Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges

gain, he found that little Frank Esmond had also suffered and rallied after the dise

convalescence, that the malady had not in the least impaired her charms, and had not been churl enough to injure the fair features of the Viscountess of Castlewood, whereas in spite of these fine speeches, Harry thought that her ladyship's beauty was very much injured by the smallpox. When the marks of the disease cleared away, they did not, it is true, leave furrows or scars on her face (except one, perhaps, on her forehead over

an empire. When Tusher in his courtly way (at which Harry Esmond always chafed and spoke scornfully) vowed and protested that my lady's face was none the worse-the lad broke out and said, "It is worse: and my mistress is not near so handsome as she w

wn on his knees, and besought her to pardon him, saying that he was a fool and an idiot, that he was a brute to make such a speech, he who had caused her malady, a

ing her hand kindly on the boy's head, as he was still kneeling at her feet

o Harry, when the parson had taken his leave; "but

d sweetest face in the world, I think," the l

you do, sir, that I am hideous-yes, you said hideous-he will cease to care for me. 'Tis all men care for in women, our little beauty. Why d

he Grand Turk, and to change was the manne

d. Come, Frank, come, my child. You are well, praised be Heaven. Your locks are n

e very earliest time the young lord had been taught to admire his beauty b

ago he had been so eager to see. Poor Nancy! her cheeks had shared the fate of roses, and were withered now. She had taken the illness on the same day with Esmond-she and her brother were both dead of the small-pox, and buried under the Castlewood yew-trees. There was no brig

e pestilence; seventeen persons were dead of it, among them mentioning the names of poor Nancy and her little brother. He did not fail to say how thankful we survivo

terwards. He made a long face, but, in truth, felt scarcely more sorrowful than a mute at a funeral. These first passions of men and women are mostly abortive; and are dead almost before they are born. Esmond could repeat, to his last day, some of the doggerel lines in which his muse bewailed his pretty lass; not without shame to remember how bad the verses were, and how good he thought them; how fa

Nancy, she said nothing so long as Tusher was by, but w

re that nothing had happened of that with which, in my anger, I charged you. And the very first day we go out, you must take me to the blacksmit

ere fewer mouths to feed. He wished her ladyship and Master Esmond good morning-he had grown tall in his illness, and was but very little marked; and with this, and a surly bow, he went in from the smithy to the house, leaving my lady, somewhat silenced and shamefaced, at the door. He had a handsome stone put up for his two children, which may be

rd came riding over the bridge-he could be seen from the great window, clad in scarlet, and mounted on his grey hackney-his little daughter ambled by him in a bright riding-dress of blue, on a shining chestnut horse. My lady [pg 092] leaned against the great mantelpiece, looking on, with one hand on her heart-she seemed only the more pale for those red marks on either cheek.

aunt as a greyhound. The small-pox hasn't improved your beauty,

olly face and brown hair, like a beef-eater; Esmond kneeling again, as soon as his patron had desc

your face;" which, indeed, was very true; Harry Esmond's harsh countenance b

d again, in hi

ager's paint t'other day, and asked her why she wore that red stuff-didn't you, Trix? and the Tow

fat, and smelt of br

red with

. "And how do you

re you go to bed," said the young lady, who, indeed, was as pert as her f

e drawing-room door. Esmond remembered that noble [pg 093] figure handsomely arrayed in scarlet. Within the last few

d which he did not choose to throw off. In her eagerness to please him she practised a hundred of those arts which had formerly charmed him, but which seemed now to have lost their potency. Her songs did not amuse him; and she hushed them and the children when in his presence. My lord sat silent at his dinner, drinking greatly, his lady opposite to hi

ot to do a message for him; but his attachment for Lady Esmond was such a passion of grateful regard, that to spare her a grief, or to do her a service, he would have given his life daily: and it w

ontract at end when the woman ceases to fulfil hers, and his love does [pg 094] not survive her beauty. I know 'tis often otherwise, I say; and can think (as most men in their own experience may) of many a house, where, lighted in early years, the sainted lamp of love hath never been extinguished; but so there is Mr. Parr, and so there is the great giant at the fair that is eight feet high-exceptions to men-and that poor lamp whereof I speak, that lights at first the nuptial chamber, is e

immensely, Harry remarked; and when Oenone called after Paris, and Medea bade Jason come back again, the lady of Castlewood sighed, and said she thought that part of the verses was the most pleasing. Indeed, s

d he swore and stormed no longer at dinner, but laughed sometimes, and yawned unrestrainedly; absenting himself often from home, inviting more company thither, passing the greater part of his days in the hunting-field, or over the bottle

f mast and rudder are carried away? He ships a jurymast, and steers as he best can with an oar. What happens if your roof falls in a tempest? After the first stun of the calamity the sufferer starts up, gropes around to see that the children are saf

mpart it to some one. She made herself a good scholar of French, Italian, and Latin, having been grounded in these by her father in her youth: hiding these gifts from her husband out of fear, perhaps, that they should offend him, for my lord was no bookman-pish'd and psha'd at the notion of learned ladies, and would have been angry that his wife could construe out of a Latin book of which he could scarce understand two words. Young Esmond was usher, or house tutor, under her or over her, as it might happen. During my lord's many absences, these schooldays would go on uninterruptedly: the mother and daughter learning with surprising quickness: the latter by fits and starts only, and as suited her wayward humour. As for the little lord, it must be owned that he took after his father in

cessor was appointed, a princess of a noble house in Drury Lane somewhere, who was installed and visited by my lord at the town eight miles off-pudet haec opprobria dicere nobis)-a great change had taken place in her mind, which, by struggles only known to

o bear in secret the passion of losing the adored object; then to get a farther initiation, and to find this worshipped being was but a clumsy idol: then to admit the silent truth, that it was she was superior, and not the monarch her master: that she had thoughts which his brains could never master, and was the better [pg 097] of the two; quite separate from my lord although tied to him, and bound as almost all people (save a very happy few) to work all her life alone. My lord sat in his chair, laughing his laugh, cracking his joke, his face flushing with wine-my lady in her place over against him-he never suspecting that his superior was there, in the calm resigned lady, cold of manner, with downcast

out of her griefs and cares, as will happen I think when these trials fall upon a kindly heart, and are not too unbearable, grew up a number of thoughts and excellences which had never come into existence, had not her sorrow and misfortunes engendered them. Sure, occasion is the father of most that is good in us. As you have seen the awkward fingers and clumsy tool

smiles to young Esmond (who was reading to her a version of certain lines out of

f heaven," the young tutor added, "but

an?" asked my l

ould I know about such matters? I have seen no woman save you and little Beatri

basely. We were bred to be slaves always; and even of our own times, as you are still the only lawgivers, I think our sermons seem to say that the best woman is she who bears

slavery in a conv

jeer them: and if they suffer, suffer in private. Here comes my lord home from hunting. Take away the books. My lord does not

ad three pupils, his lady and her two children, at whose lessons she would always be present; besides writin

l. Mistress Beatrix chattered French prettily from a very early age; and sang sweetly, but this was from her mother's teaching-not Harry Esmond's, who could scarce distinguish between "Green [pg 099] Sleeves" and "Lillabullero"; although he had no greater delight in lif

nt beauties and hidden graces of books, especially books of poetry, as in a walk she would spy out field-flowers and make posies of them, such as no other hand could. She was a critic not by reason bu

s Latin, in which he was pretty well skilled, and also had given himself to mathematical studies under his father's guidance, who was a proficient in those sciences, of which Esmond knew nothing, nor could he write Latin so well as Tom, though he could talk it better, having been taught by his dear friend the Jesuit father, for whose memory the lad ever retained the warmest affection, reading his books, keeping his swords clean in the little crypt where the father had shown them to Esmond on the night of his visit; and often of a night sitting in the chaplain's room, which he inhabited, over his books, his verses, and rubbish, with which the lad

r now, had hung up his weapons of controversy. These he took down from his shelves willingly for young Esmond, whom he benefited by his own personal advice and instruction. It did not require much

rsue the text with fond comments, to urge those points which her fancy dwelt on most, or her reason deemed most important. Since the death of her father the dean, this lady hath admitted a certain latitude of theological reading, which her orthodox father would never have allowed; his favouri

ved Jesuit priest had inspired in him, speculative theology took [pg 101] but little hold upon the young man's mind. When his early credulity was disturbed, and his saints and virgins taken out of his worship, to rank little higher than the divinities of Olympus, his belief became acquiescence rather than ardour; and he made his min

he power. It was this lady's disposition to think kindnesses, and devise silent bounties, and to scheme benevolence for those about her. We take such goodness, for the most part, as if it was our due; the Marys who bring ointment for our feet get but little thanks. Some of us never feel this devotion at all, or are moved by it to gratitude or acknowledgement; others only recall it years after, when the days are past in which those sweet kindnesses were

el his gloom. She made his three scholars (herself being the chief one) more cheerful than ever they had been before, and more docile too, all of them learning and readi

his book whenever he liked, if he would come out a-fishing; and little Beatrix declared she would

r fortune of 2,000l. among her six nieces, the dean's daughters; and many a time since has Harry Esmond recalled the flushed face and eager look wherewith, after t

couple of horses that will do indifferent to ride or for the coach. And Beatrix, you shall have a spinet: and Frank, you shall have a little horse from Hexton Fair; and Harry, you shall have five pounds

e another use for the money, my lo

out money?" cries my lord. "And what the devil

his money-can't you

ge oaths that he did not kno

ry," says my lady, "you mustn't stay longer in this dull p

h here," says my lord, for a

n't mean to say you will go away?" cr

" cries my lady, with blue eyes looking a celestial kindn

ed, giving Harry Esmond a hearty slap on the shoulder. "I won't balk your luck. Go to Cambridge, boy; and when Tusher dies you shall have the living here, if you are not better provided by that time.

rank, clapping his hands, and jumping up. "Let's come and see him in the stable." And the other,

d penetrating glances. "He wishes to be gone

"Indeed, I would stay for ever, i

o and see the world. Sow thy wild oats; and take the best luck that Fate sends thee.

use, half ruined, and the rest only half furnished; a woman and two children are but poor company for men that are accustomed

w now whether thou art in e

ct here for joke?" And she made him a grand curtsy, and, giving a stately look to Harry Esmond, which

eak a word of my language, you'd have thought I might lead a quiet life. But she tried to poison me, because she was jealous of a Jew girl. There was your aunt, for aunt she is-aunt Jezebel, a pretty life your father led with her, and here's my lady. When I saw her on a pillion riding behind the dean her father, she looked and was such a baby, that a sixpenny doll might have pleased her. And now you see what she is-hands

sheltered and tended a nameless and houseless orphan, Lady Castlewood cut short his protests of love and his lamentations, and would hear of no grief, but only look forward to Harry's fame and prospects in life. "Our little legacy will keep you for four years like a gentleman. Heaven's Providence, your own genius, industry, honour, must do the rest for you. Castlewood will always be a home for you; and these [pg 105] children, whom you

If you will have me stay now, I will. What matters whether or no I make my way in life, or whether a poor bastard dies as

indeed I ought to be,

his mistress never spoke a word concerning it). "If not happiness, it ma

ay in no such dull place. You shall go to college and distinguish yourself as becomes your name. That is how you shall

you may not," Harry said

d the very thought was in his mind, that he would like that some chance should immediately happen whereby he might show his devotion. And it pleased him

r towers, a pinnacle or two shining in the sun, the buttresses and terrace walls casting great blue shades on the grass. And Harry remembered all his life after how he saw his mistress at the window looking out on him, in a white robe, the little Beatrix's chestnut curls resting at her mother's side. Both waved a farewell to him, and little Frank sobbed to leave him. Yes, he would be his lady's true knight, he vowed in his heart; he waved her an adieu with his hat. The village peop