The History of Henry Esmond

mother’s influence over him, lest he should recant, and deny the creed which he had adopted by their persuasion. The difference of their religion separated the son and the mother: my dearest mistress felt that she was severed from her children and alone in the world⁠—alone but for one constant servant on whose fidelity, praised be Heaven, she could count. ’Twas after a scene of ignoble quarrel on the part of Frank’s wife and mother (for the poor lad had been made to marry the whole of that German family with whom he had connected himself), that I found my mistress one day in tears, and then besought her to confide herself to the care and devotion of one who, by God’s help, would never forsake her. And then the tender matron, as beautiful in her Autumn, and as pure as virgins in their spring, with blushes of love and “eyes of meek surrender,” yielded to my respectful importunity, and consented to share my home. Let the last words I write thank her, and bless her who hath blessed it.

By the kindness of Mr. Addison, all danger of prosecution, and every obstacle against our return to England, was removed; and my son Frank’s gallantry in Scotland made his peace with the King’s government. But we two cared no longer to live in England: and Frank formally and joyfully yielded over to us the possession of that estate which we now occupy, far away from Europe and its troubles, on the beautiful banks of the Potomac, where we have built a new Castlewood, and think with grateful hearts of our old home. In our Transatlantic country we have a season, the calmest and most delightful of the year, which we call the Indian summer: I often say the autumn of our life resembles that happy and serene weather, and am thankful for its rest and its sweet sunshine. Heaven hath blessed us with a child, which each parent loves for her resemblance to the other. Our diamonds are turned into ploughs and axes for our plantations; and into negroes, the happiest and merriest, I think, in all this country: and the only jewel by which my wife sets any store, and from which she hath never parted, is that gold button she took from my arm on the day when she visited me in prison, and which she wore ever after, as she told me, on the tenderest heart in the world.

Endnotes

1. Lionel Tipton, created Baron Bergamot, ann. 1686, Gentleman Usher of the Back Stairs, and afterwards appointed Warden of the Butteries and Groom of the King’s Posset (on the decease of George, second Viscount Castlewood), accompanied his Majesty to St. Germain’s, where he died without issue. No Groom of the Posset was appointed by the Prince of Orange, nor hath there been such an officer in any succeeding reign. ↩

2. To have this rank of Marquis restored in the family had always been my Lady Viscountess’s ambition; and her old maiden aunt, Barbara Topham, the goldsmith’s daughter, dying about this time, and leaving all her property to Lady Castlewood, I have heard that her ladyship sent almost the whole of the money to King James, a proceeding which so irritated my Lord Castlewood that he actually went to the parish church, and was only appeased by the Marquis’s title which his exiled Majesty sent to him in return for the £15,000 his faithful subject lent him. ↩

3. Ὢ πόποι, οἷον δή νυ θεοὺς βροτοὶ αἰτιόωνται,
   ἐξ ἡμέων γάρ φασι κάκ’ ἔμμεναι, οἱ δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ
   σφῇσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὑπὲρ μόρον ἄλγε’ ἔχουσιν.

   ↩

4. My mistress, before I went this campaign, sent me John Lockwood out of Walcote, who hath ever since remained with me.

   —⁠H. E.

   ↩

5. This passage in the Memoirs of Esmond is written on a leaf inserted into the MS. book, and dated 1744, probably after he had heard of the Duchess’s death. ↩

6. Our Grandfather’s hatred of the Duke of Marlborough appears all through his account of these campaigns. He always persisted that the Duke was the greatest traitor and soldier history ever told of: and declared that he took bribes on all hands during the war. My Lord Marquis (for so we may call him here, though he never went by any other name than Colonel Esmond) was in the habit of telling many stories which he did not set down in his memoirs, and which he had from his friend the Jesuit, who was not always correctly informed, and who persisted that Marlborough was looking for a bribe of two millions of crowns before the campaign of Ramillies. And our Grandmother used to tell us children, that on his first presentation to my Lord duke, the Duke turned his back upon my Grandfather; and said to the Duchess, who told my lady dowager at Chelsey, who afterwards told Colonel Esmond⁠—“Tom Esmond’s bastard has been to my levee: he has the hangdog look of his rogue of a father”⁠—an expression which my Grandfather never forgave. He was as constant in his dislikes as in his attachments; and exceedingly partial to Webb, whose side he took against the more celebrated general. We have General Webb’s portrait now at Castlewood, VA. ↩

7. ’Tis not thus woman loves: Col. E. hath owned to this folly for a score of women besides.

   —⁠R.

   ↩

8. And, indeed, so was his to them, a thousand thousand times more charming, for where was his equal?

   —⁠R.

   ↩

9. What indeed? Psalm 91:2, 3, 7.

   —⁠R. E.

   ↩

10. The managers were the Bishop, who cannot be hurt by having his name mentioned, a very active and loyal Nonconformist Divine, a lady in the highest favor at Court, with whom Beatrix Esmond had