantastical mottoes and posies announcing
+that his laurels should be immortal! Why have my ungrateful countrymen
+in America never erected statues to this general? They had not in all
+their army an officer who fought their battles better; who enabled them
+to retrieve their errors with such adroitness; who took care that their
+defeats should be so little hurtful to themselves; and when, in the
+course of events, the stronger force naturally got the uppermost, who
+showed such an untiring tenderness, patience, and complacency in helping
+the poor disabled opponent on to his legs again. Ah! think of eighteen
+years before and the fiery young warrior whom England had sent out to
+fight her adversary on the American continent. Fancy him for ever pacing
+round the defences behind which the foe lies sheltered; by night and by
+day alike sleepless and eager; consuming away in his fierce wrath and
+longing, and never closing his eye, so intent is it in watching; winding
+the track with untiring scent that pants and hungers for blood and
+battle; prowling through midnight forests, or climbing silent over
+precipices before dawn; and watching till his great heart is almost worn
+out, until the foe shows himself at last, when he springs on him and
+grapples with him, and, dying, slays him! Think of Wolfe at Quebec,
+and hearken to Howe's fiddles as he sits smiling amongst the dancers at
+Philadelphia!
+
+A favourite scheme with our ministers at home and some of our generals
+in America, was to establish a communication between Canada and New
+York, by which means it was hoped New England might be cut off from
+the neighbouring colonies, overpowered in detail, and forced into
+submission. Burgoyne was entrusted with the conduct of the plan, and he
+set forth from Quebec, confidently promising to bring it to a
+successful issue. His march began in military state: the trumpets of
+his proclamations blew before him; he bade the colonists to remember the
+immense power of England; and summoned the misguided rebels to lay down
+their arms. He brought with him a formidable English force, an army of
+German veterans not less powerful, a dreadful band of Indian warriors,
+and a brilliant train of artillery. It was supposed that the people
+round his march would rally to the Royal cause and standards. The
+Continental force in front of him was small at first, and Washington's
+army was weakened by the withdrawal of troops who were hurried forward
+to meet this Canadian invasion. A British detachment from New York was
+to force its way up the Hudson, sweeping away the enemy on the route,
+and make a junction with Burgoyne at Albany. Then was the time when
+Washington's weakened army should have been struck too; but a greater
+Power willed otherwise: nor am I, for one, even going to regret the
+termination of the war. As we look over the game now, how clear seem the
+blunders which were made by the losing side! From the beginning to the
+end we were for ever arriving too late. Our supplies and reinforcements
+from home were too late. Our troops were in difficulty, and our succours
+reached them too late. Our fleet appeared off York Town just too
+late, after Cornwallis had surrendered. A way of escape was opened
+to Burgoyne, but he resolved upon retreat too late. I have heard
+discomfited officers in after days prove infallibly how a different wind
+would have saved America to us; how we must have destroyed the French
+fleet but for a tempest or two; how once, twice, thrice, but for
+nightfall, Mr. Washington and his army were in our power. Who has not
+speculated, in the course of his reading of history, upon the "Has been"
+and the "Might have been" in the world? I take my tattered old map-book
+from the shelf, and see the board on which the great contest was played;
+I wonder at the curious chances which lost it: and, putting aside any
+idle talk about the respective bravery of the two nations, can't but see
+that we had the best cards, and that we lost the game.
+
+I own the sport had a considerable fascination for me, and stirred up
+my languid blood. My brother Hal, when settled on his plantation in
+Virginia, was perfectly satisfied with the sports and occupations he
+found there. The company of the country neighbours sufficed him; he
+never tired of looking after his crops and people, taking his fish,
+shooting his ducks, hunting in his woods, or enjoying his rubber and
+his supper. Happy Hal, in his great barn of a house, under his roomy
+porches, his dogs lying round his feet; his friends, the Virginian Will
+Wimbles, at free quarters in his mansion; his negroes fat, lazy, and
+ragged: his shrewd little wife ruling over them and her husband, who
+always obeyed her implicitly when living, and who was pretty speedily
+consoled when she died! I say happy, though his lot would have been
+intolerable to me: wife, and friends, and plantation, and town life at
+Richmond (Richmond succeeded to the honour of being the capital when our
+Province became a State). How happy he whose foot fits the shoe which
+fortune gives him! My income was five times as great, my house in
+England as large, and built of bricks and faced with freestone; my
+wife--would I have changed her for any other wife in the world? My
+children--well, I am contented with my Lady Warrington's opinion about
+them. But with all these plums and peaches and rich fruits out of
+Plenty's horn poured into my lap, I fear I have been but an ingrate;
+and Hodge, my gatekeeper, who shares his bread and scrap of bacon with
+a family as large as his master's, seems to me to enjoy his meal as much
+as I do, though Mrs. Molly prepares her best dishes and sweetmeats, and
+Mr. Gumbo uncorks the choicest bottle from the cellar. Ah me! sweetmeats
+have lost their savour for me, however they may rejoice my young ones
+from the nursery, and the perfume of claret palls upon old noses!
+Our parson has poured out his sermons many and many a time to me, and
+perhaps I did not care for them much when he first broached them. Dost
+thou remember, honest friend? (sure he does, for he has repeated the
+story over the bottle as many times as his sermons almost, and my Lady
+Warrington pretends as if she had never heard it)--I say, Joe Blake,
+thou rememberest full well, and with advantages, that October evening
+when we scrambled up an embrasure at Fort Clinton and a clubbed musket
+would have dashed these valuable brains out, had not Joe's sword whipped
+my rebellious countryman through the gizzard. Joe wore a red coat in
+those days (the uniform of the brave Sixty-third, whose leader, the bold
+Sill, fell pierced with many wounds beside him). He exchanged his red
+for black and my pulpit. His doctrines are sound, and his sermons short.
+We read the papers together over our wine. Not two months ago we read
+our old friend Howe's glorious deed of the first of June. We were told
+how the noble Rawdon, who fought with us at Fort Clinton, had joined the
+Duke of York: and to-day his Royal Highness is in full retreat before
+Pichegru: and he and my son Miles have taken Valenciennes for nothing!
+Ah, parson! would you not like to put on your old Sixty-third coat?
+(though I doubt Mrs. Blake could never make the buttons and button-holes
+meet again over your big body). The boys were acting a play with my
+militia sword. Oh, that I were young again, Mr. Blake! that I had not
+the gout in my toe; and I would saddle Rosinante and ride back into
+the world, and feel the pulses beat again, and play a little of life's
+glorious game!
+
+The last "hit" which I saw played, was gallantly won by our side; though
+'tis true that even in this parti the Americans won the rubber--our
+people gaining only the ground they stood on, and the guns, stores, and
+ships which they captured and destroyed, whilst our efforts at rescue
+were too late to prevent the catastrophe impending over Burgoyne's
+unfortunate army. After one of those delays which always were happening
+to retard our plans and weaken the blows which our chiefs intended to
+deliver, an expedition was got under weigh from New York at the close
+of the month of September, '77; that, could it have but advanced a
+fortnight earlier, might have saved the doomed force of Burgoyne. Sed
+Dis aliter visum. The delay here was not Sir Henry Clinton's fault, who
+could not leave his city unprotected; but the winds and weather which
+delayed the arrival of reinforcements which we had long awaited from
+England. The fleet which brought them brought us long and fond letters
+from home, with the very last news of the children under the care of
+their good Aunt Hetty and their grandfather. The mother's heart yearned
+towards the absent young ones. She made me no reproaches: but I could
+read her importunities in her anxious eyes, her terrors for me, and her
+longing for her children. "Why stay longer?" she seemed to say. "You
+who have no calling to this war, or to draw the sword against your
+countrymen--why continue to imperil your life and my happiness?" I
+understood her appeal. We were to enter upon no immediate service of
+danger; I told her Sir Henry was only going to accompany the expedition
+for a part of the way. I would return with him, the reconnaissance over,
+and Christmas, please Heaven, should see our family once more united in
+England.
+
+A force of three thousand men, including a couple of slender regiments
+of American Loyalists and New York Militia (with which latter my
+distinguished relative, Mr. Will Esmond, went as captain), was embarked
+at New York, and our armament sailed up the noble Hudson River, that
+presents finer aspects than the Rhine in Europe to my mind: nor was
+any fire opened upon us from those beetling cliffs and precipitous
+"palisades," as they are called, by which we sailed; the enemy, strange
+to say, being for once unaware of the movement we contemplated. Our
+first landing was on the Eastern bank, at a place called Verplancks
+Point, whence the Congress troops withdrew after a slight resistance,
+their leader, the tough old Putnam (so famous during the war) supposing
+that our march was to be directed towards the Eastern Highlands, by
+which we intended to penetrate to Burgoyne. Putnam fell back to occupy
+these passes, a small detachment of ours being sent forward as if in
+pursuit, which he imagined was to be followed by the rest of our force.
+Meanwhile, before daylight, two thousand men without artillery, were
+carried over to Stoney Point on the Western shore, opposite Verplancks,
+and under a great hill called the Dunderberg by the old Dutch lords of
+the stream, and which hangs precipitously over it. A little stream
+at the northern base of this mountain intersects it from the opposite
+height on which Fort Clinton stood, named not after our general, but
+after one of the two gentlemen of the same name, who were amongst the
+oldest and most respected of the provincial gentry of New York, and who
+were at this moment actually in command against Sir Henry. On the next
+height to Clinton is Fort Montgomery; and behind them rises a hill
+called Bear Hill; whilst at the opposite side of the magnificent stream
+stands "Saint Antony's Nose," a prodigious peak indeed, which the Dutch
+had quaintly christened.
+
+The attacks on the two forts were almost simultaneous. Half our men were
+detached for the assault on Fort Montgomery, under the brave Campbell,
+who fell before the rampart. Sir Henry, who would never be out of danger
+where he could find it, personally led the remainder, and hoped, he
+said, that we should have better luck than before the Sullivan Island. A
+path led up to the Dunderberg, so narrow as scarcely to admit three men
+abreast, and in utter silence our whole force scaled it, wondering at
+every rugged step to meet with no opposition. The enemy had not even
+kept a watch on it; nor were we descried until we were descending the
+height, at the base of which we easily dispersed a small force sent
+hurriedly to oppose us. The firing which here took place rendered all
+idea of a surprise impossible. The fort was before us. With such arms
+as the troops had in their hands, they had to assault; and silently
+and swiftly, in the face of the artillery playing upon them, the troops
+ascended the hill. The men had orders on no account to fire. Taking the
+colours of the Sixty-third, and bearing them aloft, Sir Henry mounted
+with the stormers. The place was so steep that the men pushed each
+other over the wall and through the embrasures; and it was there that
+Lieutenant Joseph Blake, the father of a certain Joseph Clinton Blake,
+who looks with the eyes of affection on a certain young lady, presented
+himself to the living of Warrington by saving the life of the unworthy
+patron thereof.
+
+About a fourth part of the garrison, as we were told, escaped out of
+the fort, the rest being killed or wounded, or remaining our prisoners
+within the works. Fort Montgomery was, in like manner, stormed and taken
+by our people; and, at night, as we looked down from the heights where
+the king's standard had been just planted, we were treated to a splendid
+illumination in the river below. Under Fort Montgomery, and stretching
+over to that lofty prominence, called Saint Antony's Nose, a boom and
+chain had been laid with a vast cost and labour, behind which several
+American frigates and galleys were anchored. The fort being taken, these
+ships attempted to get up the river in the darkness, out of the reach of
+guns which they knew must destroy them in the morning. But the wind was
+unfavourable, and escape was found to be impossible. The crews therefore
+took to the boats, and so landed, having previously set the ships on
+fire with all their sails set; and we beheld these magnificent pyramids
+of flame burning up to the heavens and reflected in the waters below,
+until, in the midst of prodigious explosions, they sank and disappeared.
+
+On the next day a parlementaire came in from the enemy, to inquire as to
+the state of his troops left wounded or prisoners in our hands, and the
+Continental officer brought me a note, which gave me a strange shock,
+for it showed that in the struggle of the previous evening my brother
+had been engaged. It was dated October 7, from Major-General George
+Clinton's divisional headquarters, and it stated briefly that "Colonel
+H. Warrington, of the Virginia line, hopes that Sir George Warrington
+escaped unhurt in the assault of last evening, from which the Colonel
+himself was so fortunate as to retire without the least injury." Never
+did I say my prayers more heartily and gratefully than on that night,
+devoutly thanking Heaven that my dearest brother was spared, and making
+a vow at the same time to withdraw out of the fratricidal contest, into
+which I only had entered because Honour and Duty seemed imperatively to
+call me.
+
+I own I felt an inexpressible relief when I had come to the resolution
+to retire and betake myself to the peaceful shade of my own vines and
+fig-trees at home. I longed, however, to see my brother ere I returned,
+and asked, and easily obtained an errand to the camp of the American
+General Clinton from our own chief. The headquarters of his division
+were now some miles up the river, and a boat and a flag of truce quickly
+brought me to the point where his out-pickets received me on the shore.
+My brother was very soon with me. He had only lately joined General
+Clinton's division with letters from headquarters at Philadelphia, and
+he chanced to hear, after the attack on Fort Clinton, that I had been
+present during the affair. We passed a brief delightful night together:
+Mr. Sady, who always followed Hal to the war, cooking a feast in honour
+of both his masters. There was but one bed of straw in the hut where we
+had quarters, and Hal and I slept on it, side by side, as we had done
+when we were boys. We had a hundred things to say regarding past times
+and present. His kind heart gladdened when I told him of my resolve to
+retire to my acres and to take off the red coat which I wore: he flung
+his arms round it. "Praised be God!" said he. "Oh, heavens, George!
+think what might have happened had we met in the affair two nights ago!"
+And he turned quite pale at the thought. He eased my mind with respect
+to our mother. She was a bitter Tory, to be sure, but the Chief had
+given special injunctions regarding her safety. "And Fanny" (Hal's
+wife) "watches over her, and she is as good as a company!" cried the
+enthusiastic husband. "Isn't she clever? Isn't she handsome? Isn't
+she good?" cries Hal, never, fortunately, waiting for a reply to these
+ardent queries. "And to think that I was nearly marrying Maria once! Oh,
+mercy, what an escape I had!" he added. "Hagan prays for the King, every
+morning and night, at Castlewood, but they bolt the doors, and nobody
+hears. Gracious powers! his wife is sixty if she is a day; and oh,
+George! the quantity she drinks is..." But why tell the failings of our
+good cousin? I am pleased to think she lived to drink the health of King
+George long after his Old Dominion had passed for ever from his sceptre.
+
+The morning came when my brief mission to the camp was ended, and the
+truest of friends and fondest of brothers accompanied me to my boat,
+which lay waiting at the riverside. We exchanged an embrace at parting,
+and his hand held mine yet for a moment ere I stepped into the barge
+which bore me rapidly down the stream. "Shall I see thee once more,
+dearest and best companion of my youth?" I thought. "Amongst our cold
+Englishmen, can I ever hope to meet with a friend like thee? When hadst
+thou ever a thought that was not kindly and generous? When a wish, or
+a possession, but for me you would sacrifice it? How brave are you,
+and how modest; how gentle, and how strong; how simple, unselfish, and
+humble; how eager to see others' merit; how diffident of your own!" He
+stood on the shore till his figure grew dim before, me. There was that
+in my eyes which prevented me from seeing him longer.
+
+
+Brilliant as Sir Henry's success had been, it was achieved, as usual,
+too late: and served but as a small set-off against the disaster of
+Burgoyne which ensued immediately, and which our advance was utterly
+inadequate to relieve. More than one secret messenger was despatched to
+him who never reached him, and of whom we never learned the fate. Of
+one wretch who offered to carry intelligence to him, and whom Sir
+Henry despatched with a letter of his own, we heard the miserable
+doom. Falling in with some of the troops of General George Clinton, who
+happened to be in red uniform (part of the prize of a British ship's
+cargo, doubtless, which had been taken by American privateers), the spy
+thought he was in the English army, and advanced towards the sentries.
+He found his mistake too late. His letter was discovered upon him, and
+he had to die for bearing it. In ten days after the success at the Forts
+occurred the great disaster at Saratoga, of which we carried the dismal
+particulars in the fleet which bore us home. I am afraid my wife was
+unable to mourn for it. She had her children, her father, her sister to
+revisit, and daily and nightly thanks to pay to Heaven that had brought
+her husband safe out of danger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCII. Under Vine and Fig-Tree
+
+
+Need I describe, young folks, the delights of the meeting at home,
+and the mother's happiness with all her brood once more under her fond
+wings? It was wrote in her face, and acknowledged on her knees. Our
+house was large enough for all, but Aunt Hetty would not stay in it. She
+said, fairly, that to resign her motherhood over the elder children, who
+had been hers for nearly three years, cost her too great a pang; and she
+could not bear for yet a while to be with them, and to submit to take
+only the second place. So she and her father went away to a house at
+Bury St. Edmunds, not far from us, where they lived, and where she
+spoiled her eldest nephew and niece in private. It was the year after we
+came home that Mr. B, the Jamaica planter, died, who left her the half
+of his fortune; and then I heard, for the first time, how the worthy
+gentleman had been greatly enamoured of her in Jamaica, and, though she
+had refused him, had thus shown his constancy to her. Heaven knows how
+much property of Aunt Hetty's Monsieur Miles hath already devoured!
+the price of his commission and outfit; his gorgeous uniforms; his
+play-debts and little transactions in the Minories;--do you think,
+sirrah, I do not know what human nature is; what is the cost of
+Pall Mall taverns, petits soupers, play even in moderation--at the
+Cocoa-Tree; and that a gentleman cannot purchase all these enjoyments
+with the five hundred a year which I allow him? Aunt Hetty declares she
+has made up her mind to be an old maid. "I made a vow never to marry
+until I could find a man as good as my dear father," she said; "and I
+never did, Sir George. No, my dearest Theo, not half as good; and Sir
+George may put that in his pipe and smoke it."
+
+And yet when the good General died (calm, and full of years, and glad to
+depart), I think it was my wife who shed the most tears. "I weep because
+I think I did not love him enough," said the tender creature: whereas
+Hetty scarce departed from her calm, at least outwardly and before any
+of us; talks of him constantly still, as though he were alive; recalls
+his merry sayings, his gentle, kind ways with his children (when she
+brightens up and looks herself quite a girl again), and sits cheerfully
+looking up to the slab in church which records his name and some of his
+virtues, and for once tells no lies.
+
+I had fancied, sometimes, that my brother Hal, for whom Hetty had a
+juvenile passion, always retained a hold of her heart; and when he came
+to see us, ten years ago, I told him of this childish romance of Het's,
+with the hope, I own, that he would ask her to replace Mrs. Fanny, who
+had been gathered to her fathers, and regarding whom my wife (with
+her usual propensity to consider herself a miserable sinner) always
+reproached herself, because, forsooth, she did not regret Fanny enough.
+Hal, when he came to us, was plunged in grief about her loss; and vowed
+that the world did not contain such another woman. Our dear old General,
+who was still in life then, took him in and housed him, as he had done
+in the happy early days. The women played him the very same tunes which
+he had heard when a boy at Oakhurst. Everybody's heart was very soft
+with old recollections, and Harry never tired of pouring out his griefs
+and his recitals of his wife's virtues to Het, and anon of talking
+fondly about his dear Aunt Lambert, whom he loved with all his heart,
+and whose praises, you may be sure, were welcome to the faithful old
+husband, out of whose thoughts his wife's memory was never, I believe,
+absent for any three waking minutes of the day.
+
+General Hal went to Paris as an American General Officer in his blue and
+yellow (which Mr. Fox and other gentlemen had brought into fashion here
+likewise), and was made much of at Versailles, although he was presented
+by Monsieur le Marquis de Lafayette to the Most Christian King and
+Queen, who did not love Monsieur le Marquis. And I believe a Marquise
+took a fancy to the Virginian General, and would have married him out of
+hand, had he not resisted, and fled back to England and Warrington and
+Bury again, especially to the latter place, where the folks would listen
+to him as he talked about his late wife, with an endless patience and
+sympathy. As for us, who had known the poor paragon, we were civil, but
+not quite so enthusiastic regarding her, and rather puzzled sometimes to
+answer our children's questions about Uncle Hal's angel wife.
+
+The two Generals and myself, and Captain Miles, and Parson Blake (who
+was knocked over at Monmouth, the year after I left America, and came
+home to change his coat, and take my living), used to fight the battles
+of the Revolution over our bottle; and the parson used to cry, "By
+Jupiter, General" (he compounded for Jupiter, when he laid down his
+military habit), "you are the Tory, and Sir George is the Whig! He is
+always finding fault with our leaders, and you are for ever standing
+up for them; and when I prayed for the King last Sunday, I heard you
+following me quite loud."
+
+"And so I do, Blake, with all my heart; I can't forget I wore his coat,"
+says Hal.
+
+"Ah, if Wolfe had been alive for twenty years more!" says Lambert.
+
+"Ah, sir," cries Hal, "you should hear the General talk about him!"
+
+"What General?" says I (to vex him).
+
+"My General," says Hal, standing up, and filling a bumper. "His
+Excellency General George Washington!"
+
+"With all my heart," cry I, but the parson looks as if he did not like
+the toast or the claret.
+
+Hal never tired in speaking of his General; and it was on some such
+evening of friendly converse, that he told us how he had actually been
+in disgrace with this General whom he loved so fondly. Their difference
+seems to have been about Monsieur le Marquis de Lafayette before
+mentioned, who played such a fine part in history of late, and who hath
+so suddenly disappeared out of it. His previous rank in our own service,
+and his acknowledged gallantry during the war, ought to have secured
+Colonel Warrington's promotion in the Continental army, where a
+whipper-snapper like M. de Lafayette had but to arrive and straightway
+to be complimented by Congress with the rank of Major-General. Hal,
+with the freedom of an old soldier, had expressed himself somewhat
+contemptuously regarding some of the appointments made by Congress, with
+whom all sorts of miserable intrigues and cabals were set to work by
+unscrupulous officers who were greedy of promotion. Mr. Warrington,
+imitating perhaps in this the example of his now illustrious friend of
+Mount Vernon, affected to make the war en gentilhomme took his pay, to
+be sure, but spent it upon comforts and clothing for his men, and as for
+rank, declared it was a matter of no earthly concern to him, and that he
+would as soon serve as colonel as in any higher grade. No doubt he added
+contemptuous remarks regarding certain General Officers of Congress
+army, their origin, and the causes of their advancement: notably he
+was very angry about the sudden promotion of the young French lad just
+named--the Marquis, as they loved to call him--in the Republican army,
+and who, by the way, was a prodigious favourite of the Chief himself.
+There were not three officers in the whole Continental force (after
+poor madcap Lee was taken prisoner and disgraced) who could speak the
+Marquis's language, so that Hal could judge the young Major-General
+more closely and familiarly than other gentlemen, including the
+Commander-in-Chief himself. Mr. Washington good-naturedly rated friend
+Hal for being jealous of the beardless commander of Auvergne; was
+himself not a little pleased by the filial regard and profound
+veneration which the enthusiastic young nobleman always showed for
+him; and had, moreover, the very best politic reasons for treating the
+Marquis with friendship and favour.
+
+Meanwhile, as it afterwards turned out, the Commander-in-Chief was most
+urgently pressing Colonel Warrington's promotion upon Congress; and, as
+if his difficulties before the enemy were not enough, he being at this
+hard time of winter entrenched at Valley Forge, commanding five or
+six thousand men at the most, almost without fire, blankets, food, or
+ammunition, in the face of Sir William Howe's army, which was perfectly
+appointed, and three times as numerous as his own; as if, I say, this
+difficulty was not enough to try him, he had further to encounter
+the cowardly distrust of Congress, and insubordination and conspiracy
+amongst the officers in his own camp. During the awful winter of '77,
+when one blow struck by the sluggard at the head of the British forces
+might have ended the war, and all was doubt, confusion, despair in the
+opposite camp (save in one indomitable breast alone), my brother had an
+interview with the Chief, which he has subsequently described to me,
+and of which Hal could never speak without giving way to the deepest
+emotion. Mr. Washington had won no such triumph as that which the
+dare-devil courage of Arnold and the elegant imbecility of Burgoyne
+had procured for Gates and the northern army. Save in one or two minor
+encounters, which proved how daring his bravery was, and how unceasing
+his watchfulness, General Washington had met with defeat after defeat
+from an enemy in all points his superior. The Congress mistrusted
+him. Many an officer in his own camp hated him. Those who had been
+disappointed in ambition, those who had been detected in peculation,
+those whose selfishness or incapacity his honest eyes had spied
+out,--were all more, or less in league against him. Gates was the chief
+towards whom the malcontents turned. Mr. Gates was the only genius fit
+to conduct the war; and with a vaingloriousness, which he afterwards
+generously owned, he did not refuse the homage which was paid him.
+
+To show how dreadful were the troubles and anxieties with which General
+Washington had to contend, I may mention what at this time was called
+the "Conway Cabal." A certain Irishman--a Chevalier of St. Louis, and an
+officer in the French service--arrived in America early in the year '77
+in quest of military employment. He was speedily appointed to the rank
+of brigadier, and could not be contented, forsooth, without an immediate
+promotion to be major-general.
+
+Mr. C. had friends at Congress, who, as the General-in-Chief was
+informed, had promised him his speedy promotion. General Washington
+remonstrated, representing the injustice of promoting to the highest
+rank the youngest brigadier in the service; and whilst the matter was
+pending, was put in possession of a letter from Conway to General Gates,
+whom he complimented, saying, that "Heaven had been determined to save
+America, or a weak general and bad councillors would have ruined it."
+The General enclosed the note to Mr. Conway, without a word of comment;
+and Conway offered his resignation, which was refused by Congress,
+who appointed him Inspector-General of the army, with the rank of
+Major-General.
+
+"And it was at this time," says Harry (with many passionate exclamations
+indicating his rage with himself and his admiration of his leader),
+"when, by heavens, the glorious Chief was oppressed by troubles enough
+to drive ten thousand men mad--that I must interfere with my jealousies
+about the Frenchman! I had not said much, only some nonsense to Greene
+and Cadwalader about getting some frogs against the Frenchman came to
+dine with us, and having a bagful of Marquises over from Paris, as we
+were not able to command ourselves;--but I should have known the Chief's
+troubles, and that he had a better head than mine, and might have had
+the grace to hold my tongue.
+
+"For a while the General said nothing, but I could remark, by the
+coldness of his demeanour, that something had occurred to create a
+schism between him and me. Mrs. Washington, who had come to camp, also
+saw that something was wrong. Women have artful ways of soothing men and
+finding their secrets out. I am not sure that I should have ever tried
+to learn the cause of the General's displeasure, for I am as proud as
+he is, and besides" (says Hal), "when the Chief is angry, it was not
+pleasant coming near him, I can promise you." My brother was indeed
+subjugated by his old friend, and obeyed him and bowed before him as a
+boy before a schoolmaster.
+
+"At last," Hal resumed, "Mrs. Washington found out the mystery.
+'Speak to me after dinner, Colonel Hal,' says she. 'Come out to the
+parade-ground, before the dining-house, and I will tell you all.' I
+left a half-score of general officers and brigadiers drinking round the
+General's table, and found Mrs. Washington waiting for me. She then told
+me it was the speech I had made about the box of Marquises, with which
+the General was offended. 'I should not have heeded it in another,'
+he had said, 'but I never thought Harry Warrington would have joined
+against me.'
+
+"I had to wait on him for the word that night, and found him alone at
+his table. 'Can your Excellency give me five minutes' time?' I said,
+with my heart in my mouth. 'Yes, surely, sir,' says he, pointing to the
+other chair. 'Will you please to be seated?'
+
+"'It used not always to be Sir and Colonel Warrington, between me and
+your Excellency,' I said.
+
+"He said, calmly, 'The times are altered.'
+
+"'Et nos mutamur in illis,' says I. 'Times and people are both changed.'
+
+"'You had some business with me?' he asked.
+
+"'Am I speaking to the Commander-in-Chief or to my old friend?' I asked.
+
+"He looked at me gravely. 'Well,--to both, sir,' he said. 'Pray sit,
+Harry.'
+
+"'If to General Washington, I tell his Excellency that I, and many
+officers of this army, are not well pleased to see a boy of twenty made
+a major-general over us, because he is a Marquis, and because he can't
+speak the English language. If I speak to my old friend, I have to say
+that he has shown me very little of trust or friendship for the last
+few weeks; and that I have no desire to sit at your table, and have
+impertinent remarks made by others there, of the way in which his
+Excellency turns his back on me.'
+
+"'Which charge shall I take first, Harry?' he asked, turning his chair
+away from the table, and crossing his legs as if ready for a talk. 'You
+are jealous, as I gather, about the Marquis?'
+
+"'Jealous, sir!' says I. 'An aide-de-camp of Mr. Wolfe is not jealous of
+a Jack-a-dandy who, five years ago, was being whipped at school!'
+
+"'You yourself declined higher rank than that which you hold,' says the
+Chief, turning a little red.
+
+"'But I never bargained to have a macaroni Marquis to command me!' I
+cried. 'I will not, for one, carry the young gentleman's orders; and
+since Congress and your Excellency chooses to take your generals out
+of the nursery, I shall humbly ask leave to resign, and retire to my
+plantation.'
+
+"'Do, Harry; that is true friendship!' says the Chief, with a gentleness
+that surprised me. 'Now that your old friend is in a difficulty, 'tis
+surely the best time to leave him.'
+
+"'Sir!' says I.
+
+"'Do as so many of the rest are doing, Mr. Warrington. Et tu, Brute,
+as the play says. Well, well, Harry! I did not think it of you; but, at
+least, you are in the fashion.'
+
+"'You asked which charge you should take first?' I said.
+
+"'Ch, the promotion of the Marquis? I recommended the appointment to
+Congress, no doubt; and you and other gentlemen disapprove it.'
+
+"'I have spoken for myself, sir,' says I.
+
+"'If you take me in that tone, Colonel Warrington, I have nothing to
+answer!' says the Chief, rising up very fiercely; 'and presume that
+I can recommend officers for promotion without asking your previous
+sanction.'
+
+"'Being on that tone, sir,' says I, 'let me respectfully offer my
+resignation to your Excellency, founding my desire to resign upon the
+fact, that Congress, at your Excellency's recommendation, offers its
+highest commands to boys of twenty, who are scarcely even acquainted
+with our language.' And I rise up and make his Excellency a bow.
+
+"'Great heavens, Harry!' he cries--(about this Marquis's appointment he
+was beaten, that was the fact, and he could not reply to me), 'can't you
+believe that in this critical time of our affairs, there are reasons why
+special favours should be shown to the first Frenchman of distinction
+who comes amongst us?'
+
+"'No doubt, sir. If your Excellency acknowledges that Monsieur de
+Lafayette's merits have nothing to do with the question.'
+
+"'I acknowledge or deny nothing, sir!' says the General, with a stamp of
+his foot, and looking as though he could be terribly angry if he would.
+'Am I here to be catechised by you? Stay. Hark, Harry! I speak to you as
+a man of the world--nay, as an old friend. This appointment humiliates
+you and others, you say? Be it so! Must we not bear humiliation, along
+with the other burthens and griefs, for the sake of our country? It is
+no more just perhaps that the Marquis should be set over you gentlemen,
+than that your Prince Ferdinand or your Prince of Wales at home should
+have a command over veterans. But if in appointing this young nobleman
+we please a whole nation, and bring ourselves twenty millions of allies,
+will you and other gentlemen sulk because we do him honour? 'Tis easy to
+sneer at him (though, believe me, the Marquis has many more merits
+than you allow him); to my mind it were more generous, as well as more
+polite, of Harry Warrington to welcome this stranger for the sake of the
+prodigious benefit our country may draw from him--not to laugh at his
+peculiarities, but to aid him and help his ignorance by your experience
+as an old soldier: that is what I would do--that is the part I expected
+of thee--for it is the generous and manly one, Harry: but you choose
+to join my enemies, and when I am in trouble you say you will leave me.
+That is why I have been hurt: that is why I have been cold. I thought
+I might count on your friendship--and--and you can tell whether I was
+right or no. I relied on you as on a brother, and you come and tell me
+you will resign. Be it so! Being embarked in this contest, by God's will
+I will see it to an end. You are not the first, Mr. Warrington, has left
+me on the way.'
+
+"He spoke with so much tenderness, and as he spoke his face wore such a
+look of unhappiness, that an extreme remorse and pity seized me, and I
+called out I know not what incoherent expressions regarding old times,
+and vowed that if he would say the word, I never would leave him. You
+never loved him, George," says my brother, turning to me, "but I did
+beyond all mortal men; and, though I am not clever like you, I think my
+instinct was in the right. He has a greatness not approached by other
+men"
+
+"I don't say no, brother," said I, "now."
+
+"Greatness, pooh!" says the parson, growling over his wine.
+
+"We walked into Mrs. Washington's tea-room arm-in-arm," Hal resumed;
+"she looked up quite kind, and saw we were friends. 'Is it all over,
+Colonel Harry?' she whispered. 'I know he has applied ever so often
+about your promotion----'
+
+"'I never will take it,' says I. And that is how I came to do penance,"
+says Harry, telling me the story, "with Lafayette the next winter." (Hal
+could imitate the Frenchman very well.) "'I will go weez heem,' says I.
+'I know the way to Quebec, and when we are not in action with Sir Guy, I
+can hear his Excellency the Major-General say his lesson.' There was no
+fight, you know we could get no army to act in Canada, and returned to
+headquarters; and what do you think disturbed the Frenchman most? The
+idea that people would laugh at him, because his command had come to
+nothing. And so they did laugh at him, and almost to his face too, and
+who could help it? If our Chief had any weak point it was this Marquis.
+
+"After our little difference we became as great friends as before--if
+a man may be said to be friends with a Sovereign Prince, for as such I
+somehow could not help regarding the General: and one night, when we
+had sate the company out, we talked of old times, and the jolly days of
+sport we had together both before and after Braddock's; and that pretty
+duel you were near having when we were boys. He laughed about it, and
+said he never saw a man look more wicked and more bent on killing than
+you did: 'And to do Sir George justice, I think he has hated me ever
+since,' says the Chief. 'Ah!' he added, 'an open enemy I can face
+readily enough. 'Tis the secret foe who causes the doubt and anguish! We
+have sat with more than one at my table to-day, to whom I am obliged to
+show a face of civility, whose hands I must take when they are offered,
+though I know they are stabbing my reputation, and are eager to pull me
+down from my place. You spoke but lately of being humiliated because a
+junior was set over you in command. What humiliation is yours compared
+to mine, who have to play the farce of welcome to these traitors; who
+have to bear the neglect of Congress, and see men who have insulted me
+promoted in my own army? If I consulted my own feelings as a man, would
+I continue in this command? You know whether my temper is naturally warm
+or not, and whether as a private gentleman I should be likely to
+suffer such slights and outrages as are put upon me daily; but in the
+advancement of the sacred cause in which we are engaged, we have to
+endure not only hardship and danger, but calumny and wrong, and may God
+give us strength to do our duty!' And then the General showed me
+the papers regarding the affair of that fellow Conway, whom Congress
+promoted in spite of the intrigue, and down whose black throat John
+Cadwalader sent the best ball he ever fired in his life.
+
+"And it was here," said Hal, concluding his story, "as I looked at the
+Chief talking at night in the silence of the camp, and remembered how
+lonely he was, what an awful responsibility he carried, how spies and
+traitors were eating out of his dish, and an enemy lay in front of him
+who might at any time overpower him, that I thought, 'Sure, this is the
+greatest man now in the world; and what a wretch I am to think of my
+jealousies and annoyances, whilst he is walking serenely under his
+immense cares!'"
+
+"We talked but now of Wolfe," said I. "Here, indeed, is a greater than
+Wolfe. To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune;
+to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to
+go through intrigue spotless; and to forgo even ambition when the end is
+gained--who can say this is not greatness, or show the other Englishman
+who has achieved so much?"
+
+"I wonder, Sir George, you did not take Mr. Washington's side, and wear
+the blue and buff yourself," grumbles Parson Blake.
+
+"You and I thought scarlet most becoming to our complexion, Joe Blake!"
+says Sir George. "And my wife thinks there would not have been room for
+two such great men on one side."
+
+"Well, at any rate, you were better than that odious, swearing, crazy
+General Lee, who was second in command!" cries Lady Warrington. "And I
+am certain Mr. Washington never could write poetry and tragedies as you
+can! What did the General say about George's tragedies, Harry?"
+
+Harry burst into a roar of laughter (in which, of course, Mr. Miles must
+join his uncle).
+
+"Well!" says he, "it's a fact that Hagan read one at my house to the
+General and Mrs. Washington and several more, and they all fell sound
+asleep!"
+
+"He never liked my husband, that is the truth!" says Theo, tossing up
+her head, "and 'tis all the more magnanimous of Sir George to speak so
+well of him."
+
+And then Hal told how, his battles over, his country freed, his great
+work of liberation complete, the General laid down his victorious sword,
+and met his comrades of the army in a last adieu. The last
+British soldier had quitted the shore of the Republic, and the
+Commander-in-Chief proposed to leave New York for Annapolis, where
+Congress was sitting, and there resign his commission. About noon, on
+the 4th December, a barge was in waiting at Whitehall Ferry to convey
+him across the Hudson. The chiefs of the army assembled at a tavern near
+the ferry, and there the General joined them. Seldom as he showed his
+emotion, outwardly, on this day he could not disguise it. He filled a
+glass of wine, and said, 'I bid you farewell with a heart full of love
+and gratitude, and wish your latter days may be as prosperous and happy
+as those past have been glorious and honourable.' Then he drank to them.
+'I cannot come to each of you to take my leave,' he said, 'but shall be
+obliged if you will each come and shake me by the hand.'
+
+General Knox, who was nearest, came forward, and the Chief, with tears
+in his eyes, embraced him. The others came, one by one, to him, and
+took their leave without a word. A line of infantry was formed from the
+tavern to the ferry, and the General, with his officers following him,
+walked silently to the water. He stood up in the barge, taking off his
+hat, and waving a farewell. And his comrades remained bareheaded on the
+shore till their leader's boat was out of view.
+
+As Harry speaks very low, in the grey of evening, with sometimes a break
+in his voice, we all sit touched and silent. Hetty goes up and kisses
+her father.
+
+"You tell us of others, General Harry," she says, passing a handkerchief
+across her eyes, "of Marion and Sumpter, of Greene and Wayne, and Rawdon
+and Cornwallis, too, but you never mention Colonel Warrington!"
+
+"My dear, he will tell you his story in private!" whispers my wife,
+clinging to her sister, "and you can write it for him."
+
+But it was not to be. My Lady Theo, and her husband too, I own, catching
+the infection from her, never would let Harry rest, until we had coaxed,
+wheedled, and ordered him to ask Hetty in marriage. He obeyed, and it
+was she who now declined. "She had always," she said, "the truest regard
+for him from the dear old times when they had met as almost children
+together. But she would never leave her father. When it pleased God to
+take him, she hoped she would be too old to think of bearing any other
+name but her own. Harry should have her love always as the best of
+brothers; and as George and Theo have such a nurseryful of children,"
+adds Hester, "we must show our love to them, by saving for the young
+ones." She sent him her answer in writing, leaving home on a visit to
+friends at a distance, as though she would have him to understand that
+her decision was final. As such Hal received it. He did not break his
+heart. Cupid's arrows, ladies, don't bite very deep into the tough skins
+of gentlemen of our age; though, to be sure, at the time of which I
+write, my brother was still a young man, being little more than fifty.
+Aunt Het is now a staid little lady with a voice of which years have
+touched the sweet chords, and a head which Time has powdered over with
+silver. There are days when she looks surprisingly young and blooming.
+Ah me, my dear, it seems but a little while since the hair was golden
+brown, and the cheeks as fresh as roses! And then came the bitter blast
+of love unrequited which withered them; and that long loneliness of
+heart which, they say, follows. Why should Theo and I have been so
+happy, and thou so lonely? Why should my meal be garnished with love,
+and spread with plenty, while yon solitary outcast shivers at my gate? I
+bow my head humbly before the Dispenser of pain and poverty, wealth and
+health; I feel sometimes as if, for the prizes which have fallen to the
+lot of me unworthy, I did not dare to be grateful. But I hear the voices
+of my children in their garden, or look up at their mother from my book,
+or perhaps my sick-bed, and my heart fills with instinctive gratitude
+towards the bountiful Heaven that has so blest me.
+
+
+Since my accession to my uncle's title and estate my intercourse with
+my good cousin Lord Castlewood had been very rare. I had always supposed
+him to be a follower of the winning side in politics, and was not a
+little astonished to hear of his sudden appearance in opposition. A
+disappointment in respect to a place at court, of which he pretended to
+have had some promise, was partly the occasion of his rupture with the
+Ministry. It is said that the most August Person in the realm had flatly
+refused to receive into the R-y-l Household a nobleman whose character
+was so notoriously bad, and whose example (so the August Objector was
+pleased to say) would ruin and corrupt any respectable family. I heard
+of the Castlewoods during our travels in Europe, and that the mania for
+play had again seized upon his lordship. His impaired fortunes having
+been retrieved by the prudence of his wife and father-in-law, he had
+again begun to dissipate his income at hombre and lansquenet. There
+were tales of malpractices in which he had been discovered, and even of
+chastisement inflicted upon him by the victims of his unscrupulous
+arts. His wife's beauty and freshness faded early; we met but once at
+Aix-la-Chapelle, where Lady Castlewood besought my wife to go and
+see her, and afflicted Lady Warrington's kind heart by stories of the
+neglect and outrage of which her unfortunate husband was guilty. We were
+willing to receive these as some excuse and palliation for the unhappy
+lady's own conduct. A notorious adventurer, gambler, and spadassin,
+calling himself the Chevalier de Barry, and said to be a relative of
+the mistress of the French King, but afterwards turning out to be an
+Irishman of low extraction, was in constant attendance upon the Earl and
+Countess at this time, and conspicuous for the audacity of his lies, the
+extravagance of his play, and somewhat mercenary gallantry towards the
+other sex, and a ferocious bravo courage, which, however, failed him
+on one or two awkward occasions, if common report said true. He
+subsequently married, and rendered miserable a lady of title and fortune
+in England. The poor little American lady's interested union with Lord
+Castlewood was scarcely more happy.
+
+I remember our little Miles's infantile envy being excited by learning
+that Lord Castlewood's second son, a child a few months younger than
+himself, was already an ensign on the Irish establishment, whose pay the
+fond parents regularly drew. This piece of preferment my lord must have
+got for his cadet whilst he was on good terms with the Minister, during
+which period of favour Will Esmond was also shifted off to New York.
+Whilst I was in America myself, we read in an English journal that
+Captain Charles Esmond had resigned his commission in his Majesty's
+service, as not wishing to take up arms against the countrymen of his
+mother, the Countess of Castlewood. "It is the doing of the old fox, Van
+den Bosch," Madam Esmond said; "he wishes to keep his Virginian property
+safe, whatever side should win!" I may mention, with respect to this
+old worthy, that he continued to reside in England for a while after the
+Declaration of Independence, not at all denying his sympathy with the
+American cause, but keeping a pretty quiet tongue, and alleging that
+such a very old man as himself was past the age of action or mischief,
+in which opinion the Government concurred, no doubt, as he was left
+quite unmolested. But of a sudden a warrant was out after him, when it
+was surprising with what agility he stirred himself, and skipped off to
+France, whence he presently embarked upon his return to Virginia.
+
+The old man bore the worst reputation amongst the Loyalists of our
+colony; and was nicknamed "Jack the Painter" amongst them, much to
+his indignation, after a certain miscreant who was hung in England
+for burning naval stores in our ports there. He professed to have
+lost prodigious sums at home by the persecution of the Government,
+distinguished himself by the loudest patriotism and the most violent
+religious outcries in Virginia; where, nevertheless, he was not much
+more liked by the Whigs than by the party who still remained faithful
+to the Crown. He wondered that such an old Tory as Madam Esmond of
+Castlewood was suffered to go at large, and was for ever crying out
+against her amongst the gentlemen of the new Assembly, the Governor, and
+officers of the State. He and Fanny had high words in Richmond one
+day, when she told him he was an old swindler and traitor, and that the
+mother of Colonel Henry Warrington, the bosom friend of his Excellency
+the Commander-in-Chief, was not to be insulted by such a little
+smuggling slave-driver as him! I think it was in the year 1780 an
+accident happened, when the old Register Office at Williamsburg was
+burned down, in which there was a copy of the formal assignment of the
+Virginia property from Francis Lord Castlewood to my grandfather Henry
+Esmond, Esquire. "Oh," says Fanny, "of course this is the work of Jack
+the Painter!" And Mr. Van den Bosch was for prosecuting her for libel,
+but that Fanny took to her bed at this juncture, and died.
+
+Van den Bosch made contracts with the new Government, and sold them
+bargains, as the phrase is. He supplied horses, meat, forage, all of bad
+quality; but when Arnold came into Virginia (in the King's service) and
+burned right and left, Van den Bosch's stores and tobacco-houses somehow
+were spared. Some secret Whigs now took their revenge on the old rascal.
+A couple of his ships in James River, his stores, and a quantity of his
+cattle in their stalls were roasted amidst a hideous bellowing; and
+he got a note, as he was in Arnold's company, saying that friends
+had served him as he served others; and containing "Tom the Glazier's
+compliments to brother Jack the Painter." Nobody pitied the old man,
+though he went well-nigh mad at his loss. In Arnold's suite came
+the Honourable Captain William Esmond, of the New York Loyalists, as
+aide-de-camp to the General. When Howe occupied Philadelphia, Will was
+said to have made some money keeping a gambling-house with an officer
+of the dragoons of Anspach. I know not how he lost it. He could not have
+had much when he consented to become an aide-de-camp of Arnold.
+
+Now, the King's officers having reappeared in the province, Madam Esmond
+thought fit to open her house at Castlewood and invite them thither--and
+actually received Mr. Arnold and his suite. "It is not for me," she
+said, "to refuse my welcome to a man whom my Sovereign has admitted to
+grace." And she threw her house open to him, and treated him with great
+though frigid respect whilst he remained in the district. The General
+gone, and, his precious aide-de-camp with him, some of the rascals who
+followed in their suite remained behind in the house where they had
+received so much hospitality, insulted the old lady in her hall,
+insulted her people, and finally set fire to the old mansion in a frolic
+of drunken fury. Our house at Richmond was not burned, luckily, though
+Mr. Arnold had fired the town; and thither the undaunted old lady
+proceeded, surrounded by her people, and never swerving in her loyalty,
+in spite of her ill-usage. "The Esmonds," she said, "were accustomed to
+Royal ingratitude."
+
+And now Mr. Van den Bosch, in the name of his grandson and my Lord
+Castlewood, in England, set up a claim to our property in Virginia.
+He said it was not my lord's intention to disturb Madam Esmond in her
+enjoyment of the estate during her life, but that his father, it had
+always been understood, had given his kinsman a life-interest in the
+place, and only continued it to his daughter out of generosity. Now my
+lord proposed that his second son should inhabit Virginia, for which
+the young gentleman had always shown the warmest sympathy. The outcry
+against Van den Bosch was so great that he would have been tarred and
+feathered, had he remained in Virginia. He betook himself to Congress,
+represented himself as a martyr ruined in the cause of liberty, and
+prayed for compensation for himself and justice for his grandson.
+
+My mother lived long in dreadful apprehension, having in truth a secret,
+which she did not like to disclose to any one. Her titles were burned!
+the deed of assignment in her own house, the copy in the Registry at
+Richmond, had alike been destroyed--by chance? by villainy? who could
+say? She did not like to confide this trouble in writing to me.
+She opened herself to Hal, after the surrender of York Town, and he
+acquainted me with the fact in a letter by a British officer returning
+home on his parole. Then I remembered the unlucky words I had let slip
+before Will Esmond at the coffee-house at New York; and a part of this
+iniquitous scheme broke upon me.
+
+As for Mr. Will: there is a tablet in Castlewood Church, in Hampshire,
+inscribed, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, and announcing that
+"This marble is placed by a mourning brother, to the memory of the
+Honourable William Esmond, Esquire, who died in North America, in the
+service of his King." But how? When, towards the end of 1781, a revolt
+took place in the Philadelphia Line of the Congress Army, and Sir Henry
+Clinton sent out agents to the mutineers, what became of them? The men
+took the spies prisoners, and proceeded to judge them, and my brother
+(whom they knew and loved, and had often followed under fire), who had
+been sent from camp to make terms with the troops, recognised one of the
+spies, just as execution was about to be done upon him--and the wretch,
+with horrid outcries, grovelling and kneeling at Colonel Warrington's
+feet, besought him for mercy, and promised to confess all to him. To
+confess what? Harry turned away sick at heart. Will's mother and sister
+never knew the truth. They always fancied it was in action he was
+killed.
+
+As for my lord earl, whose noble son has been the intendant of an
+illustrious Prince, and who has enriched himself at play with his R---l
+master: I went to see his lordship when I heard of this astounding
+design against our property, and remonstrated with him on the matter.
+For myself, as I showed him, I was not concerned, as I had determined
+to cede my right to my brother. He received me with perfect courtesy;
+smiled when I spoke of my disinterestedness; said he was sure of my
+affectionate feelings towards my brother, but what must be his towards
+his son? He had always heard from his father: he would take his Bible
+oath of that: that, at my mother's death, the property would return to
+the head of the family. At the story of the title which Colonel Esmond
+had ceded, he shrugged his shoulders, and treated it as a fable. "On
+ne fait pas de ces folies la!" says he, offering me snuff, "and your
+grandfather was a man of esprit! My little grandmother was eprise of
+him: and my father, the most good-natured soul alive, lent them the
+Virginian property to get them out of the way! C'etoit un scandale, mon
+cher, un joli petit scandale!" Oh, if my mother had but heard him! I
+might have been disposed to take a high tone: but he said, with the
+utmost good-nature, "My dear Knight, are you going to fight about the
+character of our grandmother? Allons donc! Come, I will be fair with
+you! We will compromise, if you like, about this Virginian property!"
+and his lordship named a sum greater than the actual value of the
+estate.
+
+Amazed at the coolness of this worthy, I walked away to my coffee-house,
+where, as it happened, an old friend was to dine with me, for whom I
+have a sincere regard. I had felt a pang at not being able to give this
+gentleman my living of Warrington--on-Waveney, but I could not, as he
+himself confessed honestly. His life had been too loose, and his example
+in my village could never have been edifying: besides, he would have
+died of ennui there, after being accustomed to a town life; and he had
+a prospect finally, he told me, of settling himself most comfortably in
+London and the church. [He was the second Incumbent of Lady Whittlesea's
+Chapel, Mayfair, and married Elizabeth, relict of Hermann Voelcker,
+Esq., the eminent brewer.] My guest, I need not say, was my old friend
+Sampson, who never failed to dine with me when I came to town, and I
+told him of my interview with his old patron.
+
+I could not have lighted upon a better confidant. "Gracious powers!"
+says Sampson, "the man's roguery beats all belief! When I was secretary
+and factotum at Castlewood, I can take my oath I saw more than once a
+copy of the deed of assignment by the late lord to your grandfather:
+'In consideration of the love I bear to my kinsman Henry Esmond,
+Esq., husband of my dear mother Rachel, Lady Viscountess Dowager of
+Castlewood, I, etc.'--so it ran. I know the place where 'tis kept--let
+us go thither as fast as horses will carry us to-morrow. There is
+somebody there--never mind whom, Sir George--who has an old regard for
+me. The papers may be there to this very day, and O Lord, O Lord, but I
+shall be thankful if I can in any way show my gratitude to you and your
+glorious brother!" His eyes filled with tears. He was an altered man.
+At a certain period of the port wine Sampson always alluded with
+compunction to his past life, and the change which had taken place in
+his conduct since the awful death of his friend Doctor Dodd.
+
+Quick as we were, we did not arrive at Castlewood too soon. I was
+looking at the fountain in the court, and listening to that sweet sad
+music of its plashing, which my grandfather tells of in his memoires,
+and peopling the place with bygone figures, with Beatrix in her beauty;
+with my Lord Francis in scarlet, calling to his dogs and mounting
+his grey horse; with the young page of old who won the castle and the
+heiress--when Sampson comes running down to me with an old volume in
+rough calf-bound in his hand, containing drafts of letters, copies
+of agreements, and various writings, some by a secretary of my Lord
+Francis, some in the slim handwriting of his wife my grandmother, some
+bearing the signature of the last lord; and here was a copy of the
+assignment sure enough, as it had been sent to my grandfather in
+Virginia. "Victoria, Victoria!" cries Sampson, shaking my hand,
+embracing everybody. "Here is a guinea for thee, Betty. We'll have a
+bowl of punch at the Three Castles to-night!" As we were talking, the
+wheels of postchaises were heard, and a couple of carriages drove into
+the court containing my lord and a friend, and their servants in the
+next vehicle. His lordship looked only a little paler than usual at
+seeing me.
+
+"What procures me the honour of Sir George Warrington's visit, and
+pray, Mr. Sampson, what do you do here?" says my lord. I think he had
+forgotten the existence of this book, or had never seen it; and when he
+offered to take his Bible oath of what he had heard from his father, had
+simply volunteered a perjury.
+
+I was shaking hands with his companion, a nobleman with whom I had had
+the honour to serve in America. "I came," I said, "to convince myself of
+a fact, about which you were mistaken yesterday; and I find the proof
+in your lordship's own house. Your lordship was pleased to take your
+lordship's Bible oath, that there was no agreement between your father
+and his mother, relative to some property which I hold. When Mr. Sampson
+was your lordship's secretary, he perfectly remembered having seen a
+copy of such an assignment, and here it is."
+
+"And do you mean, Sir George Warrington, that unknown to me you have
+been visiting my papers?" cries my lord.
+
+"I doubted the correctness of your statement, though backed by your
+lordship's Bible oath," I said with a bow.
+
+"This, sir, is robbery! Give the papers back!" bawled my lord.
+
+"Robbery is a rough word, my lord. Shall I tell the whole story to Lord
+Rawdon?"
+
+"What, is it about the Marquisate? Connu, connu, my dear Sir George! We
+always called you the Marquis in New York. I don't know who brought the
+story from Virginia."
+
+I never had heard this absurd nickname before, and did not care
+to notice it. "My Lord Castlewood," I said, "not only doubted, but
+yesterday laid a claim to my property, taking his Bible oath that----"
+
+Castlewood gave a kind of gasp, and then said, "Great heaven! Do you
+mean, Sir George, that there actually is an agreement extant? Yes. Here
+it is--my father's handwriting, sure enough! Then the question is clear.
+Upon my o----well, upon my honour as a gentleman! I never knew of such
+an agreement, and must have been mistaken in what my father said. This
+paper clearly shows the property is yours: and not being mine--why, I
+wish you joy of it!" and he held out his hand with the blandest smile.
+
+"And how thankful you will be to me, my lord, for having enabled him to
+establish the right," says Sampson, with a leer on his face.
+
+"Thankful? No, confound you. Not in the least!" says my lord. "I am a
+plain man; I don't disguise from my cousin that I would rather have
+had the property than he. Sir George, you will stay and dine with us.
+A large party is coming down here shooting; we ought to have you one of
+us!"
+
+"My lord," said I, buttoning the book under my coat, "I will go and get
+this document copied, and then return it to your lordship. As my mother
+in Virginia has had her papers burned, she will be put out of much
+anxiety by having this assignment safely lodged."
+
+"What, have Madam Esmond's papers been burned? When the deuce was that?"
+asks my lord.
+
+"My lord, I wish you a very good afternoon. Come, Sampson, you and I
+will go and dine at the Three Castles." And I turned on my heel, making
+a bow to Lord R------, and from that day to this I have never set my
+foot within the halls of my ancestors.
+
+Shall I ever see the old mother again, I wonder? She lives in Richmond,
+never having rebuilt her house in the country. When Hal was in England,
+we sent her pictures of both her sons, painted by the admirable Sir
+Joshua Reynolds. We sate to him, the last year Mr. Johnson was alive, I
+remember. And the Doctor, peering about the studio, and seeing the image
+of Hal in his uniform (the appearance of it caused no little excitement
+in those days), asked who was this? and was informed that it was the
+famous American General--General Warrington, Sir George's brother.
+"General Who?" cries the Doctor, "General Where? Pooh! I don't know such
+a service!" and he turned his back and walked out of the premises. My
+worship is painted in scarlet, and we have replicas of both performances
+at home. But the picture which Captain Miles and the girls declare to be
+most like is a family sketch by my ingenious neighbour, Mr. Bunbury, who
+has drawn me and my lady with Monsieur Gumbo following us, and written
+under the piece, "SIR GEORGE, MY LADY, AND THEIR MASTER."
+
+Here my master comes; he has poked out all the house-fires, has looked
+to all the bolts, has ordered the whole male and female crew to their
+chambers; and begins to blow my candles out, and says, "Time, Sir
+George, to go to bed! Twelve o'clock!"
+
+"Bless me! So indeed it is." And I close my book, and go to my rest,
+with a blessing on those now around me asleep.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Virginians, by William Makepeace Thackeray
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