CHAPTER III. The Esmonds in Virginia
Henry Esmond, Esq., an office who had served with the rank of Colonelduring the wars of Queen Anne's reign, found himself, at its close,compromised in certain attempts for the restoration of the Queen'sfamily to the throne of these realms. Happily for itself, the nationpreferred another dynasty; but some of the few opponents of the houseof Hanover took refuge out of the three kingdoms, and amongst others,Colonel Esmond was counselled by his friends to go abroad. As Mr. Esmondsincerely regretted the part which he had taken, and as the augustPrince 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 hispeace.
Mr. Esmond, it has been said, belonged to the noble English family whichtakes its title from Castlewood, in the county of Hants; and it waspretty generally known that King James II. and his son had offered thetitle of Marquis to Colonel Esmond and his father, and that the formermight have assumed the (Irish) peerage hereditary in his family, butfor an informality which he did not choose to set right. Tired of thepolitical struggles in which he had been engaged, and annoyed by familycircumstances 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 theColonel's kinsman, the unlucky Viscount Castlewood, killed in a duel byLord Mohun, at the close of King William's reign.
Mr. Esmond called his American house Castlewood, from the patrimonialhome in the old country. The whole usages of Virginia, indeed, werefondly modelled after the English customs. It was a loyal colony. TheVirginians boasted that King Charles II. had been king in Virginiabefore he had been king in England. English king and English church werealike faithfully honoured there. The resident gentry were allied to goodEnglish families. They held their heads above the Dutch traders of NewYork, and the money-getting Roundheads of Pennsylvania and New England.Never were people less republican than those of the great province whichwas soon to be foremost in the memorable revolt against the BritishCrown.
The gentry of Virginia dwelt on their great lands after a fashion almostpatriarchal. For its rough cultivation, each estate had a multitudeof hands--of purchased and assigned servants--who were subject to thecommand of the master. The land yielded their food, live stock, andgame. The great rivers swarmed with fish for the taking. From theirbanks the passage home was clear. Their ships took the tobacco off theirprivate wharves on the banks of the Potomac or the James river, andcarried it to London or Bristol,--bringing back English goods andarticles of home manufacture in return for the only produce which theVirginian gentry chose to cultivate. Their hospitality was boundless.No stranger was ever sent away from their gates. The gentry received oneanother, 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. Tobe the proprietor of black servants shocked the feelings of no Virginiangentleman; nor, in truth, was the despotism exercised over the negrorace generally a savage one. The food was plenty; the poor black peoplelazy and not unhappy. You might have preached negro emancipation toMadam Esmond of Castlewood as you might have told her to let the horsesrun loose out of her stables; she had no doubt but that the whip and thecorn-bag were good for both.
Her father may have thought otherwise, being of a sceptical turn on verymany points, but his doubts did not break forth in active denial, andhe was rather disaffected than rebellious. At one period, this gentlemanhad taken a part in active life at home, and possibly might have beeneager to share its rewards; but in latter days he did not seem to carefor them. A something had occurred in his life, which had cast a tingeof melancholy over all his existence. He was not unhappy--to those abouthim most kind--most affectionate, obsequious even to the women ofhis family, whom be scarce ever contradicted; but there had been somebankruptcy of his heart, which his spirit never recovered. He submittedto life, rather than enjoyed it, and never was in better spirits than inhis last hours when he was going to lay it down.
Having lost his wife, his daughter took the management of the Coloneland his affairs; and he gave them up to her charge with an entireacquiescence. So that he had his books and his quiet, he cared for nomore. When company came to Castlewood, he entertained them handsomely,and was of a very pleasant, sarcastical turn. He was not in the leastsorry 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 consoleyourself after a while. Why should I, who am so old, be romantic? Youmay, who are still a young creature." This he said, not meaning all hesaid, 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, affairsprospered so well with the worthy proprietor, that he acquiesced in hisdaughter's plans for the building of a mansion much grander and moredurable than the plain wooden edifice in which he had been content tolive, so that his heirs might have a habitation worthy of their noblename. Several of Madam Warrington's neighbours had built handsome housesfor themselves; perhaps it was her ambition to take rank in the country,which inspired this desire for improved quarters. Colonel Esmond, ofCastlewood, neither cared for quarters nor for quarterings. But hisdaughter had a very high opinion of the merit and antiquity of herlineage; and her sire, growing exquisitely calm and good-natured in hisserene, declining years, humoured his child's peculiarities in an easy,bantering way,--nay, helped her with his antiquarian learning, which wasnot inconsiderable, and with his skill in the art of painting, of whichhe was a proficient. A knowledge of heraldry, a hundred years ago,formed part of the education of most noble ladies and gentlemen: duringher visit to Europe, Miss Esmond had eagerly studied the family historyand pedigrees, and returned thence to Virginia with a store of documentsrelative to her family on which she relied with implicit gravity andcredence, and with the most edifying volumes then published in Franceand England, respecting the noble science. These works proved, to herperfect satisfaction, not only that the Esmonds were descended fromnoble Norman warriors, who came into England along with their victoriouschief, but from native English of royal dignity: and two magnificentheraldic trees, cunningly painted by the hand of the Colonel,represented the family springing from the Emperor Charlemagne on theone hand, who was drawn in plate-armour, with his imperial mantle anddiadem, and on the other from Queen Boadicea, whom the Colonel insistedupon painting in the light costume of an ancient British queen, witha prodigious gilded crown, a trifling mantle of furs, and a lovelysymmetrical person, tastefully tattooed with figures of a brilliant bluetint. From these two illustrious stocks the family-tree rose untilit united in the thirteenth century somewhere in the person of thefortunate Esmond who claimed to spring from both.
Of the Warrington family, into which she married, good Madam Rachelthought but little. She wrote herself Esmond Warrington, but wasuniversally called Madam Esmond of Castlewood, when after her father'sdecease she came to rule over that domain. It is even to be feared thatquarrels for precedence in the colonial society occasionally disturbedher temper; for though her father had had a marquis's patent from KingJames, which he had burned and disowned, she would frequently act as ifthat document existed and was in full force. She considered the EnglishEsmonds of an inferior dignity to her own branch; and as for thecolonial aristocracy, she made no scruple of asserting her superiorityover the whole body of them. Hence quarrels and angry words, and evena scuffle or two, as we gather from her notes, at the Governor'sassemblies at Jamestown. Wherefore recall the memory of these squabbles?Are not the persons who engaged in them beyond the reach of quarrelsnow, and has not the republic put an end to these social inequalities?Ere the establishment of Independence, there was no more aristocraticcountry in the world than Virginia; so the Virginians, whose historywe have to narrate, were bred to have the fullest respect for thein
stitutions of home, and the rightful king had not two more faithfullittle 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 enjoinedto respect his senior. All the household was equally instructed to payhim honour; the negroes, of whom there was a large and happy family, andthe assigned servants from Europe, whose lot was made as bearable as itmight be under the government of the lady of Castlewood. In the wholefamily there scarcely was a rebel save Mrs. Esmond's faithful friend andcompanion, Madam Mountain, and Harry's foster-mother, a faithful negrowoman, who never could be made to understand why her child should not befirst, who was handsomer, and stronger, and cleverer than his brother,as she vowed; though, in truth, there was scarcely any difference in thebeauty, strength, or stature of the twins. In disposition, they were inmany points exceedingly unlike; but in feature they resembled each otherso closely, that but for the colour of their hair it had been difficultto distinguish them. In their beds, and when their heads were coveredwith those vast ribboned nightcaps which our great and little ancestorswore, it was scarcely possible for any but a nurse or mother to tell theone from the other child.
Howbeit alike in form, we have said that they differed in temper. Theelder was peaceful, studious, and silent; the younger was warlikeand noisy. He was quick at learning when he began, but very slow atbeginning. No threats of the ferule would provoke Harry to learn inan idle fit, or would prevent George from helping his brother in hislesson. Harry was of a strong military turn, drilled the littlenegroes on the estate and caned them like a corporal, having manygood boxing-matches with them, and never bearing malice if he wasworsted;--whereas George was sparing of blows and gentle with all abouthim. As the custom in all families was, each of the boys had a speciallittle 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 featherfan, to the horror of old Gumbo, the child's father, who found his youngmaster so engaged, and to the indignation of Madam Esmond, who orderedthe young negro off to the proper officer for a whipping. In vain Georgeimplored and entreated--burst into passionate tears, and besought aremission of the sentence. His mother was inflexible regarding the youngrebel's punishment, and the little negro went off beseeching his youngmaster not to cry.
A fierce quarrel between mother and son ensued out of this event. Herson 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,--hada right to touch him; that she might order him to be corrected, and thathe would suffer the punishment, as he and Harry often had, but noone should lay a hand on his boy. Trembling with passionate rebellionagainst what he conceived the injustice of procedure, he vowed--actuallyshrieking out an oath, which shocked his fond mother and governor, whonever before heard such language from the usually gentle child--that onthe day he came of age he would set young Gumbo free--went to visit thechild 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 doubtthought; for he acquiesced in the child's punishment when Madam Esmondinsisted upon it, and only laughed in his good-natured way when hisindignant 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 ampetticoat-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 alwayswas ready to abet his brother.
Grandpapa looked queerly.
"Because I like sitting down best, my dear," he said. "I am an oldgentleman, and standing fatigues me."
On account of a certain apish drollery and humour which exhibited itselfin the lad, and a liking for some of the old man's pursuits, the firstof the twins was the grandfather's favourite and companion, and wouldlaugh and talk out all his infantine heart to the old gentleman, to whomthe 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 brotherwas 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 theother hand, was all alive in the stables or in the wood, eager for allparties of hunting and fishing, and promised to be a good sportsman froma very early age. Their grandfather's ship was sailing for Europe oncewhen the boys were children, and they were asked, what present CaptainFranks should bring them back? George was divided between books and afiddle; Harry instantly declared for a little gun: and Madam Warrington(as she then was called) was hurt that her elder boy should have lowtastes, and applauded the younger's choice as more worthy of his nameand lineage. "Books, papa, I can fancy to be a good choice," she repliedto her father, who tried to convince her that George had a right to hisopinion, "though I am sure you must have pretty nigh all the books inthe world already. But I never can desire--I may be wrong, but I nevercan 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 bornhas a little kingdom of thought of his own, which it is a sin in us toinvade. Suppose George loves music? You can no more stop him than youcan 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 worldwith a fiddle in his hand," says Mrs. Warrington, with a toss of herhead. "I am sure I hated the harpsichord when a chit at KensingtonSchool, 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 offashion."
"And King David who played the harp, my dear?"
"I wish my papa would read him more, and not speak about him in thatway," said Mrs. Warrington.
"Nay, my dear, it was but by way of illustration," the father repliedgently. It was Colonel Esmond's nature, as he has owned in his ownbiography, always to be led by a woman; and, his wife dead, he coaxedand dandled and spoiled his daughter; laughing at her caprices, buthumouring them; making a joke of her prejudices, but letting them havetheir way; indulging, and perhaps increasing, her natural imperiousnessof character, though it was his maxim that we can't change dispositionsby meddling, and only make hypocrites of our children by commanding themover-much.
At length the time came when Mr. Esmond was to have done with theaffairs of this life, and he laid them down as if glad to be rid oftheir burthen. We must not ring in an opening history with tollingbells, or preface it with a funeral sermon. All who read and heardthat discourse, wondered where Parson Broadbent of Jamestown found theeloquence and the Latin which adorned it. Perhaps Mr. Dempster knew, theboys' Scotch tutor, who corrected the proofs of the oration, which wasprinted, by desire of his Excellency and many persons of honour, at Mr.Franklin's press in Philadelphia. No such sumptuous funeral had everbeen seen in the country as that which Madam Esmond Warrington ordainedfor her father, who would have been the first to smile at that pompousgrief. The little lads of Castlewood, almost smothered in black trainsand hatbands, headed the procession, and were followed by my LordFairfax from Greenway Court, by his Excellency the Governor of Virginia(with his coach), by the Randolphs, the Careys, the Harrisons, theWashingtons, and many others, for the whole county esteemed the departedgentleman, whose goodness, whose high talents, whose benevolenceand unobtrusive urbanity had earned for him the just respect of hisneighbours. When informed of the event, the family of Colonel Esmond'sstepson, the Lord Castlewood of Hampshire in England, asked to be at thecharges of the marble slab which recorded the names and virtues of hislordship's mother and her husband; and after due time of preparation,the monument was set up, exhibiting the arms and coronet of t
he Esmonds,supported by a little chubby group of weeping cherubs, and reciting anepitaph which for once did not tell any falsehoods.
The Virginians Page 3
