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diff --git a/old/virgn10.txt b/old/virgn10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11095fa --- /dev/null +++ b/old/virgn10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,35343 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Virginians, by William Makepeace Thackeray +#29 in our series by William Makepeace Thackeray + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Virginians + +Author: William Makepeace Thackeray + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8123] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 16, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE 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 + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VIRGINIANS *** + +This file should be named virgn10.txt or virgn10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, virgn11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, virgn10a.txt + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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