The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., a Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne

by William Makepeace Thackeray

  CHAPTER II.

  RELATES HOW FRANCIS, FOURTH VISCOUNT, ARRIVES AT CASTLEWOOD.

  'Tis known that the name of Esmond and the estate of Castlewood, com.Hants, came into possession of the present family through Dorothea,daughter and heiress of Edward, Earl and Marquis Esmond, and Lord ofCastlewood, which lady married, 23 Eliz., Henry Poyns, gent.; the saidHenry being then a page in the household of her father. Francis, son andheir of the above Henry and Dorothea, who took the maternal name whichthe family hath borne subsequently, was made Knight and Baronet by KingJames the First; and being of a military disposition, remained long inGermany with the Elector-Palatine, in whose service Sir Francis incurredboth expense and danger, lending large sums of money to thatunfortunate Prince; and receiving many wounds in the battles against theImperialists, in which Sir Francis engaged.

  On his return home Sir Francis was rewarded for his services andmany sacrifices, by his late Majesty James the First, who graciouslyconferred upon this tried servant the post of Warden of the Butteriesand Groom of the King's Posset, which high and confidential office hefilled in that king's and his unhappy successor's reign.

  His age, and many wounds and infirmities, obliged Sir Francis to performmuch of his duty by deputy: and his son, Sir George Esmond, knight andbanneret, first as his father's lieutenant, and afterwards as inheritorof his father's title and dignity, performed this office during almostthe whole of the reign of King Charles the First, and his two sons whosucceeded him.

  Sir George Esmond married, rather beneath the rank that a person of hisname and honor might aspire to, the daughter of Thos. Topham, of thecity of London, alderman and goldsmith, who, taking the Parliamentaryside in the troubles then commencing, disappointed Sir George of theproperty which he expected at the demise of his father-in-law, whodevised his money to his second daughter, Barbara, a spinster.

  Sir George Esmond, on his part, was conspicuous for his attachment andloyalty to the Royal cause and person: and the King being at Oxford in1642, Sir George, with the consent of his father, then very aged andinfirm, and residing at his house of Castlewood, melted the whole of thefamily plate for his Majesty's service.

  For this, and other sacrifices and merits, his Majesty, by patent underthe Privy Seal, dated Oxford, Jan., 1643, was pleased to advance SirFrancis Esmond to the dignity of Viscount Castlewood, of Shandon, inIreland: and the Viscount's estate being much impoverished by loans tothe King, which in those troublesome times his Majesty could not repay,a grant of land in the plantations of Virginia was given to the LordViscount.; part of which land is in possession of descendants of hisfamily to the present day.

  The first Viscount Castlewood died full of years, and within a fewmonths after he had been advanced to his honors. He was succeeded by hiseldest son, the before-named George; and left issue besides, Thomas,a colonel in the King's army, who afterwards joined the Usurper'sGovernment; and Francis, in holy orders, who was slain whilst defendingthe House of Castlewood against the Parliament, anno 1647.

  George Lord Castlewood (the second Viscount), of King Charles theFirst's time, had no male issue save his one son, Eustace Esmond, whowas killed, with half of the Castlewood men beside him, at Worcesterfight. The lands about Castlewood were sold and apportioned to theCommonwealth men; Castlewood being concerned in almost all of the plotsagainst the Protector, after the death of the King, and up to KingCharles the Second's restoration. My lord followed that king's Courtabout in its exile, having ruined himself in its service. He had but onedaughter, who was of no great comfort to her father; for misfortune hadnot taught those exiles sobriety of life; and it is said that the Dukeof York and his brother the King both quarrelled about Isabel Esmond.She was maid of honor to the Queen Henrietta Maria; she early joined theRoman Church; her father, a weak man, following her not long after atBreda.

  On the death of Eustace Esmond at Worcester, Thomas Esmond, nephew tomy Lord Castlewood, and then a stripling, became heir to the title. Hisfather had taken the Parliament side in the quarrels, and so had beenestranged from the chief of his house; and my Lord Castlewood was atfirst so much enraged to think that his title (albeit little more thanan empty one now) should pass to a rascally Roundhead, that he wouldhave married again, and indeed proposed to do so to a vintner's daughterat Bruges, to whom his lordship owed a score for lodging when the Kingwas there, but for fear of the laughter of the Court, and the angerof his daughter, of whom he stood in awe; for she was in temper asimperious and violent as my lord, who was much enfeebled by wounds anddrinking, was weak.

  Lord Castlewood would have had a match between his daughter Isabel andher cousin, the son of that Francis Esmond who was killed at Castlewoodsiege. And the lady, it was said, took a fancy to the young man, who washer junior by several years (which circumstance she did not consider tobe a fault in him); but having paid his court, and being admitted to theintimacy of the house, he suddenly flung up his suit, when it seemedto be pretty prosperous, without giving a pretext for his behavior.His friends rallied him at what they laughingly chose to call hisinfidelity; Jack Churchill, Frank Esmond's lieutenant in the RoyalRegiment of Foot-guards, getting the company which Esmond vacated, whenhe left the Court and went to Tangier in a rage at discovering that hispromotion depended on the complaisance of his elderly affianced bride.He and Churchill, who had been condiscipuli at St. Paul's School, hadwords about this matter; and Frank Esmond said to him with an oath,"Jack, your sister may be so-and-so, but by Jove my wife shan't!" andswords were drawn, and blood drawn too, until friends separated them onthis quarrel. Few men were so jealous about the point of honor in thosedays; and gentlemen of good birth and lineage thought a royal blot wasan ornament to their family coat. Frank Esmond retired in the sulks,first to Tangier, whence he returned after two years' service, settlingon a small property he had of his mother, near to Winchester, and becamea country gentleman, and kept a pack of beagles, and never came toCourt again in King Charles's time. But his uncle Castlewood was neverreconciled to him; nor, for some time afterwards, his cousin whom he hadrefused.

  By places, pensions, bounties from France, and gifts from the King,whilst his daughter was in favor, Lord Castlewood, who had spent in theRoyal service his youth and fortune, did not retrieve the latter quite,and never cared to visit Castlewood, or repair it, since the death ofhis son, but managed to keep a good house, and figure at Court, and tosave a considerable sum of ready money.

  And now, his heir and nephew, Thomas Esmond, began to bid for hisuncle's favor. Thomas had served with the Emperor, and with the Dutch,when King Charles was compelled to lend troops to the States; andagainst them, when his Majesty made an alliance with the French King. Inthese campaigns Thomas Esmond was more remarked for duelling, brawling,vice, and play, than for any conspicuous gallantry in the field, andcame back to England, like many another English gentleman who hastravelled, with a character by no means improved by his foreignexperience. He had dissipated his small paternal inheritance of ayounger brother's portion, and, as truth must be told, was no betterthan a hanger-on of ordinaries, and a brawler about Alsatia and theFriars, when he bethought him of a means of mending his fortune.

  His cousin was now of more than middle age, and had nobody's word buther own for the beauty which she said she once possessed. She was lean,and yellow, and long in the tooth; all the red and white in all thetoy-shops in London could not make a beauty of her--Mr. Killigrew calledher the Sybil, the death's-head put up at the King's feast as a mementomori, &c.--in fine, a woman who might be easy of conquest, but whomonly a very bold man would think of conquering. This bold man was ThomasEsmond. He had a fancy to my Lord Castlewood's savings, the amount ofwhich rumor had very much exaggerated. Madame Isabel was said to haveRoyal jewels of great value; whereas poor Tom Esmond's last coat but onewas in pawn.

  My lord had at this time a fine house in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, nigh tothe Duke's Theatre and the Portugal ambassador's chapel. Tom Esmond,who had frequented the one as long as he had money to spend among theactresses, n
ow came to the church as assiduously. He looked so lean andshabby, that he passed without difficulty for a repentant sinner; andso, becoming converted, you may be sure took his uncle's priest for adirector.

  This charitable father reconciled him with the old lord, his uncle,who a short time before would not speak to him, as Tom passed under mylord's coach window, his lordship going in state to his place at Court,while his nephew slunk by with his battered hat and feather, and thepoint of his rapier sticking out of the scabbard--to his twopennyordinary in Bell Yard.

  Thomas Esmond, after this reconciliation with his uncle, very soon beganto grow sleek, and to show signs of the benefits of good living andclean linen. He fasted rigorously twice a week, to be sure; but he madeamends on the other days: and, to show how great his appetite was, Mr.Wycherley said, he ended by swallowing that fly-blown rank old morselhis cousin. There were endless jokes and lampoons about this marriage atCourt: but Tom rode thither in his uncle's coach now, called him father,and having won could afford to laugh. This marriage took place veryshortly before King Charles died: whom the Viscount of Castlewoodspeedily followed.

  The issue of this marriage was one son, whom the parents watched with anintense eagerness and care; but who, in spite of nurses and physicians,had only a brief existence. His tainted blood did not run very long inhis poor feeble little body. Symptoms of evil broke out early on him;and, part from flattery, part superstition, nothing would satisfy mylord and lady, especially the latter, but having the poor little crippletouched by his Majesty at his church. They were ready to cry out miracleat first (the doctors and quack-salvers being constantly in attendanceon the child, and experimenting on his poor little body with everyconceivable nostrum) but though there seemed, from some reason, anotable amelioration in the infant's health after his Majesty touchedhim, in a few weeks afterward the poor thing died--causing thelampooners of the Court to say, that the King, in expelling evil out ofthe infant of Tom Esmond and Isabella his wife, expelled the life out ofit, which was nothing but corruption.

  The mother's natural pang at losing this poor little child must havebeen increased when she thought of her rival Frank Esmond's wife, whowas a favorite of the whole Court, where my poor Lady Castlewood wasneglected, and who had one child, a daughter, flourishing and beautiful,and was about to become a mother once more.

  The Court, as I have heard, only laughed the more because the poor lady,who had pretty well passed the age when ladies are accustomed to havechildren, nevertheless determined not to give hope up, and even when shecame to live at Castlewood, was constantly sending over to Hexton forthe doctor, and announcing to her friends the arrival of an heir. Thisabsurdity of hers was one amongst many others which the wags used toplay upon. Indeed, to the last days of her life, my Lady Viscountess hadthe comfort of fancying herself beautiful, and persisted in bloomingup to the very midst of winter, painting roses on her cheeks long aftertheir natural season, and attiring herself like summer though her headwas covered with snow.

  Gentlemen who were about the Court of King Charles, and King James, havetold the present writer a number of stories about this queer old lady,with which it's not necessary that posterity should be entertained. Sheis said to have had great powers of invective and, if she fought withall her rivals in King James's favor, 'tis certain she must have hada vast number of quarrels on her hands. She was a woman of an intrepidspirit, and, it appears, pursued and rather fatigued his Majesty withher rights and her wrongs. Some say that the cause of her leaving Courtwas jealousy of Frank Esmond's wife: others, that she was forced toretreat after a great battle which took place at Whitehall, between herladyship and Lady Dorchester, Tom Killigrew's daughter, whom the Kingdelighted to honor, and in which that ill-favored Esther got the betterof our elderly Vashti. But her ladyship, for her part, always averredthat it was her husband's quarrel, and not her own, which occasioned thebanishment of the two into the country; and the cruel ingratitude of theSovereign in giving away, out of the family, that place of Warden ofthe Butteries and Groom of the King's Posset, which the two last LordsCastlewood had held so honorably, and which was now conferred upon afellow of yesterday, and a hanger-on of that odious Dorchester creature,my Lord Bergamot;* "I never," said my lady, "could have come to see hisMajesty's posset carried by any other hand than an Esmond. I should havedashed the salver out of Lord Bergamot's hand, had I met him." And thosewho knew her ladyship are aware that she was a person quite capable ofperforming this feat, had she not wisely kept out of the way.

  * Lionel Tipton, created Baron Bergamot, ann. 1686, Gentleman Usher of the Back Stairs, and afterwards appointed Warden of the Butteries and Groom of the King's Posset (on the decease of George, second Viscount Castlewood), accompanied his Majesty to St. Germain's, where he died without issue. No Groom of the Posset was appointed by the Prince of Orange, nor hath there been such an officer in any succeeding reign.

  Holding the purse-strings in her own control, to which, indeed, sheliked to bring most persons who came near her, Lady Castlewood couldcommand her husband's obedience, and so broke up her establishmentat London; she had removed from Lincoln's-Inn-Fields to Chelsey, to apretty new house she bought there; and brought her establishment, hermaids, lap-dogs, and gentlewomen, her priest, and his lordship herhusband, to Castlewood Hall, that she had never seen since she quittedit as a child with her father during the troubles of King Charles theFirst's reign. The walls were still open in the old house as they hadbeen left by the shot of the Commonwealthmen. A part of the mansionwas restored and furbished up with the plate, hangings, and furniturebrought from the house in London. My lady meant to have a triumphalentry into Castlewood village, and expected the people to cheer asshe drove over the Green in her great coach, my lord beside her, hergentlewomen, lap-dogs, and cockatoos on the opposite seat, six horses toher carriage, and servants armed and mounted following it and precedingit. But 'twas in the height of the No-Popery cry; the folks in thevillage and the neighboring town were scared by the sight of herladyship's painted face and eyelids, as she bobbed her head out of thecoach window, meaning, no doubt, to be very gracious; and one old womansaid, "Lady Isabel! lord-a-mercy, it's Lady Jezebel!" a name by whichthe enemies of the right honorable Viscountess were afterwards in thehabit of designating her. The country was then in a great No-Poperyfervor; her ladyship's known conversion, and her husband's, the priestin her train, and the service performed at the chapel of Castlewood(though the chapel had been built for that worship before any other washeard of in the country, and though the service was performed in themost quiet manner), got her no favor at first in the county orvillage. By far the greater part of the estate of Castlewood had beenconfiscated, and been parcelled out to Commonwealthmen. One or two ofthese old Cromwellian soldiers were still alive in the village, andlooked grimly at first upon my Lady Viscountess, when she came to dwellthere.

  She appeared at the Hexton Assembly, bringing her lord after her,scaring the country folks with the splendor of her diamonds, which shealways wore in public. They said she wore them in private, too, andslept with them round her neck; though the writer can pledge his wordthat this was a calumny. "If she were to take them off," my Lady Sarksaid, "Tom Esmond, her husband, would run away with them and pawn them."'Twas another calumny. My Lady Sark was also an exile from Court, andthere had been war between the two ladies before.

  The village people began to be reconciled presently to their lady, whowas generous and kind, though fantastic and haughty, in her ways; andwhose praises Dr. Tusher, the Vicar, sounded loudly amongst his flock.As for my lord, he gave no great trouble, being considered scarce morethan an appendage to my lady, who, as daughter of the old lords ofCastlewood, and possessor of vast wealth, as the country folks said(though indeed nine-tenths of it existed but in rumor), was looked uponas the real queen of the Castle, and mistress of all it contained.