 Preface of the History of Henry Esmond Esquire by William Makebeast Thackeray. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mons Bru, Helsingfors, Finland. The History of Henry Esmond Esquire by William Makebeast Thackeray. The History of Henry Esmond Esquire, a Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty, Queen Anne, written by himself by William Makebeast Thackeray. To the right on our roll, William Bingham, Lord Ashburton. My dear Lord, the writer of a book which copies the manners and language of Queen Anne's time must not omit the dedication to the patron, and I ask leave to you and scribe this volume to your lordship for the sake of the great kindness and friendship which I owe to you and yours. My volume will reach you when the author is on his voyage to a country where your name is as well known as here. Wherever I am, I shall gratefully regard you and shall not be the less welcomed in America because I am your obliged friend and servant, William Makebeast Thackeray. London, October the 18th, 1852. Preface, the Esmends of Virginia. The estate of Castlewood in Virginia, which was given to our ancestors by King Charles I, as some return for the sacrifices made in his Majesty's cause by the Esmend family, lies in Westmoreland County between the rivers Potomac and Rappahannock and was once as great as an English principality. Though in the early times its revenues were but small. Indeed, for near eighty years after our forefathers possessed them, our plantations were in the hands of factors who enriched themselves one after another. Though a few scores of hogsheds of tobacco were all to produce that, for long after the restoration, our family received from the Virginian estates. My dear and honoured father, Colonel Henry Esmend, whose history, written by himself, is contained in the accompanying volume, came to Virginia in the year 1718, built his house of Castlewood, and here permanently settled. After a long stormy life in England, he passed the remainder of his many years in peace and honour in this country, how beloved and respected by all his fellow citizens, how inexpressibly dear to his family, I need not say. His whole life was a benefit to all of those who were connected with him. He gave the best example, the best advice, the most bounteous hospitality to his friends, the tenderest care to his dependents, and bestowed on those of his immediate family such a blessing of fatherly love and protection as can never be thought of, by us at least, without veneration and thankfulness. And my son's children, whether established here in our republic or at home in the always beloved mother country from which our late quarrel hath separated us, may surely be proud to be descended from one who in all ways was so truly noble. My dear mother died in 1736, soon after our return from England, with whom my parents took me for my education, and where I made the acquaintance of Mr. Worrington, who my children never saw, when he pleased heaven in the bloom of his youth and after about a few months of a most happy union to remove him from me. I owed my recovery from the grief which that calamity caused me, mainly to my dearest father's tenderness and then to the blessing vouchsafed to me in the birth of my two beloved boys. I know the fatal differences which separated them in politics never disunited their hearts, and as I can love them both, whether wearing the king's collars of the republics, I'm sure that they love me and one another, and him above all, my father and theirs, the dearest friend of their childhood, the noble gentleman who bred them from their infancy in the practice and knowledge of truth and love and honour. My children will never forget the appearance and figure of their revered grandfather, and I wish I possessed the art of drawing, which my papa had in perfection, so that I could lead to our descendant's support to the one who was so good and so respected. My father was of a dark complexion, with a very great forehead and dark hazel eyes, o-hung by eyebrows which remained black long after his hair was white. His nose was aquiline, his smile extraordinary sweet, how well I remember it, and how little any description I can write can recall his image. He was a rather low stature, not being above five feet seven inches in height. He used to laugh at my sons, whom he called his crutches, and say they were grown too tall for him to lean upon. But small as he was, he had a perfect grace and majesty of deportment, such as I have never seen in this country, except perhaps in our friend Mr. Washington, and command and respect wherever he appeared. In all bodily exercises he excelled, and showed an extraordinary quickness and agility of fencing he was especially fond, and made my two boys proficient in that art, so much so that when the French came to this country with Monsieur Rochambeau, not one of his officers was superior to my Henry, and he was not the equal of my Pope George, who had taken the king's side in our lamentable, but glorious war of independence. Neither my father nor my mother ever wore powder in her hair, both her heads were as white as silver, as I can remember them. My dear mother possessed to the last an extraordinary brightness and freshness of complexion, nor would people believe that she did not wear rouge. At 60 years of age she still looked young and was quite agile. It was not until after that dreadful siege of our house by the Indians, which left me a widow ere I was a mother, that my dear mother's health broke. She never recovered her terror and anxiety of those days which ended so fatally for me. Then a bride scarce six months married, and died in my father's arms ere my own year of widowhood was over. From that day until the last of his dear and honoured life, it was my delight and consolation to remain with him as his comforter and companion. And from those little notes which my mother had made here and there in the volume in which my father describes his adventures in Europe, I can well understand the extreme devotion with which she regarded him. A devotion so passionate and exclusive as to prevent her, I think, from loving any other person except with an inferior regard, her whole thoughts being centred on this one object of affection and worship. I know that before her, my dear father did not show the love which he had had for his daughter, and in her last and most sacred moments, this dear and tender parent owned to me her repentance that she had not loved me enough. Her jealousy even that my father should give his affection to any but herself, and in the most fond and beautiful words of affection and admonition, she bade me never to leave him and to supply the place which she was quitting with a clear conscience and a heart inexpressibly thankful. I think I can say that I fulfilled those dying commands and that until his last hour, my dearest father never had to complain that his daughter's love and fidelity failed him. And it is since I knew him entirely, for during my mother's life, he never quite opened himself to me. Since I knew the value and splendour of that affection which he bestowed upon me, that I have come to understand and pardon what I own used to anger me in my mother's lifetime, her jealousy respecting her husband's love, it was a gift so precious that no wonder she who had it was for keeping it all and could part with none of it even to her daughter. Though I never heard my father use a rough word, it was extraordinary with how much all his people regarded him and his servants on our plantation, both those assigned from England and the Purchased Negroes, obeyed him with an eagerness such as the most severe taskmasters round about us could never get from their people. He was never familiar, they're perfectly simple and natural. He was the same with the meanest man as with the greatest and as courteous to a black-slave girl as to the governor's wife. No one ever thought of taking liberty with him, except once a tipsy gentleman from York and I'm bound to own that my papa never forgave him. He set the humblest people at once on their ease with him and brought down the most arrogant by a grave satiric way which made persons exceedingly afraid of him. His courtesy was not put on like a Sunday suit and laid by when the company went away. It was always the same as he was always dressed the same, whether for a dinner by ourselves or for a great entertainment. They say he liked to be the first in his company but what company was there in which he would not be the first? When I went to Europe for my education and we passed the winter at London with my half-brother, my Lord Castlewood and his second lady, I saw at Her Majesty's court some of the most famous gentlemen of those days and I thought to myself, none of these are better than my papa and the famous Lord Bowlingbroke, who came to us from Dawley, said as much and that the men of that time were not like those of his youth. Where your father, madam, he said, to go into the woods, the Indians would elect him Sachim and his lordship was pleased to call me Pocahontas. I did not see our other relative, Bishop Toucher's lady, of whom so much is said in my papa's memoirs, although my mama went to visit her in the country. I have no pride, as I showed by complying with my mother's request and marrying a gentleman who was but the younger son of a saffolk baronet, as I own to a decent respect for my name and wonder how one who ever bore it should change it for that, or Mrs. Thomas Toucher. I pass over as odious and unworthy of credit those reports, which I heard in Europe and was then too young to understand how this person, having left her family and fled to Paris out of jealousy of the pretender, betrayed his secrets to my lord's there, King George's ambassador and nearly caused the princess death there as she came to England and married this Mr. Toucher, became a great favourite of King George II by whom Mr. Toucher was made a dean and then a bishop. I did not see the lady who chose to remain at her palace all the time we were in London, but after visiting her my poor mama said she had lost all her good looks and warned me not to set too much store by any such gifts which nature has bestowed upon me. She grew exceedingly stout and I remember my brother's wife, Lady Castlewood, saying no wonder she became a favourite for the king likes them old and ugly as his father did before him. On which Papa said all women were alike that there was never one so beautiful as that one and that we could forgive her everything but her beauty and hereupon my mama looked vexed and my lord Castlewood began to laugh and I of course, being a young creature, could not understand what was the subject of their conversation. After the circumstances narrated in the third book of these memoirs my father and mother both went abroad being advised by their friends to leave the country in consequence of the transactions which are recounted at the close of the volume of the memoirs. But my brother, hearing how the future bishop's lady had quitted Castlewood and joined the pretender at Paris, pursued him and would have killed him, prince as he was and not the prince managed to make his escape on his expedition to Scotland directly after. Castlewood was so enraged against him that he asked Leib to serve as a volunteer and joined the Duke of Argyles, Armin Scotland which the pretender never had the courage to face and therefore my lord was quite reconciled to the present reigning family from whom he hath even received a promotion. Mrs. Tushow was by this time as angry against the pretender as any other relations could be and used the boast as I have heard that she not only brought back my lord to the Church of England but procured the English peerage from him which the junior branch of our family at present enjoys. He was a great friend of Sir Robert Walpole and would not rest until her husband slept at Lambeth my papa used laughing to say. However, the bishop died of apoplexy suddenly and his wife erected a great monument over him and the pair sleep under that stone with a canopy of marble, clouds and angels above them the first Mrs. Tushow lying 60 miles off at Castlewood. But my papa's genius and dedication are both greater than any woman can be expected to have and his adventures in Europe far more exciting than his life in this country which was passed in the tranquil offices of love and duty and I shall say no more by way of introduction to his memoirs nor keep my children from the perusal of a story which is much more interesting than that of their affectionate old mother Rachel Esmond Warrington, Castlewood, Virginia November the 3rd, 1778 End of Preface Recording by Mons Brew, Helsingfors, Finland Book 1 Introduction and Chapter 1 of the History of Henry Esmond Esquire by William Makepeace-Tackery This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Mons Brew, Helsingfors, Finland The History of Henry Esmond Esquire by William Makepeace-Tackery Book 1 Introduction The early youth of Henry Esmond up to the time of his leaving Trinity College in Cambridge The actors in the Old Tragedies, as we read piped their yambics to a tune speaking from under a mask and wearing stilts and a great headdress To us thought the dignity of the tragic muse required these appurtenances and that she was not to move except to a measure and cadence So Queen Medea slew her children to a slow music and King Arganeminum perished in a dying fall to use Mr Dryden's words Decorus standing by in a set attitude and rhythmically and decorously bewailing the fates of those great crowned persons The muse of history had encumbered herself with ceremony as well as her sister of the theatre She too wears the mask and the couturnus and speaks to measure She too in our age busies herself with the affairs only of kings waiting on them obsequiously and stately as if she were but a mistress of court ceremonies and had nothing to do with the registering of the affairs of the common people I have seen in his very old age and the crappitude the old French King Louis XIV the type and model of a kinghood who never moved but to measure who lived and died according to the laws of his court martial persisting in enacting through life the part of hero and divested of poetry this was but a little wrinkled old man pockmarked and with a great periwig and red heels to make him look tall a hero for a book if you like or for brass statue or painted ceiling a god in roman shape but what more than a man for Madame Maintenance or the barbe who shaved him or Monsieur Fagin, his surgeon I wonder shall history ever pull off her periwig and cease to be court-ridden shall we see something of France and England besides Versailles and Windsor I saw Queen Anne at the latter place tearing down the park slopes after her stag hounds and driving her one horse chairs a hot red-faced woman not in the least resembling that statue of her which turns its stone back upon Saint Paul's and faces the coach as struggling up Ludgate Hill she was neither better bred nor wiser than you and me though we knelt to hand her a letter or wash hand basin why shall history go on kneeling to the end of time I am for having her rise up off her knees and take a natural posture not to be forever performing cringes and conges like a court-chamber lane and shuffling backwards out of doors in the presence of the sovereign in a word, I would have history familiar rather than heroic and think that Mr Hogarth and Mr Fielding will give our children a much better idea of the manners of the present age in England than the court-guesset and the newspapers which we get dense there was a German officer of webs through whom we used to joke and of whom a story whereof I myself was the author was got to be believed in the army he was the eldest son of the hereditary grand boot jack of the empire and the heir to that honour of which his ancestors had been very proud having been kicked for 20 generations by one imperial foot as they drew the boot from the other I have heard that the old Lord Castlewood of Barthohu's family these present volumes are a chronicle though he came of quite as good blood as the stewards whom he served and who as regards mere lineage are no better than a dozen English and Scottish houses I could name was prouder of his post about the court than of his ancestral honours and valued his dignity as the lord of the butteries and groom of the king's posset so highly that he cheerfully ruined himself for the thankless and thriftless race who bestowed it he pawned his plate for King Charles I mortgaged his property for the same cause and lost the greater part of it by fines and sequestration stood a siege of his castle by Ayrton where his brother Thomas capitulated afterwards making terms with the commonwealth for which the elder brother never forgave him and where his second brother Edward who had embraced the ecclesiastical profession was slain on Castlewood Tower being engaged there both as preacher and artillery man this resolute old loyalist who was with the king whilst his house was thus being battered down escaped abroad with his only son then a boy to return and take apart in war chest fights on that fatal field used this Esmond was killed and Castlewood fled from it once more into exile and hence forward and after the restoration the court of the monarch for whose return we offer thanks in the prayer book who sold his country and took bribes of the French king what spectacle is more august than that of a great king in exile who is more worthy of respect than a brave man in his fortune Mr. Edison has painted such a figure in his noble piece of Cato but suppose fugitive Cato fuddling himself at the tavern with a wench on each knee pleasant faithful and tipsy companions of defeat and the landlord calling out for his bill and the dignity of misfortune is straight away lost the historical muse turns away shame faced from the vulgar scene and closes the door on which the exiles unpaid drink is scored up upon him and his pots and his pipes and the tavern chorus which he and his friends are singing such a man as Charles should have had an ost aid or mirrors to paint him your Nellers and Lebrunes only didn't clumsy and impossible allegories it hath always seemed to me blasphemy to claim Olympus for such a wind-rabelled divinity as that about the king's followers the viscount Castlewood often of his son ruined by his fidelity bearing many wounds and marks of bravery old and in exile his kinsmen I suppose should be silent nor if this patriarch fell down in his cups call fire upon him and fetch passersby to laugh and his red face and white hairs what? does a stream rush out of a mountain free and pure to roll through fair pastures to feed him throughout bright tributaries and to end in a village gutter lives that have noble commencements have often no better endings it is not without a kind of awe and reverence that an observer should speculate upon such careers as he traces the course of them I have seen too much of a success in life to take off my hat and hood saw to it as it passes in its guilt coach and would do my little part with my neighbors and foot that they should not gape with too much wonder nor applaud too loudly is it the lord mayor going in state to mince pies and the mansion house is it poor jack of new gates procession with the sheriff and javelin mac conducting him on his last journey to tyburn I look into my heart and think that I sin as good as my lord mayor and know I am as bad as tyburn jack give me a chain and a red gown and a pudding before me and I could play the part of all the men very well and sentence jack after dinner starve me keep me from books and honest people educate me to love dice gin and pleasure and put me on hound slow heath with a purse before me and I will take it and I shall be deservedly hanged to say you wishing to put an end to this prosing I don't say no I can't but accept the world as I find it including robes and as long as it is in fashion end of introduction chapter one an account of the family investment of a castle would haul when Francis forth viscount castle would came to his title and presently after the take possession of his house of castle would county hands in the year 1691 almost the only tenant the place besides the domestics was a lot of 12 years of age of whom no one seemed to take any note till my lady viscountess lighted upon him going over the house with the housekeeper on the day of her arrival the boy was in the room known as the book room or the yellow gallery where the portraits of the family used to hang that fine piece amongst others of Sir Antonio van Dick of George second viscount and that by Mr. Dobson of my lord third viscount just deceased which it seems his lady and widow did not think fit to carry away when she sent for and carry off to her house of Chelsea near to London the picture of herself by Sir Peter Leely in which her ladyship was represented as a huntress of Diana's court the new and fair lady of castle would found a sad lonely little occupant of this gallery busy over his great book which he laid down when he was aware that the stranger was at hand and knowing who that person must be the lad stood up and bowed before her performing a shy obeisance to the mistress of his house she stretched out her hand indeed when was it that that hand would not stretch out to do an act of kindness or to protect the grief and ill fortune and this is our kinsman she said and what is your name kinsman my name is Henry Esmond said the lad looking up at her in a sort of delight and wonder for she had come upon him as a deacrette and appeared the most charming object he had ever looked on her golden hair was shining in the gold of the sun her complexion was of a dazzling bloom her lips smiling and her eyes beaming with a kindness which made Harry Esmond's heart to beat with surprise his name is Henry Esmond sure enough my lady says mrs. workshop the housekeeper an old tyrant whom Henry Esmond plagued more than he hated and the old gentlewoman looked significantly towards the late lord's picture as it is now in the family noble and severe looking this hand on his sword and his order on his cloak which he had had from the emperor during the war on the Danube against the Turk seeing the great and undeniable likeness between this portrait and the lad the new viscountess who had still hold of the boy's hand as she looked at the picture blushed and dropped the hand quickly and walked down the gallery followed by mrs. workshop when the lady came back still in the same spot and with his hand as it had fallen when he dropped it on his black coat her heart melted as both indeed she had since owned as much at the notion that she should do anything unkind to any mortal great or small for when she returned she had sent away the housekeeper upon an errand by the door at the farther end of the gallery and coming back to the lad with the look of infinite pity and tenderness in her eyes she took his hand again placing her other fair hand on his head and saying some words to him which were so kind and setting a voice so sweet that the boy who had never looked upon so much beauty before felt as if the touch of a superior being or angels smoothed him down to the ground and kissed the fair protecting hand as he knelt on one knee to the very last hour of his life Esmond remembered the lady as she then spoke and looked the rings on her fair hands the very scent of her robe the beam of her eyes lighting up with surprise and kindness her lips blooming in a smile and the sun making golden halo around her hair as the boy was yet in this attitude of humility enters behind him a portly gentleman with a little girl of four years old in his hand the gentleman burst into a great laugh at the lady and her daughter with his little queer figure his shallow face and long black hair the lady blushed and seemed to deprecate a little to her husband for it was my lord viscount who now arrived and whom the lad knew having once before seen him in the late lord's lifetime so this is the little priest says my lord looking down at the lad welcome kinsman he's saying his prayers to mama says the little girl who came up to her papa's knees and my lord burst out into another great laugh at this and kinsman henry looked very silly he invented a half dozen of speeches in reply and that was months afterwards when he thought of this adventure as it was he had never a word in answer le peuve enfant il n'a que nous says the lady looking to her lord and the boy who understood her though doubtless she thought otherwise thanked her with all his heart for her kind speech and he shan't want for friends here says my lord in a kind voice shall he little tricks and whom her papa called by this diminutive looked at henry esmond solemnly with a pair of large eyes and then a smile shone over her face which was as beautiful as that of a cherub and she came up and put out a little hand to him a keen and delightful pang of gratitude, happiness, affection filled the orphan child's heart as he received from the protectors whom heaven had sent to him these touching words and tokens of friendliness and kindness but an hour since it felt quite alone in the world when he heard great peels of bells from castlewood church ringing that morning to welcome the arrival of the new lady and lord it had wrung only terror and anxiety to him for he knew not how the new owners would deal with him and those to whom he formally looked for protection were forgotten or dead pride and doubt too had kept him within doors when the vicar and the people of the village and the servants of the house had gone out for Henry Esmond was no servant though a dependent no relative though he bore the name and inherited the blood of the house and in the midst of the noise and acclaimations attending the arrival of the new lord for whom you may be sure a feast was got ready the guns were fired and tenants and domestics who saw his carriage approached and rolled into the courtyard of the hall no one ever took any notice of young Henry Esmond who sat unobserved and alone in the book room until the afternoon of that day when his new friends found him when my lord and lady were going away dense the little girl still holding her kinsmen by the hand made him to come too though it always forsaken old friend for a new one tricks says her father to her good naturedly and went into the gallery giving an arm to his lady they passed dense through the music gallery long since dismantled and Queen Elizabeth's rooms the clock tower and out into the terrace where was a fine prospect of sunset and the great darkling woods with the cloud of rooks returning and the plain and river with Castlewood village beyond and purple hills beautiful to look at and the little air of Castlewood was already here on the terrace in his nurses arms from whom he ran across the grass instantly he perceived his mother and came to her if thou canst not be happy here says my lord looking round at the scene you are hard to please Rachel I am happy where you are she said but we were happiest of all at walkout forest then my lord began to describe what was before them to his wife and what indeed little Harry knew better than he this the history of the house how by yonder gate the page ran away with the air as of Castlewood by which the estate came into the present family how the round heads attacked the clock tower which my lord's father was slain in defending I was but two years old then says he but take 46 from 90 and how old shall I be 30 says his wife with a laugh a great deal too old for you Rachel answers my lord looking fondly down at her indeed she seemed to be a girl and was at that time scarce 20 years old you know Frank I will do anything to please you says she and I promise you I will grow older every day you mustn't call Papa Frank you must call Papa my lord now says Miss Beatrix with the toss of her little head at which the mother smiled and the good natured father laughed and the little trotting boy laughed not knowing why but because he was happy no doubt as everyone seemed to be there how though it's trivial incidents and words landscape and sunshine and a group of people smiling and talking remained fixed on the memory as the sun was setting in the arms of his nurse to bed whether he went howling but little Tricks was promised to supper that night and you will come to kinsmen won't you she said Harry Esmond blushed I have supper with Mrs. Workshop says he darn it says my lord though shalt supper with us Harry tonight shan't refuse a lady shall he tricks and they all wondered at Harry's performance as a trencher man in which character the poor boy acquitted himself remarkably for the truth is he had had no dinner nobody thinking of him in the bustle which the house was in during the preparations antecedent to the new lord's arrival no dinner poor dear child says my lady heaping up his plate with meat and my lord filling a bumper for him made him call a health on which master Harry crying the king tossed off the wine my lord was ready to drink that and most other toasts indeed only two ready he would not hear of doctor Tasha the vicar of castle would who came to supper going away when the sweet meats were brought he had not had a chaplain long enough he said to be tired of him his reverence kept my lord company for some hours over a pipe and a punch bowl and I went away home with a rather reeling gate and declared a dozen of times that his lordship's affability surpassed every kindness he had ever had from his lordship's gracious family as for young Esmond when he got to his little chamber it was with the heart full of surprise and gratitude towards the new friends whom this happy day had brought him he was up and watching long before the house was a stir longing to see that fair lady and her children that kind protector and patron and only fearful lest the welcome of the past night should in any way be withdrawn or altered but presently little Beatrix came out into the garden and her mother followed greeted her as kindly as before he told her at greater length the histories of the house which she had been taught in the old lord's time and to which she listened with great interest and then he told her with respect to the night before that he understood French and thanked her for her protection do you says she with a blush then sir you shall teach me and Beatrix and she asked him many more questions regarding himself which had best be told more fully and explicitly than in those brief replies which the lad made to his mistress questions end of book one chapter one recording by Monesborough Helsingfors Finland book one chapter two of the history of Henry Esmond Esquire by William Makepeace Thackery this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer contact LibriVox.org recording by Laura Koskinen the history of Henry Esmond Esquire by William Makepeace Thackery book one chapter two relates how Francis Fourth Fy Count arrives at Castlewood Tis known that the name of Esmond and the estate of County Hampshire came into possession of the present family through Dorothea, daughter and heiress of Edward, Earl and Marquis Esmond and Lord of Castlewood which lady married 23 Elizabeth Henry Poins gentlemen the said Henry being then a page in the household of her father Francis son and heir of the above Henry and Dorothea who took the maternal name which the family hath born subsequently was made knight and baronette by King James I and being of a military disposition remained long in Germany with the Elector Palatine in whose service Sir Francis incurred both expense and danger lending large sums of money to that unfortunate Prince and receiving many wounds in the battles against the imperialists in which on his return home Sir Francis was rewarded for his services and many sacrifices by his late Majesty James I who graciously conferred upon this tried servant the post of warden of the butteries and groom of the King's poset which high and confidential office he filled in that King's and his unhappy successor's reign his age and many wounds of his duties obliged Sir Francis to perform much of his duty by deputy and his son Sir George Esmond knight and baronette first as his father's lieutenant and afterwards as inheritor of his father's title and dignity performed this office during almost the whole of the reign of King Charles I and his two sons who succeeded him Sir George Esmond married where beneath the rank that a person of his name and honor might aspire to the daughter of Thomas Topham of the city of London Alderman and Goldsmith who taking the parliamentary side in the troubles then commencing disappointed Sir George of the property which he expected at the demise of his father-in-law who devised his money to his second daughter Barbara a spinster Sir George Esmond on his part was conspicuous for his attachment and loyalty to the royal cause and person and the King being at Oxford in 1642 Sir George with the consent of his father then very aged and infirm and residing at his house of Castlewood melted the whole of the family plate for his Majesty's service. For this and other sacrifices his Majesty, by patent under the privy seal dated Oxford January 1643 was pleased to advance Sir Francis Esmond to the dignity of Viscount Castlewood of Shandon in Ireland and the Viscount's estate being much impoverished by loans to the King which in those troublesome times his Majesty could not repay a grant of land in the plantations of Virginia was given to the Lord Viscount, part of which land is in possession of descendants of his family to the present day. The first Viscount Castlewood died full of years and within a few months after he had been advanced to his honors. He was succeeded by his eldest son the before named George and left issue besides Thomas a Colonel in the King's Army who afterwards joined the and Francis in Holy Orders who was slain whilst defending the House of Castlewood against the Parliament on 1647. George, Lord Castlewood the second Viscount of King Charles the First's time had no male issue save his one son Eustis Esmond who was killed with half of the Castlewood men beside him at Worcester fight. The lands about Castlewood were settled and apportioned to the Commonwealth men. Castlewood being concerned in almost all of the plots against the Protector after the death of the King and up to King Charles the Second's Restoration. My Lord followed that King's court about in its exile having ruined himself in its service. He had but one daughter who was of no great comfort to her father for misfortune had not taught those exiles sobriety of life. And it is said that the Duke of York and his brother the King both quarreled about Isabel Esmond. She was made of honour to the Queen Henrietta Maria. She early joined the Roman Church her father a weak man following her not long after at Breda. On the death of Eustis Esmond at Worcester Thomas Esmond nephew to my Lord Castlewood and then a stripling became heir to the title. His father had taken the Parliament side in the quarrels and so had been estranged from the chief of his house. And my Lord Castlewood was at first so much enraged to think that his title albeit a little more than an empty one now should pass to a rascally round head that he would have married again, and indeed proposed to do so to a Vintner's daughter at Bruges to whom his lordship owed a score for lodging when the King was there but for fear of the laughter of the court and the anger of his daughter of whom he stood in awe for she was in temper as imperious and violent as my Lord who was much enfeebled by wounds and drinking was weak. Lord Castlewood would have had a match between his daughter Isabel and her cousin Frances Esmond who was killed at Castlewood Siege and the lady, it was said, took a fancy to the young man who was her junior by several years which circumstance she did not consider to be a fault in him but having paid his court and being admitted to the intimacy of the house he suddenly flung up his suit when it seemed to be pretty prosperous without giving a pretext for his behavior. It seemed to him at what they laughingly chose to call his infidelity. Jack Churchill, Frank Esmond's lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Footguards getting the company which Esmond vacated when he left the court and went to Tangier in a rage at discovering that his promotion depended on the complacence of his elderly a-fianced bride. He and Churchill had words 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 and swords were drawn and blood drawn too until friends separated them on this quarrel. Few men were so jealous about the point of honour in those days and gentlemen of good birth and lineage thought a royal blot was an ornament to their family coat. Frank Esmond retired in the Salks, first to Tangier whence he returned after two years' service settling on a small property he had of his mother near to Winchester and became a country gentleman and kept a pack of beagles and never came to court again in King Charles's time but his uncle Castlewood was never reconciled to him nor for some time afterwards his cousin whom he had refused. By places, pensions, bounties from France and gifts from the king whilst his daughter was in favour Lord Castlewood who had spent in the royal service his youth and fortune did not retrieve the latter quite and never cared to visit Castlewood or repair it since the death of his son he managed to keep a good house and figure at court and to save a considerable sum of ready money and now his heir and nephew Thomas Esmond began to bid for his uncle's favour Thomas had served with the emperor and with the Dutch when King Charles was compelled to lend troops to the States and against them when his majesty made an alliance with the French king his campaigns Thomas Esmond was more remarked for dueling, brawling vice and play than for any conspicuous gallantry in the field and came back to England like many another English gentleman who has travelled with a character by no means improved by his foreign experience he had dissipated his small paternal inheritance of a younger brother's portion and as truth must be told was no better than a hanger on of ordinaries and a brawler about Alsatia and the friars 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 but her 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 London could not make a beauty of her Mr. Killigrew called her the Sibyl the deaths had put up at the king's feast as a memento mori etc in fine a woman who might be easy of conquest but whom only a very bold man would think of conquering this bold man was Thomas Esmond he had a fancy to my lord Castlewood's savings the rumor had very much exaggerated Madame Isabel was said to have royal jewels of great value whereas poor Tom Esmond's last coat but one was in pawn my lord had at this time a fine house in Lincoln's infields night to the Duke's theater and the Portugal Ambassador's chapel Tom Esmond who had frequented the one as long as he had money to spend among the actresses as assiduously he looked so lean and shabby that he passed without difficulty for a repentant sinner and so becoming converted you may be sure took his uncle's priest for a director 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 my lord'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 the point of his rapier sticking out of the scabbard to his two-penny ordinary in billyard Thomas Esmond after this reconciliation with his uncle very soon began to grow sleek and to show signs of the benefits of good living and clean linen he fasted rigorously twice a week sure, but he made amends on the other days and to show how great his appetite was Mr. Weiterly said he ended by swallowing that fly-blown rank old morsel his cousin there were endless jokes and lampoons about this marriage at court but Tom rode thither in his uncle's coach now called him father and having one could afford to laugh this marriage took place very shortly before King Charles died whom the Viscount of Castlewood speedily followed the issue of this marriage was one son whom the parents watched with an intense eagerness and care but who in spite of nurses and physicians had only a brief existence his tainted blood did not run very long in his poor feeble little body symptoms of evil broke out early on him and part from flattery part superstition nothing would satisfy my lord and lady especially the latter but having the poor little cripple touched by his majesty at his church they were ready to cry out miracle at first the doctors and quacksalvers being constantly in attendance on the child and experimenting on his poor little body with every conceivable nostrum but though there seemed from some reason a notable amelioration in the infant's health after his majesty touched him in a few weeks afterward the poor thing died causing the lampooners of the court to say that the king in expelling evil out of the infant of Tom Esmond and Isabella his wife expelled the life out of it which was nothing but corruption the mother's natural pang at losing this poor little child must have been increased when she thought of her rival Frank Esmond's wife who was a favorite of the whole court where my poor lady castle would was neglected 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 had pretty well passed the age when ladies are accustomed to have children nevertheless determined not to give up hope and even when she came to live at Castlewood was constantly sending over to Hexton for the doctor and announcing to her friends the arrival of an heir this absurdity of hers was one amongst many others which the wags used to play upon indeed to the last days of life my lady Viscountess had the comfort of fancying herself beautiful and persisted in blooming up to the very midst of winter painting roses on her cheeks long after their natural season and attiring herself like summer though her head was covered with snow gentlemen who were about the court of King Charles and King James have told the present writer this queer old lady with which it's not necessary that posterity should be entertained she is said to have had great powers of invective and if she fought with all her rivals in King James' favor to certain she must have had a vast number of quarrels on her hands she was a woman of an intrepid spirit and it appears pursued and rather fatigued his majesty with her rights and her wrongs some say that the cause of her leaving court was jealousy of Frank Esmond's wife others that she was forced to retreat after a great battle which took place at Whitehall between her ladyship and Lady Dorchester Tom Killigrew's daughter whom the king delighted to honor and in which that ill-favored ester got the better of our elderly Vasci but her ladyship for her part always averted that it was her husband's quarrel and not her own which occasioned the banishment of the two into the country and the cruel ingratitude of the sovereign in giving away out of the family that place of warden of the butteries and groom of the king's poset which the two last lords Casawood had held so honorably and which was now conferred upon a fellow of yesterday and a hanger-on of that odious Dorchester creature my lord bergamot I never said my lady could have come to see his majesty's poset carried by any other hand than an Esmond I should have dashed the salver out of lord bergamot's hand had I met him and those who knew her ladyship are aware that she was a person quite capable of performing this feat had she not wisely kept out of the way holding the purse-strings in her own control to which indeed she liked to bring most persons who came near her Lady Casawood could command her husband's obedience and so broke up her establishment at London she had removed from Lincoln's infields to Chelsea to a pretty new house she bought there and brought her establishment her maids lap-dogs and a gentle woman her priest and his lordship her husband to Casawood Hall that she had never seen since she quitted it as a child with her father during the troubles of King Charles I's reign the walls were still open in the old house as they had been left by the shot of the Commonwealth men a part of the mansion restored and furbished up with the plate, hangings and furniture brought from the house in London my lady meant to have a triumphal entry into Casawood Village and expected the people to cheer as she drove over the green in her great coach my lord beside her her gentle women, lap-dogs and cockatoos on the opposite seat six horses to her carriage and servants armed mounted following it and preceding it but it was in the height of the no-popery cry the folks in the village and the neighboring town were scared by the sight of her ladyship's painted face and eyelids as she bobbed her head out of the coach window meaning no doubt to be very gracious and one old woman said Lady Isabel Lorda Mercy Jezebel a name by which the enemies of the right-honorable Viscountess were afterwards in the habit of designating her the country was then in a great no-popery fervor her ladyship's known conversion and her husbands the priest in her train and the service performed at the chapel of Casawood though the chapel had been built for that worship before any other country and though the service was performed in the most quiet manner got her no favor at first in the county or village by far the greater part of the estate of Casawood had been confiscated and been parceled out to the commonwealth men one or two of these old Cromwellian soldiers were still alive in the village and looked grimly at first upon my Lady Viscountess to dwell there she appeared at the Hexton Assembly bringing her lord after her scaring the country folks with the splendor of her diamonds which she always wore in public they said she wore them in private too and slept with them round her neck though the writer can pledge his word that this was a calamity if she were to take them off my Lady Sark said Tom Esmond her husband would run away with them and pawn them to us another calamity my Lady Sark was also in exile from court and there had been war between the two ladies before the village people began to be reconciled presently to their lady who was generous and kind though fantastic and haughty in her ways and whose praises Dr. Tusher sounded loudly amongst his flock as for my Lord he gave no great trouble being considered scarce more than an appendage to my Lady who as daughter of the old lords of Castlewood and possessor of vast wealth as the country folks said though indeed nine tenths of it existed but in rumor was looked upon as the real queen of the castle mistress of all it contained end of book one chapter two recording by Laura Koskinen book one chapter three of the history of Henry Esmond Esquire by William Makepeace Thackery this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer contact LibriVox.org recording by Laura Koskinen the history of Henry Esmond Esquire by William Makepeace Thackery book one chapter three wither in the time of Thomas third Viscount I had preceded him as page to Isabella coming up to London again some short time after this retreat the Lord Castlewood dispatched a retainer of his to a little cottage in the near to London where for some time had dwelt an old French refugee by name Mr. Pasteurot one of those whom the persecution of the Huguenots by the French King had brought over to this country with this old man lived a little lad who went by the name of Henry Thomas he remembered to have lived in another place a short time before near to London too amongst looms and spinning and a great deal of psalm singing and church going and a whole colony of Frenchmen there he had a dear dear friend who died and whom he called aunt she used to visit him in his dreams sometimes and her face though it was homely was a thousand times dearer to him than that of Mrs. Pasteurot bon papa Pasteurot's new wife who came to live with him after aunt went away and there at Spittle fields as it used to be called lived Uncle George who was a weaver too but used to tell Harry that he was a little gentleman and that his father was a captain and his mother an angel when he said so bon papa used to look up from the loom where he was embroidering beautiful silk flowers and say angel she belongs to the Babylonish scarlet woman bon papa was always talking of the scarlet woman he had a little room where he always used to preach and sing hymns out of his great old nose little Harry did not like the preaching he liked better the fine stories which aunt used to tell him bon papa's wife never told him pretty stories she quarreled with Uncle George and he went away and Harry's bon papa and his wife and two children of her own that she brought with her came to live at Ealing the new wife gave her children the best of everything and Harry many a whipping he knew not why besides blows he got ill names from her which need not be set down here for the sake of old Mr. Pasteurot who was still kind sometimes the unhappiness of those days were given though they cast a shade of melancholy over the child's youth which will accompany him no doubt to the end of his days as those tender twigs are bent the trees grow afterward and he at least who has suffered as a child and is not quite perverted in that early school of unhappiness learns to be gentle and long suffering with little children Harry was very glad when a gentleman dressed in black on horseback with a mounted servant behind him came to fetch him away from Ealing the noverka or unjust stepmother who had neglected him for her own two children gave him supper enough the night before he went away and plenty in the morning she did not beat him once and told the children to keep their hands off him one was a girl he never could bear to strike a girl and the other was a boy whom he could easily have beat but he always cried out when Mrs. Pasteuraux came sailing to the rescue with arms like a flail she only washed Harry's face the day he went away nor ever so much as once boxed his ears she whimpered rather when the gentleman in black came for the boy and old Mr. Pasteuraux as he gave the child his blessing scowled over his shoulder at the strange gentleman and grumbled out something about Babylon and the scarlet lady he was grown quite old like a child almost Mrs. Pasteuraux used to wipe his nose as she did to the children she was a great big handsome young woman but though she pretended to cry Harry thought it was only a sham and sprung quite delighted upon the horse upon which the lackey helped him he was a Frenchman his name was Blaise the child could talk to him in his own language perfectly well he knew it better than English indeed having lived hitherto chiefly among French people and being called the little Frenchman by other boys on Ealing Green he soon learned to speak English perfectly and to forget French children forget easily some earlier and fainter recollections the child had of a different country and a town with tall white houses and a ship but these were quite indistinct in the boy's mind as indeed the memory of Ealing soon became at least of much that he suffered there the lackey before whom he rode was very lively and valuable and informed the boy that the gentleman riding before him was my Lord's chaplain, Father Holt that he was now to be called Master Harry Esmond that my Lord Viscount Castlewood was his parin that he was to live at the great house of Castlewood in the province of Blankshire where he would see Madame the Viscountess who was a grand lady and so seated on a cloth as a saddle Harry Esmond was brought to London and to a fine square called Covent Garden near to which his patron lodged Mr. Holt the priest took the child by the hand and brought him to this nobleman a grand languid nobleman in a great cap and flowered morning-gown sucking oranges he patted Harry on the head and gave him an orange Se bien ça after eyeing the child and the gentleman in black shrugged his shoulders let Blaise take him out for a holiday and out for a holiday the boy and the valet went Harry went jumping along he was glad enough to go he will remember to his life's end the delights of those days he was taken to see a play by Mr. Blaise in a house a thousand times greater and finer and on the next happy day they took water on the river and Harry saw London Bridge with the houses and booksellers shops there on looking like a street and the Tower of London with the armour and the great lions and bears in the moat all under company of Mr. Blaise presently, of an early morning all the parties set forth for the country and the other gentlemen Mr. Blaise and Harry on a pillion behind them and two or three men with pistols leading the baggage horses and all along the road the Frenchman told little Harry stories of brigands which made the child's hair stand on end and terrified him so that at the great gloomy inn on the road where they lay he besought to be allowed to sleep in a room and was compassionate by Mr. Holt the gentleman who travelled with my lord and who gave the child a little bed in his chamber his artless talk and answers very likely inclined this gentleman in the boy's favour for next day Mr. Holt said Harry should ride behind him and not with the French lackey and all along the journey put a thousand questions to the child as to his foster brother and relations at Ealing what his old grandfather had taught him what languages he knew whether he could read and write and sing and so forth and Mr. Holt found that Harry could read and write and possessed the two languages of French and English very well and when he asked Harry about singing the lad broke out with a hymn to the tune of Dr. Martin Luther which set Mr. Holt a laughing and even caused his grand parin in the laced hat and periwig to laugh too when Holt told him what the child was singing for it appeared that Dr. Martin Luther's hymns were not sung in the churches Mr. Holt preached at you must never sing that song anymore do you hear little mannequin says my lord Viscount holding up a finger but we will try and teach you a better Harry Mr. Holt said and the child answered for he was a docile child and of an affectionate nature that he loved pretty songs and would try and learn anything the gentleman would tell him that day he so pleased the gentleman by his talk that they had him to dine with them at the inn and encouraged him in his prattle and Mr. Blaise with whom he rode and dined and waited upon him now Tiswell, Tiswell said Blaise that night in his own language when they lay again at an inn we are a little lord here we are a little lord now we shall see what we are when we come to Castlewood where my lady is when shall we come to Castlewood Mr. Blaise says Harry par bleu my lord does not press himself Blaise says with a grin indeed, it seemed as if his lordship was not in a great hurry for he spent three days on that journey which Harry Esmond hath often since ridden in a dozen hours for the last two of the days Harry rode with the priest who was so kind to him that the child had grown to be quite fond and familiar with him by the journey's end and had scarce a thought in his little heart which by that time provided to his new friend at length on the third day at evening they came to a village standing on a green with elms rounded very pretty to look at and the people there all took off their hats and made curtsies to my lord Viscount who bowed to them all languidly and there was one portly person that wore a cassock and a broad-leaved hat who bowed lower than anyone this one, both my lord and Mr. Holt had a few words this Harry is Castlewood Church says Mr. Holt and this is the pillar thereof learned Dr. Tusher take off your hat, Sira and salute Dr. Tusher come up to supper, doctor says my lord at which the doctor made another low bow and the party moved on towards a grand house that was before them with many gray towers and veins on them and windows flaming in the sunshine and a great army of rooks wheeling over their heads made for the woods behind the house as Harry saw and Mr. Holt told him that they lived at Castlewood too they came to the house and passed under an arch into a courtyard with a fountain in the center where many men came and descended and paid great respect to Mr. Holt likewise and the child thought that the servants looked at him curiously and smiled to one another and he recalled what Blaze had said to him when they were in London and Harry had spoken about his god-papa when the Frenchman said pa bleu one sees well that my lord is your god-father words whereof the poor lad did not know the meaning though he apprehended the truth in a very short time afterwards and learned it and thought of it with no small feeling of shame taking Harry by the hand as soon as they were both descended from their horses Mr. Holt led him across the court and under a low door to rooms on a level with the ground one of which Father Holt said was to be the boy's chamber the other on the other side of the passage and the father's own and as soon as the little man's face was washed and the father's own dress arranged Harry's guide took him once more to the door by which my lord had entered the hall and up a stair and threw an anti-room to my lady's drawing room an apartment than which Harry thought he had never seen anything more grand no, not in the Tower of London which he had just visited indeed the chamber was richly ornamented in the manner of Queen Elizabeth's time with great stained windows at either end and hangings of tapestry which the sun shining through the colored glass painted of a thousand lines and here in state by the fire sat a lady to whom the priest took up Harry who was indeed amazed by her appearance my lady Viscountess's face was dogged with white and red up to the eyes to which the paint gave an unearthly glare she had a tower of lace on her head under which was a bush of black curls borrowed curls so that no wonder little Harry Esmond was scared when he was first presented to her the kind priest acting as master of the ceremonies at that solemn introduction and he stared at her with eyes almost as great as her own as he had stared at the player woman who acted the wicked tragedy queen when the players came down to Ealing Fair she sat in a great chair by the fire corner in her lap was a spaniel dog that barked furiously on a little table by her was her ladieship's snuff box and her sugar plum box she wore a dress of black velvet and a petticoat of flame colored brocade she had as many rings on her fingers as the old woman of Banbury Cross and pretty small feet which she was fond of showing with great gold clocks to her stockings and white pantophiles with red heels and an odor of musk was shook out of her garments whenever she moved or quitted the room leaning on her tortoise shell stick little fury barking at her heels Mrs. Tusher the parson's wife was with my lady she had been waiting woman to her ladieship in the late lord's time and having her soul in that business took naturally to it when the vicountess of Castlewood returned to inhabit her father's house I present to your ladieship your kinsman and little page of honor master Henry Esmond Mr. Holt said bowing lowly with a sort of comical humility make a pretty bow to my lady, monsieur and then another little bow not so low to Madame Tusher the fair priestess of Castlewood where I have lived and hoped to die, sir says Madame Tusher giving a hard glance at the brat and then at my lady upon her the boy's whole attention was for a time directed he could not keep his great eyes off from her since the empress of Ealing nothing so awful does my appearance please you little page? asked the lady he would be very hard to please if it didn't cried Madame Tusher have done you silly Maria said Lady Castlewood where I'm attached I'm attached Madame and I'd die rather than not say so je meur ou je m'attache Mr. Holt said with a polite grin the ivy says so in the picture and clings to the oak like a fond parasite as it is parasite, sir cries Mrs. Tusher hush, Tusher you are always bickering with Father Holt cried my lady come and kiss my hand, child and the oak held out a branch to little Harry Esmond who took and dutifully kissed the lean old hand upon the gnarled knuckles of which they're glittered a hundred rings to kiss that hand would make many a pretty fellow happy cried Mrs. Tusher on which my lady crying out go you foolish Tusher and tapping her with her great fan Tusher ran forward to seize her hand and kiss it fury arose and barked furiously at Tusher and Father Holt looked on at this queer scene with arch-grave glances the awe exhibited by the little boy perhaps please the lady to whom this artless flattery was bestowed for having gone down on his knee as Father Holt had directed him and the mode then was and performed his abeasance she said page Esmond my groom of the chamber will inform you what your duties are when you wait upon my lord and me and good Father Holt will instruct you as becomes a gentleman of your name you will pay him obedience in everything and I pray you may grow to be as learned and as good as your Tudor the lady seemed to have the greatest reverence for Mr. Holt and to be more afraid of him than of anything else in the world if she was ever so angry a word or look from Father Holt made her calm indeed he had a vast power of subjecting those who came near him and among the rest his new pupil gave himself up with an entire confidence and attachment to the good Father and became his willing slave almost from the first moment he saw him he put his small hand into the Fathers as he walked away from his first presentation to his mistress and asked many questions in his artless childish way who is that other woman he asked she is fat and round she is more pretty than my lady Castlewood she is Madam Tusher the Parsons wife of Castlewood she has a son of your age but bigger than you why does she like so to kiss my lady's hand it is not good to kiss tastes are different little man Madam Tusher is attached to my lady having been her waiting woman before she was married in the old Lord's time she married Dr. Tusher the Chaplain the English household divines often marry the waiting woman you will not marry the French woman will you I saw her laughing with blaze in the buttery I belong to a church that is older and better than the English church Mr. Holt said in a meeting where of Esmond did not then understand the meaning across his breast and forehead in our church the clergy do not marry you will understand these things better soon was not St. Peter the head of your church Dr. Rabbits of Ealing told us so the father said yes he was but St. Peter was married for we heard only last Sunday that his wife's mother lay sick of a fever on which the father again laughed and said he would understand this too better soon and talked of other things and took away Harry Esmond and showed him the great old house which he had come to inhabit it stood on a rising green hill with woods behind it in which were Rook's nests where the birds at morning and returning home at evening at the foot of the hill was a river with a steep ancient bridge crossing it and beyond that a large pleasant green flat where the village of Castlewood stood and stands with the church in the midst the parsonage hard by it the inn with the blacksmith's forge beside it and the sign of the three castles on the elm the London road stretched away towards the rising sun and through the west were swelling hills and peaks behind which many a time Harry Esmond saw the same sun setting that he now looks on thousands of miles away across the great ocean in a new Castlewood by another stream that bears like the new country of wandering Aeneas the fond names of the land of his youth the hall of Castlewood was built with two courts where of one only the fountain court was now inhabited the other having been battered down in the Cromwellian wars in the fountain court still in good repair was the great hall near to the kitchen and butteries a dozen of living rooms looking to the north and communicating with the little chapel that faced eastwards and the buildings stretching from that to the main gate the castle which looked to the west into the court now dismantled this court had been the most magnificent of the two until the protectors cannon tore down one side of it before the place was taken and stormed the besiegers entered at the terrace under the clock tower slaying every man of the garrison and at their head my lord's brother Francis Esmond the restoration did not bring enough money to the Lord Castlewood to restore this ruined part of his house where were the morning parlors above them the long music gallery and before which stretched the garden terrace where however the flowers grew again which the boots of the round heads had trodden in their assault and which was restored without much cost and only a little care by both ladies who succeeded the second Viscount in the government of this mansion round the terrace garden was a low wall with a wicket leading to the wooded height beyond that is called Cromwell's Battery to the Stay young Harry Esmond learned the domestic part of his duty which was easy enough from the groom of her ladyship's chamber serving the Countess as the custom commonly was in his boyhood as Paige waiting at her chair bringing her scented water and the silver basin after dinner sitting on her carriage-step on state occasions or on public days introducing her company to her this was chiefly of the Catholic Gentry of whom there were a pretty many in the country and neighboring city and who rode not seldom to Castlewood to partake of the hospitalities there in the second year of their residence the company seemed especially to increase my lord and my lady were seldom without visitors in whose society it was curious to contrast the difference of behavior between Father Holt the director of the family and Dr. Tusher the director of the parish Mr. Holt moving amongst the very highest as quite their equal and as commanding them all while poor Dr. Tusher whose position was indeed a difficult one having been chaplain once to the hall and still to the Protestant servants there seemed more like an usher than an equal and always rose to go away after the first course also there came in these times to Father Holt many private visitors whom after a little Henry Esmond had little difficulty in recognizing as ecclesiastics of the father's persuasion whatever their dresses and they adopted all might be these were closeted with the father constantly and often came and rode away without paying their devoir to my lord and lady to the lady and lord rather his lordship being little more than a cipher in the house and entirely under his domineering partner a little fouling a little hunting a great deal of sleep and a long dine at cards and table carried through one day after another with his lordship when meetings took place in this second year which often would happen with closed doors the page found my lord's sheet of paper scribbled over with dogs and horses and T'was said he had much adieu to keep himself awake at these councils the Countess ruling over them she acting as little more than her secretary Father Holt began speedily to be so much occupied with these meetings as rather to neglect the education of the little lad who so gladly put himself under the kind priest's orders at first they read much and regularly both in Latin and French the father not neglecting in anything to impress his faith upon his pupil not forcing him violently and treating him with a delicacy and kindness which surprised and attached the child always more easily won by these methods than by any severe exercise of authority and his delight in their walks was to tell Harry of the glories of his order of its martyrs and heroes of its brethren converting the heathen by myriads traversing the desert by mistake ruling the courts and councils or braving the tortures of kings so that Harry Esmond thought that to belong to the Jesuits was the greatest prize of life and bravest end of ambition the greatest career here and in heaven the surest reward and began too long for the day not only when he should enter into the one church and receive his first communion but when he might join that wonderful brotherhood which was present throughout all the world and which numbered the wisest, the bravest the highest-born the most eloquent of men among its members Father Holt made him keep his views secret and to hide them as a great treasure which would escape him if it was revealed and, proud of this confidence and secret vested in him the lad became fondly attached to the master who initiated him into a mystery so wonderful and awful and when little Tom Tusher his neighbor came from school for his holiday and said how he too was to be bred up for an English priest and would get what he called an exhibition from his school and then a college scholarship and fellowship and then a good living it tasked young Harry Esmond's powers of reticence not to say to his young companion church priesthood fat living my dear Tommy do you call yours a church and a priesthood? what is a fat living compared to converting a hundred thousand heathens by a single sermon? what is a scholarship at Trinity by the side of a crown of martyrdom with angels awaiting you as your head is taken off could your master at school sail over the Thames on his gown? have you statues in your church that can bleed, speak, walk and cry? my good Tommy in Dear Father Holt's church these things take place every day you know St. Philip of the Willows appeared to Lord Castlewood and caused him to turn to the one true church no saints ever come to you and Harry Esmond because of his promise to Father Holt hiding away these treasures of faith from T. Tusher delivered himself of them nevertheless simply to Father Holt who stroked his head smiled at him with his inscrutable look and told him that he did well to meditate on these great things and not to talk of them except under direction. Chapter 4 I am placed under a popish priest and bred to that religion by Contest Castlewood had enough time being given and his childish inclinations been properly nurtured Harry Esmond had been a Jesuit priest ere he was a dozen years older and might have finished his days a martyr in China or a victim on Tower Hill a few months they spent together at Castlewood Mr. Holt obtained an entire mastery over the boy's intellect and affections and had brought him to think as indeed Father Holt thought with all his heart too that no life was so noble no death so desirable as that which many brethren of his famous order were ready to undergo by love, by a brightness of wit and good humour that charmed all by an authority which he knew how to assume by a mystery and silence about him which increased the child's reverence for him he won Harry's absolute fealty and would have kept it doubtless if schemes greater and more important than a poor little boy's admission into orders had not called him away after being at home for a few months of tranquility if theirs might be called tranquility which was, in truth, a constant bickering my lord and lady left the country for London taking their director with them and his little pupil scarce ever shed more bitter tears in his life than he did for nights after the first parting with his dear friend as he lay in the lonely chamber next to that which the father used to occupy he and a few domestics were left as the only tenants of the great house and, though Harry sedulously did all the tasks which the father set him he had many hours unoccupied and read in the library and bewildered his little brains with the great books he found there after a while the little lad grew accustomed to the loneliness of the place and in after days remembered this part of his life as a period not unhappy when the family was at London the whole of the establishment travelled thither with the exception of the porter who was, moreover, brewer, gardener and woodman and his wife and children these had their lodging in the gate-house hard by with a door into the court and a window looking out on the green was the chaplain's room and next to this a small chamber where father Holt had his books and Harry Esmond his sleeping-closet the side of the house facing the east had escaped the guns of the Cromwellians whose battery was on the height facing the western court so that this eastern end bore few marks of demolition save in the chapel where the painted windows surviving Edward VI had been broken by the commonwealthmen in father Holt's time little Harry Esmond acted as his familiar and faithful little servitor beating his clothes, folding his vestments fetching his water from the well long before daylight ready to run anywhere for the service of his beloved priest when the father was away he locked his private chamber but the room where the books were was left to little Harry who, but for the society of this gentleman was little less solitary when he was at home the French wit saith that a hero is none to his valet de chambre and it required less quick eyes than my lady's little page was naturally endowed with to see that she had many qualities by no means heroic however much Mrs. Tusher might flatter and coax her when father Holt was not by who exercised an entire authority over the pair my lord and my lady quarreled her so as to make the servants laugh and to frighten the little page on duty the poor boy trembled before his mistress who called him by a hundred ugly names who made nothing of boxing his ears and tilting the silver basin in his face which it was his business to present to her after dinner she hath repaired by subsequent kindness to him these severities which it must be owned made his childhood very unhappy she was but unhappy herself at this time poor soul and I suppose made her dependence lead her own sad life I think my lord was as much afraid of her as her page was and the only person of the household who mastered her was Mr. Holt Harry was only too glad when the father dined at table and to slink away and prattle with him afterwards or read with him or walk with him luckily my lady by contest did not rise until noon heaven help the poor waiting woman at the charge of her toilet I have often seen the poor wretch come out with red eyes from the closet where those long and mysterious rites of her ladyship's dress were performed and the backgammon box locked up with a wrap on Mrs. Tushar's fingers when she played ill or the game was going the wrong way Blessed be the king who introduced cards and the kind inventors of pique and cribbage for they employed six hours at least of her ladyship's day and her family was pretty easy without this occupation my lady frequently declared she should die her dependence one after another relieved guard was a rather dangerous post to play with her ladyship and took the card's turn about Mr. Holt would sit with her at pique during hours together at which time she behaved herself properly and as for Dr. Tushar I believe he would have left a parishioner's dying bed if summoned to play a rubber with his patroness Cecil would sometimes when they were pretty comfortable together my lord took a hand besides these my lady had her faithful poor Tushar and one, two, three gentle women whom Harry Esmond could recollect in his time they could not bear that gentile service very long one after another tried and failed at it these and the housekeeper and little Harry Esmond had a table of their own poor ladies their life was far harder than the ages he was sound asleep tucked up in his little bed whilst they were sitting by her ladyship reading her to sleep with the newsletter or the grand Cyrus my lady used to have boxes of new plays from London and Harry was forbidden under pain of a whipping to look into them I am afraid he deserved the penalty pretty often and got it sometimes father Holt applied it twice or thrice when he caught the young scapegrace with a delightfully comedy of Mr. Shadwell's or Mr. Witcherley's under his pillow these when he took any were my lord's favourite reading but he was averse to much study and as his little page fancied too much occupation of any sort it always seemed to young Harry Esmond that my lord treated him with more kindness when his lady was not present and Lord Castlewood would take the lad sometimes on his little journeys a hunting or a burning play at cards and trick-track with him which games the boy learned to pleasure his lord and was growing to like him better daily showing a special pleasure if father Holt gave a good report of him patting him on the head and promising that he would provide for the boy however in my lady's presence my lord showed no such marks of kindness and affected to treat the lad roughly and rebuked him sharply for little faults for which he in a manner asked pardon of young Esmond when private saying if he did not speak roughly she would and his tongue was not such a bad one as his ladies a point whereof the boy young as he was was very well assured great public events were happening all this while of which the simple young page took little count but one day riding into the neighbouring town on the step of my lady's coach his lordship and she and father Holt being inside a great mob of people came hooting and jeering round the coach bawling out the bishops forever down with the pope no papery no papery Jezebel Jezebel so that my lord began to laugh my lady's eyes to roll with anger for she was bold as a lioness and feared nobody wiltsed Mr. Holt as Esmond saw from his place on the step sank back with rather an alarmed face crying out to her ladyship for God's sake madam do not speak look out of window sit still but she did not obey this prudent injunction of the father she thrust her head out of the coach window and screamed out to the coachman flog your way through them the brutes James and use your whip the mob answered with a roaring jeer of laughter and fresh cries of Jezebel Jezebel my lord only laughed the more he was a languid gentleman nothing seemed to excite him commonly though I have seen him cheer and halloo the hounds very briskly and his face which was generally very yellow and calm grow quite red and cheerful during a burst over the downs after a hair and laugh and swear and hazzah at a cock fight of which sport he was very fond and now when the mob began to hoot his lady he laughed with something of a mischievous look as though he expected sport and thought that she and they were a match James the coachman was more afraid of his mistress than the mob probably for he whipped on his horses as he was bitten and the post-boy that rode with the first pair my lady always rode with her coach in six gave a cut of his thong over the shoulders of one fellow who put his hand out towards the leading horse's reign it was a market day and the country people were all assembled with their baskets of poultry eggs and such things the postillion had no sooner lashed the man who would have taken hold of his horse but a great cabbage came whirling like a bombshell into the carriage at which my lord laughed more for it knocked my lady's fan out of her hand and plumped into father Holt's stomach then came a shower of carrots and potatoes for heaven's sake be still says Mr. Holt we are not ten paces from the bell archway where they can shut the gates on us and keep out this canal the little page was outside the coach on the step and a fellow in the crowd aimed a potato at him and hit him in the eye at which the poor little wretch set up a shout the man laughed a great big saddler's apprentice of the town ah you little yelling popish bastard he said and stooped to pick up another the crowd had gathered quite between the horses and the indoor by this time and the coach was brought to a dead stand still my lord jumped as briskly as a boy out of the door on his side of the coach behind it had hold of the potato throwers collar in an instant and the next moment the brute's heels were in the air and he fell on the stones with a thump you hulking coward says he you pack of screaming blaggards how dare you attack children and insult women filling another shot of that carriage you sneaking pig skin cobbler and by the lord I'll send my rapier through you some of the mob cried hazzah my lord for they knew him and the saddler's man was a known bruiser near twice as big as my lord by count make way there says he he spoke in a high shrill voice but with a great air of authority make way and let her ladyship's carriage pass the men that were between the coach and the gate of the bell actually did make way and the horses went in my lord walking after them with his hat on his head as he was going in at the gate as the coach had just rolled another cry begins of no potpourri no papists my lord turns round and faces them once more God save the king says he at the highest pitch of his voice who dares abuse the king's religion you you do Psalm singing cobbler as sure as I'm a magistrate of this country I'll commit you the fellow shrank back and my lord retreated with all the honors of the day and the little flurry caused by the scene was over and the flush passed off his face he relapsed into his usual langer trifled with his little dog and yawned when my lady spoke to him the mob was one of many thousands that were going about the country at that time who sawing for the acquittal of the seven bishops who had been tried just then and about whom little Harry Esmond at that time knew scarce anything it was a sizes at Hexton and there was a great meeting of the gentry at the Bell and my lord's people had their new liveries on and Harry a little suit of blue and silver which he wore upon occasions of state and the gentle folks came round and talked to my lord and a judge in a red gown who seemed a very great personage especially complimented him and my lady who was mighty grand Harry remembers her train born up by her gentlewoman there was an assembly and ball at the great room at the Bell a gentleman of the county families looked on as he did one of them jeered him for his black eye which was swelled by the potato and another called him a bastard on which he and Harry felt a fisticuffs my lord's cousin Colonel Esmond of Walcott was there and separated the two lads a great tall gentleman with a handsome good natured face the boy did not know how nearly and after life he should be allied to Colonel Esmond and how much kindness he would owe him there was little love between the two families my lady used not to spare Colonel Esmond in talking of him for reasons which have been hinted already but about which at his tender age Henry Esmond could be expected to know nothing very soon afterwards my lord and lady went to London with Mr. Holt leaving however the page behind them the little man had the great house of Castlewood to himself a housekeeper, Mrs. Workshop an old lady who was a kind woman of the family in some distant way and a protestant but a staunch Tory and Kingsman as all the Esmonds were he used to go to school to Dr. Tusher when he was at home though the doctor was much occupied too there was a great stir and commotion everywhere even in the little quiet village of Castlewood where there a party of people came from the town who would have broken Castlewood chapel windows where people turned out and even old Severite the Republican blacksmith along with them for my lady, though she was a papist and had many odd ways was kind to the tenantry and there was always a plenty of beef and blankets and medicine for the poor at Castlewood Hall a kingdom was changing hands wilts my lord and lady were away King James was flying the Dutchmen were coming and the orange used old Mrs. Worksop to tell to the idle little page he liked the solitude of the great house very well he had all the playbooks to read and no father Holt to whip him and a hundred childish pursuits and pastimes without doors and within which made this time very pleasant