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

by William Makepeace Thackeray

  CHAPTER VIII.

  I TRAVEL TO FRANCE AND BRING HOME A PORTRAIT OF RIGAUD.

  Mr. Esmond did not think fit to take leave at Court, or to inform allthe world of Pall Mall and the coffee-houses, that he was about to quitEngland; and chose to depart in the most private manner possible. Heprocured a pass as for a Frenchman, through Dr. Atterbury, who did thatbusiness for him, getting the signature even from Lord Bolingbroke'soffice, without any personal application to the Secretary. Lockwood, hisfaithful servant, he took with him to Castlewood, and left behind there:giving out ere he left London that he himself was sick, and gone toHampshire for country air, and so departed as silently as might be uponhis business.

  As Frank Castlewood's aid was indispensable for Mr. Esmond's scheme, hisfirst visit was to Bruxelles (passing by way of Antwerp, where the Dukeof Marlborough was in exile), and in the first-named place Harry foundhis dear young Benedict, the married man, who appeared to be ratherout of humor with his matrimonial chain, and clogged with the obstinateembraces which Clotilda kept round his neck. Colonel Esmond was notpresented to her; but Monsieur Simon was, a gentleman of the RoyalCravat (Esmond bethought him of the regiment of his honest Irishman,whom he had seen that day after Malplaquet, when he first set eyes onthe young King); and Monsieur Simon was introduced to the ViscountessCastlewood, nee Comptesse Wertheim; to the numerous counts, the LadyClotilda's tall brothers; to her father the chamberlain; and to the ladyhis wife, Frank's mother-in-law, a tall and majestic person of largeproportions, such as became the mother of such a company of grenadiersas her warlike sons formed. The whole race were at free quarters in thelittle castle nigh to Bruxelles which Frank had taken; rode his horses;drank his wine; and lived easily at the poor lad's charges. Mr. Esmondhad always maintained a perfect fluency in the French, which was hismother tongue; and if this family (that spoke French with the twangwhich the Flemings use) discovered any inaccuracy in Mr. Simon'spronunciation, 'twas to be attributed to the latter's long residencein England, where he had married and remained ever since he was takenprisoner at Blenheim. His story was perfectly pat; there were none thereto doubt it save honest Frank, and he was charmed with his kinsman'sscheme, when he became acquainted with it; and, in truth, always admiredColonel Esmond with an affectionate fidelity, and thought his cousinthe wisest and best of all cousins and men. Frank entered heart and soulinto the plan, and liked it the better as it was to take him to Paris,out of reach of his brothers, his father, and his mother-in-law, whoseattentions rather fatigued him.

  Castlewood, I have said, was born in the same year as the Prince ofWales; had not a little of the Prince's air, height, and figure; and,especially since he had seen the Chevalier de St. George on the occasionbefore-named, took no small pride in his resemblance to a person soillustrious; which likeness he increased by all means in his power,wearing fair brown periwigs, such as the Prince wore, and ribbons, andso forth, of the Chevalier's color.

  This resemblance was, in truth, the circumstance on which Mr. Esmond'sscheme was founded; and having secured Frank's secrecy and enthusiasm,he left him to continue his journey, and see the other personages onwhom its success depended. The place whither Mr. Simon next travelledwas Bar, in Lorraine, where that merchant arrived with a consignmentof broadcloths, valuable laces from Malines, and letters for hiscorrespondent there.

  Would you know how a prince, heroic from misfortunes, and descendedfrom a line of kings, whose race seemed to be doomed like the Atridae ofold--would you know how he was employed, when the envoy who came to himthrough danger and difficulty beheld him for the first time? The youngking, in a flannel jacket, was at tennis with the gentlemen of hissuite, crying out after the balls, and swearing like the meanest of hissubjects. The next time Mr. Esmond saw him, 'twas when Monsieur Simontook a packet of laces to Miss Oglethorpe: the Prince's ante-chamber inthose days, at which ignoble door men were forced to knock for admissionto his Majesty. The admission was given, the envoy found the King andthe mistress together; the pair were at cards and his Majesty wasin liquor. He cared more for three honors than three kingdoms; anda half-dozen glasses of ratafia made him forget all his woes and hislosses, his father's crown, and his grandfather's head.

  Mr. Esmond did not open himself to the Prince then. His Majesty wasscarce in a condition to hear him; and he doubted whether a King whodrank so much could keep a secret in his fuddled head; or whether a handthat shook so, was strong enough to grasp at a crown. However, at last,and after taking counsel with the Prince's advisers, amongst whom weremany gentlemen, honest and faithful, Esmond's plan was laid before theKing, and her actual Majesty Queen Oglethorpe, in council. The Princeliked the scheme well enough; 'twas easy and daring, and suited to hisreckless gayety and lively youthful spirit. In the morning after he hadslept his wine off, he was very gay, lively, and agreeable. His mannerhad an extreme charm of archness, and a kind simplicity; and, to do herjustice, her Oglethorpean Majesty was kind, acute, resolute, and of goodcounsel; she gave the Prince much good advice that he was too weakto follow, and loved him with a fidelity which he returned with aningratitude quite Royal.

  Having his own forebodings regarding his scheme should it ever befulfilled, and his usual sceptic doubts as to the benefit which mightaccrue to the country by bringing a tipsy young monarch back to it,Colonel Esmond had his audience of leave and quiet. Monsieur Simon tookhis departure. At any rate the youth at Bar was as good as the olderPretender at Hanover; if the worst came to the worst, the Englishmancould be dealt with as easy as the German. Monsieur Simon trottedon that long journey from Nancy to Paris, and saw that famous town,stealthily and like a spy, as in truth he was; and where, sure, moremagnificence and more misery is heaped together, more rags and lace,more filth and gilding, than in any city in this world. Here he wasput in communication with the King's best friend, his half brother, thefamous Duke of Berwick; Esmond recognized him as the stranger who hadvisited Castlewood now near twenty years ago. His Grace opened to himwhen he found that Mr. Esmond was one of Webb's brave regiment, that hadonce been his Grace's own. He was the sword and buckler indeed of theStuart cause: there was no stain on his shield except the bar across it,which Marlborough's sister left him. Had Berwick been his father's heir,James the Third had assuredly sat on the English throne. He could dare,endure, strike, speak, be silent. The fire and genius, perhaps, he hadnot (that were given to baser men), but except these he had some of thebest qualities of a leader. His Grace knew Esmond's father and history;and hinted at the latter in such a way as made the Colonel to think hewas aware of the particulars of that story. But Esmond did not choose toenter on it, nor did the Duke press him. Mr. Esmond said, "No doubt heshould come by his name if ever greater people came by theirs."

  What confirmed Esmond in his notion that the Duke of Berwick knew of hiscase was, that when the Colonel went to pay his duty at St. Germains,her Majesty once addressed him by the title of Marquis. He took theQueen the dutiful remembrances of her goddaughter, and the lady whom,in the days of her prosperity, her Majesty had befriended. TheQueen remembered Rachel Esmond perfectly well, had heard of my LordCastlewood's conversion, and was much edified by that act of heaven inhis favor. She knew that others of that family had been of the only truechurch too: "Your father and your mother, M. le Marquis," her Majestysaid (that was the only time she used the phrase). Monsieur Simon bowedvery low, and said he had found other parents than his own, who hadtaught him differently; but these had only one king: on which herMajesty was pleased to give him a medal blessed by the Pope, which hadbeen found very efficacious in cases similar to his own, and to promiseshe would offer up prayers for his conversion and that of the family:which no doubt this pious lady did, though up to the present moment, andafter twenty-seven years, Colonel Esmond is bound to say that neitherthe medal nor the prayers have had the slightest known effect upon hisreligious convictions.

  As for the splendors of Versailles, Monsieur Simon, the merchant, onlybeheld them as a humble and distant spectator, seeing the old King butonce, wh
en he went to feed his carps; and asking for no presentation athis Majesty's Court.

  By this time my Lord Viscount Castlewood was got to Paris, where, as theLondon prints presently announced, her ladyship was brought to bed of ason and heir. For a long while afterwards she was in a delicate stateof health, and ordered by the physicians not to travel; otherwise 'twaswell known that the Viscount Castlewood proposed returning to England,and taking up his residence at his own seat.

  Whilst he remained at Paris, my Lord Castlewood had his picture done bythe famous French painter, Monsieur Rigaud, a present for his motherin London; and this piece Monsieur Simon took back with him when hereturned to that city, which he reached about May, in the year 1714,very soon after which time my Lady Castlewood and her daughter, andtheir kinsman, Colonel Esmond, who had been at Castlewood all thistime, likewise returned to London; her ladyship occupying her houseat Kensington, Mr. Esmond returning to his lodgings at Knightsbridge,nearer the town, and once more making his appearance at all publicplaces, his health greatly improved by his long stay in the country.

  The portrait of my lord, in a handsome gilt frame, was hung up inthe place of honor in her ladyship's drawing-room. His lordship wasrepresented in his scarlet uniform of Captain of the Guard, with a lightbrown periwig, a cuirass under his coat, a blue ribbon, and a fall ofBruxelles lace. Many of her ladyship's friends admired the piece beyondmeasure, and flocked to see it; Bishop Atterbury, Mr. Lesly, good oldMr. Collier, and others amongst the clergy, were delighted with theperformance, and many among the first quality examined and praised it;only I must own that Doctor Tusher happening to come up to London, andseeing the picture, (it was ordinarily covered by a curtain, but on thisday Miss Beatrix happened to be looking at it when the Doctor arrived,)the Vicar of Castlewood vowed he could not see any resemblance in thepiece to his old pupil, except, perhaps, a little about the chin and theperiwig; but we all of us convinced him that he had not seen Frank forfive years or more; that he knew no more about the Fine Arts than aploughboy, and that he must be mistaken; and we sent him home assuredthat the piece was an excellent likeness. As for my Lord Bolingbroke,who honored her ladyship with a visit occasionally, when Colonel Esmondshowed him the picture he burst out laughing, and asked what devilry hewas engaged on? Esmond owned simply that the portrait was not that ofViscount Castlewood; besought the Secretary on his honor to keep thesecret; said that the ladies of the house were enthusiastic Jacobites,as was well known; and confessed that the picture was that of theChevalier St. George.

  The truth is, that Mr. Simon, waiting upon Lord Castlewood one dayat Monsieur Rigaud's whilst his lordship was sitting for his picture,affected to be much struck with a piece representing the Chevalier,whereof the head only was finished, and purchased it of the painterfor a hundred crowns. It had been intended, the artist said, for MissOglethorpe, the Prince's mistress, but that young lady quitting Paris,had left the work on the artist's hands; and taking this piece home,when my lord's portrait arrived, Colonel Esmond, alias Monsieur Simon,had copied the uniform and other accessories from my lord's picture tofill up Rigaud's incomplete canvas: the Colonel all his life having beena practitioner of painting, and especially followed it during his longresidence in the cities of Flanders, among the masterpieces of Van Dyckand Rubens. My grandson hath the piece, such as it is, in Virginia now.

  At the commencement of the month of June, Miss Beatrix Esmond, and myLady Viscountess, her mother, arrived from Castlewood; the former toresume her services at Court, which had been interrupted by the fatalcatastrophe of Duke Hamilton's death. She once more took her place,then, in her Majesty's suite and at the Maids' table, being always afavorite with Mrs. Masham, the Queen's chief woman, partly perhaps onaccount of their bitterness against the Duchess of Marlborough, whomMiss Beatrix loved no better than her rival did. The gentlemen about theCourt, my Lord Bolingbroke amongst others, owned that the young lady hadcome back handsomer than ever, and that the serious and tragic air whichher face now involuntarily wore became her better than her former smilesand archness.

  All the old domestics at the little house of Kensington Square werechanged; the old steward that had served the family any time thesefive-and-twenty years, since the birth of the children of the house, wasdespatched into the kingdom of Ireland to see my lord's estate there:the housekeeper, who had been my lady's woman time out of mind, and theattendant of the young children, was sent away grumbling to Walcote,to see to the new painting and preparing of that house, which my LadyDowager intended to occupy for the future, giving up Castlewood toher daughter-in-law that might be expected daily from France. Anotherservant the Viscountess had was dismissed too--with a gratuity--on thepretext that her ladyship's train of domestics must be diminished; so,finally, there was not left in the household a single person who hadbelonged to it during the time my young Lord Castlewood was yet at home.

  For the plan which Colonel Esmond had in view, and the stroke heintended, 'twas necessary that the very smallest number of personsshould be put in possession of his secret. It scarce was known, exceptto three or four out of his family, and it was kept to a wonder.

  On the 10th of June, 1714, there came by Mr. Prior's messenger fromParis a letter from my Lord Viscount Castlewood to his mother, sayingthat he had been foolish in regard of money matters, that he was ashamedto own he had lost at play, and by other extravagances; and that insteadof having great entertainments as he had hoped at Castlewood this year,he must live as quiet as he could, and make every effort to be saving.So far every word of poor Frank's letter was true, nor was there a doubtthat he and his tall brothers-in-law had spent a great deal more thanthey ought, and engaged the revenues of the Castlewood property, whichthe fond mother had husbanded and improved so carefully during the timeof her guardianship.

  His "Clotilda," Castlewood went on to say, "was still delicate, and herphysicians thought her lying-in had best take place at Paris. He shouldcome without her ladyship, and be at his mother's house about the 17thor 18th day of June, proposing to take horse from Paris immediately,and bringing but a single servant with him; and he requested that thelawyers of Gray's inn might be invited to meet him with their account,and the land-steward come from Castlewood with his, so that he mightsettle with them speedily, raise a sum of money whereof he stood inneed, and be back to his viscountess by the time of her lying-in." Thenhis lordship gave some of the news of the town, sent his remembrance tokinsfolk, and so the letter ended. 'Twas put in the common post, and nodoubt the French police and the English there had a copy of it, to whichthey were exceeding welcome.

  Two days after another letter was despatched by the public post ofFrance, in the same open way, and this, after giving news of the fashionat Court there, ended by the following sentences, in which, but forthose that had the key, 'twould be difficult for any man to find anysecret lurked at all:--

  "(The King will take) medicine on Thursday. His Majesty is better thanhe hath been of late, though incommoded by indigestion from his toogreat appetite. Madame Maintenon continues well. They have performed aplay of Mons. Racine at St. Cyr. The Duke of Shrewsbury and Mr. Prior,our envoy, and all the English nobility here were present at it. (TheViscount Castlewood's passports) were refused to him, 'twas said; hislordship being sued by a goldsmith for Vaisselle plate, and a pearlnecklace supplied to Mademoiselle Meruel of the French Comedy. 'Tis apity such news should get abroad (and travel to England) about our youngnobility here. Mademoiselle Meruel has been sent to the Fort l'Evesque;they say she has ordered not only plate, but furniture, and a chariotand horses (under that lord's name), of which extravagance hisunfortunate Viscountess knows nothing.

  "(His Majesty will be) eighty-two years of age on his next birthday. TheCourt prepares to celebrate it with a great feast. Mr. Prior is in a sadway about their refusing at home to send him his plate. All here admiredmy Lord Viscount's portrait, and said it was a masterpiece of Rigaud.Have you seen it? It is (at the Lady Castlewood's house in KensingtonSquare). I think no English painter could prod
uce such a piece.

  "Our poor friend the Abbe hath been at the Bastile, but is nowtransported to the Conciergerie (where his friends may visit him. Theyare to ask for) a remission of his sentence soon. Let us hope the poorrogue will have repented in prison.

  "(The Lord Castlewood) has had the affair of the plate made up, anddeparts for England.

  "Is not this a dull letter? I have a cursed headache with drinking withMat and some more over-night, and tipsy or sober am

  "Thine ever ----."

  All this letter, save some dozen of words which I have put above betweenbrackets, was mere idle talk, though the substance of the letter was asimportant as any letter well could be. It told those that had the key,that The King will take the Viscount Castlewood's passports and travelto England under that lord's name. His Majesty will be at the LadyCastlewood's house in Kensington Square, where his friends may visithim; they are to ask for the Lord Castlewood. This note may have passedunder Mr. Prior's eyes, and those of our new allies the French, andtaught them nothing; though it explains sufficiently to persons inLondon what the event was which was about to happen, as 'twill showthose who read my memoirs a hundred years hence, what was that errand onwhich Colonel Esmond of late had been busy. Silently and swiftly to dothat about which others were conspiring, and thousands of Jacobitesall over the country clumsily caballing; alone to effect that which theleaders here were only talking about; to bring the Prince of Wales intothe country openly in the face of all, under Bolingbroke's very eyes,the walls placarded with the proclamation signed with the Secretary'sname, and offering five hundred pounds reward for his apprehension:this was a stroke, the playing and winning of which might well give anyadventurous spirit pleasure: the loss of the stake might involve a heavypenalty, but all our family were eager to risk that for the gloriouschance of winning the game.

  Nor shall it be called a game, save perhaps with the chief player, whowas not more or less sceptical than most public men with whom he hadacquaintance in that age. (Is there ever a public man in England thataltogether believes in his party? Is there one, however doubtful, thatwill not fight for it?) Young Frank was ready to fight without muchthinking, he was a Jacobite as his father before him was; all theEsmonds were Royalists. Give him but the word, he would cry, "God saveKing James!" before the palace guard, or at the Maypole in the Strand;and with respect to the women, as is usual with them, 'twas not aquestion of party but of faith; their belief was a passion; eitherEsmond's mistress or her daughter would have died for it cheerfully. Ihave laughed often, talking of King William's reign, and said I thoughtLady Castlewood was disappointed the King did not persecute the familymore; and those who know the nature of women may fancy for themselves,what needs not here be written down, the rapture with which theseneophytes received the mystery when made known to them; the eagernesswith which they looked forward to its completion; the reverence whichthey paid the minister who initiated them into that secret Truth, nowknown only to a few, but presently to reign over the world. Sure thereis no bound to the trustingness of women. Look at Arria worshipping thedrunken clodpate of a husband who beats her; look at Cornelia treasuringas a jewel in her maternal heart the oaf her son; I have known a womanpreach Jesuit's bark, and afterwards Dr. Berkeley's tar-water, as thoughto swallow them were a divine decree, and to refuse them no better thanblasphemy.

  On his return from France Colonel Esmond put himself at the head ofthis little knot of fond conspirators. No death or torture he knew wouldfrighten them out of their constancy. When he detailed his plan forbringing the King back, his elder mistress thought that that Restorationwas to be attributed under heaven to the Castlewood family and to itschief, and she worshipped and loved Esmond, if that could be, more thanever she had done. She doubted not for one moment of the success of hisscheme, to mistrust which would have seemed impious in her eyes. And asfor Beatrix, when she became acquainted with the plan, and joined it, asshe did with all her heart, she gave Esmond one of her searching brightlooks. "Ah, Harry," says she, "why were you not the head of our house?You are the only one fit to raise it; why do you give that silly boy thename and the honor? But 'tis so in the world; those get the prize thatdon't deserve or care for it. I wish I could give you YOUR silly prize,cousin, but I can't; I have tried, and I can't." And she went away,shaking her head mournfully, but always, it seemed to Esmond, that herliking and respect for him was greatly increased, since she knew whatcapability he had both to act and bear; to do and to forego.