CHAPTER IX.
THE ORIGINAL OF THE PORTRAIT COMES TO ENGLAND.
'Twas announced in the family that my Lord Castlewood would arrive,having a confidential French gentleman in his suite, who acted assecretary to his lordship, and who, being a Papist, and a foreigner ofa good family, though now in rather a menial place, would have his mealsserved in his chamber, and not with the domestics of the house. TheViscountess gave up her bedchamber contiguous to her daughter's, andhaving a large convenient closet attached to it, in which a bed wasput up, ostensibly for Monsieur Baptiste, the Frenchman; though, 'tisneedless to say, when the doors of the apartments were locked, and thetwo guests retired within it, the young viscount became the servant ofthe illustrious Prince whom he entertained, and gave up gladly the moreconvenient and airy chamber and bed to his master. Madam Beatrixalso retired to the upper region, her chamber being converted intoa sitting-room for my lord. The better to carry the deceit, Beatrixaffected to grumble before the servants, and to be jealous that she wasturned out of her chamber to make way for my lord.
No small preparations were made, you may be sure, and no slight tremorof expectation caused the hearts of the gentle ladies of Castlewood toflutter, before the arrival of the personages who were about to honortheir house. The chamber was ornamented with flowers; the bed coveredwith the very finest of linen; the two ladies insisting on making itthemselves, and kneeling down at the bedside and kissing the sheets outof respect for the web that was to hold the sacred person of a King. Thetoilet was of silver and crystal; there was a copy of "Eikon Basilike"laid on the writing-table; a portrait of the martyred King hung alwaysover the mantel, having a sword of my poor Lord Castlewood underneathit, and a little picture or emblem which the widow loved always to havebefore her eyes on waking, and in which the hair of her lord and her twochildren was worked together. Her books of private devotions, as theywere all of the English Church, she carried away with her to the upperapartment, which she destined for herself. The ladies showed Mr. Esmond,when they were completed, the fond preparations they had made. 'Twasthen Beatrix knelt down and kissed the linen sheets. As for her mother,Lady Castlewood made a curtsy at the door, as she would have done to thealtar on entering a church, and owned that she considered the chamber ina manner sacred.
The company in the servants' hall never for a moment supposed that thesepreparations were made for any other person than the young viscount,the lord of the house, whom his fond mother had been for so many yearswithout seeing. Both ladies were perfect housewives, having the greatestskill in the making of confections, scented waters, &c., and keeping anotable superintendence over the kitchen. Calves enough were killed tofeed an army of prodigal sons, Esmond thought, and laughed when he cameto wait on the ladies, on the day when the guests were to arrive, tofind two pairs of the finest and roundest arms to be seen in England (myLady Castlewood was remarkable for this beauty of her person), coveredwith flour up above the elbows, and preparing paste, and turningrolling-pins in the housekeeper's closet. The guest would not arrivetill supper-time, and my lord would prefer having that meal in his ownchamber. You may be sure the brightest plate of the house was laid outthere, and can understand why it was that the ladies insisted that theyalone would wait upon the young chief of the family.
Taking horse, Colonel Esmond rode rapidly to Rochester, and thereawaited the King in that very town where his father had last set hisfoot on the English shore. A room had been provided at an inn there formy Lord Castlewood and his servant; and Colonel Esmond timed his ride sowell that he had scarce been half an hour in the place, and was lookingover the balcony into the yard of the inn, when two travellers rode inat the inn gate, and the Colonel running down, the next moment embracedhis dear young lord.
My lord's companion, acting the part of a domestic, dismounted, and wasfor holding the viscount's stirrup; but Colonel Esmond, calling to hisown man, who was in the court, bade him take the horses and settle withthe lad who had ridden the post along with the two travellers, cryingout in a cavalier tone in the French language to my lord's companion,and affecting to grumble that my lord's fellow was a Frenchman, and didnot know the money or habits of the country:--"My man will see to thehorses, Baptiste," says Colonel Esmond: "do you understand English?""Very leetle!" "So, follow my lord and wait upon him at dinner in hisown room." The landlord and his people came up presently bearing thedishes; 'twas well they made a noise and stir in the gallery, or theymight have found Colonel Esmond on his knee before Lord Castlewood'sservant, welcoming his Majesty to his kingdom, and kissing the handof the King. We told the landlord that the Frenchman would wait onhis master; and Esmond's man was ordered to keep sentry in the gallerywithout the door. The Prince dined with a good appetite, laughing andtalking very gayly, and condescendingly bidding his two companionsto sit with him at table. He was in better spirits than poor FrankCastlewood, who Esmond thought might be woe-begone on account of partingwith his divine Clotilda; but the Prince wishing to take a short siestaafter dinner, and retiring to an inner chamber where there was a bed,the cause of poor Frank's discomfiture came out; and bursting intotears, with many expressions of fondness, friendship, and humiliation,the faithful lad gave his kinsman to understand that he now knew all thetruth, and the sacrifices which Colonel Esmond had made for him.
Seeing no good in acquainting poor Frank with that secret, Mr. Esmondhad entreated his mistress also not to reveal it to her son. The Princehad told the poor lad all as they were riding from Dover: "I had as liefhe had shot me, cousin," Frank said: "I knew you were the best, and thebravest, and the kindest of all men" (so the enthusiastic young fellowwent on); "but I never thought I owed you what I do, and can scarce bearthe weight of the obligation."
"I stand in the place of your father," says Mr. Esmond, kindly, "andsure a father may dispossess himself in favor of his son. I abdicate thetwopenny crown, and invest you with the kingdom of Brentford; don't be afool and cry; you make a much taller and handsomer viscount than everI could." But the fond boy, with oaths and protestations, laughter andincoherent outbreaks of passionate emotion, could not be got, for somelittle time, to put up with Esmond's raillery; wanted to kneel down tohim, and kissed his hand; asked him and implored him to order something,to bid Castlewood give his own life or take somebody else's; anything,so that he might show his gratitude for the generosity Esmond showedhim.
"The K---, HE laughed," Frank said, pointing to the door where thesleeper was, and speaking in a low tone. "I don't think he should havelaughed as he told me the story. As we rode along from Dover, talking inFrench, he spoke about you, and your coming to him at Bar; he calledyou 'le grand serieux,' Don Bellianis of Greece, and I don't know whatnames; mimicking your manner" (here Castlewood laughed himself)--"andhe did it very well. He seems to sneer at everything. He is not like aking: somehow Harry, I fancy you are like a king. He does not seemto think what a stake we are all playing. He would have stopped atCanterbury to run after a barmaid there, had I not implored him to comeon. He hath a house at Chaillot, where he used to go and bury himselffor weeks away from the Queen, and with all sorts of bad company," saysFrank, with a demure look; "you may smile, but I am not the wild fellowI was; no, no, I have been taught better," says Castlewood devoutly,making a sign on his breast.
"Thou art my dear brave boy," says Colonel Esmond, touched at the youngfellow's simplicity, "and there will be a noble gentleman at Castlewoodso long as my Frank is there."
The impetuous young lad was for going down on his knees again, withanother explosion of gratitude, but that we heard the voice from thenext chamber of the august sleeper, just waking, calling out:--"Eh,La-Fleur, un verre d'eau!" His Majesty came out yawning:--"A pest," sayshe, "upon your English ale, 'tis so strong that, ma foi, it hath turnedmy head."
The effect of the ale was like a spur upon our horses, and we rodevery quickly to London, reaching Kensington at nightfall. Mr. Esmond'sservant was left behind at Rochester, to take care of the tired horses,whilst we had fresh beasts provided along th
e road. And galloping bythe Prince's side the Colonel explained to the Prince of Wales what hismovements had been; who the friends were that knew of the expedition;whom, as Esmond conceived, the Prince should trust; entreating him,above all, to maintain the very closest secrecy until the time shouldcome when his Royal Highness should appear. The town swarmed withfriends of the Prince's cause; there were scores of correspondents withSt. Germains; Jacobites known and secret; great in station and humble;about the Court and the Queen; in the Parliament, Church, and among themerchants in the City. The Prince had friends numberless in the army,in the Privy Council, and the Officers of State. The great object, as itseemed, to the small band of persons who had concerted that bold stroke,who had brought the Queen's brother into his native country, was, thathis visit should remain unknown till the proper time came, when hispresence should surprise friends and enemies alike; and the lattershould be found so unprepared and disunited, that they should notfind time to attack him. We feared more from his friends than from hisenemies. The lies and tittle-tattle sent over to St. Germains by theJacobite agents about London, had done an incalculable mischief to hiscause, and wofully misguided him, and it was from these especially, thatthe persons engaged in the present venture were anxious to defend thechief actor in it.*
* The managers were the Bishop, who cannot be hurt by having his name mentioned, a very active and loyal Nonconformist Divine, a lady in the highest favor at Court, with whom Beatrix Esmond had communication, and two noblemen of the greatest rank, and a member of the House of Commons, who was implicated in more transactions than one in behalf of the Stuart family.
The party reached London by nightfall, leaving their horses at thePosting-House over against Westminster, and being ferried over thewater, where Lady Esmond's coach was already in waiting. In another hourwe were all landed at Kensington, and the mistress of the house had thatsatisfaction which her heart had yearned after for many years, once moreto embrace her son, who, on his side, with all his waywardness, everretained a most tender affection for his parent.
She did not refrain from this expression of her feeling, though thedomestics were by, and my Lord Castlewood's attendant stood in the hall.Esmond had to whisper to him in French to take his hat off. MonsieurBaptiste was constantly neglecting his part with an inconceivablelevity: more than once on the ride to London, little observations of thestranger, light remarks, and words betokening the greatest ignorance ofthe country the Prince came to govern, had hurt the susceptibility ofthe two gentlemen forming his escort; nor could either help owning inhis secret mind that they would have had his behavior otherwise,and that the laughter and the lightness, not to say license, whichcharacterized his talk, scarce befitted such a great Prince, and such asolemn occasion. Not but that he could act at proper times with spiritand dignity. He had behaved, as we all knew, in a very courageous manneron the field. Esmond had seen a copy of the letter the Prince had writwith his own hand when urged by his friends in England to abjure hisreligion, and admired that manly and magnanimous reply by which herefused to yield to the temptation. Monsieur Baptiste took off hishat, blushing at the hint Colonel Esmond ventured to give him, andsaid:--"Tenez, elle est jolie, la petite mere. Foi de Chevalier! elleest charmante; mais l'autre, qui est cette nymphe, cet astre qui brille,cette Diane qui descend sur nous?" And he started back, and pushedforward, as Beatrix was descending the stair. She was in colors for thefirst time at her own house; she wore the diamonds Esmond gave her; ithad been agreed between them, that she should wear these brilliants onthe day when the King should enter the house, and a Queen she looked,radiant in charms, and magnificent and imperial in beauty.
Castlewood himself was startled by that beauty and splendor; he steppedback and gazed at his sister as though he had not been aware before (norwas he very likely) how perfectly lovely she was, and I thought blushedas he embraced her. The Prince could not keep his eyes off her; he quiteforgot his menial part, though he had been schooled to it, and a littlelight portmanteau prepared expressly that he should carry it. He pressedforward before my Lord Viscount. 'Twas lucky the servants' eyes werebusy in other directions, or they must have seen that this was noservant, or at least a very insolent and rude one.
Again Colonel Esmond was obliged to cry out, "Baptiste," in a loudimperious voice, "have a care to the valise;" at which hint the wilfulyoung man ground his teeth together with something very like a cursebetween them, and then gave a brief look of anything but pleasure to hisMentor. Being reminded, however, he shouldered the little portmanteau,and carried it up the stair, Esmond preceding him, and a servant withlighted tapers. He flung down his burden sulkily in the bedchamber:--"APrince that will wear a crown must wear a mask," says Mr. Esmond inFrench.
"Ah peste! I see how it is," says Monsieur Baptiste, continuing thetalk in French. "The Great Serious is seriously"--"alarmed for MonsieurBaptiste," broke in the Colonel. Esmond neither liked the tone withwhich the Prince spoke of the ladies, nor the eyes with which heregarded them.
The bedchamber and the two rooms adjoining it, the closet and theapartment which was to be called my lord's parlor, were already lightedand awaiting their occupier; and the collation laid for my lord'ssupper. Lord Castlewood and his mother and sister came up the staira minute afterwards, and, so soon as the domestics had quitted theapartment, Castlewood and Esmond uncovered, and the two ladies went downon their knees before the Prince, who graciously gave a hand to each.He looked his part of Prince much more naturally than that of servant,which he had just been trying, and raised them both with a great deal ofnobility, as well as kindness in his air. "Madam," says he, "my motherwill thank your ladyship for your hospitality to her son; for you,madam," turning to Beatrix, "I cannot bear to see so much beauty in sucha posture. You will betray Monsieur Baptiste if you kneel to him; sure'tis his place rather to kneel to you."
A light shone out of her eyes; a gleam bright enough to kindle passionin any breast. There were times when this creature was so handsome,that she seemed, as it were, like Venus revealing herself a goddess in aflash of brightness. She appeared so now; radiant, and with eyes brightwith a wonderful lustre. A pang, as of rage and jealousy, shot throughEsmond's heart, as he caught the look she gave the Prince; and heclenched his hand involuntarily and looked across to Castlewood, whoseeyes answered his alarm-signal, and were also on the alert. The Princegave his subjects an audience of a few minutes, and then the two ladiesand Colonel Esmond quitted the chamber. Lady Castlewood pressed his handas they descended the stair, and the three went down to the lower rooms,where they waited awhile till the travellers above should be refreshedand ready for their meal.
Esmond looked at Beatrix, blazing with her jewels on her beautiful neck."I have kept my word," says he: "And I mine," says Beatrix, looking downon the diamonds.
"Were I the Mogul Emperor," says the Colonel, "you should have all thatwere dug out of Golconda."
"These are a great deal too good for me," says Beatrix, dropping herhead on her beautiful breast,--"so are you all, all!" And when shelooked up again, as she did in a moment, and after a sigh, her eyes,as they gazed at her cousin, wore that melancholy and inscrutable lookwhich 'twas always impossible to sound.
When the time came for the supper, of which we were advertised by aknocking overhead, Colonel Esmond and the two ladies went to the upperapartment, where the Prince already was, and by his side the youngViscount, of exactly the same age, shape, and with features notdissimilar, though Frank's were the handsomer of the two. The Princesat down and bade the ladies sit. The gentlemen remained standing: therewas, indeed, but one more cover laid at the table:--"Which of you willtake it?" says he.
"The head of our house," says Lady Castlewood, taking her son's hand,and looking towards Colonel Esmond with a bow and a great tremor of thevoice; "the Marquis of Esmond will have the honor of serving the King."
"I shall have the honor of waiting on his Royal Highness," says ColonelEsmond, filling a cup of wine, and, as the fashion of that d
ay was, hepresented it to the King on his knee.
"I drink to my hostess and her family," says the Prince, with no verywell-pleased air; but the cloud passed immediately off his face, and hetalked to the ladies in a lively, rattling strain, quite undisturbedby poor Mr. Esmond's yellow countenance, that, I dare say, looked veryglum.
When the time came to take leave, Esmond marched homewards to hislodgings, and met Mr. Addison on the road that night, walking to acottage he had at Fulham, the moon shining on his handsome sereneface:--"What cheer, brother?" says Addison, laughing: "I thought it wasa footpad advancing in the dark, and behold 'tis an old friend. Wemay shake hands, Colonel, in the dark, 'tis better than fighting bydaylight. Why should we quarrel, because I am a Whig and thou arta Tory? Turn thy steps and walk with me to Fulham, where there is anightingale still singing in the garden, and a cool bottle in a cave Iknow of; you shall drink to the Pretender if you like, and I will drinkmy liquor my own way: I have had enough of good liquor?--no, never!There is no such word as enough as a stopper for good wine. Thou wiltnot come? Come any day, come soon. You know I remember Simois and theSigeia tellus, and the praelia mixta mero, mixta mero," he repeated,with ever so slight a touch of merum in his voice, and walked back alittle way on the road with Esmond, bidding the other remember he wasalways his friend, and indebted to him for his aid in the "Campaign"poem. And very likely Mr. Under-Secretary would have stepped in andtaken t'other bottle at the Colonel's lodging, had the latter invitedhim, but Esmond's mood was none of the gayest, and he bade his friend aninhospitable good-night at the door.
"I have done the deed," thought he, sleepless, and looking out into thenight; "he is here, and I have brought him; he and Beatrix are sleepingunder the same roof now. Whom did I mean to serve in bringing him? Wasit the Prince? was it Henry Esmond? Had I not best have joined the manlycreed of Addison yonder, that scouts the old doctrine of rightdivine, that boldly declares that Parliament and people consecrate theSovereign, not bishops, nor genealogies, nor oils, nor coronations."The eager gaze of the young Prince, watching every movement of Beatrix,haunted Esmond and pursued him. The Prince's figure appeared before himin his feverish dreams many times that night. He wished the deed undonefor which he had labored so. He was not the first that has regretted hisown act, or brought about his own undoing. Undoing? Should he writethat word in his late years? No, on his knees before heaven, rather bethankful for what then he deemed his misfortune, and which hath causedthe whole subsequent happiness of his life.
Esmond's man, honest John Lockwood, had served his master and the familyall his life, and the Colonel knew that he could answer for John'sfidelity as for his own. John returned with the horses from Rochesterbetimes the next morning, and the Colonel gave him to understand that ongoing to Kensington, where he was free of the servants' hall, and indeedcourting Miss Beatrix's maid, he was to ask no questions, and betray nosurprise, but to vouch stoutly that the young gentleman he should see ina red coat there was my Lord Viscount Castlewood, and that his attendantin gray was Monsieur Baptiste the Frenchman. He was to tell his friendsin the kitchen such stories as he remembered of my Lord Viscount's youthat Castlewood; what a wild boy he was; how he used to drill Jack andcane him, before ever he was a soldier; everything, in fine, he knewrespecting my Lord Viscount's early days. Jack's ideas of paintinghad not been much cultivated during his residence in Flanders with hismaster; and, before my young lord's return, he had been easily got tobelieve that the picture brought over from Paris, and now hanging inLady Castlewood's drawing-room, was a perfect likeness of her son, theyoung lord. And the domestics having all seen the picture many times,and catching but a momentary imperfect glimpse of the two strangers onthe night of their arrival, never had a reason to doubt the fidelityof the portrait; and next day, when they saw the original of the piecehabited exactly as he was represented in the painting, with the sameperiwig, ribbons, and uniform of the Guard, quite naturally addressedthe gentleman as my Lord Castlewood, my Lady Viscountess's son.
The secretary of the night previous was now the viscount; the viscountwore the secretary's gray frock; and John Lockwood was instructed tohint to the world below stairs that my lord being a Papist, and verydevout in that religion, his attendant might be no other than hischaplain from Bruxelles; hence, if he took his meals in my lord'scompany there was little reason for surprise. Frank was furthercautioned to speak English with a foreign accent, which task heperformed indifferently well, and this caution was the more necessarybecause the Prince himself scarce spoke our language like a native ofthe island: and John Lockwood laughed with the folks below stairs at themanner in which my lord, after five years abroad, sometimes forgot hisown tongue, and spoke it like a Frenchman. "I warrant," says he, "that,with the English beef and beer, his lordship will soon get back theproper use of his mouth;" and, to do his new lordship justice, he tookto beer and beef very kindly.
The Prince drank so much, and was so loud and imprudent in his talkafter his drink, that Esmond often trembled for him. His meals wereserved as much as possible in his own chamber, though frequently he madehis appearance in Lady Castlewood's parlor and drawing-room, callingBeatrix "sister," and her ladyship "mother," or "madam" before theservants. And, choosing to act entirely up to the part of brother andson, the Prince sometimes saluted Mrs. Beatrix and Lady Castlewood witha freedom which his secretary did not like, and which, for his part, setColonel Esmond tearing with rage.
The guests had not been three days in the house when poor Jack Lockwoodcame with a rueful countenance to his master, and said: "My Lord--thatis the gentleman--has been tampering with Mrs. Lucy (Jack's sweetheart),and given her guineas and a kiss." I fear that Colonel Esmond's mind wasrather relieved than otherwise when he found that the ancillary beautywas the one whom the Prince had selected. His royal tastes were knownto lie that way, and continued so in after life. The heir of one ofthe greatest names, of the greatest kingdoms, and of the greatestmisfortunes in Europe, was often content to lay the dignity of his birthand grief at the wooden shoes of a French chambermaid, and to repentafterwards (for he was very devout) in ashes taken from the dust-pan.'Tis for mortals such as these that nations suffer, that partiesstruggle, that warriors fight and bleed. A year afterwards gallant headswere falling, and Nithsdale in escape, and Derwentwater on the scaffold;whilst the heedless ingrate, for whom they risked and lost all, wastippling with his seraglio of mistresses in his petite maison ofChaillot.
Blushing to be forced to bear such an errand, Esmond had to go to thePrince and warn him that the girl whom his Highness was bribing was JohnLockwood's sweetheart, an honest resolute man, who had served in sixcampaigns, and feared nothing, and who knew that the person callinghimself Lord Castlewood was not his young master: and the Colonelbesought the Prince to consider what the effect of a single man'sjealousy might be, and to think of other designs he had in hand, moreimportant than the seduction of a waiting-maid, and the humiliation of abrave man.
Ten times, perhaps, in the course of as many days, Mr. Esmond had towarn the royal young adventurer of some imprudence or some freedom. Hereceived these remonstrances very testily, save perhaps in this affairof poor Lockwood's, when he deigned to burst out a-laughing, and said,"What! the soubrette has peached to the amoureux, and Crispin is angry,and Crispin has served, and Crispin has been a corporal, has he? Tellhim we will reward his valor with a pair of colors, and recompense hisfidelity."
Colonel Esmond ventured to utter some other words of entreaty, but thePrince, stamping imperiously, cried out, "Assez, milord: je m'ennuyea la preche; I am not come to London to go to the sermon." And hecomplained afterwards to Castlewood, that "le petit jaune, le noirColonel, le Marquis Misanthrope" (by which facetious names his RoyalHighness was pleased to designate Colonel Esmond), "fatigued him withhis grand airs and virtuous homilies."
The Bishop of Rochester, and other gentlemen engaged in the transactionwhich had brought the Prince over, waited upon his Royal Highness,constantly asking for my Lord Castlewood on their arrival
at Kensington,and being openly conducted to his Royal Highness in that character, whoreceived them either in my lady's drawing-room below, or above in hisown apartment; and all implored him to quit the house as little aspossible, and to wait there till the signal should be given for him toappear. The ladies entertained him at cards, over which amusement hespent many hours in each day and night. He passed many hours more indrinking, during which time he would rattle and talk very agreeably, andespecially if the Colonel was absent, whose presence always seemed tofrighten him; and the poor "Colonel Noir" took that hint as a commandaccordingly, and seldom intruded his black face upon the convivial hoursof this august young prisoner. Except for those few persons of whom theporter had the list, Lord Castlewood was denied to all friends of thehouse who waited on his lordship. The wound he had received had brokeout again from his journey on horseback, so the world and the domesticswere informed. And Doctor A----,* his physician (I shall not mention hisname, but he was physician to the Queen, of the Scots nation, and a manremarkable for his benevolence as well as his wit), gave orders that heshould be kept perfectly quiet until the wound should heal. With thisgentleman, who was one of the most active and influential of our party,and the others before spoken of, the whole secret lay; and it was keptwith so much faithfulness, and the story we told so simple and natural,that there was no likelihood of a discovery except from the imprudenceof the Prince himself, and an adventurous levity that we had thegreatest difficulty to control. As for Lady Castlewood, although shescarce spoke a word, 'twas easy to gather from her demeanor, and oneor two hints she dropped, how deep her mortification was at finding thehero whom she had chosen to worship all her life (and whose restorationhad formed almost the most sacred part of her prayers), no more thana man, and not a good one. She thought misfortune might have chastenedhim; but that instructress had rather rendered him callous than humble.His devotion, which was quite real, kept him from no sin he had a mindto. His talk showed good-humor, gayety, even wit enough; but there wasa levity in his acts and words that he had brought from among thoselibertine devotees with whom he had been bred, and that shocked thesimplicity and purity of the English lady, whose guest he was. Esmondspoke his mind to Beatrix pretty freely about the Prince, getting herbrother to put in a word of warning. Beatrix was entirely of theiropinion; she thought he was very light, very light and reckless; shecould not even see the good looks Colonel Esmond had spoken of. ThePrince had bad teeth, and a decided squint. How could we say he did notsquint? His eyes were fine, but there was certainly a cast in them. Sherallied him at table with wonderful wit; she spoke of him invariably asof a mere boy; she was more fond of Esmond than ever, praised him to herbrother, praised him to the Prince, when his Royal Highness was pleasedto sneer at the Colonel, and warmly espoused his cause: "And if yourMajesty does not give him the Garter his father had, when the Marquisof Esmond comes to your Majesty's court, I will hang myself in my owngarters, or will cry my eyes out." "Rather than lose those," says thePrince, "he shall be made Archbishop and Colonel of the Guard" (it wasFrank Castlewood who told me of this conversation over their supper).
* There can be very little doubt that the Doctor mentioned by my dear father was the famous Dr. Arbuthnot.--R. E. W.
"Yes," cries she, with one of her laughs--I fancy I hear it now.Thirty years afterwards I hear that delightful music. "Yes, he shall beArchbishop of Esmond and Marquis of Canterbury."
"And what will your ladyship be?" says the Prince; "you have but tochoose your place."
"I," says Beatrix, "will be mother of the maids to the Queen of hisMajesty King James the Third--Vive le Roy!" and she made him a greatcurtsy, and drank a part of a glass of wine in his honor.
"The Prince seized hold of the glass and drank the last drop of it,"Castlewood said, "and my mother, looking very anxious, rose up and askedleave to retire. But that Trix is my mother's daughter, Harry," Frankcontinued, "I don't know what a horrid fear I should have of her. Iwish--I wish this business were over. You are older than I am,and wiser, and better, and I owe you everything, and would die foryou--before George I would; but I wish the end of this were come."
Neither of us very likely passed a tranquil night; horrible doubts andtorments racked Esmond's soul: 'twas a scheme of personal ambition,a daring stroke for a selfish end--he knew it. What cared he, in hisheart, who was King? Were not his very sympathies and secret convictionson the other side--on the side of People, Parliament, Freedom? And herewas he, engaged for a Prince that had scarce heard the word liberty;that priests and women, tyrants by nature, both made a tool of. Themisanthrope was in no better humor after hearing that story, and hisgrim face more black and yellow than ever.
The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., a Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne Page 41
